The Sudanese military seized control on Thursday from President Omar al-Bashir in the culmination of anti-government protests that began in December 2018. In a broadcast address on state television, Defense Minister Awad Mohamed Ibn Ouf confirmed that authorities held al-Bashir in a secure location. Dressed in military garb, Ibn Ouf said a transitional military council would rule the country for the next two years before “free and fair elections” take place.

Vice President Mike Pence, during an emergency meeting with the UN Security Council on Wednesday, urged the United Nations to recognize Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela and join more than 50 countries in asking embattled leader Nicolás Maduro to step aside. Guaidó and others contend that Maduro rigged last year’s presidential election. “This body should revoke the credentials of Venezuela’s representative to the United Nations, recognize interim President Juan Guaidó, and seat the representative of the free Venezuelan government without delay,” Pence said.

On Tuesday, a Hong Kong court found nine democracy activists guilty of public nuisance for their roles in the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests, a ruling that deals a blow to civil society in the former British colony. Supporters of the activists showed up to West Kowloon Court this week carrying bright yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the 79-day protest that had called for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.

Venezuelan lawmakers loyal to embattled President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday stripped opposition leader Juan Guaidó of his parliamentary immunity, giving them power them to arrest and prosecute him. The Constituent Assembly, made up entirely of Maduro supporters, voted unanimously for the move. Guaidó constitutionally declared himself interim president on Jan. 23, increasing international pressure on Maduro to step down amid a social and economic crisis in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan government late on Thursday barred opposition leader Juan Guaidó from holding public office for 15 years over alleged financial irregularities, in the latest attempt to squash the uprising against embattled President Nicolás Maduro. Guaidó became interim president in January after invoking a clause in the Venezuelan Constitution. The United States and many of its allies support him.

When President Donald Trump at 12:50 on a Thursday afternoon tweeted it was “time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” the average world citizen said a collective “huh?” Israel captured two-thirds of the strategic plateau from Syria in 1967 during the Six-Day War—and no one has seriously contested its control in more than 50 years.

French President Emmanuel Macron held a meeting with top security officials on Monday after police failed to control violent protests in Paris over the weekend. The so-called yellow vest protesters on Saturday set fire to stores and a bank on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The fire department said it rescued a mother and child and at least 11 people who suffered minor injuries at the bank. Several high-end boutiques along the avenue remained shut on Monday. The Paris region’s Chamber of Commerce said the violence affected 91 businesses, with 80 percent of them facing severe damages.