Letting Go to Grow: Armenian Leaders Make Peace Abroad, War at Home
NEED TO KNOW
Letting Go to Grow: Armenian Leaders Make Peace Abroad, War at Home
ARMENIA
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sacrificed a tremendous amount of political capital when he ceded a few border villages to neighboring Azerbaijan.
He did so as part of a deal that stemmed from Armenia’s defeat in 2023 to Azeri forces, who crushed Armenian separatists in the Karabakh region in a conflict that traces back to the Soviet Union in the early 20th century.
Afterward, Armenian organizations like the Sacred Struggle emerged in protest against their Christian nation’s capitulation to Azerbaijan, a largely Muslim and ethnically Turkic country.
Pashinyan, in turn, has cracked down on opponents, raising questions about his efforts to cultivate peace at home: Critics are now charging him with sacrificing civil rights and making war with church leaders.
The uproar began in late June after security services arrested one of the country’s top religious leaders on terrorism charges and accused him of plotting to overthrow the government, the second arrest in a week of a prominent political opponent.
Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a major figure in the influential Apostolic Church, who leads the Sacred Struggle opposition movement, was arrested and accused of planning to carry out bombings and arson attacks. His lawyer described the charges as “fiction.”
Galstanyan has demanded the resignation of Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018.
Pashinyan said that security services had foiled a plot by “the criminal oligarch clergy to destabilize Armenia and take power.”
More than a dozen other opposition members were arrested around the same time after raids on their homes by police, in which officers allegedly found firearms and ammunition.
Those arrests followed another earlier last month: Church leader Catholicos Karekin II was detained following an online post and accused of calling for seizing power in the country.
Undaunted by the political turmoil at home, however, Pashinyan is pressing on to end tensions with the country’s neighbor. He and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev recently met in Abu Dhabi to finalize a peace agreement that would formally end four decades of fighting between the two countries, Euronews wrote.
That meeting, incidentally, followed a sit-down between Pashinyan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul. As the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explained, Armenia has sought closer relations with Turkey after decades of distrust stemming from Turkey’s support of Azerbaijan and the country’s denial of claims that Ottoman forces committed genocide against ethnic Armenians in 1915.
Armenia has also sought closer relations with the European Union. In April, the country enacted its first law to trigger the EU accession process – and the billions in euros in foreign investment that accession often attracts, according to Reuters.
Notably absent from this list of diplomatic appointments is Armenia’s traditional ally, Russia. For years, Russia bolstered Armenia, counterbalancing Turkish aid to Azerbaijan. But last year, Pashinyan withdrew Armenia from a Russian-led military alliance, noting that Moscow failed to help Armenia defend itself when Azeri forces attacked Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 and retook the enclave, noted CNN.
At the same time, leaders in the South Caucasus region are looking for ways to work around President Vladimir Putin while the Russian military is bogged down in Ukraine, added the Economist.
The Americans, as well as the Chinese and Indians, the Diplomat noted, are also moving into Armenia to try to wield influence in a country that is strategically located on the divide between East and West.
Russia has responded with a show of force, however, sending a fresh detachment of troops to a Russian army base near the Armenian city of Gyumri.
“Amid escalating tension with Armenia stemming from Yerevan’s desire to pivot westward, and lacking the ability to offer economic incentives,” wrote Eurasia.net, “Russia is resorting to a traditional tactic to get its way: throw troops at the problem.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Japan’s Prime Minister Will Stay Despite Losing Majority
JAPAN
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed on Monday to remain in office despite his ruling coalition’s defeat in legislative elections over the weekend, which has severely weakened his grip on power and left the government vulnerable to no-confidence votes, Reuters reported.
Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and junior partner Komeito secured only 47 seats in the 248-member House of Councilors, falling three short of the 50 needed to retain its majority in the upper house, in an election in which half the seats were contested.
The loss is another setback for the ruling bloc, which already lost its majority in the lower house in the October elections – its worst performance in 15 years.
At a press conference, Ishiba acknowledged the “harsh result” but maintained that he will stay on as prime minister, citing urgent economic issues such as critical trade negotiations with the United States.
Japan is facing an Aug. 1 tariff deadline with Washington. Failure to strike a deal could see the world’s fourth-largest economy hit with a 25 percent tariff on exports to the US.
Sunday’s vote was overshadowed by voter anger over inflation, particularly a doubling in rice prices, and the LDP’s refusal to cut the consumption tax – a key opposition demand.
Analysts suggested that the ruling party’s weakened mandate will force the prime minister to compromise with opposition parties, while also emboldening leadership challenges within the LDP, Al Jazeera noted.
Meanwhile, the elections also marked a dramatic breakthrough for the far-right Sanseito party, which gained 14 new seats in the upper house.
Founded online in 2020 by former supermarket manager Sohei Kamiya, the populist group capitalized on voter frustration over inflation, rising food prices, and immigration.
Its “Japanese First” platform calls for curbing foreign workers, capping resident numbers, and resisting globalist policies, according to CNN.
Observers said the messaging is reminiscent of other far-right and populist movements in Europe and elsewhere.
While polls show that immigration remains a low priority for most voters, Sanseito’s rise signals growing discontent with the status quo.
Party leader Kamiya said his party would rebuild Japanese livelihoods by “resisting globalism.”
Critics have accused the party and its leader of xenophobia and misinformation, particularly over its promotion of vaccine conspiracies and elite plots.
