The Ethiopian government declared a cease-fire (WaPo) in its conflict with regional forces in Tigray as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said the regional capital, Mekelle, was under its “complete control.” 

The cease-fire could bring respite to a region that has suffered a humanitarian crisis and large-scale atrocities (Guardian) since the federal government’s forces began a military campaign in Tigray eight months ago. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he spoke with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and was hopeful for “an effective cessation of hostilities.” The Tigrayan rebels, for their part, vowed to drive all opposing forces from the region. Although there was no immediate comment from Eritrea, which has sent troops to fight alongside the Ethiopian government, witnesses told Reuters that Eritrean forces withdrew from the Tigrayan town of Shire. 

Beijing and Moscow announced the extension (Reuters) of a twenty-year friendship and cooperation treaty originally signed in 2001. The treaty will be automatically extended after it expires in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
 
Thailand: Google took down two Google Maps documents (Reuters) that showed the personal information of hundreds of activists accused of opposing Thailand’s king. The company said the maps, created by royalist activists, were in violation of its policies.

A Pakistani judicial commission will probe the death (Radio Mashaal) of opposition politician Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar. His family and members of his nationalist Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party say he died last week after being wounded in an attack. Kakar had long been an advocate for freedom of expression and a critic of the military for what he said were attacks on human rights.
 
India: A member of a Hindu nationalist group filed a police complaint against Twitter (Hindu) after the website displayed a map that showed Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as being separate from India.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is in the United Arab Emirates to open a new embassy and consulate (DW) during the first-ever official visit to the country by an Israeli foreign minister. He is expected to hold talks with senior officials and sign an economic cooperation agreement.
 
Syria: An American military base in eastern Syria came under rocket fire (CNN) a day after U.S. air strikes targeted facilities tied to Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq, prompting the U.S. forces to return fire, a military spokesperson said. No injuries were immediately reported.

South Africa’s Constitutional Court sentenced former President Jacob Zuma (News24) to fifteen months in prison for failing to appear at a court inquiry about state capture during his nine years in office.
 
For the Africa in Transition blog, CFR’s John Campbell looks at Zuma and other South African leaders in the current political context.

The UN Human Rights Council published a report calling on countries to enact a “transformative agenda” (WaPo) against systemic racism, making a broad case for reparations for racial injustice.
 
In the September/October 2020 issue of Foreign Affairs, Keisha N. Blain writes that the fight against racism has always been global.
 
Italy: At a ministerial meeting of a coalition working to defeat the self-proclaimed Islamic State, foreign ministers in the alliance agreed to establish a working group (National) on terrorist threats in Africa. In addition, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged countries to repatriate extremist fighters who are currently in detention in Syria.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights found Honduras responsible (NYT) for the 2009 murder of twenty-six-year-old Vicky Hernandez, a transgender woman, and ordered the country to track violence against LGBTQ+ people and offer diversity training to security forces. Activists say the ruling could set a precedent for expanding LGBTQ+ rights across Latin America and the Caribbean.
 
CFR’s Paul J. Angelo and Dominic Bocci look at the changing landscape of global LGBTQ+ rights.
 
Mexico: The country’s Supreme Court ruled that prohibiting the cultivation and use of marijuana for recreational purposes is unconstitutional (Guardian), putting pressure on the legislature to pass a stalled marijuana-legalization bill that would also allow for the plant’s commercialization.

A federal judge dismissed two antitrust lawsuits (NYT) filed against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and more than forty states, saying that prosecutors’ evidence of monopolization was insufficient and that the states waited too long to bring the case.