Week 158 (13-19/06/2022)
London-based Energean's drill ship begins drilling at the Karish natural gas field offshore Israel in the east Mediterranean. Picture: Reuters
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
A border dispute between Israel and Lebanon threatens natural gas drilling in the Karish field (13/06). Negotiations between the two countries started in 2020, but there has been no progress since. The dispute caused Energean, a Greek energy company that won the tender, to halt its drilling process.
Damascus International Airport, Syria’s main airport, has suspended all services until further notice following airstrikes that damaged its infrastructure (14/06). Although initially did not mention any name, the Syrian government finally blamed Israel for the attacks. Israel regularly targets military installations, arms depots, and other locations of Iran-linked groups in Syria. However, Israel often denies its military activities in the country.
A “state of security emergency” has been declared in Togo’s northern border (14/06). The decision was taken to deal with the jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) in the area. Togolese armed forces are now moving towards near the border with Burkina Faso to deal with the jihadist attacks. The jihadist groups also extended and increased their attacks in Benin, Ghana, and Ivory Coast.
Oumeya Ould Albakaye, a senior figure in an IS-affiliated group, has been captured by French forces in Mali (15/06). The arrest took place as the French prepared to complete its military operation withdrawal from Mali. The French troops will hold Albakaye for several days for questioning and later hand him to the Malian authorities.
ASIA
North Korea reported (16/06) an outbreak of an unidentified intestinal disease in South Hwanghae Province. In response to the outbreak, the government has dispatched medical crews and epidemiological investigators and provided aid to at least 800 families in the province. South Korean officials say the disease, which North Korea called an “acute enteric epidemic”, may be cholera or typhoid.
Reported in The Washington Post (16/06), Myanmar military officials vowed to follow through on the executions of four individuals on death row, including two high-profile activists: Kyaw Min Yu and Phyo Zeya Thaw. Myanmar has decided to use death penalty for the first time in 30 years in its attempt to stamp out resistance. The decision came amid international condemnation and repeated appeals from the international community and outraging pro-democracy activists. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), at least 14,000 people have been arrested—and at least 114 of them sentenced to death—in the past year.
Reported in Quartz India (17/06), a new study released by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute reported that people living in South Asia could lose about five years of their lives on average unless air quality improves to WHO-prescribed levels. The report also ranked Bangladesh as the world’s most polluted country, where air pollution shortens average life expectancy by 6.7 years with the most polluted districts showing lives shortened by 8.1 years. Meanwhile, Nepal and Pakistan also have air quality that is nine times worse (15 times worse for Bangladesh) than the WHO-prescribed safe limit of five micrograms per cubic meter. Air quality scientists lay the blame on the increase in all kinds of combustion in the region as part of development.
At least two people were killed in an attack on a Sikh temple (gurdwara) in Kabul, Afghanistan. The temple was attacked by seven gunmen who tried to storm the temple in the early hours of Saturday morning (18/06), throwing grenades and detonating a car bomb in the area. All seven gunmen were killed after a standoff that lasted several hours inside the temple’s compound. Meanwhile, temple authorities were at a loss at what to do as the Taliban were not allowing them inside. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
The prime ministers of New Zealand and Samoa met in Wellington on Tuesday morning (14/06). Fiame Naomi Mata’afa—Samoa’s first female prime minister—said that there were “no discussions on Chinese militarization in Samoa” during her meeting with Jacinda Ardern. Instead, the two leaders were focusing on climate change and strategic issues. Mata’afa’s visit to New Zealand also marked the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, in which the two countries pledged to govern with a spirit of close friendship and that they would work together to promote the Samoan’s welfare.
Vanuatu citizens whose passports were issued on or after May 25, 2015 will not be permitted to enter Switzerland visa free (15/06). The ban will be in place until February 3, 2023. The decision was taken following the European Union (EU)’s Council’s order to call off the visa waiver agreement with Vanuatu in March. The EU argued that Vanuatu’s investor citizenship program or the Golden passport scheme was a threat to the bloc.
Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign affairs minister, will meet her Solomon Islands counterpart on Friday (17/06) in Honiara, reported The Guardian (15/06). She will be the first Australian minister to visit Solomon Islands after it signed a controversial security deal with China, which alarmed Australia, New Zealand, and the United States (US). Wong’s visit will be Australia’s effort to mend its ties with the Solomon Islands.
