Wildfires ravaged parts of Spain, France and Portugal Friday in the blistering heat, burning forests and prompting widespread evacuations. The ongoing heatwave has already claimed hundreds of lives in the west European countries. There is a spike in heat wave-related casualties in Western Europe.
On Saturday, La Vanguardia reported that there were more than 360 deaths in Spain caused by the unbelievable heatwaves, and in Portugal, 238 deaths were recorded between July 7 and July 13.
France is currently on high alert for severe weather this weekend into next week.
Italy, Greece, Morocco and the UK are also bracing for extreme weather — including fire warnings — attributed to this week’s heatwaves.
About 14,000 people have been forced to flee France’s south-western Gironde region due to dozens of wildfires that have spread across Portugal and Spain. The fires have been attributed to soaring temperatures not seen since 1757 across Europe.
Spain
Another report citing Spain’s health ministry said:
Spain registered 237 excess deaths from July 10 through July 14.
The death toll could rise further as figures for July 15 are yet to be released.
In June, 829 estimated excess deaths were recorded in Spain due to the heat, the health ministry said.
Over 400 people were evacuated from Mijas, a picturesque village in Malaga, southern Spain as a new wildfire erupted, Reuters reported. About 20 kilometers away, beachgoers in Torremolinos spotted smoke billowing near coastal hotels. Authorities in Catalonia suspended sports and camping activities in about 275 towns and villages to prevent fire hazards.
Flames have also engulfed parts of Extremadura in western Spain, as well as the central Castille and Leon region. The wildfires threaten historical landmarks including a 16th century monastery and a national park, while over 18,500 acres of forest have been destroyed.
“What a night. We haven’t slept all night,” said Gemma Suarez, a Spanish farmer who had to evacuate Casas de Miravete, crying as she spoke to Reuters. “A social worker came to see me to go pick up my elderly uncle. We spent the night in Navalmoral but we didn’t sleep at all. I have never seen such a big fire,” she added.
France
Water-bomber aircraft and over 1,000 firefighters have been deployed in southwestern France to contain two blazes exacerbated by strong winds and tinderbox conditions, Reuters reported. Elsewhere 11,300 people have been evacuated since wildfires exploded near Dune du Pilat and Landiras, where about 18,000 acres of land has been burnt.
Around 1,200 firefighters and at least 10 water-bomber planes in France’s Gironde region battled the blaze in an effort to bring it under control between Friday and Saturday.
More than 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares) of land were on fire in the Gironde region just south of Bordeaux on Saturday, an increase from the 18,000 acres of land that were on fire on Friday.
“Everything went so fast — the fire too, was big, big, big,” said Manon Jacquart, 27, who had to evacuate a campsite where she is working this summer, on Wednesday morning.
Portugal
Portugal recorded 238 excess deaths from July 7 to 13, according to the country’s DGS health authority.
Temperatures were expected to exceed 40C in Portugal, where five districts were on a red extreme heat alert and more than 1,000 firefighters confronted 17 wildfires.
First Ever Heat Emergency In UK
An earlier report said:
The UK’s Met Office sounded the alarm on Friday morning, raising its Heat Health Alert level to red, indicating that the forecast constitutes a national emergency.
The Met Office has forecasted temperatures in England to reach 40 degrees Celsius on Monday and Tuesday, a record for the UK.
A red alert indicates that “a heatwave is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system,” the government agency stated. “At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups.”
The Met Office advised citizens to close their curtains in rooms facing the sun, to drink plenty of fluids, and to keep an eye on younger children and older family members, as well as those with underlying health conditions. Unlike their American counterparts, most British homes do not have air conditioning equipment.
While the alert is the first of its kind issued by the UK Met Office, the warning system was only introduced in 2021. The World Health Organization has been calling for such systems to be introduced worldwide since 2016, claiming that climate change will result in more frequent and intense heatwaves this century.
Britain recorded its hottest ever temperature in 2019, when Cambridge saw 38.7 degrees Celsius in July 2019. However, waves of intense heat have been recorded periodically since record-keeping began in the early 20th Century. 1976 and 1995 are tied for the driest summers ever recorded in Great Britain, with temperatures reaching 36 degrees in 1976 and a drought persisting from June until October.
