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The world this week Politics be prepared for a cutoff of Russian gas. As electricity prices in Europe hit a new high, the European Parliament tweaked laws that would relabel gas and nuclear infrastructure as “green”.
Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, is to resign, it was reported, but hopes to stay in offi ce until the autumn, when a new leader can be installed. It was unclear as The Economist went to press whether he would, in fact, be allowed to hang on. A rebellion within the Conservative government made his position untenable: dozens of ministers resigned, starting with the health secre tary and the chancellor of the exchequer (fi nance minister). Various scandals were un folding: the deputy chief whip had stood down amid accusa tions that he had drunkenly groped two men, and Mr John son was shown to have known about prior allegations of misbehaviour when he origi nally appointed him. Mr John son’s chaotic management style and repeated failure to tell the truth prompted many who had served under him to say they could no longer do so. Russia grabs more land Russian troops captured the industrial town of Lysychansk, completing their takeover of Luhansk oblast in Ukraine’s east. The Ukrainian army is repositioning itself to defend more strategic sites in Donetsk, the other half of the badly bloodied Donbas region.
A conference on rebuilding Ukraine was held in Lugano, Switzerland. Offi cials from America, Britain, the European Union and international orga nisations attended. The Ukrai nian prime minister said a “fullfl edged” recovery plan would cost $750bn. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, urged the eu to
The collapse of a glacier in the Italian Alps that killed at least nine people was blamed on climate change. Italy declared a state of emergency in fi ve northern regions; a long bout of hot weather has caused the worst drought in 70 years. A gunman opened fi re on a July 4th parade in Highland Park, a wealthy suburb north of Chicago, killing seven people. It was the deadliest such in cident over the Independence Day holiday, which normally sees a spike in shootings. Eight other people were gunned down in Chicago over the threeday weekend. Across the country more than 200 were killed in gun violence. In an emergency session, New York’s state legislature passed a bill that would ban people from carrying guns near “sen sitive” places, such as schools. The bill was crafted to comply with the Supreme Court’s recent curbs on gun controls. The Supreme Court limited the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce greenhousegas emissions. Joe Biden’s plans to tackle climate change will now have to be rethought, and approved by Congress rather than imple mented by executive fi at. Violent protests broke out in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, over planned constitutional changes to strip it of its right to secede. At least 18 people were killed. A state of emergency has been imposed for a month. The proposed changes have been dropped. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka’s prime minister, said his country was “bankrupt”. Sri Lanka has all but run out of fuel. With infl ation at 55% the central bank raised its main
The Economist July 9th 2022 7
interest rate by one percentage point to a 21year high. Negoti ations are continuing with the imf over a bailout. A trove of Chinese police fi les has been off ered for sale by a hacker in what appears to be one of the largest data leaks ever, containing information on 1bn Chinese citizens. China is notorious for its lax data security. The government likes to keep data unencrypted so it can spy on people.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, attended a ceremony in Hong Kong to mark the 25th anni versary of the return of the city from British to Chinese rule. Mr Xi said the “one country, two systems” model for ruling Hong Kong had worked. Critics say it has been subverted by a new nationalsecurity law that takes away many of the free doms the Chinese government had promised to preserve. Israel said it shot down three drones heading for its gasfi eld in the Mediterranean that had been launched by Hizbullah, a Shia Muslim Lebanese party cummilitia backed by Iran. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and his long standing rival, Ismail Haniyeh, who heads Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, met in Algiers. They have been at loggerheads for many years. Arab intermediaries period ically try in vain to make them reconcile with each other. Gabriel Boric, Chile’s presi dent, was presented with the fi nal draft of a new constitu tion. The document, which has been hashed out by an assem bly including many political novices, is leftwing, Utopian
and very, very long. With 388 articles it would, if adopted, be one of the wordiest consti tutions in the world. Polls currently suggest that Chil eans will reject it in a referen dum in September. Argentina’s economy minister, Martín Guzmán, announced his resignation, citing squabbling between the president and vicepresident. Mr Guzmán was seen as a stabilising fi gure in a country that is both politically and economically turbulent. Sudan’s military government said it would withdraw from talks aimed at restoring civil ian rule and instead allow civilians to form a transition al government. Activists who have protested for months against military rule say they will stay on their barricades to ensure the army, which has staged two coups since 2019, does not cling to power. Jihadists attacked a prison in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, freeing 600 people including members of Boko Haram, a terrorist group that straps bombs to children. Separately, gunmen attacked a presi dential convoy in Katsina, a state in Nigeria’s north. Muhammadu Buhari, the president, was not there. Police in Ghana broke up large protests against rising living costs. The government has started talks with the imf about a bailout amid a deep ening economic crisis. Africa’s big scorers Sierra Leone’s football associ ation is to investigate two matches that reported the astounding scores of 911 and 950. Allegations of match fi xing have surfaced before in west Africa, notably in 2013 when two games in Nigeria ended with scores of 670 and 790. The highestever scoring match was 1490 in Madagas car in 2002, when one team’s players repeatedly kicked the ball in their own net to protest against refereeing decisions.
