NewsSleepless world: Global crises surface overnight
Sleepless world: Global crises surface overnight
It happened while you were sleeping. Here is what the world agencies reported overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
ed. Maciej Zubel
- President Donald Trump stated on Saturday that American warships and merchant ships should have free access to the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. In a post on the Truth Social platform, President Trump wrote that he had directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to address this matter immediately.
- The Chinese army occupied the disputed Sandy Cay reef, which is part of the Spratly Archipelago in the South China Sea and is located just a "few kilometres" from an important military post in the Philippines, on Titu Island - reported the "Financial Times," citing Chinese media.
- A fire at Shahid Rajaee port in the Iranian city of Bandar-e Abbas, which broke out on Saturday, has spread - local media reported. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the death toll from the explosion has risen to at least 14, with more than 750 injured.
- President of the Palestinian Authority and head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mahmoud Abbas, appointed Hussein al-Sheikh as the PLO's deputy chairman on Saturday. Although it does not guarantee that this will allow him to take over leadership after the 89-year-old Abbas, it does make him the favourite - assessed the AP agency.
- The National Interpol Bureau in Gaborone, Botswana, launched an investigation into the Alabuga Start program, advertised in Africa as a program combining service work with studies in Russia for young women, who in reality are being forced into manufacturing military drones in Russia's Tatarstan. Interpol suspects that human trafficking is behind the Russian program. The Interpol chief in Gaborone, Senior Inspector Selebatso Mokgosi, said the investigation began after his office noticed posts by a Russian recruitment company on social media. The Tatarstan factory where recruited African women are sent produces Iranian Shahed drones. As thousands of Russians have been killed or injured in the attack on Ukraine, the Kremlin, struggling with a labour shortage, is trying to replace them with people from Africa's poorest countries.
- According to the portal of the Nigerian newspaper "Daily Post," an attack on the Yanriwa market in Benue State occurred on Saturday during rush hour when it was crowded with dozens of shoppers and vendors. One of the interviewees, Lawrence Akerigba, said that the attackers shot at anyone they saw, causing chaos and bloodshed.
- At least 15 emergency rooms were closed in Portugal over the weekend due to a shortage of medical staff. The paralysis of hospital operations, which has been occurring in recent weeks, mainly affects the Lisbon metropolitan area, the capital of the country.
