News – World

Graphic video has been released of the moment the Nashville school attacker was shot dead by police.Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as transgender and was a former student of the private Christian school, killed three children and three adults before being stopped.
Bodycam footage from Officer Rex Engelbert shows him opening fire with a rifle several times on Hale before the perpetrator falls to the ground injured.Police then head towards the 28-year-old just a few metres away as officers shout “move, move”, and “watch out, watch out”.The attacker, now on the floor, is hit by several more police gunshots before an officer yells to the suspect “stop moving, stop moving”, with the killer appearing to be still alive.

Image:
Footage shows the attacker just before they were shot

Image:
The attacker’s body is shown lying on the ground after officers opened fire

Image:
Audrey Hale. Pic: Metro Nashville Police Department

An officer shouts: “Throw your hands away from the gun, get your hands away from the gun.”Hale’s body is then shown lying next to the weapons, including a rifle and a handgun, used in the deadly Monday morning attack on the second floor of the Covenant School in Tennessee.

More on Nashville Shooting

Related Topics:

A second clip shows what happened from a different angle with bodycam footage from Officer Michael Collazo. He is shown firing his pistol at Hale in the second volley of shots after the assailant was already on the ground.Minutes earlier, the officers had stormed the building as video showed several going from empty classroom to empty classroom before making their way to the second floor.

Advertisement

Several gunshots are heard in the footage as officers run down a hallway – past what appears to be a victim – and into a lounge area, where the suspect is seen dropping to the floor after being shot.Police said the suspect was killed after a confrontation with officers.Read more:What we know about killer Audrey HaleVideo of Nashville school killer entering buildingWhy Nashville tragedy could have been even worse

The start of the police video shows Officer Engelbert retrieving a rifle from his car boot before a staff member directs him to the entrance, telling him that the school is locked down but at least two children are not accounted for.”Let’s go! I need three!” the officer yells as he uses a key to unlock a door and enter the building, where alarms can beheard ringing.Hale was described by officials as a “lone zealot”, who lived in Nashville, and was armed with two assault-type weapons, and a handgun.

Image:
Hale identified as transgender

Hale had a manifesto and detailed maps of the school, and entered the building by shooting through its doors before the killings.Police have also released video of the moment the attacker entered the school.The six victims have been named as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged nine, 61-year-olds Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, and 60-year-old Katherine Koonce, who was the school’s headteacher.

The last governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, has said it is “demeaning and delusional” for the UK to not call out China’s behaviour over trade fears.Lord Patten, who is now chancellor of Oxford University, said China is a threat “we have to engage with in order to deal with global problems like climate change”.
He criticised Rishi Sunak after the prime minister appeared to soften his approach to China in November when he said the UK should stand up to Beijing “with robust pragmatism”.”A phrase that belongs to what I call the ‘mush’ school of diplomacy,” Lord Patten said at this week’s UK-Hong Kong Summit, which brought together Hong Kongers who have moved to the UK after fleeing their homes.He said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a threat to the UK’s long-term security interests, values and institutions, and that can be seen in how they have treated Hong Kong recently.
But, he told Sky News Hong Kongers should not give up hope because “dictatorships, totalitarianism doesn’t last forever”.”When it crumbles, it goes very quickly,” he said.

More on China

Related Topics:

The handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China in 1997, which Lord Patten oversaw, came as part of an agreement that Hong Kong would be self-governing with a high degree of autonomy that would remain unchanged for 50 years.But in 2014, China stated it considers the treaty to be spent and democracy and autonomy in Hong Kong have since rapidly eroded, with a national security law imposed in 2020 seeing democracy activists and politicians jailed.

