:root {–wt-primary-color: #2D2DC8;–wt-text-on-primary-color: #FFFFFF;–wt-secondary-color: #F9FAFB;–wt-text-on-secondary-color: #030712;–wt-tertiary-color: #FFFFFF;–wt-text-on-tertiary-color: #222222;–wt-background-color: #FFFFFF;–wt-text-on-background-color: #222222;–wt-subscribe-background-color: #FFFFFF;–wt-text-on-subscribe-background-color: #222222;–wt-header-font: “Roboto”, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Roboto,”Helvetica Neue”, Arial, “Noto Sans”, sans-serif, “Apple Color Emoji”, “Segoe UI Emoji”, “Segoe UI Symbol”, “Noto Color Emoji”;–wt-body-font: “Roboto”, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Roboto, “Helvetica Neue”, Arial, “Noto Sans”, sans-serif, “Apple Color Emoji”, “Segoe UI Emoji”, “Segoe UI Symbol”, “Noto Color Emoji”;–wt-button-font: “Roboto”, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Roboto, “Helvetica Neue”, Arial, “Noto Sans”, sans-serif, “Apple Color Emoji”, “Segoe UI Emoji”, “Segoe UI Symbol”, “Noto Color Emoji”;–wt-border-radius: 8px}.bg-wt-primary { background-color: var(–wt-primary-color); }.text-wt-primary { color: var(–wt-primary-color); }.border-wt-primary { border-color: var(–wt-primary-color); }.bg-wt-text-on-primary { background-color: var(–wt-text-on-primary-color); }.text-wt-text-on-primary { color: var(–wt-text-on-primary-color); }.border-wt-text-on-primary { border-color: var(–wt-text-on-primary-color); }.bg-wt-secondary { background-color: var(–wt-secondary-color); }.text-wt-secondary { color: var(–wt-secondary-color); }.border-wt-secondary { border-color: var(–wt-secondary-color); }.bg-wt-text-on-secondary { background-color: var(–wt-text-on-secondary-color); }.text-wt-text-on-secondary { color: var(–wt-text-on-secondary-color); }.border-wt-text-on-secondary { border-color: var(–wt-text-on-secondary-color); }.bg-wt-tertiary { background-color: var(–wt-tertiary-color); }.text-wt-tertiary { color: var(–wt-tertiary-color); }.border-wt-tertiary { border-color: var(–wt-tertiary-color); }.bg-wt-text-on-tertiary { background-color: var(–wt-text-on-tertiary-color); }.text-wt-text-on-tertiary { color: var(–wt-text-on-tertiary-color); }.border-wt-text-on-tertiary { border-color: var(–wt-text-on-tertiary-color); }.bg-wt-background { background-color: var(–wt-background-color); }.text-wt-background { color: var(–wt-background-color); }.border-wt-background { border-color: var(–wt-background-color); }.bg-wt-text-on-background { background-color: var(–wt-text-on-background-color); }.text-wt-text-on-background { color: var(–wt-text-on-background-color); }.border-wt-text-on-background { border-color: var(–wt-text-on-background-color); }.bg-wt-subscribe-background { background-color: var(–wt-subscribe-background-color); }.text-wt-subscribe-background { color: var(–wt-subscribe-background-color); }.border-wt-subscribe-background { border-color: var(–wt-subscribe-background-color); }.bg-wt-text-on-subscribe-background { background-color: var(–wt-text-on-subscribe-background-color); }.text-wt-text-on-subscribe-background { color: var(–wt-text-on-subscribe-background-color); }.border-wt-text-on-subscribe-background { border-color: var(–wt-text-on-subscribe-background-color); }.rounded-wt { border-radius: var(–wt-border-radius); }.wt-header-font { font-family: var(–wt-header-font); }.wt-body-font { font-family: var(–wt-body-font); }.wt-button-font { font-family: var(–wt-button-font); }input:focus { –tw-ring-color: transparent !important; }li a { word-break: break-word; }@media only screen and (max-width:667px) {.mob-stack {display: block !important;width: 100% !important;}.mob-w-full {width: 100% !important;}}@font-face {font-family: ‘Roboto’;font-style: normal;font-weight: 700;font-display: swap;src: url(‘https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/roboto/v29/KFOlCnqEu92Fr1MmWUlfBBc4AMP6lQ.woff2’) format(‘woff2’);}@font-face {font-family: ‘Roboto’;font-style: italic;font-weight: 700;font-display: swap;src: url(‘https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/roboto/v29/KFOjCnqEu92Fr1Mu51TzBic6CsTYl4BO.woff2’) format(‘woff2’);}@font-face {font-family: ‘Roboto’;font-style: normal;font-weight: 400;font-display: swap;src: url(‘https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/roboto/v29/KFOmCnqEu92Fr1Mu4mxKKTU1Kg.woff2’) format(‘woff2’);}@font-face {font-family: ‘Roboto’;font-style: italic;font-weight: 400;font-display: swap;src: url(‘https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/roboto/v29/KFOkCnqEu92Fr1Mu51xIIzIXKMny.woff2’) format(‘woff2’);}@font-face {font-family: ‘Poppins’;font-style: normal;font-weight: 700;font-display: swap;src: url(‘https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/poppins/v22/pxiByp8kv8JHgFVrLCz7Z1xlFd2JQEk.woff2’) format(‘woff2’);}@font-face {font-family: ‘Poppins’;font-style: italic;font-weight: 700;font-display: swap;src: url(‘https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/poppins/v22/pxiDyp8kv8JHgFVrJJLmy15VF9eOYktMqg.woff2’) format(‘woff2′);}.table-base, .table-c, .table-h { border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; }.table-c { padding:5px; background-color:#FFFFFF; }.table-c p { color: #2D2D2D; font-family:’Helvetica’,Arial,sans-serif !important; overflow-wrap: break-word; }.table-h { padding:5px; background-color:#F1F1F1; }.table-h p { color: #2A2A2A; font-family:’Trebuchet MS’,’Lucida Grande’,Tahoma,sans-serif !important; overflow-wrap: break-word; }
