June 2021

So far there have been no reports of injuries, as emergency services and firefighters battled to contain the flames. The head of Tehran’s Provincial Crisis Management Office said that “a leak at a liquid gas pipeline at the facility sparked the fire,” Reuters reported. The cause of blaze will be investigated, Mansour Darajati added, according to Reuters. No casualties have been reported at the scene, Shaker Khafaei, the head of public relations of Tehran Oil Refining Co., which runs the refinery, told state news agency IRINN. Khafaei also ruled out the possibility of sabotage. Videos posted on social media Wednesday…

With the last remaining US troops due to leave Afghanistan in the coming months, the report compiled by the UN Monitoring Team, which is charged with tracking security threats in Afghanistan, paints a bleak picture of the security outlook. It will be uncomfortable reading for the Biden administration as it works to end the US military presence in the country. Biden has pledged to withdraw all remaining US forces by September 11 — the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. The two groups “show no indication of breaking ties,” even if they have temporarily tried to mask their connections, according to the…

(CNN) — Growing up in Guang’an, Zhang Yiwen always felt a closeness to late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who spent the first 15 years of his life in her home city in the country’s western province of Sichuan. “Grandpa Deng has a great image in our heart,” Zhang tells CNN, using the local nickname for the man who, as paramount leader from the late 1970s until his death in 1997, is credited with modernizing and opening up China. Zhang’s passion for all things Deng, combined with her storytelling skills, has helped her win competitions and national recognition. In late 2020,…

The six countries subject to the tariffs, which are set at 25% on about $2 billion worth of goods, include Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The additional duties will be prevented from taking effect for up to 180 days while the US continues negotiating on a proposed global tax regime through the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the G20 process, USTR said. Foreign governments have long complained that large tech companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google should pay them more in taxes. Some have recently passed taxes specifically targeting revenue generated by such…

The blaze on board the huge training and logistical ship — called the “Khark” — began early Wednesday morning. “Despite 20 hours of all-out efforts by Civil and Naval Military Rescue Teams, the rescue operation of the Khark training support vessel was ineffective due to the spread of fire in different parts,” Fars said in its report. The ship sank off the coast of the southern Iranian port of Jask. All crew members were evacuated and there were no casualties, Fars added. The cause of the blaze remains unclear. The military vessel was being deployed to international waters for a…

The idea that Israel’s longest-serving leader could be unseated became a reality on Sunday, when Naftali Bennett, leader of the small right-wing party Yamina, confirmed he was working toward a coalition agreement with Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist party Yesh Atid. Under the country’s election laws, the president can give a party leader 28 days to form a coalition. President Reuven Rivlin had tasked Netanyahu to form a government after the vote, but the Prime Minister was unable to command enough support to control Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. ​ The president then tasked Lapid with forming a government, with…

The elephants have made a 500-kilometer (311-mile) journey through the southwestern province of Yunnan from the nature reserve in Xishuangbanna to Yuxi, a city of 2.6 million people, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, according to state news agency Xinhua. It is unclear why they left their nature reserve home, but on their travels, the elephants have caused 412 separate incidents of damage, with financial losses amounting to around 6.8 million yuan ($1.1 million), Xinhua reported. They destroyed 56 hectares of farmland in the counties of Yuanjiang and Shiping alone, the agency said. The creatures have also caused…

Authorities are investigating a massive sinkhole that appeared in a farmer’s field in Mexico’s Puebla state. The hole has rapidly expanded and is threatening to swallow a nearby house. Source link

Xi Jinping wants China to learn how to make friends and influence people. Speaking at a study session for the Communist Party’s top leadership on Monday, the Chinese President said it was important for the country to tell its story in a positive way, presenting the image of a “credible, lovable, and respectable China,” according to state-run news agency Xinhua. Xi’s vision makes sense. Since taking power in 2012, he has pushed for China to take a bigger role in global affairs, but aside from Russia and Pakistan, China has few strong diplomatic relationships with major world powers. What Xi…

Hong Kong (CNN) — Hong Kong‘s most controversial destination has been forced to close just two days before a hugely significant date in the global pro-democracy calendar. Located inside a nondescript high-rise building wedged between a gas station and a highway overpass in Kowloon, the June 4 Museum is the only museum in Greater China — which includes the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan — that commemorates the Beijing government’s crackdown against student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. On June 1, Hong Kong officials from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) visited the museum in the working-class area…