News in Brief(2023-09-04)
Monday, 4 September 2023
China's anger over Fukushima plant water
release fuelled by disinformation
BEIJING, Sept 03: Rocks thrown at schools, threats of a boycott and hundreds of hostile phone calls - these are just some of the ways Chinese people have shown their displeasure with Japan in recent weeks. The catalyst? Japan's release of treated waste water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. Scientists largely agree that the impact will be negligible, but China has strongly protested the release. And disinformation has only fuelled fear and suspicion in China. A report by a UK-based data analysis company called Logically, which aims to fight misinformation, claims that since January, the Chinese government and state media have been running a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting the release of the waste water. — BBC
Four million Syrian children return to school
DAMASCUS, Sept 03: Nearly four million Syrians students in government-controlled areas returned to school Sunday, braving the effects of war, a devastating earthquake and a deep economic crisis. But many children do not have classrooms to go to in a country where many educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed and 90 percent of people live under the poverty line according to the United Nations. Syria's education ministry on Saturday called on schools "not to enforce strict school uniforms (...) and to reduce the necessary supplies" for students, the SANA state news agency reported.—AFP
Three killed in multi-ethnic Iraqi city protests
KIRKUK, Sept 03: At least three Kurds were killed and 16 people wounded Saturday during protests in the multi-ethnic Iraqi city of Kirkuk, as authorities imposed a curfew after days of tensions. Two people were shot in the chest and a third in the head, Ziad Khalaf, director of the local health authority, told AFP. The victims were a 21-year-old man and two people aged 37, he added. Those wounded, including Kurds, Arabs and three members of the security forces, were hit by gunfire, stones or glass, said Khalaf. — AFP