Japan cancels Mount Fuji cherry blossom festival after tourist behaviour concerns
A Japanese city near Mount Fuji has cancelled its annual cherry blossom festival, saying growing numbers of badly behaved tourists are disrupting dail...
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 17th of August, covering the latest developments you need to know.
1. Trump seeks trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy on 22 August
U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing for a trilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as early as 22 August, according to Axios.
The proposal follows Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday - their first meeting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was also Putin’s first visit to the U.S. for presidential talks since 2007.
According to sources briefed on the call, Trump informed European leaders that he wanted to convene a trilateral session involving Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump is due to meet Zelenskyy at the White House on Monday and has invited European leaders to join the talks.
While Trump said he and Putin made “some headway” during their Alaska discussions, he admitted that no agreement had yet been reached to end the conflict in Ukraine. However, Putin described the outcome of their meeting as an “understanding”.
The Kremlin has not confirmed whether Putin will attend the proposed three-way summit.
2. Northern China flash flood kills 8, Xinhua reports
At least eight people have died and four remain missing after a river burst its banks in Inner Mongolia late Saturday, sweeping away campers near Bayannur, state media said. One survivor was rescued.
China has faced weeks of extreme monsoon rains since July, with floods displacing thousands and threatening major economic losses. Bayannur is a key hub for grain and sheep farming.
Elsewhere, heavy rain ended a fishing ban in Hainan, while in Sichuan severe weather at a beer festival killed two and injured three.
The disaster follows last month’s Beijing floods that left 44 dead. Beijing has allocated 430 million yuan ($59.9m) in fresh relief, bringing total aid since April to 5.8 billion yuan.
3. Earthquake of magnitude 5.7 strikes Sulawesi, Indonesia, GFZ says
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Sunday, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said.
The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), GFZ said.
4. U.S. cancels India trade talks scheduled for August, NDTV Profit says
U.S. trade negotiators have called off a planned trip to New Delhi scheduled for August 25–29, postponing discussions on a potential bilateral trade deal, NDTV Profit reported on Saturday, citing sources.
5. Sudan attack kills at least 31 in El Fasher displacement camp
At least 31 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, were killed and 13 injured when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled El Fasher’s Abu Shouk displacement camp in North Darfur on Saturday, volunteer groups said.
The Sudan Doctors Network called it a “heinous crime,” accusing the RSF of deliberately targeting civilians. It warned that the siege of El Fasher is causing severe shortages of medicine, food, and staff.
The Abu Shouk Emergency Room said the camp’s northern side came under “intense artillery shelling,” while resistance committees reported the attack lasted from morning into the afternoon, sparking panic and fresh displacement.
The RSF has not commented. Fighting between the RSF and Sudanese army since April 2023 has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. El Fasher, the last major city in Darfur outside RSF control, has been besieged since May 2024.
Storm Leonardo hit Spain and Portugal on Tuesday, forcing more than 11,000 people from their homes, as a man in Portugal died after his car was swept away by floodwaters and a second body was found in Malaga.
Winter weather has brought air travel in the German capital to a complete halt, stranding thousands of passengers as severe icing conditions make runways and aircraft unsafe for operation and force authorities to shut down one of Europe’s key transport hubs.
An attacker opened fire at the gates of a Shiite Muslim mosque in Islamabad on Friday before detonating a suicide bomb that killed at least 31 people in the deadliest assault of its kind in the capital in more than a decade.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 6th of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Greek authorities said they have arrested a member of the armed forces on suspicion of leaking highly sensitive military information to foreign handlers allegedly linked to China.
Speedskater Francesca Lollobrigida has given host nation Italy its first gold medal of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, winning the women’s 3,000 metres in Olympic-record time on Saturday.
France and Canada opened new consulates in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, on Friday, stepping up their Arctic presence in a show of support for Denmark, a NATO ally, amid renewed demands by U.S. President Donald Trump to acquire the strategically located territory.
Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine’s energy system early on Saturday (7 January), hitting power generation and distribution facilities with more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles, Ukrainian officials have said.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 7th of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators have discussed an ambitious goal of reaching a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine by March, though the timeline is widely viewed as unrealistic due to deep disagreements over territory, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks.
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