Embattled Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is expected to meet (Guardian) with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia today after a weekend of more mass protests (RFE/RL) over Belarus’s disputed presidential election. Nearly eight hundred people were detained yesterday, Belarus’s interior ministry said. Police violence against female protesters was recorded for the first time.
 
Lukashenko has asked Putin for military assistance, and Putin said he created (WSJ) a law enforcement team that can step in if the protests spiral out of control. Russian paratroopers will reportedly also travel to Belarus today for an annual military exercise.

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga as its leader, meaning he will succeed (Straits Times) Shinzo Abe as Japan’s prime minister. The country’s parliament will meet Wednesday to inaugurate Suga.
 
CFR’s Sheila A. Smith discusses Abe’s legacy on The President’s Inbox podcast.
 
Hong Kong: Chinese authorities accused twelve Hong Kongers who were arrested at sea (SCMP) in August of trying to separate Hong Kong and China. Hong Kong said it would not interfere (Reuters) to aid the detainees, who were reportedly en route to Taiwan to seek political asylum.

Health minister Harsh Vardhan said India is weighing an emergency authorization of a vaccine (Mint) for the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, especially for senior citizens and high-risk workers. India trails only the United States in total reported coronavirus cases.
 
This CFR Backgrounder explains what the world is doing to create a COVID-19 vaccine.
 
Kazakhstan: Dozens of people protested (RFE/RL) in the city of Almaty, criticizing President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and urging reforms. The rally was organized by the unregistered Democratic Party, which has faced opposition from authorities in its bid to become an official party.

An unnamed U.S. government official told Politico that the United States believes Iran is considering assassinating the U.S. ambassador to South Africa to avenge the death of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. A U.S. air strike killed Soleimani in January.
 
Libya: The country’s interim eastern-based government, which lacks international recognition and is allied with rebel commander Khalifa Haftar, stepped down. Hundreds of people have recently protested (Al Jazeera) power shortages and poor living conditions in eastern Libya.
 
This CFR In Brief explains who’s who in Libya’s war.

Mali’s opposition coalition rejected a plan (France24) announced by the country’s military junta for an eighteen-month transitional government. The coalition said the plan was inconsistent with negotiations, including because it allowed the possibility of a military-led transition.
 
Zimbabwe: Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of having him imprisoned (FT) after Chin’ono implicated Mnangagwa’s family in pandemic-related graft. Zimbabwe’s government has denied that Chin’ono was detained for reporting on corruption.

Greece welcomed the departure (DW) of a Turkish research ship from a contested part of the Eastern Mediterranean, calling it a first step toward easing tensions with Turkey over the resource-rich waters. Turkey said the withdrawal does not mean it is giving up its rights to the area.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla criticized the Saturday election (teleSUR) of the first U.S. head of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), saying President-elect Mauricio Claver-Carone will “divide the region.” Other Latin American countries had protested (Miami Herald) Claver-Carone’s nomination.
 
Venezuela: President Nicolas Maduro announced that the country’s schools, which were set to reopen this month, will stay closed (BBC) until at least 2021 due to the pandemic. Lessons will instead occur online and through state television, he said.
 
This CFR Backgrounder looks at how countries are reopening schools during the pandemic.

American technology giant Oracle forged a deal (WSJ) with Chinese company ByteDance for U.S. operations of the social media application TikTok, according to unnamed sources. President Donald J. Trump has vowed to ban TikTok unless it is sold to a U.S. company, citing concerns about the application sharing user data with the Chinese government.

The World Health Organization reported 307,930 new coronavirus infections over twenty-four hours, a record-breaking daily rise. India, the United States, and Brazil had the largest increases (BBC).