South Asia
Around 39 people were wounded in a grenade explosion during a pro-Kashmir rally in Karachi on Wednesday. A Sindhi separatist group called the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army claimed to have orchestrated the attack. [Al Jazeera]
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka conducted its parliamentary elections after two postponements caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Incumbent President Gotabaya Rajapaksa hopes to secure a two-thirds majority to pave the way for constitutional amendments to increase the ambit of his powers. [Times of India, CGTN]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Kazakhstan has won a 2016 case at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) against Canadian mining company Gold Pool JV Ltd. In 1996, Kazakh authorities revoked the firm’s gold mining access on the grounds that it was granted permission two years prior to the country’s independence. Gold Pool was looking to claim $917 million from the case, but the UNCITRAL ruled that Almaty was within its rights to have cancelled the deal. [The Astana Times]
East and Southeast Asia
Responding to a claim in a leaked confidential UN Report, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense stated that North Korea has “probably” already attained considerable success in miniaturizing its nuclear weapons. [Korea JoongAng Daily]
The first India-ASEAN Oceanic Business Summit kicked off on Tuesday. Participating in the three-day virtual summit was India’s Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. He emphasised India’s plan to diversify supply chains in the post-Covid world. [The Phnom Penh Post/ DNA]
Europe
French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Beirut to meet Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab. France has also decided to send three flights with rescue teams and medical equipment. [France 24]
Massive forest fires broke out near Marseilles, leading to the evacuation of 2,700 people. While no casualties have been reported, significant “material damage” is likely. [Al Jazeera]
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to hand over 28 of the 33 Russian mercenaries who were arrested on terrorism charges and who also are accused of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. [Al Jazeera]
Croatia’s top officials gathered in the town of Knin on Wednesday to mark the 25th anniversary of a military victory that ended the country’s independence war against the Serbs in 1995. The event set a rare tone of reconciliation, with deputy PM Boris Milosevic becoming the first ethnic Serb political representative to attend the annual memorial. [Balkan Insight]
Latin America and the Caribbean
The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that President Jair Bolsonaro must implement measures to protect indigenous populations from the coronavirus by installing health checkpoints and removing outsiders from protected areas. [ABC News]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Against a backdrop of widespread protests led by women in the country, Turkey’s ruling party AKP has officially announced that it plans to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, a 2011 Council of Europe agreement on the prevention of violence against women. Demonstrators have been rallying against the government’s inaction on increasing cases of femicide. [Reuters]
Yemeni health authorities have reported at least 17 deaths, including eight children, in flash floods in the country’s northern Marib region on Tuesday. Hundreds have been displaced and dozens of their tents have been destroyed in storms hitting other regions in the war-torn country as well, including the capital Sana’a. [Al Jazeera]
North America
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the United States was stepping up efforts on a program called “Clean Network” to prevent Chinese apps and telecom companies from accessing sensitive information about US citizens and businesses. [Reuters]
Sally Yates, former US President Barack Obama’s deputy attorney general, told a US Senate Committee on Wednesday that before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, his national security adviser Michael Flynn told a Russian diplomat that Trump would “essentially neutralize” sanctions imposed on Russia for alleged 2016 US election interference. [The New York Times]
Oceania
Australia’s GDP is predicted to contract by $7 billion to $9 billion in the September quarter and the coronavirus crisis is expected to cost the country between $10 billion and $12 billion. [Sky News, Sydney Morning Herald]
Sub-Saharan Africa
The United States’ Africa Command (Africom) Operations Head, Davgin RM Anderson, has said that the threat from terrorist organizations like Al-Shabab remains strong in spite of the coronavirus pandemic. [Daily Nation]
World News Monitor: 6 August, 2020
A quick look at events from around the globe.
August 6, 2020
