Global Beat: Capital of Israel, Russia in Yemen, and More
December 15, 2017
Global Beat is your weekly stop for news from around the world. Join us every Friday morning for important stories you should know about.
This week, protests rock the Middle East following Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; Russia suspends its diplomatic operations in Yemen as violence escalates; 15 UN peacekeepers and 53 others are killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and more.
____________________
Americas
President Trump has called for further immigration restrictions in the wake of a failed pipe bomb attack by a Bangladeshi immigrant in the New York City subway. Trump cited the F43 family immigrant visa, which the suspect, Akayed Ullah, used to enter the United States, as a policy "incompatible with national security." Trump also argued for lawmakers to approve his proposals to increase the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and reiterated the need for his travel ban. Ullah was arrested and hospitalized after the bomb failed to fully detonate, instead only seriously burning him and causing three other people minor injuries. The Monday attack is the third terror attack in New York City since September 2016.
Also check out:
- A three-tiered solution for Puerto Rico – The Washington Post
Central & South Asia
In an effort to pay off its more than $8 billion debt to Chinese firms, Sri Lanka formally gave China the strategic port of Hambantota Saturday in a 99-year lease deal that critics say sets a dangerous precedent for Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. Hambantota, which opened seven years ago but has since operated at a loss due to poor commercial activity, is situated on the southern coast of the country and provides access to strategic sea lanes in the Indian Ocean. As part of its "One Belt, One Road" initiative, China has invested billions of dollars in port facilities and maritime trade routes to bolster its presence in the Indian Ocean. In response, India has partnered with Japan to build a port on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, and is reportedly in talks to build an airport near Hambantota.
Also check out:
- Nepal: In pro-China Oli, India faces a Himalayan foreign policy challenge – The Times of India
China & East Asia
Trade officials from the United States, Japan, and the European Union are expected to announce a joint effort to call for fairer trade practices and strengthen World Trade Organization transparency and reporting standards during a Tuesday ministerial meeting of the WTO in Buenos Aires. The countries are aligning to address trade issues such as overcapacity and illegal state subsidies in a move that is believed to target China specifically. Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Hiroshige Sekō, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström are expected to draw up a document outlining their commitment to trade reform that will touch on excess production, indirect subsidies to state enterprises, excessive government controls on the internet, and reporting standards.
Also check out:
- China, Taiwan spar over Chinese diplomat’s invasion threat – Business Insider
Europe & Russia
Russia has suspended its diplomatic presence in Yemen following escalating violence in the capital of Sana’a. All Russian diplomats have been evacuated and the embassy has been temporarily shut down, and the Russian Foreign Ministry has announced that some diplomatic staff will be working from Riyadh in neighboring Saudi Arabia. The move follows the recent killing of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh on December 4. Violence has steadily escalated in Yemen since October, when a Saudi-led coalition implemented a blockade of the country in response to a missile targeting Riyadh. The conflict in Yemen, which began in 2015, has killed over 10,000 civilians in what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Also check out:
Middle East & North Africa
Protests have broken out across the Middle East following President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In Lebanon, protestors gathered outside of the U.S. embassy in Beirut to burn U.S. and Israeli flags, while Qasem Soleimani, the commander of foreign operations of the elite Revolutionary Guards in Iran, announced it would wholeheartedly support "Islamic resistance forces." At an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo, foreign ministers called on the UN Security Council to issue a resolution denouncing Trump’s decision, which they decried as "a dangerous development" that "places the United States at a position of bias in favor of the occupation and the violation of international law and resolutions." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin also denounced the move, which the Palestinian Liberation Organization stated has made any peace talks between Israel and Palestine "irrelevant and superfluous." In a visit to Brussels Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that most EU countries would follow Trump’s lead in recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, an idea that was quickly rejected by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Also check out:
Southeast Asia & Oceania
More than 60 asylum seekers housed on Australia’s Manus Island will meet with American officials to discuss potential resettlement in the United States in the latest round of refugee processing. According to several asylum seekers, all of the people called were from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Myanmar, leading some to suspect that asylum seekers from countries on Trump’s latest travel ban list, such as Iran and Sudan, might be excluded from eligibility. Tension between asylum seekers and locals has been mounting since Papua New Guinea authorities relocated the men from the Manus Island detention center to new housing in the island’s town of Lorengau. Iranian refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani, said in an interview that the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments are benefitting "from making the place unsafe for refugees," seeing it as a way to "put pressure on them to return to their home countries."
Also check out:
- Australian lawmaker to resign amid global allegations of Chinese meddling – The Washington Post
Sub-Saharan Africa
Fifteen UN peacekeepers and 53 others were killed in North Kivu, an eastern province bordering Rwanda and Uganda in the Democratic Republic of Congo, last Thursday in what UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said was a "deliberate attack" and a war crime. It is believed that the rebel group Allied Democratic Forces was responsible for the attack, which killed at least five Congolese soldiers. The bodies of the peacekeepers were returned to Tanzania on Monday for a memorial ceremony in which David Gressly, the UN deputy special representative for Congo, promised to get justice. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo is the largest in the world.
Also check out:
