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They said the attack hit an outdoor marketplace at about 2 p.m., when it was busy with vendors and shoppers, while Mr. Blinken was in Kyiv. People who did nothing wrong. Many wounded. Unfortunately, the number of casualties and the injured may rise,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on Telegram. For anyone around the world to continue to deal with Russia, he added, “means turning a blind eye” to atrocities.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, Voloydmyr Zelensky, “, Mr, Zelensky Locations: Russia, Russian, Kyiv

Ukrainian forces, churning slowly forward after breaching Russia’s initial defensive lines in the occupied south, are turning their attention to breaking through in another heavily defended patch of territory. In recent days, military analysts say, the Ukrainian Army has been battling to break through Russian positions near a village called Verbove, about six miles east of the village of Robotyne, which its fighters retook last week. The Black Bird Group, a volunteer organization that analyzes satellite imagery and social media content from the battlefield, said Monday that Ukrainian soldiers had cleared obstacles to reach Russian infantry fighting positions on the outskirts of Verbove. But analysts said that does not necessarily mean they have secured the territory, in an offensive that has met fierce resistance and made progress in small steps and at a high cost in casualties and equipment.

Organizations: Ukrainian Army, Black Bird Group Locations: Robotyne, Verbove

☆ Daily Blackouts Strain a Poor Spanish Neighborhood. Is Marijuana to Blame?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a recent morning, Ángel Ortiz Rodríguez was slumped on a sofa in his apartment in Granada, in southern Spain, a tangle of breathing tubes protruding from his nose. Since Mr. Ortiz had a heart attack a few years ago, his life has depended on an electronic breathing machine. Daily blackouts plague the 25,000 inhabitants in this poor district of northern Granada. The blackouts have been a part of life here for more than a decade, but they have grown markedly worse in recent years. Marijuana growers, the company says, illegally connect to the grid and overwhelm it because of the powerful lights and air-conditioning the plants need.

Persons: Ángel Ortiz Rodríguez, Ortiz, Rosa Martin Piñedo, ” Organizations: Food Locations: Granada, Spain, Marijuana

Ukraine’s South Military Command said that at least two civilians were injured and that port infrastructure on the Danube River had been hit in the attack, which lasted more than three hours and involved more than two dozen drones. Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 22 out of 25 attack drones and the State Emergency Service posted photos of firefighters in the Odesa region trying to extinguish a blaze. The officials did not specify where exactly the strikes landed but local Ukrainian media reported explosions in the port city of Reni on the Danube, just across the water from Romania. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, condemned the overnight attack. In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, he accused Russian forces of targeting port infrastructure “in the hope of provoking a food crisis and famine in the world.”

Persons: Andriy Yermak, ” Organizations: Military Command, Ukraine’s Air Force, State Emergency Service Locations: Odesa, Ukraine, Moscow, Reni, Romania, Russian

After piercing a daunting line of Russian defenses around the southern village of Robotyne, Ukrainian forces are now seeking to take the next step in their arduous counteroffensive, waging a fierce battle a few miles farther to the east, according to Ukrainian military commanders and U.S. officials. The intense fighting on Thursday comes amid weeks of brutal battles that have resulted in small but significant advances that Ukrainian forces are trying to exploit, with the broader goal of driving a wedge into the so-called land bridge between Russia and occupied Crimea, which is vital to the Russian military’s supply routes. The Ukrainian 46th Brigade, which is participating in the fighting in the area, said that its assault units were attacking Russian positions near the village of Verbove, nine miles east of Robotyne. The move toward Verbove is notable because it shows that Ukraine is confident enough in its hold on Robotyne that it believes its troops can try to press forward.

Organizations: Ukrainian 46th Brigade Locations: Robotyne, Russia, Crimea, Verbove, Ukraine

☆ With Multiple Battles, Russia and Ukraine Puzzle Over Where to Put Troops
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russian forces have drawn closer to Kupiansk, in northeastern Ukraine, prompting stepped-up calls for civilians to flee and reflecting the hard choices both sides must make about where to send reinforcements along a front that stretches for hundreds of miles. Kupiansk, a small city about 25 miles from the border with Russia, has been under regular Russian artillery bombardment for months, and a 45-year-old civilian was killed on Tuesday when the meat processing plant where he worked as a security guard was struck, officials said. Russia’s military has put Kupiansk, already battered and mostly depopulated, in its cross hairs, hoping to prompt Ukraine to come to the city’s defense by siphoning soldiers away from its own counteroffensive in the South and Southeast. Ukrainian commanders, in turn, hope that the slow gains they are making in that counteroffensive will force the Russians to redeploy forces from Kupiansk to those battlefields.

