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Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kyiv hit with Russian attack: What it felt like on the ground
Robert Sherman is a White House correspondent for NewsNation. He is reporting from Ukraine. Subscribe to his newsletter: Frontlines with Robert Sherman here. (NewsNation) — It almost looks normal. Maybe it's the bustling McDonald's our team got coffee at this morning. Maybe it's the young couple sharing an ice cream cone in Independence Square. Or the police officers stationed on the highway with their radar guns preparing to write tickets to speeders, as if that were the biggest concern in the world. It look little time for reality to sink in for our NewsNation crew. WATCH: Sleepless night in Kyiv Overnight, Ukraine's capital of Kyiv came under fire from a Russian attack. Sirens blared and intercoms urged people to take shelter as people hastily headed for lower ground. For some, that meant taking shelter in the subway station beneath the city for safety. That first missile impact, which rocked the capital, sent a pulsing wave through the whole city, rattling my hotel. It was several miles away, but the laws of physics (and for that matter the might of modern warfare) made it seem anything but. We stayed put in the center of Kyiv, which locals say is about as safe as it gets here. The sunrise couldn't come sooner. But when it did, new clarity came with the beating rays of this Eastern European Thursday morning. Our team made our way to one of the impact sites in Kyiv hours after the attacks subsided, and what we saw was a residential building blown to pieces. Half of the structure was collapsing in on itself as first responders worked hastily to pick through the rubble. Even before we spoke with the local officials leading the operation, we knew what was happening. The giveaway was the countless faces, concealed by cupped hands over mouths, staring incredulously at the site. The anxiety in their eyes, in too much shock to produce tears, could not unglue from the building. Hundreds were waiting for news. Did their loved ones survive? Could there be a harmless reason they were considered 'missing'? VIDEO: Back in Ukraine Moment by moment, as first responders called the surnames of family members, the painful truth became evident. They were gone. Buried beneath the rubble and lost in a single moment in time. The death toll from this one incident alone is still fluid as of this writing Thursday evening, but it's confirmed to be at least 16 including two children, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The president also says more than 150 are injured including 16 children and six police officers. It was impossible to know the nature of the drone and missile attack from our vantage point in the early morning hours. Even standing there at the scene, I couldn't possibly get the full scope of what transpired. But when I started to see the videos coming in of the Kyiv skyline and multiple plumes of fire erupting, everything started to come into focus. It was a large-scale attack that even locals called 'crazy.' Just days after President Trump announced he was upping the pressure on Russia to make strides toward peace, imposing a new deadline of 10 or 12 days from Monday which would be sometime in the territory of Aug. 7-9, Russia made it's next didn't sleep last night. And in our conversations with the people on the streets today, they don't anticipate that will be changing anytime soon. Our NewsNation coverage from Ukraine will continue through next week. I'll be filing some exclusive reports in the coming day that I hope will shed some insight on what this war looks like nearly three and a half years in. If you have a question or observation, please write to me at rsherman@ or through any of my social media channels such as Facebook, X, Instagram or TikTok. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Al Jazeera
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Jazeera
‘She's the queen': Sri Lanka bids farewell to film legend Malini Fonseka
Colombo, Sri Lanka — As a girl, when Srimathi Mallika Kaluarachchi would go to the cinema with her family, and a man on the screen would hit the character played by superstar Malini Fonseka, Kaluarachchi would cry. Then she would turn to her father in desperation. 'We used to scream at the screen, telling our father to save her,' Kaluarachchi, now 68, recalled. 'That was how much we loved her.' On Monday, Kaluarachchi joined thousands of fans in bidding a final goodbye to Fonseka, who died on May 24 at the age of 78 while receiving treatment in hospital. Neither Fonseka's family nor the hospital has publicly revealed the nature of her illness. One of the country's most popular actresses, Fonseka was widely regarded as the queen of Sri Lankan cinema. She was cremated with full state honours, as fans dressed in the mourning colour of white flocked to Colombo's Independence Square to catch a glimpse of her coffin before she was cremated. Songs from Fonseka's films were played while a projector drone flew above the crowd, displaying a montage of scenes from across her career. Describing Fonseka as 'a true icon of Sri Lankan cinema whose grace and talent inspired generations', Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that 'her legacy will forever shine in our hearts and on our screens'. Fonseka, who starred in more than 140 films, had a career in Sinhala cinema spanning more than five decades. 