News Bites
COULD CHINA’S BELT ROAD INITIATIVE PROVIDE RELIEF TO BELEAGUERED AFGHANISTAN?
By Donnelly McCleland
From 16-18 October, China hosted its third Belt and Road (One Belt, One Road, in Chinese) summit, marking the 10th anniversary of...
NEW ITALY-TUNISIA MIGRANT DEAL BRINGS RELIEF TO SOME
By Katelin van Zyl
On Friday, 20 October, Italy signed a deal during a visit to Tunis to hire some 4,000 Tunisian workers every year....
AVERTING WAR THROUGH LESSONS LEARNT FROM CURRENT CONFLICTS
By Donnelly McCleland
The ongoing Ukraine-Russia war and the recent Israel-Gaza conflict have heightened concerns in other volatile regions and historical conflict zones in the...
THE CHURCH IS ENCOURAGED TO INVEST IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
By Katelin van Zyl
On Sunday, 15 October, another earthquake of 6.3 magnitude (and 6.3km depth) struck western Afghanistan, only a few days after a...
RESTRICTIONS ON WOMEN REMAIN KEY OBSTACLE TO TALIBAN’S GLOBAL LEGITIMACY
By Katelin van Zyl
On Friday, 29 September, Russia hosted Taliban representatives in the city of Kazan to discuss regional threats and how to create...
SERBIAN ATTACK ON KOSOVO POLICE HIGHLIGHTS GROWING TENSION IN THE BALKANS
By Alex Pollock
On Sunday, 24 September, 30 armed Serbs attacked a police patrol in the usually peaceful village of Banjska in northern Kosovo, killing...
THOUSANDS OF ETHNIC ARMENIANS FLEE NAGORNO-KARABAKH FEARING REPRISALS
By Donnelly McCleland
As of Tuesday, 26 September, almost 20,000 (of the estimated total of 120,000) ethnic Armenians had fled Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh...
BARRIERS TO PEACE LEAVE SUDANESE STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE BUT NOT WITHOUT HOPE
By Katelin van Zyl
On 25 September, the United Nations (UN) reported that the number displaced within Sudan and into neighbouring countries has risen to...
KIM JONG UN MAKES FIRST INTERNATIONAL TRIP IN NEARLY FIVE YEARS TO VISIT RUSSIA
By Alex Pollock
On Wednesday 13 September, Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a rare...
AMINI ANNIVERSARY EMBOLDENS THE CRY FOR CHANGE IN IRAN
By Jeremiah Goddard
16 September 2023 marked the one-year anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody after allegedly violating the mandatory headscarf law. The...
