Typhoon Jangmi brought sustained winds of 80mph and record-breaking rainfall to Japan this week, prompting evacuations for more than 1.5 million people across Okinawa and the mainland. The storm caused 23 injuries, damaged 57 homes, knocked out power to 60,000 households, and damaged the exterior wall of the UNESCO-listed Himeji Castle in western Japan before weakening into a tropical depression.

As tensions persist in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday urged the now proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) to let the people of the region decide whether the 12 refugee seats should be abolished. The regional administration and the JAAC remain at odds over various issues, most notably the committee’s demand to abolish the 12 seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly that are reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947. Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, the defence minister called on the JAAC to raise the issue in the upcoming elections, scheduled for July 27 , and “take the issue to the public”.