WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The State of the World: Elections, Conferences, and Constabularies

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

The State of the World breaks down top headlines in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere. Key topics include the German elections, Taiwanese deep sea fiber optics cables, and a Syrian national dialogue.

Hello, my name is Aaron Osborne, and you are listening to the State of the World on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, where we discuss international news and top headlines from The Week. Starting off this week with Europe, the center-right Christian Democrats Union won a plurality in the German elections on February 23rd. The party leader, Friedrich Merz, said the CDU plans to form a coalition without the conservative alternative for Deutschelin Party, which won over 20% of the vote, just 8% behind the CDU. American political officials have described the decision not to have a coalition with the AFD as undemocratic since the party received the second largest quantity of votes in the election. Russia and Ukraine have now passed the third year mark

of what the Russian government calls the special military operation or war in Ukraine. In Asian news, the Wall Street, Journal reported that the Taiwanese Coast Guard has detained a Chinese cargo ship after an undersea fiber optic cable was severed. There were eight Chinese crew members on board the cargo ship, and the Taiwanese Coast Guard said it is reviewing the incident as a matter of national security. There have been similar reports of severed deep sea fiber optic cables in the past year. And last but not least, the Indian Mahakoum pilgrimage is underway. The Hindu festival takes six weeks

to occur and happens once every 12 years with smaller festivals in the interim. About 400 million people are estimated to attend the festival, according to the Washington Post. As the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is Hindu, this has a particular political bent to it within Indian politics. In the Middle East, Syria hosted a national dialogue conference on February 25. nearly three months after President Bashar al-Assad fled the country. Conference delegates will reportedly be able to issue non-binding recommendations related to transitional justice, economics, and the future Syrian constitution, among other subjects. Moving on to Iran, the Iranian foreign minister met with the Russian foreign minister,

Sergei Lavrov earlier this week, less than seven days after Lavrov's visit with American Secretary of state Marco Rubio in Riyadh. This comes as a controversial move as America has been recently increasing its sanctions and condemnations of the Iranian regime. And last but not least, Israel announced that it is temporarily withholding the release of Palestinian prisoners until Hamas treats hostage handovers better, according to the Wall Street Journal. Moving on to Africa, in a break from the M23 News, the World Health Organization has announced an unknown illness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The WHO has recorded over 400 cases since January and over 50 deaths. The suspected illness originated in the Equator province, which is

on the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rather than the east, where M23 has been active. We've been discussing M23's movements over the past several weeks as the Rwanda-backed Tutsi rebel group in the region. In eastern Congo, where M23 has been active, a group of South African peacekeepers has been evacuated by the United Nations after being caught in the crossfires in Goma, which was taken over by M23 in the past few weeks. Last but not least, prosecutors in Mauritania are seeking a longer jail term for the former President Aziz, who was previously sentenced.

Moving on to the Western Hemisphere, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, building on Trump's January 20th executive order has officially designated cartels including Drendaragua MS-13 and Sinaloa as terrorist organizations. The move was not official until Marco Rubio made the announcement.

And moving into Haitian news, a Kenyan police officer was killed while confronting gang members. The police officer was part of a task force sent to Haiti under the United Nations in the multilateral security support mission in June of last year.

As the situation continues to deteriorate, President Trump has also ended deportation protection for Haitian migrants who previously enjoyed temporary protected status. Thank you for listening. My name is Aaron Osborne, and this is the State of the World on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.