Student’s Petition Against Pesticide Triggers Legislative Debate
FRANCE
A petition launched by a 23-year-old student opposing the return of a banned pesticide garnered more than a million signatures and triggered a parliamentary debate, a move that marks a first in France’s recent history, Politico reported.
The petition centers on the Duplomb Law, named after one of its sponsors, which was passed in the French parliament in early July with the intention of simplifying farmers’ work by cutting red tape and helping them to stay competitive but also temporarily allowing the use of acetamiprid, an insecticide that has been banned in France since 2018.
Farmers, especially those growing beets and nuts, say the pesticide is essential for shielding their crops from pests and animals. They add that it is unfair to ban its use in France while competitors in other European countries can use it.
Opponents, however, say acetamiprid is toxic for humans and lethal for bees.
Two days after the law’s passage, Eléonore Pattery, a student from the south-western city of Bordeaux, started a petition calling for the law to be scrapped, claiming that it represents a “scientific, ethical, environmental and health aberration,” according to Radio France Internationale.
On Saturday, Pattery’s proposal crossed the 500,000-signature threshold, and by late Sunday, the number had more than doubled to pass 1 million.
According to French law, once a petition reaches at least 500,000 verified signatures from across the country, the Assemblée Nationale has the right to hold a public debate on the petition’s topic.
However, reaching the threshold does not guarantee that the proposed legislation will be amended or repealed. On Sunday, the speaker of the parliament said that it would hold a debate but that it would not change the law, France 24 added.
The success of the petition, nevertheless, deals a blow to the government, which supported the measure. Left-wing farmers’ unions and several green and left-wing parties opposed it.
In May, French farmers rode into Paris on tractors and blocked highways around the city in an attempt to persuade parliament to pass the bill.
Meanwhile, thousands of people, including environmental groups and scientists, have been protesting against the return of the pesticide in recent months.
Trinidad and Tobago Declares State of Emergency Over Assassination Plot
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Trinidad and Tobago declared a state of emergency Friday after authorities discovered an alleged assassination plot orchestrated by a criminal network operating within the country’s prison system to kill key government officials and attack public institutions, Euronews reported.
After months of intelligence gathering, investigators said the intended targets were senior police officers, members of the judiciary, and staff at the state prosecutor’s office. No specific threats were directed at politicians, according to the authorities.
Police said that the individuals allegedly involved in the plot communicated through encrypted messages sent via smuggled mobile phones. They described them as “a coordinated and highly dangerous criminal network.”
“They were planning, actively so, to carry out assassinations, robberies, and kidnappings,” police commissioner Allister Guevarro said.
Afterward, newly elected Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar declared a state of emergency for 15 days, the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian newspaper noted.
The state of emergency grants police the authority to carry out warrantless searches and arrests.
The gang leaders believed to be connected to the plot have been held in a maximum-security prison in eastern Trinidad, where smuggled phones and illicit communication have been persistent issues.
Authorities say they have now been transferred to an unidentified facility. Guevarro also added that recent kidnappings and homicides targeting citizens have been traced back to this organized crime syndicate, according to Sky News.
This is the second state of emergency that Trinidad and Tobago has declared in less than a year: The first, in December, was issued because of escalating gang violence and lasted for four months.
The southern Caribbean country, which has a population of about 1.4 million, reported 624 killings in 2024, its deadliest year on record.
DISCOVERIES
The Death Wish
Earth is fortunate to sit at a safe distance from the Sun, shielded by a magnetic field that protects it from harmful solar flares.
But some 400 light-years away, scientists have discovered a planet facing a far more hostile fate – not only being blasted by its star’s flares, but actually triggering them.
That’s the conclusion of astrophysicist Ekaterina Illin and her team after analyzing data from two space telescopes and noticing a strange phenomenon occurring in the HIP 67522 star system.
The not-so-distant star is around 17 million years old – young by cosmic standards – and has two planets orbiting it.
One of them, a gas giant called HIP 67522 b, orbits dangerously close to the volatile star. Roughly the size of Jupiter, the planet completes a full orbit in just seven Earth days and is exposed to frequent, intense flaring, according to NASA.
In their study, the research team found that the planet was causing these flares by hooking into HIP 67522’s magnetic field and triggering them on the stellar surface. Observations showed that the gas giant sparked these flares once every Earth day or two.
Illin told to Scientific American that these flares were “thousands of times more energetic than anything the sun can produce,” adding that this destructive relationship will not end well for the planet.
Getting pummeled by solar flares so frequently could see HIP 67522 b lose its atmosphere and shrink to the size of Neptune – or smaller – in 100 million years.
“Flaring might cut the lifetime of the planet’s atmosphere in half,” said Illin.
While astronomers have long suspected that such self-destructive planets might exist, this marks the first time one has been directly observed.
“In a way, we got lucky,” Ilin remarked.
The authors now plan to compare HIP 67522 b with other planets in the system and figure out how this flare-triggering mechanism works.
They also hope to learn whether this phenomenon is very common across the galaxy.
“Once we figure out how it works, we can turn it into a planet-detection technique,” she told Scientific American.
Clarification: In Monday’s Discoveries item, “Shrinking Under Pressure” we said that fishing for cod was banned in 2019. That ban, applicable to the eastern Baltic, only refers to targeted cod fishing, which refers to fishing with the specific goal of catching cod, using specific equipment to attract the fish. Differently, non-targeted cod fishing is still allowed, meaning cod that is caught while fishing for a variety of species.