Pro-EU Leader Wins Moldova Election Despite Reports of Russian Meddling |
Moldovan President Maia Sandu will lead the country for another term after winning a closely watched runoff election yesterday. With over 99 percent of votes tallied, she garnered 54.4 percent of the vote over Russia-friendly rival Alexandr Stoianoglo’s 44.6 percent. Sandu’s government as well as the United States, the European Union (EU), and EU member states, such as Germany, have all warned repeatedly of Russian attempts to interfere in the vote; Sandu said yesterday that Moldovans “have given a lesson in democracy.”
Sandu said dirty money, vote-buying, and overseas influence operations had posed an “unprecedented attack” on the election; European leaders celebrated the result as a victory over foreign interference. Moldova declared its intent to join the EU shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but saw a surprisingly thin margin in a referendum last month to enshrine those EU ambitions into the country’s constitution. (AP, Anadolu, The Guardian, NYT)
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“Moldova’s future—which has immense significance for Ukraine and the West—depends not only on the outcome of this single election but also on the much larger penumbra of meddlesome activities that Russia is engaging in to influence the country’s longer-term trajectory,” retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer William H. Hill writes for Foreign Affairs. “Moldova’s struggle to choose its own course will be a much longer fight—and one that the West must continue to support.”
“Under a Sandu second term, Moldova will most likely move closer to [EU] membership, but it will be a long, hard slog and a challenge for the government to demonstrate to its citizens the tangible benefits of joining the EU,” writes RFE/RL’s Rikard Jozwiak.
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Indonesia, Russia Begin First Bilateral Naval Drills |
The exercises in the Java Sea kicked off today and will run through Friday. They are Indonesia’s first bilateral drills with Russia, though it has participated in group exercises that include Russia in the past. It also has annual drills with the United States and its allies. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who took office two weeks ago, has pledged closer ties with Russia on defense and desire to align with multiple countries. (Nikkei, FT)
CFR expert Joshua Kurlanztick looks back on Indonesia’s track record under Prabowo’s predecessor.
U.S./Japan/North Korea/South Korea: The United States flew a B-1B long-range bomber in a drill with Japan and South Korea near the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea’s missile test last week, Seoul’s military said. It’s the fourth such flight this year for the bomber. (AP)
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Pakistan’s Lahore Temporarily Closes Schools Over Air Quality Concerns |
Primary schools will be closed for a week due to pollution in the city of fourteen million, authorities said. Meanwhile, a state official said “wind from India” was partly responsible for the issue and they would ask New Delhi to raise it bilaterally. (AP, Times of India)
India: Unidentified militants threw a grenade Saturday toward security forces at a flea market in India-administered Kashmir and injured at least eleven people, an unnamed local official told Reuters. Indian troops in the area killed a senior commander of militant Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba the previous day. (Reuters)
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Middle East and North Africa |
U.S. B-52 Bombers Arrive in Middle East Amid Israel-Iran Tensions |
Washington announced the bombers’ arrival Saturday; the day before, the U.S. Department of Defense had said it was sending planes and warships to bolster the U.S. presence in the region as an aircraft carrier was preparing to leave. Over the weekend, Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei pledged a “crushing” response to Iran’s enemies, including the United States, for their actions against Iran. (AFP, The Hill, Bloomberg)
In this YouTube Short, CFR expert Steven A. Cook runs through what to know about Israel’s latest strike on Iran.
U.S./Iran: The U.S. State Department is investigating reports that Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh was detained in Iran, the agency told the Associated Press. Valizadeh’s former employer Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty separately said he had been detained. He is the first U.S. citizen known to be detained in Iran since a September 2023 deal freed five citizens who were detained for years in the country. (AP)
On The World Next Week podcast, CFR’s Robert McMahon and Carla Anne Robbins discuss the global threats to press freedom.
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Chad Threatens to Withdraw From Regional Security Force |
Interim leader Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno said the joint security force in the Lake Chad region “seems to be in a slump” due to recent divisions in the group; fellow members Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria did not immediately comment. Late last month, suspected Boko Haram militants killed around forty Chadian soldiers. (Reuters)
Mauritius: The country imposed restrictions on social media ahead of its November 11 elections but then lifted them within forty-eight hours. The government cited a “cyber-terrorist attack” as justification for the ban. (Bloomberg)
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Badenoch Wins Drawn-Out Contest to Lead UK Conservatives |
Kemi Badenoch will be the first Black woman to head a major political party in the United Kingdom (UK) after her selection in the leadership contest to replace Rishi Sunak. Analysts envision her bringing the party to the right based on her track record, though in the campaign she did not set out detailed policies. She’s expected to reveal her shadow cabinet by Wednesday. (CNN, BBC)
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Cali Summit Stalls on Bilateral Conservation Funding, Creates Genetic Information Deal |
A UN biodiversity summit that ran for two weeks in Cali, Colombia ended without an anticipated agreement about how rich countries would meet a finance target for nature conservation agreed upon in 2022 in Montreal. Countries did decide to create a nature protection fund into which companies that benefit from genetic information from the natural world are encouraged to pay. (Reuters, Bloomberg)
This article by Lindsay Maizland overviews how six countries are faring in their biodiversity efforts.
Bolivia: Former President Evo Morales said he was on a hunger strike until the government of his fellow partyman and rival Luis Arce agreed to a political dialogue. Tensions between the two politicians, including over whether Morales should be able to run again for the presidency, have prompted roadblocks and protests in the country in recent weeks. (AP)
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Tens of Millions Have Voted Early as Harris, Trump Make Final Push to Voters |
Upwards of seventy-four million U.S. voters had sent in their ballots early as of Saturday, according to Associated Press data. That’s almost 47 percent of the total number of votes cast in the 2020 presidential race. It’s below early voting levels at this time during the 2020 vote, but still well above previous elections. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made their pitches to voters who still have yet to cast their ballots over the weekend, swinging through battleground states. (WaPo, AP, Reuters)
CFR’s candidate tracker compares Harris’s and Trump’s positions on ten major foreign policy issues in tomorrow’s vote. |
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