Sudan, Iraq, South Korea.

Today's three stories you should know.

Jun 28, 2023

Sudan

It’s become a familiar pattern in Sudan over the last two months of conflict. Ceasefires are declared, ceasefires are almost immediately broken. Even the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha couldn’t convince the Sudanese army and its rivals in the RSF militia to abide by a pause in fighting they’d agreed to mark the holiday. According to residents, heavy gunfire has persisted around the capital Khartoum and both artillery strikes and air raids have been conducted today. The fighting is so far estimated to have killed about 2,000 civilians and forced about 2.5 million people from their homes.

Iraq

Iraqi authorities said today that they seized 250,000 Captagon pills at a disused school near the country’s border with Syria. Captagon, a highly addictive mix of amphetamines also known as the "poor man's cocaine," is used as a recreational drug across the Middle East and has become a fast growing problem. Experts say the majority of the trade is orchestrated by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - providing it with much-needed funds during its more than decade-long war.

South Korea

South Koreans became a year or two younger today. A new law has come into effect to bring the country’s two traditional age-counting methods into line with international standards. Under the method most commonly used, babies were deemed to be a year old at birth and a year was then added every January 1st. Think about it: that means a baby born on 31 December would be two years old the next day. Three in four South Koreans were in favour of the move, according to polls conducted last year.