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Royan (France) (AFP) – In 2019, Sadaf Khadem was the first Iranian boxer to step into a ring, bareheaded. Exiled in France since then, she fears today the violent repression of demonstrations in her country and calls for new forms of protest. “I do not want the number of deaths to increase. We must move forward with diplomacy and strategy,” Sadaf Khadem said as Iran was rocked by a wave of protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not respecting the strict female dress code in the country. Khadem had been confronted several times by the vice police for fighting bare-headed, bare-armed and bare-legged when she was in Iran. Her country’s law requires its sportswomen to wear the hijab, even abroad.

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Damage is seen at a children’s playground in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv following a blast. A series of loud explosions rocked the capital early Monday morning, a day after Moscow blamed Ukraine for a deadly blast on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia.

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Aftermath of loud blasts in central Kyiv, a day after Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for an explosion on a key Crimea bridge. The explosions took place around 0815 local time (0515 GMT), with air raid sirens sounding in the Ukrainian capital more than an hour before the blasts.

Taipei (AFP) – Taiwan’s leader warns Beijing that the island would never give up its democratic way of life in a national day speech where she drew parallels with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The broadest consensus among the Taiwanese people and our various political parties is that we must defend our national sovereignty and our free and democratic way of life,” President Tsai Ing-wen says.

London (AFP) – Around a thousand people form a human chain around the UK parliament in London, demanding the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The chain formed outside the front of the Houses of Parliament, spans the River Thames over Westminster Bridge before winding itself along the river opposite the historic building.

Riga (AFP) – Exiled to Latvia after the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian free media are struggling to provide independent information to millions of Russians subjected to Kremlin propaganda.

Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine) (AFP) – The aftermath of an overnight Russian strike in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia leaves a picture of death and destruction, with dozens dead and at least 49 people in hospital as a result of the strike. The attacks, which come a day after a key bridge linking Russia to Crimea was partially destroyed in an explosion, appear to have hit residential apartment blocks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram denounced the ‘merciless strikes on peaceful people’ as ‘absolute evil’ perpetrated by ‘savages and terrorists’.

Cythera (Greece) (AFP) – Greek coastguard divers search and recover bodies from the migrant boat wreck at Kythira island. The death toll from the migrant boat wreck, which prompted a dramatic cliffside rescue, has climbed to at least 11. A sailboat believed to have 95 people onboard sank near the island at the south of the Peloponnese peninsula Wednesday night.

Na Klang (Thailand) (AFP) – On the second day of funeral rituals following a mass killing at a nursery in Na Klang district, Thailand, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha pays homage to the victims in a temple close to the nursery. Former police officer Panya Khamrab, armed with a pistol and a long knife, killed 36 people, including 24 children, in the eastern province of Nong Bua Lam Phu on Thursday in one of Thailand’s worst mass killings.

Ishøj (Denmark) (AFP) – The Arken Museum of Modern Art, about 15 kilometres southwest of Copenhagen, has faithfully recreated ‘Giant Billiard’, which was first staged in 1970 by rebellious Austrian architect/artist group Haus-Rucker-Co.

Moscow (AFP) – The Russian army announces the appointment of a new general to lead its Ukraine offensive after Moscow suffered a series of military setbacks, triggering criticism from some of its army’s leadership. 

El Alto (Bolivia) (AFP) – Twenty years ago, Juan Copa established an informal street chess club to amuse children while they waited for their parents after school in Bolivia’s El Alto. Today, those who learned the game with Mr. Copa come back to share their passion with younger players.