
July 21, 2011
Weekend newspapers around the world reacted to the terror attacks Friday. See a gallery of the images at Kiosko.net
Weekend newspapers around the world reacted to the terror attacks Friday. See a gallery of the images at Kiosko.net
Draghi, Scholz and Macron on their train to Ukraine
June 18-19
1. Which three European leaders pledged their support for Ukraine to become a candidate to enter the EU?
2. John Hinckley was released after spending 41 years in jail for attempting to assassinate which U.S. president?
3. A cafe in Kyiv has created a new croissant shaped after a world leader’s trademark haircut. Is it: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, or Kim Jong-un?
4. For only the third time in its history, a man has won the annual 36-km race in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales. What was he running against?
[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]
In politics (and for those who cover it), we tend to think in twos: runoffs and faceoffs, head-to-head clashes and bilateral summits. But three can be a magic number too.
On Thursday, we watched as the first photos came through of the three European amigos on the early morning train to Kyiv: Italy’s Mario Draghi, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz would make for a magical little big story of the day.
No doubt that was part of the calculation: best to avoid the Franco-German duo, and bring the diplomatic weight that these three old guards (and biggest economies) of the European Union carry. It would be rich with narrative. And photos.
There they were welcoming the new day, smiling and chatting around a cozy railcar meeting table: Macron, 44, building on his political boy-wonder status after his recent reelection; Scholz, 64, looking a bit shaky having been welcomed to the world stage with Europe's most dangerous conflict in half-a-century; and Draghi, 74, the steady hand who’s managed global economic crises but never war.
The three carried a message to the world that they were coming (decidedly and consciously: together) to support the Ukrainian people and their own 44-year-old leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Their arrival came as Russia was steadily gaining ground in the eastern Donbas region, and as suspicion was spreading that Europe wanted Zelensky to negotiate with the invaders. No, the three assured their hosts, support was as strong as ever to strive for “victory” over Russia, and more military and humanitarian aid (and economic pressure on Moscow) would be coming.
The other message was that Ukraine’s bid to fast-track its application to join the European Union had their collective support. It is a momentous choice that, as Lucie Robequain of Paris daily Les Echos points out, is as much about Europe as it is about Ukraine.
Still, wartime visits are ultimately about war. And the next photos showed the three Europeans during their tour of the destruction left by the Russian invaders in Iprin, a suburb of Kyiv. The smiles, gone, the talking, ceased.
But the day ended back on the diplomatic front, with Macron, Draghi and Scholz (along with Zelensky and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis who’d come separately after Macron’s visit to Bucharest) speaking before the gathered press and staff.
It’s the kind of photo op of world leaders we’ve grown accustomed to seeing on a near daily basis. Still, the most famous diplomatic photos ever date all the way back to February 1945. And it happened to take place not so far away from Kyiv, on the Black Sea port of Yalta, a city in the contested Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The photos show Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt bundled up against the winter cold, sitting among their military and diplomatic staff, and the press. The annals of world history tell us the “Big Three” essentially sorted out the post World War II map there in Yalta, paving the way for the Cold War showdown that would dominate the rest of the 20th century.
In retrospect, for better or worse, it can seem like things couldn’t have turned out any differently. But we know reality is never so tidy, and world leaders are both subjects and shapers of events.
And so, one day in the distant or not-so-distant future, we may look back on those photos of Macron, Scholz and Draghi chuckling together on their train ride to Kyiv. What were they saying to each other? And what will we say about how their plans turned out?
— Jeff Israely
• Netflix plans real-life Squid Game reality TV show: Dystopia no more? Netflix is developing a reality TV show inspired by its hit series Squid Game: 456 contestants will compete in children’s games to try and win the final prize of $4.5 million. Unlike in the series, thankfully, losers will only be sent home.
• Queen Elizabeth becomes history’s second-longest serving monarch: Queen Elizabeth II officially overtook Thai monarch Rama IX and his 70 years and 126 days of reign to become the second longest reigning monarch in history, behind France’s Louis XIV, who reigned for 72 years and 110 days.
• BTS announce hiatus: The seven members of popular K-pop group BTS have announced that they will momentarily part ways to focus on their own personal projects.
• 100 Years of Ulysses:Dublin is hosting events in period costumes throughout the week, in celebration of James Joyce’s famously cryptic modernist novel Ulysses, which turned 100 years old. June 16 is known by Joyce fans as “Bloomsday”, a reference to the plot of the novel, centered around a man called Leopold Bloom as he strolls around Dublin on June 16, 1904.
• Queen B enters her Renaissance era: U.S. singer Beyoncé teased the surprise release of her first album in six years, Renaissance, due on July 29.
