Taiwan-China, Egypt-Ethiopia, Israel-Palestine.
Today's three stories you should know.
Taiwan-China
Taiwan said today that a record number of Chinese military jets had flown into its air defense zone on Tuesday. An air defense zone, technically international airspace, is a designated area in which nations monitor foreign aircraft for national security purposes. Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign nation while China views it as a rogue, breakaway state. Tensions between the two have been growing in recent years.
More from BBC here.
Egypt-Ethiopia
This one has been brewing for several years with peaks and troughs in rhetoric as both countries went through myriad domestic challenges. Ethiopia has since 2011 been building a huge dam on the Blue Nile, which is the Nile River’s main tributary. The construction has caused discord between Egypt and Ethiopia. Egypt relies on the Nile for 90 percent of its freshwater while Ethiopia says it was shortchanged by colonial-era treaties that awarded Egypt and Sudan the lion’s share of the water. The latest salvo in the dispute came today when Ethiopia flatly rejected an Arab League resolution that called for the issue to be raised at the UN Security Council.
More from Al Jazeera here. And an explainer on the dam project here.
Israel-Palestine
Israel launched air raids on the Gaza Strip overnight in response to incendiary balloons sent into Israel from the Palestinian enclave. The violence came just hours after a group of far-right, ultranationalist Israelis staged a march through occupied East Jerusalem during which shouts of “Death to Arabs” were heard. Tension has been high since a ceasefire was declared after an 11-day Israeli bombardment of Gaza last month, which killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children. Eleven Israelis were killed by Hamas rockets fired from the besieged enclave.