Aguadulce (Panama) (AFP) – Demonstrators block the Pan-American highway as protests against corruption and the rising price of fuel, basic food products and medicine continue in Panama. ‘We can’t stand it any longer,’ says truck driver Arnulfo Sarmiento.
Paris (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron blames the fires which have burnt thousands of hectares across the country’s Southwest on an “exceptional season” and high temperatures. Scientists forecast that these “exceptional” weather events will become more frequent and more intense due to climate change.
Guachalá (Ecuador) (AFP) – Ecuador’s flowers are one the South American country’s top exports – yet mass protests, fuel price rises and the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are proving a thorn in the industry’s side.
La Teste-de-Buch (France) (AFP) – A restaurant burnt to the ground, houses incinerated and vehicles charred: this is the damage done in Cazaux, in southwest France, by the wildfires that have raged for three days.
Colombo (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker says Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation as president has been accepted. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana says Rajapaksa has “legally resigned” after notifying him from Singapore, where the now former president has fled after leaving Sri Lanka earlier this week.
Paris (AFP) – July 14 fireworks light up the Paris sky as the Eiffel Tower shines with the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag. It’s the first time since the Coronavirus outbreak that the fireworks marking the storming of the Bastille prison at the beginning of the French Revolution were allowed to go ahead.
Larache (Morocco) (AFP) – Moroccan firefighters battle to put out at least four fires ripping through forests in the north of the kingdom. The blazes, fanned by strong winds, have not resulted in any casualties so far, but officials say nearly 500 families were evacuated “as a precaution” in the provinces of Larache and Taza.
Bethlehem (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Palestinians require a political path towards peace with Israel, even if a two-state solution to the conflict appears far off, US President Joe Biden says during his first visit to the Palestinian Territories as president.
Tel Aviv (AFP) – Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Yair Lapid accompany US President Joe Biden to his Air Force One plane as he departs Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on a direct flight to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, latest stop on his first Middle East tour as US leader. IMAGES
Riyadh (AFP) – Wejdan Hajji says she once struggled to teach herself guitar by watching YouTube videos, lamenting that “if she made a mistake, there was no one to correct her”. Hajji is one among many benefiting from relaxed restrictions on music activities in Saudi Arabia as its rulers relax some social restrictions after decades of adhering to a rigid interpretation of Islam.
