10 December 2015
Week in Brief: INTERNATIONAL
AFGHANISTAN: An argument among Taliban leaders escalated into a shoot-out in which four or five senior figures were killed (including the leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour) and more than a dozen wounded, according to government reports (but denied by the Taliban).
The Afghan security forces – police and army – are demoralised by a high casualty rate, desertion, defection and corruption, according to a report by Tufan Waziri, commissioned by President Ghani but suppressed by the government. The Taliban are moving into Helmand province. The Isis-affiliated Wilayat Khurasan are moving into eastern provinces from Pakistan.
AUSTRALIA: Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a £500 million scheme to boost innovation and enterprise in Australia.
BRAZIL: The speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, has begun proceedings to impeach President Rousseff over allegations of illegally mismanaging last year’s budget. Eduardo Cunha is himself accused of embezzlement in the Petrobas scandal.
CAMEROON: The defence minister reported that the army killed about 100 Boko Haram fighters and released up to 900 hostages on the border with Nigeria last week.
COLOMBIA: The wreck of a Spanish galleon, sunk by British warships in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession, has been found. The ship was carrying gold, silver and jewellery estimated to be worth over £1 billion today. The Spanish government is considering making a legal claim for the treasure.
DENMARK: Denmark will continue with its opt-out of EU justice and home affairs policies after voters in a referendum rejected the government’s attempt to abandon it.
FINLAND: A universal payment is to replace all benefits. The state will give everyone – employed and unemployed – around €800 per month. It is hoped that this simplification will boost Finland’s economy, which is the worst performing in the EU.
FRANCE: The first round of regional council elections was held last Sunday (turn out 50%); the run-off will be held this Sunday. Nicolas Sarkozi’s centre-right Republican party is likely to win most of the 13 regions, while President Hollande’s Socialist party is likely to lose regions. The National Front won 28% of the national vote, ahead of both the other parties. It is leading in 6 of the regions and is likely to win 2 of them; Nord-Pas-de-Calais (where Marine Le Pen won 41% of the vote) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azure (where Marion Marechal-Le Pen won 40% of the vote). President Hollands has ordered the Socialists to drop out of the race for those regions where they came third, hoping that Socialists will vote together with the Republicans to keep NF out.
GHANA: 20 judges have been sacked for taking bribes. An undercover journalist secretly filmed 12 high court judges, 21 lower court judges and 100 court officials taking bribes. The film is being shown in cinemas, in spite of attempts by judges to ban it and to have him arrested.
GREECE: EU officials suggested that Greece might be officially ejected from the Schengen block because of its porous border. Greece has recently reversed its open-doors policy and has begun to deport failed asylum seekers.
IRAQ: Turkish troops and tanks have crossed the border into Iraq and have taken up position in Kurdish territory. The Prime Minister of Iraq has complained that this is a “grave violation to Iraq’s sovereignty” and has set a deadline for their withdrawal. He is preparing to take the issue to the UN Security Council.
A twenty-four page ISIS plan outlining their state-building strategies was leaked to “The Guardian”.
ISRAEL/GAZA: Israeli jets attacked a Hamas training camp in the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for shots fired at Israeli military vehicles on patrol along the border.
There are reports that Isis is challenging Hamas authority in Gaza, with Hamas fighters defecting to Isis and with Hamas being criticised in Isis propaganda.
LIBYA: Isis forces based in Sirte are attempting to capture the city of Ajdabiya and its oilfields. Libyan warplanes are striking back at them.
The official Libyan government and its Islamist rival, the General National Congress, have reached an agreement to create a joint administration in order to end the civil war and join forces against Isis.
RUSSIA: The defence ministry gave a press conference to display video footage and satellite images which it claimed to show tanker convoys smuggling oil from Isis held territory to Turkey.
The power-line bringing electricity from Ukraine to the Crimea which was sabotaged two weeks ago has still not been restored. President Putin visited the Crimea to inaugurate an undersea cable that will bring electricity from Russia from 12 December.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose organisation Open Russia has recently published a report alleging the involvement of senior Russian officials with Russian organised crime in Spain, has been summonsed by state investigators to answer questions about a murder committed 17 years ago. His supporters say that he is being persecuted by a vengeful Kremlin. Mr Khodokovsky, a former oil tycoon who now lives in exile in Switzerland and supports various opposition groups, spent time in prison on tax evasion and fraud charges.
SAUDI ARABIA: A woman accused of adultery and sentenced to death last August has been granted a retrial.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Supreme Court of Appeal convicted Oscar Pistorius of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, overturning last year’s verdict of culpable homicide. He was granted bail pending an appeal against the new conviction.
President Xi of China addressed forty African heads of state at an economic forum, pledging £40 billion to Africa in aid, loans and debt relief over the next three years.
SPAIN: 35 members of Basque parties have gone on trial accused of terrorism.
SWITZERLAND: Police arrested two presidents of American soccer confederations, as part of the investigation into Fifa. The US attorney general also charged 14 other men with corruption, including present and former members of Fifa’s ruling committee.
SYRIA: RAF planes were operational in Syria within hours of Parliament voting for military action, flying from Cyprus to target Isis-controlled oil installations in Omar.
President Assad claimed that three of his government’s soldiers were injured in a coalition air-attack. The US denies the claim.
Syrian opposition groups are meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss participation in peace talks in Vienna next month.
The opposition group, Shamiya Front, broadcast a video in which captured Isis fighters expecting to be executed were instead addressed by a Muslim cleric condemning their activities.
Russia reported that it attacked an Isis stronghold by firing a cruise missile from a submarine in the Mediterranean.
TURKEY: A doctor has been accused of insulting President Erdogan and taken to court. He posted online a number of photos of Gollum from the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ films alongside photos of Erdogan. He has been dismissed from his job at a state medical practice and could receive up to two years in prison. Similar cases are becoming common. Last year two boys of 12 and 13 faced the same charge for tearing down a poster of the President.
UKRAINE: Prosecutors are examining allegations that Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is involved in corruption at the state-owned Odessa Port Plant. The investigations are part of President Poroshenko’s drive against corruption.
USA: 14 people were killed and 21 wounded at a Christmas lunch party for county health employees at a social services centre in San Barnadino, California. They were shot by Syed Farouk, a US citizen of Pakistani descent, who had been at the party but had left and then returned with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, a Pakistani, both of them wearing masks and combat gear and armed with assault rifles. They left an explosive device behind them, and were shot dead by police after a pursuit. Police found bombs and ammunition at their home, and believe they had links to Islamist extremists.
The defence secretary Ash Carter announced that service women will be eligible for all frontline combat roles.
The Pentagon announced that US special forces will be undertaking active service against Isis in Iraq.
The title ‘House Master’ will no longer be used at Harvard because of its racist associations (slaves called their owner ‘master’).
Donald Trump has proposed a total ban on Muslim immigrants to the US.
VENEZUELA: The elections on Sunday were won by the opposition alliance MUD, which won at least two-thirds of the 167 seats in the National Congress, enough to begin to challenge the control which the Socialists have established over the country (via enhanced Presidential powers; domination of the media, the Supreme Court, the police and the army; and the deployment of paramilitary neighbourhood militias and armed gangs) over 16 years in power. In nearly two decades ruling this oil-rich country, President Maduro and his predecessor President Chavez have increased welfare but have also achieved the highest inflation rate in the world, a record murder rate and continual shortages of basic supplies. (See comment article.)
YEMEN: Al Quaeda has taken advantage of the war between Gulf-backed President Hadi and Houthi rebels to seize the towns of Zinjibar and Jaar.
An Isis bomb killed the governor of Aden and eight bodyguards.