'Whenever we saw her, we'd forget all the pain we had in our hearts,' said Kaluarachchi, wiping away tears. 'Now, we know films aren't real, but when we were children, we didn't realise.' Fonseka was special, Kaluarachchi said, because of the way she represented how everyday people experienced love and, often, the violence that comes with it for women in patriarchal societies. Fonseka started her career as a stage actress before making her film debut with the 1968 film Punchi Baba. Her popularity peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, as she collaborated with renowned directors, including Lester James Peries and Dharmasena Pathiraja. Many of her most famous roles shared a common theme: the struggles of women in a male-dominated society. She played a wife murdered by her husband in the film Nidhanaya (1972), a college student in a complicated relationship in Thushara (1973), a village girl hounded by male attention in Eya Dan Loku Lamayek (1975), and a girl from a rural fishing village enticed by the big city lifestyle, in Bambaru Avith (1978). This success continued into the 1980s, when she also expanded into directorial ventures, including in the films Sasara Chethana (1984) and Ahimsa (1987). She also starred in the first Indian-Sri Lankan co-production Pilot Premnath in 1978, opposite legendary Indian Tamil actor Sivaji Ganesan. 'She never limited herself to one category. She was in commercial cinema and arthouse cinema,' said 27-year-old teacher Prabuddhika Kannagara. 'She played a village girl, a young girl, a married woman, a mother, and even a grandmother. She represented women across all generations.' Kannagara was one of the last mourners at the funeral, sitting and watching as sparks emanated from the white cloth tower in the square, specially erected for Fonseka's cremation, according to Buddhist rituals. She told Al Jazeera that Fonseka had acted as a 'bridge' across various eras of cinema, from black-and-white to digital, and had remained a star not only for her mother's generation, but also for her own. Fonseka was a five-time Best Actress winner at Sri Lanka's Presidential Film Awards. Her most recent win was in 2006 for her role in Ammawarune, a film she also directed. She also won international accolades at the Moscow International Film Festival and the New Delhi Film Festival. She became Sri Lanka's first female television drama director in the 1980s, a time when women's participation behind the camera was unusual. Fonseka also had a short-lived foray into politics, serving as a member of Sri Lanka's parliament from 2010 to 2015 under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Film critic and journalist Anuradha Kodagoda told Al Jazeera that Fonseka was 'rare and unique in Sri Lankan cinema' for the range of characters she played. Petite and fair, with an oval face and soft features, Fonseka was a 'pioneer' in representing working-class women onscreen, and 'represented the beauty idol for Sri Lankan women', said Kodagoda. 'She portrayed her characters very organically and authentically. That is the magic of it, I think,' Kodagoda said. Many mourners, some of whom travelled long distances to attend the funeral, recalled moments when they had met or spoken with Fonseka. 'She was a role model for us. We saw her as an example when we went to the cinema,' said 56-year-old jam factory worker Pushpa Hemalatha. 'She wasn't arrogant. We loved her when we were young.' Fonseka's final acting performance was in the 2024 music video Eya Wasanathaya Nowe, playing an elderly woman remembering her deceased husband. Ivanka Peiris, an actress and musician who acted with her in the TV drama Hithuwakkara, told Al Jazeera that Fonseka was 'very empowering' as a role model for women, and 'everything' for younger actresses in the industry. And, she said, Fonseka would never be replaced. 'She's the queen. That's it,' Peiris said. 'There will be no other queens in Sri Lanka. She will be the first and the last.'
The Independent
10-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Starmer joins world leaders in Kyiv to push Putin to agree 30-day ceasefire
World leaders arrive in Kyiv ahead of talks Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Tusk and Friedrich Mertz have arrived in Kyiv in a joint show of support for Ukraine. The leaders arrived together by train and were then greeted by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska. The leaders then paid their respects to the victims of war at the Memorial for the Fallen at the Independence Square in Kyiv.
