The King’s Gambit

NEED TO KNOW

The King’s Gambit

MOLDOVA

Moldovan police recently foiled an “unprecedented” Russian plot to meddle in the East European country’s presidential elections and a national referendum to join the European Union scheduled for Oct. 20. The pro-European president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, said the police raided numerous locations where they discovered $15 million that they allege Russia was using to buy 100,000 votes, the Moscow Times reported.

Police have also said that Russian gangs have damaged government buildings in an effort to destabilize the democratic process, Euronews wrote. Vandals spraypainted the country’s Supreme Court, the state-run broadcaster, and the Ministry for Labor and Social Protection, for example.

And on Thursday, Moldovan security officials said that several hundred Moldovan citizens were trained in Russia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to incite street movements aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order, Romanian Insider reported.

It is clear why Russia would make such an illicit investment in destabilizing the country. Moldova straddles the dividing line between the US and Europe-dominated West and the East, where Russia is now reasserting its sphere of influence. Strategically, Moldova sits between war-torn Ukraine, which Russia invaded more than two years ago, and EU-member Romania. Culturally, it is a former Soviet republic where the citizens mainly speak a version of Romanian.

Politically, Moldova is at a crossroads, too, with this election underscoring whether the Kremlin is deepening or losing control over its former satellite states – as highlighted by the recent headline of a Center for European Policy Analysis report: “Moldova – Time to Choose Moscow or Brussels.”

“Moldova’s election and referendum will determine whether it cements its path to Europe or falls back under Moscow’s shadow,” CEPA wrote.

Polls forecast that Moldovan voters will opt for the West, the Center for Strategic and International Studies found. Most want to join the EU and most Moldovans trust Sandu. It’s easy to see why. For example, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently visited the country to campaign for the pro-EU vote, Swissinfo reported. She also pledged almost $2 billion in economic support for the country of 2.5 million people.

Sandu is bullish and principled. She has been outspoken in her condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. She recently declined to even participate in a debate with a challenger candidate, having accused him of being in the pocket of Russian political, business and criminal gang interests, Euractiv wrote, and dismissing such politicians as “non-valid.”

Meanwhile, recent polls show Sandhu taking roughly a quarter of first-round votes, the remainder divided between 10 other candidates. She will likely run against former prosecutor general Alexander Stoianoglo, who is backed by pro-Russian parties, in the second round.

Still, many Moldovans still see Russia as an important economic partner, explained the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. People in this camp often view neutrality as their country’s best bet in quietening Russia while gaining the benefits of proximity to the EU.

That’s because many people in the country, regardless of political affiliation, worry about what happens in Transdniestria, the Russian-speaking, Kremlin-backed breakaway region of Moldova,

Official broadcasters in the separatist Transdniestria region released footage of new military training centers. That follows an appeal by Russian speakers in the country to Russian President Vladimir Putin to “protect” ethnic Russians here, similarly to his promises to protect Russians in Ukraine.

According to Peter Apps, an analyst writing in Reuters, had Russia won its war in Ukraine, it’s highly likely it would have pushed through Ukraine’s western border to link up with the Russian so-called “peacekeeping” force occupying Transdniestria since 1991, possibly then annexing Moldova itself in its entirety.

“That now looks much less likely – when the (pro-Russian) authorities in Transdniestria publicly called for aid from Russia earlier in the year, nothing obvious was forthcoming,” he wrote. “But whatever happens at this election, both the Kremlin and (pro-Russian Moldovan exile Ilan) Shor probably will have a longer game in mind. How that plays out might yet have global implications.”

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Lessons For Dictators

BANGLADESH

A Bangladeshi court issued an arrest warrant against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and dozens of her officials Thursday, two months after the leader fled the country following violent, student-led demonstrations that led to her ousting, Al Jazeera reported.

Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), said the court called for the arrest of Hasina and 45 others over alleged crimes against humanity committed during the mass protests and subsequent government crackdown between July and August.

Weeks of demonstrations erupted across Bangladesh during the summer over the government’s proposed reform of its quota system, intending to reserve a third of civil service jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in the country’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.

While the protests initially demanded the abolition of the reform, they quickly spiraled into a wider movement calling for her resignation.

Violence and unrest broke out as the government launched a crackdown against demonstrators. Human rights groups accused Hasina and her administration of using excessive force against protesters, allegations that she denied.

According to the interim health ministry, more than 1,000 people were killed during the unrest.

Amid the ongoing unrest, Hasina – in power for 15 years – resigned and fled to neighboring India in early August. She was replaced by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and economist Muhammad Yunus, who is currently leading the country’s interim government.

Prosecutors have said there are more than 60 complaints of crimes against humanity and genocide filed against Hasina and her formerly ruling Awami League party, according to the India-based Asian News Network.

Chief ICT prosecutor Islam said the former leader was “at the helm of those who committed massacres, killings and crimes against humanity in July to August.”

Hasina has not appeared in public since leaving Bangladesh, but her presence in India has angered Bangladesh.

She and the 45 individuals have to appear before the ICT by Nov. 18, but there are questions about whether she will be extradited.

