ASIA TODAY Israeli attack on a tent camp in Rafah: dozens dead

News of the day: Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing talk about the denuclearization of North Korea while Pyongyang announces the launch of a new rocket. Brazil wants to apologize for Japanese violations of human rights after World War II. With the rise of 5G and artificial intelligence in China in 2023, data production will grow by 22.44%. Turkmenistan wants to become the first tobacco-free country in the world.

GAZA-ISRAEL

dozens of people killed or injured in Gaza in a large fire in a refugee camp after an Israeli Air Force raid in the Rafah area. The Israeli Defense Forces stated that they had attacked two senior Hamas leaders in one of the group’s compounds; Apparently, from there the flames spread to the shelters. The attack came hours after Hamas fired eight rockets from Rafah toward Tel Aviv, the first long-range attacks on the city since January.

KOREA-JAPAN-CHINA

Japan, South Korea and China jointly declare the importance of denuclearization of North Korea. This is the position expressed during the trilateral summit being held in Seoul, a few hours after Pyongyang announced its plans to launch a rocket capable of carrying satellites before June 4. The launch could involve the use of ballistic missile technology, a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

CHINA

China generated 32.85 zettabytes of data in 2023, which represents an increase of 22.44% compared to the previous year. This is revealed in a report published at the 7th China Digital Summit in Fuzhou, in the southeastern province of Fujian. The survey points to explosive growth in unstructured data production, linked to the rapid development of 5G and AI technologies, along with the widespread use of smart devices.

JAPAN-BRAZIL

The Brazilian Commission for Historical Truth about the Past is considering a official apology for human rights violations in the internment of immigrants and people of Japanese descent after World War II. The issue will be considered on July 25, but President Enea Almeida has already expressed a positive opinion in an interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun. An estimated 2.7 million people of Japanese ancestry currently live in Brazil, home to the largest community of Japanese outside the country.

PAKISTAN

Pakistani authorities claim to have 11 Islamic militants arrested implicated in the suicide attack that killed five Chinese engineers in March in the north of the country, on the border with Afghanistan. The detainees belong to local Taliban groups, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a formation that brings together dozens of Sunni Islamists and sectarian militant groups.

TURKMENISTAN

In Turkmenistan, which plans to become the world’s first completely tobacco-free country next year, cigarette prices have doubled. A package of Mond International, the most popular brand, has risen from 50 to 100 manat (more than 26 euros), partly due to the floods that devastated Ashgabat warehouses, and ruined ones are sold for 35-40 manat.

RUSSIA

The court of Omsk (Siberia) has decided to permanently close the Greek-Catholic parish of the Holy Mother of God, in which the priest Igor Maksimov, 57, had placed an icon with the figure of Stepan Bandera and other Ukrainian nationalists, with the conviction of “open and inestimable violations”, while Father Igor is prosecuted for “rehabilitation of Nazism” and “vilification of religion.”