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Rhodes (Greece) (AFP) – A tour boat catches fire off the coast of Stegna on the island of Rhodes. According to news reports, a rescue operation evacuated 96 British tourists, as several nearby boats as well as vessels from local authorities came to the aid of the boat, which was identified as the Magellan. All passengers were evacuated safely and taken to the nearby resort town of Kolympia, news reports said. Local media reported that the boat had burnt out completely and that the captain had been arrested.

Seoul (AFP) – A South Korean-made robot makes its debut as an orchestra conductor before a sell-out crowd in Seoul. Named “EveR 6”, the five-foot-ten-inch-tall (1.8m) robot guides more than 60 musicians of the National Orchestra of Korea who are playing traditional Korean instruments. “I came here worried whether this robot could pull this off without a glitch,” Kim Ji-min, a 19-year-old college student majoring in music, tells AFP. “But I found it to be in great harmony with the musicians… It felt like a whole new world for me.”

Tuxtla Gutiérrez (Mexico) (AFP) – Relatives gather at the site where sixteen police employees who had been kidnapped in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas arrived after being freed following three days of captivity. IMAGES

Paris (AFP) – Demonstrators chant “Justice for Nahel!” as police officers stand in the rue de Rivoli, Paris, following the death on Tuesday of Nahel, aged 17, during a police check in Nanterre.

New York (AFP) – A New York-based organization, Club Migrante Chinelos de Morelos, helps undocumented Mexicans in New York reunite with their parents for a couple of weeks, thanks to an agreement with the US embassy.

Glostrup (Denmark) (AFP) – At Denmark’s police headquarters, cops are glued to their computers playing the popular video game Counter-Strike. But they’re not kicking back on a break — they’re tracking crimes on the internet.

Beijing (AFP) – Beijing on Friday reiterates China’s “firm opposition” to Washington supplying weapons to Taiwan, after the United States said it planned to sell $440 million in ammunition and parts to the island.

Stockholm (AFP) – Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson urges calm and “reflection” in the wake of this week’s Koran burning outside a Stockholm Mosque, which has sparked outrage and condemnation. 

Évry-Courcouronnes (France) (AFP) – “We are examining all possible scenarios, with one priority: the return to republican order throughout the country”, said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on the subject of a possible state of emergency during a visit to the Evry-Courcouronnes police station, south of Paris with Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

Moscow (AFP) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Moscow will emerge from the aftermath of a recent armed insurrection led by the Wagner mercenary group “stonger” than it was before. “Russia has always overcome all its problems… it comes out stronger and stronger,” Lavrov tells journalists during a briefing in Moscow.

Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) – Police in Australia arrested two suspected kidnappers after finding them napping in a vehicle. The men allegedly threatened and kidnapped a man and a woman in Brisbane, Queensland, at around 2 am on June 29. The men, aged 35 and 36, face two charges of kidnapping, two of deprivation of liberty, and two of torture, as well as one count each of assault occasioning bodily harm and robbery.

Mendoza Chico (Uruguay) (AFP) – Three years of unprecedented drought in Uruguay has left the reservoir behind Paso Severino dam almost entirely empty. The reservoir serves about 60% of the country’s population with fresh water, but on une 28, only 2.4 percent of its total capacity was filled with water.