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Trump at the UN: there were several facets to his speech/interventions. North Korea was threatened – it reacted by raising the rhetoric further, claiming that this amounted to a declaration of war and that it will test a H-Bomb in the Pacific. Iran was criticized heavily and Trump’s up-coming decision about the nuclear deal was dangled over it, while Venezuela was also put on notice for US action.
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German election: Merkel won another term but support for the main centre parties was eroded in favour of smaller ones – CDU/CSU 33% (-8.5%), SPD 20.5% (-5.2%), AfD 12.6% (+7.9%) and FDP 10.7% (+5.9%). The SPD appears happy to be out of government and able to oppose it, the AfD’s leader has said she will not sit with them in the Bundestag and Merkel is trying to find a workable coalition.
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Referendums: the Kurds in Iraq pushed ahead, regardless of warnings from friends (US) and foes (Turkey, Iran, Syria etc). The Iraqi government looked to claw-back devolved powers in retaliation. In Catalonia the Spanish state arrested administrators participating in the independence vote. This has brought about a constitutional crisis and has, ironically, likely made the vote more pro-secession.
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