Reazioni alle dichiarazioni di Macron. Tregua a Gaza durante il Ramadan? 🗞️ Rassegna del 28/02/2024

Israele

(Reuters) Biden: Israel agrees to halt military activity over Ramadan, risks losing world support → Gaza's warring enemies cautious over truce talks after Biden says deal nearing

• U.S. President Joe Biden, who made his remarks during an appearance on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers, said Israel has agreed not to engage in military activities during Ramadan in the Gaza Strip, where it is at war with Hamas militants, and said the Jewish state risked losing support from the rest of the world as Palestinians die in high numbers.
• "Ramadan [in 2024 it is expected to begin on the evening of March 10th and end on the evening of April 9th] is coming up, and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan, as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out," he said.
• Israel and Hamas as well as Qatari mediators all sounded notes of caution on Tuesday about progress towards a truce in Gaza, after what U.S. President Joe Biden said.
• Two senior Hamas officials told Reuters that Biden's remarks appearing to suggest that an agreement had already been reached in principle were premature. There were "still big gaps to be bridged", one of the Hamas officials told Reuters. "The primary and main issues of the ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces are not clearly stated, which delays reaching an agreement." [Hamas is now weighing a proposal, agreed by Israel at talks with mediators in Paris last week, for a ceasefire that would suspend fighting for 40 days]
• Israel did not comment directly on Biden's remarks, but government spokesperson Tal Heinrich said any deal would still require Hamas to drop "outlandish demands, in another orbit, another planet".

Ucraina

(Associated Press) Ukrainian President Zelenskyy lands in Saudi Arabia to push for peace and a POW exchange with Russia

• Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and met the kingdom’s powerful saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - who has sought to position himself as a potential mediator to end the war between Ukraine and Russia even as Riyadh remains closely aligned with Russia on energy policies through the OPEC+ group of countries - to push for a peace plan and the return of prisoners of war from Russia.
• The day before, the prince hosted Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia’s Duma, the lower house of its parliament, and a host of other Russian officials.
• Zelenskyy’s trip came as Kyiv’s forces were slowly being pushed back in eastern Ukraine. Russia has gained the initiative due to its big advantage in troop numbers and weapon supplies, while the Ukrainian military said Tuesday it withdrew its forces from two more villages near Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region following intense overnight fighting, according to a Ukrainian army spokesman.

Russia

(Politico) Russia warns NATO of certain war if West puts troops into Ukraine

• Allied leaders rush to distance themselves from French President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion that allies could put boots on the ground to help Kyiv. Macron’s comments came at the tail end of a summit in Paris, where EU leaders gathered Monday to discuss ongoing support for Kyiv.
• A domestic backlash quickly grew Tuesday against Macron's comments, and was followed by Western allies pushing back against the floated move to put soldiers into Ukraine while Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said that a conflict between Russia and NATO would be inevitable if Western troops go to Ukraine.
• It’s a no from NATO too, as the military alliance's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the Associated Press that there are “no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”
• For its part, Ukraine has made no move to ask for Western troops on its territory. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday there were “no negotiations” on the subject.

(Associated Press) Prominent Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov gets 2 1/2 years in prison for criticizing war

• A veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov, 70, co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial, who criticized the war in Ukraine was convicted Tuesday by a Moscow court of “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian military and sentenced to 2½ years in prison.
• Orlov was handcuffed and taken into custody after the verdict, concluding a retrial in which he earlier was convicted and fined. Underscoring the low tolerance for criticism of the war by the government of President Vladimir Putin, the prosecution had appealed, seeking a harsher punishment.
• The prosecution claimed that Orlov was motivated to write the anti-war article by hostility toward “traditional Russian spiritual, moral and patriotic values” and hatred of the military, according to the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona.

(Медиазона) Un tribunale di San Pietroburgo ha arrestato la diciottenne Darya Kozyreva, che ha lasciato una citazione della poesia di Shevchenko su un monumento

• Il tribunale distrettuale di Petrogradsky ha inviato Darya Kozyreva, 18 anni, residente a San Pietroburgo, al centro di detenzione preventiva per un caso penale di "discredito" dell'esercito. Lo riferiscono i corrispondenti di MR7 e Sota.
• La Kozyreva è stata arrestata il 24 febbraio - in occasione dell'anniversario della guerra ha incollato sul monumento a Taras Shevchenko un foglio con una citazione dalla sua poesia "Testamento": "Vai e alzati / Kaidani strappa / E con il sangue malvagio del nemico / La volontà di proteggere!". La donna di San Pietroburgo è già stata accusata (parte 1 dell'articolo 280.3 del Codice penale). Rischia fino a cinque anni di carcere.

Europa

Unione Europea:

(The Guardian) European parliament votes for watered-down law to restore nature

• The European parliament has given the green light to a watered-down law to restore nature, after weeks of fierce protests from farmers and a last-ditch attempt from rightwing parties threatened to sink the deal.
• The new law – a key pillar of the EU’s contested green deal – sets a target for the EU to restore at least 20% of its land and sea by the end of the decade. By 2050, that should rise to cover all ecosystems in need of restoration.
• The nature restoration law, which must be approved by the EU Council before it comes into force, calls on member states to restore at least 30% of drained peatland by 2030 and make progress on indicators of agriculture biodiversity that include increasing the number of grassland butterflies and farmland birds.

Italia:

(Reuters) Italy's Meloni loses control of Sardinia in election defeat

• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suffered her first significant electoral setback since taking office in 2022, results showed on Tuesday, with her rightist bloc losing power on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
• Alessandra Todde, a member of the left-leaning 5-Star Movement who was backed by the Democratic Party (PD), won 45.4% of the vote at Sunday's election, edging out Paolo Truzzu, a candidate handpicked by Meloni, who took 45.0%.
• Todde, a former industry undersecretary and a successful businesswoman, will be the first female president of the island and the first president of any region from the 5-Star Movement.

Politica internazionale

Africa

Senegal:

(Reuters) Senegal seeks consensus on date for delayed presidential election

• The West African nation [...] has been thrown into an unprecedented political crisis after Sall postponed the election initially scheduled for Feb. 25 [he delayed the poll due to a dispute over the candidate list and alleged corruption within the constitutional council that approved it. The council has denied the accusations].
• Senegal's Constitutional Council, the highest election authority, later ruled that Sall's decision to postpone the election, and a subsequent 10-month postponement voted by parliament, were unconstitutional.
• Sall on Monday urged participants in a national dialogue to reach a consensus on the date to hold the delayed presidential election, failing which he will ask the Constitutional Council to find his replacement when his mandate ends on April 2.
• Sall told the national dialogue that the government will propose a general amnesty for those detained between 2021 and 2024 due to the political crisis; [He said that the new bill might “pacify the political arena”].

Nigeria:

(Reuters) Nigeria unveils big rate hike as hardship prompts worker protests

• Nigeria's Central Bank delivered its largest rate hike in absolute terms in around 17 years on Tuesday [a 4-percentage-point increase to 22.75% (NGCBIR=ECI)] to tame soaring inflation, amid nationwide trade union protests over price rises that have left people struggling to meet their basic needs.
• (Economist) The NLC and the Trade Union Congress—which represent millions of people between them—recently gave the government a two-week ultimatum to meet their demands, which include raising wages.
• Inflation has reached almost 30% [...] driven by a steep fall in the naira currency, the removal of a fuel subsidy, fiscal deficits and conflict in food-producing parts of Africa's most populous nation and biggest economy.