By Greg Torode and James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) - The Hong Kong government is expanding its use of a long-dormant sedition law in what some lawyers and democracy advocates say is intensifying a squeeze on press freedom. Evidence of the renewed reliance on the sedition legislation came in late December when China-ruled Hong Kong targeted two media outlets. On Dec 29, about 200 police raided the office of online outlet Stand News and arrested seven people, charging two editors with conspiracy to publish "seditious publications". Authorities have not fully detailed what led to the charges. B...
Was Prime Minister Boris Johnson breaking the law at a time when millions of Britons were observing Covid restrictions, with many forced to stay away from dying relatives?
An official probe is looking into at least seven occasions in 2020 when Johnson and his Downing Street staff are accused of partying in violation of lockdown rules.
Johnson has defended some as work gatherings, including in repeated statements to the House of Commons -- which opposition lawmakers say now have been exposed as lies that make him unfit for office.
It is proving harder for the government to justify one event in May 2020 when a top aide invited staff to "bring your own booze" to social drinks in the garden.
Until Britain's first lockdown was eased a month later, such a gathering would have breached the then law mandating that no more than two people from different households could meet outside work.
Here is a selective rundown of the "partygate" events under investigation by senior civil servant Sue Gray, along with other lockdown breaches by government figures:
- May 15, 2020: Johnson is pictured with wine and cheese alongside his now-wife Carrie and some 20 staff in the Downing Street garden, according to a leaked photograph reported by the Guardian last month.
- May 20, 2020: Johnson's aide Martin Reynolds invites staff "to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No10 garden this evening".
ITV News, which obtained the emailed invitation this week, said 40 staff ended up in the garden that evening, eating picnic food and drinking.
Johnson and Carrie both attended, according to several reports, despite some staffers expressing qualms that the gathering breached lockdown rules.
- May 22, 2020: The Daily Mirror and Guardian newspapers publish a joint investigation alleging Johnson's then chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, had driven across the country a month earlier.
In an extraordinary news conference from the Downing Street garden, Cummings argues that he and his wife had come down with Covid and needed his parents in northeast England to provide childcare.
He says one side-trip was necessary to test his eyesight before the long drive back to London, intensifying public anger and incredulity at his actions. But Johnson stands by Cummings for months.
- November 13, 2020: Cummings is fired, and more recently he has alleged that a raucous party took place that night in Boris and Carrie Johnson's Downing Street apartment.
England was then in a second lockdown, and such indoor gatherings forbidden.
- November 27, 2020: Johnson gives a speech at Downing Street drinks held for the departure of another aide. The Daily Mirror has reported that up to 50 people were crammed into a room.
- December 14, 2020: Plates of buffet food and plentiful drinks were on offer in a photograph revealed by The Times newspaper showing Conservative staff in festive mood at party headquarters.
The party says the gathering was "unauthorized" and has disciplined some of those present.
Its losing candidate for the 2021 London mayoral elections, Shaun Bailey, was in the group and has since quit a role in the city's assembly.
At the time, London was in a regional "tier" of restrictions that had replaced the November lockdown, which banned indoor socializing.
- December 15, 2020: Johnson was photographed sitting between two staffers at a Number 10 Christmas quiz. He insists it was a work gathering.
- December 18, 2020: Another party was held in Downing Street, according to the Daily Mirror, prompting government denials.
But a video then obtained by ITV News showed Johnson's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton joking about the event at a mock news conference. She later resigned, in a tearful public statement.
- June 26, 2021: Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigns after The Sun newspaper reveals video footage of him breaking coronavirus restrictions a month before, during an affair with a close female aide.
Johnson initially defended Hancock, who had repeatedly urged the public to abide by the restrictions after England entered a third lockdown in January 2021.
Goldfish may have short memories but, according to an Israeli university study, they might be able to drive.
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that a goldfish's innate navigational abilities allowed it to steer a robotic vehicle towards a terrestrial target if given a food reward.
To conduct their unusual experiment, the team placed a fish tank on a set of motorised wheels.
A camera system then recorded the fish's movements in the water and translated it into navigational directions -- effectively moving the contraption in the direction where the fish bumped up against the glass.
In a video released by the university, the fish can be seen "driving" the vehicle toward a visual target, a colourful mark on the wall of the experiment room, visible through the clear sides of the tank.
When the fish steered the vehicle to the mark, it received a food reward.
"After a few days of training, the fish navigated to the target," the university team said in a press release.
