WORLD BRIEFING: June 24, 2024
More than 1,000 people died during this year's Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said Sunday. More than half of the fatalities were people from Egypt, according to two officials in Cairo. Egypt revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorized pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia, authorities said. Saudi Arabia has not commented on the deaths during the pilgrimage, which is required of every able Muslim once in their life. The Egyptian government announced the death of 31 authorized pilgrims due to chronic diseases during this year's Hajj, but didn't offer an official tally for other pilgrims. However, a Cabinet official said that at least 630 other Egyptians died during the pilgrimage, with most reported at the Emergency Complex in Mecca's Al-Muaisem neighborhood. Confirming the tally, an Egyptian diplomat said most of the dead have been buried in Saudi Arabia. - VOA
Attacks on police posts, churches and a synagogue in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have left more that 15 police officers and several civilians dead. Six gunmen were also killed. The apparently coordinated attacks targeted the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala on the Orthodox festival of Pentecost. The assailants have not been identified, but Dagestan has in the past been the scene of Islamist attacks. The republic's head, Sergei Melikov, said it was understood who was behind the organisation of the attacks, without giving details. - BBC
The first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle will air on CNN on Thursday. (My comment: and probably the only presidential debate - so listen carefully). It will be hosted by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash in Atlanta. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are set to make history in the first presidential debate between an incumbent and a former president. It will also be the first debate since 2020 featuring either Biden, who did not face a serious challenge for the Democratic nomination, or Trump, who skipped those held during the Republican primary race. The 90-minute showdown will begin at 9 p.m. ET / 2 a.m. BST - CNN
Russia launched three missiles targeting Kyiv region in an early morning strike on June 23 after at least two civilians were killed when a residential building was struck by a Russian bomb in the northeastern city of Kharkiv a day earlier. The strike came on the same day that Russian officials announced that Ukraine had launched dozens of drones and missiles targeting Russian-occupied territory on Crimea and the southern Russian city of Belgorod, reported RFE/RL. Early Monday, two Russian missiles targeted Odesa - hitting a warehouse and injuring three people.
The UN's nuclear watchdog called for a halt to attacks on Enerhodar, a town near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station after drone strikes this week hit two electricity substations serving the area. The plant's Russian-installed officials accused Ukraine of staging two drone strikes that destroyed one substation, damaged another and cut power to residents for a time. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made no reference to Ukraine and said the incidents had no effect on the Zaporizhzhia plant's operations. However, he said the attacks had to stop. “Whoever is behind this, it must stop. Drone usage against the plant and its vicinity is becoming increasingly more frequent," Mr Grossi said in a statement on the IAEA website. - EFE
A staggering 8.8 million people have been displaced since the start of the Sudanese Civil War in April last year, as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) battle for control of the country - reports the independent journalist organization Bellingcat. Currently intense fighting is taking place in the city of Al Fashir in southwest Sudan which has effectively cut the city off from the outside world, severely limiting civilian access to healthcare, food and safe shelter. Bellingcat researcher and trainer Eman El- Sherbiny, explains more: North Darfur had been a battlefield between the warring factions for months and many civilians have been killed or displaced. After examining the villages and towns that have been targeted, we turned our focus to Al Fashir a city of approximately 1.5 million people - about 50% of whom are internally-displaced people. I was most surprised by the use of heavy weaponry so close to densely populated areas and the indiscriminate nature of the attacks carried out by both the RSF and SAF which has included attacks on multiple medical facilities.
The Washington Post said that Robert Winnett, the British journalist who had been slated to take over as the newspaper’s top editor, will no longer join the publication that has been ensnared in a weekslong crisis over ethics questions - CNN
