A former cabinet minister was shot dead in Zambia when security forces raided the home of opposition leader Brian Mundubile a day after the August 13 presidential election, police revealed in a statement today. Mutotwe Kafwaya, 49, an opposition MP who had previously been works minister and later transport minister, was killed in the operation, which the government said was aimed at dismantling a militia that posed "a serious threat to State security." President Hakainde Hichilema won a second term in the election, with about 60 percent of the vote, but Mundubile says his NRPUP party has discovered “serious irregularities.” Zambia has largely been a stable democracy since 1991.

More from Africa News here.

Listen to/watch The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Syria

Israel and Turkey are trading barbs two days after Israel bombed a Syrian airbase where it said Turkish troops were about to deploy. Israel accused Turkey of “dangerous adventures in Syria,” while Turkey shot back that Israel should cease its “reckless” attacks. The row underlines increasing regional competition between Tel Aviv and Ankara, with Israel worried about Turkey’s influence over Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa since a lightning rebel offensive on the capital Damascus toppled then-President Bashar al-Assad after 14 years of civil war.

More from Reuters here.

DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fighting the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record, is to receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine for the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Though the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is no vaccine, is responsible for the epidemic, there are early indications that Ervebo may have some impact. “It is not known whether Ervebo may ​be protective against the Bundibugyo virus in humans,” WHO said, adding clinical trials would provide new evidence. Some 2,476 people are confirmed to have died so far, according to local health authorities.

More from AP here.

The death toll from the collapse of a gold mine in the Central African Republic (CAR) has risen to more than 100 people, according to officials and the Red Cross. An investigation has begun to determine the cause of the disaster, identify victims and establish potential criminal liability, the prosecutor’s office in the Baboua sub-prefecture, where the incident took place, said. The number of deaths was likely to rise, Bertrand Be Yangué, a member of the local youth council, said. “Finding them alive would be a miracle,” Yangué said. “We are saddened and heartbroken to see young men and women perish after coming to the mines to save their families from despair.” Artisanal mine collapses are common in CAR.

More from AP here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong has rubbished Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s assertion that Pyongyang is about to send 50,000 more troops to fight for Russia. Zelensky made the claim on X earlier this month, calling on South Korea to provide support for his country’s air defenses. Kim Yo Jong called the Ukrainian president’s statement "groundless" and "a self-staged incident." North Korea has already sent an estimated 14,000 troops to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, as well as supplying Moscow ‌with artillery and mortar rounds, ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems. Memorial services attended by Kim Jong Un have been held in Pyongyang for North Korean troops killed in the war.

More from Reuters here.

Gaza

Israeli attacks on a police station and a refugee camp in Gaza killed at least 10 people on Wednesday, reporters and officials said. The al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said it had received nine bodies following a strike on the municipal police headquarters in the city, while at least one person was killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The attacks came a day after Israeli drone strikes on a seaside café killed seven people, including a child, the force of the explosion throwing people into the sea. Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire in October but Israel has repeatedly violated it, killing at least 1,273 people since it was signed.

More from Al Jazeera here.

At least seven people, including a child, have been killed in an Israeli drone attack on a cafe in Gaza. One of the bodies was so mutilated it couldn’t be identified, health officials said, believing the victim was directly hit by a missile. Al Jazeera reported that the force of the strike threw people into the sea from the portside “Sweet and Bitter” cafe, meaning the death toll could be higher. The Israeli military said it had targeted several “Hamas commanders” without providing evidence. Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire in October but Israel has repeatedly violated the truce, killing at least 1,265 people since it was signed.

More from Middle East Eye here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Liberia

Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the U.S. over the next year, with the first group of 20 to arrive on Thursday, the government said. The deal is the latest in a series of similar agreements that President Donald Trump has struck with African nations, ⁠including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone, to take in people Washington cannot legally send to their home countries. The terms of the deals often remain secret, but Liberia said there would be no “quid pro ​quo” with the U.S. and that the gesture was humanitarian. The deportees, who will include nationals from Africa, South America and the Caribbean, can seek asylum in Liberia or “can leave the country whenever they desire,” Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah said.

More from AP here.

China

Security was visibly tightened in China’s capital Beijing as the funeral of former Premier Zhu Rongji was held. Ninety-seven-year-old Zhu, who died of an illness last week, was considered an influential reformer who set China on the path to economic development. His cremation was attended by President Xi Jinping but kept deliberately discreet with no footage released. China sees deaths of former leaders and senior officials as potential flashpoints for unrest and anger toward the government of the day. In 1989, the death of Hu Yaobang, a former Chinese Communist Party general secretary believed to favor political reform, prompted an outpouring of grief that culminated in the Tiananmen Square massacre.

More from BBC here.

Attacks on healthcare facilities, staff and patients in conflict zones averaged four a day this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Gaza, Lebanon and Ukraine accounted for the majority of incidents, but there were also attacks ​in countries including Iran, Sudan, Myanmar, Syria, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. All 36 hospitals in Gaza have been damaged in Israeli attacks and only about ​half are partially functional. In Sudan, 37 percent of health facilities are non-functioning. "An ‌attack on ⁠healthcare does not end when an attack gets verified,” Altaf Musani, WHO director of humanitarian and disaster management, said. "It is the patient who cannot receive healthcare tomorrow. It is the ambulance that cannot make the next referral."

More from Reuters here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

China

China’s defense ministry has dismissed Taiwan's annual Han Kuang military drills as a "wasteful charade" that "stoked ​war panic." Taiwan, a democratically run island that Beijing claims as part of its territory, has spent 10 days carrying out exercises that rehearse various scenarios should China invade. The Chinese have been steadily increasing military intimidation toward Taiwan, sending vessels and planes into its seas and airspace almost daily. While Beijing has said it wants “peaceful reunification,” it often threatens the use of force.

More from Internazionale here.

Vietnam

Authorities in Vietnam have uncovered more than a ton of smuggled ivory, which they said was shipped from an unspecified African country. The seizure of 221 pieces of elephant ivory weighing 1,193 kilograms was displayed to the media at Quy Nhơn port in the central province of Gia Lai. Police told reporters it had been concealed in sawn timber. Vietnam is a major hub for the illicit trade of wildlife, dead or alive, with much of it destined for China. The cargo also contained 79.3 kilograms of bones that local reports said came from big cats such as tigers. Crushed animal bones are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

More from AP here

On a recent episode of The Proximities Podcast, I spoke with Taiwanese-American writer and professor Michelle Kuo. We covered Taiwan-China relations and her experience taking part in civil defense drills.. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Pregnant women and babies are dying in Nepal due to President Donald Trump’s sudden slashing of U.S. foreign aid, AP reporting has found. Trump quickly eliminated the United States Agency for International Development at the start of his second term, gutting maternal and child health programs worldwide and decimating nutrition programs for millions of children and pregnant women. The Gates Foundation has predicted that because of global aid cuts, 2025 will be the first year this century in which child deaths will increase.

More from AP here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Gaza

Cancer patients in Gaza are dying at up to three times the rate they did before Oct. 7, 2023, doctors said, as Israel blocks people from traveling abroad for treatment having destroyed the enclave’s only specialist cancer hospital. The Israeli army blew up the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, saying Hamas had built a tunnel under it. Few people can afford to leave Gaza for medical help, but under the terms of an ostensible ceasefire agreed in October, Israel is supposed to coordinate medical evacuations with the U.N. Local officials, though, say far fewer patients than expected have been given permission.

More from Reuters here.

Zambia

Zambians voted today in a presidential election that is expected to return President Hakainde Hichilema to power for a second term after a campaign in which he emphasized economic progress since a ‌pandemic-era debt crisis. Backed by an alliance of parties, first-time candidate Brian Mundubile, a 55-year-old former minister, emerged as Hichilema’s main rival, but despite drawing large crowds to his rallies, he is predicted to fall short. Though economic indicators such as growth have achieved strong numbers in recent years, many Zambians are frustrated by the cost of living amid high food and energy prices.

More from Africa News here.

The Taliban has locked about 2.4 million girls out of secondary education since introducing a ban when it returned to power in 2021, according to the U.N. The figure could rise to nearly 4 million by 2030 if the ban remains in place, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said. Despite promising it would respect women’s rights when it formed a government, the Taliban has put limits on female employment and barred women from public parks, gyms and beauty salons, effectively erasing them from public life.

More from DW here.

On a recent episode of The Proximities Podcast, I spoke to journalists Zahra Joya and Amie Ferris-Rotman about their new book “The Vanishing Girl of Kabul.” Zahra, the founder of a women-led news organization, fled Afghanistan after the Taliban threatened her life. Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Sudan

The bodies of 25 civilians have been found in a mass grave a month after the Sudanese military recaptured a town from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. The dead included women, children and health workers, Abdel Aty Mohamed al-Faki, the commissioner of the town of Kurmuk, said. In March, Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the war, said the RSF looted health facilities in Kurmuk, destroyed its main hospital and assaulted medical workers. The militia, which has been at war with Sudan’s military-led government for more than three years, has been accused of committing a string of war crimes, including carrying out genocidal acts after capturing the city of el-Fasher.

More from the New Arab here.

North Korea

North Korea has launched its second ballistic missile in a week after the U.S. and South Korea announced plans for their annual joint military drills. The Japanese and South Korean militaries said the rocket flew more than 700 km before landing in the Sea of Japan. The Ulchi Freedom Shield drills will begin on August 17 and continue for 11 days, with 18,000 South Korean soldiers taking part, Seoul said. Pyongyang says the drills are a rehearsal for an invasion, often responding with missile tests, while Washington and Seoul insist they are defensive.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Here I am again with the latest worrying numbers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record continues to spread. Out of a total of 4,381 confirmed cases, 2,011 people have died, according to government data published overnight, marking another grim milestone. It took about nine weeks for the outbreak to reach 1,000 deaths, but it’s taken just three weeks for that figure to double. The epidemic is already the second worst of all time after the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that killed more than 11,000. The response has been hampered by the fact that there is no approved vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has caused the crisis.

More from AP here.

Regarding my regular reporting of the numbers, on a recent episode of The Proximities Podcast, Dr. Abdou Sebushishe, currently on the Ebola frontlines in Ituri province, pointed out that there are real people behind the death tolls that are coldly reported in the news media. He told us about some of those people in a moving conversation you can listen to on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Taiwan

The Chinese and Indonesian navies are to hold a drill together in waters to the ​east of Taiwan this month as Beijing continues a campaign of intimidation against Taipei. In June, China rang alarm bells when it began coast guard patrols off the east coat of Taiwan, which it views as its own territory. "The exercise will focus ​on communication drills and at-sea replenishment, aiming to enhance the joint operational ‌capabilities ⁠of the two navies, deepen practical cooperation, and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability," China’s defense ministry said.

More from Reuters here.

Syria

Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad, both living in exile in Russia, have been sentenced to death by a Damascus court for crimes against humanity committed during the country’s 14-year civil war. A cousin, Atef Najib, who is in custody in Syria, also received a death sentence. Assad, who fled in the face of a lightning rebel offensive in 2024, was found guilty of premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity. Najib, the former head of political security in Deraa province, was convicted of murder, “the intentional killing of children under 15” and “torture leading to death.”

More from Al Jazeera here.

Police in India have used tear gas, water cannons and baton charges against thousands of young people as they protested alleged wrongdoing in civil service examinations in the eastern Jharkhand state, including the leaking of exam papers. The demonstration followed weeks of headline-grabbing protests in the capital Delhi, also over exam paper leaks, that led to the resignation of the country’s education minister Dharmendra Pradhan last month. The protesters in Jharkhand, who were marching on the state legislature in the city of Ranchi, are demanding an overhaul ​of Jharkhand’s examination system, the cancellation of some tests and an investigation by the ​federal police.

