The World Today for July 14, 2023

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Ubiquitous Aggression and Violence

SERBIA

Throngs of Serbians flocked to the capital of Belgrade recently to protest against Pink TV, a pro-government television station that protesters said contributed to the culture of violence that led to two mass shootings in the Balkan country.

“This is a factory of evil that has been spewing poison for years,” said opposition politician Radomir Lazovic, as demonstrators chanted slogans calling for the resignation of populist President Aleksandar Vucic, according to the Associated Press.

The shootings resulted in 18 deaths and 20 injured people, including children. On May 3, a 13-year-old boy killed eight students and a security guard at a school, the first such school shooting in Serbia’s history. The next day, a 21-year-old man shot and killed pedestrians as he drove a vehicle outside the capital Belgrade.

Many Serbs felt that the legacy of violence from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, the glorification of Serbian heroes from those conflicts who have been accused of war crimes, and ongoing tensions between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo, the now-independent country with an ethnic-Albanian-majority population that was once part of Serbia, contributed to the tragedies.

When government officials announced an amnesty for anyone who would turn in a firearm to the authorities, they garnered almost 110,000 weapons, Radio Free Europe noted.

“We live in a society where aggression and violence are ubiquitous: verbal, media, physical,” said the Serbian teachers’ union in a statement reported by Al Jazeera. “It has reached its peak not only in schools, but in the entire society. As a society and as a country, we failed. Serbia needs to stop and ask itself how far it has come and where and how it should go after this.”

Serbia, incidentally, doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s independence, a stance that its ally, Russia, has supported, though some Serbs are starting to question whether they should retain close contacts with Moscow in light of the war in Ukraine, the Kyiv Post noted.

Crises between Serbia and Kosovo have become commonplace in recent years. As the Economist recounted, the most recent tensions arose after Serbian police arrested three Kosovar police officers who were allegedly on the wrong side of the country’s border. The incident followed disputes over Kosovar leaders appointing ethnic Albanian mayors in majority-Serb towns in Kosovo.

Vucic, who has led Serbia for more than a decade, casts himself as the defender of the nation – the man who will punish the Kosovars, play the West and Russia off each other to Serbia’s advantage, and engage in other cagey diplomacy, the New York Times reported.

Nero might have felt the same way as he played the fiddle while Rome burned.

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Contradictory Moves

GUATEMALA

Guatemala’s presidential elections were thrown into turmoil this week, even after the country’s electoral court confirmed Wednesday the results of last month’s highly-contested first round of voting, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The elections took an unexpected turn last week after the Constitutional Court suspended the certification of the results of the first round held on June 25. The top court’s decision came following complaints from some political parties concerning allegations of irregularities in the count.

On Wednesday, the electoral court confirmed the results, saying former First Lady Sandra Torres led the race with 16 percent, while her center-left rival Bernardo Arévalo came in second place with 12 percent.

That same day, Guatemala’s top anti-corruption prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche announced that a court had suspended Arévalo’s Seed Movement party over fraud allegations.

The contradictory moves have raised uncertainty about the second round of voting on Aug. 20 and if Arévalo will be allowed to participate.

Arévalo is running on a platform of anti-corruption and warned that a “deep crisis” would engulf the Central American nation if he is barred from running.

Analysts explained that Arévalo has a chance to win against Torres, who faced corruption allegations in the past and is unpopular in the capital and the country’s main cities.

The presidential race was marred by controversy even before the first round when four presidential candidates, including one who was leading at the polls weeks before the election, were barred from participating.

Taxing Decisions

KENYA

Unrest in Kenya may have killed up to a dozen people this week, as protesters took to the streets of many cities to demonstrate against a series of unpopular tax hikes proposed by the government, CNN reported.

Human rights activists cited by the BBC put the death toll at 12, double the figure that Kenyan police reported killed in the demonstrations, which the government had banned last week, Agence France-Presse wrote.

The violence sparked over President William Ruto’s plan to raise taxes to shore up public finances and increase domestic revenue in Kenya, as per the Finances Act 2023. A Kenyan court initially ordered a temporary halt to the implementation of the act and its measures.

However, the government defied the court’s order and increased fuel prices, which led to a rise in the cost of transport and staple goods.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for continued protests over the tax hike. He has initiated a string of anti-governmental demonstrations this year after losing last year’s presidential elections to Ruto – a vote Odinga claims was “stolen.”

‘A Brief Groping’

ITALY

An Italian judge ruled this week that groping is not a crime if it lasts less than 10 seconds, a verdict that prompted outrage in Italy over concerns that it will deter victims of sexual harassment from reporting it to the police, the New York Post reported Thursday.

The case centers on an April 2022 incident when the defendant, Antonio Avola, groped a 17-year-old girl at a high school in Rome.

Avola, a 66-year-old caretaker at the school, crept up on the girl while she was walking up a stairwell, pulled her pants down and fondled her buttocks and underwear.

When the girl reported the incident to the police, Avola admitted to the act but insisted that he was only joking.

