China urges citizens not to travel to Japan after Takaichi's statements on Taiwan

Today's headlines: UN Security Council to vote on Trump's plan for Gaza on Monday; Indonesia prepares 20,000 soldiers for health and reconstruction tasks; The state of Karnataka is the first in India to offer paid menstrual leave; Trump says Thailand and Cambodia “will be fine” after new border tensions; Pakistan's Supreme Court denounces attack on the Constitution after amendment limiting its powers.

CHINA - TAIWAN - JAPAN

China has urged its citizens not to travel to Japan and summoned the Japanese ambassador to Beijing following statements by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan. This week, China and Japan have been involved in an increasingly heated war of words, triggered by Takaichi's statement that Japan could respond with its own self-defence forces if China attacked Taiwan.

INDONESIA - GAZA

Indonesia has trained up to 20,000 soldiers to carry out medical and construction tasks during a planned peacekeeping operation in the Gaza Strip devastated by Israeli attacks, the defence minister said. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is among the countries with which the United States has discussed plans for a currently hypothetical multinational stabilisation force in Gaza, along with Azerbaijan, Egypt and Qatar. The UN Security Council will vote on Monday on a resolution endorsing Trump's peace plan, including a “Temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF)”.

INDIA

The state of Karnataka, home to some of the world's largest IT companies, is the first in India to offer paid menstrual leave to all women in formal employment. This means that women between the ages of 18 and 52 working in public and private companies are entitled to one day of menstrual leave per month. No medical certification is required. The policy covers 350,000 to 400,000 women in the formal sector, but excludes the larger group - estimated at 6 million - who are employed as domestic workers, day labourers and casual workers in the unorganised sector.

CAMBODIA - THAILAND - USA

Trump has declared that Thailand and Cambodia will “work it out” after attempting to mediate in the new border dispute. Thailand suspended the US-brokered truce this week and demanded an apology from Cambodia for laying new landmines that injured Thai soldiers, which Phnom Pen denies. Tensions erupted into five days of fighting in July, with at least 48 people killed and around 300,000 displaced.

PAKISTAN

Pakistan's Supreme Court has summoned all 24 of its judges after parliament passed a constitutional amendment limiting its powers. Two judges have already resigned, stating that the reform “represents a serious attack on the Constitution”. Under the amendment, which the opposition says undermines democracy, the Court will have many more constraints in judging the constitutionality of laws, in order to avoid “political decisions”. The changes also expand the powers of the country's army chief and extend his term of office.

RUSSIA

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mišustin has signed a decree integrating the so-called ‘Yarovaya package’, which requires all media outlets to store data for at least three years. Designed in 2016 as a measure against terrorism, while now becoming tools for controlling every internet operator, not only to identify “extremist tendencies”, but also any form of “unauthorised missionary preaching”.

ARMENIA

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pašinyan has informed the National Assembly that work will begin in the second half of 2026 on the construction of the so-called “Trump Route”, the plans for which are being drawn up for approval in the first half of next year, provided there are no delays “as is often the case with these projects”, restoring the Soviet-era railway line, as it is impossible to locate it in other areas.