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Putin's Russia
Last anti-war party in Russia banned

Yabloko, the last legally registered party in Russia that opposes the war in Ukraine, will be banned from running in the State Duma elections in September. The decision was made by the Prosecutor General's Office, according to Reuters. The party is alleged to have received foreign funding from Germany and the United States.

Before the decision, hundreds of people gathered outside the Supreme Court to show support for the party, writes TT. It was the nationalist Rodina party that took Yabloko to court and demanded a ban, accusing them of being "traitors" who "work for the West and have Western values".

Party representatives have testified that they have received death threats, according to the independent Moscow Times.

Border crisis in Ceuta
Sources: 75 Ceuta migrants made it to Spain

Around 75 of the 72,000 migrants who entered the Spanish exclave of Ceuta have crossed the Mediterranean to Spain by boat, police sources told Sky News.

On August 1, two days after the peak of the migrant wave, a boat with 20 Moroccan migrants reached Punta Carnero in southern Spain. Four were arrested, while the rest managed to escape police, according to the sources.

Between Friday and Sunday and last week, at least five boats are reported to have arrived at various locations in southern Spain. It is unclear what happened to the migrants.

The boat trip takes between one and three hours in the boats migrants usually travel in. 

China's global ambitions
New freight route through the Arctic is called the "Ice Silk Road"

A Chinese shipping company has started a regular route through the Arctic to reach Europe, reports the Financial Times. By crossing the Arctic Ocean north of Russia, the transport time from eastern China to northern Britain, which normally takes 40 days, can be almost halved.

In summer, the Arctic ice melts enough now for ships to be able to travel the route without icebreakers, the newspaper writes. In addition, unrest in the Red Sea has flared up again, increasing the need for alternative transport routes.

In China, the route has been dubbed the “Ice Silk Road”. The Danish Mærsk already sailed the route in 2018, but the company, like several other shipping companies, has promised not to use the route so as not to damage the sensitive ecosystem.

Typhoon Dolphin
One million evacuated in China – typhoon brings record rain

More than a million people have been evacuated on China’s east coast in connection with the advance of Typhoon Dolphin, writes The Guardian.

The evacuations have taken place in the cities of Wenzhou, Fujian and Shanghai, among others. Pictures show blown-down trees in several places. In Shanghai, 313 millimeters of rain fell in a single day, the highest since records began 150 years ago.

Flights and public transportation have been canceled in several areas. The typhoon has weakened, but is still expected to bring heavy rain as it moves inland.