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‘A beacon of hope’: FC Chernihiv set for Ukrainian Cup final against all odds

Club are battling relegation from the second tier in a city under attack by Russian forces but are one upset away from the Europa League

A minivan with darkened windows pulls up at a gym in central Chernihiv and, once the doors have slid open, a stream of youths emerges into the daylight. Inside, Artem Rakitin sits everyone down on the rubber mat for one last pep talk. He has known most of the young men for several years, working with them here twice a week and in effect acting as a mentor. It is a kind of physical and mental training, he explains: self-discipline; resisting vices; preparing oneself, if the moment comes, to defend his country. “One of the main targets is for them not to become alcoholics, drug addicts or anything like that,” he says. “It’s to put their energy in the right places, and to support the right team.”

The team they follow is FC Chernihiv and, on Wednesday evening, the second-tier side will face Dynamo Kyiv in a Ukrainian cup final nobody could have predicted. FC Chernihiv are battling relegation but, to delirious scenes, won their semi-final against Metalist 1925 Kharkiv on penalties despite being reduced to 10 men in the fifth minute. They are one more upset from an improbable Europa League spot; it is a remarkable moment for a city, tucked in Ukraine’s north towards the Russian and Belarusian borders, that has suffered devastating losses since February 2022.

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Rainforests pushed to breaking point by new demands for resources, report says

Need for minerals, biofuels and pulp adding to pressures from ranching, monocrops, oil and logging, analysis finds

The growing extraction of rainforest resources is pushing the Amazon and similar biomes towards breaking point, a report has shown.

Fresh demands for critical minerals, biofuels and pulp – used in fast fashion, processed food and packaging – are compounding existing pressures from cattle ranching, monocrops, oil and logging, the analysis finds.

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Guardian correspondent and photographer win war reporting prize

International correspondent Lorenzo Tondo and photographer Alessio Mamo awarded Ryszard Kapuściński prize, named after Polish war correspondent

  • All photographs by Alessio Mamo

The Guardian international correspondent Lorenzo Tondo and Guardian photographer Alessio Mamo have been awarded the Ryszard Kapuściński prize, named after the legendary Polish war correspondent and author.

The annual award honours journalists and photographers who have distinguished themselves through their reporting from war zones and humanitarian crises. It is organised by the Italian Geographical Society in collaboration with Kapuściński’s family.

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Who has won the most league titles without earning an international cap? | The Knowledge

Plus: greatest distance between two teams in a derby (part two) and origins of why Celtic Park is nicknamed ‘Paradise’

  • Mail us with your all of your questions and answers

“Which player has won the most league championships without winning an international cap?” asks Nick Williamson. “Steve Bruce won three Premier League titles with Manchester United – surely there are other non-capped players with more title honours?”

There surely are a number of players that can match and beat Steve Bruce’s tally of three league titles without earning an international cap.

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Jack Ryan: Ghost War review – Amazon’s Tom Clancy series spawns middling movie

John Krasinski continues his unconvincing run as the CIA analyst in a mostly unexciting and rather low-rent feature-length adventure

For years, author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character was a fixture of the multiplex, with movies providing reluctant-leading-man-of-action opportunities for Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine. Most of them were hits. (Sorry, Chris!) In that context, it might seem a little low-rent that the newest character’s newest adventure, Jack Ryan: Ghost War, is actually a made-for-streaming continuation of an Amazon TV series, where John Krasinski takes over the CIA analyst role. But there are potential advantages to this approach, too: four seasons of the show can establish the character and his world, relieving the movie version of the full reboot burden. (No small thing for a familiar character who’s nonetheless been played by five different guys.) In particular, the existence of the hit show eliminates the standard waffling over what stage of Ryan’s career he should start in. Let the TV show handle the salad-days stuff, and the movie can join him mid-career without requiring several box office successes to get there.

And to its credit, Jack Ryan: Ghost War manages to stand alone quite well despite the preceding 30 episodes of set-up. (I certainly don’t remember them all with crystal clarity, and I was never lost on a plot level.) Less fortuitously, it’s more coherent than competent, especially compared with the previous movie versions. That might not seem like a fair fight, but Ghost War does position itself as some kind of movie after four seasons of serialized television; there must be some reason for this new framework, whether it’s a bigger budget, a more pulse-pounding story or a chance to put Krasinski alongside his predecessors. (He’s already played Ryan for more hours than any of them.) By the end of its 105 minutes, though, the movie seems to eliminate the most obvious possibilities, and its reason for being hangs in the air.

