Zelensky brings home Azovstal commanders
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky returned from a visit to Turkey on Saturday, bringing home five former commanders of Ukraine’s garrison in Mariupol despite a prisoner exchange last year under which the men were meant to remain in Turkey.
Russia immediately denounced the release of the men. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Turkey had violated the prisoner exchange terms and had failed to inform Moscow.
The commanders, lionised as heroes in Ukraine, led last year’s defence of the port, the biggest city Russia captured in its invasion.
Thousands of civilians were killed inside Mariupol when Russian forces laid the city to waste during a three-month siege. The Ukrainian defenders held out in tunnels and bunkers under the Azovstal steel plant, until they were finally ordered by Kyiv to surrender in May last year.
Amazon neighbours race to save world’s biggest rainforest
With the effects of climate change mounting, Amazon basin countries met in Colombia for a summit on Saturday to strategise on how to save the world’s biggest rainforest.
“To sustain the Amazon, according to science, we need to keep 80 per cent of its forests standing and not manage to go beyond 20 per cent deforestation, and unfortunately we are already at 17,” said Colombian Environment Minister Susana Muhamad.
“Losing the Amazon, reaching the point of no return, has irreversible consequences for global climate change,” she warned, at the meeting attended by representatives from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
France protesters defy bans to rally against police violence
Around 2,000 people defied a ban to join a memorial rally in central Paris on Saturday for a young black man who died in police custody, while marches took place throughout France to denounce police brutality, as tensions run high after days of rioting engulfed the country.
Seven years after the death of Adama Traore, his sister had planned to lead an annual commemorative march north of Paris in Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise.
But fearful of reigniting recent unrest sparked by the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel M. at a traffic stop near Paris, a court ruled the chance of public disturbance was too high to allow the march to proceed.
Six dead in corporate jet crash outside Los Angeles
All six people aboard a small corporate jet died when the aircraft crashed and burned in a field near an airport outside the Los Angeles area early on Saturday, local and federal authorities said.
The aircraft, a Cessna C550 business jet, was travelling from Las Vegas and crashed near French Valley Airport, over 130km south of Los Angeles, at around 4.15am, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Details of the passengers were not immediately available.
Underarm serve backfires on Davidovich Fokina, Rune wins
Denmark’s Holger Rune overcame Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-4 7-6(10-8) in a gruelling battle of attrition on Saturday to advance to the Wimbledon fourth round after the Spaniard gift-wrapped match point with an underarm serve.
With absolutely nothing to separate the pair after nearly four hours out on Court Three, the match came down to a final-set tiebreak where it was the more experienced Davidovich Fokina who cracked under pressure.
With the tiebreak level at 8-8, Davidovich Fokina attempted an audacious underarm serve that did not come off while Rune’s eyes lit up before the 20-year-old smashed a vicious winner past the Spaniard to set up match point.
