Editor TLN
Other news of the day: In India, farmers are demanding that their onions be sold at a higher price. Police will patrol durian fields in Thailand. New all-time low for the Lebanese lira. In occupied Ukraine, Central Asians are called upon to do “dirty jobs.” Political clashes in Moldova.
PAKISTAN
For two days the police have been trying remove former Prime Minister Imran Khan from his residence in Lahore, clashing with loyalists and protesters. An Islamabad court ordered him arrested for failing to appear despite repeated summons; the former prime minister is accused of failing to register and sell state gifts offered by foreign representatives.
INDIA
Farmers in the western state of Maharashtra have embarked on a 200-kilometre march to Mumbai to demand that their onions are sold at higher prices after the strong falls of the last weeks. Local authorities announced economic aid for farmers, but they rejected it and continue their protest. India is, after China, the world’s second largest producer of onions, more than half of which come from Maharashtra.
HONDURAS – CHINA – TAIWAN
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced that she has instructed her Foreign Minister to initiate official diplomatic relations with China, without specifying whether those with Taiwan will remain open. A few weeks ago the Central American government said it was in talks with China to build a hydroelectric dam. For a similar project, Beijing has already lent Honduras $300 million in 2021. Since 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen was elected Taiwan’s president, the island has lost eight allies and could soon have just 13.
THAILAND
The Thai police will cooperate with the durian producers patrolling the fields every day from 6pm until the next morning to prevent theft. Thieves recently escaped from a plantation on the Cambodian border with a shipment worth $29,000. Thailand is the world’s leading exporter of this stinky-smelling fruit that is very popular in Asia, especially in China and South Korea.
LEBANON
The Lebanese lira reached another historical low: although the official exchange rate with the dollar has been set at 15,000 liras, they were exchanged yesterday 100,000 lire for each greenback. In 2019, before the economic crisis, the exchange rate was 1,507 lira. Lebanese banks impose draconian restrictions on withdrawing funds and have closed in recent days in protest of court rulings in favor of savers.
RUSSIA – UKRAINE
Hundreds of Central Asian workers are hired in Russian-occupied Ukraine to do “dirty jobs” for $100 a day, from digging trenches to picking up the bodies of the fallen to restoring destroyed buildings, despite their governments discouraging the practice and Ukraine considers them accomplices of the occupiers.
MOLDOVA
In the center of Chisinau, strong clashes between the police and thousands of demonstrators have been taking place for the past two days in front of the government headquarters, demanding the payment of communal services for the three winter months, the resignation of the government and early elections, headed by the leaders of the pro-Russian party “Shor”.
