World in Brief - The Economist Roundup

 

World in Brief

The Economist Roundup

February 2, 2024

Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the EU for approving a €50bn ($54bn) support package for Ukraine after months of obstruction by Hungary. Ukraine's president said the new funding would send a “clear signal” to Russia. Earlier this week, European officials and leaders reportedly threatened to harm Hungary’s economy to put pressure on its pro-Russian prime minister, Viktor Orban. Additional support from America remains held up in partisan gridlock.

 

America imposed sanctions on four Jewish settlers accused of attacking Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank—a first for Joe Biden’s administration. Mr Biden said violence there had become “intolerable”. Some 370 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7th. The sanctions coincided with Mr Biden’s visit to Michigan, a state with a large Arab-American community that has criticised Mr Biden’s support of Israel.

 

American forces carried out fresh strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, targeting a control station and ten drones determined to present “an imminent threat” to foreign ships. America and Britain have carried out several rounds of strikes since the Houthis began to launch attacks on commercial vessels in mid-November. On Wednesday the Houthis said that they plan to continue attacking American and British warships.

 

India’s BJP moves forward a controversial civil-law reform

For decades India’s ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has been defined by three promises to its supporters. It has kept two of them: removing the special constitutional status of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, and building a temple where the Hindu god Ram was supposedly born. On Friday the party will come closer to realising its third pledge when the government of the northern state of Uttarakhand reviews a draft uniform civil code before sharing it with the assembly next week.

Ostensibly, the new bill is a secularising initiative, to replace religious laws that govern matters like marriage and divorce in various communities. But critics argue that it has a more malevolent purpose, to harass Muslims by limiting the role of Islamic law. Other BJP-run states plan to follow suit. A national civil code will probably not be enacted before elections in May. But the BJP seems confident that it will remain in power to finish the job.

Poland’s government brings out the guillotine

Heads are rolling in Poland. Donald Tusk, a centrist former prime minister, took back power in December after defeating the governing Law and Justice party (PiS) in an election. Loyalists with cushy jobs in the PiS government can now expect to be dismissed. In Mr Tusk’s first week his government took the state broadcaster off the air and sacked its management. Next, his ministers began purging the justice system. Now they are sweeping out the state-enterprise sector.

On Thursday Daniel Obajtek was sacked as head of Poland’s oil and gas giant, Orlen. The PiS had elevated the former village mayor to run central and eastern Europe’s largest listed company principally because of his political connections. It is a sign of things to come. The boards of Poland’s biggest bank and of mining and chemicals giants all convene over the next fortnight. The government says it wants to restore professional management. Szymon Holownia, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, expressed the new regime’s attitude more colourfully: “the fat cats are packing up their litter boxes.”