When Moscow invaded Ukraine, Pavel Talankin, a staff member at a secondary school in Russia, was ordered to film patriotic lessons, songs and morning drills. It was so depressing, he wanted to quit. @afp.com's Anna Smolchenko writes: shorturl.at/aDiAA

Olha Kyrylenko, 26, went to cover the front lines for the first time shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, and noticed that she was far from the only woman. @afpnews.bsky.social shorturl.at/6C9SA

Director Tarik Saleh said he decided that, if he was going to address Egyptian politics head on in his latest film, it needed to include Egypt's current president. @afpnews.bsky.social tinyurl.com/4r4br49c

Thai film director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, who has won a top prize in Cannes, recruited a major influencer for his off-the-wall gay comedy with a political punch. tinyurl.com/mt3fz9vw @afpnews.bsky.social

Sylvie Eberena, 44, became French weightlifting champion in her amateur category last year, but now she fears she will no longer be able to compete because she wears a headscarf. My story for @afpnews.bsky.social: rb.gy/u1diaf

France's education ministry asked a cartoonist to give "Beauty and the Beast" a 21st-century makover. Then it decided his version including a police sniffer dog and smartphones was inappropriate for tweens. @afpnews.bsky.social shorturl.at/VxSym

A French surgeon accused of raping or sexually assaulting almost 300 patients, mostly children, practised right up until his retirement despite a previous conviction and colleagues sounding the alarm. His trial starts on Monday. @afpnews.bsky.social's Anais Llobet writes: rb.gy/8dtk6z

France seized nine dinosaur teeth last month from a courier truck on its way from Spain to Italy. One of them is thought to have belonged to a plesiosaurus at least 66 million years old: tinyurl.com/3yhsjaam

'Protect our people': Armed Syrian volunteers watch over Damascus -- @AFP's @Maher_mon reports shorturl.at/N6Rqh

'Where are our children?': @afpfr.bsky.social's Laure Al-Khoury reports on Syrians desperately searching for their disappeared loved ones after Assad's fall in Damascus: tinyurl.com/wpye5j6m Picture inside the Saydnaya prison by Sameer Al-Doumy.

Her husband orchestrating her sexual abuse by strangers could have broken her. But by standing up to her abusers in court, France's Gisele Pelicot has become a feminist champion. @afpfr.bsky.social's Olivier Lucazeau writes: tinyurl.com/vpzpwzmv