World update: April 7 2020
World update: April 7 2020
Stories from Iraq, Thailand, Libya, and more
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THESE DAYS IN HISTORY
April 6, 1250: The Battle of Fariskur ends the ill-fated Seventh Crusade.
April 6, 1896: The Games of the First Olympiad, AKA the first modern Olympics, open in Athens. The ancient Olympic Games, believed to have begun in the early 8th century BCE, were discontinued either by Roman Emperor Theodosius I, in the 390s, or by Theodosius II, in the 420s. French educator Pierre de Coubertin (d. 1937) was the driving force behind their revival, which led to the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894 and the first modern Games two years later. The IOC recognizes 14 nations as having participated but there’s no conclusive record as to which 14 they were. The most commonly cited list includes Australia, which really can’t otherwise be considered a nation until it’s federalization in 1901.
The opening ceremony for the 1896 Games, at Athens’ Panathenaic Stadium (Wikimedia Commons)
April 7, 529: The Codex Justinianeus, the first section of Roman Emperor Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis, is completed. The Corpus Juris Civilis was meant to standardize and codify imperial law, which had fragmented into multiple codices and laws that didn’t necessarily cohere with one another. Justinian ordered a review and modernization of these law codes upon his accession as emperor. The Codex contains the actual compilation and standardization of the various legal codes. Subsequent sections included the Digesta, a compendium of legal writings; the Institutiones, a training manual for jurists; and the Novellae, a compilation of new laws promulgated after the Codex was written. The Corpus has influenced everything from canon law in the Catholic Church to the legal codes of the Ottoman Balkans and modern Greece to contemporary international law.
April 7, 1994: One day after Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were assassinated when their aircraft was shot down before landing in Kigali (either by Hutu extremists or by the then-rebel Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front militia), Hutu génocidaires begin slaughtering Tutsi Rwandans en masse. The ensuing genocide, which also saw the deaths of many Twa Rwandans and even moderate Hutus, left hundreds of thousands slaughtered, with high end estimates putting the death toll at over one million. It finally ended in mid to late July, with the military takeover of Rwanda by the RPF under current President Paul Kagame.
COVID-19
Worldometer’s COVID-19 tracker puts the pandemic at 1,430,919 confirmed cases worldwide for April 7 (+84,915 since yesterday). Of those, 1,046,980 are still active and there have been 82,034 reported fatalities (+7,380 since yesterday).
Increasingly our haphazard response to the pandemic seems to have people questioning the general way in which we do things, both in the US and around the world. At Africa Is a Country, writer Kiasha Naidoo looks at the weakness of the global neoliberal consensus in the face of this crisis:
The view that the state ought to act seems to have general consensus, which is shown by the absence of questions like “should the state intervene in the wake of COVID-19?”, but rather, “how should the state intervene?” The silence of the former speaks volumes about the limits of neoliberalism in its capacity to promote well-being—a shortcoming that even neoliberals seem to accept.
The predicament of state action during this time arises from the principles of a neoliberal global system which, in its staunch individualism, is at odds with collective solidarity. That is, an economic system premised on individualism must, during times of crisis, sacrifice its own logic in order to protect its future beyond crisis—presenting us with a paradoxical situation.
MIDDLE EAST
TURKEY
34,109 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (+3892 since yesterday), 725 reported fatalities (+76 since yesterday)
The Turkish parliament is debating a measure to release 45,000 people from prison in order to reduce the threat posed by COVID-19. However, the provision denies release to anyone in prison on terrorism charges. On its face this seems reasonable—terrorists are probably one of the last groups you’d consider releasing into society at a time like this. The problem is that in Turkey, “terrorism” has become the catch-all charge for political prisoners, who are invariably accused of having links either to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and/or to the 2016 attempted coup even if they haven’t done much more than call Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a wanker on Facebook. So excluding “terrorists” from the program actually means excluding some of the least violent, purely political offenders in the Turkish system. This is on purpose, of course, since in Turkey these days “crimes” against Erdoğan are considered more heinous than actual crimes.
