The Globalist Weekly: 30th December 2019
A concise weekly digest of the top readings, content, ideas and discussions from our global bureaux and correspondents at ComplexGlobal
This week we’re exploring the migrants and refugees rescued off the coast of Libya, unrest in Congo as they battle against Ebola, the Christmas misery brought by a typhoon in Philippines, bank robbery in United States, the bushfires in Australia, and the Christmas demonstrations and tear gas in Hong Kong.
As this is the final edition of the Globalist for 2019, from everyone here at ComplexGlobal, we’d like to wish all our readers, clients and partners the best for the year ahead and all the opportunity and success that 2020 will hold and we look forward to working with you all again in the coming year.
162 migrants & refugees rescued off Libya in Italy
More than 160 migrants and refugees rescued off the Libyan coast have disembarked in the southern Italian port of Taranto, the NGO SOS Mediterranee said on Tuesday.The migrants, including 50 children and five pregnant women, “were rescued by the SOS Mediterranee Search and Rescue team in two critical rescues in international waters off the coast of Libya on Friday, December 20th”, said the NGO, which charters the Ocean Viking rescue ship along with medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF). The first operation involved a rubber dinghy that had deflated and was carrying 112 “terrified” people on board, it said.
Unrest in Congo thwarted the battle against Ebola
The men who came to the village of Ntombi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in mid-December aimed to spare no one.Militants with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of dozens of armed groups operating in DRC’s North Kivu, they hacked to death women and children, killing 22 people in a single incident in one of a series of attacks over the course of a weekend that left 43 dead in total. The consequence of the attack, one of several in a spike of violence in DRC, are profound: occurring at a moment when health officials believed they were close to finally bringing the country’s 16-month long Ebola virus outbreak under control.
Philippines typhoon brings Christmas Day misery
Typhoon Phanfone has pummelled the central Philippines on Christmas Day, bringing a wet and miserable holiday season to millions. Thousands were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centres while others sheltered in rain-soaked homes as Phanfone crossed from one island to another for the second day. The typhoon toppled houses and trees and blacked out cities in the Philippines’ most storm-prone region. More than 10,000 people spent the night in schools, gyms and government buildings hastily converted into evacuation centres as the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday, civil defence officials said.
Bank robber throws cash in air, says ‘Merry Christmas’
David Wayne Oliver, 65, was arrested at a nearby Starbucks coffee shop after he held up the Academy Bank in Colorado Springs on Monday afternoon, according to a police report.Police said the suspect had “threatened the use of a weapon” and left the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash. A police spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment, but Colorado Springs television station KKTV reported that eyewitness Dion Pascale recounted Oliver stepped outside the bank and tossed the money “all over the place.” He started throwing money out of the bag” before yelling, “Merry Christmas,” the TV station quoted Pascale as saying. Pascale said bystanders retrieved some of the money and returned it to the bank as Oliver walked to the Starbucks, sat down and appeared to be waiting for police to arrest him, KKTV reported.
Rain offers little as out-of-control bushfires continues
Rainfall over parts of eastern Australia during the Christmas break did little to extinguish some of the country’s major bushfires, ahead of worsening conditions and a heatwave due to arrive in the coming days. About 70 bushfires continue to burn throughout New South Wales, despite modest rainfall in some fire-affected parts of the state, while firefighters continued to battle a large blaze in South Australia on Boxing Day. Rob Taggart, a meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, told the Guardian NSW’s mid-north coast and hinterland had received the bulk of the rain since Christmas Eve, with some areas hitting totals of around 80mm. But he added that rainfall in the fire-ravaged Blue Mountains and south coast regions had been minimal. “Bearing in mind that some of the higher falls are from thunderstorms, which are hit and miss, some locations through the north coast and the north coast hinterland have received some fairly significant falls,” he said on Thursday.”
Christmas in Hong Kong: demonstration and tear gas
Anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Hong Kong over the Christmas holiday, clashing with riot police in malls and busy shopping districts across the semiautonomous Chinese territory. The city’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, accused the demonstrators of ruining the holiday. Her critics say the government and police used unnecessarily heavy-handed tactics to disperse what began as peaceful gatherings, albeit without official permission. Hundreds of black-clad protesters, many wearing reindeer antlers, occupied malls and other shopping areas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as part of the months-long campaign for democratic and police reforms in the city. Police accused the protesters of “rioting” and vandalism, and attempted to disperse them using pepper spray and batons while indoors, and firing tear gas and deploying water cannons on the streets.
Originally published at https://www.complexglobal.co
