At an air base in Bamako, Mali's military ruler Gen. Assimi Goita presided over a ceremony Dec. 21 marking the launch of a unified force for three Sahel states to fight the rising tide of jihadist insurgency across their borders. The move comes after the three countries—Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, all now ruled by military juntas—collectively withdrew from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to form their own Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Burkina Faso's ruler, Gen. Daouda Traoré, was named to head the force, which will maintain a command base in Niamey, Niger's capital.

On Dec. 30, the third day of protests by Tehran bazaar merchants in response to the dire economic situation in Iran, the strike started to spread across the country. Shopkeepers in Isfahan, Ahvaz, Shiraz, Kermanshah and Najafabad closed their stalls and held protest gatherings, where they were joined by students who walked off university campuses. Security forces responded with multiple arrests and the use of live fire and tear-gas in several locations. One student is reported to have been severely injured in Tehran. Protest slogans escalated beyond economic grievances, openly targeting clerical rule and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Iran Focus, Iran International)

Following through on threats made last month, President Donald Trump announced Dec. 25 that he had ordered air-strikes against Islamic State targets in Nigeria, ostensibly in retaliation for the group's targeting of Christian communities.

The rising wave of far-right populism has arrived in Chile with the run-off presidential election of Dec. 14. José Antonio Kast, a 59-year old ultra-conservative who campaigned on fighting crime and carrying out mass deportations, defeated left-wing candidate Jeanette Jara by about 16 points. His victory marks the country's furthest shift to the right since the restoration of democracy after the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet 30 years ago—an era and figure Kast has openly admired.

Yemen's separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is said to be backed by the United Arab Emirates, has been rapidly advancing through large parts of the country's south and east, in Hadramawt, al-Mahra and Shabwa provinces. They are taking over control from groups backed by Saudi Arabia, including the Hadramawt Tribal Alliance (HTA). While all forces involved are supposed to be on the same side in a broader anti-Houthi alliance, the move is yet another reminder that Yemen's war is not over, and that it involves a variety of actors and local grievances. (TNH)

It has been a tumultuous few days in Honduras. Since voting in elections on Nov. 30, former president Juan Orlando Hernández—convicted in the US last year of drug trafficking and bribery—was pardoned by President Donald Trump and subsequently released. The country has remained on tenterhooks as the results of the presidential election have still not yet been finalized, and Trump has threatened reprisals if his favored candidate fails to win. Adding to the unease is the country's deeply flawed vote-transmission system, which has crashed twice.

A comprehensive global report on "uncontacted" indigenous peoples, published Oct. 27 by UK-based Survival International estimates that the world still holds at least 196 uncontacted or isolated peoples living in 10 countries in South America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific region. Nine out of 10 of these groups face the threat of unwanted contact by extractive industries, including logging, mining, and oil and gas drilling. It's estimated that a quarter are threatened by agribusiness, with a third terrorized by criminal gangs. Intrusions by missionaries are a problem for one in six groups. After contact, indigenous groups are often decimated by illnesses, mainly influenza, for which they have little immunity. Survival International found that unless governments and private companies act to protect them, half of these groups could be wiped out within 10 years.

Mayor Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez was assassinated during a Day of the Dead celebration Nov. 1 in the main square of Uruapan, in the violence-torn Mexican state of Michoacán. He had been an outspoken opponent of the drug cartels and their reign of terror in the state, and his death sparked protests across Michoacán. At a demonstration in state capital Morelia the day after the murder, protesters demanded the resignation of Gov. Ramírez Bedolla, of Mexico's ruling MORENA party; one faction broke into and vandalized the Government Palace. President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced a new "Michoacán Plan for Peace & Justice" to finally pacify the lawless state.