NORTH KOREA
Kim Jong Un appeared in North Korean state media looking in excellent health for a man who, according to some rumours, had died from a brain haemorrhage. Photographs published by the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun show the 42-year-old dictator visiting a clothing and footwear exhibition with his daughter. The images were released just a few hours after a Chinese dissident living in the US had claimed, without providing any evidence, that Kim had been admitted to a Beijing hospital in a coma and had died.
CHINA
The Chinese military has stated that it has deployed forces to monitor a US warship, the USS Charleston, which had ‘illegally’ entered the waters around the disputed Sabina Reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, whilst further north, Taiwan reported a clash with a Chinese vessel. China regards almost the entire South China Sea as its own, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam; the most heated tensions in recent times have been between Beijing and Manila.
JORDAN
The Council of Ministers has approved the inclusion of the Jordan Baptism Site in the national network of protected areas and its designation as a 10-square-kilometre nature reserve, in preparation for the anniversary of the baptism of Jesus Christ in 2030. The government will proceed with the necessary procedures in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations. The decision reflects the site’s exceptional environmental value, as well as its religious (Christians make up 2 per cent of the country’s population), cultural and historical significance. The Baptism Site is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, underlining its importance as a landmark of both natural and cultural heritage.
INDIA
Millions of people across India celebrated Dussehra, one of the country’s most widely observed Hindu festivals, with processions, prayers and the ceremonial burning of giant effigies symbolising the triumph of good over evil. The festival is observed with different rituals and traditions in various parts of the country. It generally commemorates the victory of the deity Rama over the mythological ten-headed king Ravana. Hindus follow a lunar calendar, and Dussehra falls on the tenth day after Navratri, a nine-night festival dedicated to worship and celebrations.
INDONESIA
The Bangka slow loris is one of the most exotic primates on the planet, a slow-moving arboreal animal which is, moreover, venomous. It had been classified as critically endangered and possibly extinct, having last been scientifically sighted in the 1930s, but has now been rediscovered on the tropical Indonesian island of Bangka. In a new study, scientists have revealed that an animal rescue organisation has identified more than 90 Bangka slow lorises on the island in recent years.
RUSSIA
Under pressure from the state, a language has emerged in Russia that allows people to discuss the war in alternative ways: the ethnic republics have found their own language to express their views on this subject – literally. Novaja Evropa has analysed hundreds of thousands of comments on social media in the main languages of Russia’s minority groups. The inhabitants of the ethnic republics do not simply refer to the war as ‘war’; they write about it in ways that are unusual for the Russian language, cursing it, praying for peace, awaiting the return of their compatriots from the front and mourning the dead.
TAJIKISTAN – CHINA
Tajikistan and China have signed a development agreement and four memoranda of cooperation, following a meeting between Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda and Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Dushanbe. The parties signed memoranda of cooperation on vocational training, infrastructure and civil engineering, the prevention and combating of corruption, and standardisation, as well as a joint declaration on deepening comprehensive cooperation and strategic partnership in the new era and a treaty on ‘good-neighbourliness, eternal friendship and cooperation’.
