The Globalist Weekly: 16th 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 independence vote in Bougainville, Boris Johnson’s United Kingdom election win, air quality & the Sydney bushfires, the volcanic eruption in New Zealand, The Pensacola attack and Finland’s new prime minister.

Bougainville votes freedom from Papua New Guinea

The autonomous region of Bougainville has voted overwhelmingly in favour of becoming independent from Papua New Guinea, paving the way for the group of islands to become the world’s newest nation. More than 180,000 people in Bougainville, a collection of islands flung 700km off the coast of Papua New Guinea in the Solomon Sea, participated in a referendum over the last few weeks that has been nearly 20 years in the making. Almost 98% of people (176,928 people) voted for independence and less than 2% (3,043 people) voted to remain as part of Papua New Guinea but with “greater autonomy”. There were 1,096 informal ballots.

Sydney hit by hazardous air quality

Sydney was shrouded in smoke, as the air quality index reached 11 times higher than “hazardous” in many parts of the city. Nine fires are currently burning at watch and act level, and one at emergency level. The Three Mile fire was at emergency level at 2pm, but was later downgraded to watch and act. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, rejected suggestions that volunteer firefighters should be professionalised, or that the federal government should do more, saying the firefighters “want to be there”. Cricketers playing in the Sheffield Shield at the SCG said the air was “toxic” and called on the sport to review its air quality policy. Buildings all over Sydney — including RFS headquarters — were evacuated as the smoke triggered fire alarms.

Volcanic tremor in NZ “significantly increased”

White Island’s level of volcanic tremor significantly increased on Wednesday morning local time, said GeoNet, which assesses geological risk in New Zealand. The tremor suggests that volcanic gas pressures remain high, the agency said. Since around 4:00 am this morning the level of volcanic tremor has significantly increased at the island. This has been accompanied by vigorous steaming and localised mud jetting in several of the craters created by the eruption on Monday. We interpret these signals as evidence of continued high gas pressures within the volcano.The situation remains highly uncertain as to future activity. Eruptions in the next 24 hours are still likely to occur.

FBI: Pensacola attack is presumed terrorism

The FBI says it is treating Friday’s deadly attack on a Florida navy base as a presumed terrorist attack. The Saudi gunman — who was training at the Pensacola site — killed three sailors before he was shot dead. Special agent Rachel Rojas said the FBI was trying to determine if he had acted alone or had connections to a group.She said other Saudi students had been questioned but not arrested. They were reportedly confined to the base and co-operating with investigators. The victims of the attack have been named as Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23, Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, and Cameron Scott Walters, 21. The US Navy said the sailors “showed exceptional heroism and bravery in the face of evil”.

Finland anoints world’s youngest prime minister

Finland will have the world’s youngest serving prime minister later this week when Social Democrat Sanna Marin, 34, is sworn in at the head of a coalition whose four other parties are all led by women, three of them in their thirties. Marin, currently the transport minister, will take over from Antti Rinne, a former trade unionist who resigned last week after just six months in office when he lost the confidence of the Centre party, a coalition partner, over his handling of a postal strike.She will become the Nordic country’s youngest ever head of government, but said on Sunday night she had “never thought about my age or gender. I think of the reasons I got into politics, and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate.”

Boris Johnson hails ‘new dawn’ after historic victory

Boris Johnson has promised to deliver Brexit and repay the trust of voters after he led the Conservatives to an “historic” general election win. The PM, who has met the Queen to ask to form a new government, has a majority of 80 in the House of Commons — the party’s largest since 1987. He said he would work “flat out” and lead a “people’s government”. Jeremy Corbyn said he would not fight another election as Labour leader, amid recriminations over the party’s defeat. He said he was “very sad” about the result, adding that he had received “more personal abuse” from the media during the campaign than any previous prime ministerial candidate.

Originally published at https://www.complexglobal.co