While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 12
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife, Olena Zelenska, and Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and his wife, Birgitta Ed, attend a Nato summit dinner.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Nato welcomes Ukraine membership, but no invitation
Nato leaders said on Tuesday that Ukraine should be able to join the military alliance at some point in the future but they stopped short of offering Kyiv an immediate invitation, angering Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The leaders were meeting at a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius as Ukrainian troops struggled to make significant gains in a counteroffensive against the Russian invasion forces occupying parts of the country.
The leaders said in a declaration: “Ukraine’s future is in Nato”. But they offered no timeline for the process.
Nato did drop a requirement for Ukraine to fulfil what is called a Membership Action Plan (MAP), effectively removing a hurdle on Kyiv’s way into the alliance.
Russian officer on Ukraine blacklist gunned down
A Russian military officer who had commanded a submarine in the Black Sea and appeared on a Ukrainian blacklist of alleged war criminals has been shot dead by an unknown assassin while on his morning run.
Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was gunned down early on Monday in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.
His address, picture and personal details had appeared on the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of Ukraine.
Charles Manson disciple released from prison
AFP
Leslie Van Houten, a disciple of notorious serial killer Charles Manson, was released from prison on Tuesday after more than five decades, California prison authorities said.
Van Houten, now 73, had been behind bars for her role in an infamous double murder in Los Angeles in 1969.
That crime was among at least nine shocking and grisly murders committed by members of the Manson cult in the city that summer, striking dread into people all over southern California.
Djokovic repels Rublev to reach Wimbledon semis
EPA-EFE
Favourite Novak Djokovic found himself behind for the first time at this year’s Wimbledon but responded in brutal fashion to beat Andrey Rublev 4-6 6-1 6-4 6-3 and reach the semi-finals on Tuesday for the 12th time.
Inspired seventh seed Rublev snatched the opening set but it was akin to poking a sleeping grizzly bear as Djokovic exacted painful punishment to stay on track for a fifth straight title.
Rublev played brilliant tennis that would have accounted for pretty much any other player in the world.
Chalamet debuts as Wonka in prequel’s first trailer
Timothee Chalamet follows in the footsteps of Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp to play Willy Wonka in a new prequel film that looks at how Roald Dahl’s fictional character came to love chocolate.
The first trailer for Wonka was released on Tuesday, showing the 27-year-old Dune and Call Me By Your Name actor playing a younger version of the famed candy maker, discovering cocoa beans, befriending a young orphan girl and dreaming of having his own chocolate store.
The film, out in December, is set before the 1971 movie Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, starring Wilder as Wonka in an adaptation of Dahl’s beloved 1964 book Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.
