Week 167-168 (15-28/08/2022)
Political parties' delegates and officials from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) are seen the floor of the IEBC National tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya, in Nairobi, Kenya August 14, 2022. Picture: Reuters
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
The flag carrier of Bahrain, Gulf Air, will start its service to and from Ras Al Khaimah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (15/08). Previously, Gulf Air only flew to two cities in the UAE, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Opening a third route to Al Khaimah will attract tourists from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Europe, said Captain Waleed Al Alawi.
Deputy President William Ruto has been elected as Kenya’s fifth president (16/08). The election results came only hours after people finished voting, meaning anyone could tally the votes and check the electoral commission’s math. However, this year’s election was full of chaos after several electoral committee walked out the session.
Two clans in Kenya, the Kipsigis and the Talai, filed cases at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to sue the government of the United Kingdom (UK) for colonial abuses (23/08). They said the UK government forcefully evicted them from their fertile lands and turned the land into tea plantations, which is still being used today. Representatives from the two clans had tried to meet UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in May but were rebuffed.
Several migrant workers have been deported by Qatar for “breaching security laws” during a demonstration about unpaid wages (23/08). At least 60 workers protested outside Al Bandary International Group’s office in Doha on August 14. Some of them claimed that they had not been paid for seven months. In response, the Qatari government said they were investigating the Al Bandary group for not paying its workers. Furthermore, it would pay all the delayed salaries and benefits to the affected workers.
A Shia shrine in Iraq collapsed, killing prayers inside (23/08). At least eight bodies have been recovered from the rubbles of the shrine. The shrine was struck by a landslide in Qattarat al-Imam Ali, about 28km from Karbala.
Local languages in South Africa will have more places in official usage (23/08). In Eastern Cape, the IsiXhosa and Sesotho languages will be used in the examination papers—the first in history. Both languages are included in the country’s 11 official languages. Translating examination papers into IsiXhosa and Sesotho will give all languages equitable status, in line with South Africa’s constitution.
ASIA
Myanmar authorities detained Vickie Bowman, British former ambassador, and her husband Htein Lin, who is a former political prisoner and artist. Earlier a senior military source said Bowman was detained for sending information to the group Justice for Myanmar and others opposed to military rule. Later, Myanmar’s military stated (25/08) the couple was detained for immigration offenses. Meanwhile, representatives from Justice for Myanmar have called for the couple’s release and for the release of all those detained by the “illegal junta”.
Hundreds of people in several parts of India took (27/08) the streets to protest against a recent government decision to free 11 men who had been jailed for life for gang raping a Muslim woman during India’s 2002 religious riots. The government said the convicts’ application for remission was granted because they had completed more than 14 years in jail. They were eligible under a 1992 remission policy that was in effect at the time of their conviction—a newer version of the policy adopted in 2014 by the federal government prohibits remission release for those convicted of certain crimes, including rape and murder. The victim, now in her 40s, was pregnant when she was gang raped during communal violence in 2002 in Gujarat. Seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, were killed in the violence.
The United States (US) Navy sailed two warships, the USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville, through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday (28/08), in the first such transit publicized since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan earlier in August. The cruisers conducted a routine transit through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State. In response, China said it tracked the movement of the ships. “Troops of the (Eastern) Theater Command are on high alert and ready to foil any provocation at any time,” said senior Col. Shi Yi, spokesperson for the People Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command.
Japan urges (28/08) the United Nations (UN) to redress the historical injustice against Africa by pushing for Africa’s permanent membership on the Security Council. “In order for the UN to work effectively for peace and stability, there is an urgent need to strengthen the UN as a whole through Security Council reform,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Tunis, Tunisia on Sunday.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
Australia and New Zealand responded to Chinese media reports of a ban on meat imports (15/08). The Australian Financial Review newspaper said a Chinese media outlet had reported Beijing could suspend agricultural imports from Australia and New Zealand, particularly meat, due to concerns over foot and mouth disease. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Australia’s agriculture department said there has been no formal notification from Beijing regarding the ban. New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries also said exports were continuing as usual. Australia and New Zealand have reported no cases of foot and mouth disease among their livestock. However, both countries took extra biosecurity precautions against the virus outbreak.
