The Economist

The EconomistAugust 4th 2018 5

1

Three people were shot and
killed by the army in Zimba-
bwe just hours after the elec-
toral commission announced
that the ruling Zanu-PFhad
won a majority in parliament
in the first elections since a
coup removed Robert Mugabe
last year. The supposedly
neutral commission is taking
time to release the results of
the presidential election.

Three Russian journalists were
killed in the Central African
Republic apparently while
investigating the activities of a
Russian private military
company Wagner that has
deployed troops in the country
and is helping to train its
armed forces.

Jean-Pierre Bemba a former
warlord returned to the
Democratic Republic of
Congoto contest presidential
elections later this year. He
was freed from prison in The
Hague after the International
Criminal Court overturned his
conviction for war crimes.

Iran’s economy continued to
struggle as the value of the rial
sunk to a new low against the
dollar. Nevertheless Iranian
officials rejected Donald
Trump’s offer of talks without
preconditions. In May Mr
Trump pulled America out of a
deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear-
weapons programme in return
for the lifting of sanctions.

Nothing to be proud of
The number of murders in
Mexicoincreased by 27% last
year to a record 31174 accord-
ing to the country’s statistics
institute. It had earlier said
there were a little over 25
homicides in 2017. The murder

rate of 25 per 100000 people is

also the highest on record.

Venezuela’sruling United

Socialist Party re-elected the

country’s president Nicolás

Maduro as its leader in a con-

ference that took place during

a blackout. Mr Maduro who

normally blames the country’s

economic woes on “imperi-

alism” accepted responsibility

for the distress. “Enough with

whining” he said.

Going out to bat

Imran Khan began talking to

smaller parties about forming

a governing coalition in

Pakistanafter his Tehreek-e-

Insaf party won the most seats

in the National Assembly. The

losing Pakistan Muslim

League-Nawaz and the Paki-

stan Peoples Party backed

away from pressing their claim

that the election had been

rigged by security officials.

Meanwhile Pakistan was

reported to be preparing to ask

the IMFfor a bail-out but

America said it would oppose

such a deal if it was used to pay

off Chinese loans.

In CambodiaHun Sen won

another term as prime min-

ister an unsurprising result

given that the main opposition

party was barred from running

in the election. Hun Sen has

been in power since 1985. The

vote was widely condemned.

Lu Wei once China’stop

internet regulator was charged

with taking bribes. Prosecutors

said that he abused his posi-

tion and accepted a “huge

amount of money and proper-

ty”. Mr Lu had risen to great

heights under Xi Jinping gain-

ing deferential treatment from

Silicon Valley chieftains such

as Mark Zuckerberg. This year

the Communist Party expelled

him saying he had been

“tyrannical” and “shameless”.

Google was reportedly devel-

oping a censoredversion of its

search engine for China. It was

said to have been working in

secret on a censored-search

app since last year and to have

demonstrated it to Chinese

officials. Google left China in

2010 to uphold its old motto

“Don’t be evil”.

Australia’sLabor Party won

four of five by-elections held

on the same day. The fifth was

won by an independent candi-

date. The results leave the

ruling Liberal-National

coalition headed by Malcolm

Turnbull with a one-seat

majority in Parliament. A

general election must be held

before November 2019.

Abu Sayyaf an Islamist group

was thought to be behind a

van bomb that killed ten peo-

ple at a military checkpoint on

the southern Philippineisland

of Basilan. The attack hap-

pened a few days after Rodrigo

Duterte the president signed a

law granting autonomy to

Muslims in the south.

Data from the University of

Maryland showed that the

number ofterrorist attacks

dropped by a fifth in 2017.

Deaths related to terror attacks

fell by 25%. The worst affected

countries were Iraq Afghani-

stan India Pakistan and the

Philippines. Their share of

attacks increased from 50% in

2015 to 57% last year. Islamic

State and the Taliban were to

blame for a fifth of all attacks

and nearly half of all deaths a

total of12045 people.

A game of chicken

Michel Barnier the EU’sBrexit

negotiator issued a lukewarm

response to the British govern-

ment’s latest proposals on

customs and the Irish border.

British ministers stepped up

their warnings that European

intransigence could see Britain

crashing out of the EUwithout

a deal when it leaves in March.

A war of words erupted be-

tween Tu rkeyand the United

States over Andrew Brunson

an evangelical pastor who has

been detained in Izmir since

2016 on questionable charges.

Mr Brunson was released from

prison but placed under house

arrest. America imposed

financial sanctions on two

Turkish ministers in response.

On their way home

North Korea handed over the

remains of 55 American

servicemenkilled during the

Korean war to American

authorities. Donald Trump

thanked the regime for return-

ing the remains a concession

that was agreed to at a summit

between Mr Trump and Kim

Jong Un the North’s dictator

in June. The remains will be

examined by a forensics team

in Hawaii for identification. In

1990 the remains of what were

thought to be five American

soldiers returned by North

Korea turned out to be seven.

Paul Manafort Mr Trump’s

former campaign manager

went on trial for fraud. He is

accused of laundering money

from his work for pro-Russian

politicians in Ukraine and then

avoiding tax. It is the first trial

examining alleged links be-

tween Trump aides and Rus-

sian interests to stem from the

investigation led by Robert

Mueller the special counsel.

The start of Mr Manafort’s trial

seemed to rattle Mr Trump. He

publicly called on Jeff

Sessions the attorney-general

to end the Mueller investiga-

tion(something that Repub-

licans have repeatedly warned

him not to do) despite Mr

Sessions having recused

himself from the inquiry.

Mr Trump also threatened to

shut down the government

unless Congress fully funds his

border wallwith Mexico.

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