An earthquake hit Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 19 and injuring 200 others. The 6.5-magnitude disaster caused landslides and damaged infrastructure in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan.
PM Narendra Modi conducted a high-level meeting to look into the rising cases of COVID-19 and influenza in India. He urged public health officials to keep track of the number of variants and prepare for increases in hospitalisations and demands for medicine.
Honduras asked Taiwan for $2.5 billion in aid a day before Honduran President Xiomara Castro tweeted that the country will begin work on establishing relations with China, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
China on Wednesday approved its first mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. It was domestically developed by the CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. The long-due approval comes after the infection rate in the country has considerably dropped, making the new vaccine’s sales outlook moderate.
Beirut erupted in chaos as Lebanese security forces violently clashed with hundreds of furious demonstrators on Wednesday. The protesters, including armed forces veterans, had taken to the streets to voice their outrage at the government’s inaction regarding the economic crisis plaguing the country. According to the World Bank, Lebanon is currently experiencing the most severe economic catastrophe witnessed in over 150 years, as the Lebanese pound has plummeted by a staggering 98% against the US dollar since 2019.
Russian news agency TASS reported on Wednesday that Egypt has officially become a member of the New Development Bank (NDB) created by members of the BRICS multilateral grouping.
On Tuesday, the Ugandan Parliament criminalised identifying as LGBTQ. The move aims to preserve the religious and conservative values in the country; accordingly, the new law not only bans same-sex intercourse but also “conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.” Moreover, “aggravated homosexuality,” which entails gay sex with minors or the perpetrator being HIV positive, will draw the death penalty.
In an interview with The Guardian on Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t plan for peace, he’s planning for more war.” Stoltenberg added that Russia is involved in a “war of attrition,” and the West must be ready to supply aid and ammunition to Kyiv. The Sec Gen even stated that Russia is increasing its military production and “reaching out to authoritarian regimes like Iran or North Korea, and others to try to get more weapons.”
The US State Department released a press statement on Tuesday designating three individuals and four entities for sanctions due to their involvement in an “Iranian military procurement network” linked to Tehran’s unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) programmes. The statement noted that the sanctions are the latest in a series of moves taken against Iranian “UAV manufacturers and their executives” since September 2022, including the 9 March 2023 designation of a China-based network in connection with Iran’s UAV procurement efforts.