The question...
When does scribbling on a famous painting not deface it?
Talking Points
- A hijab ban in Karnataka sparked sectarian clashes
- Peng Shuai said her accusations were “a huge misunderstanding”
- Cyclone Batsirai killed 90 and displaced 110,000 in Madagascar
- Village sued Warner over the dual release of the new Matrix
- The chooks came home to roost: NSO spyware used in Israel
- The CIA found to be keeping a secret trove of Americans' data
- A missing Wordle score helped end a hostage ordeal
- Peter Thiel left the Meta board for to support the Trump agenda
- Nvidia’s $40bn bid for chipmaker Arm collapsed
- Luc Montagnier, discoverer of HIV, died at 89
Dive deeper
This week we visit two Asian countries gearing up for election season, and cover shaman scandals in South Korea, and the same-old story in the Philippines.
Shamans in Seoul
South Korea's constitution allows a president to hold office for a single five-year term, and so Moon Jae-in's time is up. In 2017, Moon swept into office after the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, and with twice as many votes as the second and third candidates, combined. Over five years, he oversaw much-needed reforms in South Korea's labour market, including an increase in the minimum wage, and a reduction in the maximum work-week from 68 to 52 hours. But his major foreign policy push — detente with North Korea — was less successful. It could be characterised as hard-won but easily-lost breakthroughs. Nonetheless, Moon is leaving office on a high note. His stewardship, particularly his handling of the pandemic , has won praise both at home and abroad. The question of who replaces him after the March 9 election, is a live one.
Moon's Democratic Party has put forward Lee Jae-myung , a former civil rights attorney, mayor, and governor. Lee is a popular choice, but he's been embroiled in the same land development corruption scandal that has dogged the Democratic Party for years. Even now, the affair continues to simmer away in the background of Korean politics: two officials under investigation have died by suicide recently. His opponent, the People Power Party's Yoon Suk-yeol is running on a platform to reverse the perceived negative impact on economic opportunities due to the feminist movement. Yoon's wife Kim Keon-hee has been a constant feature in the press, and has even threatened to jail critical journalists if her husband wins. And both candidates have been accused of succumbing to the same shamanic influence that felled Park Geun-hye!
Both campaigns have been relentlessly negative. They remain locked in a dead-heat, with sky-high disapproval ratings. Meanwhile, as a psephologist's dream come true, the third party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo has emerged as potential kingmaker. Full steam ahead (and down)!
Never bet against the Filipino oligarchy
This week, the Philippines reopened international borders to foreign travellers for the first time in two years. The vast tourism sector which employees millions, and contributes more than 10% of the national GDP, has been gutted by wave after wave of coronavirus. Typhoons, and a volcanic eruption, also haven't helped. As tentative tourists start to return to Manila, teeming beach bars and surf breaks aren't the only traditions coming back. According to just about every poll, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will win the May 9 election in a landslide.
You'll recall that from 1965-86 the Marcos family occupied the Malacañang Palace in Manila. Ferdinand Marcos Sr ruled with an iron fist (martial law was in place for nearly half his reign) while Imelda Marcos preferred a suede foot (she boasted a wardrobe with 3,000 pairs of shoes). That all came to a halt in 1986 when the family fled to Hawaii; the retreat thankfully obviated dire conflict between pro- and anti-Marcos elements of the military. During their two-decade rule, the Marcos family lifted billions of dollars from the national coffers — most of which has yet to be reclaimed despite a full-time commission into retrieving the ill-gotten gains. Marcos senior died just a few years after his flight from Manila, but Imelda returned to serve four terms in congress. You really can't get rid of these people that easily.
On Tuesday, Bongbong launched his campaign with remarkably little fanfare. While he may enjoy substantial support (especially among those too young to remember his father's rule), Junior faces a number of lawsuits which may disqualify his candidacy. So far, the electoral commission has sided with him, but more challenges lie ahead.
Worldlywise
All brakes no gas
In North America's propertarianist culture, the automobile is a sacred object. It is freedom manifest. The freedom to roam far and wide, to commute in comfort, a protected sheath of ownership in the wilds of the commons. And in recent weeks we've seen a particularly novel expression of vehicular emancipation: the freedom to intentionally sit in traffic. It all started in Canada, where truckers crossing over from the US faced an ultimatum: vaccine or quarantine. In late January, said haulers descended on Ottawa, blocking arterial roads and clogging up the city centre.
