🌍 A military coup in Niger

Hi there Intriguer. Ever had to ask your office rival for help to fix the coffee machine? So awkward. But that’s kinda how a North Korean cargo vessel must’ve felt in 2007 after it got boarded by pirates and put out a distress call, only to be aided by a US destroyer.

Today’s briefing is a 4 min read:

• 🇳🇪 Niger is rocked by the Sahel’s latest military coup.

• 🇸🇬 Singapore stunned by scandals.

• ➕ Plus: The cloud needs water, how the papers are covering a report implicating the Mexican army, and where was the richest person in history?

⏱️ Around the world in sixty seconds

1. 🇯🇵 Japan: Microsoft is set to supply Japan with the tech behind its uber-popular AI chatbot Chat GPT. Japan says it’ll use the AI systems for administrative tasks, including to draft responses to parliamentary queries.

2. 🇳🇱 Netherlands: A ship carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles caught fire on Tuesday night near the Dutch coast. The blaze, which has been burning for two days, is thought to have originated from an electric vehicle.

3. 🇳🇿 New Zealand: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said “the door’s very much open” for New Zealand to join the AUKUS trilateral defence deal. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says he’s “open to conversations“, but New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy means it wouldn’t join the nuclear-powered subs component of AUKUS.

4. 🇸🇻 El Salvador: Congress has approved the use of mass trials to prosecute up to 900 suspected gang members at the same time. El Salvador has been under a state of emergency for 16 months, during which over 70,000 people have been arrested.

5. 🇹🇷 Turkey: Turkey’s biannual International Defence Industry Fair is underway, aimed at showcasing the country’s growing defence sector. China is attending with 75 exhibitors, while the UAE and the US are running 15 and six stalls respectively.

🇳🇪 Niger | Geopolitics

Niger rocked by Sahel region’s latest coup

Niger’s army has announced it’s backing the soldiers who declared on TV Wednesday night they’d deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. The putschists were mostly from the democratically-elected leader’s presidential guard.

The soldiers said they seized power “following the continued deterioration of the security situation, poor economic and social governance” in Niger.

But they might’ve had other motives: the president was slowly making his own security appointments, and was reportedly set to replace the head of his presidential guard. Either way, this coup has potential geopolitical implications:

• ☢️ France gets a third of its uranium from Niger (which produces 5% of the world’s total supply)

• 🚀 Niger hosts French and US troops plus two US drone bases, focused on Islamist insurgencies in the region, and

• 🗽 The deposed president is Western-aligned (sometimes at the cost of domestic popularity).

Meanwhile, pro-coup protestors are waving Russian flags, and Russia’s Wagner Group says the coup “shows the effectiveness of Wagner.”

But Russia’s foreign minister has described it as “unconstitutional”, the White House says it’s seen no credible evidence of Russian involvement, and one of the lead putschists (head of Niger’s special forces) has strong US ties.

Intrigue’s take: This is the seventh coup in western and central Africa since 2020, and it seems largely driven by internal factors. But we’ll be watching how France responds (beyond its initial condemnation).

Researchers have identified rising resentment towards the region’s former colonial power, with neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso both expelling French troops after recent coups. So in response, France had just promised a new approach in Niger. But it may now be too late.

Also worth noting:

• Bazoum was elected in 2021 in Niger’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.

• Still detained, he tweeted that “all democracy-loving Nigeriens” will ensure “the country’s hard-won achievements will be safeguarded.”

• Bazoum’s foreign minister claims not all factions of the military are on board with the coup.

• The African Union, the Economic Union of Western African States, the UN, and others have condemned the coup.

📰 How newspapers covered…

A report on the disappearance of 43 Mexican students in 2014

*Carlos Beristain is a member of the panel appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate the case

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🇸🇬 Singapore | Politics

Political scandals rock squeaky-clean Singapore

Singapore is in damage-control after two scandals involving high-profile lawmakers emerged in recent weeks.

The scandals:

1. 🏨 Transport Minister S Iswaran and hotel magnate Ong Beng Seng are facing undisclosed corruption charges, and

2. 🏩 The city-state’s parliamentary speaker has resigned over a years-long extra-marital affair with another lawmaker.

The scandals risk eroding trust in the long-ruling People’s Action Party, as speculation mounts around the succession plan for Prime Minister Lee (71).

Intrigue’s take: Singapore has long given off some pretty strong Ned Flanders vibes, with its reputation for clean and competent (if ‘partly-free’) government. And the resulting public trust partly explains why the ruling party has held power since 1959.

But all those years in charge mean the party faces limited checks on power, so it’s often up to the party to police itself. But as these scandals mount, some Singaporeans might wonder if the party is still up to the task.

Also worth noting:

• In an effort to curb corruption, Singapore pays its leaders more than any other country (the PM earns $1.7M and ministers make up to $822k a year).

• Singapore remains among the least-corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Index.

🎧 Today on Intrigue Outloud

What’s behind the coup in Niger?

➕ Extra Intrigue

On this day in 1932, the world got its first feature-length zombie movie (‘White Zombie’), so here’s a horror film word search!

• Alien

• Conjuring

• Exorcist

• Halloween

• Insidious

• Psycho

• Shining

📊 Chart of the day

Turns out our virtual reality requires a lot of real resources. As our computing power needs grow, data centres will need more and more water to operate, which could pose challenges in water-scarce communities.

🗳️ Quiz time!

Test your knowledge on The Sahel region of Africa with this quick quiz.

Answers: 1-a, 2-d, 3-b