In today's headlines: Taiwan creates fund to help Lithuania against Chinese retaliation. Pyongyang tested a hypersonic missile is yesterday's launch. Burmese workers exploited after military takeover. Narendra Modi blocked in Punjab by a group of farmers. Clash in Israeli Knesset after speech delivered in Arabic. Russian Church regains ground in Galilee.

 

 

JAPAN-AUSTRALIA

Tokyo and Canberra today signed an agreement regulating the presence of their respective armed forces in each other's territory. The accord was signed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison. The treaty strengthens military cooperation between the two countries in the face of China's advance in the region.

TAIWAN-CHINA

Taipei will create a 0 million fund for hi-tech investment in Lithuania. The Baltic nation is facing diplomatic and commercial reprisals from China after allowing the Taiwanese government to open a representative office in Vilnius under the name "Taiwan". Beijing views the island as a "rebellious" province to be reconquered, even by force.

NORTH KOREA

Pyongyang claims to have successfully tested a hypersonic missile yesterday, into the Sea of Japan, in what would be its second such experiment. Hypersonic missiled are capable of flying above Mach 5 (six thousand km/h) with a higher probability of evading enemy defences.  UN resolutions prohibit the North Koreans from conducting missile and nuclear tests.

MYANMAR

Many workers in Burmese factories are forced to work longer hours (up to 11 hours a day) without receiving overtime pay from their employers. A report by Radio Free Asia highlighted the deterioration of working conditions in the country after the military coup in February 2021. 

INDIA

A group of farmers blocked the convoy of Narendra Modi in Punjab. The Indian Prime Minister was stopped for 20 minutes while on his way to an election rally. The demonstrators demanded the dismissal of a minister, who they said was responsible for the deaths of farmers protesting against the land reform (later withdrawn).

ISRAEL

Violent protests erupted yesterday in the Knesset by the Likud opposition after a United Arab List MP spoke in Arabic. Walid Taha was presenting a bill to connect Arab-Israeli villages in the south of the country to the national electricity grid.

RUSSIA

The Russian Religious Mission in the Holy Land concluded an agreement with the municipality of Cana (Galilee) for the restitution of land in the centre of the city, which historically belonged to Russia. The so-called "Russian Garden" had been purchased in 1913; registered in 1946, the local authorities had requisitioned it in 2016 for the benefit of the citizenship.

KYRGYZSTAN-CANADA

The Centerra company notified the Kyrgyz government of the conditions for its exit from the country's main Kumtor mine. Kyrgyzstan will have to give up its shares in the Canadian group and all pending lawsuits on ecological grounds. President Sadyr Žaparov said that 'good progress has been made in the negotiations'.