Friday News Roundup - International

WAMU 88.5

Published May 25, 2018 at 11:06 AM EDT

People talk over a drink in front of a pro-choice mural urging a yes vote in the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution.

With guest host John Donvan.

Ireland votes today on the repeal of their Eighth Amendment, which bans almost all types of abortion. The vote comes as citizens grapple with the role of the Catholic Church in the country.

Saudi Arabia is cracking down again on gender equality activists, just weeks before a ban on women driving is supposed to be lifted. At least 11 activists were arrested for, in part, “undermining stability” and “suspicious contact with foreign parties,” according to the BBC.

And Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro was re-elected this week with 68 percent of the vote, amid a historic abstention rate of 52 percent. Maduro’s main opposition party boycotted the vote. After President Trump signed new economic sanctions on the country, Maduro expelled the top U.S. diplomat

GUESTS

Moises Naim, Distinguished fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and chief international columnist, El Pais; author of “The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be”; @MoisesNaim

Susan Glasser, Staff writer, The New Yorker; @sbg1

Krishnadev Calamur, Senior editor, The Atlantic; @kcalamur

For more, visit https://the1a.org.