UNITED STATES: The United Auto Workers union will present a long list of economic demands to car makers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis this week, the union’s president said on Tuesday.

Newly elected Shawn Fain’s message is that car firms are making huge profits and can afford to pay up.

He told members that “record profits mean record contracts.”

FRANCE: Journalists at Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche ended a 40-day strike on Tuesday after unsuccessfully opposing the appointment of an editor-in-chief they denounced as a far-right supporter.

It was the longest journalists’ strike in France in decades. 

Owner the Legardere group said the printed version of the newspaper would resume in mid-August.

IRAN: Revolutionary Guards launched a surprise military drill today on disputed islands in the Persian Gulf.

The drill focused primarily on Abu Musa Island, though the force also landed troops on the Greater Tunb Island as well, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported. 

It came as the region has seen an increase in the presence of the US military.

AUSTRALIA: A senate committee has recommended a ban on the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from federal government devices be extended to WeChat, China’s most popular social media platform.

The committee on foreign interference through social media also recommended that social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter should become more transparent or be fined.