Britain also suffered a famously intense heatwave in 1808, with temperatures believed to have hit between 37 and 38.5 degrees in England that July.
Climate Crisis Pushes Extreme Weather
Scenes of firefighters tackling wildfires and roads melting in extreme heat may look dystopian, but UK forecasters say these phenomena are a result of the ongoing climate crisis.
In the summer of 2020 meteorologists at the UK Met Office used climate projections to predict the weather forecast for July 23, 2050 — and the results are startlingly similar to their forecast for Monday and Tuesday.
“We hoped we wouldn’t get to this situation,” the UK Met Office’s climate attribution scientist Nikos Christidis said in a statement. “Climate change has already influenced the likelihood of temperature extremes in the UK. The chances of seeing 40°C days in the UK could be as much as 10 times more likely in the current climate than under a natural climate unaffected by human influence.”
The chance of exceeding 40 degrees is “increasing rapidly,” Christidis said.
Lives Are At Risk
The UK Met Office has said people’s lives are at risk as temperatures could reach 40C (104F) early next week.
It issued its first ever red extreme heat warning for parts of the country including London and Manchester, calling the alert “a very serious situation.”
“If people have vulnerable relatives or neighbours, now is the time to make sure they’re putting suitable measures in place to be able to cope with the heat because if the forecast is as we think it will be in the red warning area, then people’s lives are at risk,” Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said.
The UK Health Security Agency also increased its heat health warning from tier three to tier four — the equivalent of a “national emergency.”
Londoners Advised Not To Use The City’s Transport Network
Commuters in London have been advised not to use the city’s transport network unless for “essential journeys,” amid a sweltering heat wave across western Europe.
The UK Met Office issued an amber extreme heat warning from Sunday through Tuesday as temperatures will likely surpass the country’s 2019 record temperature of 38.7 Celsius, posing a risk to passengers.
“Due to the exceptionally hot weather that is expected next week, customers should only use London’s transport network for essential journeys,” Transport for London (TfL) chief operating officer Andy Lord said.
Temporary speed restrictions will be introduced to London’s tube and rail services “to keep everyone safe,” Lord added, urging travelers to “carry water at all times.”
Hot Temperatures Can Damage Power Lines And Signaling Equipment
Searingly hot temperatures can damage power lines and signaling equipment. TfL has said it will try to keep services running smoothly and use increased inspections to alleviate the impact of extreme heat.
Regular track temperature checks will take place to prevent tracks from bending or buckling, TfL said in a statement. The network will also check air conditioning units across the Tube network and air cooling systems on the capital’s double-decker buses.
Motorists have also been encouraged not to drive during the hottest spells of the day.
Deadly Wildfire Spreads In The Mediterranean Skyrocketing heat across western Europe has left many areas scorched and susceptible to wildfires.
On Wednesday temperatures reached 47 C in Pinhão, Portugal, the highest temperature ever recorded in the country for the month of July. And in the central town of Lousã temperatures reached 46.3 C setting an all time record high.
A pilot died after his water bombing plane crashed near Vila Nova de Foz Coa, on Friday evening.
Sri Lankan protesters have vowed to continue their struggle for a complete change of the system by abolishing the presidency, as the popular uprising that ousted Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president marked the 100th day on Sunday.
The anti-government protest began on April 9 near the presidential office and has been continuing without a break. “We will continue our fight till we achieve our goal for a complete change of the system,” said Father Jeewantha Peiris, a leading activist of the movement.
This is a freedom struggle. We managed to send home an authoritarian President through people’s power,” Peiris said.
Rajapaksa, 73, who fled to the Maldives on Wednesday and then landed in Singapore on Thursday, formally resigned on Friday, capping off a chaotic 72 hours in the crisis-hit nation that saw protesters storm many iconic buildings, including the President and the Prime Minister’s residences here.
Acting president Wickremesinghe appears to be their next target for the protesters and the campaign to oust him has already begun.
On July 5, we issued an action plan. Foremost of that was removing Gotabaya and defeating Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Rajapaksa regime,” Peiris said. “We press for the abolition of the presidency to make it a true realization of our action plan,” he said.
