Month: September 2024

Almodovar’s ‘The Room Next Door’ triumphs at Venice Festival

VENICE, ITALY — Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language movie “The Room Next Door,” which tackles the hefty themes of euthanasia and climate change, won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. Starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, the film received an 18-minute standing ovation when it premiered at Venice earlier in the week — one of the longest in recent memory. Almodovar is a darling of the festival circuit and was awarded a lifetime achievement award at Venice in 2019 for his bold, irreverent and often funny Spanish-language features. He also won an Oscar in …

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Iran’s secret service plots to kill Jews in Europe, says France

paris — A Paris court in May detained and charged a couple on accusations that they were involved in Iranian plots to kill Jews in Germany and France, police sources told Agence France-Presse. Authorities charged Abdelkrim S., 34, and his partner Sabrina B., 33, on May 4 with conspiring with a criminal terrorist organization and placed them in pretrial detention.  The case, known as “Marco Polo” and revealed Thursday by French news website Mediapart, signals a revival in Iranian state-sponsored terrorism in Europe, according to a report by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) seen by AFP.  “Since 2015, the …

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While police protect them, pride marchers demand better rights in Serbia

BELGRADE, Serbia — A pride march Saturday in Serbia’s capital pressed for the demand that the populist government improve the rights of the LGBTQ+ community who often face harassment and discrimination in the conservative Balkan country.  The march in central Belgrade was held under police protection because of possible attacks from right-wing extremists. Organizers said assailants had assaulted a young gay man in Belgrade two days ago and took away his rainbow flag. Serbia is formally seeking entry into the European Union, but its democratic record is poor. Serbia’s LGBTQ+ community is demanding that authorities pass a law allowing same-sex partnerships …

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Ukraine voices concern at reports of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia

KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Saturday it was deeply concerned by reports about a possible impending transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia. In a statement emailed to reporters, the ministry said the deepening military cooperation between Tehran and Moscow was a threat to Ukraine, Europe and the Middle East, and called on the international community to increase pressure on Iran and Russia. CNN and The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, citing unidentified sources. Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range …

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Ураження дронами складу боєприпасів у Воронезькій області є роботою СБУ – джерела

Уночі 7 вересня у Воронезькій області РФ через повітряну атаку розпочалася пожежа на складі боєприпасів. Губернатор Олександр Гусєв стверджував, що дрон був «виявлений і пригнічений» …

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Britain, US spy chiefs call for ‘staying the course’ on Ukraine

LONDON — The heads of the U.S. CIA and Britain’s spy service said in an op-ed on Saturday that “staying the course” in backing Ukraine’s fight against Russia was more important than ever and they vowed to further their cooperation there and on other challenges. The op-ed in the Financial Times by CIA Director William Burns and Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, was the first ever jointly authored by heads of their agencies. “The partnership lies at the beating heart of the special relationship between our countries,” they wrote, noting that their services marked 75 years of partnership …

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