Kazakhstan’s cabinet resigned today (Reuters) as protesters angry over a fuel price hike swarmed and torched public buildings in the largest city, Almaty. In Kazakhstan’s worst unrest in over a decade, authorities declared a state of emergency in parts of the country, detained at least two hundred people (RFE/RL), and appeared to have shut off the internet.  
 
The demonstrations spread from the country’s western regions to its main cities in recent days after the government removed subsidies for liquefied petroleum gas (FT). Protesters have also voiced discontent over corruption, unemployment, and low wages. President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev announced that the price hikes will be reversed and the prices of other fuels will be capped.

The launch came (Reuters) as South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a rail line that could eventually connect North and South Korea. Moon has pushed for dialogue with Pyongyang, but North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made no mention of denuclearization talks in his New Year’s speech.
 
This Backgrounder unpacks North Korea’s military capabilities.
 
China: U.S. politicians and human rights groups criticized carmaker Tesla (NYT) for opening a dealership in China’s Xinjiang region despite concerns about forced labor there.

Police officers in the city of Mumbai made an arrest (Reuters) in an investigation of an app that claimed to “auction” Muslim women. Several women said the app used their photos without their consent in an attempt to harass them.
 
This Backgrounder looks at India’s increasingly marginalized Muslim population.

Israel’s government made the study public (WaPo) after it started offering a second booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week.
 
France/Saudi Arabia: French prosecutors opened a terrorism probe (AFP) after a French national was injured in an explosion at the Dakar Rally racing event in Saudi Arabia last week. 

The Ethiopian government detained or forcibly disappeared thousands of ethnic Tigrayans after they arrived back in the country in 2020 and 2021, according to Human Rights Watch.
 
Nigeria: Police officials in Zamfara State said authorities rescued ninety-seven hostages (AP), most of them women and children, who had been abducted by armed groups more than two months ago.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will meet (AP) with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken today for a discussion that is expected to focus on responses to the Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border.
 
For Foreign Affairs, Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Goldgeier argue that the United States needs to help revive Europe’s security architecture.
 
France/UK: More than twenty-eight thousand migrants in small boats crossed the English Channel from France to the United Kingdom (UK) in 2021, nearly triple the previous year’s total, the BBC reported. The UK government has proposed a bill that would make it a criminal offense to enter the country illegally.

The $31.5 billion preliminary agreement would compensate (CBC) First Nations children harmed by the federal child welfare system, which removed them from their communities, and fund reforms to the on-reservation welfare system.
 
Colombia/United States: U.S. authorities arrested a Colombian man (CNN) for alleged involvement in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise. He is the first person charged in the case.

The posts made Facebook groups incubators for baseless claims about the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election victory, a ProPublica and Washington Post investigation found. Facebook has not yet turned over all the information requested in a congressional probe of the January 6 attack.