Deconfinement in Shanghai, Macky Sall at Poutine …

UNITED STATES

An Admiral in the Coast Guard

Admiral Linda Fagan, 58, became on June 1 the first woman to take command of the US Coast Guard, the American Coast Guard (of which she was No. 2). “She is even the first woman to lead a branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is high time,” said President Joe Biden. When Linda Fagan joined the Coast Guard Academy in 1985, women made up 8% of her graduating class, but today they make up 40% of the workforce, reports the washington post. Her career includes a mission aboard a huge icebreaker: she was the only female crew member.

COLOMBIA

Cali cartel leader dies

“The king is dead!”, writes El Colombiano about Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, who died on June 2, at the age of 83, in an American prison where he was serving a thirty-year sentence. Nicknamed “The Chess Player”, he had led the Cali Cartel and was seen as one of those responsible for the downfall of Pablo Escobar’s rival Medellín Cartel. Also involved in the alleged delivery of money from the Cali Cartel to the campaign of former Colombian President Ernesto Samper (1994-1998), Orejuela was arrested in 1995 and extradited to the United States in 2004. Last year, Colombian cocaine trafficking has reached an all-time high.

SAUDI ARABIA

Biden will be fine with the “pariah” MBS

During his campaign, the American president had promised that he would treat Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, “like the pariah he should be” on the international stage. Joe Biden has not forgiven the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the services of the Saudi prince in an Istanbul consulate in 2018. But finally, at the end of June, “Biden will go to Saudi Arabia, putting an end to this outcast status, underlines the New York Times. He wants to rebuild the relationship with the kingdom and seeks to drive down global gas prices, while isolating Russia.”

DENMARK

A more European defense

The war in Ukraine has prompted several Nordic countries to review their defense policy. A majority of Danes (67%) thus voted on June 1 to join that of the European Union, thus ending an exemption obtained in 1992, at the time of the Maastricht Treaty. “Combined with the historic decisions of Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO membership, this result completely changes the security situation in the Nordic countries, aligning them more closely with their Baltic neighbors and strengthening the weight of the whole region. in Europe”, argues the FinancialTimes.

UKRAINE

A fifth of the country occupied

On the eve of 100 days of war, President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated on June 1 that Russia occupied “about 20%” of Ukrainian territory, “much more than all the Benelux countries”. He also specified the same day to lose per day “from 60 to 100 soldiers”, and “some 500 wounded”. As the Russian army slowly advances in the Donbass, the Kyiv Independent argues that the heavy weapons promised by the West “if delivered quickly and in large quantities, should change the course of the war”.

CHINA

Shanghai ends two-month lockdown

They were to last nine days and remained in force for sixty-five days. The very strict anti-Covid restrictions imposed on Shanghai were lifted at midnight on June 1, much to the relief of its approximately 25 million inhabitants. “The freedom granted, however, comes with conditions designed to allow the government to continuously monitor who goes where, when and how healthy one is,” explains the BBC. Residents will now be required to show a green health code – on their smartphone – to leave a building and access most places.”

SENEGAL

The President on mission to Russia

Macky Sall met, on June 3, Vladimir Poutine in Sochi, at the edge of the Black Sea. The priority of the Senegalese president, at the head of the African Union? Encourage Moscow to unblock the Ukrainian ports, from where the grain and fertilizer exports on which Africa depends. Their paralysis led to soaring prices, which “surpassed those of the Arab Springs of 2011 and the food riots of 2008”, specify the site Dakar news. African countries are “victims” of the conflict, deplored Macky Sall. At the end of this meeting, he said he was “reassured”, despite the absence of commitments – public – from the Kremlin.