THAILAND
People flee clashes
About 1,300 people have fled from eastern Myanmar into Thailand, officials said yesterday, as fresh fighting erupted at a border town that has recently been captured by ethnic guerillas. Fighters from the Karen ethnic minority last week captured the last of the Burmese army’s outposts in and around Myawaddy, which is connected to Thailand by two bridges across the Moei River. The latest clashes were triggered in the morning when the Karen guerillas launched an attack against Burmese troops who were hiding near the Second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, a major crossing point for trade with Thailand, said Pittayakorn Phetcharat, police chief of Thailand’s Mae Sot District. He estimated about 1,300 people fled into Thailand.
MEXICO
Two mayor candidates killed
Two mayoral candidates were on Friday reported killed, one in the northeast and another in the south, authorities said — part of a wave of political violence ahead of June elections. In Tamaulipas, a state plagued by organized crime, a search was launched for the person who stabbed candidate Noe Ramos, Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios said. Local media reported the candidate, who was seeking re-election as head of Mante, was walking through the streets to meet with residents when he was attacked by a man with a knife on Friday. In the southern state of Oaxaca, Alberto Antonio Garcia was found dead on Friday after going missing this week, the state prosecutor’s office said.
UKRAINE
Civilians killed in strikes
The military earlier yesterday launched a wave of drones at Russia, setting a fuel depot ablaze, officials said. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said cross-border attacks left at least three people dead, while a Russian strike killed two in Ukraine’s northeast. A source in the defense sector said that Kyiv targeted eight Russian regions in the “large-scale” attack aimed at “energy infrastructure that feeds Russia’s military-industrial complex.” The Russian Ministry of Defense said it had intercepted 50 drones overnight, some of them hundreds of kilometers from the border, including near the capital, Moscow.
ECUADOR
Another mayor killed
The mayor of a mining town was shot dead on Friday, the second such killing in days ahead of a weekend referendum on tougher measures against organized crime, police said. Portovelo Mayor Jorge Maldonado “fell victim to gunshots that resulted in his death,” police wrote on X. He was gunned down by two attackers on a motorcycle. The killing came amid an energy debacle due to a severe drought, which has emptied reservoirs to alarming levels and left the nation grappling with blackouts of up to 13 hours. Maldonado was the fifth mayor assassinated in a year, and the third in less than a month.
CHINA
Apple removes Meta apps
Apple said it had removed Meta’s WhatsApp messaging app and its Threads social media app from the App Store in China to comply with orders from the Cyberspace Administration. The apps were removed from the store on Friday after officials cited unspecified national security concerns. Their removal comes amid elevated tensions with the US over trade, technology and national security, and as Washington has threatened to ban TikTok over national security concerns. Other Meta apps, including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger remained available for download.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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