MIDDLE EAST
Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader behind the 7 October 2023 attacks, was killed yesterday by the Israeli army. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war in Gaza would continue until the hostages were freed and the IDF continued operations in Gaza and Lebanon. Hezbollah said that a new phase of the war has begun. The US expressed its willingness to start ceasefire talks.
SOUTH AFRICA - TAIWAN
The South African government has asked Taiwan to move its representative office out of the capital, Pretoria, by the end of October, saying that negotiations on this issue are not possible. South Africa has been insisting on the issue for a year, referring to the principle of ‘one China’. The latest came on 7 October, a national holiday for Taiwan, indicating that South Africa is willing to sacrifice relations with Taiwan in favour of relations with China.
CHINA
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's GDP grew by 4.6% year-on-year in the third quarter, again below the 5% target, although slightly better than the previous period. Industrial production in September grew by 5.4% and retail sales by 3.2% in September. However, some experts believe that more growth impulses are needed by the end of the year, because in the meantime the crisis in the real estate market continues.
SOUTH KOREA - VIETNAM
South Korean Hyosung plans to double its investments in Vietnam, investing another USD 4 billion in data centres, aviation fuel and more, following in the footsteps of the other Korean giant, Samsung. The announcement was made by the Vietnamese government after Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with the company's chairman, Cho Hyun-joon, for the second time in three months
MALAYSIA
Malaysia passed a law amending the Constitution to allow children born abroad to Malaysian mothers to be entitled to citizenship. Other sections that had generated criticism have been resolved, (such as an article stating that foreign spouses, in the event of divorce after two years of obtaining citizenship, will be able to keep it). However, children of foreign residents born in Malaysia will no longer obtain citizenship automatically but will have to apply for it.
RUSSIA
Increasingly widespread controls have been decided in Russian cinemas to prevent the screening of pirate copies of Hollywood films and foreign films in general, as an ‘accompaniment’ to Russian short films, especially in suburban theatres in cities and provincial towns, and also to prevent their distribution via the internet.
KAZAKHSTAN
Kazakhstan has no intention of joining the Brics group of countries at present and in the near future, despite the fact that proposals to this effect have come from Moscow to President Kasym-Žomart Tokaev, who has declared that he ‘looks to the national interests of the country’ and prioritises the UN as a ‘universal organisation with no alternative for solving international problems’.
