🔎Picks of the Week — September 18
🔎Picks of the Week — September 18
India Covid-19 Cases Soar, H&M Cuts China Ties, Barbados Removes Queen Elizabeth, New Japan Prime Minister, Black September 50th Anniversary and Israel Bahrain Agree Deal
Hello! It’s Friday which means it’s time for another Picks of the Week where we’ll explore the most important and interesting news from around the world. We’ll travel to India whose Covid-19 cases eclipsed 5 million and show absolutely no signs of slowing, to China where H&M has become the latest company to cut ties over the detention of Uyghar Muslims, to the Caribbean where Barbados has announced its intention to remove Queen Elizabeth as its head of state, to Japan where a new Prime Minister has been elected, and to the Middle East where it’s been 50 years since Black September, and Bahrain has become the latest Arab country to normalize relations with Israel. Before we get to this week’s picks, a quick mention of the 50th anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix, one of the most influential musicians and best guitarists of all time…
Jimi Hendrix, The Last 24 Hours
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India Covid Cases Soar
We start this week in India whose Covid-19 cases have continued to soar, with new cases at almost 100,000 per day, and its cumulative number surpassing five million. A “consolation” to the alarming rates is that the country’s fatality rate is just 1.6 percent, one of the lowest of any nation. With more than a billion people, India was always going to have the most reported cases, especially when the other country whose population is more than a billion enjoys covering up its official data. India will pass the U.S. in the next few days for the most cases, and is a large part of why the world is setting record daily numbers more than nine months into this pandemic.
Source: Worldometers 👇
H&M Cuts China Ties Over Uyghars
Swedish clothing retailer H&M has become the latest company to cut ties with a Chinese manufacturer over forced labour of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjang region. The move comes days after the U.S. government announced import restrictions on products coming out of the area. China has defended its detention camps that it claims to “re-educate” and reintegrate more than one million Muslims into society. The growing backlash from the West is arguably the largest to date, something the Chinese Communist Party can no longer ignore if it wants to maintain its obsession with economic growth.
China’s Vanishing Muslims: Undercover In The Most Dystopian Place In The World
Previous Picks of the Week
🔎 Picks of the Week — September 11
🔎 Picks of the Week — September 4
🔎 Picks of the Week — August 28
🔎 Picks of the Week — August 21
Barbados to Remove Queen Elizabeth
Okay, okay, there will be no actual physical removal of Lizzie from any country, but Barbados has announced its intention to remove the Queen as its head of state and become a republic. The Caribbean island of around 300,000 people gained its independence from Great Britain in 1966, and Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the first and only Barbadian female head of government, intends to get the deal done in time for the 55th anniversary of its independence in November 2021.
New Japan Prime Minister
Japan has elected a new prime minister after Shinzo Abe resigned last month due to ailing health. Yoshihide Suga will succeed Abe and is expected to continue his predecessor's policies. The 71-year-old Suga was first elected to Japan’s House of Representatives in 1996, and has been known as Abe’s fixer “who gets stuff done”, but it’s not all rosy as The Daily Beast reported. Like most countries, Japan faces huge economic pressure to limit the impact of Covid-19 as much as it can, but also faces multiple other problems that stem from an ageing population, nearly a third of which is older than 65.
Black September 50th Anniversary
This week marks 50 years since Black September, a conflict fought in Jordan between King Hussein’s Jordanian Armed Forces and Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. The war would be bloody and violent, and would have lasting impacts still felt in the region today. The below video explains everything better than I can, so I’ll leave you with that…
History of a Revolution - Black September
Israel and Bahrain Normalize Relations
As always, we finish on some positive news this week as Bahrain became the latest Arab nation to sign a diplomatic deal with Israel, less than a month after the U.A.E. did so, in what is another step toward peace in the Middle East. President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers from Bahrain and the U.A.E. at the White House to sign the Abraham Accords, which outlines the agreements in full. The deals take the number of countries in the region that Israel has official relations with to five, with Oman and Sudan likely to be next. Israel must now work hard to ease its tension with Jordan, who describes the relationship as being at an all time low.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom and I will see you next week!