8 TheEconomistJuly17th 2021
The world this week Politics
Thousands of demonstrators
took to the streets all over
Cuba. They have a long list of
complaints, from the commu
nist dictatorship’s inept handl
ing of covid19 to empty super
market shelves and power
cuts. Miguel DíazCanel, the
president, decried the protests,
the largest sign of popular
revolt in six decades, and
deployed riot police. Nearly
people have gone missing.
Many of these are thought to
have been arrested.
It remained unclear who was
behind the murder last week of
Jovenel Moïse, the president of
Haiti. The national chief of
police declared that a Haitian
doctor who lives in Florida
plotted the attack. More than a
dozen former Colombian
soldiers said to have been
involved in the plot were
paraded on Haitian television.
Conspiracy theories abound,
involving senior Haitian poli
ticians. A power vacuum has
been created; three men are
vying for the top job.
In South Africascores of
people were killed and hun
dreds of shops, factories and
warehouses burnt in riots
instigated by allies of Jacob
Zuma, a former president who
was jailed for refusing to
appear before a commission
investigating corruption
during his term in office. The
government has sent in the
army to stop the worst
violence since the end of
apartheid in 1994.
With the country mired in an
economic crisis, two of
Lebanon’smain power plants
shut down, taking the entire
national grid offline and leav
ing most Lebanese without
electricity. The power plants
unexpectedly found that their
fuel supply had been cut off.
At least 92 people died when a
covid19 ward caught fire at a
hospital in Iraq. It is the
second such incident in three
months.
France will end its 5,000
strong counterterrorism
operation in the Sahelin the
first three months of 2022,
President Emmanuel Macron
said. The mission started in
2013 when jihadists were ad
vancing on Bamako, the capital
of Mali. Jihadists remain active
throughout the region.
American prosecutors charged
four Iranian intelligence
agents with trying to kidnap a
journalist based in New York
who is critical of the regime in
Tehran. The plotters, who are
based in Iran, allegedly tried to
lure Masih Alinejad to another
country where they hoped to
abduct her.
Chuck Schumer, the Demo
cratic leader in the United
States Senate, said his party
had agreed on a $3.5trn budget
that proposes huge increases
in spending on infrastructure,
tackling climate change,
health care and other issues.
Democratic members of the
state legislature in Texasleft
the state to deny the Repub
licans a quorum for passing a
bill on voting procedures that
would, among other things,
restrict access to postal ballots.
The legislature’s Republicans
passed a motion ordering
officials to track and arrest the
absent Democrats, who
decamped to Washington.
Charlottesville quietly re
moved a statue of Robert E.
Leethat had been the focus of
a deadly protest in 2017. Four
years ago, a first attempt by the
college town in Virginia to take
down the monument to the
Confederate commander
caused white supremacists to
rally in its defence.
The number of people who
died from drug overdosesin
America soared by 30% last
year, to 93,331, a record high.
Experts blamed stresses
related to the pandemic, as
well as the closure of addic
tiontreatment centres during
lockdown.
Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime
minister, announced that no
further prosecutions associat
ed with the Troubles in North-
ern Ireland, a wave of sectari
an conflict that swept the
province from the 1960s to
1998, would be allowed to
proceed. That would allow a
line to be drawn under the era,
he said. Some of the outstand
ing cases related to actions
taken by the army and police.
Those who support the amnes
ty argue that attempts to prose
cute members of the security
forces had become politicised.
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s presi
dent, published a 5,000word
essay on the “historical unity”
of Russiansand Ukrainians.
Russiawatchers worried that
he might be planning to grab
more Ukrainian territory.
A cameraman died after being
beaten up by antigay prot
esters while covering an anti
gay march in Tbilisi, the cap
ital of Georgia. More than
journalists were attacked.
Threats were made to the city’s
Pride event; it was cancelled.
Two weeks after he became the
first prime minister in Sweden
to lose a vote of confidence in
parliament, Stefan Lofven was
asked by the Speaker to form a
new government because no
one else could do so. Mr Lof
ven’s position is still uncer
tain; he is finding it hard to
muster support for a budget
that must pass later this year.
A state of emergency came into
effect in Tokyo. Pandemic
restrictions were reintroduced
and will remain in place
throughout the forthcoming
Olympic games. Restaurants
and bars must shut early and
may not serve alcohol. No
commercial events may be
held near the stadiums. All
spectators have now been
banned from Olympic stadi
ums in and close to Tokyo.
Weekly confirmed cases by area, m
To 6am GMT Jul 15th 2
Vaccination doses
Sources: Johns Hopkins University CSSE;
Our World in Data; United Nations
Malta 709 96 90
Iceland 452 92 83
Mongolia 3,900 87 74
Israel 10,938 86 78
Uruguay 4,369 83 67
Chile 24,097 82 70
Canada 43,430 80 52
Britain 80,976 79 60
Bhutan 486 78 0
Netherlands 17,773 77 46
Total ’000 1st dose nd
% of over-11s with
Western Europe
US
Other
India
3
2
1
0
2020 2021
Coronavirus briefs
Indonesiarecorded more
than 50,000 new covid
infections on July 14th, the
secondhighest number (after
Brazil) of any country. Cases
have been rising rapidly and
spreading throughout the
archipelago. The government
has ordered restaurants and
places of worship to close in
the worstafflicted regions.
Record numbers of people in
Francesigned up to get vacci
nated after Emmanuel
Macron announced that
people who have not been
jabbed will be barred from
entering restaurants, cafés
and shops and not allowed to
travel on trains from August.
The Britishgovernment
confirmed that all remaining
pandemic restrictions would
be lifted in England on July
19th. Thanks to a successful
vaccine rollout, deaths from
covid19 are low, but rising as
infections soar. London’s
mayor said passengers will
still have to wear masks on
the city’s transport network.
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