THE MAINICHI SHIMBUN (JAPAN): Even though the entire Mideast region is on the brink of all-out war, the international community, led by the major powers, has not lived up to the responsibility to restore peace and stability. Cease-fire proposals have occasionally been brought forward at the United Nations Security Council, but have been rejected by the United States, a veto power-holding permanent member, on the grounds of defending Israel. The U.S. and Europe have taken a critical view of Russia and imposed sanctions in response to that country's invasion of Ukraine. But the same vigorous response has yet to be seen toward Israel, which can be seen as using national self-defense as a shield to excuse mounting civilian casualties. This stance has been criticized as a double standard by the developing and emerging economies known as the Global South, risking a loss of credibility for the U.S. and Europe. The people of Gaza and Lebanon are still living in fear.
ARAB NEWS (SAUDI ARABIA): Peace and an end to the bloodshed in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank — where, with the world’s attention diverted elsewhere, Israeli military-backed settler violence against Palestinians has been stepped up to a new level. The big question now is how much further the conflict might escalate. Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, professor in global thought and comparative philosophies at SOAS University of London and author of the book “What is Iran?”, believes that “the strategic aim of this Israeli administration has been to drag the United States into a wider regional conflict, as Israel itself does not have the capability to conduct a war with Iran”. And, “given the centrality of the United States to this plan, it can only be the US government that can facilitate peace, by restraining Benjamin Netanyahu with active steps, not token gestures”. But with dangerously bad timing, the US is less than a month away from an election that will see either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump enter office in January as the next president. Both the election and the subsequent transition of administrations, of whichever stripe, can only hamper US diplomatic investment in the current crisis. Nevertheless, according to Adib-Moghaddam, “if the current conflagration of conflicts is not mitigated, we will be embroiled in a war with global repercussions, certainly in terms of the economic consequences.
L’ORIENT – LE JOUR (LEBANON): Netanyahu a capitalisé sur la menace iranienne pour revenir en force. On l’annonçait politiquement mort après les attaques du Hamas le 7 octobre 2023. Un an plus tard, le Premier ministre israélien se sent plus renforcé que jamais. Depuis vingt jours, la population israélienne voit le Premier ministre multiplier les victoires tactiques au Liban. En moins d’un mois, l’État hébreu a mené deux vagues d’explosions meurtrières.
HAARETZ (ISRAEL): “Victory Day” vs. Death in Gaza: Arab world split over October 7 anniversary of Hamas attack. As “October 7” trends on Arabic social media, prominent pundits celebrate the anniversary of Hamas’ assault on Israel, declaring “victory” over the 'Zionists and their allies’, while Palestinians in Gaza mourn what they’ve lost.
TEHRAN TIMES (IRAN): The Hezbollah resistance movement launched a salvo of Fadi 1 missiles on Monday at the Israeli Karmal military base in Haifa, a major Mediterranean port. Israel acknowledged that the missiles struck several areas in both Haifa and Tiberias. It also admitted that 12 people were injured several buildings were damaged. The strike was the first in which Hezbollah hit cities deep inside the occupied territories.
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: Biden and potential successors mark Oct. 7 as US election nears, Mideast war rages. US president lights candle at White House, VP plants pomegranate tree at residence; Sullivan: Israel needs strategy to ensure battlefield wins endure; Trump visits Chabad rebbe’s grave. US President Joe Biden and his potential successors participated in a series of ceremonies marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught against Israel, which fell in the final weeks before the November 5 election and as conflict widened in the Middle East.
THE NEW YORK TIMES (USA): Washington worries the Israelis will Bomb Iran’s nuclear sites. But can they? For 22 years, Israeli forces have planned for this moment. But it seems unlikely that they will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in the next round of retaliation, or that they would be successful without American help. In interviews, former and current senior Israeli officials acknowledged doubts about whether the country has the capability to do significant damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities. Nonetheless, for the past few days, Pentagon officials have been wondering quietly whether the Israelis are preparing to go it alone, after concluding that they may never again have a moment like this one. President Biden has warned them against striking nuclear or energy sites, saying any response should be “proportionate” to the Iranian attack on Israel last week, essentially acknowledging that some counterstrike is appropriate. It is likely that Israel’s first retaliation against Iran for Tuesday’s missile strikes will focus on military bases, and perhaps some intelligence or leadership sites, officials say.
