By JOSEPH WILSON (Associated Press)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The embattled president of Spain’s soccer federation defiantly refused to step down Friday after insisting that a kiss on the lips with Women’s Soccer player Jenni Hermoso was consensual, an assertion that Hermoso strongly denied.

Meanwhile, all 22 of Hermoso’s fellow world champions, and 58 other Spanish players, announced they will no longer play for Spain if Luis Rubiales doesn’t resign.

Facing his possible removal from office, the 46-year-old Rubiales cast himself as the victim at an emergency meeting of the federation in Madrid.

“I won’t resign,” he declared four times in quick succession, to applause from the overwhelmingly male audience.

Rubiales, who was also chastised for grabbing his crotch after Spain’s 1-0 victory over England on Sunday, is under immense pressure to leave his post.

The kiss marred the title celebrations in front of a global audience, and criticism has steadily mounted. Spain’s acting prime minister, players unions, players for Spain’s women’s team, and even some players on men’s teams have said he must go.

Several Spanish news media outlets reported on Thursday that Rubiales would step down. Instead, he said on Friday that he is the victim of a witch hunt by “false feminists.”

While Rubiales held his ground, federation vice president Rafael del Amo, who had been in charge of women’s soccer, announced that he was resigning, followed by at least two other federation members. Del Amo had urged Rubiales to also resign.

Among those applauding Rubiales were women’s national team coach Jorge Vilda and men’s national team coach Luis de la Fuente. Until Friday’s assembly, he had received no public support in Spain, with political parties from both the left and the right speaking out against him.

In his speech to the assembly, Rubiales said Hermoso “lifted me up” in a celebratory gesture and he asked her for “a little kiss?” and she “said yes.”

“The kiss was the same I could give one of my daughters,” Rubiales said.

The televised broadcast of the medals ceremony didn’t show the first moments when Rubiales congratulated Hermoso. But it does show that his feet were on the ground before he held her face and kissed her.

Hermoso contradicted Rubiales’ version in a statement issued later through her FUTRPO players’ union. She said that she did not consent to the kiss and didn’t try to pick up the president.

“I won’t tolerate anyone putting in doubt my word and even more so that anyone invents words that I did not say,” she said.

The statement was signed by Hermoso, all 22 of her fellow world champions, and 58 other Spanish players. The players who signed the statement said they would no longer play for Spain “if the present leadership remains in charge.”

Rubiales said he would defend his honor in court against politicians, including two ministers, who called his kiss an act of sexual violence. One of them was acting Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, who urged the government to take “urgent measures.”

“Impunity for macho actions is over,” Díaz said. “Rubiales cannot continue in office.”

Alexia Putellas, Hermoso’s teammate and a two-time Ballon d’Or winner as the best player in the world, posted a message of support on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“This is unacceptable,” the Barcelona player wrote. “I’m with you, my teammate, Jenni Hermoso.”

Other teammates quickly followed.

Aitana Bonmatí, the Spain midfielder named the best player of the Women’s World Cup, said on X: “There are limits that you cannot cross and we cannot tolerate this. We are with our teammate.” Team captain Ivana Andrés and Olga Carmona, whose goal won the final, also joined in showing their support for Hermoso.

The president of Spain’s women’s league, Beatriz Álvarez, told Spanish state broadcaster RTVE that she was not surprised because Rubiales’ “ego is above his dignity.”

“What surprises and scandalizes me are his words,” Álvarez said. “Every time he speaks he shows what kind of person he really is.”

Spain’s government planned to file a lawsuit Friday alleging that Rubiales violated the country’s sports laws, according to Víctor Francos, secretary of state for sports and head of Spain’s Higher Council for Sports. If Spain’s Administrative Court for Sports agrees to hear the suit, the council will suspend Rubiales temporarily pending the court’s ruling, Francos said.

If found guilty by the court for committing sexist acts, Rubiales could be ruled unfit to hold office. Francos said he would ask the court to move its regular Thursday meeting up to Monday.

Spanish soccer club Barcelona, which provided nine players for Spain’s team, said Rubiales’ behavior “was completely inappropriate.” Real Madrid said it supported the decision by the government to try to suspend Rubiales. Sevilla called for his resignation. Espanyol also joined in the criticism.

FIFA, the governing body of soccer, opened a disciplinary case against Rubiales on Thursday. The FIFA disciplinary committee will decide whether Rubiales violated its code relating to “the basic rules of decent conduct” or behaved “in a way that brings the sport of football and/or FIFA into disrepute.”

Disciplinary judges can impose sanctions on individuals ranging from warnings and fines to suspensions from the sport. FIFA gave no timetable for the ruling.

