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Facebook Tweet Email Link EDITOR’S NOTE:  This story is part of As Equals, CNN’s ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs. The warnings were impossible to ignore. For over a year, armed groups in northern Colombia had posted flyers touting violent campaigns against members of the LGBTQ community. “All will be military targets. We will not respect ages. We have already made progress in intelligence work and many have been identified,” warned one flyer in the coastal region of Guajira, dated March 2024, that included a kill list…

Facebook Tweet Email Link When visiting Chongqing for the first time last November, Joshua Guvi was worried that the city he’d seen on social media couldn’t possibly be as cool in real life. Located in a mountainous area of southwestern China, this sprawling metropolis is known for its complex, multilayered layout, prompting some to refer to it as China’s “8D city.” Including its rural outer regions, the whole area is the size of Austria. Due to the city’s unique landlocked geography and rapid growth, Chongqing has had nowhere to go but up, to the point where one building even has…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been performing a tricky balancing act – maintaining close partnerships with US President Donald Trump and Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin while insisting his country is a neutral party in the Russia-Ukraine war, to the dismay of Western nations who have sanctioned Moscow. But now, it seems, Trump has lost his patience – demanding that Modi finally pick a side, and using India’s continued purchases of cheap Russian oil as leverage in his trade war. The conundrum pits Trump and Modi, two nationalist leaders who have often described their friendship in…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Tokyo Reuters  —  Japan recorded its highest-ever temperature of 41.8 degrees Celsius (107.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, prompting the government to advise residents to stay indoors and promise steps to ease weather-related damage to rice crops. Readings in the eastern city of Isesaki, in Gunma prefecture, surpassed the previous high of 41.2 C marked last week in the western city of Tamba in Hyogo prefecture, the country’s meteorological agency said. So far this summer, more than 53,000 people have been taken to hospital for heat stroke, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. “Today is…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Lordy, there are tapes. In the latest turn of the immortal scandal over Jeffrey Epstein, CNN first reported Tuesday that Donald Trump’s administration has recorded conversations with Epstein’s convicted sex trafficker accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and is working on a transcript, which it may even release. The revelation about Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s conversations with Maxwell last month is certain to renew demands for transparency from sectors of the president’s base that first whipped the Epstein storm into overdrive. And it comes as senior administration officials plan to meet at Vice President JD Vance’s residence for…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A fast-moving wildfire in southern France has scorched more than 11,000 hectares across 15 municipalities, killing one person, local officials said Wednesday. “We mourn the death of an elderly woman in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, who apparently did not want to leave her home,” Rémy Recio, a regional official, told CNN affiliate BFMTV. The blaze, which broke out Tuesday afternoon near Ribaute in the Aude department, has also injured two civilians and seven firefighters, Recio added. About 1,500 firefighters battled the flames overnight, with 320 more reinforcements arriving Wednesday. Aerial operations had resumed Wednesday morning with four Canadair water…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Rome Reuters  —  Italy’s government was set on Wednesday to give the final approval to the multi-billion-euro project to build a bridge connecting Sicily to the mainland, paving the way for works to begin after decades of discussions. Construction for the 3.6-km (2.2-miles) bridge, projected to be one of the longest in the world, has been talked about since the late 1960s to help develop the impoverished south of Italy. The right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made it a priority and has set aside 13.5 billion euros ($15.63 billion) over the next 10 years…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Taipei, Taiwan  —  Taiwanese authorities have detained three current and former employees of the world’s largest chip manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), for allegedly stealing trade secrets, prosecutors said Tuesday. Law enforcement officers questioned several suspects and witnesses late last month; searched their homes and detained three of them over “serious suspicions of violating national security laws,” the intellectual property branch of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office said on Tuesday. TSMC produces more than 90% of the world’s advanced semiconductor chips that power everything from smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to weapons, with key…

Facebook Tweet Email Link The House Oversight Committee has issued nearly a dozen subpoenas to the Justice Department and high-profile Democratic and Republican figures for files and information related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a major move that comes as many congressional Republicans call for more transparency around the case. The subpoena to the Justice Department calls for it to provide Congress any Epstein files in its possession, with victims’ names redacted. It also calls for communications between former Biden administration officials and the Justice Department related to the case. The Republican-led panel additionally subpoenaed 10 individuals…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Top Trump administration officials will gather at the vice president’s residence Wednesday evening as they continue to weigh whether to publish an audio recording and transcript of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent conversation with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. The administration’s handling of the Epstein case, as well as the need to craft a unified response, is expected to be a main focus of the dinner, three sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The meeting will include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director…