South Asia
India delivered 500 metric tonnes of food as humanitarian aid to Mozambique. This is the eighth such shipments to “friendly foreign countries” that India has made under Mission SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region). [Times of India]
Abu Dojana, a top military commander of the Taliban’s government, warned Pakistan against firing against Afghanistan, adding that the group is ready to use its military equipment in response to such provocations. Previously, residents of the Kunar region have raised concern about attacks by Pakistan in several parts of the province over the past two weeks, resulting in at least one civilian being injured. [Times of India]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Chechen human rights lawyer Abubakar Yangulbaev told RFE/RL on Saturday that 21 of his relatives have been abducted by the police because of his activism against the government’s human rights abuses. The government, led by strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, has been accused of torturing and killing activists and journalists, and targeting the LGBTQ community. In fact, several activists critical of Kadyrov have reported the detention or disappearance of their relatives over the past few days. [RFE/RL]
A high-level Kazakh delegation visited Kabul on Saturday to discuss economic and political ties with the Taliban. The Kazakh side called for expanding transit ties and expressed interest in expanding the passage of trade to South Asia via Afghanistan. Moreover, the delegation vowed to provide much needed humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, including the indigenously produced QazVac COVID-19 vaccine. [RFE/RL]
East and Southeast Asia
China’s Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party chief who oversaw the crackdown targeting ethnic Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region under the guise of fighting religious extremism, has been removed from his post. He has been replaced by Ma Xingrui, the governor of the Guangdong province. [Channel News Asia]
The death toll from Malaysia’s worst floods in years rose to 46 on Saturday; five people remain missing. The majority of the fatalities are from Selangor and Pahang provinces, the most affected regions of the country. [The Straits Times]
Europe
On Saturday, a German government source said senior officials from Germany and Russia would hold an in-person meeting next month to ease tensions at the Ukrainian border. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s foreign policy adviser, Jens Ploetner, and Russia’s Ukraine negotiator, Dmitry Kozak, are expected to meet next month. The meeting comes after Scholz emphasised the need for dialogue with Russia over the latter’s military build-up near Ukraine. [Reuters]
As prices across Europe rise, Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom dismissed allegations of limiting gas supply to Europe via its Yamal pipeline and also condemned Germany’s move to resell gas to Poland. Western countries have blamed Russia for manipulating gas supplies in Europe to put pressure on Europe over the Ukraine crisis and the approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. On Saturday, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said, “All problems in Western Europe have been created by themselves and there is no need to blame Gazprom for this.” [The Moscow Times]
The United Kingdom has decided to offer foreign healthcare workers 12-month work visas amid a continued shortage during the post-Brexit period. The need for additional care workers has been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic and a spike in COVID-19 cases. [Reuters]
Latin America and the Caribbean
Over 11,000 people in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia have been displaced due to excessive flooding. Authorities have struggled to provide emergency shelter. In fact, heavy rains have killed 17 people in the state since November. [Telesur]
Around 250 firefighters and national park personnel have been deployed to combat forest fires in Argentina’s Patagonia region. Fires in the high-altitude, scarcely populated southern provinces of Río Negro, Chubut and Neuquén has destroyed at least 3,900 hectares of native pine and araucaria forests. Firefighting efforts have been complicated by the fact that some firest are up to 300 kilometres apart, as well as heavy wind, high temperatures, dry vegetation, and drought. Just last year, tens of thousands of hectares of forest were destroyed in Argentine Patagonia. [Buenos Aires Times]
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said he will visit Tehran “very soon” at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi. He noted that they will “sign new agreements [...] and speed up processes of cooperation.” Iran has been a key ally of the Maduro government as both countries, whom Maduro described as “fighters,” aim to protect their economies from the debilitating effects of sanctions by the United States. [Reuters]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Nearly 230 people were killed in 342 ISIS attacks in areas controlled by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern and northeastern Syria in 2021, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday. The SOHR also said that the SDF had arrested 858 people for “dealing, belonging, or communicating with ISIS cells.” [Syrian Observatory for Human Rights]
Two people were killed and seven were wounded after a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels hit the Saudi city of Jazan on Friday. The attack also damaged infrastructure, including two shops and 12 vehicles. The Saudi-led coalition said that it carried out airstrikes on the same day and destroyed several Houthi missile depots. [Arab News]
North America
The United States’ (US) Chief Medical Advisor to the President, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that the contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 is likely to create a continued rise in cases, after the country recorded an average of 150,000 new cases per day last week. Despite lower rates of hospitalisations, Fauci emphasised, “we don’t want to get complacent,” highlighting that the unvaccinated are the most vulnerable. [ABC News]
Retail workers from American tech giant Apple, staged a walkout on Christmas eve, demanding better working conditions. At least 50 workers across three states participated in the walkout. [Huffington Post]
Oceania
One of New Zealand’s leading defence analysts noted the country’s hardening stance towards China after it joined its Five Eyes counterparts to condemn Hong Kong’s recent Legislative Council elections. Director of 36th Parallel Assessments Paul Buchanan said, “It’s very clear something has shifted in the logic of the security community and foreign policy community in Wellington. I tend to believe it’s Chinese behaviour rather than pressure from our allies but it may be a combination of both.” New Zealand has generally pursued an independent foreign policy and refused to adopt a strict stance towards China on multiple occasions. [Newshub]
On Monday, Australia reported its first death from the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19 amid a record surge in daily infections. However, authorities have refused to impose new restrictions, citing low hospitalisation rates. New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria recorded a combined 9,107 new cases on Monday. [Reuters]
Sub-Saharan Africa
Former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu died at the age of 90 on Sunday. A Nobel laureate and an icon of the country’s anti-Apartheid movement, President Cyril Ramaphosa celebrated him as a “non-sectarian, inclusive champion of universal human rights.” [Africa News]
Ghanaian Minister for Health Kwaku Agyemang Manu said that while the government is not considering making vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory, proof of vaccination will likely be required to enter government facilities, including public schools. [Ghana Today]