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Russia introduces a ‘delicious’ McDonald’s alternative

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McDonald’s withdrew from Russia in protest of the invasion of Ukraine, selling more than 800 of its restaurants to Russian businessman Alexander Govor. The first rebranded restaurants in Moscow are reopening today. “Vkusno I Tochka,” which means “tasty and that’s it,” is the new name. The Golden Arches have been replaced with a stylized letter M made of two French fries and a dot (or perhaps a burger?) The Big Mac and McFlurry are no longer available.

Customers, on the other hand, should not notice too many differences, according to the new owners. They held a press conference in the flagship restaurant on Pushkin Square, which opened 32 years ago as the first McDonald’s in Moscow. “Our goal is for our guests to notice no difference in quality or ambience,” said Vkusno I Tochka CEO Oleg Paroyev. One male protester, however, disrupted the event by shouting, “Bring back Big Mac!” I was in the long line in 1990, and it took me three hours to get in and be served. I recall being ecstatic. McDonald’s’ arrival was a symbol of Soviet Russia’s embrace of Western ideas, culture, and cuisine.

McDonald’s announced last month that it would leave Russia due to the war’s “humanitarian crisis” and “unpredictable operating environment.” Last year, Russia and Ukraine accounted for about 9% of McDonald’s global sales.

Since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, international brands such as Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Levi’s, and Apple have left or suspended sales in Russia. Wide-ranging international sanctions have been imposed on Russia, disrupting its supply chains and raising unemployment.

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Russia’s new version of McDonald’s unveils logo

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As it prepares to reopen its restaurants on Sunday, the Russian fast food chain that was formerly known as McDonald’s in the country has unveiled its new logo.

A circle and two lines appear in the new branding, which are said to represent a burger and two French fries. Although a number of options have reportedly been considered, the company has not yet revealed the name of the chain. McDonald’s announced in May that it would leave Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine.

According to Russian state-owned news agency TASS, which cited Sistema PBO, the firm that manages the business previously owned by McDonald’s, the Russian chain is set to reopen 15 restaurants this weekend.

“The logo’s green background represents the high quality of products and service that our guests have come to expect,” a Sistema PBO spokesperson told TASS.

The new logo, according to social media users, still looks like a “M.” Others speculated that the new logo was inspired by Bangladesh’s flag, which has a dark green background and a red circle in shades similar to the new logo. Sistema PBO has submitted eight potential names for the new chain to Rospatent, the Russian government agency in charge of intellectual property, according to the newspaper Izvestia.

“Tot Samyi,” which means “the same,” and “Svobodnaya Kassa,” which means “available cash register,” are among the names reportedly being considered. McDonald’s, Sistema PBO, and Rospatent did not respond to requests for comment from the BBC right away.

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Berlin: One dead and others hurt as car drives into pedestrians

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A car slammed into a crowd on a busy Berlin street, killing at least one person and injuring eight others. It’s unclear whether the incident, which occurred around 10:30 a.m. local time (08:30 a.m. GMT), was intentional or unintentional, according to emergency officials.

The driver was arrested at the scene, according to a police spokesperson. The incident occurred in western Berlin, on one of the city’s busiest shopping streets. According to reports, the vehicle veered off the road and climbed the sidewalk before crashing into a storefront.

A silver Renault Clio crashed through a display window in a cosmetics store, according to images from the scene. There are also photos of what appears to be a body in the middle of the road, covered in blankets.

According to Berlin police, around 130 emergency workers are on the scene. Mayor Franziska Giffey of Berlin said on Twitter that she was “deeply affected” by the incident and that “police are working flat out to clarify the matter.”

“Throughout the day, I’ll get a sense of the situation on the ground. I’d like to express my gratitude to the more than 130 emergency services who responded quickly and provided care to those who were affected “she continued.

The actor John Barrowman tweeted that he was nearby when the incident occurred, and that the car had repeatedly mounted the footpath before crashing into the storefront, according to a video posted from the scene.

“The police presence is astounding. They’re removing the debris from the area “”, said the actor. “Right now, helicopters are flying in to airlift people.” The incident occurred near the busy intersection of Rankestrasse and Tauentzienstrasse in west Berlin.

