Also, the first Republican debate is tonight. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military company who staged a brief mutiny this summer against Russia’s military leadership, was listed as a passenger on a private jet that crashed today. Russian aviation authorities said that all 10 people aboard were killed.
The plane left a Moscow airport at about 6 p.m. local time, bound for St. Petersburg, and went down less than 100 miles to the northwest. The Russian state media agency posted a video showing a plane tumbling from the sky. The paint and a partial registration number visible on the aircraft aligned with a jet Prigozhin is known to use.
Grey Zone, a Telegram account associated with the Wagner group, said that Prigozhin had been killed. But there was no official confirmation of his death from Wagner or the Russian authorities.
U.S. officials said they also could not confirm whether Prigozhin had been killed in the crash or why the jet went down. U.S. intelligence agencies had been surprised that Vladimir Putin had not yet taken action against the mercenary leader after his mutiny in June.
Frustrated over the country’s military leadership, Prigozhin instigated a short rebellion that posed a brief yet grave threat to Putin’s government. Despite his actions, he had appeared to move about freely in the mutiny’s aftermath, including meeting with Putin on June 29.G.O.P. candidates take the stage to debate who’s No. 2
Eight presidential hopefuls will appear onstage in Milwaukee for the first Republican debate of the election cycle. But the race’s far-and-away favorite, Donald Trump — who leads polls by as many as 40 percentage points — will not be there.
His absence from the event, which is typically considered a crucial stop on the campaign for the nomination, raises the question: What’s even the point?
“It’s not an unreasonable question,” our chief political analyst, Nate Cohn, said. But, he added, it’s also reasonable to consider a primary race without Trump, as prosecutors push for trials early next year.
In his absence, Ron DeSantis will try to reassure voters and donors that he is still the most suitable Trump alternative, while former Vice President Mike Pence and the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will try to prove him wrong.
For more, my colleagues outlined how to watch, what to watch for and where each candidate stands on the issues. The debate begins at 9 p.m. Eastern. We have live coverage. Giuliani surrendered in Georgia
Rudolph Giuliani traveled to Georgia today and turned himself in at the Atlanta jail where defendants are being booked in the criminal case against Donald Trump and his allies.
