South Asia
The president of Krantikari Kisan Union, following a meeting with leaders of 20 other farmers’ unions, said that the farmers have declined the government’s recommendation to introduce amendments to the farm bills. Consequently, they vowed to intensify protests and expressed their desire to boycott corporate giants such as Reliance Industries and Adani Enterprises. [Reuters]
During his keynote address at an event co-hosted by the United Nations and Vietnam, Vikas Swarup, the Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, expressed India’s commitment to securing larger participation of women in the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations. He also said that India continues to work towards meeting the targets set on the issue within the adopted timeline. [NDTV]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Following the Russia-brokered truce in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, for a two-day visit to celebrate the country’s “glorious victory” against Armenia. The leader met his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to discuss bilateral relations and the situation around Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. [France24]
On International Human Rights Day, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report calling on Kyrgyzstan to lift barriers to education for disabled children. The report, based on in-person visits to six institutions for children with disabilities and 111 interviews, found out that the state had “insufficient personnel,” resulting in “neglect or lack of individualized attention,” and that staff at these institutions “regularly use psychotropic drugs or forced psychiatric hospitalization to control children’s behaviour and punish them.” [Human Rights Watch]
East and Southeast Asia
The Japanese government announced that domestic banks that also operate in the United States will comply with Washington’s order to freeze the assets of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam. It is not clear whether Lam does indeed have accounts with Japanese banks that operate in the US. [South China Morning Post]
South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating took another hit this week after reaching a record low just last week. He is now polling at just 37.1%. The dip in his popularity is attributed to the conflict between Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. At the same time, Moon’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has also rankled some, after the country reported close to 700 new cases for the second consecutive day. [The Korea Times]
Europe
Russia conducted drills of its strategic nuclear forces on Wednesday, which included several practice missile launches. The country’s defence ministry said that the exercises included the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Karelia nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea. [Associated Press]
Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations human rights chief, has urged France to revoke Article 24 of its “Global Security Bill,” which prohibits the publication of images identifying on-duty police officers. This particular provision of the law has led to widespread protests across the country, resulting in French President Emmanuel Macron’s promise to “rewrite” the article. [Al Jazeera]
Latin America and the Caribbean
The International Contact Group released a statement detailing their rejection of the results of Venezuela's recently concluded parliamentary election, which saw Nicolás Maduro gain control of the legislature. The document was signed by Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, the European Union (EU), France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Panama, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay. [Merco Press]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
With a vote of 50-46 and 49-47, the United States (US) Senate dismissed the opposition’s plea for blocking the Trump administration’s sale of $23bn in advanced fighter jets and drones to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following the signing of Abraham Accords. [Reuters]
On Wednesday, during a television cabinet speech, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani asserted that Iran is willing to restore the 2015 nuclear deal without any new negotiations if other signatories do the same. This announcement came despite the killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist last month. [Middle East Eye]
North America
The US government, along with 48 states and districts, sued Facebook on Wednesday, accusing the social media giant of abusing its monopoly market power and engaging in anticompetitive behaviour. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is pushing for the company to be broken up, and forced to sell off assets such as Instagram and Whatsapp as independent businesses. [CNN]
During a speech at a university in Georgia on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged education institutions to scrutinize China’s assistance and students, claiming that the country was set on stealing innovation. “The Chinese Communist Party knows it can never match our innovation,” Pompeo said. “That’s why it sends 400,000 students a year to the United States of America.” [Al Jazeera]
Canadian health officials approved the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, calling the development a “critical milestone” that will pave the way to launching the largest immunization campaign in the country’s history. [CBC News]
Oceania
Data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on tax transparency has revealed that 32% of companies studied paid $0 in corporate taxes. The ATO did however say that some of these businesses were part of a larger entity that did pay taxes. Even accounting for this, though, 22% of businesses still paid nothing in taxes. [ABC News]
Sub-Saharan Africa
Following the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of citizens at the hands of security forces, President Muhammadu Buhari has denounced the coverage of the demonstrations by foreign media, saying, “I was disgusted by the coverage, which did not give attention to the policemen that were killed, the stations that were burnt, and prisons that were opened.” He took aim at CNN and the BBC in particular. [Premium Times]
World News Monitor: 10 December, 2020
A quick look at events from around the globe.
December 11, 2020
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari SOURCE: CFR