Europe

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has replaced four-star General Oleksandr Syrskyi with Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi as commander-in-chief amid protests following the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. This leadership change aims to restructure military command and respond to internal criticism.

Spain’s national football team celebrated their World Cup victory with an open-top bus parade through Madrid, drawing over one million supporters. Celebrations featured jubilant fans chanting and displaying mobile phones, as players raised the trophy, marking Spain’s return home after 16 years since their last win.

For Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, 2024 has started with renewed bombardment by Russian missiles. But inhabitants, loathe to leave again, are adapting to life with such dangers. A key question is education, which has been almost exclusively online for the past two years. Many school buildings have been destroyed and all are considered unsafe. So the city, and its region, are taking education underground – quite literally. Gulliver Cragg reports.

The trial of suspects allegedly complicit in the planning of the 2018 Trèbes and Carcassonne terrorist attacks in the south of France opens on Monday in Paris. Three men were shot dead in a car park and a supermarket, and a receptionist was taken hostage until a gendarme, Arnaud Beltrame, volunteered to take the place of the captive at the cost of his life. FRANCE 24’s Claire Paccalin reports.

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