Russian warships head to the Caribbean, Korean balloon fight escalates

It happened while you were sleeping. Here’s what global agencies reported overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.

• Media: Russian warships and planes en route to exercises in the Caribbean. US authorities are tracking the movements of Russian warships and aircraft as they head to the Caribbean for maneuvers in the coming weeks. According to AP, these actions are intended to demonstrate strength amid tensions related to Western support for Ukraine. There is also a possibility that Russian ships may dock at ports in Venezuela and Cuba. American officials have assessed that the presence of the Russian military in the Western Hemisphere is not a cause for alarm. The exercises will involve only a "handful" of Russian ships and auxiliary units, which the US military will monitor.

• The Korean balloon war continues. Balloons filled with US dollars, leaflets critical of Kim Jong Un, and recordings of K-pop were sent across the border by a group of North Korean defectors. The group, known as the Free North Korea Movement, stated on Thursday that they sent a total of 10 giant balloons in response to the release of a thousand balloons over South Korea, which contained trash, cigarette butts, and what appeared to be excrement.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized Western long-range weapon supplies to Ukraine. According to "The Guardian," Moscow warned that it could supply similar weapons to other countries to attack Western targets. "If someone thinks it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to attack our territory and create problems for us, why don't we have the right to supply our weapons?" Putin said.

• The French anti-terrorism prosecutor's office launched an investigation after a man from Donbas tried to detonate explosives in a hotel room north of Paris. A source in the French anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) reported that firefighters provided medical assistance to a 26-year-old man at a hotel in Val-d'Oise on Monday evening. A preliminary search of his hotel room led to the discovery of "products and materials intended for the manufacture of explosive devices," the source said. The police questioned the man of Ukrainian and Russian nationality.

• Pilots of the Irish airline Aer Lingus are voting on industrial action. According to the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA), the vote comes after pilots rejected a recommendation from the Irish labor court to increase pilots' pay by 9.25 percent. The union advises its members to vote in favor of industrial action, "including a strike." Voting will last until June 12. The airline stated that the pilots are demanding a 27 percent pay increase. The last time pilots in Ireland received a pay raise was in July 2019, while workers in other sectors in the country received an average 24 percent increase over that period, the union said.