USA – IRAN
The US military has reported that it has destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in response to missile attacks launched by Iran against a US Navy warship. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), or Pasdaran, claimed to have targeted two American ships and eight oil tankers, as well as a further 10 vessels accused of attempting to cross a ‘prohibited and dangerous zone’ in the Strait of Hormuz, ‘with the support’ of the United States.
INDIA – FRANCE
The Eiffel Tower was temporarily closed on Monday following a workers’ strike, called to protest against the exclusion of female staff, which in turn had been requested during a private visit by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a Hindu religious group. The BAPS monks, or sadhus, practise strict celibacy, which requires them to avoid physical contact with women and not to be alone in their company, minimising personal interactions or attention paid to the opposite sex. The Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, or SETE, which manages the famous Parisian monument, acknowledged that the group had requested that Saturday’s visit be organised in such a way as to limit ‘interactions with women’, and stated that ‘these conditions should not have been accepted’. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs commented that the matter concerns the two organisations and does not involve the government.
UK – MALDIVES
The President of the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu, has written to the British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, asking him to reopen negotiations on the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands rather than cede them to Mauritius. These islands are home to a strategic Anglo-American military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The Maldivian government maintains that its claim to the Chagos Islands is supported by historical ties and geographical proximity, as they lie some 500 km away, whilst Mauritius is more than four times that distance away.
HONG KONG
Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first leader following the city’s return to Chinese rule, has died at the age of 89. Born in Shanghai in 1937, Tung graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States. In 1969, he moved to Hong Kong and worked for his father’s company, Orient Overseas, eventually taking over as its director in 1979. Despite his limited political experience, it was believed that Tung had been personally chosen by Beijing to lead Hong Kong after the handover because he was regarded as a staunch loyalist, particularly after Chinese state-owned banks had helped to rescue the family business during the economic crisis in the mid-1980s.
THAILAND – SOUTH KOREA
Thai authorities have arrested 12 South Koreans and one Chinese national, accused of running online scams from a luxury rented flat south of Bangkok, local police reported yesterday. Officers found a list of people targeted by the scams and a number of forged documents, including fake letters from the South Korean public prosecutor’s office. The fraudsters made threatening phone calls whilst posing as South Korean government officials.
NORTH KOREA
North Korea has built a new uranium enrichment plant at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon and has begun operating a new facility at its Kangson enrichment site, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported. According to a report by the organisation, Pyongyang has been steadily expanding its nuclear infrastructure, as monitored via satellite imagery.
RUSSIA
In Izhevsk, the capital of the Russian republic of Udmurtia, a new club for veterans of the war with Ukraine – the so-called SVOi – has been inaugurated, with 40 members, as reported by the newspaper Kommersant-Udmurtia. Members will hold ‘Lessons in Courage’ in schools, mentor teenagers and help those returning from the war, the newspaper reports. However, enrolment is not yet closed: the number of club members could increase, according to the project coordinator, Maria Melnikova.
