Virus-wracked Indonesia yesterday said that small businesses and some shopping malls could reopen despite warnings that loosening curbs could spark another devastating Covid-19 wave, even as it moved to extend a web of restrictions launched this month.

Unesco added Madrid’s historic Paseo del Prado boulevard and Retiro Park to its list of world heritage sites yesterday.

China’s commercial hub Shanghai and neighbouring coastal regions cancelled all flights, slowed or suspended subway trains and shuttered businesses as Typhoon In-fa made landfall yesterday, bringing flooding and felling around 1,000 trees.

A Frenchman on hunger strike in Tokyo seeking access to his children said an appeal from President Emmanuel Macron to Japan’s leader had “changed nothing”, as his protest entered its third week.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that he is aiming to begin a dialogue with the country’s political opposition next month in Mexico, facilitated by Norway, a process he hoped the United States would embrace.

Top infectious disease official Anthony Fauci said yesterday that Americans who are immune compromised may end up needing coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine booster shots as the United States deals with increasing cases from the highly-infectious Delta variant.

?The death toll from flooding and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in India climbed to 127 yesterday, officials said, with rescuers searching for dozens more missing.

Protesters took to the streets in several Brazilian cities on Saturday to demand the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro, whose popularity has fallen in recent weeks amid corruption scandals against the backdrop of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Buses and cars were left stranded when roads across London flooded yesterday, as repeated thunderstorms battered the British capital.

Ethiopia’s Amhara state yesterday called on “all young people” to take up arms against Tigrayan fighters who are battling the federal government military and forces from all of Ethiopia’s other nine regions.

Gunmen who seized 121 students at a high school in northwestern Nigeria in early July have released 28 of them, a school official said yesterday.

French anti-riot police fired tear gas yesterday as clashes erupted during protests in central Paris against Covid-19 restrictions and a vaccination campaign, television reported.