Breaking News

A draft agreement between European negotiators and British Prime Minister Theresa May is tearing apart the embattled leader’s cabinet and government. Brexit Minister Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions Minister Esther McVey resigned on November 15 over the terms of the deal, which would see Britain indefinitely remain in the EU’s customs union until a final plan to keep the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland can be made. The pound sterling fell almost 1.5 percent against the dollar on November 15 after it appeared that the agreement might break up May’s government. The prime minister, however, insisted that “leadership is about taking the right decisions, not the easy ones.” Stay tuned for further coverage of Brexit in Compass World.

Latin America & the Caribbean

Polls Goals

The Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center released the results of September 2018 door-to-door polling of Venezuelans on November 15. The polls indicate growing concern regarding the deepening economic and humanitarian crisis. More than eight in ten Venezuelans said that quality of life is worsening as access to basic food and health services becomes increasingly difficult. Venezuelans identified President Nicolás Maduro as the party responsible for the country’s hyperinflation. Fifty-six percent of Venezuelans do not see a solution to the crisis without a change in government. The study included 1,000 respondents with a 3.04 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level. The report’s findings can be viewed here.

Bryce Couch is a former-intern at the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

Indo-Asia-Pacific

Software Update Required
Japan’s new deputy chief of cybersecurity has admitted he has never used a computer. “I don’t use computers,” Yoshikata Sakurada, who is also the minister in charge of Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, revealed during a meeting of the National Diet, Japan’s legislature, on November 14. “Since I was 25, I have been in a position of authority where secretaries and employees handle such tasks for me.” Sakurada was appointed to his post in a reshuffle of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet following his reelection last month.

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Middle East & Central Asia

Ceasefire(d)
After the cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the terms of a Egyptian-mediated ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman resigned and announced that his right-wing Israel Our Home party would exit the governing coalition. The ceasefire ended two days of fighting that killed at least eight on November 12 and November 13. "We are buying quiet for the short term at the price of serious damage to national security in the long term," Lieberman argued in the televised announcement of his resignation.

Eastern Europe & Russia

Damaged Good(s)
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the highest judicial body of the 47-member Council of Europe, has ruled that Russia’s repeated arrests of opposition activist Alexei Navalny were politically motivated and ordered Russia’s government to pay him €63,000 ($71,400) in damages. The Russian Ministry of Justice signalled that it would comply with the order to compensate Navalny, but the Russian government is expected to condemn the ECHR’s ruling. Russian President Vladimir Putin has, in the past, criticized the ECHR and the West for perceived bias against his government.

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Africa

Outside the Krone Zone
Denmark will withhold 65 million krone ($9.88m) in aid to Tanzania in response to a senior government official’s “unacceptable homophobic comments.” The European nation was Tanzania’s second-largest donor and provided 349 million krone ($41 million) in foreign aid in 2017. Homosexual acts are already illegal in Tanzania, but critics have accused President John Magafuli’s government of exacerbating intolerance. The comments in question were made by Dr. Paul Makonda, regional commissioner of Dar es Salaam. Makonda launched a public anti-gay crackdown campaign in the capital last month.

Western Europe & Canada

Indecent Composure
President Donald Trump controversially tweeted on November 13 to criticize French President Emmanuel Macron’s mooted pan-European army, saying, “They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!” The day marked the anniversary of the 2015 Bataclan terror attacks in Paris that killed 130. In response, Benjamin Griveaux, the spokesperson for Macron’s On the Move! party, said in English that he expected “common decency” from Trump. Trump had just returned from a trip to France where he and several European leaders commemorated the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.