Seoul: President meets striking doctors, but (for now) no understanding

Today's news: a number of traditional practices for the ancestor festival in China are banned; Fire on a ferry in Thailand; Pakistani judges received threatening letters containing white powder; One of the leaders of the Hayat Tahrir al Sham group killed in Syria.

SOUTH KOREA

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, using a more flexible approach for the first time, met with Park Dan, a representative of the trainee doctors who have been striking since February, but the latter wrote on his Facebook page after the meeting that "there is no future for medical care in Korea." It is unclear what he was referring to. Trainees oppose the proposed reform to increase the number of medical places.

CHINA

Chinese authorities have banned a number of traditions for the Qingming festival, in which ancestors are venerated by burning incense and various types of paper. The bans are intended to "promote funerary and burial reforms" and to support "civilized" customs and practices, the authorities announced, but several people on social media expressed their dissent. In 2021, Nantong city had recorded 210 incidents related to the holiday, including 121 fires.

THAILAND

Last night a fire broke out on a night ferry off the popular tourist island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. All 90 passengers and eight crew members were rescued. The fire spread from the engine room and an investigation was launched to discover the causes.

PAKISTAN

In recent days, several Pakistani judges, some of whom had highlighted the interference of the secret services in judicial processes, received letters containing a potentially toxic white powder. In some of the letters, reference was made to a bacterium that can cause anthrax, a very serious infection. Police said a group called Tehreek-e-Namoos Pakistan claimed responsibility, but several investigations were ongoing.

SYRIA

Abu Maria al Qahtani, founder of Hayat Tahrir al Sham, who was part of al-Qaeda before breaking ties, was killed yesterday in a suicide attack. The jihadist leader, whose real name is Maysr al Jabouri, was in rebel-controlled northwestern Syria. HTS spokesmen blamed the Islamic State, considered a rival group, which however did not claim responsibility for the attack.

GAZA - ISRAEL

Israel said it approved the reopening of the Erez crossing in northern Gaza and the temporary use of Ashdod port under pressure from the United States after the killing of seven aid workers. During a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden called for "specific and concrete" measures to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel also approved increased aid from Jordan through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

USA - INDIA - RUSSIA

Some senior US officials are in India these days, according to Rbk-Ukraina, to agree on collaboration in the fight against dirty money laundering, terrorist financing and respect for the ceiling in the oil market, which is closely linked to Russia, which tries to circumvent the sanctions on the Indian market, where instead it wants to maintain the international standard.

GEORGIA

Controversy is raging in Georgia over the desire of the majority Georgian Dream party to re-present the same bill on "foreign representatives" that caused the protests in March 2023, as announced by the head of the parliamentary group Mamuki Mdinaradze, with few formal changes , which according to the director of the Institute of Europe and Georgia, Georgij Melašvili, “would close the doors of Europe in Georgia's face”.

• Asia
• Today