ISRAEL - GAZA
Last night, five Al Jazeera journalists were killed in an Israeli attack near Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, were in a tent for journalists at the main entrance of the hospital when they were hit, the broadcaster reported. The Israeli army confirmed that it had targeted Anas al-Sharif, saying he was ‘the head of a Hamas terrorist cell.’
SOUTH KOREA – VIETNAM
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam have agreed to increase trade to $150 billion by 2030. ‘Our countries have agreed that approximately 10,000 Korean companies operating in Vietnam will contribute to Vietnam's economic development and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries,’ Lee said.
JAPAN
Several people are reported missing in the prefectures of Kumamoto and Nagasaki in southwestern Japan due to heavy rains that have caused dangerous landslides. A man who was evacuating with his family disappeared after their car was swept away by a landslide in the town of Kosa, while two people are feared to have been swept away in a river elsewhere.
PHILIPPINES
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., after saying that Manila cannot stay out of a conflict between China and Taiwan, said that Beijing had misinterpreted his comments. China accused Marcos of “playing with fire”. Marcos said that Filipinos working and living in Taiwan would have to be evacuated if a conflict broke out, but reiterated his desire to avoid clashes and war. Around 100,000 Filipino migrants work in Taiwan.
INDIA
In recent days, the Indian Electoral Commission has published an updated draft of the electoral rolls for the state of Bihar after a month-long review. Local residents have reported incorrect photos and deceased people on the revised lists, which contain 6.5 million fewer voters than before. The opposition accuses the BJP of deleting the names of Muslim residents to allow the ultra-nationalist Hindu party to prevail in the upcoming elections, which will be held in November.
RUSSIA – UKRAINE
An “online catalogue” of local orphaned children has appeared on the website of the Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian region of Luhansk, which is occupied and annexed by Russia. The catalogue lists 294 children up to the age of 17, displaying their names and photographs, with information about their character and aptitudes, filtered by gender, age, eye and hair colour and other useful information, such as whether they have brothers and sisters.
KAZAKHSTAN
Construction of the first nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan has officially begun, with an inauguration ceremony attended by the director of Rosatom, Russian Aleksey Likhačev, and the president of the Kazakh atomic energy agency, Almasadam Satkaliev, near the village of Ulken in the Almaty region, promising that “a best-seller on the nuclear technology market will be built”.
