Xi Jinping to Trump: let's cooperate for peaceful coexistence

Today's news: at least 50 dead in more Israeli strikes on Lebanon; Indonesia's Flores island volcano continues to erupt, thousands displaced; Video of Uyghur persecution removed from Tik Tok; In South Korea, marriages with foreign spouses cease; Turkey forgives Kyrgyz debt.

CHINA-UNITED STATES

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that President Xi Jinping today congratulated Donald Trump on his election as US President. Xi urged the two countries to find the right way to cooperate in the new era to benefit both countries and the world. He expressed hope that the two sides will uphold the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences and expand mutually beneficial cooperation.

LEBANON-ISRAEL

At least 50 people were killed in new Israeli air strikes on Baalbek, Lebanon, and the central Bekaa region. According to the Lebanese national news agency, more than 30 attacks were carried out yesterday throughout the area, which also injured another 63 people. Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced the death of one of its soldiers and the wounding of three others due to some 50 rockets fired by Hezbollah on the Israeli town of Avivim.

INDONESIA

Four days after the first one, which claimed 10 lives on Sunday, on the Indonesian island of Flores, the eruptions of the Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano continue. Eight have already been recorded today, spewing ash up to 8,000 metres high. About 5,800 of the more than 16,000 people living in the areas closest to the volcano have been evacuated to other villages and their homes will have to be rebuilt in safer areas.

CHINA-TURKEY

Nefise Oguz, a Uyghur student at Istanbul University, denounced the removal from the TikTok social network of a video of a short debate with Doğu Perinçek, leader of the Turkish Patriotic Nationalist Party, on the Uyghur genocide and China's oppressive policies in Xinjiang. The video, which had been posted on the popular short video platform on the evening of 24 October, disappeared the next morning. Tik Tok - which is controlled by the Chinese company ByteDance - said it removed the video because it violated community guidelines.

SOUTH KOREA

The number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign spouses increased by 17.2 per cent in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to data provided by Statistics Korea. There were 20,431 compared to 17,428 in 2022. Of the total marriages performed in South Korea last year, multicultural marriages accounted for 10.6%, up from 9.5% the year before.

RUSSIA

In 2024 in Russia there were 601 cases of incidents related to terrorist actions, 50% more than in the whole of 2023 and 15 times more than in 2021, before the invasion of Ukraine, as Verstka informs, mainly with cases of fires at military districts and sabotage on railway lines, qualified by the prosecution as attacks and punishable by life imprisonment.

TURKEY-KYRGYZSTAN

Turkey has forgiven Kyrgyzstan its foreign debt to Kyrgyzstan, as announced by President Sadyr Žaparov in a joint statement with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in exchange for the realisation of ‘green economy’ projects with agreements in the fields of health, energy, economy, agriculture and also security and culture.

• Asia
• Today