Prosecutors called for a conviction for sexual assault and a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, but the Rome court found him innocent and said that groping “does not constitute a crime” if it didn’t last for 10 seconds or more.

The girl – now 18 years old – plans to appeal the case and warned that the ruling might deter sexual harassment victims from coming forward, Insider added.

Meanwhile, Italians took to social media to post videos ridiculing the court’s decision. Men and women posted videos in which they stare stone-faced at the camera while groping their breasts and chests alongside a timer counting down from 10 seconds.

Often tagged with #10secondi or “palpata breve” – Italian for “a brief groping” – the videos are intended to demonstrate how unnervingly long 10 seconds can be, especially during a sexual assault.

UKRAINE, BRIEFLY

This week, Group of Seven (G7) leaders concluded a NATO summit by announcing a major security program to enhance Ukraine’s defenses, even though they stopped short of inviting Kyiv into the military alliance, the Washington Post reported. The agreement aims to provide long-term military and humanitarian funding to Ukraine. The G7 leaders also expressed their intention to deter Russian aggression by strengthening Ukraine’s alliances and defense capabilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had initially criticized NATO for not providing a clear timeline for Ukraine’s membership, but later recognized the complexities and the desire to avoid a world war.

Also this week:

• Turkey has approved Sweden’s bid to join NATO, allowing the alliance to complete its expansion in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the Wall Street Journal. The agreement was reached just before the NATO summit in Lithuania and signals a potential shift in Turkey’s stance towards the West. The inclusion of Sweden and Finland in NATO adds significant military strength to the alliance and helps close a vital gap in Northern Europe where Russia has been increasing its presence. For Sweden, NATO membership provides security guarantees against Russia. The decision is a key foreign policy goal for US President Joe Biden and could lead to warmer relations between Turkey and the United States.

• The Kremlin confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Moscow with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the mercenary Wagner Group, and around 35 commanders days after the failed uprising by Wagner against Russia’s military leadership, NPR reported. During the three-hour meeting, Putin gave his assessment of the rebellion, while Wagner’s commanders assured him of their loyalty and commitment to fighting for Russia. The future role of Wagner remains unclear. Recent reports have questioned the terms of the amnesty deal that allowed Prigozhin and his fighters to exile in Belarus. Meanwhile, Russian army chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov, a key target of Prigozhin’s anger and the rebellion, remains in position and has reappeared, overseeing Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, according to Russia’s defense ministry.

• The United States’ decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions – which are banned by over 100 countries – has drawn criticism from US allies and Russia, Voice of America wrote. Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, and the United Nations expressed opposition to the move. However, Ukraine’s defense ministry welcomed the decision, pledging to use them only in Russian-occupied territories. Cluster munitions release multiple smaller bombs, causing indiscriminate casualties. Biden defended the move, saying it would help Ukraine defend against Russian tanks. The decision circumvents US law on cluster munitions and concerns are growing over Ukraine’s progress against Russian troops. The cluster munitions are part of an $800 million aid package, bringing total US military aid to Ukraine to over $40 billion since Russia’s invasion.

• The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) fined Moscow this week for its inadequate investigation into the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opponent of President Putin, Euronews noted. The ECHR ruled that the Russian authorities had failed to sufficiently investigate the individuals responsible for organizing and ordering the murder. The investigation also neglected to explore allegations of the involvement of state officials, and lacked overall effectiveness. The court ordered Moscow to pay more than $22,000 in non-pecuniary damages to Nemtsov’s daughter. The ECHR concluded that Russia violated Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to life. Despite the conviction of five men for the murder in 2017, Nemtsov’s family criticized the investigation, considering it a failure in identifying the true culprits and blaming the Russian justice system.

DISCOVERIES

Similar Reasons

Most bird species are monogamous and have a single mate for at least one breeding season or longer.

But just like humans, sometimes long-term partnerships don’t work out and end up in “divorce.”

Now, an international research team unveiled that the main factors that lead to these breakups are not so different from those affecting human couples, the Guardian reported.

For their paper, they analyzed data regarding the divorce rates of 232 avian species, and included mortality and migration distances as potential contributory factors. The researchers also studied promiscuous behavior in males and females of each species.

Their findings showed that long-distance migrations and male promiscuity play integral roles in higher divorce rates.

The team explained that males become philanderers when they have more opportunities to do so. Consequently, this behavior displayed a reduction of commitment and made a male bird “less attractive as a partner, and thus more likely to be ‘divorced’ in the next breeding season.”

While this is advantageous for males to spread their genes, it wasn’t helpful for females because the expensive cost of egg production means females prefer quality mates over quantity, according to Science Magazine.

Meanwhile, long-distance migration led to more couples splitting because it narrowed the window for breeding. If pairs arrived at a destination in different periods – or at the wrong breeding sites – it would lead one partner to mate with another bird.

The authors also observed that mortality rates and migration distance were related to male promiscuity, suggesting potential indirect effects on divorce.

The study indicates that avian divorce might not solely be a tactic to enhance an individual’s overall well-being or a reaction to environmental circumstances like migration.

Rather, it could potentially be influenced by a combination of both factors simultaneously.

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