Seoul sent leaflets infected with COVID-19, says Kim Jong-Un's sister:
The other news of the day: China ends military exercises around Taiwan. Vietnam is campaigning against "fake news". Militants attack Indian military outpost in Kashmir. The number of Russians and Ukrainians fleeing to Israel is up. The appeal for the release of Russian dissident Ilya Jashin was rejected.
NORTH KOREA
According to Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, South Korea is responsible for the outbreak of COVID-19 in North Korea through propaganda leaflets. Kim Yo-jong said today that Pyongyang is preparing its response, noting that Kim Jong-un recently recovered from “high fever”.
CHINA
Chinese authorities announced yesterday the end of military exercises around Taiwan, which began on 4 August in response to the visit to Taiwan of Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives. Beijing stressed that it will continue patrolling the area, while the Taiwanese have said they will react flexibly depending on the level of threat.
VIETNAM
Hanoi has launched a campaign to contain online fake news. Vietnamese authorities say the number of reports deemed untrue has risen from 5,000 per day in 2018 to 100,000 today. However, content deletion has often to do with the repression of dissent.
INDIA
A group of Muslim militants this morning attacked an Indian army outpost in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing three soldiers. The Indian military responded by killing two militants. India and Pakistan have fought several wars for control of the area, where pro-independence groups also operate.
ISRAEL
Since Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Israel has seen an increase in arrivals from Russia and Ukraine. According to the Israeli Bureau of Statistics, more than 31,000 immigrants have arrived, 12,175 from Ukraine and 18,891 from Russia.
RUSSIA
A court in Moscow rejected an appeal against the pre-trial detention of Ilya Jashin, an opposition politician arrested for “feyk’, fake news against the Russian army. During the hearing, Jashin stood like a protester in a picket line, showing a handwritten piece of paper with the “No to war” written on it.
GEORGIA
The commemoration of the death of 228 civilians, 169 military and 19 policemen in the 2008 Russian-Georgian War rekindled the diatribe between the country’s ruling and opposition parties. Despite President Salome Zourabichvili’s calls for reconciliation, the two sides accuse each other of not preventing the conflict.
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