journeys international festival

Connecting cultures through extraordinary art

Art Reach ignites imaginations, inspires people and promotes greater understanding of the world around us.

Our services

About art reach.

We value vibrant change and create it.

We are conversation starters and thought provokers. We’re bold in our approach, committed to delivering art with energy, authenticity and ambition.

We value cultural growth and deliver it.

Join us on the Journey

We commission bold, ambitious art and festivals that bring people together, delivering activities and authentic experiences that unify audiences and cultures.

We are believers, listeners and mentors. Engaged supporters of courageous artists, diverse voices and distinctive minds. We’re creative consultants. Applying enthusiasm, imagination and experience in support of organisations, initiatives and events.

Case Studies

Re/threading towards a sustainable future, using evaluation to amplify the voices (not just numbers), moulding a solid future for jelly in reading, building towards a more cultural borough in nuneaton and bedworth, supporting cultural development in milton keynes, fundraising for writer and broadcaster leon bosch, the journeys gazette, a nocturnal experience with the midnight run, fundraising strategy and implementation, liberty eu mid-programme evaluation, building communities and community buildings, where there is light 2021, slow down at liberty uk festival in corby, successful youth project funding for nupur arts, the write to rave in corby, liberty uk changemakers, art on tap – bringing art into everyday life, aaa. accessible art for all – artworks in the most unusual of locations, halabja: in the golden days, sanctuaries: looking for safe spaces, making medieval leicester heritage visible, graffiti, art and protest in iran, sun up, rain falls, river rises, angels by lou chapelle, journeys into music, from friars to fairs night of festivals hounslow, a project about home and identity by kate daudy, voices creative europe programme 2018, celebrating hounslow’s heritage, ancient objects – new writing, pompey in 15 items, journeys creative europe programme 2016-2017, we've got news, recruiting for projects and events assistant, the fundraising landscape: embracing collaboration over competition, artist commission for journeys festival international, consultancy team generates significant long-term cultural development, recruiting for senior producer (maternity cover), silver level for journeys festival international’s access provision.

Art Reach is at the heart of a network of partners and collaborators sharing the aim of commissioning and presenting high quality outdoor work and engagement which explores, works with, and showcases underrepresented voices, both locally and nationally. We co-commission work with partners, support sanctuary seeking communities and families to participate, engage and feedback on our work, and offer a range of engagement opportunities through our programmes.

Need help planning your event? Take a look at our consultancy services

Privacy overview.

24 August 2022

A festival of international flavour  .

We celebrated our 10th anniversary with performances from around the world.

As the UK’s first Festival of Sanctuary, it is fitting that the 10th annual Journeys Festival International began with the re-awarding of the ‘Festival of Sanctuary’ title which is granted every three years by the national City of Sanctuary organisation. Thanks to Reverend Pete Hobson, Chair of Leicester City of Sanctuary, who presented the certificate at the festival opening.  It’s fantastic to see the team’s hard work recognised again with this award and was a heart-warming opening to a wonderful festival weekend.

At its core, the Arts Council England funded Journeys Festival International explores migration and the world around us, providing creative platforms and opportunities for artists from around the world. This year, the festival delivered a three-day celebration of international arts and performances across Leicester’s city centre, celebrating its 10th birthday.

The festival also featured the finale of the three-year long Creative Europe funded programme Liberty EU, which has also been exploring cultural connections and creativity across borders, but with a particular focus on young artists. This year’s Journeys Festival International was a perfect place to celebrate and share some of the fabulous projects and commissioned work created by the Liberty EU partners.

Audiences in Leicester were treated to artworks, exhibitions, projects and performances by artists from Turkey, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, Finland and the UK. There were significant contributions from local participants to exhibitions and local performers who featured in the large-scale outdoor performance of Rush by Southpaw Dance Company on Saturday evening.

Across the weekend, over 20 performances and projects were available for people to enjoy and included a festival newspaper created by artists and the local community, comedy shows, dance performances, international live music, artificial intelligence games and a huge variety of shows performed in the city centre streets for free.

With over 100 visiting artists and almost the same number of event support staff, crew, Art Reach team and volunteers, delivering a varied programme of activities over the entire weekend certainly held its challenges. Thanks to a fantastic production team and help from key partners in the city, we were able to create a backstage festival hub for the performers, technicians and team members to come together, get fed and watered plus provide a space to rest between performances on one of the hottest weekends this summer. This was hugely appreciated by all involved and certainly helped everyone to give the festival all the energy that delivering on a city-wide scale requires.

We also invited the All In group to the festival, a Leicester-based initiative whose members explore the city’s cultural venues and events to see which improvements can be made for accessibility and inclusivity purposes, so we can learn first hand how to improve our access facilities and information. We shall continue to work with All In as we strive to improve inclusivity for each edition of the festival. We also aim to build on this year’s success of gaining the Attitude is Everything Standard Bronze Charter for accessibility and inclusivity for audiences.

From a crowded Clock Tower to fully booked shows at Curve Theatre and Leicester Guildhall, the weekend was a great success. The sounds of laughter, applause and music carried through the city streets as people from around the world and living in Leicester came together to experience and deliver a truly international festival weekend. The sheer scale and brutal beauty of Southpaw Dance Company’s show Rush performed against the derelict backdrop of Crown House in Lee Circle shows why developing and celebrating international communities is now more important than ever.

Journeys Festival International 2022 has seen a plethora of amazing productions that have engaged audiences of all ages, bringing free cultural activities to audiences in Leicester. Delivering a festival of this scale, the Art Reach team wants to thank all the wonderful people who have been involved in making this weekend special!

Our festival will return in 2023 but until then, why not join us for a night of myth, music and love at Dido’s Bar. Click here to read more.

Image: Art Reach

Image: Pete Martin Photography

Privacy Overview

Gig Review: Black Honey at The..

Journeys festival international comes to portsmout..., gig review: wolf alice at the ...

Journeys Festival International Comes to Portsmouth

• by Stuart Barker
• Tier 3 Local Events Food & Drink Community Arts Art, Craft & Design

This Friday Portsmouth welcomes the return of  Journeys Festival International , the UK’s first festival of Sanctuary, is going to bring thousands of people together to explore cultures from around the globe in the cities of Portsmouth, Manchester and Leicester across the same ten days from 15 to 24 October.

Over twenty fabulous creative organisations from all over the UK and 21 venues are working together to deliver the festival with the aim of improving community cohesion and inspiring hope and understanding through a series of events, exhibitions, film viewings and performances. With the overarching theme of welcome, Journeys Festival International wants to break down the stigma attached to sanctuary seekers arriving in the UK, by sharing and celebrating art and events created by and with community members and artists with experience of forced migration.

Twenty artists ranging from as far as Syria, Iran and Zimbabwe are teaming up with British and European artists to celebrate this creative and cultural exploration of global cultures.

Creative Director Lorna Fulton explains that “We aim to celebrate the people from the UK and all over the globe that come together and create our inspiring and unique communities. Now more than ever, we see a great need to increase acceptance and understanding in society, alongside a better understanding of mental health. This festival wants people to come together to explore the wonderful traditions and celebrate the creative talents the world has to offer. International artists will share their experiences and explore their cultures through a varied programme of events, exhibitions and experiences for us to enjoy and that is what the festival is all about. We want people to share and discover new art, new experiences and new cultures together with friends, neighbours and family, which is why we keep the majority of the festival free where we can.”

The highlight of the festival is undoubtedly ‘ Where There is Light ‘ by Squidsoup is an audio-visual installation that brings people together to share a sense of connection and hope. Illuminated globes surround the audience in moving patterns and colours, while a sound track – created by members of sanctuary-seeking communities – shifts around the installation with mesmerising sights and sounds. This incredible installation can be experienced at St Mary’s Church, Fratton, from 15-24 October.

We aim to celebrate the people from the UK and all over the globe that come together and create our inspiring and unique communities. Now more than ever, we see a great need to increase acceptance and understanding in society, alongside a better understanding of mental health.

The Global Kitchen Supper Club , inspired by a recipe book made by members of the sanctuary-seeking community who shared the favourite dishes from their home countries at community meals, is taking the project to another level: On 18 October, you can enjoy global pizzas with toppings taken from the recipe book and a Vietnamese street-food buffet inspired by the rice dishes from Zimbabwe and Afghanistan at Outside-In Food Court .

On 21 and 22 October, New Theatre Royal will host the brand new virtual reality experience Graffiti Art and Protest in Iran . Audiences will be provided with a virtual reality headset and transported to a water tunnel covered in graffiti art. With a hip-hop soundtrack to suit, audiences can then explore the urban art in an interactive virtual environment. The site in the headset is based on a real-life tunnel in Iran that became a focal point for political and social protest against the Iranian authorities.

Artist, Parham Ghalamdar, whose virtual reality project and outdoor exhibitions are featured this year, has worked on the festival before and says: “Journeys Festival International has been a major platform supporting and nurturing my practice in the past years. It’s an impressive event bringing people together to have conversations about important matters shaping our society.”

‘ Reckoning ‘ is a multimedia short film and performance piece created by a collaboration of Liberty EU Portfolio artists – Choreographer and Storyteller Akeim Toussaint Buck, Filmmaker Ashley Karrell , Animator Benedetta Fasson and Writer Mandla Rae . Weaving together contemporary lyrical dance, archive, animation and storytelling, Reckoning has been created from the Reckoning with Refugeedom archives which tell the stories of generations of displaced people in their own words.

The festival is featuring films, food, exhibitions in and outdoors, large scale projections, virtual reality experiences alongside performances and cultural experiences – giving us opportunities to explore and share together. From 15 -24 October across the city centre, communities are invited to join the festival team on their cultural and creative journey. You can find the full itinerary of events and how to get involved here .

