INDIA
Indian police used tear gas against farmers, who resumed their march on the capital Delhi after several rounds of inconclusive talks. According to protesters, the government has not kept promises made during previous protests in 2020 and yesterday farmer leaders rejected the government's proposal to buy some crops at prices assured under a five-year contract, saying the offer was "not in their interest".
PAKISTAN
Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) have declared that they have reached an agreement to form a coalition government: Shehbaz Sharif, brother of the three-time prime minister Nawaz, will be the candidate for prime minister, while Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's father, will be a candidate for president. The agreement that brought the two families, who have always been rivals, closer together to exclude Imran Khan's independence supporters from the government.
BANGLADESH – MYANMAR
Bangladesh is coming under increasing pressure from the UN refugee agency to take in more Rohingya refugees fleeing war in Myanmar after repeated failures in repatriation attempts in recent months. As hundreds of people continue to gather on the Burmese side of the border between the two countries, Dhaka says it already hosts more than a million refugees and cannot take in any more.
CHINA
Beijing authorities have closed eight highways due to heavy snowfall and public transport has been strengthened in the city, which has 22 million inhabitants. The bad weather has also forced the closure of almost 200 sections of road nationwide and the cold wave is expected to continue across the country in the coming days.
ISRAEL
Citing an issue of rising costs, the Ministry of Homeland Security will no longer donate funds to the Michal Sela Forum, an organization that offers protection to victims of domestic abuse without requiring them to move to a shelter. According to Israeli media, the contribution given by the ministry is negligible in terms of budget, ranging between 138 thousand and 276 thousand dollars per year.
JAPAN - UKRAINE
The bilateral conference for the reconstruction of Ukraine has opened in Japan, the largest initiative with the participation of the governments and commercial companies of the two countries in the last five years. Being limited by law in the supply of weapons, Tokyo has decided to take one of the main roles in helping Kiev recover after the destruction of the war.
TURKEY - AZERBAIJAN
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supported in a joint press conference with his counterpart Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan the need to expand the possibilities of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline, strengthening collaboration with the Azeris reaching a level of commercial exchange of up to 15 billion dollars per year, double the 7.5 recorded in 2023.
