Politics
In a surprise shake-up of Russia’s security apparatus, Vladimir Putin moved Sergei Shoigu from his job as minister of defence, a role he has held since 2012, to the national security council. His replacement is Andrei Belousov, an economist with no experience of security matters but who has worked extensively on military budgets. The changing of the guard will have little effect on operations in Ukraine. Mr Putin prefers to speak directly to Valery Gerasimov, his senior general in the field. Mr Belousov said his task was to achieve victory, but “with minimal human losses”, presumably just on the Russian side.
Mr Putin met his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing. It was his first trip abroad since winning a sham election in March. The leaders reaffirmed their support for each other. Mr Xi has been accused by Western officials of propping up Mr Putin’s war machine in Ukraine.
Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, visited Ukraine, where he held talks with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president, about the arms that are being sent to the country following Congress’s passage of a military-aid bill. Mr Zelensky said more missile-defence systems were needed. Mr Blinken showed off his guitar skills in Kyiv, joining a local rock band to play Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World”.
The Russians said they had entered Vovchansk, a border town in Ukraine’s north-east close to Kharkiv, the country’s second-biggest city and where many civilians have sought refuge. Russia has deployed five battalions in its advance into the area, one of its biggest ground attacks since the start of the war.
Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, was shot and seriously wounded while visiting the town of Handlova. The interior minister described the attack as politically motivated. A suspect was arrested. Mr Fico, a populist-nationalist, has sought closer ties with Russia and wants to defang the country’s public broadcaster.
Learning from Big Brother
Georgia’s parliament passed a law that will require ngos and media groups that receive at least 20% of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents. Fighting broke out among MPs as the vote was held. Called the “Russia law” by critics because of its similarity to rules that stifle dissent in Russia, the legislation has brought tens of thousands of protesters out onto the streets. The European Union has warned that the measures threaten the country’s chances of joining the bloc.
Pro-independence parties lost their majority in Catalonia’s regional election, which for the first time gave the most seats to the Socialists. The result ends more than a decade in power by parties seeking to secede from Spain. The conservative People’s Party increased its number of seats from three to 15. The Socialists will try to form a coalition government with other parties.
The UN said that 600,000 people had fled Rafah in south Gaza, as Israel stepped up its incursion into the area. Fighting also intensified in north Gaza, where Israel had been winding down its operations. Meanwhile America’s State Department said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel may have used American weapons in a way that is “inconsistent” with its obligations under international law, but that there was “no direct indication of Israel intentionally targeting civilians”. The White House moved forward with a plan to send another $1bn-worth of arms to Israel.
A small group of Israeli protesters vandalised food-aid packages that were en route to Gaza from Jordan. America condemned the “looting”. Meanwhile Israel opened a new aid crossing at Erez that the UN hopes will enable a constant stream of supplies into Gaza.
Celebrations to mark Israel’s founding in 1948 were muted. Fireworks were cancelled and the families of the hostages being held in Gaza organised an alternative event to protest against the government’s failure to bring the captives home. Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, was heckled during a speech.
A Swiss court convicted Ousman Sonko, who was interior minister under The Gambia’s former dictator, Yahya Jammeh, of crimes against humanity between 2000 and 2016, including murder and torture. Mr Sonko is the highest-ranking official to be convicted in Europe under the principle of universal jurisdiction, whereby a person who commits a crime in one country can be tried and jailed in another.
Lawrence Wong was sworn in as Singapore’s prime minister in a carefully crafted handover of power arranged by Lee Hsien Loong, who had held the job for 20 years. Mr Wong retains his role as finance minister, but has relinquished his chairmanship of the central bank to Gan Kim Yong, who is also deputy prime minister.
Trouble in paradise
Four people were killed during rioting in New Caledonia, a French Pacific-island territory, after the French National Assembly passed a law allowing French citizens who have lived there for ten years to vote in elections. Locals fear the law will dilute the political power of the Kanak people.
Several days of protests against rising food and electricity prices left four people dead in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The violence ended after the Pakistani government promised to provide subsidies.
The UN said that Flash flooding in northern Afghanistan had killed more than 300 people. An exceptionally dry winter has hardened the soil, which takes longer to absorb heavy rainfall. In Indonesia scores of people were killed in floods in the province of West Sumatra.
The director of Britain’s GCHQ, which handles signals intelligence, said that China, more than Russia or Iran, poses the biggest risk to cyber-security. Anne Keast-Butler criticised China’s “irresponsible actions”. Meanwhile, three men were charged in London with spying for Hong Kong’s intelligence agency.
The IMF’s staff praised Argentina’s “better-than-expected performance” and recommended the country receive the next tranche of loans under a bail-out agreement. President Javier Milei has undertaken a number of painful economic reforms and spending cuts; unions recently held a general strike. Argentina’s annual inflation rate stood at 289% in April, though the month-on-month rate has eased, allowing the central bank to cut its key interest rate from 50% to 40%.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed to hold two presidential televised debates, on June 27th and September 10th. The dates are much earlier than normal in the election cycle and have been arranged outside the auspices of the commission that decides the timings. The candidates may want early debates so that they can recover in the polls if they trip up.