By Taryana Odayar, Executive Editor.
Its already Week 3!
Since last Tuesday, there have been some pretty interesting developments both at home and abroad, so I thought I’d do a round up of the more riveting ones thus far.
On Wednesday the 5th, Britain’s eurosceptic UKIP was plunged into chaos over party leader Diane James quitting, citing “personal and professional reasons”, only 18 days after being elected to the role. But in her defence, she almost certainly lasted longer than those Vote Leave promises.
On Thurday, former Portuguese Prime Minister and Head of the UN Refugee Agency Antonio Guterres stood poised to become the next UN Secretary General. He is set to replace Ban-ki Moon at the beginning of next year, but the question of whether he can do a better job than his predecessor remains to be seen. Concerns have arisen over his escapades as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, during which time he was cautioned by UN auditors over his lackadaisical handling of funds for refugees, and his office’s failure to properly oversee the handout of almost a billion dollars to other relief organisations. Dodgy dealings.
On Friday, Obama made an unannounced visit to his hometown Chicago to cast an early ballot for the November 8th general election, smirking knowingly when some bright spark asked who he had voted for. Definitely going to miss those Obama off-hands.
Saturday was not a good day for Germany, as they had to ground half of their Tornado fighter jets, including six currently deployed to Turkey to fight ISIS, upon discovering that there was cockpit equipment with loose screws. Cue jokes about Germans being ‘one screw loose.’
Not to be left out, Donald Trump was shaking things up in St. Louis on Sunday, busily gathering ammunition before his debate with Hillary Clinton by convening a meeting of women who had accused her husband of sexual misconduct. This, of course, was an attempt on Trump’s part to rise like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes of his verbal gaucheries, following the release of indefensible video footage from 2005, (spoiler : it wasn’t a trailer for The Apprentice). A rather unpropitious endeavour if ever there was one.
And as I write this, Putin has announced that he still intends to visit France later this month, despite French President Francois Hollande vacillating over whether or not he actually wants to receive him. Hollande recently chastised Putin for his “unacceptable” comments supporting Syrian air strikes during a TV interview. Trust Putin to insist on going where he isn’t wanted.
