Thailand still grapples with a strict law against criticizing the monarchy (www.npr.org)
Crowd Cheers as Convicted Rapist is Eliminated in Olympic Beach Volleyball (www.thedailybeast.com)
Non-paywall: 12ft.io/…/crowd-cheers-as-convicted-rapist-is-eli…
The world is getting more violent. A top refugee advocate thinks he knows why. (www.vox.com)
Britain’s Labour Government Says It Inherited a $28 Billion Budget Hole (www.nytimes.com)
Ms. Reeves accused the Conservative Party of making spending commitments on plans such as road repairs and building new hospitals “knowing the money wasn’t there.” Some of those plans would scrapped or reviewed. “Today she will fool absolutely no one with a shameful attempt to lay the ground for tax rises she didn’t...
‘Stop bullshitting me’: Biden said to scold Netanyahu in call on truce-hostage deal (www.timesofisrael.com)
US export controls on China did not lead to reshoring or friend-shoring: US Federal Reserve (www.newyorkfed.org)
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/18736019
How Two Russian ‘Illegals’ Went Deep Undercover With Their Children (www.nytimes.com)
How Chinese loans trapped Pakistan's economy (www.dw.com)
As Pakistan works on enacting economic reforms under a new multibillion-dollar IMF bailout, Islamabad must first figure out what to do with its mountain of debt owed to China....
Israeli strike at Gaza hospital kills four as US and Israel hold ‘heated’ ceasefire talks (www.theguardian.com)
UK: Far-right rioters storm hotel housing migrants (www.dw.com)
Police in the northern English city of Rotherham struggled to hold back a group of far-right activists on Sunday, who broke into a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers....
More than 70 dead in Bangladesh as protesters call for the prime minister's resignation (www.france24.com)
Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi protesters demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resign clashed with government supporters Sunday, with dozens killed in one of the deadliest days since demonstrations began....
In Mexico City, women water harvesters help make up for drought and dicey public water system (apnews.com)
Gliding above her neighborhood in a cable car on a recent morning, Sonia Estefanía Palacios Díaz scanned a sea of blue and black water tanks, tubes and cables looking for rain harvesting systems....
Ukraine finally deploying F-16 fighter jets, says Zelenskiy (www.reuters.com)
President Zelenskiy announces use of U.S.-made fighter planes...
Al Qaeda affiliate says it has taken two Russians hostage in Niger (www.reuters.com)
Aug 3 (Reuters) - An al Qaeda affiliate in West Africa’s Sahel region has taken two Russian citizens hostage in Niger, according to a video released by the group on Friday....
In front of the port of Beirut, marchers blame 'criminal' leaders and pay tribute to the victims (today.lorientlejour.com)
At around 4 p.m. on Sunday, hundreds of people began to gather in downtown Beirut, near Martyrs’ Square and the Karatina fire station, to commemorate the four years since the explosion at Beirut’s port on Aug. 4, 2020. On the placards held up by demonstrators already at the scene were calls for justice for “Beirut and...
Far-right riots erupt in U.K. in the wake of child murders (www.nbcnews.com)
The United Kingdom woke up Sunday morning to city streets covered in debris and smoldering rubbish as a weekend of far-right, anti-immigration demonstrations — stoked by conspiracy theories spread on social media — erupted into violence in seven cities across the nation....
Ukraine intensifies its long-range strikes, sinking a Russian submarine and striking an airfield (apnews.com)
Iran warns that Hezbollah will likely hit non-military targets in Israeli territory in response to Israel's strike on Beirut (www.businessinsider.com)
Iran has warned that Hezbollah may hit “broader and deeper targets” in Israeli territory....
The Saudi wife who fled to Melbourne - then disappeared (www.bbc.com)
When Lolita came to Australia in 2022, she was fleeing an older man she’d been forced to marry as a child in Saudi Arabia....
Anti-government protests turn deadly in Bangladesh (www.bbc.com)
At least 23 people have been killed in Bangladesh as clashes erupted between police and anti-government protesters who are demanding that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down....
Ukraine accuses Russian forces of killing, dismembering prisoner-of-war (www.reuters.com)
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations to investigate an image widely shared online on Saturday that he said likely showed a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war killed and dismembered by Russian forces....
Cognac, tortoises and a pink-striped helicopter: inside the mystery of Alice Guo, the missing Philippines mayor (www.theguardian.com)
Alice Guo was a mayor like no other, say her supporters. At Christmas, she would hand out gifts of ham and spaghetti to local people. When school term started, she would give notebooks and bags to children. She wasn’t from a prominent political family, as is often the case in the Philippines, yet she rose to become the first...
Fifth of medicines in Africa may be sub-par or fake, research finds (www.theguardian.com)
A fifth of medicines in Africa could be substandard or fake, according to a major research project, raising the alarm over a problem that could be contributing to the deaths of countless patients....
Hamas’s leader is dead, Iran vows revenge: can anything stop all-out war in the Middle East? (www.theguardian.com)
If Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was hoping for a honeymoon period after his inauguration last week, he must be sadly disappointed. Less than 12 hours after Pezeshkian was sworn in, an explosion, reportedly caused by a remotely controlled bomb, shook an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) compound in...