The area is directly across from Breitscheidplatz, where a truck driver deliberately drove his lorry into a crowd of people at a Christmas market, killing 12 people.

The attack, which was carried out by an unsuccessful asylum seeker, was later claimed by IS. Italian police shot and killed the assailant later.

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News Trending War

Flight ban affects Russian foreign minister’s visit to Serbia due to Ukraine conflict

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Since three of Serbia’s neighbours have refused to let his plane use their airspace, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Serbia has been cancelled.

Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro, all EU members, have imposed a flight ban, as have Serbia and North Macedonia. In February, the EU imposed an airspace ban in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Lavrov has blamed the latest move on “the Brussels puppeteers.” Serbia has remained friendly with Russia despite the EU’s broad sanctions against the country. Days after the invasion on February 24, the EU and the UK imposed a blanket flight ban on Russian planes, including oligarchs’ private jets.

Serbia, like many other European countries, is heavily reliant on Russian gas. On the 6-7 June, Mr. Lavrov was scheduled to meet with President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.

He called the decision “unprecedented” and said that “no one will be able to destroy our relations with Serbia” in a statement broadcast on Russian state news channel Rossiya 24.

“It appears that the Brussels puppeteers did not want to give us a platform so that we could confirm Russia’s position on the Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina problems in the capital of Serbia,” he added.

Serbia’s refusal to recognise Kosovo’s independence is backed by the Kremlin. The NATO bombing campaign against Serbia during the Kosovo war in 1999 enraged Russia.

Mr. Lavrov accused Nato and the EU of wanting to “turn the Balkans into their own project called closed Balkans” in a statement released on Monday. “Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation,” a Russian foreign ministry source said of the decision to bar Mr Lavrov’s flight.

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‘Don’t humiliate Russia,’ Macron says, inciting outrage in Ukraine

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Ukraine’s foreign minister has slammed French President Emmanuel Macron for stating that Russia must not be humiliated as a result of its invasion. Mr. Macron stressed the importance of President Vladimir Putin having a way out of a “fundamental error.”

Allies, on the other hand, should “better focus on how to put Russia in its place” as it “humiliates itself,” according to Dmytro Kuleba. Mr Macron has spoken with Mr Putin on the phone several times in an attempt to broker a ceasefire and negotiations.

The French efforts to maintain contact with Putin contrast sharply with the US and UK positions. “Calls to avoid humiliating Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it,” Foreign Minister Kuleba said in a tweet.

Ukraine must not give Russia territorial concessions, according to Kyiv, because Russia’s invasion has been condemned internationally as a brutal aggression. Mr Macron had previously told French regional media that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “isolated himself.”

“I believe, and I told him so,” he said, “that he made a historic and fundamental error for his people, for himself, and for history.” “Isolating oneself is one thing,” he continued, “but getting out of it is a difficult path.”Mario Draghi, Italy’s prime minister, has sided with Mr Macron, saying Europe wants “some credible negotiations.”

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Palme d’Or: Triangle of Sadness wins top prize in Cannes for Ruben Ostlund

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On Saturday, Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness won the Palme d’Or, a film in which models and the ultra-rich have their status questioned by unexpected events.

The award is the second for the Swedish director, who previously won it in 2017 for The Square. Park Chan-wook of South Korea took home the award for best director. Park, who is best known for the 2003 thriller Oldboy, took home the award for his erotic crime film Decision to Leave.

The best actor award went to Song Kang-ho for Broker, capping off a strong night for South Korea. Song gained international acclaim for his role in the Oscar-winning film Parasite in 2019. Ostlund, dubbed the “King of Cringe,” told reporters that he wanted to make a film that would make people laugh.

“I think we had one goal when we started making this film – to really, really try to make an exciting film for the audience and bring thought-provoking content,” Ostlund said, adding, “We wanted to entertain them, we wanted them to ask themselves questions, we wanted them to go out and have something to talk about after the screening.”

During its premiere, his film elicited a strong reaction from the audience, with news agency AFP reporting that one scene in particular “left viewers either howling with laughter or turning green.” The story of Triangle of Sadness revolves around two models, played by British actor Harris Dickinson and South African Charlbi Dean, who embark on a luxury cruise.

