Other news of the day: Beijing has announced the “decisive victory” against the Covid; a group of 69 Rohingya docks on the beaches of Aceh, some died on board during the trip; Tokyo Launches Digital Yen Program; Delhi officials conclude three-day inspection of BBC headquarters; Armenia and Turkey ready to reach a “complete normalization” of their relations.
SAUDI ARABIA
At least 47 members of the Howeitat tribe in Saudi Arabia have been arrested or detained by the authorities for resisting the expropriation order related to the construction of the megacity of Neom. In the report “The dark side of Neom” published yesterday, the activist NGO Alqst reports the names of all those detained or disappeared for criticizing the project or denouncing abuses.
CHINA
Beijing announced in the last few hours the “decisive victory” against the pandemic, after abandoning the “zero covid” policy at the end of November that had caused unusual and widespread protests in the country, then registering an explosion of cases in the following weeks. More than 200 million citizens were infected and treated for the virus, of which around 800 thousand were seriously ill and recovered.
INDONESIA – MYANMAR
A group of Rohingya refugees, including 69 women and children, docked on an island off the west coast of Indonesia. The wooden boat, UN sources explain, arrived on a beach in Aceh after a long journey in which some people on board died. This is the sixth group since November. Thousands of people risk their lives each year to flee persecution in Myanmar.
JAPAN
The Central Bank of Japan (Boj) announced today that it will launch a pilot program to test the use of the digital yen in April. The move follows the example of a growing number of countries taking the lead from China, which so far remains at the forefront of the sector. As part of the pilot program, the BOJ will conduct simulated transactions with private financial institutions.
INDIA
Indian government tax officials have completed the search of three consecutive days at the BBC headquarters in Delhi and Mumbai, weeks after the British broadcaster broadcast a documentary criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Employees were instructed not to disclose information and some staff members spent the night in the offices.
RUSSIA
A 20-year-old recruit, Sergej Gridin, originally from Komi, in northern Russia, took his own life in his barracks in the Moscow province, after posting messages on Telegram in which he recounted the humiliation he had suffered for refusing to fight. in Ukraine. He stated that he preferred “to die in my own land, without the blood of others on my hands.”
ARMENIA – TURKEY
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia, Çavuşoğlu and Mirzoyan, met in Ankara. The latter declared that his country wants to “completely normalize relations with Turkey”, establish diplomatic relations and fully open the borders, and confirmed the availability of the Armenians to collaborate in helping the victims of the earthquake.
KAZAKHSTAN
The Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan presented the project “National Fund for Children”. The initiative stipulates that every Kazakh citizen, by birth, will have a dollar account, into which money will be deposited every year from the National Fund that collects taxes from the energy sector, from the sale of oil, gas, timber and other resources of the country.
