Will Italy’s political unrest spark a eurozone crisis?

Italian President Sergio Mattarella this week selected another interim prime minister to create a new government after the country’s populist parties lost their bid to govern. The political uncertainty that began after elections in early March likely will continue as the populist parties prepare to protest the move.

Mattarella on Monday appointed former International Monetary Fund economist Carlo Cottarelli as interim prime minister and tasked him with assembling a technocrat government until the country’s next elections.

Italy remains in political limbo after the March 4 vote resulted in a hung parliament. Two populist parties—the Five Star Movement and the far-right Lega, formerly known as the Northern League—attempted to form a government, but internal differences and their stance on Italy’s position in the European Union caused multiple setbacks.

Mattarella on Sunday rejected the parties’ selection for finance minister. Nominee Paolo Savona previously called Italy’s entry into the eurozone a “historic mistake.” Mattarella said Savona’s appointment could alarm investors and further hurt the country’s unsteady markets. Following Savona’s rejection, Giuseppe Conte, the populist choice for prime minister, stepped down. His successor, Cottarelli, promised to maintain Italy’s “essential” role in the EU and the eurozone and promised “prudent management of our public accounts.”

Italy is the EU’s third largest economy and currently battles debt totaling about 132 percent of its gross domestic product. EU foreign policy chief Frederica Mogherini welcomed Mattarella’s move as “serving the interests of the Italian citizens that, by the way, coincides also with the strength of the European Union.”

The populist parties initially fueled uncertainty when they announced plans to sharply increase spending and scrap reforms of the pension system and labor market, despite Italy’s financial problems. They also called for about 500,000 undocumented migrants to be deported “as a priority,” and expressed interest in reestablishing ties with Russia.

Matteo Salvini, who heads Lega, condemned the president’s moves as a step against democracy, calling them “the last gasp of the strong powers who want Italy as a frightened, precarious slave.” Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement initially called for Mattarella’s impeachment and later asked Italians to participate in mass protests on Saturday. “I call citizens to mobilize, make yourself heard, it’s important that you do it right now,” he said in a Facebook video.

Cottarelli is set to lose a vote of confidence in parliament as the populist parties and their allies take a stand against him. If that happens, Cottarelli and his proposed Cabinet will serve until the next election, which could come as early as August.

Analysts have said the upcoming elections could herald another fight over the European Union, two years after the United Kingdom voted to pull out of the group.

The election is going to resemble a referendum, de facto, on the European Union and the euro,” Francesco Galietti, who heads the Rome-based political risk consultancy Policy Sonar, told Reuters. “It’s an existential threat for the whole eurozone.”

Hindu women refugees prepare a meal at their camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Associated Press/Photo by Manish Swarup (file)

Rohingya militants targeted Hindus in Myanmar

Rohingya insurgents killed dozens of minority Hindus during clashes with Myanmar security forces last year, Amnesty International revealed in a new report. The violence prompted nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh, causing a humanitarian crisis.

Amnesty said its investigation revealed insurgents with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on August 25, 2017, attacked a Hindu community in the village of Ah Nauk Kha Maung Seik. They killed 53 people and abducted eight Hindu women and about eight children. The same day, 46 Hindu men, women, and children in the neighboring village of Ye Bauk Kyar disappeared. On August 26, 2017, ARSA militants killed another six Hindus on the outskirts of Maungdaw town.

The killings began the same day some ARSA militants targeted 30 Myanmar security posts in Rakhine state. The move prompted clearance operations by security forces that prompted the Rohingya exodus.

Tirana Hassan, Amnesty’s crisis response director, called for independent investigations into abuses by both the military and ARSA in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

“Our latest investigation on the ground sheds much-needed light on the largely under-reported abuses by ARSA during northern Rakhine state’s unspeakably dark recent history,” Hassan said. “All the survivors and victims’ families have the right to justice, truth, and reparation of the immense harm they have suffered.” —O.O.

Hindu women refugees prepare a meal at their camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Associated Press/Photo by Manish Swarup (file)

Yulia Skripal recounts recovery from nerve attack

Yulia Skripal, who survived a nerve agent attack along with her ex-spy father, last week described her recovery as “slow and painful” and expressed hope of returning to Russia “in the longer term.” Police in Salisbury, England, found Yulia and her father, Sergei, collapsed on a park bench on March 4. She was discharged from the hospital in April while her father was released last week. In her first media appearance since the debacle, Yulia Skripal said she arrived in Salisbury a day before the attack to visit her father. “After 20 days in coma, I woke up to the news that we had both been poisoned,” she said in her statement, describing the clinical treatment as “invasive, painful, and depressing,” adding that she and her father were “lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination.” Britain accuses Russia of staging the attack with a military-grade nerve agent. Russia denies the allegations and accuses Britain of holding the Skripals against their will. In her statement, Yulia Skripal thanked the Russian Embassy for its offer of assistance, but said “at the moment, I do not wish to avail myself of their services.” —O.O.

Rights group: Nigerian troops abused Boko Haram survivors

Nigerian soldiers and civilian troops abused thousands of women rescued from Boko Haram extremists, Amnesty International said in a report released last week. The report details how the forces separated women into “satellite camps,” where they were raped, sometimes in exchange for food. The report said the military often beat the women and called them “Boko Haram wives” when they complained about the conditions. Women who stayed in the satellite camps reported severe hunger, sickness, and daily deaths from early 2015 until mid-2016. Osai Ojigho, Amnesty’s Nigeria director, called on the Nigerian government to investigate the crimes and ensure people in the camps receive adequate food. “The only way to end these horrific violations is by ending the climate of impunity in the region and ensuring that no one can get away with rape or murder,” Ojigho said. The Nigerian government condemned the report as “short on credibility,” and the military called it part of a “malicious trend” by the human rights group. —O.O.

China cracks down on religious statues

China’s Communist Party over the weekend ordered local officials to regulate the constructions of outdoor religious statues amid an ongoing crackdown on all religious practices. In a mandate posted on the website of the United Front Work Department, the government “required all localities to take up the regulation of large outdoor religious statues as their top priority in preventing the further commercialization of Buddhism and Taoism.” The two religions are among the five officially recognized by the Chinese government, which has renewed efforts to rigorously promote loyalty to the Communist Party. On May 12, police officers in the city of Chengdu arrested a pastor and 200 members of the Early Rain Covenant Church as they prepared to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake with prayers. —O.O.