As President Biden's point person for Afghan refugee resettlement steps aside, advocacy groups are pressing the Biden administration to accelerate its efforts to help the tens of thousands of people still stuck in limbo.
Why it matters: Former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) is leaving the envoy role after being confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The transition comes amid criticism that there hasn't been enough high-level, sustained engagement to ease thebacklog of applications nearly four months after the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal from Kabul.
April’s presidential election in France was supposed to pit Emmanuel Macron against the far-right, with the fairly unpopular incumbent facing his 2021 challenger Marine Le Pen or Éric Zemmour, the insurgent TV pundit whose rhetoric is even more radical.
State of play: With Le Pen and Zemmour splitting the far-right vote, a much trickier scenario looms for Macron, with Valérie Pécresse of the center-right Republicans now the favorite to break through to the second-round runoff.
The Chinese governmentis demanding that multinational firms cut ties with Lithuania or else lose access to China's markets, after the Baltic state allowed Taiwan to open an unofficial representative's office there.
Why it matters: Beijing is beginning to implement a de facto sanctions regime to enforce its geopolitical interests around the globe.
Elections in Hong Kong on Sunday saw the lowest turnout in the city's history, with just 30.2% of the electorate casting a vote, after an election boycott that Hong Kong authorities attempted to squelch both in the city and abroad.
Why it matters: The Hong Kong government is turning laws intended to protect democratic institutions into tools to strengthen authoritarianism in the once-autonomous city.
The Chinese government increasingly is using its economic weight to reshape global behavior and strengthen its own authoritarianism. And democratic governments have left companies to fend for themselves.
Why it matters: Global businesses and nonprofits learned the hard way this year that taking a stand for democratic values can cause massive revenue losses in the Chinese market.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet Wednesday with Israeli officials including Naftali Bennett, with Iran "very high on the agenda," a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Monday evening.
Why it matters: The senior official said "time is running out" for the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna, and "we will talk with the Israelis on what is going to happen in the coming weeks." Sullivan is also expected to travel to Ramallah and meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Until recently, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's popularity within his party and with the public made his position appear almost invulnerable. Now 6 in 10 Brits think he'll be out of a job by the end of next year.
By the numbers: Johnson's approval ratings have plummeted to a record-low 30%, his Brexit negotiator just abandoned ship, and his image as an electoral juggernaut has been tainted.
Philippine officials said Monday the death toll from Typhoon Rai has climbed to 375 and more than 50 people were still missing, per AP.
Driving the news: Rai was a super typhoon upon initial landfall and was the strongest storm to strike the Philippines this year, with the equivalent strength of a Category 5 hurricane. It caused widespread power and communications outages and injured at least 500 people.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled opposition leader of Belarus, was in a meeting with Western ambassadors to the EU last week when she learned that her husband had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his activism.
What she's saying: "It was very emotionally difficult to accept, but it didn't change anything in our movement," Tsikhanouskaya told Axios in a Zoom interview from Vilnius, Lithuania. She fled there last year after Aleksandr Lukashenko's regime began rounding up opposition leaders.
The 12 remaining members of a Christian missionary group who were kidnapped by a Haitian gang in October are safe, Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries said Thursday.
The big picture: The news comes two months after police say the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 U.S. and Canadian missionaries in Port-au-Prince and demanded a ransom. Five of the abducted missionaries had previously been released.
Driving the news: Their escape came two months after the police say the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 U.S. and Canadian missionaries in Port-au-Prince and demanded ransom. Five hostages had been released prior to last week's escape.
Israeli Cabinet ministers agreed to add the U.S. and Canada to its "red list," banning people from traveling to the countries, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office announced on Monday.
Why it matters: The move comes amid rising case numbers in both countries and as the Omicron variant continues to spread worldwide. The ban will take effect at midnight Wednesday morning after it has been approved by a parliamentary committee.
The World Economic Forum announced Monday it will delay its 2022 global meeting in Davos, Switzerland, until the summer in response to uncertainty over the emergency of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Why it matters: The annual January meeting has now been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic for a second year.
Pro-Beijing candidates claimed victory in Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo) election under the new "patriots only" system, per Reuters.
Why it matters: This was the first LegCosince Beijing lawmakers passed a sweeping law to ensure only "patriotic" figures can run for positions of power — which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called a "denial of democracy."
Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has denied that former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli sexually assaulted her, saying there had been a "misunderstanding" over her November social media post about him.
Why it matters: The Women's Tennis Association said that the former world No. 1 doubles player's comments in an interview with a Chinese-language Singaporean outlet, published on Sunday, did not address its concerns about her well-being, per Reuters.
Why it matters: Chile has long been a byword for stability and prosperity in the region, but it has become increasingly polarized since anti-government protests erupted in 2019, thrusting the country into a fierce debate over economic inequality and national identity, per Axios' Dave Lawler.
