Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) – Floodwaters from an overflowing dam leave homes, schools and businesses submerged in parts of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state in northeast Nigeria. An epicentre of more than a decade-long jihadist insurgency, the city is now dealing with what the United Nations refugee agency in Nigeria (UNHCR) is describing as the worst flooding in 30 years.
Lao Cai (Vietnam) (AFP) – A landslide in the wake of the deadly Typhoon Yagi devastated a Vietnamese village, state media reported, as severe flooding in the aftermath of the area’s strongest storm in decades claimed victims across multiple countries. IMAGES
Dili (East Timor) (AFP) – Pope Francis celebrates a mass for hundreds of thousands of faithful in East Timor, rallying nearly half the population of the world’s most Catholic country outside the Vatican in stifling tropical heat.
Protesters invade Mexico’s Senate, forcing lawmakers to suspend a debate on controversial proposals by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to allow voters to elect judges. IMAGES
Controversial proposals by Mexico’s outgoing president to allow voters to elect judges face a final hurdle in Congress, despite mass opposition street protests, diplomatic tensions and investor jitters. Thousands of people, including court employees and law students, demonstrate against the plan, under which even Supreme Court and other high-level judges, as well as those at the local level, would be chosen by popular vote. IMAGES
Mexico City (AFP) – Crowds of protesters invade Mexico’s Senate, waving a large Mexican flag, forcing lawmakers to suspend a debate on controversial proposals by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to allow voters to elect judges. IMAGES
Tel Aviv (AFP) – The Israeli government rejects the death toll provided by Gaza’s civil defence agency for a strike on the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in the southern city of Khan Yunis. According to this toll, the strike killed 40 people and wounded a further 60, but Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer says the figures do “not align with the truth.”
Kennedy Space Center (United States) (AFP) – SpaceX has launched its daring Polaris Dawn mission, carrying a four-member civilian crew, who will take part in the first spacewalk by non-professional astronauts. The crew underwent more than two years of training and are equipped with newly-developed, hi-tech SpaceX suits.
Paris (AFP) – Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was recently released as part of the biggest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War, says Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed “a face-saving exit” from the war in Ukraine. Speaking exclusively to AFP, Kara-Murza says the “Putin regime must be defeated.”
Al Mawāşī (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – With deep craters where dozens of tents used to stand, Palestinians in Al Mawasi, in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, are reeling from a deadly Israeli strike. The area was designated a safe zone by Israel early in the war, but the country has repeatedly accused Hamas of embedding military sites in these areas, surrounding them with human shields. The group denies this. Gaza’s civil defence agency says the overnight strike killed 40 people, wounding a further 60.