More from Reuters here.

Episode 11 of The Proximities Podcast is live. This week, I spoke to Eric Reidy, Migration & Special Coverage Editor for The New Humanitarian, to dig into what really happened in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa last week beyond the headlines. Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Syria

Damascus and Moscow have come to a deal over the future of two strategic Mediterranean coastal bases in Syria, with Moscow agreeing to end its use of the facilities as military outposts. Russia was the key political and military ally of former leader Bashar al-Assad as he fought a 13-year war against armed groups of which current President Ahmed al-Sharaa was a prominent leader. Under the agreement, Syria will take control of the bases, and the military facilities at both sites will become “joint training and qualification centers.” Russia did not intervene in the lightning offensive that toppled Assad in 2024, but it did provide him and his family asylum in Moscow, where they remain.

More from France 24 here.

Senegal

Seventy-one men have been arrested in Senegal and charged with “unnatural acts,” the public prosecutor’s office said, as a crackdown on the LGBT+ community appeared to intensify. Senegal passed a harsh new anti-gay law in April that doubled to 10 years the maximum prison sentence for people engaging in same-sex relations. More than 100 people have been charged since the law was introduced, including celebrities. Analysts say that the government often uses repression of LGBT+ people as a populist attempt at drawing support.

More from Africa News here.

It’s been almost exactly a year since we published a deep dive on the war in the Sahel, which is easily one of the world’s most under-reported conflicts.

In that piece, I focused on the simultaneous insurgencies that several armed groups were waging against the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in what is known as the triangle, or the tri-border region, where the three countries meet - often dramatically described as the world’s “epicenter of terrorism”.

There have been coups in all three nations in recent years, partly justified by the failure to beat back the insurgents, and all are now run by military juntas.

While al-Qaeda- and ISIS-aligned groups had been active in the area for years, almost overthrowing Mali’s government in 2012, I wrote last year that the Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) militia was growing in strength.

I also quoted Caleb Weiss, an editor at the Long War Journal, who told Reuters: "I don't really see the regimes in Mali, Niger and Burkina holding on forever. Eventually one of them is going to fall or one of them is going to lose a substantial amount of territory, which Burkina Faso already has."

He certainly hasn’t lost that bet yet.

And while Burkina Faso was then the most fertile battleground for JNIM, Mali is now under real pressure and JNIM has found another powerful group to fight alongside. The two even launched a highly coordinated wave of simultaneous attacks in April during which Mali’s defense minister was killed.

It seems like a good time for an update on the latest news. Q&A below.

Bests,

Barry.

Episode 11 of The Proximities Podcast is now live. This week, I spoke to Eric Reidy, Migration & Special Coverage Editor for The New Humanitarian, to dig into what really happened in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa last week beyond the headlines. Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

So what’s been happening in Mali?

For the purposes of this update, let’s start with the startling attacks that were carried out on April 25. It’s maybe a little inaccurate to say that they were entirely unexpected. As I said, JNIM had been seeing increasing success.

But two things really stood out here:

1. JNIM wasn’t alone. It launched the attacks alongside a group called the Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, a group mostly made up of members of the ethnic Tuareg minority who are fighting for an independent Tuareg state. It was the first such operation in more than a decade, and it went incredibly smoothly. It was viewed as professional and perfectly synchronized.

2. The scale and the fact the attacks hit right at the heart of Mali’s government. This assault was not confined to rebel strongholds; there were more than half a dozen simultaneous attacks. Fighters took the strategic town of Kidal. The airport in the capital Bamako was attacked. And in the biggest blow, Mali’s defense minister, Sadio Camara, was killed in a suicide attack on his home.

As mentioned in Proximities before, the Russian state-controlled Africa Corps (previously the Wagner Group) militia is also an important player, with fighters stationed in Mali to support the junta in its war against the rebels.

