Moscow (AFP) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov casts doubt on the Vatican as a potential place for peace talks with Ukraine, after the United States, Italy and the pope expressed hope the city-state could host negotiations.
Kampar (Indonesia) (AFP) – A baby orangutan born earlier this month clings tightly to his mother at a conservation centre on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Ade was born to 15-year-old mother Susi, who has been at the facility since she was about three years old. Orangutans, native to Borneo and Sumatra, are classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Cobh (Ireland) (AFP) – More than four years into his recording project, Irishman Sean Ronayne says he has sampled 201 different Irish bird species, stocking over 12,000 audio clips from around the country. Just two remain to be documented: the great skua, and red-breasted merganser. Last year he published an award-winning book, released two albums, and made an acclaimed documentary film. His talk tour is currently selling out venues around Ireland. According to conservation bodies, some 63 percent of Ireland’s birds are currently either red or amber-listed, meaning they are at severe or moderate extinction risk.
Beijing (AFP) – Beijing slams the “politicisation” of educational exchanges after the United States revoked the right of Harvard University to enrol foreign students, many of whom come from China. “The Chinese side has consistently opposed the politicisation of educational cooperation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning says at a regular press briefing.
Villa del Rosario (Colombia) (AFP) – People are stranded on the Colombian side of the Simon Bolivar International Bridge as Venezuela closes its border with neighboring Colombia from May 23 to May 26, ahead of legislative and regional elections scheduled for this weekend. IMAGES
Paris (AFP) – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrives at the Elysee Palace where he is welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron. IMAGES
London (AFP) – UK Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood tells MPs that 20 prisons will be involved in a “national roll-out” of the use of “so-called medication to manage problematic sexual arousal” — also known as chemical castration — in sex offenders.
Lyman (Ukraine) (AFP) – For around three years, 86-year-old Lidia Isayeva has been living alone in a cellar to shelter from Russian strikes that have destroyed her apartment and part of her hometown. Despite the risks, some Ukrainians choose to stay at home in the ruins, holding on to a lifetime of memories in towns where many have lived forever. “It’s an optimism that can lead to death,” says Roman Bugayov, from East SOS, which helps people evacuate from the front.
Langemark (Belgium) (AFP) – Belgian deminers have been picking up World War I munitions for over a century and believe they still have another century’s worth of work. British, German and French shells and munitions are turning up at the surface in Flanders by the thousands every year. Each year, the teams respond to more than 2,000 requests from farmers or construction crews to remove munitions, and have built up an expertise that they share across the world.
Sanaa (AFP) – Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels claim responsibility for a missile attack on Israel, the second in less than 12 hours. The group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree says they targeted Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport “using a hypersonic ballistic missile”.
Jerusalem (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accuses European governments of incitement against his country after the fatal shooting of two embassy staffers in Washington.
Taree (Australia) (AFP) – Rising floodwaters have stranded more than 50,000 people in eastern Australia, as torrential rain pummels water-logged towns for a second day and engorged rivers swallowed roads, leaving two dead. Rising floodwaters stranded more than 50,000 people in eastern Australia on Thursday, as torrential rain pummelled water-logged towns for a second day and engorged rivers swallowed roads, leaving two dead.
