The Sunday Subject – December 18, 2022
Dina Boularte, the new president of Peru, stated she would submit plans to Congress to bring forward elections.
The decision comes amidst protests demanding her resignation, following the arrest of former president Pedro Castillo over his coup attempt. Peru’s congress, however, rejected Boularte’s proposal, which had been intended to quell the protests.
Leo Varadkar became the taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland for a second time.
Ireland is governed by a coalition consisting of Varadkar’s Fine Gael party and Michael Martin’s Fianna Fail party. Under a rotating deal, Martin held the position for the first half of the current parliament, and Varadkhar will hold it for the second half.
Water has been restored in Kyiv and electricity in Kharkiv, following a wave of Russian missile attacks on Friday.
Valery Zaluzhny, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, stated that Russia is preparing for a major offensive in the next few months, including another attempt to take Kyiv.
Japan announced a new national security strategy that will double its military spending.
The new plan breaks a decades-long precedent and marks a shift in the country’s postwar commitment to pacifism. It elevates China over North Korea as the top threat, and seeks to strengthen its military capabilities to counter China’s rising power and aggression. After decades of resistance to the idea, recent polls suggest that over half of the country now supports at least some level of military buildup and reducing the country’s dependence on U.S. forces.
