Talking Points
- A sustained volcanic eruption on La Palma destroyed homes
- Poland blinked first in its war with the EU on LGBTQ rights
- The hero of 'Hotel Rwanda' was jailed on terror charges
- Tunisia's Kais Saied concentrated more power in his hands
- Evergrande thankfully avoided a 'Lehman Brothers' moment
- China flexed and Taiwan bristled over the TPP deal
- Trudeau's wasteful election left him precisely where he started
- A Mexican lawsuit against US gunmakers crept forward
- Doctors openly challenged abortion restrictions in Texas
- Facebook's already awful reputation suffered yet another blow
Dive deeper
We're back in New York this week for the 76th United Nations General Assembly. Ideally we'd dedicate this entire edition to Brazil's gaffe-ridden attempt to reset its image on the international stage but we'll have to save that for a rainy day.
Benighted Nations
It can't be ignored that one of the most staunch Covid denialists who happens to hold office, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, brought Covid to the UNGA. His health minister tested positive, and now the Bolsonaro himself is isolating. Aside from this, there was a real sense of occasion at a General Assembly. A sea of dignitaries coalesces. Heads of states and governments mingle in the storied halls of Turtle Bay. Germany's delegation stands juxtaposed with Ghana's. The Chinese assemble cheek-by-jowl with the Colombians. In all, 193 member states convene to deliberate on policies that will guide the world. At least, that's what the handbook will tell you. In reality, it's a case study on the difference between equal opportunity and equal outcomes.
The UN reflects the orthodoxies of power that built it. Multilateralism may well be a cherished principle but the veto power of the Security Council is enshrined in the charter. If China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, or the United States say it ain't so: it ain't so. Given this, the UNGA is more often than not a talkfest in which small countries air their grievances and big countries tell them what the name of the game is.
The minnows of the international arena found voice in Antonio Guterres. The Secretary-General lashed the "supersized glaring inequality" of vaccine distribution as "an obscenity". It's conceivable that a vast amount of the citizenry on both sides of the North Atlantic will have received a third dose before high-risk demographics in Africa receive a first. Great power rivalries, food inequality , racism , and the manifold threats of climate change were each fretted over in turn. Adding an unusual flair to the summit, the K-Pop icons BTS were given a speaking slot (and permission to film a dance video in the forecourt).
Thin edge of a pledge
Boris Johnson got the laughs for borrowing Kermit the Frog's song ("It's not easy being green") but the real excitement spurred from China's climate pledge. Having lowered expectations by not sending a delegation to the assembly, Chinese President Xi Jinping stunned many with his prerecorded address. The paramount leader said, "China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad". This was a big deal since the People's Republic of China is by far the largest funder of coal plants globally.
The reporting that followed this much-needed step has been understandably frothy, but a note of caution is needed: a spokesperson from China's Foreign Ministry could not confirm whether Xi's plan is limited to just not building new plants or also to not financing them. The distinction is material: there are 600 coal-fired power plants under construction or in planning across Asia – Chinese banks and insurers have a hand in many. Given that most will need to stay operational for at least three, possibly four, decades to justify the cost of construction, there is a titanic clash of interests. Xi's plan also doesn't address China's real coal problem: it has 1,200 GW capacity of coal plants within its own borders – ten times what it has built internationally.
A question of development
The flow-on effects are just as eyebrow-raising as China's announcement itself. And this gets back to our earlier point about unequal outcomes. The fact that China is following South Korea and Japan (the next two biggest funders of coal plants) in exiting foreign markets is not an unqualified good. Fossil fuels have historically been the cheapest ways to generate electricity - a key goal in the Western view of development. What is the developing world to do when fossil fuels become non gratis? Sure, renewables are now cheaper to build in many parts of the world, but most countries are starting from a very low base.
Take Vietnam, a swiftly-developing and ravenously power-hungry nation: it has 31 coal-fired power plants producing 20 GW capacity (43% of the country's energy mix last year). Coal is set to be its largest energy source for at least the next decade. And dozens of coal power plants are slated for construction. If China cuts its funding from a great many of these, there is every chance that the private sector will pick up the bill anyway.
The other major climate announcement was US President Joe Biden's pledge to double his country's commitment to the developing world. America will now contribute $11.4bn each year to the UN climate fund (which needs $100bn per annum) to help climate mitigation and end the reliance on fossil fuels.
These pledges are worthy statements but are ultimately not enough. A different, more democratic international organisation might have adopted a "you break it, you buy it" policy. There's a fair argument to be made that the world's biggest emitters (China currently, and the United States cumulatively) should be footing a proportional share of the bill. Again, to Guterres, "We are weeks away from the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, but seemingly light-years away from reaching our targets. We must get serious. And we must act fast."
Worldlywise
The gas crisis
Staying on the subject of burning fossil fuels... a critical shortage of natural gas in Europe is sparking concerns about sector-wide shutdowns. Wholesale prices have soared 250% this year alone. Soaring prices claimed the scalps of two major residential gas companies in the United Kingdom, leaving up to 1.5m customers on the threshold of a chilly winter. The British energy regulator has warned the island nation that it is in "unprecedented territory". On the other side of the Channel, an unhealthy reliance on gas is making a mockery of Europe's carbon emissions targets. It's a mess, and a complicated one at that.
Europe, which is fairly cold by most people's standards, doesn't produce enough gas to keep itself toasty during the darker months. Norway, the Netherlands, and the UK all produce the stuff, but this is only supplementary to the huge volumes imported overland. The seller of choice is Russia and has been since the Soviet seventies. A reliance on Russian gas – which will only be exacerbated with the construction of the Nordstream 2 pipeline through the Baltics – gives Moscow significant leverage. Sure, the request to send more across the Urals has been declined, but to paint this as some kind of scheme from the perennial bogeyman in Vladimir Putin is wrong. Russia is struggling to refill its own storage sites !
