Here’s What Happened Around The World In August 2024
Here’s what happened around the world in August 2024.
Here’s what happened around the world in August 2024.
1. After banning its young progressive main opposition leader from politics for 10 years, Thailand got its youngest woman prime minister
Thailand banned its young, progressive main opposition leader from politics for 10 years.
43-year-old Pita Limjaroenrat and his progressive Move Forward party had won the most votes during Thailand’s general election in May 2023, when voters rejected the military government, which had ruled since taking power in a coup in 2014.
Pita had run on a campaign of promoting democracy, removing the military’s influence on politics and revising the lèse-majesté law, which jails people for criticizing the monarchy.
However, he was suspended from parliament and blocked from becoming prime minister for allegedly violating election laws.
On Aug. 7, the constitutional court officially disbanded Move Forward, finding that its attempt to revise the lèse-majesté law amounted to attempting to overthrow the monarchy.
It banned 11 of its members, including Pita, from politics for a decade.
A week later, on Aug. 14, the constitutional court removed Srettha Thavisin, who became prime minister instead of Pita, from the position for "violating ethical standards” because he had appointing a lawyer who had been jailed for attempting to bribe government officials, to his cabinet.
Then two days later, on Aug. 16, with no other candidates, the parliament chose 37-year-old Paetongtarn Shinawatra is the daughter of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and went into self-imposed exile but remained one of Thailand’s most influential politicians.
He returned to Thailand the day that Srettha became prime minister, was immediately arrested but served only six months of his jail term.
This has led to speculation that Thaksin made a deal with the conservative and royalist establishment to have his jail term reduced to help them retain power.
Meanwhile, the remaining members of Move Forward who were not banned all joined another progressive party, which was renamed the People’s Party and became Move Forward’s successor.
The People’s Party, which is made up of primarily young politicians, is now the largest party and the main opposition party in Thailand and has already exceeded its fundraising target.
2. Far-right riots erupted across the UK after three girls were killed in a stabbing attack that was falsely blamed on a Muslim migrant
Far-right supporters are holding anti-immigration and anti-Muslim riots throughout England after the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class was wrongly attributed to a Muslim migrant.
On Monday, July 29, three young girls, aged six, seven and nine, were killed in a knife attack at the dance class in Southport, in the Northwest of England, which left eight other children injured and five adults in critical condition.
The murderer, later named as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, was wielding a knife and has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder.
Rudakubana's identity was first not revealed since minors are not allowed to have their identities made public until after they have been sentenced in the UK.
After news of the murder, misinformation spread, with people claiming the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker despite the fact Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to Christian Rwandan parents and is a British citizen.
Far-right supporters shared names and images of Muslims with no correlation to the incident on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The amount of disinformation led the court to release Rudakubana’s name.
However, far-right groups had already organized riots through Telegram and began rioting and clashing with police.
Police arrested nearly 400 people, while dozens of police officers have been injured.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the riots, deeming it “far-right thuggery” and said those involved “will regret it”.
3. The Olympics ended, bringing some heartwarming moments like Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting rising above hateful attacks about their gender and winning gold medals
4. This Cameroonian boxer making history as the first refugee athlete to ever win an Olympic medal
Cameroonian Boxer Cindy Djankeu Ngamba has made history by becoming the first athlete competing as a refugee to ever win an Olympic medal.
Ngamba was born in Cameroon and moved to England in 2009 when she was 11.
When she was 18, Ngamba came out as gay, which meant she was unable to return back to Cameroon nor represent the country, because it is illegal to be LGBTQ.
As one of the 37 athletes of the Paris 2024 Refugee Olympic Team, Ngamba also served as the flagbearer during the opening ceremony along with Syrian taekwondo athlete Yahya Al Ghotany.
The 25-year-old athlete won a bronze medal on Thursday, Aug. 8, after she was defeated by Panama’s Atheyna Bylon 4-1 in the semifinals. The losers of the semifinals are both rewarded bronze medals in elite boxing.
This is the first medal for the Refugee team, which first debuted in the 2016 Rio Games.
5. But there were still some controversies such as banners and signs showing "Taiwan" being confiscated
The Olympics confiscated banners and signs showing "Taiwan" and it's causing a huge controversy.
