Nairobi (AFP) – UN chief Antonio Guterres says “we failed” to stop conflict from erupting in Sudan, as persistent fighting between rival generals has undermined efforts to firm up a truce. “The UN was taken by surprise” by the conflict, Guterres tells reporters in Nairobi, adding “to the extent that we and many others were not expecting this to happen, we can say we failed to avoid it to happen”.
Sydney (AFP) – A wax sculpture of King Charles III is unveiled in Sydney ahead of his coronation on Saturday, with a small group of press and onlookers gathering to see the eerily lifelike replica to promote a new display at Madame Tussauds Sydney.
Unknown (AFP) – Italian Carabinieri Police publish images of an anti-mafia operation against the Nirta-Strangio clans between the towns of San Luca and Morabito di Africo in Calabria. The raid is part of a “wide-scale” operation against the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia in several European countries including Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain. Police raided 150 addresses on Wednesday, according to Belgian prosecutors.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – In Kyiv, a group of young men are trying to support the needs of the Ukrainian army by inventing new vehicles, many of which resemble props from the “Mad Max” films. Musa, 29, has started a business making buggies from metal piping to order for Ukrainian battalions. On another industrial site in Kyiv, a Romanian volunteer, Radu Hossu, has raised funds from Romanians and Moldovans via his Facebook page to create armoured vehicles for a medical battalion working in the eastern frontline Donetsk region, including a hybrid of a Ford truck and a Soviet Gaz chassis. “This is basically a Frankenstein vehicle. It doesn’t exist on the planet”, Radu Hossu explains.
Krasnodar (Russia) (AFP) – Russian emergency services extinguish a fire at a fuel depot with foam in a video posted on Telegram by the Krasnodar Krai governor, Veniamin Kondratyev. According to Kondratyev, the depot caught fire overnight in the Russian village of Volna, close to the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Crimean peninsula to mainland Russia. Kondratyev did not mention the cause of the blaze.
Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israeli air strikes hit Gaza City as they trade fire with Gaza militants in a flare-up of violence following the death in Israeli custody of a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike.
Warsaw (AFP) – An intrepid French traveller embarked on a solo rowing expedition from Poland to France to shed light on the pollution of waterways of Europe.
New York (AFP) – Thousands of writers form picket lines outside studios in New York and Los Angeles as they down their tools in a strike over pay and conditions in the streaming era.
London (AFP) – Images of policemen in front of Buckingham Palace in London, where a man was arrested after items thought to be shotgun cartridges were thrown into the grounds.
Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – An Israeli air strike hits Gaza overnight after militants fired rockets from the Palestinian enclave towards Israel. The flare-up in violence comes hours after the death in Israeli custody of a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike.
Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Multiple Israeli air strikes hit sites in Gaza City belonging to Palestinian factions in response to the firing of missiles from Gaza towards Israeli territory.
New York (AFP) – TV and movie writers demonstrate in New York as thousands of them across the country went on their first strike in 15 years, after talks with studios and streamers over pay and working conditions failed to clinch a deal.