FIFA’s investigation came after Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said earlier this week that Rubiales’ attempt to apologize — after he first insulted his critics — was unconvincing and that “he must continue taking further steps.”

The Netherlands-based FIFPRO player’s union, which had already demanded action against Rubiales, reiterated its position after his assembly speech.

The only relevant institution to remain silent has been European soccer body UEFA, for which Rubiales is a vice president. FIFPRO urged UEFA to open its own disciplinary case.

Rubiales, who led the Spanish players union for eight years before taking over as federation president in 2018, is currently heading the UEFA-backed bid to host the men’s World Cup in 2030. Spain is bidding with neighboring Portugal and Morocco, and also possibly Ukraine.

Rubiales made 339,000 euros ($365,000) in 2021 after taxes, for presiding over the federation with a budget of 382 million euros ($412 million). The federation runs Spain’s men’s and women’s national soccer teams and its semi-professional and amateur soccer leagues. It also organizes the referees for La Liga. The government maintains some oversight of the entity but it cannot name or remove its executives.

Shortly before the kiss, Rubiales grabbed his crotch in a victory gesture, with Queen Letizia of Spain and 16-year old Princess Sofía standing nearby.

He offered an apology for that, saying it was in a moment of “euphoria” and directed toward Vilda on the field.

The first members of the elite in Spanish men’s soccer spoke out against Rubiales on Thursday, when it looked like he was bowing out. Their words of reproach continued to trickle in after Rubiales’ diatribe on Friday.

“What an embarrassment,” former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas said on X. “We should have spent the last five days talking about our women players, about the joy they gave us all! About how proud we are that they gave us a title that we didn’t have in women’s soccer, instead …”

Real Betis forward Borja Iglesias, who has occasionally been called up for Spain’s national team, said he would not play for his country again “until things change.”

___

AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup

By The Associated Press

The Kremlin on Friday rejected allegations it was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who conducted a brief but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago.

Prigozhin, whose brutal fighters were feared in Ukraine, Africa and Syria, was eulogized Thursday by President Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian leader was behind the crash that many saw as an assassination.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded the plane was downed by an intentional explosion. One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not offer any details on what caused the explosion, which was widely believed to be vengeance for the mutiny in June that posed the biggest challenge to Putin’s 23-year rule.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov flatly rejected the allegations.

“Right now, of course, there are lots of speculations around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Peskov told reporters during a conference call. “Of course, in the West those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie.”

Prigozhin was listed among those aboard the plane.

Asked by The Associated Press whether the Kremlin has received an official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, Peskov referenced Putin’s remarks from a day earlier: “He said that right now all the necessary forensic analyses, including genetic testing, will be carried out. Once some kind of official conclusions are ready to be released, they will be released.”

Britain’s Defense Ministry said the presumed death of Prigozhin could destabilize his Wagner Group of private military contractors.

His “exceptional audacity” and “extreme brutality” permeated the organization “and are unlikely to be matched by any successor,” the ministry said in a statement.

Wagner mercenaries were key elements of Russia’s forces in its war in Ukraine, particularly in the long fight to take the city of Bakhmut, the conflict’s most grueling battle. Wagner fighters also have played a central role projecting Russian influence in global trouble spots, first in Africa and then in Syria.

The jet crashed Wednesday soon after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg, carrying Prigozhin, six other Wagner members and a crew of three, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority. Rescuers found 10 bodies, and Russian media cited anonymous sources in Wagner who said Prigozhin was dead. But there has been no official confirmation.

President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said he believed Putin was likely behind the crash.

“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised,” Biden said. “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov took offense at that. “It is not for the U.S. president, in my opinion, to talk about certain tragic events of this nature,” he said Friday.

The passenger manifest also included Prigozhin’s second-in-command, as well as Wagner’s logistics chief and at least one possible bodyguard.

It was not clear why several high-ranking members of Wagner, who were normally exceedingly careful about their security, would have been on the same flight. The purpose of their trip to St. Petersburg was unknown.

Russian authorities have opened an investigation into the crash. The country’s Investigative Committee said Friday that it had recovered the plane’s flight recorders and that genetic testing was being used to identify the bodies.

In this first public comments on the crash, Putin said the passengers had “made a significant contribution” to the fighting in Ukraine.

“We remember this, we know, and we will not forget,” he said in a televised interview with the Russian-installed leader of Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin.

Putin said he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s and described him as “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life, and he achieved the results he needed — both for himself and, when I asked him about it, for the common cause, as in these last months. He was a talented man, a talented businessman.”

Numerous opponents and critics of Putin have been killed or fallen gravely ill in apparent assassination attempts, and U.S. and other Western officials long expected the Russian leader to go after Prigozhin, despite promising to drop charges in a deal that ended the June 23-24 mutiny.