Website:  journeysfestival.com Facebook: facebook.com/JourneysFest Twitter: twitter.com/journeysfest Instagram: instagram.com/journeysfest YouTube: www.youtube.com/JIF

Images: Benedetta Fasson, Tom Wren and Ashley Karrell Panoptial

LATEST POST

Review: Golden Touch Festival 2024

• by Paul Gonella

Upcoming: Richard Hawley at Portsmouth Guildhall

• by Chris Horton

Preview: Golden Touch Festival 2024

• by Hannah Victoria Kenyon

Gig Review: English Teacher at the Wedgewood Rooms

• by Liz Parsons

Gig Review – Jane Weaver at Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Gig Review: Crystal Tides at The Wedgewood Rooms

Live Review: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds at The Portsmouth Guildhall

• by Mark Butler

News: Paul Weller set to return to Portsmouth Guildhall

Stuart Barker

Related post.

Journeys Festival International – Full Line Up

Portsmouth’s New Theatre Royal Festival of the Sea 2020

The Hungry Herbivores

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

THE STRONG ISLAND FAMILY

SHOP AT STRONG ISLAND CLOTHING CO strongislandclothingco.com WORK WITH STRONG ISLAND MEDIA strongislandmedia.com LISTEN TO STRONG ISLAND RECORDINGS strongislandrecordings.com

Skip To Main Content

E-Newsletter Sign Up

My itinerary.

Welcome to the Itinerary Planner. Use this tool to build your own journey or choose from an exciting range of specially selected tours.

• Itineraries
• Attractions
• Arts & Entertainment
• Parks & Green Spaces
• A Taste of England
• Food for Thought
• The Home of Veganism
• The World on a Plate
• Events Calendar
• Submit Event
• Leicester Hotels
• Leicestershire Hotels
• Bed & Breakfasts
• Budget Hotels
• Country House Hotels
• Boutique Hotels
• Group Accommodation
• Serviced Apartments
• East Midlands Airport Hotels
• Theatre Hotels
• Camping, Caravan and Motorhomes
• Self Catering
• Short Breaks
• Restaurants
• Shops & Markets
• Group Travel
• Location and Getting Around
• Travel around Leicester City
• Coach Parking in Leicester
• Study in Leicester
• Work with Visit Leicester
• Grow Your Business
• Welcome a Wide Range of Diverse Visitors
• Operate Your Business Smoothly
• Build Your Team
• Master your Marketing
• Boost Your Productivity

Home > Ideas & Inspiration > Blogs > Journeys Festival International

Journeys Festival International

Journeys Festival International is an arts festival which explores the refugee experience and global cultures. Leicester is a City of Sanctuary , and as a place where immigrants of all varieties have settled since Roman times , this is the ideal festival to showcase our rich and diverse communities.

For the first time ever, the Journeys Festival is being held across three cities – Leicester, Manchester and Portsmouth – at the same time. Running from 15-24 October, here’s what you can expect when the Journeys Festival International comes to town.

Take a look at the full festival guide on their website .

Where There is Light

15-24 October at Leicester Cathedral This immersive sound and light installation shares the voices and stories of sanctuary-seeking communities from across the UK. More information

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Journeys Festival (@journeysfest)

15-24 October at Two Queens Gallery An exhibition of new work by internationally renowned artist Mohammad Barrangi. More information .

15-24 October across the city centre A series of new visual artworks displayed in public locations across the city. More information

Your City Is A World In Its Own

15-24 October This is an online space showcasing creative work by young people. More information

Tale of Tresses

15-23 October at The Gallery Tale of Tresses is a new film by artist Maral Mamaghanizadeh, exploring the stories of female migrants and refugees through dance, jewellery and costume. More information

Journeys into Film

18 October at Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre A rousing and reflective programme of short films made by filmmakers from sanctuary-seeking backgrounds. More information

Global Kitchen

18 October at Soft Touch Arts Our chefs take their favourite recipes and head to professional kitchens to prepare a feast of global dishes for you to enjoy. More information

Leicester Migration Story panel discussion

19 October at Leicester Cathedral A panel discussion, hosted at Leicester Cathedral, sharing stories of migration, journeys to Leicester and the experiences of those seeking sanctuary in the UK. More information

Bloodland Embrace

21-23 October at Green Dragon Square Bloodland Embrace, an exciting new animation and projection piece, features original artwork by Majid Adin and international collective Kalico Jack. More information

22 October at Curve Theatre A new performance which blends dance, spoken word and digital animation to depict the stories of generations of displaced people. More information

Graffiti Art and Protest in Iran

22-24 October at Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre Take a virtual reality tour of a water tunnel in Iran that became a canvas for graffiti artists and a focal point for political and social protest. More information

Leave a Reply

• Arts & Culture (37)
• Arts &Culture (1)
• Attractions (78)
• countryside (3)
• Discover the County (42)
• Eat & Drink (57)
• Festivals & Music (43)
• Food & Drink (41)
• Heritage (37)
• leicester (16)
• outdoor (1)
• outdoors (4)
• See & Do (69)
• Shops & Markets (2)
• Sports & Recreation (24)
• summer (13)
• Walking trail (3)

Recent Posts

• June 2024 (5)
• May 2024 (6)
• Apr 2024 (2)
• Mar 2024 (4)
• Feb 2024 (7)
• Jan 2024 (5)
• Dec 2023 (9)
• Nov 2023 (8)
• Oct 2023 (5)
• Sept 2023 (5)
• Aug 2023 (4)
• July 2023 (2)

Related Content

Explore further.

A Deathly Convention - Murder Mystery

Embark on a Melton Mowbray Hidden Food Tour

Halloween Secret Rave

Just The Tonic Comedy Club

• 1 A Deathly Convention - Murder Mystery
• 2 Embark on a Melton Mowbray Hidden Food Tour
• 3 Halloween Secret Rave
• 4 Just The Tonic Comedy Club

• Terms & Conditions
• Accessibility

Copyright © 2024 Leicester City Council

Follow Us...

Back To Top

Journeys Festival International 2021

15 — 24 October 2021 Entrance is free

The dire situation in Afghanistan did, for a limited period, refocus the world’s attention on the subject of refugees and asylum seekers. (This of course came during the same period as the announced cuts to the UK’s foreign aid budget.) Yet the scale and extent of the world’s numerous refugee crises has grown consistently worse throughout the course of the last decade, with the number of refugees and internally displaced people in 2019 being double what it was in 2010. The same decade saw a significant rise in xenophobia, nationalism and the tightening of border controls across the Western world, with Brexit being a prime example (and the UK’s recent plans to turn back migrant boats crossing the English Channel marking a stark continuation of this trend). Meanwhile, the arrival of COVID-19 and the impact of global heating have only added to the extremity of the problem.

Against this bleak backdrop, Journeys Festival International (the UK’s first Festival of Sanctuary) exists with the aim of dismantling the stigma attached to sanctuary seekers arriving in the UK, and inspiring hope, acceptance and understanding between communities. The annual programme is organised by ArtReach and features events, exhibitions , film screenings and performances created by and with community members and artists with experience of forced migration. This year’s festival takes place over ten days across Manchester , Leicester and Portsmouth, and will see artists from as far as Syria, Iran and Zimbabwe team up with a range of UK and European artists.

A highlight of the festival will be Where There Is Light – an immersive sound and light installation by Squidsoup that shares the voices and stories of sanctuary-seeking communities from across the UK. The piece features interviews that took place online during lockdown in 2020 and reflects on how we can rebuild, reconnect and transform relations between people following the isolation and loneliness experienced by so many during the pandemic. It also taps into wider questions about where we find light in our lives, in ourselves, in others and in the world around us. The Manchester staging will be presented in the dramatic setting of the Holy Name Church on Oxford Road .

Another must-see is Bloodland Embrace – a new outdoor projection work featuring original artwork by Majid Adin (whose animated video of Elton John’s Rocket Man garnered over 100,000,000 views on YouTube) and international collective Kalico Jack. The visually stunning animation tells a story about home and belonging and explores how we connect to different people and cultures across cultural or physical borders – particularly in relation to the experiences of refugees and displaced people seeking safety in Europe. The piece will be presented outdoors at Hallé St Peter’s .

Other events taking place in Manchester as part of the festival include Reckoning , a multi-media performance based on real-life stories; Look Up , a series of outdoor visual artworks exploring themes such as mental health, national identity and privilege; and Journeys into Film , a series of short films by filmmakers with sanctuary-seeking backgrounds showing at HOME . The majority of the events are charged on a ‘pay what you decide’ basis.

Presented days after the Tory conference in Manchester, and against the current backdrop of global affairs, Journeys International Festival is a much-welcome arrival in the city.

Where to go near Journeys Festival International 2021

Modern Greek Mediterranean cuisine from the team behind Tattu.

New Zealand-inspired food and drinks, plus a dedicated coffee roastery at this high-profile new restaurant, opening in August.

Relaxed restaurant in Leeds serving impressively high-quality steaks at an affordable price point.

Home to many award-winning British ales, made in the heart of Stockport.

Award-winning artisan butchers in Glossop, serving up some of the regions best quality meat.

The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery is an accredited art museum at the heart of the University of Leeds campus.

Odioba is a new audiophile bar in Stockport, from the team behind the much-missed NAM. Coffee shop by day, bar by night.

The Alchemist New York Street has a menu packed with inventive and far-out ideas.

Celebrating its 200th year in 2024, The University of Manchester is the largest single-site university in the UK, and boasts come incredible cultural institutions, found on campus, across Manchester and…

Leeds’ go to place for premium shopping, Victoria Arcade, has both style and substance in abundance.

