World roundup: January 24 2022

Stories from Iran, Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso, and more

INTERNATIONAL

In today’s global news:

• Worldometer is tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

• The New York Times is tracking global vaccine distribution.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

The Syrian Democratic Forces militia said on Monday that its forces had regained control of part of the prison in Hasakah that was seized by the facility’s Islamic State inmates during a prison riot/attack last week. It sounds like they’re still battling to regain full control of the facility but they claim they’ve forced some 300 of the inmates to surrender so far. The SDF is further claiming that it’s killed at least 180 IS members since the initial prison break on Thursday, while losing 27 of its own fighters. Non-SDF sources are suggesting the death tolls could be substantially higher, but I haven’t seen many alternate estimates (the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has put the SDF’s losses at somewhere over 50). There are around 850 children living in the Hasakah facility either on their own or with their families. There’s no indication as to how they’ve fared but UNICEF has been calling on the SDF to evacuate them, to no avail from what I can tell. The SDF is still not releasing any information as to the number of escapees, though in fairness they may simply be unable to determine that yet under the circumstances.