Wednesday, 22nd June, 2022

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keep reminding people what was going on in Ukraine
US actor Ben Stiller
has described the
scenes in war-torn
Ukraine as "distressing",
"shocking" and
on a bigger scale than any movie.
Stiller met President Volodymyr
Zelensky in Ukraine's capital
Kyiv, in his role as goodwill ambassador
for the United Nations
refugee agency (UNHCR).
The Hollywood star told
Zelensky that he was his hero,
and complimented his previous
acting career.
"It's my first time coming
to an area that's in conflict," he
told the BBC.
"But it's really strange because
when you drive into the
country, really in the west of
the country, you don't feel the
conflict, except for the curfew
at night where it gets very quiet
and a little bit eerie.
"[In] Lviv, people seem to be
DAILY ANALYST Wednesday, 22nd June, 2022
going back to life as normal, trying
to as much as possible.
"And then as you get closer
and closer to Kyiv, into the east of
the country, you start to see the
roadblocks and see the destruction,
which is really shocking
when you haven't seen anything
like that up close."
In the interview with BBC
Breakfast on Tuesday, Stiller, who
is known for films like There's
Something About Mary and
Dodgeball, added: "I'm an actor,
so the first thing I go to is like,
'Oh, it looks like a movie'. But the
scale of it is even bigger and it's
real, so that's really distressing."
Heavy fighting continues in
east Ukraine, with key locations
under intense bombardment
from Russian forces.
Nato's secretary general
warned this week that the West
must prepare to continue supporting
Ukraine in a war lasting
Global News
Ben Stiller describes
'distressing' Ukraine visit
for years.
Stiller has been an ambassador
for the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees since
2016.
He said people in Kyiv were
trying to go about their business
as normally as possible, going
out for dinner, for example. But
the reality, he said, was that they
knew the war could return their
way.
'Nobody wants to flee their
home'
"The thing that gets me is
these are just people like you and
I who have been caught in a circumstance
totally beyond their
control," he continued.
"And nobody wants to flee
from their home, nobody wants
to have to go out into the world
and have to start afresh, or even
just trying to find a way to survive.
"These people are just living
their lives: mothers, fathers, families,
friends."
The actor and director said
he had heard from mothers who,
when the shelling and rocket
attacks started at the beginning
of the war, had been forced to flee
their homes with their young
families.
"One mother of two twins,
who had to grab her kids and run
for shelter, not even knowing
where to go for shelter, they went
to the basement and had to wait
till the sound of the rockets had
gone away and take a chance
to come back up and grab their
clothes and then not know where
to even go for safety," he said.
"I mean, these kinds of stories,
where you just try to place
yourself in that situation, [and]
think, 'What would happen if a
rocket came screaming by my
apartment?'"
The Russian editor-in-chief
of the
independent newspaper
Novaya Gazeta has
auctioned off his Nobel
Peace Prize medal for $103.5m
(£84m).
Dmitry Muratov said all the
money from the sale would go
to help refugees from the war in
Ukraine.
Muratov was co-awarded the
peace prize in 2021 for defending
freedom of expression in Russia.
Novaya Gazeta suspended its
operations in March, shortly after
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This came after Moscow
said anyone who described
Russia's actions in Ukraine as
a "war" would face heavy fines
or closures. The Kremlin calls
the conflict a "special military
operation".
Heritage Auctions, which conducted
the sale, has not revealed
who the winning bidder was.
Campaigners persuaded Grenoble's city authority to allow
burkinis in public pools last month
Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov
auctions Nobel medal for $103m
In April, Muratov was attacked
with red paint laced with "The most important message
statement.
the solvent acetone aboard a today is for people to understand
train in Russia. The male attacker
shouted, "Muratov, this is for we need to help people who are
that there's a war going on and
our boys," he said.
suffering the most," Muratov said
He was among a group of in a video released by Heritage
journalists who founded Novaya Auctions.
Gazeta in 1993 after the fall of
He won the Nobel Peace Prize
the Soviet Union.
last year along with journalist
Since 2000, six journalists
from the newspaper and online news site Rappler in the
Maria Ressa who co-founded the
collaborators have been killed Philippines.
in connection with their work, Ressa and Muratov are both
including investigative reporter known for publishing investigations
that have angered the
Anna Politkovskaya.
The sale of the gold medal in leaders of their countries, and
New York will benefit Unicef's have become symbols of the fight
Applause as Nobel Peace Prize medal
humanitarian response for
for press freedom.
Ukraine's displaced children,
Heritage Auctions said in a
rised all swimwear, including
burkinis, sparking a legal battle
with the government.
Burkinis are worn largely by
Muslim women as a way of preserving
modesty and upholding
their faith.
French burkini ban upheld as
Grenoble loses legal challenge
But the court said it could
not allow "selective exceptions
to the rules to satisfy religious
demands".
The dispute went all the way
to the Council of State after a local
court in Grenoble suspended
the ban on the grounds that it seriously
undermined the principle
of neutrality in public services.
Interior Minister Gérald
Darmanin also weighed in, describing
the policy as an "unacceptable
provocation" that was
contrary to French secular values.
France has strict laws on
which swimming costumes can
be worn and the issue of religious
expression in public places is
divisive.
The ban on burkinis in state-
France's highest administrative
court has upheld
a ban on full-body
"burkini" swimsuits in
public pools, rejecting an
appeal by the city of Grenoble.
Last month, Grenoble authorun
pools is also advocated for
reasons of hygiene. Men are normally
obliged to wear tight-fitting
swimming trunks - another
rule that Grenoble unsuccessfully
attempted to overturn by permitting
longer swimming shorts.
French opposition to the
burkini stretches as far back as
2016, when several local municipalities
attempted to outlaw it on
beaches for violating the country's
strict separation between
religion and the state.
State officials are not allowed
to wear religious emblems at
work, but the mayor of Grenoble,
Eric Piolle, argued that this
should not stop users of public
services, such as swimming
pools, from dressing as they wish.
His administration's moves
to relax the swimwear rules
were opposed by the national
government, which invoked a
law passed last year to combat
"Islamist separatism".
Critics of the burkini see it
as offering a separatist vision of
French society and argue that
allowing it also puts pressure on
Muslim women to wear it. Farright
leader Marine Le Pen has
condemned the burkini as "clothing
of Islamist propaganda".
However, those in favour of
allowing it say women should
have the choice to keep their bodies
covered if they want to and
that this does not imply religious
extremism.