Photographer Tomer Ifrah travelled between six post-Soviet countries, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Russia, Belarus, Georgia and Armenia, documenting city life on the metro, beginning in Moscow in 2012 and continuing until 2019. The images reveal personal stories of everyday life, intimate portraits, and a background of grandiose architecture
Continue reading...Category Archives: Ukraine
Gurrumul, Omar Souleyman, 9Bach and DakhaBrakha: the best global artists the Grammys forgot
From the Godfathers of Arabic rap to the father of Ethio-jazz, Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan guides a tour through global music’s greatest
This week I wrote about the glaring lack of international inclusivity in the Grammys’ newly redubbed global music (formerly world music) category.
In the category’s 38-year history, almost 80% of African nations have never had an artist nominated; no Middle Eastern or eastern European musician has ever won; every winner in the past eight years has been a repeat winner; and nearly two-thirds of the nominations have come from just six countries (the US, the UK, Brazil, Mali, South Africa, India). The situation shows little signs of improving.
Continue reading...Ukraine: dramatic footage shows police save four men who fell into icy water – video
Ukrainian police officers have rescued four men who fell through ice in the city of Dnipro. Video released by the national police shows the dramatic rescue operation as officers pulled the men out of the water with a rope
Continue reading...Iranian officials should be charged over shooting down of Ukrainian plane, UN expert says
In letter to Tehran, human rights advocate outlines six-month investigation into disaster
Many high level Iranian officials should be charged for the shooting down of a Ukrainian commercial airliner in January 2020, a UN human rights expert has said, describing the killing of the 176 people aboard as a “profound and serious indictment” of the country’s civil and military authorities.
Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, delivered a 45-page letter to the Iranian government which was made public on Tuesday, outlining her findings from a six-month investigation into the disaster, and complaining about the lack of Iranian cooperation, which has left many of her questions unanswered.
Continue reading...Trump interrupts Biden’s tribute to late son to raise unfounded accusations – video
Joe Biden was interrupted while paying tribute to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, during the first presidential debate against Donald Trump.
The former vice-president brought up Beau, the former attorney general of Delaware who served in the army, to highlight Trump’s reported criticism of military members as 'losers'. The president cut in and turned the exchange into an attack on the business dealings of Biden’s other son, Hunter, in Ukraine. Despite a Senate investigation, there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden, and indeed Trump was impeached for the way in which he was pushing government officials in Kiev to investigate the Biden family.
The president went on to remind viewers of Hunter Biden’s past drug use and falsely accused him of being dishonourably discharged from the military. Joe Biden, looking directly into the camera, explained that like many Americans, his son had struggled with addiction
- Donald Trump plunges debate into chaos as he repeatedly talks over Joe Biden
- A mess of Trump's making: key takeaways from the first presidential debate
‘Terrible tragedy’: Ukraine air force plane crash kills at least 22
Most of those killed in the crash near Kharkiv were military cadets, officials say
At least 22 people including military cadets were killed and two others were seriously injured when a Ukrainian air force plane crashed near Kharkiv in the east of the country, the interior ministry said.
Deputy interior minister Anton Gerashchenko confirmed the death toll, describing the incident as a “shock”, and saying that the cause of the crash on Friday was being investigated.
Continue reading...Drivers for Amazon contractor allege safety and wage abuses
Exclusive: Testimony of HGV drivers from ex-Soviet countries raises fresh questions over supply chain
Haulage drivers delivering to Amazon distribution centres across Europe allege that safety records are being deliberately manipulated and wages withheld in a breach of the e-commerce multinational’s pledges about working conditions in its supply chain.
HGV drivers recruited from former Soviet-bloc countries have told the Guardian that they were instructed to cheat tachograph machines that log their working hours, so that they could drive illegally long and unsafe stints in western Europe.
Continue reading...House Democrats launch contempt proceedings against Mike Pompeo
Committee says secretary of state has refused to comply with subpoenas for documents connected to Ukraine scandal
Congressional Democrats have launched contempt proceedings against Mike Pompeo for his refusal to comply with subpoenas for documents connected to the Ukraine scandal that led to Donald Trump’s impeachment.
The move is the culmination of a long-running struggle over Congress’s authority to conduct oversight of government agencies. The secretary of state, who was a fierce advocate of congressional rights when he was a Republican representative from Kansas, has ignored a string of demands for documentation from the Democrat-controlled House foreign affairs committee (HFAC).
Continue reading...Ukrainian president endorses animal rights documentary to end hostage siege – video
A gunman in Ukraine has released 13 hostages after the country's president agreed to post a video on Facebook recommending a 2005 animal rights documentary.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy promoted Earthlings, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, to help end an hours-long standoff in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh had seized a bus with the people onboard.
The video has since been taken down from Facebook and Kryvosh arrested.
Continue reading...Hostage siege ends after Ukrainian president endorses Joaquin Phoenix film
Gunman surrenders after video recommending 2005’s Earthlings posted on Facebook
A gunman in Ukraine armed with an automatic rifle and grenades has surrendered to police and released 13 hostages after the country’s president consented to his demand to recommend the 2005 film Earthlings starring Joaquin Phoenix.
The niche film recommendation, delivered by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over Facebook, helped end an hours-long standoff in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh seized a bus and demanded that dozens of government officials admit to being “terrorists”.
