Today’s news: Chief Minister and opposition party leader Arvind Kejriwal remains in jail in India Delhi. Pyongyang sends military delegation to Russia, first meeting since Putin-Kim summit. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says NATO accusations of aiding Moscow in Ukraine war are “baseless.” Syriac archbishop recalls Iraqi Christians’ resilience after ten years of ISIS persecution.
PHILIPPINES
Philippines will ‘maintain our position’ in South China Sea dispute with Beijinga senior security official said today, eight years after the international ruling against Chinese claims in the territorial dispute. Tensions around the strategic waterway, a key passage for maritime trade, have increased in the past 18 months after a series of clashes, the most serious of which took place on June 17.
INDIA
Although the Indian Supreme Court granted him yesterday the released on bail in a fraud case, opposition party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Kejriwal will remain in jail due to his arrest in a separate case. Kejriwal was arrested in March by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), India’s agency that fights financial crime, for alleged corruption in the city’s alcohol vending policy.
NORTH KOREA
North Korea sent a military delegation to Russia. According to South Korea, this would be a violation of UN sanctions if cooperation with Moscow leads to an increase in Pyongyang’s military power. This is the first military meeting between the two countries since they signed the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty” during last month’s summit between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.
CHINA
Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi has called NATO’s accusations “groundless” that Beijing is helping Russia in its war against Ukraine. The remarks came just hours after leaders of NATO member states met in Washington DC and issued a statement on the war, accusing China of being a “decisive supporter” of Russia.
IRAQ
A decade after ISIS militants drove them out of their homeland, Iraq’s Christian community has shown unwavering resilience, as Syriac Catholic Archbishop Nizar Semaan of Adiabene described, during a Online conference organised by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)“ISIS tried to eradicate us, but they failed,” he said.
ARMENIA
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pašinyan held a telephone conversation with Iran’s newly elected President Masud Pezeshkyan, the Yerevan government’s press office reported. The message was congratulatory on the election victory and “confirmation of all agreements between the two countries,” and he pledged to meet in person as soon as possible.
RUSSIA
The holiday season in Russia offers pupils and students internships in “military and patriotic training centres” where children are taught to throw grenades and engage in hand-to-hand combat – the so-called Avangard centres, the brainchild of former Defence Minister Sergei Šojgu – more than 100 of them have already opened across the country.
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