World events 16 in a concentrated form, understandable
World events 16.
US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are weighing trips to Israel amid a global diplomatic push to prevent the war from escalating.
To see important ads, turn off your ad blocker! Article continued below:US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Tel Aviv today, after meeting Arab leaders to discuss the conflict and efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to people in Gaza.
Muslim communities.
The strain of the war is hitting no country in Europe harder than France, home to the largest Jewish and Muslim communities on the continent, with tensions embroiling everyone from school children to football players.
Divisions are also on show in the US and the UK where there have been rival pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli rallies in major cities.
“Project of the century” is how President Xi Jinping described his Belt and Road initiative when he first assembled world leaders to map out his vision for expanding Chinese soft power via a web of infrastructure investments in 2017.
While the project has drawn $1 trillion in its first decade, as Xi opens the third forum on his brainchild in Beijing this week, its future looks uncertain.
World events 16, China.
A growing number of Britain’s super-rich are worried Keir Starmer will lead the next government, with his Labour Party enjoying a healthy polling lead ahead of a general election due by January 2025.
Some are drawing up plans to cut ties to Britain if Starmer wins and implements proposals to scrap preferential tax treatment for “non-doms” — rich UK residents whose permanent home is considered to be abroad.
Britain.
The scion of a wealthy fruit-exporting dynasty, Daniel Noboa, beat his socialist opponent Luisa Gonzalez in a runoff yesterday and will be Ecuador’s next president.
The 35-year-old business leader, a political novice, will head a caretaker government until 2025 in a country besieged by powerful cocaine cartels, struggling to service its debt, and beset by instability in congress.
World events 16, US plans.
The US plans to tighten sweeping measures to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductors and chipmaking gear, seeking to prevent it from obtaining cutting-edge technologies that could give it a military edge.
Scotland.
Scotland’s nationalists shifted strategy in their quest to force a new vote on independence as leader Humza Yousaf tries to unite his activists and see off the threat of a resurgent Labour Party.
Zimbabwe.
As its economic meltdown continues, unabated mass migration is robbing Zimbabwe, once one of Africa’s most educated countries, of the scarce skills it needs to engineer a turnaround.
World events 16, Poland.
Poland may have just delivered a welcome ray of autumn sunlight for the European Union as it confronts multiple crises at its borders: immigration, Ukraine and now the Israel-Hamas war.
A record turnout in yesterday’s election looks to have helped the pro-European opposition defeat the nationalist Law & Justice party that has ruled for eight years with a Poland First mentality.
While Law & Justice placed first, its coalition options are limited, with the upshot that the most consequential eastern EU member is poised to return to the Brussels mainstream just as the balance of power seems to be shifting Poland’s way.
That’s a fillip to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, as it struggles to maintain aid for Ukraine and to balance support for Israel following Hamas’s attack with humanitarian concerns for Palestinian civilians.
Those external challenges won’t go away, but the election result can help instill European unity in addressing them.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Law & Justice leader, habitually sewed European dissent, repeatedly clashing with Brussels while blocking EU attempts at immigration settlements and baiting Berlin.
His party’s likely ouster is a blow to right-wing populist forces across Europe, from Hungary to Italy and most recently Slovakia. Equally, it gives succour to embattled social democrats from Spain to neighboring Germany.
It’s a personal victory for Donald Tusk, the former European Council president whose Civic Platform will likely lead a new government.
Under Tusk, who cut his political teeth as a Solidarity activist facing down the Communist authorities in 1980s Gdansk, Poland promises to become a facilitator rather than a perennial obstacle to policy making.
More than that, Poland has a chance to fulfill its potential at a time when European leadership is in short supply. As an EU heavyweight with a solid economy and a formidable military in the making, the winds are blowing in Warsaw’s favor.
All The Best!