Australia provides responsive support of SBD 2.3 million for the Solomon Islands through the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) to combat measles and rubella (19/08). The level of vaccination against measles and other infectious diseases has decreased following the COVID-19 pandemic. Measles is highly contagious and poses a risk to unvaccinated children, especially after the Solomon Islands’ international borders have been reopened.
New Zealand funds the Health Partnership Program for Tonga (21/08). Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, announced the New Zealand Government would give NZD 4.8 million for the program over the next four years, and said that New Zealand was proud to be a key partner, particularly in Tonga’s healthcare sector. Additionally, on Friday (19/08), Mahuta visited Nuku’alofa to launch New Zealand’s new climate finance strategy, Tuia te Waka a Kiwa.
Nearly six months after demonstrators were removed from the outside of New Zealand’s parliament, around 2,000 anti-government protesters resumed their activity at the same place (23/08). They were voicing a range of issues including environmental regulations, COVID-19 restrictions, and freedom. One of the protesters, Danny Hanif, said the government did not work for the people and did not listen to its people about the issue of ownership of water assets. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters on Monday that parliament had long welcomed peaceful protesters and wanted this kind of protests to continue.
The prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, has launched an offshore petroleum exploration permit and opened nearly 47,000 square kilometers of the country’s waters (24/08). There will be ten areas that will play an important role in securing future energy supplies. Meanwhile, environmental groups and climate observers are concerned about the oil and gas test plan because it goes against Australia’s climate targets. Today, Australia ranks second in the biggest coal depended countries.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) has created two new ministers that are quite interesting (24/08). The first one is the Minister for Palm Oil Francis Maneke. And the second one is Minister for Coffee Joe Kuli. Coffee makes one of the most commonly grown crops in PNG. Therefore, the minister for coffee was created to oversee the country’s coffee plantation and production.
Vanuatu succeeded in eradicating trachoma that causes blindness, thanks to assistance from Australia (27/08). The trachoma eradication was carried out in six provinces within one month, covering 290,000 people. Vanuatu is the first Pacific country to successfully eradicate the disease. Its success provides hope to other Pacific Countries that they can also eliminate trachoma by 2030.
EUROPE
Recent data published by Italy’s interior ministry showed an increase in the number of femicides in the country (15/08). Over the past year, the number of femicides rose by almost 16%, with 108 out of 125 femicides between August 1, 2021 and July 31, 2022 occurred in a “family-emotional” setting. The most recent reported femicide was that of Silvana Arena, a 74-year-old woman who was beaten to death, allegedly by her husband, on August 7. Her case will be recorded in next year’s data.
A record of 700,000 hectares of area in Europe—three times the size of Luxembourg or roughly the same as Azerbaijan—have been destroyed by forest fires (18/08). Data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) showed Spain as the country most affected by forest fire, with 283,000 hectares burnt so far, followed by Romania (150,735), Portugal (86,631), France (62,102), and Italy (42,835). It is reported that climate change has made wildfires across Europe to be more likely and severe.
Russia blamed Ukraine for the death of Darya Dugina, daughter of President Vladimir Putin’s close ally and Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin (22/08). Dugina died after the car she travelled in exploded on the outskirt of Moscow on Saturday (20/08). Ukraine denied its involvement in Dugina’s killing.
Germany’s has launched the world’s first hydrogen-powered trains (24/08). The trains, claimed to be a “zero emission” mode of transport and provided by France’s industrial giant Alstom, will replace diesel locomotives on the 100km-tracks connecting Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervoerde, and Buxtehude. In addition to Germany, Alstom will also provide hydrogen-powered trains to France and Italy.
President Emmanuel Macron started his three-day official visit to Algeria on Thursday (25/08). His visit, coincides with the 60th anniversary of the end of the Algerian War and Algeria’s independence proclamation, aims at repairing the relationship between France and the North African country, which continues to be marked by the weight of the past. Meanwhile for Algeria, Macron’s visit is hoped to bring big contracts and investment projects.
