Asia
Afghanistan: hundreds dead after powerful earthquake
A powerful 6.0 magnitude earthquake has devastated Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, killing 1,400 and injuring at least 3,000. Striking late at night near Jalalabad, the quake was felt as far away…
China: huge military parade watched by Putin, Kim, and other leaders
Beijing has hosted a grand military parade marking eighty years since the end of WW2, with Xi Jinping standing alongside Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in a rare joint appearance. Xi framed…
Pakistan: nearly half a million displaced by floods
Catastrophic flooding has displaced nearly half a million people in Pakistan’s Punjab province after days of torrential monsoon rain swelled three major rivers. More than 2,300 villages have been inundated, affecting over 1.5…
Israel / Gaza: attack on hospital condemned, famine officially declared, Pope’s plea
A deadly double strike on a hospital in Gaza has drawn sharp international condemnation. At least twenty people were killed, including five journalists and four health workers, when two consecutive strikes targeted the…
Iran: nuclear negotiations resume, executions mount, radicals battle reformists
Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the E3 countries (Germany, France, and the UK) have resumed in Geneva. With a packed agenda, the focus is on lifting sanctions, which have caused severe damage to the…
Iran: ‘unimaginable joy’ for an undercover believer
Bita’s life in Iran was marked by abandonment, abuse, and despair. Raised in hardship, forced into servitude, and married at 14 to an unfaithful addict, she endured decades of rejection and loneliness. Broken…
Pakistan: devastation and deaths caused by monsoon floods
The village of Bishnoi in northern Pakistan has been devastated by a sudden flash flood, leaving entire homes buried beneath rocks and debris. On 15 August, torrential rains triggered a surge of water…
Gaza: Hamas agrees to Qatar’s latest ceasefire proposal
Qatar has emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza, highlighting what it called a ‘positive response’ from Hamas to a new truce proposal. The plan, similar to an earlier US-brokered offer…
Hong Kong: UK and Australia each grant asylum to a pro-democracy activist
Australia and the UK have each granted asylum to a prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist. In 2020, lawmaker Ted Hui threw rotten plants on the floor of the legislative council chamber to protest…
Malaysia: urgent action needed to combat school bullying
Bullying remains a pervasive and deadly problem in Malaysia’s schools, with thousands of cases recorded annually and incidents escalating to violence and even death. Despite public outrage, policy gaps and weak enforcement allow…
