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UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Germany in an emotional video address before parliament this week to help destroy a new “wall” Russia was erecting in Europe.

“It’s not a Berlin Wall – it is a wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this wall is growing bigger with every bomb” dropped on Ukraine, Zelensky told MPs.

Appearing on a screen, Zelensky was welcomed by MPs in the Bundestag lower house with a standing ovation.

In a speech steeped in historical imagery from Germany’s triumph over its Cold War division, Zelensky addressed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with a call for greater solidarity with Ukraine.

“Dear Mr Scholz, tear down this wall,” he implored, evoking US President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 appeal in Berlin.

Japan

PEOPLE in north-east Japan are cleaning up and surveying the damage after a powerful 7.4-magnitude quake derailed a bullet train, opened cracks in highways and cut power to over 2 million homes on Thursday.

At least one death was directly caused by the quake, but the death and injury toll could rise as additional suspected fatalities were under investigation.

An initial tsunami warning was lifted. Early reports said 161 people had been injured after the undersea quake off the coast of Fukushima – a region still scarred by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to a nuclear catastrophe.

Technology

DIGITAL smells could be coming to the Metaverse.

British tech company OW Smell Digital has raised £1 million (R20m) in seed funding in a round fronted by Parkwalk Advisors and is hoping to launch it on the forthcoming virtual platform.

The project began as a spin-out from the University of Sussex, UCL and OW.

Emanuela Maggioni, founder and CEO of OW Smell Digital, told UK Tech News: “We are looking to interrupt a marketplace dominated by technologies reliant solely on sound, vision and increasingly, touch.”

She explained that smells are emotive and the sense is the “missing piece of the puzzle” when it comes to the Metaverse.

Ukraine