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Confusion and uncertainty reigned in Russia yesterday, with neither Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, nor Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of a mercenary force known as Wagner, making public appearances the day after an open military uprising led by Prigozhin appeared harmless to have been made. (Here’s how the mutiny unfolded.)

Prigozhin recalled the mercenaries after organizing an armed uprising against the military leadership for nearly 24 hours over the weekend. But the damage was already done, not least because his criticism of the military leaders as incompetent included questioning the Kremlin’s justifications for the invasion of Ukraine.

Even as state television tried to proclaim that Russian unity and “maturity” had triumphed, independent commentators in Russia and world leaders elsewhere concluded that the uprising had exposed cracks in Putin’s grip on power. The deal that ultimately defused hostilities was credited to Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, an ally of Putin.

Scenes: The Russians watched in alarm as Prigozhin’s armored vehicles moved closer and closer to Moscow with little armed resistance, raising the specter of civil war in the nuclear-armed state. In Rostov-on-Don, residents cheered and hugged the mercenaries who left on Saturday.

Analysis: “Putin lost because he showed how weak his system is, how easily he can be challenged,” said Pavel Slunkin, a former Belarusian diplomat and analyst with the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Prigozhin challenged, he attacked, he was so brutal and then retreated, looking like a loser. Only Lukashenko won points.”

For more: Previously unreported shipments between a Chinese state-owned company and a Russian munitions factory raise new questions about Beijing’s role in the war in Ukraine.

About 75,000 protesters filled Manhattan for New York City’s Pride parade. The event, with its flags and bright floats, commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots that sparked the modern LGBTQ rights movement. With about two million spectators, it is the largest of its kind in the US, according to organizers.

The event will be broadcast on network television, reflecting that public support for LGBTQ people is at an all-time high, rising more than 60 percent in recent polls. But since same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in 2015, the backlash has grown, and in the past year several states have passed numerous anti-gay laws, such as laws banning cross-dressing and transgender healthcare.

Conservative-led boycotts against businesses that once embraced Pride festivities have resulted in billions of dollars in business losses. The backlash has also made its way into the 2024 presidential race, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has pinned his Republican primary hopes on opposition to LGBTQ rights and clashed with companies, such as Disney, that support them.

To assure: Heritage of Pride, which organizes the march, cited the deteriorating political climate in an open letter this month. “Despite the progress we have made together, we are currently under siege,” the organizers wrote.

Mapping Strange Memories: A crowd-sourced digital atlas has collected more than half a million intimate memories from anonymous contributors.

Greek voters overwhelmingly re-elected the conservative New Democracy party, according to preliminary results, paving the way for an absolute majority for its leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The landslide victory seemed to show that voters had overlooked his administration’s ties to scandal and embraced his promise of continued economic stability and prosperity.

In a statement, Mitsotakis described the results as “a strong mandate to accelerate the path of major change”. However, turnout was just over 52 percent, compared to 61 percent in the first election in May. He said of those who voted: “In a resounding and mature manner, they definitively ended a traumatic cycle of toxicity that had held the country back and divided society.”

By the numbers: With 91 percent of the vote counted at 9:45 p.m., the party had 40.5 percent and was poised to win 158 seats in Greece’s 300-member parliament, well ahead of the opposition Syriza party, which was in second place with 17.8 percent and 47 seats. In third place came the socialist party Pasok with 12.5 percent and 32 seats.

Technical Threat: The use of AI in elections worldwide has sparked a battle for guardrails against disinformation.

Call it Barbiecore: Hot pink, fuchsia, and magenta are becoming increasingly popular in home decor, with the upcoming “Barbie” movie acting as a catalyst.

“I like the other pinks, but bright pink just does something,” said a 30-year-old model. “It’s exciting. It makes me so happy and makes me feel alive. So I sort of let my younger self guide me.

Massive Attack’s 3D on his love for Napoli: The musician talks about football culture and his concerns about climate change.

Ferran Jutgla’s Champions League Journey: Most people don’t believe his story of how he reached the top. His attitude had to change – and it did.

Football at a saturation point: Sometimes less is moreand schedule overload could take its toll on the sport’s thrill factor.

“Hava Nagila,” a beloved folk song traditionally played at Jewish life events, including weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, now appears at highly secular non-Jewish gatherings. You might hear it at a baseball game in New York City or a beach club in Ibiza.

The song was written in 1918 by Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, a composer who believed that the Jewish people needed new music at a time when Zionism and the drive for a Jewish homeland were gaining momentum. It became an instant casual hit.

James Loeffler, a professor of Jewish history at the University of Virginia, said he was not surprised that “Hava Nagila” is getting so much airtime today. “It’s a song that’s about transformation and reinvention, so that’s going to keep happening,” he said. “It’s always had new lives.”

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