Articles in English

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant talks on May 1 with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza in southern Israel. (Evelyn Hockstein/AFP/Getty Images)

MundoOriente Próximo

It’s time for Israel to begin building a Palestinian security force in Gaza that can provide stability there after the political power of Hamas is broken, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a blunt briefing this week.

“The idea is simple”, Gallant told me. “We will not allow Hamas to control Gaza. We don’t want Israel to control it, either. What is the solution? Local Palestinian actors backed by international actors”.

Gallant’s frank comments mark a turn in the Israeli government’s debate about governance and security issues in Gaza, known by the shorthand phrase “the day after”. His views are widely shared by the defense and security establishment but opposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition.…  Seguir leyendo »

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting a missile facility, May 2024. KCNA / Reuters

MundoAsia

U.S. President Joe Biden has plenty of foreign policy crises on his hands. But unfortunately for him, as the United States heads into November’s elections there’s a high chance of yet another emergency: renewed provocations from North Korea. Pyongyang has a history of acting out during U.S. elections. Research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, for example, found that North Korea stages more than four times as many weapons tests in U.S. election years than in other years.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula is already growing fraught. On January 10, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared South Korea to be an enemy state, ending all talk of peaceful reunification and setting the stage for more hostilities.…  Seguir leyendo »

Taiwanese President-elect Lai Ching-te holds a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan, January 2024. Ann Wang / Reuters

MundoAsia, ,

On May 20, in a ceremony in Taipei, Lai Ching-te is scheduled to be inaugurated as the next leader of Taiwan. Currently vice president, Lai is taking over from President Tsai Ing-wen at a delicate moment in Taiwan’s relations with Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party regards the self-ruling island of 23 million people as a renegade province to be unified with the mainland by force, if necessary. And although Taiwan has managed to maintain significant trade and interpersonal ties to mainland China while postponing discussions over its sovereignty, this ambiguous status quo has recently frayed amid political headwinds from both Beijing and Taipei.…  Seguir leyendo »

A protester wearing a European Union flag facing off against riot police during an opposition rally against the “foreign agent” bill, Tbilisi, Georgia, May 14, 2024. Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg/Getty Images

MundoCáucaso

I’ve visited Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, several times over the past few years. It’s a likable place, with rich cultural offerings, fine food and wine, and hospitable people. This March, however, the city seemed gripped by a sense of unease. Everyone I spoke to on my visit—politicians, civil society activists, and ordinary citizens—worried about the next general election, set for October. This is “an existential moment”, Giorgi Gakharia, a former prime minister, told me. “If we miss this chance to hold free, fair and competitive elections, we could be missing the window to embark on a path to Europe”.…  Seguir leyendo »

New Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (C) smiles next to President Tharman Shanmugaratnam (R) during the swearing-in ceremony at the Istana in Singapore on May 15. Edgar Su/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAsia

It’s a little startling when a senior civil servant begins to casually ruminate about the inevitability of the end for any nation and political order and, in the longue durée, the finite lifespan of the one that they serve. If this were the Second French Empire as Prussians besieged Paris and the Commune ran the streets or Myanmar today one could understand. But what does Singapore have to worry about?

On April 15, then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the son of Singapore’s revered first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, announced that he would be stepping down. The succession is proceeding with a smoothness that is near-soporific.…  Seguir leyendo »

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hassan Firouzabadi, then head of the Iranian military, look through binoculars during the test firing of short- and medium-range missiles on Sept. 18, 2004. AFP via Getty Images

MundoOriente Próximo,

Will Iran ever acquire nuclear weapons? What would happen if it did? The answer to the first question seems increasingly to be yes. The second question, however, is as unclear as ever.

The Islamic Republic has been at odds with the United States and many of its neighbors for 45 years, ever since the revolution that toppled the shah in 1979. The United States backed Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War (even though Baghdad had started the conflict), and then-U.S. President George W. Bush included Tehran in his infamous “axis of evil”. The Obama administration eventually signed a nuclear deal with Iran, but it also collaborated with Israel to conduct a major cyberattack on Iran’s enrichment infrastructure.…  Seguir leyendo »

Israeli airstrikes on northern Gaza seen from the Kfar Aza region of Israel on May 12, 2024. (Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, ,

