Stockholm (AFP) – Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson urges calm and “reflection” in the wake of this week’s Koran burning outside a Stockholm Mosque, which has sparked outrage and condemnation.
Évry-Courcouronnes (France) (AFP) – “We are examining all possible scenarios, with one priority: the return to republican order throughout the country”, said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on the subject of a possible state of emergency during a visit to the Evry-Courcouronnes police station, south of Paris with Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
Moscow (AFP) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Moscow will emerge from the aftermath of a recent armed insurrection led by the Wagner mercenary group “stonger” than it was before. “Russia has always overcome all its problems… it comes out stronger and stronger,” Lavrov tells journalists during a briefing in Moscow.
Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) – Police in Australia arrested two suspected kidnappers after finding them napping in a vehicle. The men allegedly threatened and kidnapped a man and a woman in Brisbane, Queensland, at around 2 am on June 29. The men, aged 35 and 36, face two charges of kidnapping, two of deprivation of liberty, and two of torture, as well as one count each of assault occasioning bodily harm and robbery.
Mendoza Chico (Uruguay) (AFP) – Three years of unprecedented drought in Uruguay has left the reservoir behind Paso Severino dam almost entirely empty. The reservoir serves about 60% of the country’s population with fresh water, but on une 28, only 2.4 percent of its total capacity was filled with water.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Environmental activist Greta Thunberg denounces the ecological havoc caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the lack of international reaction to the disaster. “Ecocide and environmental destruction is a form of warfare… as Ukrainians by this point know all too well — and so does Russia,” she says, during a visit to Kyiv as part of an international delegation investigating the environmental consequences of the conflict.
Brussels (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron leaves early from an EU summit in Brussels to return to France, where three nights of unrest over the police shooting of a teenager have taken place. Macron cancelled a media conference scheduled for the second and last day of the summit to go back to Paris. IMAGES
Brussels (AFP) – EU heads of state — including French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, Dutch PM Mark Rutte, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban and EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell — arrive at the European Council for the second day of the summit. On the agenda: migration and relations with China. IMAGES
Buenos Aires (AFP) – Gladys Meza and Limpia Benitez travel every two weeks to the Buenos Aires Central Market to look for intact fruits and vegetables that the produce vendors throw in the trash. It’s a tiresome task, they say, but the only way they have to make ends meet in a country with monstrous inflation, which accumulated to 114% in the last 12 months.
Bangkok (AFP) – The iconic scenes from Studio Ghibli’s famous animations over the last 30 years are brought alive at an exhibition in Bangkok. Visitors are immersed in the 3D world of the ten Ghibli movies including Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and Kiki’s Delivery Service.
