Forlì (Italy) (AFP) – Volunteers in the town of Forli set up a mobile field kitchen for volunteers helping people affected by the floods in Italy’s northeastern Emilia-Romagna region, described as the worst the country has seen in a century. Over 200 volunteers are expected to arrive, according to Mauro Valentini, who’s managing the operation.
Guacalillo (Costa Rica) (AFP) – Around 40 volunteers gather on Guacalillo Beach, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, to clean its shores. “Costa Rica sells itself as a green country, but the reality is that there is a lack of awareness and education” says Montserrat Courrau, a participant in the cleanup day. In 2021, the country generated over 1.6 million tonnes of municipal waste according to the Organisation For Economic Co-operation And Development (OECD).
Cannes (France) (AFP) – Australian actress Cate Blanchett, French former model Carla Bruni and American actress Natalie Portman walk the red carpet on the fourth day of the Cannes Film Festival.
Paris (AFP) – The once-tiny sea lion foetus is getting so big it now fills the screen during a routine ultrasound at the Paris Zoological Park. This will be Nora the sea lion’s second baby. “Very few are born in Europe each year. You can count them on one hand, even in a good year. So every birth is really very important for the population,” says the zoo’s chief veterinarian.
Glasgow (AFP) – Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is celebrating British fashion trailblazer Mary Quant, long credited as a pioneer of the miniskirt, as her colourful and daring 1960s designs take centre stage in an exhibition. “She introduced such a revolutionary attitude to clothes – garments that the young could run, jump, leap onto a bus, go dancing – they didn’t have to dress like their mothers anymore, which, of course, they had to do in the days of post-war austerity,” former co-director of Mary Quant Limited tells AFP.
Cannes (France) (AFP) – The cast and crew of “The Zone of Interest” by British director Jonathan Glazer walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. The filmmaker returns with a fourth feature film, a chilling portrait of Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss and his family, tasting the pleasures of life in their house adjoining the death camp.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Yevgenia can barely look at her brother’s photo a year after Russia captured him and over 2,000 other fighters in the siege of the Azovstal plant. She fears she hasn’t done enough to bring him home. Families like hers have used protest, political pressure and their own pain to battle for their loved ones’ return since the siege in the port city of Mariupol, which came to symbolise Ukrainian resistance.
Xian (China) (AFP) – Xi Jinping pledges 26 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in “financing support and free assistance” to Central Asia as he wraps up a landmark summit with heads of state from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Xi’an in northern China.
A life-size Ferrari built with over 380,000 Lego bricks is unveiled to visitors in Denmark, at an amusement park dedicated to the famous toy. The car took almost a year to be built with the help of engineers from the luxury sports car company.
Kathmandu (AFP) – British climber Kenton Cool arrives in Kathmandu after successfully climbing Mount Everest for the 17th time, extending his own record for the most summits on the world’s highest mountain by a non-Nepali.
