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A protester wearing a protective mask stands in front of a banner during the demonstration. Thousands of people marched through Central London in protest of what the demonstrators call Ethiopia's and Eritrea's "genocidal war" on the region of Tigray.
What we’re watching: Tigray ceasefire, Peruvians protest endless election, North Koreans cry for Kim, Tour crash suspect vanishes
Ceasefire in Ethiopia: In a stunning about-face, Ethiopian forces on Monday withdrew entirely from the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle, and declared an immediate, unilateral ceasefire. War has raged in Tigray since November, when a dispute over election dates ignited long-simmering tensions between Tigrayan militants and Ethiopian government forces. Since then Ethiopian government troops, aided by soldiers from neighboring Eritrea as well as irregulars from other parts of Ethiopia, have waged a brutal campaign in the region — pushing it to the brink of famine and, human rights watchdogs say, committing war crimes. In recent weeks, Tigrayan forces had mounted a forceful counterattack, regaining control over vast swaths of the region. The current ceasefire is meant to last until the end of the planting season, in September. Can the central government and the local Tigrayan leadership reach a more durable political agreement before then? After eight months of war, there is little trust and lots of bad blood.
Election protests in Peru: Elections aren't over until they're over. And even then, they aren't always over. According to the vote count in Peru's presidential election, left-wing schoolteacher Pedro Castillo defeated right-winger Keiko Fujimori by a margin of just 44,000 votes out of a total 19 million cast — that's a margin of about a tenth of a percentage point. International observers say the count is credible, but Fujimori, daughter of former strongman Alberto, has alleged fraud and demanded a recount of thousands of ballots. Although she hasn't supplied hard evidence, electoral authorities have said they'll take a second look. But that process itself has been marred by the resignation of one of the recount justices. All of which is to say: tensions are running high in the deeply polarized Andean nation, which is struggling with one of the worst COVID tolls in the world and recently had three presidents in the space of a week. Over the weekend supporters of both candidates took to the streets in the capital of Lima. With just weeks until the July 28 inauguration, tinderboxes come to mind as we watch the latest.
North Korea cries for Kim: As North Korean TV tells it, citizens of the totalitarian police state are in tears over recent pictures that showed their Dear Leader, Kim Jong Un, looking unusually thin and pallid. (Narrator: "unusually" thin for the 37-year old 5-foot-8 Kim means he seems to weigh a mere 260 pounds now rather than his previous 300, according to experts). The images had surfaced amid reports of growing food shortages, as the nuclear-armed autocracy grapples with sanctions over its nuclear program and border closures due to the pandemic. Given the opacity of North Korea and the lack of any clear successor, there is often speculation about Kim's health. Is the paunchy, hard-drinking, chainsmoker turning over a new leaf diet-wise? Or is he suffering a health issue that could raise questions about the future of the country? Here's a handkerchief if you too are welling up just reading about it.
A moron on the lam: What we know is this — a roadside spectator caused a massive crash during the opening moments of the Tour de France when she waved her "hi grandma" sign right into the path of the oncoming cyclists. One racer hit the sign and went down, taking dozens with him. But here's what we don't know — where is she now? Race authorities want to sue her, but reports say the woman, believed to be German, has fled the country in a "breakaway" of her own. Is this going to become an EU extradition crisis? An Interpol intrigue? We don't know, but between this and those chainsaw-wielding maniacs who chased Colombian superstar cyclist Egan Bernal up the Alps in the Giro d'Italia last month, we're thinking pro-cyclists are probably a little on edge these days.Peru's socialist presidential candidate Pedro Castillo addresses supporters while holding an oversized pencil, a symbol of the Peru Libre party, at a rally in Lima.
Peru makes a radical choice. Will it pan out?
Fed up with years of political dysfunction, and wracked by the world's worst per capita COVID death toll, Peruvians have made a radical new choice for president.
After a day or so of nail-biting uncertainty, the results of Sunday's runoff appear to show that Pedro Castillo, a Marxist-leaning former schoolteacher who gets around on horseback and carries an oversized pencil with him everywhere, has edged out Keiko Fujimori, the authoritarian-minded daughter of the country's former dictator.
Who is this guy? Barely known to most Peruvians until just months ago, Castillo shocked the political establishment by advancing to the second round of the presidential election with just under 19 percent of the vote. Now he has won the top job by defeating Fujimori, a deeply unpopular yet immensely powerful rival who has lost her third bid for the presidency.
Castillo's victory is a backlash against the political class. Last November, mass street protests erupted when the country churned through three presidents in a single week following the impeachment of the incumbent for a vote-buying scandal years before he took office. With about half of Peruvian lawmakers currently under investigation for crimes from money laundering to homicide, it's no surprise that turnout was well below Peru's historical average for presidential votes, and that a (slim) majority of voters have placed their trust in an outsider like Castillo to stand up to Lima's corrupt swamp.
Indeed, Castillo styles himself as a man of the people. His signature is a cowboy hat, and his horsemanship is part of his rustic appeal. The giant pencil, meanwhile, symbolizes his party's focus on educating the rural poor. At the same time, he's also a pragmatist — to broaden his appeal beyond the countryside, in the past he has been willing to strike deals with players as wide-ranging as former members of the far-left Shining Path guerrilla movement on the one hand, and members of Fujimori's party on the other.
What are the next president's plans for Peru? Castillo has ambitious policy proposals, which his supporters say most Peruvians want: rewrite the constitution, spend 10 percent of GDP on education and health, and redistribute mining profits to fund social programs. Perhaps in a nod to more moderate voters, he's already walked back earlier calls to dissolve Congress if lawmakers don't agree to reform the charter, and nationalize strategic industries.
For his opponents, however, Castillo is another Hugo Chávez who will turn Peru into Venezuela by overturning three decades of pro-business reforms that have brought prosperity to the country. So far, the markets agree — the value of the Peruvian sol sank on Monday to its lowest value against the US dollar in seven years, and the stock market plunged more than seven percent.
Castillo's agenda will face tough roadblocks in a highly fragmented and dysfunctional Congress. His party only has 37 of the 130 seats in parliament, which is dominated by smaller right-wing formations that are more likely to cut deals with Fujimori. What's more, the bar for impeaching a Peruvian president has lately been set so low that if Castillo pushes lawmakers too hard, two-thirds of them could vote to oust Castillo over the vague charge of "moral incapacity."
And don't forget... Perú is still being pummeled by twin health and economic crises. Last week, the government revised its official COVID death toll upwards, to nearly triple the earlier number, which means the Andean country has the world's highest death rate per capita. And nearly 28 percent of Peruvians now live in poverty due to COVID, almost double the figure before the pandemic struck.
So, what comes next? It's hard to say. A polarizing election means that half of the country will be against whatever Castillo wants to do, while the other half will be willing to take to the streets if the political establishment stands in the way of the change they want.
Without a sweeping popular mandate or strong backing in parliament, there's only so much an outsider can do to stand up to an entrenched elite. Peruvians' frustration with dysfunction brought Castillo to power, but will he be able to change things?