Peruvian president removed for secret contacts with Chinese businessmen

Today's headlines: the United States appoints a new envoy for Tibetan affairs; French President Emmanuel Macron is in India to finalize agreements for the sale of Rafale jets; Afghanistanreleases three Pakistani soldiers for the start of Ramadan; In Japan, sleep is also being studied with Pokemon apps.

CHINA – PERU

Yesterday, the Peruvian Congress voted to remove interim president José Jeri four months into his term for allegedly “sponsoring illegal interests.” Jeri is accused of secretly meeting with Chinese businessmen, including an entrepreneur allegedly responsible for illegal timber trafficking. Jeri has denied any wrongdoing and said he met with the entrepreneurs to organize a Peruvian-Chinese party.

USA – CHINA

After Secretary of State Marco Rubio's New Year's greetings, in which he mentioned the Tibetan festival of Losar and recalled “the strength and resilience of the Tibetan community around the world,” the United States appointed Riley Barnes as its new envoy for Tibetan affairs. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Rubio's announcement, but Beijing has criticized similar appointments in the past.

INDIA – FRANCE

French President Emmanuel Macron visited India to formalize the sale of 114 Rafale fighter jets, although several steps remain before the contract is signed. India sees France as a crucial defense partner (along with Russia) because Paris offers the possibility of joint production and technology transfers to strengthen Delhi's defense industry, which has become the main purchaser of French weapons.

CAMBODIA – THAILAND

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has reiterated that Thai forces are occupying part of Cambodian territory. Hun Manet traveled to Washington to attend a meeting of Trump's Board of Peace and said he hoped the new body could also play a role in easing tensions on the border, which he described as “fragile” despite the December ceasefire.

PAKISTAN – AFGHANISTAN

Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid, announced that three Pakistani soldiers, captured by Afghan forces on October 12, 2025, during clashes at the border, were released at the start of Ramadan and handed over to a delegation from Saudi Arabia, which made the request and promoted mediation between the two South Asian countries.

JAPAN

Renowned sleep researcher Masashi Yanagisawa studied the relationship between hours slept and work performance using data collected from the “Pokemon Sleep” app, a game that allows users to take care of Pokemon. Yanagisawa and his university research team analyzed approximately 2.1 million data points collected over 28 days from more than 79,000 adult workers in Japan who agreed to participate in the study. The study found that those who have a large variation in sleep between weekdays and weekends experience a loss in productivity of approximately ¥140,000 (US4) per year.

RUSSIA

Among the many companies in crisis in Russia are children's clothing stores, which in January 2026 numbered just over 8,000 in major cities with more than one million inhabitants, 16% less than the previous year, according to the service 2Gis, closing many more than the total number of stores in the clothing sector, evidently not only due to increasingly high costs and tax pressure, but also due to the lower number of children.

GEORGIA

The Georgian police did not allow the commemoration of Alexei Navalny to be held in Freedom Square in Tbilisi, so the protesters gathered in a private space belonging to the ‘Frame’ association, in the old part of the capital. This was the first time the new law against demonstrations had been applied, even though in this case no protests or disturbances of public order were planned.