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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• U.S. to send more help to Ukraine: U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly preparing an additional $800 million worth of military aid to send to Ukraine. This would be made possible by the transfer of excess weapons in the U.S. stocks.

• Xi and Putin to attend G20 summit in Bali: According to Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jiping plan to attend the G20 summit, which will be held in November in Bali. This will be the first meeting between the 20 leaders since the invasion of Ukraine and the increased tensions over Taiwan.

• North Korea rejects South Korea’s help: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister and top official Kim Yo Jong has dismissed South Korea's offer to help the country economically in exchange for its nuclear disarmament. She called President Yoon Suk Yeol "really simple and still childish" for making such a proposal.

• Apple discloses serious security vulnerabilities: Tech giant Apple has revealed that many of its products were subjected to security vulnerabilities which could have been actively exploited by hackers. Users of iPhones 6S and later models, several models of the iPad and Mac computers with MacOS Monterey are advised to update their devices.

• Scholz to answer financial scandal allegations: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is to face a local parliamentary enquiry committee on Friday regarding the “CumEx Files” scandal, a tax fraud on dividends which was revealed in 2017. Scholz was the mayor of Hamburg at the time, and the extent of his involvement in the case will be assessed.

• Vanuatu parliament dissolved: Vanuatu’s president has dissolved parliament on the same day Prime Minister Bob Loughman was expected to face a vote of no confidence, triggering new elections. Members of the opposition said they would challenge the decision in court.

• New Zealand’s cutest intruder: A young fur seal broke into a marine biologist’s home by sliding through the catflap and enjoyed the comfort of the premises for over two hours. The unexpected guest harassed the house’s cat and spent some time on the couch before being made to leave.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

“We don’t want another Chernobyl” reads the front page of Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet, echoing Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s words to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and UN chief Antonio Guterres. The three met yesterday in Lviv to discuss the worrying situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been under shelling

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

$532 million

U.S. basketball player LeBron James re-signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in a $97.1 million two-year extension. This new contract takes the NBA superstar to $532 million in guaranteed career earnings, making him the highest-paid player in NBA history.

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

Beyond COVID: why Ugandan kids can’t go back to school

Severe weather and a lack of upkeep during pandemic shutdowns wreaked havoc on school facilities. Officials and parents are scrambling to rebuild, Apophia Agiresaasi reports in Global Press Journal.

🇺🇬 Teachers and parents across Uganda are scrambling to reconstruct schools that were severely damaged by animals, humans and the elements when left unattended during long shutdowns to control the spread of the coronavirus. Schools closed in March 2020 and reopened partially in December 2020 but were closed again in June 2021 when cases began to rise. In some instances, entire schools have fallen apart, prompting the government to advise parents to transfer their children to nearby schools.

🏫📚 The situation has led to low enrollment in some schools. Julius Ngabirano, the chairman of the management committee at Kyeihara Integrated Primary, who also has two children in the school, says that while some parents there have withdrawn their children, others have come together to explore ways they can reconstruct the school because they don’t expect the government to be swift. Even before the pandemic, the school’s structures were not in good condition, he says, an indication that the government may take a while to meet its obligation of building schools.

🔨 Damaged schools can rely on the support of nongovernmental organizations across the country. Joseph Bagambaki, the country director for Building Tomorrow, says the organization has worked with communities to construct 84 schools across the country, but the projects first need to be approved by districts. Other parents aren’t waiting for the government to rebuild their schools. When parents at Karugorora Primary returned from the first shutdown in December 2020 to find buildings falling apart, they began raising money to reconstruct more permanent structures.

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📣 VERBATIM

I am going to be exactly the same person as I have been until now and I hope that it will be accepted.

— Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has reacted to the leaked footage of her partying with friends over the summer as she faces backlash from political opponents. The video shows the politician dancing and singing with friends at a house party. Marin has also attended several musical festivals over the summer. Opposition party leader Riikka Purra has called for the prime minister — who, at age 34, is one of the world’s youngest leaders — to undergo a drug test. Last week, German newspaper Bild dubbed Marin the “coolest PM in the world.”