International report

Turkish and French Presidents are pledging to ease tensions after months of trading insults, but difficulties between them remain, especially over their increasingly contrary interests in Africa. Following a meeting, on the sidelines of June’s Nato summit, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that he had agreed with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on the need to revive bilateral cooperation and regional consultation.

Afghanistan has called on India to engage with the Taliban once American troops return home. The signals became public just one day after the US vacated its biggest airbase near Kabul in a step towards ending its 20-year occupation of the war-wrecked nation.

Ethiopia has started the second phase of filling the reservoir of its mega-dam on the upper Blue Nile, according to the authorities in neighbouring Egypt and Sudan, raising tensions ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on the divisive project.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has initiated the controversial building of a multi-billion-dollar canal intended to bypass the busy waters of the Bosphorus Strait, despite grim environmental warnings and major Russian security concerns.

India’s government has promised support for the uncounted number of children who are either orphaned or have lost a parent in the Covid-19 pandemic that so far has infected more than 30 million people in the country.

The tourism industry of Agra – the northern Indian city which is home to the Taj Mahal - has been brought to its knees in the past year by the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Indian Navy vessel Shardul recently ferried oxygen from the Middle East instead of the military tanks it is designed to carry. The 4,259 nautical mile voyage scripted another golden verse in the Indian military’s odyssey of saving millions of lives in struggling Covid hospitals.

Turkey's military presence in Libya is under growing pressure amid increasing international and Libyan calls for all foreign forces to leave the country. The pressure is predicted to grow as critical players in the Libyan civil war meet in Berlin this month.

The latest Israeli attacks on Gaza have damaged many hundreds of buildings, including homes, mosques, factories and government-run facilities. As the reconstruction process begins once again, there is a debate about who will administer the millions of dollars available, with both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority claiming the right to supervise re-building.

As a devastating second wave of coronavirus has swept India in recent weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s well-crafted public image has taken a beating.