Politics this week
A Russian court reaffirmed the conviction for embezzlement of Alexei Navalny, the country’s most popular opposition politician. The conviction relates to business Mr Navalny conducted with a state timber company, and is widely seen as a pretext to disqualify him from running in the country’s presidential elections in 2018. His initial conviction in 2013, just before his campaign in the Moscow mayoral race, was declared invalid by the European Court of Human Rights.
François Fillon affirmed he will not drop out of the presidential election in France despite a scandal over employing his wife and children at taxpayers’ expense. Mr Fillon, the Republican candidate, has been unable to prove that his wife performed any work. The affair has hurt him in the polls and could pave the way for Emmanuel Macron, an independent, to reach the election’s second round.
Romania scrapped a decree that would have decriminalised official corruption if the damages amounted to less than $47,600. The decree sparked protests that brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets. It could have exempted the head of the ruling party from facing charges of paying people for work they may not have performed. See article.
A bill to allow the British government to trigger Article 50, the legal means of leaving the EU, completed its swift passage through the House of Commons. After three days of heated debate the bill survived intact. MPs from the opposition Labour Party were ordered by its leader to support it, deepening its internal rifts. The bill now goes to the unelected House of Lords, which faced veiled threats about its abolition if it amends or delays the legislation. Theresa May, the prime minister, has taken Britain a big step closer towards the Brexit door. See article.
Man with a ban
The Trump administration went to the federal appeals court to get its ban on refugees and citizens from seven countries reinstated, after a lower court stayed it. The lower court’s decision allowed people who had been denied entry to travel to the United States. In a furious tweeting storm, Donald Trump questioned the judges’ impartiality. See article.
Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the Senate as Mr Trump’s education secretary, but only after Mike Pence cast a vote to break a 50-50 tie. It was the first time an American vice-president has had to use his tiebreaking vote as the Senate’s presiding officer to ensure the confirmation of a president’s cabinet appointment. Jeff Sessions was confirmed as attorney-general.
Not part of the new democracy
A UN report accused the police and army in Myanmar of systematic and widespread abuse of the Rohingya minority, including looting, arson, rape and murder. The pope also condemned the treatment of the Rohingya.
An Australian senator defected from the ruling Liberal National coalition to set up a rival party. Cory Bernardi says Australia needs a more conservative force.
The Philippine government called off peace talks with communist rebels and ended a ceasefire after insurgents killed three soldiers. See article.
A suicide-bomber attacked Afghanistan’s supreme court in Kabul, killing at least 20 people. The UN reported that almost 3,500 civilians were killed and 7,900 injured in conflict-related violence in the country last year, the most casualties since it began documenting them in 2009.
Scores of people were killed by avalanches in northern Afghanistan, but many remain trapped under the snow and the toll is expected to rise.
China’s participation in a conference at the Vatican on organ trafficking raised eyebrows. Its representative heads the country’s organ-transplant programme and his attendance was a sign of warming relations between the Vatican and China. But some delegates resented China’s presence—its hospitals have used organs harvested from executed prisoners for transplants.
Land grab
Israel’s parliament passed a law that will allow for the retroactive legalisation of unauthorised building on some privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank. Governments around the world condemned the move as an obstacle to peace; Israel’s courts could yet strike it down. See here and here.
The Trump administration announced new sanctions against Iran, after it conducted a missile test. Although this marked a more aggressive stance, the administration said the deal brokered with Iran to monitor its nuclear programme remains intact. See article.
The UN launched a $2.1bn appeal for aid to Yemen, where the humanitarian situation is catastrophic and rapidly deteriorating. Saudi Arabia has been fighting Yemen for the past two years.
Amnesty International accused the Syrian government of having executed as many as 13,000 people at a prison north of Damascus, some after two-minute trials.
Members of parliament in Somalia cast ballots in a presidential election held in an airport under the protection of troops from the African Union. The poll followed another unorthodox one last year when 14,000 delegates who had been chosen by clan elders voted for members of the lower house.
The president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, extended what his office had said was a holiday in Britain for medical tests amid mounting concern at home over his health.
My way or the highway
Peru’s attorney-general ordered the arrest of the country’s former president, Alejandro Toledo, saying that he received $20m in bribes from Odebrecht, Brazil’s biggest construction company. The money was allegedly paid to secure a contract to build a road from Peru to Brazil. Mr Toledo denies wrongdoing.
Colombia’s government began peace negotiations with the ELN, the country’s second-largest guerrilla army. In November the government ratified an agreement that ended its 52-year war with the FARC, the largest rebel group.
Jovenel Moïse, who has never held public office, was sworn in as Haiti’s president. The country has been governed by an interim president since Michel Martelly left office last February. Both are members of the Haitian Bald Head Party.
