UKRAINE
Russian warship destroyed
Kyiv yesterday claimed that its forces had destroyed a Russian military patrol boat on the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula. The strategic waterway has become an increasingly important battleground as Ukrainian forces claim a string of attacks on Moscow’s fleet. Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said the ship had been hit previously, but was destroyed after the overnight attack by maritime drones. “As for the crew, the details are being clarified. There are dead and wounded, but it is likely that some of the crew managed to evacuate,” he told local media. There was no official response from the Russian defence ministry. The air force said earlier yesterday that it had downed 18 of 22 Iranian-designed attack drones launched by Russia over the Black Sea port city of Odesa.
VIETNAM
Hanoi most polluted city
Hanoi was yesterday blanketed by a thick haze of pollution that obscured high-rise buildings and left the city’s nearly 9 million people breathing toxic air. The city topped air monitoring Web site IQAir’s table of the world’s most polluted cities early yesterday afternoon. Levels of PM2.5 pollutants were classified as “very unhealthy” and hit more than 24 times the WHO’s annual guideline. Hanoi has in the past few years frequently been listed among the world’s most polluted cities, due in part to widespread construction and emissions from the huge number of motorbikes and cars that crisscross the capital every day. Carbon emissions from coal plants to the north and agricultural burning exacerbate the problem. The latest World Bank report on air pollution says 40 percent of people in Hanoi are exposed to concentrations nearly five times greater than WHO guidelines.
NEPAL
Coalition forms government
The nation’s two largest communist parties on Monday joined forces to form a new coalition government that would also include smaller parties as partners. Maoist party leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal is to remain prime minister a year after he was elected to the office. Dahal has ended his partnership with the Nepali Congress party, the largest group in parliament, and is now joining forces with the Communist Party of Nepal, the second-biggest party, led by Khadga Prasad Oli. Dahal appointed three new ministers who were sworn in to office by President Ram Chandra Poudel in Kathmandu. The Cabinet is expected to be expanded through negotiations between the new partners in the coalition government. Dahal’s party is the only third-largest group in the 275-seat House of Representatives.
JAPAN
Mount Fuji charges hikers
Hikers using the most popular route to climb Mount Fuji are to be charged US$13 each from July, with numbers capped to ease congestion and improve safety, a regional official said yesterday. Increasingly large crowds are scaling the nation’s highest mountain, which is covered in snow most of the year, but draws more than 220,000 visitors during the July-September climbing period. From July 1, an entry fee of ￥2,000 (US$13) is to be charged per person to ascend the famous volcano’s Yoshida Trail. Daily entries to the trail are to be capped at 4,000 people, with entry banned between 4pm and 2am, under an ordinance approved on Monday by Yamanashi region.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
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