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Los Angeles (AFP) – “Digital has overtaken the industry” says Fran Drescher, president of the Screen Actors Guild, as she explains the concerns over the use of artificial intelligence that led Hollywood actors to go on strike. “We can’t accept that a background performer would get paid for one day, they scan their likeness, and they’re never needed again” she says, after acting professionals joined TV and film writers in the first industry-wide walkout for 63 years.

Naples (United States) (AFP) – Python hunters in Naples, Florida, tackle the largest snake ever captured in the state: a 19-foot Burmese python weighing 125 pounds (56 kilograms).

San Andres (Colombia) (AFP) – Colombians react to the UN’s top court dismissal of Nicaragua’s claims against Colombia, in a decades-long Latin American legal battle over an oil- and fish-rich swathe of the Caribbean Sea.

DONETSK REGION (Ukraine) (AFP) – From their boltholes in the trenches in the frontlines of Ukraine’s battle to resist the Russian forces, Kyiv’s troops express frustration that they could not join NATO immediately. They argue that they are all that stands between the Russian aggressors and the rest of Europe.

Sriharikota (India) (AFP) – India launches a rocket seeking to land an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, its second attempt to become only the fourth country to do so. The Chandrayaan-3 (“Mooncraft”) rocket lifted off from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, as thousands of enthusiasts clapped and cheered. IMAGES

New York (AFP) – Members of the Screen Actors Guild joint writers on a picket line outside of Warner Bros. Discovery offices in New York City, ahead of a potential strike announcement over dwindling pay and the threat posed by artificial intelligence.

Sriharikota (India) (AFP) – India launches a rocket seeking to land an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, its second attempt to become only the fourth country to do so. The Chandrayaan-3 (“Mooncraft”) rocket lifted off from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, as thousands of enthusiasts clapped and cheered. IMAGES

Helsinki (AFP) – US President Joe Biden says that Russia’s Vladimir Putin has already lost the war in Ukraine, expressing hope at a press conference in Helsinki that Kyiv’s counter-offensive would force Moscow to the negotiating table.

New York (AFP) – Waving a rainbow flag, Desmond Napoles ambles through a confetti- soaked pride parade — in stern defiance of a troubling disinformation campaign that sought to link American LGBTQ people to pedophilia. Emerging from the darkest corners of the internet, an altered picture made it appear like a California pride parade participant had worn a shirt bearing Desmond’s face alongside a disturbing slogan: “Trans kids are sexy.” “They were using it to make LGBTQ people look like ‘groomers,’ and they were using my face,” Napoles told AFP at a glittering New York pride event last month.

Hamburg (Germany) (AFP) – Climate activists blocked the runways at Hamburg and Duesseldorf airports on Thursday, causing severe disruption for thousands of holidaymakers. Activists from the group “Letzte Generation” (Last Generation) breached security fences and glued themselves to the tarmac, protesting against what they see as the government’s “lack of a strategy” for fighting the climate crisis. “I can understand” says Oliver Herrmann, a traveller in Hamburg, “but here are people who have waited a year for their vacation who are experiencing financial hardship and now are waiting here and are put off (the climate message).”

London (AFP) – UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the government has accepted recommendations from independent pay review bodies for salary increases of between five and seven percent in the public sector and urges unions to call off their strikes. “There will be no more talks on pay” he says, “and no amount of strikes will change our decision.”

Pristina (AFP) – A brief brawl broke out on Thursday between Kosovo lawmakers as emotions boiled over in parliament during a debate over measures to defuse tensions in restive Serb enclaves in the north. The scrap comes with Prime Minister Albin Kurti vowing to de-escalate tensions in northern Kosovo, where pressure has been mounting following his government’s decision to install ethnic Albanian mayors in four Serb-majority municipalities in May. The move has triggered one of the worst bouts of unrest in years, with demonstrations, the arrest of three Kosovar police officers by Serbia and a violent riot by Serb protesters that saw more than 30 NATO peacekeepers injured.