Month: July 2022

The flaws in Europe’s deal to ration gas

WHEN THE energy ministers of the European Union’s member countries gathered for an emergency meeting on July 26th, the deal came swiftly. They agreed that each country should cut gas consumption by 15%, compared with their average over the past five years, between August 1st and March 31st 2023. It was a typical EU compromise, forged in long negotiations and riddled with exemptions and concessions. It will not really solve the problem at hand: how the EU should respond if Russia halts or radically reduces supplies—something that seems increasingly likely. The day before the meeting Gazprom, Russia’s state energy giant, announced that it would again reduce the volume of gas flowing through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline, to 20% of capacity.

The European inflation debate needs better wage data

While the US provides monthly updates on the development of wages, eurozone wage data is published quarterly, creating delays of up to six months. This negatively affects how inflation is discussed in Europe and could lead to bad economic policy.

Turkey: Torture Has Reached “Unprecedented Levels”

“We saw his body while washing it. There was a scar on his neck as if he had been hanged with a clothesline. Both of his eyes had burst. Blood was coming from his eyes. His nose was completely broken and filled with cotton. There was such a large swelling and bruise on his chest it looked as if a tree had been stuck there. His upper lip was almost as big as a palm. His right foot was stitched.” — Hikmet Yılmaz, elder brother of Ferhan Yılmaz, evidently tortured to death in Silivri prison on April 10, 2022.

Putin’s New Police State

In the Shadow of War, the FSB Embraces Stalin’s Methods

Since the spring of 2022, a terrifying new force has coursed through Russian society. Activists who have protested the “special operation” in Ukraine are being rounded up. Opponents of the regime and even ordinary citizens who have had unauthorized foreign contacts are being thrown into Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, where in Stalinist times, political prisoners were tortured and executed. Special border agents have been interrogating and intimidating Russians who are trying to leave or return. But even those who have made it out are not safe; exiles who have spoken out are being investigated, and their relatives in Russia are being harassed by the regime. And security police are cracking down on Russian companies that buy foreign rather than Russian raw materials and hardware.

L’inquiétante expansion du jihadisme en Afrique

L’hydre jihadiste semble se répandre à une vitesse exponentielle sur le continent, atteignant désormais de nombreux pays longtemps épargnés.

Le 5 juillet 2022, le groupe Etat islamique en Afrique de l’Ouest (ISWAP), faction dissidente de Boko Haram, a attaqué la prison de Kujé, près d’Abuja, la capitale fédérale du Nigeria, et fait évader près de 900 prisonniers, dont des hauts cadres du mouvement.

Al-Qaïda fait monter la pression au Mali

Attaque kamikaze au coeur du pouvoir malien, incursions de plus en plus au sud: les jihadistes de la nébuleuse sahélienne d’Al-Qaïda ont accentué ces derniers jours la pression sur la junte malienne, avec une coordination des opérations inédite.

Macron cherche à réveiller l’influence française en Afrique

Emmanuel Macron veut faire de l’Afrique l’une des priorités de son second quinquennat, face à la concurrence de la Chine et de la Russie, mais en pariant sur le “soft power” plutôt que sur la politique ou le militaire, les outils traditionnels d’influence de la France.