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.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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