Ukraine and Russia swap prisoners
Ukraine introduced the biggest prisoner alternate since Russia invaded, saying 144 troopers had been being returned to Ukraine, together with dozens who had fought within the siege of Mariupol. The identical variety of Russian and pro-Russian personnel had been returned.
The alternate got here as NATO formally prolonged membership invites to Finland and Sweden yesterday, clearing the way in which for what could be one of many alliance’s most vital expansions in many years. President Vladimir Putin of Russia, at a summit in Central Asia, performed down the importance of the enlargement.
At the summit in Madrid yesterday, NATO leaders additionally outlined a muscular new imaginative and prescient, positioning Moscow as its major adversary. NATO’s secretary-general additionally introduced plans for brand spanking new deployments of 1000’s of troops to eight nations on the alliance’s jap flank.
Details: The destiny of Mariupol’s final fighters has lengthy been one of the delicate problems with the conflict. When the Ukrainian authorities issued a give up directive to greater than 2,500 Ukrainian troopers hiding underneath a metal plant final month, it vowed to do all it may to make sure that they might be returned residence.
Fighting: Russia is methodically gaining floor in jap Ukraine because it dispatches extra troops in an effort to grab the final patch of sovereign Ukrainian territory — a stretch of about 20 miles — in Luhansk Province. The U.N. has documented at the least 3,924 Ukrainian civilian deaths within the conflict.
Analysis: For the primary time, NATO additionally declared China to be a strategic “challenge.” The plan signifies a elementary shift from the post-Cold War period, when the alliance noticed Russia as a possible ally.
Convictions in Paris assaults
Twenty males had been convicted yesterday for his or her roles in a coordinated spree of shootings and bombings in November 2015 that killed 130 folks in and close to Paris.
The solely dwelling attacker, Salah Abdeslam, was sentenced to life in jail. Other defendants, who stood accused of intending to participate within the assaults or of offering varied levels of logistical assist to the attackers, had been discovered responsible of virtually all costs in opposition to them.
Abdeslam was considered one of 10 Islamic State extremists who focused the Bataclan live performance corridor, an space exterior France’s nationwide soccer stadium and the terraces of cafes and eating places in central Paris. The bloodbath was the worst Islamist terrorist assault in French historical past.
Questions stay after the 10-month trial, however victims’ relations and survivors praised the justice system. “I have made peace with not having truth,” a trainer who escaped the Bataclan mentioned.
Context: The trial served as a catharsis for some survivors and households of victims, a lot of whom testified throughout 5 emotion-filled weeks concerning the devastating bodily and psychological aftermath and the tough highway to restoration.
Analysis: The bloodbath deeply traumatized France. It continues to form nationwide debates over French id, the place of Muslims in a rustic that identifies itself as secular, and the stability between particular person liberty and collective safety.
A killing in India seeds unrest
Religious unrest is spreading in India after two Muslim males filmed themselves killing a Hindu, who they mentioned had insulted the Prophet Muhammad. The males then filmed themselves gloating and threatening Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The video has unfold shortly throughout India, heightening considerations of violence because the schism between Hindus and Muslims in India deepens. Yesterday, the incident led to protests within the state of Rajasthan, the place the assault occurred.
In response, the authorities arrested the boys on terrorism costs and shut down Rajasthan’s web. The authorities additionally deployed its counterterrorism pressure, saying it was “immensely concerned” as a result of the boys had threatened Modi.
Background: The occasions that led as much as the killing of Kanhaiya Lal Teli, a Hindu tailor, started final month when a spokeswoman for Modi’s get together made insulting remarks concerning the Prophet Muhammad. Two Muslim males had been killed at a protest calling for the spokeswoman’s arrest.
Details: Teli had posted a WhatsApp standing in help of the spokeswoman, which the police mentioned had led Muslims to file a criticism in opposition to him. Teli then filed his personal criticism, citing dying threats. A couple of days later, he was killed.
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Egypt is destroying historic houseboats which have lined the Nile for the reason that 1800s. A Nobel laureate wrote a novel on one, whereas divas hosted debauched salons on others. Now, the floating properties seem to have fallen sufferer to the federal government’s push to modernize — and monetize.
ARTS AND IDEAS
Constantly creating
Taika Waititi is perhaps the busiest man in Hollywood.
He directed and co-wrote the brand new Marvel film “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which opens July 8. He performed Blackbeard within the new HBO Max pirate comedy sequence “Our Flag Means Death.” He voices a personality within the new Pixar movie “Lightyear.”
He can be creating two Roald Dahl tasks for Netflix,” engaged on a handful of TV sequence and writing a brand new “Star Wars” film for Lucasfilm, amongst others. And that, Waititi, 46, informed the Times, is “not even mentioning the five other things that haven’t been reported on yet.”
In only a few years, he has develop into one of many trade’s most ingenious and dependable purveyors of escapist fare. His type is distinctive sufficient that it nonetheless shines by means of on monolithic and more and more acquainted Marvel films.
But Waititi’s runaway résumé can be an indication of how tough he finds it to say no. “Sometimes you’re pissed off at life,” he mentioned, “and you’re like, ‘Why did I say yes to everything? I don’t have a social life — I’m just working.’ But then the thing comes out, you see where the hard work goes and it’s really worth it.”
Read Dave Itzkoff’s full profile of the New Zealand filmmaker.
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