The Directors Guild of America (DGA) recognized the documentary film “2000 Meters to Andriivka” by Ukrainian director and journalist Mstislav Chernov with its award, according to a post on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian State Film Agency on Sunday.
“The film chronicles the events of the war in Ukraine and focuses on the fighting during the Ukrainian counteroffensive. In the film, Mstislav Chernov and photographer Alexander Babenko follow Ukrainian soldiers, capturing the reality of life in the trenches, heavy fighting, and the personal stories of defenders on the front lines. The cameras convey the immediate experience of war — from tense combat episodes to personal moments,“ the statement said.
It is noted that this is Chernov’s second DGA award. The director previously received this award for the documentary film ”20 Days in Mariupol.”
“The Directors Guild of America Award is yet another confirmation of the international recognition of Ukrainian documentary cinema and the world community’s attention to the events of the war in Ukraine,” the State Film Agency noted.
In the U.S. there is a real threat of suspension of payments for food assistance program Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from November 1 due to the ongoing federal government shutdown. This is reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. media.
USDA said in an October 24 memorandum that the agency does not intend to use its reserve funds (approximately $5 billion) to cover SNAP benefits in November because funding for the program has not been approved by Congress. More than 41 million people are at risk of not receiving food assistance in November.
Some states have already warned: if funding is not restored, SNAP benefits will not be paid on November 1.
SNAP is the largest food assistance program in the US: it covers about one in eight Americans (~42 million). Suspending payments could have serious social consequences: food insecurity for low-income families, increased reliance on food banks, and increased social tensions.
Until a decision on SNAP funding is made, states are taking different measures: some states have declared a state of emergency in order to use their own budgets to provide payments in November. However, such steps do not guarantee that the federal government will reimburse some of the costs. If the situation does not change by the end of October, the program could be partially or completely suspended in November, posing a serious challenge to the millions of people dependent on food benefits.
The potential reintegration of Donbas might add up to 1.5 percentage points (pp) to Ukraine’s GDP growth during two or three years, Bank of America (BofA) has said in its analytical review.
BofA said that the potential integration of territories could increase nominal GDP by 3-5 pp and accelerate growth by 1-1.5 pp in the period after the post-war recovery.
The analysts said that the post-war recovery might be partially financed with external donor assistance.
Both Donetsk and Luhansk regions accounted for more than 15.7% of Ukraine’s GDP in 2012, before the war. The contribution of these regions, still under Ukrainian control, fell to about 12.7% of GDP in 2017. BofA believes that this might indicate a one-time increase in relation to nominal GDP values of at least 3%.
According to the analysts, the normalization of economic relations with the region could accelerate the growth of real GDP in the first year by 0.5 pp.
