Today marks the 2nd anniversary of the opening of the Hong Kong BN(O) scheme. Over 144,500 people have received a visa, are enjoying life in our free, democratic society and are already making incredible contributions. We will continue to honour our commitment to Hong Kongers.

Thousands of #HongKongers continue to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II. @UKinHongKong has extended opening hours & warns of queues up to 3 hours long. One of the biggest recent manifestations of rejection of #CCP rule over #HongKong. inmediahk.net/node/%E5%9C%8B…

Counteroffensive in north-east has confirmed once again: Ukrainians are waiting for 🇺🇦 Army. 6 months of 🇷🇺 occupation of Balakliya, Kharkiv region: darkness, murders, lack of humanitarian aid. Barbarians don't value human life. More on @United24media: youtu.be/X-EQXyhNVZ4

#BREAKING 'Elimination' of last Ukrainian troops trapped in Mariupol would end Moscow talks: President Zelensky

When an entire street is a crime scene - To understand what happened to the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka under Russian occupation, I decided to focus only on Centralna Street. At least 60 people died there. Many more bodies are still trapped in the rubble theglobeandmail.com/world/article-…

A lot of outrage in Ukraine over Pope Francis' idea to have Ukrainian and Russian women to hold cross together at Via Crucis yesterday. Having Ukrainian Irina and Russian Albina to do it was perceived in 🇺🇦 as equating the victim and the aggressor, as the Russian invasion goes on

#Mariupol before Russia / after Russia

I’m old enough to remember all the tragic outrage following the Kursk submarine disaster in 2000. 118 servicemen killed, a worldwide stir, Russian wives and mothers seeking justice. Now, over 500 Moskva crew members - any word of them in Sevastopol? Hello? Where are they?

In Mariupol, Russia’s troops tell locals they’ll close the town completely, ban movement within it to filtrate 100% of male residents. Some men will be forced to join RU troops, others to clear the rubble, the rest will be detained - aide to Mariupol mayor Petro Andryishchenko

52 nights, hundreds of thousands of 🇺🇦 hear the terrible howls of sirens & missiles. No one knows where they will fall and who will kill. But we know that the 🇷🇺 is bombing our cities every night. To scare and kill. Good that the rest of Europe does not hear scary sounds

⚡️Zelensky estimates up to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed during the war. In an interview with CNN on April 15, President Volodymyr Zelensky compared these numbers to Russia’s, an estimated 19,000 to 20,000 soldiers killed.

⚡️Energy minister welcomes Poland's decision to phase out of Russian coal import. Herman Halushchenko thanked the neighboring country for its "decisive and consistent policy." “This is indeed a bold step, given the structure of coal consumption in Poland,” he said.

1. Ukraine asks Europe for weapons. 2. Europeans support the call for their governments. 3. 🇪🇺 gives 🇺🇦 weapons, not the ones we asked for. 4. Weapons take too long to arrive Democracy won’t win from playing this game. 🇺🇦 needs weapons. Not in a month. Now.

Published by Mariupol City Council, the new video shows destroyed apartment buildings in the city's Eastern residential district. Mariupol, a seaport in southeastern Ukraine, has been heavily bombarded since the beginning of Russia's all-out war and besieged since early March.

⚡️More than 10,000 volunteers register to help rebuild Ukraine. The volunteers currently work in the demined areas of Kyiv Oblast. They are cleaning the streets by picking up dismantled debris and participating in the search operations, according to the State Emergency Service.

Saying that Russians and Ukrainians are brothers and should just make peace is as disrespectful as saying the same about Jews and German Nazis. The scale of atrocities committed by Russian people in Ukraine, and the support such actions are getting in Russia, are unimaginable.

⚡️Luhansk Oblast Governor: Russian occupiers open fire in central Lysychansk, thwarting evacuation. Serhiy Haidai said residents decided to stay in basements and only one person has been evacuated.

⚡️Akhmetov pledges to rebuild Mariupol. Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man, told Reuters that his holding would play a key role in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine and Mariupol in particular. The oligarch built part of his fortune thanks to two plants in Mariupol.

Even those of us who’ve reported from Bucha find it hard to explain what happened there. But this, by @leloveluck and @s_morgunov, brings us that much closer. A testament to careful, compassionate reporting. washingtonpost.com/world/interact…

⚡️Zelensky: Destruction of Mariupol defenders will put an end to negotiations with Russia. Zelensky said Russia wanted them to surrender and that Ukraine didn't trust Russia in the light of the Ilovaisk battle in 2014 when Russia’s proxies massacred disarmed Ukrainian soldiers.