8 TheEconomistNovember 23rd 2019
1The world this week Politics
Sri Lanka’spresidential elec-
tion was won by Gotabaya
Rajapaksa, the younger brother
of Mahinda Rajapaksa, a for-
mer president who oversaw
the bloody end to an insurrec-
tion by Tamil separatists.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa was de-
fence secretary during the
fighting. His Sinhala-Buddhist
nationalist campaign pledged
to wipe out terrorism, follow-
ing attacks at Easter by jiha-
dists, in which 268 people died.
The elder Mr Rajapaska will be
prime minister.Police shot rubber bullets at
the protesters occupying HongKong Polytechnic University.
Most of the students eventual-
ly left the campus. Meanwhile,
a court in Hong Kongover-
turned a ban on wearing masks
in the protests, finding it con-
travened the territory’s Basic
Law. The decision was de-
nounced by China’s National
People’s Congress, which
suggested that only it had the
power to rule on constitutional
issues in Hong Kong.The American Congress
passed the Hong Kong Free-
dom and Democracy bill, a
largely symbolic act that will
anger China and encourage the
protesters. Donald Trump is
expected to sign it.America walked out of talks in
Seoul with South Koreain a
dispute about paying for Amer-
ican troops stationed in the
country. South Korean poli-
ticians say America wants $5bn
a year, five times what it is
getting now from the South
Korean government.TheTalibanreleasedtwoaca-
demics,oneAmericanandone
Australian,whomit hadheld
captivesince2016,inexchange
forthreemilitants.Afghani-
stan’spresident,AshrafGhani,
saidtheswapofhostagesfor
prisonerswasnecessaryto
kick-startpeacetalkswiththe
jihadists.Singing like a canary
Gordon Sondland, America’s
ambassador to the euand the
star witness in the impeach-
ment inquiryinto Donald
Trump, gave his public testi-
mony to the House. Mr
Sondland said he and others
had followed orders from the
president to put pressure on
Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe
Biden and that the Ukrainians
knew there would be a clear
“quid pro quo” if they co-oper-
ated. He also said “everyone
was in the loop”, including
Mike Pompeo, the secretary of
state, and Mike Pence, the
vice-president.A jury found Roger Stone
guilty on all charges related to
obstruction of the Mueller
investigation into Russian
interference in American
politics. Mr Stone is a Repub-
lican operative who earned his
stripes on Richard Nixon’s
campaign. He once claimed to
have “launched the idea” of Mr
Trump for president.A show of defiance
Large protests erupted in Iran
after the government in-
creased the price of heavily
subsidised fuel. Demonstra-
tors blocked traffic, torched
banks and burnt petrol sta-
tions. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
the supreme leader, called the
protesters “thugs” and blamed
foreign powers for the unrest.
Dozens of people have been
killed by the authorities, say
human-rights groups.Mike Pompeo, America’s secre-
tary of state, announced that
Israeli settlementsin the