What's happening around the world? - November 11, 2021
As the Israeli ambassador to London, Tzipi Hotovely, left the London School of Economics (LSE) on Tuesday [Nov 9] she was surrounded by students peacefully protesting. They chanted: “Free Palestine”, “Shame on you”, “Israel is a terrorist state”, and “No to the occupation.
Hotovely was invited by the LSE student union to take part in a debate on Middle East peace titled: “Perspectives on Israel and Palestine”. Protesters said the ambassador had a track record of anti-Palestinian racism. Hotovely is depicted as a hardliner with links to Israel’s right-wing Likud party and former minister in charge of Jewish settlement expansion in the illegally occupied West Bank. She is also accused of espousing hate speech and contributing “to the material oppression of Palestinians”.
As the crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland escalates, terrifying stories are emerging of the brutal conditions migrants have endured on their journeys, going without food, water, or medical attention for days and surviving freezing conditions and vicious beatings along the way.
The thousands of stranded people are caught at the center of an intensifying geopolitical dispute that has pitted the EU, the US and NATO against the Belarusian government. Western officials have accused Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of manufacturing a migrant crisis on the EU's eastern frontier to destabilize the bloc as retribution for sanctions over human rights abuses. His government denies the claims, and instead blames the West for dangerous, sometimes fatal, border crossings and poor treatment of migrants.
Climate activists staged a demonstration on a “sinking” boat in Glasgow, Scotland on Tuesday [Nov 9] to send a message that time is running out to address climate change. The protestors were dressed as world leaders including President Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Activists have spent the last two weeks pressuring countries to take stronger actions to fight the climate crisis.
Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, escaped an assassination attempt on Sunday [Nov 7] after an explosive-laden drone targeted his residence in Baghdad, the country's military said.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his government have unleashed a campaign of political terror on the country.
Ortega, who just claimed a fifth term after Sunday's [Nov 7] presidential vote, calls himself an elected president – but many would call him the Western Hemisphere's newest dictator.
Ortega was once a revolutionary. He himself took power after helping overthrow dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, but has spent the last few years cracking down brutally on dissenting voices. In June, Ortega's government began using a vague national security law as justification to lock up opposition presidential candidates, opposition leaders, journalists, human rights activists and others ahead of this month's election.
South Africa’s last white president, FW de Klerk, dies leaving an apology for apartheid.
In 1990, he ordered Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. De Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela for helping to negotiate an end to apartheid. However, his legacy brings divided opinions in South Africa.
Sources:
Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/10/students-protest-israeli-ambassador-at-london-university
BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59247115
CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/11/europe/migrants-brutal-journey-belarus-poland-intl/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/06/middleeast/iraq-prime-minister-drone-attack-intl-hnk/index.html
Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/safricas-last-white-president-fw-de-klerk-dies-home-2021-11-11/
The Washington Post