Much-loved Persian restaurant on Stockport in Levenshulme, reopened after a lengthy lockdown-related hiatus.

New food concept from the team behind Another Hand, based at Exhibition and serving up exceptional Persian cuisine.

What's on: Families

Enjoy fun and creative activities designed to encourage your little ones to play freely in the fresh air, while exploring nature and the outdoors with family and friends.

Head to the Great Northern Sandpit in Manchester this summer and expect hours and hours of free entertainment for children.

If you’re hunting for the perfect present – a Factory International Gift Membership could be just the ticket.

Get priority booking on the best seats, special discounts, invitations to exclusive events and much more. Are you in?

Pack your curiosity and enjoy a special stay at the 100 Story Hotel.

From Easter egg rolling to the 50th anniversary Caribbean Carnival, find out what’s happening in Preston this year.

Igshaan Adams’ opulent textile works takes centre stage at his solo exhibition ‘Weerhoud’ at the Hepworth Wakefield.

Let your imagination go wild in this interactive show for the family.

Culture Guides

You'll find Baths, Bats, Bikes and scientists in this month's guide, as we look to the intellectual and skill providing Tours and Activities.

Enjoy spectacular outdoor and indoor theatre, arts and crafts and fun in the sand...

Out and about in Manchester and beyond or streaming from historical settings into your own home, you won’t be short of live literary goings-on to enjoy this summer.

As we head into June, here's our latest list of unmissable food and drink options in Manchester and the North.

You’ll find lively theatre festivals, Edinburgh Fringe previews and dreamy outdoor shows in our new guide.

Read our latest highlights from the live classical music offer in Manchester and the North, taking in a number of the region's most cherished orchestral forces and venues.

We have an eclectic bunch of new gig picks for you this month, alongside free summer festivals and brand new concert seasons.

We highlight outdoor cinema, comedy classics and Hollywood legends back on the big screen this summer.

Dive into local and international crafts, innovative printmaking and groundbreaking sculpture in this month's top picks of exhibitions.

• For Everyone

Journeys Festival International

Using art to spark discussions and conversations about challenges faced by refugees.

Refugees & Migration

Type of Resource

About this resource

Journeys Festival International is an art festival that presents and displays a wide range of works created by artists that are exploring the refugee experience and global cultures in the form of exhibitions, performances, workshops and digital projects.

Why we recommend this resource

This festival takes the form of exhibitions, workshops and projects that can be used to understand and educate ourselves with the stories of those who had the misfortune of being separated from their homeland. It uses art to bring to light the struggles of refugees, effectively creating a social space that sparks discussions and conversations about these neglected problems. It reminds us that we are part of a global community and we must support and uplift each other to create a better and equitable world.

Was this resource useful?

Good job! Please give your positive feedback

How could we improve this post? Please help us.

Goals met by this resource

Join our mailing list

If you would like to join our mailing list to get the latest updates about our work, please complete and submit the form below.

Privacy Overview

Journeys Festival International 2021 to Bond Three Cities Through Cultural Exploration And Community

20 artists ranging from as far as Syria, Iran and Zimbabwe are teaming up with UK and European artists to celebrate this creative and cultural exploration.

Journeys Festival International 2021, the UK's first festival of Sanctuary, is going to bring thousands of people together to explore cultures from around the globe in the cities of Portsmouth, Manchester and Leicester across the same ten days from 15 to 24 October. Over 20 creative organisations from all over the UK and 21 venues are working together to deliver the festival with the aim of improving community cohesion and inspiring hope and understanding through a series of events, exhibitions, film viewings and performances. With the overarching theme of welcome, Journeys Festival International wants to break down the stigma attached to sanctuary seekers arriving in the UK, by sharing and celebrating art and events created by and with community members and artists with experience of forced migration.

20 artists ranging from as far as Syria, Iran and Zimbabwe are teaming up with UK and European artists to celebrate this creative and cultural exploration of global cultures.

Creative Director Lorna Fulton explains that "We aim to celebrate the people from the UK and all over the globe that come together and create our inspiring and unique communities. Now more than ever, we see a great need to increase acceptance and understanding in society, alongside a better understanding of mental health. This festival wants people to come together to explore the wonderful traditions and celebrate the creative talents the world has to offer. International Artists will share their experiences and explore their cultures through a varied programme of events, exhibitions and experiences for us to enjoy and that is what the festival is all about. We want people to share and discover new art, new experiences and new cultures together with friends, neighbours and family, which is why we keep the majority of the festival free where we can."

Where There is Light by Squidsoup is an audio-visual installation that brings people together to share a sense of connection and hope. Illuminated globes surround the audience in moving patterns and colours, while a sound track - created by members of sanctuary-seeking communities - shifts around the installation with mesmerising sights and sounds.

The Global Kitchen Supper Club, inspired by a recipe book made by members of the sanctuary-seeking community who shared the favourite dishes from their home countries at community meals, is taking the project to another level:

Artist Parham Ghalamdar, whose virtual reality project and outdoor exhibitions are featured this year, has worked on the festival before and says: "Journeys Festival International has been a major platform supporting and nurturing my practice in the past years. It's an impressive event bringing people together to have conversations about important matters shaping our society."

The festival is featuring films, food, exhibitions in- and outdoors, large scale projections, virtual reality experiences alongside performances and cultural experiences - giving us opportunities to explore and share together.

You can find out more on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with @journeysfest, visit www.journeysfestival.com .

UK Regional SHOWS

Recommended For You

COOL AS LEICESTER

What’s on in Leicester

Journeys Festival International announces 2023 programme

Journeys Festival International returns to Leicester this summer with a jam-packed weekend on 22 – 23 July. The UK’s first Festival of Sanctuary will celebrate its 11 th year in the city and the start of the summer holidays with a programme of exciting outdoor arts shows for audiences of all ages.

The festival shares performances with creative and cultural activities by artists from the UK and beyond. The festival will celebrate Leicester as an international and diverse city with a programme of performances that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Get ready to roam around the streets of Leicester with sea giant Eko, enjoy hip-hop dance, acrobatics and aerial performances or take a few moments of rest in a rotating hammock at the Clock Tower. The festival will also have fabulous shows to see in Jubilee Square, on the High Street, Green Dragon Square and St Peter’s Square as the team aims to fill the city streets with creative activities and world-class artists.

During the weekend, you’ll be able to interact with the international performers of Kamchàtka as they wander the city streets, explore stories of female migration by Whispered Tales and investigate fast fashion in a dance show by Directie & Co.

There will also be masterful puppeteering by Autin Dance Theatre, characters from Persian Paintings with Sonia Sabri Company plus there will be astonishing acrobatic and dance skills of TeaTime Company, Mimbre, Damae Dance and Compagnie Dyptik.

If all that excitement means you need some rest, you’ll be able enjoy some time up in the air with The Relaxerette and then come back to hop on the giant swings by All or Nothing. People can also get down to the beats of the Big Fat Disco Bike and let your children scream for good at Roar Race. Get your phones ready to access hidden virtual reality content with Avant Garde Dance or join in an urban safari exploration with Actic.

Deputy city mayor for culture Cllr Adam Clarke said: “It’s hard to believe the Journeys Festival International is taking place in Leicester for the 11th time, as it’s so fresh and exciting every year. It’s a fantastic, free way to celebrate the start of the school holidays, and I’m so glad we are able to work with partners once again to bring these creative, thought-provoking shows and performances to our city centre.”

Stephen Munn, Interim Creative Director at Art Reach commented – “ Journeys Festival International is a free festival celebrating the incredible diversity of Leicester. We at Art Reach are proud to be an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation supported through public funds to present amazing work across the City – this is a festival for the people of Leicester so please enjoy and expect the unexpected!”

With so much to explore at Journeys Festival International, check out full information about the festival weekend at www.journeysfestival.com

Moscow International Film Festival

Contribute to this page, event history.

• Event Overview
• http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/
• http://www.fipresci.org/

Recently Viewed

• Manage Account

Jelly Roll Books First-Ever International Tour Dates With Pair of Canadian Gigs

To date, the "Save Me" singer has only been able to play in the lower 48 due to some past arrests.

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on Pinterest
• + additional share options added
• Share on Reddit
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Whats App
• Send an Email
• Print this article
• Post a Comment
• Share on Tumblr

Jelly Roll Says He’s Having Trouble Booking International Tour Due to Past Felonies

Trending on billboard.

Jelly Roll, 39, who has earned three No. 1 hits at Canadian radio to date, will visit Canada for the first time to play the benefit for the foundation dedicated to providing indigenous youth support for mental health and addictions, as well as scholarships to pursue careers in health care. Tickets for the show will be available during a presale starting at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday (June 20), with the general onsale beginning at 10 a.m. ET on the country star’s website .

“When the opportunity to bring in Jelly Roll surfaced, we jumped on it,” Ottawa Bluesfest executive and artistic director Mark Monahan said in a statement. “He has an amazing story, and he’s a great performer.”

The visit from the country star is such a big deal that the festival will begin a day earlier to accommodate Jelly, who will perform on the RBC Stage alongside “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” singer Shaboozey. Tickets for the July 9 gig will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Wednesday (June 19) on the Ottawa Bluesfest’s website .

“It’s funny, America has finally agreed to let me leave and give me a passport, but some countries won’t let me come because of my felonies,” Jelly told Jon Bon Jovi in an interview earlier this month. “We’re working on that. I think it’s going to work in my favor.”

