The Weekly Wrap for Saturday, 8 July 2017

Welcome back, Here's everything you need to know but may have missed this week. First, we'll dive into the G20 summit in Hamburg. Expect fireworks (and water-cannons). Then, we'll review the surprising significance of the recent deluge in Asia. And after that we'll show you why there's such a big fuss over Tencent's 'Honor of Kings'. - inkl DEEP DIVE Yesterday an exclusive club of world leaders met in Hamburg for the first day of the 2017 G20 summit. The prime ministers, presidents, chancellors and royals gathered represent the 20 nations that make up two-thirds of the Earth's population, and 85% of its wealth. Amongst their number are democrats, technocrats, plutocrats and autocrats. The G20 is one of the international community's premier diplomatic forums, and this year's agenda is full: North Korea, climate change and a diminishing belief in protecting globalisation. Negotiations will take place against the backdrop of the German port-city choking with up to 100,000 anti-capitalist protestors.  The time-honoured custom of clashes between demonstrators and riot police at the G20. At a superficial level, the main event of this conference is the first public meeting between America's Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin. The focus is understandable considering the great power military brinksmanship being played out in Syria. That's not to mention Russian interference in last year's US presidential election or the current collusion investigation. Reporters have described a worrying (but unsurprising) facet of Trump's trip: he is "remarkably unprepared" with "no set agenda". Back home Trump's supporters hoped for a renewed focus on protectionism; his detractors for a meaningful confrontation with Putin. But Trump spurned both groups in a speech delivered to a rapturous Warsaw crowd (that included many rural Trump supporters who had been bussed-in by the government). He finally affirmed his commitment to NATO's fifth article, the foundational collective-defence pact. But he also posited that "nobody really knows for sure" who was behind the election hack, undercutting his own intelligence community who've stated otherwise in no uncertain terms. In any case, the focus on individuals is misplaced because as defence guru George Friedman wrote, "the leaders ... think of themselves as decision-makers, when really they are hostages to history". Big egos and interpersonal conflicts make for great headlines and video but as we all know, the real action happens far from the galas and cameras.  So what is on the table? This week North Korea tested its first full-fledged intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The launch sent a collective shiver around the world because the rocket has the potential to hit targets as far afield as Alaska or Darwin. In the memorably fiery words of the regime's spokespeople, the missile was a gift to the "American bastards" on their independence day. In response, America and South Korea demonstrated missile tests of their own. Later, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, rebuked Pyongyang and alluded to a range of possible military reprisals. But in reality, Washington is left with few options beyond meaningful engagement with China and Russia. And already the American threats have earned condemnation from Beijing and Moscow. Geopolitics might steal the limelight, but the really big deal is the preliminary free-trade agreement between Japan and the European Union. Japan's PM Shinzo Abe and EU President Donald Tusk announced their partnership on the eve of the conference: a 99% reduction in tariffs. The deal is not only colossal, it's also in sharp contrast to America's increasingly protectionist position. To grasp America's shrinking status in the world, look no further than Tusk's pointed statement, "We in the European Union firmly believe in the political purpose of a world which is built on openness, cooperation and trade. The world really doesn’t need to go 100 years back in time. Quite the opposite.” Britain's Theresa May has already signalled that discussing climate change will not be a priority at the talks. In this she'll find support from Donald Trump and Australia's Malcolm Turnbull. Meanwhile, an iceberg the size of the US state of Delaware is about to break off from Antarctica. WORLDLYWISE A resident in Guizhou Province paddles down the street. Extreme weather batters Asia - Weeks of heavy rainfall in central and southern China have caused more than 60 rivers to overflow. At least 56 people have perished and some 1.2m had to be evacuated (300,000 people from Hunan province alone). An estimated 6,000 homes have also been destroyed. The country meanwhile is sweltering in extreme heat, with some northern provinces recording multiple days over 40°C. Beijing has released a grim assessment of the damage; some 880,000 hectares of arable land have been ruined in China's most productive farming areas. The cleanup bill will come in at over $4b. Across the East China Sea, Japan too has been inundated. The southern island of Kyushu was drenched by 774m of rain in less than half a day (that's more than double the amount of rain in the entire month of July last year). The Japanese Self Defence force have been deployed in some struggling prefectures to assist the evacuation of 400,000 locals. Thankfully, there have been few reported deaths, although 18 individuals are still missing. And in India's Assam state, hundreds of thousands are living in makeshift camps after the same storm swept through, killing 18 and destroying entire villages. The death toll in Assam is expected to rise, as is the casualty list in Pakistan where rain precipitated flash floods that swept away more than 40 people. Fast-paced, colourful, addictive. Tencent rides the bumps - Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Limited ran into some stiff opposition from the government this week; only to shrug it off with ease. Tencent is the largest gaming company in the world, although it has interests in e-banking, telecommunications, internet services, advertising and more. The literal translation of its Chinese name is 'soaring information', and it does exactly that; at last count it was valued at $333b. And the company's stock is up 40% this year alone. But now with the hit mobile game Honor of Kings, Tencent may have made a product that is too much of a good thing. The game is so addictive (particularly amongst teenagers) that it has drawn the ire of Beijing. In response the company has announced that it would limit how long users in different age brackets can play. But even so, the very next day a communist party mouthpiece labelled the game 'a poison'.  The resulting panic amongst shareholders wiped $12b off the Tencent books in a day. But a week is a long time in China's tech sphere. In the days since, the time-limits have already been rolled out and the company has deployed Honor of Kings to platforms in Europe and America. At breakneck speed, Tencent's share drop was reversed. TRUMPETER - WEEK 23 Polish Trump fans were bussed-in from across the country to cheer him on. Trump talked tough on North Korea's ICBM test. But flew to the G20 seemingly without a plan. He gave a brooding speech in Poland. And reaffirmed NATO's collective-defence pact. To a crowd of bussed-in fans. Back home his voter-fraud investigation stalled. As dozens of states refused to hand over voter data. Trump supporters attacked NPR for inciting violence. Because NPR tweeted the Declaration of Independence. The White House ethics chief resigned. THE BEST OF TIMES... It's been a big week for the automobile industry. Going, going, green - Volvo have leapt out ahead of its traditional rivals in the race to a zero-emission future. This week CEO Hakan Samuelsson announced that from 2019 all newly produced Volvo cars will be either hybrids or fully-electric. Bravo! Top down approach - The very next day the French President Emmanuel Macron laid out his vision to ban the sale of diesel and petrol vehicles by 2040. Right now Macron is on a tear, legislating enforced vaccinations as of 2018 and anticipating the end of a very French habit: smoking. THE WORST OF TIMES... This is an absurd story. Arts, crafts and tomb-robbing - This week the US justice department reached a settlement with beloved arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby over the forfeiture of thousands of stolen middle eastern artefacts. Just sit with that one a moment. Since 2009 Hobby Lobby has entered into the antiquities collection game, only to get caught up in the handling and sale of priceless objects looted from museums and private collections across the Arab world. They've been fined $3m and been ordered to hand over the cultural relics in question. This really puts another spin on the footage of the looting of Baghdad's museum in 2003.  You can read more here about how Hobby Lobby's devout Christian owners intentionally mislabelled 5,500 items of unimaginable value on a tour of theft. It's a modern Indiana Jones tale, but in reverse. Editor's note: this is an early contender for story of the year. P.S. Your weekend long read... Australian mining companies have a long and sad history of plundering natural resources from neighbours through one-sided deals. Many had hoped that company practices would change after the public outcry over the illegal appropriation of East Timor's gas fields. Apparently, they haven't.