- A strike over Macron's pension reforms paralysed France
- Germany expelled Russian diplomats over a Berlin murder mystery
- Megan Rapinoe won her first Ballon d'Or, Lionel Messi his sixth
- Sergey Brin and Larry Page handed over the reins of Alphabet
- Iraq's Prime Minister resigned in disgrace
- And Malta's Prime Minister was not far behind him
- TikTok was sued for allegedly rerouting user data to China
- Israel's military occupation cost Palestinians $47.7 billion
- The last decade was found to have been the hottest ever
- A study predicted there will be 2 billion surveillance cameras by 2021
Deep Dive
The North American Treaty Organisation (NATO) turned 70 this year. This week its member states from either side of the Atlantic gathered in London to ponder the big question: what are we doing?
An answer in search of a question
The NATO flag features a white compass laid over four lines pointing in each of the cardinal directions. It speaks to a collective defence pact that guarantees the safety of members in the north, south, east and west – a readiness to fight wherever the call goes up. Or at least, that's what the handbook says. In reality NATOs raison d'être lay in countering a single foe in the east: the Warsaw Pact. But it lost its great rival and foil in 1991 and has never quite recovered. After occupying itself during the Balkan Wars, NATO has humped uncomfortably from one conflict to another. It's presided over the disintegration of Afghanistan, flown air cover for America's bombing campaign in Libya and chased impoverished pirates around the Horn of Africa.
Any collective enterprise requires a meaningful goal that supersedes the interests of individual members – without one a group will lapse into individualism. It was precisely this phenomenon that was on display this week when the various heads of state and strongmen gathered for the annual NATO powwow. The summit opened to rancour and rarely rose above it for two days. One of the major items on the agenda was an updated defence plan for the Baltic states (presumably against Russian aggression). French President Emmanuel Macron (fresh from describing NATO as "brain dead" ) was involved in a biff over the matter with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the latter of whom threatened to block all proceedings unless NATO declared the Syrian Kurdish YPG as a terrorist organisation. As a quick refresher, NATO-member Turkey laundered ex-ISIS fighters through its militias and used them to attack the YPG, which has been for some years the only meaningful bulwark against ISIS. Thankfully Erdogan's pet project was shelved.
'Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room.'
It didn't end there. US President Donald Trump's gripes with NATO are well known: he doesn't want to be in it, but if he is to stay, will insist that all other member states pay their way. His desire is to see all European countries commit to spending 2% of GDP on defence. This is unachievable for some and unrealistic for many more. It also means spending billions on military hardware (tanks, bombers, etc) designed for a war that never happened and likely never will. But we digress, Trump heralded his arrival at the summit with an impromptu 40-minute press conference during which he riffed on his favourite NATO bugbears.
Unfortunately, it was to become the butt of a joke, made at the president's expense, shared between four men on the final day of the summit. In fact, these four men – acting like they were in the school yard – feigned shock, engaged in mimicry and had a good old laugh about it. If it only had been four boys, rather than the respective premiers of Britain, Belgium, and Canada, as well as France's Macron. That world leaders have such frank and frankly disrespect conversations about their counterparts is not a surprise. What is a surprise is that this conversation happened in the middle of a crowded hall at Buckingham Palace. Even more surprising (and stupefying) is that it happened within earshot of a microphone – said conversation was duly snapped up and shared online. A spectacular own goal. The clip went viral, naturally, and within hours everyone at the summit was aware of the ribbing. Trump cut his visit short, cancelling the final press conference and calling Trudeau 'two-faced'. Each of Trump's detractors of high-station would do well to remember two things: firstly, that the president does not take insults in his stride, and; second, treating Trump as a joke worked for his political opponents right up until November 8, 2016.
The home front
Trump's deployment ended without resolution nor succour, though the situation at home is scarcely more comforting. Nancy Pelosi has just asked the House Judiciary Committee to draft articles of impeachment .
Worldlywise
Immense Public Offerings
It's been a year of extremes for the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco). In April the fossil fuel giant issued its first bond sale, a modest $12b affair that was oversubscribed by a factor of 10. In September Iran used drones and missiles to knock the enormous Abqaiq and Khurais refineries out of action. The attack sparked a conflagration that wiped out half of Aramco's production – 5% of the global total. In December, the company held its initial public offering (IPO), selling 3 billion shares for a tidy $25.6 billion. Today, the company is valued at $1.7 trillion.
The ship (or super-tanker) is being steered by Aramco CEO Amin Nasser . The 60-year-old is navigating uncharted waters; when Aramco shares start trading in the coming weeks he'll be at the helm of the largest publicly-traded company on the planet. But while the external environs might be different, internally this is all familiar territory for the CEO who started with the company in 1982 and has risen up through the ranks. What's remarkable about Nasser is that he is largely an unknown quantity outside the Gulf oil industry – thanks to the historical secrecy with which Aramco has operated. In related news, the Saudi-led oil cartel has agreed to cut its output of Brent crude in 2020 by up to 40%. Happy days.
In any other decade Aramco's IPO would have drawn unanimous flattering and awed coverage. And while many are still dazzled by the scale of the project, the environmental implications of fossil fuels are starting to colour the narrative. The transformation of the House of Saud's personal piggy bank into a bona fide profit-maximising public company has not been the most welcome news for everyone, especially since it coincided with the announcement that the previous decade was the hottest in human history.
Boris's election plan: all selfies, no journalism
The Conservatives are eyeing a sizeable majority; pollsters suggest that dozens of traditional Labour seats could fall in the north. Such a result would embolden Johnson to do as he pleases, though this is nothing new , responsibility and truthfulness have rarely troubled his private or public life. All those plans for the first 100 days after the election might just turn from white snow to grey slush underfoot. The Prime Minister has steadfastly refused to be interviewed by the BBC's most-respected (and bullish) interviewer, Andrew Neil. He's skipped debates, avoided probing interviews and transformed most press appearances into social media gimmicks . In fact, his party has worked assiduously to not only claw back the campaign narrative but also cleave it from traditional news sources. The arc of political PR morphing into self-contained propaganda networks is a foreboding one.
For its part, Johnson's opposition remains adrift: riven by infighting, hobbled by the tactical blunder of not pre-empting that Tories would hammer them for alleged anti-Semitism, and cursed by their leader's non-position on Brexit . The promises of a radically reshaped British economy (nationalised industries, guaranteed equity for workers in the companies they toil for, a four-day work week) are alluring, but implausibly utopian. On the other hand, the Tories offer nothing but prolonged austerity at a time when one fifth of all Britons – 14.3 million – are already living in poverty. So Labour's only hope of forming government lies in getting support from both the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party, amid a concerted effort of tactical voting across the country. We'll know more next Friday.
In yet one last indignity for the British electorate, the weather is going to be typically awful on Thursday. Showers in London with a low of 2°C and a high of 7°C will irk voters lining up at the booths. They'll either punish their local parliamentarian for dragging them out for a third election in four years , or more likely not turn out at all. And who could blame them?
The Best of Times
Simply absurd
High in the Pyrenees mountains a woman suffering severe hypothermia died. Her heart stopped. Six hours later it started again. Just read it . It brings to mind Arthur C. Clarke's third law: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Relief on the horizon for women everywhere
Researchers at the vaunted Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a once-a-month contraceptive pill. Avoiding unexpected pregnancies is an unquestionable benefit to our species. The preclinical signs are strong, although it will take at least three years to reach the local pharmacy.
The Worst of Times
When the anti-vaxxers win
Samoa is in the midst of a measles crisis. 62 people have died in recent weeks, the majority of whom were children under the age of 5. The infection has spread virtually unhindered through the population of Samoa's main two islands, which recorded an immunisation rate of around 30% before the outbreak. This week the World Health Organisation lashed Westerners peddling anti-vaccination myths on social media for greatly exacerbating the problem. Australian Taylor Winterstein, the spouse of a Samoan rugby player, has used her considerable social media presence to encourage Samoans to avoid compulsory government vaccinations, which she has compared to Nazi Germany .
Indian rape atrocity
Unnao has become a byword for sexual violence in India. An eponymous rape case from 2017 has electrified the nation: Uttar Pradesh government officials running a child-sex ring, family members of the victim being murdered one-by-one, the glare of international media. This week Unnao sank further into infamy when the survivor of a pack rape was beaten and immolated on her way to court. She suffered burns to 80% of her body. Two of her five attackers were her rapists – one was bailed just a week ago.
Weekend Reading
Quote of the week
"I'm not a billionaire. I can't fund my own campaign."
– Senator Kamala Harris announced her withdrawal from the 2020 Democratic primaries this week. It's both an admission of failure and a barb aimed at the likes of Michael Bloomberg (who dropped a cool $57 million on campaign ads in his first week).
Headline of the week
''London Bridge attack: Boris Johnson ignores family's plea not to exploit victims' deaths"
– The Guardian .
Special mention
Two winners this week. First, the Japanese man who called his phone company 24,000 times to complain about his contract. And second, the Apostrophe Protection Society's founder who has disbanded his pedantry fraternity . He obviously failed to keep pace with the continual development of post-modern language (read: we've all forgotten how to use punctuation). Anyway, thanks' for your service!
Some choice long-reads
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Foreign Policy traces the internationalism of European nationalists
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The Economist argues the case for scrubbing CO2 from the air
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Rolling Stone listens to Prince's '1999' and so should you
Tom Wharton
