Nong Bua Lamphu (Thailand) (AFP) – Thai emergency services work into the night at a nursery in the country’s northeastern province of Nong Bua Lam Phu which, around lunchtime on Thursday, was the scene of a deadly mass shooting. In what is one of Thailand’s worst mass killings, a former police officer shot dead at least 35 people, most of them children.
Marseille (AFP) – Football fans in Marseille and Paris react after a decision to scrap fan zones in French cities for the Qatar World Cup, on the basis of humanitarian and environmental reasons. In addition to Paris and Marseille, cities like Lyon, Toulouse and Bordeaux are among those deciding not to broadcast matches in public spaces.
Kampala (AFP) – The World Health Organization’s representative to Uganda, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, confirms the death of another Ugandan health worker, bringing the total number killed by the Ebola virus in the country to 10.
Paris (AFP) – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, implores the international community to remember the ongoing humanitarian crises outside Ukraine. Grandi is visiting France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron and discuss the humanitarian response to various conflicts and the consequent human displacement happening around the world.
Taipei (AFP) – Taiwan human rights activist Lee Ming-che, who spent five years inside a Chinese prison on “subverting state power”, recounts his ordeal. “My arrest in 2017 was inevitable because China wants to crack down on foreign civic societies’ contact with its domestic civic groups,” Lee explains. Lee was demanded to confess to being an agent hired by the Taiwanese government, hinting that doing so would lead to a swifter release. He said he refused to betray his country and therefore eventually admitted to the personal subversion charge.
San José (United States) (AFP) – As a teenager in rural China, Zeng Jiajun used his internet know-how to watch a banned documentary on the bloody military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. A decade later, he was part of China’s sprawling censorship machine. After graduation, he joined ByteDance, an upstart Chinese social media company that owns TikTok, and worked as part of a team that developed automated systems to filter content the company did not want on its platform.
Kolkata (AFP) – Women smear vermillion and dance on the streets as large idols of Goddess Durga are taken on a street procession before immersing them into the Ganges river in India’s Kolkata. Durga Puja is a 10-day festival celebrating Goddess Durga with large-size installations and idols of goddess Durga which draws to a close with the immersion of the idols.
Malang (Indonesia) (AFP) – Thousands of Indonesian football fans light candles and hold a mass prayer outside the City Hall in Malang city to pay respect to the victims of the recent stadium stampede which has killed at least 131 people on Saturday, one of the deadliest disasters in football history.
Busan (South Korea) (AFP) – Movie stars and directors hit the red carpet on South Korea’s port town of Busan Wednesday as Asia’s largest film festival returned to full power post-pandemic, with high-profile guests such as Hong Kong’s Tony Leung, who has been named Asian Filmmaker of the Year by the festival and Japan’s famed filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda flying in to discuss his latest projects.
Bila Tserkva (Ukraine) (AFP) – Residents pass by the debris of various infrastructure facilities in the town of Bila Tserkva, southwest of Kyiv, after one person was injured in an overnight Russian attack that used Iranian-made drones.
Lyon (AFP) – “There will be no fan zone in Lyon, that’s for sure” declares the city’s Mayor, Grégory Doucet, as he decries Qatar’s human rights and environmental records.
Birmingham (United Kingdom) (AFP) – During her closing speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, declares “Ukraine can win, Ukraine must win, and Ukraine will win” – drawing universal applause at a conference plagued by division within the party.
