China faces surge in COVID cases
Chinese police personnel check on a man who appears unwell and resting on top of his luggages on the street of Beijing, Dec. 30, 2022.
A top Chinese epidemiologist says that China is now experiencing the first of three expected waves of COVID-19 cases in the coming months. International health experts predict there will be at least 1 million deaths from COVID-19 in China this year. And, the Philippine government is urging hundreds of top police officials to resign after a probe found a handful of officers were involved in the narcotics trade. Also, the Kremlin has long denied that many of its soldiers are dying in its war in Ukraine. That changed this week when Russian officials admitted that a single Ukrainian strike killed at least 89 troops in a New Year’s Day attack in Makiivka, in the occupied Donetsk region. Plus, the war in Ukraine prompts a shift in the global fertilizer market.