AFP UK

Vatikanstadt (AFP) – In the Vatican, thousands of Catholic social media personalities gather for the church’s two-day ‘Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers’ — the first time the Vatican has hosted such an event. “That the Church, that the Vatican has decided to organise this event encourages us in this mission and tells us that it is important, go ahead, we are with you,” says Sister Albertine, a nun from France who has hundreds of thousands of followers online.

Arouca (AFP) – Portuguese firefighters work to contain a large fire in Arouca municipality, after forest blazes across Portugal led to almost the whole country being put on high alert for fires.

Peking (AFP) – China’s military accuses Taiwan of forcing its people to become “cannon fodder” after the island’s armed forces held the 10-day “Han Kuang” military drills this month, which Beijing describes as “merely a show”.

Chiang Mai (Thailand) (AFP) – Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, and the country’s captive lion population has exploded in recent years, with nearly 500 registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes and homes. Experts warn the trend endangers animals and humans, stretches authorities, and likely fuels illicit trade domestically and abroad.

Waikïkï (United States) (AFP) – Heavy traffic builds up at Hawaii’s popular Waikiki surf beach as people try to reach higher ground amid a tsunami alert. The warning came after Russia’s sparsely populated Far East was hit by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. Officials from countries with a Pacific coastline issued warnings to avoid affected beaches. IMAGES

Pyongyang (AFP) – North Korean officials welcome Russian passengers with flowers at Pyongyang International Airport as the two countries resume the first commercial flights between their capitals in decades. Russia and North Korea have pulled closer in the last year, with Pyongyang sending weapons and troops to aid Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Beijing (AFP) – Aerial images of a flooded village northeast of China’s capital Beijing, where buildings, roads, cars and fields have been inundated after torrential downpours that sparked deadly landslides. IMAGES

Caracas (AFP) – Nicolas Maduro supporters gather to celebrate the first anniversary of his reelection as president of Venezuela. Maduro addresses his followers from a balcony in Caracas. IMAGES

Bangkok (AFP) – Police have cordoned off Or Tor Kor food market, in Bangkok’s Bang Sue district, after a gunman opened fire, killing five security guards and wounding three other people before taking his own life.

Bikfaya (Liban) (AFP) – Lebanon’s top singer Fairuz [Fayrouz] attends the funeral of her son, renowned musician and composer Ziad Rahbani, at Mhaidseh’s Greek Orthodox Church of Dormition in Bikfaya, north east of Beirut. Rahbani, pioneer of Oriental jazz, died on July 26 aged 69 after a decades-long career that revolutionised the country’s artistic scene. Rahbani had suffered ill-health in recent years that also impacted his artistic activity.

Al-Zawayda (Territoires palestiniens) (AFP) – Gazans scramble to collect much-needed aid as guns are fired into the air to disperse the crowd after a plane airdropped packages on Al-Zawayda displacement camp, in central Gaza Strip. “What was dropped is not enough. There are people who did not get anything and others got merely a little,” says one person at the scene, as the threat of famine stalks the war-torn territory.

Sarajevo (AFP) – Sarajevo’s walls blossom with murals and graffiti, the work of street artists in the Bosnian capital using their craft to reshape a city steeped in history. “After the war, the segregation and the politics and the nationalism was very strong, so graffiti and hip-hop basically destroyed all these walls and built some new bridges,” says artist Adnan Hamidovic.