"Moreover, they were able to do so even if they were interrupted in the middle by hitting a wall and they were not fooled by false targets placed by the researchers."
The peer-reviewed research, published in the Behavioural Brain Research journal, "hints that navigational ability is universal rather than specific to the environment," said Shachar Givon, a PhD student at the university's Life Sciences department who worked on the experiment.
Takeoffs at some western US airports were temporarily halted after North Korea test-launched a ballistic missile, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday.
"As a matter of precaution, the FAA temporarily paused departures at some airports along the West Coast on Monday evening," the FAA said in a statement about the rare action.
"Full operations resumed in less than 15 minutes. The FAA regularly takes precautionary measures," it said.
The agency, which governs commercial and private aviation, did not directly link the shutdown to the North Korean missile, and the US military said it had not ordered the action.
But when asked about the North Korean launch and the airports, White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki replied: "I believe it was a 15 minute groundstop and they did it out of an abundance of caution."
The FAA is "going to be assessing their approach moving forward," she said.
The shutdown appeared to have been ordered just minutes after the launch, which took place at around 2227 GMT Monday, or 2:27 pm on the west coast Pacific Standard Time."Full operations resumed in less than 15 minutes. The FAA regularly takes precautionary measures," it said.
The agency, which governs commercial and private aviation, did not directly link the shutdown to the North Korean missile, and the US military said it had not ordered the action.
But when asked about the North Korean launch and the airports, White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki replied: "I believe it was a 15 minute groundstop and they did it out of an abundance of caution."
The FAA is "going to be assessing their approach moving forward," she said.
The shutdown appeared to have been ordered just minutes after the launch, which took place at around 2227 GMT Monday, or 2:27 pm on the west coast Pacific Standard Time.
The second test launch in a week by nuclear-armed North Korea is believed to have been a short-range ballistic missile that plunged into the sea east of the Korean peninsula after flying 700 kilometers (435 miles), according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The missile reached an altitude of 60 kilometers (37 miles) and a speed of Mach 10, or ten times the speed of sound.
Public reports on social media showed that planes preparing for takeoff were told to halt in place at several western US airports before the order was rescinded.
In a recording posted online, a Burbank air traffic controller is heard telling a pilot to land because "some sort of national security stuff is going on."
Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz said in a tweet that his flight in Reno, Nevada, just east of the border of northern California, was also held on the ground for about 20 minutes.
It is not clear exactly how the alert was triggered. A spokesman for the Pentagon's North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) said it did not issue an alert after the launch. US intelligence can detect such events immediately with satellites monitoring the region.
"Certainly from our part, the missile launch would have been detected and assessed as no threat to Canada or the United States, and therefore no warning was issued," the Norad spokesman said.
The United States has elevated its defense readiness ever since Pyongyang demonstrated in tests in 2017 that it had potentially intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental United States.
On January 13, 2018, Hawaii went on full alert for a possible nuclear ballistic missile attack, with residents told to seek immediate shelter, after an erroneous emergency warning went out and sparked panic across the state.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who at one point was an ally of former President Donald Trump, has for weeks been engulfed by scandals related to him potentially breaking his own government's lockdown rules by throwing parties during the pandemic.
Things have grown so dire for Johnson that even the right-wing Daily Mail tabloid has now turned on him.
The lead comment article in the Wednesday edition of the Daily Mail, for instance, informs Johnson that "Britain is fizzing with anger" over his actions, and it informs him that he "must apologize and show humility" if he wants to survive as prime minister.
The paper this week also interviewed several U.K. citizens who say they're furious with Johnson for partying while they were locked down in their homes and while their loved ones were dying of COVID-19.
"It’s unspinnable," 25-year-old Hannah Brady, whose father's death certificate was signed on the same day Johnson allegedly attended a "bring your own booze" party, told the Daily Mail. "The person who’s in charge of keeping this country safe is just chipping away at his own moral authority."
Takeoffs at some western US airports were temporarily halted after North Korea test-launched a ballistic missile, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday.
"As a matter of precaution, the FAA temporarily paused departures at some airports along the West Coast on Monday evening," the FAA said in a statement about the rare action.
"Full operations resumed in less than 15 minutes. The FAA regularly takes precautionary measures," it said.
The agency, which governs commercial and private aviation, did not directly link the shutdown to the North Korean missile, and the US military said it had not ordered the action.
