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Russia-West tensions

Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine is in its 42nd day. A city in the east is reportedly bombed by Russian forces for the first time in several weeks. One of the strikes damaged an empty school in the center of Kramatorsk. The city was last targeted in the early days of the military offensive. NATO says Russia is pivoting away from the Kiev region to eastern and southern Ukraine. NATO says Russia wants to take the entire Donbas region and create a land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula, which it controls. Elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, Kiev and pro-Russia forces blamed each other for the explosion of an industrial acid tank in Luhansk. The blast created a serious potential hazard for locals. In the southeast, heavy fighting continues around the besieged port city of Mariupol. Its mayor says the city is now QUOTE unlivable and the situation there is beyond humanitarian disaster. Over 4.2 million Ukrainians have fled the country while a further 7.1 million are thought be internally displaced as a result of Russia's offensive.

‘Israel must join NPT’

Iran calls on the international community to press Israel to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, NPT. Iran’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Zahra Ershadi said Israel must also be forced to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA. She said the current geopolitical crises in the world are increasingly risking a new nuclear arms race. The Iranian diplomat criticized the nuclear powers’ decision to ramp up their defense spending and lower their threshold for using nuclear arms. She said Tehran slams any move to threaten using such weapons. Ershadi added that the nuclear powers’ assertion that no-one wins a nuclear war must be backed up by practical steps to de-nuclearize. The Iranian official was speaking at the annual meeting of the UN Disarmament Commission.

Peru fuel price protests

The Peruvian president has announced the end of a curfew in the capital Lima amid nationwide protests at rising food and fuel prices. Pedro Castillo has called for calm in the country. The curfew had been in place since the early hours of Monday. Peru’s president is under fire for a pandemic-driven economic downturn and rising inflation. Last week, Castillo escaped impeachment by Congress over allegations of allowing corruption in his inner circle and a lack of direction. A poll conducted in March showed two-thirds of Peruvians disapprove of his performance during his eight-month presidency.

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