Monsoon-triggered landslide in Cox’s Bazar leaves at least eight Rohingya dead

Today’s headlines: Russian attack on a residential complex in Kyiv; Turkey has arrested over 100 anti-NATO protesters in Ankara; In the Philippines, the impeachment proceedings against Sara Duterte have begun; India halts sugar exports to boost biofuel production.

BANGLADESH

At least eight people of Rohingya ethnicity, including some children, have died today as a result of landslides in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, which are home to 1.2 million people. Most families live in makeshift shelters made of bamboo and plastic sheeting on steep, deforested slopes, which are prone to landslides during the monsoon season.

PHILIPPINES

The impeachment trial of Vice-President Sara Duterte begins today, a process that will determine whether the former president’s daughter will be eligible to stand in the 2028 presidential elections. It is not yet clear how long the trial will last. A conviction requires the votes of at least 16 of the 24 members of the Senate.

INDIA

To reduce spending on oil imports, India has decided to blend petrol with 20 per cent ethanol produced from sugar cane. This decision to focus increasingly on biofuels is transforming the sector and the work of sugar mills: the government has in fact banned sugar exports until 30 September. India was the world’s second-largest sugar exporter after Brazil, but now ranks seventh.

CHINA

Over 95 per cent of new Chinese mini-series produced in the first quarter of 2026 were generated by artificial intelligence, compared with virtually none a year earlier. The film industry in China now demands new skills from filmmakers: at the Shanghai International Film Festival, which took place at the end of June, the highlight was the ‘AI Backlot’ programme, which enables filmmakers to work with AI developers to produce an AI-generated short film within a month.

TURKEY

The Turkish authorities have arrested more than 100 people who took part in a protest march against NATO organised by the Communist Party (TKP). Tomorrow and on Wednesday, Ankara will host the leaders of 32 allied countries, but demonstrations have also taken place in Istanbul. The government has not issued any immediate comments on the protests or the arrests. Last month, the authorities – who stated they had carried out counter-terrorism operations – arrested 103 people in Ankara.

RUSSIA – UKRAINE

In the early hours of the morning, Russia launched missiles and drones at Kyiv, killing at least 10 people. A further 46 people were injured. These were civilians who were in residential buildings. Meanwhile, in the space of just one week, confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin has fallen by 3.4 percentage points, whilst approval of his performance has dropped by 3.5 per cent. According to a study by the state-run Vitsom centre, this is a decline at a rate not seen since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, and his approval rating has not fallen so sharply since 2024. 73 per cent of those surveyed said they had confidence in the Russian dictator, whilst 22.1 per cent expressed a lack of confidence, compared with 76.7 per cent and 18.8 per cent the previous week.

GEORGIA

The city of Batumi on the Black Sea, Georgia’s main port and tourist destination, is set to undertake one of the largest infrastructure projects in recent years: the Municipal Development Fund has launched a tender worth 5.5 million lari (just under 2 million euros) for a project that will completely transform the city’s main coastal area, involving the construction of a new footbridge over the Chorokhi River and a complete redevelopment of the entire seafront, from the historic quarter to the modern coastal areas.

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