The Brief: Issue Fifty-Three

North America

Defeat for Elon Musk as liberal justice wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race
by Daniel Cramphorn

The interior of the Wisconsin Supreme Court room. (Image Credit: Royalbroil, Wikimedia Commons).

The liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has been preserved following the victory of Susan Crawford in the Supreme Court election on 1 April, defeating conservative candidate Brad Schimel. Wisconsin elects its Supreme Court justices through non-partisan elections to 10-year terms.

Despite the official non-partisan nature of this election it gained all the trappings of a modern partisan American election, and has become a national political topic. Crawford was widely seen as the Democratic-aligned candidate, receiving endorsements from key figures including Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, and Tim Walz, whilst Schimel received endorsements from Donald Trump, Republican Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, and most significantly Elon Musk. 

Musk funnelled over $25 million into Schimel’s campaign, making him the largest contributor to a judicial campaign, and this election the most expensive judicial campaign in American history. As part of his involvement, Musk staged a series of giveaway stunts including paying voters $100 to sign a petition against so-called ‘activist judges’, and selected two signatories to receive $1 million cheques from him at a rally in Green Bay.

Musk’s use of lotteries and payments has been controversial: he was unsuccessfully sued by the Wisconsin Attorney General. When Musk previously used the same tactic in the presidential election last year judges in Pennsylvania ruled the payments were legal.

Despite the vast sums of money spent, Crawford won a comfortable victory against Schimel, winning 55 and 45 percent respectively, in a state which the Republicans won only five months ago in the presidential election.

Asia

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan sign treaty for intractable border issue
by Gavin Southway

A border crossing between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. (Image Credit: Nataev, Wikimedia Commons).

The Presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Sadyr Japarov and Emomali Rahmon, have signed an agreement in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, to end their longstanding border dispute.

The border has seen conflict a few times in the area, with tensions first rising at the turn of the millennium, and clashes first reported in 2004. In 2021 the two countries engaged in a three-day battle, displacing between 33,000 and 58,000 Kyrgyz nationals in the Bashken region of south-west Kyrgyzstan.

The conflict flared up again the next year, with a six-day confrontation in September 2022 causing 137,000 Kyrgyz nationals to flee and the killing of 100 civilians.

The deal signed between the two countries provides for the delimitation of the border and the restoration of rail, water and road links between the two countries.

In what is perhaps a rare spot of good news in foreign affairs, foreign ministries including France, the EU and Iraq have expressed their approval of the deal. The EU is currently courting Central Asian countries and officials are meeting local diplomats in a series of meetings to engage in their mining sector alongside the USA.

PKK Militants declare ceasefire in Turkey
by Daniel Cramphorn

Map showing areas of Kurdish population within the Middle East. (Image Credit: Iretn 847362, Wikimedia Commons).

On 1 March the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) declared a ceasefire in its conflict with the Turkish government. An ideologically socialist organisation which seeks to create an independent Kurdish state, the PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. The majority of the Kurdish people live in the region along the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and comprise one of the world’s largest stateless nationalities.

The PKK was founded in 1978 and has been in an intermittent armed conflict with the Turkish government since 1979. Since 1993 the group has declared a series of ceasefires lasting from months to years, with the most recent taking place from 2013 until 2015. The current ceasefire was caused by an appeal from the group’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in a government prison since 1999, for the PKK to dissolve itself. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomed Öcalan’s appeal and called on Kurdish militias both inside and outside Turkey to disarm themselves.

Within the Turkish Parliament the PKK has been associated with the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, whose representatives delivered the message from Öcalan, and which at the last election in 2023 was the third-largest party. The DEM Party calls for greater democracy in Turkey, which has seen an intensification in democratic backsliding in recent months: DEM party members have been arrested, alongside the main opposition leader, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu of the Republican People’s Party, who has been charged with corruption.

Africa

Zimbabwe: dozens arrested following widespread protests in the country
by Freddie Weaver

President Mnangagwa, pictured in 2019. (Image Credit: The Kremlin, Wikimedia Commons.)

Police in Zimbabwe have announced that they have arrested 95 protesters on charges of ‘public violence’ and ‘breaches of peace’. The arrests were made following anti-government demonstrations that took place in the country’s capital Harare on Monday. 

Those arrested were among 200 protesters who gathered at Harare’s Freedom Square to call for the resignation of President Emmerson Mnangagwa over allegations of corruption. The demonstrations were called by Blessed Geza, senior member of the governing ZANU-PF, which has ruled the impoverished African country since 1980. Geza, a veteran of Zimbabwe’s liberation war in the 1970s, also wants Mnangagwa to be replaced by Vice-President Constantine Chiwenga. 

It is reported that very few protesters were at the demonstrations, as the area contained a high security presence. Despite this, stones were thrown at police, and the main road was even temporarily barricaded with bricks and tyres. A number of businesses and schools were closed down and normally busy streets were quiet by the time protests began, apparently as a result of fear of potential chaos breaking out. 

It is believed that the unrest was motivated by a reported plan by Mnangagwa to extend his presidential term by another two years, which is unconstitutional. Vice-President Chiwenga has never publicly supported the proposal to extend Mnangagwa’s term, but he is also believed to have the support of the Zimbabwean military, which is likely to play an important role in the succession issue in the country.