In October, Australia will have a historic vote for Indigenous people through a referendum on voice

On October 14, the citizens of Australia will participate in a historic referendum to decide whether or not to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

If successful, the vote would recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the country's constitution and establish a permanent body for them to give advice on laws. Additionally, the vote would establish a body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to give advice on legislation.

In Australia, there is a heated debate going on about the plan right now.

Since the beginning of virtually the next half century, the nation has not had a referendum that was successful.

In order for it to be successful, it is necessary for the majority of Australians to vote in favor of it. In addition to this, there must be support from the population at large in at least four of Australia's six states.

The parliament would subsequently be responsible for designing and debating the body's make-up, its functions, and its powers; but, the body's recommendations would not carry any legal weight.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese referred to the election as "a once-in-a-generation chance to bring our country together and to change it for the better" when he made the announcement at a rally in Adelaide. The election will take place on May 18th.

He explained that "a committee of Indigenous Australians, chosen by Indigenous Australians, giving advice to government so that we can get a better result for Indigenous Australians" would make up "The Voice."

"You are being asked... to say yes to an idea whose time has come - to say yes to an invitation that comes directly from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves," the invitation reads. "You are being asked to say yes to an idea whose time has come."

The recommendation was included in a significant document that was published in 2017 and titled the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The declaration is considered to be the best call to action for reforms that will affect First Nations Australians, despite the fact that it was not unanimously agreed upon by its signatories, which number over 250 Indigenous leaders.

What exactly is the plan for Australia's Voice to Parliament?
The fact that Australia is the only country in the Commonwealth that has never signed a treaty with its Indigenous people is one of the reasons why campaigners believe the Voice is such a vital step towards reconciliation.

Indigenous Australians are subjected to disproportionately high levels of disadvantage across society, which is an issue that Australia has been having trouble addressing for a long time.

Peter Dutton, the leader of the opposition party and an opponent of Voice, has stated that there is little detail supporting the concept and has controversially asserted that it might racially divide Australians.

However, a large number of opponents of the motion, including Mr. Dutton, have been accused of distributing false material and engaging in racial slurs.

They, in turn, have leveled accusations of elitism and disregard for the legitimate concerns of average Australians at the Yes campaign.

Advocates for mental health have warned that the level of intensity and tone of the debate is having a negative impact on Indigenous people.

The most recent referendum that was held in Australia was in 1999, when the country decided against transitioning to a republic.

Only eight of Australia's total of 44 referendums have been successful, with the most recent one taking place in 1977. None of them have been passed without the support of both political parties.

The Wagner mercenaries are required to take an oath of loyalty to Russia and Putin

Employees of Wagner and those working for other Russian private military contractors have been asked by President Vladimir Putin to swear allegiance to the Russian state and sign an oath in this regard.

The edict is binding on everyone who takes part in military operations in Ukraine, provides assistance to the armed forces, or serves in formations responsible for territorial defense.

On Friday, he put his signature to the decree, which went into force right away.

It comes just two days after it was widely believed that the leaders of Wagner were killed in an aircraft accident.

In a dramatic turn of events on Saturday, a section of Wagner known as Rusich, which is associated with the far right, announced that it will cease its military actions in Ukraine.

Rusich accused Russia's foreign ministry of failing to protect a founding member of the group, Yan Petrovsky. Petrovsky was arrested in Finland for visa breaches and is facing extradition to Ukraine. The accusation was made in a post that Rusich made on Telegram.

Analysts are of the opinion that Mr. Putin's decision is part of an effort to regain his control in the wake of the rebellion led by Wagner in June.

According to Natia Seskuria, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, who spoke with the BBC, Vladimir Putin "wants to have tighter control on Wagner in order to ensure that he won't be facing another crisis in the future."

The directive was issued during a time when the Wagner mercenaries do not have a clear leader. This is because a plane that was believed to be transporting Yevgeny Prigozhin and other leaders crashed on Wednesday, taking the lives of all 10 persons on board.

The pledge includes a promise to strictly follow the instructions of commanders, and it is described as a step toward building the spiritual and moral foundations of Russia's defense in the regulation.

"It is a concealed message to military intelligence to find and prosecute Wagner fighters," Petro Burkovskyi, the chairman of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, a think tank based in Ukraine, told the BBC. Burkovskyi was speaking to the BBC on behalf of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

In addition, he makes it plain that this is also a message to the combatants, saying that they must either take the pledge and keep their weapons or disarm themselves. You must obey me or you will be sent to jail.

In the weeks leading up to the failed revolt in Prigozhin in June, the Russian defense ministry offered mercenary groups the deadline of July 1 to sign contracts with the Russian army.

