Seoul threatens retaliation over North Korean troops deployed in Ukraine

Today's news: In Kazan, security forces suppressed demonstrations before hosting the Brics summit; Blinken in Israel calls for the reopening of ceasefire talks; The serious gender gap in politics is confirmed in Japan; Bacterial infection at Hong Kong zoo, already 12 monkeys dead.

SOUTH KOREA-NORTH RUSSIA

South Korea announced that it will take ‘gradual measures ’ against North Korea and Russia over their intensified military cooperation and urged Pyongyang to immediately withdraw its troops from Russia. The Presidential National Security Council (NSC) stated that this development poses a ‘significant security threat’ to both South Korea and the international community. ‘If illegal military cooperation between North Korea and Russia continues, Seoul will not stand idly by but will respond firmly in cooperation with the international community,’ said Security Advisor Kim Tae-hyo.

RUSSIA

Before the start of the Brics (from the original group consisting of Brazil, Russia, India and China) summit in Kazan on 22-24 October, Tatarstan's law enforcement agencies carried out a vast operation to stifle any possible protests and in general all social activities that could create unease in the capital and throughout the republic, banning in particular nationalist and ecologist demonstrations.

ISRAEL - LEBANON - USA

The Israeli army said it had killed three Hezbollah commanders and about 70 fighters in southern Lebanon in the past 48 hours, a day after confirming it had killed leader Hashem Safieddine. Blinken - who arrived in Israel on Tuesday on his 11th visit to the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza - urged Netanyahu to relaunch ceasefire talks to end the war in Gaza.

JAPAN

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has promised to reduce one of the widest gender gaps in politics in the democratic world. Yet in the LDP, which has ruled for most of the post-war period, only 16% of the candidates in the 27 October parliamentary elections are women. The percentage in the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) stands at 22.

INDIA

Parts of the Bengaluru Technology Centre were flooded on Tuesday after heavy rains overnight and it is feared that some people were trapped after a collapse. Heavy rainfall is expected in the coming days in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, due to what is described as a ‘cyclonic upper air circulation’ off the coast.

HONG KONG

A twelfth monkey has died in the Hong Kong Zoo, extending a chain of deaths within a few days attributed to a bacterial infection. The agent is said to be the Burkholderia pseudomallei bacterium that causes melioidosis, an infectious disease that affects animals and humans and is spread mainly through contact with contaminated soil, air or water. According to the Centre for Health Protection, ‘melioidosis is an endemic disease in Hong Kong and cases of melioidosis are reported every year’.

KYRGYZSTAN

Two journalists from Kyrgyzstan, Bolot Temirov (who has fled abroad) and Azamat Išenbekov, received 6-year prison sentences for reports they published in various media denouncing the nepotism of the current regime in Biškek, and it seems to them that President Sadyr Žaparov is prepared to do anything to silence these investigations, even murder.

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