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Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed review – this totally bingeable thriller will glue you to your seat

Tatiana Maslany and Murray Bartlett are brilliant in this twisty drama about a woman being blackmailed by a camboy. It’s moreish, inventive – and there’s not a single weak link in the cast

Beware the beautiful camboy. And never trust Murray Bartlett. These seem to be the main life lessons to take from Apple TV’s new 10-part series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed and, the deeper we go into the tense and twisty mass of plot shot through with black comedy, the greater the wisdom becomes.

The beautiful camboy is called Trevor (Brandon Flynn), which I guess explains why he is trying to make it on looks alone. He is the therapist-with-benefits, used by newly divorced mother-of-one Paula (Tatiana Maslany) when she is alone in her apartment because her husband has main custody of their daughter, Hazel (Nola Wallace). There are suggestions of previous instability and erratic behaviour. These are not about to serve Paula well.

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Apotheker met gewetensbezwaren beroept zich op ‘het onfeilbare Woord van God’ en weigert anticonceptie te verstrekken

Een apotheker in Nieuwegein heeft publiekelijk te kennen gegeven zorg te weigeren aan onder anderen trans personen. Dat zou bij de farmaceut namelijk leiden tot gewetensbezwaren vanwege religieuze overtuigingen. Ook levert hij geen euthanatica, anticonceptie of abortuszorg.


Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Huurders klagen vaker over lekkages, vochtproblemen en schimmel

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De Huurcommissie heeft vorig jaar gemiddeld meer dan honderd bouwkundige onderzoeken per week uitgevoerd, 17 procent meer dan in 2024. Daarbij klaagden huurders steeds vaker over onder meer schimmel, lekkages en tocht, staat in het jaarverslag van de instantie die huurgeschillen beslecht.

Volgens de Huurcommissie neemt de complexiteit van de bouwkundige onderzoeken toe, terwijl er vaak meerdere klachten onderzocht moeten worden. In meer dan zeventig van de wekelijkse onderzoeken ging het geschil tussen huurders en verhuurders over onderhoudsgebreken. Dat zijn er op jaarbasis bijna 3700.

"Factoren die een rol spelen zijn huurwoningen waarbij meerdere gebreken tegelijkertijd spelen, gebrekkig onderhouden huurwoningen en soms ook sociale, medische, mentale en/of financiële problemen", staat in het verslag van de commissie.

Bouwkundige onderzoeken zijn nodig als huurder en verhuurder er samen niet uitkomen in een geschil over gebreken of de hoogte van de huurprijs volgens het puntenstelsel.


IEA: verkoop elektrische auto's wereldwijd richting recordhoogte

PARIJS (ANP) - De verkoop van elektrische auto's wereldwijd ligt op koers om opnieuw een recordhoogte te bereiken. Dat zegt het Internationale Energieagentschap (IEA) in een onderzoek. Naar verwachting zullen er 23 miljoen elektrische auto's worden verkocht in 2026.

Daarmee zal naar verwachting in 2026 in totaal 28 procent van de autoverkopen een elektrisch voertuig zijn. Op dit moment is een kwart van de auto's elektrisch. Het IEA concludeert in het rapport dat elektrische auto's steeds concurrerender worden qua kosten in de belangrijke markten. Ook de stijgende brandstofprijzen in het Midden-Oosten kunnen consumenten stimuleren om vaker voor de elektrische variant te gaan.

In Europa steeg de verkoop van elektrische auto's met bijna 30 procent ten opzichte van het eerste kwartaal vorig jaar en in Azië/Pacific, exclusief China, werden er 80 procent meer elektrische auto's verkocht. China en de Verenigde Staten zijn de uitzonderingen. In die landen zijn er door beleidswijzigingen ongeveer 8 procent minder auto's verkocht.


Vrijheid van kunstenaars onder druk: OM drijft zichzelf weer in de hoek

EW: Vrijheid van kunstenaars onder druk: OM drijft zichzelf weer in de hoek | GS: Rechtszaak. Kunstenaar ‘na blijken KIRAC-connectie’ aangeklaagd door ‘bimbo-model’ wegens AI-afbeeldingen waar ze zelf om vroeg