Week of 2 November 2020
AUSTRIA: Vienna terrorist attack – terrorists launched a gun attack on the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Monday night. Four were killed and 23 others were left wounded, many seriously. The 20-year-old attacker was shot dead by police nine minutes into the attack. In the days following the attack, it has come to light that the attacker had travelled to neighbouring Slovakia to attempt to buy ammunition for an AK-47 assault rifle. The Slovakian authorities informed their Austrian counterparts of this fact, although the Austrian Interior Minister has admitted that there were failings in communication. A commission will be set up to investigate.
CENTRAL AMERICA: Tropical storm batters the region – Hurricane Eta swept through the Caribbean and Central America earlier this week, killing three in Nicaragua and Honduras. When the storm made landfall in Nicaragua on Tuesday, it was categorised as a Category Four hurricane with winds of up to 140mph. Torrential rains have led to significant flooding in many areas. The storm has since been downgraded, although the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in the US warns that life-threatening flash flooding is still possible in the, albeit weakened, storm’s path.
FRANCE: Macron calls boycott ‘shameful’ and ‘unacceptable’ – President Macron has stood firm in his rhetoric on radical Islamism and his calls to protect of the values of the République, despite the sharp backlash in many Muslim countries and communities in past weeks. Anger towards France among Muslims has surged in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice, with old tensions surrounding the caricaturing of the Prophet Muhammad once again at the fore. Many Muslims are boycotting French products, the scale of which has alarmed the French government. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also weighed in, seemingly suggesting that Macron seek medical help. In an interview with Al Jazeera, the French president defended a free press and strongly criticised the boycott of French products. This protest has been called in a number of countries in response to some of Macron’s earlier comments, seen by many as an attack on Islam.
UNITED STATES: Biden leads in an unprecedented election – Americans have elected their next president, all that’s left to do is count the votes to discover who that is: former Vice President Joe Biden or President Donald Trump. Counting the votes is, however, proving to be the most controversial aspect of this election. Donald Trump has been tweeting misinformation about unproven voter fraud in an apparent attempt to undermine the democratic process. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has expressed confidence that he will win the key, remaining battleground states and, consequently, the presidency. However, the former vice president has notably not claimed any election victory as of yet, unlike his opponent. The reason the election has not yet been called lies in both the unexpected closeness of this race and the historically high levels of absentee voting, given the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden has importantly flipped the states of Michigan and Wisconsin; some networks have also projected a Biden win in Arizona. With only a handful of states left to finish their counts, Trump’s path back to the White House now seems extremely complicated. The Trump campaign have, however, already launched legal challenges in a number of states, so the results of this election could be far from decided for weeks to come.