However, unexpected events have left them stranded, and the need to survive has thrown the social order into disarray.

While the film “makes you laugh,” Ostlund “also makes you think,” according to the entertainment magazine Variety. “We’re bound to see the world differently no matter what sphere he tackles,” it says in its review.

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News Trending War

Severodonetsk: Ukrainian man rides his bike through the besieged city while dodging Russian shells

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By cycling and dodging Russian shells and warplanes, a Ukrainian man managed to escape the heavily bombed eastern city of Severodonetsk unharmed.

Arif Bagirov, 45, told BBC Newshour that it was his “craziest journey.” He described his 70-kilometer (43-mile) bike ride to Bakhmut as “a lot of firing and at least two air strikes near me.”

The editor and blogger predicted that if one shell landed close by, the Russians would most likely avoid hitting the area again. Using these strategies, he was able to reach Bakhmut unharmed. “There were holes in the road, and everything, including cars, was smashed up,” Mr Bagirov said.

“And there was a lot of debris strewn about.” It is, after all, a frontline road. Thankfully, there were no bodies, but it was clear that people had died there.”
Mr Bagirov claimed that avoiding Russian warplanes was easier because he could hear them approaching from afar.
“I found a ditch to lie down in and stayed there until they passed.”
When he finally arrived in Bakhmut, a Ukrainian-controlled city further west, he said it was a huge relief. “When I was riding my bike, it wasn’t so much a sense of fear as it was a sense of anger: ‘This is my land, this is my country!’

And whether you like it or not, I’m going to finish this journey!’ He describes the sensation as “sporting anger, a positive anger” that kept him going. Mr Bagirov, a seasoned cyclist, added, “It was definitely my craziest journey on a bike.” “I’d travelled great distances before, but never in such adverse conditions.”

“I don’t know at the moment,” he said simply when asked about his future plans. I’m just on my way to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and once there, I’ll get some rest.” “As soon as the opportunity presents itself, all I want to do is help my home town again,” he added.

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Alan White, the drummer for Yes, has died at the age of 72

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Alan White, a founding member of the seminal prog-rock band Yes, has passed away.

After a brief illness, the 72-year-old, who was born in Pelton, County Durham, died peacefully at his home in the United States. According to the band, he had been looking forward to an upcoming UK tour and celebrating his 50th anniversary with Yes, which he had joined in 1972.

White collaborated with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Joe Cocker during his career. “Alan White, our beloved husband, father, and grandpa, passed away at the age of 72 at his Seattle-area home on May 26, 2022, after a brief illness,” the band said in a social media post.

“Alan was many things to many people throughout his life and six-decade career: a certified rock star to fans all over the world, a band mate to a select few, and a gentleman and friend to all who met him.”

Former frontman Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire, along with guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and drummer Bill Bruford, founded Yes in London in 1968. The band went through several lineups, including White and Rick Wakeman, and experimented with a variety of musical styles.

Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Roundabout, and Long Distance Runaround are some of their biggest hits. White began playing the drums at the age of 12 and was performing in front of an audience at the age of 13.

In the 1960s, he worked with a variety of bands before receiving what he thought was a prank phone call from John Lennon in 1969.

However, it was the former Beatle who called to ask if White would join the Plastic Ono Band, and White went on to play on several of John Lennon’s albums, including Imagine. This led to a meeting with Harrison, who requested that the drummer play on the album All Things Must Pass, which included the single “My Sweet Lord.”

White had only three days to learn the songs before the start of a major US tour when he joined Yes on July 27, 1972. White was the band’s longest-serving member until founding member Chris Squire passed away in 2015. In 2017, Yes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Elvis biopic: Austin Butler praised, but mixed reviews for film

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Many critics praised actor Austin Butler’s portrayal of Elvis Presley in a new biopic of the singer, which has received generally positive reviews.

The film, directed by Baz Luhrmann, had its world premiere on Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival. Butler “throws himself into the performance,” according to The Wrap, and Total Film predicted an Oscar nomination.