On  Howard Stern ‘s SiriusXM show last week after the host asked if Jelly’s past misdeeds are keeping him from using that passport, the singer said, “I actually got off the phone with a lawyer yesterday. We are working … it’s getting good, it’s starting to look promising. It didn’t look good even just six months ago, but it’s starting to look really promising.”

Jelly Roll has been open about his past brushes with the law and his jail time, including  dozens of stints  behind bars on drug charges going back to when he was 14, as well as an  arrest at 16  for aggravated robbery that landed him a year in prison when he was tried as an adult; he faced a potential 20-year sentence in that case, though he served just over a year behind bars and seven years of probation. He’s also talked about the regrets he had about the time in 2008 when, at 23, he was locked up on drug dealing charges while his daughter Bailee was born.

Among the repercussions of his youthful indiscretions were, until recently, an inability to secure a passport and to book shows outside of the U.S. due to legal restrictions on travel by former felons.

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Songs Of The Summer
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Videos Expand videos menu

Culture expand culture menu, media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Get Up Anthems by Tres Expand get-up-anthems-by-tres menu

Honda music expand honda-music menu.

From page to stage: Soda City Poetry Festival founder spreads love for poetry, advocates for safe spaces

Jennifer Bartell Boykin's love of poetry stems from her childhood. She said she has always loved to read and write, but she was drawn to poetry   as a child when she listened to her grandmother tell stories.

“She told stories a lot. Sometimes, she would tell me the same story over and over again. And at some point, I realized Grandma's telling me all the same story because she wants me to remember it. And writing became my way of remembering,” Boykin said . “I just fell in love with poetry because it allowed me to express myself, and it allowed me to figure out parts of myself I never really explored emotionally. "

As the Poet Laureate of the City of Columbia, Boykin serves as an ambassador to the community, commissioning poems for individuals, events and organizations alike . 

“I'm very honored and blessed to have this title. It's a really important one,” Boykin said. “There's a lot that happens with poetry in Columbia, and we have a very active, very vibrant poetry community in the city. So I've been trying to do a lot of things with promoting them more as well.”

In a highlight project of her term, Boykin founded the inaugural Soda City Poetry Festival in hopes of spreading poetry across the city and promoting the art form to young people. 

The Soda City Poetry Festival hosted over 200 poets from various backgrounds and experiences who have also published their work in a number of ways, ranging from stage performances to the written word. The event, which took place on Saturday, June 22, at the Richland Library Main, also featured poetic readings, performances, workshops and programming for children and teens, including a teen poetry showcase .

Boykin said the day-long festival was made possible by the Mellon Foundation and the Poet Laureate Fellowship granted by the Academy of American Poets .

“Poetry is not just for this select group of people. Poetry is for everyone. So it was really important to me to make the festival as accessible as possible by offering different options for different ages and different types of poets.” Boykin said . “It's not like an academic festival. It’s for everyone. It was for the common person to come and experience poetry.”

The teen poetry showcase allowed high school students and recent graduates to share their original work with peers. Each poet had their own path to the art form and could share and relate with their peers through the readings.

Participants of the teen poetry showcase at the inaugural Soda City Poetry Festival gather on stage for a group photo on June 22, 2024. Participants shared original works with an audience of their family members, peers, and festival attendees.

Leo Naddell, a senior at Spring Valley High School, said they found poetry through school and that it complemented their other interests at the time.

"My middle school was doing a poetry club, and I really wanted to be in it because I've always really liked writing just in general, and so it was like, it's a new form of writing, I might as well," Naddell said . "So I got into it, and then I really got into it, and then I really, really got into it."

Recent Spring Valley High School graduate A. Hopkins started writing poetry as a pastime, though it quickly became more than that.

"For me personally, I was grounded, and I had nothing else to do, so I just started writing, and it made the time pass," Hopkins said. "It really helped me at the time."

While the participants of the teen poetry showcase may have had different journeys to finding poetry, Naddell said safe spaces for people, especially teens, to express their feelings are becoming increasingly important.

"I think it's very important for children to have a safe place for artistic expression. I feel like we don't get that enough nowadays in school settings where it's mandated to have assignments that have specific requirements instead of just like free-form poetry," Naddell said . "I think that encouraging people to write as they want, whatever they want, and express themselves in whatever way they feel fit is really good for their community."

Hopkins echoed a similar sentiment regarding the importance of having spaces for poetry.

"I think it's very important for younger kids, and especially teens, to have a safe space to be able to express how they feel," Hopkins said . "I know a lot of households don't promote that, which is very unfortunate. And I think it's also very important to have a community, to have people that you can bounce ideas off of, to be able to reform and be inspired and rewrite and to learn."

Boykin said sharing poetry in a communal space encourages connection between readers and writers and their audience of peers.

“When you read a poem, or you hear somebody read a poem, and you recognize a piece of yourself in it, you're able to make that connection. It makes you remember that you're not alone in the world, even though sometimes you may feel that way,” Boykin said . “Sometimes, it may feel like you're the only one who's going through whatever it is you may be going through. But I think one of the big things with poetry is it illuminates and shows us different sides of ourselves and different aspects of our humanity and it enables us to connect with one another.”

More Like This

Undergraduate certificate programs offer more academic opportunities for usc students, transgender south carolinians look forward, build community despite obstacles, back-to-back: usc percussion ensemble takes home international award in consecutive entries, trending now, south carolina football reunites family on field, in stands, recipe: summer fruit and vanilla miniature cake, preparing for the future: how cic career services manager aims to promote student career resources.

site categories

Freestyle lands ‘all happy families’ after dances with films premiere last night, international insider: cannes lions uncaged; cineeurope review; tarantino saves famous paris cinema.

By Jesse Whittock

Jesse Whittock

International TV Co-Editor

More Stories By Jesse

• ‘Peppa Pig’ Writer Joins ‘Winnie-The-Pooh’ Team; ‘House Of The Dragon’ Starbucks Promo; Crunchyroll To Prime Video India; Katja Oskamp Drama — Global Briefs
• German TV Drama Biz Deals With The Aftershocks Of U.S. Players Exiting Scripted In One Of Europe’s Key Markets
• ‘Babylon Berlin’s Fifth And Final Season Receives Official Greenlight; Shooting To Start In Fall

Take your seats, Insiders. We’re back with the biggest film and TV news of the past seven days. Jesse Whittock here taking you through. Sign up here .

Cannes Lions Uncaged

Related Stories

British Broadcasting Chiefs Deliver Impassioned Speeches About Power Of Free TV At Freely Launch

Frank Murray & Frida Torresblanco's Hangtime Boards 'The Night Manager' Season 2

The shape of things to come:  Elsewhere during the fest,  The Equalizer  star Queen Latifah revealed she initially believed Hollywood would reject her due to her look and size. During a  chat on how obesity is viewed , the star recalled how entertainment gatekeepers would demand beauty met an ideal of “size two, blue-eyed” femininity. “People are stuck in their mindsets — it’s not just actors, it’s producers, people at studios, people who’ve gone through their own weight loss journeys,” she added. Latifah credited Oprah Winfrey’s openness about her weight, with the chat show superstar launching a special on the subject on Hulu in March. “When I think of her and what she has been through on that journey, I love the idea that someone will not have to ensure the same journey today.” Preach!

Positive Sense At CineEurope

“People needed this”:  The studio execs flooded into Barcelona with a distinct feeling of relief, as Nancy reported from the ground, thanks to the box office success of Pixar’s  Inside Out 2 . The animated sequel exceeded expectations with a $295M global bow. “People needed this, especially going into CineEurope,” one studio exec  told us . The annual conference brings together international (largely European) exhibitors and the Hollywood majors to present what’s on their slate for the coming year and discuss the state of the industry. Steven O’Dell, President of International Theatrical Distribution at Sony, was the first to speak. He said the company is  “committed to the industry,”  noting its  recent acquisition of Alamo Drafthouse  and $1.2B deal for anime streamer Crunchyroll. The move to buy Alamo Drafthouse puts Sony, which still has its eye on acquiring Paramount Global, in the exhibition business once again after owning the Loews Theater chain back in the 1990s. During the studio presentation, O’Dell ran down a diverse slate ahead, highlighting a number of titles including Danny Boyle’s upcoming  28 Years Later , Margot Robbie-starrer  A Big Bold Beautiful Journey , Darren Aronofsky’s  Caught Stealing  starring Austin Butler, Taika Waititi’s  Klara and the Sun  with Jenna Ortega and the live-action  Legend of Zelda  collaboration with Nintendo.

A warm feeling ‘Inside’ and out:  The conference, set against a bright Barcelona sun, ended with Disney  taking a victory lap , celebrating  Inside Out 2 . Disney Head of Global Theatrical Distribution Tony Chambers kicked off the studio’s CineEurope presentation by thanking exhibitors in attendance for their part in the historic start. He noted too that midweek numbers have been “nothing short of phenomenal” with the global total now $380M through Tuesday. The studio went on to rattle through its slate including anticipated titles like Marvel’s  Deadpool & Wolverine ,  Captain America: Brave New World  and  Thunderbolts* ; 20th Century’s  Alien: Romulus ; and Disney Animation’s  Moana 2 . The studio also showed off a look at holiday release  Mufasa: The Lion King , and behind-the-scenes footage of its live-action take on  Snow White  starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, which releases in March 2025.

