TURKEY: Seventeen People’s Democratic Party (HDP) politicians, including co-mayors and former MPs, were jailed in the early hours yesterday after being detained on September 25 and accused of breaking the law during protests in solidarity with Kobane in Syria during Isis’s siege in 2014.
Their lawyers were not allowed into the courtroom as they were packed off to jail. Thirty-six elected mayors of the Kurdish-majority party have been arrested since last year.

HONG KONG: Murderer Chan Tong-kai promised yesterday he will return to Taiwan this month to hand himself in for killing his pregnant girlfriend, Poon Hiu-wing.
Chan murdered Poon while they were on holiday in Taipei in February 2018, hiding her body in a suitcase and returning to Hong Kong, where he withdrew money from her accounts to pay his debts. As Hong Kong had no extradition agreement with Taiwan, he could not be returned for trial and was tried locally on money-laundering charges only. The case prompted Hong Kong to pursue a new extradition law that sparked protests by anti-China demonstrators, and was eventually withdrawn.

UNITED STATES: News that President Donald Trump has tested positive for Covid-19 sent stocks and oil prices tumbling yesterday.
World leaders sent him wishes for a speedy recovery, while reactions on social media were more varied. If Mr Trump dies, the Republican Party has procedures to select a replacement candidate for next month’s election, but it could throw the process into chaos as many state deadlines for registering have passed.

BELARUS: The EU imposed sanctions on 40 Belarus officials yesterday after resistance from Cyprus which wants it to prioritise sanctioning Turkey.
The sanctions are in response to the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko with an official 80 per cent of the vote, which opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya disputes. The EU does not recognise Mr Lukashenko’s re-election.
Belarus said it would sanction the EU in return.