IRAQ
1122 confirmed cases (+91), 65 reported fatalities (+1)
According to Juan Cole, Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Adnan al-Zurfi says he’s asked the Trump administration to expedite the removal of all US forces from Iraq, with half to leave this year and the other half in 2021. He even claims that the US ambassador, Matthew Tueller, has agreed with his timetable, with a schedule for full withdrawal to be delivered to Baghdad by next January.
The idea that Iraq’s PM hopeful is demanding a US withdrawal and the Trump administration is meekly going along with it seems…highly unlikely. You may recall that Donald Trump threatened sanctions against the Iraqi government if it moved forward with an effort to expel US forces from the country in January. While I guess it’s possible he’s amenable to a somewhat less embarrassing exit (negotiated vs. ordered), it seems more likely that Zurfi is spinning his conversations with Tueller in an effort to make himself seem tough and independent of Washington. The main drag on Zurfi’s candidacy, which has kept him from removing that “-designate” tag from his title, is that he’s viewed as very close to the US and is therefore unacceptable to Iranian-backed Shiʿa parties in Baghdad. So he could improve his chances of actually getting confirmed as PM by being the guy who got the US to leave.
The other possibility here, the one Cole seems to be supporting in his piece, is that the US has made a decision to quit Iraq for its own reasons—the pandemic, constant attacks by Iraqi militias, etc.—and is allowing Zurfi to take credit for that withdrawal in order to bolster his political fortunes and get a US-friendly PM into office. It’s probably not going to work, but if a departure is happening anyway it makes sense to use it to try to leverage a political victory.
QATAR
2057 confirmed cases (+225), 6 reported fatalities (+2)
Qatari authorities say they’re providing protective equipment and food deliveries to migrant laborers as well as free healthcare and guaranteed salaries to any who are infected with COVID-19, after a German report highlighted ongoing work in preparation for the 2022 World Cup and the risk it poses to the workers. The Qatari claims are in stark contrast with what the workers themselves are saying, which is that PPE and food are scarce and they’re being more or less imprisoned in parts of Doha’s Industrial Area that have been locked down due to the pandemic. The often wretched conditions under which the Qataris oblige migrant laborers to work and live make it impossible for them to practice social distancing or even to practice basic hygiene, though again the Qataris insist they’re staggering work shifts, limiting the number of people residing in dorm quarters, and providing sanitary products.
IRAN
62,589 confirmed cases (+2089), 3872 reported fatalities (+133)
According to France 24, conditions in Iranian prisons are deteriorating rapidly under strain from the coronavirus:
Despite the announcement that it has temporarily released more than 100,000 prisoners to stem coronavirus infections, Iran has seen riots in at least 10 prisons in the last three weeks. Prison sources told the France 24 Observers of lack of basic hygiene measures like soap and water, and anger among inmates unable to afford high bail prices.
Official state media have reported riots at numerous prisons, noting one death — in Khorramabad in western Lorestan province on March 19 — and a total of 97 escapes.
But human rights activists say dozens of prisoners have died in coronavirus-related rioting. A photomontage posted on an Iranian activist website April 3 listed the names of 10 prisoners said to have died in the rioting, along with their photos, and in some cases photographs of their funerals. All but one of the 10 were said to have died in rioting March 30-31 at two prisons in the city of Ahvaz, in southwestern Khuzestan province. While the province’s police chief told the media March 31 that no prisoners had died, a prison source told the France 24 Observers that families counted 38 body bags from the two prisons at a city morgue.
