Foreign Digest Updates: Sudan, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Italy and Greece

Sudan

            The military-led Sudanese government reached an agreement last week with the democratic opposition to rotate power over the next four years.  The agreement came after authorities had violently cracked down on protests, which led to the undoing of a previous agreement.  The military had seized power from the longtime Islamist tyrant.

Venezuela

            Protests continue in Venezuela after a United Nations human rights body found that rights have been eroded by the Socialist dictatorship. 

Hong Kong

            Massive protests have continued in Hong Kong against the violations of autonomy and freedom by the Communist Chinese Government, in violation of Peking’s agreement with the United Kingdom after the British returned the special administrative territory to Chinese rule in 1997.  The protestors had succeeded in delaying the Hong Kong legislature’s consideration of a law that would have allowed extradition to mainland China, a tool that could have been used to intimidate legitimate political dissent.

Italy

            The populist Italian Government avoided an infraction penalty last week from the European Union for exceeding its budget deficit limit by parliamentary passage of a 7-billion dollar adjustment that was helped by fewer applications for the Government’s expanded welfare program and increase pension benefits than expected.  The Italian Republic has one of the largest sovereign debts in the world, both in absolute terms and in terms of a share of the gross domestic product.  It is recovering from a brief and mild recession, but only slowly, and only recently has returned to its pre-debt crisis economic level.  The Government claims its policies are intended to increase economic growth.  Tax cuts are being planned.

Greece

           The center-right won the Greek parliamentary elections today, defeating the far-left party that had governed with a right-wing anti-European Union pro-Russian (i.e. pro-tyrant and oligarch Vladimir Putin) party.  The far-left had suffered a loss in the European parliamentary elections last month.  The conservatives will return to power for the first time in four years with a majority.  The main center-left party, once the main rival to the center-right, came in a distant third, with other far-left parties and a traditionalist right wing party among those obtaining seats.  Greece has been recovering from a depression after its 2015 debt crisis.  The Hellenic Republic had one of the worst sovereign debt burdens in the world before the European Union bailed it out in exchange for massive budget cuts.