São Sebastião do Caí (Brazil) (AFP) – Floods and mudslides caused by torrential rains have killed 29 people in southern Brazil, and with dozens still missing, the death toll is expected to rise.
Manila (AFP) – The Philippines shut down thousands of schools nationwide, as the temperature in Manila crossed a record high. Many schools have no air conditioning, and students have to sweat it out, but conditions at Baseco, Manila’s infamous docklands slum, are even more desperate.
Panama City (AFP) – With three days to go to presidential elections in Panama, supporters of candidates for the Otro Camino party, Ricardo Lombana, and for the Realizando Metas party, Jose Raul Mulino, attend campaign rallies in the capital. IMAGES
Santa Maria (Brazil) (AFP) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visits the country’s south, where the death toll from floods caused by torrential rains has risen to 13, taking part in an emergency meeting with authorities of Rio Grande do Sul state. IMAGES TO COMPLETE VIDI34QP8HD_EN
Nakhon Sawan (Thailand) (AFP) – As a heatwave grips Thailand, villagers parade through the streets of Phayuha Khiri District hoisting the Japanese manga cat Doraemon into the air to call for rain.
Cambridge (United States) (AFP) – Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) expand their pro-Palestine protest encampment after they say negotiations with the school have gone nowhere. MIT is among several other universities where students are calling on administration to divest from Israel. The Gaza war started when Hamas militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. The militants also took about 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Garissa (Kenya) (AFP) – The Kenya Red Cross releases footage of their rescue of a man they say was stranded by floodwaters and forced to take shelter up a tree for five days in Garissa.
Moscow (AFP) – Detained Russian theatre director Yevgeniya Berkovich and fellow playwright Svetlana Petriychuk appear via video link to attend a court hearing. The pair were arrested in 2023 on charges of “justifying terrorism” after being accused of vindicating terrorism in their award-winning play “Finist, the Bright Falcon” about Russian women who are recruited into the Islamic State (IS) and travel to Syria to marry IS fighters before returning to Russia.
Odesa (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukrainian firefighters rush to extinguish a fire after a Russian missile attack in the southwestern city of Odesa that left 13 people injured, according to its mayor.
New York (AFP) – Police deployed a heavy presence on US university campuses Wednesday after forcibly clearing away some weeks-long protests against Israel’s war with Hamas. Some students at Columbia University have decried “rough and aggressive” tactics used by officers.