Locations: Kupiansk, Ukraine, Russia, South

☆ Ukraine Says It Retook a Village, a Win That Highlights the Rough Going
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukraine’s military said on Monday that its forces had retaken the southern village of Robotyne, a tactical victory that underlines the immense challenge Kyiv’s counteroffensive faces in punching through deep and dense Russian defenses. The capture of Robotyne would mean that Ukrainian forces have penetrated the first layer of minefields, tank traps, trenches and bunkers installed by the Russians since they invaded, military analysts say, potentially creating new strategic opportunities. The ultimate target of the thrust to Robotyne is the city of Melitopol, about 45 miles farther south, and more layers of Russian defenses lie in the way. “Robotyne has been liberated,” said Hanna Malyar, a Ukrainian deputy defense minister. She told the Military Media Center, a platform for Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, that Ukrainian forces were now advancing southeast toward the villages of Novoprokopivka and Ocheretuvato despite “fierce resistance” from Russian forces.

Persons: “ Robotyne, ”, Hanna Malyar Organizations: Military Media Center, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense Locations: Robotyne, Melitopol, Ukrainian, Novoprokopivka

Russia said Ukraine fired a string of drones over the weekend in an attempt to attack border regions and the capital, Moscow, in the latest strikes deep inside Russian borders. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its forces had intercepted Ukrainian drones overnight in the regions of Bryansk and Kursk, both of which border Ukraine. A drone crashed into an apartment building in Kursk but did not cause any injuries, the regional governor said on the Telegram messaging app. The border region of Belgorod also was attacked by drones over the weekend, according to the Russian authorities. The Russian claims had not been independently verified and Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment, as is their general custom on attacks inside Russia.

Persons: Vyacheslav Gladkov Organizations: Russia’s Ministry of Defense Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia’s, Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Shchetinovka

☆ Russia Officially Confirms Prigozhin’s Death
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-27 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Russian authorities have officially confirmed the death of the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, with investigators saying on Sunday that genetic testing showed that the victims of a plane crash last week matched all the names on the jet’s manifest. Mr. Prigozhin was presumed to have died in the crash on Wednesday, an incident that came two months after he launched a failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership and which U.S. and Western officials believe was the result of an explosion on board. However, the Russian authorities had said they were awaiting the results of an investigation before confirming the identities of those on board. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday, in his first comments on the crash, spoke obliquely of Mr. Prigozhin’s death, referring to him in the past tense, but did not confirm it. “He made some serious mistakes in life, but he also achieved necessary results,” Mr. Putin said.

Persons: Wagner, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Svetlana Petrenko, Vladimir V, Putin, Prigozhin’s, ” Mr Locations: Russia

In the game’s last seconds, Ona Sánchez couldn’t sit still. Then, when the referee finally blew the whistle to confirm that Spain had won the Women’s World Cup, she and the crowd around her — girls, boys, parents and other fans who had gathered to watch the match in Sant Pere de Ribes, near Barcelona — erupted in cheers. Olé, olé, olé!” Ona and her friend Laura Solorzano, both 11, and draped together in a Spanish flag, sang in the small town’s central cobblestone square as other supporters splashed water from a nearby fountain. The two friends, both players in a local soccer club, said they couldn’t have hoped for a better ending. “It was the first time I watched a World Cup,” Ona said, emerging from a group of dancing children.

Persons: Ona Sánchez couldn’t, “, ” Ona, Laura Solorzano, ” Locations: Spain, Sant Pere, Ribes, Barcelona

☆ A Kiss After Spain’s World Cup Win Prompts Many to Cry Foul
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Spaniards celebrated their country’s first Women’s World Cup victory on Sunday afternoon by holding dance parties in the streets and sharing their giddy delight. But it was a kiss seen around the world that was the talk of social media. Amid the national jubilation, many were jolted by an impromptu kiss planted on the Spanish forward Jennifer Hermoso by the president of Spain’s soccer federation, Luis Rubiales, during the medals ceremony, an unpleasant reminder to many of the sexism scandals that have plagued Spanish women’s soccer. After the Spanish players defeated England 1-0 and lined up onstage in Sydney, Australia, to collect their medals before lifting the World Cup trophy, Mr. Rubiales enthusiastically grabbed Ms. Hermoso, kissed her on the cheeks and then kissed her fully on the lips, video of the encounter showed. Spain’s Queen Letizia was onstage at the time.

