Moscow (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin tells a group of soldiers’ mothers that he, and the rest of the country’s leadership, “share this pain”. During the meeting, in Moscow, Putin assures the mothers that Russia “must achieve our goals and we will achieve them in the end”.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Brazilians watching on the beach in Rio de Janeiro cheer their national football team on as they beat Serbia 2-0 in the first match of their World Cup. The victory that fuels the football loving nation’s hopes of winning the championship for the sixth time.
Istanbul (AFP) – Their rods resting on the bank, amateur anglers watch with an air of defeat as a trawler winches its enormous vertical net out of the waters of the Bosphorus. It is high season for a popular variety of tuna in Istanbul’s strait and the area is teeming with shoals en route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. But between the fish and their destination, and between local anglers and their quarry, are the trawlers’ huge nets, some more than 1,000 metres long.
Beijing (AFP) – Images of locked down compounds and queues for Covid testing in Beijing. China currently faces its highest amount of Covid cases since the pandemic began, official data showed Thursday. IMAGES
Jakarta (AFP) – Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto holds welcoming ceremony for visiting French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu in Jakarta. IMAGES
District de Saydabad (Afghanistan) (AFP) – Swathes of Afghanistan are littered with unexploded mines, grenades and mortars spanning years of conflict. When fighting in the country subsided last year, following the Taliban’s seizure of power, many people returned to previously abandoned villages, schools and farmland. It exposed a new wave of Afghans to unexploded ordnance.
Sihanoukville (Cambodia) (AFP) – Trafficked, beaten and imprisoned far from his family in China, Lu is one of a sad legion of workers lured to work in Cambodian scam hothouses swindling people with online romance and crypto investment cons. As attention on the issue has grown, Cambodian authorities have launched high-profile raids, freeing more than 1,000 foreigners from three Sihanoukville compounds last month. But international observers and rights groups are sceptical. There are fears that rather than shutting down, the groups are simply relocating.
Doha (AFP) – Switzerland fans express, if not utter joy, then at least satisfaction as they leave the Al Janoub Stadium after a narrow 1-0 victory over Cameroon in their team’s Qatar World Cup opener. “We won, which was the most important thing” says Philipp Gysling, who travelled from Toronto for the match. The Cameroonians remain confident, despite two upcoming clashes against Serbia and Brazil. “The first half was good” says Kenneth, a Cameroon fan living in Qatar, “I don’t know what the coach told the players.”
London (AFP) – The London Natural History Museum’s iconic animatronic T.Rex is gearing up for Christmas. Now inhabiting a winter wonderland, the fearsome dinosaur is clad in a custom-made festive sweater and similarly up-sized Santa hat. “It is a big British thing” explains Sam Barnes, the museum’s head of retail, speaking about the sweater rather than the T.Rex.
Manicaragua (Cuba) (AFP) – Cuba’s coffee industry is on shakey ground. In 1960, Cuba produced more than 60,000 tons of coffee. In 2021, that figure dropped to just 11,500 tons. It’s hoped that “specialty” coffees, which remain a novelty on the island, could breath life back into a flagging industry.
Cianjur (Indonesia) (AFP) – Drone shots show search and rescue workers digging through a collapsed building in Indonesia’s West Java province after a deadly earthquake struck on Monday, killing 272 people. Indonesian authorities deployed heavy machinery, helicopters and thousands of personnel Thursday in a desperate effort to locate dozens trapped in rubble.
Paris (AFP) – Including the right to abortion in the French Constitution “is not a gimmick” but “a security for all women in our country” says the country’s Justice Minister, Eric Dupond-Moretti. Addressing the right and far-right wings of the French National Assembly, who have continually worked to obstruct the debate on the Constitution revision, Dupont-Moretti warns that despite their actions to “jam up the machine” with amendment proposals, “the political will is there.”
