India votes for a new president

Today's headlines: tension at the G20 Finance in Indonesia over the Russian attack on Ukraine; Lockdowns extended again in China; North Korea claims to have brought the pandemic under control; Iran reported to have atom bomb capabilities; 50,000 Russian soldiers dead or wounded in Ukraine war; Afghan missile attacks on Uzbekistan.

INDIA

Elections are held today to choose the country's 15th president.  (Tribal) candidate of Modi's majority led BJP favoured. Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha runs for opposition. The votes will be counted on 21 July; the presidential oath is scheduled for four days later.

INDONESIA

Russia came under fire for its invasion of Ukraine yesterday at the conclusion of the G20 finance ministers' summit in Bali. This was stated by the delegation of Indonesia, acting chair of the group of the world's 20 largest economies. Countries critical of Moscow called for an end to the aggression.

CHINA

New outbreaks of Covid-19 continue to emerge in the country. Several cities have begun extending lockdowns or launching new mass tests. The alert is high Shanghai, Tianjin and Zhumadian (Henan). The situation is serious in Macao, where the authorities ordered the 11th round of population swabs.

NORTH KOREA

Suspected cases of Covid-19 have dropped to 400 a day. This was stated this morning by the authorities in Pyongyang. Since May, there have been almost five million cases, almost all of them treated in hospitals.  In mid-May, there were more than 390,000 daily infections.

IRAN

Tehran is "technically" capable of building an atomic bomb, but has not yet decided whether to take this step. This was stated yesterday by Kamal Kharrazi, advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Kamenei.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE

According to data from the British Ministry of Defence, the Russians lost 50,000 dead and wounded soldiers in Ukraine. A significant part of the Russian arsenal was destroyed, including 4 thousand armoured fighting vehicles.

UZBEKISTAN

The Uzbek Defence Ministry denied that the country suffered a new missile attack from Afghanistan. On 5 July, the city of Termez was hit by five rockets fired from Afghan territory. The Taliban government in Kabul said the attack was the work of a criminal group, which was later dismantled by the authorities.

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