Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump says he is considering renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” as his trade war with Canada escalates. The threat — which Trump backs up with a map featuring the new name — mirrors his move to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America last year.
Bunyol (AFP) – Thousands gather in the eastern Spanish town of Bunol for a massive tomato fight as part of the famed festival La Tomatina, near Valencia. “Nothing like it, absolutely nothing like it anywhere else,” says 44-year-old Luke Williams, who travelled from the UK.
Peking (AFP) – Nearly 100 Chinese nationals are missing in Nepal after deadly flooding on the border with Tibet, China’s foreign ministry says, as at least 1,300 remain people remained unaccounted for. “Chinese rescue efforts treat Chinese and foreign nationals equally,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian adds.
Gyirong (AFP) – Screen recordings of surveillance camera footage, posted on Chinese social media platforms, reportedly show flash flooding hitting the Gyirong Port in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The location in the footage was verified by AFP using satellite and streetview data, but original posts could not be identified. The videos have subsequently been removed from Chinese social media platforms. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on Wednesday, 26 August, that “a mudslide disaster on the Nepalese side resulted in major casualties and missing people at the Gyirong Port.”
Gyirong (AFP) – A massive wall of mud and debris engulfs a building near the Nepal-Tibet border after catastrophic flooding and landslides killed at least 362 people and left more than 1,400 others missing. As rescuers search for survivors, experts say a glacial collapse triggered by climate change may have caused the disaster.
Minab (AFP) – Residents of Iran’s southern city of Minab visit the ruined Shajareh Tayebeh school and graves of children, six months after a strike during the opening hours of the US-Israel war with Iran killed at least 155 people, most of them children. “The only things I could recognise were his socks and shoes. That’s how I identified my child,” says painter Javad Shahrjou, whose seven-year-old son Alireza was killed in the strike.
Gedaref (Sudan) (AFP) – In Sudan’s breadbasket of Gedaref, farmers are battling both drought and soaring production costs as they try to salvage this year’s harvest. Across the country, farmland that could feed the world’s largest hunger crisis many times over lies fallow. The powerful El Nino climate pattern strengthening in the Pacific Ocean, which impacts winds and rains across the world, has delayed crucial rains and led water levels in the life-giving Nile to drop precipitously.
Moskau (AFP) – The head of the CIA, John Radcliffe, did not meet President Vladimir Putin on his visit to Moscow but had “contacts” with Russia’s special services, the Kremlin says, without elaborating what was discussed. “There have been contacts through the security services. I can tell you that there have been no meetings with the President of Russia,” says Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Jerusalem (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a diplomatic deal is not possible with the “savages” who rule Iran as he hails US President Donald Trump’s new campaign of economic pressure. Netanyahu has long been sceptical of diplomacy with Iran, openly campaigning against a 2015 nuclear deal brokered by then US president Barack Obama, but he has been publicly careful not to criticise Trump while he sought a negotiated settlement.
Copiapó (AFP) – Northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth, is blanketed with a riot of colourful wild flowers after unusually heavy rains triggered a rare ‘flowering desert’ event.
Al-Qadarif (AFP) – In Sudan’s breadbasket of Gedaref, farmers are battling both drought and soaring production costs as they try to salvage this year’s harvest. Across the country, farmland that could feed the world’s largest hunger crisis many times over lies fallow. The powerful El Nino climate pattern strengthening in the Pacific Ocean, which impacts winds and rains across the world, has delayed crucial rains and led water levels in the life-giving Nile to drop precipitously.
Nashville (AFP) – Nashville residents pay homage to country music icon Dolly Parton, laying flowers outside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, after her team confirmed she has died after a “brief battle with cancer”. More than just a singer, Parton wrote some 3,000 songs, starred in major Hollywood films and donated millions to charities in her home state and beyond.
