Leaders of a farmers' protest in India held a day-long hunger strike on Monday and reiterated their calls for nationwide protests over new laws to deregulate Indian agriculture, Al Jazeera reports.
Why it matters: Farmers say the laws will drive down crop prices and benefit big corporations. They've taken the government by surprise with large demonstrations in New Delhi, which have now continued for 19 days.
The U.S. has imposed sanctions against Turkey for purchasing the Russian S-400 air defense system in 2017, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday.
Why it matters: The sanctions are likely to heighten tensions between the two NATO allies just as President-elect Joe Biden, who has called President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan an "autocrat," is set to take office.
Bars and restaurants in London and surrounding areas will be forced to close beginning Wednesday as the region is placed under England's highest alert for coronavirus restrictions, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday.
The big picture: Although Europe has beaten back a steep rise in coronavirus cases, several countries are issuing strict lockdowns over the holidays. London is seeing "very sharp, exponential rises" in coronavirus cases, and will be forced to enter the strictest of England's three-tier lockdown system, Hancock said.
An undercover team working for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) followed opposition leader Alexei Navalny on more than 30 trips to and from Moscow starting in 2017 before he was poisoned in August, according to a bombshell investigation led by Bellingcat.
Why it matters: The Kremlin has denied having any role in the poisoning of Navalny, who is one of the most prominent domestic critics of President Vladimir Putin. But an analysis of "voluminous telecom and travel data" by Bellingcat suggests the poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok “was mandated at the highest echelons of the Kremlin."
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an "emergency directive" late Sunday requiring all federal civilian agencies to review their networks and immediately disconnect SolarWinds Orion software products, following a suspected Russian hack on the Treasury and Commerce Department.
Why it matters: It's only the fifth time since 2015 that the Department of Homeland Security has issued such a directive, per AP, underscoring the concerns officials have about an operation that one cybersecurity expert warned could turn out to be "one of the most impactful espionage campaigns on record."
The FBI is investigating a breach into the Treasury and Commerce departments by a group known as Cozy Bear, which also hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2015, per the Washington Post.
Driving the news: Reuters first reported on Sunday that hackers have been monitoring internal emails at the departments, specifically targeting an agency in Commerce responsible for U.S. telecommunications policy.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Sunday they have agreed to extend negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal.
Why it matters: The deadline for a deal was Sunday. "Despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over, we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile," the leaders said in a joint statement after speaking by phone on Sunday. "We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached."
