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Today’s newsletter supported by: |
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Hi there Intriguer. Dust off your Indiana Jones hat, a new Mayan city just dropped! Archaeologists have discovered the remains of an ancient Mayan city deep in the Mexican jungle, which appears to have been inhabited between 600 and 800 AD.
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Today’s briefing is a 4 min read:
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🇨🇾 Cyprus looks to Israel for a long-awaited gas link.
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🌍 The developing world is behind on clean energy investment.
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➕ Plus: A map of global flags, how the papers are covering Joe Biden calling Xi Jinping a “dictator”, and central bankers can’t make up their minds.
⏱️ Around the world in sixty seconds
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🇰🇿 Kazakhstan: The Kazakh deputy foreign minister unexpectedly proposed ending negotiations between Turkey, Russia, and Iran to find peace in Syria, saying their goal had been achieved. The talks have taken place in Astana since 2017.
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🇦🇱 Albania: Police raided an Iranian dissident compound on Tuesday (20 June) on suspicion the group was engaging in political activity, which is prohibited under a 2013 agreement allowing the group to stay in Albania. One person was killed in the raid.
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🇳🇿 New Zealand: A senior minister has stepped down after failing to disclose various financial conflicts to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. This is the third cabinet-level minister to leave Hipkins’ government since March.
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🇧🇴 Bolivia: China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. has won a $1.4B contract to develop lithium extraction plants in Bolivia, home to the world’s largest reserves. The two planned facilities will have an output of ~ 200,000 tons per year.
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🇳🇦 Namibia: The Netherlands and Namibia will work together on a green hydrogen-focused sovereign wealth fund. Namibia has become a leader in green technology, and announced plans in 2021 to build a $10B green hydrogen plant.
🇨🇾 Cyprus | Energy
Credits: Middle East Institute
Goodbye EastMed, hello Cyprus-Israel pipeline
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Cypriot officials are hoping to develop a pipeline linking Israeli and Cypriot gas in the Mediterranean to Cyprus, with talks scheduled for next month.
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It’s a pretty significant pivot from earlier dreams for a vast 2000km ‘EastMed’ pipeline pumping the gas all the way to continental Europe.
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Even with Europe’s race to wean itself off Russian gas, EastMed collapsed last year under the weight of technical, commercial, environmental, and geopolitical challenges.
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So, what’s the new plan?
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Cyprus proposes a shorter 300km pipeline connecting Israeli / Cypriot gas fields in the Mediterranean to a new terminal in Cyprus, which could then liquify the gas and ship it to global buyers.
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This proposal has a few advantages:
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💸 Cost – it’d be $500M for the pipeline plus $1.5B for the liquefaction plant, compared to EastMed’s $6.5B tag
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⏰ Time – it’d take 18 months to build the pipeline and 2.5 years in parallel for the plant, versus EastMed’s six years, and
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👷 Ease – the local seabed is more forgiving than EastMed’s route, which would’ve required one of the world’s longest and deepest underwater pipelines
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Intrigue’s take: Some had hoped local gas reserves might help unite the region in an effort to bring its gas to market. But even with Lebanon and Israel resolving a maritime border dispute last year, regional tensions continue to hamper progress.
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E.g., France often deploys its navy near European gas exploration off Cyprus, after neighbouring Turkey’s warships blocked drilling there in 2018.
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It’s one of several examples suggesting the region’s gas reserves might end up inflaming more tensions than they extinguish.
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Also worth noting:
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Israeli gas exports currently reach Europe via Egypt, which converts the gas into LNG.
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Cyprus is not yet producing commercially available gas from its reserves in the Mediterranean. It aims to achieve this by 2027.
📰 How newspapers covered…
US President Joe Biden referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a ‘dictator’
Lagos, Nigeria |
Biden describes China’s President Xi as dictator |
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Joe Biden calls Chinese president Xi a ‘dictator’ day after Blinken visit to Beijing aimed at easing tensions |
New York, US |
China says Biden comments likening leader Xi to a dictator ‘extremely absurd and irresponsible’ |
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Today’s newsletter is supported by: Brilliant
Learn AI like it’s 2023
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AI won’t take your job. Someone using AI will. Best time to level up? Yesterday. Second best? Right now.
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Luckily, there’s Brilliant — the interactive app that makes it easy to master concepts in math, data, and computer science in just minutes a day.
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Here’s how:
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They have thousands of lessons on tons of topics — from AI and neural networks to data science.
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They break down complex concepts into digestible building blocks that stick.
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Their interactive style keeps you engaged, so it’s easy to build a daily habit.
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Join over 10 million people around the world and start building skills in minutes a day. You can try everything Brilliant has to offer for free for a full 30 days. Plus, right now you can get an exclusive 20% off an annual premium membership.
🌍 Global | Climate
Developing economies need more climate investment
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The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned yesterday (Wednesday) that developing economies are falling behind on green energy investment.
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According to the report:
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🏭 Most future emissions will come from developing and emerging economies, yet they’re getting only a fraction of global investment
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💰 By the early 2030s, they’ll actually need $1T more clean energy investment than wealthy countries each year
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And the IEA says that’d mean the private sector stumping up at least 60% of the cash (around $1T per year). But outdated regulation, weak infrastructure, and high interest rates can make investing in these economies pretty tricky.
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Intrigue’s take: If you don’t happen to have a spare day to read all 173 pages of this latest IEA report, the main takeaway is pretty clear: whether rich or poor, government or business, it seems we’re all in this one together.
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Also worth noting:
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The report says China installed 100 GW of new solar capacity in 2022, adding ten times Africa’s entire solar capacity in a single year.
➕ Extra Intrigue
Here’s what we’re reading about central banks and global monetary policy:
🗳️ Poll time!
If you could have dinner with any sitting world leader, who would you choose and why? |
🗺️ Map of the day
Credits: Michael Sandberg’s Data Visualization Blog.
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Flags are often designed to be attention-grabbing and bold, but mixing each flag’s colours together results in a soft neutral world palette. Only a handful of countries, like Brazil, China, and Kazakhstan, stand out amid a sea of mauve.
Yesterday’s poll: Which do you think is the world’s best airline?
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🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇶🇦 Qatar Airways (13%)
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⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇯🇵 ANA (2%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇫🇷 Air France (6%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇳🇿 Air New Zealand (6%)
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🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🇸🇬 Singapore Airlines (24%)
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🇦🇪 Emirates (26%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇹🇷 Turkish Airlines (5%)
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🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇭🇰 Cathay Pacific (6%)
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⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇰🇷 Korean Air (3%)
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🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other (write in!) (10%)
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Your two cents:
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✍️ N.E: “There is no such thing as best airline.”
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✍️ C.T: “Wanted to write Ryanair, but system refused. No other airline gets more people to more places for less money. I’m a shareholder.”
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Honourable mentions: Finnair, Qantas, KLM, Etihad, and Trans World Airlines at their peak.
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Want to know the official answer? The World Airline Awards were just announced at the Paris Air Show earlier this week.