NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Disputed tanker: An Iranian supertanker hauling $130 million worth of crude oil that the U.S. suspects to be tied to a sanctioned organization has lifted its anchor and begun moving away from Gibraltar, marine traffic monitoring showed late Sunday. Data on Marinetraffic.com showed the Iranflagged Adrian Darya 1, previously known as Grace 1, moving shortly before midnight. The tanker slowly steered toward international waters separating Morocco and the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. The vessel had been detained for a month in the British overseas territory for allegedly attempting to breach European Union sanctions on Syria. Gibraltar authorities rejected an 11thhour attempt by the U.S. to reseize the tanker.
2 Argentina resignation: Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne resigned and will be replaced by the economy minister of the country’s most populous state. The resignation Saturday came three days after President Mauricio Macri announced his conservative administration is temporarily increasing the minimum wage, reducing payroll taxes and implementing other steps to help Argentine workers as the country struggles to overcome high inflation and other economic problems. Macri acted after a leftist presidential slate that includes his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez, turned in a powerful showing in primary voting for candidates going into October general elections. Dujovne will be replaced by Hernan Lacunza, the economy minister for Buenos Aires province.
3 Syria fighting: State media and an opposition war monitor said Sunday that government forces have gained more ground in the country’s northwest, almost reaching the outskirts of the major rebelheld town of Khan Sheikhoun. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war, said troops are now about a half mile from Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. The government offensive in the northwest began on April 30 and has displaced more than 450,000 people.
4 Mexico protest: Workers have erected a wooden barrier around Mexico City’s iconic Angel of Independence monument after feminists defaced it with graffiti during a raucous and violent protest over a string of alleged rapes by police. The disorder Friday night erupted as part of protests over a perception that city officials were not fully investigating the rape accusations. The demonstrations have become known as “glitter protests” after marchers doused the city’s police chief in pink glitter. Officials were assessing the damage to the Angel and other points in the capital that protesters attacked.
5 Bishop steps down: The Metropolitan Amvrosios of Kalavryta, a fiery conservative Greek Orthodox bishop known for criticizing, often in intemperate terms, those who he believed acted in a “non-Christian” or “nonGreek” way, including gays, migrants and politicians, resigned Sunday. Amvrosios, 81, has served in the diocese of Kalavryta, in southern Greece, since 1978. He achieved notoriety for his support of the farright, antiimmigrant Golden Dawn party. A blog post he wrote about gays in 2015 — calling them “the scum of society” and urging people to spit on them — led to his being convicted by a local court of hate speech in January 2019. He was given a sevenmonth suspended sentence. Last year, he declared that a deadly wildfire near Athens was God’s punishment for the “atheist” leftwing Greek prime minister at the time, Alexis Tsipras.