Patrick PiersonBy Patrick Pierson.
Over the 4th of July weekend, more than 100 hundred people suffered gunshot wounds in Chicago. On Wednesday, more than two dozen people were killed amidst inter-cartel gun battles in northern Mexico. Rights groups are calling for the ICC to probe extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses in Mexico’s war on drugs. The daughter of murdered Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was attacked this week, shortly after taking up her mother’s work in defense of indigenous rights. Disputes over a maritime boundary between Costa Rica and Nicaragua continue. In Colombia, a UN contractor kidnapped a few months ago by dissident guerillas was released this week. New reports suggest that over 100 soldiers have been detained during recent unrest in Venezuela. As protests continue, President Maduro has announced plans to increase the minimum wage for the third time this year.
French authorities have foiled an assassination plot against President Emmanuel Macron. The French Interior Minister Gérard Collomb announced that seven terror plots have been disrupted so far in 2017. The murder of an elderly Austrian couple has been tied to Islamic State. After last week’s cyberattack, authorities in Ukraine have taken possession of servers belonging to an accounting software firm believed to have participated in the attack. In Turkey, an opposition protest march from Ankara to Istanbul continues.
Earlier this week, Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel. Russian strikes in Syria deployed advanced cruise missiles on Wednesday, a show of force which may have been intended to catch the attention of more adversaries than just the Islamic State. Russia is now providing oil and mining rights to private security contractors who successfully retake territory held by ISIS. Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to work together towards combatting terrorist activity along their shared border. Customs officials in Hong Kong seized more than $9 million worth of ivory in a shipment from Malaysia. In the Philippines, security forces have found the bodies of two Vietnamese sailors kidnapped and killed by the Abu Sayyaf militant group. North Korea successfully tested an ICBM this week – this article provides a helpful primer for what this really means.
Civilians were killed this week when an errant shell landed on a Tripoli beach. Khalifa Haftar has declared that Benghazi is officially free of jihadists. In Mali, a militant group with ties to al-Qaeda released a video of six foreign hostages. Suicide attacks by Boko Haram militants are on the rise in Cameroon. The group also launched a deadly attack on a village in southeastern Niger this week. US forces conducted airstrikes against al-Shabaab militants in southern Somalia. Amidst ongoing civil war, the UN warns that South Sudan is facing a deadly cholera outbreak. Observers are worried about the potential for violence in Kenya’s upcoming elections. Officials in Tanzania ordered the detention of an opposition lawmaker after she insulted the president. A French human rights group has issued a report claiming that the Burundian government is purging the military of Tutsi officers. Is Zambia inching towards dictatorship? Ahead of August elections, Angola is welcoming thousands of international election observers.
