27 Russian Troops Killed by ‘Friendly Fire’ During Botched Retreat Near Opytne (www.kyivpost.com)
China denounces Europe probe of EVs as 'naked protectionist' act (www.reuters.com)
Stolen van Gogh painting worth millions recovered by Dutch art detective (abcnews.go.com)
Environmentalists condemn Australia’s ‘woeful record’ after 48 plants and animals added to threatened species list (www.theguardian.com)
Commander of Russian Air Defence Forces which protect Moscow arrested for bribery (www.yahoo.com)
Cuba uncovers network trafficking Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine (www.aljazeera.com)
Cuba says it has no part in war in Ukraine and would ‘act vigorously’ against those trafficking Cubans as fighters....
A Canadian study gave $7,500 to homeless people. Here’s how they spent it. (www.vox.com)
Old article updated with peer review today.
Goldman Sachs bought UK and US companies using Chinese state funds (archive.is)
Taliban ban women from national park in Afghanistan (www.theguardian.com)
Greece to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jet fighters, Zelenskyy says (www.aljazeera.com)
Greece’s offer to train Ukraine’s fighter pilots comes after Denmark and the Netherlands announced they would supply F-16s to Kyiv.
Take the high road: the man who visited every country in the world – without boarding a plane (www.theguardian.com)
Fascinating story of a Danish traveler who visited every country on Earth, only by land and boat.
Chinese buildings go unfinished as cash crunch hits local developers (asia.nikkei.com)
Debt-laden local government financing vehicles face soaring bond yields
Taliban official says women lose value if their faces are visible to men in public (apnews.com)
Women lose value if men can see their uncovered faces in public, a spokesman for a key ministry of Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Thursday, adding that religious scholars in the country agree that a woman must keep her face covered when outside the home.
Russia confirms it hit Swedish plant in Lutsk, saying it was a military target (www.pravda.com.ua)
British Museum worker sacked over missing items (www.bbc.co.uk)
In unrelated news, the British Museum continues the search for its sense of irony.
Bribes and hiding at home: the Ukrainian men trying to avoid conscription (www.theguardian.com)
ABC exiting Twitter: Australia’s national broadcaster shuts down almost all accounts on Elon Musk’s X. (www.theguardian.com)
The public broadcaster says interactions on the platform are ‘toxic’ as it closes almost all its Twitter accounts.
The amount of plastic that reaches the sea is ten times less than previously thought, but that is not good news (english.elpais.com)
The good news is that, according to a new study, some 500,000 tons of plastic — over ten times less than previous estimates — reach the sea every year, according to a new study. The bad news is that this plastic lasts longer than it was believed to, sometimes decades longer.
Russia promises retaliation after Ukrainian drones hit a Russian tanker in 2nd sea attack in a day (apnews.com)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow promised retaliation Saturday after Ukrainian drones hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea late Friday, the second sea attack involving drones in one day....
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon falls to lowest level since 2017 (www.aljazeera.com)
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon fell in July to its lowest level for the month since 2017, according to preliminary government figures....
Treacherous Darien Gap migration route sees record number of crossings (www.aljazeera.com)
The number of migrants and asylum seekers who have crossed an inhospitable stretch of Central American jungle known as the Darien Gap so far this year has surpassed the record total set in 2022, according to Panama’s government....
More Wagner fighters move closer to Polish border, Poland PM says (www.reuters.com)
A group of a hundred soldiers from the Russian Wagner group have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday.
Extraordinary photos of July's extreme weather - BBC News (www.bbc.co.uk)
It is a summer of extremes. Burning temperatures followed by raging fires. Wild storms and torrential rain. And a run of broken climate records.
Ancient 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck found off coast of Italy (www.bbc.com)
The wreckage of an ancient Roman ship from more than 2,000 years ago has been found off the coast of Italy....
France ready to back sanctions over ‘dangerous’ Niger coup, says Macron (www.theguardian.com)
The French president’s comments came as western powers scrambled to preserve a key ally in a region that has been destabilised by jihadist insurgencies, coups, and interventions by the Wagner mercenary group as Russian flags appeared at prominent sites around Niger’s capital, Niamey....
