AFP UK

Xinxiang (China) (AFP) – Firefighters rescue residents from deadly flooding in China’s Henan province. The rainfall in the region was the heaviest since record-keeping began 60 years ago. 

Zhengzhou (China) (AFP) – Vehicles are seen in a pile up on a motorway after record rainfall caused deadly floods in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou.

Bamako (AFP) – Mali’s transitional president, Colonel Assimi Goïta, says he is “very well” hours after a man tried to stab him following Eid al-Adha prayers at the Grand Mosque in Bamako. The shocking attack follows months of political turmoil in Mali, which is also battling a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Durban (South Africa) (AFP) – Small fires still smoulder under the collapsed roof of a label-printing company in Durban days after devastating riots shook South Africa. The Ushukela Industrial Park in the southeastern port city is one of several that has been blitzed in a spree of arson and looting that hit parts of South Africa. Riots and looting first flared in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), sparked by the jailing of graft-accused former president Jacob Zuma.

Van Horn (United States) (AFP) – Earth’s wealthiest man Jeff Bezos says he’s “going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build the future” as he returns from a space flight with the crew of his firm Blue Origin’s first crewed space mission. The crew included 82-year-old barrier-breaking woman aviator Wally Funk and and 18-year-old Dutch teen Oliver Daemen. Funk and Daemen became the oldest and youngest astronauts, respectively.

Zhengzhou (China) (AFP) – Firefighters rescue trapped passengers from a flooded subway station in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, where deadly torrential rains have wreaked havoc. 

Manila (AFP) – The remains of Filipinos killed in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war are starting to be exhumed as the leases on their graves expire and poor families struggle to renew the contracts.

Days of heavy rain in monsoon season flooded the streets of Mumbai, India’s financial capital, with residents complaining about the fact that the floods “happen every year”. Several homes were crushed by a collapsed wall and the deluge triggered a fatal landslide.

Nairobi (AFP) – Inside the rundown building in Kariobangi-North, it’s almost entirely women and girls, all training under the watchful eye of boxing coach Alfred Analo Anjere — founder of BoxGirls Kenya. In 14 years, more than 3,000 girls and women have taken up the sport at the centre. All started out for the same reason — wanting to defend themselves in their gritty neighbourhoods, which are harsh worlds where poverty prevails and it is survival of the fittest.

Banda Aceh (Indonesia) (AFP) – Thousands of Muslims pack the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, to hold prayers to mark the Eid al-Adha festival, despite a surge in Covid-19 cases in the Southeast Asian country.

Los Angeles (AFP) – Britney Spears’ lawyer says he is moving “aggressively and expeditiously” to remove the star’s father from the controversial guardianship controlling her affairs. He made the comments after a very brief Los Angeles court hearing held to discuss security costs for the singer’s professional conservator, who says she has received threats over the globally followed case. The lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, was appointed last week after a judge allowed the singer to choose her own representation.

Jerusalem (AFP) – Palestinian worshippers perform the Eid al-Adha prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city, on the first day of the feast celebrated by Muslims worldwide. The al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, marks the end of the annual pilgrimage or Hajj to the Saudi holy city of Mecca and is celebrated in remembrance of Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his son to God.