Luanda (AFP) – Angola’s President Joao Lourenco promises to keep working on the ‘social and economic development’ of Angola after winning a second five-year term. His MPLA party emerged victorious with a thin majority in last week’s closely fought election, extending its decades-long rule in the oil-rich country.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – “If they want to survive, now is the time for the Russian soldiers to flee. Go home,” says President Volodydmyr Zelensky in his nightly address, as Ukraine’s troops press a counter-offensive across the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, occupied by Russia.
Buoux (France) (AFP) – The prolongued summer drought in France has come as ‘a big blow for wild fauna’ says Loriane Aubinais, the manager of a wildlife shelter in the heart of the Luberon Regional Nature Park in the country’s south.
Nowshera (Pakistan) (AFP) – Temporary camps have sprung up around Pakistan — in schools, on motorways and military bases — to give shelter to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by catastrophic floods. At one camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Yasmeen Shah says that “people send relief goods here but the distribution is not well organised at all.”
Baghdad (AFP) – Supporters of Moqtada Sadr storm Iraq’s Republican Palace – a key government building inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone – after the powerful Shiite cleric said he was quitting politics.
Kharkiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Residents in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv volunteer to help municipal services clean up rubbles and debris from the Russian shelling near the city’s administration buildings. Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said residents are “madly in love with their city” and need no additional motivation to help rebuild the city.
Baghdad (AFP) – Shots are heard in front of the Green Zone during the night in Baghdad, a few hours after the powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said he was quitting politics, amid a nearly year-long political stalemate.
Kennedy Space Center (United States) (AFP) – A test flight of NASA’s powerful new Moon rocket may be possible on Friday, Artemis 1 mission manager Mike Sarafin says, after the US space agency scrubbed Monday’s launch because of an engine issue. “Friday is definitely in play,” Sarafin tells reporters.
Baghdad (AFP) – Iraqis disperse as shots are fired in Baghdad’s Green Zone after supporters of cleric Moqtada Sadr stormed the government palace in the fortified area following the powerful Shiite leader’s declaration that he was quitting politics.
Newark (United States) (AFP) – Celebrities parade down the red carpet for MTV’s Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican Latin trap and reggaeton artist who’s among the world’s biggest stars, scored MTV’s artist of the year award at the annual Video Music Awards. But the performer was conspicuously absent from the show, busy with his own blockbuster tour.
Giza (Egypt) (AFP) – Darkness pervades the streets of Egypt’s city of Giza, as the government dims lights to free up energy for export and bolster hard currency reserves.
London (AFP) – Performers dance in the streets of west London as the Notting Hill Carnival returns after a two-year break due to Covid-19. Started as a children’s event by local communities to ease tensions in a racially divided 60s London, the carnival is now a world-renowned celebration of British Afro-Caribbean identity.
