Russia’s prison service has ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny to return to Moscow by Tuesday morning or face jail if he returns past the deadline, Reuters reports.
The state of play: Navalny, one of Russia's most prominent critics of President Vladimir Putin, has been in Germany since he was airlifted there while recovering from an attempted poisoning attempt.
Prominent Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who was detained by the Saudi government nearly three years ago, has been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail, AP reports, citing state-linked media.
Why it matters: Human rights groups have condemned charges against al-Hathloul, which include agitating for change, spying with foreign parties and conspiring against the kingdom. The charges were brought under a "vague and broadly worded law," according to AP.
Ambassadors for the European Union's 27 member states have unanimously approved the provisional application of a post-Brexit trade deal on Jan. 1, a German spokesperson confirmed on Monday.
Why it matters: It's an expected, but crucial step in staving off a potentially catastrophic "no-deal" Brexit on Jan. 1, coming days after the U.K. government and European Commission announced they had reached a stunning breakthrough after months of stalled negotiations.
A court in Shanghai sentenced a citizen journalist to four years in prison Monday after finding her guilty of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" by reporting on China's early coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, per rights groups.
Why it matters: Zhang Zhan's conviction marks the first known sentence of someone "who chronicled authorities' early struggle to manage the outbreak," Bloomberg notes.
China's central bank announced Sunday it ordered Ant Group, controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, to follow regulations, revamp lending and other consumer finance operations and "return to its roots" of online payment services. Ant said it plans to comply.
Why it matters: The action against the world's largest financial technology firm marks the latest move by Chinese officials to knee-cap Ma's empire. Ant's plans to raise what would've been the largest global IPO were ditched in November after regulators said more regulation was needed. Chinese officials opened a monopoly investigation last Thursday into Alibaba Group, which Ma co-founded.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video marking the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness Sunday "history tells us that this will not be the last pandemic, and epidemics are a fact of life."
What he's saying: Tedros said responses to such outbreaks had been "dangerously short-sighted," throwing money at the problem without preparing for the next one.
The European Union began on Sunday a coordinated rollout of coronavirus vaccinations across its 27 member states in a drive to inoculate some 450 million people.
Why it matters: Several European countries have tightened restrictions as cases, deaths and hospitalizations surge. EU countries have recorded at least 16 million COVID-19 cases and 336,000 deaths since the pandemic began, per AP.
Cases of a new variant of COVID-19 first detected in England were confirmed by health officials in Canada, Japan and several more European Union countries Saturday.
Why it matters: While there's no evidence the variant is more deadly than the original strain, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's announcement that it could be 70% more transmissible prompted dozens of countries to ban travel from the United Kingdom.