Advertisement

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

1:46

China is ‘bullying and loutish’ – Lord Patten in 2020

Lord Patten said the British government is doing a lot to speak out against Hong Kong.And he also praised the BNO passport scheme, which has allowed those with a passport issued under British rule the ability to come and live in the UK.But he said they could be doing more, especially with regards to British citizen and Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who has been jailed for lighting a candle at a Tiananmen Square vigil, among other charges his lawyers say are trumped up.The government has been accused of being softer on China than it should be because it is concerned about losing trade or not getting a good post-Brexit trade deal with Beijing.Lord Patten told Sky News: “The CCP pretend you can only do business if you do what they want but look at Australia.”They were in the doghouse and trade exports from Australia to China have gone up again because China needs barley and the [iron] ore.”It stopped buying the wine but the wine was sold elsewhere because exports are fungible.”I think we shouldn’t buy this idea that in order to do trade with China we have to do whatever the Communist Party wants.”We don’t behave like this with anybody else – if you want to trade with Nigeria you don’t take the view that you can’t say anything the president of Nigeria will disagree with.”So we shouldn’t do that with China either. It’s demeaning and delusional.”Read more:China places 212% tax on Australian wineChina accuses AUKUS of ‘going further down dangerous road’Jimmy Lai’s son criticises UK government

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

2:28

Jimmy Lai’s son criticises UK govt

‘China wants to retain ability to launder corrupt earnings through HK’The peer has been highly critical of China in the past few years and said the fact Beijing broke its word over Hong Kong, its promise to not send its military to the South China Sea and about where COVID began shows the CCP – and President Xi Jinping – cannot be trusted.”The real problem is Hong Kong represented all those things which Xi Jinping and his colleagues were trying to stamp out in the rest of China,” he said.”Stamp out all those things which you identify with Hong Kong while retaining their ability to launder their corrupt earnings through Hong Kong – that remains, cash is king.”‘Being in China’s doghouse doesn’t matter’Lord Patten last went to Hong Kong in 2016 – “a place I love and hugely admire”, he said – but he does not think he could safely return “while the CCP is running it with its quisling administration”.The last governor called on Hong Kongers in the UK to remind the British government of the importance of its moral and political responsibilities to Hong Kong.

Image:
Lord Patten with HK student protest leader Finn Lau in London

He said they should tell their MPs to speak up for people “who are your friends and my friends who are locked up because they believe in the same things as we do” as well as human rights abuses committed by Beijing across China.”Some people suggest if you mention those things it will so annoy the Chinese communists they’ll put you in the doghouse,” Lord Patten added.”If you don’t do those things you should be in the doghouse – but the doghouse, as we’ve seen in relation to this country, Australia, elsewhere, it doesn’t actually last for very long and it doesn’t matter very much.”

There are few greater displays of US military might than its aircraft carriers – when they move, the world pays attention. They are huge floating cities of sorts. The US has 11 and they are still the best in the world.
The USS Nimitz is one of them. It’s a warren of cabins and control rooms, beneath an enormous flight deck. It can carry around 5000 military personnel and as many as 7000 when you include the accompanying “strike force” of war ships and jets.We went aboard when the ship was docked temporarily in South Korea but had just completed a deployment in the South China Sea.Deployments like this are routine, but they are undertaken in the knowledge they will be noticed by one power in particular, and that power is China, the US’ increasingly assertive competitor.Lt Ben Bushong, who served in the US navy for seven years – much of it as a helicopter pilot – showed us around.He and his colleagues know things are tense, as they have been for some time.”The big picture is helping keep a free and open Indo-pacific,” he said.”I would just say we’re always ready and we’re always training, so if we ever get called we’re ready to respond.”

Image:
Lt Ben Bushong told Sky News the aircraft carrier is ‘always ready to respond’

And rarely has being ready felt more pressing.The US’ face off with China has multiple fronts and almost all are becoming more fraught.Just a few weeks ago, China’s new foreign minister said that if the US does not “hit the breaks” on what it sees as provocations then “conflict will surely follow”.China has increasingly been making a point of flexing its muscles in the seas that surround it.For many years it has been accused of militarising islands in the contested South China Sea and engaging in illegal fishing, but recently it has also been sailing and flying much closer to the self-governing island of Taiwan.There have also been more specific incidents of concern – just last week, China said it chased away a US vessel that had “illegally” entered waters around the contested Paracel Islands, a claim the US denied.And then there was declassified footage shot by a US jet of a Chinese fighter flying just feet away from it, in a move the US has described as aggressive and dangerous.Read more:Chinese foreign minister warns ‘reckless’ US risks ‘catastrophic’ conflictAnalysis: China-US tensions set to be defining issue of our timeChina threatens ‘further actions’ over US downing of suspected spy balloon

