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Todayโs newsletter supported by: |
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Hi there Intriguer.ย The British and Australian prime ministers just took a moment at the NATO summit to rib each other about cricket scores. But it could be worse: a FIFA World Cup qualifier once triggered an all-out war between Honduras and El Salvador.
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Todayโs briefing is a 5 min read:
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๐น๐ทย Turkey finally relents on Swedenโs NATO bid.
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๐ฎ๐ณ Foxconn pulls out of its India chip factory plan.
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โ Plus: Snow in South Africa, how the papers are covering the retirement of Thailandโs prime minister, and why Aussies are googling โAO3โ.
โฑ๏ธ Around the world in sixty seconds
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๐น๐ผย Taiwan: Authorities have announced theyโll hold Taiwanโs first large-scale safety drill in decades to simulate a Chinese attack on the island. Around 3 million people are expected to take part in the simulation.
-
๐ท๐บย Russia: President Vladimir Putin reportedly met Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin for three hours of high-stakes talks, shortly after the groupโs mutiny last month. Prigozhin then travelled to Belarus, though new evidence suggests he hasnโt remained there.
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๐ฐ๐ญย Cambodia: Prime Minister Hun Sen has urged Ukraine not to use its US-supplied cluster munitions, citing the danger they pose to civilians. Cambodia continues to clear unexploded US cluster munitions from the 1970s.
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๐ฆ๐ทย Argentina: Buenos Aires has inaugurated the first portion of a gas pipeline to boost the countryโs energy independence. Argentina has among the worldโs largest shale gas reserves but still imports large quantities of LNG.
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๐ฒ๐ฟย Mozambique: Former Finance Minister Manuel Chang will be extradited to the US to face fraud charges. Chang, whoโs been detained in South Africa since 2018, was involved in the vast โtuna bondโ scandal that triggered Mozambiqueโs economic collapse in 2016.
๐น๐ท Turkey | Defence & security
Sweden to become 32nd member of NATO
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoฤan finally agreed on Monday (10 July) to green-light Swedenโs long-delayed bid to join NATO, just hours before the allianceโs two-day summit in Lithuania.
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Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in May 2022, but had their applications held up by Turkeyโs demands that they both:
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๐ช Lift their ban on arms sales to Turkey (imposed after Turkeyโs 2019 incursion against a Kurdish militia in Syria)
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๐ย Crack down on Kurdish separatists within their countries, and
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โ๏ธ Extradite dozens of people to Turkey, where they mostly face charges of supporting Kurdish separatist groups.
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Finland cleared the hurdles in April but Sweden, with its occasional Quran-burning protests and large Kurdish diaspora, struggled to win Turkey over.
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Then after Mondayโs surprise meeting with his Swedish counterpart plus the NATO chief, Erdoฤan finally relented in exchange for:
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โ๏ธ More Swedish and NATO counterterrorism pledges (certain Kurdish separatists are listed as terrorists across the West), and
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๐ช๐บ Swedenโs help reinvigorating Turkeyโs EU bid (this seems mostly symbolic, as these talks have been in permafrost for decades).
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Intrigueโs take: This whole saga has given off more โwill he? wonโt he?โ vibes than a season finale of The Bachelor.
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But while Erdoฤan has managed to extract some legit concessions along the way, his decision is not just transactional: after years of playing the middle to maximise Turkeyโs advantage, Erdoฤan has watched Russia stumble, and now seems to be siding pretty firmly with the West in response.
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Also worth noting:
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Erdoฤan has also recently backed Ukraineโs NATO bid, returned Ukrainian POWs, hosted President Zelensky, hosted the NATO chief twice, and offered Turkish warships to escort Ukrainian grain.
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Sweden stretches more than 1000km along the strategic Baltic Sea, and is a major manufacturer of artillery and military aircraft.
-
A day after Turkey green-lit Swedenโs NATO accession, the US approved the long-delayed sale of $20B in F-16s to Turkey.
