U.S. tech giant Google has paid Russia more than 32 million roubles in fines for failing to delete content Moscow deems illegal.
Russia said it seek to fine the U.S. tech giant a percentage of its annual Russian turnover later this month for repeatedly failing to delete banned content on its search engine and YouTube, in Moscow’s strongest move yet to rein in foreign tech firms.
Marco Pancini, YouTube director for interacting with state authorities in EMEA, says that Google had paid all enforced fines on time. These stood at 32.5 million roubles for this year.
Communications regulator Roskomnadzor says it has the technical capability to slow down the speed of YouTube, Interfax reported, but that administrative measures are currently sufficient.

Cambodian lawmakers approved an amendment to the kingdom’s constitution barring political leaders from holding dual citizenship, a move seen as targeting the country’s most prominent opposition figure.
Strongman leader Hun Sen had requested the Ministry of Justice to look into the amendment, saying in an October 6 post the change was needed in order to show loyalty to the nation and avoid foreign interference.
The amendment says all candidates appointed as the prime minister, presidents of the National Assembly, Senate and the Constitutional Council must hold only Cambodian citizenship.

A senior United States diplomat has urged North Korea to end its concerning and counterproductive missile tests and resume negotiations.
Sung Kim, the top US official on North Korea affairs, called on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to cease these provocations and other destabilising activities, and instead, engage in dialogue.

Saudi Arabia announced it aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2060, joining more than 100 countries in a global effort to try and curb man-made climate change.
The announcement made by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was timed to make a splash before the start of the global COP26 climate conference being held in Glasgow, Scotland.
Energy exports form the backbone of Saudi Arabia’s economy, despite efforts to diversify revenue as the world increasingly looks to transition away from reliance on fossil fuels.
The country is forecast to make $150bn in revenue this year alone from oil.

The Republic of China’s government had fled to the island of Taiwan with millions of refugees as the communists took power but continued to hold the seat of China at the UN and was a permanent member of the Security Council with veto power.
Officials in Taipei had the support of the US thanks to fears in the West that communism might sweep through Asia.
The ROC had promised to return by the 1970s, but by then it was clear to many UN members its government no longer represented the hundreds of millions of people living across the Taiwan Strait in the now-communist controlled People’s Republic of China.

Pope Francis urged governments to stop returning migrants to countries like Libya where they are sent to detention centres rife with abuse, and prioritise saving lives of those crossing the Mediterranean.
His message comes as Italy sees an increase in migrant arrivals from Libya, and the debate within a divided EU shifts to migrants entering the bloc’s eastern borders with Belarus.
Francis expressed his closeness to the thousands of migrants, refugees and also others in need of protection in Libya.

Mali’s foreign ministry says its transitional government has given the Economic Community of West African States’ special representative 72 hours to leave the country following actions incompatible with his status
ECOWAS, West Africa’s main political and economic bloc, has been pressing Mali to respect its commitment to hold presidential and legislative elections next February following an August 2020 military coup.

The UN says its flights to Mekelle in Ethiopia's Tigray region have been suspended after one of its planes had to abort its landing on the same morning as a military airstrike was carried out on the city.
The Ethiopian government says its planes had been targeting a training centre used by Tigrayan rebels.
The fact that airstrikes were being carried out in the same city on the same morning will be of great concern to the UN – as the plane had been cleared for take-off by the authorities in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Seven million people are now in urgent need of assistance and the UN says malnutrition rates are rising every day.

Sudan’s top general declared a state of emergency, dissolved the authorities leading the country’s democratic transition, and announced the formation of a new government after soldiers detained civilian leaders Monday in what activists denounced as a “coup”.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s says to rectify the revolution’s course, they have decided to declare a state of emergency nationwide… dissolve the transitional sovereign council, and dissolve the cabinet.
His statement came as clashes erupted in the capital Khartoum, with soldiers firing live rounds at people who took to the streets to protest against the power grab.

A UN Security Council delegation is in Mali to meet politicians, members of civil society and military leaders at a time when there are fears that the officers who carried out a coup in August want to delay a return to civilian rule.
The West African regional grouping Ecowas is insisting that the transitional President, Colonel Assimi Goita, hands over power after elections next February.
The visiting delegation - which includes the ambassadors to the UN from Kenya, France, Niger and the US - is also assessing the security situation.
Mali has seen frequent jihadist attacks as well as inter-ethnic violence in the north and the centre of the country.