AUSTRALIA
Melbourne lockdown returns
Shoppers in Melbourne yesterday stripped supermarket shelves as residents prepared to return to a COVID-19 lockdown. Five million people were ordered back into a six-week lockdown beginning yesterday at midnight as soaring community transmission of the virus brings more than 100 new cases daily. The country’s largest supermarket chain, Woolworths, said that it had reimposed buying limits on items such as pasta, vegetables and sugar after shoppers rushed to stores across Victoria state. Experts have warned that people everywhere would need to get used to the “new normal” of on-and-off restrictions as new clusters emerge and subside.
RUSSIA
Marmot hunts discouraged
Authorities have warned residents of regions near Mongolia against hunting marmots, but stressed that there is no risk of bubonic plague spreading across the country. Public health authorities appealed to residents of the Tuva and Altai regions following last week’s confirmation of two bubonic plague cases in Mongolia. The cases involve brothers who had eaten marmot meat. Authorities in the Tuva region urged residents in a statement to be vigilant, and “refrain from hunting marmots and eating marmot meat.”
RUSSIA
Adviser jailed for treason
Moscow’s Lefortovo Court has jailed a former journalist who is an adviser to the head of the country’s space agency on suspicion of treason. The Federal Security Service said that Ivan Safronov was suspected of passing information on arms sales, as well as other defense and security matters, to an unnamed NATO country, news agency RIA Novosti reported. Safronov, who had only worked at Roscosmos for a few months, denies any wrongdoing, his legal team said. Media outlets, including Vedomosti and RBC, issued statements denouncing his arrest as an effort to pressure the media.
UNITED KINGDOM
Saudi arms sales to restart
The government on Tuesday said that it would resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Weapons exports were stopped in June last year after the Court of Appeal ordered the government to clarify how it assesses whether their use in Yemen’s civil war breaches international humanitarian law (IHL). However, the government has concluded that Saudi Arabia “has a genuine intent and the capacity to comply with IHL,” Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss said, allowing for export license reviews to restart. The announcement came just a day after 20 Saudi Arabians were slapped with sanctions for their suspected roles in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
BRAZIL
President tests positive
President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said that he tested positive for COVID-19, but is confident that he can swiftly recover thanks to treatment with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that has not been proven effective against the virus. The president told reporters that he underwent a lung X-ray on Monday after experiencing fever, muscle aches and malaise. As of Tuesday, his fever had subsided, he said, and he attributed the improvement to hydroxychloroquine. Bolsonaro is “the democratic leader who has most denied the seriousness of this pandemic,” State University of Rio de Janeiro political science professor Mauricio Santoro said. “Him getting infected is a blow to his credibility.”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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