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Ten bodies have been recovered from the site of a Russian plane crash, state media has said, with a number of high-profile members of the Wagner mercenary group reportedly on board.

Seven passengers and three crew were on board the Embraer aircraft, and all were killed, Russian authorities said – although Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death has yet to be officially confirmed.

The plane was heading from Moscow to St Petersburg before it came down came down near the village of Kuzhenkino Tver.

Sky News looks at who was on the plane’s manifest, released by Russia’s civilian aviation regulator:

Yevgeny Prigozhin

Prigozhin

Born in 1961 in the city of Leningrad – now St Petersburg, Prigozhin had a difficult start in life, losing his father at a young age.

He turned to crime in his teenage years, initially theft, but quickly escalating into more serious crimes. He was jailed for 12 years, aged 20, in 1981 after being convicted of robbery and fraud.

Prigozhin was pardoned in 1988 and released in 1990 when he began selling hot dogs at a flea market in Leningrad with his mother and stepfather.

Prigozhin later founded, or became involved in, many new businesses, and in the 2000s, he grew closer to Putin.

He even earned himself the nickname “Putin’s chef” on account of his Kremlin-linked catering business. His companies won lucrative government contracts, including providing school lunches, and in Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of dollars in deals.

Read more: From hot dog seller to ‘Putin’s butcher’

Prigozhin’s Wagner Group was heavily involved in the capture of Bakhmut, one of the bloodiest battles in the Ukraine war. According to US figures, around 20,000 Russian troops were killed in the fighting, with around half thought to be from the Wagner Group.

Dmitry Utkin

Dmitry Utkin. Pic: Grey Zone/Telegram
Image:
Pic: Grey Zone/Telegram

Utkin – a former Russian soldier reportedly adorned with Nazi tattoos – has been described as Prigozhin’s right-hand man and allegedly played a key role in the founding of the Wagner Group.

He is said to have a fascination with the third Reich, naming the group after Adolph Hitler’s favourite composer.

Previously, Utkin was a lieutenant colonel in the GRU military intelligence service and was deployed twice to Chechnya.

The 53-year-old has also been accused of involvement in numerous war crimes, including in Homs, Syria, where he reportedly gave the order to beat a deserter to death and demanded the act be filmed.

Sergei Propustin

Little is known about the 44 year old, except he was a Wagner fighter.

Sergei Propustin
Image:
Sergei Propustin

Yevgeny Makaryan

Makaryan was a fighter in the Wagner Group and was presumed to be Prigozhin’s bodyguard. He was included on the controversial Ukrainian Myrotvorets (“Peacemaker”) website, which keeps a list of alleged “enemies of Ukraine”.

He was a junior lieutenant in the police and fought in Syria, surviving a clash with American planes while out there.

He remained a commander in the group, though little is known about his exact role.

Alexander Totmin

Alexander Totmin

The Wagner fighter is presumed to be one of Prigozhin’s bodyguards.

Valery Chekalov

Valery Chekalov

The 47 year old was originally from Vladivostok but had lived in St Petersburg since 2008.

Chekalov was reportedly Prigozhin’s deputy, responsible for all the logistics of the Wagner Group.

A longtime employee of Concord holding – another Prigozhin company – he was in charge of managing mercenaries, securing weapons, and running the oil, gas and mineral businesses in Syria and Africa, said Lou Osborn, author of a forthcoming book on the mercenaries and an investigator with All Eyes on Wagner, a project focusing on the group.

He was targeted by US sanctions last month for having “acted on behalf of Prigozhin” and facilitating shipments of munitions to Russia.

Nikolai Matuseyev

Matuseyev was a presumed Wagner Group fighter.

Kristina Raspopova

Kristina Raspopova

Raspopova was a flight attendant.

The 39-year-old air stewardess was the only woman to be killed.

She was reportedly the sister of Yevgeny Raspopov, a deputy prosecutor in the Chelyabinsk region.

One of the last images she shared on social media was her eating breakfast, waiting for the doomed flight, with her cabin bag next to her.

Alexei Levshin

The 51-year-old pilot is survived by his wife and two children.

Rustam Karimov

Rustam Karimov

Karimov was the co-pilot of the plane. According to Russian media reports he was 29 years old and from Perm.

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Stock markets slump for second day running after Trump announces tariffs – in worst day for indexes since COVID

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Stock markets slump for second day running after Trump announces tariffs - in worst day for indexes since COVID

Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.

While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.

As it happened: Worst week’s trading in five years

All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.

The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.

Read more: What’s a bear market?

Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.

More on Donald Trump

Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.

The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.

And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.

Pic: Reuters
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US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters

Trump holds trade deal talks – reports

It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indian and Israeli representatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.

The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.

Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.

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Do Trump’s tariffs add up?

Read more:
Markets gave Trump a clear no-confidence vote
There were no winners from Trump’s tariff gameshow

China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.

Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.

Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.

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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump

He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’

“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”

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Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem

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Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they're also battling with another problem

Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.

The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.

The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.

Tariffs latest: FTSE 100 suffers biggest daily drop since COVID

Financial investors had been gradually re-calibrating their expectations of Donald Trump over the past few months.

Hopes that his actions may not match his rhetoric were dashed on Wednesday as he imposed sweeping tariffs on the US’ trading partners, ratcheting up protectionism to a level not seen in more than a century.

Markets were always going to respond to that but they are also battling with another problem: the lack of certainty when it comes to Trump.

More on Donald Trump

He is a capricious figure and we can only guess his next move. Will he row back? How far is he willing to negotiate and offer concessions?

Read more:
There were no winners from Trump’s tariff gameshow
Trade war sparks ‘$2.2trn’ global market sell-off

These are massive unknowns, which are piled on to uncertainty about how countries will respond.

China has already retaliated and Europe has indicated it will go further.

That will compound the problems for the global economy and undoubtedly send shivers through the markets.

Much is yet to be determined, but if there’s one thing markets hate, it’s uncertainty.

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Court confirms sacking of South Korean president who declared martial law

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Court confirms sacking of South Korean president who declared martial law

South Korea’s constitutional court has confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached in December after declaring martial law.

His decision to send troops onto the streets led to the country’s worst political crisis in decades.

The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.

The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.

Demonstrators who stayed overnight near the constitutional court wait for the start of a rally calling for the president to step down. Pic: AP
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Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP

Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.

The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.

Read more from Sky News:
Highs and lows of Five-Year Keir
MP tells Sky News she was targeted online by Tate brothers

More on South Korea

The Constitutional Court is under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement of the impeachment trial. Pic: AP
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The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP

After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.

He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.

His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.

The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.

South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.

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