Sudan, Peru, Tibet
Today's three stories you should know
Sudan
The U.N. human rights chief has sounded a “red alert” about the potential for ethnically motivated mass slaughter as Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group closes in on the strategic city of el-Obeid. Tallies from multiple aid agencies, news organizations and activist groups estimate that tens of thousands of people were summarily killed by the RSF when the group, which has been at war with Sudan’s military-led government for more than three years, captured the city of el-Fasher in the Darfur region. “This is not a drill. It is a red alert that needs to land on the desks of heads of state and government around the world,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said.
More from AP here.
Episode six of The Proximities Podcast, a conversation with British-Palestinian commentator and political economist Kieran Andrieu, is now live.
You can get it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
(Apologies if you listened yesterday and had audio issues. They’re fixed now.)
Peru
Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori has won a knife-edge presidential election in Peru, according to the country’s electoral authority, after a lengthy vote count. Fujimori, daughter of late President Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed for a decade over human rights abuses, ran on a platform of cracking down on crime, a major issue as Peru experienced an upsurge in organized crime, extortion, kidnappings and contract killings in recent years. Many voters are hoping the election can draw a line under years of political chaos that has seen presidents arrested, deposed and impeached, leading to eight leaders in as many years.
More from Al Jazeera here.
Tibet
A Tibetan man has died in New York after setting himself on fire outside the U.N. building, according to police, in what activists and a Tibetan media outlet said was a protest for Tibetan independence. Voice of Tibet, a media outlet of exiled Tibetans, said activist Lobga Rangzen "self-immolated outside the UN headquarters in New York after a live appeal for Tibetan independence and unity." China seized control of Tibet in 1950. Rights groups and Tibetan exiles routinely condemn what they call Beijing’s authoritarian rule of the region.
More from Reuters here.