Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – “We thought we were being hit, it was very scary,” says Daria Kalna, holding her daughter in the Darnitsky district of Kyiv, after a missile attack on Ukraine’s capital. In the city, several people were injured and buildings damaged by falling debris from shot-down missiles, officials said.
Gurgaon (India) (AFP) – Gold medals will be up for grabs this time in China at the Asian Games in seven different games. After being a demonstration sport at the Asian Games in 2018, the Asian Electronic Sports Federation dreams of gaming being represented at the Olympics. For Sanindhiya Malik, India’s medal hope in League of Legends, the Asian Games opening on Saturday will mark how far he and eSports have come.
Kansafra (Syria) (AFP) – In his ghost village in northwest Syria, near the front line, Ahmad Khalil, a resident of Kansafra, has hewn a bomb shelter out of rock to protect his family from attacks and avoid living in a displaced camp. The region is targeted by President Bashar al-Assad’s army and his Russian ally and strikes have intensified in recent weeks. Syria’s civil war that broke out in 2011 has killed more than 500,000 people and battered the country’s industry and infrastructure.
Saint-Denis (France) (AFP) – “He is very caring, very kind, a great listener and a bit like a grandfather,” says a young woman who had the opportunity to meet King Charles III at the Rugby Village in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, on the second day of the King’s visit to France that has seen him urge stronger ties between the countries.
New York (AFP) – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” returns to New York as a statue on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
xx (Azerbaijan) (AFP) – Russia’s Ministry of Defence has released images, from an unknown date, of Armenian civilians purportedly being accommodated in a Russian military base in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has claimed a swift military victory in the breakaway territory, but there are concerns of a fresh refugee crisis as its Armenian population fears being forced out.
Ghazni (Afghanistan) (AFP) – Afghan riders launch their horses at lightning speed to spike a small wooden target with their spears in a Neza Bazi, or tent-pegging, competition in the Eastern province of Ghazni. The game is most popular in the south-eastern provinces of Afghanistan.
New York (AFP) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accuses regional rival Saudi Arabia of betraying the Palestinians by seeking to normalize relations with Israel, while speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Saudi Arabia and Israel have voiced optimism that they are moving closer to a historic normalization of ties between the two countries.
Derna (Libya) (AFP) – Ten days after a tsunami-scale flash flood ripped through the coastal city, razing entire neighbourhoods, Mahmud Erqiq, like many of the traumatised survivors, is still waiting to learn the fate of missing relatives.
Washington (AFP) – US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announces that the US Federal Reserve has voted to keep interest rates at a 22-year high, between 5.25 percent and 5.50 percent.
