Unknown (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Ukraine’s Kherson and Lugansk regions to meet with military commanders, according to images released by the Kremlin. If true, it marks the first time Putin has visited the frontline regions, which are partly controlled by Russian troops, since Moscow annexed them along with two others last September.
Karachi (Pakistan) (AFP) – After midnight during Ramadan, floodlights turn Karachi’s streets and courts into urban cricket pitches, where dozens of young Pakistani men smack taped-up tennis balls across the city.
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) – At her first news conference in her home country since her historic best actress win, Malaysian Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh speaks up for diversity and women’s empowerment in Hollywood, telling reporters in Kuala Lumpur “we should never allow somebody to put us in a box”.
Wilmington (United States) (AFP) – Legal teams arrive at the Leonard Williams Justice Center, where the Dominion Voting Systems defamation trial against FOX News is taking place, with opening arguments expected Tuesday, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Al Mansurah (Egypt) (AFP) – People in the Egyptian town of Nabaruh, on the banks of the Nile, prepare feseekh, the local specialty. The millennia-old delicacy of saltwater fish is a staple as people celebrate the ancient spring festival of Sham al-Nessim.
Galápagos (Ecuador) (AFP) – Researchers on a scientific expedition have found previously unknown pristine coral reef off Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, supporting a rich, diverse marine life.
Lincoln (United States) (AFP) – About 300 history enthusiasts reenact the Battle Road fight between British soldiers and American colonial militiamen that followed the Battles at Lexington and Concord of April 19, 1775, which marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.
As Suwaydah (Syria) (AFP) – Images show clutter left behind after a US raid targeting an alleged senior Islamic State group leader in Al Suwaydah, a village about 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of the town of Jarabulus on Syria’s northern border with Turkey.
At sea (AFP) – Italian police claim to have found over 400 million euros worth of cocaine floating in the water off Sicily in packages likely left by a cargo ship for drugs traffickers to bring ashore.
Torpoint (United Kingdom) (AFP) – A group of volunteer environmental hunters scour a beach in Cornwall for tiny plastic balls, or “nurdles”, used by industry to manufacture plastic products. When spilt at industrial facilities, they can be swept into drains and then out into the sea — and are one of the main sources of microplastic pollution.
Barcelona (AFP) – Barcelona have never “done anything” to “obtain some type of sporting advantage,” the football club’s president Joan Laporta says amid investigations into payments made to a former refereeing chief. Last month Spanish prosecutors charged the Catalan club with corruption after payments of more than 7.3 million euros ($7.8 million) to a company owned by a former refereeing chief were uncovered earlier this year.
Moscow (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu to the Kremlin on the first day of his three-day visit to Russia, where the two are preparing to discuss Beijing’s deepening military cooperation with Moscow. Both countries have ramped up ties in recent years to counterbalance global US dominance, and they’ve only grown closer since Putin launched an offensive in Ukraine last February.
