South Asia
The Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, Bilal Karimi, said that the group is recruiting its suicide bombers into its armed forces. “The special forces that include martyrdom seekers will be used for more sophisticated and special operations,” he said. [NDTV]
India alongside its Quad partners, Japan, Australia, and the United States, and Canada and South Korea participated in the Sea Dragon exercise. The drill focuses on anti-submarine warfare training for the participating nations’ navies and will be held in Guam. [Hindustan Times]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held phone talks with leaders of the Organization of Turkic States on Thursday about the unrest in Kazakhstan and expressed solidarity with his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Erdoğan told Tokayev that Turkey is ready to assist Kazakhstan if needed. [Daily Sabah]
Armenia on Thursday agreed to allow a subdivision of its armed forces to participate in peacekeeping operations in Kazakhstan as part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) mission. [Public Radio of Armenia]
East and Southeast Asia
The United Nations Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Monday to discuss North Korea’s recent hypersonic missile test. The meeting was requested by the United States (US), France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Albania. The launch was Pyongyang’s second reported hypersonic test since last September. [Channel News Asia]
Xiang Haitao, a Chinese national who was hired as an imaging scientist by American agribusiness Monsanto, pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiring to steal trade secrets from the company. According to the US Justice Department, Xiang stole “proprietary software” that helps farmers improve crop yields. [Channel News Asia]
Europe
On Thursday, French lawmakers approved a bill to convert the country’s COVID-19 health pass into a vaccine pass. The bill was adopted with 214 votes in favour, 93 against, and 27 abstentions. Under the vaccine pass, individuals above 12 years will have to prove their COVID-19 vaccination status to access restaurants, bars, public transport, and other leisure activities; negative COVID-19 will no longer be accepted, except to access healthcare facilities and services. [Euronews]
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson clarified that COVID-19 vaccines would not be made compulsory despite the growing influence of the anti-vax movement in the UK. He said that while the other European countries were going for coercion, the UK wanted the vaccinations to be voluntary. However, he highlighted that misinformation was making the task harder. As it stands, 70.7% of the population is fully vaccinated and 51.5% of people have received a booster dose. [Reuters]
Latin America and the Caribbean
On Thursday, United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced visa restrictions against eight Cuban officials for “silencing the voices of the Cuban people through repression, unjust detentions, and harsh prison sentences.” The latest measures are in response to the historic July 11 protests, when citizens rallied against: shortages of food, medicine, and electricity; rising prices; the slow pace of the COVID-19 vaccination programme; and general economic conditions. Blinken noted that around 600 people remain jailed following the protests. The protests marked a historic occasion in a country where such anti-government demonstrations are extremely rare, with the last such protest taking place in 1994. [US Department of State]
Peru reported its first “flurona” fatality after an 87-year-old unvaccinated patient with comorbidities died on Thursday. She was one of three cases that were discovered in the northern Amazonas region. The illness is a simultaneous infection of the flu and COVID-19; medical experts have thus called on people to get vaccinated against both the flu and COVID-19. [Telesur]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday that Turkey is one of the top three countries in the production of combat drones and is among the ten countries that can “design, build and operate” their own warships. He added that Turkey will be “raising the bar much higher” and preparing for future warfare. [Presidency of the Republic of Turkey]
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday that Beijing will appoint an ambassador to the conflict-ridden Horn of Africa region, where Ethiopia and Eritrea have been fighting Tigrayan militias and Somalia has been in the middle of a political crisis for over a year. Wang urged countries in the region to hold a peace conference and said that China will provide “necessary support” for the process. [Associated Press]
North America
Former United States (US) President Donald Trump’s new media venture will launch its social media app, TRUTH Social, on February 21. TRUTH Social is expected to be an alternative to Twitter and its launch comes 13 months after Facebook and Twitter banned Trump’s accounts for inciting his supporters to participate in the January 6 riots based on unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. [MSN]
Marking the anniversary of January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, US lawmakers reflected on their personal memories of the day and focused on blaming former president Donald Trump for the violence. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called it “the final, bitter, unforgivable act of the worst president in modern times.” [CBS News]
Oceania
New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet reintroduced COVID-19 restrictions to counter a significant surge in the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations. The restrictions in the Australian state are likely to come into force from tomorrow and include an indefinite suspension on elective surgery, and a ban on singing and dancing in entertainment facilities, hospitality venues, and recreational centres. The restrictions are currently scheduled to be lifted on January 27. [ABC News]
After Novak Djokovic, the Australia Border Force is investigating another unvaccinated tennis player and official who were allowed into the country. Djokovic was sent to the immigration centre at the Park Hotel in Carlton after his visa was cancelled. The Serbian has appealed the Border Force’s decision in the Federal Circuit Court. On Thursday, the Court granted an injunction to Djokovic that will prevent him from being deported until Monday. [The Age]
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kenyan Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo and Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi signed six trade agreements and pledged to establish a joint working group to remove trade barriers and reduce trade imbalances. In particular, the deals focus on strengthening Kenya’s digital economy and transport infrastructure as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Wang has already visited Eritrea and will now visit Comoros on a trip during which he has said that allegations of China practising debt trap diplomacy are rooted in “ulterior motives” and a “narrative trap created by those who don’t want to see development in Africa,” asserting that the only trap is “poverty and underdevelopment.” [Africa News]
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari refused to divulge who he will back to be his successor in the 2023 election, adding that whatever happens in the election “is not my problem.” Buhari began his first term as president in 2015 and was re-elected in 2019. He also served as a military head of state from 1983 to 1985 after taking control via a military coup. [Leadership]