Moldova Accuses Russia of Coup Plot

Welcome to today’s Morning Brief, where we’re looking at Moldova’s claims of a Russian coup plot, New Zealand’s state of emergency, and Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation in Scotland.

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Russia has denied the Moldovan leadership’s allegations that the Kremlin sought to overthrow the country’s government.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Russia was planning to attack government buildings, take hostages, and put the nation “at the disposal of Russia” to keep it from joining the European Union. Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it had intercepted Russian plans on the destruction of Moldova. Moldova said it confirmed the allegations. Moldova gained EU membership candidate status last June on the same day that Ukraine did.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Sandu’s claims were “completely unfounded and unsubstantiated.”

“They are built in the spirit of classical techniques that are often used by the United States, other Western countries, and Ukraine,” she added. “First, accusations are made with reference to purportedly classified intelligence information that cannot be verified, and then they are used to justify their own illegal actions.”

Moldovan authorities, she said, were using “the myth about a Russian threat to distract Moldovan citizens’ attention from internal problems resulting from a disastrous social-economic course of the current administration and to step up the fight against dissent and political opponents.”

New Zealand’s “storm of the century.” A state of emergency has been declared in New Zealand over Cyclone Gabrielle. New Zealand’s new prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said, “Cyclone Gabrielle is the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen in this century. The severity and the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation.”

Approximately 2,500 people have been displaced thus far. Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty called it “an unprecedented weather event.” A national state of emergency has only previously been declared two times in the history of New Zealand. Climate Change Minister James Shaw said of the cyclone, “This is climate change,” and lamented over “the lost decades that we spent bickering and arguing about whether climate change was real or not, whether it was caused by humans or not, whether it was bad or not, whether we should do something about it or not.”

Sen. Durbin criticizes Israel’s planned judiciary overhaul. Sen. Dick Durbin, chair of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and longtime Israel supporter, told Haaretz, “President Biden is correct in highlighting the importance of democratic checks and balances, strong institutions, and an independent judiciary in regards to the serious test currently facing Israel.”

He also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “dangerously putting his own narrow political and legal interests—and those of the troubling extremists in his coalition—ahead of the long-term interests and needs of Israel’s democracy.” Critics of the Israeli government have said Israel’s planned judiciary overhaul would weaken the country’s judicial system, and some people have suggested that Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, supports the plan as a potential route for evading justice.

BBC India searched by tax officials. BBC India’s offices were searched by income tax officials weeks after the BBC aired a documentary that looked critically at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, which took place when he was chief minister of that state and which saw many people, mostly Muslims, killed. India has banned the documentary, which it denounced as anti-Indian propaganda, though that has not stopped many people, notably university students, from trying to watch it. The searches were carried out in New Delhi and Mumbai. The BBC said its employees were fully cooperating.

K.C. Venugopal, general secretary of the Indian National Congress party, the most prominent national opposition party, said the searches “[reeked] of desperation” and demonstrated that the government was “scared of criticism.”

“We condemn these intimidation tactics in the harshest terms. This undemocratic and dictatorial attitude cannot go on any longer,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, Gaurav Bhatia, spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, called the BBC the “most corrupt” organization in the world and said, “India is a country which gives an opportunity to every organization, as long as you don’t spew venom.” Amnesty International’s said authorities were trying to “harass and intimidate the BBC.”

• Russia Has Already Lost in the Long Run by Brent Peabody

• It’s High Time to Decolonize Western Russian Studies by Artem Shaipov and Yuliia Shaipova

• The IMF Has Too Many Economists for Its Own Good by Timothy E. Kaldas

Night lights. A small asteroid struck Earth’s atmosphere over northern France near the city of Rouen. Although only about 3 feet wide, it created a light show over the English Channel.