But it has suffered significant defeats on the battlefield and, last month, Human Rights Watch documented an air raid in which the Russians killed eight civilians.

Abuses like that can have an important impact, which I will explain below.

Are we looking at a government being toppled here?

Well, when a rebel group manages to kill your defense minister, it’s something to seriously worry about. At the very least, it’s a hell of a psychological blow and it tells Mali’s military rulers that they are not invincible and can be got to.

I should add that there is a new minister. Junta leader Gen. Assimi Goïta gave himself the job in what some saw as a sign his authority was threatened.

Most worrying for the government, though, is the alliance between JNIM and the FLA, which the groups had reportedly been negotiating for more than a year.

Read more

Episode 11 of The Proximities Podcast is now live.

This week, I spoke to Eric Reidy, Migration & Special Coverage Editor for The New Humanitarian, to dig into what really happened in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa last week.

Proximities usually covers under-reported news and, obviously, this story dominated the agenda when it happened. But I think we can also add value by providing the context that the headline news often misses.

That’s what we tried to do in this episode.

We discussed the thorny politics at play between the European Union and North African nations when it comes to migration, not only in Morocco, but in Libya and Tunisia too, where it can be argued the EU is funding appalling abuses.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Please do like, subscribe, comment or rate depending on your platform. It really does help the stories get out there.

All the best,

Barry

Israel deliberately targeted and killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and intentionally prevented medical workers from reaching her as she lay dying, the world’s two leading rights groups have found. At a press conference in Beirut, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, alongside Lebanese watchdog Legal Agenda and the Union of Journalists in Lebanon, said they had reached the conclusion after reviewing and corroborating photos, videos, satellite imagery, WhatsApp conversations and testimonies from eyewitnesses and officials. Forty-two-year-old Khalil, a reporter for the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, was killed in a direct strike on a building in southern Lebanon that she was known to have taken shelter in with her colleague Zeinab Faraj, who was wounded.

More from AP here.

The Koreas

An apparent disagreement has emerged between South Korea's foreign minister and its unification minister over how to deal with North Korea. Foreign Minister Cho Hyun called proposals put forward by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young this week "idealistic," adding other ministries had not backed them. Chung later told reporters that ideals were needed “to change reality.” The discord may prove embarrassing for dovish President Lee Jae Myung, who has pursued a “peace-first” policy towards Pyongyang. Chung’s proposals ⁠included four-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States and China.

More from Reuters here.

DR Congo

Confirmed cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have passed 4,000 as the country struggles to beat the fastest-growing outbreak on record. The latest data from DRC’s public health institute showed the total number of infections had reached 4,053, including 1,850 deaths. The U.N. believes the true figure is higher given the virus is thought to have been spreading undetected before the outbreak was declared on May 15. The response has been hampered by challenges, including the epicenter’s location in a conflict zone and the lack of a vaccine for the rarer Ebola strain responsible for the epidemic.

More from TRT Afrika here.

In the latest episode of The Proximities Podcast, Dr. Abdou Sebushishe, currently on the Ebola frontlines in Ituri province, pointed out that there are real people behind the death tolls that are coldly reported by outlets such as Proximities. You can hear him tell some of those stories on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

North Korea is deploying a missile unit to Russia that could be equipped with 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers to carry out attacks on Ukraine, according to an exclusive Reuters report. Andrii Cherniak of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence told the news agency that the unit would be made up of about 90 Korean personnel. Ukraine is short of high-end air defenses and vulnerable to ballistic missiles. Pyongyang is estimated to have sent about 14,000 troops to fight in the Ukraine war, and with up to 6,000 believed killed, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has held public memorial services for the fallen soldiers. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that the Kremlin had requested an additional 30,000 troops from North Korea.

More from Reuters here.

