The Bulldozer
NEED TO KNOW
The Bulldozer
ZAMBIA
The Zambian Constitutional Court recently overturned lower court rulings to determine that ex-President Edgar Lungu could not run for reelection in 2026.
Lungu first took office in 2015 after the death of President Michael Sata, the BBC reported. He then won reelection in 2016, defeating current President Hakainde Hichilema. In 2021, he ran again but lost to Hichilema. Now, after arguing that his first 20-month term shouldn’t count towards his limit of two terms, he’s barred from running again.
Lungi said the decision reflected “political interference in the judiciary,” wrote the Africa Report.
The decision raises serious questions about Zambian democracy. Lungu faced corruption allegations when in power. He’s accused, for example, of participating in bribes and kickbacks related to construction projects in Zambia and Eswatini, the country formerly known as Swaziland, wrote the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Now his family faces numerous graft charges, the Associated Press reported. This summer, for instance, Zambian police arrested Lungu’s wife Esther and daughter on corruption charges, First Post added. Prosecutors alleged that Esther Lungu owns properties worth more than $2 billion, but couldn’t explain how she paid for the properties.
Still, observers say that Lungu might be correct when he says Hichilema is railroading him.
The Zambian government withdrew Lungu’s retirement benefits when it became clear he might challenge Hichilema. After he announced that he would run again, Lungu began jogging in public with supporters. The police deemed the jogging as “political activism” that should be registered before occurring and forced him to stop. Hichilema also fired three judges who approved Lungu’s 2021 run for office.
Those are only some signs of how Hichilema might be consolidating his rule. His government has proposed legislation compelling non-governmental organizations to register with the state, a common way for governments to exercise control over a sector of civil society that often holds powerful figures to account.
Hichilema, meanwhile, has been trying to look presidential. He has been working hard to improve his country’s ties with both the US and China, as the American Presidency Project and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs illustrated.
Improving his country’s infrastructure, especially its energy grid – the southern African nation had been a pioneer in hydropower but now is struggling to generate electricity due to bad droughts, as the Washington Post reported – is among his priorities. To help address spikes in energy costs, he has been building coal-fired plants to make up for the difference, the Wilson Center noted.
Hichilema may be trying to make Zambians’ lives better – they face poverty, electricity shortages, and inflation. But he’s also trying to stay in power by changing the constitution and possibly delaying the elections for years, according to Sishuwa of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, writing in the Mail & Guardian.
“The president’s implied threats to extend his stay in power were neither random nor a result of ignorance of the law,” he wrote. “Hichilema has a proven record of undermining democratic institutions in a crude manner. If Zambians wish to reclaim their democratic institutions and space, they will do well not to underestimate Hichilema and the lengths to which he is prepared to go in his bid for absolute power.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
New Friends
RUSSIA
Russia’s parliament passed a bill Tuesday to remove groups from the country’s list of designated terrorist organizations, a move that will likely lead to Moscow normalizing relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan and establishing ties with Syria’s new leadership, the Moscow Times reported.
The lower house of parliament approved the legislation which will create a legal mechanism to delist organizations deemed to have ceased terrorism-related activities.
Under the new law, Russia’s prosecutor general can request a court ruling to remove a group’s terrorist designation if there is evidence it has “ceased” activities previously deemed “in support of terrorism.”
The bill now moves to the upper chamber for a final vote before being signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, who has referred to the Taliban as “allies in the fight against terrorism.”
The Taliban – labeled a terrorist organization by Russia in 2003 – has become a central focus of this shift.
Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US forces, Moscow has steadily expanded ties with the group. While delisting the Taliban would not amount to formal recognition of their government, it paves the way for deeper engagement, observers noted.
Russia’s neighbors in Central Asia have already taken similar steps, with Kazakhstan removing the Taliban from terror lists in late 2023.
The bill could also affect other groups, such as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which played a key role in toppling Syria’s government under President Bashar Assad earlier this month.
Moscow – a backer of the ousted Syrian leader – has a series of strategic interests in Syria, where it maintains critical military facilities, including the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia and the Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean coast, Reuters wrote.
Analysts said the move highlighted Moscow’s growing focus on countering security threats in the region.
The Taliban has pledged to eradicate Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K in Afghanistan, the group suspected of orchestrating a bloody terrorist attack in March at a concert hall near Moscow that killed 145 people.
A Small Victory
ARGENTINA
Argentina officially emerged from recession in the third quarter of 2024, marking a significant milestone for President Javier Milei and his sweeping economic reforms that have sought to stabilize the country’s crisis-ridden economy, the Financial Times reported this week.
The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.9 percent between July and September compared with the previous quarter, according to data released Monday by Argentina’s statistics agency.
This marks the first expansion of the economy since late 2023, although GDP was still 2.1 percent lower than the same period last year. Growth was driven by agriculture and mining exports, alongside a rebound in consumer spending and capital investment.
Still, the manufacturing and construction sectors remain severely depressed.