Persons: Jennifer Hermoso, Luis Rubiales, Rubiales, Hermoso, Letizia Organizations: soccer, England Locations: Spanish, Sydney, Australia

☆ For a Trendy Night Out in Paris, How About a Climate Change Workshop?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a recent summer evening in central Paris, a handful of people trickled into a trendy Brazilian bar blasting bossa nova, passed customers toasting with caipirinhas and headed for a wooden staircase in the back. They emerged into a small room featuring a table strewn with large printed cards that showed charts explaining the science behind climate change. The group was taking part in a “Climate Fresk,” a workshop run by a nonprofit of the same name, that teaches the basics of global warming and highlights possible solutions. The events have become a trendy night out in France, with more than a million participants. The popularity of the Climate Fresks, named for the “fresco” that participants create with the cards, comes as much of Europe faces hotter summers associated with climate change.

Persons: ”, “ We’re Locations: Paris, Brazilian, France, Europe

☆ A Self-Portrait of the Roma, Without the Stereotypes
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Gabi Jimenez, a French Spanish Romani painter, first heard several years ago that a major museum in France was planning an exhibition on Romani culture and history, he said he thought it would be “a mess.”The story of the Roma, Jimenez said, has long been told by outsiders who depict them at best as itinerant slackers and at worst as unhygienic thieves. Past shows about Romani people have typically featured pictures of bedraggled children and women breastfeeding near caravans. “I told myself: ‘We’re going to get all the stereotypes again,’” he said. Except this time, Romani people were shaping the narrative. The exhibition — which runs through Sept. 4 at the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean, in Marseille, France, and features some 200 artworks and objects — is billed as the first of its kind, bringing together contributions from multiple Romani artists and curators who share their culture on their own terms.

Persons: Gabi Jimenez, Jimenez, “, ‘, ’ ” Organizations: Roma, of Civilizations of Locations: Spanish, France, of Civilizations of Europe, Marseille

☆ Spain Votes on Sunday: Here’s What to Know
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This outcome would have no major consequences if the Popular Party, which is leading the polls with about 34 percent of voting intentions, did not need Vox’s support to govern. But most studies suggest that it would, meaning that the far right could enter the Spanish government for the first time since the return of democracy in the 1970s. The Popular Party has refrained from saying whether it would seek to govern with Vox. But it has already forged several local coalition agreements with the far right after the May elections, in a move that many saw as a harbinger of a broader national alliance. The vote, Mr. Sánchez said, “will clarify if Spaniards want a government on the side of Joe Biden or Donald Trump, of Lula da Silva or Jair Bolsonaro.”

Persons: Sánchez, Vox, “, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Lula da Silva, Jair, ” Organizations: Popular Party, Vox

☆ Theme Park’s Selective History Appeals to a New Spanish Nationalism
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Moving through the darkened holds of a replica of Christopher Columbus’s ship, visitors on a recent afternoon marveled at the tangle of compasses, cordage and barrels. At last, a voice shouted “Land!” and the white sands of America appeared. May it be for the greater glory of God,” Columbus was then heard telling Queen Isabella I of Castile. The popularity of the park has come as a surprise in a country that has long been shy about celebrating its history. Nationalist sentiments were largely taboo after the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, who died in the 1970s.

Persons: Christopher Columbus’s, “, ” Columbus, Queen Isabella I of Castile, Fou, Gen, Francisco Franco Locations: America, Spain

☆ What Do You Call a German Siesta? An Answer to the Europe Heat, Some Say.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The heat — temperatures in Germany were around 90 degrees Fahrenheit this week — is forcing people to rethink their way of life and look to southern countries as examples of how to adapt to rising temperatures. “We should follow the work practices of southern countries during heat,” Johannes Niessen, the chairman of Germany’s leading national association of doctors, said in an interview with the news outlet RND this week. “Getting up early, working productively in the morning, and taking a siesta at midday is a concept that we should adopt in the summer months.”The origins of Spain’s famous siesta are a matter of debate. Another explanation is that the disjointed day emerged in post-Civil War Spain, when many people worked two jobs, one in the morning and the other in the late afternoon. The siesta has typified Spanish life for decades, although it is less common among many urban Spaniards today.

Persons: ” Johannes Niessen, “, ” Locations: Germany, Spain, Granada, Valencia

☆ Facing a Future of Drought, Spain Turns to Medieval Solutions and ‘Ancient Wisdom’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He explained that before the acequias, it was hard to grow food in the unstable climate of the Mediterranean, with periodic droughts. The “genius of the system,” he said, is that it slows down the water flow from the mountains to the plains in order to better retain and distribute it. Without acequias, snowmelt from mountain peaks would flow directly into rivers and lakes that dry up during the summer. With them, the melt is diverted to multiple acequias winding through the hills. It spurts from fountains in the region’s typical whitewashed villages.