Vanity Fair, on the other hand, called Butler “the only thing that works,” while IndieWire called the film “deliriously awful.” “Yes, it’s a bright and splashy jukebox epic with an irresistible central performance from Austin Butler,” wrote Robbie Collin of The Telegraph, who gave the film four stars.

“But it veers in and out of fashion on a scene-by-scene basis, in that signature Luhrmann way: it’s the most impeccably styled and blaringly gaudy thing you’ll see all year, and all the more fun for it.”

Elvis is “easily Luhrmann’s best movie since Romeo + Juliet,” according to Kevin Maher of the New York Times, in another four-star review. “The musical numbers have a lot of power because of Butler’s performance, but also because of Luhrmann’s editing, which has the kind of frenetic rhythms that are almost impossible to resist (feet will tap),” he said.

When Butler was cast as Elvis Presley in 2019, he reportedly beat out Harry Styles, Ansel Elgort, and Miles Teller.

Butler’s performance was praised by Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent, who wrote that the actor “makes a compelling argument for Elvis’ power, at a time when the musician’s arguably lost a little of his cultural cachet.”

“Butler has the looks, voice, stance, and wiggle down pat,” she said, “but what’s truly impressive is that indescribable, undistillable essence of Elvis-ness – magnetic, gentle, and fierce all at once.”

Steve Pond of The Wrap described the star’s performance as “wildly physical but never cartoonish or disrespectful.”

Total Film’s Jordan Farley said: “Some may be offended by the length of the film, which clocks in at over 150 minutes, but a lack of action isn’t the issue; there’s enough to Elvis’ story to fill 150 hours.

“The problem is that well-edited montages or a time jump bridged by a newspaper headline to fill in the gaps miss a lot of interesting material. Most of Elvis’s Hollywood years, as well as his initial rise to chart-topping fame, are relegated to one of these montage.

“In the end, nothing in Elvis’ life happens gradually – this is a fast-paced life story, but such is the energy that Luhrmann cultivates. At the very least, it’s never dull.”

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Ukraine war: Russian soldiers’ bodies are dumped near Kyiv

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Villagers in Zavalivka called the authorities after their dogs began digging incessantly in the woods.

The topsoil was carefully removed by a Ukrainian military team wearing white protective suits. They discovered a man’s body, lying face down with his legs twisted strangely beneath him. His uniform indicated that he was a Russian soldier.

Russian troops’ remains are still being discovered in and around the villages they passed through or occupied near Kyiv, weeks after they failed to seize Ukraine’s capital. However, Ukraine claims that Russia is uninterested in returning them.

The body was taken from its grave in the woods to a refrigerated train on the outskirts of Kyiv, which now serves as a mobile morgue for the Russian dead. The white plastic sacks are labelled with numbers rather than names, and on the day we visited, there were at least 137 stacked inside two carriages.

The Ukrainians try to identify the dead: the forensics team discovered two bank cards and badges for a Russian motorised rifle brigade on the body that was just brought in.

“At least this one has a chance of getting home,” the man in charge said as he displayed the finds, which included a soiled T-shirt with the Army of Russia logo printed on it.

I confirmed that the man I had just seen exhumed was a young, married soldier from Siberia a few moments later. A carefully posed black-and-white photograph from his social media profile stared out from my phone next to his body bag.

“We don’t abandon our own,” Russia proudly proclaims. It’s a big part of President Vladimir Putin’s pretext for invading Ukraine, where he falsely claimed Russian-speakers required protection.

This pledge does not appear to apply to Russian soldiers.
“The bodies we’ve discovered show they treat people like garbage, like cannon fodder,” Col Volodymyr Liamzin told the BBC. “They don’t require their troops. They throw them here, then flee, leaving the bodies behind.”

Russian soldiers are being urged to surrender and save their lives, while Ukrainian children are being sacrificed.

After the battle, the village elder claims he and others buried the Russians “for sanitary reasons.” When I ask why, he says most of them were blown to bits.

He wasn’t allowed to show us the graves because they are a crime scene until Col Liamzin’s team visits and exhumes the site. However, his to-do list is already lengthy.

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