Your Thursday Briefing

Also here on the website.

We have a collection of pieces on the reaction to Victoria Nuland's resignation. Bhadrakumar is, as he usually is, fairly objective and netrual about her and her history in the region and agrees that Nuland's exit is a reflection of the collapse of the American strategy with Ukraine.^IP^ Moon of Alabama is a lot more belligerent and celebrates her resignation.^MoA^ And Naked Capitalism highlights that her career over the last four or so years has generally been of failure and backfiring, what with her visit to Niger, though obviously her ideology has succeeded magnificently in killing a LOT of people for no real reason in Ukraine, so perhaps, like with Kissinger, we shouldn't overly celebrate.^NC^

Macron has called for a "strategic leap" in thinking in Ukraine, deciding not to back down on his comments about sending NATO troops to Ukraine (which could very much be a trigger for WW3), though his officials did the Biden thing and said "No, he was actually talking about demining soldiers and trainers.".^BNE^

An Australian defence official has warned that Washington must clear regulatory impediments in AUKUS in order to catch up to Russia and China, who are outpacing the West in some areas militarily.^SCMP^

Ralph Nader has asserted that the real Gaza death toll is at least 200,000, which is entirely plausible (though I personally think that this is sort of the "guaranteed" number of deaths even if Israel's government collapsed tomorrow and aid started pouring into Gaza, due to how many people must be essentially dead from malnutrition and disease and various injuries and cannot be helped - and thus the number might be off significantly but still get the general picture correct).^NC^

Global South climate groups are significantly funded by the German government, which has been threatening to withdraw funding if those groups criticize Israel.^CCN^

Meanwhile, South Africa's Minister of International Relations has said that countries should use force to break Israel's blockade of aid entering Gaza, saying that Western countries should use their soldiers to escort trucks into Gaza under the assumption that Israel will not fire upon them, which, uh, doesn't seem especially historically accurate given a certain ship that starts with L and ends with iberty.^AN^

Chile's President, Boric, has said that Israeli companies cannot attend the 2024 aerospace FIDAE event in April.^MP^

The EU has been discussing banning Russian aluminium but has decided to not do so because it would cause shortages and raise prices. I am genuinely surprised that this has stopped them so far and don't expect it to stop them for much longer.^BNE^ Meanwhile, the EU is slapping retroactive tariffs on electric vehicles from China as they pour into the EU and reduce profits for European manufacturers.^SCMP^

Five US tech giants have been cleared in a cobalt child mining case in the DRC.^RT^

The UK's House of Lords has once again set back a bill which would allow the UK to deport migrants to Rwanda after doing so before in January, but Sunak has vowed that the circus will continue.^AN^

France has enshrined abortion in its constitution, making it the world's first country to do so.^E^

Bulgaria's Prime Minister has tabled the resignation of his government as part of an agreement made nine months prior, as the two coalition parties are fierce opponents and are rotating power between themselves.^BNE^

Croatia will soon have a general election, with the Prime Minister expressing confidence in his party's chances. This is occuring in the context of protests and motions in parliament calling for immediate re-elections, and scandals inside the current government. Opposition conservative parties are banding together to try and defeat the incumbent party.^BNE^

A Chinese-built flood control project in Poland has been recently completed, five months ahead of schedule, with the flood control system now able to withstand 300-year floods.^PD^

A Qatari waste management company has said that it's constructing a hydrogen plant in Nigeria worth $350 million, which could address waste management challenges but also generate clean electricity.^BNE^

Workers in the Turkish textile industry have been widely exploited after the earthquake over a year ago which killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, with most pressured into returning to work mere weeks after losing their homes, with all the mental and physical problems as a result in addition to the financial.^ET^

Egypt signed an $8 billion deal with the IMF, more than double the original $3 billion, with the Egyptian central bank simultaneously deciding to float the Egyptian pound, raising the key rate to 27.25% causing the pound to fall by more than a third against the dollar. Egypt is also obviously going to have to privatize things.^MEE^

Somalia has gained full membership of the East African Community after first applying in 2012, joining the DRC, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. This will allow them to have more trade, investment, industry, free movement of people, and so on.^AN^

Ghana's proposed LGBTQIA+ criminalization bill could lead to a loss of $3.8 billion in World Bank financing within the next five to six years, and $850 million this year alone, amid an economic crisis. The President is thus taking his time thinking about signing it.^A^

Pakistan's new Prime Minister has vowed that he will stabilize the national economy, by - you guessed it - privatizing any state institution that isn't showing growth.^PD^

Sizable lithium reserves have been discovered in Kazakhstan, consisting of over 75,000 tons or about $16 billion worth.^EN^

Sri Lanka's economy may finally be out of its gigantic rut (experiencing 6 consecutive contractions in quarters from 2022 to 2023) with recovery beginning in the second half of 2023 and now continuing into 2024. Inflation dropped dramatically over this time period from 70% to 5.9%.^PD^

China is considering providing equal social benefits for its 300 million migrant workers as the rest of the Chinese population enjoys, and wants to move those who are eligible to permanent urban residency, which produces more consumer demand than for rural residents.^SCMP^ China is also boosting its investment in science and technology by 10% this year, amounting to $52 billion. China is the second biggest spender on R&D after the US.^SCMP^ China is cutting back on one of its 2025 climate goals, with the government targeting only a "modest" cut to the amount of energy needed to power its economy this year.^CCN^

Peru's Prime Minsiter has resigned amid a scandal of an irregular hiring, which he denies ever happened.^MP^

Paraguay has reported 0% average inflation from January's values, although there have been increases in education and good and increases in the Consumer Price Index by 0.5%.^MP^