Translated by: Tiago Jorge

Weekly Report – April 3^rd to April 9^th

Tension in the Middle East – Jerusalem’s Easter Sunday saw major tension in the Al Aqsa Mosque. Many jews were escorted to the city’s Western Wall, sacred place where they could pray to celebrate Easter. During the evening, hundreds of Palestinians prayed, in the same mosque, the same prayers part of Ramadan’s history. Although they refused exiting the mosque, the police opted not to remove them to avoid further conflict.

NATO welcome their new member – Finland joined NATO this past Tuesday, April 4^th. Aside Stoltenberg and Anthony Blinken, the United States’ secretary of state, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavusto announced, in Brussels, that “The era of non-military alignment in our history has ended.”. In an historic moment, Finland has become NATO’s 31st member and quickly ratified Sweden’s accession.

Now, the Russian border with Western values and NATO members is enlarged to 2500 terrestrial kilometres, which, according to Dmitry Peskov, “forces tactical and strategic measures”

China and Covid 19 – China responded to the WHO after being accused of not sharing information about animal trafficking in the Wuhan market. As a manner of response, Shen Hongbing claimed the accusation was false and asked the WHO to not politicise the origins of the pandemic. In turn, the WHO general-director asked China to quickly share the requested data.

Weekly Report – April 10^th to April 17^th

Information leak – This week, a suspect of leaking several Pentagon documents that imply US national security was arrested. The suspect is a 21-year-old of Portuguese descent. Jack Teixeira, a member of the US Air Force, had been leaking documents on Discord, a digital platform, for several months, to a private group called “Thug Shaker Central”. According to the New York Times, Teixeira is likely to be trialled under espionage law that criminalizes the “removal, retention and transmission of classified documents that can be used to injure the US.”

Lula da Silva – The Brazilian president went to China and asked, at the end of his stay, that the US stop incentivizing the war in Ukraine and started to talk about peace. Furthermore, he criticized the EU and the US for weapon shipping to Ukraine. These statements resulted in major international discomfort over the course of this week.

Sudan – This past weekend, a paramilitary rebel group tried to take power in Sudan. According to Euronews, this group has been denounced for crimes against humanity during the war in Darfur. In this fight for power, three UN members from the World Food Program were killed. The organization has, in the meantime, suspended all ground operations.

Macron’s visit to China – The French president visited China after Xi Jinping travelled to Russia. This visit was marked by international indignation. In this state visit, Macron defended that, whilst aligned with the US, Europe shouldn’t always get aligned in such obedient manner, even in regard to the Beijing-Taiwan situation in discussion for the past few weeks, even after the occurrence of military drills by the Chinese, close to the island.