Five Stories from Europe You May Have Missed

[rpannier]

1. Ad Appearance Is No 'Recipe For Happiness' For Russian LGBT Family

When Moscow-based psychologist and LGBT activist Yuma Yuma first saw her family in a grocery-chain advertisement spotlighting real-life customers, it was a point of gay pride.

"Perhaps the most important thing for our family is care and acceptance," Yuma wrote on Instagram in late June after the Russian health-food franchise VkusVill posted its ad featuring Yuma, her adult daughters Mila and Alina, and Alina's girlfriend and fiancée, Ksyusha.

Yuma expressed amazement at the amount of support her queer family had received and thanked VkusVill for its willingness to combat intolerance. But such good feelings would be short-lived.

Just days after VkusVill released the ad as part of its "Recipe For Happiness" marketing drive, the chain was in damage-control mode amid an outpouring of criticism, leading it to call the ad "a mistake" and apologize for "hurting the feelings of a large number of our customers and employees."

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-lgbt-family-flees/31395659.html

2. Snickers Spain pulls advert after accusations of homophobia

Snickers in Spain has pulled a controversial advertisement and apologised for any “misunderstanding that may have been caused” after the 20-second film was widely condemned for being homophobic.

The advert shows the Spanish influencer Aless Gibaja ordering a “sexy orange juice” while a friend trades puzzled looks with the waiter. The waiter responds by handing Gibaja a Snickers ice-cream bar, and after a bite, Gibaja appears to transform into a bearded man with a deep voice.

“Better?” the friend asks. “Better,” replies the man as the tagline reads: “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry.”

(video at link: video is embarrassing: for snickers and the actors)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/06/snickers-spain-pulls-advert-after-accusations-of-homophobia


3. Controversy as Ukraine mulls giving hero status to alleged war criminals

A controversial topic has landed in front of politicians in the Ukrainian parliament and is getting international attention. Seventy-eight Ukrainian lawmakers from all sides of the parliament have proposed to give the title ‘Hero of Ukraine’ to controversial figures such as Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych.

Some Ukrainians see them as war heroes who fought for Ukrainian independence back in the 1930s and 1940s.

For others, they are antisemitic war criminals who took part in the mass killings of up to 100,000 Jews and Poles during WW2 in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.

The proposal also asks the Ukrainian Parliament and the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to commemorate the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, UPA, operating from the 1940s and into the 1950s, on their 80th anniversary in October next year.

It also includes the suggestion of constructing memorials and the issuing of coins and stamps, “dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, as well as to Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych, and other UPA commanders.”

https://www.euronews.com/2021/08/04/controversy-as-ukraine-mulls-giving-hero-status-to-alleged-war-criminals

4. Moldovan Parliament Backs New 'Integrity Government'

CHISINAU -- Lawmakers in Moldova have confirmed the new government of Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita after her Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won snap elections earlier this month.

The Harvard-educated Gavrilita's PAS holds 63 of the 101 seats in parliament in Moldova for what she described as an "integrity government."

snip

The PAS had campaigned on a platform of carrying out reforms and tackling corruption, and advocates closer ties with the European Union and the United States.

Gavrilita, a former finance minister, was designated as prime minister by President Maia Sandu.

https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-gavrilita-confirmed-prime-minster/31397103.html

5. Russian Convicted Over Killing Of Chechen Asylum Seeker In Austria

A court in Austria has sentenced a Russian man to life in prison after he was convicted of murdering a 43-year-old Chechen in a Vienna suburb last year in a case that drew international attention amid claims the killing had been politically motivated.

A spokesman for the regional court in Korneuburg said on August 6 that jurors reached a unanimous verdict in the case during the one-day trial.

The defendant was a 48-year-old ethnic Chechen who wasn't named for privacy reasons, court spokesman Wolfgang Schuster-Kramer said.

snip

Austrian police have not named the victim, but sources in the Chechen diaspora have told RFE/RL that the victim was Mamikhan Umarov, a Chechen separatist who ran a video blog critical of Kadyrov and worked with Austrian intelligence. He had received asylum in Austria.

https://www.rferl.org/a/chechnya-austria-murder-kadyrov/31397514.html

[malaise]

1. Thank you

[2naSalit]

2. Thanks. K&R

[left-of-center2012]

3. This is great. Thank you

Please keep posting similar threads.

I am 75 years old and one of my complaints over the years has been that American News often doesn't cover what's going on around the world.

There are some shows on cable I would watch when I had cable that was English language international news from BBC or even German, Japanese news outlets.

I loved living in San Diego for 20 years but one complaint I often had was that there was rarely any news on San Diego TV about what was going on in a city of millions of people 17 miles away (Tijuana).

Again, thank you.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Reminds me of a comment from one of Tom Lehrer's live recordings ....

"Much of this discussion took place during the baseball season, so the {San Francisco} Chronicle may not have covered it". The discussion involved a US-centered, multilateral defense force "with our traditional friends, like Germany, and our current friends, like France".

[DAMANgoldberg]

4. Thank You...

I have added DW, Euronews, and the European Commission Twitters to hear what primarily Europe thinks of us. Looking for Sub-Saharan Africa native sources currently outside of South Africa.

SOT: The UK will continue to regret leaving the EU.

[flying_wahini]

6. Al Jazzera is also an excellent source.

Aljazerra.com

[marble falls]

8. Al Jazzera is an excellent news source. Here's a good source to use, too ...

https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/

Extremely non political and packed with information.

[niyad]

7. Thank you.

[marble falls]

9. I forgot what a good news source RFE is. thanks!

[Sympthsical]

10. The Snickers ad is genuinely funny

I mean, the gay influencer was in on it, too.

I have friends who don't present as overly effeminate . . . until they get crankier and grumpier or madder. It's really funny to observe. One minute they'll be watching something on tv. Then their boyfriend does something wrong in the kitchen, and the voice octave goes higher and higher the madder they get, and the hand gestures start flying.

I dunno. I'm gay and thought it was hilarious. My thought was, "Yeah, I have friends like that." I guarantee a gay guy was somewhere in the writer's room on that one.

But I guess we can't have funny things these days. Everyone's mad somewhere. Maybe it was too "inside baseball" and people thought heterosexuals wouldn't understand why it was funny. Plus, you know, the perpetually offended.

[ZonkerHarris]

11. plus it's another in a long running series. In one Betty White transforms back to a guy playing foot

ball.
Was that one anti elderly?
Come on now.
If the gay actor was cool with it and wanted a snickers payday I think we'll be okay

[rockfordfile]

12. Russia is a bigoted pos country. This is where the un-American pos in our country belong

"For others, they are antisemitic war criminals who took part in the mass killings of up to 100,000 Jews and Poles during WW2 in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia."

[smirkymonkey]

13. K&R