The President of Haiti, Jovenel Moise was shot dead in his home overnight, and the first lady was also wounded. There has been great political chaos in Haiti ever since February with lots of anti government protests happening in the capital Port-au-Prince. There were also questions raised of whether the President’s term in office had already expired and less than a year ago there had been another assassination attempt.
It is believed that gunmen broke into the President’s property around 1am local time when the incident happened. Haiti is currently one of the poorest countries in the world and protests and violent clashes are very frequent. The Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, commented that it was “an abhorrent act” and he was deeply “saddened by the death.
The interim Prime Minister, Claude Joseph, confirmed the death of the 53 year old president and mentioned that the attackers were “foreigners who spoke English and Spanish.” He vowed to bring the killers to justice and told everyone that the situation was “under control”, even though the country is in a current state of emergency. This means that public gatherings are all currently banned with the military and police gaining more executive powers over the public.
Mr Moise has been in power since February 2017, but during his time in office there were many accusations of corruption and the mismanagement of public funds. It was back in 2010 when the deadly earthquake in Haiti killed more than 200,000 people and caused so much lasting damage to the economy. Even UN’s attempt to bring about peace in the country, set up in 2004, couldn’t achieve any positive outcome, and withdrew in 2017. Haiti has recently faced many violent public encounters with kidnapping as well as certain districts becoming no-go areas.
Global Nuclear regulators have been made aware that Iran has started to enrich it’s uranium metal, and this could potentially be used to make an atomic weapon. America and European leaders have already begun to express grave concern that the 2015 nuclear agreement is being breeched. However, Tehran claims that the enrichment is to develop fuel for a research reactor.
Many countries fear that Iran is pushing ahead with this nuclear programme because it wants to build a nuclear bomb, something which Iran has denied repeatedly. Nevertheless, under the nuclear deal Iran previously agreed not to produce any uranium metal, even for research and development for a total of 15 years. Britain’s foreign ministry released a statement saying, “Iran has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D.”
There are current attempts to negotiate some viable compromise on the situation with Iran being fully complaint and the US lifting the crippling sanctions on the country. It was only in December that the Parliament of Iran agreed to bring about a law which would essentially allow a uranium factory to come online within five months. The US especially expressed their concern as they claim that Iran is continuing to violate the agreement that was previously made.
Further details on the uranium plant reveal that it can produce an enriched form of uranium which has a 20% concentration of U-235. This is the most suitable type of isotope for nuclear fission which is used for research. However, in order to have an atomic weapon the uranium has to be enriched to at least 90%
June has been the highest in terms of temperature for North America with many records being broken this month. There have been many heat waves especially in America’s southwest regions and residents of Salt Lake City, in Utah, have been told to see the highest all-time temperatures. The current estimate in that region is a scorching 40.6°C, however there are even hotter temperatures expected in parts of Arizona and California.
The UK is currently experiencing a lot of rain an cloud recently, nevertheless this was the second warmest June on record for Europe. Many climate experts are fearful of what this could mean for the future as humanity is seeing an escalation in temperatures. Professor Peter Stott from the UK Met office said, “We are getting used to record high temperatures being recorded somewhere around the world every year now.”
In parts of America such as Nevada, farmers are abandoning crops as Nevada is banning the watering of lawns in Las Vegas. The governor of Utah himself asked all of the residents to pray for rain as the situation is so bad. There is also the likely possibility of wildfires this season as well and droughts are not only common but are getting worse as time goes on.
Meteorologists are finding shocking truths that reveal the world is experiencing more heatwaves as the temperature records keep being broken. The change is so profound in some countries such as Canada where several cities recorded an average temperature above 5 degrees than was usual for that region. It is also becoming more and more apparent this change would not be so profound without human-caused activities.
The Taliban have recently entered into a key city in Afghanistan as the US seeks to leave. There is a propaganda war which is currently being won by the Taliban with multiple videos being released on social media to boast of their claimed success. The US currently has the foreign troops stationed at the US embassy and the international airport in Afghanistan.
With all government officials being moved to an army base, the militant continue their offence to capture the centre of the Badghis province. This is happening as the US, UK and all other allied forces seek to leave the country after 20 years of involvement there. With the current situation, the Afghan military have the sole responsibility of providing adequate security for the country.
Furthermore, the Taliban have gained control of dozens of other districts within the past few weeks and they now control an alarming one third of the country. There are concerns that this control of territory is only going to increase at a rapid rate with the Taliban making gains now on a daily basis. There are huge international questions raised as to whether Afghan’s own army will be capable of holding off the Taliban and their influence.
In the past the Taliban have gained control of territory but then quickly lost it, but this was mainly due to the brute power of the US military warplanes. With these no longer an aid, the moment of truth has arrived for the NATO trained forces currently in Afghanistan. Perhaps only time will tell if they will be able to hold off the insurgents with the assets that they have been given. Furthermore, President Ashraf Ghani insists that the Afghan security forces are entirely capable of keeping the insurgents away.