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA): Годовщина вторжения ХАМАС в Израиль лишила Иран покоя. В Тегеране хотели бы скрепить ряды союзников созданием “шиитского НАТО”. Первая годовщина вторжения боевиков ХАМАС в Израиль заставила иранскую элиту вернуться к идее о “шиитском НАТО”. Это – проект альянса со всеми союзными Исламской Республике региональными силами, которые за последний год продемонстрировали высокий уровень координации при нанесении ударов по еврейскому государству. Западные страны подозревают, что отдельной формой возмездия со стороны Тегерана может стать рывок в развитии военного атома. Именно поэтому США попросили Израиль отказаться от жесткого удара по иранской инфраструктуре. Цена такой операции слишком высока.
THE INDIAN EXPRESS: Arab states – and peace – are more important than Iran or Israel. Success of moderate Arab states is critical for India’s interests in the region. Delhi must join hands with them in preventing the disastrous alternative of total war between Iran and Israel. As Iran and Israel threaten to plunge the Middle East into a dangerous regional war, India must stand by its Arab partners that are being squeezed by the conflict between the two countries. Unfortunately, there has been little appreciation of their concerns in the Indian discourse on the current phase of the conflict. The lack of public sensitivity to Arab perceptions of the conflict between Iran and Israel stands in contrast to the elevation of the engagement with the Arab world to the highest levels under the government of Narendra Modi over the last decade. Today, Iran and Israel attract significant and often passionate political support from India. Although they occupy much of India’s mind space, neither country matches the depth of India’s interests in the Arabian Peninsula. India’s prosperity is tied deeply to a Middle East that is at peace with itself, economically integrated, secure in its religious moderation, and becomes a bridge between the Subcontinent, on the one hand, and Central Asia, Africa and Europe, on the other. If the success of the moderate Arab states is critical for the realisation of this vision, Delhi must join hands with them in preventing the disastrous alternative of a total war between Iran and Israel.
THE HILL (USA): As the United States sends soldiers to the Middle East and Israel wages brutal parallel wars against Hamas in Gaza and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz must quickly assert its foreign policy prowess. As America’s potential first female president — and after Walz’s “shaky” performance on the debate stage — Harris must particularly flex her muscles to show she can dominate on the world stage. The U.S. has been left behind as President Biden, Harris and their G7 allies fail to mediate an end to the rapidly escalating war in the Middle East. That lack of engagement reflects poorly on Harris, leaving her in an awkward position as she attempts to argue that she, Biden and the Democrats are the best poised to put out the tinder keg in the Middle East and protect the United States from retaliation, while expressing calibrated sympathy for Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian civilians.
THE WASHINGTON POST (USA): Harris launches unscripted interview blitz after cautious roll-out. In a neck-and-neck race, Harris is leaning more into unscripted question-and-answer sessions. After taking over the Democratic ticket, picking a running mate, staging a convention and turning in a strong debate performance, Vice President Kamala Harris is now embracing potentially the riskiest test of a presidential campaign — the day-to-day grind of unscripted interviews. From podcasts to town halls to late night shows and network sit-downs, Harris and Walz plan to spend much more of the final month before the election in situations they cannot fully control — after an initial two months when the vice president agreed to few such events.
THE ECONOMIC TIMES (INDIA): Vice President Kamala Harris addressed key issues on “60 Minutes”, from U.S. foreign policy challenges with Israel and Russia to domestic concerns like immigration and gun ownership. During a sit-down with the show’s correspondent Bill Whitaker, Harris did not reveal new domestic policy proposals or share how she would pay for some of those she has already put forward. But she did expound on her views about two foreign leaders causing enormous headaches for President Joe Biden’s administration: Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. Discussing the diplomatic crises that have unfolded throughout the Biden administration, including the expanding Mideast conflict and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Harris signaled that foreign policy in a Harris-Walz administration would hew closely to the policies of the Biden-Harris one.
GLOBAL TIMES (CHINA): Chinese experts said on Monday that India should not perceive China as a rival for its military development, after the chief of the Indian Air Force claimed ahead of the Indian Air Force Day on Tuesday that China is outpacing India in technology, defense production and infrastructure. India “lags behind” China in military technology and “is way behind” in defense production, the Times of India quoted Indian Air Chief Marshal AP Singh as saying on Friday in a run-up to the Indian Air Force Day. Singh said that with China “steadily eroding” India’s air combat advantage along the frontier by deploying a greater number of aircraft, his force is also upgrading its forward airbases and advance landing grounds. At the same time, he is asking Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for faster delivery of indigenous Tejas fighters and the private sector to play a much bigger role in defense production.