Tarantino’s Dinero Saves Famous Paris Cinema

A Hollywood ending:  There’s something magic about great indie cinemas, and something equally dreadful when their futures are threatened. Happily, the future of La Clef, nestled on a quiet street near Paris’ busy fifth arrondissement, is now secure after none other than Quentin Tarantino made a series of what were described to Deadline as “major” cash donations alongside two other anonymous patrons. The classic cinema had been facing its end after Caisse d’Epargne banking group put it on the market. With Tarantino’s donations — along with 5,000 individual contributions from the likes of David Lynch, Wang Bing and Leos Carax accounting for about a quarter of the required cash — the activist group that had occupied the space since 2019 was able to raise the €2M ($2.1M) needed to purchase the building, save the venue from closure and keep it community-run. Fascinatingly, Tarantino’s donation was the result of an impromptu meeting between the  Pulp Fiction  director and members of the La Clef collective at the Cannes Film Festival. Tarantino is known as a long-standing supporter of physical cinema spaces, buying the embattled New Beverly Cinema in 2014 and the Vista Theatre on Sunset Boulevard in 2021. Read Zac’s heartwarming report about how Big Cinema can help Little Cinema, complete with its Hollywood ending,  here .

BBC ‘s Israel-Gaza Coverage In Spotlight

A mood so fraught:  Jake dropped  an important read  yesterday, diving deep into the internal turmoil at the BBC, over how it is approaching its coverage of the Israel-Gaza crisis. Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, killing over 1,200 people, and Israel subsequently launched its brutal ongoing military operations in Gaza, the temperature has risen around the world and anger abounds. Our investigation forensically explores how that fury, sadness and fear is manifesting at the BBC. The mood is so fraught, Jake reports, that its reputation among Jewish and Muslim viewers may never fully recover. Jake examines the input of former BBC TV controller Danny Cohen and Fulwell 73 partner Leo Pearlman, while speaking to several unnamed Jewish and Muslim employees to explain how even the smallest engagement with the subject often ends in acrimony. Jake also explores whether there is support for competing accusations of bias within the BBC’s coverage, and reveals the existence of a bitter employment dispute, tense meetings and what insiders call “egregious” letters sent to management. An essential read for those attempting to make sense of the devastating conflict in the Middle East.

From Bollywood To Hollywood

The Essentials

🌶️  Hot One : David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie and more are  joining  Netflix and Amblin’s feature  The Thursday Murder Club.

🌶️  Also Hot:  Nordic noir architect Piv Bernth is  making  a decidedly lighter comedy-drama series set in a shopping mall.

🌶️  More heat : Riz Ahmed will  create, produce and star in  a comedy series about a struggling actor for Prime Video. 

🥧  Tasty pastry:  French singer-songwriter   Amir Haddad  will star  in a TF1 remake of Israeli romcom series  The Baker and the Beauty .

👐 “ Hands off:  Netflix’s EMEA boss, Larry Tanz,  said  his Los Gatos bosses give him plenty of creative freedom.

👨🏻 FAST lane:  Mr Bean is  launching  a FAST channel in 29 territories.

🔥  Hot Spots:  Diana went  deep-dive  into Toronto’s production sector.

🌏 Globie:  Thai film  How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies  is  our Global Breakout  this week.

🏅  Feted:  Karlovy Vary will  honor  Viggo Mortensen, Clive Owen and Daniel Brühl.

🏆  Gongs:  British drama  The Gathering  was  among the big winners  at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival’s Golden Nymph Awards.

🎞️  New fest:  Plans are underway to  launch  Montreal Critics Week in January 2025.

🎥 Trailer:  For Saudi stand-up and actor Fahad Albutairi’s family vacation comedy  Al Eid Eiden .

Zac Ntim contributed to this week’s Insider

Must Read Stories

‘harry potter’, ‘lanterns’ & ‘welcome to derry’ moving from max in streaming rethink.

Hot-Button Film ‘The Apprentice’ Moving Toward U.S. Deal With Briarcliff

Bankers hired to sell paramount global assets, co-ceos reveal at town hall, ‘general hospital’ is bringing back jonathan jackson as lucky spencer.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

No comments.

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• Sample Programs
• Make a Payment
• Already Booked?
• Destinations & Experiences
• Custom Planning
• Why Journeys
• 800-255-8735
• Destinations
• Travel Goals
• Latin America
• Middle East
• North & South Pole
• United States
• Traveler Favorites
• South Africa
• Togo & Benin
• Central Asia
• South Korea
• Southeast Asia
• Czech Republic
• All Latin America
• All Middle East
• Saudi Arabia
• All Pacific
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Iguazu Falls
• Okavango Delta
• Panama Canal
• Surprising Journeys
• Beach & Island
• Icecap & Glacier
• Jungle & Rainforest
• River & Lake
• For Families
• For Couples
• For Friends
• For Individuals
• For Large Groups
• All Families
• Families with School Age Children
• Families with Teens
• LGBTQ+ Families
• Multi-Generational Families
• Bond with Fellow Travelers
• Connect Across Cultures
• Discover Myself
• Do New Things
• Engage New Ideas
• Escape, Relax & Recharge
• Explore the Great Outdoors
• Find Creative Inspiration
• Make a Positive Impact
• Mark a Transition
• Custom Trips
• Group Trips
• Secret Itineraries
• Expedition Cruises
• Rare Journeys
• Competitours
• Custom Trips for Groups & Organizations
• United States United States
• Virtual Virtual
• Beach & Island Beach & Island
• Desert Desert
• Icecap & Glacier Icecap & Glacier
• Jungle & Rainforest Jungle & Rainforest
• Mountain Mountain
• River & Lake River & Lake
• For Couples For Couples
• For Friends For Friends
• For Individuals For Individuals
• For Large Groups For Large Groups
• Bond with Fellow Travelers Bond with Fellow Travelers
• Connect Across Cultures Connect Across Cultures
• Discover Myself Discover Myself
• Do New Things Do New Things
• Engage New Ideas Engage New Ideas
• Escape, Relax & Recharge Escape, Relax & Recharge
• Explore the Great Outdoors Explore the Great Outdoors
• Find Creative Inspiration Find Creative Inspiration
• Get Active Get Active
• Make a Positive Impact Make a Positive Impact
• Mark a Transition Mark a Transition
• Custom Trips Custom Trips

Holi Festival Adventure Tours

Holi , or Holli, is a spring festival celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and others. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and countries with large Indic diaspora populations, such as Suriname, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United Kingdom, United States, Mauritius, and Fiji. In West Bengal and Orissa of India it is known as Dolyatra (Doul Jatra) or Basanta-Utsav (“spring festival”). The most celebrated Holi is that of the Braj region, in locations connected to the god Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandagaon, and Barsana. These places have become tourist destinations during the festive season of Holi, which lasts here to up to 16 days. The main day, Holi, also known as Dhuli Vandana in Sanskrit,also Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other. Bonfires are lit the day before, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion. Holika Dahan is referred to as Kama Dahanam in South India. Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), (Phalgun Purnima), which usually falls in the later part of February or March. Rangapanchami occurs a few days later on a Panchami (fifth day of the full moon), marking the end of festivities involving colors.

Rituals of Holi

The earliest textual reference to the celebration of Holi is found in the 7th century Sanskrit drama, Ratnavali. Certainly there are perennial rituals attached to Holi: the first is smearing of coloured powder on each other, and throwing coloured and scented water at each other using pichkaris (shaped like giant syringes or squirt guns). Though the festival really begins many days in advance, with ‘Holi Milan’ or Baithaks, musical soirees, where songs related to the festival, and the epic love story of Radha Krishna are sung; a special type of folk songs, known as “Hori,” are sung as well. Some classical ones like Aaj biraj mein Holi re rasiya have been traditional for many generations. holi is famous festival of hindu

Food preparations also begin many days in advance, with assemblage of gujia, papads, kanji and various kinds of snack items including malpuas, mathri, puran poli, and dahi badas, which are served to Holi guests. The night of Holi, the baithak take turns churning bhang (cannabis) into intoxicating milk shakes and they make sweet laddoos mixed with bhang.

Holika Dahan (Holi bonfire)

The main emphasis of the festival is on the burning of the holy fire or Holika. The origin of the traditional lighting of Holi is attributed by some to the burning of demonesses like Holika, Holaka and Putana who represent evil, or to the burning of Madan according to others.

Traditionally a bonfire on the day of Holi, marks the symbolic annihilation of Holika the demoness as described above.

This is akin to other festivals where effigies are burned, such as Ravana Dahan on Vijayadashami (Dusshera) day or those in many other religions across the world, signifying the end of dark or demonic forces. With Holika Dahan, the effigy has now all but vanished or is only present in a symbolic form, except in a few areas in the Braja region, where effigies are still seen on street corners and public squares, piled on top of assembled wood. This is set fire to after ritualistic worship, and people make pradakshina of the bonfire. The next day this victory is celebrated as the day of Dulhendi.

In some practices, particularly in the UK, coconuts are thrown into the fire and then pulled out. The burnt husk of the coconut represents Holika who died in the pyre. The white inside represents Prahlad, who was still alive and unaffected by the pyre.

Principal ingredients of the celebration are Abeer and Gulal, in all possible colours. Next comes squirting of coloured water using pichkaris. Coloured water is prepared using Tesu flowers, which are first gathered from the trees, dried in the sun, and then ground up, and later mixed with water to produce orange-yellow coloured water. Another traditional Holi item now rarely seen is a red powder enclosed in globes of Lakh, which break instantly and cover the party with the powder.

Customize Your Dream Adventure

We are here to help craft tailor-made adventures for individuals, couples, families, and groups of explorers.

Top Adventures

Experience the holi festival.

Big Five of India

Explore Manas and Kanha's wildlife parks in search of India's Big Five; discover Kolkata, the city of joy; and more on this amazing wildlife safari with senior naturalist guide Avi Sarkhel.

From $6325 Per Person

Attractions

Things to see & do near holi festival.

