South Asia
Speaking at the Reuters Next conference on Tuesday, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that following India’s border clash with China that led to the death of 20 soldiers in June last year, the trust in their bilateral relationship has been “profoundly disturbed”. On the other hand, he said that India’s friendship with the United States was booming and will continue to grow under the upcoming Joe Biden-led administration. [Reuters]
Following last week’s brutal killing of ten Shia coal miners from the Hazara community, Karim Khalili, a prominent Shia leader from Afghanistan who is also a member of the Hazara community, visited Pakistan to meet with the Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. According to a statement by the Pakistani Foreign Office, the two leaders discussed the ongoing intra-Afghan peace process and the future of Pakistan’s relationship with the war-torn country. [Al Jazeera]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Darigha Nazarbaeva, the eldest daughter of Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, has been elected to the lower house of the 107-member strong Mazhilis, after the January 10 elections. 75 other members from the Nur Otan party were also elected to the chamber. [RFE/RL]
East and Southeast Asia
Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases said that it had discovered a new strain of the novel coronavirus that is different from the one seen in the United Kingdom and South Africa. The new mutant strain has been found to share some similarity with the former variants in terms of a higher rate of infectivity; however, additional information is only limited to its genetic makeup, as the mutation remains under observation. [CNBC]
China said that a group of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) will arrive in the country on Thursday to collect evidence of the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. The group’s itinerary has not been released and it remains unclear whether the team will be allowed to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the location where some theories suggest the virus originated from. [Business Standard]
Europe
Austrian authorities have expelled an Italian national of Turkish origin who is believed to have been tasked with orchestrating the assassination of several Austrian public figures. He previously turned himself in last year, following which the Austrian authorities charged him for conducting “military espionage on behalf of foreign states”. [Arab News]
Estonian prime minister, Juri Ratas, who has held the position since 2016, resigned on Wednesday after his ruling Center Party came under investigation as part of a corruption probe. President Kersti Kaljulaid now has 14 days to name Ratas’ successor who would then have to be approved by parliament. [DW]
Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday that he would return home to Russia over the weekend from Germany, where he has been undergoing treatment after a failed assassination attempt using a Novichok nerve agent. Shrugging off potential legal risks that could see him jailed, he said: “[Putin’s] servants are acting as usual by fabricating new criminal cases against me. But I’m not interested in what they’re going to do to me. Russia is my country, Moscow is my city and I miss it.” [Al Jazeera]
Hungarian Surgeon General Cecilia Muller announced on Wednesday that the country had detected a new, more easily transmissible variant of coronavirus first found in Britain, in samples of three patients. [Reuters]
Latin America and the Caribbean
Argentinian farmers once again demanded that the government rescind its December decision to suspend corn exports, describing the measures taken by the Alberto Fernández administration as “interventionism”. Argentina’s Rural Society (SRA), the Agricultural Federation, the Rural Confederations (CRA), and the Agricultural Confederation (Coninagro) all decided to go on strike to protest the decision. The government argues that the suspension is necessary in order to prioritise domestic consumption. [Telesur]
A trial in Brazil found that the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech is just 50.4% effective. However, Turkish and Indonesian researchers respectively reported 91.25% and 65% effectiveness for the same vaccine, perhaps displaying the discrepancies in the various trial processes. [Al Jazeera]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Less than a month after the formation of a new cabinet in Kuwait, its members have presented their resignation to the country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalis al-Sabah. According to a statement by the Kuwaiti Government Communications Office, the decision was taken “in light of developments in the relationship between the National Assembly and the government, and what the national interest may warrant.” No further information was given in the statement. [Al Jazeera]
Following a request by the Lebanese judiciary, Interpol has issued three “red notices” against the owner and the captain of the shipping vessel that had transported the 2,750 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate to Beirut that caused the devastating blast in August 2020. “Red notices” are issued by Interpol to urge agencies across the world to help locate and arrest the individuals. These, however, are non-binding. [Al Jazeera]
North America
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to urge Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office, despite Pence stating that he would not do so. The chamber is expected to vote Wednesday on impeaching Trump on charges that he incited an insurrection against the United States government. [Reuters]
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with the vice-chairman and the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, and National Guard Bureau on Tuesday put out a rare joint statement to service members saying the violent riots at the US Capitol last week were an assault on America’s constitutional process and against the law. “The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition, and insurrection,” they said. [Al Jazeera]
Oceania
Germany has arrested a 34-year-old Australian citizen accused of operating DarkMarket, an illegal marketplace for “drugs, forged money, stolen or forged credit cards, anonymous mobile phone SIM cards, and malware”. German investigators were supported by their counterparts from the US, Australia, the UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Moldova. The marketplace had around 500,000 users and over 2,400 vendors. [ABC News]
Sub-Saharan Africa
Uganda Communications Commission executive director Irene Sewankambo ordered the closure of social media and messaging applications and platforms ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections on January 14. This follows Facebook’s decision to shut down a number of accounts belonging to Ugandan government officials. [Mail & Guardian]
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of disaster after two of his Cabinet ministers died from the coronavirus on Tuesday. He also convened an emergency meeting of his COVID-19 task force to discuss possible measures to contain the spread of the virus. [Africa Feeds]
Islamist militants killed 13 soldiers in Nigeria’s Gazagana village in the Yobe state. The Nigerian army, which is known for inflating figures of the deaths it inflicts and deflating figures of the deaths it sustains, said it had “neutralised” 28 jihadists and that “only one soldier had died”. [Africa News]
World News Monitor: 13 January, 2021
A quick look at events from around the globe.
January 14, 2021
Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST ONLINE