AFP UK

Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis presides over a ceremony attended by thousands at St. Peter’s square, Vatican City, to canonise 14 individuals and so create a new group of saints. Canonisation is the final step towards sainthood in the Catholic Church, following beatification. Three conditions are required — most crucially that the individual has performed at least two miracles. He or she must be deceased for at least five years and have led an exemplary Christian life.

Karachi (AFP) – Droves of braying donkeys were once the backbone of Pakistan’s commercial hub Karachi, but growing upkeep costs and the surging sprawl of the city are putting them out to pasture. “We continued the work of our fathers, but I want my kids to study and do something else,” said Mohammad Atif, the warden of a donkey called Raja — meaning “King”.

Havana (AFP) – Cuba remained without electricity Saturday as a nationwide power outage dragged on for a second day.

Chisinau (AFP) – Moldovans vote in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine. The elections are a test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term.

Harrisburg (United States) (AFP) – Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk rallies solo for former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, urging people to vote in a town hall in Harrisburg in the key swing-state of Pennsylvania. Musk has emerged as a loud voice in US politics since taking over X, formerly known as Twitter.

Lille (France) (AFP) – A street artist has covered walls in the northern French city of Lille with portraits of Gisele Pelicot, famous since her ex-husband went on trial for enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her. N°36KD2N8

Sterling Heights (United States) (AFP) – For 40 years, a bakery in the Detroit suburbs has been predicting the winner of the presidential election – except for 2020 – by selling blue and red chocolate chip cookies.

Undisclosed (Ukraine) (AFP) – 190 people have been released in a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine. Russia said Friday that it has swapped 95 Ukrainian soldiers held captive for an equal number of Russian troops in an exchange deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on his Telegram channel, “95 of our people are back home. The soldiers who defended Mariupol and Azovstal, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kherson regions”.

Shanghai (AFP) – British foreign minister David Lammy on Saturday called for a resumption of dialogue between London and Beijing, urging the two sides to engage in “more diplomacy” as he concluded a rare diplomatic visit to China. China and Britain are seeking to reset ties frayed in recent years by Beijing’s security crackdown in Hong Kong and human rights concerns including in its troubled Xinjiang region.

Seoul (AFP) – South Koreans react to North Korea’s decision to send a “large-scale” troop deployment to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia’s Far East and undergoing training, according to Seoul’s spy agency.

South Aceh (Indonesia) (AFP) – Severe flooding has been affecting villages in the south of Indonesia’s Aceh province for more than five days, leaving thousands displaced and buildings damaged, according to the local disaster mitigation agency. 

Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP) – Pakistan’s traditional matchmakers play a revered role in moulding daughters into potential brides, but marriage apps marketing themselves as halal are offering women a new route to finding a husband.