Türkiye
A minister to save the economy?
Re-elected, Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled his new government on June 3. As the markets unscrew and the Turkish lira plummets, he has chosen a reassuring figure, the former deputy prime minister in charge of the economy Mehmet Simsek, to lead the Treasury and Finance Ministry. “This appointment marks a radical change from Erdogan, who has long followed an unconventional economic policy, convinced that high interest rates cause high inflation, raise the site Al-Monitor. Mehmet Simsek, known for his orthodoxy, will have a lot to do to save an economy in great difficulty.”
UNITED STATES
Biden rips off debt deal
US President Joe Biden addresses the nation on June 2, 2023 from the White House
© / afp.com/JIM WATSON
On June 3, the American president promulgated the law allowing the public debt ceiling of the United States to be suspended for two years. Without this agreement, obtained after weeks of tense negotiations, Washington risked defaulting on payment this month, with major consequences. “By raising the debt ceiling, President Biden averted the country’s economic catastrophe that would have hampered his first term and damaged his chances of serving a second. note it Wall Street Journal. He succeeded thanks to a tactic criticized in his own party: to make a deal with the Republicans.
POLAND
Massive demonstration against the PiS
Unheard of since the end of communism: half a million people demonstrated in Warsaw on June 4 to denounce the authoritarian drift of the ultra-conservative government of the Law and Justice Party (PiS). The establishment, at the end of May, of a commission on Russian influences designed to harm the opponents of the party in power explains this unexpected influx, a few months before the autumn legislative elections. “This march is a huge success for the Democratic opposition, welcomes Gazeta Wyborcza. Polish society has awakened, matured and […] wants a state that respects the rules of democracy.”
UKRAINE
Kakhovka dam destroyed
Flooded areas near the city of Kherson after the partial destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on June 6, 2023
© / afp.com/Oleg TUCHYNSKY
For the Ukrainian authorities, this is a new “war crime” of the Russians. An explosion partially destroyed the Kakhovka dam on the night of June 5-6, the last on the Dnieper River before the Black Sea. “This dam is one of the largest installations of this type in Ukraine”, “it has a strategic importance”, recalls the Kyiv Independent. Many inhabited areas, downstream, on the side of Kherson are threatened by a vast flood. This explosion also endangers the Zaporozhia nuclear power plant, which uses water from the reservoir to cool its reactors.
SENEGAL
Bloody protests
Sixteen people were killed in protests following the verdict against President Macky Sall’s main opponent, Ousmane Sonko. Initially accused of rape, he was sentenced on June 1 to two years in prison for “corruption of youth”. His supporters denounce a political trial aimed at disqualifying him for the presidential election of February 2024. “The dead are piling up; the authority of the State is at half mast; justice, rightly or wrongly, is doomed to defense and security forces suffer unprecedented attacks, deplores an editorial of the site Seneweb. Most of the pillars on which the nation rests are tottering.”
CHINA
Beijing raises its voice over the Taiwan Strait
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu slammed the Western military presence in the Taiwan Strait at an international security conference on June 4. He also criticized the creation of “Nato-type” military alliances, which he said risked plunging the Asia-Pacific into a “whirlwind of disputes and conflicts”. The day before, a Chinese warship had nearly rammed an American destroyer which was sailing in the area. “These tensions have made Washington’s attempts to reopen the military dialogue that Beijing has broken off” since the case of the Chinese spy balloon shot down in February, notes the FinancialTimes.
INDIA
Terrible train disaster
India suffered its worst train disaster in decades when three trains collided on June 2 in the state of Odisha, killing at least 275 people and injuring more than 1,000. While the Indian press evokes a “human error”, the causes of the accident seem more structural. “Nearly three-quarters of the 217 biggest rail accidents in the country between 2017-18 and 2020-21 were caused by derailments,” according to an audit report presented to Parliament in December 2022, which shows that the main explanation is linked to “maintenance of the tracks”, recalls The Indian Express.