The World Today for August 15, 2024

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Flipping the Script

RUSSIA-UKRAINE

Top Ukrainian commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi boasted this week that his troops now control almost 400 square miles of Russian territory in the Kursk border region, capturing 28 villages and forcing more than 100,000 Russians to flee.

“Russia brought war to others – now it is coming home,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video posted on Telegram.

The Ukrainian invasion of Russia – marking the first foreign incursion since World War II – began on Aug. 6 and is a daring move that has shocked and humiliated Russia and turned the tables on the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, more than two years ago.

Over the past week, Ukrainians driving American tanks pushed deep into Russian territory, facing little resistance from a weakly manned border area, reported the Financial Times. Russian planes have launched bombs to stop their progress, but Russian troops have not sallied forth to halt the Ukrainian advance – yet. Meanwhile, as National Public Radio wrote, even pro-Russian bloggers have called Russia’s response “slow and disorganized.”

Putin, in reaction, has called the Ukrainian push a “large-scale provocation,” which the BBC reported as “irony not lost on many.” Regardless, some analysts believe he will use it as an excuse to sanction harsher attacks on Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure, and shore up his position that Ukraine is a threat to Russia, Al Jazeera noted.

The counter-offensive, meanwhile, appeared designed to force the Russians to divert forces from fighting on the primary front line to the south. The invasion has also boosted Ukrainian morale, added the Washington Post, as thousands of Russians flee the Ukrainians, reversing the trend so far of Ukrainians running from invading Russians.

It was a way to remind Russians in Russia about the war, said Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament. “If Ukrainians feel the war every day and Russians don’t, they don’t want it to end,” he said. “They need to feel it too.”

Western officials also said the advance might offer a strategic advantage during negotiations: Zelenskyy could use seized Russian territory in exchange for Putin agreeing to retreat from parts of Ukraine that Russian troops now occupy.

Meanwhile, analysts at the Atlantic Council explained that Ukraine was going on the offensive because it has failed to make much progress fighting Russia on the main front. Zelenskyy needed to think outside the box and shake up the current terms of the fight, which favored the far-larger Russian military to eventually defeat Ukraine.

“Kyiv’s best chance of military success lies in returning to a war of mobility and maneuver that allows Ukrainian commanders to take advantage of their relative agility while exploiting the Russian army’s far more cumbersome decision-making processes,” they said.

The attack also happened at around the same time that American F-16 fighter jets first arrived in Ukraine, the BBC added, aircraft that were long denied to the Ukrainians because Western allies worried about being dragged into a third world war, even a nuclear war. Now, these jets are supposed to be a vital part of a larger campaign to roll back the Russian army.

That might take a while, if it happens at all, say commentators, noting Russian strength. In the meantime, the Ukrainians have had something to chuckle about, they added.

“There has been quiet delight in Kyiv,” said the BBC regarding the invasion. “People are saying, ‘Oh look, here’s our special operation – we are liberating Russian territory.”

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Sayonara

JAPAN

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday he would resign in a month and not run for reelection as leader of his party, ending a three-year term marred by political scandals, CNN reported.

“The easiest way to clearly show that the (Liberal Democratic Party) has changed is for me to step aside,” said Kishida at a press conference in Tokyo.

The announcement came as the LDP faced a series of political scandals that severely eroded public trust, endangering its near-continuous seven-decade rule.

The biggest scandal regarded specific factions of the party and involved millions of dollars worth of undocumented political funds. Parts of the money was allegedly used as kickbacks for lawmakers.

At the same time, senior LDP officials were accused of violating election law and making derogatory comments against minorities.

Kishida tried to contain the scandals, but his approach was criticized by other faction leaders and young supporters, accusing him of scapegoating specific politicians, the Japan Times wrote.

Kishida’s approval ratings reached all-time lows, with one survey showing that 79 percent of Japanese did not support him.

As he stepped down, Kishida took responsibility for the scandals.

Though he did not explicitly back any candidate for his succession, he said he would support whoever wins the party leadership race, hoping they would build a trustworthy “dream team” to serve the Japanese people.

Kishida is Japan’s eighth-longest-serving prime minister since World War II. In his speech, he also noted his accomplishments, including boosting the country’s slow economy and bringing Japan closer to the United States and South Korea.

Finger-pointing

GERMANY

Germany issued an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian national for his suspected involvement in explosions that damaged the controversial Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, Deutsche Welle reported.

According to the authorities, the suspect, identified as Volodymyr Z., carried out the sabotage with two accomplices, also reportedly Ukrainian.

Volodymyr Z. was last known to be living on the outskirts of the Polish capital of Warsaw but escaped to Ukraine before he could be arrested, Polish officials said.

