World in Brief - The Economist Roundup

 World in Brief

The Economist Roundup

March 28, 2024

Russia claimed to have evidence linking the terrorist attack that killed more than 140 people in Moscow last week with “Ukrainian nationalists”. Russian investigators said the attackers received cash and cryptocurrencies from Ukraine; they said a suspect “involved in financing” the massacre had been detained. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has tried to implicate Ukraine even after Islamic State claimed responsibility.

The Palestinian Authority announced a new cabinet after Mohammed Shtayyeh, the prime minister, resigned in February. His replacement, Mohammed Mustafa, who will also serve as foreign minister, has vowed to lead a technocratic government. America wants the PA’s leadership to help unite Gaza and the West Bank. But many expect Mr Mustafa to chiefly serve Mahmoud Abbas, the PA’s sclerotic four-term president.

Russia vetoed a UN resolution to extend the mandate of the panel that monitors whether North Korea is violating sanctions. The UN ramped up its penalties after three nuclear tests in 2016 and 2017. In recent years Russia and China have obstructed monitoring and helped North Korea avoid punishment. Dissolving the panel will render the sanctions, which remain in place, even less effective.

Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone maker, kicked off sales of its first electric car. The base Speed Ultra 7 model is aggressively priced at 215,900 yuan ($29,900). Xiaomi wants to compete against Tesla’s Model 3—and match the electric Porsche Taycan with its top range models. But global sales of EVs are slowing. In February Apple abandoned similar plans to make its own car.

Britain’s economy went into a recession in the second half of 2023. Revised figures released by the Office for National Statistics revealed that GDP fell by 0.3% quarter on quarter in the last three months of 2023, following a 0.1% contraction in the previous quarter. The data will be a blow to Rishi Sunak. The embattled prime minister had promised to “grow the economy” last year.

The White House revised how data on race and ethnicity are collected for the first time since 1997. Federal agencies will now group the two concepts together. A new category will appear: “Middle Eastern or North Africa”; others will be dropped, including “Negro” and “Far East”. The changes are expected to affect redistricting and civil rights legislation.

An Indian opposition leader in court

On Thursday a court in Delhi will decide if Arvind Kejriwal, the capital’s chief minister, will be released from custody or remain in jail. Mr Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party—and a prominent opponent of Narendra Modi, the prime minister—was arrested on March 21st in a corruption probe (he denies wrongdoing). His release would be a setback for Mr Modi’s government, which has been accused of using India’s anti-corruption agencies to harass political opponents and other critics.

Yet it looks unlikely that Mr Kejriwal will walk free. Two other AAP leaders, detained as part of the same probe, have continually had their pre-trial custody extended by the courts (one for the past 13 months, one for six). Neither has been put on trial. The start of an election that Mr Modi is widely expected to win is just three weeks away. Mr Kejriwal seems certain to be missing from the campaign trail.

Crypto’s fallen king is sentenced

Late last year Sam Bankman-Fried, once the golden boy of crypto, was convicted on seven counts of fraud. The trial lasted 15 days, during which he saw his friends and former girlfriend give a damning account of how his actions led to the collapse of FTX, his cryptocurrency exchange. On Thursday a judge in Manhattan will hand down his sentence.

As the head of FTX, Mr Bankman-Fried mixed with the powerful and famous in Washington. But in November 2022 it emerged that Alameda—FTX’s sister hedge fund, also founded by Mr Bankman-Fried—held few assets apart from a handful of illiquid tokens. Spooked customers began to pull holdings from the exchange; within days FTX stopped meeting withdrawal requests.

Mr Bankman-Fried now faces decades in prison—the maximum is 110 years. Federal prosecutors said he should receive up to 50 years for “orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in history”.

Ukraine’s grain pain with Poland

In February relations between Poland and Ukraine reached a low point. Polish farmers—furious about what they view as unfair competition—blocked several crossings on the Polish-Ukraine border and destroyed mounds of Ukrainian grain. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, called for an emergency meeting. A day later Denys Shmyhal, his prime minister, arrived at the border to negotiate. No one turned up to meet him.

But relations seem to be improving. On Thursday Mr Shmyhal received a warmer welcome as he visited Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, in Warsaw for a long-awaited discussion about agricultural imports. The EU wants to bolster Ukraine’s economy by extending trade liberalisation for some Ukrainian farm goods, first granted in 2022, until mid-2025. Poland insists on measures to protect its own producers. Last week the EU said it was preparing “safeguards” to stop cheap produce flooding in. “We are close to a solution,” said Mr Tusk following the meeting.

 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaY98AM9hXF8HkfxYY39                      https://wa.me/c/923554754711