ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF COVID-19
By Donnelly McCleland China’s Hubei province is preparing to emerge from a two-month lockdown that was prompted by tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases. In recent days, the province and its capital city, Wuhan, have reported a dwindling number of new coronavirus cases. “Apart from Wuhan, the other places in Hubei [province] have registered 19…
MOZAMBIQUE JIHADISTS CAPTURE STRATEGIC PORT
By Donnelly McCleland Islamist insurgents captured the strategic northern Mozambique port town of Mocimboa da Praia on Monday [23 March], their biggest prize in a 30-month-long insurgency, according to security sources and the official news agency. The insurgents attacked by land and sea before dawn and overran the town and its military base, according to…
FEARS OF COVID-19 SPIKE AS IRAN CELEBRATES NEW YEAR
By Alex Pollock There is no doubt that the current coronavirus crisis will undermine the Iranian economy and lead to a major contraction in the country’s gross domestic product. The Iranian government has already announced a number of measures to support vulnerable social classes as well as businesses that will be hit hard by the current…
RESPONDING TO THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
By Donnelly McCleland The coronavirus has infected hundreds of people in Chinese prisons, authorities said, as cases climbed outside the epicentre in Hubei province. More than 80,000 people have been infected in China since the outbreak began, apparently in an illegal wildlife market in the central city of Wuhan late last year. China’s death toll…
BURKINA FASO’S DISPLACEMENT CRISIS WORSENS IN FACE OF VIOLENT ATTACKS
By Alex Pollock At least 24 people were killed after unidentified gunmen attacked a church in northern Burkina Faso in the latest assault against places of worship in the West African nation. The attack took place on Sunday [16 February] during a weekly service at a Protestant church in the village of Pansi in Yagha,…
TRUCE AMID ELECTION DISPUTE TESTS AFGHAN UNITY
By Donnelly McCleland A truce promising a significant reduction in violence across Afghanistan has been overshadowed by a dispute over the country’s presidential election. As the weeklong reduction in violence began early on 22 February, there were no signs that Afghan Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah is backing down from challenging incumbent President Ashraf Ghani’s…
TRUMP DEFENCE WRAPS UP AMID BOLTON BOMBSHELL
By Donnelly McCleland President Donald Trump’s legal team is raising a broad-based attack on the impeachment case against him even as it mostly brushes past allegations in a new book that could undercut a key defence argument at his Senate trial. Former national security adviser John Bolton writes in a manuscript that Mr Trump wanted…
RIFT OVER INDIA’S CITIZENSHIP LAW
By Alex Pollock India’s Supreme Court has refused to put on hold the implementation of a controversial new citizenship law. The court also asked the government to respond within a month to a clutch of petitions challenging the law’s constitutional validity. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed in December last year [2019], prompting outrage…
RUSSIA’S CONSTITUTIONAL SHAKEUP
By Donnelly McCleland In a unanimous move in the State Duma [Russia’s Parliament], lawmakers backed a bill seeking to overhaul several articles of the constitution, just a week after President Putin proposed major amendments to the law including about his own post. Proposed by Vladimir Putin in his annual state of the nation address, the…
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND PERSECUTION
By Donnelly McCleland Today, in Islamic-, Hindu-, and Communist-majority parts of the world, being a follower of Jesus means, at best, losing your job and being rejected by your family. At worst, it can mean imprisonment, beating, and even death. These things are being experienced all over the world right now by our brothers and…