14 April 2016
Week In Brief: INTERNATIONAL
Europe
BRUSSELS: Five men were detained by police following anti-terrorist raids in Brussels. One of them is thought to be the third airport-bomber. Another is also thought to have been directly involved in the airport attack.
EU: The European Court of Justice has handed down a judgment which has declared a number of UK tax laws to be unlawful under EU law. The judgment resulted in £7.87 billion being repaid to businesses between 2005 and 2014. It has been estimated that a further £7.3 billion may have to be repaid between 2016 and 2020. There are more cases pending before the Court and, if the UK Government were to lose these as well, the sums to be repaid could amount to £35.6 billion.
FRANCE: Paying for sex is now illegal. The new law was passed by the National Assembly after prolonged opposition in the Senate.
A new centrist political party – “En Marche!” – was launched by economy minister Emmanuel Macron. M. Macron was a banker before President Hollande recruited him into the cabinet. He has found it difficult to implement initiatives to revive France’s floundering economy from within Hollande’s Socialist government.
President Hollande’s standing is so low in his Socialist party and the country at large that members of his own party are suggesting that he should not attempt re-election in next year’s presidential elections, but should allow others to stand for selection as party leader and presidential candidate.
Youth protests against President Hollande’s proposed labour reforms are developing into all-night occupation of public spaces throughout France.
Police are preparing anti-terrorism measures for the football tournament Euro 2016, which France will be hosting this summer. They have been practicing drills to combat gas attacks, bomb attacks and hostage situations.
The energy minister has suggested that the decision about the construction of Hinkley Point nuclear power station in England should be postponed. Segolene Royal pointed out that EDF had debts of £30 billion and warned that funds allocated to Hinkley Point could not be used for other energy projects in France, such as those involving renewables.
GERMANY: A Moroccan has gone on trial in Dusseldorf accused of involvement in the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults. Six Iranian Christian migrants fled to a church for safety after being attacked by a large crowd of Muslim migrants in Berlin’s largest refugee centre. A Syrian migrant has been arrested for trying to burn down his refugee centre in Bingen. Over 5000 migrant children have been reported missing.
The performance of a satirical anti-Erdogan song by the comedian Jan Böhmermann on the NDR TV channel is threatening to become an international incident, with the Turkish president personally intervening to complain, and his country formally requesting the prosecution of Mr Böhmermann.
GREECE: Macedonian police used tear gas, plastic bullets and stun grenades on migrants trying to break through the border fence from Greece.
ITALY: Italy recalled its ambassador to Egypt after Egyptian investigators failed to convince Italian authorities that their pursuit of the murderers of student Giulio Regeni was adequate. The government threatened sanctions against Egypt for not handing over phone records and CCTV footage.
The anti-establishment party Five Star Movement faces an uncertain future following the death of its co-founder Gianroberto Casaleggio.
NETHERLANDS: Voters rejected the EU trade and security association with Ukraine in last week’s referendum, in what appears to be a protest vote against the EU’s democratic deficit (in 2005 the Netherlands voted against the EU constitution, but Brussels got round it by passing the Lisbon Treaty instead). The association with Ukraine has already come into force, even though it has to be ratified by all 28 EU member states. See comment ‘That Other EU Referendum’.
More than a dozen driverless lorries in six convoys arrived in Rotterdam from Sweden and Germany, the first time that self-driving vehicles have crossed European borders.
RUSSIA: A new paramilitary force, the ‘National Guard’, has been formed, commanded by a former head of the presidential security service who will report directly to President Putin. Its announced duties include combating terrorism and organised crime, but commentators suspect that it is a sign that Putin is expecting civil and political unrest in the run-up to this autumn’s parliamentary elections.
A blogger has been prosecuted (under a 2013 law making it an offence to “insult the feelings of believers”) for denying the existence of God and the truth of the Bible in an on-line discussion. He could be jailed for up to a year.