But when asked about the North Korean launch and the airports, White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki replied: "I believe it was a 15 minute groundstop and they did it out of an abundance of caution."
The FAA is "going to be assessing their approach moving forward," she said.
The shutdown appeared to have been ordered just minutes after the launch, which took place at around 2227 GMT Monday, or 2:27 pm on the west coast Pacific Standard Time.
The second test launch in a week by nuclear-armed North Korea is believed to have been a short-range ballistic missile that plunged into the sea east of the Korean peninsula after flying 700 kilometers (435 miles), according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The missile reached an altitude of 60 kilometers (37 miles) and a speed of Mach 10, or ten times the speed of sound.
Public reports on social media showed that planes preparing for takeoff were told to halt in place at several western US airports before the order was rescinded.
In a recording posted online, a Burbank air traffic controller is heard telling a pilot to land because "some sort of national security stuff is going on."
Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz said in a tweet that his flight in Reno, Nevada, just east of the border of northern California, was also held on the ground for about 20 minutes.
It is not clear exactly how the alert was triggered. A spokesman for the Pentagon's North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) said it did not issue an alert after the launch. US intelligence can detect such events immediately with satellites monitoring the region.
"Certainly from our part, the missile launch would have been detected and assessed as no threat to Canada or the United States, and therefore no warning was issued," the Norad spokesman said.
The United States has elevated its defense readiness ever since Pyongyang demonstrated in tests in 2017 that it had potentially intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental United States.
On January 13, 2018, Hawaii went on full alert for a possible nuclear ballistic missile attack, with residents told to seek immediate shelter, after an erroneous emergency warning went out and sparked panic across the state.
The spread of the Omicron variant is pushing Covid towards being an endemic disease that humanity can live with, although it remains a pandemic for now, the EU's drug watchdog said Tuesday.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) also expressed doubts about giving a fourth vaccine shot to the general population, saying repeated boosters were not a "sustainable" strategy.
"Nobody knows exactly when we will be at the end of the tunnel but we will be there," Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy at the Amsterdam-based regulator, told journalists.
"With the increase of immunity in population -- and with Omicron, there will be a lot of natural immunity taking place on top of vaccination -- we will be fast moving towards a scenario that will be closer to endemicity," he added.
But he stressed that "we should not forget we are still in a pandemic", noting the huge burden on healthcare from the surge in Omicron.
The World Health Organization said earlier Tuesday that more than half of people in Europe were on track to catch the variant in the next two months.
The WHO also warned that repeated Covid boosters were not a viable strategy, comments the EU's medicines regulator echoed.
"If we have a strategy in which we give boosters every four months, we will end up potentially having problems with immune response," the EMA's Cavaleri said.
"And secondly of course there is the risk of fatigue in the population with continuous administration of boosters."
Countries should instead start thinking about spacing out boosters at longer intervals, and synchronising them with the start of the cold season in the way that flu vaccines are currently administered, Cavaleri said.
The EMA separately said that studies had confirmed that despite being more infectious, the risk of hospitalisation from the Omicron variant was between one third and one half of that posed by the Delta strain.
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea began the New Year with increasingly capable missile tests, including at least one it claims was a hypersonic missile, amid an intensifying race for the next generation of long-range weapons that are harder to detect and intercept.
South Korean military officials have cast doubts https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skorea-casts-doubts-north-koreas-hypersonic-missile-claims-2022-01-07 on North Korea's claim a missile fired last week was hypersonic, but on Tuesday officials in Seoul said the North appeared to have test fired https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkorea-launches-possible-ballistic-missile-japan-says-2022-01-10 another missile that flew at relatively low altitudes at up to 10 times the speed of sound (12,348 kmh/7,673 mph).
North Korea did not immediately confirm the launch. The performance and the launch location reported by South Korea, however, suggested it may be another hypersonic missile.
North Korea tested its first such missile last year, joining other countries such as China, United States and Russia, which have conducted tests of hypersonic weapons in recent months.
HOW THE MISSILES WORK
Hypersonic missiles typically launch a warhead that travels at more than five times the speed of sound - or about 6,200 km per hour (3,850 mph), often manoeuvring at relatively low altitudes.
Despite their name, analysts say the main feature of hypersonic weapons is not speed - which can sometimes be matched or exceeded by traditional ballistic missile warheads - but their manoeuvrability.
