auto-update week 36

middle-east/ae.json

@@ -544,7 +544,7 @@
         "text": "president and vice president indirectly elected by the Federal Supreme Council - composed of the rulers of the 7 emirates - for a 5-year term (no term limits); unscheduled election held on 14 May 2022, following the death of President KHALIFA bin Zayid Al-Nuhayyan (next election NA); prime minister and deputy prime minister appointed by the president"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "MUHAMMAD BIN ZAYID Al-Nuhayyan elected president; Federal Supreme Council vote NA"
+        "text": "MUHAMMAD BIN ZAYID Al-Nuhayyan elected president; Federal Supreme Council vote - NA"
       },
       "note": "<strong>note:</strong> the Federal Supreme Council (FSC) is composed of the 7 emirate rulers and is the highest constitutional authority in the UAE; the FSC establishes general policies and sanctions federal legislation; meets 4 times a year; Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi) and Dubayy (Dubai) rulers have effective veto power"
     },

middle-east/aj.json

@@ -558,7 +558,7 @@
         "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds (if needed) for a 7-year term; a single individual is eligible for unlimited terms; election last held on 11 April 2018 (next to be held in 2025); prime minister and first deputy prime minister appointed by the president and confirmed by the National Assembly; note - a constitutional amendment approved in a September 2016 referendum extended the presidential term from 5 to 7 years; a separate constitutional amendment approved in the same referendum also introduced the post of first vice-president and additional vice-presidents, who are directly appointed by the president; however, no additional vice-presidents have been appointed since the constitutional amendment was passed"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "<em><br>2018:</em> Ilham ALIYEV reelected president in first round; percent of vote - Ilham ALIYEV (YAP) 86%, Zahid ORUJ (independent) 3.1%, other 10.9%"
+        "text": "Ilham ALIYEV reelected president in first round; percent of vote - Ilham ALIYEV (YAP) 86%, Zahid ORUJ (independent) 3.1%, other 10.9%"
       },
       "note": "<strong>note:</strong> OSCE observers noted shortcomings in the election, including a restrictive political environment, limits on fundamental freedoms, a lack of genuine competition, and ballot box stuffing"
     },

middle-east/am.json

@@ -559,7 +559,7 @@
         "text": "president indirectly elected by the National Assembly in 3 rounds if needed for a single 7-year term; election last held on 2-3 March 2022; prime minister indirectly elected by majority vote in 2 rounds if needed by the National Assembly"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "<em>2022: </em>Vahagn KHACHATURYAN elected president in second round; note - Vahagn KHACHATURYAN ran unopposed and won the Assembly vote 71-0<em><br>2018:</em> Armen SARKISSIAN elected president in first round; note - Armen SARKISSIAN ran unopposed and won the Assembly vote 90-10"
+        "text": "<br><em>2022: </em>Vahagn KHACHATURYAN elected president in second round; note - Vahagn KHACHATURYAN ran unopposed and won the Assembly vote 71-0<br><em><br>2018:</em> Armen SARKISSIAN elected president in first round; note - Armen SARKISSIAN ran unopposed and won the Assembly vote 90-10"
       },
       "note": "<strong>note:</strong> Nikol PASHINYAN was first elected prime minister on 8 May 2018 and reelected on January 2019; in response to a political crisis that followed Armenia's defeat in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in late 2020, PASHINYAN called an early legislative election for June 2021; his party won the election and PASHINYAN was elected to the prime ministership for a third time; his election was confirmed by the president on 2 August 2021, and he was sworn in on 10 September 2021"
     },

