Death toll rises as Kenya’s cost-of-living protests continue

Opposition leader Raila Odinga rallies his supporters to the streets where there have been clashes with armed police in Nairobi and western city of Kisumu

Teargas and live ammunition were used against demonstrators as pockets of violence broke out in Kenya during a second day of protests against tax increases and rising living costs.

Despite relative calm in Nairobi on Thursday morning, there were clashes in the informal settlements of Kibera and Mathare in the capital, and in the western city of Kisumu. Protesters threw stones at police, who had mounted a heavy presence in Nairobi after the deaths of at least six demonstrators and more than 300 arrests around the country on Wednesday.

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At least two killed after Kenyan police fire on protesters

Protests against tax rises and cost of living turn violent with hospitals reporting many wounded by gunshot

At least two people have been killed after anti-government protests in Kenya, as police opened fire on demonstrators protesting against the cost of living and tax increases.

Demonstrators hurled rocks at police and burned tyres in the streets on Wednesday, while the security forces fired teargas in the third round of anti-government demonstrations the opposition called this month.

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Vladimir Putin to miss South Africa summit amid row over possible arrest

Cyril Ramaphosa faced demands for Russian president to be detained under ICC warrant if he attended Brics summit

Vladimir Putin will not attend a Brics summit in South Africa next month amid speculation that he could be detained under an international criminal court warrant for his arrest for war crimes in Ukraine.

South Africa’s presidential office announced that the Russian president would not be attending the summit after holding a “number of consultations” with the Kremlin.

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‘Gut-churning’: anger as Hungarian president addresses major women’s rights conference

Katalin Novák, an anti-abortionist and promoter of pro-natalist policies, spoke at the opening of the Women Deliver conference in Rwanda

Some leading delegates at a women’s rights conference in Rwanda have expressed shock at the appearance there of the Hungarian president, an anti-abortionist criticised for an anti-equality stance.

Katalin Novák, an important player in the international “anti-gender movement”, was invited by the Rwandan government to speak at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali this week, where reproductive rights is one of the areas under discussion.

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Polio scare hits Malawi with 17 possible cases, just as huge vaccine drive ends

Cyclone Freddy cited as contributing factor in feared new outbreak that follows inoculation of 8 million children

Malawi is investigating at least 17 suspected polio cases just as a vaccination campaign is completed with more than 90% of the country’s children inoculated against the virus.

Health authorities fear Cyclone Freddy – the world’s longest-lasting tropical cyclone – which made landfall in March in the southern African nation and led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of displacements – could be a contributing factor.

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Tunisia says it will not be ‘reception centre’ for returning migrants

North African country, which agreed €1bn deal with EU to stem irregular migration, says it will take back only Tunisians

Tunisia has said it will not be a “reception centre” for returns of sub-Saharan migrants from Italy or any other country in Europe despite a groundbreaking €1bn deal signed on Sunday.

Authorities in the north African country are determined not to enter a contract similar to that which the UK has with Rwanda and will take back only Tunisians who have made irregular entry to the EU.

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Monday briefing: Thousands killed, millions displaced – the conflict in Sudan, three months in

In today’s newsletter: In April, fighting broke out between two rival factions – with no end in sight, the UN is investigating

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Good morning.

Last week the United Nations discovered a mass grave in Sudan’s West Darfur in which 87 people were buried, prompting the UN high commissioner for Human Rights to demand a “thorough and independent investigation” into activity in the region.

Ukraine | Explosions have reportedly hit the Kerch bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia, a heavily guarded road and rail link that is among the Kremlin’s most important infrastructure projects. The head of the Russian-controlled administration in Crimea, said traffic had been stopped because of “an emergency situation”. Two people have been killed and a child was injured.

Environment | Southern Europe is bracing for a second “heat storm” in a week. Record temperatures across the Mediterranean could be broken on Tuesday, and people in Italy have been told to prepare for most intense heatwave ‘of all time’. Meanwhile in the US more than 100 million people were under extreme heat advisories this weekend.

Iran | Iran’s “morality police” have returned to the streets 10 months after the death of a woman in their custody sparked nationwide protests. It comes as authorities announce a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf.

Hospitals | The government is on track to break a key election promise from Boris Johnson to build 40 new hospitals in England by the end of the decade, a damning report by the public spending watchdog has found.

Music | France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.

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EU signs off €1bn deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration

Ursula von der Leyen hails deal as an investment in shared prosperity and stability

The EU has signed off on a €1bn (£860m) deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration, as the president of the north African country denounced those who offer migrants “sympathy without respect” for their goal to have equity in life.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, hailed the deal with Tunisia, including significant measures to stem deadly irregular migration across the mediterranean, as an investment in shared prosperity and stability.

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Libyan border guards rescue migrants left in desert near Tunisia

Group numbering at least 80 discovered in uninhabited region reportedly without water, food or shelter

Libyan border guards have rescued dozens of migrants they said had been left in the desert by Tunisian authorities without water, food or shelter.

Hundreds of people from sub-Saharan African countries were forcibly taken to desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after racial unrest in early July in Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city.

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EU to give Tunisia €1bn to fight trafficking and prop up ailing economy

Von der Leyen to return with Italian and Dutch PMs despite warnings over ‘breakdown’ of democracy under Saied

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is to return to Tunisia on Sunday with the prime ministers of Italy and the Netherlands to sign off the details of a €1bn deal aimed at combating people smuggling and supporting the country’s collapsing economy.

