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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Odessa hit by heavy Russian fire: At least one person was killed and five injured as Russian rockets pounded Ukraine’s third largest city, in what may be a new focus of Moscow’s war plans.

• New UN report says civilian toll much higher: Thousands more civilians have been killed in Ukraine than previously reported, according to the head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

— Read all the latest at War in Ukraine, Day 76 —

• Philippines presidential election: Filipino politician and former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr is set to win a landslide victory in the Philippines presidential election. He is following in the footsteps of his father, dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose 1965-1986 rule was marked by violence and corruption, until he was deposed as part of a pro-democracy revolution.

• Unrest in Sri Lanka continues after PM resignation:Anti-government protests and violence escalated in Sri Lanka, as mobs burned several officials’ houses. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa handed in his resignation Monday amid mass protests and unrest on the government's handling of the economic crisis.

• Ecuador prison riot leaves 44 dead: At least 44 inmates were killed during a riot that broke out between rival gangs in Bellavista prison, situated west of Ecuador capital, Quito.

• Queen delegates duties to Princes: Prince Charles and Prince William are standing in for Queen Elizabeth II and are delivering the speech at UK Parliament Opening, which marks the beginning of the parliamentary year. This is first time the Queen is missing this event since 1963, as she is reportedly suffering from mobility problems.

• Washington Post, two Florida papers take home top Pulitzers: The Washington Post won the prestigious 2022 Pulitzer prize for “public service” for its coverage of the deadly U.S. Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. Two dailies in Florida, the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times won in the breaking news and investigative categories, respectively. Ukrainian journalists won a special citation prize, in recognition of their courage, endurance and commitment.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports on the preliminary results of the country’s presidential race, which hints at a landslide victory of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, son of a former Philippines’ dictator. Sara Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, ran for vice-president alongside Marcos Jr.

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

$195 million

Andy Warhol’s iconic 1964 pop art portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, has been auctioned for $195 million at Christie’s in New York. This is the highest sum ever paid for a 20th century work of art. All proceeds of the sale will go to the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation Zurich, which aims to improve the health and education of children around the world.

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

Beyond Bauhaus, the case for preservation of postmodern architecture

Postmodern architecture has always been divisive, so how should we approach the preservation of this roundly unloved style described by everything from “kitsch” to “neoliberal”? Some experts would prefer to simply tear it down, reports Dankwart Guratzsch in German daily Die Welt.

🏢💔 How do those charged with preserving historic buildings approach postmodern architecture? It seems they avoid it if possible. In Weimar, a city in central Germany, professors from the Bauhaus University and historic buildings experts debated the idea of “postmodern heritage” — and could not agree which examples of postmodern architecture were worthy of protected status. Some speakers even attacked postmodernism as an “unloved era” that was “uncomfortable,” “neoliberal,” “strongly bourgeois” and even a “conservative backwards step.”

🙅 Can postmodern architecture be torn down – or should it be protected as part of the country’s cultural heritage? As soon as it began to emerge, critics made every effort to denigrate it as “ironic kitsch”, eclecticism, a style that shouldn’t be taken seriously. Before it had really got going, it had already been declared dead in books with titles such as Farewell to Postmodernism.

🚫⚒️ Now, even “experts” are realizing that those responsible for preserving historic buildings are failing in two ways. Buildings from “unloved eras” are expected to retain the scars inflicted by all kinds of unsympathetic renovations. Nothing is allowed to be returned to its original state, because it is now classed as a “historic building”. However, houses built in the Bauhaus style are scrupulously protected and original features are either retained or reinstated when they have been damaged by use.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📣 VERBATIM

These victims could have been us.

— This Tuesday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock became the highest-ranking German official to visit Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, in a move to assert Germany’s support to Ukraine. She made a first stop in Bucha, where the Russian army has been accused of committing war crimes against the population, which Moscow has repeatedly denied. Baerbock called for the perpetrators to face justice, saying, "That is what we owe to the victims. And these victims, you can feel that here very intensely, these victims could have been us."