“We do not fear the government,” the protesters chanted in chorus. After occupying the most important administrative buildings in the capital, the protesters vacated three of them other than the presidential office. The protest had seen violence since it began mid-April. Some elements with extremist political agendas have been blamed for arson attacks on the personal properties of Sri Lankan leaders.
Wickremesinghe’s private house suffered an arson attack the same day when Rajapaksa fled the country. He is one of the four candidates who seek to succeed Rajapaksa in the vote in Parliament scheduled for July 20.
Wickremesinghe, who is also the prime minister, on Friday pledged to maintain law and order after he was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s interim president.
He said that the armed forces have been given the powers and the freedom to deal with any acts of violence and sabotage.
“I am one hundred per cent supportive of peaceful demonstrations. There is a difference between rioters and protesters,” he had said.
Wickremesinghe said the true protesters would not resort to unleashing violence.
Current regime in Sri Lanka doesn’t represent majority opinion, says LoP Sajith Premadasa
Following the Sri Lankan Parliament’s announcement that the nominations for the Presidential elections will be held on July 19, opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa on July 12, said that Right now they have a Parliament that does not represent the majority opinion of the people.
The leader also said that they are taking to the members of Parliament to achieve the majority in the Presidential Polls. “Right now we have 225 Parliamentarians choosing the President. Parliament composed of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Legislative majority and President will be chosen from this composition. I have given my name, will see what happens. We are talking to all members,” said the leader in an exclusive interview with ANI. “We are talking to all the members of Parliament… Victorious people should be in congruence with grassroots-level thinking. Right now we have a Parliament that doesn’t represent majority opinion of the people,” he added.
India Govt. To brief Parliament Floor Leaders On Lanka Situation
The Indian ministries of external affairs and finance will brief the floor leaders of various political parties in Parliament on the Sri Lanka situation.
Citing an office memorandum, the officials said the briefing by the two ministries has been scheduled for the evening of July 19, the second day of the monsoon session of Parliament.
The briefing on the present situation in Sri Lanka will be attended by the floor leaders of various political parties, the officials added.
Earlier in the day, India assured Sri Lanka that it will continue to support democracy, stability and economic recovery in the country, which is at a crucial juncture, amid the unprecedented political crisis and economic turmoil.
The assurance was given to Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena by India’s High Commissioner Gopal Baglay when he called on the Sri Lankan leader.
Sri Lankan lawmakers met on Saturday to begin the process of choosing a new leader to replace Rajapaksa, who is now in Singapore.
Sri Lanka’s Ruling Party To Nominate Interim President For Presidency
Sri Lanka’s ruling party has said they would nominate interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe to the presidency when the Parliament elects a new President on July 20.
Opposition Leader Confirms His Candidacy For The Presidency
Sri Lanka’s opposition leader, Sajit Premadasa, has announced his candidacy for the island’s presidency following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the appointment of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as interim president.
“I am running to become president. Although it is an uphill struggle, I am convinced that the truth will prevail,” Premadasa has informed in his profile on the social network Twitter, where he has pointed out that the coalition of the already former president Rajapaksa “dominates the numbers”.
Premadasa’s decision comes after the positive talks that his party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), held earlier this week with other formations in the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
TUCC Declare Proposals
The Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC) today declared a set of proposals aiming to resolve the burning issues faced by the country during an event held at the Public Library, Colombo.
However, the proposals are yet to be made public.
Protest Erupted Outside Sri Lankan Ousted President’s Son’s House In Los Angeles
A group of Sri Lankan protestors in the U.S. had gathered outside the residence of Manoj Rajapaksa, son of ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in Los Angeles, shouting slogans to ask his father to return home, who fled to Singapore.
The protest took place ahead of the resignation of Rajapaksa on July 13, reported The Sunday Morning.
The protester said that the money which he Rajapaksa is owning is the money of the Sri Lankans which has to be returned.
“We are in the Los Angeles Sunland neighborhood. We are in front of the house of Gotabaya Rakapaksa’s son, Manoj Rajapaksa. He has stolen money from the people of Sri Lanka and bought this luxury property. This is our money. This is our property. There are only a few of us here today but if your father will not leave his office, we will come here in the thousands,” the protestors had said.
