Our daily tour around the world

🇮🇷 Iranian anti-government protesters began a three-day national strike yesterday. Shopkeepers, lorry drivers, and other workers across more than 40 cities nationwide walked off their jobs, in solidarity with protests that began over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police (which have not been disbanded, despite recent reports). Separately, local media reported the family home belonging to Iranian rock climber Elnaz Rekabi, who refused to wear a hijab during an October competition in South Korea, has been demolished.

🇩🇪 Germany is backtracking on defense spending increases it previously announced after Russia invaded Ukraine. Shortly after the invasion began on Feb. 25, Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged in a speech to parliament that Germany would invest “more than 2% of GDP annually” in defense – in-line with what all NATO members agreed to in 2014. But on Monday, a gov’t spokesperson said the 2% target would be missed at least this year and next year due to supply chain issues, with a tentative expectation of meeting it in 2025.

🇺🇦🇷🇺 Two Russian airbases hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border were hit with missile strikes yesterday. Kyiv hasn’t claimed responsibility for the attack, which would represent an unprecedented operation deep in Russian territory. Soon after the blasts at the airbases, Russia launched an anticipated mass airstrike against Ukraine, knocking out electricity and running water in several regions. Separately, the WSJ reported yesterday that the US secretly modified HIMAR rocket launchers it sent to Ukraine so that they couldn’t be used to fire long-range missiles into Russia.