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.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
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