ECONIR WEBA new post every weekend to sum up that week’s most important events in a few sentences.
For weeks there have been protests in Mali against the president who the protestors say manipulated the recent elections. Then on Tuesday the 18th of August, there was a coup by the military. The President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and his prime minister Boubou Cissé were both arrested. Since then the military leaders who staged the coup have announced that new elections will take place.
President Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon was arrested on a yacht that belongs to the Chinese billionaire Guo Wengu this week. He is among a group of four people who are accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the $25 million that the online effort We Build the Wall raised.
On Wednesday the 19th of August, Apple became the first U.S. company that is estimated to be worth $2 trillion. The value of shares increased by 1.4% during midday trading.
On Monday, the 10th of August, protestors barricaded streets in the capital Minsk while riot police officers used tear gas, baton charges, and stun grenades to suppress them. The day before, President Aleksandr Lukashenko had been re-elected with an over 80% majority in an election that has often been called fraud. Then, on Tuesday Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who had been the main opponent of Aleksandr Lukashenko in the elections announced that she had left Belarus for Lithuania over fears for her and her children’s safety. Since then, many protestors and journalists have been detained and there are accounts of violent beatings.
On Thursday the 13th of August, Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached an agreement to normalize relations between the two countries. Additionally, Israel also agreed to stop annexing more Palestinian territories for now to establish better relations with the rest of the Arab world. The agreement is historic because if it is fulfilled it will make the UAE the third Arab country to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel (after Jordan and Egypt).
On Monday, the 10th of August the prime minister of Lebanon, Hassan Diab, and his cabinet resigned. During an address which was broadcasted on television Hassan Diab sayed that he and his cabinet ministers had constantly been prevented from taking any kind of action by political enemies. The announcement came after an enormous explosion had shattered Lebanon’s capital Beirut last week. The parties in the Parliament are now consulting with the President, Michel Aoun, on the next prime minister.
The former Spanish king, Juan Carlos, announced that he was leaving the country on Monday the third of August. The cause of his departure were multiple financial inquiries, including a tax evasion investigation.
On the 4th of August there was an enormous explosion in the capital city of Lebanon: Beirut. The death toll is around 137 people, 5,000 are injured, and more than 250,000 Lebanese are displaced. Additionally, the port in Beirut, which is crucial for Lebanon’s economy, has also been destroyed and along with it the country’s grain storage. The explosion happened because around 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored at the port in Beirut for six years.
The United States announced that it will pull out 12,000 troops from Germany. Some of these troops will be relocated to Belgium and Italy, while 6,400 troops will return to the US. As a member of NATO, Germany committed to spend two percent of its GDP on defense. However, Germany has not kept its word. This decision is of significance as American military has been stationed in Germany since the end of World War II.
Last year, Cicilline, the chairman of the antitrust panel, opened a congressional investigation of Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. This Wednesday the executives of these tech giants were questioned for almost 6 hours about the strategies their respective company used to get to their supreme position of dominance over the technology market. All chief executives denied the claims of harming the economy, oppressing competitors, and purposefully limiting the choices consumers have.