China will no longer release (negative) data on youth unemployment

Today's headlines: Pyongyang media says US soldier wants to seek asylum in North Korea against racial discrimination; Iran also arrests 90-year-old man in new crackdown on Ba'hai; Over 60,000 Vietnamese Catholics on pilgrimage to Our Lady of La Vang;Turkmenistan does not want to associate Russia with its gas pipeline to Beijing.

CHINA

China's National Bureau of Statistics has announced that it will no longer release age-specific unemployment data, citing the need to 'further improve and optimise labour force survey statistics'. The move comes after youth unemployment figures in recent months highlighted the collapse of China's post-Covid recovery, with unemployment among 16-24 year olds hitting a record high of 21.3%.

NORTH KOREA-UNITED STATES

According to North Korea's state media Travis King - the US soldier who crossed the 38th parallel during a visit to the Joint Security Area - would like to seek refuge in Pyongyang because of 'inhuman mistreatment and racial discrimination' in the US and the military. This is the first public acknowledgement by the North of the soldier's passage from South Korea on 18 July.

JAPAN

In 2022, illegal practices were discovered in 7,247 Japanese companies that employed foreign trainees. The most common violations concerned non-compliance with safety regulations, followed by non-payment of wages. The Tokyo government is considering reviewing the trainee programme, established in 1993 and used mainly for the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, which has been under fire for the high number of reported cases of harassment and abuse of trainees.

VIETNAM

Over 60,000 pilgrims took part in the Assumption Mass in Vietnam, the climax of the annual feast of Our Lady of La Vang, the great national shrine in the archdiocese of Hue. The Mass was followed by an evocative prayer vigil during which moments from Mary's life were portrayed.

IRAN

Dozens of people were arrested last week in a new crackdown by the authorities in Tehran against the Baha'i, Iran's largest non-Muslim religious minority. According to reports from Paris by the Baha'i International Community, among those who ended up in jail was Jamaloddin Khanjani, a 90-year-old who has already served 10 years in prison. Khanjani, a former member of a now disbanded informal Baha'i leadership group in Iran, was arrested on Sunday along with his daughter Maria Khanjani.

TURKMENISTAN-RUSSIA-CHINA

Turkmenistan, the main exporter of gas by pipeline to China, refused to associate Russia with its own gas pipeline to Beijing, which would constitute de facto internal competition, thus rejecting Moscow's entire plan of a 'gas union' together with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to enlarge Gazprom's blocked market.

KAZAKHSTAN

Hundreds of miners of the 'Kazakhmys' company went on strike in the Ulytau region of Kazakhstan, both those inside the mines and those 'in the street'. They presented a list of 15 demands to make working conditions 'humane' at a time of severe energy crisis throughout Central Asia, with heavy pressure on workers.

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