Paris (AFP) – Kylian Mbappe will be back to captain France in the upcoming Nations League quarter-final against Croatia, confirms coach Didier Deschamps. Mbappe has not played for the national team for the last six months.
Bogotá (AFP) – Police investigate the site of a grenade attack that killed three people and wounded nine others in Bogota, the Colombian capital. The attack follows a similar incident in the same neighborhood three weeks ago, with police saying it was the result of a drug turf war between rival organized crime groups.
Sao Paulo (AFP) – More than 300 trees have fallen, leaving at least 74,000 people without electricity and causing one death due to heavy rains in Sao Paulo. IMAGES
Jujan (Ecuador) (AFP) – Vehicles navigate flooded streets in Guayas province, southwest Ecuador, following heavy rains. According to official reports, since January, the rains have left at least 19 dead and affected more than 100,000 people in the South American country. IMAGES
Buenos Aires (AFP) – Demonstrators clash with police during a protest of pensioners supported by football fans against the government of President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires. IMAGES
Al-Hol Camp (Syria) (AFP) – A sixth group of Iraqis, including 160 families, are released from Syria’s northeast Al-Hol camp. Syria’s semi-autonomous Kurdish administration aims to empty camps in the northeast of thousands of displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees, including suspected relatives of jihadists, by the end of the year. More than 4,000 people have been returned to Iraq since the start of the year, according to the Al-Hol camp manager, with around 14,500 still inside.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Kyiv has no “trust” in Russia despite having agreed to put a US proposal for a 30-day truce to Moscow. “None of us trust the Russians,” Zelensky says during a press conference in Kyiv.
Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a group of Gen Z women are using the power of social media to promote girls’ participation. The nine-woman troupe Emei Kung Fu Girls have racked up more than 23 million views on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.
Voters in Portugal may be asked to go to the polls for the third time in as many years after the centre-right government of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro loses a vote of confidence. “People have become very disillusioned with the political class,” says Diogo Cosme, a writer in Lisbon.
Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump looks at Tesla cars on the White House driveway and announces he will buy one in a show of support for his close adviser Elon Musk’s company. Tesla share prices have plummeted in response to market fears induced by Trump’s economic policies and backlash to Musk’s controversial role leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Beijing (AFP) – Beijing says it will take “all necessary measures” to protect its interests in response to new US tariffs of 25 percent on steel and aluminium imports. “The United States’ actions seriously violate WTO rules,” says Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry.
Mach (Pakistan) (AFP) – Pakistan has launched a “full-scale” operation to rescue train passengers taken hostage by militants in the mountainous southwest of the country. Security forces say they have managed to free more than 150 hostages from the besieged train in the Balochistan region, with an unknown number still on board. A senior railway official told AFP that more than 450 people had been on board the Jafar Express train.
