The World Today for June 12, 2023

Listen to Today's Edition

NEED TO KNOW

Settlement of Evil

POLAND

A mile-long mass of hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, recently. The demonstration wasn’t only to mark the 34th anniversary of the country’s first democratic election after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. As Reuters explained, the protest was also against the governing Law and Justice Party.

The former Polish president and leader of the famed Solidarity Movement that helped bring the Soviet empire to its knees, Lech Walesa, marched in the demonstration. So did former Polish prime minister and former president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, who is now the leader of the opposition party Civic Platform.

“We are going to these elections to win and to right human wrongs,” said Tusk in a speech to the gathering, according to Voice of America. “I promise you victory, a settlement of evil, compensation for human wrongs and reconciliation among Poles.”

Tusk was referring to how the Law and Justice Party of President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is an illiberal, nationalist party that has amassed near-authoritarian power since its leaders took government in 2015.

Ironically, at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin has become the exemplar for autocrats on the global stage and the invasion of Ukraine has raised the specter of war with NATO, Poland’s authoritarianism now seems relatively benign, the New York Times argued in an op-ed.

The Law and Justice Party resorts to “wiretapping, denigration” and “outright lies” on the campaign trail. Electoral laws favor incumbents. State agencies designed to root out Russian influence also tend to focus on opposition figures. As the Associated Press noted, the government has also compromised the judicial system, foreclosing help from the courts in removing the party from power.

Morawiecki enacted a law that could disqualify Tusk from running for elections expected to be held in October, for example, on allegations that he was pro-Russia because he sought to improve relations with Moscow when he was prime minister, wrote the Washington Post. Tusk allegedly made Poland dependent on Russian energy imports, Deutsche Welle reported. The US and the European Union have criticized the new law.

Writing in the Atlantic magazine, University of Maryland historian Piotr Kosicki argued the massive demonstrations proved that Poles would not accept the “New McCarthyism” of Law and Justice. But, according to Politico, Tusk and his Civic Platform are trailing Law and Justice in the polls.

It will be a long four months on the campaign trail.

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Spy Games

CHINA

China is operating a spy station in Cuba, according to the US Biden administration, a revelation that comes days after reports emerged that Beijing was paying Havana to set up a facility just 100 miles off Florida, the Washington Post reported.

The eavesdropping facility in Cuba dates from at least 2019 when it underwent unspecified upgrades. It is just one of many listening posts that Beijing has set up around the world, sources told the Post.

The confirmation came a few days after the Wall Street Journal released a report detailing how China is planning to set up a spying facility in Cuba, a development that has rattled officials in the United States even as Washington and Beijing are attempting to mend relations.

Sources familiar with the matter said the listening post could allow Beijing to eavesdrop on communications across the southern US.

But others told CNN that while Cuba and China agreed to the deal in principle, there has been no confirmation that the facility has started to be built.

Initially, US officials described the report as “not accurate.”

Meanwhile, Cuba quickly denied the reports, calling them “totally untrue” and “slander.” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that it was “not aware” of the situation while blaming the US for spying itself and for “spreading rumors.”

The presence of spying facilities in Cuba is not new: The Soviet Union – later Russia – operated a listening post on the island country for decades.

But the issue of Chinese espionage has made headlines in recent months after the US shot down a balloon suspected to have been used by Beijing to spy on the US.

Observers noted that the facility widens China’s playing field as it jostles with Washington for influence.

The new reports come as relations between the US and China are at a low point and the two are working on improving ties.

Last month, Washington sent CIA Director Bill Burns to Beijing to engage in discussions with Chinese officials. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is anticipated to make a visit to China in the upcoming weeks.

Bread and Butter

MONTENEGRO

Montenegro held early parliamentary elections Sunday, a poll that comes as the NATO member faces political deadlock that could jeopardize the southeast European country’s path toward joining the European Union, the Associated Press reported.

Voters will choose among 15 parties and coalitions raging from pro-Western to pro-Serbian and pro-Russian groups. This will be the country’s first election in 30 years that doesn’t feature Milo Djukanovic, who served nearly continuously as Montenegro’s prime minister or president since the early 1990s.

