- The Guardian
- Issue #2062
SYRIA: The Syrians gave a green light last week for the United Nations to use a key crossing from Turkey to the country’s rebel-held north-west that was closed earlier this week, but it wants to take away UN control over aid deliveries to the region. Syria’s UN ambassador Bassam Sabbagh said that the government is granting the UN and its agencies “permission” to use the Bab al-Hawa crossing for six months.
UNITED STATES: This year was the deadliest six months of mass killings recorded in the US since at least 2006. From January 1 to June 30, the nation suffered 28 mass killings, all but one of which involved guns, beating the previous record of 27 mass killings, which was only set in the second half of 2022.
CANADA: Dock workers reached a tentative deal with employers after a strike that halted shipments in and out of ports in the country’s west-coast region of British Columbia for nearly two weeks. The strike by 7400 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union began on 1st July and shut down more than 30 west-coast ports, including Canada’s largest, the Port of Vancouver.
GERMANY: Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed optimism that support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has been surging in the polls lately will shrink to previous levels again by the time of the next national election in 2025. Recent polls have shown support for the AfD at about 20 per cent, ahead of Mr Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats.
SUDAN: The bodies of dozens of people allegedly killed by Sudanese paramilitary and allied militia have been uncovered in a mass grave near Geneina, West Darfur, the United Nations said. The UN Human Rights Office said that the bodies of the 87 people, some of whom belong to the ethnic African Masalit tribe, were found dumped in a three-foot shallow grave.
PAKISTAN: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said last week that the International Monetary Fund deposited the first instalment of $1.2 billion with the country’s central bank under a recently signed bailout deal aimed at helping the impoverished Islamic nation avoid defaulting on its debt repayments. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the remaining $1.8 billion would be received from the IMF over the next nine months.
GUATEMALA: The troubled presidential election was thrown into even greater turmoil when the country’s top electoral tribunal confirmed the results of the 25th June vote while the attorney general’s office announced that the second-placed party had been suspended. This came after more than two weeks of rising tensions after the first round of voting, which had seemingly sent conservative Sandra Torres and progressive Bernardo Arevalo into an August presidential run-off.
ARTSAKH: The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) said in a statement that the situation in the region was critical after humanitarian access had been cut off to the area since 15th June by Azerbaijan threatening the lives of 120,000 people. The statement added that Azerbaijan has blocked the “two-way transportation of patients and medicines by the International Committee of the Red Cross.”
