It had been planned for several months that the cost of the subway ticket would drop from $3.50 to $3.75 this Saturday, but Montrealers over 65 traveling on the island will benefit from a free service .

The price change isn’t just for single tickets starting July 1, as transit tickets in the greater Montreal area are subject to an average 3% indexation.

This is the first increase in the single ticket since 2019, the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) announced at the end of April.

Passengers traveling from Longueuil or Laval to Montreal with an “All Modes AB” ticket will be spared this jump, as the prices of their tickets had already risen sharply as part of the fare reform a year ago.

Also among the lucky ones are seniors over 65 from Montreal, who can now ride public transportation for free, but only on the island.

This measure by the Plante administration had been announced since November last year to help them cope with the rising cost of living and encourage them to stay in the city.

The city has to pay 40 million US dollars annually for the implementation. It was also a promise made by Valérie Plante during her first campaign for mayor in 2017.

Firefighters douse the flames at a bombed-out house in Orichiv, Zaporizhia, June 21. Luis de Vega

The roar of the plane’s engine over Orichiv is spreading panic, even more so than the artillery shells that have been hitting this city in the southern Zaporizhia region for some time. After scanning the skies for a few seconds, listening intently to confirm the worst omens, a general rush ensues for the next basement. “Everyone take cover!” Orichiv, which for months was a battleground between the Ukrainian and Russian armies, is now one of the bases for Kiev’s southern counter-offensive. The city is in Ukrainian hands but continues to be punished by Moscow’s forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Donetsk and Zaporizhia earlier this week and reported that his troops had advanced on all fronts. On Wednesday, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar put the advances at 1,200 to 1,500 meters south of Bakhmut and around 1,300 meters towards Berdyansk in the Zaporizhia region.

The noise in the sky above Orichiv interrupts the work of a group of firefighters who are clearing administrative documents from an office building with completely blown windows. They have positioned their red truck to pull straight from the second floor dozens of boxes containing papers and documents that make up the city’s archives. They are transferred to the city of Zaporizhia before the records are destroyed by bombing.

Moments later, the firefighters encounter a group of soldiers in the protective depths of the bunker. The responsible military officer fears that the presence of two cameras, one belonging to the Ukrainian rescue service and the other to EL PAÍS, could reveal the coordinates of their position. He initially rejected the explanations that everyone present had only limited insurance cover. He asks to delete the pictures, but gives in after a few minutes. Activating flight mode on mobile phones is mandatory in frontline areas to prevent Russian troops from using cell phone coverage to determine their positions.

Firefighters protect the city archives in Orikhiv.Luis de Vega

The Ukrainian counter-offensive is targeting two strategic sites relatively close to Orikhiv that are under Russian control: the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the corridor on the shore of the Sea of ​​Azov, which facilitates logistics for the Kremlin’s occupying forces. One of the destinations halfway between Orikhiv and this supply line is the town of Tokmak.

Vitali Chorni, 34, was chief of the fire station in Tokmak until last September and now holds the same position in Orichiv, where there has been no water or electricity for months. He says he had no problems during the seven months he worked in emergency services during the Russian occupation, but when the opportunity presented itself, he fled in civilian clothes with other residents. In Orikhiv “the situation is difficult and complicated, especially in the last three weeks,” he says, describing the hostilities that erupted after the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the first week of June.

On the main street in Orichiv, as in many frontline towns, a grocery store that relies on a generator to stay open serves as a meeting place and information and supply center. While firefighters fill up two large drinking water tanks for the neighborhood, 26-year-old Anastasia Bolous, who is married to one of them, tends to several soldiers behind the counter. Uniformed men make up the bulk of the store’s clientele, she says. She stayed in the city because her parents still live in Orichiv in addition to their work in the shop: only about 10% of the pre-war population of 14,000 inhabitants are still alive. Bread is delivered from Zaporizhia twice a week and distributed to residents by the rescue services.

