🔎Picks of the Week — August 21
🔎Picks of the Week — August 21
Belarus Update, Trinidad and Tobago Election, New Zealand Election Postponed, Mali Military Coup, U.N. Hezbollah, U.A.E. Israel
Hello! It’s Friday which means it’s time for another edition of Picks of the Week! Today we travel to Belarus for an update on the mass street protests and possible Russian military intervention, to Trinidad and Tobago to find out what went down in their election, to New Zealand to check in on their postponed election amid rising Covid cases, to Mali where the military has carried out a successful presidential coup, to the Hague where a member of Hezbollah has been charged with the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister, and to the Middle East to dissect the history diplomatic deal between the U.A.E. and Israel. Be sure to check out the newsletter from earlier this week on what’s happened in the countries that have held elections so far this year below. Okay let’s get to it! ✊
And a quick thanks to Esohe for spreading the love…
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Job Corner
Deadlines this week include at CBC, CTV, ITV, Newsquest, Open Democracy and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism…
Belarus Update
We start this week in Belarus with the aftermath of this month’s election that saw incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko win a sixth straight term with 80 percent of the vote, one that many international observers have declared fraudulent. The EU said it doesn’t recognize the result and has vowed to press ahead with sanctions on the Belarusian government, including assets of the individuals responsible for vote-rigging and violence being frozen. Two weeks of street protests have followed and Lukashenko said he’s “given orders” to end the unrest. Meanwhile Russian president Vladimir Putin has hinted at military intervention, a move feared in Lithuania and the rest of Europe over the possibility of a repeat of the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The Belarusian army are due to hold large-scale military drills next week.
Trinidad and Tobago Election 🇹🇹
Speaking of elections, somehow I missed the vote that took place in Trinidad and Tobago last week, so here’s a quick summary. The incumbent People’s National Movement won 22 of the 41 electoral seats, while the United National Congress won the remaining 19 after a recount of initial results. The pair of Caribbean islands boast a population of around 1.3 million and now face a fight against an outbreak of Covid-19, which has seen cases soar to record levels in recent weeks. The country is energy-rich, but has faced a five-year recession because of falling global demand and prices of natural gas and other nonrenewable sources, meaning prime minister Keith Rowley must navigate uncharted waters to get his economy back up and running.
Source: Worldometers 👇
New Zealand Election Postponed
As one election is held, another has been postponed. New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Arden, who I’m going to dub the ‘most responsible political leader in the world’, has pushed her country’s vote back a month to October 17 after a small rise in Covid cases over the past couple of weeks. The country of around five million people saw its Covid cases peak in March at around 150 new daily cases, after which Arden then led a period of 24 days with zero new infections, a streak broken by two British women that were visiting a dying parent. The group of islands have been one of the most proactive nations in the world to fight the pandemic, locking down quickly and imposing immediate quarantine measures to anyone travelling to the country from high-risk areas, well before it had even recorded its first case.
Mali Military Coup
Mali’s military have carried out a successful coup to oust president Boubacar Keïta, who announced his immediate resignation after coup leaders detained him at gunpoint to prevent any “blood to be shed to keep me in power”. Keïta won a second term in 2018, but mass street protests over corruption, economic mismanagement and disputed legislative elections have dominated the country since June. Mali’s poverty rate stood at 43 percent last year, according to the World Bank. The U.N. condemned the overthrow and has said its peacekeeping mission “must and will continue”. The coup comes amid a mini second Covid-19 wave, and military leaders said fresh elections will be held within a “reasonable” period of time. The Economic Community of West African States said it would send envoys to ensure the return of constitutional order, so expect more to come out of West Africa in the coming days and months.
U.N. Charges Hezbollah Member
Two weeks after the devastating warehouse explosion in Beirut, a U.N.-backed court has found a member of Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim political party backed by Iran and Syria, and widely recognized by the West as a terrorist organization, guilty of assassinating former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. Three other Hezbollah suspects were cleared. Meanwhile Lebanon’s parliament speaker is fighting to restore Hariri’s son, Saad, as prime minister, a post he resigned from in January. Saad stepped down after mass protests calling for an end to his government over corruption allegations.
Israel and the U.A.E.’s Historic Deal
We end this week with some positive news in the Middle East as Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced last week they would be normalizing relations for the first time in both nations’ existence — Israel became a country in 1948 and the U.A.E. secured independence from Britain in 1971. The deal could now lead to more Arab nations recognizing the majority Jewish state of Israel. Fellow Gulf states Bahrain and Oman are tipped to be next to follow in the U.A.E.’s footsteps, while talks to establish official diplomatic ties between Israel and Sudan are already underway. But in a sign of just how complex the region is, Iran has strongly denounced the deal while protests have ensued in Gaza and the West Bank over what they feel is a betrayal by the U.A.E. to the two-state peace solution between Israel and Palestine. Meanwhile Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said his country will make no ties with Israel until there is peace with the Palestinians.
That’s all for today, stay safe out there and see you next week 👋