India Travel Tips & Stories

Travel Inspiration Delivered

• First Name *
• Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s aide warns of ‘retaliation’ after US-missile attack on Crimea

LIVE – Updated at 08:19

The Kremlin has blamed the US for an attack on Crimea ’s Sevastopol with US-supplied ATACMS missiles over the weekend and warned of “retaliatory action”.

Sunday’s Ukrainian missile strike killed at least four people and injured 151. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the US is now party to the conflict and holds direct blame for strikes on Russian soil.

“You should ask my colleagues in Europe, and above all in Washington , the press secretaries, why their governments are killing Russian children,” Mr Peskov said.

Russia has not acknowledged its own strikes on Ukraine ’s civilian infrastructure like maternity hospitals, schools, residential complexes among many others since February 2022 in its course of military invasion. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in the 27-month-old war, including 587 children.

However, after the latest Crimea strike, the Russian foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador Lynne Tracy and told her Washington was “waging a hybrid war against Russia and has actually become a party to the conflict”.

Pentagon spokesperson Major Charlie Dietz said that “Ukraine makes its own targeting decisions and conducts its own military operations.”

Russia vows retaliation against US over Crimea strike

At least eight people dead after fire at moscow former research building.

• Russia says US responsible for deadly attack on Crimea

Three injured after Russian missile strike on Odesa

Fresh western munitions satiate ukrainian forces 'shell hunger'.

Ukrainian troops trying to hold their ground on the eastern front in Donetsk region may still be outnumbered by Russian forces, but the “shell hunger” that plagued them for months as ammunitions started to run out is now behind them.

One unit in Donetsk region, the focus of Russian troops’ slow advance along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front, fired its M-109 self-propelled howitzer as needed -- there were no further fears of running short of Western-supplied 155 mm shells.

“There was ‘shell hunger’. Ammunition was rationed quite severely. It had an impact on infantry, they (Russians) crept from all sides, it hurt the infantry men,” unit commander Vasyl, 46, told a Reuters TV reporter.

“Now, there is no more ‘shell hunger’ and we work well.”

Demand for 155 mm artillery rounds has soared since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with Kyiv’s Western allies running down their own stockpiles as they rushed shells to Ukraine where thousands of rounds were needed every day.

Now a fresh influx of ammunition has begun arriving at units like Vasyl’s after the U.S. Congress ended months of delays and approved a $61 billion (£48 bn) aid package.

Dagestan, in southern Russia, has a history of violence. Why does it keeps happening?

Over the years, Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan , located in the North Caucasus region, has been beset by extremist violence. This weekend, there was more bloodshed.

Officials say five gunmen in the regional capital of Makhachkala and the city of Derbent opened fire at Orthodox churches and two synagogues, as well as a police post, killing at least 20 people before being slain by authorities.

A look at the volatile region:

Where is Dagestan?

Dagestan, which sits in the North Caucasus between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, is known as one of Russia’s most diverse — but volatile — regions.

There are more than 30 recognised ethnic groups and 13 local languages granted special status alongside Russian.

It has been blighted by violence since the early 2000s, when militant insurgents taking part in separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya were pushed into the region as a result of pressure from Russian security forces and iron-fisted Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Volume of Western aid will not change Ukraine frontline situation until late July

The volume of Western military assistance reaching Ukraine will not be at a scale that can change the frontline dynamics till late July, Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Head Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview.

He noted that the US and European weapons deliveries, including artillery ammunition, are arriving in Ukraine at a faster pace than several months ago but Ukrainian forces need a high volume of weapons and “there is a question of volume.”

“No Armageddon will emerge [on the frontline]” but that the frontline situation will remain difficult for at least one month, he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian forces are “attempting to make tactically and operationally significant gains before US military assistance arrives to Ukrainian forces at the frontline at scale, and that the initial arrival of Western-provided weaponry will take some time to have tactical to operational effect on the frontline”.

Washington ‘regrets’ loss of life in Crimea

Russia’s foreign ministry summoned US ambassador Lynne Tracy yesterday and told her Washington was "waging a hybrid war against Russia and has actually become a party to the conflict".

"Retaliatory measures will definitely follow," the ministry said.

Ms Tracy said Washington regretted any loss to civilian life, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters, adding that Washington provided weapons to Ukraine so it could defend its sovereign territory, including Crimea.

The Kremlin pinned the blame on the United States for an attack on Crimea with US-supplied ATACMS missiles that killed at least four people and injured 151, and Moscow formally warned the U.S. ambassador that retaliation would follow.

“You should ask my colleagues in Europe, and above all in Washington, the press secretaries, why their governments are killing Russian children,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He has not acknowledged Russian strikes that have claimed the lives of more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians in Russia’s invasion since February 2022. The death toll also includes more than 500 children.

“Retaliatory measures will definitely follow,” he said.

At least two children were killed in the attack on Sevastopol on Sunday, according to Russian officials. People were shown running from a beach near Sevastopol and some of the injured being carried off on sun loungers. Kyiv did not comment on the attack but denies targeting civilians.

Russia says nearly 30 Ukrainian drones destroyed overnight

At least 29 Ukrainian-launched drones have been drowned by Russia’s air defence systems in an overnight aerial assault, the Russian defence ministry claimed this morning.

“Air defence systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 29 UAVs over the territory of the Belgorod region and destroyed one UAV over the territory of the Voronezh region,” it claimed on Telegram channel, blaming “Kyiv regime”.

No immediate casualties have been reported so far.

Ukraine to begin EU membership talks along with Moldova

The European Union will open membership talks with Ukraine today, giving the country a political boost in the midst of its war against Russia’s invasion, although a long and tough road still lies ahead before it could join the bloc.

The ceremony in Luxembourg will be more about symbolism than the nitty-gritty of negotiations, which will start in earnest only after the EU has screened reams of Ukrainian legislation to assess all the reforms needed to meet the bloc’s standards.

Ihor Zhovkva, foreign policy adviser to president Volodymyr Zelensky, said it would give Ukrainians morale a big lift. “It is very important,” he told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv. “The path to full-fledged membership, which Ukraine deserves ... is irreversible.”

By marking the start of talks with Ukraine, and with its neighbour Moldova later in the day, the EU is signalling that both countries are on a path away from Russian influence and towards greater integration with the West.

The moment will be poignant for many Ukrainians, who trace their current conflict with Moscow back to the Maidan uprising of 2014, when protesters toppled a pro-Russian president who reneged on a pledge to develop closer ties with the EU.

North Korea warns US of ‘new world war’ over support for Ukraine

Top North Korean military officials criticised the United States on Monday for its expanding military assistance to Ukraine and warned of a “new world war”.

North Korea‘s vice minister of defence, Kim Kang Il, said the U.S. sending an aircraft carrier to the Korean peninsula was a “very dangerous” show of force, leaving doors open for North Korea‘s “overwhelming, new demonstration of deterrence,” state media KCNA reported.

A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier, the Theodore Roosevelt, arrived in the South Korean port city of Busan on Saturday to take part in joint military exercises later this month with the host nation and Japan, naval officials said.

Just days after Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pyongyang, Pak Jong Chon, one of North Korea‘s top military officials, said Moscow had the “right to opt for any kind of retaliatory strike” if Washington kept pushing Ukraine to a “proxy war” against Russia.

It could provoke a stronger response from Moscow, and a “new world war”, Pak said, according to KCNA.

Four people injured in Ukraine attacks on Russia’s Belgorod

Four people were injured and scores of buildings damaged in multiple attacks by Ukraine on the Belgorod region, the governor of the southern Russian region that borders Ukraine said today.

At least six Ukraine-launched drones were destroyed over the Yakovlevsky district in the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the region said on Telegram. Two people were injured there with shrapnel wounds, he added.

Another person was injured after a drone was downed over the city of Belgorod, which is the administrative centre of the Belgorod region, and another woman was injured in one of the region’s villages, Gladkov said.

He said that scores of buildings and cars across the region were damaged.

Zelensky orders purge of Ukraine’s state guard

Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered the new chief of Ukraine’s state guard service to purge its ranks after two of its officers were accused of plans to assassinate senior officials.

The state security service (SBU) said last month that it had caught two guard service colonels accused of cooperating with Russia to plot the assassination of the Ukrainian president, military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov and other officials.

Mr Zelensky introduced staff to the new head of Ukraine’s state guard, Colonel Oleksiy Morozov, on Monday and said his main task was to ensure that only those who see their future tied with Ukraine could join the agency.

He said on Telegram: “And, of course, the agency must be cleared of anyone who chooses not Ukraine for themselves or discredits the state guard service.” The guard service provides security for various governement officials.

Zelensky orders purge of Ukraine’s state guard after alleged assassination plots

US to send Ukraine $150m more in munitions to fight off Russia

The US is expected to announce an additional package of $150m in critically needed munitions to Ukraine today, two US officials said.

The upcoming shipment is expected to include munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. The air defence system is capable of firing the longer-range missiles from the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, which Russia has said would prompt retaliation and risk escalating the conflict. One of the US officials said they could not verify whether this aid package included ATACMS munitions, but said the aid did not include cluster munitions.

The package also includes anti-armour weapons, small arms and grenades and the highly sought-after 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds, among other support.

The continued flow of US munitions, which will be drawn from existing stockpiles, is intended to help Ukrainian forces repel intensified Russian attacks.

This comes at a time Moscow is accuses Ukraine of using US-provided munitions to strike inside Russia or Russian-held territory.

A U.S. envoy visits Hanoi days after Putin, saying US-Vietnam trust is at 'all-time high'

A senior U.S. diplomat held talks in Vietnam on Saturday and said that the trust between the two countries was at an “all-time high,” just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘s state visit to Hanoi .

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink insisted that his trip was unrelated to Putin’s visit on Thursday.

