Today, Poland increases police presence on their border with Belarus. Riots in France continue, Israel launches a major military operation, Sweden is criticised by a number of countries around the world, and Guatemala reviews their recent presidential election. From TLJ News, this is your Daily Briefing from Monday, the 3rd of July, 2023. Following the mini Russian coup last week, led by the head of Wagner Group Evgeni Pragozin, tensions have been running high in Eastern Europe.
While some expect it to go to continue the fight and march on to Moscow, he rather swiftly decided to back down and agree to a deal that saw him seek refuge in neighbouring Belarus. It's fair to say that some of Belarus' neighbours are not exactly thrilled at this news. In response to this, Poland has announced that it will send 500 police officers to its border with Belarus, both amid fears of increased migration and potential threats from the newly relocated Wagner Group. The Polish Deputy Prime Minister said last week that he believed that there were 8,000 Wagner troops already in Belarus.
Now, it should be noted that this move also comes following years of mince allegedly creating a migrant crisis by flying people over from the Middle East and Africa to the border with Poland and attempting to push them into Poland. While part of the reason for shoring up their border is due to the presence of Wagner in Belarus, a large part is presumably also to do with the ongoing migrant situation on the border, which has reportedly worsened in recent months. The shooting is the latest incident prompting an outcry over police violence in France, particularly against people of colour in economically deprived suburban estates. The riots are the worst that France has seen since 2005, with symbols of the states as well as other buildings, cars and more being attacked.
Tens of thousands of police have been deployed and thousands of arrests have been made. Now, hell's family have called for a change in the law on police use of lethal force, whilst also calling for an end to the violence on the streets. Her relative said, we didn't ask to break or steal. All of this is not for Nahil.
After days of rioting in cities across the country, things seemingly began to subside over the weekend. So, that's what's been happening in France recently. Let's move and discuss what's been happening with Israel. Israel has launched a major military operation on the city of Genin in the occupied west bank.
It's been described as Israel's biggest military operation in the Palestinian territory for 20 years, and began at 1am on Monday morning. An Israeli government official said, the goal of this extensive operation is to end Genin's role as a city of refuge for terror, and it will last as long as it needs to. At time of writing, Palestinian health officials say five people have been killed and 30 injured, while the Israeli military says that at least seven militants have been killed. However, these numbers are likely to change.
The operation is focused on the Genin refugee camp, and reportedly involves more than 1,000 troops, as well as drones, which struck an apartment building in the camp that Israeli forces say was being used as a joint operational command center for the Genin brigades, which is made up of a number of different Palestinian militant groups. The group said it was engaged in fighting with Israeli forces and to shut down an unmanned aircraft. A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the operation is a new war crime against our defenseless people. The past year has seen an escalation of violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and this new operation may spark even more.
Just last month, a Palestinian gunman shot and killed four Israelis near a settlement in the occupied West Bank. Last Wednesday, Saurwan Momika, an Iraqi living in Sweden, set fire to the Quran outside of Stockholm's central mosque. This was reportedly after being granted a permit for a peaceful protest, which was in line with Sweden's three speech laws. As expected, this incident has caused outrage not just in Sweden, but around the world.
The Swedish police have said that the incident is being considered an incitement of hatred. Turkey said that it was unacceptable that anti-Islamic actions could take place under the pretext of freedom of expression. Their anger at this incident could be yet another pretext for them to attempt to block Sweden's accession to NATO. It iraq a prominent cleric called for an angry protest, which led to a crowd gathering at an embassy outside Baghdad on Thursday.
This is all in addition to other Middle Eastern nations, such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt publicly criticising the book burning, and Morocco and Jordan recalling their ambassadors to Stockholm. For their part, Sweden's Prime Minister, Ulf Kristerson, said the Quran burning was legal but not appropriate. The police had seemed to try and prevent other similar protests, but a court in Sweden ruled that this kind of protest should be allowed on freedom of expression grounds. Guatemala's highest court has ordered a review of the results of the first round of the country's general election, held towards the end of last month.
The first round of the presidential vote saw former First Lady Sandra Torres come first with around 15%, while in something of an upset, second place was taken by centre-left anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arevalo, who received around 11%. As such, the two of them will go to a second round on August the 20th, which some analysts have said that Arevalo is likely to win, thanks to Torres' unpopularity in the capital. However, Torres' party, UNE, and a number of others have challenged the result, resulting in a constitutional court ordering a review. This challenge has prompted some concern from the international community, with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken saying that undermining the results would be a grave threat to democracy with far-reaching implications.
Foreign observers, including the organisation of American states and the European Union, have endorsed the initial results, with the latter saying that political parties and institutions should respect the democratic process, and what it described as the clearly manifested will of citizens. In response to the review, Arevalo said, we can't let the same old parties, frustrated and disappointed by their poor results in the first round, tarnish and call into question the free decision of thousands of Guatemalans. In the final uplifting story today, we discuss the use of psychedelics in Australia. Australia has become the first country in the world to legalise the use of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions.
Specifically, MDMA can be prescribed to those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and magic mushrooms can be used to help with some kinds of depression. Now, it's worth noting that there are some downsides too, with some pointing out that there's still a risk of bad trips, and that this kind of treatment could cost tens of thousands of dollars. Nonetheless, this news has been hailed as a game changer by both scientists and mental health experts. That's all we have time for on YouTube, but the briefing isn't over.
That's because we explain just whether banks in the UK are closing down the accounts of people they disagree with, in the extended and free edition of the daily briefing only on Nebula. That's the streaming service we're building with a bunch of our creator friends, many of whom you're likely to be already watching. That means that by signing up you not only get an extended and free daily briefing every single day, you also get to watch exclusive and ad-free videos from the best educational creators on YouTube. That's things like real-life laws, incredible modern conflicts, which breaks down contemporary disputes around the world, Neo's underexposure, which beautifully dives into complex and shadowy topics you've always wanted to know more about, or extremities from Wendover Productions, which uncovers some of the world's most remote places.
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