Day News Recap: Middle East tensions deepen as Pakistan attack, Russia-Ukraine strikes and market swings grip day

At least 16 people were killed when a vehicle packed with explosives rammed into a mosque near police headquarters in Kohat district in northwest Pakistan, in an attack that was still unfolding as reports emerged.  🔗

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In the Middle East, Iran said its Revolutionary Guards struck and detained the Togo flagged tanker Trend in the Strait of Hormuz, while the UK maritime agency reported a separate ship fire, and Saudi Arabia has been rerouting crude through Oman as shipping disruption in the waterway continues.  🔗  🔗

The wider regional security picture also sharpened, with the United States approving a $24.3 billion sale of 48 F 35 warplanes to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan pledging to defend the kingdom against aggression, and Italy saying it will deploy warships to protect commercial vessels through the Bab al Mandeb.  🔗  🔗  🔗

Yemen and the Red Sea corridor remained under pressure as US officials held talks with Houthi representatives in Muscat, the group tightened its grip on Bab al Mandeb, and Houthi run authorities in Sanaa raised fuel prices for the first time in about four years.  🔗  🔗

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In Ukraine and the wider Russia file, Russian drone and missile strikes injured five people, including three children, in the Kyiv region and also hit Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro, while Greenpeace accused Russia of sabotaging power lines at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.  🔗  🔗

Diplomatic and legal pressure on Moscow and Tehran also intensified, with Russia and China vetoing a UN move to extend Iran sanctions monitoring, the UN mission on Iran saying there are reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed war crimes in its strikes, and the US allowing an Iranian delegation to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly.  🔗  🔗  🔗

Russia pressed ahead with its tightly controlled State Duma election in occupied Ukrainian regions and across the country, even as reports said the Kremlin had intensified a pre election crackdown and President Vladimir Putin said the federal budget deficit should be about 2% on a conservative oil assumption.  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗

Elsewhere in Europe, President Emmanuel Macron warned that Russian hybrid attacks on France and the continent had intensified, France arrested a police officer over a suspected far right terror plot, and NATS said a software defect caused the UK air traffic outage that led to mass flight cancellations.  🔗  🔗  🔗

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In Asia and the Pacific, a China Coast Guard vessel rammed a Philippine government ship near Palawan, Japan's central bank raised rates to a 31 year high, South Korea ruled out any military role in the Iran war and extended its fuel tax cut, and Australia faced fresh scrutiny over the Taipan helicopter crash inquiry as a Queensland teenager was charged after an FBI tip off over extremist social media channels.  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗

Other developments included at least 26 deaths in clashes in the Abyei border region between Sudan and South Sudan, torrential rain and flooding in Tunis, a third death in the rare malaria cluster near Frankfurt Airport, Canada seeking closer security ties with Europe and the Joint Expeditionary Force, and Jagtar Singh Johal being granted bail in India after nearly nine years in detention.  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗

Further security and political stories saw Serbia open a factory to assemble Israeli made drones, Indonesia receive its first aircraft carrier from Italy, Paris host talks on Lebanon's security, King Charles warn AI leaders of existential dangers, and Donald Trump signal progress on a US Army base in Poland and renewed focus on farm legislation.  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗  🔗

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