Milei’s austerity measures, termed radical and brutal by many Argentinians and which include deep spending cuts and deregulation, have brought inflation down from a staggering 211 percent in December 2023 while bolstering investor optimism, CNN added.
On Monday, Argentina’s Merval stock index rose by seven percent, marking a 174 percent increase this year, while the risk premium on sovereign bonds fell to 677 basis points, a sharp improvement from a figure of more than 2,000 basis points when Milei took office.
However, these reforms have come at a social cost, say critics: The poverty rate increased to 53 percent in the first half of this year, while unemployment has also climbed.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts a 3.5 percent contraction for 2024 but predicts five percent growth next year.
While the rebound signals investor confidence and improved growth prospects, economists warned that Milei’s administration must lift capital and currency controls for Argentina to achieve sustained growth.
Others added that the libertarian president must also deliver lasting growth that boosts the living standards for Argentines in order for Milei’s party La Libertad Avanza to gain enough support in the mid-term elections slated for late 2025.
A Little Justice
UGANDA
A Ugandan court this week ordered the government to pay reparations to victims of atrocities committed by former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Thomas Kwoyelo, marking a significant step in addressing the impact of the group’s brutal insurgency decades ago, Voice of America reported.
Kwoyelo was sentenced in October to 40 years in prison after being found guilty on 44 charges, including murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, and crimes against humanity. Captured in 2009 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he became the first senior LRA member to be convicted in Uganda.
In its Monday ruling, the International Crimes Division Court awarded varying amounts of compensation to victims: Families of each deceased person can receive $2,700, while those who suffered physical injuries are entitled to $1,000. Victims of gender-based violence, including rape and forced marriage, will receive $1,350.
The court reasoned Kwoyelo was unable to pay the compensation because of his “indigent” status, according to Africa News. It added that the government should compensate the victims, citing the scale of the atrocities as a failure of the state to protect its citizens.
“Atrocities committed on a scale warranting transitional justice is considered a manifestation of a failure on the part of the government that triggers a responsibility for the state to pay reparations to the victims,” said Justice Duncan Gaswaga, according to VOA.
Founded in the 1980s by Joseph Kony, the LRA waged a two-decade insurgency in northern Uganda, marked by massacres, abductions, and severe human rights violations.
While Kony remains at large despite a 2005 International Criminal Court indictment, the LRA’s influence has diminished, though survivors continue to demand justice.
While victims, lawmakers, and advocates welcomed the ruling, the court’s order faces challenges because it lacks enforcement power.
Observers said that effective reparations rely on parliamentary approval to establish a trust fund for victims and allocate an annual budget.
Lawmakers criticized delays in passing the Transitional Justice Bill, which is aimed at addressing accountability, reparations, and truth-telling.
The draft law has remained in limbo since 2019, despite calls for reparations and institutional reforms. Victims and advocates hope this ruling will pressure the government to act swiftly.
DISCOVERIES
Breaking the Ice
Scientists recently uncovered some of the many mysteries of Antarctica’s Lake Enigma.
The permanently frozen lake is located between two glaciers – Amorphous and Boulder Clay – in the northern foothills of Victoria Land.
Its position prompted many researchers to believe that the entire lake was frozen. However, a research team found there was still water under thick layers of ice, according to a new study.
Ground penetrating radar showed beneath the ice at about 36 feet a layer of water with a maximum depth of 39.4 feet, according to Gizmodo.
And where there is water, there is usually life.
Recently, researchers drilled through the ice and carefully collected water samples from Lake Enigma to analyze their contents. The team carefully looked at elements and molecules, as well as sequenced RNA to spot any microorganisms that thrived in the lake.
“Lake Enigma supports a phylogenetically diverse and high-biomass microbial ecosystem that stands unique among Antarctic perennially ice-covered lakes,” they wrote in their study.
The discovered microbes include bacteria such as Pseudomonadota, Actinobacteriota, and Bacteroidota. The scientists also spotted a lot of Patescibacteria, an extremely simple bacteria with limited functions.
The findings suggested that the freshwater body hosted a diverse community of microorganisms before Antarctica became a frozen wasteland about 14 million years ago. Even so, the surviving microbes were isolated from the rest of the world.
“It is clear that Lake Enigma contains distinct ice-associated, planktonic, and benthic microbial communities,” the authors explained. “The ice-sealed planktonic and benthic microbiota of Lake Enigma likely represent persistent legacy biota that arose from the lake’s ancient microbial ecosystem before the freeze-up.”
While it might be small, the new study sheds some new light into the prehistoric ecosystem in Antarctica, as well as how current life forms pull through in extreme environments.
Correction: In Friday’s NEED TO KNOW section, we said in our “Yin and the Yang” item that former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro was a former army officer who tortured civilians under the military junta that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. That is incorrect. Bolsonaro, a former military officer, was criticized for extolling those in that period who tortured civilians. We apologize for the error.