PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, June 17: Russian and Polish papers discuss the murder of a Russian cartoonist who mocked Vladimir Putin. Next: The New York Times investigates the final days before Jeffrey Epstein's death and his "fraying" mental health. Finally, we ask why India is not in the World Cup and discover Brooklyn Beckham's latest family feud.

A Russian dissident artist has been killed in Poland. The Moscow Times reports that Semyon Skrepetsky – that's his pseudonym – was shot dead in eastern Poland, in a city around 30 kilometres away from the border with Belarus. He was an artist and blogger known for his political caricatures of Russian President Vladimir Putin. For now, two Belarusian citizens have been detained, but no charges have been pressed and the investigation continues. An opinion piece in the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita says that the murder of the artist shows Russia is a real threat to Poland. The article criticises Polish politicians who don't take external threats from Russia more seriously, but instead decide to trivialise them for the sake of domestic politics. The Sun shows us an example of Skrepetsky's work: a painting of Hitler and Stalin with Putin in the centre, grinding what we can assume are dead Russian soldiers. 

Next, The New York Times has a deep dive into Jeffrey Epstein's final days entitled "The untold story of Jeffrey Epstein's death". The article describes his arrest in July 2019, when a jail employee described him as "sad", "a little confused" and "withdrawn". The paper examined newly released records and interviewed as many people as possible who interacted with Epstein in his final days. Many presented a picture of "a fraying mental state that sharply contrasted with the upbeat picture he presented to jail psychologists". The paper says that Epstein's arrest was the "beginning of a journey into darkness that would end 35 days later" when he was found dead in his jail cell. The paper doesn't draw any clear conclusions, but suggests that the suicide theory is indeed plausible.

In World Cup news, the BBC examines why India, "a country of 1.4 billion is not in the football World Cup". The article writes that India's so-called "Blue Tigers" have never progressed beyond the preliminary rounds of Asian Zone qualifiers. But the irony is that there are some football-crazy Indian states like West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. A growing number of sports journalists are covering the event on the ground, although India is not even participating. India's neighbour, China, has also yet again not qualified. 

So will India ever play in the FIFA competition? For many Indians, it's not impossible, now that the Asian teams' quota has gone up. But what is missing, the article says, is the right ecosystem and a serious programme with a long-term vision.

Speaking of the World Cup, Brooklyn Beckham's new advert has polarised the internet. The Daily Mail says that "Brooklyn Beckham's 'exploitative' World Cup advert mocking his parents could be the 'beginning of the end' for his brand and ends any hope of a family reunion", according to PR experts. He is promoting a food delivery company, since he is not going to the World Cup. "It's complicated" indeed, as Brooklyn's beef with his family has gone viral all over social media since his wedding. British tabloids see him as the new Prince Harry when it comes to public family scandals.

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