Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Munir Akram, highlighted Islamabad’s security concerns along its border with Afghanistan. He said the “main challenge” is to convince the Taliban that taking action against terrorist groups is “in its immediate interests.” Akram stressed that Pakistan is particularly concerned about the growing influence of the Pakistani Taliban, Baluchistan Liberation Army, and ISIS, all of whom have already orchestrated attacks on security personnel and civilians.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday lamented the 360% increase in Rohingya refugees attempting to undertake the arduous journey to cross the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in 2022. While in 2021, 700 Rohingyas tried to cross the deadly seas, the number in 2022 surged to 3,500. Accordingly, the UNHCR decried the absence of a comprehensive regional and maritime regulatory mechanism to check these crossings.
Philippines journalist Maria Ressa, as well as her digital media company Rappler, were acquitted of all four charges of tax evasion on Wednesday. The Nobel Peace Prize winner continues to battle three other criminal charges, including a cyber libel charge currently under appeal, which could mean nearly seven years in jail.
Pacific island nations have urged Japan to delay its summer plans of releasing treated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant over fears that fisheries will be contaminated. “We must prevent action that will lead or mislead us towards another major nuclear contamination disaster at the hands of others,” the Pacific Island Forum’s secretary general Henry Puna said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley met with Ukraine’s top military official, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, for the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, at an undisclosed location in southeastern Poland. Zaluzhnyi “outlined the urgent needs” of the Ukrainian forces to ensure that Milley could relay and “describe the tactical and operational conditions on the battlefield and what the military needs are for that,” when he meets with fellow NATO counterparts later this month.
During a joint press conference on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart James Cleverly reaffirmed their commitment “to sustaining [the US and UK’s] security assistance to Ukraine as it defends its people against Russia’s brutal attacks.” The pair further discussed the situation in Iran, China, the UK’s increasing engagement in the Indo-Pacific, and an “acceptable” resolution to the Northern Ireland conflict.
Israeli Foreign Minister (FM) Eli Cohen on Tuesday rejected a statement by over 90 countries and Palestine expressing “deep concern” regarding recent retaliatory measures taken by Israel against the Palestinian Authority (PA). The measures include withholding $39 million in aid from the PA and revoking the VIP travel permit of Palestinian FM Riyad Maliki. This is in response to the UN requesting the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Iranian police on Tuesday arrested a German national for allegedly taking photos of several oil facilities in the Khuzestan province. Authorities accuse the unidentified individual of taking pictures of “sensitive” areas in the oil facilities. The arrest happened a day after Germany summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest Tehran’s crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
The death toll of a bomb explosion at a Protestant church in Kasindi, North Kivu province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday has risen from 10 to 14. Additionally, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack and alleged that as many as 20 Christians were killed by the blast. On a similarly tragic note, a Catholic priest was burnt alive and five worshippers were abducted on Sunday in separate attacks in central and northwestern Nigeria, respectively. Africa is seemingly becoming a new ground zero for Jihadist violence as attacks against Christians are on the rise across various regions of the continent.