Prigozhin was outspoken and critical of how Russian generals were waging the war in Ukraine, where his mercenaries were some of the fiercest fighters for the Kremlin. For a long time, Putin appeared content to allow such infighting, but Prigozhin’s brief revolt raised the ante.

On June 23, his mercenaries swept through the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and captured the military headquarters there without firing a shot. They then drove to within about 200 kilometers (125 miles) of Moscow and downed several military aircraft, killing more than a dozen Russian pilots.

Putin initially denounced the rebellion as “treason” and a “stab in the back,” but soon made a deal that saw an end to the mutiny a day after it began in exchange for an amnesty for Prigozhin and his mercenaries and permission for them to move to Belarus.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who facilitated that deal, said Friday that Prigozhin never asked him for security guarantees. “I don’t have to ensure Prigozhin’s safety … the conversation was never in that vein,” he was quoted as saying by the state news agency Belta.

Lukashenko said he previously warned Putin of “an impending assassination attempt on Prigozhin,” according to Belta. Lukashenko told Belta he received “very serious information from the deepest sources” while on a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates and passed it on via the Russian ambassador in the UAE to Putin and the head of Russia’s FSB security agency.

Lukashenko later checked with Prigozhin, who confirmed Putin had warned him about the threat, according to Belta.

Since Prigozhin’s presumed death, unconfirmed reports said hundreds of Wagner’s fighters have fled Belarus. Relatives of Wagner fighters on one Telegram chat reported long lines for payments at a Wagner office in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, the private force’s base.

___

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

By JOSEPH WILSON (Associated Press)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Facing his possible removal from office, the president of the Spanish soccer federation refused to step down Friday despite the uproar he caused when he kissed a player on the lips after the Women’s World Cup final.

“I won’t resign,” Luis Rubiales declared four times in quick succession at an emergency general assembly of the federation.

The 46-year-old Rubiales, who was also chastised for grabbing his crotch after Spain’s 1-0 victory over England on Sunday, is under immense pressure to leave his post after he grasped and kissed women’s team player Jenni Hermoso during the awards ceremony in Sydney, Australia.

The action marred the title celebrations in front of a global audience, and criticism has steadily mounted. Spain’s acting prime minister, players unions, players for Spain’s women’s team, and even some players on men’s teams have said he must go.

Several Spanish news media outlets reported on Thursday that Rubiales would step down. Instead, he remained defiant Friday, claiming before the federation’s assembly that the kiss was “mutual and with the consent” of Hermoso and that he is the victim of a witch hunt by “false feminists.”

He was applauded by the overwhelming male assembly.

While Rubiales held his ground, federation vice president Rafael del Amo, who had been in charge of women’s soccer, announced that he was resigning, followed by at least two other federation members. Del Amo had urged Rubiales to also resign.

Among those supporting Rubiales were women’s national team coach Jorge Vilda and men’s national team coach Luis de la Fuente. Until Friday’s assembly, he had received no public support in Spain, with political parties from both the left and the right speaking out against him.

The soccer federation first responded to the scandal by releasing a statement in which Hermoso downplayed Rubiales’ action. Later, however, sports website Relevo.com reported that the federation had coerced her into making the statement. The federation denied this to The Associated Press.

Hermoso had said in a video streamed on social media after the kiss last Sunday that “I didn’t like it, but what can I do?” Later, her players union issued a statement on her behalf saying that it would defend her interests and ensure that the act “does not go unpunished.”

In his speech to the assembly on Friday, Rubiales said Hermoso “lifted me up” in a celebratory gesture and he asked her for “a little kiss?” and she “said yes.”

“The kiss was the same I could give one of my daughters,” Rubiales said.

The televised broadcast of the medals ceremony didn’t show the first moments when Rubiales congratulated Hermoso. But it does show that his feet were on the ground before he held her face and kissed her.

Rubiales said he would defend his honor in court against politicians, including two ministers, who called his kiss an act of sexual violence. One of them was acting Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, who urged the government to take “urgent measures.”

“Impunity for macho actions is over,” Díaz said. “Rubiales cannot continue in office.”

Alexia Putellas, Hermoso’s teammate and a two-time Ballon d’Or winner as the best player in the world, posted a message of support on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“This is unacceptable,” the Barcelona player wrote. “I’m with you, my teammate, Jenni Hermoso.”

Other teammates quickly followed.

Aitana Bonmatí, the Spain midfielder named the best player of the Women’s World Cup, said on X: “There are limits that you cannot cross and we cannot tolerate this. We are with our teammate.” Team captain Ivana Andrés and Olga Carmona, whose goal won the final, also joined in showing their support for Hermoso.

