Patrick PiersonBy Patrick Pierson.
ETA has issued an apology. Spain will restore its ambassador to Venezuela after a months-long spat over EU sanctions against Venezuela. French officials expelled a controversial Salafist preacher based in Marseille to Algeria. Officials in Norway may request that US Marines extend their stay in the country. Researchers in Denmark have discovered a Nazi U-boat that’s been missing for more than 70 years. Attacks against Jewish residents are on the rise in Berlin. Poland marked the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising this week. Italian police have arrested nearly two dozen members of the Cosa Nostra mafia. The International Organization for Migration is asking for nearly $40 million to assist conflict-affected people in Ukraine. An ultranationalist lawmaker in Serbia trampled on the Croatian flag this week during a session of parliament.
Protests are on the rise in Armenia. In Iran, government agencies have been banned from using ‘foreign-based messaging apps.’ An investigative journalist in Russia has died in a mysterious fall from an apartment balcony. Hundreds of refugees left Lebanon on their way back to Syria this week. The Iraqi air force is now launching its own airstrikes against ISIS. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says a number of countries are looking at relocating their embassies to Jerusalem. A spate of armed bank robberies has Amman on edge. A number of police officers were killed in Saudi Arabia this week when armed men attacked a police check point. Some US lawmakers want to end US support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. The Taliban cut off cell service in southern Afghanistan. Has the #MeToo movement made it to Pakistan?
The Philippines’ President Duterte has threatened to arrest an ICC prosecutor. Annual Philippine-US war games have been expanded to include troops from Australia and Japan. Indonesia’s Aceh province carried out a number of public canings this week. Apparently the #MeToo movement has made it to Japan. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. It was revealed this week that CIA director Mike Pompeo recently met with North Korea’s Kim Jong un in preparations for the upcoming summit between President Trump and the North Korean leader. On Friday, a direct phone line was set up between North and South Korea. Australia is confronting China in the South China Sea.
A dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Nile continues. Muammar Gaddafi’s son is planning to enter the presidential race in Libya. Senegalese are taking to the streets in protest against proposed changes to electoral rules. A former Liberian warlord has been sentenced to 30 years in a US prison. Dozens of civil society groups in Ghana are pushing for the government to pass into law the Rome Statute of the ICC. Three men broke into the Nigerian senate and stole the legislatures ceremonial mace. Conflict between Cameroonian authorities and the country’s English-speaking minority continue. This article explores the “ghost presidency” of Cameroon’s Paul Biya. What should we make of the Rwandan governments closure of mosques and churches? Swaziland no longer exists…the king has renamed the country the Kingdom of eSwatini.
Almost 40 US ambassadorships remain unfilled. Cuba has a new president, and his last name isn’t Castro. A Haitian journalist went missing last month and there’s still no news on his whereabouts. The lower house of Mexico’s Congress has approved changes to the constitution that would strip politicians of immunity. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is again being accused of corruption. Guatemalans want a piece of Belize. Demonstrations over pension reform turned deadly in Nicaragua this week. In the wake of the killing of two journalists, Ecuador and Colombia are preparing for a joint military operation against the Colombian rebels held responsible. The rebels also kidnapped an Ecuadorean couple this week. This article examines the Colombian rebels who refuse to give up their guns. The EU is considering even more sanctions against Venezuela.