middle-east/ir.json

@@ -585,7 +585,7 @@
         "text": "supreme leader appointed for life by Assembly of Experts; president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 4-year term (eligible for a second term and an additional nonconsecutive term); election last held on 18 June 2021 (next to be held in June 2025)"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "<p><em>2021:</em> Ebrahim RAISI elected president; percent of vote - Ebrahim RAISI (independent) 72.4%, Mohsen REZAI (RFII) 13.8%, Abbdolnaser HEMATI (ECP) 9.8%, Amir-Hosein Qazizadeh-HASHEMI (Islamic Law Party) 4%<br><br><em>2017:</em> Hasan Fereidun RUHANI reelected president; percent of vote - Hasan Fereidun RUHANI (Moderation and Development Party) 58.8%, Ebrahim RAISI (Combat Clergy Association) 39.4% , Mostafa Mir-SALIM Islamic Coalition Party) 1.2%, Mostafa HASHEMI-TABA (Executives of Construction Party) 0.5%</p>"
+        "text": "<br><em>2021:</em> Ebrahim RAISI elected president; percent of vote - Ebrahim RAISI (independent) 72.4%, Mohsen REZAI (RFII) 13.8%, Abbdolnaser HEMATI (ECP) 9.8%, Amir-Hosein Qazizadeh-HASHEMI (Islamic Law Party) 4%<br><br><em>2017:</em> Hasan Fereidun RUHANI reelected president; percent of vote - Hasan Fereidun RUHANI (Moderation and Development Party) 58.8%, Ebrahim RAISI (Combat Clergy Association) 39.4%, Mostafa Mir-SALIM Islamic Coalition Party) 1.2%, Mostafa HASHEMI-TABA (Executives of Construction Party) 0.5%"
       }
     },
     "Legislative branch": {

middle-east/is.json

@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@
       }
     },
     "Major infectious diseases": {
-      "text": "<p><strong>note: </strong>on 22 March 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; Israel is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine</p>"
+      "text": "<p><strong>note: </strong>on 31 August 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; Israel is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine</p>"
     },
     "Obesity - adult prevalence rate": {
       "text": "26.1% (2016)"
@@ -564,7 +564,7 @@
         "text": "president indirectly elected by the Knesset for a single 7-year term; election last held on 2 June 2021 (next to be held in June 2028); following legislative elections, the president, in consultation with party leaders, tasks a Knesset member (usually the member of the largest party) with forming a new government"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "<p><em>2021:</em> Isaac HERZOG elected president; Knesset vote - Isaac HERZOG (independent) 87, Miriam PERETZ (independent) 26, invalid/blank 7<br><br><em>2014:</em> Reuven RIVLIN elected president in second round; Knesset vote - Reuven RIVLIN (Likud) 63, Meir SHEETRIT (The Movement) 53, other/invalid 4</p> <p> </p>"
+        "text": "<br><em>2021:</em> Isaac HERZOG elected president; Knesset vote - Isaac HERZOG (independent) 87, Miriam PERETZ (independent) 26, invalid/blank 7<br><br><em>2014:</em> Reuven RIVLIN elected president in second round; Knesset vote - Reuven RIVLIN (Likud) 63, Meir SHEETRIT (The Movement) 53, other/invalid 4 <p> </p>"
       }
     },
     "Legislative branch": {

middle-east/iz.json

@@ -578,7 +578,7 @@
         "text": "president indirectly elected by COR to serve a 4-year term (eligible for a second term); COR parliamentary election for president last held on 13 October 2022 (next to be held NA)"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "<em><br>2022: </em>COR vote in first round - Latif RASHID (PUK) 157, Barham SALIH (PUK) 99; Latif RASHID elected president in second round - Latif RASHID 167, Barham SALIH 99; Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani approved as prime minister<em><br><br>2018:</em> COR vote in first round - Barham SALIH (PUK) 165, Fuad HUSAYN (KDP) 90; Barham SALIH elected president in second round - Barham SALIH 219, Fuad HUSAYN 22; Adil ABD AL-MAHDI approved as prime minister<br><em><br>2014:  </em>Fuad MASUM elected president in first round; COR vote - Fuad MASUM (PUK) 211, Barham SALIH (PUK) 17; Haydar al-ABADI (Da'wa Party) approved as prime minister"
+        "text": "<em><br>2022: </em>Latif RASHID elected president in second round; COR vote in first round - Latif RASHID (PUK) 157, Barham SALIH (PUK) 99; COR vote in second round - Latif RASHID 167, Barham SALIH 99; Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani approved as prime minister<em><br><br>2018:</em> Barham SALIH elected president in second round; COR vote in first round - Barham SALIH (PUK) 165, Fuad HUSAYN (KDP) 90; COR vote in second round - Barham SALIH 219, Fuad HUSAYN 22; Adil ABD AL-MAHDI approved as prime minister"
       }
     },
     "Legislative branch": {

