Varanasi (India) (AFP) – Hindus make up the overwhelming majority of India’s 1.4 billion people but when Mahatma Gandhi secured its independence from Britain in 1947 it was a secular, multicultural state. Now right-wing calls for the country to be declared a Hindu nation and Hindu supremacy to be enshrined in law are growing rapidly louder, making its 210-million-odd Muslims increasingly anxious about their future.
Pyongyang (AFP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declares victory over the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea, at the “National Meeting of Reviewing the Emergency Anti-Epidemic Work” on August 10, 2022.
Lefkara (Cyprus) (AFP) – In the small Cypriot village of Lefkara, the local style of embroidery has been officially recognised by UNESCO. But it is now in danger of disappearing due to a lack of young people learning the unique lace-making craft. “When the old women die, the embroidery will vanish”, laments Toulla Rouvis, who owns her own lace shop in the mountainous village.
Serra da Estrela Natural Park (Portugal) (AFP) – Fires continue to rage for the fifth consecutive day in the forest massif of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park, in central Portugal. The mega-fire has already ravaged 10,000 hectares in the region.
Kharkiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Residents look at the damage and clean debris after Russian shelling hit the center of Kharkiv, northeast of Ukraine, leaving a crater in the courtyard of an apartment building.
Seoul (AFP) – Scenes of devastation in a basement flat in Seoul where three tenants, including a disabled woman and a teenager, drowned in floods triggered by record-breaking rains. South Korea’s capital has moved to ban the cramped basement flats, made famous by Oscar-winning movie “Parasite”, after four people drowned in subterranean dwellings this week.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky warns that Russia is ‘putting all of Europe under the threat of a nuclear catastrophe’, with its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest. Russia and Ukraine have both accused each other of shelling the facility.
Fagradalsfjall (Iceland) (AFP) – Several thousand onlookers venture down the steep, winding trail around Mount Fagradalsfjall to admire the week-long volcanic eruption near the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, “a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” says British tourist Celine Paul.
Hostens (France) (AFP) – Firefighters battle a fire in Hostens, in southwest France’s Gironde, on the border with the Landes department. Close to 6,800 hectares of pine forest have gone up in smoke.
Khartoum (AFP) – Sudanese women and men show the of their traditional facial scars, an ancient practice that was once common among African tribes but which has greatly diminished over the years.
Bristol (United Kingdom) (AFP) – The menu at The Canteen in southwest England doesn’t just let diners know how much a dish costs. They can also check its carbon footprint.
Pyongyang (AFP) – Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, says the leader had been ill during the coronavirus outbreak. This is the first time North Korea has indicated its leader — whose health is the subject of extraordinarily close scrutiny by analysts — had been infected by the coronavirus. Yo Jong also claimed the country’s Covid-19 outbreak was caused by South Korea, warning of “retaliation”.
