This roundup summarises the most important news stories around the world in the last month (August 2023).

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There were deadly floods in China, mudslides in India, and wildfires in the United States (US), including in Hawaii, the deadliest in the country in more than a century. Also in the US, in Montana, a judge ruled in favour of 16 children and young adults who said that their constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment” was violated by state agencies. The move which establishes government duty to protect individuals from climate change.

Geopolitical tensions and breakthroughs

Japan started releasing treated nuclear waste water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, against the protestations of its neighbours China and South Korea, and despite international regulators approving the government’s plan. China then banned Japanese seafood.

In Niger, coup leaders severed military ties with France, as the detained president called on the US and other allies for help. The coalition of West African countries, ECOWAS, said they will intervene if the coup was not reversed, though the situation and next steps remain unclear. Poland accused Belarusian helicopters of violating its airspace, while in Russia, notorious mercenary chief and mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin – who had led a failed uprising against the president in June – was listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed.

In terms of breakthroughs, Iran and Saudi Arabia are set to join the BRICS economic bloc.

Electoral developments

In Ecuador, a presidential candidate – in a field of eight – was assassinated during a rally. The president then declared a state of emergency after saying that the national elections would proceed as planned. An October run-off is likely, as a socialist candidate gathered the highest vote count. In Guatemala, an anti-corruption candidate won in a landslide, in a rebuke to the conservative political establishment. And in Zimbabwe, the president was re-elected to a second five-year term with over 52 per cent of the vote.

Political incarceration

In Myanmar, the jail sentence of former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was convicted after the 2021 coup, was reduced by six years. In Pakistan, the former prime minister Imran Khan was taken into custody and sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges. In Thailand, tycoon Srettha Thavisin – whose party came in second in the May election – was approved by lawmakers as the country’s new prime minister, on the same day former premier Thaksin Shinawatra returned from exile and was immediately jailed.

And in the US, former president Donald Trump has been criminally indicted four times in the past five months, including twice in August, for trying to interfere with the 2020 presidential election.

In other news:

• China has reportedly held back monthly youth unemployment numbers, which have been expected to increase from June’s record rate of 21.3 per cent among those aged 16 to 24.
• India became the first country to achieve a soft craft landing near the Moon’s south pole. It is also the fourth country ever to land a spacecraft on the moon.
• Spain’s women’s football team won this year’s Women’s World Cup, but the win was overshadowed by a controversy involving the president of the Spanish football federation, who kissed a player without consent during the trophy ceremony. The team refuses to play until he resigns.