The reality is that China can now afford to flex these muscles because it has rapidly developed the largest navy in the world, increasing 10-fold in just the last 20 years.But it is the reason that US presence here is so important, according to the Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney who leads the Nimitz’s strike fleet.”First, we are going to sail operate and fly wherever international law allows,” he said.”And my message to the PRC (People’s Republic of China) would be that we’re resolute in that, we’re not going to be bullied, we’re not going to be coerced and we are going to stay here and fly and operate in international norms.”

Image:
Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney leads the Nimitz’s strike fleet

China sees the US efforts here as part of a broader effort to contain it. Fundamentally, it sees this region as its back yard.But in answer to that allegation the admiral was resolute.”We do not seek to contain China, we do not seek conflict with China, we seek to set international norm that we all prosper from”. Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcastsIf fighting did break out in this region, it would most likely be over the island of Taiwan, the self governing democracy China sees as it’s own.China has not ruled out taking the island by force and deterring this is one of the US’ key objectives.In the meantime, China’s increasing assertiveness is pushing many other Asian nations closer to the US and each other.The show of allegiance with South Korea was front and centre – the two are undertaking joint drills this week and will work with Japan too next month.While much of the tension between the US and China is invisible and covert, this is a region that is increasingly fractured and there is a high stakes stand-off playing out.

Two women have been stabbed to death at an Ismaili Muslim centre in Lisbon.The suspect, reportedly of Afghan origin and who police say was “armed with a large knife”, was shot at the scene.
Officers ordered him to surrender but he refused and advanced toward them before being “neutralised”, police said in a statement.He was arrested and taken to a hospital in the Portuguese capital where he is in police custody.

The victims were Portuguese staff members at the centre, Ismaili community leader Narzim Ahmad told Portuguese TV channel SIC.
Several other people were wounded in the attack at the Ismaili centre which took place just before 11am on Tuesday.”Everything points to this being an isolated incident,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa told reporters.He added police were investigating the attack and it was too soon to speculate about a motive.Read more world news:Deadly fire at migrant facility near US border’Afghan girls’ education activist arrested in KabulPlastic surgeon accused of murdering missing lawyer

Advertisement

Ismailism is a branch of Shia Islam. Ismailis are a culturally diverse community living in more than 25 countries around the world.Prince Karim Aga Khan, who is recognised by some followers as their spiritual leader, opened the centre in Lisbon in 1998.

A plastic surgeon in Florida has been charged with murdering a lawyer who was representing his ex-colleagues.The lawyer, Steven Cozzi, had been missing since last Tuesday, when he disappeared at the law firm where he worked.
His body has not been found, but investigators have blood, video and other evidence linking Dr Tomasz Kosowski to the lawyer’s disappearance and presumed death, prosecutors allege.Kosowski, who is known as “Dr K”, was arrested on a first-degree murder charge on Saturday. He has pleaded not guilty.

Image:
Kosowski appeared in court on Monday. Pic: AP

Police said Mr Cozzi’s wallet, phone and keys were found in his law office, along with a significant amount of blood in the bathroom.
Security video showed someone driving Kosowski’s truck outside the law firm where Mr Cozzi worked on the day he disappeared, it is claimed.The person driving the truck went inside wearing a backpack and gloves and carrying a large box, prosecutors said.Almost two hours later, it appeared the same man left wearing different clothes and pulling a large cart containing something in a bag or covered by a blanket.He struggled with its weight as he pulled it near the truck, according to prosecutors.

