Serhii K appeared relaxed as he checked in to the glamping resort near Italy's Adriatic coast with his wife and young children. Dressed in shorts, sandals and a dark baseball cap, the former Ukrainian Special Forces soldier strolled back and forth, chatting with the receptionist and dipping repeatedly into a bowl of free snacks. But German police were already closing in on him. After a painstaking investigation, they had concluded that Serhii K had commanded Europe's biggest act of sabotage in decades: a series of explosions in September 2022 deep beneath the Baltic Sea that ripped through the giant Nord Stream pipelines and ruptured the supply of Russian gas to Germany. Next week, following his extradition to Germany and months in isolation in a high security prison, Serhii K will go on trial in Hamburg. He is charged with causing an explosion and a war crime – attacking civilian infrastructure – allegedly acting on behalf of "state agencies of Ukraine". Both he and his country have denied any involvement. Under Germany's privacy rules, he will be named during the trial only as Serhii K, but during extradition proceedings he was identified as Serhii Kuznetsov. It was 02:03 am on 26...

PVL coaches and players welcome the league’s new three-series All-Filipino Conference format, which adds more stakes and challenges on the road to the Philippine Grand Championship