middle-east/le.json

@@ -1237,6 +1237,14 @@
         "text": "undetermined (2016); note - tens of thousands of persons are stateless in Lebanon, including many Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Syrian Kurds denaturalized in Syria in 1962, children born to Lebanese women married to foreign or stateless men; most babies born to Syrian refugees, and Lebanese children whose births are unregistered"
       }
     },
+    "Trafficking in persons": {
+      "tier rating": {
+        "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Lebanon does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials modestly increased investigations and continued to allow an NGO to screen migrants in the government detention center for trafficking; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; a caretaker government, judicial sector strike, and widespread civil service work stoppages limited Lebanon’s ability to establish effective anti-trafficking policies and impacted anti-trafficking efforts; efforts to identify and protect trafficking victims remained woefully inadequate; officials relied on NGOs and civil society to provide shelter and services to victims and did not report providing financial or in-kind support to those organizations; the parliament did not approve a labor law amendment, pending since 2009, to extend legal protections to foreign workers, nor did it approve a draft standardized contract for migrant workers; the lack of formal victim identification and referral procedures placed victims at risk of arrest, detention, or deportation for committing unlawful acts while being trafficked; the government did not reform its visa sponsorship system despite extreme trafficking vulnerabilities inherent in the system; officials rarely convicted traffickers for exploiting domestic servants, the prevalent form of trafficking in Lebanon; therefore, Lebanon was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)"
+      },
+      "trafficking profile": {
+        "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Lebanon, as well as Lebanese abroad; women and girls from South and Southeast Asia, and increasingly East and West Africa, are subjected to domestic servitude in Lebanon; recruitment agencies continued to aggressively recruit foreign national domestic workers—sometimes through fraudulent or false job offers—particularly from Nigeria and the Philippines; most employers withhold domestic workers’ passports, and some withhold wages, force excessive work hours, restrict freedom of movement, and physically or sexually abuse them; NGOs and international organizations reported increased exploitation of Lebanese adults by Lebanese nationals, particularly in industries such as custodial services; women, primarily from Belarus, Moldova, Morocco, Russia, and Ukraine, enter Lebanon legally under the artiste visa program—which restricts the women from leaving the hotel where they live—and face physical and sexual abuse and domestic servitude; adults and children among the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon are at high risk of sex and labor trafficking, sometimes at the hands of Syrian traffickers; refugee adults and children are held in bonded labor to pay for food, shelter, and transit and are sometimes contracted as groups to work in agriculture in the Beka’a Valley; forced child labor within the Syrian refugee population continued to rise, particularly in agriculture, construction, and street vending and begging; some of the children are forced or coerced to conduct criminal activity; Syrian refugee LGBTQI+ persons, women, girls, and some men are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking; some of the refugee women and girls are forced by family members into commercial sex acts or early marriage, and they are highly vulnerable to trafficking; Syrian and Lebanese nationals fleeing the economic crisis are vulnerable to sex trafficking in Turkey; non-state armed groups, including Hizballah, Fatah al-Islam, Jund Ansar Allah, Saraya al-Muqawama, and ISIS, recruited or used child soldiers in recent years; refugee children, particularly in Palestinian refugee camps, were especially vulnerable to recruitment or use as child soldiers  (2023)"
+      }
+    },
     "Illicit drugs": {
       "text": "<p>source country for amphetamine tablets destined for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Libya and Sudan; source for captagon    </p>"
     }

middle-east/sy.json

@@ -551,7 +551,7 @@
         "text": "president directly elected by simple majority popular vote for a 7-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 26 May 2021 (next to be held in 2028); the president appoints the vice president, prime minister, and deputy prime minister"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "<em>2021: </em>Bashar al-ASAD elected president; percent of vote - Bashar al-ASAD (Ba'th Party) 95.2%, Mahmoud Ahmad MAREI (Democratic Arab Socialist Union) 3.3%, other1.5%"
+        "text": "<em> </em>Bashar al-ASAD elected president; percent of vote - Bashar al-ASAD (Ba'th Party) 95.2%, Mahmoud Ahmad MAREI (Democratic Arab Socialist Union) 3.3%, other1.5%"
       }
     },
     "Legislative branch": {