Within six months, US President Joe Biden went from categorically refusing to condition aid to Israel to threatening to halt certain weapons deliveries should Israel decide to invade Rafah in southern Gaza without a civilian protection plan in place. Just before his public ultimatum, Biden issued an order to pause a shipment of large bombs to Israel to ‘deliver a message’ to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This change in attitude, while no doubt politically significant, is of no practical consequence to Israel’s warfighting capacity in Gaza. Its significantly weaker foe, Hamas, has lost most of its combat power due to Israeli strikes.…  Seguir leyendo »

Gen Z’s new punctuation

ReflexionesSocial,

Don’t be alarmed if you see young people use increasingly macabre emojis online. In the past few years, for instance, the skull emoji has transformed into a symbol to communicate humor or irony. Much like an exclamation point or question mark, it can serve to both separate text and contextualize how a sentence should be understood. For example: I just wrote a Washington Post op-ed on Gen Z slang 💀

Although it might seem silly, the skull in my sentence serves a very important function. If I texted this to a friend without the emoji, it would either come across as boastful or oddly formal.…  Seguir leyendo »

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, May 2024. Doaa Rouqa / Reuters

MundoOriente Próximo

The current crisis in the Middle East, sparked seven months ago by Hamas’s attack on Israel, shows worrying signs of worsening. Tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Iran in April, unprecedented in their directness, threaten to turn the long-standing shadow war between the two countries into outright military confrontation. Now, as Israel begins its ground assault in Rafah, the situation inside Gaza is deteriorating swiftly. With more than 34,000 civilian deaths already, accusations of genocide, and indications of a manmade famine, the humanitarian imperative is enormous and urgent. Outside Gaza, new Jewish settlements and incursions by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank stoke further tensions.…  Seguir leyendo »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against issuing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders and commanders after its investigation into the war in Gaza. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters/File

MundoOriente Próximo,

The signs are mounting that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is weighing an indictment against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials over Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza. This would be an earthquake and could be seen as a case of selective justice that ends up helping the beleaguered prime minister politically.

The ICC, which was established in 2002, is more of a club of about 125 countries that tries to make the rules than a true manifestation of consensual “international law” — and it occupies a rather fuzzy position vis-à-vis non-member states like the United States and Israel.…  Seguir leyendo »

A person with a European Union flag ahead of Europe Day celebrations in Brussels, Belgium, 4 May 2024. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP

EuropaUnión Europea

Europe no longer wields the power it once did in world affairs, when there was a liberal international order that hinged on US power and in which international cooperation flourished. In that world, Europe was not a superpower, but the hallmarks of the post-cold war era – multilateralism, regional cooperation, interdependence, the flourishing of democracy, soft power and free trade – were also insignia of the European Union.

Today we are in a post-post-cold war era and the world has changed direction. Some features of the old system live on. But contrasting forces such as nationalism, protectionism and unilateralism are all on the rise.…  Seguir leyendo »

The End of TikTok Is a Propaganda Win for Beijing

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

When President Biden signed a bill requiring that TikTok be divested from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, members of Congress hailed the law as a blow to Beijing. They shouldn’t be so quick to celebrate. The law would at best partially mitigate the hazards of misinformation or the risks to national security posed by China. The Communist Party, meanwhile, looks forward to a propaganda windfall, prizing off Washington’s mantle as champion of a free and open internet.

America’s moral authority on maintaining open internet platforms will look very different if it bans TikTok. After years of enduring American sermonizing about free speech and open trade, autocrats would now be able to cite Washington’s own example when they interfere with speech platforms that displease them.…  Seguir leyendo »

A vendor at an open-air market in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last month. (Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)

MundoÁfrica

The United States, Mexico and Canada trade with one another under a pact that replaced the long-standing North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. The Europeans have their single market and common currency. Southeast Asian countries have a free-trade agreement. And 11 Pacific Rim countries have formed their own free-trade group with the unwieldy acronym CPTPP.

But what stands to be the behemoth of global trade pacts is one you’ve probably not heard of: the African Continental Free Trade Area, or AfCFTA.

