The Globalist Podcast, Friday, June 9, 2023: China enters Taiwanese airspace and Japanese waters. Is this business as usual or a serious escalation?
Plus: the EU’s “Hogwarts for ambassadors”, the latest fashion news and the White Cube gallery heads to Seoul.
Video timeline: 0:00 Intro 2:52 sunrise at Erhai Lake (Longkan Wharf) 20:20 Shuanglang Ancient Town 1:00:09 Old Town of Dali 1:49:14 Grand Theater of Yang Liping 1:55:53 Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple 2:06:50 Xizhou Ancient Town 2:42:15 Shaxi Ancient Town 3:15:18 Dali Santorini Sea View Villa Area 3:38:50 Erhai Lake Bike Tour 4:13:57 Downtown Area of Dali City 4:32:02 Shuanglang Ancient Town (2nd Version) 5:01:49 Morning Tour in Old Town of Dali 5:20:26 Mountain Top Park 5:24:34 Road trip to Shaxi Town
Beyond the old city rise the Three Pagodas of Chong Sheng Temple, dating to the 9th century.The walled old city, from the Ming dynasty, contains traditional homes and towers from the Bai ethnic minority. Beyond the old city rise the Three Pagodas of Chong Sheng Temple, dating to the 9th century.
Video timeline: 0:00 Ukraine’s counteroffensive 0:50 Ukraine’s long-term security and Western allies 2:23 U.S. election’s effect on Ukraine 4:03 Ukrainian weapons 5:44 NATO and Ukraine 7:05 Zelensky’s thoughts on China 7:38 How Zelensky is personally dealing with the war
The Globalist Podcast, Friday, June 2, 2023: Asia’s top security meeting, IISS Shangri-La Dialogue kicks off but China refuses to talk to the US on the sidelines.
Plus: several media groups are banned from Opec’s production meeting this weekend; we check in on how Nigeria’s new president is faring and we ask, “What is lake cow bacon?”
Hopes of depriving the former president of the Republican nomination are fading
Belatedly and nervously, the would-be assassins have been lining up. On May 22nd Tim Scott, a senator from South Carolina, became the latest Republican to announce a run for president. Greater fanfare accompanied the official declaration (on Twitter) on May 24th that Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, is joining the race for the Republican nomination. He has been widely heralded as the candidate with the best chance of defeating the favourite, Donald Trump. But even as more plotters step forward, the chances of a successful coup to overthrow Mr Trump are growing slimmer by the day.
A thought experiment based on economic principles
In “wall-e”, a film released in 2008, humans live in what could be described as a world of fully automated luxury communism. Artificially intelligent robots, which take wonderfully diverse forms, are responsible for all productive labour. People get fat, hover in armchairs and watch television.
Viktor Orban and Xi Jinping bond over their anti-Americanism
To ears accustomed to a swelling chorus of China-scepticism in the European Union, the language of Hungarian diplomats is striking. Not for them the common talk of European officials about the need to “de-risk” relations with China and to treat it as a “systemic rival”. Co-operation between Hungary and China presents “opportunities rather than risks”, said Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, in Beijing on May 15th. Wang Yi, China’s foreign-affairs overlord, told him that relations between the countries had entered their “best period in history”.
The Globalist, May 22, 2023: Zelensky meets with leader at G7 meeting in Japan, de-risking with China, and Greece’s center-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis scores big victory in Greece elections.
The president underestimates America’s strengths and misunderstands how it acquired them
In the 1940s and early 1950s America built a new world order out of the chaos of war. For all its shortcomings, it kept the peace between superpowers and underpinned decades of growth that lifted billions out of poverty. Today that order, based on global rules, free markets and an American promise to uphold both, is fraying. Toxic partisanship at home has corroded confidence in America’s government.
A deal for Ghana is the first test case for a new approach
Ghana made history when it led the wave of sub-Saharan African countries that won independence more than six decades ago. It may now be making history again, as the first test case for a new approach to debt relief. China and Western governments may have overcome one barrier to restructuring the billions of dollars owed by countries with unsustainable debts.
The Globalist, May 17, 2023: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in South Korea for a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Thailand progressive Move Forward party won more votes than any other but faces an uphill struggle to form government.
The Globalist, May 16, 2023: A Chinese ‘peace’ envoy arrives in Ukraine as Volodomyr Zelensky pushes for military supplies abroad, South Africa sticks to its controversial stance on Russia and the EU plans to build internet cables under the Black Sea.
Plus: we check in with film critic Karen Krizanovich as the Cannes Film Festival begins, and Monocle’s Fiona Wilson talks food diplomacy, as carbonara pancakes are on the menu in Hiroshima ahead of the G7 summit.
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 15 , 2023) – Is Chinese power about to peak? Why your job is (probably) safe from artificial intelligence (11:00) and how Mexico’s gangs are becoming criminal conglomerates (35:00).
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