Middle East
On the morning of October 7th, Hamas militants launched 3000 rockets into Israel. Shortly after, flying columns cut through the border fence between Israel and Gaza and rampaged through nearby villages and a music festival, killing over 1000 civilians and kidnapping 200 hostages. The attacks were barbaric: babies were bayoneted and burned alive in their cribs, women gang-raped, and elderly people dragged from their homes and shot in the street. Two Thai migrants working as a gardener and a maid were beheaded with a garden hoe; their murderers filmed it and posted the video on social media. This appears to be part of a deliberate strategy by Hamas; many of its fighters wore bodycams, and footage recovered by the Israeli authorities has been shown to international journalists.
The Israeli government has declared war on Hamas, and hammered the Gaza Strip, where Hamas operates out of a complex network of underground tunnels, with artillery and airstrikes. 300,000 soldiers have been assembled, and the Israel Defence Forces have launched probing raids with armoured bulldozers, tanks, and commandos. At least 8000 people – including many civilians – have been killed in the ongoing bombardment. At the time of writing, ground operations in the Strip now appear to be underway.
The war has threatened to spill over into a regional conflict, and the great powers have taken action amid fears that it could spark a global conflagration. The US has moved two carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean, and American warships transiting the Red Sea have already shot down missiles launched towards Israel by the Houthi, an Iranian-backed rebel group in Yemen. Hamas is supported by Iran as part of a wider strategy in the Middle East – the Revolutionary Guard also provides funding and training to Hezbollah, an Islamist militia in Lebanon, who have launched daily attacks on Israel’s northern border. If – as seems plausible – Iranian-backed militias attack American targets (or vice versa), there is a risk of direct conflict between the US and Iran, which could then lead to full-scale great power war.
Global reactions to the war have proved divisive, and the situation is continually evolving. The ASI would like to express its profound wish for a swift end to hostilities.
Central Asia
A mining disaster in Kazakhstan has killed 45 men. Pockets of methane gas at the bottom of a 2,300 foot coal shaft ignited in the middle of the night shift. Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a national day of mourning, and has terminated all contracts with ArcelorMittal, the mine’s Luxembourg-based, Indian-owned operator. It is the deadliest civilian accident in Kazakhstan since the end of Soviet rule 32 years ago.
Afghanistan has been hit by a series of devastating earthquakes, killing at least 2400 people – 90% of whom were said to be women and children. The country has been in the midst of a rolling humanitarian crisis since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and foreign aid was withdrawn.
Pakistan has announced that the 1.7 million Afghan refugees resident there must leave by November 1st, or be deported. Few wish to return to Afghanistan, and it is not clear where they will go. Many may head to Europe overland.
South Asia and Indian Ocean
The UK is moving ahead with plans to cede the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean home to a strategic American airbase at Diego Garcia, to Mauritius. British possession of the islands, whose native population was removed in the 1960s to make way for the base, has long been a contentious issue. Although the islands themselves are tiny, totalling just 23 square miles, whoever controls them also controls an enormous 21,000 square mile patch of the Indian Ocean as well. Hardliners in the British press have raised concerns about the future of the Diego Garcia base, which is crucial to Allied military operations across the Middle East and Central Asia, should Mauritius assume control of the islands, but American officials appear unconcerned.
Southeast Asia
A refugee camp in Myanmar was hit by an artillery strike, killing at least 29 people, including 11 children. The camp, in Mung Lai Hkyet, near the border with China, may have been mistaken for a nearby rebel base belonging to the Kachin Independence Army, who are fighting the ruling junta. The Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military, denied responsibility. The US announced further sanctions on the country’s oil and gas industry, but this is likely to prove ineffective, as the majority of trades occur outside the dollar system.
The Cambodian Ministry of Health has announced that two people in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng have died from H5N1 bird flu after a series of spillover events. Epidemiologists at The Lancet have launched an investigation. The most recent variant of the virus has been circulating globally, decimating bird populations, but has not jumped to humans – until now.
Prince William will speak at a conference in Singapore to discuss efforts to suppress the illegal wildlife trade. His charity United for Wildlife (UFW) holds an annual summit on the topic, but this is the first time it has been held outside the UK. Southeast Asia is the epicentre of the trade, and Singapore is leading the charge to intercept and seize shipments.
East Asia
Li Keqiang, the premier of China between 2013 and 2023, has died suddenly, aged 68. Known best as an economist, he is survived by his wife and daughter.
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, visited Beijing, where he had meetings with President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss how to improve US-China relations and co-operate on addressing climate change. Newsom, a rising star in the Democratic Party, is widely expected to be a presidential candidate next year should Joe Biden step down.
The crew of Shenzhou 16 have returned to Earth after spending five months aboard Tiangong 2, China’s space station, conducting scientific experiments. Their capsule landed in Inner Mongolia, where the three taikonauts – including Gui Haichao, China’s first civilian spacefarer – were met by ground crew, who lifted them out on stretchers, as their bodies had not yet re-adjusted to gravity.
The world of sumo, Japan’s national sport, is undergoing a major shake-up. The sport’s governing body has announced that wrestlers can now be shorter and skinnier, in a bid to reverse plummeting participation rates (just 34 boys applied to training stables this season, down from 162 thirty years ago). The news comes after Japan Airlines had to put on an extra flight for customers after a stable of wrestlers travelling together from Tokyo to Amami were judged to have taken an aeroplane over safe weight limits.