British Parliament to vote for Brexit deal today
With the British parliament set to vote on the Brexit deal, UK Prime Minister Theresa May has managed to secure “legally binding changes” to the Brexit deal after last-minute talks with European Commission president Jean Claude Junker, reported AP. The new deal concerns the controversial part relating to the Irish border. Facing a 29 March deadline, this is May’s last chance to get the Brexit deal passed in the British parliament. The vote will be held Tuesday.
Protests force Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflik to drop bid for fifth term
After weeks of intense protests by Algerians, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Monday announced that the upcoming elections will be postponed and he will not be seeking a fifth term, reported BBC. Bouteflika “has led Algeria for 20 years but has been rarely seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013”. The protests against his candidacy forced the judges and military to side with the protestors, who refused to oversee the upcoming elections. No new date has been announced for the elections.
Disillusioned bureaucrats have started to desert China
Some disillusioned bureaucrats in China are beginning to either quit or leave the country, reported Bloomberg. This comes after Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption drive, which resulted in over a million officials being booked, and helped Xi consolidate power. These bureaucrats complain about how ability and performance have taken a back seat, while what increasingly matters is loyalty and political considerations.
China’s push is creating a new “two-bloc” world
The “two bloc world” is making a return once again with China’s growing influence in Latin America and Western Europe, Financial Times chief foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman writes in his column. Rachman talks about some obvious signs such as Italy becoming the first G7 country to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the continuous Chinese investments worldwide. Read the column here.
Here’s a long look at how the Gurtel case unravelled in Spain
Over the past decade a political corruption scandal, known as the “Gurtel case”, has shook the entire political system of Spain. The case involves a business executive, Franciso Correa, giving bribes to various high-ranking members of the country’s conservative, People’s Party, in return for “public works contracts”. Gurtel has implicated several top-leaders of People’s Party, including former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and former treasury minister Luis Barcenas.
This audio version of Guardian Long Reads looks at how “The Gürtel” case began with one Madrid mogul. Over the next decade, it grew into the biggest corruption investigation in Spain’s recent history, sweeping up hundreds of corrupt politicians and businessmen – and shattering its political system.”