South Asia
Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla visited Myanmar for the first time since the military coup in February. The junta rejected Shringla’s request to visit jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. However, he met with several other leaders of the opposition National League for Democracy. His visit has been interpreted by some as New Delhi’s tacit recognition of the Tatmadaw. [Times of India]
In a first of its kind deal, Iran has agreed to allow Sri Lanka to repay its oil debt worth $ 251 million by bartering its Ceylon tea. The Iranian Trade Promotion Organisation said that the payment will be made through a monthly shipment of the Sri Lankan tea. [SCMP]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Kyrgyz and Tajik border representatives held a meeting on Thursday to discuss the previous day’s shooting incident, in which Tajik border guards shot and tried to abduct a Kyrgyz truck driver. Both sides agreed to conduct separate investigations and hold joint exercises to avoid similar incidents in the future. [24.kg]
Kazakhstan on Thursday abolished the death penalty after the Senate voted in favour of a bill ending capital punishment. The lower house of the parliament, the Majlis, had already approved the bill earlier this month. This makes Tajikistan the only Central Asian country where the death penalty is still legal. [RFE/RL]
East and Southeast Asia
Japan announced Friday that it will not be sending government officials to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Instead, the country will send officials with direct ties to the Games, including Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto, as well as the heads of the Japanese Olympic Committee and the Japanese Paralympic Committee. [The Straits Times]
A spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry “firmly rejected” the United States President Joe Biden’s decision to sign the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law. Calling the signing a serious violation of international law and basic norms governing US-China bilateral relations, the spokesperson said that the law “grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs” and that Beijing “deplores and firmly rejects this.” [Global Times]
Europe
On Thursday, Belgium’s coalition government announced the closure of all seven nuclear reactors by 2025. However, the government said it would not restrict new-generation nuclear technology. A government source said the coalition reached a deal that includes an investment of around €100 million into small modular reactors to phase out nuclear power. [Euronews]
On Thursday, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski attacked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), calling it the new “lawmaker” of the European Union (EU). Kaczynski also claimed that CJEU has violated Poland’s treaties with the EU, referring to recent CJEU rulings that respectively fined Poland €500,000 and €1,000,000 per day for not shutting down its open-cast mines and not implementing judicial reforms. [The First News]
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned Russia against any incursions into Ukraine, saying that it would be a “massive strategic mistake” and would result in “coordinated sanctions” by the United Kingdom and its allies. [Al Jazeera]
Latin America and the Caribbean
After earlier saying that he would proceed in trade negotiations with China regardless of Mercosur approval, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou has said he is also looking to sign a similar free trade agreement with Turkey, and even courted further deals by saying that an agreement with the United States would be a “childhood dream come true.” Lacalle Pou has repeatedly called for the regional bloc to be more flexible and allow its members to enter into independent deals with third parties. [MercoPress]
On Thursday, Ecuador’s Ministry of Health confirmed that vaccination against COVID-19 will be mandatory due to the “current epidemiological status, i.e., the increase of infected people and the circulation of new variants of “concern,” such as Omicron.” The ministry clarified that Article 6, Section 4 of the Organic Law of Health legally empowers it to “declare the obligatory nature of immunisations against certain diseases,” and said that Article 32 of the constitution has similar provisions on protecting public health as well. At present, 77.2% of the country’s 16 million people above the age of five is fully vaccinated. [Telesur]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein on Wednesday called for direct negotiations between the United States (US) and Iran so that they can reach a “common understanding” regarding the nuclear issue and sanctions. The remarks were made just days before Tehran and world powers resume nuclear negotiations in Vienna on Monday. Iran has refused to directly meet with the US side, saying that Washington is not a member of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. [Associated Press]
Ethiopia has said that its troops will not march into the Tigray region and pursue the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels for now. The announcement came as the government retook the regions of Afar and Amhara from the rebels, who retreated to Tigray earlier this week. “As per our current assessment, the enemy [TPLF] has been heavily hit and is no longer capable of executing its wishes,” government spokesperson Legesse Tulu said on Thursday. [Reuters]
North America
On Thursday, former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter was found guilty of all the charges she faced over the shooting of 20-year-old Black motorist Duante Wright earlier this year. Potter claimed to have accidentally fired her Glock instead of her taser. A jury convicted Potter of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter. She faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and will be sentenced on February 18. [NBC News]
Former United States (US) President Donald Trump on Thursday requested the Supreme Court to block records requests made by the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Riots by his supporters. Trump’s lawyers called the committee’s request “unprecedented encroachment on executive privilege.” Trump has been fighting courts over the release of records related to his role in the January 6 insurrection. In November, a district court rejected Trump’s request saying, “Presidents are not kings, and [the] Plaintiff is not President.” [The Voice of America]
Oceania
In light of the spread of the Omicron variant, from January 4, Australians will be eligible to receive their booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine four months after their second vaccine. This interval period will be brought down to three months at the end of January. [ABC News]
In the wake of super Typhoon Rai, Australia announced that it will provide $5 million to the Philippines. This includes funding for the Philippines Red Cross, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Food Programme, the International Organisation for Migration, and Australian NGOs working in the Philippines. [Minister for Foreign Affairs and Women, Australia]
Sub-Saharan Africa
A group of four MPs in the Senegalese parliament tabled a bill to increase the punishment for homosexual activity in the country. It is currently legal to identify as gay but participating in same-sex acts carries a sentence of up to five years. The proposed bill aims to criminalise identifying as homosexual and to raise this sentence to between five and ten years, without the possibility of appeal and the addition of a fine of between $1800 and $8000. Perhaps expecting backlash from the West, one of the MPs who tabled the bill, Mamadou Lamine Diallo, said, “All of Senegal is behind this bill. It is good that the United States, Canada, France and Europe know that: this is a matter for the Senegalese people.” In fact, in May of this year, hundreds of protesters assembled in Dakar to urge the Muslim-majority country’s government to “urgently adopt a law criminalising homosexuality.” [Africa News]
Newly-elected Cameroon Football Federation President Samuel Eto’o has reiterated that the AFCON football tournament in his country will go on as scheduled next month, despite fears about the spread of COVID-19, particularly the Omicron variant. Eto’o appeared to suggest the prevalence of hypocrisy by pointing out that the Euros were held earlier this year with full stadiums. [The New Times]