Advertisement

The truck was recorded by a licence plate reader near the doctor’s home about half an hour after it left the law office.The video showed what appeared to be a body covered by a bag or blanket in the truck bed, prosecutors said.They added that police searching Kosowski’s home and vehicles found blood and a bag carrying brass knuckles, a stun gun, syringes containing a paralysing agent and other sedatives, duct tape and masks.Mr Cozzi was representing Kosowski’s former employer and co-workers in a long-running lawsuit.Kosowski filed a lawsuit against his former colleagues at the Laufer Institute of Plastic Surgery four years ago.He claimed the woman that Laufer Institute assigned to do his insurance billing did not file claims and lied to his patients, costing him tens of thousands of dollars and resulting in negative reviews of him online.He left Laufer Institute in 2018 and had set up his own practice. Laufer Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.

A meatball has been made from the recreated flesh of the long-extinct woolly mammoth as part of a project to demonstrate the potential of growing flesh
from cells.The mammoth snack was produced by an Australian company called Vow which is aiming to uses cells from unconventional species to create new kinds of meat.
Vow’s project doesn’t involve the slaughter of animals and highlights the link between large-scale livestock production and the destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis.The company has already explored the potential of more than 50 species, including alpaca, buffalo, crocodile, kangaroo, peacocks and different types of fish.The initial idea for the mammoth meatball was from Bas Korsten at the creative agency Wunderman Thompson.
Tim Noakesmith, who cofounded Vow, told The Guardian: “We chose the woolly mammoth because it’s a symbol of diversity loss and a symbol of climate change.”Woolly mammoths are thought to have become extinction due to hunting by humans and the warming of the world after the last ice age.

More on Climate Crisis

Related Topics:

Vow worked with Professor Ernst Wolvetang, at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland, to recreate the mammoth muscle protein.Professor Wolvetang’s team took the DNA sequence for mammoth myoglobin, a key muscle protein which gives meat its flavour, and filled in the gaps using DNA from an elephant.

Advertisement

This sequence was placed in myoblast stem cells from a sheep, which replicated to grow to the 20 billion cells which were used by the company to grow the mammoth meat.”It was ridiculously easy and fast,” said Professor Wolvetang. “We did this in a couple of weeks.”The professor said the initial idea was to produce dodo meat but the required DNA sequences didn’t exist.Despite the work which has gone into it, nobody has yet had the honour of being the first person to eat a mammoth meatball.

Image:
Woolly mammoths became extinct thousands of years ago. File pic

“We haven’t seen this protein for thousands of years,” said Professor Wolvetang.”So we have no idea how our immune system would react when we eat it. But if we did it again, we could certainly do it in a way that would make it more palatable to regulatory bodies.”The large-scale production of meat causes environmental damage, with many studies the climate crisis will only end if there is a huge reduction in meat-eating in wealthy nations.George Peppou, the chief executive of Vow, said his company’s plan is to “transition a few billion meat eaters away from eating (conventional) animal protein to eating things that can be produced in electrified systems”.He added: “And we believe the best way to do that is to invent meat. We look for cells that are easy to grow, really tasty and nutritious, and then mix and match those cells to create really tasty meat.”Read more:Lab-grown meat is ‘the future and environmentally friendly’

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

4:13

Are we ready for lab-grown meat?

Vow’s first cultivated meat product to be sold to diners will be Japanese quail, which is expected to be in restaurants in Singapore this year.Plant-based alternatives to meat are common but cultured meat like that produced by Vow replicates the taste of conventional meat.A chicken product made by Good Meat is currently the only cultivated meat available to diners and can only be bought in Singapore.However, two companies have now passed an approval process in the US.In 2018, a company used DNA from an extinct animal to create gummy bears made from gelatine from an extinct elephant-like animal called a mastodon.

