A look ahead to the world this week
Good afternoon,
On Saturday afternoon, six miles off the coast of South Carolina, a US F-22 fighter jet fired a Sidewinder air-to-air missile that blew a massive Chinese balloon out of the sky.
China's Foreign Ministry immediately registered "strong discontent and protest" over the downing of what it insisted was a weather research aircraft that had flown over the US "totally accidentally".
The missile strike brought an "explosive end to a drama that put a diplomatic crisis between the world's two great powers onto television screens in real time", said The New York Times.
The balloon's "highly visible" flight over US sites including over a nuclear missile silo complex in Montana triggered the last-minute cancellation of a visit to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, "undermining an attempt by Beijing to mend its most important bilateral relationship", said The Washington Post.
Amid a flurry of claims and counterclaims by the two superpowers, one key question remains unanswered: why was China flying what Washington claims was a surveillance balloon over the US? According to the Pentagon, Chinese spy satellites are capable of securing similar or better intelligence than any spy balloon.
If the downed aircraft was being used for surveillance, "the whole episode raises a lot of questions about decision-making in Beijing", said The Guardian's world affairs editor Julian Borger. "Either this was a case of the left hand not knowing what the right was doing, or it was possibly a deliberate attempt to sabotage any tension-soothing the Blinken trip might have achieved."
Another possible explanation is that Beijing was "testing Joe Biden's mettle", Borger suggested.
It was almost certainly a test, said The Telegraph's China correspondent Sophia Yan. Beijing may have flown the balloon over the nuclear complex "simply to show that it could".
"It's possible that being spotted was the whole point," Arthur Holland Michel of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs told the BBC. "China might be using the balloon to demonstrate that it has a sophisticated technological capability to penetrate US airspace without risking a serious escalation. In this regard, a balloon is a pretty ideal choice."
Many experts believe that China's aim was to cause the US as much embarrassment as possible. Before the balloon was shot down, Biden was criticised for being too soft on China, with Republican Joe Wilson calling on the president to resign over the "catastrophic spectacle".
All this may be "playing straight into Beijing's hand", said The Telegraph's Yan. The "finger-pointing frenzy" that the balloon unleashed "may be viewed in Beijing as a successful mission, rather than a failed one".
Read on for coverage of the changing of the guard in Ukraine and other global news, including the mass pardon of prisoners in Iran.
Arion McNicoll
The Week
@arionmcnicoll |
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| | Ukraine changing of the guard: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov (pictured), has tried to shrug off speculation that he is set to quit or be replaced. At a press conference yesterday, Reznikov said that any decision about his position was "up to the president" and that "no one is in the chair for his whole life". Reznikov's ministry has faced repeated allegations of corruption as Kyiv faces "pressure from key military and financial backers in European capitals and Washington to make progress on graft", Euractiv said. He is widely expected to be replaced by Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence.
Cyprus run-off: The race to become the eighth president of Cyprus is to continue this week after former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides took the lead yesterday but failed to win enough votes to claim an outright victory. Christodoulides will face leftist-backed candidate Andreas Mavroyiannis in a run-off on Sunday, after taking 32% of the vote in the first round. Mavroyiannis was generally "considered an outsider by opinion polls", Reuters said, but secured 29.6% of the vote. Whoever wins the run-off will then face the challenges of tackling ongoing labour disputes and corruption scandals while also trying to "break a deadlock in reunification talks on ethnically split Cyprus".
Iran protesters to be released: People arrested during anti-government protests are among "tens of thousands" of prisoners being pardoned by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to state media. The amnesty will reportedly extend to "prisoners not facing charges of spying for foreign agencies, having direct contact with foreign agents, committing intentional murder and injury, committing destruction and arson of state property, or not having a private plaintiff in their case will be pardoned". The pardons were announced in honour of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Classified documents update: The US Congress may be briefed within days on the contents of the classified documents seized from the Florida home of former president Donald Trump, insiders claim. NBC News reported that officials had offered to update congressional leaders on their investigation findings and aimed to do so "by the end of the week". Republicans in Congress have been "clamoring" for a briefing about the documents taken from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, said the broadcaster. But lawmakers also want to review the documents taken from current Joe Biden's residence in Delaware and the Indiana home of former vice president Mike Pence, which could delay the briefing plans. Any briefing is not expected to include direct access to the documents that were recovered.
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STAT OF THE WEEK | 52% | Italy's first female prime minister Giorgia Meloni is now the EU's most popular leader with an approval rating of 52%. Having toned down her far-right rhetoric during her first 100 days in office, she has proven herself to be a successful operator, swiftly passing a budget in December and clinching a landmark $8bn deal with Libya to supply gas to Italy. She has also been hosted by the leaders of Sweden and Germany and a trip to Kyiv is expected imminently. When she takes her place at an EU summit that begins this Thursday, her approval rating will be "far higher than that of any of the other leaders who will be seated around the table with her", said The Times. Her success has been attributed to her shift away from overt nationalism. "You have to forget about Meloni, the opposition leader, who was very aggressive, very populist and very basic," said Teresa Coratella, of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Rome. "If you look at her as prime minister she is very pragmatic, very stable politically and not aggressive. At least in public." | |
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| | At least 12 senior officials have resigned or been sacked by President Zelenskyy in an anti-corruption drive |
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Global round-up | What you need to know about the biggest stories in world news
Will Australia become a republic?
Central bank to remove royals from banknotes as government considers new referendum on cutting ties with the British monarchy
Read more
Muzzling the BBC: what does Narendra Modi have to hide?
The Delhi government has blocked the airing of a documentary on Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots
Read more
The Battle of Stalingrad 80 years on
Battle that turned the tide of Second World War remains a powerful symbol of patriotism in Russia
Read more
Why is the West divided over fighter jets for Ukraine?
Race to arm Ukraine reflects a shifting balance of power in Europe between traditional forces and formerly junior partners
Read more
Vladimir Putin and the rise of the 'short kings'
Critics suggest Russian leader has 'Napoleon complex' but numerous world leaders match his stature
Read more | |
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Person OF THE WEEK | Josh Gabbatiss | Josh Gabbatiss began making his own encyclopaedia of animals when he was just nine years old and has now completed the project, more than two decades later. Gabbatiss, a climate journalist, began drawing and writing "Josh'es (sic) Book of Animals" in 2001. The 30-year-old announced the book's completion on Twitter, writing that he was "proud" of his effort. Discussing how it all began, Gabbatiss recalled that he copied the format for his encyclopaedia from "rival" animal books. "You can tell that I was in it for the long haul because instead of going straight for the big charismatic species I started with corals, worms etc." Though his social media report on the project is obviously tongue-in-cheek, Gabbatiss said that he thinks the interests and obsessions of youth should not be dismissed. "I think it just shows that those childhood passions can be really important and shouldn't be seen lightly," he told the PA news agency. "For me it feels really special because I know that in many ways, I feel the same way as I did when I was nine about these things."
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unexpected turn | Boy wonder | A nine-year-old boy in Pennsylvania has become the youngest person ever to graduate from US high school after taking accelerated courses online. David Balogun, of Bensalem, completed his entire schooling before most of his peers had finished the third grade. "I realised that I [was] able to graduate at the age of ten or nine as long as I put the effort in, and with the help of my mom and dad… I was able to graduate," he is quoted as saying in the Daily Mail. Balogun, who is also a member of Mensa, has now enrolled at community college and wants to become an astrophysicist. When he's not studying, Balogun enjoys baseball, karate and playing with his sister. "The word proud is not enough at all for that," his mother Ronya said of his achievement.
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