The president of Spain’s women’s league, Beatriz Álvarez, told Spanish state broadcaster RTVE that she was not surprised because Rubiales’ “ego is above his dignity.”

“What surprises and scandalizes me are his words,” Álvarez said. “Every time he speaks he shows what kind of person he really is.”

Spain’s government planned to file a lawsuit Friday alleging that Rubiales violated the country’s sports laws, according to Víctor Francos, secretary of state for sports and head of Spain’s Higher Council for Sports. If Spain’s Administrative Court for Sports agrees to hear the suit, the council will suspend Rubiales temporarily pending the court’s ruling, Francos said.

If found guilty by the court for committing sexist acts, Rubiales could be ruled unfit to hold office. Francos said he would ask the court to move its regular Thursday meeting up to Monday.

“The speech by Mr. Rubiales before the general assembly of the Spanish soccer federation is absolutely incompatible with representing Spanish sports and with the values of an advanced society like Spain’s,” the Higher Council for Sports said in a written statement.

Barcelona, which provided nine players for Spain’s team, said Rubiales’ behavior “was completely inappropriate.” Sevilla called for his resignation. Espanyol also joined in the criticism.

FIFA, the governing body of soccer, opened a disciplinary case against Rubiales on Thursday. The FIFA disciplinary committee will decide whether Rubiales violated its code relating to “the basic rules of decent conduct” or behaved “in a way that brings the sport of football and/or FIFA into disrepute.”

Disciplinary judges can impose sanctions on individuals ranging from warnings and fines to suspensions from the sport. FIFA gave no timetable for the ruling.

FIFA’s investigation came after Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said earlier this week that Rubiales’ attempt to apologize — after he first insulted his critics — was unconvincing and that “he must continue taking further steps.”

The Netherlands-based FIFPRO player’s union, which had already demanded action against Rubiales, reiterated its position after his assembly speech.

The only relevant institution to remain silent has been European soccer body UEFA, for which Rubiales is a vice president. FIFPRO urged UEFA to open its own disciplinary case.

Rubiales, who led the Spanish players union for eight years before taking over as federation president in 2018, is currently heading the UEFA-backed bid to host the men’s World Cup in 2030. Spain is bidding with neighboring Portugal and Morocco, and also possibly Ukraine.

Rubiales made 339,000 euros ($365,000) in 2021 after taxes, for presiding over the federation with a budget of 382 million euros ($412 million). The federation runs Spain’s men’s and women’s national soccer teams and its semi-professional and amateur soccer leagues. It also organizes the referees for La Liga. The government maintains some oversight of the entity but it cannot name or remove its executives.

Shortly before the kiss, Rubiales grabbed his crotch in a victory gesture, with Queen Letizia of Spain and 16-year old Princess Sofía standing nearby.

He offered an apology for that, saying it was in a moment of “euphoria” and directed toward Vilda on the field.

The first members of the elite in Spanish men’s soccer spoke out against Rubiales on Thursday, when it looked like he was bowing out. Their words of reproach continued to trickle in after Rubiales’ diatribe on Friday.

“What an embarrassment,” former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas said on X. “We should have spent the last five days talking about our women players, about the joy they gave us all! About how proud we are that they gave us a title that we didn’t have in women’s soccer, instead …”

Real Betis forward Borja Iglesias, who has occasionally been called up for Spain’s national team, said he would not play for his country again “until things change.”

___

AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup

Portsmouth police are investigating after a “decomposed body” was found Friday.

Officers responded to the 2500 block of Frederick Boulevard following a report that a body was found by a landscaping crew at 9:40 a.m., according to a news release from police. The body has not yet been identified.

No further information has been made available.

This is a developing story. Check PilotOnline.com for updates.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, [email protected]

Green Run wide receiver Keylen Adams, right, fights ahead for extra yards as Kempsville defenders Ryley Mcintosh, left, and Elijah McDaniel, center, try to bring him down during the first half of a game at Kempsville High School on Thursday, August 24, 2023, in Virginia Beach, Va. (Mike Caudill / For The Virginian-Pilot)

By JONATHAN J. COOPER (Associated Press)

A camera clicks. In a fraction of a second, the shutter opens and then closes, freezing forever the image in front of it.

When the camera shutter blinked inside an Atlanta jail on Thursday, it both created and documented a tiny inflection point in American life. Captured for posterity, there was a former president of the United States, for the first time in history, under arrest and captured in the sort of frame more commonly associated with drug dealers or drunken drivers. The trappings of power gone, for that split second.

Left behind: an enduring image that will appear in history books long after Donald Trump is gone.

