World roundup: July 6 2022

Stories from Iran, Kazakhstan, Mali, and more

INTERNATIONAL

In today’s global news:

• Worldometer is tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

• The New York Times is tracking global vaccine distribution.

MIDDLE EAST

YEMEN

As part of the “Middle East Air Defense Alliance” that Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz claimed to be assembling last month, Breaking Defense reports that a number of Arab states (Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) have agreed to position Israeli-made early warning sensors on their territory. This network of sensors would then be overseen by US Central Command in the event of suspicious activity by Iran a non-specific hostile actor that could be anyone, really.

Part of the system would reportedly be positioned on the Yemeni island of Socotra, which in all practical senses now belongs to the UAE courtesy of its support for southern Yemen separatist groups. Socotra seems a fairly lousy place to put sensors that are supposed to be monitoring for Iranian unspecified bad actor activity, but positioning the sensors there would help strengthen the UAE’s military presence on the island and put its utterly unique ecosystem at greater threat. So you can see the upside there.