UNITED STATES
US steps up Gulf forces
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday approved the deployment of the USS Bataan amphibious readiness group and the 26th Marine Expeditional Unit to the Gulf region in the wake of Iranian attempts to seize commercial ships there, US officials said. The readiness group consists of three ships, including the Bataan, an amphibious assault ship. An expeditional unit usually consists of about 2,500 Marines. The deployment would provide “even greater flexibility and maritime capability in the region,” US Central Command said in an announcement. Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz early this month, opening fire on one of them. The fighter aircraft are intended to give air cover for the commercial ships moving through the waterway and increase the military’s visibility in the area, as a deterrent to Iran, officials said.
ITALY
Police seize record cocaine
Authorities have seized a record 5.3 tonne cocaine haul being transferred between ships off the southern coast of Sicily, police said yesterday. The consignment had an estimated value of 850 million euros (US$946 million) and five people have been arrested, the Guardia di Finanza said in a statement. Police had been tracking a ship that sailed from South America and swooped in the early hours of Wednesday, when a surveillance aircraft spotted packages being thrown from its deck into the waters of the Strait of Sicily to be collected by a waiting fishing trawler. They stopped the trawler and found large quantities of drugs in a hidden compartment behind some paneling on the vessel. Two Tunisians, an Italian, an Albanian and a French national were arrested.
INDIA
Four held over naked video
Police have arrested four men accused of parading two women naked in front of a mob in the northeastern state of Manipur, where months of ethnic violence have left at least 120 people dead. The suspects were identified from a video clip of the incident in early May that went viral on social media on Wednesday, causing outrage across the country. “Four main accused arrested in the Viral Video Case,” police in Manipur wrote on Twitter late on Thursday. The video clip showed the women walking naked along a street, being jeered at and harassed by a mob in the state, where the authorities have imposed an Internet shutdown. A “thorough investigation” was under way, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh wrote on Twitter. “We will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment,” he added.
PHILIPPINES
Marcos rejects ICC probe
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday said his government would not cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation into the thousands of killings committed during his predecessor’s “war on drugs.” He said the ICC has no jurisdiction over the country, which withdrew from the ICC in March 2019. “We will not cooperate with them in any way, shape or form,” Marcos told reporters, just days after appeals judges at the ICC rejected Manila’s attempt to block an investigation by the court’s prosecutors into the anti-narcotics campaign of former president Rodrigo Duterte. Thousands of people were killed during anti-drug operations that ended in shootouts during Duterte’s six-year term, rights groups have said.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS