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For a capital facing such potentially intense political convulsions, Moscow basked in a sun-drenched Sunday calm.

Red Square was closed as a precautionary anti-terror measure. A tourist asked us plaintively why he couldn’t walk across and seemed taken aback by the reference to terrorism.

Without access to Russian telegram, and which tourist watches state TV, it is small wonder he had no idea what had just transpired.

More Russia turmoil expected in coming weeks, US says – live updates

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Wagner mercenary fighters in Rostov before the group’s advance to Moscow was called off

The only other indicator of the state of things, in the city centre at least, were the plain-clothes police who asked for our documents.

But people did seem shaken up.

“I was so shocked, and I didn’t know what to do, I thought I should move maybe to St Petersburg or somewhere”, said Irina.

She was from the town of Vidnoye, south of Moscow, and had seen a lot of military vehicles around her house.

“This situation was so bad, and it looked like people in government didn’t know what to do.”

“I don’t want to get into politics,” said another woman, echoing a common refrain amongst the Russian people.

“Thank God we can walk here in the centre of Moscow and everything is fine!”

Irina speaking to Diana Magnay
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Irina speaking to Diana Magnay

Read more:
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Aborted mutiny busts the myth that Putin is infallible
The former hot dog seller and thug who became Wagner boss at centre of mutiny

A man who had refused to be filmed ducked over and whispered an expletive-filled tirade against Vladimir Putin, finishing with “Glory to Ukraine!”

Brave words in Russia today – no wonder he was whispering.

The action had all been elsewhere, in Rostov-on-Don in the Russian south, and in Voronezh, halfway to Moscow.

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Ukraine: Impact of Wagner rebellion

Ditches dug across roads to try and stop the Wagner convoy were quickly filled in. The immediate crisis was swiftly defused, its physical traces wiped clean.

But what mark will those 24 hours leave on the public consciousness and the history books, especially if this is not Evgeny Prigozhin’s final act?

In 2014, the writer Peter Pomerantsev dreamt up one of the best titles for his book on Russia – Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible.

As I ponder the possible permutations of what Prigozhin’s armed rebellion was really all about, that phrase keeps coming back.

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What could Elon Musk do with $1trn?

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What could Elon Musk do with trn?

Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.

Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.

But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.

Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.

Show me the money

Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.

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That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.

That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.

Spend it on sport

You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.

The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.

The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.

But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.

Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla's shareholders. File pic: AP
Image:
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP

Take over Tesla’s rivals

He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.

They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).

But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.

Buy up San Diego

He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.

But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.

Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.

Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.

Do something charitable?

There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.

He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.

Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.

If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).

Pay off the credit card

With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.

Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).

But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.

The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.

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Prince Harry apologises to Canada for wearing LA Dodgers cap at World Series

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Prince Harry apologises to Canada for wearing LA Dodgers cap at World Series

Prince Harry has apologised to Canada for wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers cap while attending a World Series game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Duke of Sussex and his wife, Meghan, were pictured at the baseball game last Tuesday, which Toronto ultimately lost to the Dodgers in a seventh-game decider on Sunday.

The prince joked to Canadian broadcaster CTV that he wore the Dodgers merchandise “under duress”.

He said it felt like “the polite thing to do” after being invited to the dugout by the team’s owner.

“Firstly, I would like to apologise to Canada for wearing it,” he said.

“Secondly, I was under duress. There wasn’t much choice.”

“When you’re missing a lot of hair on top, and you’re sitting under floodlights, you’ll take any hat that’s available,” he joked.

“Game five, game six, game seven, I was Blue Jays throughout. Now that I’ve admitted that, it’s going to be pretty hard for me to return back to Los Angeles.”

Harry, who is in Canada for Remembrance Week events, conducted the interview wearing a Toronto Blue Jays cap.

He added he was “devastated” at the Blue Jays’ defeat.

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The royal couple, who met in 2016 and married in 2018, moved to California in 2020 – after initially setting up home in Canada. They live in Montecito with their children Archie, six, and Lilibet, four.

Harry’s father, the King, is the head of state of Canada – a Commonwealth nation.

Meghan has previously shown her support for the Blue Jays, a nod to her former home city.

The former actress lived in Toronto while filming the legal drama Suits. She appeared in more than 100 episodes.

She and Harry also spent time together there during the early stages of their relationship.

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Scientist who co-discovered double-helix of DNA dies

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Scientist who co-discovered double-helix of DNA dies

James Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helix shape of DNA, has died at the age of 97.

James D. Watson shared a 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.

Their co-discovery of the twisted-ladder structure of DNA in 1953 helped revolutionise medicine, crime-fighting, genealogy and ethics.

The discovery turned him into a legendary figure, but later in life he faced condemnation for offensive remarks, including saying black people are less intelligent than white people.

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