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The Economist
May 26th 2018
1
TheWorldHealthOrganisa-
tion rushed to respond to an
outbreakof
Ebola
in the
Democratic Republic ofCon-
go. So far, healthworkers have
done amuch better job of
containing the virus than they
did inwest Africa in 2014. The
fear, however, is that it may
spread to big cities.
Voters in
Burundi
approved a
constitutional change that will
allowPresident Pierre “Su-
preme Eternal Guide” Nkurun-
ziza, who has been in power
since 2005, to run for a further
two termswhen his current
one ends in 2020. The vote
tookplace in a climate of fear.
Twoweeks after
America
withdrewfroma nuclear deal
with
Iran
, Mike Pompeo,
America’s secretary of state,
called for amore sweeping
agreement. Mr Pompeo
demanded that Iran stop en-
riching uranium, allownuclear
inspectors “unqualified ac-
cess” and end its involvement
in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon,
or else face “the strongest
sanctions in history”. Hassan
Rouhani, Iran’s president, said
thiswas “unacceptable”.
Human-rights groups reported
that
Saudi Arabia
had de-
tained at least11 feminists. The
kingdomplans to lift a de-
cades-old ban onwomen
driving next month. But as it
loosens up in some areas, it is
also cracking down on dissent.
Israeli
warplanes hit targets in
the Gaza Strip after a group of
Palestinians
, allegedly from
Hamas, themilitant Islamist
group that runs Gaza, crossed
the border and set fire to an
unmanned Israeli army post.
Syria’s
army captured an
enclave inDamascus from the
jihadists of Islamic State. The
victory brings the entire capital
area under the control of
Bashar al-Assad’s regime for
the first time since 2012.
Your country needs you
Italy’s
president appointed a
non-politician, Giuseppe
Conte, as primeminister. Mr
Conte faces the ticklish task of
trying to run a cabinet in-
cluding the leaders of the two
parties that will make up the
newpopulist government:
Luigi Di Maio of the radical
Five StarMovement andMat-
teo Salvini of the right-wing
Northern League. The two
party bosses agree on little.
The
Swedish
government
began sending leaflets to every
household advising Swedes
what to do ifwar breaks out. It
included tips on how to cope if
food andwater are short, or if
electricity, phones and com-
puter systems fail. Such liter-
ature has not been distributed
to the public since1961, during
the coldwar.
Ken Livingstone, a former
mayor of London, resigned
fromBritain’s
Labour Party
.
Hewas suspended in 2016
after a rowover allegedly
anti-Semitic comments he
made. JeremyCorbyn, La-
bour’s leader, who has been
accused of turning a blind eye
to anti-Semitism, said resign-
ingwas the “right thing to do”.
Sergei Skripal was discharged
fromhospital in Britain. The
former
Russian spy
and his
daughterwere exposed to
Novichok, a nerve agent, in an
attack inMarch that was linked
to Russia, resulting in tit-for-tat
diplomatic expulsions and
criticismofRussia from
NATO
and the
UN
. Britainwill also
not send any dignitaries to the
football World Cup, which
starts in Russia next month.
Flight disaster
In
Cuba
a plane crashed short-
ly after taking offfromHavana
airport, killing111people on
board. The 39-year-old Boeing
737 had been leased froma
Mexican company.
NicolásMaduro,
Venezuela’s
president, won re-election in a
vote that waswidely con-
demned as fraudulent. He took
68% of the vote. Themain
opposition leaderswere
banned from running. The
government set up tents near
polling stations to scan voters’
“fatherland cards”, which
entitle them to food rations.
Some voters feared being
denied food if they did not
backMrMaduro.
Panama’s
president, Juan
Carlos Varela, said an Israeli
intelligence agency had given
himevidence that a plane that
crashed in the country in1994
was brought down by a terro-
rist act. The crash occurred on
July19th, the day after an
attackon a Jewish centre in
Buenos Aires.
After a brief period in office
The Bharatiya Janata Party,
which runs India’s central
government, emerged as the
biggest party after elections in
the state of
Karnataka
. Its local
leaderwas sworn in as chief
minister, only to resign two
days later because he could not
cobble together amajority in
the assembly, paving theway
for an opposition coalition.
India’s army declared a truce
in its fight against separatists in
the
KashmirValley
. The
ceasefire, tomark theMuslim
fastingmonth ofRamadan, is
the first since 2000.
Authorities in
Thailand
sup-
pressed protestsmarking the
fourth anniversary of the
military coup. The junta run-
ning the country has repeat-
edly delayed newelections.
Meanwhile, a series of bombs
exploded across southern
Thailand, damaging banks.
The bombs are thought to be
theworkof insurgents cam-
paigning for greater rights for
the region’sMuslimmajority.
China said it had landed long-
range bombers at an airport in
the
SouthChina Sea
for the
first time. The Centre for Strate-
gic and International Studies, a
think-tank, identified the
location asWoody Island, in
the Paracel archipelago, which
is also claimed byVietnamand
Taiwan. China also said it had
“expelled” ten foreign fishing-
vessels fromaround the
islands.
China
launched a satellite that
will act as the relay station for
a planned landing of a space-
craft on the far side of the
Moon later this year.
Her time has come
Democrats in
Georgia
elected
StaceyAbrams as their candi-
date for governor, making her
the first black female nominee
fromeither party to run for
governor in America. Shewill
have to fight hard towin in
November; the last time
Georgia elected a Democratic
governorwas1998.
Officials in
Texas
confirmed
that the suspect in a school
shooting used his father’s guns
to kill ten people. Police arrest-
ed the 17-year-old, a student at
the school near Houston.
Gina Haspel was sworn in as
the newdirector of the
CIA
after the Senate voted to con-
firmher in the job by 54 to 45.
A30-year-oldmanwas taken
to court in
NewYork state
by
his parents to force him to
leave home. The son, who
never did housework, had
refused to go, but the judge
sidedwith his parents and told
him to packhis bags.
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