Depending on which corner you stop at, there are polite requests for public attention, full-throated calls for armed insurrection , propaganda from swastika-wearing fascists, imaginative interpretations of the constitution, or declamations of harmful lockdowns . Behind all of it: a chorus of idling truck engines that are, despite some choice words from locals and the declaration of a state of emergency, still there. It wasn't just the capital that was besieged. The truckers also blocked the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor and Detroit; a chokepoint that accommodates 27% of all US-Canadian trade. Regardless of your views on the righteousness of the protest: you have to admit it's a tactical masterstroke. The most important takeaway so far has been that protests work: as public frustrations boil over onto the streets, several provinces have announced the unwinding of coronavirus restrictions . And now the idea has spread.
Copycat convoys have sprung up in the United States, Australia , and the European Union . In France, a convoi de la liberté promised to rouler sur Paris . This motorcade comprises everyday citizens disaffected with the recently-passed and highly-contentious vaccine pass laws (among other things). Here we see the dilution of local cultures by the bland hand of globalisation. Ordinarily, the French are ahead of the pack when it comes to protesting: their farmers use firehoses to spray liquefied manure on public buildings or block freeways with rotten produce. But this present act of mimicking the so-called 'Freedom Convoy' is not only boring it will also be ineffective: the traffic in Paris would be gridlocked even without protesters.
American Dreamers
You may have heard this question before: what would you do if money was no object? It's a cute little prompt - if you manage to block out the material realities of the external universe for a moment. The kind that an adult issues to a directionless teenager. But in the guise of married couple Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan we have a literal answer to this rhetorical question. Unshackled by the need to work, and with a seemingly bottomless pool of capital, the pair flourished. Lichtenstein, known as 'Dutch', invested in start-ups alongside major funds and developed his skills as an amateur magician. Morgan assumed the alter ego Razzlekhan ("the raunchy rapper with more pizzazz than Genghis Khan") to make the worst music you are ever likely to hear. Amazingly, all it took to align their lives with their dreams was the proceeds of a multi-billion-dollar bitcoin laundering operation.
In 2016, the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex reported a breach in which hackers whisked off with 119,754 bitcoins ($71m at the time; $4.5bn today). In the ensuing years, around a quarter of the bitcoins were laundered through a complex web of fake identities, automated transfers, cryptocurrency trades, and dark web transactions. The kicker is that the authorities slowly unravelled this particular ball of yarn. Over the last five years, just shy of one billion dollars worth of bitcoins were transferred out of none other than 'Dutch' Lichtenstein's wallet. On Wednesday, the happy couple were taken into custody and the remaining $3.6bn worth of bitcoins recovered .
It's a sorry saga, but an unbelievably funny one. Before her transformation into Razzlekhan ("the crocodile of Wall Street") Morgan had been the kind of shameless self-promoter destined to succeed on Linkedin. She was a highly-aspirational public-speaker and self-anointed expert in 'cold-emailing' who embodied the depressing reality of "fake it till you make it". Lichtenstein, whose nickname belies his Russian ancestry, took a more traditional approach to white-collar crime: a string of failed business ventures . If the Ron Paul fanpage didn't give it away, the brain-supplements retailer should have. They were grifters who seemed to have bought their own con. Now they've been caught holding the bag.
The best of times
A second sun for the gloomy northern winter
Nuclear fusion. You're hearing it more and more, folks. This week the Joint European Torus (JET) reactor in Oxfordshire broke new ground in the quest for unlimited clean energy. The research team generated 59 megajoules over five seconds from the tiny sun (a cloud of superhot ionised plasma suspended using electromagnets) inside the reactor. While only enough to boil a few hundred kettles simultaneously, it's another step towards an energy source that our future may one day rely on.
Beans, legumes, things of this nature
As our diary reminded us it was World Pulses Day on Thursday (best wishes to those who celebrate). You may not observe the day but we'd recommend you do. Without the vital legume we would be making little headway in the fight against global hunger. Much-needed research has revealed that there are any number of viable alternatives for damaging crops like soy beans. Pay particular attention to the African yam bean — it is a drought-resistant 'security crop' in Nigeria and will likely be a great ally in the years to come.
