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Sydney (AFP) – Years after unprecedented fires ripped through large swathes of Australia’s east, volunteer brigades on the frontlines are bracing for a return to catastrophic conditions. In Picton, South of Sydney, New South Wales Rural Fire Service senior deputy captain Andy Hain says he worries that two years of wetter-than-average conditions will mean plenty of fuel for wildfires, and whether people are prepared for the return of bushfires. In Wisemans Ferry, a river town north of Sydney, volunteers who battled the horrific blazes of the “Black Summer” in 2019-2020 before facing down several damaging floods are readying for a return of fire to the dense bushland around their homes. Former Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins says half a century of battling fires made it clear that climate change drives worsening disasters. Mullins, a founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, says volunteers are increasingly being challenged by intensifying fires and floods around the world.

Philadelphia (AFP) – Nobel prize winners Drew Weissman speak after winning the biggest accolade in medicine for their pioneering research on messenger RNA, the technology behind Covid-19 vaccines that changed the course of the pandemic.

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urges the European Union to back its initiative for regular exports through a Black Sea maritime corridor, amid a rift between Kyiv and its neighbours in the bloc over grain deliveries. He makes the comments in a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

New York (AFP) – New York worshippers celebrate mass at St. John the Divine Cathedral alongside hundreds of animals — including a camel, a sloth, snakes, ostriches, geese, cats and dogs — which all queue up for blessings on the day of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, known as the patron saint of pets and animals.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – In the besieged and blockaded Gaza Strip, a 27-year-old Palestinian has created a car tire recycling project aimed at reducing environmental damage. In light of the difficulties getting rid of waste in Gaza with the Israeli blockade imposed on the strip, Madian Helles’ project puts the tyres to good use.

Sacapulas (Guatemala) (AFP) – “I envy people who have water,” says Maria Baten, a resident of an Indigenous village in northern Guatemala where drought threatens to create a severe food crisis. In the Quiche region, residents are learning to build ditches above their sloped fields and filtering their drinking water with chlorine, measures desperately needed.

Flames have engulfed the headquarters of the Security Directorate in Egypt’s Ismailia, leaving a severly charred and destroyed building. The fire injured at least 38 people, according to security sources. No fatalities were immediately reported, but the building was fully staffed with policemen when the fire broke out before dawn.

A Sumatran rhino has successfully given birth at a sanctuary in Indonesia, giving a boost to conservation efforts for the critically endangered animal. The calf is the third offspring of a 23-year-old rhino named Ratu, and the fourth Sumatran rhino to be born in Way Kambas National Park.

Washington (AFP) – In a theatre in the US capital, opera singers improvise while dancers and percussionists play instruments cast from melted handguns, rifles, semi-automatics and other firearms in the opera “Never in Our Image” which transforms weapons in front of the audience’s eyes.

Manila (AFP) – Despite lacking the security skills of dogs and their tendency to sleep on shifts, the cuteness and company of stray cats have endeared them to bored security guards working 12-hour shifts in Manila.