Prigozhin did not sign the document because he did not want Wagner to be subject to the authority of the ministry. It was the first public blow that Mr. Putin dealt to his long-term ally Prigozhin when he gave his support to the ministry's contract arrangement.

The argument became more heated, which ultimately resulted in Prigozhin's rebellion.

However, given that there is no clear leader among the Wagner fighters, what impact would the decree have on them?

Mr. Burkovskyi is of the opinion that due to their extensive military experience, they are valuable assets for the Russian army.

"They selected Wagner because Wagner provided them with preferential treatment, free from the bureaucracy of the massive Russian army." If Putin gives them orders to receive preferential treatment, I don't think they will care where, to whom, or for whom they fight as long as they get what they want.

Ms. Seskuria is of the opinion that there are devoted Prigozhin followers who will not take the oath, despite the fact that the edict might have an effect in the short term.

"This can potentially create problems for Putin in a longer term perspective," he argues. "This is something that we should keep in mind."

In the meantime, officials have stated that Russian air defenses were successful in preventing drone assaults on the Moscow and Belgorod districts on Saturday morning.

According to the governor of the region, four persons were injured when shelling occurred in the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine.

The government of Ukraine practically never confirms in public that it was responsible for assaults within Russian territory.

According to the regional governor of Kharkiv, Russia shelled a Ukrainian village close to the town of Kupiansk in the country's north-eastern region, causing the deaths of two persons and the injury of another.

First foreign flight for North Korean airline after the collapse of the Soviet Union

The state airline of North Korea has successfully completed its first overseas flight since the epidemic began.

Flight JS151, operated by Air Koryo, took off from Pyongyang early on Tuesday morning and arrived at Beijing Capital Airport at 9:16 local time, which corresponds to 01:16 GMT, according to data provided by the real-time flight tracking service Flightradar24.

It is unknown who was on board the JS151 or how many people it was transporting at this time.

According to Koryo Tours, a travel firm, the route between Pyongyang and Beijing has been reopened so that North Koreans can travel back home.

Flightradar24 reports that flight JS151 was operated by a Tupolev Tu-204 aircraft, which has the capacity to accommodate a maximum of 210 passengers.

It is unknown how many people were on board the return flight, JS152, which was scheduled to depart from Beijing for Pyongyang at 13:05 local time.

According to Kyodo News, the check-in booth for Air Koryo at the Beijing airport was completely crowded with passengers who were wearing North Korean flag pins on their chests and dragging luggage carts full of belongings.

More than three and a half years after they were halted because to Covid border controls, Air Koryo flights to Beijing were authorized to resume on Monday, according to the Chinese foreign ministry, which claimed it has cleared the restart of the flights.

It was only lately that Pyongyang restarted some limited international passenger transit.

This past week, a group of North Korean athletes made their way across the border into China on their route to compete in the global championships for Taekwondo in Kazakhstan, which is located nearby.

The capital of North Korea was also visited by delegations from Russia and China in July to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War. These delegations were the first known foreign organizations to be invited to the country since the year 2020.

Japan is planning to release cleaned water within the next 48 hours in response to the nuclear tragedy at Fukushima

In spite of protests from its neighbors, Japan is going ahead with plans to begin releasing radioactive water that has been treated from the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear facility into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday.

The decision was reached some weeks after the nuclear inspector of the UN gave its approval to the scheme.

Since the facility was wrecked by the tsunami in 2011, around 1.34 million metric tons of water have accumulated. This amount of water is sufficient to fill 500 pools of Olympic size.

Following filtration and diluting, the water will be made available to the public after a period of thirty years.

After a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated that the authorities will make a request for the plant's operator to "promptly prepare" for the disposal to begin on August 24 if the weather and sea conditions are suitable.

After Mr. Kishida's visit to the plant on Sunday, rumors began to circulate that the release was about to take place.

The plant is located on the east coast of the country, roughly 220 kilometers (137 miles) north-east of the capital city of Tokyo. According to the government, releasing the water is a vital step in the lengthy and expensive process of decommissioning the plant, which is located on the east coast.

Since more than a decade ago, Japan has been collecting and storing the contaminated water in tanks, but there is a limited amount of room in the tanks.

In 2011, a tsunami that was brought on by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale flooded three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Since the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986, this event is considered to be the worst nuclear tragedy in the world.

Soon after that, the authorities established an exclusion zone, which continued to be increased as radiation spilled from the facility. As a result, almost 150,000 people were had to evacuate the region.

Concern and rage have been expressed regarding the Fukushima nuclear waste plan.
Since the plan to release water from the plant was approved by the Japanese government two years ago, it has created worry across Asia and the Pacific.

In July, it was given the go light by the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, which came to the conclusion that the effects on both people and the environment would be insignificant.

