Week 164 (25-31/07/2022)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and Ethiopia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Demeke Mekonnen Hassen attend a joint news conference after their talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on July 27, 2022. Picture: Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz finally confirmed that Russian military had fired Israeli jets in May (26/07). Channel 13 News first reported the incident on May 20, a week after it took place. The strike occurred at the end of Israel’s attack on targets in northwestern Syria—a close ally of Russia.
Unlike the West that kept meddling Ethiopia’s internal affairs, Russia supported the Ethiopian government’s efforts to stabilize the Tigray conflict, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (27/07). Lavrov has been presenting Russia as a respectful friend of Africa during his official visits to Ethiopia, the Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Many African countries have refused to take sides over Ukraine-Russia war due to their economic interests and historical ties with both the West and Russia.
An abandoned wetland in Rwanda has become the latest attraction for tourists (27/07). The Rwandan government turned the Nyandungu Wetland into Urban Ecotourism Park to promote nature conservation. The government also tried to keep the biodiversity of the country by refurbishing the wetland.
The war between Ukraine and Russia has exacerbated the living condition in Lebanon (27/07), a country that has been facing food shortage since its wheat silos were destroyed in an explosion two years ago. More than 80% of Lebanon’s wheat is sourced from Ukraine and Russia. Not only making the wheat supplies scarce, the Ukraine-Russia war also increased the inflation in Lebanon to 210% in June.
ASIA
At least four people get (27/07) killed and 25 injured when a 7-magnitude quake hit a mountainous area of Abra province in the Philippines. The strong earthquake set off landslides and damaged buildings. According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, the major quake was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 10 miles.
Indonesia has agreed (28/07) to lift freeze on sending its migrant workers to Malaysia after both countries agreed to trial a single channel to facilitate the recruitment and entry of Indonesian workers. Indonesia this month temporarily stopped sending its citizens to work in Malaysia including thousands recruited for the plantation sector, citing a breach in an agreement aimed at improving the protection of domestic workers employed in Malaysian households. The renewed policy will be effective on August 1.
Reported in Defense News (29/07), Japan’s latest defense whitepaper emphasized Russia’s defiance of international order and called it the world’s greatest trial since World War II. It also highlighted China’s ties with “aggressor nation” Russia as well as its coercive behaviours in the East China Sea and South China Sea and toward Taiwan. In the whitepaper, Taiwan is described as “an extremely important partner for Japan, sharing the same fundamental values such as freedom and democracy”. Meanwhile, its effort to maintain the balance of power, Japan is drawing up a new national security strategy to “preemptively deter changes to the status quo by force and to also be fully prepared for modern warfare, including information warfare and cyber warfare, both seen during Russia’s aggression against Ukraine”.
Reported in National Geographic (29/07), Nepal has managed to triple its tiger population thus become the world’s front-runner for tiger conservation. Currently, the country has 355 of the endangered cats within its borders, an increase from 121 in 2009. Abishek Harihar, the deputy director of the tiger program at the wildcat conservation group Panthera, said that Nepal’s successes are largely the result of “strong government buy-in” for tiger conservation and the enforcement of strict anti-poaching policies. The progress however has come at a cost: some critics say that the focus on increasing tigers is at odds with community safety—tiger attacks against local people living around tiger habitat have increased, as has predation on livestock, threatening livelihoods.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
Tonga’s border will be reopened for a month-long trial on August 1 (25/07). Travelers entering the country must be 12 years old and over, have a valid vaccine certificate, are encouraged to have a booster shot before arrival, and undergo a RAT test within 24 hours of departure. In addition, vaccination-free passengers must email the Tonga Government travel@health.gov.to stating the reason for the exemption and undergoing a five-day quarantine. Meanwhile, the flights will be limited to two flights per week from New Zealand until August 28, two from Fiji and one from Australia throughout August.
New Zealand takes firm actions to prevent foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks (25/07). Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had never experienced an FMD outbreak. Thus, travelers returning from Indonesia, where an outbreak of FMD had recently occurred, were urged to stay away from livestock for at least a week because the outbreak could destroy the livestock industry. New Zealand Biosecurity has stopped any traveler from bringing in a personal shipment of meat products from Indonesia and requiring them to wash their footwear at the airport. Meanwhile, Australia has also stepped up measures to prevent FMD outbreaks.
