• A year after the Colombia peace accord took hold, voters face a presidential election pitting hardline conservative Ivan Duque, an ally of former President Álvaro Uribe against former leftist guerilla and previous Mayor of Colombia’s capital city Bogota, Gustavo Petro, who’s running as a progressive populist.
(“Colombia Elections: Right-Winger and Former Guerilla Head into Presidential Runoff,” The Guardian, May 27, 2018; “Colombia’s Presidential Runoff: What to Expect,” Al-Jazeera, May 29, 2018)
• Seven years after Tunisia launched the Arab Spring uprising, unemployed and marginalized youth remain frustrated and angry at their nation’s economic stagnation. Meanwhile, mass migration into cities has swelled the population of informal settlements surrounding the capital city of Tunis.
(“Tunisian Youth Ask What Has Changed,” Christain Science Monitor, Feb. 20, 2018)
• Months after Democrats made dramatic gains in the Virginia legislature, a handful of Republican state senators crossed party lines to vote for the expansion of Medicaid benefiting the working poor in the purple southern state. Expanding Medicaid is a major victory for Governor Ralph Northam, which will provide health insurance coverage to 400,000 people.
(“Virginia General Assembly Approves Medicaid Expansion,” Washington Post, May 30, 2018;
“After Years of Trying, Virginia Finally Will Expand Medicaid,” New York Times, May 30, 2018)