As Ukraine embarks on its first steps to joining the European Union, Europe is forced to rethink the basic way it functions, as explained by Lucie Robequain in French daily Les Echos. Of course, Kyiv will face its own set of challenges leading up to an offer of membership, such as eradicating corruption. But the EU will have to find the courage and ambition it has previously lacked to expand the number of member countries, adjust the requirements and above all give it greater political authority.
Read the full story: Ukraine In The EU — For A Europe That Is Wider And Deeper
The Ukraine war has brought changes to the Russian schools as Vladimir Putin’s regime has intensified the push of its agenda into classrooms. In addition to structural changes and “patriotic education,” teachers and students alike now live in an uncertain atmosphere where pupils are encouraged to snitch on each other. From the 12-year-old dissident to the teacher facing 10 years in prison, this piece from German daily Die Welt explores the return of groupthink in Russian classrooms.
Read the full story: The Return Of Groupthink In Russian Classrooms
We know now, sadly, that Brazil indigenist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips were murdered in Brazil’s Amazon. But there are still more questions than answers. Phillips was researching a book about preservation and sustainable development in the Amazon and Pereira had been fighting for years to preserve the Javari Valley when the two disappeared. Independent Brazilian media Agência Pública retraces Pereira and Phillips’ last days.
Read the full story: In The Amazon, Retracing The Last Steps Of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira
Twitter went wild after Warner Bros. dropped the first official photo of Canadian actor Ryan Gosling’ transformation as Ken, for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie, set to be released on July 23, 2023.
Researchers in the United States and South Korea have developed a tiny edible QR code as a tool to combat fake pharmaceutical products. The code, which consists of a pattern made by fluorescent silk proteins, can be affixed onto an individual pill, tablet or capsule, or placed into a bottle of liquid medicine. Users can then scan the code with a smartphone, to get information about a particular medicine in a more secure, harder-to-counterfeit way.
Australia’s Andrew Redmayne became the man of the match when he sent his country to the World Cup finals — in style. In an inter-continental playoff on Monday against Peru, Redmayne was brought on as a substitute goalkeeper for the shootout, three minutes before the end of the game. The dancing & grinning goalie became an instant hero as he stopped Luis Advincila from scoring.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) will convene an emergency committee next week to decide if the recent monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern — the WHO’s highest level of warning, which currently applies to the COVID-19 pandemic and polio. Monkeypox has spread to at least 39 countries this year, including countries in parts of Africa where the virus is endemic.
• Monday will mark World Refugee Day, as designated by the United Nations. This year will focus on the right to seek safety.
• Bulgaria’s government will face a no-confidence vote next week after its main opposition party filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s government over its economic policy.
• New Zealand will celebrate its first Matariki public holiday on Friday. It will be the first public holiday to recognize Te Ao Māori, also known as the Māori world view.
News quiz answers:
1. During their official visit to Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that they support Ukraine’s bid to apply for entry into the European Union.
2. John Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was fully released after 41 years. Hinckley had been found not guilty by reason of insanity for the shooting, which seriously injured Reagan and three others.
3. A cafe in Kyiv has released its new pastry in tribute to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s support of Ukraine. His disheveled blond hair has inspired a croissant topped with wavy meringue and vanilla ice cream that has become a best-selling delicacy.
4. Ricky Lightfoot, a British runner, won the 22.5 mile “Man v. Horse” race, which has pitted people against horses since 1981. This year, he won against 1,000 people and 50 horses, beating the fastest horse by two minutes.
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*Photo: Filippo Attili/ANSA/ZUMA
We know them from the movies: the heroes who save the world from disaster in the nick of time. In real life, you sometimes look for them in vain. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows that the West needs new heroes.
The murder of Brazil indigenist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips is shocking. Still, once looking more closely, it is not necessarily a surprise considering both the violence in Brazil and the situation in the rain forest under President Jair Bolsonaro.
Central to the tragic absurdity of this war is the question of language. Vladimir Putin has repeated that protecting ethnic Russians and the Russian-speaking populations of Ukraine was a driving motivation for his invasion.
Yet one month on, a quick look at the map shows that many of the worst-hit cities are those where Russian is the predominant language: Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson.
Then there is Mariupol, under siege and symbol of Putin’s cruelty. In the largest city on the Azov Sea, with a population of half a million people, Ukrainians make up slightly less than half of the city's population, and Mariupol's second-largest national ethnicity is Russians. As of 2001, when the last census was conducted, 89.5% of the city's population identified Russian as their mother tongue.
Between 2018 and 2019, I spent several months in Mariupol. It is a rugged but beautiful city dotted with Soviet-era architecture, featuring wide avenues and hillside parks, and an extensive industrial zone stretching along the shoreline. There was a vibrant youth culture and art scene, with students developing projects to turn their city into a regional cultural center with an international photography festival.
