Ushiku (Japan) (AFP) – Emerging from the head of the world’s tallest bronze Buddha and climbing down to its right ear, two specialist cleaners blast the imposing Japanese statue with water guns. Kazuyoshi Taguchi and Kazumi Minowa have been cleaning the 120-metre-tall Ushiku Daibatsu monument – completed in 1993 – for nearly a quarter of a century, at the start of which neither had a background in climbing.
Geneva (AFP) – UN rights chief Volker Turk warns that the world needs to change direction if it is to avoid a future filled with military escalation, repression, disinformation, deepening inequality and rampant climate change. Opening a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk stresses that “we are at a fork in the road” and heading towards “a dystopian future.”
Saint-Denis (France) (AFP) – People in the French capital say goodbye to a summer of sport after the Paralympic closing ceremony brought the curtain down on Paris 2024. The Paralympic flame and cauldron were extinguished before a concert in the packed Stade de France capped off six weeks of Olympic and Paralympic competition.
Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan gather in Islamabad despite authorities’ attempts to block the protesters’ main routes into the capital.
Dublin (AFP) – Ireland and England football fans hurl insults and beer cups at each other as police intervene to make several arrests after England’s 2-0 win over Ireland in the Nations League opener in Dublin.
Haiphong (AFP) – Super Typhoon Yagi is leaving a trail of destruction in northern Vietnam, killing at least three people. Around 20,000 people have been evacuated and moved to safer, higher ground, local have authorities reported.
Hénin-Beaumont (AFP) – “It’s obvious that, within a year, we’ll have new legislative elections,” says Marine Le Pen during a visit to Hénin-Beaumont. Le Pen is using the visit to urge President Emmanuel Macron to call a referendum on key issues such as immigration in order to break the country’s political deadlock. “France needs a clear majority,” she says.
Algier (AFP) – Algerians are voting in a presidential election in which incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, widely expected to secure a second term, is hoping for a high turnout. “It is a citizen’s right to vote in everything that happens in his or her country, whether in presidential elections or any other,” says retiree voter Seghir Derouiche.
Port Moresby (AFP) – Pope Francis delivers a pointed warning to Papua New Guinea’s leaders that the country’s sizable resource wealth must benefit all — a politically charged demand in a nation where many believe their riches are being stolen or squandered. “These goods are destined by God for the entire community”, the pontiff told a gathering of politicians, diplomats and civic leaders on the first full day of a visit to the South Pacific nation.
Cernobbio (AFP) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, speaking on the sidelines of the Economic Forum in Cernobbio in Italy, says communication, then ceasefire are the necessary first steps before negotiating a peace agreement. Military support for Ukraine has been a major discussion point during the forum. “My point is first, communication, second ceasefire,” Orban says, “then (you) start to negotiate on a peace arrangement.”
