UN peacekeepers and government security forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) are battling rebels (Reuters) who have occupied towns and roads outside of the capital, Bangui, ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday.
 
Tensions soared over the weekend as the government accused former President Francois Bozize of planning a coup with a coalition of armed groups. Bozize, who has denied the allegations, was barred from running in the elections by the country’s top court earlier this month. Russia and Rwanda have sent troops to CAR to support the government. Today, UN peacekeepers gained control (AFP) over the country’s fourth-largest city, Bambari, after rebels seized it yesterday. Citing the violence, some opposition parties have called for the elections to be postponed (AP), but President Faustin-Archange Touadera has said they will continue as planned.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the government could impose stricter measures (Bangkok Post), including a ban on New Year’s celebrations, to stop the coronavirus from spreading. Thailand reported forty-six new infections today as the country deals with its worst outbreak yet.
 
Contributors to Think Global Health, a CFR initiative, explain why noncitizen health matters in Thailand.
 
Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai, a prominent media mogul and critic of the Chinese Communist Party, was granted bail and placed under house arrest (SCMP) after being jailed for twenty days. Lai was charged with colluding with foreign forces under a controversial national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong earlier this year.

An alliance of parties that oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies in India-administered Kashmir won a majority of seats (AP) in local elections. It was the region’s first elections since the Modi government revoked its special status last year.
 
Afghanistan: U.S. Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller discussed the Afghan peace process (TOLO) with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul yesterday. His unannounced visit comes amid a drawdown of U.S. troops from the country.
 
This CFR timeline traces the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

The Knesset dissolved after the parties of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz failed to reach a deal (Haaretz) on this year’s budget. The dissolution triggers the country’s fourth elections in less than two years, set for March 23.
 
Syria: The United States imposed new sanctions (Reuters) on supporters of President Bashar al-Assad and blacklisted several businesses, as well as the Central Bank of Syria, in an effort to push Assad’s government back into UN-led negotiations on ending the country’s war.
 
CFR explains Syria’s descent into war.

University lecturers in Nigeria who had been pushing for the implementation of a 2009 agreement that promised new equipment and higher pay ended their nine-month strike (BBC) after reaching a deal with the government. They will return to universities tomorrow.

France resumed air, train, and automobile travel from the United Kingdom for people who tested negative for COVID-19, ending a forty-eight-hour closure (FT) that caused a backlog of thousands of trucks at the border. The shutdown was a bid to prevent the spread of a more infectious coronavirus strain that was first reported in the UK.
 
Moldova: Prime Minister Ion Chicu announced that his government is resigning (RFE/RL) in order to trigger early parliamentary elections. Earlier this month, thousands of protesters demanded early elections after lawmakers passed a controversial bill that transferred control of Moldova’s intelligence agency from the president to Parliament.

Authorities arrested Marcelo Crivella, the outgoing mayor of Rio de Janeiro and an ally of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, on one of Crivella’s last days in office. Prosecutors filed corruption charges (Guardian) against Crivella and twenty-five others, alleging that he had led a “well-structured and complex criminal organization” in city hall since his election in 2016.
 
Colombia/Russia: Russia expelled two employees (RFE/RL) of the Colombian embassy in Moscow in retaliation over Colombia’s expulsion of two Russian diplomats earlier this month. Colombian officials have not revealed why the officials were expelled, but local media cited unnamed sources who said the diplomats were engaged in espionage.

President Donald J. Trump granted clemency (WSJ) to two people whose activities set off an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, four military contractors convicted in connection with the killings of Iraqi citizens, and three former Republican congressmen, among others.

At least thirty-six people are infected (Reuters) with the coronavirus in Antarctica, which had been the last continent free of the virus. Chile’s military said twenty-six army personnel and ten civilian contractors conducting maintenance on an Antarctic base tested positive for COVID-19.