On October 8, Saeb Erekat, a high-profile Palestinian diplomatic negotiator and Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, announced that he tested positive for COVID-19. When his health worsened, Erekat was rushed to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, an Israeli hospital located in Jerusalem, reports Reuters.
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According to BBC News, the rival authorities in Libya’s ongoing civil war have announced an immediate ceasefire resulting from an agreement brokered by the United Nations (UN). The deal officially halts the violence that has engulfed the North African country since the NATO-led toppling of its dictator, Muammar al-Qaddafi, in 2011.
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In a deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Sudan’s transitional government, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, Sudan has agreed to normalize ties with Israel after decades of belligerence between the two states, according to The Guardian.
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French officials unleashed a strict crackdown on many Muslim organizations on October 16 following the brutal murder of school teacher Samuel Paty for showing offensive caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Read MoreOn October 15, the head of the World Health Organization in Europe called for restrictive measures after a major increase of coronavirus cases throughout the continent, reports The Associated Press.
Read MoreRussia and China won seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council on October 13, causing outrage among human rights activists, while Saudi Arabia failed to secure a seat. While Russia and Cuba ran unopposed, Saudi Arabia and China were in a five-way race, with Pakistan receiving 169 votes, Uzbekistan 164, Nepal 150, China 139, and Saudi Arabia just 90 votes.
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International human rights group Amnesty International recently announced that they are halting operations in India and laying off all staff due to the Government of India freezing the organization’s bank accounts and forcing all ongoing campaigns and research work to be paused. In their statement, the organization condemned this action, calling it the latest action in a continued “witch-hunt” of human rights organizations by the Government of India.
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A total of nine people in France were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the brutal beheading of a teacher on Friday, October 16. The victim was 47-year-old Samuel Paty, a geography and history teacher at a school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb of Paris. According to the Washington Post, the assailant was shot dead by French police and later identified as Abdoulakh A., an 18-year-old Moscow-born immigrant of Chechen descent.
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China’s trans-national Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has hit a roadblock as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to flare. Al Jazeera reports that most construction has been halted to stop the spread of the virus, with 20 percent of projects being seriously impacted. Now, many countries fear they may not be able to pay back their loans to China or meet their deadline obligations.
Read MoreOn Monday, October 5, Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuelan government won its appeal in a lawsuit filed against the Bank of England concerning access to more than $1 billion in gold bullion. With this judgement, the England and Wales Court of Appeal has reversed a lower court’s decision to block Maduro’s government from accessing its gold bullion reserves housed at the Bank of England. The BBC reports that while this is an auspicious turn of events for the Maduro government, the verdict will only grant access to the bullion pending another review of the case.
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