Unfortunately, the climate is making it very difficult for Europe to meet its own climate goals. A cold northern spring depleted gas reserves in the EU unseasonably early, a problem was then compounded by a disappointingly still summer. It was a pleasant change for those with elaborate hairdos, but a shocking environment for the bloc's plentiful windfarm assets. They didn't spin, so more gas had to be burned. Similarly, the cheap liquified gas from US slate fields is no more: energy-hungry Asian countries are paying a premium for it as they rebound from pandemic lulls.
It's going either going to be a cold winter or a very, very expensive one in Europe.
Foote turns on heel
In 2019, the world was galled by a photograph of Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his two-year-old daughter Valeria, face down on the banks of the Rio Grande. The desperation that drives the thousands on their journey to America hasn't abated in the ensuing years. And the desperation doesn't ebb even for those who do make it across in one piece – it is just frustration without end.
This week another photograph impressed itself upon the American psyche. Texas Border Patrol agents on horseback, riding into the shallows of the Rio Grande, not to extend a hand but to crack whip-like reins at a scattered bunch of migrants. We've opted not to republish the images. They were "horrific" in the words of the White House Press Secretary – not from a squeamish sensibility, but in acknowledgement of the fact that white Texans on horseback hunting people of colour is a centuries-old trauma. This was just one particularly egregious execution of US policy.
Also this week, there was the expulsion of Haitian migrants from a slum camp under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas. The migrants had gathered in the thousands after escaping political instability, gang violence, the assassination of a president, a rasping economy, and a terrible earthquake. But there was no sympathetic ear for them: Biden's administration is walking in lockstep with his predecessors' COVID border restrictions. And so, forced deportation flights have begun clearing the camp – 1,400 have landed back in Haiti this week. There is next to nothing left for them there. A fact that did not escape the US Special Envoy to Haiti, Daniel Foote, who promptly resigned over the "inhumane, counterproductive decision" to return refugees to a "collapsed state".
Some employers will opt for the "you can't quit – you're fired" routine in a surprise exit, but the State Department went one step further. A spokesperson at Foggy Bottom gave Foote a clip on the way out, telling reporters that the career bureaucrat was in possession of a "toxic personality". Really edifying stuff.
The best of times
Nothing says Old Irish like County Dublin
Ireland has created a conservation program to protect Dublin from wildfires while saving the country’s only indigenous goat species. Back in June, Dublin’s fire brigade struggled to contain a wildfire exacerbated by overgrown vegetation. To prevent future fires from spreading, the herd of 25 goats was deployed to graze upon shrubs across the city’s hills. By using only Old Irish goats , the program is counteracting the cross-breeding which almost led to the species’ extinction.
A fighting chance
This week AstraZeneca unveiled a breast cancer drug which reduces the risk of disease progression or death by 72%. Known as Enhertu, the treatment was given to some 500 patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer in its third trial. Enhertu’s efficacy in reducing disease progression is more than double that of T-DM1, a pre-existing drug used against breast cancer. Additionally, it improved the progression-free survival time from 7.2 months to 25.1.
The worst of times
Malnourishment rife
A UNICEF report has revealed that half of the children aged between 6 and 23 months from 91 countries are malnourished. As a result of this malnutrition, infants are increasingly vulnerable to illness, stunted growth, and wasting. Unsurprisingly, a combination of Covid, climate change, and conflict was cited as the cause of the crisis. Global aid could help, however, UNICEF reported no progress has been made on improving child nutrition in the past decade.
American crime story
More than a year after George Floyd was murdered, American lawmakers have abandoned the police reform bill named after him. The legislation would have banned chokeholds and qualified immunity for law enforcement, and would have created national standards for policing with greater accountability. After months of negotiations, though, the bill was weakened to a point where it would not have had a meaningful impact. And so, lawmakers threw in the towel.
Weekend Reading
The image
The quote
"Prenez un grip about this and donnez-moi un break"
– The arguably multilingual British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged French President Emmanuel Macron to "get a grip" and "give me a break". It's not known whether this watershed moment in cross-Channel diplomacy has had its desired effect on the rather exercised Macron.
The numbers
$53,300,000,000 valuation
- Universal Music received a standing ovation from its audience on Monday. The world's largest record label made its stock market debut and was more than a third up by the close of trade that day. The existential threat of pirated music has long passed and streaming has delivered record labels into a cashed-up future.
30% jump
- The price of an average single-family home in Hamilton, part of the Greater Toronto Area, has risen by nearly one third in a year . The global housing market is broken, and as private equity moves further into the sector, it will become entirely out of reach for most.
The headline
"Netflix Agrees to Buy 'Matilda' Author Roald Rahl Story Catalogue" – Bloomberg . The treasured childhood reading of countless millions acquired by the company that brought us Emily in Paris. When can we get off this ride?
The special mention
This week a heartfelt special mention goes to the wonder and majesty of the natural world. As it happens, bees emit a very faint electrical signal as they approach flowers. The flowers can sense this, and in turn release more perfume ! We are barely beginning to unravel complex communication that has developed over millennia between flora and fauna. How good?
A few choice long-reads
- Here's a call to action from Foreign Affairs: to save the environment, save American democracy.
- A glorious piece from a personal favourite, Patrick Wyman. Here he is in The Atlantic, penning a piece on the American gentry.
- How is this stunning opening from Businessweek... "Late in August, at a precisely specified point in the low Arctic, a geologist named Dave Freedman stood in a raw wind and a limitless expanse of tundra and began to thwack with a sledgehammer at a rock outcrop jutting up from the soil."
Tom Wharton @trwinwriting
