China resumes Covid testing as lung infections run rampant among children

Today's news: 309 people have died in attacks by Myanmar's coup junta on civilians since the beginning of the resistance counter-offensive; Widodo's government intends to return almost 1,500 Rohingya to Myanmar. In Russia; Prigožin's son takes over 'family' businesses; North Korea closed its embassies in Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo

CHINA

Chinese authorities have begun testing people for COVID-19 again in hospitals and local public transport hubs, as a wave of respiratory illnesses sweeps especially large cities. Those most affected are children who fill pediatric clinics and emergency rooms with serious respiratory illnesses. Chinese health authorities have detected a spike in pneumonia caused by a respiratory syncytial virus, seasonal influenza and especially new variants of COVID-19.

MYANMAR

The military regime intensified targeted attacks against civilians in response to the resistance offensive launched in northern Shan State on 27 October. According to the civilian National Unity Government of (NUG) the civilian death toll in just over a month is 309, due to 244 targeted attacks against the non-combatant population, according to the NUG Ministry of Human Rights. At least 413 people were injured by the indiscriminate bombing. Furthermore, the number of women killed by the junta since the February 2021 coup has risen to 664, according to a report by the Burmese Women's Union (BWU). However, 2,441 women were arbitrarily arrested and detained.

JAPAN

According to Japan, the number of entities potentially involved in activities that could lead to the development of weapons of mass destruction has grown. With the latest revision, the Japanese list amounts to 706 organizations in 15 countries, with an increase of 36 organizations and institutions, including the China Academy of Engineering Physics, the main Chinese nuclear component research and production center. The Japanese government said the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics was added to its list due to concerns that the body may be involved in nuclear weapons development.

INDONESIA

Human rights activists and groups have publicly criticized the Indonesian government's plan to return nearly 1,500 Rohingya to Myanmar, where they have faced persecution and an ongoing civil war. The Indonesian government presented its plan, without providing a deportation date, claiming that the province of Aceh, where boats with Rohingya migrants mainly land, is "short of space and money and residents do not welcome the presence of foreigners" President Widodo's government believes there are 1,487 Rohingya in Indonesia today.

RUSSIA

Evgeny Prigožin's son, Pavel, at the end of the inheritance procedures obtained control over two of his deceased father's main companies, Konkord management & consulting and above all Konkord catering, the company supplying food to state bodies which he had accumulated the billions necessary for the creation of the Wagner Company.

NORTH KOREA

North Korea has closed its embassies in Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The decision comes after the country interrupted 53 diplomatic missions and closed 12 North Korean embassies and consulates abroad in May 2023. Pyongyang and Dhaka have had diplomatic relations since 1973 although Bangladesh does not have its own office in North Korea and maintains diplomatic relations with it through the Bangladesh embassy in China.

PAKISTAN

A court in Islamabad has rejected former Prime Minister Imran Khan's request to withdraw his appeal filed in an ongoing trial against him, so that it can be transferred to another court in the city of Lahore. Last year, Khan had filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which found that he had illegally sold state Bani. A setback that increasingly distances his re-nomination in the elections on February 8th.

ARMENIA

Armenia has decided to desert another meeting of the Eurasian alliance CSTO, the interparliamentary assembly scheduled in Moscow on December 19, as communicated by the speaker of the Yerevan Chamber, Alen Simonyan, in an official letter to his counterpart in the Moscow State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin.

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