In a pre-emptive move, Saudi Arabia defended its military actions in Yemen as defense in its “backyard.” The UN has been conducting an inquiry into Saudi military actions in Yemen and its report is expected to be highly critical of Saudi actions as insufficiently protective of civilians. The Saudis believe that the Houthi rebels in Yemen are backed by its Middle East rival, Iran. The Saudis have been conducting airstrikes against the rebels since March of 2015, but a settlement of the issues seems far from likely.
There is an interesting controversy in Italy. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Italy and nude statues at various sites he visited were covered-up. Some Italians were outraged at what they considered “cultural appeasement” to the Muslim President. Those Italians believe that the statues were part of Italy’s cultural heritage and should be accepted as such by visitors to the country. What is interesting about the controversy is that neither the Italian or Iranian side will admit asking for the cover-up.
Google has developed a computer system that has defeated a human opponent at the 2,500 year-old game of Go. Artificial Intelligence has mastered games such as Chess and even Jeopardy, but the success at Go is staggering. In a game of chess, each move has about 35 different consequences. In the game of Go, with its 19 x 19 grid, each move has about 250 possible consequences. According to experts: “there are more possible positions on a Go board than atoms in the universe.” And, unlike Chess in which brute force computing can ultimately work, Go requires adaptive learning by the intelligence: Google developed a computer system that, in the final stages, taught itself how to master the game.
Denmark’s parliament has passed a law allowing authorities to seize cash and other valuables from refugees to cover the costs of immigration. The bill was part of a larger piece of legislation governing immigration reform, and this part of the bill has elicited a lot of controversy. The law does not specify what kinds of personal belongings would be exempt from seizure, and the vagueness of the terms adds great uncertainty to the process of immigration. In some respects, the controversy alone has achieved an unstated purpose: it has discouraged some refugees from going to Denmark.
France was disrupted by strikes in air traffic and among taxi drivers. The taxi drivers were protesting against the use of Uber, a ride-sharing service, which does not abide by the regulations governing taxis and which is therefore draining revenues from the taxi industry. Strikes among air traffic controllers reflects growing dissatisfaction with wages and work rules. The strikes themselves, however, also suggest a declining sense of economic optimism in Europe generally.
The world’s youngest nation-state, South Sudan, has been wracked by a civil war caused largely by personal tensions among the country’s leaders. The country’s President, Salva Kiir, has had a long-standing dispute with the rebel leader, Riek Machar, that mirrors an ethnic cleavage between the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups in the country. Since the civil war broke out in December 2013, more than 10,000 people have been killed and about 2.3 million people have been displaced.
The strange weather continues. Temperatures in a number of subtropical areas of China were reporting record low temperatures, and the southern city of Guangzhou recorded its first snow since 1967. Agriculture in Taiwan took a major hit from some of the temperatures.
The Russian economy declined by 3.7% in 2015. The slowdown reflects the effects of the sanctions on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine as well as the dramatic decline in the price of oil globally. There is little evidence to suggest that the economic decline has led to a noticeable decline in popular support for President Putin. The Russian people clearly support Putin for defending Russian national interests, even if those moves do lead to economic weakness.
The International Monetary Fund is suggesting that the inflation rate in Venezuela could reach 1,000% in 2016. The rapid decline in oil prices, and the refusal of the Venezuelan government to cut back government spending to match that decline in revenues, has led to an economic disaster. Vital commodities are not available at any price, and people cannot use currency to buy normal items necessary for daily life. The political system in Venezuela became highly corrupt during the Chavez regime and the rule of his successor, Maduro.
Elections in Haiti have been postponed as one of the candidates claims that the incumbent has used undue influence to determine the outcome. The current President, Michel Martelly, is scheduled to step down, but the election to replace him has been delayed. The Haitian political system is exceptionally fragile and ineffective–the consequence of decades of misrule and dictatorship. US efforts to bolster the political system during the Clinton Administration were largely ineffective and since the earthquake of 2010 the country has been ungoverned.
We are coming up to the 5 year anniversary of the uprising in Egypt that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, its leader of almost thirty years. Since that time, Egyptian politics has been deeply unsettled under the leadership of first the Muslim Brotherhood and now General Sisi. Although the overthrow of Mubarak was of historic significance, it is unlikely that the current Egyptian government wishes to take note of the important transition.
Peace negotiations on Syria are scheduled to begin on Monday in Geneva, but the skirmishing among the various parties suggests that no one is taking the negotiations seriously. The US and Turkey are bogged down over which representatives of the Kurds are acceptable negotiators. The Saudi-backed Syrian rebels insist that Russian air strikes must first cease before they will participate in the negotiations. And no one knows what seat at the table the Iranians should have. It is hard to find any party to the negotiations who is genuinely interested in a cease-fire to save the Syrian people.
Masoud Barzani, a prominent Kurdish leader, has called for a redrawing of the international boundaries in the Middle East that are the unfortunate legacies of European imperialism. The current boundaries were draw up in a secret agreement between Britain and France–the Sykes-Picot Agreement–in 1916 without the knowledge or consent of any of the peoples directly affected. Those boundaries exacerbate ethnic and religious tensions in the region
Japan accepted 27 refugees in 2015. Japan has a stellar humanitarian aid network and is active in many international organizations. But it is reluctant to allow outsiders into its society. Japan is profoundly homogeneous, a strange base upon which to base an economy which is almost completely reliant upon open access to all markets. Japanese demographics, however, may force a change in attitudes: Japan does not have enough young people to support a rapidly ageing population.
