The Ukrainian leader planned to use the grand reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral to lobby the president-elect and other world leaders attending the ceremony.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine met with President-elect Donald J. Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France ahead of Notre-Dame Cathedral’s grand reopening on Saturday, an event Ukraine sees as a chance to press its case to the world leaders in attendance.
Mr. Zelensky’s meeting with Mr. Trump was the first face-to-face encounter between the two since Mr. Trump won the U.S. presidential election last month.
Mr. Zelensky stepped into the Élysée Palace just after Mr. Macron met with Mr. Trump there, and the three posed for pictures ahead of a trilateral meeting.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian officials have sought to engage with Mr. Trump’s incoming administration, aiming to influence its plans for a swift end to the war with Russia in a way that aligns as much as possible with Ukraine’s interests.
These plans have so far been vague, but officials in Kyiv are concerned that Mr. Trump’s vague pledge to end the war in 24 hours could result in Russia keeping the territory it has captured and ignoring Ukraine’s demand to join NATO as a security guarantee to prevent further attacks.
Just this week, a delegation of senior Ukrainian officials and government members visited the United States and met with JD Vance, the vice president-elect; Representative Mike Waltz of Florida, Mr. Trump’s pick for national security adviser; and Keith Kellogg, Mr. Trump’s choice for envoy to Ukraine and Russia. Leading the delegation was Andriy Yermak, Mr. Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Ukrainian political analyst, said the visit’s goal was to introduce Mr. Yermak to the American officials as Ukraine’s chief negotiator, present Ukraine’s stance on future peace talks and gauge the future Trump administration’s position on the negotiations.
“What is happening now is just the first act of a prelude to the negotiations to come,” Mr. Fesenko wrote in a post on Facebook.
Ukraine’s outreach to Mr. Trump’s team has coincided with an apparent shift in Kyiv’s public stance on peace talks. After years of vowing not to cede territory to Russia, Mr. Zelensky has recently suggested he would consider doing so as a way to end the war, in return for NATO membership. Ukraine, he added, would then seek to regain its occupied territory through negotiations.
The change in position has been seen as a way for Ukraine to show Mr. Trump that it is ready to make concessions as part of negotiations.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/world/europe/zelensky-trump-macron-notre-dame.html
On August 28, the XVII Paralympic Summer Games 2024 will start. These Games will be the first time Paris will host the Paralympic Games and the second time France will host the Paralympic Games (the cities of Tignes and Albertville co-hosted the 1992 Winter Paralympic Games).
In total, 140 athletes from Ukraine will compete in 17 out of 22 sports, which is a record. Ukraine will be most represented in swimming (37 athletes) and athletics (28).
The Paralympics 2024 will be broadcast live on Suspilne.Sport. The opening ceremony will start at 20:30.
Later, live broadcasts of the competition will be available on the Suspilne.Sport website, as well as on Suspilne’s regional TV channels, which are available on cable operators’ networks, Megogo media service, Diia app and T2 digital broadcast. Also, the 2024 Paralympics will be shown on Pervyi TV channel.
As reported by OBOZ.UA, 143 athletes in 15 sports represented Ukraine at the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Most of our compatriots performed in swimming (40) and athletics (32). Our team finished in sixth place with 98 medals (24 gold, 47 silver and 27 bronze).
At the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Ukraine was in the top 3 in the medal standings, behind only China and Great Britain.
A “gender scandal” erupted at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris because the organizers allowed athletes with XY chromosomes (male) to compete in the women’s competition, The Guardian reported. As it became known, in the 1/8 finals, Italian boxer Angela Carini refused to fight Iman Khelif. The fight was stopped 46 seconds after it started.
Carini cried and said that the blows that Khelif had dealt her were too strong.
“After the second punch, after many years of experience, I felt a strong pain in my nose. I said enough is enough because I didn’t want to. I couldn’t continue the fight after a blow to the nose. So it was better to end it,” The Guardian quoted the athlete as saying.
Earlier, in 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA) disqualified Iman Helif and Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan because, according to IBA President Umar Kremlin, DNA tests proved that both athletes have XY chromosomes.
At the same time, the International Olympic Committee insists that both Khelif and Lin are “women with passports” and, like all the participants in the tournament, meet all the necessary criteria for participation.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni commented on the situation: “I believe that athletes with male genetic characteristics should not be allowed to participate in women’s competitions. And not because you want to discriminate against anyone, but to protect the right of female athletes to compete on equal terms,” she said.
The Algerian Olympic Committee, meanwhile, stated that it “strongly condemns the unethical actions and slander of our respected athlete Iman Khelif through baseless propaganda by some foreign media.”
Sotheby’s will hold the largest ever auction of luxury champagne next week, the Financial Times reports.
The auction house will put up for auction in Paris about 1.5 thousand bottles of vintage champagne from the collection of Taiwanese billionaire Pierre Chen.
Among the rarities will be a lot of five bottles of Salon Le Mesnil, Blanc de Blancs 1971, estimated at 18 thousand euros. Bidders will also be able to compete for champagne from leading brands, including Krug, Dom Perignon, Salon and Roederer, including those from the 1950s.
This is the second of five international auctions to sell 25 thousand bottles of Chen’s wines. The first one took place last November in Hong Kong and brought in $16.8 million.
Ukraine will take part in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, the Ministry of Youth and Sports said.
“These games have a special meaning for Ukraine, because it is an opportunity to show the world our will and strength of spirit. Ukraine’s slogan at the Olympic Games is “The Will to Win” This time for Ukraine, the Olympics is, first of all, a big screen to the world. We have to remind that Ukraine is, fights and is able to win. The very fact that in Paris perform under the Ukrainian flag is a great demonstration of willpower,” – stated in the press service of the Ministry of sports.
As reported, the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine have developed recommendations for Ukrainian athletes regarding contacts with Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris (France).
Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European parliament and the lead socialist candidate in France in the upcoming EU elections, has urged Emmanuel Macron to be “firm” against China and “not to remain silent in the face of the crimes” against the Uyghurs.
In an interview with France Inter radio on Monday morning he said it was wrong to roll out the red carpet in the way Macron has for the Chinese president.
“You can receive him, you can talk to anyone, but not like this. Not by taking him to the vacation village of his childhood, to his grandfather’s house, not, as the Élysée puts it, by giving this visit a friendly setting because Xi Jinping is not our friend. In addition to deporting the Uyghur people, repressing the Tibetans and Hong Kongers, suppressing opponents and threatening the Taiwanese.”
Glucksmann also claimed that China is killing French green tech putting solar panel companies out of business with its cut-price alternatives.
“We used to have solar panel champions in France and Europe. Today, how many companies produce solar panels in France? There’s only one left.
He added: “What I want for us is to no longer be the gall guys,” he said noting that when Canada sees distortions in trade with the Chinese it imposed tariffs of over 200%. “In Europe they charge 15%. That’s not a deterrent.”
