Moscow (AFP) – “The commitment of the Consulate General and Mr Vinatier’s wife to plead for house arrest has not been heard,” says the lawyer of French researcher Laurent Vinatier, arrested last month and accused of gathering military information, after a Moscow court ruled to keep him in pre-trial detention.
London (AFP) – “Our country needs a bigger reset”, says Keir Starmer as he gives his first speech as UK prime minister outside Downing Street. The Labour party leader oversaw a landslide victory in a general election, ending 14 years of rule by Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.
Itapetininga (Brazil) (AFP) – UGC images of a tourist bus crash into a highway pillar that has left ten people died and dozens injured in Brazil’s southeastern Sao Paulo state. The injured were extracted by rescue teams and firefighters and taken to three hospitals in Itapetininga and neighboring Sorocaba. IMAGES
Puerto Morelos (Mexico) (AFP) – Hurricane Beryl slams into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula near the resort town of Tulum with fierce winds, battering palm trees. The National Hurricane Center said the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (160 kph) making it a Category 2 hurricane, weaker than earlier in the week as Beryl hit islands in the Caribbean. IMAGES
London (AFP) – Keir Starmer is Britain’s new prime minister, as his centre-left opposition Labour party sweeps to a landslide general election victory, ending 14 years of right-wing Conservative rule.
London (AFP) – UK opposition leader Keir Starmer arrives to cheers and applause at the vote count centre for his London consituency, after exit polls indicated he is set to replace Rishi Sunak as prime minister with his Labour party on course for a landslide win that will end 14 years of Conservative rule. IMAGES
(AFP) – It looks a little like an evil robot from 1980s sci-fi but West Japan Railway’s new humanoid employee was designed with nothing more sinister than a spot of painting and gardening in mind. Starting this month, the machine with a crude head and light-up eyes mounted on a truck — which can drive on rails — will be put to use for maintenance on the firm’s network.
Tel Aviv (AFP) – Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer reiterates that “Hezbollah under the guidance of Iran bear full responsibility because of this deterioration of the security situation in the north” as regional tensions soar. Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets and explosive drones at Israeli military positions amid the almost nine-month-old war raging in Gaza.
Lima (AFP) – Peruvian President Dina Boluarte welcomes Ecuador counterpart Daniel Noboa outside the Presidential Palace in Lima. The Peru-Ecuador presidential meeting and XV binational cabinet of ministers consist of a meeting between the heads of state, bilateral meetings of ministers, and the signing of the Lima Declaration. IMAGES
London (AFP) – There has been one figure of stability in the last 14 years of political turmoil in the UK — Larry, the Downing Street cat and Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. The ageing tabby could be in line for his sixth prime minister after the UK votes in a general election on July 4, with opinion polls suggesting that he will oversee his first from the Labour Party.