During the Men’s Doubles Badminton semi-final match between Taiwan and Denmark on Friday, Aug. 2, Olympics security was seen snatching away one fan’s green towel, which had the words “Taiwan” on it.
A Reuters journalist who captured the scene told Almost that security officers later took the towel out of the arena.
An Olympics spokesperson said only the flags of countries participating in the games are allowed to be displayed by fans in Olympic venues.
It added that the Games also forbid banners with "political messages".
6. This Afghan refugee breakdancer was disqualified because she wore a "Free Afghan Women" cape
Afghan woman refugee breakdancer Manizha Talash, also known as b-girl Talash, was disqualified from the first ever Olympic breaking competition after she competed in a cape with the words “Free Afghan Women” on it.
The 21-year-old known as B-girl Talash went into the third round of the competition on Aug. 9, revealing a Batman-like cape with the slogan on it.
Talash, who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took over in 2021, was met with applause from her opponent, Dutch breaker India Sardjoe, as well as cheers from the crowd.
In a statement afterwards, World DanceSport Federation, the governing body of breakdancing, said Talash "was disqualified for displaying a political slogan on her attire during the Pre-Qualifier battle.”
Talash has since released a powerful statement about her actions, saying she did what she did because “The world has forgotten about Afghan women”.
She said she did not inform anyone of her plan beforehand but she wanted to use the one minute that the world would be watching her to bring attention to the issue.
Talash also revealed she made her cape from a burqa.
“With the fabric of this burqa that represents so much, I want to show the girls back home that even in the most difficult circumstances, they have the strength to transform things. From the burqa they can make wings. If they are in a cocoon, one day soon they can fly,” she wrote.
7. The Paralympics began, and this Afghan woman Taekwondo athlete also made history as the first refugee to ever win a medal at the Paralympics
Taekwondo athlete Zakia Khudadadi who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took over, has made history, winning the first-ever medal for the Refugee Paralympic Team at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
On Friday, Aug. 30, the 25-year-old Afghan athlete, who was born with an arm disability, won a bronze medal in the women’s 47kg taekwondo category, defeating Turkey’s Ekinci Nurcihan.
Khudadadi rose to prominence at 18 after winning the African International Para Taekwondo Championship in 2016 and was on her way to competing in the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021 when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
She was eventually airlifted out of Afghanistan through a coordinational international effort and was able to compete in the Tokyo Games.
“It was a surreal moment, my heart started racing when I realized I had won the bronze, “ she said in her winning speech.
“I went through so much to get here. This medal is for all the women of Afghanistan and all the refugees of the world. I hope that one day there will be peace in my country,” Khudadadi added.
8. Hundreds of school girls and women in South Korea are having their photos edited into deepfake pornography and shared into Telegram chatrooms with thousands of male users
Hundreds of girls and women in South Korea are having their photos being edited into deepfake porn videos and shared in secret Telegram chat rooms with thousands of male users.
On Aug. 21, Korean news outlet HanKyoReh reported it had uncovered numerous Telegram groups where men were creating and sharing illegal deepfake pornography of women they knew.
Several chat rooms were categorized based on schools, and one channel had more than 220,000 members.
In the chat rooms, men would share the names, birth dates and other personal information of their women classmates or other women they know.
Other members would then find photos of the woman on social media and manipulate them using AI technology to generate pornographic deepfake images and videos of the woman without their consent.
On Aug. 25, one social media user published a list of victims’ names on X, many of whom are girls in middle and high schools.
The post quickly went viral, gaining over 500,000 retweets in just a day.
Many people have since taken to social media to expose more groups, including “Humiliation rooms”, where men share photos of them sexually assaulting women, sometimes drugged or asleep.
9. Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians blocked the parliament's attempt to erode democracy by sharing this blue image
People in Indonesia held huge protests across the country and shared a blue image with "Emergency Warning" on social media after the government tried to change the law to make it harder for opposition parties to nominate candidates for local elections.
It all started on Wednesday Aug. 21, when Indonesia’s constitutional court made two rulings.
The first lowered the threshold for political parties to nominate candidates for the local elections from 20%, meaning smaller parties can now propose candidates as they no longer need to hold at least 20% of seats in a regional legislature.
