South Asia
On Thursday, a Pakistani court issued an arrest warrant against Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, a group which has been highlighted by the Financial Action Task Force for its role in financing terrorism activities. According to Indian officials, Pakistan’s move is clearly in preparation for the FATF meet in February. [Hindustan Times]
Protests relating to the death of the 11 Shiite Hazara mine workers have now begun to spread to other regions in Pakistan, including Karachi. According to Pakistani police, sit-ins were organised in at least 19 locations on Thursday. Previously, the protests were limited to Quetta, where the demonstrators refused to proceed with burial rites of the victims unless Prime Minister Imran Khan paid a visit to the city and reassured the minority community of their safety. [Reuters]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced Uzbekistan for ‘burdensome’ human rights restrictions. According to HRW, the rules “severely” hinder the work of independent nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with “excessive registration requirements.” It quoted that representatives of six independent groups that have sought registration in Uzbekistan in recent years complained that their registration applications had been rejected, often “for minor alleged mistakes, including grammar or even minor punctuation mistakes, missing information, or the language used in application documents.” [Human Rights Watch]
East and Southeast Asia
Kelly Craft, the United States (US) ambassador to the United Nations (UN), will visit Taipei on unspecified dates in the near future. The visit is intended to signify the US’ support for Taiwan’s participation in the international realm and further the US-Taiwan partnership. [Focus Taiwan]
In a raid carried out in Yangon on Wednesday, 100 Rohingya Muslims who were smuggled from the Rakhine state in the hopes of fleeing the country were arrested by police. They are currently being made to quarantine in a university, where they have also been tested for the coronavirus. [MM Times]
Europe
Priti Patel, the British interior minister, condemned the attack on the United States Capitol, saying that American President Donald Trump’s consistent questioning of the election result “directly led” to the “terrible” violence on Wednesday. She also called out the American President for his failure to come out in condemnation of the event. [Reuters]
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that EU members would not be allowed to negotiate separate vaccine deals, in parallel to the bloc’s effort as a whole. The warning came after Germany announced that it had agreed with BioNTech to supply 30 million additional doses in a side deal. [Al Jazeera]
Russia on Wednesday announced that it had inoculated 1 million people against Covid-19 with its Sputnik V vaccine. The Gamaleya Institute, which developed the drug, said that there were no adverse reactions reported. [Reuters]
Latin America and the Caribbean
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard spoke with President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. The pair agreed to prioritise tackling the “structural causes of migration” and focus on the “protection of human rights of migrants and refugees”. [NBC News]
Argentina’s Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement condemning the United Kingdom's latest military drills on the Falkland Islands, which Argentina refers to as the Malvinas. The islands are a British Overseas Territory but Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over them. Malvinas Secretary Daniel Filmus said, “The UK must stop thinking of the South Atlantic and the Falklands in military terms and as a threat to the whole region.” [Telesur]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
The British government has appointed Richard Oppenheim as its new envoy to the Saudi-based, UN-recognised Yemeni government. Oppenheim currently serves as the deputy head of the UK’s Riyadh mission, a post which he has held since 2018, promoting relations between the UK and Saudi Arabia and supporting British interests in the kingdom. He will be replacing Michael Aron as British ambassador to Yemen in July. [Arab News]
Iraq has issued an arrest warrant for United States (US), President Donald Trump, following an investigation into the assassination of the top Iraqi paramilitary commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, last year. President Trump openly accepted the responsibility of the attack and boasted it had taken out “two for the price of one.” [Forbes]
North America
US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos submitted her resignation on Thursday, citing President Donald Trump’s role in spurring the mob that breached the US Capitol on Wednesday as the “inflection point.” She is the second Cabinet member to resign over the incident, the first being Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. [CNN]
President Donald Trump on Friday, for the first time, acknowledged the end of his presidency and said his focus would now be on a smooth transition of power. In a video statement on Twitter, he also denounced the “heinous” attack on the Capitol and said rioters had “defiled the seat of American democracy”. [Al Jazeera]
Oceania
Over 5,000 Australian citizens who are stranded in the United Kingdom (UK) are worried about the Scott Morrison administration introducing stricter travel restrictions on people arriving from the UK, especially in light of the new mutant strain of COVID-19. Morrison has already failed to meet his Christmas target of bringing home all Australians who are stuck abroad. [The Sydney Morning Herald]
Sub-Saharan Africa
Military and police were forced to intervene and separate lawmakers from Ghanaian opposition party the New Democratic Congress and the ruling New Patriotic Party during the inauguration of the parliament, which followed the swearing-in ceremony of President Nana Akufo-Addo, who secured re-election during the recently concluded election. [Africa Feeds]
Ugandan opposition politician Bobi Wine has flown his wife and children to the United States after receiving reports of a possible kidnapping attempt. Wine has repeatedly been intimidated ahead of the January 14 election via physical and legal threats and has already been arrested thrice over the past two months. [Daily Monitor]
During a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that Beijing had forgiven some of the debt owed to it by Kinshasa. Although the amount of the waiver was not specified, it is thought that China has loaned upwards of $2.4 billion to the DRC. [Africa News]
World News Monitor: 8 January, 2021
A quick look at events from around the globe.
January 9, 2021
US President Donald Trump SOURCE: ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES via POLITICO