Hi Intriguer.ย Itโs shaping up to be a yuuuuge week: Chinese President Xi lands in Moscow today for talks that will dominate at least a few news cycles; Credit Suisse looks to have finally kicked the bucket (which is Swiss for being bailed out by UBS); and former US President Trump claims heโs about to be arrested. And that just gets us through to Tuesday.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Todayโs briefing is a 4.8 min read:ย
-
๐ซ๐ท Protestors continue to clash with police in France.ย
-
๐ท๐บ The ICC issues an arrest warrant for Russian president Putin.
-
โ Plus: Oil prices are down, how the papers are covering Xi Jinpingโs visit to Russia, and Australiaโs at war (with birds) (again).
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
– Valentina, Ethan and Jeremy
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
๐ง Todayโs Intrigue Outloud: Go deeper into the protests in Paris, plus the attempts to arrest a former prime minister in Pakistan.
๐บ๏ธ AROUND THE WORLD
-
๐น๐ผย Taiwan: Former President Ma will visit China this month, the first time any Taiwanese leader (former or current) has visited the mainland since the defeated Republicโs leaders retreated to Taiwan in 1949.
-
๐ธ๐ฐย Slovakia: Following Polandโs lead, Slovakia is sending more than a dozen Soviet-era Mig-29 warplanes to Ukraine. To date, most NATO allies have worried that delivering fighter jets could lead to escalation.
-
๐ป๐ณย Vietnam: A court has sentenced a 60-year-old Facebook user to two years in prison for attempting to โoverthrow the stateโ. Authorities used a controversial press freedom law to arrest him.
-
๐ง๐ดย Bolivia: The credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded Boliviaโs credit rating to a B-minus. Bolivia is dangerously low on foreign reserves, despite the countryโs central bank consistently using the hashtag #WeAreAStableCountry (in Spanish) on Twitter.
-
๐ฒ๐ฟย Mozambique: Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protestors planning a march in honor of an anti-government rapper named Azagaia, who died of a seizure last week. Azagaiaโs 2017 song โPovo No Poderโ (Power to the People) was censored across state media.
๐ซ๐ท FRANCE | PROTESTS
Credit: Reuters
Protestors continue to clash with police in Paris
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Briefly: French protestors continued to rally over the weekend after President Macron’s government pushed controversial pension reforms through without a vote.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
France is ‘ageing’. This doesn’t mean everyone’s watching more Matlock, it means folks are living longer and having fewer kids. So there are now fewer workers paying into the pension fund, and more retirees drawing it down. And thatโs unsustainable.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
But who should fix this? Macronโs critics say France should instead tax the wealthy or get firms to make more pension contributions. But taxing the rich is like nailing jello foie gras to the wall – and when you make it more expensive for companies to hire people, companies tend to hire fewer people.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Itโs the seventh time France has attempted pension reform since the 1980s, when President Mitterrand cut the retirement age to 60. President Sarkozy then jacked it back up to 62 in 2010. And Macron has long campaigned on raising it further to 64. Now heโs actually doing it.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
France isnโt the only country dealing with an ageing population. Japan is trying to re-balance its demographics by encouraging more women to work. Korea has spent $200B trying to get couples to have more babies. In Australia and the US, young immigrants have helped slow the ageing process.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Intrigueโs take: What’s really notable in France is how much this issue has fired up both the far right (some would include Marine Le Pen in that) and the far left (thereโs a French Communist Party, and itโs not happy).
