AFGHANISTAN
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a branch of the Bank of Kabul in Kunduz, where several citizens had gone to collect their salaries. The terrorist group claimed to have killed ‘hundreds of people’, including several Taliban commanders. So far, at least 20 deaths and over 30 injuries have been confirmed. The Ministry of Defence has asked Taliban officials to take additional security measures.
INDIA
Hate speech against religious minorities increased by 74.4% in 2024 in India, according to a study published in recent days. Muslims and Christians have been targeted by some of the leading members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party: in particular, the report considered the statements of several politicians: the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Minister of the Interior, Amit Shah.
SOUTH KOREA
A teacher stabbed an eight-year-old girl at an elementary school in Seoul. South Korea's acting president, Choi Sang-mok, ordered an investigation into the case and urged the authorities to ‘take the necessary measures to ensure that similar incidents never happen again’. The 40-year-old teacher told police that he had been suffering from depression since 2018.
JAPAN
The cab of the lorry that was swallowed up by a sinkhole in Saitama, near the city of Tokyo, has been found, and local authorities believe that the driver's body may be inside. ‘After experts analysed the photos taken with a drone, they said that you can see the cab of a truck and they cannot rule out the possibility that what appears to be inside is a person,’ explained fire chief Tomonori Nakazawa. For two weeks the rescuers tried to recover the man, without success, leading to the suspension of rescue operations.
SAUDI ARABIA
Salma al-Shehab, a British citizen and PhD student at the University of Leeds arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2021 while on holiday for some tweets in support of women's rights, has been released in recent days, according to Alqst, a human rights group that has been following the case. Sentenced to over 30 years in prison, then reduced to four after a long legal battle, al-Shehab should now be free to return to the UK.
RUSSIA
Vladimir Putin has decided to organise the Intervision song contest together with China and the other BRICS countries, as Russia has been excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, one of the organisers of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, has been entrusted with the preparation of the contest, together with his trusted ally Sergei Kirienko, deputy head of the presidential administration, but many fear that the initiative will end up in a farce.
ARMENIA
Armenia's Foreign Minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, spoke at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in Oslo, emphasising ‘the importance of achieving lasting peace in the region’, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours, and Armenia is looking for ‘new partners to guarantee the stability of the results achieved’.
