Tag: Protests

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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.

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Weekly Summaries

22nd of March – 28th of March

Container Ship Gets Stuck in the Suez Canal

By now you may have seen the pictures that are spreading all over the Internet. The ship, which is about as long as the Empire State Building in New York City is high, has been stuck in the Suez Canal since Tuesday evening. It seems as if exceptionally strong winds forced the ship aground one of the Suez Canal’s banks. Because of its tremendous length, this meant that the container ship is now effectively blocking the passageway of one of the most important canals in the world, connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Over 100 ships are now stuck at either end of the canal, carrying oil and different goods destined for ports around the world. Delays in the transportation of materials from Asia to Europe are being expected. Unfortunately, it does not seem like the container ship will be dislodged any time soon—some suspect that it may take weeks or maybe even months.

Elections in Israel

This past Tuesday, Israel saw the country’s fourth elections in two years. Netanyahu, who is the current Prime Minister, is currently facing corruption charges, but hopes that his policies dealing with the coronavirus outbreak will help him win. Israel has put a vaccination program in place that is far superior to other countries and has been able to successfully vaccinate a large number of people. Recent counts suggest, however, that Netanyahu will have to form a coalition as he only received 52 of the required 61 seats to form a majority. Several parties which jointly hold 57 seats have already announced that they will form a block against Netanyahu, while some parties collectively holding 11 seats have not yet published their decision.*

Other News

  • Indian farmers have camped outside New Delhi for four months now, protesting against the subsidy system that is considered to be “broken” by many
  • An attack by gunmen left 137 people dead in Niger

*according to the news distributor Haaretz

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Weekly Summaries

8th of March – 14th of March

US Stimulus Package is passed

This past Wednesday, the 1.9 trillion US dollar stimulus package passed through the House of Representatives. The bill includes benefits for low-income Americans and also extends the $300 dollar per week supplemental employment benefit until September. President Biden signed the stimulus package on Friday. 

Other News: 

  • A series of explosions at a military base in the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea killed at least 20 people and injured 500, according to local authorities. 
  • Tens of thousands email addresses have been affected by a hacking campaign against Microsoft. The victims are US businesses and government agencies.
  • Women protested in Mexico City at the residence of Mexico’s president against one of the world’s worst rates of gender violence.
  • The Russian government announced that it would be “slowing” the access to Twitter.
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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

9th of November – 15th of November

Border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan possibly resolved

On Monday, Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan signed an agreement which is supposed to end the border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia will have to surrender the disputed territories. Armenian forces in these areas are supposed to pull out. They will be replaced by Russian peacekeepers. Russia was also the country which helped to negotiate the deal to end the war. However, only a few hours after the announcement was made public, people started protesting in Armenia’s capital city, Yerevan.

France and Austria meet to discuss antiterrorism measures

This Tuesday the French President Emmanuel Macron and the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz met in Paris. In recent weeks there have been terror attacks in both France and Austria.

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Weekly Summaries

26th of October – 1st of November

Judge Amy Coney Barrett confirmed by the Senate

On Monday night the Senate confirmed – with 52 to 48 votes – Amy Barrett’s position of justice of the Supreme Court. She is the fifth woman in the history of the USA to hold that position.

What happened to the protests in Belarus?

After the protests in Belaurs against the President Lukashenko’s fraud win in this year’s elections first started three months ago, the Belarusians have continued protesting. There have been arrests and police violence against the protestors, but people still continue to protest every Sunday in the ten thousands.

Poland’s new abortion law

The high court of Poland recently introduced a new law which bans abortion in the case of fetal abnormalities, and this in a country which was already known to have one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. This ruling has resulted in the largest demonstrations since the fall of Communism in 1989. The protestors not only chanted anti-government slogans, but also effectively blocked major roads and bridges. 

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Weekly Summaries

14th of September – 20th of September

Signing of the Abraham Accords

This Tuesday, President Trump, the Israelian Prime Minister, and the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain gathered to sign agreements – the “Abraham Accords” – which will normalize the diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE and Israel and Bahrain. This will include the establishment of embassies.

Protests in Belarus

Last Sunday, tens of thousands of people gathered not only in the capital city  Minsk but also in other cities throughout the country. Just like on the past few Sundays, there was a heavy police presence, and possibly even soldiers. Then, on Monday the 14th of September President Putin and President Lukashenko met for the first time since the protests in Belarus first started. President Putin of Russia later said that the goal at the meetings was to establish a “strategic partnership and alliance” between the two countries.

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Weekly Summaries

7th of September – 13th of September

Protests in Hong Kong

Last Sunday, people went to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the decision to delay the elections by one year. Thousands of police officers reacted by using pepper spray and arresting almost 300 protestors.

Belarusian protest leader vanishes

With large-scale protests continuing, the last prominent Belarusian protest leader Maria Kolesnikova was supposedly kidnapped this Monday. However, in the early morning hours of the 9th of September she appeared at the border that Belarus shares with the Ukraine. As soon as she had crossed the checkpoint, she destroyed her passport. This made it impossible for the Ukraine to admit her, and she is currently still in the Republic of Belarus.

Update on the Brexit negotiations

At the beginning of the week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a no-deal Brexit would be a good outcome for the UK. Following this, the ongoing Brexit negotiations fell into chaos after the top lawyer of the British government resigned because of Prime Minister Johnson’s plan to override an important agreement with the European Union.

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Weekly Summaries

24th of August – 30th of August

Updates on the protests in Belarus

On Sunday the 23rd of August thousands of people gathered in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to protest against President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Although the total number of participants may have been well over 100 thousand, there were no arrests or clashes between the protestors and the police. However, on Monday the 23rd of August, security forces arrested two high-profile opposition forces. Furthermore, President Putin of Russia warned the protestors in Belarus by saying that he ordered the creation of a special force of officers at the request of Belarus’ President Lukashenko.

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Weekly Summaries

17th of August – 23rd of August

The situation in Belarus

On Sunday the 16th of August, the ongoing protests in Belarus against President Aleksandr Lukashenko accumulated into the biggest protest in the history of Belarus as tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital city. This Monday the President then said that a new election is possible, just minutes after he said the exact opposite. The next day, Mr. Lukashenko vowed to stand firm. The protests continued but on a smaller scale as some protestors returned to work. The next big development came on Wednesday when the leaders of E.U. member countries announced that the election results from last week are not legitimate and that the European Union would impose sanctions on those involved in the manipulation of votes.