As the championship match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup ticked into its last half minute, South Africa’s Springboks, the defending champions, girded themselves for a brutal final stand. Arrayed against them were New Zealand’s iconic but troubled All Blacks, scrapping desperately for a victory that just weeks before few had expected would be possible. …
Battle for Influence Rages in Heart of Wagner’s Operations in Africa
In palmier times, the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, appeared at a Russian cultural center in the capital of the Central African Republic, sitting with schoolchildren and promising them free laptops. But Mr. Prigozhin’s death in August has rattled the mercenary group’s once-cozy relations with the Central African Republic, which is now …