Al Sharaa promises to protect the Druze, over 350 dead

Today's headlines: at least 60 dead in a fire in a shopping centre in Iraq; Chinese digital giant Tencent wants to shut down a website that publishes censored posts on WeChat “for copyright violations”; South Korean President Lee orders new team to investigate Itaewon massacre; Hiroshima opens underground ossuary to journalists with the remains of 70,000 unidentified victims of the atomic bomb 80 years ago.

SYRIA

After violence in the province of Suweida since Sunday that has left more than 350 dead and yesterday's Israeli attacks on Damascus, Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa addressed the nation, promising that it is his “priority” to protect the country's Druze citizens, but also warning Israel that Syrians “are not afraid of war”. Syrian state media reported that the army was withdrawing from Suweida under a ceasefire agreement reached with Druze leaders.

IRAQ

At least 60 people were killed in a fire that broke out last night in a large shopping centre in the eastern Iraqi city of Kut. The flames broke out while many families were crowding the mall for shopping and dinner.

CHINA

Chinese tech giant Tencent has requested the removal of the website FreeWeChat.com, an archive developed by the anti-censorship group GreatFire that aims to make posts deleted or blocked on WeChat, often related to politically sensitive topics, accessible. According to the statement, Tencent's legal representative, Group-IB, accused FreeWeChat of trademark and copyright infringement and submitted a removal request to the site's hosting provider. GreatFire rejected the allegations, explaining that it does not use the WeChat logo, does not claim any affiliation with WeChat, nor does it distribute modified WeChat software. ‘The intent is clear: to silence us,’ they explain.

SOUTH KOREA

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has ordered the creation of a new team of investigators, composed of police and prosecutors, to investigate the Halloween tragedy in the Itaewon district that killed 159 people, mostly young people, in 2022. Lee's decision to launch a new investigation came during a meeting with the families of victims of recent major disasters. The new team will work alongside a special commission set up in September last year to examine the case.

JAPAN

On 16 July, the city of Hiroshima opened the underground ossuary of the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound to the press for the first time in ten years. The ossuary holds the remains of approximately 70,000 unidentified victims of the atomic bomb, along with those of 812 identified individuals whose families have never been traced. ‘We hope this will lead to the discovery of surviving family members,’ said a city official.

PHILIPPINES

Suspicious intrusions by commercial fishing vessels into the 15-kilometre municipal water zone increased by 10.5% between 2023 and 2024, according to data from the Karagatan Patrol illegal fishing monitoring platform developed by Oceana Philippines. The platform is used by local governments to monitor intrusions and protect the preferential rights of small-scale fishermen in municipal waters. ‘Our fishing communities, already among the poorest in the country, now face increasingly empty seas and declining livelihoods due to rampant illegal commercial fishing,’ said Rose-Liza Eisma-Osorio, vice president of Oceana.

GEORGIA

The Georgian Dream party, which holds a monopoly in the Tbilisi parliament and is not recognised by the opposition, has approved a number of amendments that strengthen the fight against drug trafficking, imposing “forced testing” on anti-government protesters, who defend themselves by claiming that the prohibited substances were planted by the police.