Tag: Nigeria

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Weekly Summaries

1st of November – 7th of November

Elections in Japan

The governing Liberal Democrats won the elections, but it was closer than usual. The new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, was chosen by his party, the Liberal Democrats, only last month but was still able to lead them to a victory. The other candidate for the representative of the Liberal Democrats was Sanae Takaichi, who would have become Japan’s first female leader. In the end, the Liberal Democrats won 261 seats, easily making the 233 seats necessary to have a majority, but lost 23 seats compared to the 2017 elections. Interestingly, the Liberal Democrats’ main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party, also lost seats, according to the New York Times. Prime minister Kishida is a former foreign minister but faces some charisma in the issues and is in fact often said to be “boring” by the Japanese press.

Other News

  • In pro-democracy protests after the coup in Sudan last week, three people were killed and more than 100 were injured.
  • 4 countries, the U.A.E., Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait called back their diplomats from Lebanon’s capital city, Beirut. The move comes after Lebanon’s information minister referred to the Yemen war as a “Saudi and Emirati aggression,” according to the New York Times.
  • The chief executive of the British bank Barclays stepped down after there was an inquiry by regulators into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
  • A building collapsed at a construction site in Lagos, Nigeria, killing at least four people and trapping more than 100.
  • In Virginia, USA, a Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, was elected last week. He is the first Republican governor to be elected in Virginia in more than a decade.
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Weekly Summaries

7th of June – 13th of June

Canada and its history

Last month it was announced that on the grounds of the old Kamloops Indian Residential School, the bodies of 215 Indigenous children had been found. This discovery has led to a wider discussion in Canada about its past. Although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been working on enacting a list of 94 actions to commemorate the victims and improve the lives of Indigenous people in Canada today, Indigenous leaders insist that the government is still doing too little.

Other News

  • This Sunday a vote of confidence by the lawmakers in Israel was held, which will determine the fate of the new coalition government
  • A famine has afflicted at least 350,000 people in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. The region is already conflict-ravaged and now at least 5.5. million people in total are facing food insecurity.
  • The finance ministers of the G7 countries agreed to “back a new global minimum tax rate,” which is supposed to prevent large multinational companies from taking advantage of tax havens, according to the New York Times
  • Twitter has been banned in Nigeria
  • Tensions in Northern Ireland have increased. Northern Ireland has been left in an awkward position, caught in between the trading system of the European Union and the UK thanks to Brexit
  • It has been announced that Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, will be on the first spaceflight of Blue Origin (his rocket company) that will carry humans. He will bring along his brother and one lucky fan
  • A train collision in Pakistan, which killed at least 33 people, has raised wider concerns over the safety of rail travel in Pakistan
Categories
Weekly Summaries

1st of March – 7th of March

Protests in Spain

The young Spanish generation has been going to the streets in major cities like Madrid and  Barcelona for more than a week now. At first, the protests were a reaction to the arrest of the rapper Pablo Hasel, but now the protests have developed into a much bigger movement. The pandemic has hit Spain’s youth very hard; over 40% of young Spaniards now find themselves unemployed, the highest number in the EU. The current situation is a far-cry from the Barcelona that once was one of the “best places in Europe” for young people.

The Former French President Found Guilty of Corruption

It is the second time in modern French history that a former president was convicted of a crime. The former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to at least one year in prison this past week on charges of corruption. Sarkozy supposedly gained confidential information from a judge after offering to help the judge get a job.

Other News

  • Britain and the EU have had some major disagreement this past week. The path to a “normal” relationship between the two parties remains a rocky one.
  • Last Sunday, the Hong Kong authorities charged 47 pro-democracy activists of violating the new Chinese Security Law.
  • New charges have been raised after the civil leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi by Myanmar’s military which staged a coup a few weeks ago. She now faces a prison sentence of up to 9 years.
  • The U.S. announced sanctions against Russia on Tuesday on the accusation of poisoning Aleksei Navalny
  • Three female journalists were shot in Afghanistan last week on their way home from work
  • After hundreds of Nigerian girls were abducted from their boarding school last week, their kidnappers have now released them
Categories
Weekly Summaries

14th of December – 20th of December

Climate pledge from China

China is the largest contributor to CO2 emissions worldwide. Now, however, China’s leader Xi Jinping has taken a step against climate change by announcing — on the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement — that China would reduce its carbon intensity over 65% by 2030.

New laws in Hungary threaten civil liberties

This past Tuesday the Hungarian government passed new laws which severely restrict the rights of gay people. For example, one of the constitutional amendments that was made defines a family as including a man as the father and a woman as the mother, effectively preventing gay couples from adopting children. Other measures which were introduced make it more difficult for opposition parties to challenge the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, in future elections and also make an overview of public spending more difficult.

Boko Haram kidnaps young boys

This week gunmen raided a secondary boarding school in the northern Nigerian province of Katsina and took more than 300 young boys captive. The leader of the Boko Haram has now claimed responsibility. However, late Thursday night the state governor announced that all boys would be released and reunited with their parents.

Other news:

  • Britain and the European Union have agreed to extend their trade negotiations. The initial deadline was this past Sunday (the 13th of December).
  • On the 13th of December the White House announced that hackers from a foreign country had broken into multiple key government systems. 
  • The Electoral College confirmed Biden as the next US president on Monday
  • Somalia cuts diplomatic ties with Kenya
  • President Macron of France tested positive for the coronavirus
Categories
Weekly Summaries

19th of October – 25th of October

U.S. Justice Department files lawsuit against Google

The anti-trust lawsuit against Google, which was filed by the U.S. Justice Department this past week, has become known to be the most confrontational motion against a tech giant in decades. Google was accused of illegally maintaining its monopoly in the search sector. 

Nigerian security forces open fire

During the night of Tuesday the 20th of October, the Nigerian security forces opened fire against the participants of a demonstration against police brutality from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Lagos. At least 12 people were killed. Furthermore, tear gas was also used against protestors in Abuja. 

Elections in New Zealand

Jacinda Ardern was elected prime minister with her Labour Party for the second time in row last week. Since then, people have called her “New Zealand’s most popular prime minister in generations.”

Other news: first official visit of the U.A.E. to Israel after the countries agreed to normalize their relations earlier on in the year