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN
423 confirmed cases (+56), 14 reported fatalities (+3)
The Taliban on Tuesday abruptly pulled out of their ongoing prisoner exchange talks with the Afghan government and recalled their negotiators from Kabul. Its spokesperson in Qatar accused the Afghan government of delaying the prisoner swap “under one pretext or another,” while Afghan officials accused the Taliban of attempting to “sabotage the process.” It appears that a phased approach to the prisoner exchange has failed, with even the initial plan to release a mere 100 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 20 people being held by the insurgent group having failed to materialize. Which means the US-Taliban agreement back in February, which envisioned the Afghan government releasing 5000 prisoners in exchange for 1000 by the Taliban, is now in danger of collapse. It seems unlikely the Taliban will resume attacking US and international forces in Afghanistan, as that would probably compel the US to undo plans for a military withdrawal, but the chances of intra-Afghan negotiations getting started anytime soon now look pretty dim.
THAILAND
2258 confirmed cases (+38), 27 reported fatalities (+1)
A new opening for negotiations between the Thai government and the Barisi Revolusi Nasional rebel group, which included a round of talks last month, may offer hope for ending the southern Thailand insurgency despite getting off to a bit of a rocky start:
The Thai government labeled the latest meeting as “constructive,” yet stressed further substantive talks with the BRN would require “time, continuity and support” from all stakeholders in the peace process, which is being mediated by neighboring Malaysia. Thai negotiators also emphasized the need for a “reduction of violence in order to create a conducive atmosphere” for talks, which in the past have routinely faltered amid resurgent separatist attacks and alleged abuses by the Thai military.
A deadly reminder of the fragility of the process came just three days after the talks in Kuala Lumpur concluded. Shortly before midnight on March 6, suspected southern rebels ambushed a police patrol truck on a rural road in the coastal province of Narathiwat, killing one officer and injuring two others. The attack was followed on March 17 by the bombing of a packed government office in neighboring Yala province, which wounded at least 20 people. These latest guerrilla-style attacks are typical of the low-level violence that has persisted in the region for decades. While Thailand’s chief negotiator has pledged to continue the talks, the renewed hostilities risk undermining Bangkok’s recent outreach to the BRN.
Yet progress in the rebooted peace talks is not only dependent on the level of violence. It also hinges on two other factors: whether Malaysia, as facilitator, is able to iron out tensions between Bangkok and the BRN and keep the sides talking; and whether the Thai government will compromise on its longstanding opposition to rebel demands for greater autonomy or independence for southern Thailand.
The Thai government isn’t going to offer serious political autonomy, let alone independence, so the key factor may be whether the BRN is willing to accept something short of that.
CHINA
81,740 confirmed cases (+32), 3331 reported fatalities (unchanged) on the mainland; 936 confirmed cases (+21), 4 reported fatalities (unchanged) in Hong Kong
In a COVID-19 milestone, the Chinese government began relaxing travel restrictions around the pandemic’s original epicenter, the city of Wuhan, as of midnight Wednesday, 76 days after they first went into effect. Both Mainland China and Hong Kong also reported no new coronavirus-related fatalities.
JAPAN
4257 confirmed cases (+351), 93 reported fatalities (+1)
In Japan, on the other hand, authorities on Tuesday declared a one month state of emergency for Tokyo as well as six other prefectures over concerns that the coronavirus is starting to gain ground there. That’s actually milder than the full lockdown that they’d reportedly been considering and basically empowers the governors of those regions to do more to encourage compliance with social distancing measures (state of emergency statutes in Japan are generally weak, which is an artifact of the country’s fascist past). After seeming to have missed the worst of the pandemic initially, over the past couple of weeks there’s been a troubling rise in the number of cases that can’t be linked to any contact with known COVID-19 patients, in Tokyo especially. That’s a sign that the pandemic could be getting out of hand and it’s led to calls for a more strenuous government response.
AFRICA
LIBYA
20 confirmed cases (+1), 1 reported fatality (unchanged)
The eastern Libyan rival government, which is based in Tobruk and controlled by Khalifa Haftar’s “Libyan National Army,” announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Tuesday. Ironically that came a day after the LNA attacked a hospital in Tripoli, despite the pandemic. The attack injured six health workers, damaged the hospital, and generated a condemnation on Tuesday from the United Nations.
Repeated UN calls for a ceasefire in Libya haven’t gotten any traction, primarily because Haftar thinks he’s about to capture Tripoli while rival forces loyal to the Government of National Accord think that the LNA is overextended and vulnerable to a killing stroke. Whether one or the other is correct, or both or neither, it’s going to require more fighting to find out, and the last thing Libya needs is more fighting. It’s probably a long shot, but focusing on pandemic response might be the one thing that can get everybody on the same page:
A much more realistic approach is desperately needed and, fortunately, available. In a divided country with two governments, two central banks, and separate, degraded health systems, there is at least common acceptance of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Tripoli. This inoffensive entity can and should become the focal point for all coronavirus cooperation between western and eastern Libya—and the focal point for the international community to channel its messaging and support. The fact that the NCDC is based in Tripoli should ease any concerns among diplomats about departing from the convention of recognizing the beleaguered GNA—without at the same time antagonizing the LNA.
With support from the U.N. mission to Libya, the NCDC should urgently convene a national “coronavirus crisis committee” comprising key experts and officials from all three of Libya’s regions. (Despite the fighting, Libya has the means, augmented with modest outside assistance, to conduct virtual meetings.) Backed by direct U.N. support, the NCDC would quickly become the central coordinator of efforts to identify critical deficits, allocate distribution of supplies, and set standardized, pandemic-related regulations such as on curfews, which have been imposed haphazardly and are poorly respected.
EUROPE
Austria, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands are currently blocking the creation of a common euro-wide debt instrument to help European countries hard hit by COVID-19 recover economically, insisting instead on issuing loans that would oblige those countries to adopt more stifling austerity. At The New Statesman, Ben Judah and Shahin Vallée argue that it’s time for individual eurozone member states to take the initiative and save the bloc from itself:
Momentum is building across Europe for a radical new financial response to the crisis, one which, if administered successfully, would address the pandemic, help finance an economic recovery and break with a decade of austerity economics. This is the campaign for coronabonds, a new common debt instrument, which began with a 25 March letter from nine EU member states, led by Italy and France, calling for a common response, with new common spending and borrowing capacity. The idea has since spread widely in civil society and across progressive forces, uniting German greens, Dutch social democrats, Italians of all parties and French centrists.
For Europe’s sake, it must succeed. The economic toll of this crisis will be terrible and the consequence for the continent’s unity and future could be disastrous. This is why coronabonds are a political and economic necessity — one so vital that statesmen should be ready to break with unanimity and piecemeal engineering by launching a coalition of the willing to achieve true solidarity in response to the coronavirus crisis.
ITALY
135,586 confirmed cases (+3039), 17,127 reported fatalities (+604)
Daily changes in the number of new COVID-19 cases and fatalities suggest that Italy’s outbreak may finally have hit its peak. It’s never good to read too much into a day’s results or even a few days’ results, but the trend for some time now has been in the direction of fewer new cases each day.
UNITED KINGDOM
55,242 confirmed cases (+3634), 6159 reported fatalities (+786)
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is spending another “precautionary” night in intensive care with COVID-19 symptoms. Allegedly he has not needed to go on a ventilator and is only receiving oxygen, though given how hard his government has tried to soft peddle every step of his coronavirus illness I’m not sure how reliable you should consider any of their claims at this point. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab remains temporarily deputized as Johnson’s understudy.
AMERICAS
BRAZIL
14,034 confirmed cases (+1851), 686 reported fatalities (+122)
Brazilian Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said Tuesday that he spoke with the Chinese ambassador to gain assurances that Beijing will continue to provide medical assistance to Brazil to combat the pandemic. Mandetta has had to step in because his boss, President Jair Bolsonaro, seems incapable of keeping his children and his pals from insulting China and causing problems in the bilateral relationship. Last week Mandetta accused the United States of interfering with a shipment of Chinese supplies to Brazil by swooping in to buy those supplies at the last minute. US ambassador Todd Chapman denied that claim in a call with reporters on Tuesday.