North Korea's first hypersonic missile test in September featured a glider-shaped warhead, while last week's launch involved what analysts and South Korean military officials said was actually a conical manoeuvrable reentry vehicle (MaRV), or a ballistic missile warhead capable of manoeuvring to hit a target.
Combining a glide vehicle with a missile that can launch it partially into orbit - a so-called fractional orbital bombardment system (FOBS) - could strip adversaries of reaction time and traditional defences mechanisms.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), by contrast, carry nuclear warheads on ballistic trajectories that travel into space but never reach orbit.
WHO LEADS THE RACE
Last year China launched a rocket carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle that flew through space, circling the globe before cruising down toward its target, which it missed by about two dozen miles. [L1N2RD01Y]
In July, Russia successfully tested a Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile, which President Vladimir Putin touted as part of a new generation of missile systems. Moscow also tested the weapon from a submarine for the first time. [L8N2R017O]
The United States said in late September that it had tested an air-breathing hypersonic weapon - meaning it sustains flight on its own through the atmosphere like a cruise missile - marking the first successful test of that class of weapon since 2013.
Days after the U.S. announcement, North Korea fired a newly developed hypersonic missile for the first time, calling it a "strategic weapon" that boosted its defence capabilities, though some South Korean analysts described the test as a failure.
WHY IT MATTERS
The recent tests are the moves in a dangerous arms race in which smaller Asian nations are striving to develop advanced long-range missiles https://graphics.reuters.com/ASIA-MISSILES/xklpyxajkvg/asia-missiles.jpg, alongside major military powers.
Hypersonic weapons, and FOBS, could be a concern as they can potentially evade missile shields and early warning systems.
Some experts cautioned against hype surrounding missiles such as the one China tested in August.
"China already has 100 nuclear-armed ICBMs that can strike the U.S.," Jeffrey Lewis, a missile specialist at the U.S.-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said on Twitter at the time. "Although the glider is a nice touch ... this is an old concept that is newly relevant as a way to defeat missile defences."
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was embroiled Tuesday in another scandal over his government's alleged lockdown breaches as police said they were investigating a Downing Street gathering attended by dozens of top officials.
In the latest in a string of such allegations, Johnson and others allegedly held a drinks gathering in the garden of his official residence in May 2020 when any in-person socializing was outlawed.
An email leaked late Monday indicated that Martin Reynolds, a senior civil servant, invited more than 100 Downing Street colleagues to "bring your own booze" to the event, which Johnson and his wife Carrie allegedly attended.
The potentially highly damaging revelations follow a series of similar accusations which emerged last month about Downing Street parties held during later lockdowns in the run-up to Christmas in 2020.
They prompted Johnson to appoint another senior civil servant, Sue Gray, to investigate the allegations, and she is now expected to expand her probe to cover the new claims.
Meanwhile in a statement released late Monday, London police said they were also making enquiries over potential breaches of the lockdown laws in relation to the May gathering.
"The Metropolitan Police Service is aware of widespread reporting relating to alleged breaches of the Health Protection Regulations at Downing Street on May 20 2020 and is in contact with the Cabinet Office," the force said.
'Partygate'
Johnson has previously denied knowledge that any rules were broken in Downing Street during the pandemic, as he faced weeks of excoriating headlines over the previous allegations before Christmas.
But the latest accusations appear to directly contradict those claims.
In the May 2020 email sent by Reynolds, he wrote: "After what has been an incredibly busy period it would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No10 garden this evening."
Britain at the time was in the throes of its first lockdown, and outdoor social gatherings of any kind were banned.
ITV News, which obtained the email, said around 40 staff ended up gathering in the garden that evening, eating picnic food and drinking.
BBC News, which followed up, said it had contemporaneous emails from some Downing Staff that questioned the wisdom of the invitation.
"It's right that Sue Gray is looking into this matter independently," Health minister Ed Argar told Sky News on Tuesday during a round of broadcast interviews.
"I'm not going to make comments that would prejudge or get in the way of that."
Johnson had hoped to start the new year with a reset of his embattled government, leaving behind the so-called "partygate" scandals that ratcheted up the pressure on his position, after a series of other claims of sleaze.
But many of Tuesday's newspapers, including those which normally back Johnson and his Conservative party, again splashed the latest revelations over their front pages.
"Enough Boris! You must end 'partygate' farce now" implored the typically supportive Daily Express.
When the French refer to their native tongue, it is the "language of Moliere", and as he turns 400 this week he remains as central to their culture as Shakespeare in the English-speaking world.
