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More than 50 people have been killed – including a six-year-old boy – after a Russian missile hit a shop and cafe in northeastern Ukraine where mourners had gathered for a wake. It is one of the deadliest such attacks since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion 19 months ago. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in the southern Spanish city of Granada for a conference with European leaders at the time of the strike, described the attack as a “brutal Russian crime” and accused Moscow of "genocidal aggression". During an emotional address to the European Political Community (EPC) in Spain, he cited the devastating impact Russian strikes were having on Ukrainian children in Kharkiv Oblast, forcing them to take school lessons in makeshift classrooms underground. A short time later officials in Kyiv said a Russian Iskander missile struck the 330-person village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region, killing at least 51, including a six-year-old boy. One image of the aftermath of the strike showed a number of bodies strewn across the floor, covered in the dust kicked up by the explosion. A handful of civilians could be seen crying behind them as two ambulance workers stood nearby. The interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said that residents of Hroza had been holding a memorial service in the cafe that was reduced to rubble by the attack. "From every family, from every household, there were people present at this commemoration. This is a terrible tragedy," Mr Klymenko told Ukrainian television. Reacting to the strike, Kira Rudik, a leading Ukrainian opposition MP, told The Independent: “You may think that we would get used to the news of our people getting killed, but everytime it is a shock.” She reiterated the calls made by Mr Zelensky throughout the summit in Spain for more air defences and weapons from Western allies, arguing that it was essential for Ukraine “particularly to protect those places so close to the front”, such as Hroza. The village sits only around 30 miles from the nearest Russian soldiers. In recent months, thousands have fled the broader Kupyansk district, in which Groza is located, as thousands of Russian troops stage an assault of their own while Kyiv continues to push ahead with its counteroffensive further south. Mr Zelensky has visited the areas around the frontlines Kharkiv in recent days, recording a message of support for the troops battling to keep Russian forces from advancing. "The terrorists deliberately carried out the attack during lunchtime, to ensure a maximum number of casualties," Ukraine's defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said. "There were no military targets there. This is a heinous crime intended to scare Ukrainians." Mr Zelensky arrived in Spain for the European Political Community (EPC) forum on Thursday morning, meeting first with the Spanish President Pedro Sanchez before holding talks with various other leaders, including UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, France's President Emmanuel Macron and Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni. Though multiple issues, such as energy prices, were on the agenda for the EPC forum, the issue of supporting Ukraine was the “core” topic of discussion, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Mr Sunak reiterated Britain's long-term support for Ukraine and said that he would be encouraging European leaders to work together to supply further defensive weapons. Both Mr Zelensky and his top aide Andriy Yermak said prior to arriving in Spain that securing new air defence systems was their top priority ahead of the winter, when Russia is expected to ramp up its missile campaign on major cities across the country. Mr Zelensky told the leaders in Granada that by providing additional military equipment to Ukraine, European countries could help ensure that a "drone, tank, or any other Russian weapon will not strike anyone else in Europe". In the wake of the attack in Kharkiv, Mr Zelensky added in a social media post: "Now we are talking with European leaders, in particular, about strengthening our air defence, about strengthening our soldiers, about giving our country protection from terror". A Spanish government source later confirmed to Reuters that Mr Sanchez had heeded that call, reporting that Spain would send both an air defence and anti-drone system to Kyiv. Ahead of the summit, German media reported that German Chancellor Olaf Scholf was reluctant to donate to Ukraine long-range Taurus missiles, despite widespread pressure from his allies to do so, over fears it would escalate tensions with Russia. The chancellor is reportedly concerned that Ukraine will use the missiles, which have a range further than the British Storm Shadows, Kyiv’s longest-range weapon to date, to hit the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia to the Moscow-occupied Crimean peninsula. Mr Zelensky met with Mr Scholz on Thursday, with the two leaders discussing “working on providing Ukraine with an additional ‘Patriot’ [air defence] system for the winter months”. The meeting in Granada was also a space to shore up support for Kyiv after a weekend of political turmoil in the US. A dispute among the Republican majority in the lower chamber of the US Congress has complicated spending negotiations and prompted Democrat President Joe Biden to go from confident that a deal will be made on further Ukraine aid from Washington to openly expressing concern. Mr Zelensky admitted that there was a “political storm” over Washington but said he was “confident” that it would be resolved. “They are strong people with strong institutions, and a strong democracy,” he said. “I am confident in America.” Elsewhere, at an address in the Russian resort city of Sochi, Mr Putin accused the West of losing touch with reality over the Ukraine war. In a speech that aired many of his oft-repeated grievances against Ukraine's allies over their support for Kyiv, he also held out the possibility that Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in over three decades and might withdraw its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty. Read More IMF chief says the global economy has show resilience in the face of COVID, war and high rates Russia has tested a nuclear-powered missile and could revoke a global atomic test ban, Putin says Live: Karine Jean-Pierre holds White House briefing as Biden vows to stand by Ukraine

