Beijing (AFP) – Honduran President Xiomara Castro will visit China “as soon as possible”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Thursday, after the Central American country cut off diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Mao also slammed Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen’s transit in New York.
Basilan (Philippines) (AFP) – An aerial shot shows smoke rising from a passenger ferry that caught fire in the southern Philippines. Rescuers and local officials are also present at the site, while a coast guard vessel is at work putting out the fire. At least 31 people died in the blaze, including 18 people whose bodies were found on the vessel. Another video released by the provincial government of Basilan shows rescuers and local officials working as the fire engulfs the vessel.
Berlin (AFP) – Europe’s security has come under threat amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s King Charles tells German MPs, adding however that “we can draw courage from our unity”.
“The future of food can be better and different from what we have now” says Tim Noakesmith, the co-founder of Vow, an Australian meat cultivation company that has created a meatball using DNA from the extinct woolly mammoth. Speaking at a presentation event at Amsterdam’s Nemo Science Museum, he explains how “you can use the mammoth meatball as a symbol for an exciting future that is better for the planet and avoid the perils of what we had originally with the woolly mammoth and maybe eat our way out of extinction”. One of the meatballs is displayed under a glass bell jar, but the product is not ready to eat yet, with its thousands-of-years-old protein requiring safety testing first.
Brussels (AFP) – As France wrestles with the end of life question, some of its citizens are going directly to Belgium to request euthanasia. One of them is Lydie Imhoff, a 43-year-old French woman, hemiplegic — or paralysed on one side of her body — from birth.
Idlib (Syria) (AFP) – A Russian jihadist has traded his weapons for wasabi by opening a small sushi restaurant in war-torn Syria’s rebel-held northwest, as the conflict wanes and fighters look for other income.
Rawalpindi (Pakistan) (AFP) – Volunteers distribute free Iftar food to Muslim devotees before breaking their fast on the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Del Mar (United States) (AFP) – Martin Cooper, an American engineer dubbed the “Father of the cell phone,” says the neat little device we all have in our pockets has almost boundless potential, but right now, we can be a little obsessed.
Fuengirola (Spain) (AFP) – A Spanish zoo successfully breeds five baby Komodo dragons for the first time in 10 years. The species, known as the largest surviving land lizard in the world, is now considered endangered, which makes their hatch in the institute “very important”.
Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Fawzi Abu Ghabin and his nephew, Ramadan drummers known as “Musaharati”, roam Gaza City’s streets to awaken Muslims for the pre-dawn traditional Ramadan “Suhur” meal.
