ASIA TODAY Bangkok on alert for protests, while the end of Prayut’s term is defined

The news of the day: possible meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan in mid-September; Japan grants refugee status to 98 Afghans. Manila students return to school after two years but just one day after classes start they are suspended due to a typhoon alert. For the first time, Israel allows Palestinians to take international flights from Ramon airport.

THAILAND

bangkok reinforce security measures around the residence of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Meanwhile, a court is analyzing the possibility of hearing a request to decide when the eight-year term expires according to the Constitution. The main opposition party and nearly two-thirds of Thais polled in a poll believe the prime minister, who came to power in a 2014 coup, must step down before August 24 because his time as head of the junta should be accounted for in his mandate.

CHINA-INDIA

China announced that will reissue visas for Indian studentsafter a impasse two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 20,000 Indian medical students returned to their country in January 2020, when Covid-19 cases began to rise sharply. Until now, returning to China to complete his studies was impossible, due to Beijing’s strict policies to contain the spread of the disease and the absence of direct flights.

JAPAN

Japan officially grants refugee status to 98 people who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took power last year. This is an unusual measure for a country very reluctant to grant political asylum: in all of 2021, Japan welcomed a total of 74 refugees, and only nine were Afghans. Until now, those who fled to Tokyo from Kabul – most linked to embassy staff – had only received temporary permits lasting three months.

PHILIPPINES

After two years, Filipino students returned to school yesterday after the very long suspension of classes due to the pandemic. However, today President Bongbong Marcos decreed a new suspension of classes in Manila and other districts due to the arrival of the tropical storm “Florita”. The emergency is expected to end tomorrow afternoon.

UZBEKISTAN-RUSSIA-CHINA

Russian and Chinese leaders Putin and Xi Jinping plan to meet in person during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit to be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15-16. It would be the Chinese president’s first trip abroad since the start of the pandemic, and heads of state and government from India, Turkey, Pakistan and Iran are also expected to attend.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

For the first time, a group of 43 Palestinian passengers flew to Cyprus from Ramon airport, in southern Israel, as part of a pilot program that would allow Palestinians to fly abroad without having to travel to Amman. Israel’s move is intended to improve the living conditions of Palestinians, but critics point out that it does not address the root of the occupation problem and does not pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian state.

ARMENIA-RUSSIA

Numerous pro-Russian propaganda posters – with the Z for Putin – were hung in the streets of Yerevan supporting Russia’s annexation of the occupied areas of Ukraine and the “post-Soviet territories”. The posters, in the Armenian language, mention Donbass, Mariupol, Kherson and Zaporozhje, but also Tiraspol in Transnistria, Tskhinval in South Ossetia, northern Kazakhstan and express that “it is better than even Artsakh [Nagorno Karabaj] be Russian.”