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Geopolitics

Tunisia Political Crisis Deepens After Prime Minister Resigns

FRANCE 24 (France), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), REUTERS

Worldcrunch

TUNIS - Tunisia's political turmoil continued on Wednesday following Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali’s resignation, after he failed to appoint a non-partisan cabinet of technocrats.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki is meeting Wednesday with Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the country's leading party Ennahda to ask him to nominate a new prime minister, according to Al Jazeera.

Although Ghannouchi has said he wants to see Jebali head a new coalition, Jebali said he refused to lead another government without fresh elections and a new constitution, France 24 reports.

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Jebali seated to the left of Marzouki file photo: Samir Abdelmoumen

The ongoing crisis led Standard & Poor's international ratings agency to downgrade Tunisia's credit rating late Tuesday, although Reuters reports that negotiations between Tunisia and the International Monetary Fund on a $1.78 billion loan are continuing.

The political stalemate was sparked two weeks ago by the assassination of opposition leader Chokri Belaid in Tunis. Jebali had said he would quit if his own moderate Islamist Ennahda party did not back the new coalition he was trying to form in a bid to restore calm after the killing.

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Economy

Lithium Mines In Europe? A New World Of Supply-Chain Sovereignty

The European Union has a new plan that challenges the long-established dogmas of globalization, with its just-in-time supply chains and outsourcing the "dirty" work to the developing world.

Photo of an open cast mine in Kalgoorlie, Australia.

Open cast mine in Kalgoorlie, Australia.

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — It is one of the great paradoxes of our time: in order to overcome some of our dependencies and vulnerabilities — revealed in crises like COVID and the war in Ukraine — we risk falling into other dependencies that are no less toxic. The ecological transition, the digitalization of our economy, or increased defense needs, all pose risks to our supply of strategic minerals.

The European Commission published a plan this week to escape this fate by setting realistic objectives within a relatively short time frame, by the end of this decade.

This plan goes against the dogmas of globalization of the past 30 or 40 years, which relied on just-in-time supply chains from one end of the planet to the other — and, if we're being honest, outsourced the least "clean" tasks, such as mining or refining minerals, to countries in the developing world.

But the pendulum is now swinging in the other direction, if possible under better environmental and social conditions. Will Europe be able to achieve these objectives while remaining within the bounds of both the ecological and digital transitions? That is the challenge.

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