Why the war in Ukraine is leading to delays repairing potholes

Guardian).She said her husband wanted “the end of the deaths of our boys for illusory goals that make our country a pariah and weigh heavily on the lives of its citizens”.A post shared by ALLA PUGACHEVA (@alla_orfey)Galkin was added to the foreign agents’ register by the authorities in Russia last Friday (September 16), having lost his prime-time TV show back in April and been dropped from a number of contracts since.The actions of Putin, who has claimed that Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine and that his country’s actions amount to a “special military operation”, have drawn widespread condemnation from across the globe.As reported by the BBC, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Galkin: “Our paths have clearly diverged – he has made very bad statements.”Artemy Troitsky, a musician and Kremlin critic who left the country in 2014, said: “I think this is her first ever strong political statement and this in itself, of course, is quite shocking for the people in Russia.“I think she’s not the only one who may turn the public opinion.

Boltonians have welcomed more than 100 Ukrainians fleeing war into their homes since the Russian invasion in February. Figures published by Bolton Council show that 46 households in the borough have welcomed refugees under the Homes For Ukraine scheme with the number of households expected to rise to 57 by July next year, meaning 139 people will have been given sanctuary by then.

Marta Balaga Acclaimed cellist Lukas Stasevskij pursues his dream of cinema with documentary “My Ukraine,” currently in development and set to make a bow next week during film industry event Finnish Film Affair. The film is produced by Tero Tamminen (East Films) and Ilona Tolmunen (Made), also behind Aino Suni’s “Heartbeast,” recently snapped up by France’s Wayna Pitch. “When Lukas approached Tero Tamminen and then they called me, we were both immediately interested,” Tolmunen tells Variety, praising Stasevskij’s “universal” story about finding one’s identity and understanding the meaning of roots.

Lewis Milestone’s 1930 classic, All Quiet On The Western Front was based on the 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque and became the first adaptation of a book to win the Oscar for Best Picture, as well as the first Best Picture Oscar winner to also take Best Director. It has hardly been touched by filmmakers since then save for a TV Movie remake by director Delbert Mann in 1979 that starred Richard Thomas. Now that has changed, and in a significant way , as the book has finally been taken on by Germany with director Edward Berger’s (Patrick Melrose, Your Honor) adaptation (co-written with Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell) that finally shows us the perspective from the German side. It has already been selected as the German entry for the 95th Academy Awards Best International Film race, and just had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival today.

Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Slash, Kasabian and Madness are auctioning off Gibson guitars to help victims of the war in Ukraine.The artists have been playing Gibson guitars featuring the colours of the Ukraine flag over the summer.Now, Gibson has crafted a limited edition run of four Guitars For Peace Les Paul Custom electric guitars, with autograph books by the artists that also include Chic, Paloma Faith, The Charlatans, The Vaccines, Toyah, My Chemical Romance and actor Jason Momoa.Starting on October 11, bidding will open via Julien’s Auctions. A live auction will take place online from November 11-13 here and in person at the Hard Rock New York.“I’m happy to auction this beautiful guitar of mine to benefit the fine people of Ukraine,” said McCartney.

[VENICE] It’s Saturday afternoon at the Tennis Club on the Lido, and American director Abel Ferrara chats on camera to an Italian television host before some of his customary swearing sets in, courtesy of a few brave souls wanting a photo with him next to the courts. He’s hungry.

Christopher Vourlias The pursuit of justice in the wake of unspeakable war crimes is at the heart of Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s timely new feature, “The Kiev Trial.” Produced by Atoms & Void for the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, the film had its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. The trailer can be viewed below. Held in January 1946 in the former Soviet Union, the film’s titular trial was among the first court cases to hold Nazis and their collaborators accountable for atrocities committed during World War II — acts that would come to be known as “crimes against humanity” during the historic tribunals held in Nuremberg, Germany.

Evgeny Afineevsky released his Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom in 2015, documenting the Euromaidan protests the previous year in the city of Kyiv that led to the collapse of the Russia-aligned Azarov government and the removal and exile of Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine’s president. Afineevsky returns to Venice this year with Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, a follow-up that details the real stories of the people of Ukraine as they continue their fight against Russia’s invasion of their country.

Christopher Vourlias The journey to the Lido has been longer than most for Ukrainian director Antonio Lukich, whose sophomore feature, “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” has its world premiere Sep. 7 in the Horizons strand at the Venice Film Festival. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Lukich’s life has been upended. Forced to flee Kyiv at the start of the war, the director spoke to Variety from Sweden, where he’s among four Ukrainian filmmakers who were granted a residency with the support of the Göteborg Film Fund. It is, he acknowledges, a world removed from the one he left behind. “It’s a great opportunity to develop Ukrainian stories when you cannot develop them right now in Ukraine,” he said.

Several Ukrainian mothers break down as they open up about the trauma their family has lived through during Russia’s invasion in an exclusive clip for NBC News’ upcoming special “Ukraine: A Mother’s War.”The special follows the lives of five Ukrainian mothers, all survivors fighting in different ways. In the clip, which you can watch above, one of the women clutches the hands of foreign correspondent Molly Hunter as she details the horrors she’s been through.“It was all Russians raping, abusing, and torturing our people,” the woman cries.

The news of the death of the last USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday got little attention outside of the former Soviet Bloc. Thirty three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has moved on. But for a generation of us growing behind the Iron Curtain, he changed the course of our lives and allowed us to pursue careers we never thought possible.

Regulator Ofgem today announced that the typical household energy bill will hit £3,549 a year from October 1. This is a huge increase on the current energy cap of £1,971 for the average household.

Eurovision Song Contest has become the subject of an online smear campaign over her opposition to the war in Ukraine.Manizha Sangin — who placed ninth in the international music competition last year — has long been an outspoken critic of the invasion. In February, she shared an Instagram post calling the war a “fraternal conflict” that goes “against the will” of Russian people, and later released a song called ‘Soldier’ which contained the repeated lyric, “Stop the war”.Now, Sangin’s critics have launched a coordinated campaign to have the singer blacklisted in Russia.