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Beijing (AFP) – Lionel Messi leaves Beijing’s newly renovated Workers’ Stadium after guiding Argentina to a 2-0 friendly win over Australia. IMAGES

Beijing (AFP) – Lionel Messi leaves Beijing’s newly renovated Workers’ Stadium after guiding Argentina to a 2-0 friendly win over Australia.

Dwarka (India) (AFP) – Howling gales and crashing waves pound the coastline of India hours before a powerful cyclone is due to make landfall, with those unable to flee seeking shelter where they could.

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – After months of mounting expectations, Kyiv reports progress in its newly-launched counteroffensive, despite strong resistance from Russian troops. “There is a gradual but steady advance of the armed forces,” Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar tells a briefing.

London (AFP) – Interviewed during a visit to a police station, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak refuses to comment on the long-awaited publication of a report on the “Partygate” scandal implicating his predecessor Boris Johnson, preferring instead to deflect attention towards the government’s plan to tackle illegal migration and grow the economy. The “Partygate” scandal saw Johnson and dozens of government officials, including then-Chancellor Sunak, fined by police for breaking the social distancing laws the government imposed on the public to curtail the spread of Covid-19.

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the decision of opposition leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid to suspend their participation in talks to find common ground on his government’s controversial judicial reform plan is proof that they “don’t want real negotiations”. The hard-right government’s proposals would curtail the authority of the Supreme Court and give politicians greater powers over the selection of judges.

Bogotá (AFP) – Six-year-old tracker dog Wilson, who went missing during the ultimately successful, weeks-long search for four missing Indigenous children in the Colombian Amazon, is now the target of a rescue mission himself.

Warsaw (AFP) – Several thousand people took to streets in Poland Wednesday to protest a near-total ban on abortion that they blame for a new case of a death of a pregnant woman. The existing law does still allow the termination of a pregnancy if a woman’s life is in danger.

Gqeberha (South Africa) (AFP) – Experts warn the African penguin whose population has decreased drastically in the last century, could become “functionally extinct” in the next decade. In Gqeberha, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) helps takes care of ill, injured, and abandoned seabirds, including this species.

Sao Paulo (AFP) – A therapist in Sao Paulo uses reptile-assisted therapy where patients interact with lizards, snakes and crocodiles to help treat anxiety, hyperactivity or even muscular problems.

Washington (AFP) – The United States confirms that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has rescheduled a rare visit to Beijing for this weekend.

New York (AFP) – Director Wes Anderson and members of his typically star-studded ensemble cast, including actors Bryan Cranston, Adrien Brody, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jason Schwartzman and Margot Robbie, arrive for the New York premiere of “Asteroid City” that competed for the Palme d’Or in Cannes.