US military leaders are urging steps to halt the spread of Daesh (the Islamic State) from Syria and Iraq into Libya. The belief is that allied military action against Daesh has been effective in limiting its access to funds, and that the pervasive instability in Libya plus abundant oil would be a better and more defensible base for its operations. Working from Libya would also make Daesh operations in Europe easier to coordinate. Libya has been a lawless state since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, who was overthrown in 2011.
The flood of refugees into Europe has led to discussions among European leaders over the suspension of the Schengen Plan, the arrangement that allows passport-free travel between most of the EU countries. The proposal is for a two-year suspension, but such a move would signal a sharp retreat for the aspirations of the unification movement. The incredible difficulties of managing the influx of refugees also pose great risks for the movement.
Turkey has been stepping up its military actions against Kurds in the southeastern part of the state. The Turks fear the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), believing that it wishes to create an independent Kurdish state. The Kurds have been the most reliable ground allies in the fight against Daesh (the Islamic State) in Syria and Iraq and the US wants to arm the Kurds to the fullest extent possible. But the TUrks and the US cannot agree on the proper role of the Kurds in the tangled politics of the Middle East.
The plight of Syrian refugees is extraordinary, but so is the will to survive. Young refugees in Lebanon (which hosts more Syrian refugees per capita than any other country) have managed to find a degree of stability and hope in rap music. After all the trauma in their lives, it is astonishing that these kids still know what will keep them strong and moving forward.
Israel has confirmed that it intends to seize about 280 acres of land in the Jordan River Valley near the city of Jericho. The land exists in what the international community calls the Occupied West Bank, seized by Israel in the 1967 war with Jordan (along with the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria). Israel apparently wishes to use the land for settlements for Israeli citizens, a move expressly forbidden by the international law governing occupied territories. The Fourth Geneva Convention holds that:
Article 49 (6)
The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
Israel holds that the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply to the Occupied Territories, a position which has been rejected by the International Court of Justice.
Researchers have found evidence of a violent clash between two groups of hunter-gatherers near Lake Turkana in modern-day Kenya. Realists would seize upon this evidence to prove their proposition that violence is an inherent part of human nature, But the evidence uncovered tells us nothing about the reasons why the fighting occurred so it is hard to accept such straightforward conclusions.
Armed militants attacked Bacha Khan University in the city of Charsadda in the northwest part of Pakistan. The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack which killed at least 20 people and perhaps as many as 40. The militants have a considerable presence in the northwestern parts of the country, and seek refuge in Afghanistan for protection against the Pakistani government. Efforts to control the militants increased after a massacre of over 130 students over a year ago, but it is clear that those efforts have not been successful as of yet.
As expected, 2015 was the warmest year ever recorded in human history, and the evidence suggests that 2016 might be even warmer. As the map indicates, the northern parts of the planet–with the significant exception of the area around Greenland–were significantly warmer than the historical record. The cooler area around Greenland may be associated with ice melting because of the higher temperatures.
The UN has issued a report on violent deaths in Iraq over a 20-month period. The number of civilians killed is very high: almost 19,000 from January 2014 to October 2015. In addition, the UN estimates that as many as 3,500 women and girls are being held as slaves by Daesh (the Islamic State). The UN accuses Daesh for most of those deaths, but the instability in Iraq can be explained more prosaically as an attempt by the minority Sunni population in Iraq to regain its position of predominance in the country when Saddam Hussein was in charge.
Taiwan’s opposition party, the Democratic Progress Party, won a stunning victory in the recent Presidential election. The President-elect, Tsai Ing-wen, is the first woman to lead the island country, and she has, in the past, advocated for independence from China. Most of the world has accepted the fact that Taiwan is in fact part of China and not an independent state–a recognition signaled by US President Nixon in 1972. Tsai has indicated that she will not seek Taiwanese independence, but her election clearly indicates dissatisfaction with the island’s previous policy of rapprochement with China.
The rise of right-wing parties in Europe is a topic of great concern to the supporters of liberal democracy. There are, however, states in what used to be called eastern Europe that have already embraced “illiberal” democracy (presumably a form of democracy that offers few, if any, protections for individual freedoms, although the term “illiberal” has never been precisely defined. The leader of Hungary, Viktor Orban has declared that his objective for the country is an illiberal democracy. Now, however, the largest eastern European state and one of the most important states on the continent, Poland, seems to be moving in the same direction. Non-citizens of those states, including immigrants and refugees, have much to fear from this turn to the right.
Global stock markets are going through a very volatile period, and some analysts believe that the volatility suggests fundamental weaknesses in the global economy. The German newspaper, Finanz und Wirtschaft, conducted an interview with Art Cashin, a long-time stock analyst, about what is going on, and the interview suggests that the weaknesses are more fundamental than they superficially seem to be. Nonetheless, the economies of the world continue to favor the rich at the expense of the poor and recent data indicates that there are 62 people in the world who command as much wealth as the bottom 50% of the human race (3.5 billion people).
The Economist has an article on the parallels between the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the religious conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims. It is an intriguing essay, but one which overemphasizes the importance of religion in the struggles. By and large, religion is usually a veneer for power: one sect mistrusts the other, not because of religious differences, but because it fears that power will be used to favor one sect over the other. The fear of the abuse of power is usually the driver in conflicts that seem to stem from religious, ethnic, or ideological difference.
Hurricane Alex was the first Atlantic hurricane ever recorded in January. The event itself was highly unusual, but its effect on the ice pack in Greenland is proving to be even stranger. A number of researchers who study ice melt in Greenland have noticed suggestive evidence of ice melt because of the warm waters forced north by the hurricane. If the evidence becomes stronger, then the globe may be experiencing the first recorded winter ice melt–evidence that global warming has become virtually unstoppable.
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