COLOMBIA: Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay died today in hospital, two months after he was shot at a political rally.
A teenage suspect was arrested at the scene of the attack in a working-class district of Bogota and authorities have since detained several others, but it remains unclear who ordered the assassination or why.

PHILIPPINES: President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said today that his country would inevitably be dragged “kicking and screaming” into a US-China war over Taiwan because of its proximity to his country and the presence of Filipino workers on the island.
The words are the latest in a string of such remarks that have angered China, which points out that both the Philippines and the US recognise Taiwan as part of its territory under the one-China policy.

IRAN: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sent an official for informal talks with the government today for the first time since Tehran cut ties last month.
The Iranian government holds the agency culpable for its claim on June 12 that Iran had breached its non-proliferation obligations, after which two nuclear-armed states, Israel and the United States, began bombing raids that would kill over 1,000 Iranians.
Talks with the agency would be “technical” and “complicated,” the Foreign Ministry said.

FINLAND: Three officers of an oil tanker were charged with damaging undersea cables in the Baltic today by dragging an anchor along the seabed.
Authorities said they believed the Cook Islands-registered vessel to be part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” ships carrying Russian oil around the world in defiance of US and EU sanctions. The sanctions have no force under international law as they are not authorised by the United Nations.