The most important foreign affairs events of the week

July 24, 2023

“On Monday, Israeli lawmakers enacted a major change in law to weaken the judiciary, capping a monthslong campaign by the right-wing governing coalition that is pitting Israelis against one another with rare ferocity. Throngs of protesters outside the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, and opposition lawmakers inside shouted that the change was a grievous blow to the rule of law, to the rights of citizens and to democracy itself. By contrast, coalition members argued that it was the judiciary that posed a threat to democracy, and said that they planned to take further steps to curb it. The fight over the law, which has prompted the most widespread demonstrations in the country’s history, reflects a deeper split between those who want a more explicitly Jewish and religious Israel, and those who want to preserve a more secular, pluralist society.”

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The noun throng means “a large group of people gathered or crowded closely together; a multitude.”

The adjective grievous means “causing grief, pain, or anguish; serious or dire; grave.”

July 25, 2023

“On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the world economy is showing signs of resilience in 2023 despite lingering inflation and a sluggish recovery in China, which raises the odds that a global recession could be avoided barring unexpected crises. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook raised its forecast for global growth this year to 3 percent, from 2.8 percent in its April projection. It predicted that global inflation would ease from 8.7 percent in 2022 to 6.8 percent this year and 5.2 percent in 2024, as the effects of higher interest rates filter throughout the world. The outlook was rosier in large part because financial markets — which had been roiled by the collapse of several large banks in the United States and Europe — have largely stabilized. Another big financial risk was averted in June when Congress acted to lift the US government’s borrowing cap, ensuring that the world’s largest economy would continue to pay its bills on time.”

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The adjective lingering means “slow, prolonged, protracted, long-drawn-out, remaining, dragging, persistent.”

The transitive verb roil means “to cause to be in a state of agitation or disorder; to put in a state of emotional agitation; rile or upset.”

July 26, 2023

“On Wednesday, Military officers in the West African nation of Niger ousted the country’s president, Mr. Mohamed Bazoum, throwing into uncertainty the future of one of the West’s few reliable partners in a region marred by coups and widespread insecurity. According to a statement, the officers removed Mr. Bazoum ‘due to the deteriorating security situation and bad governance.’ Niger is a vast and landlocked country in the Sahel, a region of Africa plagued by Islamist insurgencies in the past few years. Niger has experienced four military coups since independence from France in 1960. Mr. Bazoum was elected in 2021 in Niger’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence. But the president’s proximity to France and the United States has been an exception to the rule in a region closer to Russia and the Wagner group, especially its neighbors Mali and Central African Republic.”

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The transitive verb mar means “to inflict damage, especially disfiguring damage, on (someone or something).”

The noun landlock means “to inclose, or nearly inclose, as a harbor or a vessel, with land.”

July 27, 2023

“On Thursday, president Vladimir Putin held a Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, where he offered free grain as the Kremlin seeks to shore up ties with the continent. However, the gathering attracted fewer than half the number of leaders who attended the summit in 2019, a sign of how the war has tempered support for Moscow even in a region it has assiduously courted. In this context, according to president Azali Assoumani of Comoros, the current chairman of the African Union, warned that the ‘Ukraine crisis’ threatened ‘a large number of lives’ because of rising food prices and called for the supply of both Russian and Ukrainian grain to be facilitated. To counter the critics, Putin pledged to ship tens of thousands of tons of free grain to six African countries — Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Mali, Somalia and Zimbabwe — in the next three to four months.”

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The transitive verb shore up means “support, strengthen, reinforce, prop, brace, underpin, augment, buttress.”

The transitive verb temper means “to modify by the addition of a moderating element; moderate; to make more temperate, acceptable, or suitable by adding something else.”

July 28, 2023

“On Friday, the Brazilian government denied an extradition request for an accused Russian spy made by the United States. Brazil said it denied the US request because it was still investigating the case and had already begun processing a Russian request for the extradition of the accused spy, Sergey Cherkasov, even though it also appeared unlikely that Brazil would ultimately send him to Russia. This decision weakens hopes that he could be used in a potential prisoner swap between the US and Russia for either or both of two Americans being held in Moscow on espionage charges that Washington considers bogus. Brazil has been holding Mr. Cherkasov, 37, for more than a year on charges of using falsified documents.”

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The adverb ultimately means “in the end; at last; finally.” You use ultimately to indicate that something is the final result of a series of events.You also use ultimately when you are drawing attention to a basic fact about a situation.

The adjective bogus means “counterfeit or fake; not genuine; phony; or spurious.”