November 4 – Middle East: SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son and top adviser of King Salman, initiates a sweeping campaign of anti-corruption arrests that includes the country’s 10 other princes as well as current and former government ministers. Among the detained is the prominent billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who controls the investment firm Kingdom Holding and has major stakes in companies such as Citigroup, Apple, and Twitter. The arrests send shock waves throughout the country. The campaign is seen as part of Crown Prince’s consolidation power.[1] Thirty-two-year old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is not only head of the anti-corruption department, but also the minister of defense and in charge of the interior ministry’s troops, which acts as a second armed force. He is highly popular especially among younger Saudis who see him as a reformer.
What it happening in Saudi Arabia? (Video 03:47)
Corruption in Saudi Arabia is widespread. Transparency International gives the country a score of 46 (on a scale from 0 to 100 where 0 is “highly corrupt” and 100 is “highly clean”).[2] Saudi Arabia’s attorney general estimates that about $100 billion has been misused through systemic corruption and embezzlement over a few decades.[3]
Look at corruption index and map to compare corruption levels across countries
November 4 – Middle East:
LEBANON / SAUDI ARABIA
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri abruptly announces his resignation in a televised address from Saudi Arabia. He says that he left Lebanon because his life was in danger. The move, however, leaves Lebanon in shock and fuels speculation that the Saudis coerced him to step down and hold him hostage. The Saudis deny the accusations. A few days later, in another televised interview, Hariri says he will rescind his resignation if Hezbollah pulls out from conflicts in the region. The incident is seen as part of the larger Iran–Saudi Arabia conflict.[4] Hezbollah is an Iran-supported militia, but also is an important Lebanese political group that is part of a unity government in Lebanon. The group is involved in the wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia insists that Lebanon remains neutral in these wars, which would also curb the influence of its regional rival, Iran. (November 15): Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, accuses Saudi Arabia of aggression towards Lebanon and demands Hariri’s safe return. France and other countries step in to mediate between the two sides.[5] (November 21): Prime Minister Saad Hariri returns to Lebanon and withdraws his resignation.
More on Why Lebanon’s prime minister resigned
The conflict between Iran, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon explained (video 03:21)
November 6 – Africa: ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, 93, sacks Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, accusing him of plotting to take power from him. The move paves the way for Mugabe’s wife, Grace Mugabe, to become vice president and then succeed him as president. Grace Mugabe, who is 41 years younger than her husband, has quickly risen through the ranks of the ruling Zanu-PF party, ousting many opponents. But she has been a polarizing figure within the party and failed to win the support of the army.[6] (November 14): Zimbabwe’s military takes over the state TV station and places President Robert Mugabe and his wife, Grace, under house arrest. The army says it is not a coup, but an attempt to take care of “criminals” around President Mugabe.[7] It gives Mugabe an ultimatum to resign or face impeachment. (November 21): After 37 years in power, Robert Mugabe resigns as president of Zimbabwe. The move ends the political crisis and the impeachment hearings. He is succeeded by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mugabe: From war hero to president of Zimbabwe (video: 2:12)
November 6 – Middle East: SAUDI ARABIA / YEMEN
Saudi Arabia tightens its blockade on Yemen by closing air, land, and sea access preventing food, water, medicine, fuel, and other necessities from entering Yemen. The move follows the Saudis intercepting a ballistic missile near its capital, Riyadh fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Saudi Arabia defends the blockade saying it is needed to stop the flow of arms from Iran to Yemen. However, the blockade is creating a humanitarian crisis for the civilians in Yemen who are dying from the lack of food and medicine. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock warns that the blockade is creating the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims.[8] The Red Cross is unable to provide chlorine tablets, vital to combating a cholera epidemic that has so far affected more than 900,000 Yemenis.[9] (December 2): Saudi Arabia partially lifts the blockade on Yemen, allowing humanitarian organizations to bring some life-saving supplies. However, the UN says that this is not enough to prevent the humanitarian crisis. Without the urgent resumption of commercial imports, especially food, fuel and medicines, millions of Yemenis risk mass hunger, disease and death. Nearly 400,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition. With 90 percent of the country’s food imported, more than 8 million people face the risk of starvation. The UN warns that threat of widespread famine is a matter of months.[10]
November 8 – Latin America: COLOMBIA
Colombian police seize 12 tons of cocaine in the largest single drug seizure in the country’s history.[11] Worth $360 million, the drugs were buried in four banana plantations and belonged to Dairo Úsuga, aka Otoniel, the leader of a criminal gang, the Gulf’s Clan. The Gulf’s Clan is Colombia’s most powerful paramilitary group. Its main source of income comes from drug trafficking and other organized crime rackets.[12] Potential cocaine production in Colombia in 2016 was 866 tons with a total value of $560 million.[13]
November 8 – South Asia: INDIA
Pollution levels in India’s capital, Delhi, have reached 30 times the World Health Organization’s safe limit in some areas. Conditions worsen every winter when famers in nearby states burn leftover crops in their fields.[14] Delhi is one of the world’s most polluted capital cities. Because of poor air quality four out of every 10 children in Delhi suffer from severe lung problems.[15]
Experience how it is to drive through Delhi’s smog.
