Notre Dame students are smart—no doubt about that—but there’s a difference between being intelligent and being informed. You may excel in the classroom, but education needs worldly context beyond your ND bubble. This weekly column exists to keep you up to date with the latest happenings around the nation in 500 words or less. We do the research, you do the reading. HCNDXO
This week, we are leaving the Bend, actually the United States, to catch on up the latest and greatest in international news.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani meets with Pope Francis
On Tuesday, January 26th, the president of Iran, President Hassan Rouhani met with Pope Francis and was welcomed into the Vatican. Rouhani’s visit to the Vatican was just one stop along his four day tour of Italy and France, a trip he makes as part of his presidential campaign to reintroduce Tehran and Iran to the West. The meeting between these two powerful men was the first papal-Irani meeting since 1999. To the Irani president, this trip to the home of the Catholic Church was a very important message about Iran’s ongoing stance as a religiously tolerant country. During Rouhani’s time in Rome, he also met with the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to discuss jump-starting Iran’s economic involvement with the country.
Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnamese Communist leader, is appointed to 5 more years
On January 27th, Nguyen Phu Trong was given 5 additional years of rule by the Vietnamese Communist Party. Some people in the U.S. may be a little concerned by this, as the continuance of the Communist party in Vietnam could slow the economic integration of the two nations. But Trong insists, as he made clear during a visit to the White House last July, he thinks the expansion of economic parternship with the United States remains a national interest, especially in order to remain balanced against its ever-powerful neighbor- China.
New Sri Lankan government takes a stance against illegal elephant poaching
PETA will be jumping for joy at the recent events in Sri Lanka. The country’s new administration is taking a firm stance against the illegal poaching of animals, particularly of the ivory tusks of the nation’s beautiful, but suffering, elephant population. Nearly four years ago, a haul of about 350 elephant tusks was seized in Colombo, the country’s largest port city, and on Tuesday, the new government publicly destroyed the tusks that had been sitting in their holding. This makes Sri Lanka the first South Asian naiton to publicly destroy ivory obtained through elephant poaching. Sri Lanka officials hope this act will help reduce the some 200 illegal elephant killings that happen in their country almost every year.
French Justice Minister steps down amidst terror crisis
The French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira resigned this week from her post shortly before the government goes through with plans to strip convicted terrorists of their French citizenship. The proposal was one of many new and more extreme terror policies that were proposed after the terror attacks in Paris on November 13th of last year, during which 130 people were murdered. Taubira has always been known as a more left-leaning member of the French government, and her views were beginning to differ greatly from the right-leaning Parliament. While Taubira was in favor of changing terror policies within the nation, this was something she just couldn’t get behind, especially as a woman who, being one of few black politicans in France, had faced racist and nationalistic aggression herself for most of her life.
From Rome to Sri Lanka, it has been a busy week in headlines, and it isn’t even Saturday yet! So, in case you have been feeling out of touch with the world beyond South Quad and Club Hes, we hope this global update has been of interest to you.
Keep following God, Country, Notre Dame for more news snapshots to come.
Follow HCND on Twitter, like us on Facebook, Pin with us and show our Instagram some love!