In the Round the World board, the team at Power 360 summarizes the main international events of the last week (Apr 3-Apr 8, 2022).
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The week was marked by the massacre of civilians in Bucha (pronounced Butcha), a city less than 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
On Saturday (April 2), during Kiev’s resumption of control over the region, Ukrainian soldiers filmed dozens of mass graves and bodies strewn across the streets. The mayor of Bucha said at least 280 dead were found across the city.
Ukrainian officials blamed the massacre on Russia, which had occupied the capital’s outskirts since early March and agreed to a troop retreat from the area in late March.
Satellite images taken on March 31 by the company Maxar Technologies show excavations of graves near a church in the city.
The Russian news agency RT presented another version for the case on the 4th (6.abr). According to RTthe execution was conducted by Ukrainian nationalist battalions in the wake of the Russian occupation.
The massacre would have taken place after the arrival of paramilitaries commanded by Sergei Korotkikh, known as Botsman, a rebel linked to the Ukrainian neo-Nazi group Azov Battalion. Videos released by the agency show Botsman in Bucha allegedly authorizing a soldier to shoot civilians without a blue ribbon, used to identify pro-Ukraine supporters.
On the 3rd (5.abr), the UN and the European Union offered to carry out independent investigations into the massacre.
In a session of the UN Security Council also on the 3rd, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded a more emphatic stance from the United Nations, suggesting that the entity would have been wrong to not contain the beginning of the war.
In an articulation made by the United States delegation, the Human Rights Council suspended Russia on Thursday (Apr 7). There were 93 votes in favour, 24 against and 58 abstentions, including that of Brazil.
TWITTER AND ELON MUSK
Billionaire Elon Musk became Twitter’s majority shareholder on the 2nd (Apr 4) by buying a 9.2% stake in the social network for the equivalent of US$3 billion. The businessman will be on Twitter’s board of directors until 2024.
The announcement sent the company’s shares to a daily record high, rising 30.6% in regular trading.
In the Forbes annual list released on the 3rd (Apr 5), Musk is the richest person in the world, with a fortune valued at US$ 219 billion, more than R$ 1 trillion.
The businessman, by the way, could become the world’s 1st trillion dollar in 2024 if he maintains the current pace of financial growth, according to an assessment by consultancy Tipalti Approve.
And speaking of Twitter, the company confirmed that it is in the testing phase with a tool to edit tweets after they have been posted, an old demand among users of the platform.
The novelty should arrive first for subscribers of the paid service Twitter Blue, still unavailable in Brazil. In the United States, the subscription costs US$2.99, or about R$14.
ELECTION IN HUNGARY
On Sunday (April 3), the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, was re-elected for a 4th consecutive term.
Orbán defeated Péter Márki-Zay, a Christian-conservative chosen to represent a broad front of 6 parties trying to oust the Hungarian prime minister from power for the first time since 2010.
During this period, the prime minister became known for being one of the main exponents of the illiberal democracy model, a system with a strong authoritarian orientation. He is also an outspoken critic of the European Union and has often raised eyebrows with the possibility of a “Huxit” – the Hungarian exit from the bloc.
His Fidesz party took 135 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian National Assembly, a majority sufficient to be able to change the constitution without the need for alliances with other parties.
In his victory commemoration speech, Orbán called Zelensky a “adversary” from Budapest. The premier is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and governs the country most dependent on Russia’s natural gas in Europe.
COLLECTION TAP IN PERU
In the dawn of 3th On this fair (Apr 5), Peruvian President Pedro Castillo decreed a curfew in the cities of Lima and Callao to contain protests against the increase in the price of fuel and fertilizers in the country. Peruvian inflation is the highest in the last 25 years.
The increase stems from the instability caused by the war in Ukraine and the economic sanctions on Russia, which affected the supply of products on the global market.
The measure would be valid until 11:59 pm on 3th, but Castillo backtracked and lifted the restrictions. The protesters, however, remained in the streets.
Truckers and farmers blocked highways in the capital and clashed with police. With that, Castillo called on the Army to occupy the roads until May 7.
Since taking office in July 2021, the president has had 4 government offices and changed more than 40 ministers. Last week, the Peruvian Congress rejected a impeachment against Castillo, but the lack of popular support and the fragile base in the legislature exacerbate the instability of the government and the possibility of ending the mandate prematurely, which has been a tradition in Peru in the last decade.
KETANJI BROWN JACKSON
And on 5ª (7.Abr), the United States Senate approved the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, to assume a seat on the country’s Supreme Court. She will be the first black woman in history to hold the post.
The vote for President Joe Biden’s choice was tight: 53 to 47. Republican senators Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins opposed party resistance and favored Brown Jackson.
The judge has a degree in law from Harvard University and has worked in the US public defender’s office before taking up positions in federal lower courts.
She will take a seat to be opened by Judge Stephen Breyer, 84, who announced his retirement at the end of 2021. The ideological division of the court, however, will remain the same: 6 judges from the conservative wing and 3 from the liberal wing.
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