Vietnam’s first openly gay candidate runs for parliament

While Chinese papers hail the country's launch of a $233 million biodiversity fund, the Guardian warns that China is rowing back on its commitment to reduce carbon emissions. We also look at the tragic deaths of three migrants who were hit by a train in south-western France. Meanwhile, employees from Google and Amazon call on their companies to abandon a project with Israel. We end with the most striking winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

With greenhouses as far as the eye can see, the southern Spanish region of Andalusia has been nicknamed the "Sea of Plastic". Intensive farming is the norm and it helps feed the European market with fruit and vegetables all year long. It also produces an estimated 33,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year. Until two years ago, this waste was exported to countries such as China, Pakistan and Turkey. But now that these countries are refusing to take rubbish from rich countries, the "Sea of Plastic" is faced with the urgent challenge of recycling its own waste. Our correspondents report.

At an age when most teenagers are busy learning the latest Tik Tok dance craze, banjo virtuoso Nora Brown has just released her second album of old-time twang. When her parents gifted her a ukulele for Christmas at age six they never envisioned she would grow into one of the bluegrass world's rising stars. The now 16-year-old raised in Brooklyn is among the musicians carrying on traditions from the mountains of Appalachia passed down from the genre's old masters.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is seeking a mandate for his policies in the October 31 parliamentary election. Meanwhile, the opposition has vowed to close Japan's income gap.

FRANCE 24 spoke to this year's joint Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, co-founder of the digital media company Rappler and an outspoken critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Asked whether journalism is becoming more dangerous around the world, she told FRANCE 24: "It is more dangerous, it requires more sacrifices, just to do what journalists have always done."

A Texas couple recently realised this when they found that their pet chihuahua had stowed away in one of their suitcases. Kristi and Jared Owens were checking in their bags at the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport late last month when they were told their luggage was overweight.

His funny, delicate and dark illustrations are familiar to readers of British newspapers and adored for their philosophical take on daily life. When Steven Appleby introduced a new character to his comic strips, "Dragman", few of his readers were aware that the author and illustrator also wore a wig and women's clothes.

On Thursday, artist Lili Bernard filed a lawsuit against the 84-year-old comedian for an alleged hotel room encounter in 1990 after she met the actor while filming The Cosby Show.

While tourists have long been able to mingle freely unofficially at parties in and around Jeddah, known as Saudi Arabia's most open-minded city, Saudis were confined to single-sex beaches. But now, four years into a reform drive aimed at improving the country's image and creating new opportunities for its oil-reliant economy, they are enjoying more freedoms.

The tiny US town of Green Bank is home to the over six-decade-old Green Bank Observatory, which requires radio silence to be able to peer deep into space to observe stars and black holes. Cell phone service is effectively barred, but the West Virginia town is changing: not everyone agrees about what comes next for this seeming digital age refuge.

A resolution is imminent in the dispute over more than 1,000 bronzes stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin. Germany wants to return all the objects to Nigeria.

The Saudi government has lifted social distancing measures, allowing full-capacity attendance at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Follow DW for the latest.