Chester (United Kingdom) (AFP) – The endangered Lake Titicaca frog is making its debut at Chester Zoo, in the north of England. It’s the world’s largest aquatic frog, and takes its name from the lake where it lives on the border of Bolivia and Peru – but thanks to its unusual look means the animal is better known by its nickname ‘scrotum’ frog.
London (AFP) – Tortoise callipers and camel scales are put to good use at ZSL London Zoo, which is holding its annual animal weigh-in. While keepers put on a show for the cameras, it is important that the zoo keeps up-to-date size and weight information on its animals to compare them with animals in the wild and in other zoos, as well as to have an indication of which animals are pregnant.
Garden Grove (United States) (AFP) – Vietnamese American refugee Phat Bui, who fled Saigon in 1975 following the US evacuation and the city’s fall, says that watching the chaotic scenes out of Kabul “brings back a lot of memories.”
Brasília (AFP) – Thousands of indigenous people march in Brazil’s capital to protest far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies and an initiative that could take away their ancestral lands.
Topaga, Boyaca Department (Colombia) (AFP) – Emergency workers, ambulances and mourning relatives of victims are seen near the site of an explosion in an illegal coal mine that left 12 people dead in the Colombian department of Boyaca.
New Orleans (AFP) – On a long ribbon of land between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, industrial pollution puts the area’s mostly African-American residents at nearly 50 times the risk of cancer than the United States average.
Hanoi (AFP) – Vice President Kamala Harris says the US will find new ways to “raise the pressure on Beijing”, accusing China of bullying in the hotly disputed Asian waters for the second time in two days. China claims almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in shipping trade passes annually, with competing claims from four Southeast Asian states including Vietnam. Harris made the comments on a visit to Vietnam to stress US commitment to Asia, a trip critics have slammed as tone-deaf given the parallels with the superpower’s evacuations from Saigon and Kabul.
Sankt Corona (Austria) (AFP) – A village in the Austrian Alps known for its family-friendly ski resort has been forced to adapt to waning snow due to climate change, turning to a new downhill sport — mountain biking. Bikers as young as three ride over landscaped jumps and curved forest trails, breathing new life into Sankt Corona am Wechsel, around an hour’s drive from Vienna, and offering a model for other struggling resorts.
Berlin (AFP) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel says that the fact that the Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan is “bitter but we have to deal with it,” and that the international community must safeguard the gains made over the last 20 years.
Mordovia Region (Russia) (AFP) – Russia’s central regions are battling “extreme” wildfires fuelled by an unusual heatwave that comes after forest fires linked to climate change ravaged Siberia for most of the summer.
Sanaa (AFP) – Dozens of Yemeni cyclists hit the road with a shared goal: to spread peace in a country that has been embroiled in conflict for more than seven years. In the capital Sanaa, the cyclists prepared for their 320-kilometre (200-mile) journey to the northern province of Saada, one of the areas devastated by the ongoing war between the government and the Huthi rebels.
Tokyo (AFP) – As the Paralympic Games begin, Japan’s efforts to improve accessibility and inclusion are in the spotlight, with many arguing there is still plenty of work to do. Some 4,400 athletes with impairments will compete in Tokyo at the world’s biggest parasports tournament.
