More than one thousand people gathered in Burkina Faso’s capital today to celebrate the military’s ouster (Reuters) of President Roch Marc Christian Kabore yesterday. Demonstrators had previously called for Kabore’s removal after his government failed to quell rising Islamist violence in the country.
 
Burkinabe military leaders dissolved the country’s legislature (CNN) and closed its borders. Kabore’s whereabouts are still unknown. The takeover follows coups in the last year (Al Jazeera) in Chad, Guinea, Mali, and Sudan. The United States, the United Nations, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel) condemned the coup in Burkina Faso.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s trip is thought to be the first (Nikkei) by a head of government from either country in over thirty years. Fallout from a Thai man’s 1989 theft of Saudi jewels led to downgraded ties and a ban on Saudis visiting Thailand.
 
Indonesia/Singapore: The countries’ leaders signed deals (Straits Times) on extradition, military cooperation, and aviation safety.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is hosting a virtual meeting (TNN) with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan two days before India is set to hold its first-ever summit with the same countries.
 
Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan/Uzbekistan: Millions of people in the countries lost electricity (AFP) today after an unspecified accident in Kazakhstan’s power grid. A drought over the summer and a boom in cryptocurrency mining in Central Asia have strained the region’s power grids.

Internet services in the country had gone down (Reuters) after telecommunications infrastructure was damaged in air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition that supports Yemen’s internationally recognized government in its war against the Houthi rebels.
 
Lebanon: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his Future Movement party have withdrawn from politics (Al Jazeera) ahead of March’s parliamentary elections. Hariri’s family has been prominent in Lebanon’s Sunni political landscape for more than thirty years.

Mali’s military government said the troops’ deployment as part of an international counterterrorism force took place without its consent (BBC).

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for Europe to dialogue separately (Guardian) with Russia rather than relying on the United States, which has put 8,500 troops on alert (WSJ) for possible deployment to Eastern Europe. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said Germany will not join (AP) other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members in sending lethal weapons to Ukraine.
 
EU/Libya: A confidential European Union (EU) military report obtained by the Associated Press called for the bloc to continue to train Libya’s coast guard despite acknowledging Libyan authorities’ “excessive use of force” when dealing with migrants.
 
For Foreign Affairs, Kelsey P. Norman writes that rich countries cannot outsource their migration dilemmas.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is scrutinizing (Bloomberg) Mexico’s nationalist energy policies for possible violations of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm met with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last week. 
 
CFR’s Shannon K. O’Neil looks at Mexico’s plan to renationalize its electricity grid.
 
Guatemala: A court sentenced five former paramilitary patrolmen (Guardian) to thirty years in prison for raping Indigenous women during the 1980s. The crimes occurred during the country’s civil war.

The James Webb Space Telescope reached its destination (NPR) of around one million miles from Earth and will start examining planets in other solar systems. The mission has been in the works since the late 1980s.
 
This Backgrounder looks at space exploration and U.S. competitiveness.