Maidan Wardak province (Afghanistan) (AFP) – Successive wars displaced Afghans over forty years, but peace has not brought total reprieve, as climate change-fuelled shocks drive people from their homes and strain livelihoods.
Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Leo XIV renews his appeal for peace, calling on the world to pray for “an end to all wars” during his Sunday Angelus prayer. “The 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has reawakened through the world the necessary rejection of war as a way to resolve conflicts,” says Pope Leo.
Pacific Ocean (AFP) – An international crew of four astronauts is back home on Earth after nearly five months aboard the International Space Station, returning safely in a SpaceX capsule. The spacecraft carrying US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov splashes down off California’s coast at 8.44 am local time (1534 GMT).
London (AFP) – Protesters in London holding signs reading ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’ are arrested and led away by police for showing support for the banned group. Palestine Action is banned under anti-terror laws after activists broke into an air force base in England and damaged two aircraft. At least 365 people are arrested, thought to be one of the highest ever at a single protest in the UK capital, for “supporting a proscribed organisation”.
Dubai (AFP) – As temperatures soar outside, a sprawling shopping centre in Dubai echoes to the squeak of sneakers as hundreds of people join a “Mallathon” — an indoor, air-conditioned race. Running outside during summer in the Gulf, one of the world’s hottest regions where temperatures sometimes top 50C, is unpleasant and even unsafe for many.
Prague (AFP) – Dazzling spectators with their best tricks, yoyo whizzes from across the globe are competing at the 2025 World Yoyo Contest, hosted in Prague. Some 300 “yoyoers” will face off across five categories during the four-day event, with entrants allowed to use one or two yoyos, as well as string-free and counterweighted models.
Bogotá (AFP) – Images outside of Santa Fe clinic in Bogota where a Colombian presidential candidate shot at a campaign event in June has deteriorated to critical condition due to a new cerebral hemorrhage, doctors treating him say. Conservative Senator Miguel Uribe, 39, was speaking to supporters in the capital, Bogota, when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee. He has been in intensive care since then, and undergone multiple surgeries. In recent weeks his relatives had welcomed progress in his care. IMAGES
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky warns that “decisions without Ukraine” would not bring peace and rules out ceding territory to Russia, hours after Washington and Moscow agreed to hold a summit in a bid to end the war. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the far-north US state of Alaska, near Russia, on August 15, to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite multiple warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of the negotiations.
Nagasaki (Japan) (AFP) – Twin cathedral bells ring out in Japan’s Nagasaki for the first time since the atomic bombing of the city 80 years ago, commemorating the moment the atrocity took place. On August 9, 1945, at 11:02 am, three days after a nuclear attack on Hiroshima, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
Bickenbach (AFP) – In a German retirement home, residents can travel the world without ever leaving their seats —- thanks to virtual reality headsets. Once a week, they are transported to different countries and landscapes through the immersive technology. The initiative has been in place for a year and is overseen by care assistant Annette Keil. “I would say it’s important, yes, because then they also experience something different” she explains.
Al-Mawasi (AFP) – After being shot at an aid site in May, Gazan Ibraheem Saeed Abdel Nabi has built his own prosthetic leg out of a sewage pipe and an old window, hoping to be able to care for his family again. The 33-year-old says his leg had to be amputated at the hospital, where he stayed for more than a month, due to an infection. “My dream is to have a prosthetic limb and support my family,” he says back with his family in Al-Mawasi.
Jerusalem (AFP) – Israelis react with mixed views to the security cabinet’s decision to “take control” of Gaza City under a plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One Israeli says “Israel will take good care of the land and maybe help to rebuild for whoever will be there,” while a fellow citizen says “the cabinet decision is not the right thing to do, because this could put the hostages’ lives at risk.”
