Thanks to funding from the Asian Development Bank with Japanese cooperation funds, Tajikistan will strengthen its monitoring of glaciers and snow cover to prevent disasters linked to climate change. A loan has also been approved for Uzbekistan to improve water resource management.
After decades of debate, Indonesia replaced the Dutch colonial-era criminal code. The government calls it “more humane, modern" for the country’s justice system, with alternatives to prison. Human rights groups and legal experts slam certain anti-democratic elements, like criminalising insulting the president and expanding police powers.
The operation appears to be a response to an encounter between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People's Army (NPA). However, the latter had announced a Christmas ceasefire effective 25 December. A young Filipino American activist was reportedly caught up in the attack, which lasted several hours.
Leo XIV held his first general audience of 2026 in the Nervi Hall, in the presence of 7,000 people. He began the reflections on the Council documents to “continue to seek ways and means to implement its insights," and “achieve ecclesial reform more fully”. The pope is also set to preside over his first extraordinary consistory this afternoon, with all the cardinals summoned to Rome.
Following the capture of the Venezuelan president, strategic tensions between the United States and China, which has invested heavily in Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years, have returned to the forefront. Competition between the two powers could now fall on the Panama Canal. In the recent past, the Central American country has sought to keep a balance among rival interests. Washington could target other Chinese infrastructure projects and investments in raw materials.
Informed by Damascus and Arab and international media outlets, Lebanese authorities are doubling their surveillance efforts. However, “gaps” in the border between the two countries are hindering the mission. According to the UN, since Assad's fall, 69,000 Syrians, mainly Alawites, have fled to Lebanon, although the data are partial and difficult to verify.
