North Korea tests second missile in a week

Today's headlines: Japan extends entry ban to non-residents, while Thailand opens its beaches to tourists; China backs Russian operations in Kazakhstan; India arrests man who posted photos of Muslim women online. Another human rights organization in Egypt shuttered, Indonesia re-asseses its no to coal exports.

NORTH KOREA.

North Korea today launched a suspected ballistic missile, less than a week after launching what it claimed was a hypersonic missile. Six countries (France, Ireland, Japan, the UK, Albania and the US) had recently called on Pyongyang to cease "destabilizing activities."

JAPAN

Japan has extended its ban on non-residents until the end of February, Premier Fumio Kishida said today. Because of the omicron variant, Covid-19 cases in the archipelago have started to rise again: yesterday more than 6 thousand were reported, while between the end of November and the beginning of December a few hundred a day were recorded.

CHINA-KAZAKHSTAN

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expressed his nation's support for the Russian armed forces deployment in Kazakhstan to quell the uprisings against the government in recent days. He told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov yesterday that Beijing supports the Kazakh president's belief that the source of the unrest is terrorist activity. About 10,000 people have been arrested so far.

RUSSIA-KAZAKHSTAN

A meeting of CSTO heads of state was held online to assess the situation in Kazakhstan. Tokaev told the leaders the undrest is an attack by well-trained foreign terrorists, which Putin compared to Ukrainian "Maidan technologies." Tajik Rakhmon sounded an alarm about more than six thousand Islamic terrorists surrounding the Csto countries, linking up with the Afghan Taliban. Kyrgyzstan's Zaparov did not attend, not wanting to interrupt the vacation that had just begun.

INDIA

A man has been arrested for posting photos of 80 Muslim women "for sale" on the Sulli Deals platform. A few days ago the Indian police arrested four men involved in the development of a similar app called Bulli Bai. In both cases the aim was not really the sale but the humiliation of Muslim women.

INDONESIA

Tomorrow Indonesia will re-evaluate its coal export ban imposed earlier this year after protests from the Philippines and Japan, which rely on the fossil fuel to produce their own energy. Yesterday, 14 ships loaded with coal received permission from local authorities to leave.                                                                                                                                 

THAILAND

The Thai government has decided to open three more beaches to tourists despite the pandemic in an effort to boost the economy. The initiative allows travelers to bypass mandatory quarantine if they spend at least one week at the same beach resort.

EGYPT

Another independent human rights organization has closed down due to government repression,in Egypt . The Arab Network for Human Rights Information was founded in 2004 by a group of lawyers and activists and was responsible for monitoring violence against citizens, journalists and political prisoners.