Talking Points
- Rivian's $11bn IPO made it the second–most valuable automaker
- Elon Musk drew more headlines with a predetermined sell-off
- Google, Apple were rapped on the knuckles in the EU and the US
- Softbank reported $3.5bn in losses during a bruising Q3
- America re-opened its borders to dozens of countries
- Conspiracy theories flooded in after the AstroWorld incident
- Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega returned to power in a disputed vote
- Chile's Sebastián Piñera faced impeachment over Pandora Papers
- Iraq's PM received a message in the form of a drone strike
- A 'judicial coup' in Thailand further stifled dissent
Dive deeper
This week we're returning to Europe to take the temperature of the Polish–Belarusian border dispute and test EU member states on their commitment to the 'ever closer union'.
The eastern front
At this time of year the temperature in eastern Belarus hovers in a narrow band between 3°C and -4°C. It is an unpleasant time to be outside, let alone stateless and stranded, caught between bickering neighbours on the edge of Europe. Thousands of refugees — many of them Iraqi Kurds — have massed along the border to the south of Grodno in Belarus, opposite the Polish town of Kuźnica. They've been gathering there for weeks, cold and hungry, families with elderly and infants among them. Their destination is asylum - anywhere. But they are not in this particular place by chance. There are countless passages into Europe, but these refugees find themselves on the Polish border because the Lukashenko regime in Minsk has placed them there as a retort to European Union sanctions.
Behind them, an authoritarian nation that is funnelling them towards the European Union. In front of them, a heavily–reinforced border teeming with at-times brutal Polish guards . Those that make it through the razor wire, and the patrols along the 400km frontier, are left hiding in the wilderness . But this entire awful human tragedy has been shoved to the side now because the whole fiasco has (rather predictably) taken on the trappings of the Cold War . Officials in Brussels have branded the border crisis a "hybrid attack" , and unleashed a new tranche of sanctions against Belarus. Minsk is responding by reheating (refreezing?) fears of the Cold War, and reminding the EU that it is backed by a nuclear-armed state. That claim was evidenced by the appearance of two Russian supersonic strategic bombers over Belarusian airspace this week.
One Kremlin spokesperson put on a good show of concerned observation with the following statement, "It is apparent that a humanitarian catastrophe is looming against the background of Europeans' reluctance to demonstrate commitment to their European values." Setting aside the disingenuity of Moscow's stance, there is indeed some unpacking to be done here. Germany's acting Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, said, "Mr Lukashenko... unscrupulously exploits people seeking refuge as hostages for his cynical power play." There's truth in this statement but also hypocrisy, because its European neighbour, Poland, also meets those "people seeking refuge" with batons, barbed wire, and push-backs . Having tolerated Turkey's refugee racketeering in the middle of last decade, it seems the EU has now found the minerals to meet Minsk's cynical provocation with... even more cynicism.
The ever-closer union
The Belarusian affair is not the only accusation of blackmail being bandied around at the moment. In October, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki claimed it was the EU itself that was committing extortion ! While Brussels and Warsaw march in lockstep when it comes to border push-backs, there's no love lost between them on just about every other subject. Poland's slide towards illiberalism and Catholic theocracy — a trend that we've discussed regularly in relation to Viktor Orbán's Hungary — has set off alarm bells in the bloc's executive core.
The pattern in Poland is worryingly familiar: suppress critical elements of the media, academia, and charities; curtail the rights of minorities, migrants, and women; peel back judicial oversight. Poland is dabbling in several of these, but it is a hotly-contested reform of the judicial system that really irks the European bloc. In an effort to rein in its judiciary, the ruling PiS (Law and Justice Party, would you believe it) has installed a disciplinary body to standover wayward judges. Brussels is currently fining Poland €1m per day for this reform, and has blocked Warsaw from accessing €36bn in pandemic recovery aid. Strange bedfellows make for awkward pillow talk.
Elsewhere in Europe this week, UK Brexit Minister David Frost told his counterparts in Brussels to "stay calm" — a construction which any skilled negotiator can tell you will usually have the opposite effect. It was a delightful little barb from a man whose government has threatened to unilaterally withdraw from the Northern Ireland Protocol in pursuit of a new deal that everyone knows is not going to happen . Now Britain has exactly what it wants: a game of chicken with the EU.
And last but not least, we'll leave you with another admirable exchange, this time between a Dutch journalist and the Greek prime minister, highlighting the idiosyncrasies alive within the union...
Journalist: Prime Minister Mitsotakis, when, at last, will you stop lying? Lying about push-backs, lying about what is happening with the refugees in Greece?
Mitsotakis: I understand that in the Netherlands you have a culture of asking direct questions to politicians, which I very much respect. What I will not accept is that in this office you will insult me or the Greek people... you will not come into this building and insult me.
Worldlywise
What do you call a shop selling light bulbs, ventilators, and jet engines?
General Electric has been the butt of many a joke poking fun at its sprawling array of products and services. Punchline no more — on Tuesday CEO Larry Culp announced the iconic manufacturer will split into three distinct companies from 2023. The conglomerate business model seems about as dated as this GE Money Australia ad from 2005.
The company, founded by Thomas Edison in 1892, has enjoyed its fat years; it once held the mantle of the world’s largest company with a $401 billion valuation. Today, it doesn’t even rank in the top 50 companies on the S&P 500. The iconic GE monogram, itself worth $20 billion , once adorned everything from refrigerators to basketball teams. But the company has been steadily throwing excess baggage overboard since GE Capital almost brought the whole ship down during the global financial crisis. The split is the boldest move yet from the newish CEO, who took over with a plan to cut debts and streamline the company’s hotchpotch array of offerings. Culp says the break-up will help GE’s respective divisions “shape the future of flight, advance precision health and lead the energy transition".