“It will be forever part of the iconography of being alive in this time,” said Marty Kaplan, a professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications.

In the photo, Trump confronts the camera in front of a bland gray backdrop, his eyes meeting the lens in an intense glare. He’s wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red tie, his shoulders squared, his head tilted slightly toward the camera. The sheriff’s logo has been digitally added above his right shoulder.

Some of the 18 others charged with him in Georgia smiled in their booking photos like they were posing for a yearbook. Not Trump. His defiance is palpable, as if he’s staring down a nemesis through the lens.

“It is not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong,” he later told Fox News Digital about the moment.

Trump facing charges is by now a familiar sight of 2023 to Americans who watched him stand before a judge in a New York courtroom or saw watercolor sketches from the inside of federal courthouses in Miami and Washington, where cameras aren’t allowed.

This is different.

As Anderson Cooper put it on CNN: “The former president of the United States has an inmate number.” P01135809, to be exact. But until he surrendered to face charges of trying to steal the 2020 election in Georgia, his fourth indictment this year, he avoided having to pose for the iconic booking photo like millions accused of crimes before him.

Never mind that Trump, like all Americans, is innocent until proven guilty in court; the mug shot, and all it connotes, packs an extra emotional and cultural punch.

A mug shot is a visceral representation of the criminal justice system, a symbol of lost freedom. It permanently memorializes one of the worst days of a person’s life, a moment not meant for a scrapbook. It must be particularly foreign to a man born into privilege, who famously loves to be in control, who is highly attentive to his image and who rose to be the most powerful figure in the world.

“`Indictment’ is a sort of bloodless word. And words are pale compared to images,” said Kaplan, a former speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale and Hollywood screenwriter. “A mug shot is a genre. Its frame is, `This is a deer caught in the headlights. This is the crook being nailed.’ It’s the walk of shame moment.”

Trump is unlikely to treat the mug shot as a moment of shame as he seeks a second term in the White House while fighting criminal charges in four jurisdictions. His campaign has reported a spike in contributions each time he’s been indicted.

And the imagery itself? Trump hasn’t shied away from it. In fact, his campaign concocted one long before it became real.

Months before he was photographed in Georgia on Thursday evening, his campaign used the prospect of a mug shot as a fundraising opportunity. For $36, anyone can buy a T-shirt with a fake booking photo of Trump and the words “not guilty.” Dozens of similar designs are available to purchase online, including many that appeal to Trump’s critics.

Now they have a real one to work with. Within minutes of the mug shot’s release, Trump’s campaign used it in a fundraising appeal on its website. “BREAKING NEWS: THE MUGSHOT IS HERE,” reads the subject line of the campaign’s latest fundraising email, which advertises a new T-shirt with the image. And this quote: “This mugshot will forever go down in history as a symbol of America’s defiance of tyranny.”

In a show of solidarity, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, a photo of herself smiling broadly in front of a gray background, the sheriff’s logo in the top left corner to mimic the jail’s style — essentially her DIY mug. “I stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis,” she said, a swipe at the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney who persuaded a grand jury to indict Trump.

Recent history is full of politicians seeking political dividends from their booking photos. They’ve offered large smiles or defiant smirks and tried to make the best of their predicament.

Yet this is one of just 45 presidents in all of U.S. history — not only someone who held the keys to the most powerful government in the world, but who held a position that for many these days, both at home and overseas, personifies the United States. To see that face looking at a camera whose lens he is not seeking out — that’s a potent moment.

“There’s a power to the still image, which is inarguable,” said Mitchell Stevens, a professor emeritus at New York University who has written a book about the place imagery holds in modern society and how it is supplanting the word.

“It kind of freezes a moment, and in this case it’s freezing an unhappy moment for Donald Trump,” Stevens said. “And it’s not something he can click away. It’s not something he can simply brush off. That moment is going to live on. And it’s entirely possible that it will end up as the image that history preserves of this man.”

___

Jonathan J. Cooper is a political writer for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/jjcooper

By ASHOK SHARMA (Associated Press)

NEW DELHI (AP) — A lunar rover slid down a ramp from the lander of India’s spacecraft within hours of its historic touch-down near the moon’s south pole, Indian space officials said Thursday, as the country celebrated its new scientific accomplishment.

“India took a walk on the moon,” the state-run Indian Space Research Organization said, adding that the Chandrayan-3 Rover would conduct experiments over 14 days, including an analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.

Residents of the world’s most populous country had crowded around televisions in offices, shops, and restaurants on Wednesday and erupted into clapping, dancing, and exchanging of sweets when they saw the lander’s smooth touchdown. It landed on uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water.

