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Russian strike on Kherson market kills seven, authorities say

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Russian strike on Kherson market kills seven, authorities say

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared images of an attack on a crowded public area, insisting that similar attacks can be prevented with international support.

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Ukrainian authorities say an apparent Russian artillery strike hit a market in the city of Kherson on Tuesday morning, killing at least seven people and wounding three.

Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the strike hit as shoppers made their way between stalls at a market in the city centre. He published a video showing the blurred corpses of people in civilian clothes lying near a destroyed vegetable stall.

The General Prosecutor’s Office said the strike was “most likely” carried out by Russian artillery.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also shared images of the attack. Posting on X, he wrote that Russia “can be stopped” as it continues its offensive.

“We must achieve lasting peace for our state and our people,” Zelenskyy insisted. “For this to happen, Ukrainian strength and the resolve of our partners must outweigh Putin’s desire to wreck terror.”

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Kherson fell into Russian hands after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. A Ukrainian counteroffensive nine months later recaptured western areas of the region, including its eponymous capital.

The Kherson region was one of four, also including Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, that Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 and is partly occupying. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw completely from those regions as part of any peace settlement, a notion Ukraine rejects out of hand.

Kherson city has not recently been a hotspot in the war, which is now deep into its third year, as the fiercest battles have been taking place in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Russia’s army is pushing hard to take ground there ahead of the harsh Ukrainian winter.

While Ukrainian forces are still holding Russian territory after a cross-border incursion into the Kursk region, Kyiv is still waiting to hear what further Western military and financial support it can count on.

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Jimmy Carter’s Significant Impact on Sports and the Law

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Jimmy Carter’s Significant Impact on Sports and the Law

Former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, played an instrumental role in sports law by signing the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 and leading the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Carter served as the 39th President, serving one term between 1977 and 1981. He defeated incumbent President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election but lost to former California Gov. Ronald Reagan four years later. A recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, Carter had been in hospice care since 2023. 

As president, Carter established the Department of Education, spearheaded efforts to deregulate the airline, trucking, telecommunications and other industries, promoted initiatives—including an expansion of national parks—to protect the environment, and eased tensions between Israel and Egypt through the Camp David Accords. His administration was also besieged with high levels of inflation and unemployment and a hostage crisis when militant college students overtook the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held the staff hostage. 

The Amateur Sports Act, also called the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act in honor of the late Alaska senator who sponsored the bill, transformed amateur sports in America. Among other effects, the Act designated the U.S. Olympic Committee (later the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee) as a federally chartered corporation and coordinating entity for amateur sports. One key purpose of the Act was to advance U.S. interests in the Olympics at a time when the Olympics held added significance given the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The Act also empowered national governing bodies to oversee specific sports, such as USA Hockey and USA Track and Field. At the same time, the Act limited these NGBs’ authority by excluding oversight over high school and college sports. State athletic associations and the NCAA (and NAIA), respectively, were effectively given control over those areas of sports.

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In signing the Act, Carter said he hoped a new framework would rectify “frequent disputes between some of our amateur sports organizations [that] have hindered the grassroots development of amateur sports as well as the performance of United States athletes in international and Olympic competition.” He also highlighted that the USOC would use arbitration to resolve disputes; since that time, arbitration has played a major role in the U.S. sports industry.

Carter’s use of the Olympics to send a political message proved key crucial later in his presidency as well. At the urging of Carter and Congress—with the House voting 386 to 12 and Senate voting 88 to 4 in favor of nonbinding resolutions—the USOC declined to send U.S. teams to the 1980 Olympics. The move was a boycott in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Sixty-four other countries joined the U.S, and only 80 countries participated that year. More than two dozen U.S. athletes sued the USOC over the boycott in hopes of obtaining an injunction to play. However, a court dismissed the case failing to state a plausible claim. Four years later, the Soviet Union and 14 allies including Vietnam, Cuba and Angola, boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as retaliation for the 1980 boycott.

Carter, who also served as governor of Georgia and was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, spoke of his love of sports while he was in the White House. In an interview with Sports Illustrated in 1978, Carter acknowledged that while he had “never been a really good athlete,” he stressed the value of running for working adults who want to stay in good shape. 

“It’s not time-consuming,” he said. “I can go out and run, for me, a fairly fast two miles in about 15 minutes, or run three miles in 25 minutes, or take a slower pace—10 minutes to a mile—and run seven miles. Then I can come back in and go back to work shortly.”

Carter also recalled how as a child he built a pole-vaulting pit in his backyard to practice jumping and pole-vaulting. 

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“As a child,” he recalled, “I had dreams of someday being a famous athlete, but that never did happen.”

It didn’t happen, but he did become president of the United States. He was also the longest-lived president in U.S. history.

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu completes prostate surgery after UTI diagnosis

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu completes prostate surgery after UTI diagnosis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu successfully underwent surgery on Sunday, Fox News has learned.

