Chinese actor kidnapped (and released) for internet scams

Today’s news: Hibakusha call for Ishiba to attend nuclear weapons ban summit. In Lebanon, pressure from the US and Saudi Arabia to elect an army commander as president. Delhi goes to the polls on February 5 for the local legislative assembly. Kyrgyzstan hands over schools that Ankara considers linked to Fetullah Gulen to a Turkish state agency.

CHINA-THAILAND-MYANMAR

A chinese actor who disappeared last week near the Thai-Myanmar border has been found in Myanmar and may have been a victim of human trafficking, according to authorities in Bangkok. Wang Xing, 22, had been reported missing in Tak province in northern Thailand, an area known for large-scale criminal activities and human trafficking by organized gangs. He had been told there was a casting in Thailand, but instead he found himself scamming other Chinese people online.

CHINA

Not only the Chinese authorities, but also numerous independent medical sources urge the population to avoid scaremongering given the images circulating on social networks of Chinese hospitals invaded by people wearing masks due to the human flu-like metapneumovirus (HMPV). Beijing has acknowledged an increase in cases of this infection that affects the respiratory tract, especially among children, attributing it to a seasonal peak. However, according to public health experts, HMPV is not like Covid-19: it is a virus that has been around for decades, although it must be taken into account that in some very young children and people with weakened immune systems it can cause more serious diseases.

JAPAN

Nihon Hidankyo, The Japanese group of survivors of the atomic bomb that won the Nobel Peace Prize, met today with the Japanese laureate Shigeru Ishiba and has asked the Tokyo government to participate as an observer in the summit of signatory countries of the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons, which will be held in New York in March. However, the group’s co-chair, Terumi Tanaka, stated that the approximately 30-minute interview with the prime minister, held to congratulate the group on the award, “did not produce any results” on the issue. Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said the government would consider taking a “realistic and practical” approach in response to the petition.

LEBANON

According to sources cited by Middle East Eye, US envoy Amos Hochstein has told Lebanese officials that Saudi Arabia is willing to pledge hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the war-torn country if the Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun He is elected president in the delicate vote scheduled for tomorrow in Beirut. Hochstein has made intense representations in favor of Aoun with the president of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri. Aoun already has the support of Lebanese Sunni Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

INDIA

The Indian capital, Delhi, will go to the polls in a single round on February 5 to renew its Legislative Assembly, the Electoral Commission announced yesterday, specifying that the vote count in the 70 constituencies of the national capital will take place on February 8. The Aam Aadmi Party, led by Arvind Kejriwal, is seeking a third consecutive term in the capital. In Delhi there are 15,524,858 registered voters, which represents a net increase of 1.09% compared to the previous 2020 elections.

RUSSIA

Starting September 1, 2026, all higher education institutions in Russia will adopt the new study model developed by the Ministry of Scientific Research, following the rejection of the Bologna Agreements and Erasmus student exchanges, in which there were More than 15,000 Russian students have participated since 2014, while Russian degrees will now be incompatible.

KYRGYZSTAN-Türkiye

Kyrgyzstan has handed over to the Maarif Fund, an organization of the Turkish Ministry of Education, the network of Turkish Salat schools, 16 institutes, five schools and the Ala-Too University of Bishkek, considered a group of elite institutes in the country, but which Ankara believed to be linked to the deceased Turkish opposition figure Fetullah Gülen, to the point of kidnapping in Bishkek and sentencing its director Orkhan Inandi to 21 years in prison for terrorism in Türkiye.