The droughts in Kiribati will only get worse, said the head of the United Nations (UN) in the country (17/06). A nationwide State of Disaster was declared on Monday (13/06) after the below-normal rainfall caused high salinity levels in key monitoring wells. Nick Rice Chudeau, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Pacific chief and head of the joint UN presence in Kiribati, said the prolonged droughts were a sign of climate crisis.
EUROPE
To get rid of European dependency on Russian fuels, the EU signed gas agreements with Egypt and Israel (16/06). In her visit to Israel, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen accused Russia of “deliberately cutting off” gas supplies to European countries because they supported Ukraine. Meanwhile during her meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, von der Leyen praised Egypt as a “trustworthy partner”. She added that the agreement would be a stepping stone for Egypt to become a regional energy hub.
On Thursday (16/06), France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis visited Kyiv, Ukraine for the first time since Russia started its invasion. Their visit was aimed at giving support for Ukraine’s bid to join the EU. However, they also warned that it could take years or even decades for Ukraine to officially become an EU member.
A blanket of hot air stretching from the Mediterranean to the North Sea has caused the temperature in Western Europe to exceed 30C, putting the region under its first heat wave this year (16/06). France introduced new measures to prevent people from dying, including issuing heat wave alerts in about a third of the country as well as forest fire warnings from the Pyrenees to the Paris region. The United Kingdom (UK)’s temperature reached 32.4C—the country’s hottest day of the year so far. Authorities in northern Italy and parts of France and Germany also ordered water to be rationed following an unusually dry spring. Meanwhile, the high temperature and lack of rain have caused wildfires across Spain.
President Vladimir Putin claimed that the West’s sanctions against Russia“never had any chances of success” (18/06). He also said that the sanctions were “a double-edged sword […] European countries dealt a serious blow to their own economy all on their own”. Moreover, Putin was certain that Russia would achieve its military goals in Ukraine. He added that he had no objection to Ukraine’s bid to join the EU as it was not a military alliance.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Authorities in Ecuador have arrested the leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador. He was accused of being responsible for acts of violence at anti-government protest activities (14/06). The confederation had called for a reduction in the price of gasoline, the setting of a minimum price for agricultural products, and a moratorium on the extension of mining and oil projects.
The boat carrying about 70 refugees from Haiti has sunk. The search for the victims is ongoing. Eleven people were killed in this incident. However, the rescue efforts carried out have successfully saved 38 lives, and the rest are still being sought (15/06). The situation in Haiti is increasingly unstable due to the occurrence of many forms of violence, kidnappings, and murders.
Police in Brazil said the body found in the deep of the Amazon had been successfully identified as British Journalist Dom Phillips, who had been declared missing since two weeks ago along with Brazilian indigenous experts (17/06). Additional remains found at the site near the city of Atalaia do Norte have not yet been identified but are expected to belong to Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, 41. The pair was last seen June 5 on their boat on the Itaquai river, near the entrance of the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, which borders Peru and Colombia.
Former rebel movement leader Gustavo Petro narrowly won in the general election in Colombia (19/06). This is a new thing for Colombia as he will become the country’s first leftist president. Petro, a senator in his third attempt to win the presidency, got 50.48% of the votes, while real estate magnate Rodolfo Hernández had 47.26%, with almost all ballots counted.
THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
As reported by CBC News on Monday (13/06), Canada will end COVID-19 vaccine mandates for domestic travel. Last week, the country has suspended random COVID testing within its airports for the rest of the month. However, the country could bring back the measure if new variants are detected.
A new bill was introduced on Thursday (16/06) to increase the social responsibility of business groups regarding single plastic use. The bill could reduce plastic pollution within California and the US as a whole starting next decade. However, the status of the bill is still complicated as the plastics industry is against the bill.
Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, warned Canadians about the increase of Omicron subvariants cases domestically on Friday (17/06). The BA.4 and BA.5 strains have been detected in the country since May. Despite the increase, she felt cautiously optimistic for the summer months because the overall trend in Canada is going downward.
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the first COVID-19 shots for infants and preschoolers on Friday (17/06). That measure means that 18 million children are now eligible for the vaccines. At the moment, the agency limits the vaccine to shots from Moderna and Pfizer.