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BRICS expansion

South Africa’s president says the BRICS group of major non-Western economies has invited Iran and several other countries to become new members. Cyril Ramaphosa was speaking on the third day of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. Russian President, Vladimir Putin, also delivered a video address, thanking his South African counterpart for handling the summit and for his efforts to expand the bloc. The Chinese president also said the expansion will inject new impetus into the groups’ cooperation mechanism. The Brazilian president added that the interest of other countries in joining the BRICS organization shows the relevance of its pursuit of a new world economic order. Iranian President, Ebrahim Raeisi is also in Johannesburg to take part in the Friends of BRICS Summit. He aims to elaborate Tehran's policies and to hold meetings with leaders and members of the participating countries.

Wagner chief dead

Russian officials have confirmed that the commander of the Wagner group and his deputy were on board a plane that crashed north of Moscow with no survivors. Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin were among ten people involved in the crash, including three crew members. The agency said an investigation has been launched into the crash. According to Russian emergency services, the aircraft was traveling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg when it crashed. Prigozhin, 62, led an armed mutiny against Russia's military top brass in June.

Fukushima wastewater release

Japan has started releasing treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. The move has drawn strong criticism from China, which has slammed the discharge of wastewater as extremely selfish and irresponsible. Beijing has also suspended imports of all aquatic products from Japan, citing food safety concerns. Meanwhile, a protest has been held in South Korea over Japan’s controversial move. Police arrested at least 14 people trying to enter the Japanese embassy in Seoul. The move to release wastewater into the Pacific Ocean was approved two years ago by the Japanese government and greenlighted by the UN nuclear watchdog last month. The discharge is a key step in the process of de-commissioning the Fukushima nuclear facility after it was destroyed by a tsunami.


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