The other news of the day: 185 Rohingya refugees arrived in Indonesia, Malaysian conservatives against bikinis, alcohol and gambling. Chaos in North India due to cold and fog. The Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate has definitively lost control over the kyiv Cave Lavra.
ISRAEL – PALESTINE
Israel’s new far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has instructed police to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces, affirming that they are a tool of “terrorism”. Palestinian flags are not prohibited by Israeli law, but police and soldiers have the right to remove them if they believe there is a threat to public order.
MALAYSIA
In the increasingly conservative state of Kedah, ruled by the Islamist PAS (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party), local authorities criticized the bikini, banned gambling and announced that the sale of alcohol would also be suppressed, especially in Langkawi, a popular tourist destination. Observers consider that it would be an attempt by the Perikatan Nasional – the coalition of which the PAS is a part – to position itself as the defender of Islam ahead of the state elections to be held in August.
INDONESIA
A boat with 185 Rohingya refugees arrived yesterday on the shores of the Indonesian province of Aceh. More than half are women and children. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said 2022 could be one of the deadliest years at sea for the Rohingya, an Islamic ethnic group from Myanmar.
INDIA
In the north of India, chaos reigns in the airports and train stations these days: a cold snap and a thick fog are causing various inconveniences to the population. Authorities in the capital, Delhi, have asked schools to extend the winter break and suspend classes. The temperature in some parts of the city dropped to 1.9 degrees yesterday.
PAKISTAN
A delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will meet Pakistan’s finance minister on the sidelines of a conference in Geneva. The IMF has not yet approved the disbursement of $1.1 billion that was originally due in November of last year. Pakistan is left with only enough foreign exchange reserves to cover a month’s worth of imports.
AFGHANISTAN
The ban on women working in NGOs could translate into a return to work childl, said Save the Children, one of the humanitarian organizations that was forced to suspend its services to the Afghan population after the latest ban imposed by the Taliban. Female aid workers make up 50% of the organization’s workforce and are critical in reaching women and girls who, for cultural reasons, cannot interact with male aid workers.
RUSSIA – UKRAINE
The Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, to which many faithful and part of the clergy in Ukraine remain linked, has definitively lost control of the Lavra of the kyiv Caves, the first historic monastery of Rus’, in which the festivals Christmas holidays were celebrated by the autocephalous Epifanyj from kyiv. Pro-Russian Metropolitan Pavel, superior of the Caves on the Muscovite side and called “Paša-Mercedes” for his love of luxury, was turned away by checks at the entrance.
UZBEKISTAN
The director of “Uzbekneftegas”, Khusniddin Turaev, assured that Uzbekistan has enough gas reserves for a long time, with two trillion cubic meters of natural gas available, which are extracted at the rate of 50 billion cubic meters per year. This would be enough for the next 40 years and the forecasts can only be corrected upwards.