Vietnam had elevated the United States to its highest diplomatic status, comprehensive strategic partner, last year, putting it at the same level as China and Russia. The elevation of the U.S. ties suggested that Vietnam wanted to hedge its friendships as Western companies look to diversify their supply chains away from China.

Ukrainians in Warsaw jump over a bonfire, float braids to celebrate solstice custom away from home

Ukrainians in Warsaw jumped over a bonfire and floated braids to honor the vital powers of water and fire on the Vistula River bank Saturday night, as they celebrated their solstice tradition of Ivan Kupalo Night away from war-torn home. Hundreds joined the event, most of them war refugees.

“We are doing this traditional thing here to keep up our culture which needs all our support now because Russia is trying to kill everything that is Ukrainian,” said Viktoria Pogrebniak, 29, of the Euromaidan-Warszawa social initiative of the Ukrainians that organized the festivities.

“We want the people who have left Ukraine to remember their tradition and to remember that they have a bond with Ukraine,” Pogrebniak told The Associated Press.

Thousands of Ukrainians mark pagan festival with bonfire jumping and air raid notifications

Despite war-time restrictions, Ukrainians marked midsummer with festivals that featured frenetic folk dancing, flower decoration and jumping over bonfires.

The festival of Ivana Kupala on Sunday was held as Ukrainians start their third summer at war, with Kyiv and other cities hit by regular blackouts and remaining under nightly curfew.

An hour’s drive south of the capital, several thousand joined the summer festival, many wearing shirts and dresses embroidered with traditional patterns.

Thousands of Ukrainians mark pagan festival with bonfire jumping and curfew

Ukraine has hit over 30 Russian oil refineries, depots, Zelensky says

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Ukraine has hit more than 30 Russian oil processing and storage facilities.

The Ukrainian military has stepped up attacks on Russian oil infrastructure this year, seeking to disrupt oil supplies to the Russian army and curb Moscow’s revenues to finance its war against Ukraine.

“More than 30 oil refineries, terminals, and oil depots of the terrorist state have been hit,” Zelensky told officers of Special Operations Centre “A” of the State Security Service (SBU) involved in attacks.

He did not provide any additional details or give a time period. A video of his address was shared on his account on X.

Ukraine has been using its long-range drones, developed both by military intelligence and the SBU, for the strikes.

“For SBU drones, a distance of 1,500 km is no longer a problem,” Zelenskiy said, apparently referring to a May 9 strike when a major oil processing plant in the Bashkiria region was hit.

In the most recent attack on June 21, drones hit four refineries, including the Ilsky refinery, one of the main fuel producers in southern Russia.

EU backs using Russian asset profits for Ukraine, despite Hungarian objection, diplomats say

The European Union has approved a plan to use a first tranche of profits from frozen Russian assets for military aid to Ukraine, getting around a Hungarian block, diplomats said on Monday.

Earlier in the day, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc had found a way to use the funds to buy arms and other aid for Ukraine without needing Hungary’s consent.

Borrell said the first tranche of the profits of “around 1.4 billion euros” is expected to be available next week.

Has Russia just dropped a deadly new 3,000kg glide bomb in Ukraine?

The multistorey building stands alone just off a main road. The houses around it are completely destroyed , razed to the ground by relentless Russian shelling, and the dirt road is scarred by shrapnel. All that can be heard is the sound of a bomb being dropped, followed seconds later by a mighty explosion.

The bomb smashes into the ground 10 metres from the building, opening up a huge crater before a swelling fireball engulfs the entire three floors. When the smoke eventually dissipates, the footage shows the building’s whole roof has been ripped off.

This, Russian military bloggers are claiming, is the first test of a 3000kg glide bomb, otherwise known as the Fab-3000, a modified munition that is packed with nearly a tonne and a half of explosives. Earlier versions of these explosives, which are Soviet-era munitions retrofitted with fixed wings and GPS navigation systems that extend their range beyond the reach of Ukrainian anti-air defences, appeared earlier this year. These were the Fab-500s and the Fab-1500s.

A year ago, Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin challenged the Kremlin with a mutiny

On a lazy summer weekend a year ago, Russia was jolted by the stunning news of an armed uprising. The swaggering chief of a Kremlin-sponsored mercenary army seized a military headquarters in the south and began marching toward Moscow to oust the Defense Ministry’s leaders, accusing them of starving his force of ammunition in Ukraine .

Yevgeny Prigozhin and his soldiers-for-hire called off their “march of justice” only hours later, but the rebellion dealt a blow to President Vladimir Putin , the most serious challenge to his rule in nearly a quarter-century in power.

Prigozhin’s motives are still hotly debated, and the suspicious crash of the private jet that killed him and his top lieutenants exactly two months after the rebellion remains mired in mystery.

Ukraine sends over 30 drones into Russia after bombing of Kharkiv leaves 3 dead and dozens injured

Russian authorities said more than 30 drones were shot down over the country’s western regions overnight into Sunday, just hours after a Russian bomb attack on Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv killed three people and left dozens in hospitals.

One of the four aerial bombs hit a five-story residential building on Saturday afternoon, officials said. Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said 41 people were still being treated for injuries.

In a video address following the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukraine’s partners to bolster its air defenses.

Indian tech company with ties to government sanctioned by Japan for helping Russia evade sanctions

Japan has become the latest country to sanction an Indian tech company for its alleged role in helping Russia evade sanctions imposed due to its war in Ukraine .

The sanctions were part of trade restrictions, including asset freezes, against 11 entities in five countries, including China, Kazakhstan, UAE, and Uzbekistan, on Friday.

This is the first time Japan has imposed sanctions on an Indian company since 1998 and the first time for China-based firms in connection with the war in Ukraine.

Indian tech company with ties to government sanctioned by Japan over Russia sanctions

Russian region of Dagestan holds a day of mourning after attacks kill 19 people

Russia’s southern region of Dagestan held the first of three days of mourning Monday following a rampage by Islamic militants who killed 19 people, most of them police, and attacked houses of worship in apparently coordinated assaults in two cities.

Sunday’s violence was the latest that officials blamed on Islamic extremists in the predominantly Muslim region in the North Caucasus, as well as the deadliest in Russia since March, when gunmen opened fire at a concert in suburban Moscow , killing 145 people.

The March attack was claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group. but no one has stepped forward to take responsibility for Sunday’s attacks in Dagestan’s regional capital of Makhachkala and nearby Derbent, both adjacent to the Caspian Sea.

Leader of NATO member Poland visits China

Polish President Andrzej Duda met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Monday on a visit to Beijing that brought the head of state of a NATO member to a country that has backed Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At the meeting at the Great Hall of the People accompanied with a full honor guard and 21-gun salute, Duda told Xi that relations between the former Russian-allied nation, which inspired democratic movements with its push for democracy, and China , which remains under single-party Communist Party rule, remain strong.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict was on the agenda for talks, but no remarks on the issue were delivered before journalists were ushered from the vast carpeted meeting room.

Leader of NATO member Poland visits China, expecting to talk to Xi about Ukraine

Two people jumped to their death from the top floors of a burning eight-storey former Russian electronics research institute in Moscow on Monday.

At least six other people have died in the fire as people became trapped on the top floors and were unable to escape, the state-run TASS news agency reported.

One man was shown jumping from the upper floor of the building by the Baza Telegram channel. Another, with serious burns, fell from the upper floors, footage published by Shot Telegram channel showed.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

Hungary seeking to challenge EU decision on frozen Russian assets

A Hungarian legal team in Brussels is looking for ways of challenging an EU decision to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets by circumventing Budapest’s opposition, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page on Monday.

Earlier, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the EU had found a way to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Ukraine despite hold-ups from Hungary.

Polish president says he hopes China can help bring peace in Ukraine

Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Monday during a visit to Beijing that he hoped China would help find a solution for peace in Ukraine that respects international law.

Diplomats told Reuters this month that China had been lobbying governments with an alternative peace plan for Ukraine.

“I presented our point of view on the security situation in Europe and the world, above all in our part of Europe,” Duda told reporters after a meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

“I hope that China will... support efforts to strive for a peaceful end to the war waged by Russia in Ukraine,” he said, adding that any such peace must respect international law and Ukraine‘s internationally recognised borders.

China and Russia proclaimed a “no limits” partnership just days before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Russia‘s smaller neighbour. Beijing says it is neutral in the conflict and has not supplied Moscow with weapons or ammunition.

Xi told Duda that China supported all efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to a peaceful end and that China would continue to play a role in finding a political solution to the crisis, Chinese state television reported.

Russian vows response to new EU sanctions as it widens black list

Russia‘s foreign ministry reacted to a fresh wave of European Union sanctions on Monday by saying any unfriendly Western actions would be met with “the necessary response”.

The ministry called the sanctions illegal and said in a statement it had “significantly” expanded its black list of people barred from entering Russia. It provided no further details.

Earlier, EU countries adopted a 14th package of sanctions on Russia that aims to close some loopholes and hits Russia‘s gas exports for the first time.

Russia summons the American ambassador over a deadly attack that Moscow says used US-made missiles

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the American ambassador on Monday to protest what it says was the use of U.S.-made advanced missiles in a Ukrainian attack on Russian-annexed Crimea that reportedly killed four people and wounded more than 150.

Washington “has effectively become a party” to the war on Ukraine’s side, the ministry said in a statement, adding, “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow.” It did not elaborate.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Ukrainian officials. The Associated Press could not independently verify Russia’s claims about the missiles used.

Russian missiles kill four and wound 34 in eastern town Pokrovsk, Ukraine says

Russian missiles killed at least four people and wounded 34 others, including two children, in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Monday, the regional governor said.