Continue reading...Canada police investigate vandalism of monument to Nazi troops as hate crime
- Anti-hate network chair: ‘I’m frankly dumbfounded’
- Cenotaph commemorating Ukrainian SS division graffitied
Graffiti spray-painted on a monument to Nazi soldiers in a small Canadian city is being investigated by police as a hate crime – a move that has prompted disbelief among human rights advocates.
Around 21 June, the words “Nazi war monument” were spray-painted on to a cenotaph commemorating soldiers in the 14th SS Division in an Ontario cemetery, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
Continue reading...Iran report on downed Ukrainian jet blames misaligned air defence system
Missile defence operators had failed to recalibrate their systems, Tehran says
A report from Iranian investigators on the shooting down in January of a Ukrainian jet has blamed a misaligned air defence system giving wrong information to its operators, who did not seek authorisation to fire before killing all 176 people onboard.
Iranian officials initially blamed the crash of Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 near Tehran on the morning of 8 January on technical problems with the aircraft, but days later admitted their own missiles had mistakenly downed it.
Continue reading...‘Horror scene’ in Canada after 38 dead puppies found on plane
Bodies of French bulldogs were among about 500 dogs discovered on flight from Ukraine at Toronto airport
Canada has launched an investigation after some 500 puppies – 38 of them dead – were found on board a Ukraine International Airlines plane at the Toronto airport, officials said Saturday.
The surviving French bulldogs, a popular breed in Canada, were suffering from symptoms including dehydration, weakness and vomiting when they were found on the flight from Ukraine that landed at Toronto Pearson airport on 13 June, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement.
Continue reading...How globalisation has transformed the fight for LGBTQ+ rights
Much progress has been made in attitudes towards sexual equality and gender identity – but in many places a dramatic backlash by conservative forces has followed. By Mark Gevisser
On a visit to Senegal in 2013, Barack Obama held a press conference with the Senegalese president Macky Sall. “Mr President,” asked an American journalist, “did you press President Sall to make sure that homosexuality is decriminalised in Senegal? And, President Sall,” the journalist continued, “as this country’s new president, sir, will you work to decriminalise homosexuality?”
The question was inevitable: the previous day, while they were flying over the Atlantic, Obama and his staff had erupted into cheers when they heard that the US supreme court had overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, paving the way for same-sex marriage across the country. The president had issued a statement from Air Force One: “The laws of our land are catching up to the fundamental truth that millions of Americans hold in our hearts: when all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.”
Continue reading...The stranded babies of Kyiv and the women who give birth for money
Lockdown exposed the scale of the commercial baby business in Ukraine, and now women hired for their wombs are speaking out
Some are crying in their cots; others are being cradled or bottle-fed by nannies. These newborns are not in the nursery of a maternity hospital, they are lined up side by side in two large reception rooms of the improbably named Hotel Venice on the outskirts of Kyiv, protected by outer walls and barbed wire.
They are the children of foreign couples born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers at the Kyiv-based BioTexCom Centre for Human Reproduction, the largest surrogacy clinic in the world. They’re stranded in the hotel because their biological parents have not been able to travel in or out of Ukraine since borders closed in March because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading...Black boxes of downed Ukrainian plane of ‘no help’, Iran claims
Tehran says it will transfer boxes of Flight 752 abroad but insists investigation is nearly complete
The black boxes of a Ukrainian plane that was mistakenly downed near Tehran airport will be of “no help” in any investigation, but Iran is ready to transfer them abroad, state media said Saturday.
Flight 752, an Ukraine International Airlines jetliner, was struck by a missile and crashed shortly after taking off from the Tehran airport on 8 January.
Continue reading...Ukrainian prosecutors find no evidence against Hunter Biden
Audit probed energy company Burisma, of which Biden was a board member from 2014-2019
An audit of thousands of old case files by Ukrainian prosecutors found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Hunter Biden, the former prosecutor general, who had launched the audit, told Reuters.
Ruslan Ryaboshapka was in the spotlight last year as the man who would decide whether to launch an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, in what became a key issue in the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Ukraine to investigate leaked calls between Joe Biden and ex-president
Recordings containing edited conversations between the two while in office published by Ukrainian associate of Rudy Giuliani
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said that leaked recordings of phone calls allegedly between Joe Biden and former president Petro Poroshenko would be investigated by the country’s law enforcement agencies, adding that their contents might be “perceived, qualified as treason”.
The remarks prompted an angry rebuttal from Poroshenko, who said that the Zelenskiy administration may have played a role in their release and should be investigated.
Continue reading...Ukraine: wildfires draw dangerously close to Chernobyl site
Witnesses accuse government of covering up severity of blaze near site of nuclear disaster
Wildfires in Ukraine have spread to just over a mile from the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a disposal site for radioactive waste, according to activists, as more than 300 firefighters work to contain the blaze.
A video posted by a Chernobyl tour operator showed flames and a cloud of smoke rising within sight of the protective shelter over the carcass of Chernobyl’s Unit 4 nuclear reactor, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
Continue reading...Trump is ‘decapitating’ intelligence leadership amid crisis, senior Democrat says
Adam Schiff calls Trump ‘vindictive president’ after president fired the inspector general of the US intelligence community
Donald Trump is “decapitating the leadership of the intelligence community in the middle of a national crisis”, senior Democrat Adam Schiff has charged, after the president fired the inspector general of the US intelligence community late on Friday night.
Related: Donald Trump fires intelligence watchdog who sparked impeachment process
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