Anastasia Bolous looks after several soldiers in the shop she runs in Orichiv. Luis de Vega

“We have no choice but to stay here,” says Roman Semenovic, 46, whose family lives in exile in Poland. Another employee of the same store, he goes about his business in flip-flops, shorts and a tank top while several grenades whistle through the air before falling a few hundred yards away. The notion of fear and danger seems to have changed among those who have lived for months in Orichiv and other similar cities where the war began.

It’s as if the residents assume that nothing can stop their fate of living under constant bombing. Anastasia serves the soldiers and laughs when asked why she doesn’t panic under fire. “Sometimes I’m scared,” she says without really thinking about it. Several stray dogs roam outside. Some get restless. Others don’t even bat an eyelid. Burnt-out cars, destroyed buildings and debris lie on the streets, on which civilians can often be seen walking or cycling alongside the military.

Firefighters distribute humanitarian aid among the few residents who are still in Orikhiv.Luis de Vega

One of the grenades explodes next to several houses. The column of smoke alerts the firefighters, who are driving their vehicle in that direction – the same vehicle that unloaded the crates from the archives, which is also distributing bread and delivering water. Now it serves its original purpose as a pump truck. They quickly unwind the hose and pull out the ladders. There was one strike victim who was already evacuated when they arrived. A group of residents watch as the flames engulf a building amid a dense cloud that alternates between black and white.

“I’m only afraid of God,” says Vyacheslav Koutun, a 72-year-old retired artist who came to pick up bread and a box of humanitarian aid at a city building. He looks sadly at the building, a late 19th-century structure with shrapnel holes in the walls and a shattered roof half covered by a blue UN tarpaulin. His wife Tamara, 66, joins the conversation: “I’m tired. Let’s see if we win the war yet.” “We want to celebrate our victory here at home in Orikhiv. We want to eat meat and drink beer…a feast of local produce,” adds Vyacheslav, pointing to the sky. It is not only when Russian planes and rockets are discovered that people look up. They also do this when, as in this case, they pray for everything to end.

A column of smoke from a Russian shell that destroyed several houses. Luis de Vega

Sign up for our weekly newsletter for more English language news from the EL PAÍS USA Edition

The Pentagon said on Thursday that the Chinese balloon shot down by the United States over the Atlantic in February did not collect any information while flying over American territory.

• Also read: Biden categorizes Xi as a ‘dictator’

• Also read: Xi Jinping applauds the “progress” made with Blinken’s visit

• Also read: Blink in Beijing hoping to ease tensions a little

“Our understanding today is that it did not gather any information while transiting or flying over the United States,” said US Department of Defense spokesman Pat Ryder.

The United States had “taken action to limit intelligence gathering through the balloon,” he added, which “certainly helped.”

Pat Ryder did not provide any further details on these measures.

This imposing balloon crossed the United States from west to east, from Alaska to South Carolina, from late January to early February.

It had flown over strategic military installations.

The balloon was shot down over the Atlantic on February 4 and its debris was recovered by the US military, who have since examined its contents.

The incident had shaken relations between Beijing and Washington. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a long-planned trip to China.

Washington had asserted that it was a spy balloon, which Beijing denied, saying it accidentally drifted into American airspace.

At the time, an American official claimed that the device had multiple antennas, some of which were likely capable of receiving and geolocating communications.

In June, however, US President Joe Biden said he believed “Chinese leaders did not know” where the ball was or what it contained.

“I think it was more embarrassing than intended,” he added.

A real dislike: Pornhub is pulling out of Virginia and blocking in-state users from accessing its site in protest of the state’s new law

• Virginia residents are no longer able to access one of the world’s most popular websites as Pornhub announced a ban in response to a new law coming into effect
• The law requires pornography websites to verify the age of their users before granting access to prevent children from accessing such content
• Pornhub argues that the law actually puts children’s and users’ privacy at greater risk, as it could lead people to visit sites with lesser security measures

By James Gordon for

Published: 7:06 AM, July 1, 2023 | Updated at 8:43 AM, July 1, 2023

One of the most visited websites in the world, Pornhub, has banned users in Virginia over the state’s new age verification law.

