Iran says it has hypersonic missiles

Today's headlines: Xi Jinping and Joe Biden will meet in Indonesia on 14 November; Taiwan's Foxconn will hire tens of thousands of workers in India; Asean summit opens today; East Timor close to becoming the 11th member state of the Association of Southeast Asian Countries; Russia halts relations with the Greek Orthodox Church; Central Asia's GDP has grown by 3.6% in the last 10 years.

IRAN

Tehran has developed a hypersonic missile (with a velocity five times the speed of light) capable of piercing any kind of defence, according to General Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the aerospace unit of the Guardians of the Revolution (Pasdaran). China and Russia are the countries with the greatest advances in this missile technology.

CHINA-UNITED STATES

Xi Jinping and Joe Biden will meet on 14 November on the eve of the G20 summit in Indonesia. It will be their first in-person meeting since the US President took office in January 2021, and the first ever since the Chinese leader's recent reappointment. The future of Taiwan and the technology war will be the hottest topics of the summit.

INDIA-TAIWAN

Foxconn is set to quadruple the workforce in its Apple IPhone assembly factories in India. Over the next two years, the increase in personnel is expected to reach 53,000. The decision comes as the Taiwanese giant faces production problems in China due to Xi Jinping's 'zero-Covid' policy.

ASEAN

The Asean summit, the association that brings together 10 South-East Asian countries, opens today in Cambodia. The spotlight of the meeting is on the situation in Myanmar, where the clash between the ruling military junta and the anti-golpist resistance is intensifying. Expanded meetings are planned with China, the US, Japan, Australia, South Korea, India, New Zealand and also Russia.

TIMOR EAST

The Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Countries) agreed in principle to admit East Timor as its 11th member. Dili will currently be granted 'observer' status. It formally applied for membership in 2011.

RUSSIA

The Moscow Patriarchate sent a circular to all Russian bishops, reminding them of the ban on communicating with the hierarchs of the Athens Orthodox Church who concelebrated with Ukrainian autocephalous bishops and priests. A list of 19 Greek bishops "to be avoided" was drawn up, starting with Archbishop Ieronimos of Athens, with whom many Russians are on good terms.

CENTRAL ASIA

In the last decade, the average GDP growth of the countries in the region is estimated at 3.6%, according to the report published by the Eurasian Development Bank. Exports are also growing, with Russia still the main partner, but exports to China, which has overtaken Moscow for the sum of investments in Central Asia, are growing even more.

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