However, Sri Lankan Twitter users criticized the protest saying Manoj Rajapaksa has not been political and his life in the US is not linked to his father’s politics.
The Protest Began In A Tent
An ABC News report — Sri Lanka’s protests started with plan hatched in a tent. Within months, thousands would storm the president’s luxury residence — (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-17/sri-lanka-protests-started-in-a-tent-but-people-power-prevails/101238082) said:
Across the road from Colombo’s famous seaside park, Galle Face Green, a tent city filled with young people has been buzzing with activity for the past four months.
It is the hub of Sri Lanka’s anti-government protest movement — a motley collection of colorful tents that has become home to a few hundred people.
“It is good to live here with like-minded people,” Buddhi Prabodha Karunaratne, one of the protest leaders, told the ABC.
“We gather around in the evening and we discuss and we plan our strategies — what should we do and what shouldn’t we do — and I think living here has helped us to plan many things and fight against this government.”
It was inside one of the tents that plans were hatched to occupy the luxury residence of strongman president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the colonial-era office of his hand-picked prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Sri Lankans blame the pair, as well as former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president’s older brother, for the unprecedented economic crisis that is crippling this island nation.
“We were planning [and thought] well maybe at some time if millions of people decide to come into Colombo, we might be able to acquire [the President’s residence],” Karunaratne said.
“We were talking about it for the past three months and when we actually did it, it was hard to believe.”
He was one of the first people to get inside the compound, then thousands followed over the next five days.
Sri Lankans who had been battling to make ends meet for months lapped up the palatial surroundings — even swimming in the pool, using the expensive gym equipment, taking selfies on the sofas, and making curries in the kitchen.
“People are struggling in their lives and their jobs, they are running out of food, and people are dying because they don’t have medicine, but still the luxuries were there [inside the president’s residence] and they were living their same old life,” Karunaratne said.
The young advertising executive emerged as a protest leader after he was one of the first people to set up at the tent city in early April.
Fed up with seeing his community hit by power cuts, inflation, and shortages of essentials such as food, fuel, and cooking oil, Karunaratne put out a call on social media.
“I am going to get on the streets to protest even all by myself. These ruling blokes don’t understand. If nothing else, at least get on the road near your home and protest,” he wrote.
Support came flooding in and the very next day Karunaratne found himself leading a rally of around 400 people.
After that he joined up with other emerging protest groups and took a break from work to concentrate on the ‘Gota Go Home’ campaign.
“I’m just an individual, I am not representing a political party. I am not coming from any trade union whatsoever, I am just an individual who made a statement on social media and I wanted people to join,” he said.
“But now the whole world knows this is a protest, this is a struggle by commoners, by real citizens in Sri Lanka.”
Environmental psychology consultant Kasumi Ranasinghe Arachchige has also been living in the tent city since the protests began.
She told the ABC she was “very proud of the people of Sri Lanka for standing up for themselves” by protesting against the government.
“To be truthful, I had been skeptical about how united Sri Lanka was,” she said.
“But I [have seen] more and more people getting involved and helping in different ways — it doesn’t have to be people just protesting, it’s distribution, it’s contribution, it’s providing a service in different ways, in your own capacity.”
Sri Lankans Don’t Believe Politicians Will Keep Promises
Ms Arachchige, a protester, said protesters have wanted new leadership for Sri Lanka since the beginning, but they are still in disbelief that it is happening.
“We achieved something and I’m actually hopeful. I’m hopeful [for the future] because of the fact we were able to achieve this in such a short time span,” she said.
The protest movement is dominated by students and young professionals, but people from all walks of life have been supporting their occupation of government buildings.
When they heard the protesters had stormed the President’s residence, they came from towns near and far to look inside the opulent building for themselves — even with the high cost of transport right now.
Once at the front gate, they were greeted by some of the protest leaders who had taken on caretaker-like roles, only allowing a certain number of people in at once, and tidying up as groups went through.
Asanka Ranasinghe and Samangita Ranasinghe came with their three children because they thought they would never get the opportunity to see the colonial-era mansion again.
“This presidential bungalow is very important for the locals, this place is very important,” Ms Ranasinghe told the ABC as she took photographs of her family inside the luxurious rooms.
