The NGO Safeguard Defenders: more than 600 Taiwanese extradited to China

Today's headlines: Afghanistan is running out of medicines, the Turkish lira hits a new all-time low, Google will ban political ads ahead of Philippine elections, Russia's death rate is the worst since 1945.

TAIWAN - CHINA

According to the NGO Safeguard Defender, more than 600 Taiwanese accused of crimes abroad were extradited to China between 2016 and 2019. The report the organization released yesterday is based on government sources and releases already available to the public.

LAOS - CHINA.

The rise in Covid-19 cases in Laos has dampened celebrations for the inauguration of a railway linking the capital Vientiane with China. The construction, which began in 2016, had divided Lao authorities over relations with China and Vietnam. Laos is heavily indebted to Beijing.

JAPAN - FRANCE

France has issued an international arrest warrant against a woman accused of holding her French husband's two children in Japan. According to Vincent Fichot, who led a hunger strike during the Tokyo Olympics to draw attention to the matter, his wife disappeared with the children three years ago. Japanese law does not require separated parents to share custody.

PHILIPPINES

Google said it will ban political advertising ahead of the May 2022 presidential election. Filipinos top global rankings for time spent on social media, so online platforms have become an important battleground between candidates. For analysts, Facebook's role had been critical to Duterte's election.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghan pharmacies are running out of medicines and the ones left are very expensive: pharmaceutical companies have stopped operating due to the lack of raw materials and importing is becoming more and more complex. According to the Ministry of Health, Afghanistan imports over 90% of its medicines from Pakistan, India, Turkey and Bangladesh.

RUSSIA

Mortality in Russia has increased dramatically over the past year. From December 2020 to November 2021, more than 2.4 million people died. This is the worst figure since 1945; the total population, not counting the flow of migrants, has declined by nearly 1 million, according to the most optimistic estimates.

TURKEY

The Turkish lira fell to another all-time low after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said it is appropriate to consider ending central bank tapering a few months earlier than expected. Tapering is defined as a slowdown in large-scale asset purchases. Since the start of this policy, the Turkish lira has weakened by 27%.

SOUTH KOREA

Today South Korea registered more than 5 thousand new cases of Covid-19. Two days ago the government shelved plans for a relaxation of restrictions. China, meanwhile, detected 91 cases in Inner Mongolia, the highest count in the country since Nov. 2.