The European Union (EU) announced that Kosovo and Serbia have reached a deal to settle ethnic tensions (27/08). The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said that Serbia “agreed to abolish entry/exit documents for Kosovo ID holders and Kosovo agreed to not introduce them for Serbian ID holders”. Kosovo gained its independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade still has not recognized this.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Hugo Velázquez Moreno, vice president of Paraguay, announced on Thursday (18/08) that he will not step down from his position, breaking a promise he made last week after being included to a US corruption list for his suspected role in proposing bribes to a public official. Velázquez is still withdrawing from the race for president. Up until his inclusion on the US list, the number two in President Mario Abdo Bentez’s cabinet was seen to be a strong prospect to represent the Colorado Party as the presidential candidate in the elections of next year.
In Colombia, ten police officers have been detained on suspicion of taking part in the murder of three young people (24/08). On July 25, the three were shot dead by police while being held in prison in the northern Sucre province. The highest-ranking officer implicated in the case, a police colonel, is on the run and presumed to be abroad. According to the prosecution, the young people were accused by the police of belonging to the Gulf Clan gang, a criminal organization that had before killed a police officer.
Authorities claim that numerous other suspected acts of corruption caused the government of Haiti to suffer a “colossal loss” of HTG 500 million (USD 4 million), at a time when the nation’s infrastructure is crumbling due to political unrest and growing poverty (27/08). The accusations were made public on Thursday by Haiti’s anti-corruption agency, whose general director, Hans Joseph, promised to take action against individuals who “torpedo the public treasury and asphyxiate the country's economic and social development efforts”.
After a three-year hiatus, Colombia and Venezuela have re-established full diplomatic ties. Armando Benedetti, a brand-new Colombian ambassador, touched down in Caracas, the nation’s capital, on Sunday (28/08). “The United States should never have broken ties with Venezuela. An illusory line cannot separate us since we are brothers,” the new envoy remarked on Twitter. The deputy foreign minister of Venezuela, Rander Pena Ramirez, welcomed Benedetti and stated in a tweet that “our historical links urge us to work together for the pleasure of our peoples”.
On Sunday (28/08), a number of criminal investigations that have targeted the Peru’s president inner circle received the most serious uptick yet when the president’s sister-in-law was sentenced to 30 months of pre-trial incarceration. Castillo frequently referred to his sister-in-law Yenifer Paredes, whom he and his wife had fostered since she was a young child, as his “daughter”. She is accused of being a member of a gang that used influence peddling to give Castillo allies public contracts in their home region of Cajamarca, in the Peruvian Andes. Paredes will serve time in jail while prosecutors continue their investigation even though she has not been charged with a crime.
THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
Liz Cheney, a Republican congresswoman who lost her primary race to former US President Donald Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman, said that she was considering to run for president (17/08). She said she would “do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump of the Oval Office”. Cheney was one of the few Republicans who denounced Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. She added, “Donald Trump has betrayed Republican voters. He’s lied to them. […] I believe that Donald Trump continues to pose a very grave threat, a risk to our republic, and I think defeating him is going to require a broad and united front of Republicans, Democrats, and independents. That’s what I intend to be a part of.”
US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart believed that some evidence submitted by the US Department of Justice to justify its request to raid Donald Trump’s house could be released (18/08). The request to make the affidavit public came from several news organizations who argued that its contents constitute a matter of “utmost public interest”. However, the US government said that releasing the evidence could jeopardize the investigation.
The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) calls for the federal government of Canada to give temporary foreign workers permanent residency status so that they have equal rights and protection through labor laws (22/08). The call came almost two weeks after a group of Jamaican seasonal workers wrote an open letter to Jamaica’s minister of labor, saying that they had been subjected to “systematic slavery”. The recent death of a Jamaican worker in Ontario also helped put the call to change permanent residency status under the spotlight.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed the so-called “Canada-Germany hydrogen alliance” (23/08). As Germany is seeking to end its dependency on Russian energy, the agreement will be a breakthrough. Despite this, some residents and environmental groups in Newfoundland—where a large plant to convert wind energy to hydrogen will be built—have been raising concerns, saying that their land was not for sale and the residents have become “guinea pigs”.
US President Joe Biden announced his plan to cancel student debt (24/08). Borrowers earning less than USD 125,000 a year, or less than USD 250,000 for couples, will be eligible for USD 10,000 forgiveness, whereas those receiving a Pell Grant in college in addition to meeting the income requirements will qualify for USD 20,000 forgiveness. Furthermore, Biden extended the postponement of the federal student loan payment to December 31.