Beijing, two senior military officials under investigation

Today's news: false information about Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is still circulating in Taiwan. The military ship USS Cincinnati has arrived in Ream, Cambodia, for the first time. The repatriation order for thousands of Burmese people in the United States has been suspended. In Tajikistan, police are trying to put an end to the phenomenon of spontaneous markets, where mainly migrants who have returned from Russia work.

CHINA

This morning, Beijing announced that 75-year-old Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia of the Central Military Commission and another high-ranking official are under investigation for suspected “serious disciplinary violations,” a euphemism that usually refers to corruption. Zhang Youxia, the son of a Chinese civil war veteran, was considered very close to President Xi Jinping.

JAPAN – TAIWAN

The Taiwan FactCheck Center, which investigates online misinformation, said that false claims are spreading on Taiwanese social media that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's grandfather served as an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army during the invasion of China. The posts began circulating after Takaichi told Parliament in early November that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute a “threat to Japan's survival.”

CAMBODIA

This morning, the USS Cincinnati arrived at the Ream naval base in Cambodia. This is the first time a US Navy warship has docked at the facility since China completed the base's renovation last year. The USS Cincinnati will remain near the coast until January 28 to participate in sporting events and other activities in the nearby city of Sihanoukville.

US – MYANMAR

A US federal judge yesterday ordered the Trump administration to extend the protection program for those fleeing Myanmar. About 4,000 people are at risk of being deported and forced to return to Myanmar, where a military junta has been in power for nearly five years and a fierce civil war is raging. In November, the United States declared Myanmar a safe country following the military's decision to hold elections, which were considered a sham by much of the international community.

PAKISTAN

Reuters has confirmed that the fire at a shopping mall in Karachi, which lasted two days and killed nearly 70 people, was the result of regulatory standards that had not been met for over a decade. In the last review two years ago, local authorities warned that the situation was disastrous. Several court cases had highlighted a failure to comply with safety standards in 1992, 2015, and 2021.

RUSSIA

In early 2026, the American Foundation for Defense of Democracies published a report denouncing Russia's aggressive campaign to recruit young women from Latin America to work in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan, in factories producing drones for use in the war against Ukraine, after an initial phase in which women from Africa were sought, in what amounted to human trafficking and forced labor.

TAJIKISTAN

In Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, for the second consecutive month, the police are dispersing and closing down the spontaneous daily markets that have multiplied in many neighborhoods of the city in recent years. For thousands of people from the provinces, these markets are the only chance to earn some money, especially for migrants repatriated from Russia, and these measures may provoke very heated reactions.