Week #2 (17-23/06/2019)

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The late Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s fifth president, together with Brazil’s former president Dilma Roussef. | Credit: Agência Brasil

AFRICA

Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (67) passed away on Monday (17/06) after collapsing inside his soundproof glass cage whilst on trial in a Cairo, Egypt courtroom on espionage charges. Following Morsi’s death, human rights activists in Cairo (18/06) pushed the Egyptian Government to initiate a fair and transparent investigation on the cause of his death. The human rights groups and international observers have long criticized the medical negligence Morsi suffered whilst being imprisoned, including being held in the solitary confinement for years. The Spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, also called for a “prompt, impartial, thorough, and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of [Morsi’s] death” (19/06). His statement, along with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comment (20/06) that accused Egypt of killing Morsi, only upsetting Egypt even more.  

AMERICA

United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump thanked the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (17/06) after a settlement in Israel was named after his name (‘Trump Heights’) to promote the US-Israel relation. Still in the U.S., heatwave has hit some area in the country on Tuesday (18/06). Eunice Lo, a climate expert from the University of Bristol, the United Kingdom (U.K.), reported that as temperatures rises, major U.S. cities will be more likely to be exposed to extreme heat and more heat-related deaths will increase. In addition, a strange cloud phenomenon that shaped like tsunami waves, known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, appeared in Virginia on Wednesday (19/06). Some people compared the unique shape with Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night.’

ASIA

A temporary calm returned on Monday morning (17/06) in Hong Kong after its citizens shocked the world with a second record-breaking protest in seven days against a controversial extradition bill with China and sent a clear message to its government, “Why did Carrie Lam need to wait to suspend the bill until one million people come to the streets, it’s because she’s not elected by the people of Hong Kong […] It’s time for her to step down.” Carrie Lam issued a public apology the next day (18/06), but emphasized that she would not resign from her position. Moreover, former Chinese prisoner and the founder of ‘Causeway Bay Books,’ Lam Wing-Kee, suddenly made an appearance on TV (20/06) and warned the risk of the controversial extradition bill with China. Meanwhile in India (21/06), the Indian Navy deployed several of its warships to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to protect Indian-flagged ships as the United States (US)-Iran tensions heated up.

AUSTRALIA

Voluntary euthanasia has finally legalized in Victoria, Australia and came into effect on Wednesday (19/06). However, only residents over 18 years old who suffer from intolerable pain with an incurable illness that will likely cause death within six months, or 12 months for neurodegenerative disease, are eligible to choose the euthanasia option.

EUROPE

A European Union (E.U.) diplomat in Brussels, Belgium (18/06) stated that U.S. President Donald Trump does not control his own government policy towards Iran and advised Trump to fire his Security Advisor, John Bolton. Whereas in London, the U.K. (21/06), there is an increase in the numbers of people who do not believe in vaccines. In fact, in other European countries such as France, a third of respondents believe that vaccines are not safe.

Editor: Darynaufal Mulyaman & Kanya Damarꞔanti