Gaza: Israel and Hamas within hours of ceasefire

Today's news: South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol arrested and interrogated. In one week, air strikes by the coup junta in Myanmar killed 60 civilians. In India there are fewer and fewer camels. In Vietnam, state broadcasters close down due to bureaucratic restructuring.

GAZA - ISRAEL

After eight hours of talks in Doha, Qatar, last night a senior Hamas official said the group was waiting for maps from Israel showing withdrawal from the Gaza Strip before signing the ceasefire agreement. According to mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States, the text has been presented to both sides and talks are underway to work out the final details. Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli army has continued to strike a number of targets in Gaza, killing 24 people this morning alone.

SOUTH KOREA

President Yoon Suk-yeol was arrested and interrogated by more than 3,000 policemen who marched on his residence in the early hours of this morning. ‘I have decided to respond to the IOC investigation, despite the fact that it is an illegal investigation, in order to prevent unpleasant bloodshed,’ said Yoon, who must answer charges of insurrection and may be detained for up to 48 hours.

MYANMAR

Air strikes by the Burmese junta have killed more than 60 civilians in the past week, targeting regions and outposts controlled by ethnic militias, such as the Arakan Army, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army. In Rakhine alone, 40 people were killed, including children, and 390 houses were destroyed. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 100 people had been killed in December, almost half of them by aerial bombardment.

INDIA

In contrast to the rest of the world, the number of camels is in drastic decline in India, where they have fallen from one million in 1961 to around 200,000 today. And the decline has been particularly sharp in recent years. In the state of Rajasthan, there has been a 35% reduction in seven years. According to local residents, the situation is a consequence of a 2015 law, desired by the BJP, which prohibits the transportation, illegal possession and slaughter of camels, clashing with traditional breeding methods.

VIETNAM

This morning, one of Vietnam's largest state-owned broadcasters suspended broadcasting following a radical reform involving a 20 per cent cut in civil servants. Some Communist Party officials have called it a ‘revolution’: eight ministries and government agencies will be cut and four other TV stations have been forced to close.

RUSSIA

Despite the abandonment of Russia by Western companies, US companies still active in Russia (Philip Morris, PepsiCo, Mars, Procter&Gamble and others) paid over billion to the tax authorities out of the total .5 billion in tax revenues, more than they paid before the war due to increased tariffs. US companies are followed by those from Germany (693 million) and Austria (579 million).

BELARUS

From the beginning of 2025 in Belarus child protection bodies can more easily remove children from the care of their parents, thanks to a new regulation ‘on the dissemination of extremist materials’ that defines as ‘socially dangerous’ people who spread criticism of Aleksandr Lukašenko's regime on any ‘undesirable’ social platform.

• Asia
• Today