Italian politics are hardly known for either stability or continuity. Just over the last decade, the country has had eight governments and seven prime ministers. Among major economies, only Britain has seen comparable political instability—with five prime ministers and eight governments in this period.
As Chinese leader Xi Jinping kicks off his third term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the economy that greets him today is vastly different than the one that saw him ascend to his role a decade ago. The decisions he makes during this new term risk reducing the Chinese economy by as much as five trillion dollars over the next five years, with potentially devastating effects for global growth.
MHP leader Devlet Bahceli’s decision to back negotiations with the HDP over a constitutional amendment hints at an election strategy for Turkey’s ruling alliance.
When Turkey’s ultra-nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli rose to address his lawmakers in parliament this week, many expected signs of a split in his party’s alliance with the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Iran has signed cooperation agreements with the Russian energy giant Gazprom worth $40 billion, Iran’s Petroleum Minister Javad Owji announced on Wednesday.
International agreements are needed to thwart the growing risk of cyberattacks, according to Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as he warned the energy sector is increasingly vulnerable to such dangers.
EIGHT MONTHS of brutal war have borne little fruit for Russia. It was beaten back from northern Ukraine in the spring. It was routed in Kharkiv province in September. Since the start of the war in February it has lost perhaps 100,000 men, killed and wounded. The only provincial capital it has managed to take is Kherson city, captured in the first week of war and illegally annexed in September. And now that, too, seems to be slipping from its grasp.
Iran has built a hypersonic ballistic missile, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace commander as saying, in remarks likely to heighten concerns about Iranian missile capabilities.
Xi Jinping Brings Back Marxism
In 1978, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping announced that his country would make a break with the past. After decades of political purges, economic autarky, and suffocating social control under Mao Zedong, Deng began stabilizing Chinese politics, removing bans on private enterprise and foreign investment and giving individuals greater freedom in their daily lives. This switch, termed “reform and opening,” led to pragmatic policies that improved Beijing’s relations with the West and lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people from poverty. Although China remained authoritarian, Deng shared power with other senior party leaders—unlike Mao. And when Deng left office, his successors continued down much the same path.
President Macron will use a speech in Toulon on Wednesday to bring to an official end France’s eight-year anti-jihadist operation in the Sahel.
Operation Barkhane has been inoperative since February, when France announced its military withdrawal from Mali.
Regime leadership shrewdly did not attempt to suppress the women-led protests in Iran with massive deployments of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and shoot-to-kill orders. Such a response might have run the risk of galvanizing even more Iranian men to join the protests.