It also rejected a proposal to lower the age limit for candidates running for office and kept it at 30 years old.
However, the next day, the Indonesian parliament, which is dominated by outgoing president Joko Widodo's party, tried to reverse these rulings, which would weaken the opposition and allow Widodo's 29-year-old youngest son to run for office.
This move has been widely seen as an attempt by Widodo – popularly known as Jokowi – to extend his power and political influence and establish a political dynasty.
Protesters took to the streets across several cities, rallying against what they say is nepotism and the parliament's attempt to erode democracy, forcing the parliament to eventually scrap the plan to overturn the court’s decision.
10. Bangladesh students holding mass protests also forced the prime minister to resign over a controversial law to limit government job opportunities
Student protesters in Bangladesh forced the prime minister to resign.
Thousands of students have been protesting in Bangladesh since July after the government reinstated a system to reserve 30% of government jobs for veterans' families.
The job quota system saved a certain percentage of government jobs, which pay higher, for certain people, including marginalized groups such as women, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, as well as the children of veterans who fought in the war for Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Protesters say the quota decreases the number of government jobs for people who can fill the roles based on merit and favors supporters of prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s party, which had led the fight for independence.
After the demonstrations broke out, police started to violently crack down on protesters, with more than 300 people killed and thousands injured and arrested.
Despite the Supreme Court scaling back the system on July 21, protests continued, and on Aug. 4, more than 90 people were killed in violence between protesters and police, making it the deadliest day since the protests started.
The next day, Hasina resigned and fled the country to India in a military helicopter.
The country’s army chief announced Hasina’s resignation and said an interim government will be formed.
11. In India, this woman trainee doctor was raped and murdered and people demanded justice
This Indian woman doctor was raped and murdered and people are demanding justice.
The 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered in the early hours of Friday, August 9th, inside a government-run medical college and hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal.
On Thursday, August 8th, after working for 36 hours, she had gone to rest in the hospital's seminar room at around 2 am.
The next morning, her colleagues found her semi-naked body in the room.
Authorities also found a large amount of semen in her body, suggesting that she was likely gang raped, according to local outlet NDTV.
Authorities have arrested the suspect, a police volunteer at the hospital, and launched an investigation into the incident.
The news has sparked nationwide outrage, with thousands of doctors and students protesting and going on strike, demanding justice for the victim, as well as better security measures in healthcare facilities.
12. This Iranian woman was shot and paralyzed by the police for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory hijab law
This Iranian woman was shot and paralyzed by the police for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory hijab law.
31-year-old Arezoo Badri, a mother of two, was driving her car in Noor city in Iran on July 22 when police attempted to pull her over after they identified her car as being on a list to be confiscated.
In 2023, Iranian authorities said they would start using CCTV to identify women drivers who did not cover their hair and confiscate their vehicles.
It is likely Badri's car had been marked on the list to be confiscated because she had allegedly violated the hijab law multiple times.
Badri allegedly did not comply with the police trying to pull her over, and officers then opened fire, shooting her with a bullet that severely damaged her spinal cord and entered her lung.
Following the shooting, Badri was hospitalized, and the bullet was only removed after 10 days, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down, according to the BBC.
Doctors have said it will take months to determine whether Bardi will be permanently paraplegic or not.
Iranian authorities have justified the shooting, saying that officers are allowed to use firearms when faced with non-compliance.
13. The Taliban has now banned women from showing their faces or speaking aloud in public in Afghanistan
The Taliban has now banned women from showing their faces and speaking aloud in public in Afghanistan.
The new laws require women to cover their entire bodies, including their faces, in public to prevent "temptation.”
The law also ban women from wearing "thin, tight, or short" clothing and they must cover themselves fully in front of "non-Muslim" men to avoid "moral corruption."
The Taliban has also made it illegal for women to speak, recite, or sing in public, saying that women’s voices are "intimate" and should not be heard by others.
In addition, women cannot travel alone, look at men who are not relatives, or even interact with non-family members in public.
If women break the laws, they may face verbal warnings, having their property confiscated, being detained or even taken to court "for further action".
14. Hong Kong found these two pro-democracy journalists guilty of “sedition” in another attack on press freedom
Hong Kong has found these two pro-democracy journalists guilty of “sedition” – or rebelling against the government.