But she added that it was hard to see such grandeur during tough times.
“This is a bad time… there is no fuel, no food, very expensive,” she said.
Student Rashid Firdause brought his parents and younger siblings to see the residence.
“I had to come to this place, it was my dream to come here,” he said.
He had been contemplating trying to leave Sri Lanka because of the economic crisis.
“The situation is very difficult to stay in this country,” he said.
Sri Lankans know there is a long road ahead to recovery, even with assistance from the IMF and other countries.
All eyes will be on the parliament this week for the presidential vote and the subsequent choices that person makes for other key leadership positions.
Protesters have left the buildings they occupied but are planning their next moves.
Their tent city has been up for exactly 100 days now, but they don’t plan to dismantle it just yet.
Protests Reach 100 Days As Crisis Continues
An AFP report said:
Sri Lanka’s protest movement reached its 100th day having forced one president from office and now turning its sights on his successor as the country’s economic crisis continues.
The campaign to oust ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, organized mainly through posts on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, drew people from across Sri Lanka’s often unbridgeable ethnic divides.
United by economic hardships, minority Tamils and Muslims joined the majority Sinhalese to demand the ouster of the once-powerful Rajapaksa clan.
It began as a two-day protest on April 9, when tens of thousands of people set up camp in front of Rajapaksa’s office – a crowd so much larger than the organizers’ expectations that they decided to stay on.
Under Sri Lanka’s constitution, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was automatically installed as acting president following Rajapaksa’s resignation, and is now the leading candidate to succeed him permanently in a parliamentary vote next week.
But the veteran politician is despised by the protesters as an ally of the Rajapaksa clan, four brothers who have dominated the island’s politics for years.
Social media activist and protest campaign supporter Prasad Welikumbura said Wickremesinghe too should go.
“It has been 100 days since it started,” Welikumbura said on Twitter.
“But, its still far from any concrete change in the system. #GoHomeRanil, #NotMyPresident.”
Now the Rajapaksas’ SLPP party – which has more than 100 MPs in the 225-member parliament – is backing Wickremesinghe in the vote due Wednesday.
Turning against Wickremesinghe
A spokesman for the protesters told AFP news agency: “We are now discussing with groups involved in the ‘Aragalaya’ (struggle) on turning the campaign against Ranil Wickremesinghe.”
Numbers at the protest site have diminished since Rajapaksa’s exit.
Economy To Shrink By More Than 6%
Nandalal Weerasinghe, the Governor of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said that the country’s economy is likely to contract by over 6% this year. He stressed that a stable political administration is needed to resume talks for IMF bailout.
In an interview to the Wall Street Journal, Weerasinghe told the publication that top-level talks with the IMF on a multibillion-dollar bailout had stalled.
He said the country urgently needed a stable political administration to progress discussions with the IMF on key structural reforms — such as taxation and public expenditure.
He added that stable government was essential to secure short-term bridge financing from other countries and multilateral agencies for payments for imports like fuel, pharmaceuticals and fertilizers.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan politician and former military officer who served as the eighth President of Sri Lanka from 2019 until his resignation on 14 July 2022.
Gotabaya Rajapakshe is believed to have directly overseen the country’s police and military, which have been accused by the UN, human rights groups and Sri Lanka’s own investigative agencies of crimes including torture, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killings both during the Tamil conflict and in the years since it ended in 2009.
Rajapaksa previously served as Sri Lanka’s defense secretary and oversaw a military campaign that saw hospitals shelled and tens of thousands of Tamils killed. He has repeatedly vowed not to prosecute those accused of war crimes, which includes senior military generals and his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Efforts have continued across Scotland and around the world to ensure Rajapaksa faces justice, with a legal submission filed to the International Criminal Court naming him as a violator of international law.
One relates to Roy Samathanam, a Canadian citizen of Tamil origin who a UN human rights committee has concluded was detained by Sri Lankan counter-terrorism police and tortured for three years on baseless accusations of aiding the Tigers.
Gotabaya, 69, was a US citizen at the time of the alleged offenses, but would have to give up his American citizenship if he ran for president later this year. “So this was probably the last chance for a long time to begin to hold him accountable,” said Yasmin Sooka, the executive director of the International Truth and Justice Project, the group bringing the torture suit.