Russian media claimed that Putin’s opponent Alexei Navalny was a Western agent engaged in a US/UK plot against the president; however, the emails released as evidence are full of grammatical errors (typical of Russians speaking English) and chronological discrepancies.
SWITZERLAND: Police raided the headquarters of UEFA as part of an investigation into the sale of Champions League TV rights. Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s president-elect, used to work for UEFA. His name appears on a number of documents relating to off-shore tax havens recently leaked from the Panamanian law-firm Mossack Fonseca.
UKRAINE: Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigned. He was pro-Western but unpopular, facing allegations of corruption and nepotism, and engaged in a long-running feud with President Poroshenko. He survived a no confidence vote ten weeks ago but has no parliamentary support, and the IMF has withdrawn credit. See comment ‘That Other EU Referendum’.
Middle East and Africa
CHAD: President Deby, who has been in power for 26 years, is expected to win this week’s elections.
IRAN: Russian S-300 long-range, surface-to-air missile systems arrived in Iran, the first deliveries of an arms deal opposed by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
IRAQ: Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sacked his entire cabinet and replaced it with academics rather than politicians in an attempt to tackle rampant corruption (Iraq is 161st on Transparency International’s list of 168 countries). An outraged political elite is attempting to oust him, but he has US and Iranian support.
The Pentagon announced US military involvement on the ground; its existing base – Firebase Bell – is providing artillery back up for the Iraqi army in their struggle against Isis, and other bases could be established.
Tens of thousands of civilians facing starvation in Fallujah as government forces besiege Isis.
LIBYA: The head of the new government of national accord, Mr Fayez al-Sarraj, has declined the EU offer of military aid to help in the fight against Isis and people-smuggling. Britain, France and Italy have already prepared a force of thousands to train the Libyan army and fight alongside them. It is thought that the new government is keen to show itself independent and to encourage Libyans to unite and solve their problems for themselves.
SAUDI ARABIA: The number of executions in Saudi Arabia rose by 76% last year, according to Amnesty International; 158 people were executed. The group reported a global rise of 54% (including a rise of 31% in Iran, but not including China for which records are not available), despite four countries and two US states banning the death penalty.
SOUTH AFRICA: The auditors KPMG and the banks FNB and Absa have cut their ties to the Gupta family businesses. The Guptas, recently accused of influencing President Zuma, have relocated to Dubai.
SYRIA: The truce between President Assad’s forces and rebels is under strain, with armed conflict breaking out again in a number of places.
A Russian Mi-28 helicopter gunship crashed in Homs province, killing two Russian airmen.
Rebel groups such as the Free Syrian army, backed by US airstrikes and Turkish artillery and freed from the conflict against Assad by the cease-fire, are recovering territory from Isis along the border with Turkey.
The Assad regime has freed Kevin Dawes, an American photographer who disappeared in 2012.
Leaked Isis papers revealed that 50 British jihadists have been given leave to return to the UK. British intelligence officials are assessing the danger implied.
TURKEY: The first of the EU-financed refugee camps, at Killis near the Syrian border, is due to open this Saturday in the presence of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and German chancellor Angela Merkel. This is unlikely to happen, however, as Killis has been the scene this week of rocket and artillery strikes from Isis-held territory over the border and of violent anti-Syrian demonstrations.
ZIMBABWE: The new ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ray Ndhlukula, has been rejected by the British foreign office. Mr Ndhlukula, an aide of President Mugabe, has been involved in the confiscation of land from white farmers.
Far East, Asia and Pacific
AFGHANISTAN: The brother and son of the founder of the Taliban have been appointed to leadership roles within the movement. The current leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, has been struggling to hold the group together since he took over last year.
AZERBAIJAN: 44 Armenian soldiers and 31 Azerbaijan soldiers were killed in last week’s resurgence of conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. This week a truce was negotiated, and peace talks (overseen by the US, France and Russia) took place.