Episode 10 of The Proximities Podcast is now live. This week, we were joined from the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Dr. Abdou Sebushishe of the International Medical Corps. Dr. Abdou gave us an update from the frontlines, told us personal stories of people who have contracted the virus and reflected on his experiences as a Congolese doctor facing down an outbreak in his own community.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

DR Congo

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as it struggles to control the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. There have been 3,874 cases, resulting in 1,751 deaths, according to figures from DRC’s health ministry. The WHO, though, has said the number is likely much higher because the virus is believed to have widely circulated before the epidemic was officially declared on May 15. Tedros, who is scheduled to meet with DRC’s Preisdent Félix Tshisekedi, said the outbreak is now spreading faster than efforts to fight it.

More from the Independent here.

Uganda

The Ugandan military has built a monument to Yonatan Netanyahu, an older brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was killed when Tel Aviv sent commandos into the East African country to retrieve hostages in 1976. The statue of Yonatan Netanyahu holding an assault rifle was unveiled by army chief Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni, who said he personally commissioned it. Israeli commandos killed dozens of Ugandan soldiers in the assault on Entebbe airport to rescue 106 predominantly Israeli passengers from a hijacked plane, enraging the pro-Palestinian Ugandan President Idi Amin, who cooperated with the hijackers. At the time, the Organization of African Unity, the African Union’s predecessor, called the raid, which is widely celebrated in Israel, a violation of Uganda’s sovereignty.

More from AP here.

Aid shortages in Afghanistan are forcing health workers to turn away millions of children and mothers despite a surge in child malnutrition rates, according to the U.N. food agency. It amounts to six out of seven of those in need, the World Food Programme said. Child wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, is reported to have reached “critical” levels in three provinces. Afghanistan suffered massive cuts to its foreign aid after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The situation has deteriorated since U.S. President Donald Trump slashed aid funding and ordered the effective closure of the U.S. government development agency.

More from Reuters here.

Episode 10 of The Proximities Podcast is now live. This week, we were joined from the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Dr. Abdou Sebushishe of the International Medical Corps. Dr. Abdou gave us an update from the frontlines, told us personal stories of people who have contracted the virus and reflected on his experiences as a Congolese doctor facing down an outbreak in his own community.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Bangladesh

India has denied it is involved in a heavily anticipated speech from toppled Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is living in exile in New Delhi. Bangladesh summoned the Indian ambassador in its capital, Dhaka, and told him Hasina should not be allowed to make political statements on Indian soil. Hasina was overthrown by a youth-led street uprising in 2024, fleeing to India as protesters closed in on her official residence. In June, the 78-year-old vowed to return to Bangladesh this year despite being sentenced to death in absentia.

More from Anadolu here.

Gaza

A mass funeral has been held in Gaza for 112 people whose bodies have just been recovered from the rubble of an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in 2023. The residential block in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood was completely destroyed by Israeli warplanes, killing more than 300 people. At least 7,400 people have been reported by relatives as missing under the rubble of flattened buildings, but the true number is likely much greater as entire families were killed in a large number of attacks. “The only crime of these martyrs was that they remained steadfast and resilient in their homes, believing that these homes would protect them,” one relative, Taysir al-Hassayna, told AP after the funeral.

More from AP here.

Episode 10 of the Proximities podcast is now live.

This week, I was joined from the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo by Dr. Abdou Sebushishe of the International Medical Corps, who is working - relentlessly - on the frontlines of what has become the fastest-growing Ebola epidemic on record.

Dr. Abdou gave us an update on the progression of the virus, told us personal stories of people who have contracted the virus, and reflected on his experiences as a Congolese doctor facing down the outbreak in his own community.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Please do like, subscribe, comment or rate depending on your platform. It really does help the stories get out there.

All bests,

Barry.

Myanmar's detained former ​leader and longtime democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has appeared in public, providing the first sign of life from the Nobel Peace Prize winner since a letter to her son two and a half years ago. Suu Kyi met with a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross after growing concerns about the health of the 81-year-old. Myanmar collapsed into civil war in early 2021 after the military toppled a democratically elected government led by Suu Kyi. The junta’s decision to allow the meeting and release photos of it may indicate a desire to end its diplomatic isolation.

