The Covid wins North Korea, death of the President of the Emirates … The tour of the world news

UNITED STATES

Racist massacre in Buffalo

White supremacism is claiming new victims in the United States. An 18-year-old man opened fire with an assault weapon on May 14 at a supermarket in an African-American neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. According to the police, 10 people were killed and three others injured in this crime filmed and broadcast live on the Internet.

Shortly before, the killer had also posted a racist 180-page manifesto online. “The Replacement Theory […] has become an engine of racist terror, helping to inspire a wave of mass shootings in recent years.” New York Times.

TOGO

First deadly terrorist attack

The assault lasted more than two hours on the night of May 10-11 in Kpinkankandi, northern Togo. Dozens of armed men landed on motorcycles in this locality, near the border with Burkina Faso, and targeted a military post. Result: eight soldiers killed, 13 wounded. This first deadly terrorist attack in the country testifies to the advance of jihadists from the Sahel towards the coastal states. Hence the urgency for the armies of the entire sub-region to form a “common front”, warns the site Wakat Sera. Not won, at a time when Mali has just left the joint force of the G5 Sahel.

NORTH KOREA

The army to stop the Covid-19

Despite its two years of intense isolation, the country is in turn hit by an epidemic wave. Determined not to be held responsible, its leader Kim Jong-un denounced, on May 16, the lack of mobilization of the health authorities and ordered the army to take control in the management of treatments.

“With his fragile public health system, a general lack of medicines, equipment (like ventilators) and vaccines, Kim Jong-un has a serious challenge ahead, potentially devastating if not handled well.” , estimates the news site 38 North.

RUSSIA

Another setback for Putin’s army

After kyiv, Kharkiv. Ukrainian troops have inflicted a new setback on the Russian army, forcing it to change its plans. “Russia appears to be shifting its ambitions to the eastern front of its invasion, as battlefield failures and dwindling troop numbers exhaust its war effort,” sums up the New York Times. Already, “Russia may have lost a third of the ground forces engaged in the war in Ukraine”, according to the daily, citing British intelligence officials.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

The death of a journalist reignites the conflict

Israeli police in riot gear, batons in hand, beating mourning Palestinians: “The whole world has seen these images, and this is what they will remember from the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jerusalem, on May 13”, points the Israeli daily Haretz. The Al-Jazeera correspondent was shot in the head two days earlier during an Israeli operation in Jenin, in the West Bank.

His death and the police repression around his funeral have raised a wave of emotion among Palestinians and rekindled tensions around the Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

MBZ officially takes power

On May 14, a day after the death of his brother Khalifa bin Zayed was announced, Mohammed bin Zayed was enthroned as President of the United Arab Emirates. “His appointment is anything but a surprise, it formalizes his position as leader of the country”, highlighted Middle East Eye. Since 2014, the Emirati president in fragile health had left the reins to his brother. “Under his discreet leadership, the Emirates sent a man into space, a probe to Mars and inaugurated their first nuclear reactor, while using their oil revenues to beef up their foreign policy,” the publication continues.

LEBANON

Hezbollah loses majority in parliament

Expected for months in a country weighed down by the worst economic crisis in its history, the legislative elections of May 15 have given a new face to Parliament. If the election does not cause a “radical upheaval in the balance of forces”, it “consecrates several dynamics at work since the October 2019 uprising”, note The Orient-The-Day. Candidates from the protest movement won a dozen seats, while the bloc led by the Hezbollah party lost its majority. “The next Assembly, although fragmented, should be mostly hostile to the pro-Iranian formation”, predicts the daily.