Wisbech (AFP) – In eastern England, Swedish-born Mia Hansson has spent the last decade recreating one of history’s most famous embroidered artworks, the Bayeux Tapestry. Hansson says the painstaking work has become a form of therapy, helping her to relax. Despite spending years recreating scenes from the 11th-century masterpiece, she insists she started the project for the craftsmanship, not the history.
Berlin (AFP) – Germany’s ruling coalition is scrapping the right to call in sick without a doctor’s note, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announces as part of a package of sweeping reforms to revive the economy. “We know this is a tough decision. But we can no longer afford this competitive disadvantage caused by long absences in our companies,” he says. + COMPLETES
Genf (AFP) – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares an end to the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship which sparked international alarm, after the last person is confirmed to have tested negative and left quarantine. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he is “very pleased to say that WHO considers the outbreak of hantavirus over”. He adds that “the total number of cases from the outbreak remains 13, including three deaths”.
Durban (AFP) – Thousands protest across South Africa to demand undocumented foreign nationals leave the country. The marches come after a weeks-long campaign that has sent thousands fleeing and claimed four lives. Groups mobilising against illegal immigrants accuse them of taking jobs and services, which analysts say is scapegoating foreign nationals for government failures.
Salima (AFP) – Ahamadi Assani is one of nearly 15,000 Malawians who have returned home from South Africa, after fleeing xenophobic violence and anti-immigrant hostility. “Even if the situation normalises, there is no way I can go back there, because we used to run away from the police, and some migrants ended up being hit by cars. I would rather die here in poverty than going back to South Africa,” he says.
Kyauktaw (Myanmar) (AFP) – More than 100,000 people have been killed across all sides in Myanmar since a military coup five years ago triggered civil war, a conflict monitor said Wednesday. Family members of those killed in the conflict spoke to AFP last month. One of them, speaking under a pseudonym, says: “Only the elderly and the very young children are left. The generation in between has been cut down.”
New Taipei City (Taiwan) (AFP) – Unfazed by the crashing waves, 72-year-old Wu Feng-chiao yanks fistfuls of brownish-purple seaweed she will process into jelly, one of the last women in Taiwan keeping the marine harvest tradition alive.
Monaco (AFP) – French and Monaco police are searching for the suspect behind a parcel bomb that wounded a businessman of Ukrainian origin and two others in Monaco, after the unprecedented attack rocked the super-safe principality. Dozens of officers have been deployed in Monaco, while two helicopters and some 30 gendarmes scour neighbouring France for a man who left a package in a residential building near the border, according to the police and gendarmerie.
Tehran (AFP) – Iran will respond to any US violation of the memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war in the Middle East, its foreign ministry spokesperson says, as delegations from both sides are expected in Qatar for indirect talks on the deal.
Mindelo (Cape Verde) (AFP) – With his striking looks, dressed in a pink top and short shorts, makeup artist Leonardo is wholly absorbed in perfecting a singer’s makeup amid the bustle of a music video shoot — free to be himself and live openly in his hometown of Mindelo in Cape Verde. In an Africa marked by increasingly repressive anti-LGBTQ laws, the island nation has become a haven of tolerance, but it hasn’t been without a struggle. “Now we’re living in almost a paradise here, but it was the result of a lot of hard work,” says Walter Pires. “Society is opening up, but there’s still a lot more to go.”
