Compass World: He Who Smelt It, Dealt It
A Deeper Look
Taiwanese voters on November 24 rejected a series of referenda that would have legalized same-sex marriage and institutionalized education of LGBT and sexuality issues in public schools. The majority voted for restrictions limiting marriage to between a man and a woman. Legal complications abound because of a Taiwanese high court’s May 2017 decision, which ruled that an existing ban on same-sex couples was unconstitutional. Taiwan was expected by many to become the first East Asian state to make same-sex marriage legal. Read below what the Caravel’s Editorial Board wrote to Taiwanese voters on the eve of the referendum.
Latin America & the Caribbean
Crying For America
Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon caught the chaos on camera November 26 when about 70 or 80 people, including many children, tried to cross the Mexican-American border near Tijuana. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel fired canisters of tear gas at the migrants after some threw projectiles at the border guards, the CBP said. The Department of Homeland Security had recently closed the border crossing at San Ysidro “to ensure public safety” when the migrants rushed the border. Democratic lawmakers and human rights groups criticized the Trump administration’s use of force and the president’s characterization of the migrants as “criminals” and “gang members.”
Retuers
A Chile Political Climate
An indigenous Mapuche man in Chile was shot and killed during a confrontation with police on November 14. Camilo Catrillanca was the grandson of a Mapuche indigenous leader and was shot in the head by police while driving a tractor through a rural community near the town of Ercilla in the Araucania province. Police say that they were in the area conducting an operation against a gang of local car thieves when they came under attack by automatic gunfire and returned fire, killing Catrillanca. Opposition members of parliament and human rights groups point to Catrillanca’s shooting as evidence of President Sebastián Piñera’s disproportionate use of force to settle conflict in the region.
Indo-Asia-Pacific
Mission Impossible
John Allen Chau, a Christian missionary from Washington state, was killed last week on India’s remote North Sentinel Island, which is the home of the Sentinelese people. The Sentinelese, a protected group of indigenous peoples, live in isolation and are one of the world’s last uncontacted populations. Chau, breaking Indian laws that make it illegal to intrude on the island, attempted three times to make contact with the Sentinelese to spread his Christian beliefs. Authorities are struggling to retrieve his body from the remote island.
Whale Tale
After 145 pilot whales stranded themselves on a remote beach in New Zealand, officials say that all of them have died. A hiker discovered the beached whales on Stewart Island late on November 24 and reported them to authorities. About 75 were already dead when conservation aid workers arrived, and the conservationists decided to euthanize those that remained because their health was already beyond repair. Just 375 New Zealanders live on Stewart Island, but the only settlement is some 30 kilometers away from the cove where the whales were eventually discovered.
Middle East & Central Asia
Press Stress
Filming a report on Brexit for public broadcaster KAN in Berlin’s Neukölln neighborhood, Israeli reporter Antonia Yamin was harassed by several young German men, who threw a firecracker at Yamin and her cameraman. Yamin declined to report the incident to the police but said that it would not stop her from continuing to report from the field in Germany. “Fifteen minutes after the incident I was already filming my next story,” she said. Yamin has said she thinks the incident was motivated by the fact that she was filming in Hebrew.
I-Ran Into a Stampede
Iranian state television reports that more than 700 people were injured after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Kermanshah province on the night of November 25. The earthquake is the second such major seismic event in the province in the past year; last year, more than 600 died in Iran’s deadliest earthquake of the decade. None have so far died from the November 25 earthquake, but officials say many were injured in a stampede that occurred after the first tremors were felt.
Eastern Europe & Russia
Strait Talkers
Amid confrontations between the Ukrainian and Russian navies, Russian authorities closed the Kerch Strait, a 19-kilometer-long bridge that creates a road linkage between Russia’s Krasnodar region and Russian-annexed Crimea. Russian and Ukrainian authorities issued conflicting statements on the cause of the closure. Ukrainian officials cite damage to one of their naval tugboats following Russia’s “openly aggressive action.” Ukraine has also declared martial law in parts of the country that border Russia.
He Who Smelt It, Dealt It
U.S.-owned broadcaster TVN, which operates in Poland as the most widely watched independent channel in the nation, blamed members of the Polish government for intimidating camera operators by accusing them of propagating Nazi ideology. In fact, the camera crew had gone undercover to film neo-Nazi events and expose budding fascism in Eastern Europe. The U.S. ambassador to Poland notified Polish lawmakers that Congress could withdraw support for Poland if the free press was under fire. Polish officials declined to comment.
Africa
The Women’s Wave
Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representatives on November 22 confirmed Birtukan Mideksa as the country’s next chief electoral commissioner. Nominated by reform-minded President Paul Biya, Mideksa is the latest in a series of high-profile appointments of women to powerful roles in the Ethiopian government, following now-President Sahle-Work Zewde and half of the country’s cabinet. Mideksa is a former federal judge that left the judiciary to pursue active opposition politics during the rule of the EPRDF, citing the party’s lack of respect for the rule of law.
Brave Grave
In protest of ongoing gang violence in the northern parts of Port Elizabeth, Khoisan activist and African National Congress (ANC) member of provincial legislature (MPL) Christian Martin slept atop a coffin in the Eastern Cape premier’s office this weekend. Martin and other activists proceeded on November 26 to King William’s Town, where the regional ANC is headquartered and said they would remain there until their demands are acknowledged by Eastern Cape Premier Phumlo Masaulle and Minister of Police Bheki Cele.
Western Europe & Canada
Helter-Skelter Shelter
Shelter, a British charity focusing on homelessness, released a report on November 22 showing the worsening of Britain’s homelessness crisis. One in every 200 Britons sleeps on the streets this fiscal quarter, with roughly 320,000 homeless in total in the country. London and other major cities are most affected by the crisis, with one in every 53 residents being homeless. The government has committed $11 billion to building low-cost housing.
A Horny Situation
Swiss voters on November 25 rejected a referendum on whether to subsidize farmers who let their cows’ and goats’ horns grow naturally. The Swiss cow is a national symbol, and 90 percent are de-horned or genetically hornless. Farmers and activists want the government to pay farmers $191 for every preserved horned cow or goat each year, costing the government tens of millions of dollars.
Writing contributed by Camilla Wasiak.