World News of the Week – August 20 to August 26, 2018

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Pope Francis arrives in Dublin, Ireland (via AP) 

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What You Need To Know: 

1. U.S. President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump directed him to commit a crime by arranging payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump.

2. Australia has a new prime minister in Scott Morrison – the socially conservative architect of hardline anti-asylum seeker policies – after he mounted a late challenge during a drawn-out struggle for power in the governing Liberal party.

3. Zimbabwe inaugurated the military-backed President Mnangagwa for the second time in nine months as the country is now largely subdued by renewed harassment of the opposition and a bitterly disputed election.

4. Afghanistan’s President Ghani rejected resignations tendered a day earlier by three senior security officials: the Defense Minister, the Interior Minister, and the head of the National Directorate of Security.

5. Iran’s parliament voted to fire the country’s finance minister amid an economic freefall, dealing another blow to President Hassan Rouhani’s embattled administration.

6. Pope Francis issued a sweeping apology for the “crimes” of the Catholic Church in Ireland, saying church officials didn’t respond with compassion, truth or justice to the many children and women who were abused over generations.

7. The United States and China went ahead with tariff hikes on billions of dollars of each other’s automobiles, factory machinery and other goods in an escalation of a battle over Beijing’s technology policy that companies worry will chill global economic growth.

8. An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition killed 26 civilians (22 children and 4 women) near Hodeidah in Yemen.

9. A Ugandan pop star-turned-lawmaker who opposes the longtime president was charged with treason in a civilian court, hours after he was severely beaten in detention.

10. Russian opposition leader Navalny was detained outside his home in Moscow ahead of planned nationwide anti-government protest rallies; he was later taken to a hospital with a suspected broken finger.

Afghanistan

Australia

Bosnia

Brazil

Bulgaria

Cambodia

Chile

China

Colombia

Congo

Czech Republic

Egypt

El Salvador

Ethiopia

Germany

Finland

France

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Italy

Japan

Libya

Malaysia

Mexico

Morocco

Myanmar

Namibia

North Korea

Palestinian Territories

Poland

Russia

Saudi Arabia

Serbia

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Syria

Tunisia

Turkey

Uganda

Ukraine

United Kingdom

United States of America

Vatican

Venezuela

Yemen

Zimbabwe

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World News of the Week – August 13 to August 19, 2018

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A view of the Morandi highway bridge that collapsed in Genoa, Italy (via AP)

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What You Need To Know: 

1. Some 800,000 people have been displaced and over 350 have died in the worst flooding in a century in southern India’s Kerala state, as rescuers searched for people stranded in the worst-affected areas

2. At least 43 people died in the Italian port city of Genoa when a concrete bridge collapsed.

3. Cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan was chosen as Pakistan’s next prime minister, elected on a promise to reform a system rife with corruption and traditionally controlled by the country’s powerful landowners.

4. A suicide bomber struck a private education center in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul killing 48 students.

5. Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won a second five-year term in the turbulent West African nation with more than 67 percent of the vote in a runoff election.

6. Multiple strong earthquakes killed at least a dozen people on the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Sumbawa as the region was trying to recover from a temblor earlier this month that killed hundreds of people.

7. Turkey increased tariffs on some U.S. products like cars, alcohol, and coal, highlighting the deteriorating relations with the United States.

8. Slovenia’s parliament approved Marjan Sarec, a comedian turned politician, as prime minister-designate, setting him on track to form a minority government.

9. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko dismissed the country’s prime minister and other top ministers, in the biggest government reshuffle since 2014.

10. At least 19 people were killed in an Islamist militant attack on a village in northeast Nigeria.

Afghanistan

Algeria

Australia

Belarus

Brazil

Cambodia

Chile

China

Cuba

Ecuador

France

Germany

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Italy

Macedonia

Malaysia

Mali

Malta

Mexico

Myanmar

Nigeria

Pakistan

Palestinian Territories

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Romania

Russia

Saudi Arabia

Slovenia

Somalia

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

Taiwan

Tajikistan

Thailand

Tunisia

Turkey

Uganda

United Kingdom

United States of America

Venezuela

Yemen

Zimbabwe

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World News of the Week -August 6 to August 12, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with supporters from a group called "Bikers for Trump" at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S.
President Trump meets with supporters from a group called “Bikers for Trump” at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (via Reuters)

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What You Need To Know:

1. Four days of ferocious fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban over a key provincial capital has claimed the lives of about 100 Afghan policemen and soldiers and at least 20 civilians.

