Headline: Global News Dispatches: 5 Stories

By Saurav Sarkar

Author Bio: Saurav Sarkar is a freelance writer and editor who covers political activism and labor movements. They live in Long Island, New York, and have also lived in New York City, New Delhi, London, and Washington, D.C. Follow them on Twitter @sauravthewriter and at sauravsarkar.com.

Credit Line: from the Globetrotter News Service

Note to Editors: This is a selection of news wire reports that have been edited to be relevant for audiences for the next two weeks. You are welcome to select and publish individual items or the whole stack.

Headlines in This News Package:

• UN: More Than 2,500 People Lost or Dead Crossing Mediterranean Thus Far in 2023
• Far-Right Gunman Shoots Protestor at Reinstallation of Conquistador Statue in United States
• Nigeriens Demand Exit of French Troops From Country
• Sinophobia Reemerges in Kazakhstan
• Tens of Thousands in Latin America March for Safe Abortions

UN: More Than 2,500 People Lost or Dead Crossing Mediterranean Thus Far in 2023

According to a September 29 article by Al Jazeera, the United Nations has said that more than 2,500 migrants and refugees have gone missing or lost their lives trying to cross into Europe across the Mediterranean in in 2023. This is a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of refugees missing or dead compared to the same period in 2022, based on the figures in the article.

“We continue to bear witness to the tragedies of lives lost at sea and on land routes with no end in sight,”  said Ruven Menikdiwela, the director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in New York.

She pointed to incidents of racism in and expulsions from North African countries as well as other oppressions experienced “in a broader context of deterioration in the security situations of several countries neighboring North Africa,” which has led to an increase in the number of refugees making their way to Europe. According to Menikdiwela, about 186,000 migrants arrived in southern Europe by sea from January to September 24, 2023. Al Jazeera reported that 83 percent of them landed in Italy.

Europe, which has one of the world’s highest standards of living, continues to be a destination of choice for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Africa. However, European countries, also known colloquially as “Fortress Europe,” have made migrating to the continent more difficult. Partly as a result, the people attempting to reach there “risk death and gross human rights violations at every step,” said Menikdiwela, according to Al Jazeera.

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Far-Right Gunman Shoots Protestor at Reinstallation of Conquistador Statue in United States

Democracy Now! reported that a gunman wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap shot and injured a protester at the reinstallation of a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate on September 28. The shooter, identified by the Albuquerque Journal as Ryan Martinez, was detained after attempting to flee the scene.

Oñate, who was New Mexico’s first colonial governor, ordered a massacre in 1599 that killed up to 1,000 Indigenous people. Ironically, the person shot at the protest is Indigenous, stated the report.

“I”m very, very concerned with what’s transpired here today,” said County Manager Jeremy Maestas to the Albuquerque Journal. “The county definitely supports people expressing their opinions through their First Amendment right, but we do not by any means condone people expressing that when they’re causing hurt or harm to other people physically.””

This is the second time since 2020 that someone has been shot at a protest in New Mexico over an Oñate statue, reported the Albuquerque Journal. Some, like Rio Arriba County Commissioner Alex Naranjo, see the conquistador as “one of our founding fathers.” But others, like Jennifer Marley, say he “stood for violence, for genocide, for rape.” Marley was in attendance at the protest as a speaker.

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Nigeriens Demand Exit of French Troops From Country

“Democracy Now!” reported on September 29 that Nigeriens had again gathered outside a French military base in Niamey, the capital, to demand that the European country’s troops leave Niger.

The news organization quoted the Beninese activist Kémi Séba, who addressed the crowd and said: “To taste freedom every [person] has the right to taste independence. Every people has the right to regain its dignity. And if France won’t let Africans breathe, we’re going to force it to listen to us!”

France, which was the colonial power in Niger, has said it would withdraw 1,500 troops from the country by the end of the year. “We are ending our military cooperation with the de facto authorities in Niger, because they no longer want to fight terrorism,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on French television, reported the New York Times.

Niger is one of the many countries in the Sahel that has seen a military coup establish a new regime. French influence over internal Nigerien affairs has been a major flashpoint in shaping opinion toward the coup.

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