Plastic treaty talks. Negotiators from around the world began meeting in Geneva today to discuss a plastics pollution treaty. Previous rounds of talks failed to reach a deal. On Sunday, medical journal The Lancet published a research review saying that in addition to being an “under-recognized danger to human and planetary health,” plastic pollution causes $1.5 trillion in health-related economic losses per year.
U.S. visa bonds. The State Department plans to launch a pilot program that would require visa applicants from countries deemed to have high overstay rates to post up to $15,000 in bond, according to a notice slated for publication today. Last week, the State Department introduced an in-person interview requirement for certain people renewing visas.
Syria clashes. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said yesterday they fought with government forces in Aleppo province despite a March agreement that aimed to integrate them into the country’s military. Syrian forces were also involved in clashes over the weekend in the southern region of Sweida, where violence last month displaced tens of thousands of people.
U.S.-India tensions. Trump wrote on social media yesterday that he plans to “substantially” hike tariffs on India for its continued purchase of Russian oil, a move that the Indian foreign ministry said was “unjustified and unreasonable.” India’s typical energy suppliers diverted their oil to Europe at the start of the war, a foreign ministry spokesperson said. Separately, a Kremlin spokesperson today criticized “attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia.”
Brazil’s Bolsonaro in house arrest. Brazil’s top court ordered the house arrest of former President Jair Bolsonaro yesterday for violating a social media ban as his trial proceeds on attempted coup charges. Bolsonaro’s lawyers said they would appeal. The Trump administration has sanctioned the judge overseeing the trial, saying it is “politicized,” and yesterday condemned the house arrest order.
UN austerity plan. UN Secretary-General António Guterres is preparing a plan to cut some three thousand jobs from the United Nations amid a pullback in funding from the United States, Bloomberg reported. Guterres is expected to formalize the proposal in a September budget. UN staff in Geneva passed a no-confidence motion in Guterres and the plan, saying it “lacked focus.”
EU stays countertariffs. Brussels today is formally suspending two planned packages of retaliatory duties against the United States for six months. The delay gives the countries time to finalize duties on certain products—such as spirits—that did not have rates immediately set in a recent economic agreement.
Capsized migrant ship. Fifty-six African migrants died and 132 were reported missing after their vessel sank off the coast of Yemen over the weekend, the UN immigration agency said. Yemen is a common transit point for African migrants aiming to reach Gulf countries; despite its civil war, more than sixty thousand migrants arrived there last year, the agency said.
