Amna Nawaz:
Moscow has recently stepped its attacks against civilians. Ukrainian leaders say Russia has fired more than 2000 drones, missiles and glide bombs, injuring scores of people in population centers in the past week.
Houthi rebels in Yemen say that a bulk carrier they attacked on Sunday has sunk in the Red Sea. They claim the company that owns the ship did port calls in Israel. The Liberian-flagged vessel called the Magic Seas, was headed north toward Egypt’s Suez Canal. It caught fire and took on water during the Houthis’ attack, forcing its 22 crew members to abandon ship.
Israel and the Iran-backed Houthis have since been trading fire. Israel sent fighter jets to hit several ports in a power plant in Yemen overnight. In the meantime, in Israel, air defense systems intercepted Houthi missiles.
In Kenya, the capital city of Nairobi is on lockdown, as police say that violent anti-government protests have led to at least 11 deaths. Pro-democracy demonstrators lit bonfires and hurled rocks at police, who fired back with tear gas. Many Kenyans have been protesting issues like police brutality and government corruption for weeks. A number of them have demanded that their president, William Ruto, resign.
Today is known as Saba Saba in Swahili. It’s the anniversary of major protests 35 years ago that helped pave the way for multiparty democracy in Kenya.
A volcanic eruption in Southeastern Indonesia spewed a towering column of fire and ash that threatened aviation and kept officials on high alert. The plume from Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki stretched 11 miles into the sky. Its initial eruption was one of Indonesia’s largest since 2010. Soot blanketed several villages below and blotted out the sun for almost half-an-hour, geologists said.
There were no reported casualties, but, by this afternoon, dozens of flights to and from Indonesia’s resort island of Bali were canceled.
Back in the U.S., trash is piling up on the streets of Philadelphia as a major workers strike entered its seventh day following a weekend of talks that ended without a deal. Among the nearly 10,000 workers that have walked off the job from the city’s largest municipal workers union, trash collectors, along with other essential services, like 911 dispatchers.
The workers are calling for better wages and benefits. Negotiations are expected to pick back up tomorrow.
And stocks fell on Wall Street today as President Trump put new pressures on trading partners with his latest tariffs. The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 400 points, as both it and the Nasdaq fell by close to 1 percent. The S&P 500 also backed off by 0.8 percent.
