Bangladeshi PM and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina launched her party’s election manifesto on Wednesday. The party has pledged to build a “Smart Bangladesh” if it is elected back to power for a fourth consecutive term in the upcoming 7 January general elections. The manifesto aims to modernise the healthcare industry by establishing a "universal health system," and outlines 11 goals for creating a technologically advanced nation.
According to The Washington Post, following Apple’s warnings to the independent Indian media and opposition party leaders in October that government hackers might have attempted to access their iPhones, the Indian government has demanded the technology giant help soften the political impact of the warnings. The report said that the Indian government also called an international Apple security expert to New Delhi, where government delegates pushed the Apple representative to provide alternate justifications for the alerts delivered to customers.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday granted ex post facto approval to India's Migration and Mobility Agreement with Italy. The agreement between the two countries, which was signed on 2 November, would guarantee Indian students temporary residency in Italy for a maximum of one year following their studies in order to get work experience. The agreement was signed between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. It aims to improve people-to-people relationships, ease student, skilled worker, business, and young professional mobility, and strengthen bilateral collaboration on matters concerning irregular migration.
China’s State Security Ministry on Wednesday requested the public for more tip-offs after it claimed to have caught a foreign company trying to steal intelligence from a naval base. The secrets were related to new military equipment, including what it described as “trump card” weaponry, from an unidentified coastal city.
Russian Deputy PM Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that almost 90% of the country’s crude exports this year have been shipped to China and India. “As for those restrictions and embargoes on supplies to Europe and the US that were introduced... this only accelerated the process of reorienting our energy flows,” he said.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned on Wednesday that a move by Japan to provide Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine will have “grave consequences” for Russia-Japan ties.