SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi Arabia will authorise one million people – both from the kingdom and abroad – to travel to Makkah for this year’s Hajj; only a few thousand local pilgrims were allowed in the previous two years. In making its announcement, the kingdom's Hajj and Umrah Ministry said that only people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 under the age of 65 will be allowed to make the annual Muslim pilgrimage.
PHILIPPINES – CHINA
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, held a one-hour phone summit. The two leaders discussed the situation in Ukraine and bilateral relations during the Duterte administration, which is now nearing the end of its term. A statement from the Office of the President of the Philippines described the meeting as “open, warm and positive”. Both leaders stressed the need to “maintain peace, security, and stability in the South China Sea”.
CHINA
Chinese authorities arrested at least 100 residents of a small Uyghur hamlet of 700 people in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, Radio Free Asia reported, citing a local source. No reasons were given. The source, a local security guard, noted that the government also provided assistance to the families of the prisoners from Sheyih Mehelle, which is part of Chuluqay, a township of some 10,000 people.
RUSSIA
Russian authorities are increasingly calling up mostly non-Russian soldiers for the war in Ukraine, with fewer recruits coming from Moscow and St Petersburg. Recruitment is targeting especially Central Asian migrants with a Russian passport, this according to the Union of Migrants of Russia. The latter also noted that many migrants can also be found in the ranks of the Ukrainian military.
UZBEKISTAN
In Uzbekistan, uncertainty is growing over the construction of a US$ 11 billion nuclear power plant together with Russia’s Rosatom Corporation, which is not yet on the Western sanctions list. It is feared that business transactions related to the project, whose conclusion is scheduled for 2028, might be blocked.
INDIA
Archbishop Mar Antony Kariyil, archiepiscopal vicar of Ernakulam-Angamaly, announced that the exemption granted for the uniform celebration of the Holy Qurbana (Holy Offering or Holy Sacrifice), the Syro-Malabar Eucharistic liturgy, will end at Christmas, making the mode adopted last summer by the Synod of this Eastern Church mandatory after that date, as is already the case in all other dioceses. The decision follows a letter recently sent by the pope.