Its scope is enormous, comprising 54 countries, 1.3 billion people and a combined gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion.…  Seguir leyendo »

Israeli military personnel inspect the apparent remains of an Iranian ballistic missile near Arad, Israel, April 2024. Amir Cohen / Reuters

MundoOriente Próximo

The volley of attacks and counterattacks between Iran and Israel in the first two weeks of April drastically changed the strategic landscape in the Middle East. On April 1, an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, including two generals. Two weeks later, Iran retaliated with a barrage of drones and missiles, almost all of which were intercepted. Israel swiftly responded with its own drone and missile attack on an airbase in Iran. The exchange brought the shadow war the two countries have been fighting for more than a decade into the open.…  Seguir leyendo »

A suspect from the Crocus City Hall attack in court in Moscow, March 2024. Yulia Morozova / Reuters

MundoAsiaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

In March, terrorists affiliated with Islamic State Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K, attacked Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, killing 145 people and wounding several hundred. The authorities swiftly arrested 12 young men, all of whom were from Tajikistan, the most southern and poorest republic of the former Soviet Union. Tajikistan’s economy is moribund, and the combination of a low growth rate and a youthful population has created an immense diaspora: at least a quarter of Tajikistan’s working-age men live abroad. The country they left behind is repressive, with a government as hostile to many forms of Islam as it is to any signs of dissent.…  Seguir leyendo »

Aerial view showing the construction works in the area where the Chinese company Cosco Shipping is building a port in Chancay, some 80 km north of Lima, on August 22, 2023. Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAméricaEuropa, ,

Pity the Peruvian negotiators who, five years ago, signed an agreement with the Chinese giant Cosco Shipping Ports. The agreement was about the Port of Chancay, located near Lima, which was to become a megaport and “the gateway from South America to Asia”, as one Cosco manager told The Associated Press. But now, as the massive port nears completion, an “administrative error” by unnamed officials in Peru has given Cosco Shipping Ports exclusivity over operations at the Port of Chancay, the Peruvian port authority (APN) announced in March. Other infrastructure operators still hoping for large Chinese investments should pay heed.

That’s bad news, because the two-terminal construction is be completed later this year, and Peru has great expectations.…  Seguir leyendo »

Journalists protest in support of Palestinians in front of the Egypt Journalists Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt, on December 13, 2023. (Photo by Mahmoud Elkhwas/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

MundoOriente Próximo,

So far, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) operation in Rafah remains ‘ limited’, meaning it is still under the threshold of a major military incursion like the previous bloody assaults on Jabaliya, Gaza City, and Khan Younis.

This should be good news for Egypt’s security. However, the reality is far from it. The operation, launched on 7 May, creates two major threats for Egypt.

Refugees

The first is a potential mass exodus of Palestinian refugees into Sinai. For Egypt, this has been a ‘ red line’ since the start of the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government seems to take Cairo’s concerns seriously.…  Seguir leyendo »

President Vladimir Putin arrives to review honour guards following his inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin's Sobornaya Square in Moscow on 7 May, 2024. (Photo by RAMIL SITDIKOV/POOL/AFP via Getty images)

Europa

On 7 May, Vladimir Putin was inaugurated for his fifth presidential term. The ceremony took place in a very different context from his previous inaugurations, with a war raging and the army rattling its nuclear sabre.

Team Navalny and Proekt (an independent Russian investigative journalism outlet) released new footage of ‘Putin’s Palace’ on the Black Sea to coincide with the event – but its impact will be negligible. With their network destroyed, Navalny dead, and the war in Ukraine ongoing, anti-corruption investigations have long lost their effectiveness.

Russian presidents appoint new governments at the start of each presidential term – including a new prime minister.…  Seguir leyendo »

Firefighters put out a fire in a destroyed house in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on May 3 after it was struck by a Russian bomb. (Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images)

Europa, , ,

Ever since Ukraine’s second-largest city repelled Russia’s invasion attempt in the early months of 2022, Kharkiv has stood as a national success story in the grueling war with its larger neighbor. Against overwhelming odds, Ukrainian forces pushed back the attackers and denied Russian President Vladimir Putin one of his key early war aims. In the midst of that fight, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov told me in an interview he was determined to keep his city free — which was not a given at the time.

Two years after that victory, however, Terekhov leads Kharkiv as it once again faces an existential threat.…  Seguir leyendo »

A woman stands with an Israeli flag during a two-minute siren in memory of victims of the Holocaust, in Jerusalem, May 6. (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)

MundoOriente Próximo,

As Israel marks its 76th anniversary this week under the shadow of the Oct. 7 massacre and the Israel-Gaza war, the country’s underlying Zionist ideology is being called into question. Various groups distort and weaponize the term “Zionism”, depicting it as a malignant form of tribalism or even racism. To understand current developments in Israel, as well as the country’s tumultuous history, it is necessary to clarify what Zionism has really meant over its 150 years of existence.

Born in the late 19th century, modern Zionism is a national movement similar to the ones that arose during the same period among Greeks, Poles and many other peoples.…  Seguir leyendo »