Sinn Féin’s leader at Stormont, Michelle O’Neill ruled herself out from replacing Gerry Adams as party leader, after Mr Adams announced he would stand down next year. Ms O’Neill said she would be concentrating on dealing “with the problems in the north.” As to who she might support for the position, she said: “We will see who puts their name forward and then I will obviously make my decision on who I’d support that time.”

DUP leader, Arlene Foster said Jeremy Corbyn government would be disastrous for Northern Ireland because of his perceived bias towards the republican community. In an interview with House magazine she said that she could never work with the Labour leader; a Corbyn-led government, she claimed, would affect moves to restore devolution here as he was “very clearly not neutral in relation to these issues”.

Senior EU officials accused Theresa May’s government of putting its own survival ahead of the interests of the people of Northern Ireland. One accused the Prime Minister of having a lack of “care” for the peace process; as reported by the Guardian, the individual suggested that it was only the DUP’s hold over May’s government that was stopping Northern Ireland from staying within the single market and customs union, and avoiding a hard border. The European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, told the Observer: “It is crucial to safeguard peace and to preserve the Good Friday Agreement, which was brokered with the active participation of the European Union.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Brexit trade deal talks should not proceed until a firm commitment has been made to prevent a “hard” Irish border. Mr Varadkar said that the assurance must be written down before the talks move on. Also this week, Irish Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney held talks with his UK counterpart, Boris Johnson, in Dublin. Mr Coveney shared Mr Varadkar’s concerns, adding that there is currently “a sense of jumping into the dark” for Ireland, as the future operation of its border with Northern Ireland had not been agreed.

Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF sacked Robert Mugabe as its leader. The party has given Mr Mugabe, aged 93, until 10:00 GMT on Monday 20 November to resign as president, or face impeachment. He was arrested by the military last weekend, in an apparent attempt to block him from installing his wife, Grace Mugabe, as his successor. Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans attended street protests over the weekend. Mr Mugabe has been leader of Zimbabwe for 37 years, since it gained independence from Britain in 1980.

Also published on Medium.