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2024

BOOSTING DEFENCES ​ Ukraine is no longer just calling younger reservists to serve but prisoners as well and Sweden, a new NATO member, is boosting defence spending, while countries from Poland to Lithuania try to beef up their ranks so close to the enemy's borders. Russia's recent battlefield successes, all the while recent exercises involved the use of tactical nuclear weapons, have put Europe on alert, and some would say on a war footing, as the French president refused to walk back statements NATO may one day have to send troops to Ukraine. A million Ukrainians have stepped up to serve after recent changes to conscription laws, and some 4,500 Ukrainian conscripts have agreed to sign contracts under a new parole law as parliament passed a bill that would allow some categories of prisoners, though certainly not those serving for the worst offences, to be conscripted. The country which is short of everything from ammu-nitions to able-bodied fighters, has been changing it...
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2023

NOT THE USUAL COUP ​ Soldiers appear in the streets, then on television and declare the sitting leader has been ousted and the country's institutions are suspended, its borders closed. That is usually how a coup d'etat takes place. Follows the condemnation from foreign capitals and world organizations, pleading for a return to the constitutional order. But this recipe for takeover can vary, and this may be why the aftermath of presidential elections in Guatemala has not received the same attention as the coup in Gabon despite the cries by president-elect Bernardo Arevalo that one is also occurring there and he is being blocked from taking power after being declared winner with 58% of the vote. The 64-year-old sociologist certainly caused an electoral surprise, first when he made the cut for the run-off and then by upsetting first round winner Sandra Torres, a former first lady, in the second round. Now Arevalo says the establishment is out to deny his victory. “Ther...
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