The World Today for June 08, 2023

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Far North Face Off

NORWAY

Norwegian officials recently warned their citizens to avoid Hvaldimir, a beluga whale that swims around the coast wearing a harness that can mount cameras. As CNN explained, the officials suspect that the Russian military trained the cute white cetacean to act as a spy.

“The harness had a mount suited for an action camera and the words Equipment St Petersburg printed on the plastic clasps,” wrote the Guardian.

Hvaldimir first appeared in 2019. But the creature’s recent reappearance is a reminder that NATO-member Norway, which shares a border with Russia in its far north, is on the frontlines in the pseudo-Cold War that has developed between the West and Russia since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine last year.

Norway traditionally doesn’t necessarily have bad relations with Russia, argued an analysis in NEWSinENGLISH.no, an English-language, Oslo-based news website that covers Norway. Soviet troops liberated Norway from the Nazis in World War II. More recently, international sanctions against Russia have harmed Norwegian companies that work closely with Russian customers, for example.

Now, however, Norway is firmly with its NATO allies. The capital of Oslo recently welcomed the biggest vessel in the United States Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, as part of military exercises, reported Al Jazeera. Russian leaders were not pleased, calling it an “illogical and harmful” provocation in a period of heightened tensions.

The country is also giving Ukraine $7 billion in aid over the next five years, noted Reuters. The generosity seems fitting. An oil-producing country, Norway has benefitted mightily from oil prices that have been skyrocketing because of the war. Norwegian officials, incidentally, have also been inspecting all their pipelines to make sure sabotage doesn’t undermine their exports in the way that an explosion in Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline harmed its supply chain network.

Russia is pushing back. Russian authorities, for example, helped organize a Russian military-style parade in Norway’s far north to celebrate May 9, a Russian holiday marking the end of World War II, the Barents Observer wrote. A Russian mining company is the main employer in the area, and many of the residents are Russian as well as Ukrainian. The parade included a helicopter, snowmobiles, and a Russian consul general.

The tensions inherent in the geopolitical situation have come to a head in the case of Andrei Medvedev, a former fighter in the Russian mercenary Wagner Group. As the New York Times explained, Medvedev has sought asylum in Norway and is giving intelligence to Norwegian authorities. But he has also admitted to killing Ukrainians in war. Norwegian officials aren’t sure whether they should keep and use him, or turn him over to folks in Kyiv.

They, like Norway itself, are in a tricky position.

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Shifting Sands

FIJI

Fiji will reconsider its security ties with China, the island nation’s leader hinted Wednesday, a potential shift that comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the Pacific region, the Associated Press reported.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said the country was reviewing the controversial police cooperation deal that it signed with Beijing in 2011.

That agreement has allowed Chinese police officers to be stationed in the Pacific country and was later expanded in 2013 to include some military cooperation.

Rabuka’s comments came during a visit to New Zealand this week, where he was finalizing a defense agreement with Wellington that would allow Fiji’s military to build its capacity and acquire new technologies.

The prime minister noted that there has been a lot of geopolitical focus on the region, but that many countries only worry about militarization “when diplomacy and common neighborly discussions fail.”

Following his election victory last year, Rabuka has tried to distance Fiji from some of the policies of his predecessor, former Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, including his push for closer ties with Beijing.

The potential shift comes as the United States and China have been competing for influence in the Pacific in recent years.

Last month, the US signed a new security pact with Papua New Guinea, recently opened embassies on the Solomon Islands and Tonga, and revived Peace Corps volunteer efforts.

Only last year the Solomon Islands and China signed a security pact, a move that raised alarm throughout the region.

Boiling Over

SENEGAL

Senegal ordered the temporary closure of some of its consulates abroad following attacks on its diplomatic missions this week, a move that came less than a week after the West African nation was hit with its worst unrest in decades, Reuters reported.

The foreign affairs ministry announced the shutting of consulates in Milan, Paris, and New York among others over recent attacks.

Italian media reported that dozens of people protested outside the Senegalese consulate in Milan, holding flags and anti-government signs. They later broke into the consulate, attacked the consul general, and ransacked the premises.

The consulate incidents followed deadly demonstrations in Senegal last week that left at least 16 people dead and hundreds injured. Many businesses and buildings were also looted and destroyed.

The foreign affairs ministry did not say if the diplomatic mission attacks were related to the clashes in Senegal.

The violence came after a court sentenced opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison on charges of “corrupting youth,” as accusations involved a woman who was 20 years old at the time.

Sonko was acquitted of rape charges, but the ruling could bar the popular politician from running in next year’s presidential elections.

He has criticized the judgment as politically motivated, while his party has urged supporters and Senegal’s diaspora abroad to protest against the government of President Macky Sall.

Don’t Drink and Fly

CZECH REPUBLIC

The Czech Republic ordered a ban on alcohol consumption on government planes this week following a sexual harassment scandal sourcing from an incident during a flight to South Korea in April, Politico reported.

The scandal involved a military doctor accused of inappropriately touching a woman who was administering a Covid-19 test aboard a government jet in South Korea.

Transport Minister Martin Kupka said the doctor was “not in the best condition,” hinting he may have been inebriated. The doctor, a member of the transport ministry’s delegation, denied the allegations.

Even so, the scandal prompted Defense Minister Jana Černochová to ban alcohol consumption on government planes.

Local media said that the minister also cut funding for the standard ministerial onboard refreshments previously provided to Czech politicians traveling on official government business.

The refreshments included a hot meal, salad, dessert, snacks, and alcoholic drinks.

Now, transport ministry representatives said, officials will now have to pay for in-flight refreshments out of their own pocket.

DISCOVERIES

Breaking Bread

Archaeologists recently discovered one of the oldest bakeries in the southern Caucasus, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

Last year, an archaeological team uncovered the remains of a 3,000-year-old structure in the western Armenian town of Metsamor.

They also noticed that the whole area was covered with a mysterious powdery substance that they initially believed was ash. After all, some charred remains of the ancient building proved that it burned down at one point.

But a closer analysis of the powder revealed that it was wheat flour, which suggested that the large building was a bakery.

The team explained that the building operated between the late 11th and early ninth century BCE, but it did not initially start out as a bakery. They said that the furnaces in the structure were added after the building’s construction.

It could have housed potentially 3.5 tons of flour, which means that it was a site of mass production, the researchers noted.

Not much is known about Metsamor’s history, a fortified settlement first established in the fourth millennium BCE. The ancient settlement covered 247 acres before being conquered in the eighth century BCE by the Iron Age kingdom of Urartu.

Its inhabitants did not have a written language to record much about their community.

Still, researchers hope that the bakery and the recent discovery of a tomb filled with gold pendants could shed some more light on Metsamor.

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