Weltraum (AFP) – Footage supplied by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos shows cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky stepping outside the International Space Station to install scientific instruments on its exterior during a planned spacewalk.
In Ukraine (AFP) – Not far from Kupiansk, a key logistics hub once captured by Russia and retaken by Kyiv in autumn 2022, Ukrainian soldiers crammed in a command centre search for Russian soldiers and strike them with first-person view (FPV) drones. Since Russia started attacking the city with FPVs tethered to fibre optic cables, however, their hold is slipping away. “Every day, something flies in,” Vitaliy Bardas, an evacuee from Kupiansk, tells AFP.
Paris (AFP) – Laurent Lafon, President of the French Senate’s Culture Committee, says after a visit to the Louvre’s security installations that the museum’s security is “not fit for a museum worthy of the 21st century.” The comments come after a spectacular heist saw precious crown jewels stolen, for which two suspected robbers have since been detained.
Saint Petersburg (AFP) – A Saint Petersburg’s court fines a teenage street singer 30,000 rubles (325 eur) on a charge of “discrediting the army” for performing a song by singers deemed “foreign agents” in Russia by law. “It’s astonishing,” says a supporter outside the courtroom. “The sheer insanity of this case itself also motivates people to come and draw attention to it.”
portsudan (Sudan) (AFP) – Sudan army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announces that “the army has withdrawn from El-Fasher”, following an announcement the city was seized by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group after more than 18 months of brutal siege warfare. The city’s capture gives the group control over every state capital in the vast Darfur region.
Hue (Vietnam) (AFP) – Centuries-old buildings in Vietnam’s former imperial city of Hue, a UNESCO world heritage site, are flooded by brown water as heavy rainfall inundates the country’s central coastal region since the weekend.
Hue (Vietnam) (AFP) – Centuries-old buildings in Vietnam’s former imperial city of Hue, a UNESCO world heritage site, are flooded by brown water as heavy rainfall inundates the country’s central coastal region since the weekend. IMAGES
Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP) – Authorities in Lahore, Pakistan, deploy “anti-smog guns” to curb air pollution ahead of the winter smog season. Pakistan regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted countries, with Lahore often the most polluted megacity.
Caribbean sea (AFP) – A US Air Force plane from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters, flies into the eye of Hurricane Melissa, as the category 5 Hurricane approaches Jamaica. Jamaican officials have called on the public to get to higher ground and shelters ahead of the storm’s arrival, with the prime minister warning it could be hugely destructive.
Tokyo (AFP) – US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime minister Takaichi sign an agreement “securing” the supply of critical and rare earth minerals. The US leader is on a two-day visit to Japan, sandwiched between a trip to Malaysia and a meeting in South Korea with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that could ease the bruising trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. IMAGES
Moscow (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin says that ties between Moscow and Pyongyang are developing “as planned” as he hosts North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the Kremlin. A video posted on the Kremlin’s Telegram account shows Putin greeting and shaking hands with Choe, the latest in a flurry of diplomatic exchanges between the two countries, coming days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to advance military ties with Moscow.
Yaoundé (AFP) – President Paul Biya, 92 years old and in power since 1982, is re-elected as president for an eighth term in Cameroon with 53.66% of the votes, result rejected by rival candidate and former government minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who came second. Anti-Biya protests, ongoing for weeks, risk a major escalation after the vote with police seeming to fire live rounds at protesters.