“This is one of the largest enemy attacks on civilians recently,” Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

Images shared alongside his post showed one-story buildings with shattered windows, ruined rooftops and bricks and construction waste scattered around.

Filashkin said Russian troops launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at the town which is about 24 km (15 miles) from the front line. The attack destroyed one private house and damaged 16 more, he added.

One missile struck and then, half an hour later, a second, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement. The attacks also damaged a gas pipeline and cars, it added.

In pictures: Burnt Derbent synagogue following after Dagestan attack

Sergei Melikov, the head of the Dagestan region, visits Derbent synagogue following an attack by gunmen and a fire.

Russia says U.S. programmed and guided missiles which struck Crimea

The Russian foreign ministry said on Monday that missiles used in Sunday’s attack on Crimea had been programmed by United States specialists and guided based on intelligence data from U.S. satellites and a nearby U.S. reconnaissance drone.

The ministry earlier on Monday summoned the U.S. ambassador to tell her that Moscow blamed Kyiv and Washington equally for the deadly attack on the city of Sevastopol in Crimea.

Farage accused of ‘playing into Putin’s hands’ as he doubles down on Ukraine invasion comments

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have led criticism of Nigel Farage after the Reform UK leader claimed that the West “provoked” Vladimir Putin ’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine .

It did not stop Mr Farage from doubling down on his comments, originally made in a BBC Panorama interview which aired on Friday night, in a column piece on Saturday afternoon for the Daily Telegraph , claiming that he should “not be blamed for telling the truth about Putin’s war”.

Asked about the remarks during an election campaign visit in London on Saturday, prime minister Mr Sunak suggested Mr Farage was “emboldening Putin” .

Farage accused of ‘playing into Putin’s hands’ as he doubles down on Ukraine comments

Under curfew, Ukrainians mark midsummer with bonfire jumping at a festival with pagan roots

A Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa struck civilian infrastructure and injured at least three people, on Monday morning, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.

The attack damaged a storage facility where some 50 people were working, military and regional authorities said.

The air force said it had prevented one of two cruise missiles launched by Russia from reaching the target.

Mr Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app that two middle-aged men and a 19-year-old boy were taken to hospital.

The air force had warned the city’s residents of the threat of incoming missiles before the explosions sounded.

Odesa has been a frequent target of Russian forces in the 28-month-long full-scale invasion, with many attacks aimed at the city’s port facilities. Russia denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.

With its new pact with North Korea, Russia raises the stakes with the West over Ukraine

Behind the smiles, the balloons and the red-carpet pageantry of President Vladimir Putin ‘s visit to North Korea last week, a strong signal came through: In the spiraling confrontation with the U.S. and its allies over Ukraine , the Russian leader is willing to challenge Western interests like never before.

The pact that he signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un envisions mutual military assistance between Moscow and Pyongyang if either is attacked. Putin also announced for the first time that Russia could provide weapons to the isolated country, a move that could destabilize the Korean Peninsula and reverberate far beyond.

MoD issue ‘myth-busting’ Nato video after Farage comments on Ukraine invasion

The Ministry of Defence has published a myth-busting video denouncing the idea that Nato is “encircling” Russia , just a day after Nigel Farage doubled down on his claims that the West had “provoked” Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine.

In a 31-second clip posted on X, formerly Twitter, the MoD’s video presented the idea that “Nato is encircling Russia” as a myth, before writing that Russia is the largest country in the world and that “it is hard to encircle a country with 11 time zones.”

“Only 11 per cent of Russia’s land border is shared with Nato countries,” a message in the video showed.

EU has solution to use frozen Russian funds for Ukraine, Borrell says

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said he would put forward a proposal on how to avoid any member state blocking the use of proceeds from frozen Russian financial funds to support Ukraine.

“We have a legal procedure in order to avoid any kind of blockage,” Borrell said before a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Luxembourg.

Russian strike on Odesa injures three, Ukraine says

A Russian attack on Ukraine‘s southern city of Odesa struck civilian infrastructure and injured at least three people on Monday morning, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.

A 19-year-old boy and two middle-aged men were taken to hospital, Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine‘s interior ministry published pictures of a massive cloud of smoke rising from the site where emergency services were working to put out a fire.

EU must step up against Russia's hybrid attacks, Lithuania says

The EU has to step up its actions against Russia‘s hybrid attacks, which it is also escalating inside NATO countries, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Monday.

“We have to be very clear what we are going to do about it, and unfortunately I don’t think that we are sending the right message yet,” Landsbergis said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

“Moscow must get a clear message that whenever they escalate they will receive an answer from our side.”

Dagestan attack: 15 police officers and a priest dead after gunmen open fire in Russia

Gunmen opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church, and a police post in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan, killing at least 15 police officers and a priest in what seemed to be coordinated attacks on several places of worship in Russia’s southernmost province of Dagestan.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in the volatile North Caucasus region, according to the region’s interior ministry.

“This is a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the whole country,” Sergei Melikov, governor of the Dagestan region, said in a video published early on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.

15 police officers and a priest dead after gunmen open fire in Russia

Video of Russian soldier’s execution shows ‘pervasive brutal culture’

A video showing a wounded Russian soldier being shot dead by his own side shows the “brutal culture” within the Russian Armed Forces, according to a US-based think tank.

Undated footage was shared on social media platforms over the weekend of a Russian soldier, wounded by a drone strike, motioning to a comrade to help him out. Instead the other soldier, within seconds, kills the wounded soldier with a gunshot at point blank range.

The video suggests the Russian soldier killed his fellow service member instead of attempting to check the soldier’s injury, attempting treatment, taking his identification tags, or attempting a casualty evacuation, the Institute for the Study of War said.

“The attempted or deliberate killing of a fellow soldier is unprofessional, and ISW has observed instances of Russian fragging (the deliberate killing of supervisors) and other anecdotes demonstrative of a callous disregard for the lives of Russia’s own soldiers throughout the war thus far, both within Russia and amongst Russian troops on the battlefield,” it said in its latest assessment,

Fragging is “generally indicative of extremely poor discipline amongst troops, a disconnect between tactical level commanders and their subordinates, as well as a blatant disregard for human life,” it added.

The casualty has not been confirmed by the Russian ministry of defence. The Independent has not verified the time, location and the authenticity of the video independently.

In another incident on Saturday, a Russian military blogger confirmed that commanders of various Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) units are severely mistreating their wounded subordinates and alleged that the 1st DNR Slavic Brigade (1st DNR Army Corps) is holding its own wounded personnel in prison-like conditions in Donetsk City, instead of providing them with the treatment that they require, the ISW said.

“Both the fragging incident and the milblogger claims against the DNR command are indicative of a very poor culture within the Russian military, particularly the command’s disregard for their subordinates and a generally low level of discipline,” it added.

• USA & Canada
• Australia & New-Zealand
• Southeast Asia

• anywhere on the site
• in the encyclopedia
• in the forums
• remind me tomorrow
• remind me next week
• never remind me

News Naoko Yamada, Science Saru's The Colors Within Film Wins at Shanghai International Film Festival

The anime will open in Japan on August 30. The film was originally slated to open in fall 2023, but it was then slated to open in 2024. GKIDS has acquired the film for North America, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. Anime Ltd. has acquired the film for Europe. PLAION PICTURES will handle Italian- and German-speaking territories, and CHARADES will manage sales for the rest of Europe, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Yamada directed the film at Science SARU . Story Inc. is credited as planner and producer. Reiko Yoshida ( K-ON! , Girls und Panzer , Ride Your Wave , Violet Evergarden ) penned the script, and kensuke ushio ( Space Dandy , A Silent Voice , Liz and the Blue Bird , Chainsaw Man ) composed the music. DaisukeRichard drafted the original characters, and Takashi Kojima designed the characters and also directed the animation. Mr. Children performs the theme song "in the pocket."

The story centers on a Totsuko, a high school girl who can see the "colors" of the emotions in people's hearts. She attends a mission school in Nagasaki. In order to keep her friends and family from feeling dark feelings, she worries, reads situations, and even lies to smooth things over. At an antique bookshop in the corner of town, she meets a beautiful woman with an incredibly beautiful color and a music-loving boy trying to put together a band. The story follows these three sensitive people who gather together to play in a band.

The film held its premiere at this year's Annecy International Film Festival earlier this month.

Source: Shanghai International Film Festival

News homepage / archives

The ANN Aftershow - Kaiju No. 8's Biggest Monster Yet

My name is shingo perfect edition volumes 1-2 manga review, this week in anime - how to watch anime on a budget, the worst anime of spring 2024, tsukimichi -moonlit fantasy- anime gets 3rd season, who made me a princess volumes 1-3 manhwa review, read 30 pages of tezuka-reimagining comic, unico: awakening, the best anime of spring 2024, my hero academia manga to end in 5 chapters, seiju amano's class no dai kirai na joshi to kekkon suru koto ni natta. story gets tv anime, let's do it already volume 1 manga review, ' as a reincarnated aristocrat, i'll use my appraisal skill ' anime gets 2nd season in fall, apocalypse bringer mynoghra light novels get tv anime, a ballad of sword and wine danmei novel review, voice actor tōru furuya steps down from detective conan, one piece roles.

• Convention reports
• Press Releases
• Your Score for Recent Simulcasts
• Upcoming Anime List
• Upcoming DVD & Blu-ray
• Weekly Rankings
• Spring 2024 Preview Guide
• Daily Streaming Reviews
• Encyclopedia
• Subscribe »
• ANN:Connect
• Staff openings
• Privacy policy
• Copyright policy
• Advertise with ANN
• Report a Problem
• Bugs & Technical Questions Forum