Cairo (AFP) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announces his candidacy for a third term in office, ahead of December elections he is widely expected to win, despite his security forces being accused of harassing and detaining opponents. A year after deposing Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, Sisi won 96 percent of the vote in 2014. Four years later, he scored a 97-percent victory.
Manacapuru (Brazil) (AFP) – In northern Brazil, the Lago de Aleixo lake has dried up due to severe drought. The phenomenon has left Marina do Davi, a key embarkation point for locals and tourists, with many stranded boats. Local residents, usually relying on boats for their daily commute, now have to walk for hours instead.
East Gippsland (Australia) (AFP) – Dangerous fire conditions continue in Australia’s east as firefighters work to contain several blazes in the state of Victoria, with the flames already destroying a home. Firefighters have issued evacuation orders for nine rural neighbourhoods as warm, gusty winds fan the bushfires. About 650 firefighters are battling the flammes across 17,000 hectares, according to the state’s Country Fire Authority.
Dhaka (AFP) – More than 1,000 people in Bangladesh have died of dengue fever this year, the country’s worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease, which is increasing in frequency due to climate change.
Sydney (AFP) – Years after unprecedented fires ripped through large swathes of Australia’s east, volunteer brigades on the frontlines are bracing for a return to catastrophic conditions. In Picton, South of Sydney, New South Wales Rural Fire Service senior deputy captain Andy Hain says he worries that two years of wetter-than-average conditions will mean plenty of fuel for wildfires, and whether people are prepared for the return of bushfires. In Wisemans Ferry, a river town north of Sydney, volunteers who battled the horrific blazes of the “Black Summer” in 2019-2020 before facing down several damaging floods are readying for a return of fire to the dense bushland around their homes. Former Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins says half a century of battling fires made it clear that climate change drives worsening disasters. Mullins, a founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, says volunteers are increasingly being challenged by intensifying fires and floods around the world.
Philadelphia (AFP) – Nobel prize winners Drew Weissman speak after winning the biggest accolade in medicine for their pioneering research on messenger RNA, the technology behind Covid-19 vaccines that changed the course of the pandemic.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urges the European Union to back its initiative for regular exports through a Black Sea maritime corridor, amid a rift between Kyiv and its neighbours in the bloc over grain deliveries. He makes the comments in a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
New York (AFP) – New York worshippers celebrate mass at St. John the Divine Cathedral alongside hundreds of animals — including a camel, a sloth, snakes, ostriches, geese, cats and dogs — which all queue up for blessings on the day of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, known as the patron saint of pets and animals.
Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – In the besieged and blockaded Gaza Strip, a 27-year-old Palestinian has created a car tire recycling project aimed at reducing environmental damage. In light of the difficulties getting rid of waste in Gaza with the Israeli blockade imposed on the strip, Madian Helles’ project puts the tyres to good use.
Sacapulas (Guatemala) (AFP) – “I envy people who have water,” says Maria Baten, a resident of an Indigenous village in northern Guatemala where drought threatens to create a severe food crisis. In the Quiche region, residents are learning to build ditches above their sloped fields and filtering their drinking water with chlorine, measures desperately needed.
Flames have engulfed the headquarters of the Security Directorate in Egypt’s Ismailia, leaving a severly charred and destroyed building. The fire injured at least 38 people, according to security sources. No fatalities were immediately reported, but the building was fully staffed with policemen when the fire broke out before dawn.
A Sumatran rhino has successfully given birth at a sanctuary in Indonesia, giving a boost to conservation efforts for the critically endangered animal. The calf is the third offspring of a 23-year-old rhino named Ratu, and the fourth Sumatran rhino to be born in Way Kambas National Park.
