NETERLANDS – The Dutch government agreed on strict new asylum measures on Friday, including differentiating between refugees based on their reason for claiming asylum. The proposals approved by the Dutch cabinet will still need to go to the Council of State, an independent adviser to the government, to make sure they are legally sound and can be implemented. “This cabinet is heading for the strictest asylum regime and the strictest admission requirements ever,” Minister of Asylum and Migration Marjolein Faber said in a statement. She is part of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV). Ministers from all coalition parties (PVV, VVD, BBB and NSC) have backed the move to tighten the rules to try and reduce the amount of asylum seekers going to the Netherlands.

This includes the Asylum Emergency Act which aims to abolish permanent residence permits. The effect of this is that refugees may not be able to stay indefinitely and would face periodic reviews of their status. The proposed law would also limit the validity of asylum permits to three years, restrict the number of family members that can join refugees permanently and extend the declaration of undesirability, which if issued means that you are not allowed to enter the Netherlands. Another proposed law would focus on differentiating between asylum seekers. It would make a distinction between people fleeing dangerous situations because of ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion, and people fleeing war and violence. The idea behind it is that people who flee war and violence will eventually return to their country of origin when it is safe there again. (Euronews)

USA – The State Department informed Congress on Friday that it had approved the sale of $4.69bn worth of equipment for 555 US-made M1A1 Abrams tanks operated by Egypt, along with $630m in Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and $30m in precision-guided munitions. In a statement issued that day, it said the sale would support US “foreign policy and national security” by helping to improve the security of a “major” non-NATO ally that had acted as an important strategic partner in the Middle East. Egypt and the US have worked increasingly closely since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023, with Cairo playing a role in negotiating a ceasefire. The deals come despite ongoing concern in Washington over the Egyptian government’s poor human rights record under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Rights group Amnesty estimates that Egypt currently holds about 60,000 political prisoners, including British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, jailed for “spreading false news” after sharing a Facebook post about alleged police brutality. Egypt has in the last two years pardoned hundreds of political prisoners. But rights groups have said at least three times that many have been arrested over the same period.

US President Joe Biden took office in 2021 pledging a harder line on Egypt over human rights concerns, but his administration has approved several arms deals.

In 2022, his administration approved the sale to Egypt of 12 Super Hercules C-130 transport aircraft and air defence radar systems totalling an estimated $2.5bn. (Aljazeera)

Photo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, right, meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Alamein, Egypt. (AFP)

SOUTH KOREA – Demonstrators supporting and opposing South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held rival protests several hundred metres apart in Seoul, a week after he was impeached over his short-lived declaration of martial law.

Yoon’s presidential powers are suspended but he remains in office. He has not complied with various summonses by authorities investigating whether martial law, which he declared late on Dec. 3 and rescinded hours later, constituted insurrection.

He has also not responded to attempts to contact him by the Constitutional Court, which decides whether to remove him from office or restore his presidential powers. The court plans to hold its first preparatory hearing on Friday.

Saturday’s pro- and anti-Yoon protests were held in Gwanghwamun in the heart of the capital. There were no clashes as of 4 p.m. (0700 GMT)

Tens of thousands of anti-Yoon protesters, dominated by people in their 20s and 30s, gathered around 3 p.m., waving K-Pop light sticks and signs with sayings such as “Arrest! Imprison! Insurrection chief Yoon Suk Yeol” to catchy K-pop tunes. (CNN)

Photo: Protesters attend a rally against South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared martial law, which was reversed hours later, in Seoul. (Reuters)

BRAZIL – When police in Rio de Janeiro seize blocks of cocaine and bundles of marijuana they may well find them branded with a religious symbol – the Star of David. This is not a reference to the Jewish faith, but to the belief of some Pentecostal Christians that the return of Jews to Israel will lead to the Second Coming of Christ. The gang selling these branded drugs is the Pure Third Command, one of Rio’s most powerful criminal groups, with a reputation both for making its opponents disappear, and for fanatical evangelical Christianity.

They took control of a group of five favelas in the north of the city – now known as the Israel Complex – after one of their leaders had what he believed was a revelation from God, says theologian Vivian Costa, author of the book, Evangelical Drug Dealers. She says the gangsters see themselves as “soldiers of crime”, with Jesus as “the owner” of the territory they dominate. (BBC)

NETHERLANDS – Mosquitoes are usually associated with serious diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever. However, researchers from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Radboud University in the Netherlands may have found a valuable new role for the insects: as vaccine distributors. Their scientists say they have successfully engineered mosquitoes to deliver vaccines that could potentially provide significantly enhanced immunity against malaria. The World Health Organization’s most recent World Malaria Report revealed that an estimated 597,000 people died of malaria globally in 2023 with African countries bearing the brunt of the death toll – accounting for 95 percent of malaria fatalities. Scientists estimated that more than 240 million malaria cases occur annually worldwide. Children and expectant mothers are the most vulnerable to the disease.
The vaccine employs a weakened strain of Plasmodium falciparum (P falciparum), the parasite that causes the deadliest form of malaria in humans. “We have removed an important gene in the malaria parasite, still allowing the parasite to infect people but not making them sick,” explained vaccinologist Meta Roestenberg, professor of vaccinology and clinical head of the Controlled Human Infection Center at LUMC.
Typically, the malaria parasite is transferred to humans by a bite. The mosquito uses its long, needle-like mouth (called a proboscis) to pierce the skin, injecting its saliva into the bloodstream before sucking blood. Parasites in the saliva travel directly to the liver, where they rapidly reproduce, before leaving the liver to infect red blood cells with malaria. This leads to symptoms such as fever, chills and sweating. In the clinical trial, the research team used mosquitoes carrying the modified parasite to deliver the vaccine via bites, mirroring the natural transmission of malaria. The goal: creating a strong immune response in the liver and protection from a malaria infection.
“Because the gene [is] turned off, this parasite cannot complete its development in the liver, cannot enter the bloodstream and thus cannot cause disease symptoms,” Roestenberg said. “At least that was the theory.” (Aljazeera)

Photo: A laboratory technician holds a mosquito at the World Mosquito Program factory in Medellin, Colombia. (AFP)