INTERNATIONAL: South Africa is dominating world headlines on Thursday 15 July 2021. Its worst violence in decades shows no signs of abating. At least 72 people have been killed in riots and looting rampages across the country – the worst of it in the coastal city of Durban. The unrest was sparked by the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma on contempt of court charges, but has led to an explosion of frustration at the state the country is in 27 years after the end of apartheid. The Zuma Foundation says the violence will not end until he is released. 5,000 troops have been mobilized in an effort to contain the unrest, which has also spread to the financial capital, Johannesburg, where a 15-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet on Wednesday.

Authorities in Australia have extended Sydney’s lockdown by at least another 14 days. Three weeks of restrictions have failed to reduce the number of Covid-19 infections. 97 new locally-transmitted cases were reported on Wednesday, an increase from the day before. The governor of New South Wales says the lockdown will only be lifted when the number of newly reported community cases is close to zero. The shutdown has already been extended twice. Total infections since the first case was detected in mid-June now stand at just under 900. Two deaths have also been reported, the first Covid-19 fatalities in Australia since last year.

And, an emotional reunion for a Chinese man and his son, 24 years after his kidnapping. His father had spent those years zig-zagging across China on his motorbike looking for him. Police eventually tracked down a man fitting the son's description in central Henan province back in June, but needed to wait for DNA tests to confirm his identity. Guo Xinzhen, who is now a 26-year-old teacher, was kidnapped at the age of two back in 1997 while playing outside his home. He was then sold to another family. State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of the emotional reunion at a police station. Two people have been arrested for the abduction.