We’re protecting European leaders’ vows to again the Ukrainian conflict effort and a Trumpian presidential candidate in Colombia.
European leaders go to Kyiv
The leaders of France, Italy, Germany and Romania met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday in Kyiv, the place they expressed assist for making Ukraine a candidate for E.U. membership and stated they might proceed to again Ukraine’s navy efforts, regardless of ideas on the contrary.
President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, who had been criticized in latest days over the notion that they have been searching for to stress Zelensky into peace talks with Russia, emphasised that their assist was real: “We’re and we are going to stay by your aspect in the long term to defend your sovereignty, your territorial integrity and your freedom,” Macron stated. “That is our objective, we’ve no different and we are going to obtain it.”
All 4 leaders expressed assist for Ukraine’s E.U. candidacy, Macron stated. Scholz added that “Ukraine belongs to the European household.”
The European leaders additionally visited Irpin, a Kyiv suburb the place investigators are trying into experiences of Russian atrocities throughout the conflict. Russia dismissed their journey as empty symbolism. Dmitri Medvedev, the previous Russian president, derisively known as the leaders “European connoisseurs of frogs, liverwurst and pasta.”
Hesitation: Ukrainian officers are cautious of stress to barter an finish to the conflict with Russia due to the 2014 and 2015 Minsk accords, through which the Ukrainians supplied concessions in change for Russian cease-fires, which by no means held.
Trapped: With all the bridges connecting the dual Ukrainian cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk destroyed and combating nonetheless raging, hundreds of civilians have been left trapped inside one of many deadliest battles of the conflict to this point.
China rewrites Hong Kong’s historical past
Schoolchildren all over the world have lengthy been taught that Hong Kong was a British colony. However college students in Hong Kong will quickly be informed a distinct lesson: It wasn’t.
A brand new narrative pushed by Beijing — which rejects how the British noticed their relationship to town — shall be explicitly taught to Hong Kong highschool college students by a minimum of 4 new textbooks that shall be rolled out within the fall.
The textbook materials remains to be underneath evaluate by principals, lecturers, students and workers of Hong Kong’s Schooling Bureau, nevertheless it appears destined for school rooms. Native information web sites revealed draft excerpts this week, and The Occasions seen lecturers’ proof copies.
Excerpts from the textbooks reinforce China’s Communist Get together’s place on Hong Kong. “The British aggression violated the rules of worldwide regulation so its occupation of Hong Kong area mustn’t have been acknowledged as lawful,” learn the lecturers’ version proof copy of 1 textbook.
Quotable: The narrative, one pro-democracy activist stated, “is a shorthand for saying, ‘Hong Kong was all the time part of China, thus Hong Kongers by no means may declare a proper of self-determination.’”
Broader effort: The fabric is a part of a wider marketing campaign by China’s high chief, Xi Jinping, to overtake Hong Kong’s faculties, to “defend younger minds” and to boost loyal, patriotic residents.
A Trumpian candidate emerges in Colombia
Rodolfo Hernández, a 77-year-old businessman and former mayor, has emerged as Colombia’s most disruptive presidential candidate in many years, electrifying voters — and an enormous TikTok fan base — with a Trump-like “drain the swamp” message.
He’s one in every of two remaining candidates in Sunday’s election for president of the nation, the third largest in Latin America, with the winner taking management at a pivotal second within the nation’s historical past.
Hernández has promoted himself as a paragon of democracy, a profitable businessman who makes good on guarantees and cares for the poor. However a Occasions reporter traveled to Bucaramanga, a mountain-fringed metropolis the place he constructed his empire and as soon as served as mayor, and located a distinct image: an anti-corruption candidate who has been indicted on corruption prices, an austerity proponent whose slash-and-burn insurance policies led to a starvation strike by metropolis workers and a building magnate who as soon as pledged to construct 20,000 houses for the poor that by no means materialized.
The opponent: Hernández faces Gustavo Petro, a former insurgent and longtime senator who’s hoping to turn into Colombia’s first leftist president. Their electoral success — they’re roughly tied within the polls — displays an anti-establishment fervor that swept by Latin America as longstanding poverty and inequality intensified throughout the pandemic.
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A significant recreation’s misstep
Diablo is without doubt one of the most profitable online game franchises, from one of many greatest builders on the earth, Blizzard Leisure. However the newest entry within the sequence, “Diablo Immortal,” has obtained overwhelmingly damaging critiques from critics who say the sport’s cost mannequin is predatory.
“Diablo Immortal” is free to obtain on computer systems and cell units, nevertheless it hosts a store through which gamers can use actual cash to purchase gadgets to enhance their avatar’s gear. These enhancements should not assured; gamers are, in essence, paying for a digital scratch-off ticket. By some estimates, it might take hundreds, if not tens of hundreds, of {dollars} to totally improve a personality.
Belgium and the Netherlands is not going to get “Diablo Immortal” on account of anti-gambling guidelines that ban all these video games. And on Metacritic, a evaluate aggregator, customers have given the PC model of the sport a rating of 0.2 out of 10 — among the many lowest of any Blizzard recreation. — German Lopez