Globalsecurity.org

A new UNICEF report released today highlights that child food and nutrition insecurity is one of the primary drivers putting 3.7 million children under the age of five in Afghanistan at increased risk of undernutrition, underscoring the urgent need to protect children's diets and act earlier to prevent life-threatening wasting.

A coalition of 14 countries marked the 10th anniversary of the landmark arbitral ruling on the South China Sea (SCS) on Sunday, reaffirming that the decision remains legally binding and rejecting China's sweeping maritime claims based on so-called "historic rights."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on July 12 that he intends to replace Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko as part of a broader government reshuffle, saying the changes are needed to implement an updated political strategy.

US Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the Republican Party's most influential voices on foreign policy and among Ukraine's strongest supporters in Washington, died on July 11 after what his office described as a "brief and sudden illness." He was 71.

An Iranian strike targeted a US vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, with American attacks along Iran's southern coast reported shortly after.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz until US intervention in the region ends.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Sunday that future arrangements for managing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz should be determined through consultations between Iran and Oman.

Iran will review requests for vessel transit through the Strait of Hormuz once the situation in the region stabilizes, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) said on Sunday.

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The General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation expresses its strong condemnation and denunciation of the Iranian attacks against the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, the State of Qatar, the Sultanate of Oman and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which constitute a flagrant and ongoing violation of the sovereignty of these states and a breach of the principles of good-neighbourliness based on mutual respect.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) completed a new wave of offensive strikes against Iran, July 12, hitting dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran's ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Volatility in the Middle East escalated on Sunday as Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired a warning shot at a ship attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz via an unauthorized route.

The United States attacked approximately 140 targets in Iran as part of its third wave of strikes this week, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced. In response to US attacks in the south of the country, Iran struck a number of US military facilities in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, Press TV reported.

The League of Arab States (Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Sector) is following with profound concern and outrage the ongoing Israeli violations against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli occupation prisons, which point to a deliberate criminal policy aimed at the "slow execution" of Palestinian prisoners and add to a long record of inhumane Israeli violations against them. These systematic policies constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions, and seek to break the will of the Palestinian people and undermine their legitimate resistance to the occupation.

Ten years after the Philippines scored a landmark legal victory against China, the National Maritime Council (NMC) on Sunday said the 2016 South China Sea arbitral ruling remains the country's strongest legal foundation for defending its rights in the West Philippine Sea, as it urged continued adherence to international law amid persistent tensions in the disputed waters.

The Philippines has emerged as a global convergence hub for upholding international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) following the historic July 12, 2016 Arbitral Award, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said on Sunday.

An official in charge of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned the Chief Minister of the Embassy of Japan in China over Japanese Foreign Minister's hype of so-called "Arbitral Award on the South China Sea" 10 years after its issuance and Japan's joint statement issued in collusion with certain other countries, lodging stern representations and expressing strong dissatisfaction and protest, adding that China will resolutely and forcefully counter Japan's provocations and firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.

On July 12, Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi made a statement ten years after the "2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea." The statement blatantly endorses the illegal "award," attacks China's lawful claims and mischaracterizes Japan as a "legitimate stakeholder who uses the South China Sea." China strongly deplores and firmly opposes it.

China's Foreign Ministry on Sunday issued a statement in response to a joint statement by some countries, including the US, Australia, the UK, Japan and the Philippines, on the 10th anniversary of the so-called Arbitral Award on the South China Sea, reiterating that China does not accept or recognize the illegal arbitral award and that China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by it.