January 11, 2022

*) Kazakhstan: 'Attempted coup' defeated, CSTO troops to leave 'soon’ Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said his country has defeated what he called an “attempted coup d'etat” during historic violence last week. He blamed foreign militants for the violence and promised foreign troops deployed to stabilise his country will vacate "soon". In a video conference with leaders from several ex-Soviet countries, Tokayev said "armed militants" had used the backdrop of protests to try to seize power. Last week’s protests were sparked by a fuel price hike. *) US shatters world record with 1.13 million new Covid cases The United States has reported at least 1.13 million new coronavirus infections, the highest daily total of any country in the world. The surge comes as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing in the country. Meanwhile, flight cancellations, new lockdowns, and border restrictions in other parts of the world are becoming a norm again as the pandemic continues to spread. ​​​*) Russia, US agree to further talks on Ukraine with no major breakthrough Russia has told the United States that it had no plans to invade Ukraine, as the two sides agreed to more efforts to keep tensions from turning into a full-blown confrontation. After more than seven hours of negotiations in Geneva on Monday, the Russian and US negotiators both offered to keep talking, though there was no sign of a major breakthrough. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said he had assured his US counterpart, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, that those fears were unfounded. *) North Korea fires suspected ballistic missile amid stalled talks North Korea has fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into its eastern sea, its second weapons launch in a week. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday said North Korea likely fired a single ballistic missile from an inland area to its eastern sea. He said that the South Korean and US militaries were analysing th