The Israeli leader had his prostate removed after suffering a urinary tract infection, which had reportedly “stemmed from a benign enlargement of his prostate,” according to Netanyahu’s office.

On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office announced that the surgery “ended successfully and without complications.”

“The Prime Minister woke up from the anesthesia; his condition was good, and he was fully conscious,” the statement, which was translated from Hebrew to English, read. “The Prime Minister has now been transferred to a secure underground recovery unit. He is expected to remain in the hospital for observation in the coming days.”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a televised statement on Nov. 26 in Jerusalem, Israel.  (Israeli Government Press Office via AP)

“The PM wished to thank the dedicated team of doctors who operated on him.”

The Israeli leader has undergone several health procedures over the past two years. In March, Netanyahu underwent hernia surgery under full anesthesia, and Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin temporarily assumed his role during the process.

Months before the Oct. 7 attacks, Netanyahu suffered dehydration and was admitted to a hospital in July 2023.  The Israeli leader said that he became dehydrated after visiting the Sea of Galilee without water or sun protection during a heatwave.

A week after being admitted for dehydration, Netanyahu’s doctors implanted a pacemaker to regulate his heart rate and rhythm.

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NETANYAHU WARNS HOUTHIS AMID CALLS FOR ISRAEL TO WIPE OUT TERROR LEADERSHIP AS IT DID WITH NASRALLAH, SINWAR

Netanyahu at press conference

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem on Sept. 2, 2024.  (OHAD ZWIGENBERG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“A week ago, I was fitted with a monitoring device. That device beeped this evening and said I must have a pacemaker and that I must do this already tonight,” Netanyahu, then 73, said at the time. “I feel great, but I need to listen to my doctors.”

Netanyahu’s most recent operation came as the 75-year-old politician continues to testify in a corruption case against him in Israel.  He took the stand earlier in December and is expected to continue testifying in the new year.

Netanyahu is also currently leading the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on multiple fronts across the Middle East, continuing to target Iranian terrorists and their proxies.

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Trump and Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago

Former President and President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, in Palm Beach, Fla., on July 26.  (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO) / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The IDF recently launched multiple strikes against Houthi rebels, hitting Sanaa International Airport in Yemen and Houthi infrastructure in the ports of Al-Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

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Exit polls show victory for Croatia's incumbent president Milanović

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Exit polls show victory for Croatia's incumbent president Milanović

A poll by Ipsos shows Milanović leading with over 50% of the vote, with his main challenger Dragan Primorac, trailing far behind with 22%.

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Croatia’s incumbent President Zoran Milanović has a sweeping lead in Sunday’s election and could win the five-year presidency in the first round, according to an exit poll released immediately after the voting.

The poll by Ipsos and released by state television HRT showed Milanović winning over 50% of the votes, while his main challenger Dragan Primorac, the candidate for the conservative HDZ ruling party trailed far behind at 22%.

Milanović thanked voters in a post on social networks.

The first official results are yet to be published.

Pre-election polls predicted that the two would face off in the second round on 12 January, as none of all eight presidential election contenders were projected to get more than 50% of the vote.

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Left-leaning Milanović is an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. He is often compared to Donald Trump for his combative style of communication with political opponents.

The most popular politician in Croatia, 58-year-old Milanović has served as prime minister in the past. Populist in style, he has been a fierce critic of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and continuous sparring between the two has lately marked Croatia’s political scene.

Plenković has sought to portray the vote as one about Croatia’s future in the EU and NATO. He has labelled Milanović “pro-Russian” and a threat to Croatia’s international standing.

“The difference between him and Milanović is quite simple: Milanović is leading us East, Primorac is leading us West,” he said.

Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Croatia, an elected president holds political authority and acts as the supreme military commander.

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Milanović has criticised NATO and EU support for Ukraine and has often insisted that Croatia should not take sides, saying the country should stay away from global disputes, despite being a member of both alliances.

Milanović has also blocked Croatia’s participation in a NATO-led training mission for Ukraine, declaring that “no Croatian soldier will take part in somebody else’s war.”

His main rival in the election, Primorac, has stated that “Croatia’s place is in the West, not the East.”

His presidency bid, however, has been marred by a high-level corruption case that landed Croatia’s health minister in jail last month and featured prominently in pre-election debates.

During the election campaign, Primorac has sought to portray himself as a unifier and Milanović as divisive.

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“Today is an extremely important day,” Primorac said after casting his ballot. “Croatia is going forward into the future. Croatia needs unity, Croatia needs its global positioning, and above all Croatia needs peaceful life.”

Trailing a distant third in the pre-election polls is Marija Selak Raspudić, a conservative independent candidate. She focused her election campaign on the economic troubles of ordinary citizens, corruption and issues such as population decline in the country of some 3.8 million.

Sunday’s presidential election is Croatia’s third vote this year, following a parliamentary election in April and the European Parliament balloting in June.

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