ISRAEL
In Israel, the counting of votes is still underway for the parliamentary elections held yesterday, which saw a record turnout of 77.7 per cent of voters. With two-thirds of the seats counted, the bloc led by Netanyahu is in the lead with a projected 54 seats, compared to 48 for his challenger Eisenkot and 18 for the two Arab lists, which are set to achieve a historic result in Israeli politics.
These figures may still vary slightly, but the current picture suggests that neither coalition has the 61 seats required to form a government. Once the final results are in, a protracted process will begin to form a government, or else new elections will be called in six months’ time.
MYANMAR – THAILAND – IRAN
Myanmar’s military authorities have imported Iranian-sourced aviation fuel, falsely declaring it as diesel and paying for it via a Thai bank, in order to circumvent US sanctions. This has emerged for the first time from a Reuters investigation, based on confidential documents, shipping records and satellite analysis. In December 2025, the tanker Reef – already subject to US sanctions – arrived in Myanmar’s waters carrying around 113,000 barrels of fuel. The cargo had been ordered by the Myanmar-based energy brokerage firm Dynamic Wave as part of a $15.8 million contract with the Thai company Tawan-Oil Trading. According to the contract, Dynamic Wave was due to receive an equivalent quantity of diesel from South Africa. In reality, this transaction never took place. Data from the UN and Vortexa – a provider of information on the maritime and energy sectors – show no trade in South African diesel to Myanmar in 2025. Shipping records, satellite imagery and analyses carried out by SynMax Intelligence confirm that the Reef was carrying aviation fuel from Iran.
INDIA
India has deployed hundreds of additional security personnel to support existing patrols in a remote north-eastern region, following clashes last week between young protesters and the police. At the heart of the protest is the construction of a mega-dam, designed to counter a Chinese hydroelectric plant located upstream. The demonstrations in the Siang Valley, in the state of Arunachal Pradesh – on the border with Tibet – have descended into violence, resulting in clashes with the police that have led to at least 21 arrests. The police reportedly used tear gas, whilst the young protesters responded by throwing stones and setting fire to a police station and an office of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, the state-owned company managing the project.
Over the past two years, sporadic protests have taken place in the Siang Valley, an area chosen for the construction of the ‘Siang Upper Multipurpose Project’, an 11,200-megawatt power station being developed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation. Villagers fear it may submerge the ancestral settlements of the Adi tribe.
CHINA – FRANCE
On the night he missed out on France Football’s Ballon d’Or, Real Madrid’s French star Kylian Mbappé also lost three major sponsorship deals with Chinese companies within a few hours, and immediately faced criticism from the Beijing government. He has not been forgiven for a remark deemed disrespectful towards Mao Zedong, whom he described as a ‘Chinese dictator’, even though he tried to make amends in the hours that followed with an apology. A video had emerged online in which Mbappé says that the funniest meme he has ever seen is one in which his face has been superimposed, via Photoshop, onto that of “a bloke – I think he’s a Chinese dictator”. There also appear to be signs of wider repercussions: the state-run publication The Paper reported that public television has suspended the broadcast of Spanish La Liga matches.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – UN
Activists and human rights NGOs are criticising the candidacy of Lana Nusseibeh, a high-ranking diplomat from the United Arab Emirates, for the post of the next UN Secretary-General. The criticism centres on her role in the country’s foreign policy and her repeated denials of the Emirates’ involvement in fuelling the conflict in Sudan. Opposition to the Middle Eastern candidate has intensified following her surprise entry into the race last week, shaking up what had until then been a deadlocked contest to succeed António Guterres, whose second five-year term comes to an end at the end of the year. The war in Sudan, which broke out in April 2023 following a power struggle between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has displaced over 14 million people, resulting in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
RUSSIA – INDONESIA
According to data from the analytics firm BigMint, Russia has fallen from third to fourth place amongst the world’s leading suppliers of non-coking coal. From January to September 2026, exports in the category monitored by the agency fell by 18.6 per cent, standing at 42.5 million tonnes. Russia lost third place to South Africa, which increased its exports by 8 per cent to 52.1 million tonnes. Indonesia remained the leading exporter, Australia ranked second, and Mongolia recorded the most significant growth among the major suppliers.
TURKMENISTAN
President Serdar Berdymuhamedov has signed a decree authorising the launch of a major infrastructure project for the design, construction and modernisation of the strategic Ashgabat–Dašoguz motorway. The modernised transport corridor will be 546 kilometres long.
As part of the project, the Ministry of Road Transport has been authorised to enter into contracts for the full range of construction and engineering works. A key element of the new motorway will be the construction of a modern 812-metre-long bridge, as well as the comprehensive reconstruction of all bridges and engineering structures along the entire route.
