9
RISING TOLL Cemetery workers carry the coffin of a person who died of COVID-19 for burial at
a cemetery on the outskirts of Lima on July 8. Peru’s Health Minister announced an investigation on
July 30 into whether Peru had failed to properly classify more than 27,000 deaths as having been
caused by the novel coronavirus. Already among the world’s highest, the country’s official death toll
from the disease could more than double with the new figure.
NEWS
TICKER
Census count
will be cut
short
The U.S. Census
Bureau announced
Aug. 3 it will end field
data collection by the
end of September, one
month earlier than
previously stated. The
bureau said the change
should not affect the
results, but civil rights
groups argue it will
make underserved
populations harder to
accurately tally.
Work begins
on disputed
Indian temple
Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
hailed the “dawn of
a new era” Aug. 5,
as workers laid the
foundation stone
for a controversial
temple on the site of a
demolished mosque.
Erecting a temple on
the spot, said to be the
birthplace of the deity
Ram, has been a long-
term goal of Modi’s
Hindu nationalist party.
Trump skirts
Congress on
DOD appointee
President Donald Trump
appointed controversial
retired brigadier
general Anthony
Tata to a Pentagon
position on Aug.
after Tata withdrew
his congressional
nomination for a more
senior post. Although
the new role does not
require Congress’s
approval, it could allow
Tata to take on higher-
profile jobs.
EuropE’s longEst-sErving lEadEr,
Alexander Lukashenko, is facing an un-
precedented challenge as he runs for a sixth
term as President of Belarus in elections
on Aug. 9. A former teacher with no politi-
cal experience, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has
emerged as his main rival, pledging to re-
store democracy. “For the first time in his
26-year rule, Lukashenko knows the ma-
jority don’t support him,” says Aleksandr
Feduta, a former aide to the incumbent.
BELORUSSIAN BULLY Lukashenko has
ruled the former Soviet republic of 9.5 mil-
lion people since 1994. His regime was
dubbed “Europe’s last dictatorship” by
President George W. Bush in 2005. He has
jailed opposition leaders, repressed inde-
pendent opinion polls and held elections
deemed “severely flawed” by the European
Parliament. Now, anger has mounted over
his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic
(he dubbed it a “psychosis” that could be
cured by vodka), a decade of economic stag-
nation and financial dependence on neigh-
boring Russia, which many citizens see as a
threat to sovereignty.
ROOKIE’S ROAD Tikhanovskaya entered
the race when her husband Sergei Tikha-
novski, a popular YouTuber who led ral-
lies against the regime, was jailed in May.
Backed by opposition figures, Tikhanovs-
kaya has brought record crowds to rally in
support of her three pledges: to free politi-
cal prisoners; reverse authoritarianism; and
run new, free elections within six months.
Police have responded with heavy-handed
tactics, arresting more than 1,000 protest-
ers, according to the Minsk-based human-
rights group Viasna.
NO CONTEST The incumbent will almost
certainly claim victory through a fraudulent
election with vote rigging and ballot stuff-
ing, analysts say. But his battles won’t end
there. Protesters have no intention of back-
ing down, says Matthew Frear, an expert on
Belarus at Leiden University, and a weak-
ened Lukashenko will find it far more dif-
ficult to resist the Kremlin’s influence: “If
he cracks down on dissent he will lose the
chance of turning to the West, leaving him
with no choice but to work with Moscow.”
—MadElinE roachE
THE BULLETIN
‘Europe’s last dictatorship’
faces challenge from a novice
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