In the first Monday Briefing of the semester, we start your weekly recap remembering the Oct. 7 anniversary. We also bring focus to the Tunisia presidential election, the German local elections and the EU membership proceedings in Albania and North Macedonia. Have a read and let’s get you up to date on the news of the week!
Spotlight: The war in Gaza one year on
by Elisa Latora
This first Monday Briefing of the semester coincides with a very significant date: October 7. Exactly one year ago the Hamas attacks on Israel left 1,200 dead, and what followed has been the ruthless bombardment and destruction of most of the Palestinian territory of Gaza. In a recent public statement, the prime minister of Israel Netanyahu has defined the objectives of the ongoing conflict as such: “We will return our hostages in the south, return our residents in the north, and ensure the eternity of Israel“. One naturally tends to ask how these objectives could ever be rationalized when, on the other side of the conflict, it is estimated that over the past year in Gaza more than 40 thousand people have been killed and 9 in 10 people have been displaced from their homes and cities.
There is so much that should be said, and we recognize that the short and incisive style of the Monday Briefing could not ever serve as enough. In the following we leave some links and suggestions, and, as always, we will do our best to keep you, our readers, informed.
Official Statements:
Message from UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini on 7th October 2024.
Explaining the war one year on:
Gaza Strip in maps: How a year of war has drastically changed life in the territory –BBC.
The War That Won’t End – The New York Times.
Video reportage:
Dagli aiuti umanitari su Gaza ai territori palestinesi occupati: il reportage di Francesca Mannocchi.
Around the World
by Vatsal Aggarwal and Giulio Savare
UK agrees to give sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The UK has announced it will transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ensuring the continued operation of the US military base on Diego Garcia for the next 99 years while granting displaced islanders the right to return. This deal, seen as crucial for global security, follows long-standing legal challenges regarding the islands’ status since the UK detached them from Mauritius in 1965. Critics, including the Chagossian community, argue they were excluded from negotiations and are calling for self-determination. The agreement, supported by the US and India, aims to foster economic and environmental partnerships between the UK and Mauritius.
Israel kills Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in massive strike on Beirut. As a part of the dramatic escalation of Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, on Friday, Israel has killed Hizbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike on residential neighborhood in Beirut. The death of the commander, which was confirmed during the next day in a statement of the Lebanese group, is expected to rise even further the tension in the region.
Tunisia presidential election: Who is running and what is at stake? On October 6, Tunisians will vote in a presidential election that critics say is skewed in favor of President Kais Saied, threatening the country’s democracy. Only two candidates oppose Saied: Zouhair Magzhaoui, seen as a Saied supporter, and Ayachi Zammel, a jailed liberal leader facing politically motivated charges. Many opposition figures have been jailed or barred from running by the ISIE, which critics claim is now under Saied’s control. Protests have emerged, demanding free elections and criticizing Saied’s repression of dissent, but public disillusionment and low voter turnout remain widespread.
Mpox vaccination begins in DRC after 859 die this year. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has started vaccinating against mpox following a global emergency declaration by the WHO. Some of the 265,000 doses donated by the EU and US were administered in Goma, North Kivu, where hospitals are struggling with the outbreak. The DRC has reported over 30,000 suspected cases and 859 deaths, making up the majority of Africa’s cases. Although most infections and deaths affect children under 15, current vaccines are for adults and high-risk groups. Japan is expected to send 3 million child-friendly doses soon.
European News
Scholz’s SPD narrowly beats far right in Brandenburg state elections. The Germans local elections have been on the spotlight of continental political attention this last month, as three states in Eastern Germany have renewed their legislatures. Earlier this September Thuringia and Saxony, this weekend Brandenburg.
The results, although widely expected, are set to provoke a political earthquake in Berlin. In Saxony the first party was CDU, which is currently leading also in nation-wide polls, but the far right party AFD was just behind. And Thuringia was even worse, as the AFD collected 32.8% of the vote, making it by far the most popular party. In the recent Brandenburg election the SPD, the party currently in government with Olaf Scholz, has secured the win, but AFD is still on the rise. Shockingly the younger generation has expressed a widespread support for this far right platform, which makes German political landscape by far the most rightwing since the end of World War II.
EU Council unbundles Albania and North Macedonia’s accession paths. European Union expansion towards the east has been slowly progressing in the last decades. Practically all the countries in the Balkans have applied to EU membership and the processes of admission are at different stages. This week Albania has seen the positive pronunciation of the 27 Ambassadors regarding the steps ahead made towards the long awaited approval. This is far from being the end of this story, but it is certainly a positive development for the EU supporters in Albania.
Different faith has been expressed on North Macedonia. The country has not yet completed the required achievement in several indicators and will therefore see its bid stalled. A possible obstacle to EU membership for North Macedonia is the complicated diplomatic relations that the nation has with its neighbors, Greece and Bulgaria in particular, regarding border disputes.
Le Pen and 26 of her party’s members are standing trial in fake EU Parliament jobs case.Paris’s public prosecutor has filed various accusations against Rassemblement National, far right French party that has collected high shares of votes in the last elections, for having built a “Fraudulent System” to subtract public funds from the EU. Both Marine Le Pen and her father, former leader of the movement, are involved in the trial. Le Pen is facing 10 years in prison, a million euros fine and a 5 years ban from running from any public office, which would make her ineligible for the highly expected 2027 presidential election. It’s not the first time in recent years that controversial right wing politician have been under scrutiny by the magistrates and it is interesting to note that the defensive line is almost always the same: denouncing the politicization of the judiciary system, delegitimizing the entire state apparatus.
Swiss police make arrests over suspected death in ‘suicide capsule’.
Several suspects have been arrested in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen for allegedly helping an American citizen to suicide with the Sarco Pod, a capsule designed to facilitate euthanasia. It works by allowing the person inside the sealed chamber to release nitrogen, which first makes the individual fall asleep and then lead to suffocation in a matter of minutes. Although the practice is legal under certain condition in the Alpine country, this represents the first time such method was used. The ethical debate around the practice of assisted suicide is wide open in every corner of the world and several organization are actively lobbying for it, including Last Resort and Exit international, both of which are involved directly in this case.
Every week, your TiL Monday Briefing 🗞: you better read it with a cup of coffee! ☕️
Head of the Monday Briefing column: Pietro Ferrari. Current writing staff: Vatsal Aggarwal, Cristiana Murè. Cartoons by Polina Mednikova. The Monday Briefing column was established in its current form in 2021 by Bojan Zeric.
Having lived both in Italy and the UK, I enjoy exploring how multiculturalism affects our personal identities. I use language, writing and journalism as tools to decipher the world around me. And, I will of course never turn down a lively convo about current news. With a degree in Economic and Social sciences, I’m now pursuing a master’s in Politics and Policy Analysis.
I have spent most of my life in India before recently moving to Milan, where I am pursuing an MSc in Finance at Bocconi. I am interested in politics, art and culture, cinema, and travelling. Through my writing, I aspire to document important voices and present opinions. In my free time, I try to keep up with my movies-to-watch list, sample as many restaurants as I can, and find cats to pet.
Always trying to extend my knowledge about the mysterious forces that shape our reality, sometimes with some weird model, sometimes by reading the news. In this chapter of my life I am pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Economic and Social Sciences at Bocconi.