More than three dozen people have died in a fire at an immigration detention centre in northern Mexico, near the border with the US, an official said.The Mexican official with the National Immigration Institute said at least 39 people died and 29 were injured in the blaze.
Those injured have been taken to four local hospitals.The institute said 68 adult men from Central and South America were being housed at the facility.Volunteer rescue workers had said earlier up to 37 people had been killed, plus many more injured.
Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said the fire was started after migrants fearing deportation set mattresses ablaze at the detention centre.”They never imagined that this would cause this terrible misfortune,” Mr Obrador said.Footage from the scene showed soldiers and firefighters helping the injured to safety from inside a building at the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juarez, near El Paso in Texas.Some were treated at the scene by paramedics and others taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, according to local media reports.

Advertisement

The fire reportedly broke out in a part of the complex designated for men only. It is not known how it started.

It comes after US officials earlier this month stopped hundreds of migrants – mostly Venezuelans – from entering the country after a large group tried to force their way past Mexican soldiers on the border.Many have been frustrated by a new asylum process introduced by the Biden administration.It requires asylum seekers to book a meeting with US officials first, but users say they have been unable to secure appointments on the government app due to glitches and high demand.They say it has led to families being split up at the border – with no knowledge of when they will be reunited.

Critics of the process have highlighted technical problems with the app and say it is unclear how many appointments are available every day.The US Department of Homeland Security has said updates to the app, called CBP One, will simplify and speed up the process.Read more world news:Fresh clashes in Israel despite delay to controversial judiciary overhaulPlane passenger ‘opens door, triggers emergency slide and jumps out’Lebanon reverses controversial decision to delay clocks change

Under the new rules, migrants who do not schedule an appointment at a US border port of entry or use humanitarian programmes available to certain nationalities would be ineligible for asylum except in certain cases.They must also first seek protection in countries they pass through to be able to claim asylum once in the US.The move aims to deter unauthorised crossings and mirrors similar efforts under Donald Trump, which were blocked in court.However, officials insist the measure is different from Mr Trump’s, largely because there is room for exemptions and because it has made other legal pathways available, particularly humanitarian parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Ukrainians.

The United Nations has called on the Taliban to explain why an Afghan girls’ education activist was reportedly arrested in Kabul.Matiullah Wesa has advocated for girls’ education, particularly in conservative rural areas, for years.
This includes during the tenure of the previous Western-backed foreign government when he said many girls living in the countryside were not reached by education services.

Image:
Two sisters study at home because girls are not allowed to attend secondary school

Mr Wesa is the head of Pen Path, which has held meetings with tribal elders, encouraged communities and authorities to open schools, and disbursed books and mobile libraries.He told Reuters last year his work was free of political interference and impartial and his focus was on helping communities encourage girls’ education.
“Matiullah Wesa, head of [Pen Path] and advocate for girls’ education, was arrested in Kabul Monday,” the UN Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement.”UNAMA calls on the de facto authorities to clarify his whereabouts, the reasons for his arrest and to ensure his access to legal representation and contact with family.”Read more:Afghans feel betrayed as Taliban continues to ban girls attending secondary school’Don’t use restrictions on girls’ education against us’, says senior Taliban leader

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

6:25

Inside the universities and secret schools teaching women and girls living under the Taliban

The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has barred most girls from high school and women from universities, saying there are perceived problems including around female Islamic dress.

Advertisement

Officials have said they are undertaking work to open schools but have not given a time frame.They say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan custom and that the improved security in the country since foreign forces left has made it safer for young children to go to school.The Taliban administration’s information ministry and intelligence agency has not immediately responded to requests for comment or confirmed the detention.

