🌍 The 49th G7 Summit

🗺️ AROUND THE WORLD

1. 🇲🇴 Macau: The Macau Special Administrative Region on China’s southern coast has updated its national security law for the first time since 2009. The new law gives China, which took charge of Macau from Portugal in 1999, greater oversight of speech and assembly laws in the city.

2. 🇸🇰 Slovakia: A court has acquitted for the second time a top Slovak businessman in the murder of a prominent investigative journalist and his fiancé in 2018. The murder triggered a political crisis and a nationwide protest movement.

3. 🇵🇼 Palau: The US is today (Monday) set to formally renew key treaties with the Pacific Island nations of Palau and Micronesia. The US has worked to renew the 1980s-era pacts before they expire over the coming year, as part of Washington’s efforts to counter China’s influence.

4. 🇬🇹 Guatemala: One of Guatemala’s most celebrated anti-corruption news sites, El Periódico, has closed ten months after its founder was jailed. The outlet had published more than 200 investigations since current President Alejandro Giammattei took office in January 2020.

5. 🇱🇧 Lebanon: Interpol issued an arrest warrant (on alleged corruption) for Lebanon’s central bank chief on Friday. Lebanon’s interior minister promised to arrest the chief, Riad Salameh, if approved by the justice ministry.

🤝 G7 | GEOPOLITICS

G7 summit: AI, jets, China, and more

Briefly: The 49th Group of 7 (G7) Summit wrapped up in Hiroshima yesterday (Sunday), with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hosting the leaders of the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the EU.

Japan also invited a few guests, including the leaders of Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Comoros and Cook Islands (the latter four as respective chairs of the G20, ASEAN, African Union and Pacific Islands Forum).

Plus… the UN chief and several other international honchos were there. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise appearance. So you can see it’s not so much a G7 as a Gee-we-lost-count.

International summits can be denser than Dune. So here are some highlights: 

• 🇨🇳 China: The G7 leaders pledged to foster constructive ties with Beijing while “de-risking” their economies from China’s “malign practices”

• ✈️ Ukraine: The US endorsed international efforts to get F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, quite the U-turn from Washington’s previous stance

• 💻 AI: The leaders called for “guardrails” on AI development, marking the first time the G7 has addressed the emerging tech head-on

• 💣 Nuclear: The G7 adopted Japan’s vision of a nuke-free world, though without stepping on the toes of the G7’s three nuclear-armed states

Intrigue’s take: In a formal sense, this year’s G7 Summit was pretty unexceptional, with leaders mostly doubling down on last year’s pledges. And that’s to be expected for the G7. It’s still trying to figure out what it wants to be.

For us, the number (and mix) of guests this year, plus the breadth and centrality of topics, suggests the G7 is seeking to move beyond its days as a rich Western club. It’s seeking to be more of a guardian of the international system. And that’s an increasingly tough gig.

Also worth noting:

• The summit attracted hundreds of anti-G7 protesters, including two Pikachus (yes) calling for a fossil fuel-free Japan.

• According to one China analyst (Moritz Rudolf), the G7’s language on China was “tough but not as tough as expected”.

• The UN chief used his G7 invite to remind the bloc that it’s “central to climate action”. The Pacific Islands Forum rep took the opportunity to highlight his region’s vulnerability to climate change and nuclear waste.

Today’s briefing is sponsored by One Decision

🇮🇳 INDIA | DEFENCE

India breaks defence production records

Briefly: India’s defence industry produced a record $12B in ammunition and weapons during FY2022. That’s a 12% increase from the year prior.

India has been the world’s largest arms importer for over a decade, sourcing nearly half its military gear from Russia. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s assertive style have nudged India to become more self-sufficient.

Indian policymakers are achieving that by co-producing foreign weapons at home, as well as encouraging local suppliers. In fact, India has nearly tripled the number of its defence industry permits in recent years.

Intrigue’s take: You could almost replace the words “Indian defence industry” with:

• 🇺🇸 US chip-making industry

• 🇳🇬 Nigerian fertiliser industry, or

• 🇻🇳 Vietnamese computer industry

… and the story would be much the same. The world is getting a little cray-cray, and governments everywhere are battening down the hatches.

Also worth noting:

• The US and India signed an agreement earlier this year to boost co-production of critical defence technologies.

• Though India is still a net importer of arms and ammunition, its weapons exports increased 24% in the last year.

• Total global military expenditure hit a record $2.24 trillion last year.

👀 EXTRA INTRIGUE

As ever, we’ve scoured the internet to bring you a roundup of the most amusing headlines from around the world.

• A rogue chicken temporarily halted services on Mexico City’s underground. The authorities suspect some kind of fowl play (sorry).

• A US driver attempted to get out of a DUI by switching seats with his dog.

• Japanese people are turning to ‘smile coaches’ to retrain their muscles after three years of mask mandates.

• A UK supermarket chain sent a cease-and-desist order to a family-run ice cream parlour over its ‘Perky Pig Gelato’ flavour.

• A dad got in trouble after changing his son’s date of birth by an hour, claiming “2020 was a s**tty year”. Hard to blame him.

📝 REPORT OF THE DAY

Languishing lakes…

A new study published by Science Journal shows over half of the world’s biggest lakes and reservoirs have lost “significant” water volume between 1992 and 2020. About one-quarter of the world’s population now resides in a water basin actively drying out.

🎙️ Catch our co-founder John Fowler with fellow ex-diplomat Dmitry Grozoubinski exploring whether the West should embrace chequebook diplomacy, in the latest episode of the Intrigue Explained podcast!

🗳️ POLL TIME!

Thursday’s poll: How many languages do you speak? And what are they?

 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🙂 Just the one (37%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ ✌️ I'm bilingual (29%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💆 I know three (18%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧠 Three or more, not to brag or anything (16%)

Your two cents:

• 🙂 J.S.G: “But I can order a beer in three others….“

• Honourable mentions: Arabic, Spanish, Swedish, French, Hindi, German, Swahili, and “old fancy English” 😂