Djukanovic and his Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) led the country to independence from Serbia in 2006 and joined the NATO alliance in 2017. But the long-time leader lost the April presidential elections to Jakov Milatovic and subsequently resigned as head of the DPS.

The early election came three years after a coalition of parties seeking closer ties with Serbia and Russia ousted the DPS in the 2020 parliamentary polls.

But the newly formed ruling alliance soon descended into disarray which disrupted Montenegro’s progress toward EU membership and created political gridlock. Last year, the government fell following a no-confidence vote – but has remained in office for months because of the stalemate.

Observers and polls suggest that the centrist Europe Now movement of Milojko Spajic and President Milatovic will emerge as the largest party – but will not secure the majority of seats in parliament.

Meanwhile, the election campaign has centered on accusations between Spajic and acting Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic over the South Korean “crypto king,” Do Kwon.

In March, authorities in Montenegro arrested Kwon and another South Korean on an international arrest warrant. Their arrest was linked to the massive crash of Kwon’s Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency, which caused a staggering $40 billion loss for retail investors globally.

Abazovic has accused his opponent of having close business contacts with Kwon, while Spajic called the allegations “political persecution.”

Political analyst Daliborka Uljarevic noted that such accusations suggest that the main election issue is not focusing on Montenegro’s accession into the EU, but “economic populism” as evidenced by promises of higher wages by politicians.

New Faces

GUINEA-BISSAU

A coalition of opposition parties won Guinea-Bissau’s parliamentary elections, dealing a blow to President Umaro Sissoco Embalo who dissolved the legislature last year over disputes with lawmakers, Al Jazeera reported.

Results showed that the five-party coalition Terra Ranka secured 54 of 102 seats in last week’s vote, while Embalo’s Madem G15 party only won 29 seats.

Around 200 international monitors observed the highly anticipated vote and described the ballot as “free, transparent and calm.”

The results are a setback for Embalo, who attempted to push for constitutional changes that would have altered Guinea-Bissau’s semi-presidential system in order to consolidate his power.

Last year, he dissolved parliament following a falling out with legislators.

Analysts said that the poor performance of Embalo’s party was caused by internal conflicts and unpopularity with rural voters impacted by the falling price of cashew nuts – a major source of income in the West African country.

The former Portuguese colony has faced frequent political crises, with at least 10 coups or attempted coups since it gained independence in 1974. In February 2022, there was a coup attempt against Embalo.

Under the current system, the majority party or coalition will form a new government – but the president has the power to dismiss it in certain circumstances.

However, this has led to political deadlocks and infighting in the past, observers added.

DISCOVERIES

Jungle Miracles

New archaeological findings unveiled a vast network of Mayan cities and settlements in the jungles of northern Guatemala that showed the ancient civilization was more advanced than scholars have given it credit for, the Washington Post reported.

An archaeological team discovered more than 400 Mayan cities in the El Mirador jungle region dating back to around 1000 BCE. All these cities and settlements were connected by nearly 110 miles of “superhighways,” which researchers described as “the first freeway system in the world.”

In their paper, they explained that the findings were possible thanks to a special type of radar technology – known as liDAR, or “light detection and ranging” – that helped uncover ancient dams, pyramids, and ball courts hidden by the thick canopy.

Initially, the lack of abundant archaeological evidence had prompted historians to suggest that the Mayans were primarily hunter-gatherer societies during the mid- to late-Preclassic Maya civilization from 1000 BCE to 250 CE.

But liDAR images showed that the Mesoamerican society was very well-organized economically, politically, and socially during that period.

Lead author Richard Hansen, stunned by the findings, wondered how “one society living in a tropical jungle in Central America became one of the greatest ancient civilizations in the world (while) another society living in Borneo is still hunting and gathering in the exact same environment.”

Hansen and his colleagues noted that further study of El Mirador – considered the “cradle of the Maya civilization” – could provide an important marker in human history along with others such as the pyramids in Egypt.

Thank you for reading or listening to DailyChatter. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can become one by going to dailychatter.com/subscribe.