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Macronโs government will likely survive the no-confidence vote scheduled for today (Monday). And if he gets his way, his legacy will be a more sustainable pension system. But if Macron doesnโt get his way, his legacy could well be a more radicalised and polarised France.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Also worth noting:
-
Striking garbage workers have left more than 10,000 tonnes of trash rotting in the streets of Paris, but theyโre still letting some garbage trucks through to incinerators “to limit the risk of an epidemic”.
-
Two thirds of French people oppose Macronโs reforms, and his popularity has plummeted to just 28%, the lowest in four years.
๐ฐ GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
How different newspapers covered: Xi Jinpingโs visit to Russia.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Todayโs briefing is sponsored byย Highland Titles
If youโre looking for an internationally intriguing gift, check this out!
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Lawmakers in Scotland legally recognised โsouvenirโ plots of land in 1979. These gift-sized plots of land can be bought and sold with ease.
-
Highland Titles has been selling these plots since 2006, inviting customers to style themselves as Lord or Lady of their โestateโ.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
The land is managed as a nature reserve, and thousands of people find their plots yearly! Prices from less than $50.
๐ท๐บ RUSSIA | ICC
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.
Putin is now wanted by the ICC
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Briefly: The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin on Friday. Both the Russian President and Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belovaare are wanted in connection with the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which constitutes a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
At least 6,000 Ukrainian children have been sent to facilities across Russian-occupied Crimea and Russia since the invasion.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
But Putinโs not getting arrested any time soon: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the ICCโs warrant as โoutrageous and unacceptableโ, and reminded everyone that Russiaโs not actually an ICC member.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Intrigueโs take: Peskov is distracting from the real issue, which is precisely what heโs paid to do. Nobodyโs expecting Russia to suddenly realise the errors of its ways and hand its president over for a war crimes trial in The Hague. But that doesnโt mean the ICCโs arrest warrant is pointless:
-
It stains Russia with the implicit condemnation of the ICCโs 123 members.
-
It isolates Putin because all ICC members now have an obligation to detain him if he enters their territory.
-
And it encourages Putinโs enemies at home (see next point).
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Nobody (including us) expects Putin behind bars any time soon. But nobody expected to see former Serbian president Slobodan Miloลกeviฤ there either. Then a popular uprising toppled his regime, and Miloลกeviฤ was sitting in a Dutch jail a few months later.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
What weโre saying is, historyโs full of plot twists.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Also worth noting:
-
Russia isnโt the only major country thatโs not an ICC signatory. Others include the US, China, India and Ukraine.
-
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin paid a โsurpriseโ visit to occupied Mariupol in Ukraine; โ[h]e has come in person to see what he has doneโ, Mariupol’s Ukrainian mayor in exile Vadym Boychenko told the BBC.
๐ EXTRA INTRIGUE
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Monday funday:
-
Australiaโs at war with birds, again. But this time itโs not ostriches, it’s a small invasive species of Corella cockatoos.
-
Netflix-famous Joe Exotic, aka โThe Tiger Kingโ, has announced his 2024 presidential bid from prison. A reality TV star whoโs had trouble with the law running for President? Absurd!
-
A 46-year old project manager will walk the London marathon backwards to raise money for Ukraine.
-
New archaeological works in Egypt have uncovered a small sphinx with a โsmiley face and two dimplesโ – a nice change from all the other stony-faced statues.
ย ๐ย CHART OF THE DAY
Credits: Financial Times.
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
What goes up…
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Benchmark crude oil prices have decreased by 15% in little more than a week as the ongoing Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse dramas spook global markets.
Who do you think is right in France? |
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Thursdayโs poll: Do you think there’s still value in Russia recovering the wreckage of the US drone?
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉย ๐ฝ Yes, to study the drone’s tech (46%)
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
๐จโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐๏ธ Yes, to see what the US was gathering intelligence on (8%)
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
๐จ๐จ๐จ๐จโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ โ Yes, as a symbolic f* you gesture (38%)
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
๐จโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐คท No, its drives were wiped remotely then fried by water (8%)
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
โฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ ๐๏ธ Other (write in!) (1%)
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
p span[style*=”font-size”] { line-height: 1.6; }
Your two cents:
-
๐คทย G.L: โAfter 20 years of War in Afghanistan it would be naรฏve to think the Russians have never seen the insides of an MQ-9. This is not the first Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) to crash.โ
-
๐๏ธ D.M: โConsidering this contributes to already high tensions, despite us being past this probably, it would be a good gesture to leave it and allow the US or allies to recover the remains.โ