Plus: Drugs hidden in nap room killed toddler, and Australia fears another 'Black Summer'
| | | | | | | Today we have news of a ceasefire in a short-lived conflict that had the EU, Russia and US concerned. Sam Cabral examines Elon Musk's growing influence on geopolitics and Yogita Limaye reports from India, where armed civilians are pitched against each other. On a lighter note, scroll down to watch wrestling on a Japanese bullet train. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh | | | | Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh reported heavy shelling in the latest fighting. Credit: EPA |
| | For 24 hours, another part of Europe was thrown into conflict. Forces from the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan had launched what it called an "anti-terror" operation in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, home to 120,000 ethnic Armenians, at the continent's eastern border with Asia. Both Russia's foreign ministry and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called for the offensive to be halted. But it was only after local authorities reported the deaths of 32 people, including two civilians, that a ceasefire - mediated by Russia - was reached. Ethnic Armenian forces in Karabakh accepted a proposal for complete disarmament. Loud explosions were still reported in the regional capital shortly after the ceasefire came into effect, at 13:00 local time (09:00 GMT). But Azerbaijan's presidency said officials would meet Karabakh's Armenian representatives on Thursday. | | | | |
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| | | | | | | | AT THE SCENE | Manipur, India | | Armed civilians on the village 'front line' | | More than 200 people have been killed since ethnic violence broke out in India's north-eastern state of Manipur, in May. Torture, killings and rape have prompted civilians to arm themselves in "village defence forces". | | | | The four men kneeling in the makeshift bunker face out over a lush green paddy field, their guns resting on a wall of cement sacks. Bamboo poles prop up the corrugated tin roof. Wearing homemade bullet-proof vests, they train their weapons - mostly old single and double-barrelled shotguns - on a rival bunker less than a mile away. A belt of cartridges hangs from one of the poles. The men are all civilian members of a "village defence force" - among them a driver, a labourer, a farmer, and Tomba, who ran a mobile phone repair shop. |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | Haunted Australia braces for bushfires | | | | Firefighters fear a repeat of Australia's "black summer". Credit: EPA |
| | Former fire brigade chief Greg Mullins has warned before that his country was primed to burn. In 2019, it fell on deaf ears - and an area of Australia the size of the UK was destroyed in deadly bushfires. Now, a combination of conditions has him sounding the alarm again, as Tiffanie Turnbull reports from New South Wales. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | 'My unique blueprint' | | How being diagnosed as autistic as an adult changed author Sara Gibbs' life. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | Walking through a rail carriage carrying a case or a cup of tea can be difficult enough. But how about a full-on wrestling match? That's exactly what one professional wrestling organisation set up, on a super-fast bullet train, in Japan. It made for quite some theatre. Watch Minoru Suzuki and Sanshiro Takagi battle it out. |
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| | | | | | Football Extra Newsletter | | Get all the latest news, insights and gossip from the Premier League. | | |
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