AFP Video

Belgorod region (Russia) (AFP) – “Uninterrupted shelling” hit a town in the Russian region of Belgorod bordering Ukraine and injured eight people, the governor Vyacheslav Gladkov says in a video posted on his Telegram.

Hiror (Iraq) (AFP) – Residents from Hiror village, in a green valley in Iraq’s mountainous far north near the Turkish border, find themselves caught in the crossfire between the Turkish army and pro-independence fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkish forces have long maintained military positions inside northern Iraq where they regularly launch operations against the militants.

Oslo (AFP) – Speaking at a ministers meeting in Oslo, Norway, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg reiterates that “NATO’s door is open” to Ukraine, “when the time is right”.

Bulboaca (Moldova) (AFP) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warns European leaders that any doubts they show in admitting Kyiv into the NATO alliance will embolden Russia to attack more countries.

Montevideo (AFP) – Uruguayan activists and union members bang empty water bottles in downtown Montevideo to protest against the authorities’ handling of drinking water shortages. As the South American country struggles with persistent drought, the Uruguayan state-owned company Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE), is mixing brackish water from the Rio de la Plata river with its dwindling supplies of fresh water from the Santa Lucia River basin.

Quintero (Chile) (AFP) – Chile’s state-owned Codelco copper company, the world’s top producer of the metal, closes its Ventanas smelter in an area dubbed “Chile’s Chernobyl” for the grim environmental impact of heavy industry.

Washington (AFP) – The Director of Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution office presents some recently declassified footage, including information on reporting trends and where specifically UAPs have recently been reported during NASA’s first ever public meeting on “unidentified anomalous phenomena” — more commonly called UFOs. One example of a still unexplained phenomenon is a flying metallic orb spotted by an MQ-9 drone at an undisclosed location in the Middle East, says Sean Kirkpatrick, replaying a video first shown to Congress last month.

Washington (AFP) – The US House of Representatives votes to raise the federal debt limit, moving the country a step closer to eliminating the threat of a calamitous credit default — just five days ahead of the deadline set by the Treasury. IMAGES