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London (AFP) – Kenneth Greenway says he is inundated with requests for the foraging courses that he and his team run at the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in east London. “We can’t do enough foraging tours,” he says. “I guess the recent surge in interest is as a result of the recent pandemic, with a lot more people spending time in parks, thinking about plants, wondering what they can do with them.” Foragers touch, smell, pick and taste a number of plants on the three-hour tours. “I’ve just loved it, every minute of it” says George Page, a course attendee. “It empowers you but also it makes you feel you’re really part of nature,” says Rosa Nguyen, another attendee.

Singapore (AFP) – Images show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meeting with president of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam and prime minister of Singapore Lawrence Wong. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Singapore for a security forum as he seeks to rally support for Kyiv while a Russian offensive gains ground.

Paris (AFP) – A video posted on X by “Riposte Alimentaire”, a climate activist movement, shows an environmental activist sticking an adhesive poster on Claude Monet’s painting the “Coquelicots” (Poppies) and speaking to draw attention to global warming at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. “This nightmarish painting in front of us is what awaits us if no alternative is put in place! At +4°C, we’re in for hell”, she declared.

Jiquilisco (El Salvador) (AFP) – At a market in El Salvador, Blanca Ramos complains that few people are buying her bananas: the economy is a challenge for President Nayib Bukele in his second term. Having reduced gang violence to historic lows, Bukele must now focus on the economy, analysts say. It is vital that he tackles high public debt and poverty, they warn.

Uttwiller (France) (AFP) – They’re a charming feature of Alsatian villages, whether pink, blue, yellow or white. But hundreds of half-timbered houses are disappearing every year in Alsace, where local authorities are trying to halt the decline with subsidies. In the small village of Uttwiller, 40 kilometres north of Strasbourg, an oak farmhouse is regaining its old charm: its owners decided to renovate this Alsatian house, hoping to benefit from a recently created conservation fund.

Varanasi (India) (AFP) – India’s six-week election reaches its final day of voting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi widely expected to win a third term in office. The holy city of Varanasi is one of the last places to vote and is where Modi’s ever-closer alignment of religion and politics burns brightest. IMAGES

Singapore (AFP) – US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the Indo-Pacific region remains a “priority” for Washington, saying the United States was secure “only if Asia is”. Lloyd made the remarks at a major security forum in Singapore, a day after he met with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun. Lloyd made the remarks at a major security forum in Singapore, a day after he met with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun. SOUNDBITE

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Teachers and pupils in Kyiv show extraordinary resilience in the face of war, despite the Russian invasion that wreaked havoc on children’s emotional well-being. One of nearly four million Ukrainian schoolchildren, 13-year-old Sofia Klochko, an eighth grader at School 61 in central Kyiv, is completing her third academic year in a row with her country at war, marked in the capital by stressful air alerts. “It was really difficult for me, but I adapted to it,” she says.

New York (AFP) – People gather outside Trump Tower to see Donald Trump arrive at the building, following his historic criminal conviction by a New York jury on 30 May. Trump was found guilty on all charges in the hush money case, months before an election that could yet see him return to the White House.

West Palm Beach (United States) (AFP) – Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters gather outside his Mar-a-Lago estate and share mixed views on his conviction. Trump became the first former US president ever convicted of a crime after a New York jury found him guilty on all charges in his hush money case, months before an election that could see him yet return to the White House.