The two journalists, Patrick Lam and Chung Pui-kuen, were former editors-in-chief at the now-defunct Stand News, one of Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy media outlets.
Following the mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, Stand News had remained as one of the last outlets that openly criticized the Hong Kong government, but Stand News shut in December 2021 after more than 200 police raided its offices and arrested Lam, Chung and five staff members.
Authorities said the outlet had published “inflammatory” content aimed at inciting hatred towards the government.
On Aug. 29, a court in Hong Kong found Lam and Chung guilty of “conspiring to publish seditious materials”.
The judge said that some of Stand News’ articles had promoting “illegal ideologies” or smeared the national security law and security officers, becoming a tool for smearing the Chinese and Hong Kong governments during the protests in 2019.
This is the first time journalists in Hong Kong have been tried for sedition since 1997, when Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China under the “one country, two systems” policy.
Rights groups have condemned the latest verdict as an attack on press freedom as the journalists were simply doing their jobs.
15. Macklemore canceled his concert in Dubai because of the UAE's involvement in Sudan's civil war
Grammy-winning American rapper Macklemore has canceled his concert in Dubai due to the UAE’s involvement in the war in Sudan.
He said he could not perform in the UAE knowing that it is funding the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that is engaged in a civil war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) – a rival faction of the military government.
Since the war began in April 2023, estimates say up to 150,000 people have been killed, including thousands of children.
Over 12 million people have had to flee their homes, and over half of the population – about 26 million people – are at risk of famine, according to the UN.
There are widespread reports of sexual violence being used as a weapon against women and children.
The UAE has been providing significant support to the RSF and contributing to the humanitarian crisis.
A UN report in January 2024 found credible evidence the UAE had sent weapons to the RSF "several times per week" via northern Chad.
In July 2024, a leaked document revealed that some RSF members held Emirati passports.
16. K-Pop Group NCT's Taeil has quit the boy band after he was accused of being involved in a sex crime case
K-pop singer Taeil has quit the group NCT after he was accused of sexual assault, his label, SM Entertainment, announced on X on Wednesday, Aug 28.
His label said that the 30-year-old, whose real name is Moon Tae-il, had left the group after being “involved in a sex crime case.”
According to South Korean police, Taeil was formally charged in June after they received a sexual misconduct complaint.
Police told Korean outlet JoongAng Daily that the crime was alleged sexual assault but said it was “not against a minor or a male” following speculation on social media that the singer had assaulted either a minor or a younger boy.
SM Entertainment has not terminated its contract with Taeil despite him leaving the group.
17. BTS' Suga is now facing prison or a fine for drunk-driving an electric scooter
Fresh CCTV has surfaced showing Suga of BTS’ recent drunk driving incident, with the megastar now facing prison or a fine.
Suga, real name Min Yoon-gi, is still under investigation for drunk driving an electric scooter in Seoul on Aug. 6.
The police released a new statement about the latest CCTV footage and said that Suga had visited his private studio to drink after drinking at a restaurant.
He then headed home, where he was caught.
The rapper’s studio is reportedly 500 meters from his residence, which is a five-minute walk.
Authorities said despite the short distance, Suga will still receive a possible prison sentence between two to five years or a fine between 10 million won (US$7,375) and 20 million won (US$14,751).
A breathalyser test found Suga had a blood alcohol level of 0.227%, the highest recorded in a celebrity DUI case in South Korea.
18. A marketing student has made history as the first deaf woman to be crowned Miss South Africa
This marketing student has made history as the first deaf woman to be crowned Miss South Africa.
28-year-old Mia Le Roux was crowned Miss South Africa on Saturday Aug. 10 and will be the first woman with a physical disability to compete in Miss Universe.
Le Roux was diagnosed with profound deafness when she was just one years old.
Le Roux needed two years of speech therapy before she could speak her first words.
To help her with her hearing, she uses a cochlear implant, which sends sounds directly to her brain, allowing her to understand what people are saying.
After winning the competition, Le Roux said she hopes her victory will inspire people who believe that they do not fit in the society to go after their "wildest dreams, just like she has".
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Kassy Cho
Kassy Cho
