London, United Kingdom | AFP | Premier League clubs splashed out well over £1 billion ($1.2 billion) in the transfer market arms race ahead of the start of the new season on Friday. The vast majority of that sum was again spent by ‘top six’ powerhouses Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, …
Read More »World warned: change now or endanger food and climate
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Humanity faces increasingly painful trade-offs between food security and rising temperatures within decades unless it curbs emissions and stops unsustainable farming and deforestation, a landmark climate assessment said Thursday. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that efforts to limit global warming while feeding …
Read More »From reformer to hardliner: Putin’s 20 years on the global stage
Moscow, Russia | AFP | Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. The departing Yeltsin was casting around for a successor and few could have …
Read More »‘We are scared’: Deadly dengue outbreak overwhelms Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh | AFP | Five-year-old Mohammad Ahnaf lies in a makeshift bed in the balcony of a major hospital in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, fighting for his life as dengue fever ravages his little body. But his mother Shimul Akhter knows he is one of the lucky ones as Bangladesh grapples …
Read More »Trump consoles shooting victims, rails against opponents
El Paso, United States | AFP | Trump consoled victims of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas on Wednesday, but despite promising a message of unity, he continued to rail at opponents while facing protests that his rhetoric on race has fueled extremism. Trump flew to El Paso, Texas, where a …
Read More »Coutinho set for Barca stay after Miami win over Napoli
Miami, United States | AFP | Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde claimed on Wednesday that Philippe Coutinho is set to stay at Camp Nou despite strong interest in the unsettled Brazilian from the Premier League. The latest status update came after Croatian Ivan Rakitic score a 79th-minute winner to see off Napoli …
Read More »Congo’s bread basket struggles to recover from conflict
Mindouli, Congo | AFP | “The trains are running again. We have peace,” says Didier, the station master at Mindouli, in the Republic of Congo’s southern region of Pool. But a glance at the weeds growing on the line connecting the capital Brazzaville and the port city of Pointe-Noire shows that …
Read More »Serena wins first match since Wimbledon final, Osaka advance
Toronto, Canada | AFP | Serena Williams looked solid in her first match since losing the Wimbledon final, defeating 20th-ranked Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday at the WTA Toronto tournament. The 37-year-old American, one crown shy of a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title, advanced in 75 minutes …
Read More »U.S. Steel job cuts highlight EU sector woes
Kosice, Slovakia | AFP | As day breaks through smudged tram windows, Slovak workers heading to the U.S. Steel Kosice plant mull their fate after hearing the company plans to sack a fifth of them. Some stare silently at the morning haze behind the chimneys of the sprawling communist-era factory. With …
Read More »Kidnappings soar in Niger amid Boko Haram insurgency
Niamey, Niger | AFP | In the desert landscape of southeastern Niger, a radical Islamist insurgency has claimed hundreds of lives, fractured families and ravaged communities, fearful of the next Boko Haram attack. Strategically located in the Lake Chad basin in the middle of the Sahel, the Diffa region’s borders are …
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