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Pakistani travel vlogger and mountaineer Asma Mushtaq has died during an expedition to Spantik after successfully summiting the 7,027-metre peak in Pakistan’s Karakoram mountain range. Born on February 7, 1992, Asma was known in the mountaineering community for her deep passion for adventure, mountains and natural landscapes. Asma had recently joined an expedition to climb Spantik, one of the prominent peaks in Pakistan’s Karakoram range. According to reports, Asma successfully reached the summit of Spantik along with her guide Ali Akbar and was in good health at the time. However, she reportedly developed high-altitude sickness while descending from the summit.…

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has said that 94 percent of Gaza’s population is currently without roofs over their heads, with four out of every five households living without adequate shelter. According to media reports, Dujarric said several shelters were also facing shortages of fuel, energy and essential household items. He said restrictions on humanitarian aid were affecting people’s ability to sleep, cook, bathe, eat and store water, maintain adequate lighting and cope with heat and cold. Dujarric said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs continued to receive reports of Palestinian civilians being killed or injured in Israeli…

Germany registered a record of around 14,000 heat-related deaths this summer as Europe struggled through a series of punishing heatwaves, official data showed on Thursday. Around 9,600 of those deaths were recorded in one week in late June when Germany baked in temperatures of over 40C, according to the Robert Koch Institute. The heatwaves and drought have fuelled a historically hot summer in Europe, contributing to a spike in heat-related mortality in the worst-hit countries. Spain’s public health institute registered nearly 4,500 heat-related deaths since June 1, figures showed Thursday. French health authorities said they had seen more than 7,300…

At least 50 people, mostly children, died after an overloaded boat capsized on Thursday in Nigeria’s northwest Sokoto state, witnesses said. The accident took place near Gorau in Goronyo local government area and rescue efforts are continuing, said Abdulkadir Yusuf, an area manager at the National Inland Waterways Authority. A Reuters witness saw 50 bodies, many wrapped in mats and traditional cloths, lying in the forecourt of a community mosque ahead of ⁠their burial in Gorau later on Thursday. Deadly boat accidents are relatively common in Nigeria, where overcrowding, poor maintenance and weak enforcement of safety regulations often contribute to…

A charter plane carrying eight people crashed Thursday near a remote radar site in western Alaska, a federal official said. Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region chief, said two pilots and six passengers were on board. He did not immediately have details on their status. The plane took off from Anchorage and is believed to have crashed early Thursday afternoon on approach to Cape Newenham, he said. The information received so far is preliminary, he said. The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center said it launched a search and rescue mission after receiving a report of an “aircraft incident”…

JAKARTA: China’s defence and foreign ministers met their Indonesian counterparts on Friday, with security, politics and economic issues set to dominate talks, as Jakarta tries to balance ties with both Beijing and Washington amid trade battles and tensions in the South China Sea. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, visiting Jakarta for the first time in two years, met Indonesian counterpart Sugiono and was due to participate later in a “2+2” meeting with the two countries’ defence ministers. Wang in introductory remarks said that amid complex global challenges, it was timely they were meeting under the new dialogue mechanism and both…

China and Switzerland have completed negotiations on an upgraded free trade agreement and signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday. Swiss Federal President and Minister for Economic Affairs, Education and Research Guy Parmelin and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao announced the conclusion of the talks after a meeting in Bern.

The Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, will hold its 24th session in Beijing from August 25 to 28. During the upcoming session, lawmakers will deliberate a slew of draft laws, including a draft law against cross-border corruption, a draft law on healthcare security, a draft law on farmland protection and quality improvement, as well as draft revisions to the Agriculture Law, the National Defense Mobilization Law, the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law, the Law on the Regulation of and Supervision over the Banking Industry, and the Water Law.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday that China and South Korea should strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust and pursue strategic cooperation in political, economic, trade and security fields. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, made the remarks when holding a strategic dialogue with Wi Sung-lac, South Korea’s top presidential national security advisor, in Seoul. Wang said that the exchange of visits between the two heads of state since last year has ushered China-South Korea relations into…

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday congratulated Hakainde Hichilema on his re-election as president of Zambia. In his message, Xi said that they have met twice in recent years, and jointly steered the development of China-Zambia relations. The political mutual trust between the two countries has continued to deepen, practical cooperation has been fruitful, and China and Zambia have closely coordinated and cooperated in multilateral affairs, he said. Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Zambia ties, and stands ready to work with Hichilema to implement the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa…