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Hi there Intriguer. How long would it take your boss to fire you if you stopped showing up for work? A week? Maybe two? Well someone in Japan somehow managed to survive a record seven months before getting the boot. Youtube star ‘GaaSyy’ was elected to Japan’s parliament last year and hasn’t turned up once. In fact, heโs been living in the UAE this whole time. We’re not even mad, that’s amazing.
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Todayโs edition is a 4.6 min read:
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โ๏ธ A US drone downed over the Black Sea during Russian intercept.
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๐ฎ๐ณ India discovers lithium in a contested region.
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โ Plus: Honduras gets cosy with China, how the papers are covering protests in Senegal, and is the Silicon Valley Bank contagion just beginning?
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Also… ยฟhablas espaรฑol? ยกCheck out our weekly Spanish edition!
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– Valentina, Ethan and Jeremy
๐บ๏ธ AROUND THE WORLD
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๐ต๐ฐ Pakistan: A court has ordered police to suspend efforts to arrest former prime minister Imran Khan. Protestors and police clashed violently this week when authorities attempted to detain him ahead of his scheduled court appearance on 18 March.
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๐ซ๐ฎ Finland: Turkish President Erdoฤan suggested on Wednesday that Turkey would โfulfill the promiseโ it made to Finland and approve its bid to join NATO. Swedenโs bid is still in limbo after activists burned a Quran outside Turkeyโs Stockholm embassy.
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๐ซ๐ฏ Fiji: Australian Prime Minister Albanese met his Fijian counterpart en route home from San Diego on Wednesday. Fijian Prime Minister Rabuka reportedly said he supports the AUKUS submarines deal, which bolsters the Australian Navyโs capabilities in the Pacific.
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๐ช๐จ Ecuador: A former Ecuadorian cabinet minister, living in Argentinaโs embassy in Quito after her 2020 bribery conviction, has escaped to Venezuela. Angry Ecuadorian officials expelled Argentinaโs ambassador, who wonโt disclose how the ex-minister escaped.
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๐ฟ๐ฒ Zambia: Finance Minister Musokotwane expects Zambia to soon finalise its long-delayed debt restructuring plans. Zambia defaulted back in 2020, and China holds nearly half of its debt.
โ๏ธ US & RUSSIA | DRONE INCIDENT
US drone downed over the Black Sea after encounter with Russian fighter jets
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Briefly: A US reconnaissance drone crashed into the Black Sea after it was intercepted by two Russian fighter jets early on Tuesday morning. While the incident is not quite Top Gun material, it’s the first known contact between the Russian and US militaries since the start of the Russo-Ukraine War.
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Finger (pistol) pointing: Unsurprisingly, we were treated to two contradictory accounts of the downing. The US accused Russia of conducting โrecklessโ aerial manoeuvres, including dumping oil on the drone, before colliding with it over international waters.
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Meanwhile, the Kremlin insists the US aircraft was conducting โunacceptableโ activity near occupied Crimea, and simply fell after attempting a sharp manoeuvre.
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There could be consensus on one point: that the Russian jet didn’t deliberately down the US drone. One former US military leader said it was likely โjust an overanxious pilotโ. A current US official concurred, describing the incident as “amateur hour”.
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Intrigueโs take: Two things come to mind here.
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First, these US drone flights arenโt new. Nor are they unlawful. But Russia increasingly objects to their role in supplying Ukraine with intelligence. And we now have a window into Russia’s answer: limit the drones’ effectiveness (eg, by spraying them with oil) without provoking US escalation.
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Second, the post-incident response on both sides offers some hope: the two defence ministers quickly spoke on the phone to de-escalate, and both the US and Russia emphasised they weren’t seeking confrontation.
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Still, it was all a little close for comfort. And we doubt this’ll be the last encounter.
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Also worth noting:
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There are reports the Russian Navy has already reached the crash site to try and recover the drone. The US was also reportedly exploring its retrieval options, though says it’s already remotely wiped the drone clean.
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The US State Department summoned the Russian ambassador on Tuesday to discuss the incident.
๐ฐ GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
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How different newspapers covered: Ongoing anti-government protests in Senegal.
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Links: WalfNet, The Indypendent, AfricaNews.
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Sponsored byย Power Corridor
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If the Walls of Washington and Wall Street Could Talkโฆ
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Ready to uncover the secrets of power and influence? Introducing Power Corridor, the latest enterprise newsletter from The Daily Upside.
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Led by Leah McGrath Goodman, who comes equipped with two decades of investigative experience, Power Corridor aims to take you behind closed doors and into the room where Wall Street and Washington overlap.
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From big themes in the news cycle to changing global power balances, Power Corridor will break down the key players, events, and ideas shaping the economic terrain that lies ahead. Get investigative reporting and analysis directly to your inbox.
๐ฎ๐ณ INDIA | MINING
Prime Minister Modi is laying claim to Kashmirโs lithium deposits.
Lithium deposits in Jammu and Kashmir raise the stakes
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Briefly: India will auction off mining rights for newly-discovered lithium deposits in the northern territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The 5.9 million tonne deposits are Indiaโs first significant discovery, and place India seventh globally for total lithium reserves.
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Hereโs the catch: Not everyone agrees the deposits should be Indiaโs. In 1954, Kashmir (to which India, Pakistan, and China each lay partial claim) was granted substantial autonomy as part of Indiaโs Constitution.
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But in 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Kashmirโs special status and placed the majority-Muslim territory under India’s federal control. With so much lithium at play, the stakes in Kashmir somehow just got higher.
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Intrigueโs take: Our good, green earth has an amazing ability to reveal precious resources in contested regions. And precious resources have an amazing ability to remind adversaries why theyโre fighting in the first place.
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While Pakistan (with whom India has fought three wars over Kashmir) has yet to comment, Kashmiri militants have promised to prevent India from โstealingโ the deposits.
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Also worth noting:
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In 2020-21, India imported 70% of its lithium and 96% of its lithium-ion batteries from China and Hong Kong.
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While Modi promised that revoking Kashmirโs status would help end the conflict, inter-communal and insurgent violence has risen since 2019.
๐ฆ TWEET OF THE DAY
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Taiwan is losing friends…
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… and according to Xiomara Castro, Honduras is next. That would leave only 13 countries recognising Taiwan rather than China. Taiwanese diplomats have a tough gig.
๐ EXTRA INTRIGUE
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Hereโs what weโre reading about the tech world today.
๐ณ๏ธ POLL TIME!
Do you think there’s still value in Russia recovering the wreckage of the US drone? |
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Yesterday’s question: Which country has the largest number of submarines in the world?Your guesses:
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๐จ๐จโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐จ๐ณ China (21%)
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๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐บ๐ธ USA (56%)
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โฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐ฐ๐ต North Korea (4%)
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๐จโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐ท๐บ Russia (17%)
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โฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐ฌ๐ง UK (1%)
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The answer: With 78 submarines,ย China comes out on top as reported by Global Fire Power’s 2023 ranking. Russia and the US have the second and third biggest submarine fleet, with 70 and 68 vessels respectively.