South Asia
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Moment announced the government’s decision to remove the words “valid in all countries except Israel” from the country’s passports. The Israeli Foreign Ministry welcomed the change and called on Bangladesh to “establish diplomatic ties” with Israel. Momen has clarified, however, that while the decision was made to “maintain global standards,” there has been “no change in Bangladesh’s position on Israel”, with Bangladesh continuing to not recognise Israel as a country. [The Print]
The Indian Information Technology Ministry has called on all social media companies to take down content that refers to the B.1.617 strain of the COVID-19 virus as the “Indian Variant”. In the letters addressed to the social media companies, the Ministry said that such miscommunication taints India’s international image. [Reuters]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
The European Court of Human Rights has found Azerbaijani authorities guilty of torturing and trying to kill blogger Alexandr Lapshin in prison and said that Baku must pay Lapshin a compensation of €30,000. Lapshin was detained in Belarus in 2016 and extradited to Azerbaijan, where he was charged with illegally visiting Nagorno-Karabakh. [RFE/RL]
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia will create a “new atmosphere” for Azerbaijan’s cooperation with the United States and Russia. Aliyev said that Baku’s relations with Moscow and Washington were stable, and that all sides were eager to expand cooperation. [Azer News]
East and Southeast Asia
According to a previously undisclosed US intelligence report, three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic. The report provides new details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits, and may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory. [CNA]
Brunei is now among the bottom 20 in a list of 222 countries with COVID-19 infections, according to a real-time chart provided by Worldometer. As of yesterday, Brunei recorded a total of 236 COVID-19 cases, with 95 of them being imported. [Borneo Bulletin]
Europe
The Belarusian authoritarian government is facing international condemnation and pressure to provide answers, after it forced a civilian aeroplane carrying an exiled opposition activist to land in Minsk on Sunday. Roman Pratasevich, 26, was taken into custody on Sunday, after his Ryanair flight from Athens, Greece to Vilnius, Lithuania was diverted to Belarus. While world leaders fiercely denounced the move as a “hijacking” and an “act of state terrorism,” the country’s presidential press service said that President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the plane to the capital, and that the measure was taken due a bomb threat received while the aircraft was over Belarusian territory. [Euronews]
Members of the European Union’s Parliament passed a resolution to support India and South Africa’s call in the World Trade Organisation for a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 related medical equipment and vaccines. This decision comes just weeks after American President Joe Biden declared his support for the proposal. [New Indian Express]
Latin America and the Caribbean
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power said that the Agency will ‘redirect’ funding from the El Salvador government to civil society groups in the country due to Washington’s “deep concerns” about the Bukele administration. This comes just days after the Associated Press released a State Department document that deems the administration of El Salvador President Nayib to be “corrupt.” Bukele has in recent months made several months to undermine the independence of the judiciary, generating unease among American policymakers. [Associated Press]
Brazilian polling institute Datafolha revealed that roughly 25% of citizens “lacked food” over the past few months, with 88% of respondents saying that “hunger in the country [has] increased.” The survey revealed that this situation is particularly stark among women, Black citizens, and “less educated people,” particularly in the northeast of the country. [Folha de S.Paulo]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Hundreds of protestors from the pro-democracy Hirak movement were arrested in Algeria on Saturday. The movement, which emerged in 2019 to protest then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term, has continued its demonstrations and has called for a complete overhaul of Algeria’s political system. [Al Jazeera]
Hours after an Egypt-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, clashes erupted between Israeli security forces and Palestinian Muslim worshippers at the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. The Israeli police entered the compound to contain rioting by protestors who hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces, the Israeli Police said in a statement. Palestinians said that at least 20 people were injured in the pro-Hamas protests. [Times of Israel]
North America
In the face of mounting pressure to rethink the US’ $735 million arms sale to Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said that Washington remains “committed to giving Israel the means to defend itself.” The diplomat justified the administration’s decision by pointing to the “indiscriminate rocket attacks against civilians,” but said that the matter would be handled “in full consultation with Congress.” [US Department of State]
The Canadian foreign ministry on Friday appointed international lawyer Payam Akhavan as senior advisor to its ongoing response to the Flight PS752 tragedy. In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said that Akhavan “will provide advice and expertise on all matters pertaining to Flight PS752, with particular attention to the GAC legal team’s preparations for the upcoming state-to-state negotiations with Iran on reparations, as well as other possible measures.” [Global Affairs Canada]
Oceania
New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response Minister, Chris Hipkins, said that there has been a continuous increase in the percentage of citizens who say they are likely to take the COVID-19 vaccine or have already received the shot, with the figure now standing at 77%, compared to 69% in March. Concurrently, the percentage of people who say they are unlikely to get the vaccine is now at 12%, down from 20% in March and 24% in December. Hipkins said, “This is really encouraging. Major information campaigns, solid progress in the vaccine rollout and strong role models in each community are making a real difference.” [New Zealand Government]
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne has released a statement condemning the Belarusian government’s “forced military interception of a commercial flight” that was carrying opposition blogger Roman Protasevich. She noted that this “unprecedented action,” which was undertaken with the pretext of a “security threat,” speaks to the “repression against free speech” in the country. Payne said that this repression includes “electoral manipulation and arrests of journalists and free speech advocates.” She also called for the “immediate release” of Protasevich and demanded a “full investigation” into the matter. [Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs]
Sub-Saharan Africa
A volcanic eruption at Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Saturday resulted in thousands being evacuated or forced to flee from the city of Goma. The last eruption in the country occurred in 2002, when 250 people were killed and 120,000 were left homeless. This time around, at least 15 people have died and over 500 homes were destroyed, leading to the displacement of 25,000 so far; around 5,000 people have crossed over into Rwanda.[Africa News, Al Jazeera]
Benin President Patrice Talon was sworn into office for his second term on Sunday. He won 86.3% of votes in the April election, which was marred with controversy due to low voter turnout, which was recorded at 50.17%, and the fact that several opposition politicians were either been exiled, disqualified through arbitrary electoral reforms, placed under investigation by special courts, or boycotted the election of their own will due to concerns over its legitimacy. [Africa News]
World News Monitor: 24 May, 2021
A quick look at events from around the globe.
May 24, 2021
SOURCE: REUTERS