Colombian workers’ unions and student groups are holding their third nationwide strike (Reuters) in three weeks after negotiations between a union-led strike committee and President Ivan Duque’s government broke down.
 
The recent unrest began on November 21 (Al Jazeera) with a long-planned demonstration against a rumored cut to pensions. Protests swelled following a security crackdown on demonstrators, with the killing of an eighteen-year-old student by police fueling further discontent (PRI). Protest leaders have issued more than a dozen demands, including better public health care and education and the full implementation of the country’s 2016 peace deal. Government officials and the strike committee are set to meet again tomorrow. 

Constitutional experts will testify today (WaPo) before the House Judiciary Committee after the House Intelligence Committee concluded its phase of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald J. Trump. An Intelligence Committee report found that Trump “compromised national security to advance his personal gains.”

China’s state councillor and foreign minister, Wang Yi, called for increased cooperation (Yonhap) between the two countries during his first visit to Seoul since 2015. China, Japan, and South Korea are planning to hold a joint summit (Reuters) in China later this month.
 
CFR’s Scott A. Snyder discusses what China stands to gain from U.S.-South Korea tensions.
 
Hong Kong: Amid a recession exacerbated by monthslong anti-government protests and the U.S.-China trade war, Hong Kong’s government announced new economic relief measures (SCMP) worth more than $500 million, including installment plans for taxes and subsidies for utility costs.

Dhaka announced it shut down (AFP) more than 160 agencies recruiting people to work in Saudi Arabia following claims of sexual abuse and torture by Saudi employers.
 
India: An Indian engineer worked with NASA to locate the debris (BBC) of an Indian lunar rover that crashed on the surface of the moon in September.

Eleven people were arrested (Al Jazeera) in clashes between security forces and protesters in central Tunisia, according to the Interior Ministry. The current spate of demonstrations began after a man set himself on fire last Friday to protest a lack of economic opportunity.
 
Iran: Tehran acknowledged for the first time (AP) that government forces killed protesters during mass demonstrations that began last month. Amnesty International estimates that more than two hundred people have been killed in the unrest.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Renad Mansour discusses how Iran’s youthful protests provoked an authoritarian turn.

The UN mission in the country deployed seventy-five peacekeeping troops (UN) to central South Sudan following reports that nearly eighty people have been killed and more than a hundred others injured in recent communal violence.

Leaders of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries conclude a meeting in London today. They are expected to finalize a report on the alliance’s approach to China, as well as release a joint statement (AFP) acknowledging the challenges posed by Beijing’s rise.
 
This CFR photo guide traces seven decades of NATO.
 
Czech Republic: A leaked European Union audit said that Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis should pay back (AFP) more than $19 million he made in EU and state subsidies for his agricultural firm, calling his role as head of the company a conflict of interest.

China will invest in several infrastructure projects (Reuters) in the Central American country, including a water treatment plant and a stadium, the countries’ leaders announced in Beijing. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele called the partnership “gigantic, non-refundable cooperation.”

In its annual report on malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the global rate of malaria infections did not improve between 2014 and 2018. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the findings “deeply troubling.”
 
This CFR Backgrounder looks at how the WHO responds to global health crises.