AFP Video

Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis hails the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports by sea as “a sign of hope” , viewing it as proof that dialogue is “possible” as a way to end the war.

Rafah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Palestinians hold the funeral for top Islamic Jihad commander, Khaled Mansour, who was reportedly targeted by an Israeli strike. Israel bombarded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip for a third day Sunday as violence escalated, with 31 Palestinians killed and militants firing rockets at Jerusalem.

Galtür (Austria) (AFP) – Near the Austrian-Swiss border, scientists are studying how global warming is causing the Jamtalferner glacier to melt at an unprecedented rate. “We are now at the beginning of the melting season, and there is already no more snow,” glaciologist Andrea Fischer observes.

Bogota (AFP) – During his speech to Indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, gypsies and peasants on the eve of his official inauguration on 7 August, Colombia’s president-elect Gustavo Petro vows to fight for social justice and to form a government that will work with social movements.

Fagradalsfjall (Iceland) (AFP) – Lava flows out of a fissure in a valley near Mount Fagradalsfjall in Iceland. Noxious gases from the volcano threaten to pollute the air of a nearby village and risk spreading to the capital Reykjavik, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said.

Grindavik (Iceland) (AFP) – Red hot lava continues flowing from a volcano around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, with plumes of smoke spewing out of the fissure in an uninhabited valley since Wednesday.

Hialeah (United States) (AFP) – Around 100 South Florida police officers carry out an active school shooter drill near Miami. By recreating a scenario they hope they will never have to respond to, local law enforcement assesses its capabilities and prepares for the worst.

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Russia must take responsibility for an “act of terror”, after Kyiv and Moscow traded blame for strikes at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine. “Today, the occupiers have created another extremely risky situation for all of Europe: they struck the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant twice. Any bombing of this site is a shameless crime, an act of terror,” Zelensky says in his daily video address. “Russia must take responsibility for the very fact of creating a threat to a nuclear plant.”

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Emergency services deploy and people inspect the damage after an Israeli air strike hit a house in the Gaza Strip. Israel continues to shell the enclave as the Palestinian militant group of Islamic Jihad retaliates with a barrage of rocket fire, in the territory’s worst escalation of violence since a war last year.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Aerial imagery provided by the Israeli army shows the moment of multiple strikes on a building targeting a senior militant from the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, prompting the militant group to warn Israel has “started a war”.