Friday marked the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, when U.S. troops sacked a city and killed 504 unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War. Provincial official Dang Ngoc Dung said at a ceremony in the town of My Lai that the massacre was a typical case of “cruel crimes committed by aggressive and hostile forces” during the war. He did not name the United States but said Vietnam wants to set aside the past and work toward a better, peaceful future.

While waiting in a long line outside Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, I overheard a local tour guide explaining to a Chinese Canadian tourist: “Only three Communist leaders have mausoleums open to the public: Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, and Ho Chi Minh.” (Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il also have a mausoleum, although that one’s harder to visit.) The tourist responded, “Wow, I wonder who the fourth one will be.”

HO CHI MINH CITY and HANOI, Vietnam—Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is a mix of the past and present. Motorbikes whizz past a French-colonial-style post office; a red banner with a yellow hammer and sickle hangs from a lamppost next to a sleek skyscraper; slender women in flowing ao dai (a traditional silk tunic) snap selfies in front of a bronze statue of Ho Chi Minh.

IRAN: The country’s ruling ayatollahs and government officials struggled in their response to nationwide protests—launched now in more than 70 cities covering 27 provinces—as demonstrations entered a seventh day Wednesday. Tens of thousands of Iranians continued to chant “Death to Khamenei! Death to Rouhani!” overnight, despite efforts to force government workers to attend pro-government counterrallies.

A powerful typhoon that killed hundreds in the Philippines over the weekend weakened to a tropical depression on Tuesday and failed to make an expected landfall in Vietnam. Weather forecasters had warned that Typhoon Tembin could hit Vietnam’s vulnerable Mekong Delta region. The country’s disaster prevention committee on Monday evacuated approximately 74,000 people and shut down schools in Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon), Vietnam’s largest city.

UNITED NATIONS: Eight countries joined the United States in voting against a resolution to condemn it for its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel—a combative chapter closing a combative year for the United States on the world stage. In the vote, 35 countries abstained, including leading U.S. allies Canada and Australia, and 128 voted in favor, including most European nations and Great Britain.

The United Nations migration agency will send home an additional 15,000 migrants from detention camps in Libya before the year ends, the agency announced Friday.