8 The EconomistOctober 9th 2021
The world this week Politics
A congressional stalemate over
whether to raise America’s
debt ceilingshowed signs of
easing. Mitch McConnell, the
top Republican in the Senate,
said he would support raising
the limit until December,
avoiding a sovereign default as
early as October 18th. As a
condition, he wants Demo
crats to raise the borrowing cap
by a fixed amount, rather than
suspend it altogether until
some future time. December
may bring another round of
brinkmanship.A federal judge blocked an
abortion law passed in Texas
that allows anyone in America
to sue anyone who helps
someone in the state abort a
fetus older than six weeks.
Robert Pitman, whom Barack
Obama nominated to the
bench in 2014, forbade state
courts from accepting suits
under the law. Texas filed an
appeal. The conservative
majority Supreme Court last
month declined to prevent
Texas from enacting the law.un investigators accused
Russian mercenaries working
for Wagner, a security firm, of
killing and torturing migrants
in Libya. Separately America
warned Mali against signing a
deal with Wagner, reportedly
worth almost $11m a month,
for it to supply 1,
mercenaries to train Mali’s
army and protect officials.Somalia’s longdelayed elec
tions, which had already been
rescheduled for October 10th,
were postponed again. Ten
sions have increased between
government ministers and the
president, Mohamed
Abdullahi Mohamed, who is
accused of stalling the vote to
stay in power.Ethiopia ordered the expul
sion of seven senior un offi
cials involved in humanitarian
relief in the northern region of
Tigray after accusing them of
“meddling” in its internal
affairs. The un’s humanitarian
agencies estimate that
400,000 people in Tigray are
on the brink of starvation.The World Health Organisation
endorsed use of the first
malaria vaccinefor children
at risk of infection. It said that
the jab, called rts,sand made
by GlaxoSmithKline, was safe
and reduced by 30% cases of
severe malaria in young chil
dren. Infants in much of sub
Saharan Africa contract malar
ia several times a year. A child
under five dies of it every two
minutes.Following Germany’s election
on September 26th, threeway
“traffic light” coalition talks
were set to begin between the
Social Democrats, the liberal
Free Democrats and the
Greens. If they succeed then
Olaf Scholz, currently the
finance minister, will take over
from Angela Merkel as chan
cellor. The negotiations are
expected to take weeks.A twoyear independent report
commissioned by the French
Catholic churchconcluded
that between 1950 and 2020 at
least 216,000 children were
sexually abused by Catholic
clergy in the country. If crimes
by laypeople with roles in
church activities are included,
it found, there may have been
as many as 330,000 victims.Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime
minister, closed the Conserva
tive Party conference with a
speech focused on “levelling
up”. His signature policy aims
to close gaps between the rich
parts of Britain, mainly Lon
don and the southeast, and
the rest of it, in particular
northern constituencies that
switched to the Tories in the
most recent general election.
Mr Johnson promised to
change Britain’s economic
model to one where immigra
tion is low and wages, skills
and productivity are high.The commissioner of London’s
Metropolitan Policean
nounced a review of its stan
dards and culture. The force’s
handling of crimes against
women has come under
scrutiny after an officer was
sentenced to life for abducting,
raping and killing a woman in
March. The murder of Sarah
Everard also prompted calls for
stronger laws to help protect
women from violent men.Thrilla in Manila
Rodrigo Duterte, the Philip-
pines’president, said that he
would retire from politics. Mr
Duterte, who is forbidden from
running for a second term by
the constitution, had declared
his candidacy for vicepresi
dent in elections in May. His
retirement paves the way for
his daughter, Sara, to contest
the top post, although she has
not yet registered to do so.
Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Mar
cos Jr, the son of a former
dictator; Manny Pacquiao, a
worldchampion boxer; and
Isko Moreno, Manila’s mayor,
have said they are running. China said it was investigating
a former minister of justice, Fu
Zhenghua, for “serious vio
lations of the law and of party
discipline”. Mr Fu had also
served as a deputy minister of
public security. Taiwan’s defence minister,
Chiu Kuocheng, said tensions
with China were at their high
est in 40 years. He was re
ferring to a series of sorties
involving almost 150 Chinese
military aircraft near Taiwan in
recent days. A megaleak of documents to
the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists
revealed the financial affairs of
dozens of world leaders, public
officials and billionaires.
Among those facing awkward
questions in the wake of the
Pandora Papersare Andrej
Babis, the Czech prime min
ister, and Wopke Hoekstra, the
Netherlands’ finance minister,
both alleged to have used shell
companies in tax havens for
their investments. Jordan’sWeekly confirmed cases by area, mTo 6am GMT October 7th 2021Estimated global excess deaths, m
With 95% confidence intervalSources: Johns Hopkins University CSSE;
Our World in Data; UN; World Bank;
The Economist’s excess-deaths modelVaccine doses given per 100 people
By country-income group
Low income
Lower-middle
Upper-middle
High income4
48
123
1303210
2020 2021Western EuropeUnited StatesAsia
Other4.8m official covid-19 deaths9.
15.
18.→For our latest coverage
please visit economist.com/
coronavirusCoronavirus dataKing Abdullah II and Uhuru
Kenyatta, Kenya’s president,
were also linked to offshore
companies. Andrés Manuel López Obra
dor, the president of Mexico,
unveiled plans to change the
constitution to take more
control of the energy industry.
Two regulators will be abol
ished and a big share of the
power market will be reserved
for the state electricity com
pany. The state also proposes
to nationalise the production
of lithium, a mineral used in
batteries.Home runners
At least nine members of the
Cuban team at the under23s
baseball World Cup in Mexico
defected during the tourna
ment. In 2018 a deal to allow
Cubans to join teams in North
America’s Major League Base
ball was cancelled by Donald
Trump, in an attempt to put
pressure on the communist
regime. Cuban officials
described the defections as
“vile abandonments”.