What happened
The US has carried out military action against Iran following hits on three commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The US strikes – more than 80 of them – came after three tankers were damaged over a 24-hour period, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations, although no injuries were reported.

Washington blamed Tehran for the incidents despite Iran not publicly claiming responsibility for them. The US Treasury also cancelled a waiver that had temporarily eased restrictions on Iranian oil exports, while allowing transactions already underway to wind down until 17 July.

Who said what
Granting the waiver had been “part of a strategy to boost the accord’s chances of success by giving Iran a taste of the riches it could bring in from resumed oil sales around the globe”, said Eric Schmitt in The New York Times. The theory was that “those inside Iran seeking a peace deal would gain leverage over the military leadership that has opposed any agreement that might limit the country’s nuclear options”.

However, “Iran blames the US for the incident”, said Patrick Wintour in The Guardian. It says Washington’s efforts to open up new routes through the strait amount to a breach of the memorandum of understanding that the two parties had signed.

What next?
Despite the escalation, US officials said negotiations with Iran would continue as efforts persist to preserve last month’s fragile ceasefire agreement.

What happened
Systems for adult social care are set to be decided via consultation with the general public in the wake of a review. Led by Baroness Casey, the commission has called for a “reckoning” on how people are cared for.

The commission has been analysing the problems facing the care system in England and is due to produce a report this year containing a plan for a National Care Service.

Who said what
This month it will begin speaking to “hundreds of thousands” of people to “get under the skin of where the public are”, Casey told the BBC’s Radio Four Today programme. The conversations will focus on older people who are “too often ignored or overlooked”, as well as young people “who are already losing faith that they will get anything back from the state in return for paying in”.

Adult social care “must be built around people, not services”, said Louise Gittins, Chair of the Local Government Association. This is an “opportunity for successful, lasting reform”.

What next?
Phase two of the commission, which will examine how social care is to be funded in the longer term, is not due to report until 2028.

The matriarch of one of Thailand’s richest families has finally dropped a lawsuit against her son just days before it was scheduled to come to court. Chiranuj Bhirombhakdi was suing her son under the 1908 “ungrateful child law”, claiming that his actions had caused material and reputational damage to the family.

In May, Siranudh “Psi” Scott, heir to the Singha beer dynasty, caused a “firestorm of controversy” when he made allegations that he had been sexually abused by his older brother, Sunit, and a babysitter, said The Japan Times. Despite “strenuously” denying the allegations, Sunit was removed from executive roles at Singha’s parent company, Boon Rawd Brewery, soon after the claims were made.

Psi reportedly first told other family members of the alleged abuse about three years ago, but “accepted financial compensation from them to keep quiet”, according to the Taipei Times. However, after his mother sued him this year over a property dispute, he decided to speak out.

This “bitter” legal case was centred around a “century-old law reinforcing traditional values of obedience and hierarchy”, said The Telegraph. Known as the “ungrateful child law”, the 1908 legislation is used to “protect parents from neglectful children”, enabling them to withdraw gifts or financial donations if their offspring are deemed “ungrateful, physically abusive, neglectful in old age, or responsible for serious reputational harm”.

Some of Asia’s biggest countries have similar laws, and “more are on the way”, said Asia editor Richard Lloyd Parry in The Times. China, Singapore and Taiwan all place “varying legal obligations on children under civil or criminal law”.

At their core, such laws “codify an assumption that was common in most pre-modern societies”: whatever joy they bring to their parents’ lives, “children are a form of investment”, delivering “returns” through financial support when they start work, and via “physical care when their parents become feeble in body”. Yet, as the Singha beer dynasty case demonstrates, such statutes and penalties may be “crude tools for dealing with the fraught emotional dynamics of families”.