A little-known star
Moliere, real name Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, left zero trace of his personal life: no journal, correspondence or even notes on his work. The only one of his four children to survive to adulthood, lost his manuscripts.
We don't know the source of his stage-name -- which refers to a quarry -- nor his date of birth (we have only a baptism certificate, dated January 15, 1622, that was discovered two centuries later in 1820).
As eldest son, he stood to inherit a comfortable living from his father as chief upholsterer and valet to the king, but gave it up to be an actor.
It caused his father much strife: he was forced to buy his son out of prison after his first company, The Illustrious Theatre, fell into debt.
Moliere fled Paris at 23, spending the next 13 years with a traveling troupe.
Success on the road won him a return to Paris and a successful audience for the young king, Louis XIV, that earned him a powerful patron even though he faced constant battles with censors.
Despite the myth, he did not quite die on stage, but shortly after a performance -- as the hypochondriac Argan no less -- at home on the Rue de Richelieu on February 17, 1673.
World's oldest company
La Comedie-Francaise was created by King Louis XIV in 1680, seven years after Moliere's death, as a merger between his troupe and another.
The longest-running theatre company in the world, it is known as "La Maison de Moliere" and has performed his work every single year since its formation.
Based since 1799 on the Rue de Richelieu, close to the Louvre, it now employs 400 people, including 60 actors, and has a costume department comprising 50,000 items.
Memorable characters
Moliere created characters who often take their foibles to extremes, but allow us to laugh at our universal human failings in the process.
Perhaps best-known is Tartuffe, from the play of the same name -- a fraud who disguises himself as a priest to convince a naive, wealthy aristocrat into handing him his fortune and daughter's hand in marriage, even as he chases after his wife.
The play is seen as practically inventing the "comedy of manners" that satirises the moral hypocrisies of high society.
Though Moliere is not thought to have been particularly anti-religious himself, "Tartuffe" scandalised the Catholic Church and became a key text in the anti-clerical movement of the following centuries.
Among other key characters is the money-obsessed Harpagnon, from "The Miser", who exhorts his servants "not to rub the furniture too hard for fear of wearing it out".
The hypochondriac Argan from "The Imaginary Invalid" is another eternal character that Moliere used to satirise quacks in the medical profession who exploited people's fear of death.
Japan will extend measures barring almost all new foreign arrivals until the end of February and reopen mass-vaccination centres as it battles an Omicron-fuelled coronavirus surge, the government said Tuesday.
"We will keep the current border control policy until the end of February while taking necessary measures from a humanitarian viewpoint and considering the national interest," Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.
Local media said there would be some new exemptions for members of Japanese families as well as students studying in Japan but there were no immediate details from officials.
The government will also reopen large-scale vaccination centres run by the Self-Defense Forces, and ask local governments to reopen their own mass-inoculation sites to accelerate booster shots, Kishida said.
Japan has imposed strict border-control measures, such as quarantine and frequent testing, on those entering the country from abroad.
But despite those efforts, the Omicron variant has been circulating locally and Japan is seeing a sharp rise in virus cases.
"Even though the Omicron strain is said to have a low ratio of serious cases, if the number of infections surges, the number of serious cases will increase and put pressure on the medical system," Kishida said, calling for the public to remain vigilant.
The government has already approved new virus restrictions for three regions, and US forces in Japan have barred troops from non-essential off-base trips for two weeks after clusters of cases emerged in the military and surrounding communities.
Overall, Japan's infection rate remains comparatively low, with 8,249 cases reported nationwide on Sunday.
But the numbers are rising, and the Sunday figure was among the highest levels since September.
The country has recorded just over 18,400 deaths in the pandemic.
A 6.6-magnitude quake hit off the west coast of Cyprus early Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of casualties or structural damage.
The strong and relatively shallow quake at 0107 GMT was centred 48 kilometres (30 miles) west-northwest of the town of Polis on the Mediterranean island, the USGS said.
The tremor was felt across Cyprus and around the region with reports from as far away as Turkey, Israel and Lebanon, according to the USGS.
It shook buildings in the capital Nicosia, 130 kilometres away, where some residents went out into the streets.
"It was frightening. The whole building was shaking endlessly," one Nicosia resident told AFP. "I thought it would never end."
Cyprus police told AFP there were no reports of injuries or serious structural damage from the quake, but it woke people across the island.
"It was a very strong earthquake," said Marinos Lambrou, the mayor of Pegeia, a coastal town close to the epicentre. "We are not used to such earthquakes.
