ASIA TODAY New missiles from North Korea on election day in the US

Today’s news: Kamala Harris is prayed for at the Hindu temple in the family’s hometown. Armenia’s religious leaders on the eve of Cop29 in Baku: justice for the Arshak refugees abandoned by the world. Also in Iraq, at least 400 refugees a day from Lebanon. After 70 years, the Tokyo Stock Exchange extends its operations by half an hour to attract foreign investors.

NORTH KOREA

North Korea launched today several ballistic missiles short-range aircraft that sank in the East Sea after traveling a distance of about 400 kilometers. This was reported by the South Korean army, which said it detected the launches around 7:30 a.m. from the Sariwon area, in the western province of North Hwanghae. The volley of missiles occurred just hours before the presidential vote in the United States. The launches came five days after the North launched its new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

INDIA-UNITED STATES

The inhabitants of Thulasendrapuram -the town in Tamil Nadu where Kamala Harris’ maternal family comes from- will hold a special prayer today at the Hindu temple for the distinguished fellow citizen who is facing Donald Trump in the United States presidential elections. At the temple, Harris’s name is engraved on a stone listing public donations, along with that of his grandfather PV Gopalan. Outside, a large banner wishes that the “daughter of the land” wins the elections.

ARMENIA

A few days before Cop29, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that will open in Baku on November 11, the spiritual leaders of the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical Churches – Aram I, Raphaël Bedros XXI and Paul Haidostian – have jointly issued an appeal in which they reiterate their protest and concern for the 120,000 Artsakh Armenians forcibly evacuated from Nagorno Karabakh after its conquest by Azerbaijan, “the planned destruction of Armenian religious and cultural buildings and monuments, and the illegal detention of Artsakh political leaders.” Stigmatizing “the indifference of the international community,” they call for “uniting and reorganizing resources around a pan-Armenian agenda” in which “national values ​​must take precedence over any other external and temporal considerations.”

IRAQ-LEBANON

Iraq It is also becoming an escape destination from Lebanon, which has been brought to its knees by Israeli raids against Hezbollah. According to the UN refugee agency, an average of between 400 and 600 refugees arrive in the country every day. According to figures published yesterday by the Ministry of Health in Beirut, more than 3,000 Lebanese have died in the conflict, including 589 women and at least 185 children.

JAPAN

The Tokyo Stock Exchange extends trading hours in 30 minutes starting today, as part of efforts to make its markets more attractive to foreign investors and encourage commercial activity. With the first extension of closing hours in 70 years, the Tokyo Stock Exchange will now operate from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a one-hour break for lunch, according to the Japan Exchange Group Inc.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong lived its hottest october since measurements began in 1884. The city’s Observatory recorded an average temperature of 27.3 degrees Celsius during the month, 1.6 degrees above normal. It was also a much drier month than normal, with only 11.3 millimeters of precipitation. This represents 9% of the 120.3 millimeters recorded on average between 1991 and 2020. These figures occur after a summer that had already been much warmer than usual.

RUSSIA

The Moscow Patriarchate has warned all bishops of the “non-canonicity” of the icon called “Mother of God Liberator of Donetsk”, which is circulating among Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian front, warning them to remove it from all churches for devotion of the faithful, and to deny the rumors spread about its thaumaturgic powers and its mystical origin.