That would have been an easier sell twenty years ago. As it stands, GE is already dwarfed by innovation giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Tesla. Divided into three parts, it will have even less pull. The split marks a broader trend to streamline underperforming and unwieldy conglomerates . Across the Pacific, Japanese giant Toshiba is also considering disintegrating. But as these geriatric behemoths slim down or break up, others flex. Facebook is claiming ownership over the ‘metaverse’, Apple is developing driverless cars, and Amazon is buying just about everything else. Corporations are always rising and falling in America — the Amazon of the future may well end up looking like the GE of today.
Trouble in the peaceful ocean
While world leaders debate future impacts of climate change at COP26, the Pacific is living through climate catastrophe now. The tiny nation of Tuvalu waded into the spotlight this week when its foreign minister delivered a speech for COP26 knee-deep in the ocean. The area where Simon Kofe stood was once dry land, and he wanted to show the world that rising sea levels were already eroding his homeland. Tuvalu is considering the worst possibility: that the entire island will soon be submerged and the country will have to relocate. After all, its highest point is only 4.5 metres above sea level. But some older generations are not entertaining the possibility of leaving: they intend to go down with their island. It’s a devastating thought, but Pacific nations have been grappling with this realisation for many years. And yet the waves lap a little higher still; every flooded home and washed-away road offers repudiation of the developed world's good intentions and empty gestures.
It is easy to tune out talk-fests like COP26, but the entire future of the Pacific is riding on the world’s ability to make new commitments and halt global warming in its tracks. That’s why Pacific residents headed to COP26 in droves — despite what felt like insurmountable barriers due to Covid-19 restrictions — to tell their stories and demand world leaders do more. Samoan student Brianna Fruean was one of them. “You don’t need my pain or my tears to know that we’re in a crisis. The real question is whether you have the political will to do the right thing,” she told COP26. When considering climate targets, rich nations debate whether their economies and electoral chances can afford the hit. But many in the Pacific are having to contemplate what a future without their homeland will look like.
The best of times
An 83-year-old hikes the 3,500km Appalachian Trail
And Sunny Eberhart is not stopping yet. Read his story .
Yousafzai weds
We don't often cover weddings so we'll keep this brief before getting back to our knitting: the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala Yousafzai was married in Birmingham to Asser Malik this week. It is just nine years since Taliban gunmen in her native Swat Valley left her for dead with a bullet in her head. Shaadi mubarak ho.
The worst of times
Hunger strike
Early in the pandemic, a former lawyer and citizen journalist named Zhang Zhan brought the world to Wuhan . She travelled from Shanghai to the epicentre to bear witness and capture footage of overflowing hospitals in dire straits. Her inevitable arrest was met with pure indignation. For nearly a year, Zhang has been on hunger strike over her treatment. She is being kept alive through nasal feeding tubes. A shocking fate.
Surrounded by water and nothing to drink
You're sitting at a beachside bar with freshly-caught seafood on your plate and ouzo in your glass. The Aegean shimmers before you. Wait, that's not the sea, it's thousands of plastic water bottles . All across the Greek islands the aquifers are tapped and bottled water is being brought in by the boatload. It's a crisis that has made some individuals rich but is also pushing pristine islands towards ecological ruin.
Weekend Reading
The image
The quote
" So I mean, you wouldn't want it to buy a Lotto ticket. But now it's back here, it's got time to recover, it's got time to do the feather moult and time to get all the preparations on track. "
– Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre manager Keith Woodley applauds the arrival of a particularly perseverant arrival from Alaska. He's talking about a kuaka, or Eastern bar-tailed godwit, that was blown off course during a 12,200km annual migration . The 2,000km U-turn did not phase it – the bird tagged 4BWRB flapped weakly into New Zealand weeks overdue. To add insult to injury, another kuaka - 4BYWW - did the whole 8-and-a-half-day trip without stopping. This is believed to be the longest flight ever recorded by a ground bird.
The numbers
60% fully vaccinated
- This number would be the delight of many countries that have been deprived of access to coronavirus vaccines. In America, it is a reminder of squandered opportunity . With its head-start on vaccine production and unfettered access America looked well on its way to swiftly achieving herd immunity in April. But that initial burst of willingness subsided, and throughout the summer take-up decelerated. Partisan politics, the city-rural divide, and extraordinary inequality have weighed down the US public health response .
$3,000,000,000,000
- The global cryptocurrency market is now valued at over $3tn. Led by a charging Bitcoin, a whole host of digital currencies is eagerly seeking the air cover that mainstream status confers.
The headline
"'Hermit of Treig: Highland recluse rejects doctors' orders to return to civilisation" – The Telegraph . In fairness, he wouldn't be much of a hermit if he complied.
The special mention
A clear winner in the field of 'Now Try It, En Français' goes to Air Canada head Michael Rousseau . Despite living for 14 years in Montreal – the beating heart of Québécois – Rousseau has never bothered to learn the language of the French-Canadians. And so, upon his elevation as executive of the national carrier, his first speech in Montreal was met with howls of indignation for using the lingua franca instead of a few bon mots en français.
A few choice long-reads
- Spain's prime minister wants to ban prostitution. Who is he doing it for? A cracking read from Foreign Policy.
- How do you vaccinate a population that does not trust the government? An immersive piece from Businessweek on India's rural woes.
- We're not the only ones evolving! Enjoy this wonderful article from The Atlantic on the animals of the future.
Tom Wharton @trwinwriting
