Weekly news (June 7-17, 2022). Second part: The world
Today is the 16th of June, 2022. Here's news from all parts of the world.
Last week summarised the major trends in world politics and economy. Was it boosted by the “Russian special operation” and the economic war between West and Russia? Most certainly but there were processes that started long time ago, that includes inflation, hunger and energy crisis.
Europe: Pointing fingers
Meanwhile French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz are gathering in Kyiv. There's a lot going on in their own countries, but also in the rest of the EU. It’s where few major European outcasts are to be found. Hungarian opposition to the 6th pack of sanctions was incredibly firm, which made some members suggest a reform in the voting procedure and structure of it.
There’s another stubborn country that refuses to join the sanctions and continues to buy gas and oil from Russia, keeping the sky and their doors open for Russian citizens - it’s Serbia - a candidate for moving in the EU. President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic talks about the growing euroscepticism in his country because of the EU nations hypocrisy, their unwillingness to see Serbian people’s interests, that includes their position on Kosovo and economic relationships with Russia, even the sanctions that Serbia didn’t join will hurt it, because its oil and country receives by sea.
An April opinion poll by the authoritative Belgrade agency Ipsos showed that about 44% of Serbian citizens would vote against joining the EU if a referendum were held now, 34% would support it, and the rest were undecided. Today with growing energy disaster the numbers would be different, because according to Vucic no one can deny the hypocrisy of Europe, declaring a "renunciation" of Russian gas on which Serbia depends on 100%:
"One country bordering Russia passes Russian gas through its territory to Germany, and then the same Russian gas returns back, as if "we do not accept Russian gas" or the gas changed citizenship along the way, they gave him a passport on the border between those two countries in European Union, probably, but the same is happening in our environment. They say that they no longer use Russian gas, but in reality they will let flow into one southern country, and then in the opposite direction, but priced €200,000-250,000 per day and they will say: "We don't depend on Russian gas”. Who are you kidding? I feel the human, righteous anger that every citizen of this country feels every day".
The same feel the citizens of many European countries, though not everywhere people tend to blame the foreign policy. In Poland they protest against the energy companies demanding to lower the prices. Companies say they depend on the market situation when Russian gas was turned into pumpkin after Poland refused to pay for it in rubles and asked the neighbours to help with supplies. Inflation is hitting the sky there, as well as in Baltic countries and in Bulgaria. The latter one is in the middle of a political crisis, because part of the elected coalition left the government including the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs. People are disappointed and helpless to find the common ground in their discussion over the budget project first of all.
While the weakest are drowning, the richest are trying to buy as much Russian gas and oil as possible.
“According to figures from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea), France, Belgium and the Netherlands used to purchase shipments of Russian fuel at discounted prices. France received a dozen shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other fossil fuel products worth almost €900million. Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst at Crea, told the Telegraph: “France and Belgium stand out as buyers of Russian LNG on the spot market. As the EU is considering stricter sanctions against Russia, France has increased its imports to become the largest buyer of LNG in the world.” (Express.co.uk)
Europe receives half of the usual gas flow, benchmark futures jumped 24% as a reaction on the news. Looks like Unity put on test their decision to clean itself from Russian gas in the future.
“Germany accused Russia of curbing supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline to unsettle markets, challenging Gazprom PJSC’s claim that the halt was due to technical issues”. (Bloomberg)
As for Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain - their borrowing costs jumped. The ECB confirmed “plans to end its bond-buying programme and raise interest rates for the first time since 2011 next month, and hinted that more aggressive rate rises could follow later in the year. The move to tighten monetary policy as the central bank seeks to rein in record-high inflation has reawakened investor concerns about the ability of weaker eurozone members to support their massive debt loads without the support of the ECB”, writes the Financial Times.
So Italy’s main stock index fell by 5%, led by the banking sector. UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo lost 9 and 7.6% respectively. ECB president Christine Lagarde needed to react, so she said the central bank can “introduce a new tool to avoid “fragmentation” of the euro area by keeping a lid on sovereign borrowing costs”. It didn’t help much, eventually panic passed. Problem though stayed.
Don’t you think that everything goes sideways in Europe? Time Magazine doesn’t think it is somehow connected to the management of the EU, they think everything is perfect there and the most powerful woman in there will definitely solve everything. In case you want to know what is inside Ursula von der Leyen’s mind - look through the article. She’s the next cover hero after Zelensky and Biden.
If you're not ready for that, here’s some nice news from the UK, which by the way is officially sued by the EU over their disrespect to the Brexit conditions agreement over the Northern Ireland borders and trading conditions. But there’s something worse. The nightmare idea to send illegal asylum seekers to Rwanda was about to become real, after court confirmed it’s legit. So the first plane was about to fly, if not people that came to protest and just laid on the ground. European judges were in disagreement with the British.
