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Phnom Penh (AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he hopes Beijing “will not manufacture a crisis or seek a pretext to increase its aggressive military activity,” at a meeting with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. China fired ballistic missiles and deployed fighter jets and warships on Thursday as it held its largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan, a show of force sparked by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.

Hrensko (Czech Republic) (AFP) – Czech firefighters drop water from a helicopter onto the remainders of a wildfire which ripped through the Bohemian Switzerland National Park on the Czech-German border amid record temperatures in late July. Scientists say climate change is making heatwaves around the world more frequent and more intense, increasing the risk of fires.

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – As part of the ‘Army of Drones’ project initiated by Ukraine’s armed forces, new reconnaissance drones are being sent to Ukrainian soldiers who are on the frontline of the war with Russia.

Washington (AFP) – The United States says that China’s launch of nine ballistic missiles around Taiwan is an overraction to the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. “China has chosen to overreact and use the speaker’s visit as a pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait,” says US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.

Washington (AFP) – White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre urges Moscow to accept the United States’ “substantial offer” of a deal for the release of basketball star Brittney Griner and another American citizen, after Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on drug charges. “We are willing to take every step possible to bring home our people,” adds Jean-Pierre during a press briefing.

Cape Canaveral (AFP) – South Korea’s first-ever lunar orbiter is launched from the US on a year-long mission to observe the Moon, with a payload including a new disruption-tolerant network for sending data from space. Danuri — a portmanteau of the Korean words for “Moon” and “enjoy” — is carried on a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida by Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX. It aims to reach the Moon by mid-December. 

Tokyo (AFP) – US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in Tokyo on Friday that the United States will “not allow” China to isolate Taiwan, after her visit to the self-ruled island infuriated Beijing. “They may try to keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there. We had high-level visits, senators in the spring, the bi-partisan way, continuing visits, and we will not allow them to isolate Taiwan,” she said. She added that her visit to Taiwan was “not about changing the status quo” in the region. “It is about the Taiwan Relations Act, US-China policy, all of the pieces of legislation and agreements that have established what our relationship is. To have peace in the Taiwan Strait and have the status quo prevail.”

Van Horn (United States) (AFP) – Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches six people to space, including the first from Egypt and Portugal, on the company’s sixth crewed flight. Both the New Shepard suborbital rocket and crew capsule separately returned to the base in the west Texas desert, completing the “N-22” mission around 11 minutes after lift-off.

Dhaka (AFP) – An out-of-tune Bangladeshi singer with a huge internet following has been hauled in by police at dawn and told to cease his renditions of classical songs, sparking a furore on social media. “Hero” Alom, as he styles himself, has amassed nearly two million Facebook followers and almost 1.5 million on YouTube with his unique crooning style and arresting videos.

Hanga Roa (Chile) (AFP) – With traditional dances and flower necklaces, Easter Island, a Chilean island territory in the middle of the Pacific, receives its first flight of tourists followin two years of closure due to the pandemic.