Week 5 Report: 5th-11th November

World leaders gathered to commemorate the centenary of the 1918 armistice

US Mid-term Elections: Democrats win house in a setback for Trump. Democrats have taken control of the US House of Representatives for the first time in eight years, restricting Trump’s powers to pass his policies through congress. Although Trump is not up for re-election until 2020, many viewed this vote as a sort of referendum on his controversial presidency. In the Senate, the Republicans were able to increase their majority.


Following a dramatic year of violent protests, and an independence campaign launched by Cameroon’s anglophone minority, Cameroon witnessed a mass kidnapping last week. The kidnappings took place at a secondary school run by the Presbyterian church in Anglophone North-West Cameroon. In recent days all 82 students have been freed following an international outcry. The nation still seems to be divided along colonial lines and the fracture between the francophone ruling majority and anglophone minority continues to widen. 


As world leaders came together to mark the centenary of the 1918 armistice, Macron openly denounced nationalism, declaring “nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism.” He delivered this powerful message in front of both Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. He went on to praise international cooperation, its unique ability to build a peaceful world and the importance of learning from the past; “The lessons we draw from the great war cannot be rancor and resentment among other nations and it cannot be allowing the past to be forgotten.”


Lara Gibson