“India Goes Where No Nation’s Gone Before,’ read Thursday’s headline in The Times of India daily, while the Indian Express newspaper exclaimed, “The moon is Indian.”

Ajay Bhargava, a New Delhi-based architect, said it was a great experience watching broadcasts of the landing, and that he felt it was the culmination of hard work by India’s scientists over the years.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi or any other politician should not take credit for this achievement,” Bhargava said in a telephone interview.

Indian Space Research Organization Chairman S. Somnath said the lander had touched down close to the center of the 4.5-kilometer-wide (2.8-mile-wide) area that had been targeted for the landing. “It landed within 300 meters (985 feet) of that point,” the Press Trust of India cited him as saying.

The rover was on the move, and working “very well,” Somnath said.

Somnath said there are two scientific instruments in the rover and three instruments on board the lander, and all of them have been switched on sequentially.

“They will study basically the mineral composition of the moon, as well as the atmosphere of the moon and the seismic activities there,” he added.

After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India on Wednesday joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as only the fourth country to achieve this milestone.

The successful mission showcases India’s rising standing as a technology and space powerhouse and dovetails with the image that Modi is trying to project: an ascendant country asserting its place among the global elite.

The mission began more than a month ago at an estimated cost of $75 million. Somnath said that India would next attempt a manned lunar mission.

Many countries and private companies are interested in the South Pole region because its permanently shadowed craters may hold frozen water that could help future astronaut missions, as a potential source of drinking water or to make rocket fuel.

India’s success comes just days after Russia’s Luna-25, which was aiming for the same lunar region, spun into an uncontrolled orbit and crashed. It would have been the first successful Russian lunar landing after a gap of 47 years. Russia’s head of the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos attributed the failure to the lack of expertise due to the long break in lunar research that followed the last Soviet mission to the moon in 1976.

Active since the 1960s, India has launched satellites for itself and other countries, and successfully put one in orbit around Mars in 2014. India is planning its first mission to the International Space Station next year, in collaboration with the United States.

CHESAPEAKE — Ky’Nique Baines scored two first-half touchdowns, and sixth-ranked Western Branch held on for a 21-12 win over Menchville in both teams’ season opener.

Baines made an immediate impact on the game, scampering 44 yards for a touchdown on his first carry to put the Bruins on the board.

Western Branch also scored on its next possession as Derrick Cook tossed a 17-yard scoring pass to Devin Cook. The two connected again on the 2-point conversion, bumping the lead to 14-0.

After a Trey Muller interception, Western Branch failed to capitalize. But on the Bruins’ next series, Baines burst through the line and outraced the Monarchs’ defense for a 92-yard score.

Menchville suffered from some opening-game jitters, accounting for just 10 yards on its first three drives. A second-quarter interception by the Monarchs provided some momentum, but the offense didn’t gain traction until after Baines’ second touchdown.

Starting on its 37, Menchville drove 63 yards on nine plays, with quarterback Amir Harrison, on his fourth run of the series, rumbling through the middle for a 3-yard score, closing the margin to 21-6. The score stayed there until after halftime.

Harrison, a former wide receiver, was pushed into the quarterback position after the former starter transferred. While he had problems connecting on passes (9 of 27 for 135 yards and two interceptions), Harrison was elusive in the backfield and stretched plays with his legs, eventually gaining 104 yards on the ground. In the third quarter, he connected with La’Darius Adams on a 17-yard touchdown to trim the lead to 21-12.

The Menchville defense allowed only 48 yards in the second half and neutralized Baines, who still finished with 198 yards on 11 carries.

But Menchville could not take advantage of its opportunities — failing to score after twice driving inside the Western Branch 20-yard line during the fourth quarter. Two penalties and three incomplete passes foiled the first trip, and four incompletions halted the second.

By EMMA BURROWS and AAMER MADHANI (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane crash presumed to have killed a mercenary leader who was eulogized Thursday by Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian president was the architect of the assassination.

One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Yevgeny Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not offer any details about what caused the explosion, which was widely believed to be vengeance for the mutiny in June that posed the biggest challenge to the Russian leader’s 23-year rule. Several of Prigozhin’s lieutenants were also presumed dead.

Pentagon spokesman Gen. Pat Ryder said press reports that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane were inaccurate. He declined to say whether the U.S. suspected a bomb or believed the crash was an assassination.

Details of the intelligence assessment surfaced as Putin expressed his condolences to the families of those who were reported to be aboard the jet and referred to “serious mistakes” by Prigozhin.

