THE NETHERLANDS: An explosion at the Dutch port of Rotterdam today killed at least one person and injured several others, city police said.

Police said the blast at Europe’s biggest port happened this morning and that a crime scene has been set up to try to establish what caused it.

Rotterdam emergency services reported a major power failure at the port and said that a transformer had caught fire under unexplained circumstances. Power was gradually being restored to companies in an industrial area of the port a few hours later.

AUSTRALIA: An Australian jury today convicted Christopher Saunders, a former Catholic bishop renowned for hosting alcohol-fuelled house parties, of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men.

The District Court of Western Australia jury convicted Mr Saunders of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred between 2008 and 2019 in his sprawling diocese in the tourist town of Broome on the country’s tropical north-west coast.

JAPAN: Japan’s far-right Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first-ever visit to the disputed Kuril Islands today as “absolutely unacceptable.”

Russian media reported that Mr Putin visited Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu, one of four islands in the Kuril chain that are claimed by both Russia and Japan.

ZAMBIA: Zambians went to the polls today in a presidential election that will test whether President Hakainde Hichilema’s economic reforms were enough to overcome widespread frustration over the cost of living.

Voters will also choose members of parliament and local government councillors. Results are expected Monday, according to the electoral commission.