Sources have confirmed they are expecting to sign off on a memorandum of understanding only days after a group of politicians in the European parliament warned that Tunisia should not be handed a deal on a “silver plate” amid fears of a “breakdown” of democracy in the country.

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Religious groups march in Malawi before court case on LGBTQ+ rights

Faith leaders say the proceedings, brought by a transgender woman, are an attempt to legitimise ‘sinful acts’

Scores of religious groups and churches took to the streets of several cities in Malawi on Thursday to denounce same-sex marriage before a constitutional court hearing next week.

The court is expected to sit for two days from 17 July to consider a case brought by Jana Gonani, a transgender woman who was charged with “unnatural” behaviour.

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Jacob Zuma in Russia for ‘health reasons’, spokesperson says

Ex-president of South Africa receives medical treatment day after court rules he should return to prison

The former South African president Jacob Zuma is receiving medical treatment in Russia, his spokesperson has said, a day after the country’s highest court upheld a ruling that he should return to prison.

“Zuma travelled to Russia last week for health reasons,” Mzwanele Manyi said on Friday.

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Army shelling of market kills dozens as Sudan violence escalates

Witnesses say some victims’ bodies still lay uncovered two days after incident in Omdurman

At least 30 people died when the Sudanese army shelled a market in Omdurman during what residents of the country’s most populous city described as the worst week for civilian casualties since the outbreak of war in April.

Most of the victims in the incident at the Shaabi souk on Tuesday were children and women, according to witnesses. Medical sources said the shells were fired from the Karri military base, which the army controls, during fierce fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

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Bodies of 87 people found in Sudan mass grave, says UN

Alleged victims of Sudanese paramilitary and allied militia found in shallow grave in West Darfur

At least 87 people including ethnic Masalits have been found buried in a mass grave in Sudan’s West Darfur, the UN human rights office has said, adding that it had credible information that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were responsible.

RSF officials denied any involvement, saying the paramilitary group was not a party to the conflict in West Darfur.

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Ugandan president and son accused of sponsoring violence in ICC testimony

Documents containing allegations of torture filed to court in support of complaint made by Bobi Wine

The Uganda president, Yoweri Museveni, and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba have been accused of sponsoring violence and abusing critics in harrowing testimony filed before the international criminal court.

The submissions contain detailed allegations of the torture of opposition figures and activists who report being arrested arbitrarily and being held incommunicado in “torture centres”, where they were reportedly interrogated about their links with the opposition figure Bobi Wine and subjected to physical harm and indignifying treatment.

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UK imposes sanctions on companies linked to warring Sudanese factions

Move designed to send message to forces involved as fears grow conflict could become more widespread in the region

The UK has put sanctions on six companies it says are associated with the two sides fighting for power in Sudan, though the prospect of any of the Gulf states most entwined in the Sudanese economy joining the UK remain remote.

The Foreign Office slapped sanctions on three firms linked to leaders of the Sudanese armed forces and three connected to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

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Putin v Prigozhin: is Wagner too valuable to crush? – podcast

When Wagner forces turned their guns against Russian forces it led to panic in Moscow. But after the coup was aborted and its leader accused of treachery, it was business as usual for the group’s lucrative Africa operations. Pjotr Sauer and Jason Burke report

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s march on Moscow caused panic and led Vladimir Putin to go on the airways to condemn the head of Wagner. He decried the ‘treachery’ and vowed to ‘liquidate’ what remained of Wagner – and many assumed Prigozhin himself.

In the days that followed, something more subtle happened. As our correspondent Pjotr Sauer tells Nosheen Iqbal, while Russian state TV has called Prigozhin corrupt and traitorous, it emerged that he had been invited for a face-to-face meeting with the Russian president.

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Canary Islands coastguard rescues two men balanced on ship’s rudder

Nigerian stowaways survived for at least a week under ship that voyaged from Lagos via Lomé, Togo

The Spanish coastguard rescued two Nigerian men who survived for at least a week balancing on the rudder of a ship as it sailed from the west African country of Togo to the Canary Islands.

The two men were rescued on Monday night in the port of Las Palmas, and taken to a hospital for medical checks. They were later released and were transferred back to the ship, which will return them to their port of origin, the port police tweeted.

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‘Pure magic’: snow falls on Johannesburg for first time in 11 years

Residents of the South African city delight in rare snow day caused by a surge in humidity and cold temperatures

Residents of South Africa’s biggest city, Johannesburg, were stunned by the first snowfall in over a decade on Monday, with some children seeing snow for the first time.

While parts of South Africa regularly receive snow over the southern hemisphere winter months of June to August, Johannesburg last had snow in August 2012.

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Three arrested in Kenya as backlash grows over period strip-search

Police take action as activists, politicians and the company involved all condemn tactics used by managers investigating who put sanitary towel in wrong bin

Three senior managers from a Kenyan dairy company have been arrested over allegations of indecent assault after they forced a group of female employees to undress in order to find out which of them was on their period.

The incident, which happened last week at Brown’s Food Company’s dairy factory in Limuru, in central Kenya, followed failed attempts by the managers – all three of whom are women – to find out who had put a sanitary towel in the wrong bin.

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