PHILIPPINES
At least five people have died and 86 are missing following a fire that broke out on a ferry in the Philippines. The MV June Aster, which had set sail from the capital Manila with 117 passengers and 17 crew members on board, was approaching its destination, the renowned tourist resort of Coron in Palawan province, when it caught fire. The blaze, which broke out at 6 pm on Wednesday (local time), was still burning at 11 am on Thursday. Strong currents and adverse weather conditions have hampered the work of the rescue teams, the coastguard said.
MYANMAR
The Man Maw mine, one of the world’s largest tin mines, located in Myanmar’s Wa State, is resuming operations suspended since 2023 and stepping up exports to China, according to the International Crisis Group. According to Beijing’s customs data, Chinese imports of tin ore and concentrates from Myanmar in the first half of 2026 have already exceeded the total for 2025, reaching almost 40,000 tonnes.
INDIA
As reported yesterday by the Indian Express, nearly 30 per cent of voters in 38 constituencies in Maharashtra where Muslims make up over a fifth of the population were excluded from the provisional lists published following an extraordinary intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. The 29 constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes recorded an average exclusion rate of 19.6 per cent.
SOUTH KOREA
Dozens of protesters called on the South Korean government not to send a military contingent to the Strait of Hormuz, describing the war launched by the United States against Iran as “illegal”. The protest erupted after South Korean defence authorities stated that they had sent a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in the Strait, whilst emphasising that no decision had been taken regarding a possible deployment of troops. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, stated that the war would not end before the mid-term elections in November.
AFGHANISTAN – SAUDI ARABIA
The Saudi company Delta Energy Group has signed a series of agreements with the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum for the exploration of oil and gas fields in western Afghanistan, for a study on gas utilisation in Herat and for a 700-kilometre gas pipeline, which is expected to link the area near the Guzara district, in Herat province, to the area near the Spin Boldak district in Kandahar province. Former US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad attended the signing ceremony in Kabul.
RUSSIA
The ‘Preschool Eagles’ and ‘Good Games’ projects have been launched in Russian nurseries, with the aim of instilling ‘traditional spiritual and moral values’, said Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov. As part of these lessons, children will be taught “friendship, mutual support, respect for the elderly and care for others through play, communication and joint activities”. From the age of 3, pre-school children will begin to learn about the history of Crimea and the Donbass as “regions of Russia”.
ARMENIA – AZERBAIJAN
The Caucasus Heritage Watch research programme has documented the destruction of the old Armenian-Russian cemetery on the eastern side of Shushi in the Artsakh region. The cemetery contained at least 40 monuments: five medieval Armenian khachkars (stone crosses) dating from the 12th and 13th centuries and 35 gravestones dating from between 1810 and 1871. The inscriptions on these gravestones provided information about the Armenian inhabitants of the area, including craftsmen, members of the Russian military and administrative apparatus, and other citizens of the 19th century, with inscriptions in Armenian, Russian and Latin.
