UK

Thousands of people, including medalists who have returned from Tokyo, gathered near the Eiffel Tower to welcome the handover of the Olympic flag to Paris, which will host the Games in 2024.

Fireworks and lights beamed into the night sky from Tokyo's National Stadium, as the Olympics drew to a close.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) says that he disagrees with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' taking a top down approach in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that decisions on mask mandates and restrictions should be made at the local level.

Farwa Island (Libya) (AFP) – Once famed for its exceptional wildlife, Libya's Farwa island risks becoming just another victim of lawlessness in the war-ravaged North African nation, activists struggling to save it warn.

A tearful Lionel Messi tells a press conference in Barcelona that joining French giants Paris Saint-Germain is a "possibility". Cash rich PSG are one of the few clubs able to afford the Argentinian who is leaving the club where he has played his entire career.

Greenville (United States) (AFP) – California Governor Gavin Newsom visits the burned remains of Greenville, California, after the Dixie Fire, the largest active wildfire in the United States, left the town charred and in ruins.

As the world is still plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic and the United States has been passing the buck, politicizing the pandemic and producing propaganda against China is only undermining global efforts to defeat the deadly coronavirus, said a political expert recently.

A plane carrying a batch of China's Sinopharm vaccines touched down at Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka on Saturday to become part of the southern African nation's basket of COVID-19 vaccines.

Hundreds of people brave the rain in London to cycle 15 miles in the second annual Black Unity Bike Ride, an event that aims to "celebrate unity within the black community" and encourage more people of colour to cycle.