Moscow (AFP) – Protests triggered by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send reservists to Ukraine have led to hundreds of arrests around the country, as Western leaders tore into Putin at the United Nations.
Apuí (Brazil) (AFP) – Wildfires blaze in remote areas of Brazil’s Amazonas State. The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon so far this year has already surpassed that for all of 2021, according to official figures that triggered new alarm for the world’s biggest rainforest.
Amol (Iran) (AFP) – Iranian protesters cheer as flames engulf a governor’s office in the country’s north. Protests in Iran have now claimed at least 11 lives, following the death of a young woman who was detained for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf in an “improper” way.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) – President Joe Biden firmly condemns Russia’s war against Ukraine at the UN General Assembly after President Vladimir Putin made a veiled threat of using nuclear weapons.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) – On her first trip overseas since taking office, British Prime Minister Liz Truss vows before the United Nations to keep up military aid to Ukraine until it triumphs against Russia.
New York (AFP) – Donald Trump and family members lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years in a scheme that routinely misstated the value of his properties to enrich themselves, according to a suit filed by New York’s attorney general on Wednesday.
Xuzhou (China) (AFP) – Ten months after a 16-year-old Arctic wolf died at a zoo in northern China, a new cub was born through cloning technology. Using a beagle dog as the gestational carrier, Beijing-based Sinogene Biotechnology claimed they had successfully cloned an Arctic wolf, the “world’s first” of its kind.
Yekaterinburg (Russia) (AFP) – Images show Russian police forcibly detaining protesters in the cities of Yekaterinburg and Tomsk against Russia’s mobilisation, after President Vladimir Putin introduced a partial draft of reservists to fight in Ukraine. More than 200 people have been arrested so far at demonstrations across Russia, a police monitoring group said Wednesday. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said 300,000 reservists are expected to be called in for military duty.
Hong Kong (AFP) – Crowds of Hong Kongers paid tribute outside the British consulate to late monarch Elizabeth II during her funeral. Some sang songs including the British national anthem and “Glory To Hong Kong”, a popular song during huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests three years ago. One Hong Konger, who played a harmonica to the crowd, was arrested for sedition.
Strahan (Australia) (AFP) – A pod of 230 pilot whales has been found stranded on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, with Australian officials saying only half appeared to be alive. Locals have covered survivors with blankets and doused them with buckets of water to keep them alive, as other whales nearby tried in vain to twitch free and yet more lay dead.
