Modi speaks out after video of sexual assault on women in Manipur emerges
Indian PM had been criticised for failing to talk about deadly ethnic conflict taking place in north-eastern state
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has broken his months-long silence on the deadly ethnic conflict raging in the state of Manipur after a video emerged of women being stripped naked, paraded and assaulted before it is alleged they were gang raped.
Outrage erupted across India after footage was circulated from Manipur of two women from the minority Kuki tribe being forcibly stripped naked by a mob of the majority Meitei tribal group who can be heard shouting: “If you don’t take off your clothes, we’ll kill you.” The women are then publicly groped and dragged to a field, where it is alleged they were gang raped.
Iraq expels Swedish ambassador over planned Quran burning
Iraq expressed its dismay over a planned Quran desecretion in Stockholm. Earlier, Iraqis stormed Sweden’s embassy in Baghdad.
Iraq on Thursday ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from its territory amid anger over a planned Quran burning in Stockholm.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani “directed the Foreign Ministry to request the Swedish ambassador to Baghdad to leave the Iraqi territory in response to the Swedish government’s repeated permission of burning the Holy Quran,” according to a tweet from his media office.
Iraq also suspended the operating license of Swedish telecom giant Ericsson, according to the country’s state news agency INA.
Soviet spies in Africa: How the KGB expanded Russian influence during the Cold War
Russian influence in Africa has deep historical roots, from supporting an attempted coup in Ghana to spreading fake political news in Algeria and training African fighters in Crimea. FRANCE 24 looks back on four little-known Soviet operations aimed at furthering Russian interests in Africa during the Cold War
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 reignited an old battle for global influence between Russia and the West that has also put Africa in the spotlight.
Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has sought influence on the continent through “irregular (and frequently extralegal)” means, according to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, including the use of mercenaries, supporting coups, running disinformation campaigns and interfering in elections or trading arms for resources. But such tactics are far from new.
Russian influence in Africa dates back to the Cold War when the Soviet regime aimed to forge ties with African countries based on shared economic ambitions and mutual distrust of the West. Moscow used the Soviet-era KGB to destabilise governments and spread disinformation in its bid for influence on the continent. Many of these incidents are still not widely known, but they illustrate that Cold War-era Russian spies were already weaponising “fake news”.
Tunnels under Jenin camp: How Palestinian fighters fooled Israel
The tunnels were claimed to have been the first to ever be discovered under the Jenin refugee camp.
During the final hours of Israel’s two-day aerial and ground assault on the Jenin refugee camp earlier this month, the Israeli army said it had besieged a number of Palestinian resistance fighters in a mosque.
After destroying the lower part of the al-Ansar mosque – where members of the Jenin Brigades would operate – with explosive drones and targeted missiles, the army announced that it had found tunnels and that it destroyed them.
It claimed that its forces had “neutralised an underground terrorist route” and that the tunnel “was rendered inoperable”.
World will miss 1.5C warming limit – top UK expert
A leading British climate scientist has told the BBC he believes the target to limit global warming to 1.5C will be missed.
Professor Sir Bob Watson, former head of the UN climate body, told the BBC’s Today programme he was “pessimistic”.
His warning comes amidst a summer of extreme heat for Europe, China and the US.
The UN says passing the limit will expose millions more people to potentially devastating climate events.
The world agreed to try to limit the temperature increase due to climate change to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels at a UN conference in Paris in 2015. That target has become the centrepiece of global efforts to tackle climate change.
Japan seeks experts’ dialogue with China on Fukushima water release
Japan has proposed to China setting up a dialogue involving nuclear experts from both countries to discuss Tokyo’s plan to release treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex into the sea, government sources said.
China, which remains opposed to the plan, has yet to respond to the call for a working-level consultation, the sources said. Japan, which had received reassurance from the International Atomic Energy Agency over the plan’s safety, aims to start the water release around this summer.
Tokyo and Beijing have been at odds over the planned discharge of water, which has gone through a process to remove most of the radionuclides, except tritium, into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima plant, wrecked by a devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami in March 2011.
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