NIKKEI (JAPAN): Japan PM Ishiba tempers tone on Asian NATO, nuclear energy reduction. With his eye on a snap lower house election on Oct. 27, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba moderated his stance on several policy proposals during parliamentary questioning on Monday, including on the creation of an Asian version of NATO. An Asian NATO “cannot be launched overnight”, Ishiba said during a question-and-answer session with opposition party leaders. He had proposed the idea of a NATO-style collective security framework in Asia during his campaign last month to become leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
DAILY SABAH (TURKEY): President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin discussed Türkiye-Russia relations and global and regional developments in a phone call on Monday, the Presidential Communications Directorate said. “Pointing out that strengthening and enhancement of Turkish-Russian relations is pleasing, President Erdoğan expressed that high-level political dialogue will persist”, the directorate said in a statement. President Erdoğan also told Putin that they would continue to discuss regional and global developments in detail on various occasions in the near future. Always emphasizing regional stability and neighborly relations, Türkiye is among a few countries that have maintained good ties with Russia and Ukraine during the conflict between the two countries.
INDEPENDENT (GB): Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar has said that he will “behave himself” during his upcoming trip to Pakistan, marking the first visit by a top official to the rival country in almost a decade. New Delhi confirmed that Mr Jaishankar will travel to Islamabad on 15-16 October for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, or SCO, a transregional grouping led by China, in place of prime minister Narendra Modi. The visit marks a significant moment in regional diplomacy as relations between the rival neighbours have remained tense since they gained independence from the British in 1947. Relations have been almost frozen since India carried out crossborder airstrikes in Pakistan in early 2019, a few weeks after a car bombing killed at least 46 Indian paramilitary personnel in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES (USA): China’s military and the ruling Communist Party have turned to artificial intelligence to boost the impact of propaganda and influence operations through American social media platforms, according to a new study of Beijing’s covert operations. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in particular, is conducting three types of operations against the U.S. where AI tools have greatly increased the impact, a report by the RAND Corporation states. Once fearful of social media as a threat to their power, China’s leaders are now embracing the use of Facebook and X as key tools for influencing foreign public opinion, the think tank stated in a 183-page study made public this week. The report is based on an in-depth review of Chinese party and military writings that analyze the goals of information warfare, what the People’s Liberation Army is calling the “Three Warfares” — public opinion warfare, psychological warfare and legal warfare.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA): Mexico’s new President Claudia Sheinbaum is using her first 100 days in office to try to lower homicides and loosen the grip of organized crime groups that control swaths of the country, extort businesses, smuggle drugs and kill with impunity. Among Sheinbaum’s top efforts to “pacify the country” will be a push to slash killings in the country’s 10 deadliest cities, including Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez on the U.S. border, according to a presentation of the strategy seen by The Wall Street Journal. She is also planning new efforts to combat the smuggling of the deadly drug fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of Americans a year, the presentation says.
RENMIN RIBAO (CHINA): China is confident to maintain steady and healthy economic growth and achieve the full-year growth target, the country’s top economic planner said Tuesday. The market sentiment has improved recently with a pick-up of the purchasing managers' index in the manufacturing sector, a warming stock market and a vital consumption market during the National Day holiday following the implementation of existing policies and the additional policies unveiled recently, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference. The fundamentals of China’s economic development have not changed, and favorable conditions such as huge market potential and strong economic resilience have not changed, said Zheng.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (HONG KONG, CHINA): A stronger yuan could drag down China’s export growth, and the central bank is expected to guard against excessive appreciation. China’s yuan is set to face volatility due to an expected boost from Beijing’s economic stimulus package while simultaneously being pitted against pressure from the United States ahead of its presidential election on November 5, analysts said on Monday. The yuan would appreciate against the US dollar if “significant fiscal-policy easing materialises” as part of Beijing’s stimulus, Goldman Sachs analysts led by Xinquan Chen said in a research note while noting that this may offset depreciation pressure by any potential US trade-tariff increases. Meanwhile, other analysts said robust US jobs data could offer more support for the dollar, as could the election’s outcome.
IZVESTIA (RUSSIA): Азиатский вектор: РФ может увеличить экспорт газа до 197 млрд куб. м к 2036 году. Среди перспективных направлений — Китай, Индия, Пакистан, Иран. Экспорт российского газа может вырасти до 197 млрд куб. м к 2036 году. Такой прогноз дал вице-премьер России Александр Новак. Среди перспективных направлений для экспорта эксперты выделяют Китай, Индию, Пакистан, Иран, Узбекистан и Казахстан. А вот объемы поставок в Евросоюз вряд ли покажут рост.
THE GUARDIAN (GB): A Dutch museum has recovered an artwork that looks like two empty beer cans after a staff member accidentally threw it in the rubbish bin thinking it was trash. The work, entitled All The Good Times We Spent Together by French artist Alexandre Lavet, appears on first glance to be two discarded and dented beer tins. However, a closer look shows they are in fact meticulously hand-painted with acrylics and “required a lot of time and effort to create”, according to the museum. But their artistic value was lost on a mechanic, who saw them displayed in a lift and chucked them in the bin.