Pacific loans and politics

Solomon Islands

Political leaders signed a $66 million deal with China for U.S.-banned telecom giant Huawei to build 161 mobile phone towers across their nearly 1,000 islands. Solomon’s government calls it a “historical financial partnership.” 

It is the country’s first loan from China since it switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019. Earlier this year, Solomon and Beijing signed a controversial security deal, raising international concern about China’s growing influence in the region. —Amy Lewis

Egypt

A deadly electrical fire in Egypt has raised questions about the country’s church building codes. Local inspectors said an electrical malfunction in the Coptic church’s second-floor air conditioning unit sparked a fire that killed 41 people in mid-August. The church had few escape routes and was located in a crowded alley in western Cairo. Egypt has a history of discriminatory regulations that make it difficult to build or renovate churches. The Egyptian government pledged to review safety standards in the country’s churches. —Jill Nelson

Chad

Women who reject marriage offers in Chad’s northeastern town of Mangalmé will pay a levy of up to $39. Men face a $15 fine. The Higher Islamic Council decreed the fine, known locally as amchilini, in August, claiming it drew inspiration from the Quran. But the Chadian Women’s Rights League is pushing to repeal the decree. Critics say the move targets underage girls in a nation with the world’s highest child marriage rate. UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, reported that 60 percent of Chadian women between 20 and 24 married before they turned 18, despite an official ban on child marriage. —Onize Ohikere

China

The Chinese Communist Party has been committing critics to psychiatric facilities in an attempt to silence them, Safeguard Defenders revealed in an Aug. 16 report. The Madrid-based human rights group found that Chinese authorities unlawfully hospitalized 99 citizens without medical justification between 2015 and 2021. The victims—mainly legal petitioners and activists—were kept incommunicado and subjected to forced medication and electroshock therapy. Detainment periods lasted from days to more than a decade, sometimes repeatedly. About 109 hospitals from 21 regions across China, including the capital of Beijing, were involved. The report called these findings “political abuse of psychiatry” and suggests they are likely even more widespread. —Erica Kwong

WORLD has updated the graphic to reflect China’s real GDP at purchasing power parity.

Nicaragua

Police arrested Rolando Álvarez, the Catholic bishop of Matagalpa, and eight others on Aug. 19. The group, which included several priests, spent two weeks in a standoff with the authorities, who had barred Álvarez from Mass. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla who has led the country since 2007, ordered the arrests. Álvarez has ­frequently criticized Ortega and has pushed for democratic procedures. Though Nicaragua is a predominantly Catholic nation, Ortega’s authoritarian government has clashed with the church since 2018, when Ortega responded to a wave of protests with a violent crackdown that left 355 dead. The police stated that Álvarez was under investigation for “organizing violent groups” and “acts of hate.” —Elizabeth Russell

Australia

The Anglican Church in Australia split Aug. 17 when the doctrinally conservative Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Australia helped create the new Diocese of the Southern Cross. The rift was prompted when a majority of Australian bishops at Australia’s General Synod rejected the Biblical definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. “The issue was the authority of the Bible,” says Tasmanian Bishop Richard Condie, who chairs GAFCON Australia. Opponents describe the new diocese as “corrosive,” but those committed to defending the Biblical gospel consider it an answer to prayer. The Anglican Church has suffered similar splits in North America, Brazil, and New Zealand. —Amy Lewis

Switzerland

A Swiss judge has levied a fine against a 63-year-old man in Zurich for preaching a street sermon against homosexuality last year. The defendant, who was convicted of discrimination and incitement to hatred, said the judge “was confusing a penitential sermon with hatred.” He was also convicted of obstruction of justice for fleeing when onlookers called police. Prosecutors relied on a new discrimination law that Swiss voters approved in 2020 prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Christian preacher has called for repentance for nearly 40 years on Zurich streets. In 2021 he was convicted of bodily harm and property damage after hitting a passerby with a Bible, injuring her hand and damaging her cell phone. During his court hearing, the man said he had a mission from God to call sinners to repentance, saying both Jesus and John the Baptist also preached repentance. —Jenny Lind Schmitt