China confirms plans to raise retirement age

Today's news: the Indian state of Manipur reintroduces curfew to stem fresh wave of violence; Deaths from Typhoon Yagi increase in Vietnam and Thailand; Burmese refugees in India go on hunger strike; Between Armenia and Azerbaijan on tenth draft of difficult peace agreement arrived.

CHINA

After the first announcement in July, China decided to gradually increase the retirement age, according to a draft submitted to the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, which started yesterday. The topic immediately became trending on Chinese social media. It is a necessary measure to support the economy and cope with an ageing population, according to experts, but the population fears that this will make it more complicated for young people to find work.

JAPAN

Former Health Minister Katsunobu Kato also announced his candidature for the upcoming Liberal Democratic Party internal elections. Kato is the eighth candidate to have formalised his participation in the race to become party leader and premier. At a press conference, he pledged commitment to doubling people's incomes by raising wages.

VIETNAM - THAILAND

The death toll in Vietnam due to Typhoon Yagi has risen to 141, while in Thailand four people have died so far. Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said that help is on the way for about 9,000 families affected by the floods in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Vietnamese authorities warned that the rains are endangering the central districts of the capital Hanoi where some schools have already been closed.

INDIA - MYANMAR

More than one hundred Rohingya and Chin refugees from Myanmar began a hunger strike in the Matia transit camp in Assam State to protest against poor sanitary conditions. After their refugee status was recognised by the United Nations (despite the fact that India is not a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention), they are demanding to be transferred to a detention centre in Delhi and then resettled in a third country or in a refugee camp in India.

MANIPUR

Authorities in the north-eastern state of Manipur imposed an indefinite curfew and blocked access to the internet due to a new wave of student protests and violence that have been raging in the north-eastern Indian state for the past year. The local government said it wanted to curb disinformation and incitement to hatred that could trigger further clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities and against law enforcement agencies.

AFGHANISTAN

The Taliban Ministry of Labour announced a public holiday today in Herat for the inauguration of the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline, a project that had actually been launched by the previous Afghan government in 2018 after an agreement signed between the four countries in 2016. Once completed, the pipeline will have the capacity to transport 33 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year.

ARMENIA - AZERBAIJAN

Armenia's Foreign Minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, announced during a visit to Luxembourg that Yerevan has handed over to Azerbaijan the tenth variant of the draft for the peace agreement, with a text agreed with all internal instances and Azerbaijani demands, and is now expected ‘to be signed by Baku without placing any further conditions’.

RUSSIA

Russia's major metal companies, Severstal, Nlmk and Mmk, have approached the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEEC) complaining about China's excessive increases in steel and zinc trade throughout Eurasia, with dumping approaches seriously jeopardising the production and business of Russian companies.

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