This story is a little late because over Spring break, I went to England! One thing I noticed about international hotels, the lobby would be playing the morning news channels during breakfast and they kept on talking about the same topics, so I got a general idea of what was happening.
What is happening in the world according to the UK...
Rwanda Bill
This bill says that any asylum seeker entering the UK illegally might be sent to Rwanda, where their case will be heard. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, “We introduced the Rwanda Bill to deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them. The passing of this legislation will allow us to do that and make it very clear that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.” However, there have been many objections to the bill from people, and the Supreme Court of the UK ruled that the policy was unlawful last year. Rwanda’s asylum system has had a poor human rights record and has previously failed to comply with non-refoulment agreements. The government is not sure that asylum seekers will have their claims considered safely and properly in Rwanda. They also criticized Rwanda for “extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture.”
This perspective while in another country left me to I wonder about this bit of news and how this same situation could be happening in my own country.
Humza Yousaf’s resignation
Scotland’s first Prime Minister, Humza Yousaf, resigned on April 29. He resigned after a little more than 1 year of being the leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party. Resignation looked very possible after he decided to end a power-sharing deal with the Scottish Green Party. This left the Greens angry and left Yousaf in charge of a minority group without any obvious allies. On the morning of April 29th at Bute House, he said, “I have concluded that repairing our relationships across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm.”
This news was interesting to me because in the United States we vote for our President every 4 years. Hearing about Scotland's first Prime Minister resigning is unusual to me because the United States President technically cannot resign. I wrote this article to inform students to take in the perspectives of others even if you do not agree with what they say.