protest pro-Iranian candidate for prime minister

Other news of the day: Wuhan resumes Covid lockdowns; two Indian blue helmets die in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Agreement between Malaysia and Indonesia on migrant workers. Erdogan wants the full reopening of the borders with Armenia.

IRAQ

Hundreds of supporters of Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr broke in yesterday afternoon at the Parliament building in Baghdad. The goal: to protest against the candidacy of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for prime minister, by the parties backed by Iran. At the time of the assault, Parliament was empty and the security forces reportedly let the protesters in. Al-Sadr’s bloc won 73 seats in the Iraqi elections in October 2021, making it the largest faction in the 329-seat parliament. Still, the standoff between the two Shiite factions has made the formation of a government impossible.

INDIA

Two indian blue helmets of MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping contingent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were killed during an attack by rebel militias in Butembo, Kivu province. Along with Shishupal Singh and Sanwala Ram Vishnoi, a soldier from Morocco also died.

CHINA

They decree new closures in a suburb of Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus was first recorded. The measure affects almost a million people. The inhabitants of the Jiangxia district were ordered to stay in their homes for three days, after four asymptomatic cases of Covid were detected.

NORTH KOREA-SOUTH KOREA

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened again to the United States and the government in Seoul. He said that the South Korean government of Yoon Suk-yeol and its “military gangsters” will be annihilated if they carry out a preemptive strike against Pyongyang. The harsh intervention was delivered on the sidelines of the 69th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War and commentators believe that North Korea is preparing a new nuclear test.

MALAYSIA-INDONESIA

The Malaysian government reached an agreement with Indonesia to lift the ban on the entry of migrant workers to the country from August 1. The decision comes after the two countries agreed to integrate existing systems to facilitate the entry and hiring of Indonesian workers in Malaysia.

TURKEY-ARMENIA

In a television appearance, Turkish President Erdogan appealed to the Yerevan leadership, stating that “we are serious and determined to normalize relations with Armenia, and we expect concrete steps, beyond general declarations”, referring to the full reopening of the borders between the two countries.

RUSSIA-CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

The private military company “Wagner”, linked to the Petersburg businessman Evgenij Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s cook”, very active especially in Africa, has been given the opportunity to exploit 186,000 hectares of forest in the Central African Republic, in an area populated by gorillas, leopards and elephants in danger of extinction.