ASIA TODAY Netanyahu fires Defense Minister, demonstrations and strikes in Israel

Today’s news: for the first time in the US, a senator of Korean descent is elected. In Afghanistan, in the hands of the Taliban, poppy production is increasing (slightly) again. In Delhi, ritual bathing in the Yamuna River is prohibited due to pollution. In Tajikistan, 1,500 fortune tellers and witches are detained.

ISRAEL

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose election day in the United States to remove to the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, his antagonist within the government and very close to the military leadership. In his place, he appointed loyalist Israel Katz, who will be replaced by Gideo Saar as Foreign Minister. Netanyahu’s measure sparked street demonstrations in Israel, and the families of the hostages considered it a new closure of the negotiations for the release of the hostages: 40 people who wanted to camp outside the prime minister’s residence were detained, while water cannons They intervened to clear the barricades. Gallant’s departure also represents a setback in the issue of recruiting ultra-Orthodox clerics, which Jewish religious parties oppose.

UNITED STATES-SOUTH KOREA

Among the voting results in the United States is the election of the first senator of Korean descent. Andy Kim, 42, in his third term in Congress, won a Senate seat in New Jersey, beating his Republican rival Curtis Bashaw. Kim’s victory was expected: New Jersey had not elected a Republican as senator since 1972.

AFGHANISTAN

The production of opium in Afghanistan it rose by a fifth in the second full year since the Taliban banned it, but remains a small fraction of pre-ban levels. According to the annual study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), opium cultivation in the country had plummeted by 95% in 2023; According to new estimates, this year it has increased by 19%, to 12,800 hectares, and the production center has moved from the traditional heart of the country, the southwest, to the northeast. However, poppy cultivation is still much lower than in 2022, when it was estimated that 232,000 hectares were cultivated.

INDIA

The Delhi High Court prohibited devotees of the capital to celebrate Chhath Puja – an important festival for immigrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand – on the bank of the Yamuna river, in Geeta Colony, due to the high level of pollution in the river. Local government lawyer Santosh Kumar Tripathi said that if devotees were allowed to celebrate Chhath Puja on the river bed, they would probably fall ill, pointing out that the local government of Delhi has designated another 1,000 areas for celebrating Chhath Puja. Yesterday, the first day of the festival, many devotees took a dip in the Yamuna River, despite the thick layers of toxic foam covering its surface.

CHINA

China has opened to local and international researchers the loan access to the first batch of lunar samples brought to Earth by the Chang’e-6 mission and to the eighth batch of samples from the Chang’e-5 mission. Researchers interested in accessing these samples can submit their requests to the Center for Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering of the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) through an official data and sample release system before November 22.

RUSSIA

The body of Andrej Tkačenko, one of the first partners of the founder of the Wagner company, Evgenij Prigožin, has been found in a lake in Karelia, in northern Russia. It seems that he died in a storm while fishing, capsizing the boat 400 meters from the shore, but there are many doubts about this.

TAJIKISTAN

In Tajikistan, some 1,500 fortune tellers and sorcerers, and more than 5,000 people without official religious training, who offered consultations to clients in the name of the fight against occult practices and illegal rituals, have been arrested, and President Emomali Rakhmon himself has expressed his concern. due to the growing spread of superstition in Tajik society.