The Economist - USA (2019-07-13)

8 The EconomistJuly 13th 2019

1

The world this week Politics

Britain’sambassadortoAmeri-

ca,SirKimDarroch, resigned

afterPresidentDonaldTrump

saidhewould“nolongerdeal

withhim”.Thespatcameafter

SirKim’sconfidentialcablesto

Londonwereleakedtoa news-

paper.Theydescribedthe

WhiteHouseas“dysfunction-

al”,“clumsy”and“inept”,and

itsoccupantas“radiat[ing]

insecurity”.TheBritishgovern-

mentbackeditsman,butBoris

Johnson,theprobablenext

primeminister,conspicuously

didnot.SirKimtookthehint.

MrTrumpviolatedtheAmeri-

canconstitutionbyblocking

thosewhoseviewshedisliked

fromhisTwitteraccount,a

federalappealscourtruled.It

saidtheFirstAmendment

forbidsa publicofficialto

operateinsucha wayona

platformusedtoconduct

governmentbusiness.Thecase

wasbroughtbytheKnightFirst

AmendmentInstituteatCol-

umbiaUniversityonbehalfof

sevenblockedTwitterusers.

Do you hear the people sing?

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’schief

executive, declared that a

controversial extradition bill

was “dead”. Protesters were not

satisfied. They have demanded

the formal withdrawal of the

bill, which would allow Hong

Kongers suspected of crimes in

mainland China to be sent

there to stand trial. The bill was

the initial spark for weeks of

massive demonstrations,

which now appear certain to

continue.

The ambassadors of 22 coun-

tries on the unHuman Rights

Council have signed a letter

criticising China’s mass in-

ternment of Uighurs in camps.

Experts believe more than 1m

Uighurs—amostlyMuslim

ethnicminorityinChina—

havebeenlockedupaspartofa

campaigntomaketheregion

lessrestive.Theletter doesnot

havetheforceofa resolution,

butit representsa rareconcert-

edeffortattheuntolobby

Chinaoverthecamps.

JapanaccusedSouthKoreaof

failingtoenforceinternational

sanctionsagainstNorthKorea

fully.Thecomplaintwasthe

latestbarbinanescalatingrow

betweenthetwocountries,

afterJapanimposedrestric-

tionsonexportstoSouthKorea

inprotestatjudgmentsagainst

JapanesefirmsinSouthKorean

courts.

Atleast 20 peoplewerekilled

intribalviolenceina remote

areainthehighlandsofPapua

NewGuinea. Pregnantwomen

andchildrenwereamongthe

victims.

Master of the house

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of

Greece’s centre-right New

Democracy party, won an

overall majority at a general

election, thanks to a 50-seat

top-up that is given to the party

that wins the most seats. He

has promised tax cuts and a

more business-friendly envi-

ronment. Greece still grapples

with serious economic pro-

blems that the outgoing left-

wing Syriza government, led by

Alexis Tsipras, has failed to

resolve.

A tape surfaced that purports

to be of a conversation be-

tween a former close aide to

Matteo Salvini, the powerful

deputy prime minister of Italy,

and a number of Russians

concerning ways of secretly

using Russian money to fund

MrSalvini’sNorthernLeague

party.Hedeniedeverreceiving

“arouble,a euro,a dollarora

litreofvodka”.

Germany’schancellor,Angela

Merkel,sufferedwhatseemed

tobea thirdpublicepisodeof

uncontrollableshaking.She

insiststhatherhealthisgood.

Upon these stones

A Nigerian court ordered the

seizure of $40m in jewellery

from a former oil minister,

Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Muhammadu Buhari, who won

a second term as Nigeria’s

president earlier this year,

campaigned on a promise to

reduce corruption.

The generals running Sudan

since the fall in April of its

dictator, Omar al-Bashir,

reached a power-sharing ac-

cord with the pro-democracy

movement that has been de-

manding an end to military

rule. The deal makes provision

for the generals to lead a new

Supreme Council, which will

be the highest decision-mak-

ing body, for 21 months. Civil-

ians will take over for a further

18 months before elections.

A deal signed in 2015 to prevent

Iran from building a nuclear

bomb came closer to collapse

after its three European signa-

tories (Britain, France and

Germany) said they were con-

cerned that Iran was “not

meeting several of its commit-

ments”. The accord offered Iran

relief from some economic

sanctions in exchange for

limits on its nuclear pro-

gramme. But President Trump

withdrew America from the

deal last year and reimposed

sanctions. Iran has since

breached caps on uranium

enrichment. And tensions

with the West rose after Britain

seized a tanker carrying Irani-

an oil.

Negotiators for Taliban in-

surgents met representatives

of the Afghan government to

discuss a peace agreement for

the first time, albeit unofficial-

ly. The talks were disguised as

part of a bigger meeting of

Afghan groups. America has

held seven rounds of negotia-

tions with the Taliban about a

possible withdrawal from

Afghanistan, but also wants

the government and the in-

surgents to speak directly.

At the end of the day

Mexico’s finance minister,

Carlos Urzúa, resigned after

claiming that the administra-

tion of President Andrés Ma-

nuel López Obrador had made

his job impossible and had

forced his ministry to hire

unqualified people. Mr Urzúa,

a social democrat, was a voice

of prudence in the cabinet of

the populist leftist president.

The country’s currency, the

peso, tumbled after the an-

nouncement (though it later

recovered).

A un report accused Venezue-

la’s security forces of killing

almost 7,000 people between

January 2018 and May this year.

It singles out the country’s

special forces for carrying out

most of the killings and ma-

nipulating the crime scenes to

suggest that the victims were

shot for resisting arrest. It

came out days after a reserve

captain in the country’s navy

died in custody, apparently

after being tortured.

The lower house of Brazil’s

congress approved a reform of

the country’s unsustainably

generous pension system by a

vote of 379 to 131. The measure

would save taxpayers 900bn

reais ($240bn) over ten years.

João Gilberto, the man who

sang “The Girl from Ipanema”,

died aged 88 in Rio de Janeiro.

Mr Gilberto was a star of bossa

nova, a musical style that fuses

jazz and samba.