Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at search-and-rescue operations in Tibet, an extended arrest warrant for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, and allegations of genocide during Sudan’s civil war.
Rising Death Toll
A major 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Shigatse region of Tibet on Tuesday in the Himalayan foothills of southwestern China, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At least 126 people were killed and more than 180 others injured, making this the deadliest quake to hit China since December 2023, when a 6.2 magnitude tremor killed 151 people in the northwestern Gansu and Qinghai provinces.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at search-and-rescue operations in Tibet, an extended arrest warrant for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, and allegations of genocide during Sudan’s civil war.
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Rising Death Toll
A major 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Shigatse region of Tibet on Tuesday in the Himalayan foothills of southwestern China, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At least 126 people were killed and more than 180 others injured, making this the deadliest quake to hit China since December 2023, when a 6.2 magnitude tremor killed 151 people in the northwestern Gansu and Qinghai provinces.
Tuesday’s earthquake struck roughly 50 miles north of Mount Everest and near one of Tibet’s holiest cities, which was traditionally the residence of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism. The quake was also felt in Nepal, Bhutan, and India, and it produced more than 150 aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 4.4.
“I offer my prayers for those who have lost their lives and extend my wishes for a swift recovery to all who have been injured,” said the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India.
According to Tibet Fire and Rescue authorities, more than 1,000 homes were damaged in Tingri County, with hundreds of them reportedly flattened. Chinese President Xi Jinping has deployed 3,400 rescuers and more than 340 medical workers for search and recovery operations. The government also sent around 22,000 critical supply items, including coats, tents, and beds.
However, the region’s difficult landscape and freezing temperatures could hinder rescue efforts. “This is harsh, high altitude land,” professor Robert Barnett told the New York Times. “The roads are quite few and susceptible to landslides,” he added, which could lead to bottlenecks for aid trying to enter the region. With temperatures at minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday and expected to drop to minus 16 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, rescuers have a short window to locate survivors.
Since 1950, the so-called Lhasa block in southern Tibet has recorded 21 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or higher. In neighboring Nepal in 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the capital city of Kathmandu killed roughly 9,000 people and wounded thousands more. Among those killed were at least 18 people at the Mount Everest base camp, which was hit by an avalanche. Following Tuesday’s quake, Xi closed down China’s side of the Everest region to tourists.
Tibet is one of the most inaccessible, underdeveloped regions of China. Rights groups have repeatedly criticized Beijing for infringing on the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people with forced relocations and arbitrary detentions. Foreign journalists are not allowed to travel independently in the autonomous region, and local media is heavily censored.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Another arrest attempt. South Korean authorities extended the arrest warrant for impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday after local police were unable to detain him at his home in Seoul. The warrant, which was due to expire on Monday, seeks to detain Yoon for questioning as part of an investigation into his short-lived martial law order last month, which investigators argue was an attempted insurrection. It is unclear how long the new warrant will last.
The first warrant, as well as a separate mandate to search Yoon’s house, was issued last Tuesday after Yoon defied several court summonses. Investigators attempted to take Yoon into custody last Friday, but hundreds of his supporters, the presidential guard, and military authorities blocked officials from accessing the presidential compound in an hourslong standoff.
Yoon’s legal team claims that the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials lacks the authority to investigate the president because insurrection is not among the listed offenses that the agency can probe. However, insurrection is one of the few criminal offenses that a sitting South Korean president can face.
Genocide designation. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused members of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of having committed genocide during the country’s 20-month civil war. “The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys—even infants—on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence,” Blinken said on Tuesday.
More than 61,000 people have been killed in Khartoum state since the conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces began, and more than 14 million others have been forcibly displaced from their homes due to fighting. The United States has also previously accused both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces of committing war crimes. Repeated efforts to secure peace talks have resulted in little to no success.
“We need a major diplomatic breakthrough, and we need it now,” Tom Perriello, the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, told Foreign Policy last June.
With less than two weeks remaining before U.S. President Joe Biden leaves office, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Tuesday against RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The RSF did not issue a comment on the genocide allegation or new sanctions.
Parting sanctions. Also on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department issued sanctions against Antal Rogan, a senior Hungarian government official. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller accused Rogan of manipulating the Hungarian economy to benefit himself and his party at the expense of the public. The sanctions are emblematic of larger concerns surrounding political corruption in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s far-right government.
U.S.-Hungarian relations have deteriorated under the Biden administration; however, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly praised Orban’s anti-immigrant and pro-Russia policies, and Orban has said that he hopes the new U.S. administration will normalize bilateral ties.
Death of a Frenchman. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the modern French far right, died on Tuesday at age 96. Le Pen created the increasingly popular National Front party (since renamed the National Rally), which gained 53 additional seats in the National Assembly during last summer’s snap legislative elections. Today, Le Pen’s daughter serves as a key figure in the National Rally.
Le Pen was known for his outright racist, antisemitic, and xenophobic remarks; past comments denying the atrocities of the Holocaust; and allegations that he tortured prisoners in Algeria while serving in the French Army. (Le Pen denied these allegations.) Le Pen “ruled the National Front like an absolute monarch, angrily confronting (and usually kicking out) those who dared question his decisions, and he stubbornly continued to run for the French presidency over and over again,” journalist Michele Barbero wrote in an obituary for Foreign Policy.
Odds and Ends
Leftover Christmas cookies make great treats for the post-holiday season, but not all festive symbols should become yummy snacks. “Christmas trees are not meant to end up in the food chain,” Belgium’s Federal Food Agency warned on Tuesday after the city of Ghent urged residents to eat their holiday trees to cut back on waste. Most Christmas trees that end up in living rooms are heavily treated with chemicals, including pesticides, to preserve their appearance and prevent critters from chomping down. Not even elephants at the Berlin Zoo are allowed to eat used Christmas trees for fear of chemical contamination.
The post Deadly 7.1 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Tibet appeared first on Foreign Policy.
