Euro 2020: As England face off with Ukraine in quarter finals, here are 20 things you didn’t know about the country

SHEVKCENKNOW

Grant Rollings

  • 20:04, 30 Jun 2021
  • Updated: 20:15, 30 Jun 2021

UKRAINE will be the underdogs when they face England on Saturday – but the country with knockout actresses and world-beating boxers should not be underestimated.

Gareth Southgate will need to choose his suit carefully to win the touchline fashion battle with dapper rival Andriy Shevchenko.

As England face off with Ukraine in quarter finals, here are 20 things you didn't know about the country
As England face off with Ukraine in quarter finals, here are 20 things you didn’t know about the countryCredit: Shutterstock
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HELL ON EARTH

Afghanistan to become ‘terror battleground’ as ISIS and Taliban wage brutal war with beheadings, floggings & executions

AFGHANISTAN risks becoming hell on earth as a resurgent Taliban seize territory and open the door for the rise of terrorist groups such as ISIS.

Security experts have grimly warned about the fate that awaits the Afghan people as the state risks descending into a “terror battleground” as the US withdraws its last troops after two decades.

Taliban fighters line a group of men up to be shot by AK-47 for being 'enemies of Islam'
Taliban fighters line a group of men up to be shot by AK-47 for being ‘enemies of Islam’
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Scandalous lives of 19th century French courtesans exposed / Скандальная жизнь французских куртизанок XIX века стала достоянием публики

Secret ledger in Paris police archives reveal how one offered herself naked on a platter at dinner parties while a dancer tricked men out of their fortunes

Секретные записи в архивах парижской полиции показывают, как одна из них предлагала себя обнаженной на блюде на званых обедах, а танцовщица обманом выманивала у мужчин их состояния

By Harriet Johnston For MailonlinePublished: 11:35 EDT, 29 June 2021

A secret ledger hidden in the archives of the Parisian police and containing the criminal files of a group of prostitutes labelled ‘the Undominated’ has been revealed.
French officers obsessively tracked and charted the kept women of 19th-century Paris, from the city’s elite sex workers to madames who procured girls for money,
with the records stored in The Book of the Courtesans.  
The leather-bound volume contains stories of over 700 women in the city, from famous actresses to gold-digging dancers.
Although little-known today, many of the women listed rose to become extremely wealthy and famous in their own right – gaining impressive power in the French capital through the men they bedded.  In 2006 it was transcribed and published in French by historian Gabrielle Houbre, and California-based journalist Summer Brennan has since been translating passages of the text into English online.
The translations will be featured in a new book that she is publishing, The Book of Courtesans which will also include Summer’s new research on the women. 
Among the shocking stories is the tale of a young woman recruited to work as a prostitute from the sweet shop she worked in, as well as a dancer who tricked men into giving her their fortunes. 
Секретная книга, спрятанная в архивах парижской полиции и содержащая уголовные дела группы проституток, обозначенных как “недоминированные”, стала достоянием публики. Французские полицейские с одержимостью отслеживали содержанок Парижа XIX века и вели их учёт, от элитных секс-работниц города до мадам, которые продавали девушек за деньги, а записи хранились в “Книге куртизанок”.  В томе в кожаном переплете собраны истории более 700 женщин города, от известных актрис до танцовщиц, копающих на золоте. Хотя сегодня они малоизвестны, многие из перечисленных женщин стали чрезвычайно богатыми и знаменитыми в своем собственном праве, приобретя впечатляющую власть в столице Франции благодаря мужчинам, с которыми они спали.  В 2006 году книга была переписана и опубликована на французском языке историком Габриэль Убре, а журналистка из Калифорнии Саммер Бреннан с тех пор переводит отрывки текста на английский язык в Интернете. Эти переводы будут представлены в новой книге, которую она выпускает под названием “Книга куртизанок”, в которую также войдет новое исследование Саммер об этих женщинах. Среди шокирующих историй – рассказ о молодой женщине, завербованной в проститутки из магазина сладостей, в котором она работала, а также о танцовщице, которая обманом заставляла мужчин отдавать ей свои состояния.

 

French officers obsessively tracked and charted the kept women of 19th-century Paris, from the city's elite sex workers to madames who procured girls for money, with the records stored in The Book of the Courtesans (pictured, Mery Laurent, whose story is among those in the ledger)Méry hosted 'salons' in her Paris apartmen, where her guests and lovers included Francois Coppée, poet Stéphane Mallarmé, and journalist Antonin Proust
Continue reading “Scandalous lives of 19th century French courtesans exposed / Скандальная жизнь французских куртизанок XIX века стала достоянием публики”