Persons: Civantos, ” Locations: acequias, Granada, Almeria, Al, Sierra Nevada

When she first heard of a project to exhume and identify the remains of hundreds of Civil War victims — her grandfather possibly among them — Ángela Raya Fernández said she was “filled with hope, a lot of hope.”Ever since she was a girl, she had heard stories about how her father’s father, José Raya Hurtado, was executed during the Spanish Civil War, his body ignominiously dumped in a ravine by forces loyal to Gen. Francisco Franco. She had only ever known him from black-and-white photos: round glasses, a receding hairline and a resolute gaze. “We’ve long hoped that somebody could find him and give him a dignified burial,” said Ms. Raya, a soft-spoken, 62-year-old librarian.

Persons: — Ángela Raya Fernández, ”, José Raya Hurtado, Francisco Franco, Raya

Years before France was inflamed with anger at the police killing of a teenager during a traffic stop, there was the notorious Théo Luhaka case. Mr. Luhaka was wrestled to the ground by three police officers, who hit him repeatedly and sprayed tear gas in his face. When it was over, he was bleeding from a four inch tear in his rectum, caused by one of the officers’ expandable batons. Mr. Luhaka’s housing project, and others around Paris, erupted in fury. He was held up as a symbol of what activists had been denouncing for years: discriminatory policing that violently targets minority youth, particularly in France’s poor areas.

Persons: Luhaka Locations: France, Black, Paris

☆ Wildfire Forces Thousands to Evacuate in Canary Islands
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Spanish firefighters on Monday were battling a wildfire that has raged for three days on the wooded slopes of La Palma in the Canary Islands, temporarily forcing the evacuation of more than 4,000 residents. The fire, which the Spanish authorities say has burned some 10,000 acres, could be a preview of weather-related crises to come this summer in Europe. The southern part of the continent is in the midst of a heat wave that is drying up fields, increasing the risks of wildfires. “The weather has been helping us,” Sergio Rodríguez, the president of the local government council in La Palma, said in a news conference on Monday. More than 500 firefighters were trying to bring the blaze under control, aided by several water-carrying helicopters making regular rounds over the flames in an attempt to douse them.

Persons: ” Sergio Rodríguez Organizations: La Palma Locations: La, Canary, Europe, La Palma

☆ Jane Birkin, Singer, Actress and Fashion Inspiration, Dies at 76
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“He wrote for me from 1968 until the day he died,” Ms. Birkin said in an interview with The New York Times in 2018. Ms. Birkin said she had not been able to find a leather bag she liked. Hermès devised the Birkin, which was, as she requested, “four times the size of a Kelly.’'Ms. Birkin was additionally popular in France as an activist for women’s and L.G.B.T.Q. rights and also for her British accent when speaking French, which the French found endearing. “We will never forget her songs, her laughs and her incomparable accent which have always accompanied us.”

Persons: “, ” Ms, Birkin, I’d, Ms, Birkin’s, Kelly, ’ ’, Grace Kelly, Hermès, Jean, Louis Dumas, ’, Anne Hidalgo, ” Organizations: The New York Times, YouTube, Paris Locations: London, France

☆ Bastille Day Is Usually a Fireworks Bonanza. Not This Year.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bastille Day in France has long been synonymous with grand fireworks displays over towns and villages, as dancing crowds celebrate their nation’s revolutionary birth. But firework shows have been canceled in parts of the country this year, for fear of a resurgence of the unrest that has just swept France and for the risk of fire in the face of the extreme heat that is a new fixture of French summers. “It’s an unusual convergence of social and environmental issues,” Hervé Florczak, the mayor of Jouy-le-Moutier, a small town west of Paris, said, noting that France had yet to solve either problem. “It’s sad that it should fall on Bastille Day.”Mr. Florczak explained that he had first looked for a site away from a wooded area to organize a fireworks display while avoiding drought-related fire hazards. Then, his city was struck by the riots after a police officer killed a teenager in a Paris suburb in late June.

Persons: “, ” Hervé Florczak, ” Mr, Florczak Locations: France, Jouy, Paris

☆ This Paris Suburb Burned Before. Has Anything Changed?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Constant Méheut | More About Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the fall of 2005, Faisal Daaloul was a young adult protesting in the streets of Clichy-sous-Bois, an impoverished Paris suburb seething over the death of two teenagers as they were pursued by police officers. Mr. Daaloul is now a father. Mr. Daaloul is of Tunisian descent and his wife is Black, and he fears that his son would be a perfect target for the police. “Little has changed in two decades,” Mr. Daaloul said. After the 2005 riots, the French government invested billions of euros to revamp its immigrant suburbs, or banlieues, to try to rid them of run-down social-housing blocks.

Persons: Faisal Daaloul, Daaloul, “, ” Mr Organizations: Bois, seething Locations: Clichy, Paris, France

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