Tehran issues first death sentence for unrest

Today’s news: Taliban ban women’s access to gyms and public baths; Mar Gewargis III Younan is the new patriarch of the Old Church of the East; in China, the Covid-19 advances faster than the swabs and the closures, sowing a record of infections; Myanmar’s coup junta sentenced 20 activists and opponents to terms of up to 225 years; the families of Russian generals do business in Syria.

IRAN

Tehran issued the first death warrant for “participation” in the “riots” that broke out after the murder of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, at the hands of the morality police. The defendants allegedly “set fire to a building, disturbed public order and conspired.” Five other people were sentenced to between five and ten years in prison. Defendants can appeal.

AFGHANISTAN

After the amusement parks, the Taliban prohibited women from entering the gyms and public baths, a new step in the segregation of the sexes. Since August 2021, many have lost their jobs or have to stay at home, in addition to not being able to travel without the company of a man. A government spokesman justifies the ban because “the trainers are men” and some gyms are “mixed.”

CHINA

Despite the “Zero Covid” policy, based on mass swabs and strict lockdowns, which have dealt a severe blow to the economy, the virus continues to advance with a record contagion daily in Beijing and other cities, and in industrial centers such as Guangzhou and Zhengzhou. The decision was also reportedly made to suspend the Shanghai Art and Design Fair for public health reasons.

MYANMAR

Since coming to power in February 2021, the coup junta condemned 20 Democrats, activists, and opponents to up to 225 years in prison. Sentences have never been less than 20 years. The charges range from terrorism to incitement to riot. The 77-year-old leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will have to deduct 26 years; Kyaw Thet, 30, has the harshest sentence: 225 years; Hnin Maung 95 years old.

MIDDLE EAST

the synod of the Old Church of the East, convened in Chicago on November 12, elected Mar Gewargis Younan, Bishop of the Eastern United States and Europe, as the 110th Catholicos-Patriarch, under the name of Mar Gewargis III Younan. He succeeds Mar Yaqo Daniel, who was elected in May but resigned in August after only three months in office. Reunification with the Assyrian Church of the East is one of the challenges that awaits him.

RUSSIA – SYRIA

Aleksei Navalny’s associates spread information about the business affairs of the wife of General Surovikin, commander of Russian forces in Ukraine. The woman supposedly receives millions of percentages of the companies of the oligarch Gennadij Timčenko that are dedicated to the extraction of phosphates in Syria, a business opened thanks to the protection of the general during the war.

ARMENIA – AZERBAIJAN

In Nagorno-Karabakh, local Armenians are ready to wipe out the Self-Defense Army if Russian peacekeepers stray from the demarcation lines. This was announced by the leader of the National Assembly, Artur Arutjunyan, coinciding with the proposal of the Prime Minister of Yerevan, Nikol Pashinian, to create a demilitarized zone with international guarantees.