๐ฐ How newspapers coveredโฆ
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-chaโs announcement that he plans to retire from politics
Singapore |
โThailand PM Prayut announces retirement from politicsโ |
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|
โNine years after staging a coup, Thai PM Chan-ocha retiresโ |
Bangkok, Thailand |
โCaretaker premier resigns, says he did his best in nine years in officeโ |
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Todayโs newsletter is supported by: The Daily Upside
Have a few minutes for your favourite newsletter?
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Weโve partnered with The Daily Upside to help them conduct a quick study to ensure your media needs are being met.
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We’d be super grateful if you took 5 minutes out of your day to fill in the survey โ and itโll give you a chance to shape how we talk about the stories and topics you’re most passionate about. If you do, we’ll send you hugs tighter than Modi’s ๐ค.
๐ฎ๐ณ India | Tech
India Foxconn factory deal falls through
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Foxconn, the world’s largest tech manufacturer, has pulled out from a vaunted $19.5B joint venture to build a semiconductor plant in India.
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Foxconn is kinda a big deal:
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๐ฑ It makes products for giants like Apple, Microsoft and IBM
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๐งโ๐ญ It employs three quarters of a million folks worldwide, and
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๐ฐ And it rakes in almost a quarter trillion in revenues each year.
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The Taiwanese company didnโt say why the deal fell through, but reports suggest itโs related to delays in Indian government incentives and approvals.
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Intrigueโs take: Prime Minister Modi has been looking to boost this sector for a decade, and he seemed to have the wind at his back: Foxconn was just one of many spooked firms looking at India as a way to diversify away from China.
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So just as this dealโs announcement was a real head-turning moment for India last year, its cancellation will now turn heads too.
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Also worth noting:
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Prime Minister Modi launched his โMake in Indiaโ initiative in 2014, aimed at boosting Indian manufacturing.
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Foxconnโs plant was slated for possible construction in Gujarat, Indiaโs manufacturing hub and Prime Minister Modiโs home state.
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Foxconn already has (lower tech) factories in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
โ Extra Intrigue
Hereโs what people around the world were googling yesterday, Tuesday 11 July.
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๐ฆ๐บ Aussies were searching for โโโAO3โ, a popular fanfiction platform targeted in cyberattacks by a group calling itself โAnonymous Sudanโ.
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Folks in โโ๐ฎ๐ชย Ireland were feverishly googling โMission: Impossible 7โ, in hopes of scoring tickets to the newly released flick.
-
๐ฒ๐ฝ Mexicans were looking to stay up to date with their popular president by searching for โAndrรฉs Manuel Lรณpez Obrador amloโ.
๐ณ๏ธ Poll time!
Do you think the concessions made to Turkey were worth getting Ankara to drop its NATO veto against Sweden? |
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Ps. Congrats to the 37 people who answered that Sweden would be let into NATO in less than two months in last Thursdayโs poll. Right on the money!
๐ธ Picture of the day
Credits: Johannesburg resident Gabriel Sussman plays in the snow. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
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Snowhannesburgh! On Monday, residents of Johannesburg, one of the biggest cities in Africa, woke up to their first snowfall in more than a decade. The rare conditions were caused by a surge in humidity, cold temperatures and wind.
Yesterdayโs poll: Which of the following geographic features do you think is most important for a country’s economic growth?
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๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉย ๐ Access to the sea/ocean (66%)
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๐จโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ โต Extensive inland waterways (13%)
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โฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ โฐ๏ธ A protective mountain range (1%)
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โฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐พ Grassy flats (2%)
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๐จโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐ก๏ธ Mild climates (13%)
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โฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ โ๏ธ Other (write in!) (5%)
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Your two cents:
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๐พย E: โFlat terrains. Anything that makes it easiest to transport goods, services, and people as quickly and easily as possible and go build roads easily.โ
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๐ย D.T.W: โShipping lanes remain the most significant factor in global economic power.โ
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๐ก๏ธ J.H: โIn the past, access to sea/ocean was the prime indicator of growth potential. It’s still important. However, as temperatures climb climate will become the primary issue.โ
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โ๏ธ J.C: โAccess to cislunar highways to protect satellitesโ