With less than a year to go until South Africa’s next national election, several opposition parties have joined forces, hammering out a preelection coalition agreement in an attempt to unseat the ruling ANC. But despite the ANC’s slipping popularity, the opposition has struggled to make significant inroads into its electoral majority.
In 2021, Xi Jinping called for “Common Prosperity” as a new key goal of Chinese-style modernization. Observers speculated he was launching a populist, left-wing agenda that would spread wealth in China more equitably. But Common Prosperity was never intended to be a Robin Hood-like intervention to take from the rich to help the poor.
Today at WPR, we’re covering why so many pre-invasion assessments of Russia’s military were wrong and the global implications of the drought in Panama.
But first, here’s our take on today’s top story:
Poland-Ukraine: Poland’s prime minister said the country was halting new weapons shipments to Kyiv yesterday, less than a week after the country, alongside Slovakia and Hungary, decided to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports. But the Polish president quickly walked back the controversy today, saying it would not affect the two countries’ close bilateral relations. (Washington Post; Reuters)
Our Take: Since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, Poland has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters. That makes this spat particularly revealing in terms of how Ukraine’s allies in the West are balancing support for Kyiv against the domestic implications of that support.
The main tensions stem from the EU’s attempts to assist Ukrainian grain exports. Here’s the basic timeline:
In June 2022, the EU abolished tariffs on Ukrainian grain and other food staples so they could flow through the EU to the rest of the world.
But instead of flowing to the rest of the world, the cheap grain flooded the domestic markets of Ukraine’s neighboring countries.
In April, following protests by farmers, Poland banned grain imports from Ukraine. Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria followed suit.
The EU then created a special arrangement for those countries, plus Romania, allowing for Ukrainian grain to be shipped through but not imported into them.
That arrangement expired on Sept. 15, after which Poland and Hungary once again closed their borders to Ukrainian grain shipments.
Now, Poland’s government faces a dilemma. On the one hand, support for Ukraine enjoys broad popular support across the political spectrum. On the other, the country is holding parliamentary elections next month, and the agricultural sector is a key part of the ruling PiS party’s voter base.
