Week in Review: Pope Francis Tours USA

Pope Francis has been in the United States this week, where he began his tour with a speech at the White House in which he called for urgent action on climate change and supported Barack Obama’s plan to reduce carbon emissions in the process. He later became the first pope to address the US Congress, where in a fifty minute speech he told politicians to embrace immigrants and lend a helping hand to the refugees currently travelling through Europe, while the head of the Catholic Church also took time to condemn the death penalty and reinforce his views on climate change. Generally, it seemed the Democrats in the house gave a warmer reception to the Pope’s words than the Republicans, but all seemed to revere him – he is after all, perhaps one of the most popular religious leaders of our time. And that popularity was strongly represented this week as thousands lined the streets just to get a glimpse of Pope Francis in his famous Fiat 500.

This was a brief summary of the week's events surrounding the Pope's visit to the United States. It was taken from the TEN: Politics YouTube show, Week in Review.

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Week in Review: Hajj Stampede Kills 769

The President of Iran Hassan Rouhani is calling for an investigation after a stampede at the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca led to the deaths of nearly 800 people. The crush took place after two large crowds of pilgrims converged at an intersection. The King of Saudi Arabia has ordered a safety review into the disaster, but the country’s most senior cleric has said that the incident was ‘beyond human control’. This is an explanation that many have refused to accept though as this is just the latest in a number of events to take place during the Hajj, including in 2006 when 360 people were killed in a stampede which took place in Mina. Additionally, this stampede occurred only a week after a crane collapsed on a Mosque in Mecca, an incident which killed over 100 people. In the wake of these disasters many are demanding Saudi Arabia take more safety measures in order to prevent such tragedies from happening again, but after billions of dollars were spent expanding Mecca’s Grand Mosque in preparation for this year’s Hajj, Saudi authorities may be wondering what more they can do to keep people safe when the pilgrimage takes place again next year.

This was a brief summary of the week's events surrounding the stampede at this year's Hajj. It was taken from the TEN: Politics YouTube show, Week in Review.

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Week in Review: EU Leaders Meet, Talk Refugees

While the refugee crisis continues to grip Europe, this week EU leaders met for an emergency summit in Brussels to discuss how best to manage the issue. During talks European countries agreed to donate an extra one billion euros to the UN refugee agency and the World Food programme, and to strengthen border controls and allow more funding for border security forces, while also giving more help to Syria’s neighbouring countries Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Ultimately though there was a generally mixed reception to the summit, as while EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker described the talks as ‘excellent’, there was great division when it came to the mandatory refugee quotas passed on Tuesday. Slovakia was one of four European countries to vote against the plan to relocate 120,000 refugees from Greece and Italy across the European Union, and in protest to the plan has filed a legal challenge with Prime Minister Robert Fico saying on Tuesday that the system would not be imposed on Slovakia so long as he’s in office. This case really serves to clarify that the European Union are far from unified on the subject of refugees, and it will be some time before the situation is truly under control – if nothing else though, this meeting was as Angela Merkel described it “a first step” towards ending this crisis.

This was a brief summary of the week's events surrounding the refugee crisis. It was taken from the TEN: Politics YouTube show, Week in Review.

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Week in Review: Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

German car manufacturer Volkswagen found themselves at the centre of a scandal this week, when it was revealed that they had cheated emissions tests through the use of a defeat device to get their diesel cars on the road in the United States; the real results show that the cars were emitting nitrogen oxide pollutants up to forty times above what is legally allowed there. The truth came to light following an investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency. At the time of writing this report only cars in the United States are being recalled, however news broke yesterday that it’s quite likely up to 1.5 million cars could be recalled or modified in the United Kingdom as well. Indeed, government ministers in the UK are now facing questions over just how much they knew about the details currently making headlines, as it came to light that the Department for Transport received a 60-page report last October which presented strong evidence that Diesel cars on the road were producing far more harmful gas than tests had suggested. After VW’s value decreased by 23 billion euros at the beginning of the week, share prices have since begun to recover no doubt as a result of several high-ranking executives losing their positions in the company, and the appointment of a  new chief executive in the form of Matthias Mueller who had previously been the CEO of Porsche. About eleven million cars and trucks were cheated through emissions tests in total.

This was a brief summary of the week's events surrounding the VW scandal. It was taken from TEN: Politics YouTube show, the Week in Review.

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