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HomeGlobal PulsePutin gets the summit he'd been waiting for, and a crocodile massacre...

Putin gets the summit he’d been waiting for, and a crocodile massacre in Indonesia

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Senior military officers in Egypt may escape punishment for post-Morsi violence, and British army to hire Gurkha women.

The Trump-Putin Summit went in Putin’s favour

The Helsinki summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counteroart Donald Trump gave the former what he needed most from it: Endorsement from Donald Trump, writes The New York Times. The two had a private meeting, after which they held a news conference where Trump stopped just short of taking Putin’s side against that of American intelligence agencies. Trump said Putin had offered to have his own intelligence agencies investigate the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US election, which the US President “thought was a good deal”.

“They think it’s Russia,” he said. “I have President Putin — he just said it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

The meeting came after special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers for allegedly hacking Democratic Party emails in 2016.

“Both Mr Trump and Mr Putin expressed confidence that Russia and the United States were entering a period of better relations and cooperation on global problems, but they did not cite any examples, and their news conference exposed continued areas of disagreement,” The New York Times reports.

After the conference, both leaders sat down for separate interviews with Fox NewsPutin was grilled, but remained defiant about Russian involvement in the election.

The full text of the news conference, published by the Kremlin, can be found here. 

Their meeting took place in the land of the free press

The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat welcomed Trump and Putin to Helsinki with messages about press freedom, displayed on 300 billboards across the city, like “Mr President, welcome to the land of free press”.

Finland was ranked one of the top five countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, with the United States at 45 and Russia at 148.

China touts economy boost, but observers are wary

The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said Monday that the country’s economy had grown by 6.7 per cent in the second quarter, just 0.1 per cent lower than the first half of 2018.

The Global Times reported that the growth was above the government’s target of 6.5 per cent, and persisted despite the ongoing trade row with the United States.

According to a report in The New York Times, the high figures cannot be relied on entirely — “detailed data show weakening investment in infrastructure and less exuberant spending by China’s usually ebullient consumers”. Private businesses are complaining that the government’s attempt to reduce debt has affected their ability to borrow money, and several Chinese companies have defaulted on their loans. China’s start-up scene is also allegedly going through a downturn, the report added.

Small win is small joy for British PM Theresa May

“Prime Minister Theresa May won a series of votes in parliament Monday, keeping her over-arching strategy to leave the European Union just about on track after bowing to pressure from Brexit supporters in her party,” reports Reuters.

Parliament voted 318-285 to pass the so-called customs bill, which will now have to be passed by the upper house to become law.

By accepting hardline Brexiteers’ demands, however, May has exposed the cracks within her party. “But even before the EU has had time to assess her vision for Britain’s future ties with the bloc, her plans have come under fire from both camps in the Conservative Party. One pro-EU ex-minister called it the ‘worst of all worlds’, while eurosceptics said the strategy kept Britain too close to the bloc,” the report adds.

Indonesian villagers slaughter nearly 300 crocodiles

Armed with knives, hammers and clubs, villagers in Indonesia killed 292 crocodiles to avenge the death of a man killed by a crocodile at a breeding farm.

Reuters reports that the 48-year-old victim entered the crocodile farm, located at Sorong in the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua, and was most likely picking grass for animal feed when he was attacked.

After the man’s burial Saturday, villagers entered the farm and killed all the crocodiles.

“The farm had been given a licence to breed protected saltwater and New Guinea crocodiles in 2013 for preservation and also to harvest some of the animals. But one of the conditions was that the reptiles did not disturb the community,” Reuters reports.

Military officers in Egypt may escape prosecution for post-Morsi excesses

“Egypt’s parliament has passed a bill that could make senior military officers immune from future prosecution tied to the violence that followed the 2013 overthrow of elected President Mohamed Morsi,” reports Al Jazeera. 

Passed Monday, the bill grants President Abdel Fatta el-Sisi the right to name officers who are granted eligibility for rewards and immunity from investigation for any crimes committed from 3 July 2013 to 8 July 2014 — the period from Morsi’s overthrow to Sisi’s first day as President.

“At least 800 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were killed when security forces broke up a sit-in at Cairo’s Rabaa Square in support of Morsi in August 2013, in one of the bloodiest events in Egypt’s recent history.”

Introduce death penalty at risk of concession cuts, EU threatens Sri Lanka

European Union ambassadors Monday warned Sri Lanka against ending its decades-long moratorium on capital punishment, saying it would risk losing trade concessions otherwise, Channel News Asiareports.

President Maithripala Sirisena had said last week that repeat drug offenders would be hanged.

“The diplomatic missions have requested the President to maintain the moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty and to uphold Sri Lanka’s tradition of opposition to capital punishment,” the EU ambassadors, supported by Canada and Norway, said in a joint statement.

The UK will now recruit female soldiers from Nepal

The Himalayan Times reports that the British army is looking to recruit more female soldiers from Nepal to its Brigade of Gurkhas, for which it has been hiring Nepali Gurkha soldiers for over 200 years.

“The move is part of the British army plan to boost the 3,000-strong Brigade of Gurkhas by an additional 800 troops in an attempt to plug a shortfall of more than 5,500 troops,” the report adds.

New recruitments will take place in the infantry battalion, and fresh units of engineers and communications experts. The first female Gurkhas will most likely arrive in the UK for infantry training in 2020.

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