The International Organization of Truth and Justice Project say that two cases have been filed against former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa at courts in the United States of America (USA) in connection with the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga and another charge by Roy Samathanam, who is a Canadian national, was detained in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo in September 2007 by the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka police, who reported directly to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Roy Samathanam was physically and psychologically tortured and forced to sign a false confession before being released in August 2010 on a plea deal and payment of a fine. In 2016. Samathanam won a UN human rights committee case but Sri Lanka has failed to abide by the compensation ruling.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa faces ten new charges of overseeing torture and sexual violence during his period as defence secretary.
The charges were filed by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on June 26 and document the horrific abuses the ten plaintiffs faced. This includes being branded with hot metals rods, whipped with cables, asphyxiated by plastic bags soaked in petrol, and six of them were repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted. The ten plaintiffs include three women; eight are Tamil and two Sinhalese. These documents are now available for the public domain.
The ITJP (International Truth and Justice Project) and Hausfeld, an international law firm, have brought these cases forward through a six-year-long investigation. They report that “the latest allegations contained details of abuses that occurred between 2008 and 2013 in army camps, including the notorious Joseph Camp in Vavuniya, police stations in the capital Colombo and Pulmoddai, and at Boossa detention site in Galle”.
Scott Gilmore, an attorney for the victims, told The Associated Press;
“This is not a case of isolated incidents. These are not random occurrences […] This was an institutional practice amounting to crimes against humanity and the head of that institution was the defense secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa”.
The lawsuit states that Gotabaya “knew or should have known that torture and sexual violence was being committed on a mass scale” and “instead of preventing these abuses he encouraged or tolerated them. Instead of prosecuting the perpetrators, he obstructed justice and threatened witnesses with death”.
Yasmin Sooka stated that since “perpetrators remain in key investigative positions in the police force shows why Sri Lankans have been unable to achieve justice […] Bringing a case abroad is their only option”.
The lawsuit further identifies several high-ranking Sri Lankan officials who were implicated in these abuses including the top investigative police officer, Nishanthe de Silva; who was alleged to have tortured a plaintiff twice in Colombo. Prasanna de Alwis, the former Officer in Charge of the Terrorism Investigation Division in Colombo, was also accused to have ordered and sometimes participated in torture. Both the top police officer and counterterrorism investigative chief were alleged to have received directions from Gotabaya directly.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa faces ten new charges of overseeing torture and sexual violence during his period as defence secretary.
The charges were filed by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on June 26 and document the horrific abuses the ten plaintiffs faced. This includes being branded with hot metals rods, whipped with cables, asphyxiated by plastic bags soaked in petrol, and six of them were repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted. The ten plaintiffs include three women; eight are Tamil and two Sinhalese. These documents are now available for the public domain.
The ITJP (International Truth and Justice Project) and Hausfeld, an international law firm, have brought these cases forward through a six-year-long investigation. They report that “the latest allegations contained details of abuses that occurred between 2008 and 2013 in army camps, including the notorious Joseph Camp in Vavuniya, police stations in the capital Colombo and Pulmoddai, and at Boossa detention site in Galle”.
Kumarathasan Rasingam, Secretary, Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org.
The G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, June 26-28, and the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, two days later, were practically useless in terms of providing actual solutions to ongoing global crises – the war in Ukraine, the looming famines, climate change and more. But the two events were important, nonetheless, as they provide a stark example of the impotence of the West, amid the rapidly changing global dynamics.
As was the case since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the West attempted to display unity, though it has become repeatedly obvious that no such unity exists. While France, Germany and Italy are paying a heavy price for the energy crisis resulting from the war, Britain’s Boris Johnson is adding fuel to the fire in the hope of making his country relevant on the global stage following the humiliation of Brexit. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is exploiting the war to restore Washington’s credibility and leadership over NATO – especially following the disastrous term of Donald Trump, which nearly broke up the historic alliance.
Even the fact that several African countries are becoming vulnerable to famines – as a result of the disruption of food supplies originating from the Black Sea and the subsequent rising prices – did not seem to perturb the leaders of some of the richest countries in the world. They still insist on not interfering in the global food market, though the skyrocketing prices have already pushed tens of millions of people below the poverty line.
