Nearly sixty thousand people have disappeared in Mexico (WaPo) since a crackdown on drug cartels began in 2006, Mexican officials announced. They counted 61,637 disappearances dating back to 1964, a jump (NYT) from a 2018 estimate of 40,000 disappearances in the same period.
 
Officials reached the new numbers by reexamining records from state prosecutors, and departed from past administrations’ reluctance to publish data on the extent of drug-related violence. Since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018, authorities uncovered (Guardian) 873 clandestine burial sites containing more than one thousand bodies, a top official said.

John Bass left his post (NYT) as the top U.S. envoy in Kabul after serving a two-year term and will be temporarily replaced by retired ambassador Ross Wilson, a State Department official said.
 
Bangladesh: More than one thousand university students and activists in Dhaka protested (AP) for increased safety for women after a student was raped, according to police.

Eastern Libya–based rebels waging a war against the country’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli announced they captured the strategically important coastal city of Sirte. A force aligned with Tripoli’s government said it had withdrawn (Reuters) from the area.
 
Iran: At least forty people were killed in a stampede (Al Jazeera) at Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani’s funeral procession in his hometown of Kerman, Iranian state television reported. His burial has been postponed.

Troops from the East Africa Response Force of U.S. Africa Command deployed (Military Times) to Manda Bay, Kenya after an al-Shabab attack on an air base there killed three Americans.
 
Ethiopia: The powerful Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which previously formed part of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s governing coalition, announced that it would seek different alliances (Bloomberg) instead of joining Abiy’s new unity party.

Belarus restarted its refinement of Russian oil after a five-day halt due to political tensions (FT) between the two countries. Russia has sought to more deeply integrate with Belarus in the past year, while Belarus explored closer ties with the European Union.
 
Spain: The country’s legislature votes today (AFP) on whether to accept a proposed coalition government backed by acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, which would confirm Sanchez’s position as prime minister.

Admissions tests in sixty-four locations across the country were suspended (Reuters) amid protests over inequality and elitism. The tests have been delayed twice since November due to unrest.
 
This CFR In Brief looks at Chile’s protest movement.

Senior officials in President Donald J. Trump’s administration will brief (NPR) eight Senate leaders on Iran today and conduct closed-door briefings for all members of Congress tomorrow. Democrats have criticized the United States’ killing of Soleimani as provocative and disproportionate, and the House of Representatives plans to vote this week to limit Trump’s war powers.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Kelly Magsamen discusses how to avoid another war in the Middle East in the wake of the Soleimani strike.