More from BBC here.

Episode 10 of The Proximities Podcast is now live. This week, we were joined from the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Dr. Abdou Sebushishe of the International Medical Corps. Dr. Abdou gave us an update from the frontlines, told us personal stories of people who have contracted the virus and reflected on his experiences as a Congolese doctor facing down an outbreak in his own community.

Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.

Pakistan

A suspected suicide bomber has killed at least 17 people outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan, police said, as the country grapples with increasing insecurity. Locals were holding a pro-police rally at the time, but it was not immediately clear whether it was the intended target. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan armed group claimed responsibility in a statement. Attacks on police and the military have escalated sharply in recent months in Pakistan’s border areas. The government in Islamabad blames the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan for the attacks and says it is harboring armed groups. The Taliban denies that.

More from Reuters here.

Singapore

British band Massive Attack has said members were detained in Singapore and “isolated and separately questioned” after two of the group unfurled a Palestinian flag at a concert last week. In a statement on Instagram, the band said several members had their hotel rooms searched and passports confiscated. Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall held the flag over their heads as the crowd chanted “Free Palestine.” Singapore does not allow the display of foreign emblems, and the Palestinian flag is considered especially sensitive due to a significant Muslim minority. “We did not imagine that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognized by 157 countries would violate any law,” the band said.

More from NBC here.

The Russian government-controlled Africa Corps paramilitary group killed eight civilians, including three children, in an airstrike on a village in Mali, a rights group said today. An aircraft identified as a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 struck Kyrnia twice on June 15, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. One strike hit the home of the village chief, killing his wife and three children, and another landed on a cattle market and killed four men. No fighters from the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin armed group, which is at war with Mali’s government and has controlled the village for six years, were reported among the dead. Mali has forged a close alliance with Russia since a military junta took power in a coup in 2021 and cut most ties with former colonial power France.

More from AP here.

Listen to The Proximities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Indonesia

Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has said that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ​wants him to visit North Korea to explore talks between Pyongyang and Seoul. "During my last visit to South Korea, their ​president asked me if I could visit North Korea to open ​some kind of a dialogue. I told him, with all due respect and willingness, if you asked me to, I would go," he said. Lee’s office did not comment. Indonesia traditionally pursues a non-aligned foreign policy and Prabowo has offered himself as a mediator in several conflicts.

More from Reuters here.

Naoero

You’d be forgiven for never hearing of Naoero. That’s because the Pacific island nation of Nauru reclaimed it as its name today. The name Nauru was given to the island by European colonizers because they couldn’t pronounce Naoero. Yes, really. The country will now be called the Republic of Naoero, with the short form Naoero, and citizens will be referred to as “dei-Naoero.” The government said it had notified international organisations and that the transition process was underway. The Republic of Naoero is the world’s third-smallest nation, after Vatican City and Monaco, with a population of about 12,000 people.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Veteran Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who collapsed in court yesterday, is unconscious and in intensive care, according to his wife. Besigye is standing trial for treason and has been in custody since November 2024, when he was detained in Kenya and repatriated to Uganda. The 70-year-old has stood against longtime President Yoweri Museveni in four presidential elections and has been arrested numerous times during his career. Museveni, who is 81 and has been in power since 1986, was declared winner of Uganda’s latest election in January. His main rival, Bobi Wine, rejected the results and fled to the U.S. after the army chief, who is also Museveni’s son, threatened his life.

More from Reuters here.

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Kuwait

Kuwait has stripped six more people of citizenship, including critics and a prominent cleric, as a campaign that has revoked the nationality of tens of thousands of people continues. Shia cleric Hussein al-Maatouq and well-known activist Lulwa Al-Hussainan, who has herself spoken out against citizenship revocation, were among those stripped. Kuwait says it is targeting fraudulent citizenships and violations of nationality laws, but rights groups say the nationality review is weaponized against opponents and public figures.

More from the New Arab here.

