Bolivia's government issued a decree cancelling a massive joint lithium project with German multinational ACI Systems Alemania (ACISA)—just days before the ouster of President Evo Morales. The move came in response to protests by local residents in the southern department of Potosí, where the lithium-rich salt-flats are located. Potosí governor Juan Carlos Cejas reacted to the cancellation by blaming the protests on "agitators"  seeking to undermine development in the region. (DW, Nov. 4)

The Supreme Court of India issued a unanimous ruling Nov. 9 in the decades-long Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land case, finding for the Hindus. A small plot of land, of about 1,500 square yards, in the city of Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh has traditionally been believed by Hindus to be the birthplace of the god Ram. The location is also venerated by Muslims because it was the site of the Babri Masjid, a mosque built in the sixteenth century by the first Mughal emperor Babur. Both religious communities have fought over ownership of the site since the beginning of the British Raj in 1857. The current case came out of appeals of four different suits filed from 1950 to 1989.

On Nov. 10, Bolivia's besieged president Evo Morales flew from La Paz to the provincial city Chimoré in his traditional heartland of Cochabamba department, where he issued a televised statement announcing his resignation. The statement decried the "civic coup" that had been launched against him, noting more than two weeks of increasingly violent protests since last month's disputed elections. He especially called on Carlos Mesa, his challenger in the race, and Luis Fernando Camacho, the opposition leader in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, not to "maltreat" the Bolivian people, and "stop kicking them." He vowed that the fight is not over, and that "we are going to continue this struggle for equality and peace."

Human Rights Watch said on Oct. 31 that US Central Intelligence Agency-backed Afghan forces have committed summary executions, disappearances, attacks on medical facilities, and other "grave" offenses. These paramilitary forces are officially under the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), but have been recruited, trained, equipped and overseen by the CIA. The CIA provides logistical support, as well as intelligence and surveillance for targeting during "kill-or-capture" operations. US special forces personnel, usually Army Rangers, often are deployed alongside the paramilitary forces.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Nov. 4 that the Ugandan police and military have responded harshly to students protesting fee increases at Makerere University in Kampala. Police and military troops have "fired tear-gas into student residences, raided dormitories, and beaten and arrested students." Security forces have also been arresting journalists and detaining students for days without charge. The demonstrations began Oct. 22, when 12 female students held a campus protest over the fee increases and were arrested. They were released later that day, but one received threatening text messages. The next day, she was reported missing and later found unconscious near the university.

Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the two remaining "dubia cardinals" who dissented from a perceived liberal tilt in the Catholic Church, praised the men who removed the controversial "Pachamama statues" from a church in Rome during last month's Amazon Synod and threw them into the Tiber River. The German cardinal hailed the perpetrators as "courageous...prophets of today" in an Oct. 29 interview with the conservative Catholic LifeSiteNews, adding: "These two young men who threw these tasteless idols into the Tiber have not committed theft, but have done a deed, a symbolic act as we know it from the Prophets of the Old Covenant, from Jesus—see the cleansing of the Temple—and from Saint Boniface who felled the Thor Oak near Geismar."

The Yazidi village of Bara in northern Iraq was struck by Turkish warplanes for the second time in two days Nov. 5, injuring at least three. There were also strikes on the nearby village of Khanasor, targeting a base of the Shingal Protection Units (YBS), a Yazidi militia. The YBS played a key role in liberating the area from ISIS after the Islamic State's genocide against the Yazidis in 2014. Turkey believes the YBS to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and justifies its strikes by claiming the area is host to PKK positions. The area of Shingal, also known as Sinjar, was subject to a spate of air-strikes in 2018, which killed YBS commander Zaki Shingali as well as four fighters. (Provisional Government of Ezidikhan)

More than a year and a half after it was launched, the Great March of Return continues to mobilize weekly on the Gaza Strip border. Friday, Oct. 25, saw the 80th such mobilization—and was met with gunfire by Israeli security forces. Hundreds of Palestinians protested at various points near the border fence, with some setting tires on fire and throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and firecrackers at the Israeli forces—who responded by launching tear-gas canisters and opening fire with both rubber bullets and live rounds. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 95 civilians—including 43 children, a woman, two paramedics and a journalist—were shot and injured by Israeli troops.