At least nine people have been killed in the latest clashes between members of rival ethnic groups in India's northeastern state of Manipur, police said yesterday, as security forces pressed on with a hunt for illegal weapons. Violence between members of the Kuki ethnic group, who mostly live in the hills, and Meiteis, the dominant community in the lowlands, erupted on May 3, sparked by resentment over economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education reserved for hill people.

At least 80 people have been killed and more than 40,000 have been displaced in the state on the Myanmar border that is governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party. K Shivakanta Singh, a senior police official in the state capital of Imphal, told reporters that a gun battle between rival factions erupted on Tuesday (Jun. 13) and went on for hours. Civil society organisations from the Meitei and Kuki communities have refused to join a peace committee set up by the federal government in brokering peace.

A record 110 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes, the United Nations said, branding the huge upsurge an "indictment" of the world. Russia's war in Ukraine, refugees fleeing Afghanistan and the fighting in Sudan have pushed the total number of refugees forced to seek shelter abroad, and those displaced within their own countries, to an unprecedented level, said UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.

At the end of last year, 108.4 million people were displaced, UNHCR said in its flagship annual report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement. The number was up 19.1 million from the end of 2021 -- the biggest-ever increase since the records began back in 1975. Since then, the eruption of the conflict in Sudan has triggered further displacement, pushing the global total to an estimated 110 million by May. Of the 2022 global total, 35.3 million were refugees who fled abroad, with 62.5 million being internally displaced.

Donald Trump became the first US president to face a judge on federal charges as he pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom to dozens of felony counts accusing him of hoarding classified documents and refusing government demands to give them back. The history-making court date, centred on charges that Trump mishandled government secrets that as commander-in-chief he was entrusted to protect, kickstarts a legal process that will unfold at the height of the 2024 presidential campaign and carry profound consequences not only for his political future but also for his own personal liberty.

Trump approached his arraignment with characteristic bravado, posting social media broadsides against the prosecution from inside his motorcade en route to the courthouse and insisting that he had done nothing wrong and was being persecuted for political purposes. A lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in a brief arraignment that ended without him having to surrender his passport or otherwise restrict his travel.

European Union regulators hit Google with fresh antitrust charges, saying the only way to satisfy competition concerns about its lucrative digital ad business is by selling off parts of the tech giant's main moneymaker. The unprecedented decision to push for such a breakup marks a significant escalation by Brussels in its crackdown on Silicon Valley digital giants, and follows a similar move by U.S. authorities seeking to bust Google's alleged monopoly on the online ad ecosystem.

The European Commission, the bloc's executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, said its preliminary view after an investigation is that "only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services" would address the concerns. The 27-nation EU has led the global movement to crack down on Big Tech companies - including moving closer to groundbreaking rules on artificial intelligence - but it has previously relied on issuing blockbuster fines, including three antitrust penalties for Google worth billions.