BANGLADESH: A law student who criticised Islam on Facebook and declared himself an atheist was murdered by a gang armed with machetes and guns and shouting “Allahu akbar”. Activists and bloggers are fleeing the country in the wake of this and other such murders.
BURMA: Aung Sang Suu Kyi announced that all Burma’s 100 political prisoners will be freed. The additional 400 people facing political charges will have their cases dropped. A new position of ‘state counsellor’ has been created for her.
CHINA: Vietnam has protested at China’s attempts to drill for oil in the disputed waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. China has placed an oil-rig near the Paracel Islands, which Vietnam claims as its own.
In Hong King, the UK foreign secretary Philip Hammond requested the freedom of Lee Bo, the Hong Kong publisher who many fear has been abducted to mainland China.
INDIA: A firework display in a temple complex at Paravur, Kerala state, started a fire and explosions which killed 108 people and injured more than 300. Five people have been arrested.
JAPAN: John Kerry, visiting Hiroshima with other G7 secretaries of state, laid a wreath at the cenotaph in Peace Memorial Park. It is thought that this gesture paves the way for President Obama to pay his respects to the victims of the atomic bombing when he visits Hiroshima for the G7 leaders’ summit next month. Such a gesture is likely to be controversial with US veterans who were victims of Japanese war crimes in World War II.
NORTH KOREA: Kim Jong UN’s regime has probably developed miniaturised nuclear warheads already, according to South Korean intelligence. This would enable it to launch a nuclear attack in the region. It was thought that North Korea was some years away from this capability.
China announced an export ban on jet fuel to North Korea, and an import ban on North Korean coal, iron ore, gold, rare earths and other minerals.
South Korea announced the defection of a North Korean colonel in military intelligence who was an agent for the South.
PHILIPPINES: 18 soldiers were killed while attacking the island of Basilan where the extremist Islamic group Abu Sayyaf are holding a Norwegian and two Canadians hostage.
America
BRAZIL: A special impeachment committee voted for the impeachment of President Rousseff for allegedly manipulating federal accounts to hide the country’s budget deficit just before the last elections. The impeachment trial will begin in the lower house of Congress this Friday, and will pass to the Senate (the upper house) if the verdict goes against Mrs Rousseff.
A Supreme Court judge ordered the speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, to start impeachment proceedings against Mrs Rousseff’s vice president, Michel Temer, on the same charges.
The speaker Eduardo Cunha is himself under investigation for allegedly taking $5 million in bribes from contracts involving the state-run oil company Petrobras.
The head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, is also under investigation for allegedly taking bribes in the Petrobras scandal.
Tens of thousands of protestors gathered outside the Congress buildings to demonstrate for or against the president.
PERU: The first round of the presidential elections were won by Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of ex-president Alberto Fujimori who is serving a 25 year sentence for corruption and human rights abuses. There will be a run-off in June as she did not win a big enough majority.
US: Bernie Sanders won in Wyoming; it was his 8th victory in the past 9 contests. Cruz won in Colorado. The critical New York primaries are next week – Clinton and Trump are expected to win. Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, ruled himself out as a possible ‘white knight’ candidate for the Republican leadership. See comment ‘Roaming in the Gloaming’.
The US navy has built an unmanned drone ship. The 130 foot, 140 tonne submarine-tracking vessel will be able to sail the oceans for 90 days at a time.
The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has released details of the Squad X program which plans to develop hi-tech equipment such as robots, drones and smart weapons for the US infantry.
A naval pilot flying top-secret intelligence-gathering aircraft has been charged with espionage. Lieutenant Commander Edward Lin was born in Taiwan but moved to the US when he was 14. He could face the death penalty if found guilty.
VENEZUELA: The head of Interpol in Venezuela, Eliecer Garcia Torrealba, has been charged with drug smuggling, after police found 350kg of cocaine in a light aircraft flying from Venezuela to the Dominican Republic. Sixteen other people were arrested, including five from the Venezuelan military and three from airport security.
Please click here if you would like a weekly email on publication of the Shaw Sheet
