Pakistan nears agreement to supply arms to Sudan

Today's headlines: Indonesia blocks Grok chatbox due to risks of AI-generated pornographic content; Report says Jeju Air fatal plane crash in South Korea could have been avoided without concrete barriers near the runway; Malaysia's unemployment rate lowest in 11 years; Israel carries out 20 raids in Lebanon.

PAKISTAN - SUDAN

Pakistan is reportedly in the final stages of concluding a £1.5 billion deal to supply arms and jets to Sudan, according to a former senior air force officer and three sources. The weapons represent a significant boost to the Sudanese army, which is engaged in a fight against the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary forces. The conflict has fuelled the world's worst humanitarian crisis for over two and a half years.

INDONESIA

Indonesia has blocked Elon Musk's Grok chatbot due to the risk of AI-generated pornographic content; it is the first country to deny access to the tool. After governments and regulators from Europe to Asia condemned - and launched investigations into - the sexualised content on the app, xAI, the start-up behind Grok, said it was attempting to fix security flaws that allowed the production of content such as scantily clad children.

SOUTH KOREA

A report commissioned by the South Korean government found that the Jeju Air (089590.KS) plane crash in December 2024, which killed 179 people, might not have been fatal if there had not been a concrete mound at the end of the runway that did not meet international safety standards. This was reported by a member of parliament. The only survivors were two flight attendants who were in the rear of the aircraft.

MALAYSIA

According to the Department of Statistics, Malaysia recorded its lowest unemployment rate in 11 years last November, reaching 2.9% with the number of unemployed falling to 518,400. The last time the unemployment rate fell below 3% was in November 2014. Director Mohd Uzir said that the favourable conditions recorded in November continued to support steady growth in the labour market.

ISRAEL - LEBANON

Israel carried out more than 20 raids across Lebanon, targeting sites in the south and north of Bekaa. Tel Aviv said the attacks were in response to continued violations of the ceasefire agreement and claimed that ‘Hezbollah is rebuilding its military capabilities in violation of the agreements between Lebanon and Israel’. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking from Beirut, said Iran ‘supports the independence, unity and sovereignty of Lebanon’.

RUSSIA - FRANCE

On the morning of 6 January, a 38-year-old Russian journalist who had fled to France was found dead in the French town of Meudon, according to the newspaper Le Figaro, based on police reports, revealing only that the man had fallen from the window of his seventh-floor apartment. Having found a chair placed near the window in the apartment, medicines in the rubbish bin and a neighbour in shock who only speaks Russian, it is thought that there was pressure from Moscow.

KYRGYZSTAN - TAJIKISTAN

The documentary Prezident was released on 6 January in Kyrgyzstan, in which Head of State Sadyr Žaparov reveals many details about the negotiations with Tajikistan to resolve the issue of disputed borders, including a heated 10-hour discussion with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon in Dushanbe and the decisive role played by Uzbekistan's President

Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in reaching the agreement signed in the Tajik border town of Khujand, in which “the aim was not to preserve territories, but to eliminate the causes of the conflict”.