Phayargyi (Myanmar) (AFP) – An Asian elephant has given birth to rare twins on a timber camp in southern Myanmar. The brother and sister were born at the the Wingabaw elephant camp near Bago on August 26. Fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants remain in the wild worldwide.
Vladivostok (Russia) (AFP) – Speaking during the annual Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok, President Vladimir Putin says he is ready for talks with Ukraine, on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul in 2022. He also states Russia’s “primary” goal is to capture Ukraine’s Donbas region, as his forces advance fast westwards in the Donbas.
Winder (United States) (AFP) – A 14-year-old boy has killed four people, including two students, and wounded nine more when he opened fire at a high school in the US state of Georgia, the latest chapter in America’s gun violence crisis. The shooter was taken into custody and will be tried as an adult on murder charges.
Eldoret (Kenya) (AFP) – 33-year-old Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei has died in Eldoret, Kenya, four days after being set on fire by her boyfriend in her home. The attack is the latest incident of gender-based violence in the East African country, where activists have warned of a femicide epidemic.
Vladivostok (Russia) (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will support US Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election. Speaking during the annual Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok, Putin says current US President Joe Biden “recommended that all his supporters back Mrs Harris, so we will do the same, we will support her”. He adds that Donald Trump, Republican opponent, imposed more sanctions on Russia “than any president has ever imposed before.”
Ngaruawahia (New Zealand) (AFP) – New Zealand’s Maori chiefs anoint a 27-year-old queen as their new monarch, a surprise choice hailed as a symbol of change for the country’s Indigenous community. Nga Wai hono i te po Paki is the youngest daughter of King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, who died on August 30 after heart surgery.
Ngaruawahia (New Zealand) (AFP) – New Zealand’s Maori chiefs anoint a 27-year-old queen as their new monarch, a surprise choice hailed as a symbol of change for the country’s Indigenous community. Nga Wai hono i te po Paki is the youngest daughter of King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, who died on August 30 after heart surgery.
Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – At a shop nestled in a busy, crowded Beirut district, Hasan El-Makary is weighing out containers of warm, fragrant mufataka, a traditional sweet in the Lebanese capital that is rarely found in stores. A kind of rice pudding made with turmeric, tahini sesame paste, sugar and pine nuts, mufataka is traditional in Beirut but less known even outside the city.
Nuuk (AFP) – The detention of Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson has been extended by a court in Greenland as the decision over whether to extradite the anti-whaling activist to Japan drags on. The 73-year-old US-Canadian was arrested in Nuuk in July on a Japanese arrest warrant, with the country accusing him of damaging a whaling ship and injuring a crew member. Watson’s lawyers insist he is innocent and allies say Japan is out for “revenge.”
London (AFP) – “Systematic dishonesty” and “persistent failure” were among the chief causes of the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people in June 2017, rules an inquiry into the disaster. Unveiling his 1,600-page report, Martin Moore-Bick, a retired judge chairing the inquiry, explains that multiple parties contributed to the fire, “in most cases through incompetence, but in some cases through dishonesty and greed.”