2. The death toll from the earthquake that rocked the Indonesian island of Lombok has passed 430 as the government estimates economic losses will exceed several hundred million dollars.

3. President Trump reinstated sanctions against Iran meant to pressure Tehran’s government into retreating from its support for terrorism, its military activity in the Middle East and its ballistic missile-related programs.

4. An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels hit a bus driving in a busy market in northern Yemen, killing least 50 people including many children,

5. Members of Israel’s Arab minority led a mass protest in central Tel Aviv against a contentious new law that critics say marginalizes the state’s non-Jewish citizens.

6. Tens of thousands of Romanians held anti-government protests, leaving 455 people in need of medical treatment.

7. A financial shockwave ripped through Turkey when its currency nosedived on concerns about its economic policies and a dispute with the U.S., which President Trump stoked further with a promise to double tariffs on the NATO ally.

8. Congo’s President Kabila announced he is not running again in December’s long-delayed elections, easing concerns by the opposition and international community that he would try to stay in office.

9. The United States announced it will impose new sanctions on Russia for illegally using a chemical weapon in an attempt to kill a former spy and his daughter in Britain earlier this year.

10. Zimbabwe’s opposition party filed a legal challenge to the results of the presidential election, alleging “gross mathematical errors” and calling for a fresh vote or a declaration that their candidate was the winner.

Afghanistan

Argentina

Bangladesh

Brazil

Burkina Faso

Cameroon

Canada

Chile

China

Colombia

Congo

Ecuador

Egypt

El Salvador

Estonia

Ethiopia

France

Germany

Ghana

Guatemala

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Italy

Japan

Jordan

Malaysia

Mali

Mexico

Nigeria

North Korea

Pakistan

Palestinian Territories

Poland

Romania

Russia

Saudi Arabia

Slovenia

South Korea

South Sudan

Spain

Sri Lanka

Switzerland

Syria

Tunisia

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States of America

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Zimbabwe

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World News of the Week – July 30 to August 5, 2018

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U.S. Army Col. performs a blessing on the 55 boxes of remains thought to be of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, returned by North Korea to the U.S. (via Reuters)

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What You Need To Know:

1. A powerful earthquake on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok killed at least 98 people.

2. Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa won the election with just over 50 percent of the ballots as the ruling party maintained control of the government in the first vote since the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe.

3. Two suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan during Friday prayers, killing at least 29 people and wounding another 81.

4. Authorities detained six people suspected of using explosives-laden drones in a failed bid to assassinate Venezuelan President Maduro.

5. China said it is poised to impose retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. imports, including coffee, honey, and industrial chemicals, if Washington goes ahead with its latest trade threat.

6. A new Ebola outbreak in Congo’s North Kivu province was confirmed, infecting at least 13 people, and killing 3.

7. Tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv to protest against Israel’s new law declaring it the nation-state of the Jewish people, which has provoked outrage among the country’s most integrated minority, the Druze.

8. Mali’s presidential election will go to a runoff vote after President Keïta failed to get enough votes to win a second term outright. He will face Soumaila Cisse in the second round.

9. The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels conducted airstrikes in the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, killing at least 28 people and wounding 70.

10. Thousands of angry young people took to the streets of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka to demand safer streets, facing police firing tear gas and pro-government activists who attacked them with clubs.

Afghanistan

Argentina

Australia

Bangladesh

Bosnia

Brazil

Cambodia

Canada

China

Colombia

Congo

Denmark

Egypt

Eritrea

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Indonesia

Iran

Israel

Italy

Jordan

Kenya

Kosovo

Malaysia

Mali

Mexico

Morocco

Myanmar

Nicaragua

Nigeria

North Korea

Pakistan

Philippines

Russia

Rwanda

Saudi Arabia

Serbia

Somalia

South Africa

South Sudan

Spain

Switzerland

Syria

Tajikistan

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States of America

Vatican

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Zimbabwe

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