Patrick PiersonBy Patrick Pierson.
Mine workers and police clashed in protests in Morocco this week. Algeria is preparing to host an anti-terrorism conference next month. A new terror threat is emerging in the western deserts of Egypt. The United Arab Emirates has offered nearly $1.5 billion to Sudan’s embattled central bank. Unrest in Ethiopia’s Oromia region has resulted in increased refugee flows to Kenya. A military helicopter crashed in Senegal this week, resulting in the deaths of eight soldiers. Press freedom is under threat in Tanzania. Is corruption undermining Uganda’s regularly-lauded treatment of South Sudanese refugees? According to the UN, millions of children are at risk of starvation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gabon is withdrawing its soldiers from the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic. Burundi’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, has now been crowned the ‘eternal supreme guide’. Cameroon’s long-time ruler Paul Biya held a cabinet meeting this week…the first since 2015.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman has, apparently, kept his parents away from one another for the past two years. Salman has also compared Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Hitler. Human Rights Watch reports on the Iranian governments crackdown on the country’s Dervish minority. Mohammad Ali Najafi, the mayor of Tehran, has resigned in the face of criticism from Islamist hardliners. This article provides an overview of the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is sending more troops to Afghanistan.
Facebook is being criticized by the Sri Lankan government for helping to contribute to deadly anti-Muslim riots. This post explores some of Malaysia’s new counterterrorism efforts. Myanmar is willing to repatriate less than 400 Rohingya refugees. The UN is pushing Cambodia to offer greater protections for civil and political rights. The Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte has announced that his country is leaving the International Criminal Court. Is corruption hampering economic growth in China? Is President Trump going to withdraw US troops from South Korea? Australia upset many South Africans this week when Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton claimed white South African farmers deserve special humanitarian visas.
President Trump is scheduled to visit Peru and Colombia next month. Impeachment proceedings are set to reopen against Peruvian President Pablo Kuczynski. In Paraguay, opposition lawmakers have requested that President Horacio Cartes face a ‘political trial’ on the one-year anniversary of the police killing of an opposition leader. A Brazilian city councilwoman and outspoken police critic was killed this week in what appears to be a political assassination. Will Venezuela’s economic nightmare be the undoing of President Maduro? The UN has accused Honduran security forces of using excessive force against protesters. The government of Nicaragua is set to publish a “Map of Violence Against Women.” In El Salvador, gangs are targeting young girls. Guatemala has announced plans to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem just days after the US is scheduled to make the same move. Human rights officials at the UN have accused the Mexican government of torture in investigations surrounding the disappearance of 43 school students in 2014. Across the US, students staged a walkout this week in a demand for gun law reform.
In Greece, racist hate crimes tripled in 2017. Angela Merkel begins her fourth term as Chancellor. Spanish and Portuguese police seized multiple tons of cocaine in a joint operation this week. Italy’s oft-criticized refugee ‘hotspot centre’ in Lampedusa is closed for renovations after protests over the poor conditions. French authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a Saudi princess. In Hungary, huge crowds gathered in support of PM Viktor Orban in the lead up to next month’s elections. If you’re not following the political turmoil in Slovakia, you should be.
