Global Tensions and Human Struggles: A Snapshot of Current World Events

The current world news includes Israeli tanks advancing in Gaza, Biden's policy aiding immigrants, escalating US-Mexico border tensions, a defence pact between Putin and Kim, U.S. lawmakers visiting the Dalai Lama upsetting China, South Africa's power-sharing government, Xi's anti-corruption drive in the Chinese military, a Palestinian girl affected by shelling, and French far-right leader Bardella's political stance.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Israeli tanks push deeper into Rafah, forcing people to flee again

Israeli tanks backed by warplanes and drones advanced deeper into the western part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah on Wednesday, killing eight people, according to residents and Palestinian medics. Residents said the tanks moved into five ‮neighborhoods‬ after midnight. Heavy ‮shelling‬ and gunfire hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, further to the west of the coastal enclave, they said.

Biden policy is welcome relief for Americans with spouses in the country illegally

When news broke of U.S. President Joe Biden's plan to provide a path to citizenship for certain immigrants who entered the country illegally and are married to U.S. citizens, Pennsylvania-based immigration lawyer Bridget Cambria didn't need long to think of clients it could help. Over the years, she had met with many such couples, explaining to them how difficult it was going to be for the immigrant spouse to get U.S. legal permanent residency. The process, in most cases, required the immigrant to leave the country, potentially enduring years of family separation before being eligible to return.

On US-Mexico bridge, two sides of Biden border crackdown

A group of migrants walked into Mexico on Saturday against pedestrian traffic on the international bridge between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez minutes after being deported from the United States under the Biden administration's new asylum ban. The mainly twenty-something Venezuelan men were ejected under the June 5 proclamation fast-tracking deportations of most people crossing the border illegally.

Putin and Kim sign mutual defence pact

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal with North Korea's Kim Jong Un on Wednesday that includes a mutual defence pledge, one of Russia's most significant moves in Asia for years that Kim said amounted to an "alliance". Putin's pledge overhauls Russia's entire post-Soviet policy on North Korea just as the United States and its Asian allies try to gauge how far Russia could deepen support for the only country to have tested a nuclear weapon this century.

Explainer-Why has a visit by U.S. lawmakers to India upset China?

A delegation of U.S. lawmakers met the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Wednesday in India's northern town of Dharamsala. The meeting annoyed Beijing, which urged the United States on Tuesday to "fully recognise the anti-China and separatist nature of the Dalai clique" and refrain from "any form of contact with it".

South Africa's Ramaphosa vows to fight inequality as power-sharing begins

A weakened South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged on Wednesday that his new multi-party government would work to improve basic living conditions for all citizens as he was sworn in for a second term in office. Ramaphosa's African National Congress will be sharing power with five other parties after it was humbled in a May 29 election, losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in 30 years of democracy.

China's Xi says army faces 'deep-seated' problems in anti-corruption drive

China's President Xi Jinping said there were "deep-seated problems" in the Chinese military's politics, ideology, work style and discipline, state-run CCTV reported Wednesday, amid an ongoing military anti-corruption purge. "There must be no hiding place for corrupt elements in the army," Xi was quoted as saying at a military political work conference this week in the northwestern city of Yanan, the founding stronghold of the Chinese Communist Party.

Palestinian girl with burns from Israeli shelling hopes for treatment

The disfiguring facial burns of 10-year-old Hanan Akel show how Israel's military campaign in Gaza is not only causing thousands of deaths but terrible injuries afflicting both old and young. Hanan lay in a hospital cot in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, struggling to move her mouth as she spoke and with her eyes partly shut, patches of her forehead still raw and stitched scars across her nose and lips.

I won't take PM role without an absolute majority, says French far-right leader Bardella

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella said he would turn down the chance to be prime minister if voters do not hand his party an absolute majority in a parliamentary election. Opinion polls see Bardella's eurosceptic, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) winning the June 30 and July 7 ballot following President Emmanuel Macron's decision this month to dissolve parliament.

Putin takes North Korea's Kim for a drive around Pyongyang in Russian-made limousine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday took North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a drive in a luxury Russian-built Aurus limousine during a pomp-filled visit to Pyongyang after presenting one of the luxury cars to Kim as a gift. The jaunt took place after the two leaders signed an agreement deepening their military cooperation to include a mutual defence pledge to help each other if attacked, with Kim calling the new ties an "alliance".

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)