Though the West had little reserve of credibility to begin with, Western leaders’ current obsession with maintaining thousands of sanctions on Russia, further NATO expansion, dumping yet more ‘lethal weapons’ in Ukraine and sustaining their global hegemony at any cost, have all pushed their credibility standing to a new low.
From the start of the Ukraine war, the West championed the same ‘moral’ dilemma as that raised by George W. Bush at the start of his so-called ‘war on terror’. “You are either with us or with the terrorist,” he declared in October 2009. But the ongoing Russia-NATO conflict cannot be reduced to simple and self-serving cliches. One can, indeed, want an end to the war, and still oppose US-western unilateralism. The reason that American diktats worked in the past, however, is that, unlike the current geopolitical atmosphere, a few dared oppose Washington’s policies.
Times have changed. Russia, China, India, along with many other countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America are navigating all available spaces to counter the suffocating western dominance. These countries have made it clear that they will not take part in isolating Russia in the service of NATO’s expansionist agenda. To the contrary, they have taken many steps to develop alternatives to the west-dominated global economy, and particularly to the US dollar which, for five decades, has served the role of a commodity, not a currency, per se. The latter has been Washington’s most effective weapon, associated with many US-orchestrated crises, sanctions and, as in the case of Iraq and Venezuela, among others, mass hunger.
China and others understand that the current conflict is not about Ukraine vs Russia, but about something far more consequential. If Washington and Europe emerge victorious, and if Moscow is pushed back behind the proverbial ‘iron curtain’, Beijing would have no other options but to make painful concessions to the re-emerging west. This, in turn, would place a cap on China’s global economic growth, and would weaken its case regarding the One China policy.
China is not wrong. Almost immediately following NATO’s limitless military support of Ukraine and the subsequent economic war on Russia, Washington and its allies began threatening China over Taiwan. Many provocative statements, along with military maneuvers and high-level visits by US politicians to Taipei, were meant to underscore US dominance in the Pacific.
Two main reasons drove the West to further invest in the current confrontational approach against China, at a time where, arguably, it would have been more beneficial to exercise a degree of diplomacy and compromise. First, the West’s fear that Beijing could misinterpret its action as weakness and a form of appeasement; and, second, because the West’s historic relationship with China has always been predicated on intimidation, if not outright humiliation. From the Portuguese occupation of Macau in the 16th century, to the British Opium Wars of the mid-19th century, to Trump’s trade war on China, the West has always viewed China as a subject, not a partner.
This is precisely why Beijing did not join the chorus of western condemnations of Russia. Though the actual war in Ukraine is of no direct benefit to China, the geopolitical outcomes of the war could be critical to the future of China as a global power.
While NATO remains insistent on expansion so as to illustrate its durability and unity, it is the alternative world order led by Russia and China that is worthy of serious attention. According to the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Beijing and Moscow are working to further develop the BRICS club of major emerging economies to serve as a counterweight to the G7. The German paper is correct. BRICS’ latest summit on June 23 was designed as a message to the G7 that the West is no longer in the driving seat, and that Russia, China and the Global South are preparing for a long fight against Western dominance.
In his speech at the BRICS summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the creation of an “international reserve currency based on the basket of currencies of our countries”. The fact that the ruble alone has managed to survive, in fact flourish, under recent Western sanctions, gives hope that BRICS currencies combined can manage to eventually sideline the US dollar as the world dominant currency.
Reportedly, it was Chinese President Xi Jinping who requested that the date of the BRICS summit be changed from July 4 to June 23, so that it would not appear to be a response to the G7 summit in Germany. This further underscores how the BRICS are beginning to see themselves as a direct competitor to the G7. The fact that Argentina and Iran are applying for BRICS membership also illustrates that the economic alliance is morphing into a political, in fact geopolitical, entity.
The global fight ahead is perhaps the most consequential since World War II. While NATO will continue to fight for relevance, Russia, China, and others will invest in various economic, political and even military infrastructures, in the hope of creating a permanent and sustainable counterbalance to Western dominance. The outcome of this conflict is likely to shape the future of humanity.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out”. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
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