On Sunday, the State Bank of India announced that it would allow the public to exchange 2000-rupee notes up to a limit of 20,000 rupees without any requisition slip or identity proof. This comes after a Friday announcement by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that it would be withdrawing 2000-rupee notes from circulation under its “Clean Note Policy.” The Bank has given till 30 September and mentioned that people may deposit such notes in their bank accounts or exchange them at banks starting from 23 May. The 2000-rupee notes will remain legal tender, but the RBI has advised banks to stop issuing these banknotes immediately.
Pakistani trans-rights activists have vowed to fight back against the striking down of provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act by the Federal Shariat Court. The court is vested with the right to decide whether or not laws are in accordance with Islam, and has struck down three sections of the act passed in 2018. The landmark law safeguarded the rights of transgender individuals and gave them access to legal gender recognition. The Shariat court’s decision, which called the laws “un-Islamic,” will deprive transgender people of their right to state documents like passports and inheritance proceedings matching their self-ascribed gender identity. Activists have said they will now challenge the decision in the country’s Supreme Court.
Human Rights Watch spoke out against Bangladesh repatriating around 1,100 Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, saying that the conditions that caused their exodus had not changed. Bangladeshi refugee commissioner Mizanur Rahman defended the project and noted that Rohingyas’ return is “voluntary.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Office released a statement condemning Sunday’s terrorist attack on Iranian security personnel, in which six policemen were killed along their shared border. The statement comes shortly after a meeting between PM Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, wherein the Pakistani leader vowed to enhance security along the Iran-Pakistan border regions.
Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-wen, said on Saturday that “war is not an option” with China and “neither side can unilaterally change the status quo with non-peaceful means.” Tsai added that “maintaining the status quo of peace and stability is the consensus for both the world and Taiwan.”
Data released by China’s General Administration of Customs shows that Chinese outbound shipments to North Korea surged 69% year-on-year to $166 million in April. The top export items in terms of value were processed hair and wool used to make wigs, worth about $11.6 million. In addition, China also sold $8.84 million worth of diammonium hydrogen phosphate, a popular fertilizer.
Russia and China will partake in their annual bilateral high-level security talks in Moscow on Monday. According to the Russian state news agency RIA, Nikolai Patrushev, the leader of Russia’s Security Council, is scheduled to engage in discussions with Chen Wenqing, who is party secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission in China, and responsible for overseeing areas such as law enforcement, legal matters, and intelligence. This encounter will mark the first meeting between Patrushev and Chen, who assumed the highest-ranking security position in China in October.
Russia’s Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, stated in remarks published early on Monday that transferring F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine would raise the question of NATO involvement in the conflict. In public remarks on the Russian embassy’s Telegram channel, Antonov stated, “There is no infrastructure for the operation of the F-16 in Ukraine and the needed number of pilots and maintenance personnel is not there either.” US President Joe Biden authorised training programs on F-16 warrior planes for Ukrainian pilots. While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has guaranteed Biden that the aircraft would not be used to enter Russian territory.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said it was time to restructure the Security Council and Bretton Woods to reflect the “realities of today’s world.” Speaking at a Sunday press conference during the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Guterres claimed both institutions needed to be upgraded as they still represented the power dynamics of 1945. “The global financial architecture became outdated, dysfunctional, and unfair,” he explained. “In the face of economic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has failed to fulfil its core function as a global safety net,” the UN chief asserted.
Italian PM Georgia Meloni cut short her Japan trip while attending the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, and flew back to Italy to visit the flood-stricken northern region of Emilia-Romagna on Sunday. Over 36,000 people have been evacuated, and at least 14 were killed due to the flooding, which resulted from torrential rainfall and around 20 rivers bursting their banks in the region.