Author Archive VidWorld

Українська спільнота просить МЗС Італії сприяти звільненню увʼязнених Росією оборонців Маріуполя

У Римі під час маніфестації представники громади і родичі увʼязнених передали лист-звернення до керівництва МЗС Італії

Повʼязані з владою Білорусі: США внесли до списку санкцій 10 осіб та 12 компаній

У списку санкцій тепер перебуває верстатобудівне підприємство «СтанкоГомель», яке підписало в 2023 році контракт на постачання обладнання для російських оборонних концернів

Ексрадник президента США: Ізраїль має право на відповідь Ірану

Колишній радник президента США з питань національної безпеки Джон Болтон додав, що Ізраїль не може бути впевнений, що наступні балістичні ракети з Ірану не міститимуть ядерних боєголовок

У Держдепартаменті відповіли, чому союзники не захищають Україну від ракет і дронів, як Ізраїль

«Я вважаю, що передумова запитання, відверто кажучи, трохи абсурдна, тому що вона не відповідає нашій реальності, коли йдеться про підтримку українського народу й українських військових»

Biden hosts Czech leader to promote Ukraine aid amid delay in Congress

washington — President Joe Biden urged the U.S. House to immediately take up Senate-passed supplemental funding for Ukraine and Israel on Monday as he hosted Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala in the Oval Office. 

The visit came as Biden aimed to highlight the efforts other nations are making to support Ukraine. It followed the Czech government’s announcement that it is sending 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine, which Kyiv says is badly needed on the battlefield against Russia’s invasion. 

“As the Czech Republic remembers, Russia won’t stop at Ukraine,” Biden said. He appealed to Congress to pass the supplemental funding so the U.S. could do its part to help Ukraine. “They have to do it now,” he said. 

Fiala praised the U.S. president for his leadership in support of Ukraine, adding, “We are also doing our best.” 

He said, “In 1968 I saw Russian tanks in the streets of my town, and I don’t want to see this again.” 

Biden called the Czech Republic a “great ally” in NATO, as Fiala said his country’s decision to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. will “make our cooperation and security much stronger.” 

Fiala told reporters following his meeting with Biden that he would meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to further discuss Ukraine aid. 

“The support from U.S., the help from U.S., is very important,” Fiala said. 

55% чехів вважають інтеграцію українських біженців успішною – опитування

11% чеських громадян вважають, що біженцям з України потрібно надати можливість постійного проживання в країні, тоді як 60% виступають за можливість надання їм тимчасового проживання

У Тбілісі поліція затримала 14 людей на мітингу проти «закону про іноагентів»

Організатори заявляють, що мітинг триватиме доти, поки владна партія не відмовиться від спроб ухвалити закон, який протестувальники називають антидемократичним й антиєвропейським

У Росії та Казахстані через повінь евакуювали 125 тисяч людей

У північному Казахстані з початку цього місяця було евакуйовано понад 111 тисяч людей

Конгресмени закликали «негайно» внести на розгляд пакет із допомогою Ізраїлю й Україні – лист

Законодавці підкреслюють, що законопроєкт отримав переважну двопартійну підтримку 70 зі 100 голосів у Сенаті

US citizen arrested in Moscow on drug charges appears in court

Moscow — A U.S. citizen arrested on drug charges in Moscow amid soaring Russia-U.S. tensions over Ukraine appeared in court on Monday.

Robert Woodland Romanov is facing charges of trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs as part of an organized group — a criminal offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He was remanded into custody in January, and the trial began in the Ostankino District Court in late March. A new court hearing is scheduled for next week.

In January, the U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of the recent detention of a U.S. citizen and noted that it “has no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” but refrained from further comment, citing privacy considerations. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a similar statement at the time.

Russian media noted that the name of the accused matches that of a U.S. citizen interviewed by the popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda in 2020.

In the interview, the man said that he was born in the Perm region in the Ural Mountains in 1991 and was adopted by an American couple when he was two. He said that he traveled to Russia to find his Russian mother and eventually met her in a TV show in Moscow.

The man told Komsomolskaya Pravda that he liked living in Russia and decided to move there. The newspaper reported that he settled in the town of Dolgoprudny just outside Moscow and was working as an English teacher at a local school.

Arrests of Americans in Russia have become increasingly common as relations between Moscow and Washington sink to Cold War lows. Washington accuses Moscow of targeting its citizens and using them as political bargaining chips, but Russian officials insist they all broke the law.

Some have been exchanged for Russians held in the U.S., while for others, the prospects of being released in a swap are less clear.

