- The Guardian
- Issue #2055
SERBIA: Last week Alexander Vucic, Serbia’s president, put the army on high combat alert over Kosovo clashes. The troops moved to the administrative border with Kosovo and Metohija. According to local media, the move was taken in response to violent tactics by Kosovar police against Serb citizens. Kosovo law enforcement forces were attempting to seize administrative buildings in four Serb-populated municipalities in northern Kosovo and Metohija.
SOMALIA: Armed conflict, severe drought and devastating floods forced more than 1 million people in Somalia to flee their homes in the last 4 months – a record rate of displacement for the country. The total number of displaced people is estimated to be 3.8 million. The population of Somalia is 17 million people. The newly displaced people arrive in already overcrowded urban areas and sites where the earlier displaced groups live. Immense pressure on already overstretched resources exposes vulnerable people to increasing protection risks. Over half a million Somali children are severely malnourished. So far aid agencies received only 22 per cent of the resources needed to deliver assistance this year.
HOLLAND: Over 1500 climate activists were detained in the Hague last Saturday during a protest by the Extinction Rebellion group. The group protested against Dutch fossil fuel subsidies by blocking a section of a motorway in the centre of the city. Police used water cannons to disperse the protesters. According to the police, a total of 1579 people were arrested, 40 of whom will be prosecuted on charges including vandalism.
UKRAINE: After the military defeat at Bakhmut, the destruction of the US Patriot system in Kiev and the elimination of NATO-supplied ammunition, Kiev authorities took drastic measures in response – Kiev city council decided to deprive the late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev of the title of honorary citizen of Kiev. The move was supported by 82 MPs out of 120. “The decision is another step towards eliminating the legacy of the former Communist regime,” the city council’s statement read. It was pointed out that it was done in line with the “decommunisation” law of 2015. Never mind that Brezhnev died in 1982. Brezhnev was in good company – several other Soviet military commanders and politicians were deprived of the titles of honorary citizens of Kiev. Legendary Vietnamese revolutionary Truong Chinh is also no longer an honorary citizen of Kiev.
