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Rongjiang (China) (AFP) – Six people have died from floods inundating China’s Guizhou province, state media said Thursday, after more than 80,000 people were driven from their homes this week.

Manta (Equateur) (AFP) – Soldiers stand guard outside the Ecuadoran air base in Manta where the country’s most-wanted fugitive, Los Choneros gang leader “Fito,” has been transferred after being re-captured in a major military operation. Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as Fito, escaped custody in Ecuador in early 2024 and American prosecutors charged him, in absentia, with seven counts of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling. IMAGES

Paris (AFP) – Paris is hit by heavy rainfall and flash flooding as a violent storm breaks out. The current heatwave saw temperatures soar to 36 degrees Celsius. France has been experiencing its 50th nationwide heatwave since 1947, starting on June 19 — half of which have occurred in the 21st century, a consequence of climate change that is increasing the intensity and frequency of heatwaves. IMAGES

At Trestles Beach, a paradise for surfers in a Southern California state park, locals hope that the spotlight of the 2028 Olympic Games will help preserve it from threats of erosion. “Hopefully we can use that to compel more folks to understand we’ve created this problem and we can fix it,” says Julian Husbands of ‘Save Our Beaches San Clemente’.

“There is a feeling that we don’t talk about them anymore,” says Viki Cohen, whose son Nimrod has been held hostage by Hamas for more than 600 days. As a ceasefire takes hold after 12 days of war with Iran, the relatives of hostages hope that the Israeli government will “seize that opportunity” to make a deal with Hamas to bring them back from the Gaza Strip.

Deir el-Balah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Gazans inside Al-Aqsa Hospital’s morgue mourn over the bodies of their loved ones killed in an Israeli strike on their home in Deir al-Balah. “They took away [killed] the father, mother and brothers, only two girls survived. One of them is a baby girl aged one year and two months and the other one is five-years-old,” cries a relative.

The Hague (AFP) – Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says he believes it would have been an “absolute mistake” for Spain to agree to spend five percent of GDP on defence. To keep Trump on board, NATO members have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate 3.5 percent to core military needs by 2035 and 1.5 percent to broader security-related areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.

The Hague (AFP) – He’s already the world’s most powerful man, but US President Donald Trump now has a new nickname from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte — the “Daddy”. Trump reprises his analogy of warring countries Iran and Israel being like squabbling children, when Rutte then quips “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language.” The NATO chief was making reference to Trump’s expletive-laced outburst as he set off for the NATO summit, visibly angry at the prospect of the Iran-Israel ceasefire breaking down.

Tel Aviv (AFP) – “There is a feeling that we don’t talk about them anymore,” says Viki Cohen, whose son Nimrod has been held hostage by Hamas for more than 600 days. As a ceasefire takes hold after 12 days of war with Iran, the relatives of hostages hope that the Israeli government will “seize that opportunity” to make a deal with Hamas to bring them back from the Gaza Strip.

Ottery St Mary (United Kingdom) (AFP) – CCTV footage shows one of two bears that escaped from their enclosure at a UK wildlife park and made a beeline for their food store, where they scoffed a seven-day supply of honey. Siblings Mish and Lucy, both aged four, got out of their enclosure at Wildwood Devon in southwestern England before being rescued and returned. Police attended the scene and an investigation is underway to determine how the animals managed to break out, according to a statement from the park.

Tokyo (AFP) – When YouTuber Hannah Price set out to compare Japanese and Australian sunscreen, she wasn’t expecting her deep dive into the subject to rack up over two million views. The huge number of people poring over Price’s video shows the growing interest in skincare products from Japan, much like the K-beauty phenomenon from South Korea.

Beijing (AFP) – At a bustling hospital in Beijing, Tian Yigui hands over his elderly wife’s medical documents to Meng Jia, a “patient companion” hired to help navigate China’s stretched and bureaucratic healthcare system.