8 The Economist May 21st 2022
The world this week Politics
FinlandandSwedenboth
formallysubmittedtheir
applicationstojoinnato. The
twoNordiccountrieshad
stayedoutsidethealliance
sinceitsinceptionin1949,for
fearofprovokingtheKremlin.
ButsinceVladimirPutin
invadedUkraine,Swedesand
Finnshavedecidedtheywould
besaferinsidethanout.Rapid
acceptanceofthetwowould
bemembersisexpected,
althoughTurkeyisraising
objections.nato’s borderwith
Russiawilldoubleinlength.
Russianforcespulledback
fromtheareaaroundKharkiv,
Ukraine’ssecondcity.Itisno
longerinrangeofRussian
artillery,havingbeenpounded
sincethestartofthewarin
February.Elsewhere,thein
vaderscontinuedtomakeslow
progress.InMariupolmore
than 250 fighters,whohad
beenholedupintheAzovstal
steelworks,surrendered.An
unknownnumberremain,
preventingRussiafromsecur
inga townit hasalmost
completelydestroyed.
Bornetolead
Emmanuel Macron appointed
Elisabeth Borne as prime
minister of France. Her first
task will be to ensure that the
president retains his majority
in parliamentary elections due
next month.
Germany’schancellor, Olaf
Scholz, suffered a new blow
when his party performed
poorly in state elections in
North RhineWestphalia, the
country’s most populous state.
The vote for his Social Demo
crats was down by four per
centage points from the previ
ous election, in what was for
decades the party’s stronghold.
Northern Ireland’smain
unionist party, the dup,
blocked the formation of a new
powersharing executive in the
province, after Sinn Féin, an
Irish nationalist party, won the
most seats in a recent election.
The dupsays it wants the
British government to scrap or
fundamentally change the
Northern Ireland protocol, a
postBrexit agreement which
creates a customs border with
the rest of the United King
dom. Liz Truss, Britain’s
foreign secretary, duly
announced plans for legisla
tion to do just that.
In Lebanonan alliance led by
Hizbullah, a Shia political
partycummilitia, lost its
majority in parliament at an
election, while independent
candidates gained ground. A
new government could take
months to emerge. The old
sectarian system is still likely
to block wholesale reform.
Ten days after Zimbabwe’s
president, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, announced a ban
on all bank lending, including
overdrafts, the country’s
central bank lifted it. The ban
had been intended to curb
spiralling inflation. The oppo
sition had described it as
“absolute madness”.
Mali’sjunta, which has twice
seized power in coups since
2020, said it had foiled an
attempted putsch. The military
government has also with
drawn Mali from a regional
counterterrorism force, the g
Sahel, blaming it for failing to
make progress against the
jihadists who control large
parts of the country.
America plans to return about
500 troops to Somaliato fight
alShabab, a militia affiliated
with alQaeda. This reverses
Donald Trump’s decision to
pull all American troops out of
the country. Hassan Sheikh
Mohamud, who was Somalia’s
president from 2012 to 2017,
was elected to another term.
The election ended a constitu
tional crisis created by his
predecessor, whose term
should have ended a year ago.
Ranil Wickremesinghe took
over as prime minister of Sri
Lanka, as the country attempts
to navigate an economic and
political crisis. In his first
speech he warned that short
ages would worsen, stocks of
petrol were depleted, and that
he had no choice but to print
money to pay wages. The
government is negotiating
with the imffor a bailout.
North Koreareported nearly
2m cases of “fever”. Outsiders
assume this means covid19.
As the Omicron variant
spreads, at least 56 people have
died, officially. No North
Koreans have been vaccinated.
The country’s isolated socialist
dictatorship has so far
declined offers of help from
democratic South Korea, but is
asking China for medical
supplies.
Officials in Shanghaicheered
residents by laying out a plan
to ease covid restrictions by
June 1st, after two months of a
strict lockdown that has crip
pled the city’s economy. In
many other parts of China,
restrictions remain.
America’s pain
Joe Biden visited the site of a
mass shooting in Buffalo, at
which ten people, all of them
black, were murdered. The
18yearold white perpetrator
had published a 180page
online rant full of racist and
antiSemitic tropes in which
he said that he intended to kill
as many black people as
possible. He then livestreamed
the atrocity. Last year police in
the suspect’s home town had
hauled him in to assess his
mental health after he threat
ened to attack a school. But he
was released.
In southern Californiaa
Taiwanborn American citi
zen was arrested after he shot
dead one man and wounded
five people at a church fre
quented by TaiwaneseAmer
icans. Police said the shooter
had been ”upset about politi
cal tensions involving China
and Taiwan”.
Guatemala’sattorneygener
al, Consuelo Porras, was
barred from entering the
United States. Antony
Blinken, America’s secretary
of state, accused Ms Porras of
corrupt acts which “under
mine democracy in Guatema
la”. She denies the allegations.
Last year Ms Porras sacked
Juan Francisco Sandoval, the
head of Guatemala’s anti
corruption unit.
The Biden administration
loosened a few of the re
strictions imposed on Cuba
by Donald Trump’s adminis
tration. It is issuing more
visas for Cubans under a
familyreunification scheme,
allowing more flights from
America to cities outside
Havana and scrapping a limit
on remittances.
The number of people in
Mexicoofficially listed as
“disappeared” has risen to
100,000 from 73,000 two
years ago. The records go back
to 1964. Many are thought to
have been murdered by
criminal gangs, sometimes
with “varying degrees of
acquiescence or omission” by
officials, as a unreport
delicately put it.
Greenhousegas concentra
tions, the rise of sea levels,
ocean heat and ocean acid
ification all set new records in
2021, according to the World
Meteorological Organisation,
a unbody. It said that the past
seven years have been the
warmest on record. A study
from Britain’s Met Office
reported that “climate
changeis driving the heat
intensity” of recent weather
in northwest India and Paki
stan, where temperatures
have exceeded 50oC (122oF) in
some spots.