Colombo (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker says Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation as president has been accepted. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana says Rajapaksa has “legally resigned” after notifying him from Singapore, where the now former president has fled after leaving Sri Lanka earlier this week.
Paris (AFP) – July 14 fireworks light up the Paris sky as the Eiffel Tower shines with the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag. It’s the first time since the Coronavirus outbreak that the fireworks marking the storming of the Bastille prison at the beginning of the French Revolution were allowed to go ahead.
Larache (Morocco) (AFP) – Moroccan firefighters battle to put out at least four fires ripping through forests in the north of the kingdom. The blazes, fanned by strong winds, have not resulted in any casualties so far, but officials say nearly 500 families were evacuated “as a precaution” in the provinces of Larache and Taza.
Bethlehem (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Palestinians require a political path towards peace with Israel, even if a two-state solution to the conflict appears far off, US President Joe Biden says during his first visit to the Palestinian Territories as president.
Tel Aviv (AFP) – Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Yair Lapid accompany US President Joe Biden to his Air Force One plane as he departs Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on a direct flight to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, latest stop on his first Middle East tour as US leader. IMAGES
Riyadh (AFP) – Wejdan Hajji says she once struggled to teach herself guitar by watching YouTube videos, lamenting that “if she made a mistake, there was no one to correct her”. Hajji is one among many benefiting from relaxed restrictions on music activities in Saudi Arabia as its rulers relax some social restrictions after decades of adhering to a rigid interpretation of Islam.
Cholet (France) (AFP) – UGC images show people running after fireworks celebrating the Bastille Day shoot into a crowd in Cholet, France on Thursday. A 7-year-old boy and his 24-year-old sister were killed during the event at Cholet (Maine-et-Loire) in France on Thursday evening, the Angers public prosecutor said.
Colombo (AFP) – After nearly 100 days of protests, a small crowd celebrates the resignation of Sri Lanka’s leader at the seaside headquarters of their campaign to oust him. Rajapaksa emailed his resignation from a safe haven in Singapore after fleeing the country to escape public wrath.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that a “special tribunal” is needed to investigate Russian aggression. He alo says that 23 people, including three children under the age of ten, were killed in a missile attack on the city of Vinnytsia.
Aveiro (Portugal) (AFP) – A car drives through a wildfire in central Portugal, where over 2,000 firefighters were battling four major fires across the country on Thursday morning. Portugal has been on alert for wildfires for days, bringing back memories of the devastating fires in 2017, which claimed the lives of more than 100 people.
Port-au-Prince (AFP) – Haitians protest in a week when at least 89 people have been killed in gang clashes in Port-au-Prince and prices continue to soar while fuel shortages worsen, threatening the humanitarian aid that is so crucial to the people. “We are facing misery and hunger and our children can no longer go to school. The government is useless… It has to go,” a motorcycle cab driver says.
Singapore (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president submitted his resignation shortly after reaching Singapore, the parliamentary speaker’s office said, days after the head of state fled protests triggered by his country’s worst-ever economic crisis. Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka, after protesters overran his palace on the weekend, heading first to the Maldives and then Singapore.
