A mass protest in China is underway and clashes between farmers and cattle herders in Nigeria have killed 86.
Women are driving in Saudi Arabia
On Sunday, the world’s only ban on female drivers was lifted.
“Women in Saudi Arabia are now allowed to drive for the first time since the religiously conservative kingdom overturned the world’s only ban on female motorists as critics note activists who fought for the right to drive are still in prison,” reports Al Jazeera.
On Thursday, the government started a three-day campaign called “place your trust in God and drive” to promote awareness on safety regulations and educate more women.
Many social media posts have been shared in celebration of the ban’s end.
Today goes down in history, as the women of #SaudiArabia will start driving. Watch the video to see how I marked the occasion with @Jaguar and share your favourite driving memory using #WorldDrivingDay pic.twitter.com/u1LYxOn292
— ASEEL AL HAMAD | أسيل الحمد (@ASEEL_ALHAMAD) June 23, 2018
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed goes out for a late night ride with his daughter: pic.twitter.com/z52cSyvYua
— Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) June 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/bU21____/status/1010737853922361344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2018%2F06%2Fsaudi-women-hit-road-driving-ban-lifted-180623215156740.html
First major public show of strength since 2016
In what is being regarded as the first major public show of strength since a mass protest that took place in Beijing in October 2016, 1,000 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) veterans gathered on a major road in China’s Zhenjiang city, shouting slogans and waving national flags on 22 June.
The veterans were enraged by the beating of a fellow veteran earlier this week.
The protesters were arranged in neat rows, carrying flags as well as banners of the ruling Chinese Communist Party that identified the time and place of their service, Radio Free Asia reported.
A PLA veteran, Wang Yihong, and his companions were beaten up near the Zhenjiang municipal government office Tuesday, sparking outrage and calls for solidarity among former PLA personnel across China.
At the October 2016 protest, the veterans had stood peacefully outside the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission (CMC) demanding pensions, healthcare and other demobilisation benefits they said were promised but not delivered.
Erdogan wins Turkish polls
Turkey’s long-standing leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won the presidential polls in the first round, reports BBC.
“State media reports put Mr Erdogan on 53 per cent with 99 per cent of votes counted, and his closest rival Muharrem Ince on 31 per cent,” the report adds.
“Erdogan had declared himself the winner before the official results were announced. But the opposition cried foul, claiming that state media and the election commission had manipulated the results and saying that it was too early to be sure of the outcome,” CNN reported.
Final results will be announced Friday.
Erdogan, under whom Turkey’s secular image is said to be slowly eroding, is seeking a second term as President, and would govern under a new constitution that grants the holder of the post new powers.
Trump wants to deport illegal immigrants without a trial
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said those who entered the country illegally should be sent back without being tried by a judge or attending a court case, reports Reuters.
We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2018
Trump did not differentiate between illegal immigrants and refugees and asylum-seekers, and compared illegal immigrants to invaders.
“It was unclear if Trump was advocating an expansion of the current law that allows expedited removal of illegal immigrants at the US border, a policy his administration has embraced since he took office,” the report adds.
Colombian players break a leg on the field
The Colombian football team Sunday broke out into a celebratory dance after scoring the third goal against Poland in their FIFA World Cup contest.
Numerous videos and photographs of the jubilation are circulating across social media platforms.
When Colombia score, Colombia dance 🕺#WorldCup pic.twitter.com/Akzrqxvrhd
— Indy Football (@IndyFootball) June 24, 2018
Russians ever more interested in World War II
Russia’s interest in World War II has been on the rise over the past few years, a survey conducted by the state-run public opinion research centre VTSIOM found.
The survey found that nearly 69 per cent of Russians remembered the date on which Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, starting what is known in Russia as the ‘Great Patriotic War’.
It also found that 45 per cent of the poll participants had attended meetings with veterans, 61 per cent visited military museums and memorial sites, and 88 per cent had watched war-themed films in recent years Russia Times reported.
However, while interest in learning about the war through the visual medium was on the rise, the research also found a decrease in the number of books being read on the same, with only 23 per cent of respondents claiming that they had read such works, compared to 30 per cent in 2014.
86 killed in Nigeria as farmers, cattle herders clash
At least 86 people have died in central Nigeria’s Plateau state following clashes between farmers and cattle herders, reports BBC.
While it is not clear when the fighting started, some reports say clashes began Thursday, when ethnic Berom farmers attacked Fulani herders, killing five of them, adds the report.
A retaliatory attack Saturday led to more deaths.
“The area has a decades-long history of violence between ethnic groups competing for land,” the report adds.
A curfew has now been imposed in three parts of the state.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari appealed for calm and said “no efforts will be spared” to find the attackers and prevent reprisal attacks, TIME reported.
This time the narrative got away from Donald Trump
President Trump’s modus operandi for dealing with most controversies has been to “provoke, evade and then pivot to the next thing”.
However, his plan seems to have failed in the context of his ‘zero-tolerance policy’, as the heart-wrenching images of children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border forced him to go on the defensive, writes Peter Hamby for Hive, Vanity Fair.
While it has so far been easy for Trump to belittle the press and decree its reports as “fake news”, the pictures from the border provide hard-concrete evidence of the effect of his policies,” Hamby adds.