Other news of the day: China is in talks with Pfizer to locally produce an oral antiviral. Thailand has published a guide to cannabis for tourists. 89% of Kyrgyz teenagers want to leave the country. The Pakistani Taliban threaten war actions against members of the government. Clash between two ethnic Rakhine militias in Myanmar.
RUSSIA – ARGENTINA
The Russian ambassador in Buenos Aires, Georgija Polina, reported that in 2022 nearly 2,500 Russians traveled to Argentina, mostly pregnant women for the so-called “maternity tourism”, to give birth to their children in a country that allows entry without a visa for six months and easily grants citizenship to people born in its territory.
KYRGYZSTAN
According to a survey commissioned by the Bishkek Ministry of Youth Policy, which interviewed 1,640 people from all regions, 89% of Kyrgyz youth between the ages of 14 and 28 want to study or work abroad. Many of them are children of migrant workers and make up 1.5 million women and men.
CHINA
While according to some sources China is in conversations with Pzifer to obtain the license that allows it to locally produce a generic version of Paxlovid (oral antiviral that has reduced high-risk covid hospitalizations), today begins the “chun yun“, the travel period that precedes the Chinese New Year and which before the pandemic was considered the largest annual migration in the world. According to forecasts, around 2 billion people will move in the next 40 days. Investors expect the end of the “zero covid” policy reactivate the economy.
PAKISTAN
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban of Pakistan, have threatened to undertake war actions against current Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari if their political parties “stick to their decision.” The threat comes two days after Pakistan’s National Security Committee met to discuss the rise in attacks in the country and consolidate a position of “zero tolerance for terrorism.”
INDONESIA
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he could hold a cabinet reshuffle in the coming days, after Nasdem – one of the seven political parties in the ruling coalition – announced that it will support former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan in the 2024 presidential election. Members of the president’s party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, have called for Nasdem members to be excluded from the cabinet.
MYANMAR
The Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), an armed group allied with the Burmese coup junta, yesterday accused the rival militia, the Arakan Army (AA) of have killed three military leaders of your group. The Arakan Army has denied the accusations. Created in 1967, the ALP is the former ethnic armed organization of the Rakhine State but, unlike the AA, its influence is waning due to ties to the regime.
THAILAND
Thailand’s Ministry of Health has published a guide (currently in English only) for foreign visitors on everything they need to know to buy and consume cannabis in the country. Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to have legalized marijuana, but there is still no law regulating its use and sale.
