Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Uighurs & Portland protests

The July 26 episode of Last Week Tonight is here, and there were big changes with the show right away — a new desk! Yes, this is ridiculous, but with a show like this having a glass desk is big news. Also, it makes Oliver look like he has a much longer tie than he really does.

In the opening segment tonight, Oliver discussed the situation in Portland, one that has been going on for a good two months. There have been protests, but the situation has been escalated further by the presence of armed federal agents at the scene. Was it merited? In Oliver’s words hardly, given that the majority of the protests have been peaceful and that there was some de-escalation going on there prior to the federal agents coming in.

What was the end message here? That in Portland, there was clearly a better way for everyone to see this conflict resolved. Oliver accused President Trump of using federal troops as a “prop” in order to show military strength — and it could still happen in some other cities, as well.

Now, the main segment – Eyelashes. Yes, we had a segment that was all about eyelashes. Or, was it? It was really a setup to discuss Uighurs, a Muslim minority group in China that isn’t generating a lot of conversation these days. They are currently being subjected to horrible conditions, and they are approximately a million people being held in camps.

The situation involving the Uighurs has been going on for quite some time — this is not a new situation when it comes to prejudice. They’ve been subjected and called unacceptable terms for years.

We call this segment one revolving around one thing more than anything else: Education. There are probably a lot of people out there not familiar about this crisis at all. This is the importance of a series like this. Sure, there are a dozen or so other things that Oliver could have spoken about on the show, but we rather like that he focused on this. We’ll have other chances to discuss the election and the health crisis — after all, they are definitely still going on.

In addition to discussing the situation itself, Oliver also took on big companies that have been subject to discussions about forced labor. The companies deny using this said labor, but it’s a situation not a lot of people are watching. That is very much the point.

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What did you think about this episode of Last Week Tonight overall?

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