More than 141,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States yesterday, a number just short of the record 142,273 hospitalizations a year ago, the Washington Post reported. The record could be surpassed as soon as today. Disease models predict as many as 300,000 daily hospitalizations as the coronavirus’s current wave peaks in the coming weeks.
 
Meanwhile, the virus’s omicron variant is on track to infect half of Europe’s population (Reuters) in the next six to eight weeks, a World Health Organization official said. And while health systems worldwide are increasingly strained, COVID-19 also continues to threaten education. Uganda reopened schools yesterday (NYT) for the first time since March 2020, ending the world’s longest pandemic shutdown.

The launch came as the UN Security Council discussed (NYT) North Korea’s missile activities.
 
Taiwan: Taiwan’s air force paused training (Reuters) for its fleet of F-16 fighter jets after one crashed into the sea.

The aid would supply food within Afghanistan, where eight million people face “a march to starvation” (NYT), UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said. It would also provide support for 2.5 million Afghan refugees in neighboring countries.
 
A humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan is one of the Center for Preventive Action’s crises to watch in 2022.
 
Kazakhstan: Foreign ministers of the Organization of Turkic States, which includes Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, meet today (TASS) to discuss the recent protests in Kazakhstan.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said it closed due to government persecution (AP). It documented violations against journalists, political prisoners, and others in Egypt and the region.
 
Syria: The UN Security Council extended permission (Al Jazeera) for cross-border humanitarian aid to northwestern Syria for another six months without voting on the matter.

U.S. President Joe Biden raised concerns (Reuters) about air strikes and civilian casualties in Ethiopia’s conflict during a call with Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed yesterday, the White House said.
 
For Foreign Affairs, Terrence Lyons discusses how to pull Ethiopia back from the brink.
 
Sudan: The United Nations began a round of talks (AP) with Sudanese groups in hopes of helping the country transition out of its political crisis.

Protesters in thirty-five cities in the United States and Europe called for foreign governments to discourage (Al Jazeera) Bosnian Serbs from seceding from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
CFR’s Charles A. Kupchan examines the separatist tensions in Bosnia.
 
U.S./Russia: Envoys from both countries said yesterday’s negotiations about the Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border were businesslike (WSJ). The talks produced no breakthroughs, but they did not break down.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega took office (AP) for a fourth consecutive term yesterday following elections that were widely denounced as rigged. Meanwhile, the United States and European Union (EU) announced asset freezes for six people with ties to Ortega’s government and visa restrictions for more than one hundred others.
 
Brazil: Heavy rainfall and flooding forced around seventeen thousand people in the state of Minas Gerais to evacuate their homes (MercoPress).