Pakistan, Israel-Palestine, Kenya.

Today's three stories you should know.

Oct 31, 2023

Pakistan

Thousands of Afghans in Pakistan are rushing to the Afghanistan border as a deadline for them to return home voluntarily looms. Earlier this month, Pakistani authorities said “illegal” migrants must leave the country by October 31 or face being taken to deportation centers. Islamabad says there are about four million Afghans in the country and that 1.7 million of them are living there illegally. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban have deteriorated in recent months as a spate of suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan have been blamed on Afghans.

Israel-Palestine

At the time of writing, revulsion is spreading across social media at the news that an Israeli air strike has hit the Jalabia refugee camp in Gaza. Footage broadcast live on Al Jazeera showed a massive crater, flattened buildings and desperate relatives and rescue workers combing through the rubble for survivors using only their hands. Bodies are still being counted but a hospital director has said at least 50 are dead. That number is expected to rise. The Israeli army has admitted it struck the camp.

Kenya

The Kenya Human Rights Commission has urged Britain’s King Charles to make an "unequivocal public apology ... for the brutal and inhuman treatment inflicted on Kenyan citizens" as he and Queen Camilla begin a four-day state visit to the country. During the 1952 - 1960 Mau Mau uprising, colonial authorities killed an estimated 100,000 Kenyans and detained about 160,000 in concentration camps. Though in 2013 then foreign minister William Hague said the UK "sincerely regrets" the abuses, he stopped short of a full apology. The British High Commission said the trip would "acknowledge the more painful aspects" of the UK’s relationship with Kenya.