The worst of times
Jus(t) ad(d) bellum
There is more armour amassed around Kursk since the words "The Battle Of" was prefixed 80 years ago. There are significant Russian manoeuvres in Belarus. And yet... it's just not happening, is it? Despite wishful thinking from some quarters, it's simply not feasible for America to fight a war against Russia in Ukraine. Kyiv isn't that hot on hosting the ground war either. Russia has insisted "we're cool" (the pro-Russian party is polling well in Ukraine again).
So, why not turn your attention to an actual war. This week the pro-government coalition advance into Haradh left scores dead on either side. It is the world's worst civilian crisis .
Britain outflanked
This week, British PM Boris Johnson intoned darkly about the "most dangerous" few days in the Ukraine crisis to date. Now, an uncharitable observer may find a smouldering thread of causation leading back to the dumpster fire burning out the front of 10 Downing Street. You may draw your own conclusions. Either way, Johnson is frothing about the Russian (read: Soviet) threat when he really should be learning from it. Only machine-gun-toting commissars shooting deserters could stem the flow of resignations now ( Cressida Dick the latest). Elsewhere, Liz Truss was lured into a dastardly trap set by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov . While bickering over troop movements in Rostov and Voronezh, Lavrov slyly asked the prime ministerial aspirant whether the UK recognised Moscow's claim over the two regions. "Never" was the reply. A mortified ambassador had to inform Truss that Rostov and Voronezh are very much in Russia and not Ukraine.
Weekend Reading
The image
China's American-born 18-year-old prodigy Eileen Gu wins the women's freestyle big air with a monster 94.5m final jump. Photo supplied by The Independent .
The quote
"Lack of Qualification: CEO John Foley is right to be insecure about his capabilities and qualifications
Poor Decision Making: Mr. Foley has made a series of poor decisions relating to product, pricing, demand, safety, and capital allocation
Lack of Financial Discipline: Under Mr. Foley's management, the Company suffers from a lack of financial discipline and ineffective internal controls"
– The list goes on (in excruciating detail) but we'll leave it there. You get the point. This hatchet job of a presentation from Blackwells Capital helped push John Foley out as CEO of Peloton this week. Despite his bumbling leadership, Foley has only fallen as far as a new role as Executive Chairman . Perks of being a cofounder we guess. Unfortunately there was no such luck for Foley's 2,800 Peloton colleagues whose jobs have also been eliminated: they are getting a year's subscription to the stationary bicycle and treadmill company.
The numbers
$128,000,000 in China Evergrande bonds
- News broke this week that Xia Haijun , CEO of China's second-largest and most-embattled developer, made a pretty penny when Evergrande started creaking. The big boss pocketed the cash from note sales back in July and August — very helpful considering those notes have shed 60% or more of their value since. Just because the ship is sinking doesn't mean you can't strip it for scrap as it does!
17 million requested 2022 FIFA World Cup finals tickets
- Organisers have been swamped by requests for tickets to the big dance in Qatar this year. We can be fairly certain that those who won't be gracing the glittering new stadia with their presence are the South Asian bonded labourers who built them. No doubt the World Cup will be a smashing success for everyone bar the families of the 6,500 migrant workers who have perished in Qatar over the last decade.
The headline
"Retired pope asks pardon for abuse, but admits no wrongdoing" — The Independent . How does confessional work again?
"U.S. urges N.Korea to focus on needs of its people, not missiles"
— Reuters . People who live in glass houses...
The special mention
This week's inkl special mention goes to Taiwan's waste management bureaucrats . These unsung heroes have made the best-ever use of Ludwig van Beethoven's Für Elise — an announcement jingle for weekly garbage pick-ups. It's a surprising and lovely story.
A few choice long-reads
- In 1991, the NFL commissioner implored Congress to hold back the tide of sports gambling, "We should not gamble with our children's heroes". This weekend, 100 million Americans will be legally allowed to have a flutter on Super Bowl LVI. A fascinating read from Bloomberg Businessweek.
- This is superb writing in The Atlantic. The secret to satisfaction has nothing to do with achievement, money, or stuff. Incredibly, it's not even about getting back-to-back-two-guess-days on Wordle.
- Pressing journalism from The Telegraph here. 'Everyone's using': Mozambique scrambles to stem a rising tide of drug addiction.
The answer...
When you add a face to it. This week a 60-year-old Russian security guard did just that. On his first day at a Yekateringburg gallery the unnamed custodian took a pen and added eyes to the faceless subjects of Anna Leporskaya's €900,000 Three Figures . It's believed he was just bored.
