The Morning Brief - Lignet
Rocked by a Close Vote, Malaysia Faces Uncertain Path
The political coalition led by Prime Minister Najib Razak won a narrow
victory in Sunday’s national election in Malaysia, but it now faces
widespread accusations of electoral fraud. Opposition leader Anwar
Ibrahim says he will lead a “fierce” protest against Razak's party, a
move that could turn Malaysia on its head and derail the economic
progress achieved over the last half century.
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Is $93 Billion in US Aid Making Things Worse in Afghanistan?
As U.S. involvement in Afghanistan steadily declines ahead of the 2014
troop pullout, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction, John F. Sopko, warned in a January 2013 report that U.S.
aid programs are being disastrously mismanaged. Detailing massive
problems with corruption, lack of sustainability, runaway fraud, waste,
and abuse, and a host of other problems, Sopko highlights persistent,
systemic problems that have been worsening for years.
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New Unrest in Nigeria Threatens Oil Production
The spread of ethnic and religious violence to Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger
Delta threatens to reignite the region, which has generally been
peaceful since a government amnesty in 2009. The turbulence has the
potential to further destabilize the country’s critically important
energy industry and undermine efforts to attract international
investment.
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Syria Unlikely to Retaliate for Israeli Airstrikes
Israeli airstrikes last weekend delivered a devastating blow to Syrian
military units and undermined the regime’s attempts to transfer
sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah. But despite repeated threats by
Syrian officials, Damascus is unlikely to engage in any direct
retaliatory military action against Israel, at least in the near term.
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Why the Sinaloa Cartel May Be Winning Mexico’s Drug War
Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel has mastered the art of manipulating information
to brainwash rural poor into believing that even the most violent foot
soldiers are virtuous Robin Hood figures. By using clever public
relations methods and religious themes such as “narco-saints,” the
Sinaloa cartel is creating a sense of inevitability that has some
claiming these crime lords from Mexico’s Pacific coast have already won
the drug war against the Mexican government and the United States.
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Bangladesh: Uprisings Signal More Turbulence Ahead
A violent protest this week organized by a Bangladeshi Islamist
demanding that Bangladesh’s secular government enact anti-blasphemy laws
has been portrayed by the Western media as a struggle between secular
and Islamist forces. However, this flashpoint actually appears to
highlight deep-seated issues of political and judicial corruption, and a
competition for power between the dominant ruling coalitions.
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UK: Natural Gas Shortages, Huge Price Swings to Continue
Huge fluctuations in natural gas prices in the United Kingdom highlight
the challenges that British officials are facing in their search for
stable energy sources. These problems are likely to worsen since the
chances of developing the UK’s potentially huge shale gas reserves in
the near future are poor because of weak government support for fracking
and aggressive opposition to this technology by environmental activists.
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