Econ_May_05_2018

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8 The Economist May 5th 2018
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South Korea said that Ameri-
can troopswould remain in
the country even if it does
reach a deal with North Korea
to end the Koreanwar formal-
ly. The statement came a few
days after amuch-trumpeted
meeting betweenMoon Jae-in,
the South’s president, and Kim
JongUn, the North’s dictator,
in the demilitarised buffer
between the countries. Mr Kim
made lots of non-specific
pledges about working to-
wards a nuclear-free Korean
peninsula. He is expected to
meet Donald Trump soon.
India’s primeminister,
NarendraModi, and China’s
president, Xi Jinping, held an
informal summit in the central
Chinese city ofWuhan. The
meetingwas aimed at defusing
tensions between the two
countries, which rose last year
during a border dispute. After
the summit, Chinesemedia
said the two countries’ armies
had agreed to set up a hotline
between their headquarters.
The Dominican Republic cut
its long-standing tieswith
Taiwan and established dip-
lomatic relationswith China.
The switch deepens Taiwan’s
diplomatic isolation: only19
countries nowrecognise it.
In Afghanistan, at least 29
people, including nine journal-
ists, were killed and dozens
wounded in suicide-bombings
in the capital, Kabul. Islamic
State claimed responsibility.
The president ofFrance,
Emmanuel Macron, visited
Australia, where he said the
rise ofChinawas “good
news”. But he also called for
“balance” in the region, and
said it was important to
preserve “rule-based
development” there.
Let us in
Around150 people in a cara-
van ofmigrants from Central
America that has beenmak-
ing itsway throughMexico
arrived at the borderwith the
United States and attempted to
claimasylum. Immigration
agents initially claimed the
checkpoint was at full capacity
but later started slowly
processing their applications.
Donald Trump accused the
migrants of “openly defying
our border”.
Tens of thousands of people
continued to throng Nicara-
gua’s streets in peaceful de-
monstrations for and against
the authoritarian socialist
government ofDaniel Ortega.
The Catholic church and stu-
dents groups tried to open
talkswith the regime. Activists
demanded an investigation of
the at least 63 deaths in recent
riots, duringwhichMrOrte-
ga’smen used live bullets.
Prosecutors in Brazil filed new
corruption charges against Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva, a former
president whowas recently
jailed, and other leaders of the
Workers’ Party for allegedly
accepting bribes fromOde-
brecht, a construction firm.
A tower block caught fire and
collapsed in São Paulo. The
abandoned building had been
illegally occupied by some 150
families. Dozens of residents
weremissing.
A straight Rod
Rod Rosenstein, America’s
deputy attorney-general,
defended Robert Mueller’s
investigation into Russian links
with aides to Donald Trump,
and said that the Department
of Justice “is not going to be
extorted” by threats from
congressional Republicans.
Agitated congressmen have
drafted articles of impeach-
ment against Mr Rosenstein,
who a year ago appointedMr
Mueller as the special counsel
leading the inquiry.
Relations between theWhite
House and theMueller in-
vestigation could be about to
get tetchier, with news that Ty
Cobb is to be replaced as the
head ofMr Trump’s legal team
by Emmet Flood, who repre-
sented Bill Clinton during his
impeachment hearings.
Bibi’s big show
BinyaminNetanyahu, Israel’s
primeminister, produced
documents suggesting that
Iran liedwhen it said it had
never tried to develop a
nuclear bomb. Theworld’s
intelligence agencies had long
assumed asmuch, and little of
the evidencewas new. Mr
Netanyahu did not offer
evidence that Iran continued
bomb-building after signing an
agreement with America in
2015 intended to stop it from
doing so. Abarrage ofmissiles,
suspected to have been fired
by Israel, struck Iranian bases
in Syria.
Mahmoud Abbas, the leader
of the PalestinianAuthority,
said that Jews had suffered
persecution in Europe because
of their involvement in
money-lending and banking.
A rash of attacks on Jews in
Germany has prompted the
country’s newcommissioner
for fighting anti-Semitism to
call for better information
about the perpetrators.
Scores of peoplewere killed in
suicide-bomb attacks on a
mosque andmarket in north-
east Nigeria . The attackswere
blamed on Boko Haram, a
jihadist group, and came a day
after Donald Trump promised
more help for Nigeria in its
fight against the terrorists.
The government ofBurundi
campaigned to pass a referen-
dum that would change the
constitution and allowPresi-
dent Pierre Nkurunziza to stay
in power for another16 years.
A former rebel leader, Mr
Nkurunziza has been in charge
since 2005 and believes that
Godwants him to keep ruling.
Cleaning up a Ruddy mess
Amber Rudd resigned as
Britain’s home secretary, as
theWindrush scandal unfold-
ed. Her position became
untenablewhen targets for
enforcing the return of people
to Jamaica and other former
Commonwealth countries
were leaked. Ms Rudd had
denied that such targets exist-
edwhen giving evidence to a
parliamentary select commit-
tee. Shewas seen bymany as a
shield for TheresaMay, the
primeminister, who ran the
Home Officewhen the “hostile
environment” policy for
immigrantswas introduced.
Sajid Javid, whose parents
were Pakistani immigrants,
was appointed as the new
home secretary.
Mr Javid, meanwhile, report-
edly threwhis support behind
the hard Brexiteers on a cabi-
net committee that scuppered
MrsMay’s plan to sign offon a
“customs partnership” with
theEU when Britain leaves the
union. The Brexiteers backa
“maximum facilitation”
proposal on customs, based on
futuristic and untested tech-
nology. The cabinet is still
discussing the options.
Armenia’scapital, Yerevan,
was largely shut down as
hundreds of thousands of
people poured onto the streets,
demanding that the liberal
opposition leader, Nikol Pashi-
nian, bemade primeminister.
The ruling party has so far
rejected this.
Politics
The world this week
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