middle-east/tu.json

@@ -566,7 +566,7 @@
         "text": "President Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (chief of state since 28 August 2014; head of government since 9 July 2018); Vice President Cevdet YILMAZ (since 3 June 2023); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government"
       },
       "head of government": {
-        "text": "President Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (head of government since 9 July 2018; chief of state since 28 August 2014); note - a 2017 constitutional referendum eliminated the post of prime minister after the 2018 general election"
+        "text": "President Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (head of government since 9 July 2018; chief of state since 28 August 2014)"
       },
       "cabinet": {
         "text": "Council of Ministers appointed by the president"
@@ -575,7 +575,7 @@
         "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 14 May 2023 with a runoff on 28 May 2023 (next to be held in 2028)"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "<p><em>2023: </em>Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN reelected in the second round; Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (AKP) 52.2%, Kemal KILICDAROGLU (CHP) 47.8%<em><br><br>2018:</em> Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN reelected president in the first round; Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (AKP) 52.6%, Muharrem INCE (CHP) 30.6%, Selahattin DEMIRTAS (HDP) 8.4%, Meral AKSENER (IYI) 7.3%, other 1.1%</p>"
+        "text": "<em><br>2023: </em>Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN reelected in second round - Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (AKP) 52.2%, Kemal KILICDAROGLU (CHP) 47.8%<em><br><br>2018:</em> Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN reelected president in first round - Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (AKP) 52.6%, Muharrem INCE (CHP) 30.6%, Selahattin DEMIRTAS (HDP) 8.4%, Meral AKSENER (IYI) 7.3%, other 1.1%<br>"
       }
     },
     "Legislative branch": {
@@ -1298,7 +1298,7 @@
     },
     "Refugees and internally displaced persons": {
       "refugees (country of origin)": {
-        "text": "10,244 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 3,312,209 (Syria), 43,955 (Ukraine) (as of 27 July 2023) (2023)"
+        "text": "10,244 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 3,298,817 (Syria), 43,670 (Ukraine) (as of 24 August 2023) (2023)"
       },
       "IDPs": {
         "text": "1.099 million (displaced from 1984-2005 because of fighting between the Kurdish PKK and Turkish military; most IDPs are Kurds from eastern and southeastern provinces; no information available on persons displaced by development projects) (2021)"

middle-east/we.json

@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@
       "note": "<strong>note:</strong> note includes Gaza Strip and the West Bank"
     },
     "Major infectious diseases": {
-      "text": "<p><strong>note: </strong>on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; the West Bank is currently considered a high risk to travelers for polio; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine</p>"
+      "text": "<p><strong>note: </strong>on 31 August 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; the West Bank is currently considered a high risk to travelers for polio; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine</p>"
     },
     "Children under the age of 5 years underweight": {
       "text": "2.1% (2019/20)",

middle-east/ym.json

@@ -312,7 +312,7 @@
       "water contact diseases": {
         "text": "schistosomiasis"
       },
-      "note": "<strong>note: </strong>on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; Yemen is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and <em>that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus</em>; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine"
+      "note": "<strong>note: </strong>on 31 August 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Asia; Yemen is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and <em>that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus</em>; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine"
     },
     "Obesity - adult prevalence rate": {
       "text": "17.1% (2016)"
@@ -563,7 +563,7 @@
         "text": "formerly, the president was directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 7-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 21 February 2012 (next election NA); note - a special election was held on 21 February 2012 to remove Ali Abdallah SALIH under the terms of a Gulf Cooperation Council-mediated deal during the political crisis of 2011; vice president appointed by the president; prime minister appointed by the president"
       },
       "election results": {
-        "text": "<em>2012:</em> in a special election held on 21 February 2012, Abd Rabuh Mansur HADI (GPC) was elected as a consensus president"
+        "text": "Abd Rabuh Mansur HADI (GPC) elected consensus president"
       },
       "note": "<strong>note:</strong> on 7 April 2022, President Abd Rabuh Mansur HADI announced the dismissal of Vice President ALI MUHSIN al-Ahmar and the formation of a Presidential Council, an eight-member body chaired by former minister Rashad AL-ALIMI; on 19 April 2022, the Council was sworn in before Parliament and began assuming the responsibilities of the president and vice president and carrying out the political, security, and military duties of the government"
     },