Can’t get started
Recently: Why does Japan need a new prime minister—again? Tobias S. Harris on political scandals, economic struggles, and a deep loss of public confidence in Japanese institutions.
Today: And why is it struggling so much to get one? A strangely similar dynamic disrupts political business in Paris and Tokyo.
+ For members: The weekend despatch is out.
& New music from Ecce Ensemble ...
Developments
- Ceasefire and silence in Gaza. Israel’s military said fighting in its war with Hamas would halt at noon on Friday, hours after the government approved the first phase of an American-brokered deal to suspend hostilities and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Forty-eight Israeli hostages remain in Gaza—20 believed alive—while Israel is to release 250 Palestinians serving life sentences and 1,700 detained since October 7, 2023. The agreement is vague on the toughest issues: how far Israeli forces will withdraw, whether Hamas disarms, who governs Gaza, and what prevents the war from resuming. … See “The agreement.”
- A midnight impeachment in Peru. Congress removed Dina Boluarte early Friday in a unanimous vote after she refused to appear before lawmakers who summoned her at 11:30 p.m. Thursday over her failure to contain violent crime. The 124-0 vote came hours after a shooting at a concert by Peru’s most popular cumbia group inflamed public rage. Unlike eight previous attempts, nearly all legislative factions—including right-wing parties that historically supported her—backed her removal. Congress chief José Jerí was sworn in less than an hour later.
- The end of a 26-year partnership in Japan. Tetsuo Saito , the leader of the centrist Buddhist-backed party Komeito, told Sanae Takaichi on Friday that Komeito would leave their 26-year coalition with Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, days before parliament votes whether to confirm her as Japan’s first woman prime minister. Without Komeito’s 24 seats, Takaichi’s confirmation is now extremely uncertain.
- Prosecution as retribution in America. The U.S. Justice Department indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James Thursday on charges of bank fraud, alleging she claimed a Norfolk, Virginia house purchased in 2020 would be her second residence to secure favorable loan terms, then rented it to a family. The indictment came after evidence was presented by Lindsey Halligan, a prosecutor who’s been hand-picked by President Donald Trump—and who obtained an indictment two weeks earlier against the former FBI director James Comey, another Trump critic. Career attorneys had declined to bring charges before Trump publicly demanded James’s prosecution.
- Twin earthquakes in the Philippines. Two powerful offshore earthquakes struck the southern Philippines on Friday—a magnitude 7.4 at 9:43 a.m., followed seven hours later by a 6.8—killing at least seven and triggering tsunami warnings. The Philippine seismology agency described the sequence as a possible “doublet earthquake,” two distinct events along the massive trench off the country’s eastern seaboard. They happened ten days after another deadly earthquake in the central Philippines killed at least 79 people.
Can’t get started
In Japan, Saito delivered the news on Friday afternoon that his party was leaving its 26-year partnership with Takaichi’s. The timing was striking. Takaichi had won the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidency six days earlier, positioning her to become Japan’s first woman prime minister when parliament votes on October 15. Without Komeito’s 24 seats, the LDP now faces a 37-seat shortfall. Opposition parties can nominate their own candidates. And any candidate with a simple majority wins.
Saito’s stated reason for pulling Komeito out of the coalition was political-donation reform. But he raised other, deeper objections: Takaichi’s revisionist views on Japan’s wartime conduct, her visits to Yasukuni Shrine—where Japan honors its war dead, including fourteen leaders convicted of war crimes after World War II—and her highly restrictive stance on immigration. When the two met on Friday, Takaichi offered to “consider what to do from here on.” Saito found that to be not much of a commitment to anything—and so, a coalition that’s steadied Japanese governance for decades ended before the new leader took office.
The parallel with what’s happened in France is striking. In each case, half a world away from the other, political fragmentation hasn’t just made cabinets unworkable; it’s made forming them nearly impossible. Sébastien Lecornu named his cabinet last Sunday evening, resigned on Monday morning. Twenty-seven days in office, less than a day after announcing ministers, zero meetings held—though President Emmanuel Macron reappointed him on Friday to try again. We’ll see how that goes. Takaichi, in all events, has lost her coalition before she could even form a government. Parliament will still vote on her confirmation—just four days after she got her shock news—and without Komeito, there’s no obvious path for her to win.
Our second limited-run print magazine, Altered States, runs down the question of the influence dictators have over democratic life in the world today.
This edition, produced in partnership with the Human Rights Foundation, features conversations—with Ben Freeman, Miranda Patrucić, Justin Callais, and Josh Rudolph—on how authoritarian states build political influence in the U.S., why dictators keep disrupting so many other countries, why autocratic corruption is such a problem for democratic life, and what democracies can do about it.
Currently available in the U.S.A. To register interest in ordering internationally, or with any questions, please be in touch: concierge@thesgnl.com.
For members
The weekend despatch
- Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire—but disagree on whether the war has ended. What can you do with a peace framework when the two parties haven’t settled on what it means
- Washington finally enforces sanctions on Serbia’s Russian-owned oil company after eight delays. Can gradual pressure work on Belgrade when it hasn’t on Moscow?
- France’s prime minister returns from the dead. TikTok trains casual users to be compulsive scrollers. Hackers demand ransom for 800 companies’ data. Air-traffic controllers work without pay, airports go dark. & It turns out European lawmakers are full of forever chemicals.
- Why are American universities letting foreign governments bully their students? Sarah McLaughlin on the business model behind the pressure.
- Why does Japan have a new prime minister—again? Tobias S. Harris on political scandals, economic struggles, and a deep loss of public confidence in the country’s institutions.
- How is political upheaval in South Korea affecting North Korea? Soo Kim on what’s driving Pyongyang’s increasing hostility toward Seoul.
Cultural intelligence
- Why has theft become Uganda’s main system of government? Mahmood Mamdani, Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State.
- Who actually listens to chamber music these days?
- & The week in new tracks.
+ Weather report
- Two typhoons in days—what’s next for Southern Japan?
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‘A.N.S.’
Ecce Ensemble is a collective of classical and neoclassical musicians based in New York City and Boston. Here, they tackle a “portrait album”—where an ensemble chooses a composer and records assorted works. In this case, Trevor Weston’s chamber music. “A.N.S.” was originally composed for flute and marimba, but here it’s reimagined with flute and piano.
Who listens to chamber music these days?