Here’re link on BBC and Politico materials:
Rwanda asylum plan: UK court allows removal flight planned for Tuesday
Flight grounded as European judges thwart plan to send UK asylum seekers to Rwanda
And finally the last cherry on the top of that informational cake: Government outlines plans to block 'foreign influences' from compromising UK universities, writes the Guardian. If you wonder what it means: authorities are worried about Chinese and other shady students: what is on their minds, who knows?
The United States: Lost in inflation and outcasts
Should I start with the most important news? No, not inflation that hit 8,6% in May which is 40-year high. By the way you can read about it here:
US inflation hits 40-year high of 8.6% as food, gas and shelter costs rise (The Guardian)
America’s inflation headache gets worse (The Economist)
Yes, very bad. I wrote last week about Musk’s opinion and other worrying signs of the coming recession but this week few voices turned into a choir. Even Bloomberg calculated the model and is sure that with 75% probability 2024 will be even in the deeper hole than we are now.
“On Wednesday the Fed delivered its biggest interest-rate hike in almost three decades, as it takes the fight against inflation into overdrive… Investors are rushing to bet on that kind of bad outcome, sending stocks and bonds plunging. American households, watching their retirement funds dwindle as their grocery and utility bills soar, say they feel gloomier about the economy than at any time in more than four decades” (US Faces a Fed-Triggered Recession That May Cost Biden a Second Term (Bloomberg)
But the major problem right now is that after the baby formula, tampons disappeared. Yep. Times even published an investigation: The Great Tampon Shortage of 2022: The Supply Chain Problem No One’s Talking About. They couldn’t find the reasons for that, but made it clear that men at the managing positions in all the “women” oriented companies and in the regulator’s don’t have women’s problems, for that they simply don’t pay attention to the supplies, nor to the scale of the disaster.
I guess the same men that were unable to calculate the tampons produced, stored and sold, were responsible for the sanctions consequences predictions. It didn’t go smoothly as well. Not enough gas to share it with Europe, because after one technical accident the whole plan shaked quite a bit. Europe doesn’t have enough gas, and it isn’t happy, obviously. American farmers as well, no one told them to prepare for the high prices and deficit of Russian fertilisers on the market, for everything. Including the resistance movement among countries that are not in good relationships.
But the most disillusioning part was realising the fact that the most part of the world doesn’t support the West and doesn't want to follow it.
Biden was looking for Unity among American continents when he promoted the Summit of Americas but as far as his office refused to invite some countries.
“A boycott of the summit by the leaders of several Latin American nations — including Mexico, a regional powerhouse — continued to undermine the gathering organized by the United States. Mr. Biden had hoped to assemble the leaders of the hemisphere as a show of American strength and unity of purpose. Instead, his refusal to invite several authoritarian leaders prompted the leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia and El Salvador to refuse to attend”, - wrote the New York Times.
To understand the quality of the propaganda it’s enough to read about a “strategy for the Fence SItters” in Foreign Affairs. The authors tried to rule out all the reasons “why” but couldn't do it properly. Too many countries, too superficial thoughts, though the list of countries can make you think about the variety of stories, mistakes and victories in American and Russian policies. The moral is not to become mortal enemies with someone you might need later: someone like Saudi Arabia with their oil, for example, or Iran. The last one turned off cameras at its nuclear plants and labs. Turkey stood against inclusion of Sweden and Finland into NATO, China was more open and interested in talks with Russia than with the USA.
Ukraine Update: U.S. Doubts Russian Pullback; Lavrov in China (Bloomberg)
U.S., China Defense Chiefs Dial Down Tensions Over Taiwan (the Wall Street Journal)
Digital economy hasn’t even started yet
But people’s hopes are already there especially when we talk about currencies that governments can’t control or anyone if that matters can’t do it. Cryptocurrencies were the only way to save those little reserves that didn’t want to give to their motherland. When those showed the same sense of uncertainty, so here’s a Bitcoin Price Tracker.
The list of articles on the subject of what it was and what’s happened:
After Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Crash, ‘Crypto Winter Now Hangs in the Balance,’ Says This Expert
Coinbase to cut almost a fifth of staff as crypto crunch worsens
Cultura as a path to ourselves
There is a movement all over the world about legalisation or decriminalisation of different drugs. This week brought us 3 countries that introduced new laws: Ukraine, Thailand and Canada.
The New York Times wrote a nicely useful piece about the applications that can help to choose books, because online sales are so usual, that less people buy in bookshops where they can look at the books closer. Online doesn’t give the same opportunity to “try it before you buy it”.
Finally, the most beautiful part of the whole fashion news field from last few weeks. The new collection of Alexander McQueen was presented without runaway, but also every dress was related to the art work that it inspired.
“Process: Alexander McQueen fashion, and the art it inspired”
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