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A Canadian protestor in Montreal, dressed as a “handmaid” (a woman forced to bear children) from TV show “The Handmaid’s Tale,” holds a sign reading “This is no longer fiction” to denounce the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
👋 Grüss Gott!*
Welcome to Monday, where Volodymyr Zelensky addresses G7 leaders as strikes hit Kyiv, reverberations continue after the end of U.S. federal protection for abortion rights, and Japan asks 37 million citizens to turn the lights off. Meanwhile, for French economic daily Les Échos, Benjamin Quénelle looks at the “inevitable” recession around the corner for Russia, despite its apparent resilience to Western sanctions.
[*Swabian - Germany]
💡 SPOTLIGHT
Venezuela-Iran: Maduro and the axis of chaos in the Americas
With the complicity of leftist rulers in Venezuela, Bolivia and even Argentina, Iran's sanction-ridden regime is spreading its tentacles in South America, and could even undermine democracies, writes Julio Borges for El Espectador.
The dangers posed by Venezuela's relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran is something we've warned about before. Though not new, the dangers have changed considerably in recent years.
They began under Venezuela's late leader, Hugo Chávez , when he decided to turn his back on the West and move closer to countries outside our geopolitical sphere. In 2005, Chávez and Iran's then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, signed collaborative agreements in areas beyond the economy, with goals that included challenging the West and spreading Iran's presence in Latin America.
That never immediately yielded initiatives, but in the past three years Chávez's successor, Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, has breathed new life into the ties as part of his bid to retain power at any cost.
To get a glance of the depth of Maduro's relations with Iran, one need only see the Iranians now busy repairing refineries, guiding sanction-evading policies, exerting undue influence on the defense sector and even opening supermarkets in Caracas.
Their presence in Venezuela as a consequential political actor is real, and certainly related to Maduro's trip earlier in June to the Middle East, which included a stop in Tehran to meet with the regime's top leaders. After the meetings, the Iranian and Venezuelan presidents held a press conference to announce the agreements signed in the visit, though strangely, said nothing about defense, where Iran has gained relevance.
As late as 2021 the Iranians were reported to have shown Venezuela their prototype for a rocket-launching drone.
Maduro's trip to Tehran also coincided with a disturbing report on a suspicious plane landing in Argentina, with a crew of 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians. The plane and its departure point have raised all manner of questions, but information confirmed in Argentina so far suggests it was a grave threat to hemispheric security.
Firstly, we know it was owned by Mahan Air, an Iranian carrier previously sanctioned for taking arms and supplies to extremists or militants in the Middle East. Five months ago, this plane was transferred to Conviasa, an airline owned by the Venezuelan regime and also subject to sanctions.
Secondly, at least one of the crew members was duly identified as a member of the Quds Force, a commando unit of the Iranian Revolutionary guards. The group are listed as active collaborators of international terrorism.
The plane was reported to have traveled to Uruguay to refuel before returning to Venezuela, but Uruguay's government banned it from its airspace following information it had received on its movements. Its flight path was anything but anodyne, having stopped in Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, a hotbed of continental crime and trafficking, and suspected operating zone for Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group long linked to the Iranian regime.
The Argentine judiciary is now investigating the plane, and its crew and suspect connections. As Argentina has already suffered the terrorism of Iran-linked elements in the past, this incident cannot be underestimated. Faced with a threat to the peace and security of Argentines, the government of President Alberto Fernández should fully probe the plane's mission. Did elements in the Argentine government know about it, its crew members and foreign ties? The public has a right to know and must force the Argentine authorities to provide plausible explanations.
Unfortunately, Fernández, like his Mexican counterpart, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has become an unstinting apologist for Maduro. With a conniving, cynical and inhumane discourse, Fernández has whitewashed dictatorial practices and state violence exerted by Maduro and certain other strongmen.
Still, one thing is ideological sympathies, and another the security of Argentines and the region's inhabitants.
Maduro's relations with Iran have acquired another dimension. It is no longer about Right and Left and who is right, but about the future of Western, liberal-democratic values in our region. The anti-Western powers are working on a new order, and regional democracies should see the Argentine affair as an alarm bell.
For such incidents will surreptitiously undermine security until it is blown up, as it was in the Middle East. Maduro has become a firm ally of anti-Western powers like Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. And they are using him as their foothold to destabilize the region. It is time to draw a line and thwart Maduro's spiraling ties with this axis of chaos.
— Julio Borges / El Espectador
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Zelensky addresses G7, Russia defaults: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the G7 summit via video-call today, where he reportedly asked the leaders of Western nations for anti-aircraft defense systems, more sanctions on Russia, security guarantees, and help to export grain from Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in more than a century as Western sanctions continue to isolate the country from much of the world economy.