Germany “did not include him in the database of wanted persons, which meant that the Polish Border Guard had no knowledge and no grounds to detain Volodymyr Z,” the Polish National Public Prosecutor’s Office told Reuters.

According to the probe, the suspect approached the driver of a yacht on the German island of Rügen, and directed him toward the location of the pipelines before sending his two accomplices to place the explosives underwater.

The driver recognized the suspect in a photograph shown by investigators. Swedish newspaper Expressen identified him as 44-year-old diving instructor Volodymyr Zhuravlov.

The multi-billion-dollar Nord Stream pipelines carried Russian gas via the Baltic Sea to European Union (EU) countries, especially Germany.

The pipelines were subject to controversy as critics said they would enhance EU dependence on Russia, especially after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The September 26, 2022 explosions along the pipelines caused gas leaks in the Baltic Sea, and left Russia and Western nations blaming each other.

Danish and Swedish investigations were closed without naming any suspect. In the German probe, despite pointing at a Ukrainian citizen, no link was drawn with the government of Ukraine, which has repeatedly denied any involvement.

Ejected

THAILAND

Thailand’s Constitutional Court removed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office on Wednesday for violating ethical standards by appointing a minister who had served jail time, a ruling that deepens the country’s political instability, Reuters reported.

Judge Punya Udchachon said the court voted 5-4 to sanction Srettha’s appointment of former lawyer Pitchit Chuenban, who was jailed for six months in 2008 for contempt of court.

Srettha is the fourth prime minister in 16 years to have been dismissed by a court. He left office nearly a year after he took over the job, and said he would not appeal the court’s decision, Al Jazeera reported.

Thailand’s parliament will meet on Friday to appoint his successor. In the meantime, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai will serve as caretaker premier.

The news came as a surprise to political observers and Srettha himself, the news organization wrote.

Within the ruling coalition, his Pheu Thai party enjoyed the support of its governing partners to propose another candidate. Among those being considered is Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of former political strongman, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Meanwhile, the scramble to find a new leader could revive tensions between the Shinawatra family and their enemies from the conservative elites and the army, in a country marred by political crises and military coups.

A truce between the two camps had allowed Thaksin to return from a 15-year-long exile, under Srettha’s leadership.

But the outgoing prime minister’s downfall came after a complaint regarding Pitchit’s appointment was filed by senators appointed by the military after a coup in 2014.

Last week, the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the anti-establishment Move Forward Party, which had won the 2023 election. The party, which lost a legal battle over its proposal to ease sanctions on criticism of the monarchy, soon re-formed under a new name.

Thailand’s economy risks suffering the consequences of the instability caused by both verdicts, analysts said. The country’s stock market has been one of Asia’s worst performers this year.

DISCOVERIES

Noting Down

Archeologists in Turkey recently discovered a 3,500-year-old clay tablet that underscored one of humanity’s defining aspects: Keeping records.

Restoration work in the ancient site of Alalakh in southern Turkey uncovered the small artifact – measuring 1.6 by 0.6 inches – which turned out to be a detailed record of a furniture purchase.

Researchers said the document, dating from the 15th century BCE, listed a large procurement of wooden tables, chairs and stools.

They haven’t determined who wrote the tablet or who made the purchase, but explained that it was written in Akkadian cuneiform, a logo-syllabic script used extensively across the ancient Middle East.

Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language related to Arabic and Hebrew noted in use from the third millennium BCE to the first century CE.

Cuneiform was one of the earliest writing systems, being invented by the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia – now modern-day Iraq, and characterized by its wedge-shaped impressions cut into moist clay with a reed stylus, Smithsonian Magazine noted.

Ancient cuneiform receipts and administrative documents are not new: New York’s Met Museum holds an extensive collection of these artifacts, including a receipt for oxen and sheep, and a tablet used to train scribes to write cuneiform.

Visitors at London’s British Museum can also amuse themselves with a customer complaint written in cuneiform around 1750 BCE. The Guinness World Records has labeled the tablet of Ea-Nasir as the “oldest written customer complaint.”

The ancient receipt’s discovery sheds some new details about the economic systems and daily life of the Late Bronze Age in the region.

Alalakh was the capital of the Kingdom of Mukish in the second millennium BCE. It served as a major cultural and economic hub, known for its pottery, metal and glass production. The city later became part of the Mittani Empire in the 15th century BCE and was ceded to the Hittites around 1350 BCE, according to Live Science.

“We believe that this tablet … will provide a new perspective in our understanding of the rich heritage of Anatolia for future generations,” Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Ersoy said in a translated statement.

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