<p><strong>Guyana finally swears in a new leader:</strong> After months of political wrangling, an election recount and a series of court challenges, the small South American nation of Guyana <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/world/americas/guyana-president-ali-oil.html" target="_blank">has sworn in</a> opposition candidate Mohamed Irfaan Ali as president. Although Ali edged out the incumbent, David Granger, by just 15,000 votes, Granger's governing party says the vote was rigged and that it will continue to challenge the outcome. The new president will now be responsible for guiding this nation through what is set to be one of the of the world's most<a href="https://www.gzeromedia.com/what-were-watching-guyanas-windfall-freedom-in-iran-and-maduro-babies" target="_self"> dramatic increases in national wealth</a>, after large reserves of crude oil were discovered in the country in 2015. Ali will have to figure out how to spend the new <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dylanbaddour/2020/01/23/first-light-crude-from-guyana-signals-start-of-new-oil-producing-region/#57fdd1967cef" target="_blank">oil revenue</a> to combat the country's pandemic-induced economic downturn, as well as try to tamp down rising tensions between his own supporters who are mostly of South Asian origin, and the defeated incumbent's mostly Black voter base. </p><p><strong>Anti-Netanyahu movement swells: </strong>Ever since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/28/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-withdraws-immunity-request-intl/index.html" target="_blank">indicted</a> in January on a host of corruption charges there have been frequent protests calling for his resignation. But Saturday saw the most massive <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/02/thousands-demonstrate-against-netanyahu-as-israel-protests-gain-strength" target="_blank">demonstrations </a>yet, as thousands gathered near the PM's Jerusalem residence. The protesters — hailing from across the political spectrum and including some former Bibi supporters — took aim at the government's poor handling of the twin public health and economic crises. Despite early success in containing the virus, the country's unwieldy unity government has botched its pandemic response in recent months. A hasty reopening has allowed the coronavirus to begin <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/" target="_blank">spreading</a> again like wildfire, and a whopping <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/number-of-jobless-rises-over-weekend-as-israel-reimposes-some-lockdowns/" target="_blank">21 percent </a>of the population is now unemployed. The government has failed to provide economic relief and Israel's GDP is expected to contract by at least<a href="https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-oecd-sees-israels-economy-shrinking-by-62-in-2020-1001331877" target="_blank"> 6 percent</a> this year. Netanyahu, for his part, has lashed out at the "North Korean" style media for fueling the "distorted" protests, a sign, observers say, of his growing panic as the leaderless protest movement gains momentum. Particularly ominous for Netanyahu is that security hawks and right wing voters <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-anarchists-leftists-these-protesters-used-to-vote-bibi-1.9034424" target="_blank">typically aligned</a> with Netanyahu's Likud party are increasingly losing faith in him, and are now joining left-wing activists calling for the PM's resignation. Is "King Bibi's" throne finally creaking? </p>
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