The World That Was

Adrian Olivier,

Sunday 15 December – Sunday 22 December:

On Sunday, Israel’s government approved an $11 million plan to double the population of Israeli settlers in the Golan Heights to around 60,000. The Golan Heights were seized from Syria in 1967, and more land has been seized since the fall of Bashar al-Assad as a buffer zone. This is illegal under international law, but this author reminds you that the only real law of international relations is strength. Some 31,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the Heights, along with around 24,000 Druze. The plan does not currently include settling Israelis in the newly acquired buffer zone. 

On Monday, Canada’s Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigned from her cabinet position, throwing Canada into a political crisis. Her resignation letter was a stinging critique of the government’s direction on fiscal policy and came on the day she was scheduled to introduce a fall economic statement which had far larger budget deficits than the government promised just a year ago. She also warned about the very real threat of American tariffs on Canadian goods under the Trump administration. Freeland was reportedly told by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday that he no longer wanted her to serve as his finance minister and offered her another position in the cabinet. She has chosen not to serve in a different cabinet position and will seek re-election next year as an MP. Trudeau named longtime ally Dominic LeBlanc as the finance minister. 

On Tuesday morning, a bomb hidden in a scooter killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov in Moscow. Kirillov was the head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops and is the most senior Russian military commander to be killed in the war with Ukraine. A day later on Wednesday, Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said it had detained a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan who was recruited by Ukraine to plant the bomb in return for payment of $100,000 and a new life in a European Union country. The power of the explosive device, which was triggered remotely, was reportedly equivalent to one kilogram of the explosive TNT and the device was filled with shrapnel. The 54-year-old Kirillov had been in charge of the radiological and chemical defence troops since 2017 and took part in weapons development, according to Russian state media. After the explosion, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said Kyiv was trying to “prolong the war and death” and promised “inevitable retribution.”

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russia is withdrawing its advanced air defence systems and other weapons systems from Syria and has flown them to bases in eastern Libya controlled by Libyan Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar. Russia already has a presence in Libya, including via the Wagner mercenary group, which has close ties with Haftar, whose Libyan National Army controls the war-torn country’s east. Wagner fighters have used Haftar’s facilities, including an air base, as a transit hub to other African countries. Last year, senior Russian officials reportedly met with Haftar to discuss long-term docking rights in the ports of either Benghazi or Tobruk, both of which are located less than 650 kilometres from Greece and Italy. Moscow is weighing whether to upgrade facilities in Tobruk to accommodate Russian warships. 

On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump torpedoed a 1,547-page stopgap bill deal struck by congressional leaders. Trump’s statement came after many Republican lawmakers, urged on by Trump ally Elon Musk, piled scorn on the bipartisan measure which was released late on Tuesday night, citing its many provisions unrelated to storm recovery or funding current government operations. It also contained provisions related to healthcare, U.S. investment in China, lawmaker pay raises, trade with Haiti, the flood insurance program and potential threats from drones, among other things. On Thursday, House Republican’s slimmed-down plan to avert a government shutdown was defeated in a vote, with several dozen GOP lawmakers joining with Democrats in rejecting the proposal. 

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin summed up the results of the year and answered questions from journalists and the people of Russia in a 4-hour long live broadcast. The annual event is a display of Putin’s mastery of the minutiae of domestic policy as well as of geopolitics and consists of a public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in. He began with economic growth numbers – the Russian economy is expected to have grown between 3.9 and 4 percent in 2024. He contrasted Russian economic growth (largely driven by the defence sector) with the stagnating economies of Europe and assured his people the economic situation is stable and resilient. He boasted of Russia’s increasing battlefield gains in Ukraine – the daily conquest of square kilometres instead of hundreds of metres. He also said he was open to dialogue with the incoming Trump administration. Putin remained on message, assuring his domestic audience that Russia, despite setbacks, was prevailing on all fronts. 

On Friday, Novo Nordisk shares dived 29% before recovering somewhat to around 20% lower after its new weight loss drug CagriSema missed expectations in a medical study. The drop in the share price wiped out $100 billion in market value. CagriSema helped people lose 22.7% of their weight on average after taking the weekly shot for more than a year instead of the expected 25%. CagriSema combines semaglutide—the main ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy—with the experimental drug cagrilintide. Semaglutide works by mimicking the naturally occurring GLP-1 gut hormone to suppress appetite, while cagrilintide targets a second gut hormone called amylin that can make people feel full when eating. Analysts have estimated that CagriSema could generate peak annual sales of more than $20 billion as demand for weight-loss drugs has soared.

On Friday, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin again after reinitiating contact with the Kremlin chief last month. “I have spoken to the Russian president and will speak to him again,” Scholz declared, without saying when at a press conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. The aim of such calls with Putin would “always be to make clear that his contribution to ending the conflict is to end his aggression and withdraw troops,” Scholz said. 

Also on Friday, a 50-year-old Saudi man drove his rented BMW into a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, killing five and injuring over 200. Identified as Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, the suspect is a Saudi psychiatrist and psychotherapist who arrived in Germany in 2006. He has previously warned on social media that he would slaughter Germans and his Twitter/X bio says this: “Germany chases female Saudi asylum seekers, inside and outside Germany, to destroy their lives.” His social media shows him as a former Muslim who believes Germany is trying to “izlamize Europe” by targeting critics of Islam. It’s possible he pretended to be an atheist to remain in Germany – there have been reports that he faced charges of terrorism, rape and human smuggling in Saudi Arabia – so that he would not be deported and potentially face the death penalty. Saudi Arabian authorities had previously warned the German intelligence community about Abdulmohsen, but their warnings were not heeded. Martin Sellner, an Austrian popular with Germany’s right, posted on social media that the suspect’s motives “seemed to have been complex,” adding that the suspect “hated Islam, but he hated the Germans more.” While there is still some confusion about his goals, one thing is clear: the attack has angered Germans and the argument for remigration of non-Germans will only grow stronger. 

On Saturday, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that averts a government shutdown, bringing a final close to days of upheaval after Congress approved a temporary funding plan just past the deadline and refused President-elect Donald Trump’s debt demands in the package. The deal funds the government at current levels until March 14 and provides $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers. Johnson’s revised plan was approved 366-34, and it was passed by the Senate by an 85-11 vote after midnight. 

On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump expressed his interest in expanding American territory by controlling the Panama Canal and Greenland. He accused Panama of charging exorbitant prices to American shipping and naval vessels, saying that once he takes office, that would stop. His remarks prompted a quick rebuke from Panama’s president, who said “every square metre” of the canal and surrounding area belongs to his country. President José Raúl Mulino added that Panama’s sovereignty and independence were non-negotiable. Should the U.S. decide to take control of the canal, there is little Panama could do to stop it. The same day, Trump announced he had picked Ken Howery, a former envoy to Sweden, as his ambassador to Copenhagen. “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Greenland already hosts America’s northernmost military base – the Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Force Base. Denmark is an American ally and it refused the sale of the giant Arctic island in Trump’s first term.