World Briefing: October 21, 2024
The vote count in crucial elections in Moldova is almost complete, with pro-EU integration forces narrowly winning a referendum vote that would clear the path for the small country to join the bloc. However, incumbent President Maia Sandu failed to cross the 50 percent threshold and now faces a difficult runoff vote in early November. As of midday Monday, the percentage of people who voted ‘Yes’ stood at 50.24 percent, compared to 49.76 percent for the ‘No’ camp. Last minute counts from overseas polling stations appeared to have pushed the pro-EU camp to victory.
A visibly-disappointed Sandu blamed the results on foreign interference amid reports that Russia had poured substantial sums of money to sway the votes. She blamed an “unprecedented assault on our country’s freedom and democracy” by “foreign forces”
Israel has carried out air strikes across Lebanon, saying it's targeting branches of a bank used by Hezbollah, with Israel's foreign minister saying the city is "in flames". The Israeli military issued 24 warnings of air strikes in less than an hour - evacuation warnings which caused widespread panic, according to the UN's envoy to Lebanon. The Al-Qard al-Hassan bank has been under US sanctions since 2007, with the US saying it allows Hezbollah to bypass banking systems. Two strikes were reported close to Beirut airport, as passenger planes were still landing.
Fethullah Gülen, a scholar, preacher and former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who Ankara accused of fomenting the 2016 coup, has died in the US where he was based, Turkish media and a website close to Gülen said. Herkul, a website which publishes Gülen's sermons, said on its X account that Gulen, 83, had died on Sunday evening in the hospital where he was being treated. Gülen, who founded a powerful religious movement in Turkey known as Hizmet, had lived in a self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania after falling out with Erdoğan and his AK party. The failed coup in Turkey on 15 July 2016, aimed at removing Erdoğan from power, left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 wounded after parts of the army took control of tanks, jets and helicopters - Euronews
Many Cubans waited in anguish and some took to the streets in protest as widespread blackouts stretched into their third day. Their concerns were heightened as a Hurricane Oscar hit Cuba’s eastern coast with winds and heavy rain. In Santo Suárez, part of a populous neighborhood in southwestern Havana, people went into the streets banging pots and pans in protest Sunday night. The protesters, who say they have no water either, blocked the street with garbage. Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a news conference he hopes the electricity grid will be restored on Monday or Tuesday morning. - AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts leaders for the 16th annual BRICS summit, with the aim of sending a signal to the West that Moscow is not isolated on the world stage. Putin will drive that message home in Kazan from October 22-24 as he positions the BRICS grouping of countries as a counterweight to the West in global politics and trade through a newly expanded version of the bloc sometimes referred to as BRICS+ that includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as previous members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. “BRICS once again has fresh air coming into its lungs, in part because the Western-led order and its organizations are experiencing disarray," Carlos Solar, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, told RFE/RL. "The larger idea is that the world is changing and what happens next for international banking, finance, and law could define which regions of the world will be the most important in the decades to come." - Al Jazeera
At the BRICS Summit in Russia, one important leader will be absent: Brazil is a founding member and President Lula da Silva will not attend after reportedly injuring his head. Separately, Russia is reportedly halting fruit and vegetable imports from Kazakhstan after it refused to join the bloc. “The decision was made due to the failure of competent authorities in Kazakhstan to take action and in order to ensure the phytosanitary safety of the territory of Russia,” the Rosselkhoznadzor authority said on its website.
The UK needs its own version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system to protect it from Russian aggression and growing instability in the Middle East, former defence ministers have told i. Britain’s existing defences could “easily be overwhelmed” in the future by hypersonic missiles, and risk London being “targeted on the same scale that Kyiv has had to endure”, according to Tobias Ellwood, one of the three Conservative ex-ministers. The Kremlin has warned it would regard the UK as a legitimate target if Sir Keir Starmer’s Government permits Ukraine to fire UK long-range Storm Shadow missiles inside Russian territory. - I Paper