Gaza

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least four people over the last 24 hours, including two children, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said. A man and an eight-year-old child were killed in the city of Khan Younis, Reuters reported. In a separate incident, an 18-month-old baby was killed when an air strike hit a house, and elsewhere a man was killed in an attack while riding a bicycle. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,900 wounded in Israeli ceasefire violations since a truce was agreed with Hamas in October.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Five Ethiopians have been executed in Saudi Arabia on drug-related charges, according to the interior ministry, after a trial that human rights groups said did not follow due process and during which the accused were denied translation. “Saudi authorities are executing marginalized Ethiopian migrants after court hearings that sometimes barely last a few minutes without a lawyer or a translator,” Joey Shea, senior Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said. The New York-based rights group says at least 17 Ethiopian nationals have been executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of 2026, all on drug-related charges. Riyadh is one of the world’s most prolific users of the death penalty.

More from HRW here.

Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

DR Congo

Thousands of people in the cities of Goma and Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have taken to the streets to protest proposed constitutional changes that would allow President Felix Tshisekedi to run for a third term. Both cities are controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group, and a ​government spokesperson accused the rebels of forcing residents to demonstrate. Goma and Bukavu are in the DRC’s eastern region, which is currently the center of the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in recorded history. The demonstrations took place under police supervision, locals said, despite a ban on gatherings introduced ⁠to ​curb the spread of the virus. Security forces have broken up opposition-led protests against the proposals in the capital Kinshasa.

More from Reuters here.

NB: Proximities has published deep dives on the Ebola outbreak here and here.

Syria

A fringe group of Israeli settlers has been making incursions into southern Syria in an attempt to establish settlements. Though the Israeli army has occupied southern Syria for more than a year, it is believed to be the first time civilians have tried to settle the area. Groups with members numbering in the dozens are reported to have tried to cross the border every few days in recent weeks. The wider settler movement, centered on the illegally occupied West Bank, enjoys strong support from members of Israel’s far-right government, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused by the opposition and rights groups of turning a blind eye to settler violence against Palestinians.

More from AP here.

I hope you’re well. It’s now a year since Proximities relaunched so a lot of you are receiving (or have already received) a subscription renewal reminder.

So I wanted to reach out to say thank you for supporting me through this first year. As a freelancer, your subscriptions help me justify the time I spend researching and writing …

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Keiko Fujimori will be sworn in as Peru's president today, becoming the country’s 10th leader since 2016 after a decade of political turmoil. Her election underlines a continued rightward shift in Latin America, with a string of recently elected conservative leaders who advocate closer ties to U.S. President Donald Trump and who have vowed to crack down on crime. Fujimori, 51, is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, a divisive figure who dominated Peruvian politics in the 1990s before being jailed for human rights abuses. In previous elections, she distanced herself from his legacy but this time she embraced it and recast herself as a leader who would govern in her father’s manner.

More from Reuters here.

Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

On this week’s episode, I’ll be joined by a doctor who is currently working on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Chad

Chad has become the latest in a string of countries to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump escalates a pressure campaign against the court. Chad’s military government announced it had formally begun the process to withdraw from the ICC, which prosecutes war crimes and other violations of humanitarian law and is based in The Hague in the Netherlands. It becomes the fifth African country to turn its back on the court in recent months. Though the U.S. has never joined the ICC and has expressed long-running animosity toward it, the hostility grew when the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant in 2024.

More from Al Jazeera here.

South Africa-Nigeria

Nigeria has said that South Africa plans to bring to justice those responsible for a spate of attacks against immigrants after relations between the two sharply soured when large numbers of Nigerians were targeted. Anti-immigration marches and vigilante attacks on foreigners were considered so extreme that Nigeria offered voluntary repatriation for its citizens, flying about 1,490 people out. The commitment from South Africa, which came after talks in Abuja between Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, and South ​African International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola, may cool increasingly bellicose rhetoric from Africa’s two biggest economies.

More from Reuters here.