MOSCOW (Dispatches) - Russia will soon deliver a huge military hardware consignment to Belarus, including aircraft, helicopters and air defense systems, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was quoted as saying on Wednesday by the Belta state news agency. The delivery is likely to be interpreted as a further sign of Moscow’s unwavering support for Lukashenko, who faced down the biggest opposition protests against his rule last year. Russian and Belarusian forces are set to hold large joint military exercises later this month. The Zapad-2021 drills will last from September 10 until 16.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Almost a third of the world’s tree species are at risk of extinction, while hundreds are on the brink of being wiped out, according to a landmark report published by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) on Wednesday. According to the State of the World’s Trees report 17,500 tree species - some 30% of the total - are a risk of extinction, while 440 species have fewer than 50 individuals left in the wild. Overall the number of threatened tree species is double the number of threatened mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles combined, the report said.

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PARIS (Dispatches) - Heavy flooding has affected about 380,000 people in South Sudan, with overflowing rivers submerging homes and displacing families in the impoverished country, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA. Nearly three-quarters of those affected are in two states—Unity and Jonglei—OCHA said in a briefing note, warning of “more heavy rains and flooding expected in the coming months”.

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NEW YORK (Dispatches) - The World Health Organization (WHO) announced it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”, which was first identified in Colombia in January. Mu, known scientifically as B.1.621, has been classified as a “variant of interest”, the global health body stated Tuesday in its weekly pandemic bulletin. The WHO said the variant has mutations that indicate a risk of resistance to vaccines and stressed that further studies were needed to better understand it. “The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” the bulletin added. There is widespread concern over the emergence of new virus mutations as infection rates are ticking up globally again, with the highly transmissible Delta variant taking hold --- especially among the unvaccinated --- and in regions where anti-virus measures have been relaxed.

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LIMA (Dispatches) - At least 32 passengers have died, including two children, and more than 20 were injured when a bus plummeted from a cliff in Peru, officials said, in the country’s third multiple-victim transport accident in four days. The accident happened on a narrow stretch of the Carretera Central road some 60 km (37 miles) east of the capital Lima. The road connects Lima to much of the central Andes. “Unfortunately, at the moment, there are 32 dead,” said police commander Cesar Cervantes. A six-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl were among the dead, police said.