THAILAND – JEWS
Bangkok has revoked the citizenship of the Chief Rabbi, the latest move in a wider government campaign against foreign nationals accused of breaching or circumventing the law.
The order, signed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Anutin Charnvirakul, justifies the decision by citing the fact that Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, after obtaining citizenship in 2013, continued to use his US citizenship for international travel. These included 16 trips to and from Australia. The law grants the minister the power to revoke citizenship if there is evidence that the individual concerned continues to use their previous citizenship. Kantor has led Chabad-Lubavitch – a branch of Hasidic Judaism, classified as ultra-Orthodox – in Thailand since 1993. In October, investigators also searched Chabad and other premises linked to the Jewish community as part of an investigation into alleged shell companies and property holdings.
HONG KONG
Winnie Ho, head of Hong Kong’s Housing Department, has resigned following the fire in Tai Po last November, which claimed the lives of 168 people; she is the first senior official to step down as a result of the blaze.
This was announced today by Chief Executive John Lee, who offered his apologies – the first official ones – for the incident and pledged ‘radical reforms’ in the construction sector and the relevant regulatory framework. Lee spoke shortly before the scheduled publication of a comprehensive report, drawn up by a commission led by a magistrate, which is expected to highlight a series of regulatory and supervisory shortcomings in the building renovation system. Lee also stated that four government bodies bear partial responsibility for the incident. The fire that devastated seven 31-storey towers in the Wang Fuk Court residential complex – which was undergoing renovation work in the northern district of Tai Po – was the deadliest to have occurred in the city since 1948. Thousands of residents were forced to abandon their homes, which were rendered uninhabitable.
BANGLADESH
Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government on 5 August 2024, mob violence has reached “serious proportions”. Incidents range from the lynching of individuals accused of blasphemy to attacks motivated by personal vendettas or the desire to seize property.
Groups of rioters have engaged in vandalism, targeting places of worship, newspapers, cultural organisations, monuments and memorials linked to the 1971 War of Liberation, even going so far as to exhume bodies. Following the fall of the Awami League government, the interim administration led by Mohammad Yunus (August 2024 – February 2026) failed to intervene effectively. Since February, Bangladesh has been governed by an elected government led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP); nevertheless, collective violence (lynchings and riots) persists. According to figures from the Human Rights Culture Foundation, between 1 January and 17 October 2026 there were 537 incidents of collective violence, resulting in 256 deaths and 575 injuries; in 2025, 428 incidents were recorded, compared with 169 in 2024.
LEBANON – ISRAEL
There have been further acts of desecration by the Israeli army against Christian places of worship in the (occupied) south of Lebanon. Outrage is mounting over a photograph showing a female soldier from the Israeli army smiling in front of St Joseph’s Church in the occupied Christian village of Qaouzah, in the district of Bint Jbeil, which is currently under military occupation. In the image, the Christian place of worship – whose entrance is blocked by a mound of earth – stands amidst a field of rubble. The mayor of Qaouzah has called on the Lebanese authorities to protect the building, which is over 120 years old. The Israeli army has targeted religious buildings in southern Lebanon in the past as well: in May, a photograph of an Israeli soldier in Dibil, hugging a statue of the Virgin Mary whilst placing a cigarette in her mouth, sparked outrage. In the same month, the Israeli army destroyed a Christian convent in Yaroun, also located in the district of Bint Jbeil.
SOUTH KOREA
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, a hugely successful first-person shooter video game, has found itself at the centre of controversy for allegedly using, in a cutscene, footage of the deadly stampede that took place in Itaewon in 2022; the victims’ families and a civic coalition have called for its removal. The controversial footage, lasting around three seconds, shows several rescue workers performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a person slumped on the ground. The committee representing the families of the victims of the Itaewon disaster and civic activists who mobilised following the tragedy have described the use of footage from the event in an entertainment production as inappropriate, given the trauma suffered by the victims and their families.
Furthermore, offensive comments posted online – aimed at belittling the victims – have compounded their grief. Over 150 people died in the Itaewon tragedy during the Halloween celebrations on 29 October 2022.
INDONESIA
Hundreds of students took to the streets yesterday to protest against rising prices, cuts to subsidies and the government’s handling of the forest fires. In Jakarta, demonstrators from various universities and non-profit organisations gathered along Jalan Thamrin and Jalan Sudirman – two of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, home to local and foreign companies – displaying banners critical of President Prabowo Subianto’s policies. The demonstrators called on the government to declare the ongoing forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan a national disaster and to halt funding for populist programmes, such as Prabowo’s initiative to distribute free meals; these measures have, in fact, caused a surge in public spending, to the detriment of more urgent interventions, such as disaster mitigation and infrastructure development.
RUSSIA – CHINA
According to a report by the Center for Advanced Defence Studies in Washington, Russian defence companies have begun relocating production to China. The report also cites specific examples of such companies, including StankoMašStroj, a manufacturer of numerically controlled machine tools that supplies equipment to divisions of the state-owned company Rostekh. The company, which has been subject to US sanctions since 2023, is expected to commence production of five-axis machine tools in China. The authors of the study note that Moscow is increasingly sharing with Beijing production secrets that were previously kept within the country, thereby losing direct control over technological processes.
ARMENIA
Armenia’s ruling Civil Agreement party won a majority in the local elections held on Sunday in 21 municipalities. The opposition contested the elections in 14 municipalities, managing to win only in Stepanavan, where several members and supporters of the opposition party Strong Armenia were arrested on the eve of the vote. In some municipalities, the ruling party stood unopposed, whilst in others it attracted very popular former opposition figures as candidates. The Civil Agreement party has been criticised for putting pressure on opposition supporters through criminal proceedings in the run-up to the elections.