Бійка в парламенті Грузії через «закон про іноагентів»: опозиціонер вдарив депутата правлячої партії

«Я завжди намагався спілкуватися з «Грузинською мрією» по-людськи, а вони нас ведуть до Росії», прокоментував свій вчинок Алеко Елісашвілі

Шольц порадив Ізраїлю «сприяти деескалації в регіоні» після атаки Ірану

«Іран не може продовжувати поводитися таким чином»

At birthplace of Olympics, performers at flame-lighting ceremony feel a pull of ancient past

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece — No one knows what music in ancient Greece sounded like or how dancers once moved.

Every two years, a new interpretation of the ancient performance gets a global audience. It takes place in southern Greece at a site many still consider sacred: the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

Forty-eight performers, chosen in part for their resemblance to youths in antiquity as seen in statues and other surviving artwork, will take part Tuesday in the flame-lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics. 

Details of the 30-minute performance are fine-tuned — and kept secret — right up until a public rehearsal Monday.

The Associated Press got rare access to rehearsals that took place during weekends, mostly at an Olympic indoor cycling track in Athens. 

As riders whiz around them on the banked cycling oval, the all-volunteer Olympic performers snatch poses from ancient vases. Sequences are repeated and re-repeated under the direction of the hyper-focused head choreographer Artemis Ignatiou.

“In ancient times there was no Olympic flame ceremony,” Ignatiou said during a recent practice session.

“My inspiration comes from temple pediments, from images on vases, because there is nothing that has been preserved — no movement, no dance — from antiquity,” she said. “So basically, what we are doing is joining up those images. Everything in between comes from us.”

Ceremonies take place at Olympia every two years for the Winter and Summer Games, with the sun’s rays focused on the inside of a parabolic mirror to produce the Olympic flame and start the torch relay to the host city.

Women dressed as priestesses are at the heart of the ceremony, first held for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Leading the group is an actress who performs the role of high priestess and makes a dramatic appeal to Apollo, the ancient god of the sun, for assistance moments before the torch is lit.

Over the decades, new ingredients have been progressively added: music, choreography, new colors for the costumes, male performers known as “kouroi” and subtle style inclusions to give a nod to the culture of the Olympic host nation.

Adding complexity also has introduced controversy, inevitably amplified by social media. Criticism this year has centered on the dresses and tunics to be worn by the performers, styled to resemble ancient Greek columns. Faultfinders have called it a rude departure from the ceremony’s customary elegance.

Organizers hope the attire will create a more positive impression when witnessed at the ruins of ancient Olympia.

Counting out the sequences, Ignatiou controls the music with taps on her cell phone while keeping track of the male dancers at the velodrome working on a stop motion-like routine and women who glide past them like a slowly uncoiling spring.

Ignatiou has been involved with the ceremony for 36 years, as priestess, high priestess, assistant and then head choreographer since 2008. She takes in the criticism with composure.

She’s still moved to tears when describing the flame lighting, but defers to her dancers to describe their experience of the five-month participation at practices.

Most in their early twenties, the performers are selected from dance and drama academies with an eye on maintaining an athletic look and classic Greek aesthetic, the women with hair pulled back in neat double-braids.

Christiana Katsimpraki, a 23-year-old drama school student who is taking part at Olympia for the first time, said she wants to repay the kindness shown to her by older performers.

“Before I go to bed, when I close my eyes, I go through the whole choreography — a run through — to make sure I have all the steps memorized and that they’re in the right order,” she said. “It’s so that the next time I can come to the rehearsal, it all goes correctly and no one gets tired.”

The ceremony is performed to sparse music, and final routine modifications are made at Olympia, in part to cope with the pockmarked and uneven ground at the site.

Dancers describe the fun they have in messaging groups, the good-natured pranks played on newcomers and fun they have on the four-hour bus ride to the ancient site in southern Greece — but also the significance of the moment and the pull of the past.

“I’m in awe that we’re going there and that I’m going to be part of this whole team,” 23-year-old performer Kallia Vouidaski said. “I’m going to have this entire experience that I watched when I was little on TV. I would say, ’Oh! How cool would it be if I could do this at some point.’ And I did it.”

The flame-lighting ceremony will start at 0830 GMT Tuesday. A separate flame-handover ceremony to the Paris 2024 organizing committee will be held in Athens on April 26. 

США: у Нью-Йорку починається суд у справі проти Трампа щодо ймовірних виплат Стормі Деніелс

Суд розпочнеться з ймовірно тривалого і суперечливого процесу відбору 12 присяжних та їхніх заступників, які повинні будуть винести рішення у справі

Військові США знищили понад 80 дронів, запущених по Ізраїлю

Центральне командування США заявило, що віддане підтримці захисту Ізраїлю проти небезпечних дій Ірану