BURKINA FASO
Two French journalists expelled
After RFI (suspended last December) and France 24 (banned in March), the written press. On April 1, French journalists Sophie Douce (correspondent of the World and L’Express) and Agnès Faivre (Release) were expelled from Burkina Faso, where freedom of the press is dwindling, worries lefaso.net : “The conflict against terrorist groups in the Sahel is a conflict that is covered neither by our press nor by the international press.” As a result, “Burkinabe journalists are now more self-censoring than yesterday,” laments the site.
Türkiye
NATO: Ankara says yes to Finland
The Turkish parliament unanimously ratified Finland’s membership of NATO on 30 March. “Turkey has cleared the final hurdle for Helsinki to join the defensive alliance, as war rages in Ukraine,” explain the media Al Jazeera. A few days before Ankara’s decision, Hungary had also given its official agreement to the accession of Finland, which shares a border of 1,300 kilometers with Russia. Sweden, for its part, remains blocked at the gates of NATO by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is demanding the expulsion of dozens of Kurds through Stockholm.
UNITED STATES
Trump in court
Summoned by the Manhattan district attorney on April 4 to be served with the grounds for his indictment in the case of the fraudulent payment of $130,000 to porn actress Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, former President Donald Trump is not done dealing with justice. “His next legal troubles may arise in the state of Georgia, where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating potential charges related to alleged interference by the ex-president and others in the presidential election. of 2020”, warn him FinancialTimes.
ISRAEL
A controversial “national guard”
After months of massive protests, Binyamin Netanyahu has put his judicial reform project on hold until the summer. In return, the Israeli Prime Minister granted his far-right ally Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of Security, the creation of a “national guard” on April 2.
This force of 1,800 men will be independent of the Israeli police and will be able to intervene “wherever the minister deems it necessary”. “Across the country, demonstrators denounce this bribe granted by Netanyahu to Ben Gvir and the creation of a violent militia targeting the opposition and the Palestinians”, point Ha’aretz.
FINLAND
Bye-bye, Sanna Marin!
Marked by the (narrow) defeat of the Social Democrats, the parliamentary elections of April 2 result in the end of Sanna Marin’s mandate as Prime Minister. The conservative and liberal Kokoomus party of Petteri Orpo obtained 20.8% of the vote, followed by that of the True Finns (populist, 20.1%) and by the social democrats (19.9%). “The process of joining NATO [dont la Finlande est devenue membre le 4 avril]and the presence of superstar Sanna Marin sparked unprecedented international interest in our elections,” said the daily Hufvudstadsbladet. Petteri Orpo must now form a coalition government.
RUSSIA
Influential military blogger killed
The bomb was in a statuette, which had been offered to him a few minutes before the explosion. Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxime Fomin, was assassinated on April 2 in Saint Petersburg, in a café belonging to Evgueni Prigojine, the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner. Tatarsky was one of the most famous “military bloggers” in Russia, with “more than 560,000 subscribers on the Telegram network”, noted Medusa. This propagandist, in favor of the intervention in Ukraine, “had fought alongside the separatists” of Donbass and had “previously served a prison sentence for armed robbery”, recalls the Russian news site.
JAPAN
1.5 million social recluses
The epidemic has accelerated the trend: according to a survey, nearly 1.5 million Japanese of working age live as social recluses. THE hikikomori, these people who spend all or almost all of their time isolated at home, represent 2% of 15-64 year olds. “20% of those questioned have become social recluses because of the Covid-19 pandemic”, specifies THE JapanTimes, those citizens who have chosen to take online courses and work from home. A district of Tokyo will organize events in the metaverse starting in June to allow hikikomori to meet people via their avatar. A first step outward…