The jet carrying the founder of the Wagner military company and six other passengers crashed Wednesday soon after taking off from Moscow with a crew of three, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority. Rescuers found 10 bodies, and Russian media cited anonymous sources in Wagner who said Prigozhin was dead. But there has been no official confirmation.

President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said he believed Putin was behind the crash, though he acknowledged that he did not have information verifying his belief.

“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised,” Biden said. “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind.”

The passenger manifest also included Prigozhin’s second-in-command, who baptized the group with his nom de guerre, as well as Wagner’s logistics chief, a fighter wounded by U.S. airstrikes in Syria and at least one possible bodyguard.

It was not clear why several high-ranking members of Wagner, including top leaders who are normally exceedingly careful about their security, were on the same flight. The purpose of their joint trip to St. Petersburg was unknown.

At Wagner’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, lights were turned on in the shape of a large cross, and Prigozhin supporters built a makeshift memorial, piling red and white flowers outside the building Thursday, along with company flags and candles.

In this first comments on the crash, Putin said the passengers had “made a significant contribution” to the fighting in Ukraine.

“We remember this, we know, and we will not forget,” he said in a televised interview with the Russian-installed leader of Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin.

Putin recalled that he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s and described him as “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life, and he achieved the results he needed — both for himself and, when I asked him about it, for the common cause, as in these last months. He was a talented man, a talented businessman.”

Russian state media have not covered the crash extensively, instead focusing on Putin’s remarks to the BRICS summit in Johannesburg via video link and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Several Russian social media channels reported that the bodies were burned or disfigured beyond recognition and would need to be identified by DNA. The reports were picked up by independent Russian media, but The Associated Press was not able to independently confirm them.

Prigozhin supporters claimed on pro-Wagner messaging app channels that the plane was deliberately downed.

Sergei Mironov, the leader of the pro-Kremlin Fair Russia party and former chairman of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said on his Telegram channel that Prigozhin had “messed with too many people in Russia, Ukraine and the West.”

“It now seems that at some point, his number of enemies reached a critical point,” Mironov wrote.

Russian authorities have said the cause of the crash is under investigation.

Anastasia Bukharova, 27, said she was walking with her children Wednesday when she saw the jet, “and then — boom! — it exploded in the sky.” She said she was scared it would hit houses in her village of Kuzhenkino and ran with the children. But the plane ended up crashing into a field.

“Something sort of was torn from it in the air,” she added.

Numerous opponents and critics of Putin have been killed or gravely sickened in apparent assassination attempts, and U.S. and other Western officials long expected the Russian leader to go after Prigozhin, despite promising to drop charges in a deal that ended the June 23-24 mutiny.

“It is no coincidence that the whole world immediately looks at the Kremlin when a disgraced ex-confidant of Putin suddenly falls from the sky, two months after he attempted an uprising,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, while acknowledging that the facts were still unclear.

“We know this pattern … in Putin’s Russia — deaths and dubious suicides, falls from windows that all ultimately remain unexplained,” she added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also pointed the finger: “We have nothing to do with this. Everyone understands who does.”

Soon after the plane went down, people on social media and news outlets began to report that it was a Wagner plane. Minutes after Russian state news agencies confirmed the crash, they cited the civil aviation authority as saying Prigozhin’s name was on the mainfest.

Prigozhin was long outspoken and critical of how Russian generals were waging the war in Ukraine, where his mercenaries were some of the fiercest fighters for the Kremlin. For a long time, Putin appeared content to allow such infighting — and Prigozhin seemed to have unusual latitude to speak his mind.

But Prigozhin’s brief revolt raised the ante. His mercenaries swept through the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and captured the military headquarters there without firing a shot. They then drove to within about 200 kilometers (125 miles) of Moscow and downed several military aircraft, killing more than a dozen Russian pilots.

Putin first denounced the rebellion as “treason” and a “stab in the back.” He vowed to punish its perpetrators, and the world waited for his next move, particularly since Prigozhin had publicly questioned the Russian leader’s justifications for the war in Ukraine.

Instead Putin made a deal that saw an end to the mutiny in exchange for an amnesty for Prigozhin and his mercenaries and permission for them to move to Belarus.

Now many are suggesting the punishment has finally come.

The Institute for the Study of War argued that Russian authorities likely moved against Prigozhin and his top associates as “the final step to eliminate Wagner as an independent organization.”

Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin turned political consultant, said by carrying out the mutiny and remaining free, Prigozhin “shoved Putin’s face into the dirt front of the whole world.”

Failing to punish Prigozhin would have offered an “open invitation for all potential rebels and troublemakers,” so Putin had to act, Gallyamov said.

