Latest news with #culturalcenter


Russia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
One killed by Ukrainian missile attack on Russian cultural center
One person was killed and at least five others were wounded in a Ukrainian missile attack on a cultural and leisure center in Russia's Kursk Region on Monday, Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein has said. The facility was located in the village of Prigorodnyaya Slobodka, located 53km from Russia's border with Ukraine, Khinshtein wrote in a post on Telegram on Monday. 'According to preliminary data, a 64-year-old man was killed in the strike… I express my sincerest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide the family with all the necessary assistance,' he said. Other civilians have been hospitalized with injuries as a result of the attack, the governor wrote. Three men, including the center's chief engineer, sustained shrapnel wounds, bruises and fractures, while two women suffered concussions, he added. The strike delivered significant damage to the building and caused a large blaze, spanning some 400 square meters, the governor wrote. Khinshtein also published a video of the burning cultural center and firefighters working to extinguish the flames. According to unconfirmed reports on Telegram channels, the building was hit from a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launch system. In late April, Moscow announced the full liberation of the border areas of Kursk Region, part of which had been seized by Kiev's troops after they launched an incursion last August. However, Ukraine has continued to target the region's civilians with missile strikes, drone attacks and sabotage. On Sunday, approximately 30,000 people were left without electricity after Ukrainian forces struck a substation in the area. In early June, a railway bridge collapsed under a moving freight train in Kursk Region, leaving the driver and two of his assistants wounded. The same day, another bridge went down in front of a moving passenger train in neighboring Bryansk Region, killing seven people and injuring more than 100. Both incidents were declared 'terrorist attacks' by Russia's Investigative Committee, which has said that Ukraine was responsible.

Wall Street Journal
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
It's Opening Night for the MAGA Makeover of the Kennedy Center
When the curtain rises in the John F. Kennedy Center Opera House for a performance of 'Les Misérables' this week, President Trump is scheduled to be surrounded by supporters who have paid up to $2 million to watch the musical with him. A coup de théâtre earlier this year put the president and his deputies in charge of programming, fundraising and staff at the famous cultural center. Now, a president who skipped Kennedy Center performances during his first term will stride into an institution he has bent to his will.

Associated Press
7 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
AP PHOTOS: Life in Iran's capital, Tehran, as high-stakes nuclear negotiations with the US go on
People walk past a state-sponsored anti-U.S. mural painted on the wall of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — As I prepared to take a photograph of an anti-American mural outside of the former U.S. Embassy in Iran's capital recently, a passerby called out to me. 'Take any picture you like, they'll remove all of them later,' the man said. It was a telling moment as the murals have long been a feature of the U.S. Embassy compound, which has been held and run by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a cultural center since the 1979 student-led hostage crisis there destroyed ties between Iran and the United States. Today, Iran is talking to America about a possible diplomatic deal over its nuclear program and the idea of ties between the West and the outside world again seems possible, though difficult. Motorbikes drive past a cyclist statue on a highway in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Women eat pizza in the outdoor area of a restaurant in northern Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Carpet sellers adjust carpets in their shop in northern Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A street musician plays the Daf, a hand-held Persian drum, on a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A fruit and vegetable vendor waits for customers in Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Two women share a laugh as they walk on the sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A street musician plays music on a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Branches complete the hair of a painting on a wall of Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A dog sits in the back seat of a car in northern Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A woman stands with her dog, Lucifer, on a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A street vendor displays her puppet on a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Decorative lights glow beside cars parked along the roadside at the eastern entrance of Tehran, as people enjoy the evening in Iran, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A vendor adjusts fruits on his stand on the roadside of eastern entrance of Tehran, Iran, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A woman prays at the courtyard of Imam mosque at Tehran's old main bazaar, Iran, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Iranian women drink coffee on the sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A carpet seller stands at his shop at Tehran's old main bazaar, Iran, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) The thing about taking pictures and working as a photojournalist in Tehran, my hometown, is that Iranians will come up to you in the street and tell you what they think. And sometimes, even when they won't say something out loud, I'll see it in the images I capture. That's particularly true with the gradual change we have seen in how women dress, whether in ancient corridors of Tehran's Grand Bazaar or in the tony streets of northern Tehran. Women are forgoing the mandatory hijab , or headscarf, even as hard-liners try to pressure a renewed enforcement of the law against what they call the 'Western Cultural Invasion.' The government of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has meanwhile been urging restraint by police and others over the hijab. There are enough problems right now in Iran is their thought, particularly as Iran's economy remains in dire straits. U.S. sanctions have decimated it. Iran's rial currency has plummeted in recent years. That economic hardship has made people more distrustful of the country's theocracy. And so people continue their daily lives in Tehran as they wait for any news after five rounds of talks so far between Iran and the U.S. You can see it in my photos. A carpet-seller waits to sell his wares in a darkened bazaar corner. Women without hijabs smoke shisha, or water-pipe tobacco. Another woman, wearing an all-black, all-encompassing chador, prays in a mosque's courtyard. It can all appear contradictory, but that's life here. Tehran, home to some 10 million people, is the ever-growing beating heart of Iran. And as it awaits the results of the negotiations, it can feel like it is skipping beats in anticipation. ___ See more AP photography at