Gaza: Israel prepares ground attack on Hamas. Worst civilian massacre in history

Today's news: at least 2500 victims the death toll from earthquakes in western Afghanistan; Record levels of rail traffic between North Korea and Russia, driven by weapons; Chinese dissident Chen Siming is granted political asylum in Canada; Flood deaths in north-east India rose to 77; The campaign to recruit prisoners for the war in the Ukraine continues in Russia's detention camps.

ISRAEL - PALESTINE
Israel is ready to launch a ground operation in Gaza against Hamas within "the next 24-48 hours", where over 800 targets have already been hit (500 during the night). The updated toll of the war is over 700 Israelis killed, at least 2,500 injured, many of them seriously, 750 missing and at least 100 hostages in the hands of militiamen of different nationalities in the Strip. On the Palestinian front, there were 413 victims and 2,200 wounded. Overnight, Tehran denied involvement in the attacks, although legitimizing them, against Israel while the United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry condemned the "serious escalation of Hamas" and the taking of civilian hostages.

AFGHANISTAN
The still partial toll from some tremors in the western part of Afghanistan has risen to almost 2,500 victims, according to what a Taliban source reported yesterday. Rescuers continue to extract bodies from the rubble, burying the corpses in mass graves. The main earthquake of magnitude 6.3 40 km northwest of Herat caused the collapse of more than 1300 homes.

NORTH KOREA - RUSSIA
Rail traffic on the border between North Korea and Russia has reached the highest level in recent years, suggesting arms supply and military cooperation between Pyongyang and the Kremlin, the result of agreements between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. Satellite images showed an "unprecedented" number of around 73 carriages at Tumangang station in the border town of Rason.

TAIWAN - CHINA
Chinese dissident Chen Siming, 60, who had requested asylum at the airport in Taiwan on 23 September, arrived in Canada, in Vancouver, on October 5th and is in good condition. Every year in Hunan he commemorates the Tiananmen massacre and has already been arrested for this. In July he was threatened with commitment to a psychiatric hospital and fled clandestinely to Laos and then to Thailand. In a message he says he has successfully obtained political asylum in the North American nation.

INDIA
At least 77 people have died in floods in north-east India, with roads and bridges destroyed and thousands of people still stranded. Scientists say similar disasters will become a growing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts due to climate change. According to official data, over 100 people are still missing.

VIETNAM
Vietnam wants to become a leading East Asian chip manufacturing nation, with greater participation in the global supply chain by 2030. Vietnam Automation Association president and former Science and Technology Minister Nguyen Quan said strengthening relations with the United States represent a strategic step and a favorable condition for opening up development opportunities.

RUSSIA - UKRAINE
The campaign to recruit prisoners for the war in Ukraine continues in Russian detention camps. A practice begun last year by the Wagner company and now officially assumed by state bodies, which oblige the camp managers to present a "particular military list" which is causing a vast phenomenon of corruption within the system.

CHINA - KAZAKHSTAN
Civil rights activists in Kazakhstan express strong concern over the agreement between Astana and Beijing on the exchange of information between the two countries, ratified by Parliament. It will allow China to more invasively control the lives of Xinjiang Kazakhs and their relatives abroad, increasing persecution despite all the assurances of the Kazakh authorities.

CENTRAL ASIA
The Uzbek Meteorological Center explained the cause of the spread of dust vortices: it is linked to desertification, rarity of rainfall and pollution in the nearby regions of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, with strong winds lifting the degraded land invading the entire territory. The regions south of Bukhara, Karakalpakstan and Surkhandara are most affected.

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