Samoa removed the COVID-19 state of emergency before the national borders are opened on August 1 (27/07). Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa said that wearing masks, social distancing, and adapting to periodic nationwide lockdowns have become Samoa’s new “norms” which helped the country in eliminating COVID-19. She added that the people’s cooperation in being vaccinated showed Samoa’s “readiness to move forward with confidence”. Currently, the complete vaccination rate in Samoa shows 93.6% for people over 18 years old, 92.4% for 12-17-year-olds, and 91.4% for 5-11-year-olds. She thanked the Samoan people and development partners in international community for their support in tackling the pandemic.
A New Zealand Air Force Hercules delivers critical freight to Kiribati and Fiji (29/07). The New Zealand plane is delivering critical water infrastructure for Kiribati, which is experiencing a severe drought, and will also send sterilizers for the new Ba Hospital in Fiji. In addition, the plane also carries 9,000 books for high school students from the Fiji Association in Auckland and ESA Publications.
EUROPE
Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, better known as MBS, will sign an agreement on renewable energy. They will also talk about other investments and security during the crown prince’s visit to Athens on Tuesday (26/07). The visit will be MBS’s first to a European Union (EU) country since the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
In a meeting in Paris, France, President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi MBS, agreed to “ease the effects” of Ukraine-Russia war (29/07). Prior to the meeting, aides to Macron had indicated that the president planned to urge Saudi to increase its oil production so that the EU countries could get an alternative source of fossil fuels. Macron and MBS also talked about food security, Yemen war, and Iran’s nuclear program.
Russia’s gas producer Gazprom cut its supply to Latvia (30/07), saying that the Baltic country violated supply conditions. However, a deputy secretary on energy policy at Latvian Economy Ministry said that Gazprom’s decision made little impact as the country has decided to ban Russian gas from next year. In addition to Latvia, Russia has also cut gas supplies to Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Poland after they refused to pay in rouble. Russia also cut gas sales to Shell Energy Europe in Germany.
The women football team of England created history by winning Euro 2022—their first major tournament (31/07). The Lioness won 2-1 against eight-time champions Germany. England became the first nation to beat Germany in the final of a European Women’s Championship.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Authorities said that seventeen people were killed after a boat carrying dozens of migrants from Haiti overturned off the coast of the Bahamas, as more Haitians try to emigrate to the US to escape gang violence and poverty back home (24/07). Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis announced that rescue teams had found the deaths of seventeen individuals, including a baby, and that 25 people, including four women, had been saved. Authorities, according to Davis, think they were traveling to Miami aboard a motorboat.
To repair diplomatic ties after years of conflict, Colombia and Venezuela will appoint new ambassadors in their respective capitals when Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro assumes office next month (28/07). Following a meeting in the border city of San Cristobal, the decision was announced jointly in a statement on Thursday by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria and Colombia’s soon-to-be Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva. Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been strained for several years due to a variety of factors, including an increase in the number of migrants from Venezuela who cross their shared border due to the socioeconomic crisis in their nation.
Gunmen opened fire on soldiers at a checkpoint on Saturday (30/07), injuring one officer while providing protection for the arrival of Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei to a hamlet close to the border with Mexico. A highway checkpoint manned by soldiers served as the perimeter security for the president’s visit to La Laguna, a town in the province of Huehuetenango. During the incident, one man was shot in the legs and rushed to the hospital.
The monkeypox virus killed a 41-year-old man in Brazil, making him the first victim outside of Africa (31/07). According to the Brazilian health ministry on Friday, the victim there had lymphoma, a compromised immune system, and “comorbidities worsened his condition”. So far, 1,066 confirmed cases and 513 probable cases of the virus have been recorded in Brazil.
THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
A US court sentenced a citizen of Canada to life in prison on Saturday (30/07). The man, Mohammed Khalifa, produced and narrated propaganda videos for the Islamic State (IS) group. The Department of Justice said he had been an important figure within IS and had killed two soldiers from Syria.
Pope Francis finished his six-day visit to Canada on Saturday. The Pope’s main goal was to apologize for the Church’s past incidents with indigenous people in the country, Previously, over 150,000 children were forced to attend Christian-based schools until 1997. After the visit, the Pope said that he is considering retiring due to his age.
New York City declared monkeypox a public health emergency on Saturday (30/07). The city followed San Fransisco as the first city in the US to declare an emergency on monkeypox. Most New Yorkers are now encouraged to take monkeypox – or even smallpox – vaccines as preventive measures.
A deadly flood struck eastern Kentucky. The US National Guard from Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia have been rescuing hundreds of local residents. As of Saturday (30/07), 25 people casualties have been reported with hundreds still missing.