INTERNATIONAL

On Wednesday, Pakistan’s military accused India of escalating firing and shelling across the Line of Control (LOC). Major General Amer Ahsan Nawaz, commander of the Pakistani military in Pakistan’s side of Kashmir, blamed the Indian Army of trying to divert attention from the unrest in its part of Kashmir by increasing firing and shelling across the de facto border. “If you compare it to the past years, there is a definite increase in this year,” he said. Pakistan’s military reported almost 1,800 ceasefire violations until now in 2020 whereas in 2019, when ceasefire violations hit a more than decade-high peak, there were just over 3,500 ceasefire incidents. The Pakistani military also stated that the usual increase in ceasefire violations during the more volatile summer season ...

On Wednesday, index.hu, Hungary’s leading independent news website announced it had fired its editor-in-chief, Szabolcs Dull, a month after he had warned the organization about its independence from the government is at risk. Several Hungarian journalists view Dull’s sacking as a major concern as they accuse Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s nationalist government of increasing an “attack on press freedoms” in Hungary to win favorable coverage. Employees of index.hu in a statement called the sacking as “unacceptable” and stated that they “cannot regard it as anything but an open attempt at pressure, which will lead to the end of independent editorial work.” The Hungarian government made no immediate comments but later denied interfering in the situation. Concerns about the independ...

On Wednesday, the federal court of Canada declared an asylum agreement it had with the US as invalid because it accused the US of violating the human rights of refugees. Since 2004, The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) of Canda, required people claiming refugee status to seek protection in the first safe country they reach. However, a judge in the federal court of Canada declared the agreement unconstitutional because of the high chances of the US imprisoning the migrants. Lawyers of refugees that were asked to return from the Canadian border had challenged the STCA, asserting that the US did not certify as "safe" for asylum seekers. Federal court judge Ann Marie McDonald in her ruling, said, "It is my conclusion, based upon the evidence, that ineligible STCA claimants are ret...

On Wednesday, Mike Rayan, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert, said first COVID-19 vaccine use cannot be expected until early 2021 even as researchers are making “good progress” in developing the vaccines and with several vaccines now in phase 3 trials. “Realistically it is going to be the first part of next year before we start seeing people getting vaccinated,” Mike said a public event on social media. Talking about WHO working towards ensuring fair vaccine distribution, he said, “And we need to be fair about this because this is a global good. Vaccines for this pandemic are not for the wealthy, they are not for the poor, they are for everybody”. Mike further spoke about the need for schools to be cautious about re-opening until community transmission of COVID-19 is under c...

On Wednesday, Airstrikes by Afghan forces in eastern Afganistan killed 45 civilians and Taliban members, local officials said. The governor of Adraskan District in the eastern Afghanistan province of Heart, Ali Ahmad Faqir Yar, reported at least 8 civilians among the dead. “Forty-five people had been killed so far in airstrikes by security forces in the Kham Ziarat area, Taliban were among those killed,” Ahmad said. It is unknown how many of the remaining 37 causalities were civilians and how many were Taliban members. Although, a Taliban spokesman, Qari Muhammad Yousuf Ahmadi has said that there were two airstrikes in Heart, which resulted in the killing of 8 civilians and wounding of 12. Addressing the situation, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense made a statement saying it...

On Wednesday, a Zimbabwean journalist and a rights activist were charged in court over accusations of encouraging public violence before next week’s planned anti-government protests. The arrests consist of Jacob Ngarivhume, an activist, as well as Hopewell Chin’ono who is a freelance journalist and government critic. Both were arrested at their homes on Monday. Ngarivhume and Chin’ono had supported the July 31 protest against government corruption. State prosecutors in the court claim the two used their Twitter accounts to ignite public violence by motivating Zimbabweans to come out to protest. Ngarivhume and Chin’ono were not asked to enter a plea. They both could face up to 10 years in prison if charged guilty. The journalist and activist as of now will be jailed until ...

On Wednesday, United States (US) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on India to focus on domestic supply chains and reduce its dependence on China by moving "supply chains away from China and reduce(ing) its reliance on Chinese companies in areas like telecommunications, medical supplies, and others”. Pompeo’s made these statements during the recent online US-India Business Council India Ideas Summit. Tensions between India and China have increased after the Galwan Valley border clash last month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed. While blaming China for initiating the border clash, Pompeo stated, "The recent clashes initiated by the PLA (People's Liberation Army) are just the latest examples of the CCP's (Chinese Communist Party) unacceptable behavior". "India is in th...

Sudan’s former political leader has been put under trial in the capital, Khartoum, for the coup d'état of 1989 that brought him to power over three decades ago. Al Bashir who has already been convicted of corruption could face a death penalty if found guilty of the coup. 20 other officials, along with Al Bashir, are on trial for removing the democratically elected government led by Sadek al-Mahdi in 1989. Bashir was toppled in 2019 following popular protests that started the civilian uprising in 2018 as anti-austerity demonstrations and turned into demands of an end to Al Bashir's presidency. Al Bashir is also sought by the International Criminal Court for accusations of war crimes and genocide in the western Darfur region.

On Tuesday, Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, at a press conference in Tehran, alongside Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani said, “ The people of Iraq want good relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran based on the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of both countries”. “Iraq is a country that won’t allow any aggression or challenge to Iran from its territory,” added Kadhimi. The growing tensions between Iran and the United States (US) have led the Iraqi Prime Minister to openly issue a statement for not using Iraqi soil as a battlefield. Later in a meeting with Kadhimi, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appreciated the Popular Mobilisation Forces, an Iraqi state-controlled institution that is an umbrella grouping of militias, many supporte...

On Tuesday, Mike Pompeo, United States (US) Secretary of State said the US wants to build a global coalition to counter China. Pompeo, accused China of covering up and exploiting the coronavirus pandemic for its own interests, making illegal maritime claims, and bullying Himalayan countries. The US President Donald Trump often calls the coronavirus outbreak as the “China plague”. “We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat and will work collectively to convince the Chinese Communist Party that it is not in their best interest to engage in this kind of behavior,” Pompeo told reporters in London alongside British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. “We want to see every nation who understands freedom and democracy...to understand this threat that the Chinese Com...