However, a large number of people, notably fisherman in the area, are concerned that dumping the treated water will have a negative impact on their means of subsistence.

In addition, on Tuesday, a large group of demonstrators gathered in front of the official residence of the prime minister in Tokyo. They demanded that the government put a halt to the release.

Operators of the plant Even though Tepco has been filtering the water to remove more than 60 radioactive compounds, the water will not be completely free of radiation since it will still contain radioactive isotopes of hydrogen and carbon that cannot be easily removed from water. These are radioactive isotopes of tritium and carbon-14.

However, because to the extremely low levels of radiation that they release, specialists agree that they pose no threat to human health unless they are taken in very large quantities.

According to Professor Jim Smith, who teaches environmental science at the University of Portsmouth, "as long as the discharge is carried out as planned, radiation doses to people will be vanishingly small - more than a thousand times less than doses we all get from natural radiation every year." This statement was made by Professor Jim Smith.

The tainted water is also being released into a large body of water, namely the Pacific Ocean, which is another concern brought up by the experts.

According to Professor Gerry Thomas, who teaches molecular pathology at Imperial College London, "Anything released from the site will therefore be massively diluted" because of the surrounding environment.

Presented for your consideration: the frantic struggle to avert 2011's catastrophe

The city of Tokyo has stated in the past that the water that is going to be released into the Pacific Ocean, which has been mixed with saltwater, contains levels of tritium and carbon 14 that are acceptable for human consumption.

It is common practice for nuclear power stations all around the world to discharge waste water that contains levels of tritium that are higher than those found in the water that was treated at Fukushima.

However, the idea has been met with outrage from the countries that are nearby, with China being the country that has voiced its opposition the most. It made the accusation that Japan was using the water as its "private sewer."

On Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, repeated Beijing's protest to the proposal and said that China would take "necessary measures to safeguard the marine environment, food safety, and public health."

According to Mr. Wang, Japan is "putting its own self-interest over the long-term well-being of all humankind" by allowing waste water to be released into the environment.

Hong Kong announced that it would "immediately activate" import restrictions on a number of food products manufactured in Japan.

Fish imports from the Fukushima region have already been prohibited in South Korea and China respectively.

However, the government of South Korea has given its approval to the scheme and has accused the demonstrators of engaging in scaremongering.

The Russian spacecraft Luna-25 was destroyed when it collided with the moon

According to officials, the unmanned Russian spacecraft Luna-25 was unable to regain control of its spin and ended up crashing into the Moon.

It had been over half a century since Russia's last expedition to the Moon.

The spacecraft was supposed to be the first ever to land on the south pole of the Moon, but it was unable to do so due to difficulties that it encountered as it went into its pre-landing orbit.

It had been programmed to investigate a region of the Moon that scientists believe may contain frozen water and valuable components.

Roscosmos, the official space enterprise of Russia, announced early Sunday morning that it had lost touch with the Luna-25 at some point on Saturday afternoon, about 14:57 local time (11:57 GMT).

According to a statement released by the company, preliminary investigations revealed that the 800 kilogram lander had "ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon."

It was stated that a special commission will investigate the reasons why the mission was unsuccessful.

Roscosmos has suffered a setback with the loss of Luna-25. The Russian government's civilian space program has been seeing a steady decrease over the past few years as more funding from the state has been allocated to the country's military space program.

India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is set to land on the moon's south pole in the coming days. Once there, it will dispatch a rover to explore the moon's rocks and craters, collecting data and photographs to transmit back to Earth. Russia was competing with India to be the first country to reach the moon's south pole.

The constant shadow cast by the Moon's south pole on such portions of its surface increases the likelihood of the presence of liquid water there.

Historic India as seen by Chandrayaan-3 New photographs of the lunar surface have been sent by the moon mission.

The nations that will send astronauts to the Moon and beyond in the year 2023.

Who will emerge victorious in the competition between Russia and India to reach the lunar South Pole first?

The loss of the Luna-25 spacecraft was termed as "unfortunate" by a representative for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

"Every single space mission is fraught with peril and requires a high level of technological expertise. They expressed their regret to the BBC about the loss of the Luna-25 spacecraft.

Roscosmos admitted that the Luna-25 mission was fraught with danger and had a chance of being unsuccessful. The spacecraft was launched on August 11 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, which is located in the far eastern Amur region of Russia. On Wednesday of this week, the spacecraft was able to successfully enter the orbit of the moon.

Just a few days before the Indian touchdown, it was anticipated that it would make history by performing a successful soft landing on Monday or Tuesday.

Although both the United States and China have successfully touched down on the Moon's surface, no nation has yet managed to touch down on the south pole of the Moon.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia embarked on its first mission to the Moon in 1976 with the Luna-25 probe. That mission, known as Luna-24, was successful in landing.