There were also many offices of international NGOs and human rights organizations, a consequence of the fact that Mariupol was the last major city before entering the occupied zone of Donbas. Many natives of the contested regions of Luhansk and Donetsk had moved there, taking jobs in restaurants and hospitals. I had fond memories of the welcoming from locals who were quicker to smile than in some other parts of Ukraine. All of this is gone.
Putin is bombing the very people he has claimed to want to rescue.
According to the latest data from the local authorities, 80% of the port city has been destroyed by Russian bombs, artillery fire and missile attacks, with particularly egregious targeting of civilians, including a maternity hospital, a theater where more than 1,000 people had taken shelter and a school where some 400 others were hiding.
The official civilian death toll of Mariupol is estimated at more than 3,000. There are no language or ethnic-based statistics of the victims, but it’s likely the majority were Russian speakers.
So let’s be clear, Putin is bombing the very people he has claimed to want to rescue.
Putin’s Public Enemy No. 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is a mother-tongue Russian speaker who’d made a successful acting and comedy career in Russian-language broadcasting, having extensively toured Russian cities for years.
Rescuers carry a person injured during a shelling by Russian troops of Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine.
Yes, the official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian, and a 2019 law aimed to ensure that it is used in public discourse, but no one has ever sought to abolish the Russian language in everyday life. In none of the cities that are now being bombed by the Russian army to supposedly liberate them has the Russian language been suppressed or have the Russian-speaking population been discriminated against.
Sociologist Mikhail Mishchenko explains that studies have found that the vast majority of Ukrainians don’t consider language a political issue. For reasons of history, culture and the similarities of the two languages, Ukraine is effectively a bilingual nation.
"The overwhelming majority of the population speaks both languages, Russian and Ukrainian,” Mishchenko explains. “Those who say they understand Russian poorly and have difficulty communicating in it are just over 4% percent. Approximately the same number of people say the same about Ukrainian.”
In general, there is no problem of communication and understanding. Often there will be conversations where one person speaks Ukrainian, and the other responds in Russian. Geographically, the Russian language is more dominant in the eastern and central parts of Ukraine, and Ukrainian in the west.
Like most central Ukrainians I am perfectly bilingual: for me, Ukrainian and Russian are both native languages that I have used since childhood in Kyiv. My generation grew up on Russian rock, post-Soviet cinema, and translations of foreign literature into Russian. I communicate in Russian with my sister, and with my mother and daughter in Ukrainian. I write professionally in three languages: Ukrainian, Russian and English, and can also speak Polish, French, and a bit Japanese. My mother taught me that the more languages I know the more human I am.
At the same time, I am not Russian — nor British or Polish. I am Ukrainian. Ours is a nation with a long history and culture of its own, which has always included a multi-ethnic population: Russians, Belarusians, Moldovans, Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Romanians, Hungarians, Poles, Jews, Greeks. We all, they all, have found our place on Ukrainian soil. We speak different languages, pray in different churches, we have different traditions, clothes, and cuisine.
My mother taught me that the more languages I know the more human I am.
Like in other countries, these differences have been the source of conflict in our past. But it is who we are and will always be, and real progress has been made over the past three decades to embrace our multitudes. Our Jewish, Russian-speaking president is the most visible proof of that — and is in fact part of what our soldiers are fighting for.
Many in Moscow were convinced that Russian troops would be welcomed in Ukraine as liberating heroes by Russian speakers. Instead, young soldiers are forced to shoot at people who scream in their native language.
Starving people ina street of Kharkiv in 1933, during the famine
Diocesan Archive of Vienna (Diözesanarchiv Wien)/BA Innitzer
Putin has tried to rally the troops by warning that in Ukraine a “genocide” of ethnic Russians is being carried out by a government that must be “de-nazified.”
These are, of course, words with specific definitions that carry the full weight of history. The Ukrainian people know what genocide is not from books. In my hometown of Kyiv, German soldiers massacred Jews en masse. My grandfather survived the Buchenwald concentration camp, liberated by the U.S. army. My great-grandmother, who died at the age of 95, survived the 1932-33 famine when the Red Army carried out the genocide of the Ukrainian middle class, and her sister disappeared in the camps of Siberia, convicted for defying rationing to try to feed her children during the famine.
On Tuesday, came a notable report of one of the latest civilian deaths in the besieged Russian-speaking city of Kharkiv: a 96-year-old had been killed when shelling hit his apartment building. The victim’s name was Boris Romanchenko; he had survived Buchenwald and two other Nazi concentration camps during World War II. As President Zelensky noted: Hitler didn’t manage to kill him, but Putin did.
Genocide has returned to Ukraine, from Kharkiv to Kherson to Mariupol, as Vladimir Putin had warned. But it is his own genocide against the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine.