🎼🇺🇸The Cancellation of Tchaikovsky?

The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Tchaikovsky, has been a perennial favorite at 4th of July festivities across the US for decades, taking a starring role as it accompanies the fireworks display without which Independence Day celebrations are incomplete.

It was in fact written in 1880 to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon’s army in Russia in 1812 - you can even hear the motif of the anthem of the Russian Empire 'God Save the Tsar' in part of the overture.

This year, because of the special interest the West has taken in Russian culture, the overture seems to have come to the edge of being "canceled". Some US orchestras decided to skip it and others have added renditions of the Ukrainian national anthem to their programs to "counter the overture’s exaltation of czarist Russia", The New York Times says.

"The reconsideration of the 1812 Overture is the latest example of the difficult questions facing cultural institutions since the war began", The New York Times adds.

A young man set his face on fire while trying to perform a trick by swallowing fire in Feodosia, Russia. The low-quality kerosene he used might be the reason he had his accident. The man was admitted to hospital in a serious condition

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⚡ French football club Paris Saint-Germain sacks head coach Mauricio Pochettino

⚡Christophe Galtier named new Paris Saint-Germain coach

How many foreign mercenaries are fighting on Ukraine's side?

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense's data published on 17 June, since the beginning of the special military operation, 6,956 foreign mercenaries have arrived in Ukraine.

The eyewitnesses also say that there are many mercenaries from Poland, US, and the UK. For example, Andrei, who lives in Lisichansk (the last city of the LPR cleared of Ukrainian troops before the full liberation of the republic), says "there was a whole city full of them".

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🎥Russian servicemen provide first aid to a Ukrainian soldier who blew himself up on his own PFM-1 mine (the use of which is prohibited by the Ottawa Treaty) while retreating, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

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🇦🇹Ex-Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said she is “not giving interviews” and has emigrated from Austria because of “death threats”, The Washington Post reports, citing WhatsApp text messages from Kneissl.

‘No new oil’: Just Stop Oil activists have glued themselves to a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper in London's Royal Academy of Arts. Here's what the activists said:

“The future of this planet is facing its last supper in many regards.”

“Any more oil production or new oil infrastructure projects are going to tip us over the edge possibly to 2 degrees of warming."

"We have no time left, to say that we do is a lie."

Police have been called to the scene.

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🇺🇸Jenn Mason, a school board director in Bellingham, Washington state, has announced she will teach sex education classes to children aged 9 and over on topics such as "sexual anatomy for pleasure" and "safer sex practices for all kinds of sexual activities." The sex education classes are expected to be held at a sex shop called WinkWink, which is owned by... Mason herself.

Mason announced that there will be several sex education classes next month as part of an event called the "Uncringe Academy."

So, cringe or uncringe?

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Police: Highland Park gunman wore women's clothing during shooting spree to blend into fleeing crowd

Police: July 4 parade gunman planned the attack for weeks

'Awake the Rapper’: It turns out that the Highland Park Fourth of July parade shooter, who killed six people and injured 24, was a rather strange "artist".

⚡⚡UK Cabinet Minister Sajid Javid steps down in protest at Boris Johnson's leadership

Javid has submitted a letter to Boris Johnson explaining his resignation

⚡⚡Rishi Sunak has quit the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer

‘There is no place in this government for anybody who is a predator or who abuses their position of power’: Boris Johnson has apologized for appointing Chris Pincher deputy chief whip, who recently resigned from his post following an incident during a drunken night out