Chris Bassett ’18:
Emmanuel Macron has been elected French President over Marine Le Pen after winning 66% of votes. According to CNN, Macron’s election shows a clear rejection of France’s mainstream parties, especially since Macron, a centrist independent, was not affiliated with a traditional political party nor did he have any prior governing experience. Macron seeks to unite a divided country unhappy with past leadership. Macron’s foremost task as French President is to define his party “La République en Marche!” for voters before the first round of legislative elections.
Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the leading official in the investigation of whether Trump advisors colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. While Trump has cited Comey’s firing to be a direct result of Comey’s oversight over the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, the New York Times declared that Trump was widely seen to benefit politically from the email revelation, even praising Comey for his work on the matter. Many Republicans expressed their belief of his decision to be rash and potentially consequential.
In April 2017, the Russian newspaper Novaya reported that over 100 men suspected of being gay were detained and tortured by government officials. This was not a single occurrence, as multiple reports have stated the rounding up and captivity of homosexual men in “concentration camps” in Chechnya, Russia. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson has denied any reports of torture, even arguing that there are not any gay people in Chechnya. An anonymous man has disclosed that he was subject to electric shocks and was made to beat and be beaten by other prisoners using pipes.
A global cyberattack has caused mass panic across multiple continents. Many people fear that they will not be able to pay the ransom in order to prevent their data from being destroyed. The attack was caused by malicious software stolen from the National Security Agency that revealed weaknesses in computers across over 100 different countries. Hackers used these vulnerabilities to take over devices and demand $300 from the users to unlock them.
A new international report has revealed that Mexico has had 23,000 homocides in 2016, placing them second only to Syria. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mexico’s drug cartels have intensified the country to armed conflict. In contrast to Syria, Mexico’s homocides are largely a result of small firearms rather than from artillery or aircraft. However, the Mexican Government has denied these allegations, questioning the accuracy and credibility of the report. One of their central arguments is that other Latin countries such as Honduras, Venezuela, Belize, Colombia, and Brazil have higher homocide rates per 100,000 people than Mexico does.