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A school district and school board in Florida’s Escambia County were sued in federal court by free expression group PEN America and Penguin Random House, one of the largest book publishers in the world, and several prominent authors and families following dozens of challenges to books and materials discussing race, racism and LGBT+ people. The lawsuit filed in US District Court on 17 May argues that school officials have joined an “ideologically driven campaign to push certain ideas out of schools” and against the recommendation of experts. “This disregard for professional guidance underscores that the agendas underlying the removals are ideological and political, not pedagogical,” the lawsuit states. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ushered through sweeping laws to control public school education and lessons and speech he deems to be objectionable while characterising reporting on the impacts of such policies as a “hoax” and a “fake narrative” manufactured by the press. In Escambia County alone, nearly 200 books have been challenged, at least 10 books have been removed by the school board, five books were removed by district committees, and 139 books require parental permission, according to PEN America. Challenging such materials is “depriving students of access to a wide range of viewpoints, and depriving the authors of the removed and restricted books of the opportunity to engage with readers and disseminate their ideas to their intended audiences” in violation of the First Amendment, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also argues that singling out materials by and about nonwhite and LGBT+ people is an intentional violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment “This is no accident,” according to the lawsuit. “The clear agenda behind the campaign to remove the books is to categorically remove all discussion of racial discrimination or [LGBT+] issues from public school libraries. Government action may not be premised on such discriminatory motivations.” Two Penguin Random House Titles – Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Push by Sapphire – have been removed. And several other Penguin titles – including Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five – are currently under review. “Books have the capacity to change lives for the better, and students in particular deserve equitable access to a wide range of perspectives,” Penguin Random House CEO Nihar Malaviya said in a statement. “Censorship, in the form of book bans like those enacted by Escambia County, are a direct threat to democracy and our Constitutional rights.” Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, added that “children in a democracy must not be taught that books are dangerous.” “In Escambia County, state censors are spiriting books off shelves in a deliberate attempt to suppress diverse voices,” she added. “In a nation built on free speech, this cannot stand. The law demands that the Escambia County School District put removed or restricted books back on library shelves where they belong.” Titles from authors who joined the suit – including Sarah Brannen, David Levithan, George M Johnson, Ashley Hope Perez and Kyle Lukoff – have either been removed or faced restrictions for students to access them. “As a former public high school English teacher, I know firsthand how important libraries are,” Ashley Hope Perez, author of Out of Darkness, one of the books targeted by the school district, said in a statement. “For many young people, if a book isn’t in their school library, it might as well not exist.” The book removals followed objections from one language arts teacher in the county, and in each case the school board voted to remove the books despite recommendations from a district review committee that approved them. The teacher’s objections appear to be lifted from a website called Book Looks, founded by a member of Moms for Liberty, a right-wing group aligned with Governor DeSantis to pressure school boards and libraries to remove content it deems objectionable, largely around LGBT+ rights, race and discrimination. The basis for that teacher’s challenges “are nakedly ideological,” according to the lawsuit. In one instance, she admitted that she had never heard of the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower but included the title and a “parental book rating” and excerpts that appear to have been lifted from Book Looks. Her challenge to Race and Policing in Modern America, a nonfiction book for middle school readers, claims that the book promotes “the idea that all police are bad” and that “non-blacks are racist” and its purpose is to “race bait”. She did not include any specific examples of objectionable content, and “her sole objection was that the book addresses a topic – the intersection of race and policing – that she did not consider suitable for discussion in schools.” The Independent has requested comment from Escambia County school board members. The district is unable to comment on pending litigation. There have been at least 1,477 attempts to ban 874 individual book titles within the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, according to PEN America. The figures mark a nearly 30 per cent spike from book challenges over the previous year. Last year, a record high of more than 1,200 attempts to remove books from schools and libraries were reported to the American Library Association. More than 100 bills in state legislatures across the country this year threaten to cut library budgets, implement book rating systems, regulate the kinds of books and materials in their collections, and amend obscenity definitions that preempt First Amendment protections, according to a database from EveryLibrary. Read More The book ban surge gripping America’s schools and libraries The school librarian in the middle of Louisiana’s war on libraries ‘They were trying to erase us’: Inside a Texas town’s chilling effort to ban LGBT+ books John Green on book bans, bad faith, and the ‘history of folks trying to control what other folks can read’

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