The new law, which goes into effect July 1, now requires that websites with pornographic content displayed in Virginia must verify that users are at least 18 years old before they can view the site.

The bill, proposed by Republican Senator William M. Stanley Jr. (Franklin), passed the Virginia General Assembly.

“The safety of our users is one of our top concerns.” “We believe that the best and most effective solution to protect children and adults is to identify users by their device and based on this identification to access age-restricted materials and websites enable,” Pornhub wrote in a message to those who sign up.

“Pending a real solution being offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely shut down access to our Virginia site.”

“We have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in your region,” DeVille (above) informed visitors

Instead of finding the usual raunchy options on the adult site’s landing page, Virginians were treated to a video of adult entertainer Cherie DeVille — fully clothed

Pornhub was pulled from Virginia after they were ordered to verify users’ ages

The new law doesn’t mean a total ban on pornographic content — adult sites just need to put in place some method of verifying a user’s age, e.g. by requiring people to submit digital copies of their ID or face scans online, but Pornhub doesn’t want users through such attempts.

“The governor remains committed to protecting Virginia’s children from harmful content online,” a spokeswoman for Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement.

The Free Speech Coalition recently filed a lawsuit challenging a similar law that went into effect in Utah. It’s not clear if the Virginia group will do anything similar.

“The question is not if these laws will be declared unconstitutional, but when,” Mike Stabile, spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, told 8News.

Alison Boden, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, wrote a letter to Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, urging him to veto Stanley’s bill.

MindGeek, Pornhub’s parent company, owns many of the most popular porn sites online, including RedTube, Digital Playground, and YouPorn

“The governor remains committed to protecting Virginia’s children from harmful content online,” a spokeswoman for Governor Glenn Youngkin (left) said in a statement. The bill was proposed by Republican Senator William M. Stanley Jr. (right).

Globally, the online porn business is valued at $97 billion, with between $10 and $12 billion in the US alone

Boden wrote that the group supports efforts to “protect young people from age-appropriate or harmful material,” but listed the issues she had with the bill.

“Adult content — including content harmful to minors — is First Amendment protected expression, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that restrictions on its production and consumption are subject to the highest legal hurdle: rigorous scrutiny,” Boden wrote to Youngkin.

Many corporate websites outside of the US are also unlikely to comply with the new laws.

In addition to Utah and Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi have also passed similar laws that proponents say will help protect children from sexually explicit material.

Comment on this storyComment

RIGA, Latvia — With Moscow still reeling from the failed Wagner mercenary group rebellion, the Kremlin has begun the difficult task of dissolving and subverting Yevgeny Prigozhin’s sprawling empire, which included not only the shady mercenary army but also a propaganda medium to bring his control to wing and internet troll factories notorious for interfering in elections in the United States.

Prigozhin, the St. Petersburg mogul known as “Putin’s chef” for making billions from state catering deals to feed soldiers and kindergarten teachers across Russia, has disappeared since he agreed last Saturday to end his mutiny finish and go to Belarus. Although Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Prigozhin got there, he was not seen.

In his absence, the warlord’s business is already beginning to crumble, and his media empire is the first to fall apart. But dealing with the dissolution, restructuring or takeover of its operations poses a challenge for the Russian government. In Africa, for example, Russia has tried to reassure executives who had been relying on Wagner for security that the company will continue to operate, but it is not clear that this will be possible while cutting off Prigozhin from the flow of public money that and have funded has enriched him for decades.

Additionally, the Russian military relies on Prigozhin’s stores to feed soldiers fighting in Ukraine and cannot afford disruptions.

Meanwhile, US intelligence officials are working to learn more about how the aftermath of Prigozhin’s falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin is affecting Russia’s mercenary army and formal defense establishment.

According to US intelligence officials, General Sergey Surovikin, deputy commander of the war in Ukraine, has been arrested by Russian authorities. However, they said it was unclear whether his imprisonment was temporary or whether he faced punishment as an accomplice to the Wagner uprising.

Adding to the complexity in Russia is the gray funding that Prigozhin used – partly because some of its deals were illegal. Many worked only with cash and had creative bookkeeping, as evidenced by the billions of rubles stowed in vans near Wagner’s St Petersburg headquarters and seized by law enforcement after the mutiny.