• Post-Roe protests continue as more states move to restrict abortions: Mass protests are taking place across the United States following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the precedent setting case on abortion rights Roe v. Wade. Eighteen states have already effectively banned abortions, and many have severely restricted access to them. The ACLU plans to sue the states of Kentucky and Florida over their abortion bans, and abortion pill manufacturers have announced that they are prepared for a surge in nationwide demmand.
• Suspect named in case of Oslo gay bar shooting:Norwegian authorities have named the suspect in a deadly shooting at a popular LGBTQ+ bar in Oslo as a 42-year-old Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin. The shooting, which killed two and injured 21, is being treated as an act of Islamic terrorism.
• Saudi Arabia changes Hajj overnight: The travel plans of Muslims across the West have been disturbed after Saudi Arabia suddenly instated a lottery system and demanded that all Westerners who plan to make the pilgrimage cancel prior travel arrangements and use the new system. British Muslim travel agencies say they may go out of buisiness, and thousands of travelers will be forced to pay more than expected to make the pilgrimage this year.
• 22 bodies found at South African bar: At least 21 young people have been confirmed dead after 22 bodies with no visible wounds were found at a nightclub in East London, South Africa. The cause of death is unknown and the bodies are being submitted for autopsies.
• Colombia bullfight stand collapses: At least six people were killed and 100 more were injured after a stand collapsed at a bullfight in Espinal, Colombia. The new president-elect of Colombia Gustavo Petro released a statement demanding that events which involve the death of people or animals should be outlawed.
• Luxottica founder dies at age 87: Leonardo Del Vecchio, the Milan-born founder of the world’s largest eyewear company Luxottica has died at age 87. Del Vecchio started Luxottica as a tiny eyeglass shop in Italy’s Dolomite mountains. The conglomerate now produces frames for many of the world’s top eyewear brands, including Armani, Prada, Ray-ban, and Oakley.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“A very, very strong signal of unity,” titles German daily Die Welt, quoting Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz who is hosting the annual G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps with U.S. President Joe Biden. The war in Ukraine, food insecurity and the looming economic crisis are on the agenda of the world leaders who are gathering until Tuesday. “The West demonstrates unity but the challenges are huge,” writes the daily.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
40.2 °C
As an unusual heat wave is hitting the country, Japan topped its highest temperatures ever recorded in June with 40.2°C in the city of Isesaki. Government officials have urged up to 37 million Japanese to reduce their consumption of energy in the afternoons and to switch off their lights in order to avoid potential power shortages.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
How much longer can the Russian economy survive sanctions?
Vladimir Putin boasted at the recent forum in St. Petersburg International Economic Forum about Russia’s economic resilience against Western sanctions. But behind the scenes, Russian business leaders tell a different story, reports Benjamin Quénelle for French daily Les Échos.
💰 Officially called the "International" Economic Forum, the annual event organized by Putin is meant to attract foreign investors — but this year, the elite of the national business community were cut off from the rest of the world. "Just among Russians... And forced to line up behind the regime and its economic strategies that lead us to a dead end,"a Russian manager in one of the main state-owned companies says.
🇷🇺 🙅 At the beginning of the Kremlin’s “special operation” conducted in Ukraine, many top business leaders were shocked and did not hide their disapproval of the military offensive. Four months later, the successive series of sanctions are making it impossible for them to leave Russia. Departures that, on the contrary, would have weakened the Kremlin and its economic strategy.
📉 The first real damages to the economy, the performance of Russian companies' earnings, are expected to arrive in the fall. Recession looks inevitable. But, defying earlier forecasts, the gross domestic product drop is likely to be closer to 15% than to 25%. Because the very structure of Russia’s economy helps it to cope. Moscow's state aid and intervention has thus helped with short-term resilience, but the false picture of an invincible Russian economy in the face of Western pressures is bound to backlash among a bewildered middle class.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
“I think it’s better to tell him to his face what we think of him.”
— In an interview with German broadcaster ZDF, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the potential presence of Russian president Vladimir Putin at November’s G20 shouldn’t be a reason for Western leaders to boycott the summit. The Russian leader has been invited to the meeting by Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo, who has also extended an invitation to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, although Ukraine isn’t a G20 country.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
A Canadian protestor in Montreal, dressed as a “handmaid” (a woman forced to bear children) from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian book series turned popular TV show “The Handmaid’s Tale,” holds a sign reading “This is no longer fiction” to denounce the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. — Photo: Graham Hughes/TheCanadianPress/ZUMA
✍️ Newsletter by Joel Silvestri, Lisa Berdet, Lila Paulou and Anne-Sophie Goninet
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
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When the world gets closer, we help you see farther
- Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.
- Stories from the best international journalists.
- Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries
