Health ministers from Group of Seven (G7) countries will meet today (Politico) to discuss the coronavirus’s Omicron variant, which the World Health Organization (WHO) classified as a variant of concern on Friday.
 
Israel, Japan, and Morocco banned all foreign travelers (NYT) over the new variant, while the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom announced bans on travelers from southern Africa. South African scientists alerted the WHO about Omicron. The WHO said it is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible or causes more severe infection than other variants. In a briefing yesterday, U.S. Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci said it will take approximately two weeks (White House) to gain more definitive information on the variant.

After a five-month hiatus, negotiations on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal will resume (NPR) in Vienna, Austria, today. European diplomats will serve as intermediaries between Washington and Tehran, which refuses to meet bilaterally with Washington.
 
Syria: The opposition-held Idlib Governorate, which adopted the Turkish lira over a year ago, is suffering the effects (Al Jazeera) of a currency crisis in Turkey, where inflation is nearing 20 percent and the lira has lost around 40 percent of its value over the past year. 

Police found three bodies (CNN) in a burned-out Chinatown building in the capital, Honiara, following days of violent protests over inequality and China-Solomon Islands relations. Some protesters have called (NYT) for the Solomon Islands to limit ties with China after the government switched its alliance from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019. 
 
Hong Kong: A version of the Simpsons offered by streaming service Disney+ in Hong Kong omitted an episode (AFP) that referred to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. 

Three pro-government parties received the most votes (RFE/RL) in yesterday’s parliamentary elections, the first since the legislature shrunk from 120 to 90 seats in a constitutional reform that substantially increased presidential powers.
 
Afghanistan: Undercover Taliban agents who had infiltrated government ministries, businesses, and aid organizations helped the group rapidly take over the country in August, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
 
This Backgrounder looks at the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Police fired tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters on Saturday who denounced a surge in extremist attacks (France 24) in the country. An attack by militants linked to al-Qaeda killed dozens of police officers and four civilians earlier this month.
 
Sudan: Former Minister of Cabinet Affairs Khalid Omer Yousif and other ex-officials were released (Reuters) from detention after beginning a hunger strike.
 
CFR’s Michelle Gavin lays out what to know about the crisis in Sudan. 

Swedish Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson was elected as the country’s first female prime minister last week but quickly resigned (AFP) after the Swedish Green Party quit her government. Parliament is expected to vote to reappoint her today.
 
U.S./Russia: Russia’s ambassador to Washington said the United States is forcing more than fifty Russian diplomats and their families to leave the country (Bloomberg) by mid-2022. In April, a Russian ban on the United States employing its citizens forced the U.S. embassy in Moscow to cut consular staff by 75 percent.

With 35 percent of votes counted from Honduras’s presidential election yesterday, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya led with 53 percent (AP) of votes while Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura, of the ruling National Party of Honduras, had 33 percent.
 
Argentina: The judiciary agreed to open a genocide case (FT) against Myanmar’s military brought by Rohingya survivors of the 2017 crackdown on Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The case is being brought under universal jurisdiction, the principle that especially grave crimes can be tried anywhere.

While lawmakers in at least seven U.S. states have considered eliminating the words “alien” and “illegal” in state statutes and replacing them with descriptions such as “undocumented” and “noncitizen,” only California and Colorado have done so, the Associated Press reports.
 
This Backgrounder examines the U.S. immigration debate.