“Prigozhin is not just the Wagner group, he represents a structure trying to work on the ideological front, on the political front, etc.,” said Denis Korotkov, a Russian investigative journalist who first uncovered the Wagner group . “All of this works in a tight ecosystem with other sides of his business.”

Ukraine’s top general Valery Zaluzhny wants shells, planes and patience

Prigozhin ran the Patriot media group, a network of websites and blogs that spread its messages through online platforms and thrived on the Telegram app. This allowed Prigozhin and Wagner to improve their public image, despite being blacklisted on state television, and to condemn regular military leaders for poor warfare.

Prigozhin’s online operation included the notorious troll factory, whose employees were sanctioned by the United States for election interference. Those efforts have morphed into new projects like Cyber ​​Front Z, which recruited people to post pro-Russian comments in discussions about the war in Ukraine on many of the world’s most popular online platforms.

After the uprising, Prigozhin’s websites were quickly taken offline by Russia’s internet regulator Roskomnadzor. On Friday evening, Yevgeny Zubarev, editor-in-chief of the group’s flagship site, RIA FAN, announced that the entire media group would be shut down.

“We are breaking up and leaving Russia’s information agenda,” Zubarev said in a surprisingly candid video, in which he revealed that Prigozhin began his first disinformation campaigns in 2009.

It may have taken Russian authorities just a few days to curb Prigozhin’s influence on the internet, but other ventures, such as his vast recruiting network of fighters across Russia; its operations throughout Africa and the Middle East; and his catering business – the backbone of the entire empire – will be much more difficult, if not impossible, to wind down.

Although Prigozhin has not been seen in Belarus, there are reports of a camp being built there following Lukashenko’s deal to end the rebellion. And Wagner’s recruitment efforts in Russia still appear to be working as of Friday, although most of her VKontakte social media pages, which are a key recruitment tool, have been taken offline.

A Wagner recruiter contacted by the Washington Post said the group had no plans to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry and that active recruitment was ongoing. The recruiter also denied reports that the group was migrating to Belarus.

Russian elites prepare for full Kremlin probe into Wagner uprising

Bumaga, a local news outlet from St. Petersburg, reported earlier this week that recruitment is continuing, including at local gyms and fight clubs, although Russian officials said Wagner would no longer be involved in the war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin is anticipating still referred to as a “special military operation”.

The sum at stake is enormous.

According to Putin’s own account, Prigozhin’s catering company received at least $1 billion last year through government contracts to feed tens of thousands of soldiers on the front lines in Ukraine. These catering contracts were the primary means of financing Prigozhin and its businesses for the Russian state.

Prigozhin’s main company, Concord, and its subsidiaries almost certainly provided food and other services at an inflated price, then used the excess revenue to fund unofficial ventures, including the mercenary group.

“Concord heads a group of companies that has been providing food to soldiers in the Russian Armed Forces since 2006,” Prigozhin wrote in a June letter to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. “The revenues of these companies will then be used to finance projects in Africa, Syria and other countries, where expenditure on promoting the interests of the Russian state amounted to 147 billion rubles as of May 2023.” [about $1.7 billion].”

It will be difficult to replace a supplier of this magnitude, especially as Russian fighters try to repel a Ukrainian counter-offensive. Any loss of revenue from catering could have a knock-on effect on the rest of the businesses that rely on those cash flows.

The mercenary boss warned of a revolution in Russia, but his own was short-lived

Although Putin said Wagner fighters would be allowed to join Prigozhin in Belarus, early indications are that the mercenary group is likely to be drastically downsized. Putin has essentially offered Wagner fighters three options: follow Prigozhin into exile, join Russia’s regular armed forces, or go home.