HAITI
25 confirmed cases (+1), 1 reported fatality (unchanged)
The US deported 61 Haitian migrants back to Haiti on Tuesday without testing them for COVID-19. Haitian officials say all 61 will be quarantined upon their arrival, but the failure to test these people before sending them to a country with a desperately inadequate healthcare system shows at best a callous indifference toward Haitian life. At worst, this behavior, coupled with the recent deportation of three COVID-19 positive people to Guatemala, suggests that the US government is actually trying to spread the pandemic around the Americas.
UNITED STATES
400,335 confirmed cases (+33,331), 12,841 reported fatalities (+1970)
Donald Trump now apparently wants to defund the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic, because he blames it for not stopping the spread of COVID-19 and for being too “China-centric” in its response, whatever that means (no, seriously, even Trump couldn’t clarify it). In his daily fluffing session/press conference on Tuesday, Trump claimed that the US funds the majority of the WHO’s annual budget. It’s actually not quite 15 percent, but close enough I guess. Fifty, fifteen, you know how it is.
US Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly has resigned, a day after audio leaked of him personally insulting Brett Crozier, former captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Crozier was canned last week after he wrote a letter criticizing the Navy for not responding appropriately to an outbreak of COVID-19 aboard his aircraft carrier. In a speech to the Theodore Roosevelt’s crew, Modly blasted Crozier’s decision to write the letter before suggesting he either leaked it to the media himself or was “stupid” or “naive” to think that its contents wouldn’t become public. Presumably Modly was himself too stupid to realize that his remarks would also become public. He apologized but that clearly wasn’t enough to save his job.
Finally, World Politics Review’s Kimberly Ann Elliott argues that Donald Trump’s move to ban exports of medical supplies reflects exactly the kind of insular policy that is at odds with what is needed to respond to a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic:
Until recently the U.S. had not limited exports. Indeed, Trump has resisted pleas from state and local officials to have the federal government take a bigger role in ensuring that their hospitals have adequate supplies of ventilators and protective equipment. The Trump administration did not take advantage of the opportunity in January and February, before the epidemic became a pandemic, to rebuild national stocks of critical supplies. Trump also hesitated for weeks to use the Defense Production Act to order American companies to prioritize production of needed medical supplies.
Then, last Friday, the 3M Company, one of the major global producers of N95 respirator masks that health care workers so desperately need, revealed that the administration had requested that it stop exporting the masks to Canada and Latin America. Trump followed by saying that he was going to sign a formal order prohibiting exports of masks and other medical supplies. Though the details remain murky, Germany claimed that a shipment of N95 masks it had ordered from a 3M plant in China had been confiscated in Thailand and diverted to the U.S. Brazil and France also claimed that orders they had placed had been redirected to the U.S. after Washington offered higher prices.
These actions may seem reasonable in the face of the current crisis. But we’ve seen them before, and the results aren’t pretty. When food prices spiked in 2008 and 2009 amid the global financial crisis, a number of major food producers restricted their exports. Researchers found that export restrictions in one country triggered similar actions elsewhere, resulting in even higher global prices and severe impacts on the most food insecure countries. While the restrictions slowed domestic price increases for consumers in the short run, they also had the effect of dampening incentives for farmers to ramp up production in the longer run.
Trump’s aggressive actions on respirator masks and other medical equipment also risk retaliation from the rest of the world. The lack of coordination, as with the food price spikes during the Great Recession, is already driving up prices and costs, within the U.S. as well as globally. In the longer run, American exporters could suffer because other countries will no longer regard the U.S. as a reliable supplier.
China may be setting the right example here. Rather than imposing export restrictions, it seems the Chinese government has instead ramped up production of needed medical supplies to meet increased domestic as well as international demand. The value of an “us or them” mentality is dubious even in the best of circumstances. During a global crisis like this it’s a recipe for disaster.