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Graphic Truth: Diversity in US and Canada legislatures
Legislatures in both the US and Canada are increasingly more diverse.
The 118th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in US history, with 133 lawmakers – about 25% – who identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian, Alaska Native, or multiracial.
In Canada, the House of Commons is also at its most diverse, and it elected its first Black speaker, Greg Fergus, in 2023.
Both chambers, however, still have a way to go to fully reflect the diversity of their respective populations. In the US, 75% of voting members in Congress are white, compared to their 59% share of the population. In Canada, where 20% of the population are immigrants, the number of immigrants elected to the House has slightly decreased since 2015, from 46 to 44 legislators.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during Prime Minister's Questions, at the House of Commons in London, Britain, January 17, 2024.
Hard Numbers: UK House of Commons passes Rwanda bill, Trump interrupts Carroll trial, Colombia warns American tourists, Internet crowns hottest Houthi
320: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunaksuccessfully pushed the Rwanda Bill through the lower house of Parliament on Wednesday. His signature immigration bill, which aims to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda as their claims are processed, had divided his party, resulting in a chaotic day of resignations and internal rebellion. But, against all odds, the 320 Tories united to pass the bill, which now heads to the House of Lords.
10 million: On Wednesday, the judge overseeing the defamation trial in which the writer E. Jean Carroll is suing Donald Trump for $10 million threatened to throw the former president out of the courtroom because he repeatedly made audible comments in court. During Carroll’s testimony about what happened after she accused him of raping her, Trump could be heard saying “witch hunt” and “it was a con job” loudly enough that jurors could hear.
8: In Colombia, the government is warning Americans to stay off dating apps while visiting the country after 8 tourists died in the last two months. The US embassy in Bogota said victims have been drugged and robbed after meeting people on dating apps. The announcement coincides with reports that the number of robberies of foreign visitors increased by 200% and deaths by 29% in the last three months of 2023.
13 million: A Yemeni militant turned influencer, dubbed online as “Timhouthi Chalamet” because of his resemblance to Hollywood heartthrob Timothée Chalamet, has gone viral on TikTok. In a video viewed 13 million times, he is seen sailing on the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship seized by Yemen’s militant Houthis last year and exemplary of how much of the conflict in the Red Sea is playing out online.FILE PHOTO: Men run next to burning tires during a protest demanding an end to gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, August 14, 2023.
How long must Haitians wait for help?
On Wednesday, armed men surrounded the Fontaine Hospital Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, trapping scores of people for hours before police managed to evacuate at least 40 children and 70 other patients. This type of violence has become a daily occurrence in Haiti, where police have struggled to gain the upper hand against gangs since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been urgently calling for international intervention for over a year to help crack down on the mayhem.
While most countries have opted not to jump into the fray, Kenya offered to lead a police force to quash Haiti’s gangs. The UN approved the plan last month, but it immediately hit a legal hurdle back in Kenya, where opponents say Kenya’s Constitution only permits military deployments overseas, not the dispatch of police officers. The court has yet to rule – a verdict is expected on Jan. 26, 2024 – but proponents of the mission got a boost this week when Kenya’s Parliament approved the mission. Lawmakers cited a committee report that found it constitutional on the grounds that Henry requested the police and because the government solicited public participation.
Kenya can’t go it alone: If the court greenlights the mission, the force consists of just 1,000 Kenyan officers, who would be joined by promised deployments from other nations, bringing the total to 2,500. Even combined with roughly 9,000 Haitian National Police officers, the proposed mission would still be outnumbered.
Haiti’s roughly 200 gangs – estimated to have had at least 100 members each in 2021, totaling 20,000-plus — have merged into two large coalitions, fighting both each other and the police for control.The Graphic Truth: French Parliamentary districts overseas
For citizens of most democracies, moving overseas usually means losing some political representation back home. For example, Americans abroad can still vote in their home states – but it’s not as though any senators or representatives feel particularly beholden to the expat constituency.
Not so for the 2.5 million French citizens living overseas: Article 24 of the French Constitution specifically mandates they be represented in the legislature. So the French National Assembly divides the world – save North Korea, the disputed territory of Western Sahara, and, somewhat inexplicably, Bhutan – into 11 constituencies that each send one fully empowered legislator back to Paris.
French expats are also represented in the Senate, albeit indirectly. Voters elect 442 “advisers to French citizens abroad” to serve six-year terms as a kind of community liaison between ordinary expats and the local French Embassy or consulate (you might recall one of these folks was recently kidnapped in Niger). Of that body, 90 are elected to sit on the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad, a long-standing committee that meets four times a year to advise the French government on foreign affairs. They then meet with 68 separately elected “consular delegates” to choose 12 senators with full lawmaking powers.
Complicated, sans doute, but it means that French citizens overseas have hundreds of elected representatives working on their behalf, whereas most other expats don’t have much of a voice back home. The graphic above illustrates where France draws the lines of its overseas legislative districts.
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GZERO's Ian Bremmer recently sat down with Eléonor Caroit, who represents French citizens in Latin America through one of the 11 National Assembly seats noted above, at the 2023 Paris Peace Forum. They discussed protecting democracy from some dangerous applications of artificial intelligence alongside Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. Check it out here.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the media on the first day of the five-day long special session in New Delhi, India, September 18, 2023.
Is India’s Narendra Modi preparing a historic surprise?
On Monday, India opened its first special session of parliament since 2017, and expectations are rising that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will use the short session to make an historic – and maybe controversial -- announcement.
There’s precedent for that assumption. Six years ago, Modi used a special session to roll out a nationwide goods and services tax to help centralize India’s economy. The resulting process didn’t run smoothly, but many analysts now credit the move with sharply boosting internal trade across India, strengthening India’s overall economic performance.
What might this year’s announcement be? The most intense speculation centers on three possibilities.
First, that Modi will change India’s international name to “Bharat”, a controversial switch away from the English name to its Sanskrit and Hindi one.
Second, that the government may announce that a third of its parliamentary seats will be reserved for women.
And third, that Modi may try to amend the country’s constitution to align the calendar for federal and state elections. That move, say Modi’s critics, would give his nationally-ruling BJP more momentum to overcome opposition parties, which continue to dominate in India’s wealthier southern states.
Malaysia's opposition walk out of Parliament after quarantined MPs turn up in full PPE
Three MPs currently undergoing home quarantine were allowed to participate in a Budget vote.
Court puts India's new Parliament building on hold
Petitions in the top court had questioned the project's validity.
Coronavirus: In first for Australia, prime minister speaks to Parliament on video link
Monday marked 24 hours with no new locally acquired infections for Australia.