It is not clear how many fighters joined the mutiny or stayed by Prigozhin’s side. Prigozhin claimed that his force numbered 25,000 fighters, although the real number is probably lower. According to US estimates, the Wagner force in Ukraine consisted of around 10,000 contractors – a more loyal and trained part of the group. The rest were convicts recruited from prisons who suffered heavy casualties in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

“I would be surprised if Prigozhin had his paramilitary formation in thousands of people,” said Ruslan Leviev, a military analyst with the Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent Russian open-source intelligence group (OSINT). “They handed over all armored vehicles to the Ministry of Defense. Access to money, tenders and media empires was cut off. Who pays her salary? And why should Prigozhin need them if now he does not receive corrupt money for them?”

There are other private military companies in Russia, but none appear capable of replacing Wagner in Africa, where for years it served as an unofficial continuation of the Kremlin’s efforts to exert influence and weaken the influence of the United States and Europe.

“There is nobody,” said investigative journalist Korotkov when asked who could replace Wagner. “Technically, you could find another subcontractor, but Prigozhin had weight and caliber there.”

“Anyone trying to get in there will likely first loot the funds and then be dismembered somewhere in the jungle,” he added. “So there is no comparable personality in Russia who would take on this burden.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday it was up to African countries to decide whether to continue security deals with Wagner.

In the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali, the two countries where Wagner has the largest presence on the continent, leaders stressed that their original links were with the Kremlin and not the paramilitary group.

Fidèle Gouandjika, a top adviser to Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, said the country initially signed security deals with Moscow: “We didn’t know Wagner. We didn’t sign with Wagner. We signed with the Kremlin,” Gouandjika said.

But Gouandjika also acknowledged that Russia ultimately sent Wagner soldiers and that those soldiers, he said, “saved democracy in the Central African Republic.” The “entire population” was satisfied with the performance of the contractors, he dismissed reports of atrocities by Wagner soldiers as “fake news”.

According to Sentry, an investigative organization investigating war crimes, conflict and corruption in Africa, Wagner controls all military operations outside of the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, and conducted “widespread, systematic and well-planned campaigns of mass killing, torture and rape” in the whole country.

Sentry said the mercenary group had trained and equipped a dozen militia.

“In the Central African Republic, Wagner perfected a plan for state conquest, thereby supporting a criminalized state hijacked by the Central Africans [Republic] “We have attacked the President and his inner circle, amassed military might, secured access to and looted valuable minerals, and subjected the populace to terror,” the Sentry wrote in a report released Tuesday.

Gouandjika said no changes are planned. “Wagner saved the Central African Republic,” he said. “At the moment we are with Wagner. But staying with Wager doesn’t depend on us. It depends on Russia… and we have faith in Russia.”

Evidence of the use of banned mines by Ukrainian forces is mounting, human rights group says

But even if Moscow decided to dismantle Wagner’s presence in the country, the group’s roots there may now run too deep. Martin Ziguele, the former Prime Minister of the Central African Republic and now an opposition politician, said that Touadéra “put the wolves in their laps” by allowing the mercenaries “who are capable of anything and react to nobody” in the already fragile able to operate country.

“The main threat does not come from armed groups or the opposition; it comes from Wagner,” said Ziguele. “They have infiltrated all systems. In the heart of the army, in business, in the timber industry, in politics, at the airport – everything. You have all power.”

Touadéra was at this point, said Ziguele, a “complete hostage” to Wagner.

An analyst in Bangui, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the situation, said Wagner contractors had remained at their bases since Thursday and there was no discernible change in the capital. John Lechner, an expert on Wagner activities in Africa, said: “It is safe to say that they will continue for the foreseeable future.”

“Even if there were a change in management, I think a change in personnel would be relatively slow,” said Lechner.

As the Kremlin works to break away from the once-loyal warlord, it has also become clear that Prigozhin was the glue that held together a fractured empire, just as many aspects of modern Russia hang on one man: Putin.

“In the absence of Mr. Prigozhin himself, the Wagner group will either cease to exist, or it will degenerate into something completely different, unable to achieve the same level of activity,” Korotkov said.

Ilyushina and Dixon reported from Riga, Latvia; Chason from Dakar, Senegal; and Hudson of Washington.

Give this item as a gift

Understanding the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Check out 3 more stories