EsadeGeo - EsadeGeo Daily Digest, 04/10/2023

The Washington Post - Nick Miroff / U.S. charges Chinese companies, executives with fentanyl crimes

 

• U.S. officials announced criminal charges Tuesday against eight Chinese companies and 12 of their executives accused of supplying precursor chemicals for the illegal manufacture of fentanyl, methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs.
• The charges were the second major set of indictments the Biden administration has unsealed since June accusing companies in China with supplying Mexican drug cartels and fueling a U.S. overdose epidemic that is killing more than 100,000 Americans a year. Most of the deaths have been linked to fentanyl, the synthetic opioid 50 times as potent as heroin.
• Undercover U.S. agents ordered the chemicals from online sellers in China who openly advertised their ability to skirt U.S. detection by using fake shipping labels and deceptive delivery procedures, U.S. officials said.
• “We know who is responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Justice Department news briefing describing the charges, adding, “And we know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China.”

   

 

Al-Jazeera - Ali Harb / Egypt faces scrutiny in US after Senator Menendez’s bribery indictment

 

• Menendez is accused of accepting bribes in exchange for using his elected position to benefit the Egyptian government. But the allegations raise questions about the broader ties between the US and Egypt — a relationship that has been under scrutiny amid human rights concerns.
• “This is not just an issue of one corrupt person. It is an issue of a problematic relationship that is not founded on the ideals and values of respect to democracy and human rights,” said Nancy Okail, president of the Center for International Policy, a US-based think tank.
• Rights groups have accused Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government, which came to power in a 2013 military coup, of jailing tens of thousands of dissidents and outlawing virtually all political opposition.
• El-Sisi’s administration has denied accusations of rights abuses while stressing the need to maintain stability in the country. But in Washington, calls for rethinking ties with Cairo have been growing — especially after last month’s indictment.

 

The Guardian / What does speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ousting mean for US aid to Ukraine?

 

• The historic ousting of House speaker Kevin McCarthy adds further uncertainty to the outlook for US aid to Ukraine, after support for Kyiv was excluded from the recent US government funding bill, leaving Joe Biden to rely on the Republican speaker for a separate deal.
• The president said at the weekend that US support for Ukraine could not be interrupted “under any circumstances” and that he fully expected McCarthy “to keep his commitment to secure the passage and support needed to help Ukraine as they defend themselves against aggression and brutality”.
• The need to shore up support for Kyiv has become more pressing, with Adm Rob Bauer, Nato’s most senior military official, saying on Tuesday “the bottom of the barrel is now visible”, with Ukraine said to be firing thousands of shells – many of which come from Nato – every day.
• The White House said on Tuesday it was confident the US would ultimately provide more assistance for Ukraine, no matter the fate of McCarthy’s speakership, but with McCarthy out, attention has now turned to the views of his potential successors.

 

Politico - James Angelos / Germany’s far-right ‘firewall’ cracks

 

• Center-right legislators in the eastern German state of Thuringia wanted to cut a local property tax by a small amount — and did so with the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
• The move broke with years of tradition in which mainstream parties have vowed to maintain a Brandmauer, or firewall, between themselves and the AfD, a party many in a country alert to the legacy of Nazism see as a dire threat to democracy. Even accepting the party’s support, the thinking goes, would legitimize far-right forces or make them salonfähig — socially acceptable.
• “For me, a taboo has been broken,” Katrin Göring-Eckardt, a leader of the Greens who hails from Thuringia, said after the vote. “It shows me not only that the firewall is gone, but that there is open collaboration.”
• For mainstream parties, and the CDU in particular, the question of how to handle the growing presence of far-right radicals in governing bodies from federal and state parliaments to local councils is likely to grow only more vexing.

 

 

Our opinion reads for today:

 

• Project Syndicate - Maciej Kisilowski and Anna Wojciuk / Can national reconciliation defeat populism?
• Bloomberg / Poland’s grain dispute with Ukraine is helping Putin