Olympic chiefs have been urged by five of Russia’s neighbours to rule on Tuesday that all Russians should be blocked from competing at the Paris Games.The plea from the governments of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine is likely to go unheeded.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has been insistent in recent weeks that Russians should not be discriminated against due to their nationality – regardless of Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war on Ukraine.It is a softening of Mr Bach’s position after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched in February 2022 when a blanket ban on Russians was favoured – using the Olympic Charter authority to refuse entry to any athlete without explanation.But the IOC’s newfound willingness to let Russians at Paris 2024 compete as neutrals was rejected last week by World Athletics – with the biggest Olympic sport imposing a complete ban as desired by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The issue is up for discussion again by the IOC’s executive board on Tuesday – listed on the agenda as a review of the feedback from consulting athletes and sports as well as Olympic officials globally.While the IOC’s position has not officially been settled for Paris, Mr Bach made his stance clear in Germany last week: “If politics decide who can take part in a competition, then sport and athletes become tools of politics.”That was a rebuke to the politicians, including in Britain, demanding no athlete from Russia – nor war ally Belarus – be given the platform of the Olympics.Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine reminded the IOC on Monday that the civilian infrastructure being attacked by the Russian military includes sports facilities and said: “Many athletes from Ukraine are still prevented from participating in sports events because of Russia’s attack on their country.”

Advertisement

The governments did provide a way Russians and Belarussians could return to international sport: “Ending the war of aggression launched by Russia, with the complicity of Belarus, and restoring respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within the internationally recognised borders.”

The IOC has been seeking the advice of UN special rapporteur for cultural rights Alexandra Xanthaki, who held talks with 188 athletes from across the world last week.Read more:Allowing Russian athletes to compete ‘doing more for peace’ – IOC bossThe international law expert has even opened up the possibility of Russian soldiers being allowed at Paris 2024, proposing neutral status should only be denied to those accused of “war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity or propaganda for war”.She pointed out that people can be conscripted to fight and are only “following orders”.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

0:58

Zelenskyy: ‘Russia stains everything with blood’

But Ukrainian athletes are challenging her analysis.A boycott of the Games has been floated but not directly threatened by countries enraged by the IOC’s position.For now, the focus is on persuading the IOC to reverse track again.Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine said in their joint statement: “We wish to stress that it is not athletes’ nationality that determines their role, but the fact that they are sponsored/supported by their governments or businesses backing up the Kremlin regime, which continues its war of aggression against Ukraine, or even they are affiliated with the Russian military directly.”

Lebanon’s government has reversed a controversial decision to delay the start of daylight saving time by a month.Najib Mikati, the country’s caretaker prime minister, said the cabinet had voted to move the clocks one hour ahead on Wednesday night.
Mr Mikati angered many Lebanese last week when he delayed the start of daylight saving time until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which would have allowed Muslims to break their fasts an hour earlier.The measure would have postponed the changing of clocks until 21 April.Lebanon’s top Christian authority had defied the announcement and moved its clocks forward on Saturday night, along with some schools, media outlets and businesses.
It left many Lebanese in the position of juggling work and school schedules in different time zones in a country just 88km (55 miles) across at its widest point.The country typically sets its clocks forward an hour on the last Sunday in March in alignment with most European countries.Read more:Why daylight saving time could become permanent in the USLebanon has been without a president for five months and a protracted financial crisis has stalled most public institutions.

Advertisement

Mr Mikati referred to the crisis when he announced the clock change on Monday, saying: “The problem is not winter or summer time… Rather, the problem is the vacuum in the top post in the republic.”

FIFA will pay clubs almost £300m for sending players to the 2026 World Cup in a huge cash uplift, Sky News understands.The fund agreed to by FIFA and the European Club Association (ECA) has grown 70% to $355m from the $209m (£170m) clubs split as a reward for developing and releasing players to the 2022 World Cup.
The World Cup is expanding from 32 to 48 teams for the tournament being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026 and expanding from 64 to 104 matches.Sources told Sky News an agreement has been reached ahead of the ECA’s key annual meeting in Budapest which is due to be attended by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.The ECA is also in talks with FIFA about forming a joint venture to sell the commercial rights to the new 32-team men’s Club World Cup that is set to launch in 2025, Sky News has learned.

