GAZA - ISRAEL
At least 19 Palestinians, including six children, were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip between last night and dawn today, according to medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera. The violence comes a day before Israel is scheduled to reopen the Rafah crossing, which connects Gaza with Egypt, on Sunday for the first time since May 2024.
IRAN – UNITED STATES
Iran has announced two-day naval drills starting tomorrow in the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US military buildup in the region. The United States has warned Iran that it will not accept manoeuvres deemed dangerous near its ships. Meanwhile, countries in the region are heavily involved in trying to prevent a war between the adversaries, with Turkey, Qatar, and other states acting as mediators.
INDONESIA
The head of Indonesia's financial regulator, Mahendra Siregar, and two other senior officials resigned abruptly yesterday in a dramatic development following the US$ 80 billion crash this week at the Jakarta Stock Exchange and growing concerns over transparency and governance. The resignations came after MSCI, a major financial services firm, warned it may downgrade Indonesian stocks to "frontier market" status, a move that triggered the worst two-day selloff in Indonesian stock since April, intensifying pressure on authorities to restore investor confidence.
INDIA – UNITED STATES
In 2025, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency arrested 1,993 Indian citizens in the United States, more than double the 820 arrests of the previous year. According to data analysed by Scroll, an Indian news website, of these 1,993 arrests, 1,669 people had no criminal records and 1,134 were classified as "other immigration violators”, a category that generally includes those who overstayed their visas or entered the country unauthorised. Most cases concern the states of California, Texas, and New York.
JAPAN
In 2025, Japan's working-age population topped the 70 million mark for the first time, supported by the continued entry of seniors, women, and foreign nationals into the labour market, this according to a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Despite the decline in the working-age population (15-64 years) due to the low birth rate, the working-age population has been growing since 2012, when it stood at 65.65 million. Seniors represent a growing segment. In fact,26.5 per cent of people over 65 are working, up by 0.4 percentage points over 2024. Under the Stabilisation of Employment of Elderly Persons Law, adopted amid labour shortages, businesses must guarantee employment up to age 65 and are encouraged to offer employment opportunities up to age 70.
HONG KONG
Hong Kong Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan announced that a controversial law requiring bus passengers to wear seat belts will be "repealed as soon as possible" due to a "technical shortcoming” in the regulation. The sudden reversal came just five days after the new legislation came into effect, sparking widespread public backlash. Under the law, bus passengers caught without seat belts faced a fine of up to HK$ 5,000 (about US$ 640) and up to three months in prison.
RUSSIA
The head of analytics at the Interior Ministry’s migration service, Alexander Peregozhin, presented data on the number of foreign nationals in Russia, which dropped by 10 per cent in 2025, from 6.3 million to 5.7 million people, primarily due to lower number of minors (up to 25 per cent), difficulties in enrolling in Russian schools, and tighter controls on residency and work permits for all migrants.
KAZAKHSTAN
The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, signed orders expanding the state's powers to control money laundering, terrorist financing, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. As a result, the relevant agencies have received broader powers, particularly the Financial Monitoring Agency, which will be able to transfer data on "shadow" transactions directly to the judiciary.
