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Hi there Intriguer. It’s another yuuuuge week: the president of Indonesia is about to touch down in Australia to talk EVs; the US treasury secretary has just announced she’s making a long-awaited trip to China; and Pakistan’s foreign minister is in Tokyo trying to revive ties with Japan. And this is all before we smashed that Monday morning snooze button.
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Today’s briefing is a 5 min read:
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🇫🇷 What France’s unrest means for the world.
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🇵🇰 Pakistan reaches an IMF deal hours before a deadline.
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➕ Plus: A nuclear-grade graph, how the papers are covering China’s latest economic data, and why Brazil’s president doesn’t like palace meals in France or Italy.
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📢 PSA: Team Intrigue will be off tomorrow (Tuesday), but we’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday!
⏱️ Around the world in sixty seconds
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🇹🇲 Turkmenistan: The brand new city of Arkadag, named for the impoverished nation’s former leader, opened 30 km south of the capital last week. Authorities say the “smart” city features electric buses, solar power, and smartphone-connected homes.
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🇦🇹 Austria: The world’s oldest daily newspaper, the Vienna-based Wiener Zeitung, printed its last edition on Friday (30 June) after nearly 320 years. When it first launched in 1703, Austria had recently acquired most of modern Hungary following a war with the Ottomans.
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🇰🇭 Cambodia: Prime Minister Hun Sen has left Facebook and threatened to ban the platform in Cambodia after the social media giant’s oversight board recommended his account be suspended. Facebook says one of Hun Sen’s video messages from January had called for violence against his political opponents.
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🇧🇷 Brazil: An electoral court voted 5-2 on Friday to bar ex-president Bolsonaro from office until 2030. Analysts expect he’ll appeal the decision, which found he abused his power to promote his campaign ahead of last year’s elections.
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🇿🇦 South Africa: Aides to the Zulu king have issued conflicting statements on whether he’s in hospital for suspected poisoning. The king, a ceremonial but influential figure in South Africa, was crowned last year amid reports of a power struggle within the royal family.
🇫🇷 France | Unrest
A police shooting triggers riots and soul-searching across France
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France has been rocked by its worst unrest in decades after police shot dead an unarmed 17-year-old driver at a traffic stop on Tuesday (27 June).
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Bystander footage disproved initial police claims that the driver had rammed them. And local grief in Nanterre, a low-income Parisian suburb home to many migrants, soon escalated to widespread unrest, including:
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The torching of trains, police stations, town halls, and schools
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The looting of anything from luxury goods to toilet paper, and
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Even slamming a burning vehicle into a mayor’s family home.
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How did the French authorities respond?
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President Macron said the teenager’s death was “inexplicable”
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He deployed 45,000 extra police who’ve arrested 2,300 rioters, and
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The officer behind the shooting is facing charges of manslaughter.
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Most foreign governments have stayed silent, but:
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🇩🇿 Algeria has voiced “shock and resentment” at the teen’s killing, in a statement suggesting the young driver was an Algerian national
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🇷🇺 Russia’s foreign ministry has sought to capitalise on the events in France, saying “before you try to treat us, heal yourself”, and
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🇵🇱 Poland and 🇭🇺 Hungary linked the French riots to their own vetoing of a joint EU statement covering migration.
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Meanwhile, the deceased teen’s grandmother yesterday (Sunday) pleaded with the rioters to stop the violence, which now seems to be subsiding.
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Intrigue’s take: We’re all about geopolitics here. And this kind of internal unrest has real geopolitical implications, because:
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It limits France’s bandwidth to shape the world around it (Macron had to leave an EU summit early, and delayed a visit to Germany)
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It emboldens domestic voices with opposing views on France’s role in the world, and
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It enables adversaries (like Russia above) to distract from or bolster their own narratives of purported cohesion and stability at home.
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So it makes sense Macron wants an inquiry into the longer-term causes of this unrest. And it makes sense the world will await its findings with interest.
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Also worth noting:
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Riots erupted in broadly similar circumstances in 2005, lasting three weeks until President Chirac declared a state of emergency.
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In 2018, the French ambassador to the US had an exchange with talk show host Trevor Noah on race relations in France.
📰 How newspapers covered…
The latest data from China’s manufacturing and service sectors
Tokyo, Japan |
China manufacturing PMI falls for third straight month in June |
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China’s factory, service sectors stumble as economic malaise broadens |
Beijing, China |
Economic Watch: China’s manufacturing PMI ends 3-month decline in June |
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Today’s newsletter is supported by: Babbel
Pack Babbel for Your Summer Adventures – Learn a Language in Bite-sized Lessons
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Embrace your wanderlust and learn a new language with Babbel. Whether you’re exploring sandy beaches or bustling cities, speak confidently on your summer adventures.
🇵🇰 Pakistan | Geo-economics
Pakistan lands last-minute IMF bailout
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After months of negotiations, Pakistan and the IMF reached a $3B bailout agreement to stabilise Pakistan’s teetering economy late last week, just hours before their previous arrangement was due to expire.
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The IMF and Pakistan go way back: they’ve reached 22 arrangements since the 1950s. This latest deal:
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💰 staves off a sovereign debt default, and
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⛓️ requires the country to put its finances on a more sustainable footing, through higher taxes and lower spending.
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So the news will be met with mixed emotions by Pakistan’s 233 million people, who are already paying Asia’s highest interest rates.
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Intrigue’s take: Emerging market debt recently crossed the $100T threshold for the first time ever. And around a quarter of the world’s emerging markets are either in – or at high risk of – debt distress.
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So Pakistani officials won’t be the only ones breathing a sigh of relief right now; others will be heartened that a similar IMF deal might be on the table if needed.
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Also worth noting:
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Pakistan is due to hold elections no later than 10 November 2023.
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Pakistan has enough foreign reserves to cover imports for a month.
➕ Extra Intrigue
Your weekly roundup of the world’s more surprising news:
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Brazilian President Lula da Silva says the palace meals he ate in Italy and France were “not that great” (he says he prefers “quantity”).
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A Scottish man has brought his pet snake to the park for a cheeky sunbathing session.
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New Zealand’s public broadcaster has been reprimanded for airing a nature documentary with a ‘graphic’ dolphin mating scene.
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Venezuela is opening a jail named after Nelson Mandela.
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A beer factory leak has turned the sea red in the Japanese city of Okinawa.
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And a California man has been sentenced to six years in prison for a cow dung scam.
🗳️ Poll time!
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What’s going on in France? |
📊 Chart of the day
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The world has come a long way from the nuclear arms race of the previous century, but arsenal reductions have tapered off in the last couple of decades. The top two nuclear nations, Russia and the US, still have more than 8,000 nuclear warheads combined.
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Check out our friends at Chartr for more data-driven insights!
Thursday’s poll: Which city has the best architecture?
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🇪🇸 Barcelona (39%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇮🇳 Chandigarh (6%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇩🇰 Copenhagen (7%)
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⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇲🇦 Marrakech (5%)
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⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇧🇷 Brasília (3%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇹🇷 Istanbul (11%)
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⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇸🇬 Singapore (5%)
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⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇺🇸 Palm Springs (3%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇯🇵 Tokyo (7%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other (write in!) (13%)
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Your two cents:
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🇪🇸 K.F: “You just can’t beat Gaudi!”
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Honourable mentions: Chicago, Paris, New Orleans, Dubai, Mexico City, Rome and London.