“Air pollution” from the World Health Organization
“Case studies of healthy, sustainable cities” from World Health Organization
November 8 – Middle East: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE)
The United Arab Emirates opens a $1.2-billion Louvre Abu Dhabi art museum.[16] In cooperation with France and with a permission to use the name “Louvre”, both countries aimed at creating a new kind of cultural institution that brings different cultures together. As it celebrates the cultural achievements of all mankind, the museum displays art from a variety of countries and cultures, while galleries are not separated by geography, but in chronological order highlighting comparisons, influences, and ideas across civilizations and cultures.[17] The Louvre Abu Dhabi extraordinary structure was designed by the Pritzker-winning French architect Jean Nouvel. The centerpiece of the structure is a geometrically complex silvery dome that appears to float above the entire museum-city. The dome is designed to filter the sun’s light in such as way that it creates an effect within the museum known as “the rain of light.’[18] The new Louvre holds 600 artworks permanently, 300 loaned from France, as well as art loaned by other Arab countries.
Abu Dhabi just opened their Louvre museum – take a look inside – Video 2:03 min
November 10 – East Asia / North America / International Organizations:
VIETNAM / UNITED STATES / ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION (APEC)
During his five-nation trip to Asia, U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. In his address, President Trump attacks multilateralism, claiming lower trade barriers hurt American workers and lead to big trade deficits. He says his Administration prefers that the U.S. enter bilateral trade deals. His policy reverses the role of the United States that created many of the multilateral and free trade agreements for Asia in the past. This vacuum is being filled by China, a rising economic and political influence in the region, with President Xi Jinping speaking in support of free trade and globalization.[19]
APEC is committed to reducing barriers to trade and investment among its 21 member-countries (2.8 billion people) from the Pacific region (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.) It represented 59 percent of world GDP and 49 percent of world trade in 2015. Between 1989 and 2015, APEC total trade has increased more than 6.7 times to $20 trillion. In the same years, trade by the rest of the world grew by 5.6 times. Thanks to APEC, GDP in the region increased from $19 trillion in 1989 to $42 trillion in 2015, while per capita income in the region rose by 74 per cent, lifting millions out of poverty and creating a growing middle class.[20]
(November 11): A group of 11 countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam) revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without the United States under a new name of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the TPP claiming it would hurt US economic interests.[21] This major multinational trade agreement guarantees tariff-free trade between the members, allowing their companies faster and better access to each other markets. The new deal still has to be signed and ratified by each country.
November 16 – East Asia: CAMBODIA
Cambodia’s top court dissolves the country’s main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), accusing it of conspiring to topple the government and take over power. The ruling also dismisses all CNRP elected officials from their positions and bars them from politics for five years. The critics of the move say the ruling was a crackdown on dissent. The CNRP that was founded in 2012 did well in the 2013 elections and was getting ready to contest the elections next year. By dissolving the only meaningful opposition party, Cambodia’s authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985, will run unopposed.[22] Mu Sochua, one of the CNRP’s most popular politicians who fled into exile, has said that the dissolution of the party marks “the end of true democracy in Cambodia.”[23]
November 29 – East Asia / North America / Europe / Former Soviet Republics:
NORTH KOREA / UNITED STATES / RUSSIA
In defiance of international sanctions, North Korea successfully launches another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Hwasong-15, which flew higher than missiles previously tested and landed off the northern coast of Japan. The missile reached an altitude of 2,780 miles and flew the distance of 590 miles in 53 minutes. The height is important as missiles at higher altitude can travel longer distances on a lower trajectory. North Korea boasts that the new missile can now reach any part of the continental United States.[24] Defending the launch, North Korea says it is a “responsible nuclear power” and it needs these strategic weapons to defend itself from “the U.S. imperialists’ nuclear blackmail policy and nuclear threat”.[25] (November 30): U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley urges all countries to sever relations with North Korea. Russia, however, says that sanctions do not work and encourages diplomatic approach.[26]
North Korea in nine charts