Videos shared by the pro-Wagner Telegram channel Grey Zone showed a plane dropping like a stone from a large cloud of smoke, twisting wildly as it fell, one of its wings apparently missing. A free fall like that typically occurs when an aircraft sustains severe damage. A frame-by-frame AP analysis of two videos was consistent with some sort of midflight explosion.

___

Burrows reported from London. Associated Press Writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.

VIRGINIA BEACH — Speedy quarterback Kam Kirby ran for three touchdowns Thursday night as Bayside upended No. 8 Salem 27-21 in a season opener in the SunDevils’ stadium.

Kirby carried 14 times for 89 yards and completed 10 of 14 passes for 99 yards. Most of that total was to Martrez Chavious-Fenner, who made six catches for 79 yards.

“Our quarterback’s a different breed,” Marlins coach Jon White said. “You saw smart players making smart decisions.”

The Marlins were predicted to finish fourth in the Beach District, while the SunDevils were tabbed to be second.

Salem quarterback Jason “Scooter” Williams opened the scoring with a 58-yard touchdown burst up the middle and closed it with a 15-yard run with 6:32 left in the game. Despite sacks counting against the total, he finished with 55 yards on eight carries and completed 17 of 36 throws for 226 yards.

Kirby slithered for Bayside’s first two touchdowns in a 43-second span of the second quarter, sandwiched around an onside kick recovery by the Marlins.

The SunDevils’ Fabian Wells caught six passes for 114 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown at the back of the end zone with 21 seconds left in the second quarter.

Wells’ grab evened the halftime score at 14, but 1-yard touchdown runs by Amir Lyde and Kirby put the Marlins ahead 27-14 in the third quarter. Bayside’s Ibrahim Diabagate hit three of four PAT tries, while Salem’s Princeton Ortiz made three.

Despite Williams’ dual threat, Bayside stopped Salem’s last two possessions. The SunDevils couldn’t get past the Marlins’ 39 on their final drive.

— Reported by Gary Lassiter 

#14 Cox 41, Princess Anne 14

Josh Walton ran for 96 yards and two first-quarter touchdowns Thursday night as Cox handled Princess Anne in a clash of first-year Beach District coaches.

The host Falcons, ranked 14th in the 757Teamz Top 15, dumped a bucket of liquid in celebration on Tyler Noe, the former assistant who has taken over as head coach for Pro Football Hall of Fame lineman Alan Faneca.

“Our team came out like no other,” Noe said. “In our scrimmage, we got our tails kicked by Warwick, but they came out and answered. We challenged them all week in practice.”

Former record-setting Oscar Smith quarterback Phillip Sims made his coaching debut for the visiting Cavaliers, whose losing streak reached 18 games.

Walton’s touchdown runs of 5 and 2 yards gave Cox a 14-0 lead. The Falcons extended it 24-0 in the second quarter on quarterback Gage Trefry’s 1-yard TD run and Sam Braidwood’s 31-yard field goal.

After Braidwood, as usual, knocked a kickoff into the end zone for a touchback, PA responded on the next play. Kobe Sutton received a short pass from Christian Francis near the sideline and lateraled the ball to Ajani “A.J.” Martin, who raced 79 yards down the sideline for a touchdown with 6:15 left in the second quarter.

Cox went ahead 31-6 before halftime as Gerard Johnson, a Virginia Tech defensive recruit, scored on a 15-yard reception from Trefry.

Trefry’s 14-yard touchdown run preceded Martin’s 28-yard scoring reception from Francis in the third quarter. Martin then ran for the subsequent two-point conversion, meaning he scored all of the Cavaliers’ points.

Braidwood’s 37-yard field goal provided the fourth quarter’s only points.

Cox’s offense amassed 17 first downs and 312 yards, including 263 on the ground.

C—Walton 15-96 rushing; Trefry 11-60 rushing; Gerald Simmons III 10-76 rushing; PA—Malachi Small 5-60 receiving; Francis 11-23-1, 200 yards passing.

— Reported by Charlie Baumgardner

#10 Lafayette 43, Spotsylvania 6

The Rams built a 20-0 halftime lead on their way to a season-opening non-district win over the Knights at Wanner Stadium.

First Colonial 27, Kellam 25

Coach Lemort Smith won in his debut as the Patriots survived when Kellam’s last-second field-goal attempt missed.

First Colonial snapped an 11-game losing streak against Kellam that dated to 2012. The Patriots’ last win in the series was 23-10 in 2011.

Ocean Lakes 13, Landstown 12, OT

The Dolphins trailed 6-3 heading into the fourth quarter, but forced overtime before claiming a victory — matching their win total last season.

Ocean Lakes scored a touchdown on its first OT possession and, after a Landstown touchdown, stopped the Eagles’ attempt at a game-winning two-point conversion.