South China Sea: Manila and Beijing talk to lower tensions

Today's news: seven countries allowed to intervene in the genocide trial against Myanmar for its actions against the Rohingya. Japan eliminated the use of floppy disks. North Korea recalls its students living abroad for 'political indoctrination'.

CHINA - PHILIPPINES

Manila demanded 60 million pesos (equal to one million dollars)from Beijing as compensation for damage caused during a clash on 17 June in the South China Sea, military chief Romeo Brawner explained. Meanwhile, in a meeting on Tuesday, Chinese and Filipino diplomats agreed to ease tensions in the region, but also remained firm on their countries' claims to international waters.

MYANMAR

As the offensive by ethnic militias against Burma's coup junta continues in the Shan, several countries (Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, the Maldives) have been allowed to intervene at the International Criminal Court by submitting their reports regarding the genocide case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar following the Burmese army's violence against the Rohingya minority in 2017.

JAPAN

The Japanese government has eliminated the use of floppy disks following a modernisation campaign that also calls for an end to the use of fax machines by the bureaucratic apparatus. In 2021, the Digitisation Agency under Digital Minister Taro Kono was set up because the pandemic had revealed the difficulties associated with paper filing and analogue technologies.

NORTH KOREA

North Korea issued a directive that students studying abroad should return home for 'political indoctrination' sessions to be held in Pyongyang by the end of the month, South Korea's Unification Ministry reported. "North Korea is gradually resuming measures that were interrupted due to the lockdown for covid-19," the ministry added. Since 2020, the sessions had in fact been discontinued.

INDIA

The social platform Koo, which had presented itself as an alternative to X (Twitter), announced the closure of its services due to lack of funding. Launched in 2020, Koo offered messaging in more than 10 Indian languages and had become popular in 2021, when Prime Minister Narendra Modia had asked Twitter to block the accounts of a number of opposition-linked personalities.

GEORGIA

In Georgia, a new political movement called 'Freedom Square', led by Levan Tsutskiridze, a representative of the Centre for Multiparty Democracy, active since 2012, was unveiled, declaring support for the 'Georgian Charter' proposed by President Salome Zurabišvili to overcome the oppositions in the country's political life.

RUSSIA

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to draw up by September a strategy for the development of Prjazovje, the Russian-Ukrainian Azov plain from Taganrog to Mariupol, almost completely occupied by Russia, to be realised by 2040 through a financial and strategic 'synchronisation' with all federal structures.

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