UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The UN special envoy for Myanmar has warned that the political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation is deepening and taking “a catastrophic toll on the people.” Noeleen Heyzer told the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee that more than 13.2 million people don’t have enough to eat, 1.3 million are displaced and the military continues operations using disproportionate force including bombings, burnings of homes and buildings, and the killing of civilians.

 

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PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met in Paris with smiles and a handshake on Wednesday, but ignored questions on their faltering relationship as they headed into the Elysee Palace. Scholz flew into the French capital to find common ground after the French leader postponed a joint cabinet meeting last week over what sources said were differences, including over energy policy and defense. r The difficulties come as the EU struggles to reach an agreement on whether to cap gas prices in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. It is also impacting Europe’s plans to build its next generation of fighter jets, gas pipeline projects across the EU and German plans to let China invest in its ports.

 

 

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VLADIVOSTOK (Reuters) – Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a rocket has successfully sent into orbit the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos announced Wednesday. The Progress MS-21 spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the Russian section of the International Space Station on Friday. The spacecraft will deliver 2.5 tons of cargo to the ISS, including various equipment, fuel, compressed nitrogen, water and food. Russia’s Progress MS series of cargo spaceships are dedicated to providing services for orbital stations, including transporting various materials and performing orbit corrections for the ISS. This was the 19th launch of Russian rockets in 2022, and the third with a Progress cargo ship.

 

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s lead over President Jair Bolsonaro has widened slightly to 6 percentage points less than one week ahead of a runoff vote, two polls showed on Wednesday. Both were conducted between Sunday and Tuesday, and the results could have been influenced by Sunday’s incident in which Bolsonaro ally Roberto Jefferson shot at police, resisting arrest. Lula would win 53% of the valid votes, up from last week’s 52%, against 47% for Bolsonaro, who had 48% in the previous poll, a survey by PoderData said. A poll by Genial/Quaest found Lula widening his lead slightly to 48% of voter support, while Bolsonaro remains at 42%. Excluding blank or annulled votes and the undecided, Lula had 53% of the votes to Bolsonaro’s 47%, the same numbers for valid votes as the PoderData poll showed. Brazilians will vote in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday.

 

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 GENEVA (AP) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has called on world leaders to spare no efforts in assisting countries in the Horn of Africa to break the cycle of conflicts and climate crises. Concluding a five-day visit to Somalia and Kenya, Grandi warned, in a statement to the press, that the catastrophic and multifaceted consequences in the region are largely unnoticed as the world’s attention remains elsewhere. Latest UN figures showed that in Somalia, the number of people displaced internally this year -- primarily by drought -- is nearing 1 million, and about 500,000 others are displaced due to conflicts and insecurity.