Dili (East Timor) (AFP) – Pope Francis is halfway through his longest, farthest, and most challenging tour of his pontificate. The wheelchair-bound octogenarian has travelled to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor, and is set to end his tour in Singapore.
Sao Paulo (AFP) – A gray shroud covers Latin America’s largest city, Sao Paulo, which tops Monday’s ranking of the world’s most polluted metropolises, according to Swiss-based air quality monitoring company IQAir. Several Brazilian states are being affected by smoke from forest fires in the country. IMAGES
Haridwar (India) (AFP) – A year after being forced from his home by extremist Hindu nationalists, Mohammad Salim, like many Indian Muslims, fears for his family’s future. The campaign that pushed Salim from his hometown hasn’t gone anywhere, with activists still seeking to drive Islam from what they consider a Hindu ‘holy land’. Critics say this Hindu-first ideology has been cultivated by India’s ruling BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
London (AFP) – UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has convened a coalition to stop young people from falling into knife crime, joined by actor and anti-knife crime campaigner Idris Elba. In the year ending March 2023, 41 percent of all homicides in England and Wales were knife-related and rates of knife crime have been steadily rising since 2012, despite being lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Ushiku (Japan) (AFP) – Emerging from the head of the world’s tallest bronze Buddha and climbing down to its right ear, two specialist cleaners blast the imposing Japanese statue with water guns. Kazuyoshi Taguchi and Kazumi Minowa have been cleaning the 120-metre-tall Ushiku Daibatsu monument – completed in 1993 – for nearly a quarter of a century, at the start of which neither had a background in climbing.
Geneva (AFP) – UN rights chief Volker Turk warns that the world needs to change direction if it is to avoid a future filled with military escalation, repression, disinformation, deepening inequality and rampant climate change. Opening a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk stresses that “we are at a fork in the road” and heading towards “a dystopian future.”
Saint-Denis (France) (AFP) – People in the French capital say goodbye to a summer of sport after the Paralympic closing ceremony brought the curtain down on Paris 2024. The Paralympic flame and cauldron were extinguished before a concert in the packed Stade de France capped off six weeks of Olympic and Paralympic competition.
Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan gather in Islamabad despite authorities’ attempts to block the protesters’ main routes into the capital.
Dublin (AFP) – Ireland and England football fans hurl insults and beer cups at each other as police intervene to make several arrests after England’s 2-0 win over Ireland in the Nations League opener in Dublin.
