The state is establishing specialised research institutes, funding research and restoring monuments from the era of the Ulus Džoči – the Tatar-Mongol period of its history, which was marginalised by former Soviet historiography. Meanwhile, neighbouring Uzbekistan has for decades been constructing a national historical narrative centred on Tamerlane.
Today's headlines: For the USCIRF, Afghanistan under the Taliban is experiencing a "continual and significant” decline in religious freedom. Indonesia and Japan want to eliminate trade barriers and strengthen bilateral trade. Israeli fighter jets hit Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. Vietnam is going after Falun Gong members.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will attend the 5+1 summit in Astana (9-12 August). He will bring a substantial aid package to support the region’s development, centred on transport and energy, particularly decarbonisation. In the background is Tokyo’s difficult relationship with Moscow and Beijing.
Today's headlines: North Korea punishes students and officials for watching a film about the Korean War. Telephone and Internet restrictions leave large parts of Myanmar without information from abroad. In Bangladesh, garment factories reopen after forced closure due protests. War in Gaza hinders polio vaccination amid WHO warning of a possible epidemic.
Today's headlines: The Philippines, the US, Canada, and Australia hold a two-day exercise in the South China Sea. Taiwan’s defence spending is expected to reach a record high next year. Hamas appoints Yahya Sinwar as its new leader. In South Korea, climate change is disrupting agriculture with new banana and papaya farms popping up.
Today's headlines: Iran arrested a street female performer for singing in public without headcover. Purges continue in Vietnam, where a tycoon was sentenced to 21 years for fraud. Tomorrow in Jeddah, the OIC will meet to discuss Haniyeh’s assassination at the request of Pakistan and Iran. Cambodia’s prime minister is set to launch the controversial Funan Techo project. China and Kazakhstan plan to jointly build a lunar station.
Today's headlines: Israel is on maximum alert for an expected attack from Iran and its allies in response to Haniyeh’s killing. China hits an historic low in the number of marriages in the first six months of 2024. At the Torkham border crossing, Pakistan denies entry to Afghan drivers without passport or visa. Thailand draws up a ten-year plan in response to healthcare crisis.
Rediscovering the techniques of their grandmothers, which have remained unchanged for hundreds of years, a small farming village in northern Tajikistan has set up a business where women are the protagonists. They produce handmade silky woven carpets that are among the most expensive and valuable in the world.
Since 1936, when the Stalinist constitution proclaiming ‘democratic freedoms’ was approved, tens of thousands were relocated from the Ukrainian regions of Vinnitsa, Žitomir, Kiev and Kirovograd to the kolkhoz Avangard in the middle of the steppe. Where, in the name of a modern fish miracle, the Queen of Peace, patroness of Kazakhstan, is worshipped today.
On Azattyk, a review by Max Gdeorg Meier, coordinator of the Seidel Foundation, who spent 22 years in Kyrgyzstan promoting cooperation between Germany and the post-Soviet country. ‘The Kyrgyz people have never liked absolutist and oppressive governments’, but growing authoritarianism and the law ‘on non-commercial organisations’ are putting everything on the line again.
On the continent, the percentage of people afflicted by food insecurity and malnutrition has stabilised at 8.1 percent. After Africa, the highest levels of food insecurity are in South Asia. According to the FAO, today's data are comparable to those of 2008-09 and the goal of Zero Hunger appears unattainable by 2030.
Averted until yesterday in commercial traffic between the East and Europe due to its too high costs, today the Transcaspian route with the blockade of relations with Russia due to the Ukrainian conflict has become the most viable solution. The World Bank estimates that 11 million tonnes of goods will transit it by 2030. But on its growth much will depend on Beijing's choices.
President Mirziyoyev signed a decree for the bicentennial celebration of the birth of the main poet of the Karakalpakstan autonomous region. An occasion to commemorate his works also admired by Turkmen, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz.
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