India and Bangladesh have a bilateral extradition treaty that could require the former leader to return to face criminal trial. However, the agreement includes a clause that says extradition might be refused if the offense is of a “political character.”

Paying For the Past

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe will begin compensating White farmers who lost their land during violent farm seizures initiated more than 20 years ago under former President Robert Mugabe, a move aimed at addressing both historical grievances and the country’s efforts to restructure its $21 billion of debt, the Associated Press reported.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced Wednesday that the government has approved more than 440 compensation claims for land, infrastructure and equipment from local White farmers, worth $351.6 million, and 94 claims from foreign farmers, valued at $196.6 million.

However, only $3.5 million will be paid in cash to local farmers, with the bulk of the compensation being issued through treasury bonds. The compensation for the local farmers is not for the land – Mugabe’s government says the land was illegally seized from Zimbabwe’s Black majority under colonialism – but only for infrastructure.

The foreign farmers, such as those from Denmark, Germany and Eastern European countries, will receive an initial $20 million to be shared equally.

The plan is a key part of the 2020 agreement between the Zimbabwean government and White farmers, which seeks to address the economic damage caused by Mugabe’s land redistribution program.

The campaign, launched in 2000 by the Mugabe administration forcibly removed around 4,000 White farmers from their properties in an effort to correct colonial-era land ownership disparities.

These often violent seizures, which saw farms taken over by mobs led by veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war in the 1970s, led to the deaths of some farmers and their workers, according to Human Rights Watch.

Although Mugabe’s initiative aimed at returning land to Black Zimbabweans, it decimated the country’s agricultural industry, transforming a key regional food producer into a recipient of international aid.

While the agricultural sector has shown signs of recovery, recent droughts present ongoing challenges.

Observers said the compensation is crucial to the country’s efforts to restructure its $21 billion debt after defaulting in 1999, Bloomberg wrote. The compensation deal is a key condition for debt relief.

Clocking Out

SWITZERLAND

A court in Switzerland ruled that a dial manufacturer in the famed Swiss watchmaking industry was justified in requiring workers to punch out for bathroom breaks, pitting the rich Alpine country’s labor standards against its reputation for “running like clockwork,” wrote to the Associated Press.

An investigative report by the Swiss news outlet RTS this month reported that a regional court in Neuchâtel in western Switzerland found that watch company Jean Singer & Cie SA had not violated any rights by making their employees clock out to use the toilet.

The requirement became apparent to labor inspectors during an on-site visit to the company during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. The inspectors ordered the company to end the practice, alleging that Singer violated a federal labor law that protects workers’ personal needs.

The labor inspectors claimed the policy could cause employees to “hold it in or not hydrate, which could lead to serious physiological disorders.”

The case was decided in June but made public last month. In the ruling, Singer insisted that the employees had the freedom to choose what to do on their breaks without having to notify their superiors and that the lengths of the clock-outs were “left to the discretion of each employee.”

The court ruled in favor of Singer, writing that “Swiss law does not mention the right of employees to go to the toilet, even though this is a basic physiological need.”

This “loophole” in Swiss labor law is not only being used by Singer but by other companies in the watchmaking industry: Two companies in Switzerland under the Swatch Group also required employees to clock out for bathroom breaks.

The parent firm said that it was unaware of this situation and ordered its immediate end of the practice.

DISCOVERIES

Busy – and Stressed – As a Bee

Stress can make humans more pessimistic and impact their performance at work and in everyday life.

It’s the same for bees, according to a new study.

Scientists at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom discovered that bumblebees can exhibit emotion-like responses to stressful events similar to humans.

In their experiments, they trained bees to determine whether a certain color was associated with a good or bad outcome: For example, one color was associated with a sweet reward location, while another pointed to a location with a low reward.

They then split the insects into three groups, with two experiencing predatory attacks, while the third control group experienced none.

Unsurprisingly, the findings showed that bees that experienced the attacks became too cautious and pessimistic. The team explained the traumatized buzzers were less likely to perceive ambiguous colors with high rewards and played it safe by flying toward locations with low rewards.

“When faced with ambiguity, stressed bees, much like someone seeing the glass as ‘half empty,’ are more likely to expect negative outcomes,” lead author Olga Procenko said in a statement.

Procenko and her team explained that stressed bees can lower their expectations of rewards and thus impact the way they approach pollination.

“Emotions are complex states and in humans involve a subjective understanding of what you are feeling,” added co-author Vivek Nityananda. “We might never know if bees feel something similar, however, what this research can say is that bees have similar responses when they are stressed and make pessimistic choices.”

The study is key to understanding the impact of stress on bees and their pollination process, Earth.com reported.

Bees pollinate around 80 percent of flowering plants, supporting about one-third of our food supply. Figuring out how stress affects their foraging could lead to better management strategies and help lessen environmental impacts on bee populations.

Procenko added that the study “opens up new possibilities for understanding how stress affects insect cognition and behavior, which could provide insights into their responses to environmental challenges and inform conservation efforts.”

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