Niger coup: ECOWAS delegation arrives after ‘D-day’ invasion threat
Soldiers who overthrew the democratically elected president in July have quickly entrenched themselves in power and rebuffed dialogue efforts.
A delegation from regional nations arrived in Niger in a last-ditch diplomatic effort to reach a peaceful solution with mutinous soldiers who overthrew the country’s president last month.
A plane carrying the delegation landed in the capital Niamey at about 1pm (12:00 GMT) on Saturday, a day after the bloc’s military chiefs said they were ready to intervene to reinstate deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.
Niger’s governing military council confirmed the arrival of the ECOWAS representatives, headed by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Pakistani opposition leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi detained
Reason for arrest of former foreign minister and leader of PTI is not immediately clear, party says
Reuters
Sat 19 Aug 2023 16.19 BST
Pakistani opposition leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi was detained on Saturday, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said, just hours after he said it would challenge any delay to the country’s election in the courts.
Party spokesperson Zulfi Bukhari told Reuters the specific reason for the detention of Qureshi, twice Pakistan’s foreign minister, was not immediately clear. The caretaker information minister did not respond to a request for comment.
Bukhari condemned the arrest on the social media platform X, saying Qureshi was “arrested for doing a press conference and reaffirming PTI stance against all tyranny and pre poll rigging that is going on currently in Pakistan”.
Taiwan slams Chinese ‘bully next door’ amid military drills
The air and sea drills close to Taiwan are seen as a response to a visit of its Vice President William Lai to the US. China has derided Lai as a “troublemaker” who backs “Taiwanese independence” separatists.
China conducted military exercises around Taiwan on Saturday as a “stern warning” in reaction to the recent US stopover by Taiwan’s Vice President, William Lai.
State media CCTV announced that the operation involved missile-armed boats and fighter jets, simulating an encirclement of Taiwan.
“The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on Saturday launched joint air and sea patrols and military exercises of the navy and air force around the island of Taiwan…meant to train the coordination of military vessels and airplanes and their ability to seize control of air and sea spaces,” state media Xinhua reported, quoting Chinese military sources.
Japan’s Fukushima water release plan fuels fear despite IAEA backing
Japan plans to release more than 1 million metric tonnes of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean by the end of August. After years of debate, and despite a green light from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the plan continues to stoke fears among the local population and in nearby countries.
Twelve years after the triple catastrophe – earthquake, tsunami, reactor meltdown – that struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in 2011, Japan is preparing to release part of the treated wastewater from the stricken plant into the Pacific Ocean this month. A recent article from the daily Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun revealed the upcoming release without specifying a date.
The release of contaminated water by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has been on the cards since 2018 but it was repeatedly postponed until it finally received endorsement from the International Atomic Energy Agency in early July. After a two-year review, five review missions to Japan, six technical reports and five missions on the ground, the international nuclear watchdog said the discharges of the treated water were consistent with the agency’s safety standards, with “negligible radiological impact to people and the environment”. The green light, which cleared the path for the completion of the project, was greeted with scepticism by some members of the scientific community and with animosity by many local fishermen who fear that consumers will shun their products.
Scientists race to understand highly mutated coronavirus variant spotted in four countries, including the US
By Brenda Goodman, CNN
A highly mutated new variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 has countries on alert as scientists scramble to understand how far it has spread and how well our immunity will defend against it.
The new variant, called BA.2.86 and nicknamed Pirola by variant hunters on social media, has more than 30 amino acid changes to its spike protein compared with its next closest ancestor, the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, according to Dr. Jesse Bloom, who studies viral evolution at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.
“This makes it an evolutionary jump comparable in size to that which originally gave rise to Omicron,” Bloom posted on his lab’s website.
Chernihiv: Russian missile strike kills seven and injures 110, Ukraine says
By James Waterhouse & George Wright
BBC News in Chernihiv and London
Seven people, including a six-year-old child, were killed when a Russian missile struck the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, officials said.
Twelve children were among 110 people wounded, the interior ministry said. Twenty-five people were hospitalised.
Among the victims were people who had been celebrating an Orthodox religious holiday at church, the ministry said.
A main square, university building and a famous theatre were damaged in the attack, which the UN called “heinous”.
The city’s imposing theatre was hit directly. Tiles were blown off the roofs of neighbouring buildings with one catching fire 100 metres away.
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