"The residents were scared, everyone woke up and they were frightened. We hope that there will be no aftershocks. Fortunately there was no damage, the situation is safe and we didn't register any wounded."
Further away, in Limassol, Carol Bailey, a 61-year-old French teacher, said: "We were in bed and it woke us up -- it really went on for a long time."
She said friends who live farther west told her it shook their building and set the lights swinging, while the inside of their fireplace "was making a noise like a horror film".
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre measured the tremor at 6.5 magnitude at a depth of 51 kilometres.
Cyprus lies in a secondary earthquake-prone zone, but tremors of such magnitude are uncommon.
The biggest quake in recent years was a magnitude 6.8 in 1996, which killed two people in Paphos, on the island's west coast.
In 1953, a 6.3-magnitude quake killed 40 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, mostly in the Paphos region.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (R) takes part in a parliamentary session via videoconference during which lawmakers have installed a new prime minister after days of riots. -/Kazakh Presidency /dpa
Kazakhstan lawmakers have installed a new prime minister, as the country's rulers seek to reassert order after days of riots.
The parliament of the Central Asian country on Tuesday voted in Alikhan Smailov, state television reported. Smailov had already taken the post temporarily, after the dismissal of the old government a week ago, according to the report.
Smailov was previously deputy prime minister and also long had the post of finance minister.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had earlier suggested Smailov for the job.
On Monday, Tokayev told a meeting of a Russian-led regional security alliance order has been restored after days of violent unrest in which more than 150 people were killed and thousands detained.
"Complete order has been restored in Kazakhstan. Threats to the country's security have been averted," Tokayev told a video meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which he had called in to quell riots.
The first foreign troops who showed up to restore order in Kazakhstan after widespread rioting last week are already set to return home this week, according to Tokayev.
Departures should begin in two days, he said during an address to Parliament. "The main mission of the CSTO is done."
Meanwhile, the number of detentions was approaching 10,000. According to the Tengrinews agency, the Interior Ministry said that around 9,900 people had been detained during the riots.
Kazakhstan, which borders Russia and China, was gripped by unrest for a week, after anti-government protests grew out of resentment over increased fuel prices at petrol stations in the oil and gas-rich country.
Alongside peaceful demonstrations, there were also violent riots, especially in the metropolis of Almaty.
Tokayev declared a state of emergency, dismissed the government and ordered the military to shoot at demonstrators without warning.
Evidence appeared to be emerging that the widespread destruction was not only caused by protesters angry at higher fuel costs, corruption and authoritarian leadership.
The balance of power in Kazakhstan has shifted, according to regional political scientists, in the course of a deadly week.
Alongside many peaceful demonstrators, there were also organized rioters who caused violence, particularly in Almaty, according to Diana Kudaibergenova, who teaches at Cambridge University.
In Almaty, peaceful protests were hijacked by organized criminal groups, she said in a tweet, adding that it is important to distinguish between the two groups.
Residents reported the sound of gunfire and rioting mobs roaming the streets, while several shops selling guns were looted.
A video of men grabbing guns from the boot of a car has been widely shared online.
As of January 4, "pre-prepared storm troopers played the leading role, intent on violent confrontation without any slogans," according to Kazakh political scientist Daniyar Ashimbayev, in a Telegram post.
Kazakh experts see evidence of coordinated action in the targeting of police stations and administrative buildings, strategic points that appear to have been deliberately attacked.
This rapid radicalization cannot only be attributed to the escalation of popular anger, of young men on the streets, according to an analysis by the Moscow Carnegie Center.
While much remains unclear about the week of unrest, "the most important thing is obvious: the Nazarbayev era is over in Kazakhstan," according to the Carnegie Center's analysis, a reference to former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had continued to wield much influence despite stepping down in 2019.
Nargis Kassenova, a Central Asia researcher at Harvard University, called on the government to provide information about what happened.
"The Kazakhstan government owes us the truth, full and unabridged, not manipulated narratives and fakes. People are not stupid, and they are angry," she said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, looking ahead, some were optimistic.
"In today's meeting, as the Turkic States, we have emphasized our support to Kazakhstan. We believe that Kazakhstan and the Turkic World will emerge stronger from this challenge. Our strength comes from unity!" Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev takes part in a parliamentary session via videoconference during which lawmakers have installed a new prime minister after days of riots. -/Kazakh Presidency /dpa
