NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Financial crisis: A prosecutor in Lebanon questioned a top central bank manager on Friday over the country’s financial crisis, including the free fall of the Lebanese currency, a judicial official said. Mazen Hamdan, the head of cash operations at the bank, is the most senior official to be interrogated in an ongoing probe into possible financial wrongdoing. The central bank denied charges of manipulation. The probe reflected a growing clash between the central bank and the government at a critical time, as Lebanon opens talks with the International Monetary Fund to negotiate a rescue plan amid an unprecedented economic crisis, with negative economic growth, soaring inflation and a massive state debt.
2 Turkey crackdown: Authorities on Friday detained four more mayors from Kurdish regions in the east and southeast, as the government pressed ahead with its crackdown on a proKurdish party it accuses of links to militants. The mayors from the People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, were detained at their homes, removed from office and replaced with governmentappointed trustees, the staterun Anadolu Agency reported. A fifth mayor was also fired but has not been detained. The government accuses the party of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The HDP denies the accusation. The HDP denounced the crackdown on the elected mayors as a government “coup.”
3 Factory fire: A fire at a chemical plant near Venice critically injured two people, belched thick black smoke into the air and forced Venetians to stay indoors for fear of noxious fumes, Italian authorities said Friday. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said the blaze, triggered by an explosion at the factory in the industrial town of Porto Marghera, was extinguished. State RAI TV said the fire broke out in a plant producing cosmetics, including a solvent used for nail varnish removal. Text messages were sent to Venetians, advising them to “stay home and close the windows” as a precaution.
4 Poland politics: The main opposition party on Friday named Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski as its new candidate in the country’s troubleridden presidential election. The previous candidate for the centerliberal Civic Platform party and its smaller partners, Malgorzata KidawaBlonska, quit the race earlier in the day because she lost almost all support when she called for a boycott of the election held amid the coronavirus pandemic. Scheduled for last Sunday, the election has been postponed to a date yet to be announced. Trzaskowski, 48, has been Warsaw mayor since 2018. Trzaskowski said his situation was “not easy” and required “full consolidation and energy to fight and win in this election.” He needs to gather at least 100,000 signatures of support before he can run against incumbent President Andrzej Duda.
5 Militant attacks: Mozambique’s armed forces have killed 50 Islamic extremist fighters this week in battles in the country’s north where the insurgents have mounted 11 attacks this month, the government said. The attacks show a spike in violence in gasrich Cabo Delgado province, disrupting government and foreign company investment in projects to produce liquefied natural gas. The extremists, who pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group, risk giving Mozambique “the type of threat that Boko Haram has become in Nigeria,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy. About 1,100 people have been killed since the extremists began their violent campaign in 2017, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.