I was drafting a little Four Pillars article on some statements and proclamations made over the week, but a notable event just had to happen in the Middle East again.
Not to make a mockery of a death, but Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is confirmed dead following a helicopter crash in the middle of thick fog and mountainous regions. The helicopter also carried the foreign minister and some other staffers and officials. While conspiracies may fly, it can be assumed that this was more likely an incident than sabotage – it does not take much to see how a helicopter could fail to function in bad weather conditions and through risky terrains. If foul play was likely, it would be allowing the helicopter to take off, and allowing multiple officials to board that craft too. If I were a world leader, I would never get in helicopters ever. Although he was more of a mouthpiece of the hardliners than a power broker, Raisi was also the heir apparent to Khamenei, the current Ayatollah of Iran, and these deaths can throw Iranian politics in flux due to the sheer number of top officials lost, but it is unclear what direction the government will take from here.
The tariffs the Biden administration was reportedly imposing on China, most importantly on Chinese EVs, was officially announced earlier this week – to some controversy. It seems that the EU, another of the Pillars, is debating following the same route against China that the US has taken. It may be unwise economically to engage in a trade war, but it is necessary to not allow CCP-subsidized exports to dominate a market in the Pillars – especially in automobiles, as that gives the CCP a leverage over the Pillars when it comes to, say the South China Sea or Taiwan.
In Europe, while Ukraine was able to repel the Russian incursion into Kharkiv last week, members in NATO’s eastern flank continue to raise alarms about the potential need for them to deploy troops within Ukraine. Estonia has made such an announcement, and countries like Poland may follow too. Possibilities of NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine seems to increase every week, even if only marginally.
Articles of the week – China Has Gotten the Trade War It Deserves [Michael Schulman, The Atlantic] and (Japanese-language article) The Other Quad (Noburu Okabe, Sankei Shimbun)
AP: In this photo provided by Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA, the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi takes off at the Iranian border with Azerbaijan after President Raisi and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev inaugurated dam of Qiz Qalasi, or Castel of Girl in Azeri, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Ali Hamed Haghdoust/IRNA via AP)
