The Sunday Subject – October 22, 2023

The humanitarian situation has worsened in Gaza, where about 3,500 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliation against Hamas.

Under mounting international pressure, Israel will allow aid to cross from Egypt to southern Gaza. This follows a bombing at a hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds; America and Israel suggest the explosion was caused by a missile misfired by Islamic Jihad, while many Arab countries assert Israel launched the strike.

The liberal Civic Coalition and its allies won enough seats to form a majority in government in Poland.

While the incumbent conservative Law and Justice party came first, it will struggle to form a coalition. The Law and Justice party has consistently angered the EU since coming into power in 2015; if it fails to form a government, Polish politics will undergo a major shift. 

The center-right National Party won New Zealand’s general election.

This election marks the end of the six-year rule of the Labor Party, formerly led by Jacinda Ardern. Incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon will form a coalition with the ACT party, a growing libertarian party.

Voters in Australia rejected a constitutional amendment that would have created an advisory body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.

The referendum, dubbed the Voice, failed in all six Australian states. Critics of the proposed amendment asserted that it would have undermined legal equality by favoring one racial group in the constitution.