The EconomistSeptember 21st 2019 9
The world this week Politics
Donald Trump said he would
impose fresh sanctions on Iran
following an audacious missile
and drone attack on two oil
facilities in Saudi Arabia: the
Abqaiq crude-processing
plant, the biggest of its kind in
the world, and the Khurais
oilfield. Claims by Houthi
rebels in Yemen that they
staged the attack were dis-
missed by American and Saudi
officials. The Houthis are
backed by Iran in a proxy war
fighting a Saudi-led coalition.
Iran insists it was not responsi-
ble for the strike.Israel’sgeneral election, the
second this year, produced no
clear result. Binyamin Netan-
yahu’s Likud coalition lost
seats, so he will struggle to
remain prime minister. The
centrist Blue and White party,
led by Benny Gantz, a former
general, is now the largest in
the Knesset but will need the
support of other parties to
form a government, which
could take months.The first round of Tunisia’s
presidential election narrowed
the field to two contenders:
Kais Saied, a conservative law
professor, and Nabil Karoui, a
wealthy populist who is in jail
on tax-evasion charges and has
been described as the Tunisian
Berlusconi. Turnout was a
mere 45%. Disappointed
liberals lament that the run-off
later this month will be a race
between the Godfather and the
Terminator.Prosecutors at the Internation-
al Criminal Court have ap-
pealed against the acquittal of
Laurent Gbagbo, a former
president of Ivory Coast, on
charges of crimes against
humanity. The charges are
related to a disputed electionin 2010 inwhichMrGbagbo
refusedtoaccepthehadlost.
About3,000peoplediedinthe
subsequentviolence.A fireata boardingschoolnear
Monrovia,thecapitalofLibe-
ria, killedatleast 27 people.Thefourthman
DonaldTrumpnamedRobert
O’Brienashisfourthnational
securityadviser, replacing
JohnBolton.MrO’Brienisthe
StateDepartment’shostage
negotiator,workingtofree
Americancaptivesincountries
suchasNorthKoreaand
Yemen.Heistheauthorof
“WhileAmericaSlept:Restor-
ingAmericanLeadershiptoa
WorldinCrisis”.MrTrumpsaidthathisadmin-
istrationwouldabrogateCali-
fornia’slawsoncaremissions,
whichsethigherstandards
thanfederalrules,“inorderto
producefarlessexpensivecars
fortheconsumer”.Regulators
haveoftengripedthatthestate
dictatesrulesforthecountryas
a whole.Californiavowedto
fighttheadministrationallthe
waytotheSupremeCourt.The big smoke
Fires raging in the forests of
Borneo and Sumatra blanketed
South-East Asiain a thick
haze. Indonesia deployed more
than 9,000 people to fight
them, but the unusually dry
conditions hampered their
efforts.African swine fever, a disease
that is harmless to humans but
fatal to pigs, was detected in
South Korea. Since first being
reported in China in August
2018, the disease has spread
through much of East Asia.Rodrigo Duterte, the president
of the Philippines, appeared to
admit that he was behind an
assassination attempt on a
local official whom he had
accused of being involved in
the drugs trade. His aides later
claimed the president had
misspoken because of his poor
grasp of Tagalog, the country’s
main language.TheSolomonIslands
switcheditsdiplomaticalle-
giancefromTaiwantoChina,
leavingTaiwanwithdip-
lomaticrelationswithjust 16
countries.Taiwan’spresident,
TsaiIng-wen,whoisrunning
forre-election,describedthe
moveasanattemptbyChinato
intimidateTaiwanesevoters.ThegovernmentofHongKong
announcedthecancellationof
a largefireworksdisplaythat
hadbeenduetotakeplaceon
October1st,China’snational
day.It saidit madethedecision
becauseof“publicsafety”,a
clearreferencetorecentpro-
democracyunrest.Violence
eruptedagain,withprotesters
throwingpetrolbombs.Hun-
dredsofpeoplegatheredout-
sidetheBritishconsulateto
askforBritain’ssupport.Letting go
Venezuela’sdictatorial
government, led by Nicolás
Maduro, freed from prison
Edgar Zambrano, a congress-
man who is a senior adviser to
Juan Guaidó, the president of
the opposition-controlled
national assembly. Mr Guaidó
is recognised by the assembly
and by more than 50 countries
as Venezuela’s interim
president. Mr Maduro said that
55 lawmakers from his United
Socialist Party would take their
seats in the national assembly
after boycotting it for three
years.A Spanish courtreleased from
prison Hugo Carvajal, a former
chief of Venezuela’s military
intelligence service who had
turned against the regime. The
court turned down an extradi-
tion request by the United
States, which accuses him of
arranging to ship 5,600kg of
cocaine from Venezuela to
Mexico in 2006. Mr Carvajal,
also known as El Pollo (The
Chicken) was arrested in Spain
in April.A photo emerged taken in 2001
showing Justin Trudeau,
Canada’sprime minister,
wearing “brownface” make-up
at a party at a private school
where he taught. Mr Trudeau,who is running for re-election,
explained that he had dressed
up as Aladdin for a party with
an Arabian Nights theme. He
said he was “deeply sorry”.An empty gestureWhile Britain’sSupreme Court
reviewed the legality of his
suspension of Parliament,
Boris Johnson met European
leaders in Luxembourg, where
he found little respite from the
turmoil at home. The British
prime minister’s Luxembourg-
er counterpart mocked him for
skipping a press conference
because anti-Brexit protesters
were too rowdy. Other eu
leaders said trying to humiliate
Mr Johnson was a mistake; a
close aide of Angela Merkel,
the German chancellor, said
the episode “did not serve the
European cause”.Matteo Renzi, a former prime
minister of Italy, caused con-
sternation when he said he was
splitting from the Democratic
Party (pd) he used to lead. He
insists, though, that he still
supports the new coalition
between the pdand the Five
Star Movement, which was
created to prevent Matteo
Salvini, the populist leader of
the Northern League, from
triggering an early election.A fresh election looked prob-
able in Spain, after talks be-
tween the caretaker Socialist
government and the left-wing
Podemos party broke down. It
would be the fourth general
election in four years.A huge strike paralysed much
of Paris, particularly its Metro,
in protest at plans by the presi-
dent, Emmanuel Macron, to
rationalise France’sexcessive-
ly generous pension system.