Catch up with the big stories from around the world each told in 3 brief sentences. We know you don’t have time to read the news, so here it is condensed and simplified into bite size briefings.
Africa in 3: Fighting between rival Sudanese generals who were once allies has entered a third week with death toll reaching 528
- Since the overthrow of longtime Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir in a 2019 coup orchestrated by his military officers, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, efforts to broker a political deal broke down and the interim Prime Minister was also removed in another coup in 2021.
- Fighting between the formal army and the RSF, recently erupted over how to integrate the RSF into the army and has continued despite a ceasefire and calls for peace by the AU, EU, UK, UN & the US, whilst some analysts hope that Egypt which has ties to the Sudanese Army and the UAE which has leverage on the RSF might be able to bring the conflict to a stop.
- Recent moves by Russia to establish a military base near Sudan’s Red Sea coast were castigated by the United States which warned of consequences for Sudan if such plans went ahead prompting concerns that the US may be clandestinely involved in instigating the fighting.
Asia in 3: India has overtaken China as the most populous nation in the world
- WorldData.info reports that India’s population reached an estimated 1,425,776,000 compared with China’s 1,425,671,000, toppling China which had been in the top spot since the 1950s.
- With an area of 9.6 million square km, China, which recently reversed its one child policy, is almost 3 times larger than India, has a longer life expectancy and on average, it’s population is 10 years older than India’s.
- However, in terms of economic output, at USD17.8 trillion, China’s GDP is still nearly 6 times as large as India’s USD3.2 trillion.
Europe in 3: Albanian police have detained six in connection with an investigation into the death of a young Kenyan lady
- 22 year old Kenyan national, Joy Aoko, died in Kenya six months after being raped and thrown out of the window of her second floor apartment in Tirana, Albania.
- According to The Albanian Daily News, there are strong doubts that Joy gave information to a player, at the casino where she worked as a croupier, who won a lot of money, but investigations are ongoing, and the investigators are looking to retrieve information, if any, from her mother’s laptop in Kenya.
- Last week, Albanian authorities searched multiple apartments belonging to, and accompanied six persons of interest to the police station including a driver from the casino where Joy worked, whilst a seventh was questioned.
Middle East in 3: Iranian authorities seized a US bound oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in a suspected tit-for-tat move
- Iranian state television reported that the seizure followed a court order issued after repeated refusals by the tanker operators to stop after the oil tanker allegedly collided with an unidentified Iranian vessel hours earlier.
- Several days prior to this incident, the United States had confiscated an Iran-linked oil tanker near Southern Africa as it sort to enforce harsher coercive measures the country unilaterally imposed on Iran when then President Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal.
- This was not the first retaliatory capture of vessels between the two countries, a similar incident in 2022 was ultimately diffused when a Greek court ordered the release of a captured Iranian tanker prompting the Iranians to also release two Greek vessels that they had also taken in retaliation.
North America in 3: Canada launched an investigation into ChatGPT after complaint alleging collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent
- The announcement by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada carried no additional details other than that the investigation into OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, had been prompted by the said complaint.
- Earlier in March, the Italian Data Protection Authority ordered OpenAI to temporarily halt processing of Italian users’ data whilst it carried out an investigation into ChatGPT’s compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation due to a potential threat to the privacy of its users.
- A number of other countries like China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Syria have restricted the use of ChatGPT whilst the United Kingdom has started publishing recommendations for regulation and guidance of the artificial intelligence industry.
Oceania in 3: Deadline passes and plans to build a medical centre in Guam fail as Governor and lawmakers clash
- The proposed medical complex would have been built on part of 102 acres of federal land which some original landowners, supported by local Senators, claim as their ancestorial lands and would prefer to have their land back rather than receive cash compensation or land exchange.
- In a press release, Governor Lou Leon Guerrero contended that the 37th “Guam Legislature Reject[ed] Federal Assistance,” prompting the Senators to respond with an unanimous letter in which they expressed “great concern” over what they termed a “misunderstanding” on what transpired.
- It is now expected that the US Navy will resume its plans to develop the land for military purposes on the island which is an unincorporated territory of the United States where people born there are American citizens but are not allowed to vote in the US presidential elections while resident in Guam.
South America in 3: A year after declaring a “war on gangs” El Salvador’s streets are safer, 65,000 are imprisoned & a past President is on trial
- For decades, El Salvador was the western hemisphere’s most violent country registering 6,650 homicides in 2015 until President Nayib Bukele temporarily suspended the constitution, embarking on a war on gangs which has so far netted 65,000 accused persons from the country’s 6.3 million population.
- Former President Mauricio Funes who fled the country to Nicaragua where he was granted citizenship, is now being tried in absentia, accused of negotiating a truce with the problematic gangs among at least six other crimes, during his tenure in office from 2009 to 2014.
- Meanwhile, President Bukele who is enjoying approval ratings as high as 90% is seeking a second term despite the suspended constitution which prohibits consecutive presidential terms, and is facing pressure from the Organisation of American States to restore the constitution and suspended rights.
Zimbabwe in 3: Jacob Ngarivhume, leader of opposition party, Transform Zimbabwe, jailed an effective 36 months for inciting violence
- Mr. Ngarivhume was accused of inciting the public, through Twitter posts, to join an illegal demonstration planned for 31 July 2020 ostensibly to highlight concerns about corruption in the country.
- He was convicted and sentenced to 48 months in prison and 12 months were suspended, effectively leaving a custodial sentence of 36 months with no option for a fine.
- Whilst the presiding Magistrate ruled that the State managed to prove a prima facie case against Mr. Ngarivhume, opposition activists have characteristically viewed the sentence as weaponisation of the law and have expressed concern over what they say is a closing of the democratic space.
Sports news in 3: Zidane, Rashford and Djokovic in the news
- Zenedine Zidane says he is keen on making a return to football management but remains fully aware that his next role will not be with Real Madrid.
- Marcus Rashford has been described as a “gent” by Aston Villa’s Alisha Lehmann for coming to her aid and offering a table in a private area of a club they both were in after Alisha and her friends were mobbed by a crowd at the club.
- A month before the French Open, 35 year old Novak Djokovic pulled out of the Madrid Open under unclear circumstances although it is speculated that this could be the result of an injury after he recently said his right elbow was “not in an ideal condition.”
Some trivia in 3: The earth’s inner core is slowing down, but don’t worry
- Data collected from the seismic waves generated during earthquakes suggests that the earth’s inner core is slowing down and will appear to reverse, if the slow-down continues, although it will in effect simply be spinning slower than the mantle.
- There is evidence to say that this latest slow down is part of a cycle of oscillations between slowing down and speeding up lasting about 70 years at a time.
- However, this is not an earth stopping event and will have little impact on the planet’s magnetic field which is an essential part of protecting the atmosphere and life on earth from the sun’s radiation as well as from solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
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