This Week in 30 Minutes
September 26th, 2020
Hi there! We are two economists-to-be + one Business & Law major sharing with you, every Saturday, what we believe are the most relevant and interesting news of the week. The newsletter will be divided between all of our LinkedIn profiles. Please share, like, and comment all your thoughts and suggestions. Enjoy!
Donald Trump Set to Nominate Amy Coney Barrett to US Supreme Court
Donald Trump is expected to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court, according to media reports, in a move that would decisively shift the country’s highest bench in a conservative direction if she is confirmed. Mr Trump is set to make an official announcement at the White House on Saturday, the first step in what will be an accelerated process to deliver to conservatives a powerful 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. Read more here.
Trump Hits Iran With New Sanctions and Says UN Arms Embargo is Back
Donald Trump has authorized new sanctions and claimed that a UN arms embargo has been restored against Iran, despite objections from fellow members of the UN security council. “This executive order is critical to enforcing the UN arms embargo on Iran,” Mr Trump said in a statement of the unilateral US action. He said he was also imposing additional sanctions on more than two dozen individuals and entities that support Iran’s weapons activities. Read more here.
Sudan Urged to Open Ties with Israel in Return for Coming Off Terror List
US negotiators are pushing Sudan to establish diplomatic relations with Israel and reach a financial settlement with victims of terror in return for its removal from a US list of states that sponsor terrorism, officials in Khartoum and Tel Aviv said. General Abdel Fattah Burhan, the military head of Sudan’s hybrid military-civilian transitional government, flew to the United Arab Emirates with his country’s justice minister, Nasredeen Abdulbari, to “enter into direct negotiations with a team of the American administration” to remove Sudan from the US list, Sudanese state media reported. Read more here.
Brussels Unveils Plan to Overhaul EU Migration Policy
Brussels has launched an overhaul of the EU’s much-criticized migration policy, risking a revival of the internal battles that were first sparked by the arrival of more than 1m people in the bloc in 2015. The European Commission plan unveiled on Wednesday seeks to return more failed asylum-seekers to their home countries and meet the demands of some northern and central European nations that refuse to accept relocated migrants. Read more here.
Cyprus Blocks EU Sanctions on Belarus
The EU has failed to agree long-awaited sanctions over the crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus, despite appeals by the country’s self-exiled opposition leader for them to be imposed without delay. Cyprus has blocked action by insisting the EU should also agree sanctions on Turkey before it gives the green light, European diplomats said, after a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday ended in deadlock. Read more here.
China Expanding Xinjiang Re-education Camps Despite Assurances, Says Think-tank
China is expanding its vast network of re-education camps for Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang despite Beijing’s assurances that their inmates had all “graduated”, according to a report by an Australian think-tank. The study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute compiled satellite video evidence of construction in at least 61 re-education and detention facilities between July 2019 and July 2020. Read more here.
China Pledges To Be ‘Carbon-neutral’ by 2060
China, the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, has said it will cut its carbon dioxide emissions to nearly zero by 2060, in a surprise move announced at the virtual UN General Assembly in New York. President Xi Jinping told the UN meeting that China planned to be “carbon neutral” before 2060, adding that the coronavirus pandemic had showed the world needed a “revolution” that would speed up “green development”. Read more here.
Tibet’s Shadow Looms Over Himalayan Stand-off
Relations between Beijing and New Delhi are at their worst since the countries’ 1962 border war. The nuclear-armed neighbours have multiple friction points, including a military stand-off in the Himalayas and New Delhi’s strengthening ties with Washington. But Tibet is among the most fraught issues, fuelled by Beijing’s anxieties about its hold over the border region and India’s sheltering of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader. This week, the coffin of Nyima Tenzin, a Tibetan fighter killed in August, was a provocative spectacle as his coffin was draped in both the Indian tricolour and the Tibetan “snow lion” flag, which is banned in China. Read more here.
Lebanon on Edge as Armed Clashes Escalate
Hundreds of people joined convoys on the streets of Beirut this month for the annual commemoration of Bashir Gemayel, the Christian militia leader and Lebanese president assassinated in 1982. But this year’s parade erupted into chaos when supporters of two rival Christian groups — the Lebanese Forces who had organised the event and Lebanese president Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement — clashed. Read more here.
Pandemic Politics: The Rebound of Latin America’s Populists
Some experts fear the pandemic is part of a broader shift in the region’s politics. After decades in which technocrats played a prominent role, the region appears to be going back to its long tradition of caudillos (military leaders) and populists. “The old politics are returning [in Latin America],” says Shannon K O’Neil, vice-president at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “But now you are dealing with a much weaker state, more political fragmentation and a torn social fabric. It’s much more difficult to reach any real solutions or make progress. We are heading to another lost decade.” Read more here.
See you next week!