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Weekly Summaries

12th of July – 18th of July

Protests in Cuba

Last week, Cuba saw some of the biggest protests in decades. Thousands of Cubans went to the streets to protest against power outages and food and medicine shortages, which were caused by the country’s economic crisis. The New York Times describes scenes in which people have to wait for hours to buy food. Although Cuba had already been suffering from an economic crisis before the pandemic hit, lockdowns have meant that the valuable income from the tourism industry has also been cut.

Floods in Western Europe

Violent storms caused floods in Western Europe last week. So far, the number of deaths is over 180 but more than a thousand people still remain missing. Germany and Belgium were hit the worst but Switzerland and the Netherlands have also been affected.

Other News

  • The Death Valley in California reached a temperature of 54 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit) last weekend. This is one of the highest temperatures to ever be recorded.
  • After protests in South Africa connected to the arrest of the former president Jacob Zuma turned violent, the South African military has been deployed by the government. Alone 117 people died last week due to looting and vandalism. 
  • According to the New York Times more than 77% of New Mexico is “in severe drought”.
  • The designated prime minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri, has resigned after months of trying to form a new government.

Categories
Weekly Summaries

8th of February – 14th of February

Protests in Myanmar

After the military re-claimed power during a coup last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar responded by going out on the streets to protest. They called for the release of the civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who was detained during the coup. In the hopes of gaining international attention, the protestors posted videos on Facebook meanwhile the military has taken a firmer grip. Some of the tactics the military has already implemented are telecommunications outages and banning social media platforms such as Facebook during the process of cementing their power.

Trump’s impeachment trial will go ahead

On Monday, the U.S. Senate voted to go ahead with the impeachment trial. The defending team of the former U.S. President Donald Trump argued that it would be unconstitutional to go ahead with the impeachment as Donald Trump is no longer in office at this point. If Trump were to be found guilty, the Senators could prevent him from running for federal office again.

Other News

  • In India, a Himalayan glacier crumbled, killing 7 people, wounding 125 more, and destroying two dam projects.
  • The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, pleaded not guilty. He is accused of several corruption charges, and the general election for which he is running for re-election is only a few weeks away. 
  • The Netherlands has suspended international adoptions for the time being. Recent investigations have shown that there were abuse cases between 1967 and 1998 on which the government had failed to act.
  • China has banned BBC programs