Image:
The figure is around a 75% increase on the £170m clubs split for releasing players to the 2022 World Cup

A partnership on maximising revenue from the new tournament would mark a significant improvement in relations between Europe’s top clubs and FIFA.Europe’s elite teams had been opposing FIFA expanding the Club World Cup from a seven-team annual event to a 32-team competition every four years.Read more: FIFA World Cup to have more matches than planned in 2026FIFA may drop Visit Saudi as sponsor for Women’s World CupBut now clubs are welcoming the new cash stream and gaining more power within FIFA – a blow to the ongoing push for a European Super League.

Advertisement

That breakaway is still being pursued by Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid despite the initial concept collapsing within 48 hours in 2021 after six English clubs were forced to withdraw.

Orlando Bloom has praised the “incredible stoic nature” of the Ukrainian people as he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and encouraged him to “go win” the war.A number of high-profile actors and musicians have travelled to Ukraine since the war with Russia erupted in February 2022.
The 46-year-old British actor is the latest, who visited a children’s centre in Kyiv on Sunday for his work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations children’s organisation UNICEF.The Pirates Of The Caribbean star also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and told him it was “remarkable to see how you are holding this country” and that it was a “real honour” to meet him.Ukraine war latest: Putin ‘not ready to negotiate and seeks complete victory’

Image:
Orlando Bloom met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Ukraine for his work as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador

“[It is] so encouraging in so many ways to see just the remarkably stoic nature of the people of Ukraine. And of course, your messaging that I think is reflected in their courage, and in their determination and in their perseverance and resilience,” he said.”To see the children, to see in their eyes, it’s palpable the anxiety and yet, the strength of the Ukrainian people is something that is really awe-inspiring in truth and, of course, your messaging is the reason for that.”Mr Zelenskyy told the 46-year-old actor that “we have a good country, we hold each other”, before adding that his visit to the nation “sends a big message”.Bloom, who last visited Ukraine in 2016, spoke of meeting a family of five who took four more children into their home and said “hopefully that is the kind of future for children in this country” instead of “institutionalised” methods of raising children.

Advertisement

He also reassured Mr Zelenskyy that UNICEF is taking the issue of missing children “incredibly seriously, just as the rest of the world is watching”.The actor, who has been a member of a Buddhist organisation since he was 16, also read an excerpt of a message of encouragement from his Japanese mentor who wrote to the youth of the UK in 1994.

Image:
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with actor Orlando Bloom in Kyiv, Ukraine

“I wanted to read it because I feel it’s so important and I had it written for you as well to read along,” he said.After reading the message, he said: “You have a strong heart and thank you for everything you do. I used to read this every day… I used to read it when I was a child just to try and give myself the courage.”Towards the end of the meeting, Bloom said he has a video of his mother singing the Ukrainian national anthem in English and she said if he met Mr Zelenskyy, he should tell him to win.”Go win” he said, “Slava Ukraine”.Bloom shared a clip of the meeting on Instagram, writing: “The war is destroying the childhood of Ukrainian children.”Thousands of schools in Ukraine have been damaged or completely destroyed. Almost 2.7 million Ukrainian schoolchildren are forced to study online or in a mixed format. About 1.5 million Ukrainian boys and girls are at risk of developing depression, anxiety and other psychological problems.Read more:US reacts cautiously as Russia agrees deal to move nuclear weapons to BelarusForthcoming ‘fighting season’ could be final chapter in conflict

Image:
Mr Zelenskyy (L) and the Head of the Office of the President, Andriy Yermak (C) speaking with the actor

“We all know what this aggression has brought and how full-scale the world’s efforts must be to stop it, to rebuild Ukraine after the war.”During the meeting, we discussed humanitarian aid projects, issues of reconstruction focused specifically on the interests of children. @unicef and our teams will work in several directions, bring victory closer and return a happy childhood to Ukrainian children.”

As of 26 March, at least 465 children have been killed in the 13-month-long war Russia waged against its neighbour, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office.In his nightly address after meeting Bloom, the Ukraine leader said: “He knows what this aggression has brought, how full-scale the world’s efforts must be to stop it, to restore Ukraine after the war.”