Left-wing presidents have come to power across Latin America, but while they all promise change, they face major hurdles. Inequality levels remain high, and growth has stagnated, with the annual GDP growth averaging 3.4% between 2011 and 2013 and just 0.9% from 2013 to 2019. Twelve of 19 Latin American countries are run by left-wing governments, but despite this, inequality remains a problem, with what Chile’s interior minister called levels of inequality that would never have been possible in Europe. According to a recent Ipsos Mori survey, many in the region remained fond of globalisation as countries in the area shift their attitudes to democracy.
The social and economic situation in Latin America is spurring a shift to the right. Brazil’s recent left-wing turn has been reversed by Jair Bolsonaro, El Salvador’s right-wing leader Nayib Bukele is popular, and a recent election for a body to rewrite the constitution in Chile was dominated by a far-right party. Nonetheless, the new glimmer of hope brought forth by newly elected left-wing presidents from Mexico to Brazil has an enviable environmental stance and wants bigger government. They have promised to reduce inequality through higher taxes on the rich, bigger welfare systems, and more state-funded healthcare.
These left-wing governments are becoming more protectionist and more determined to stop foreign exploitation of green resources, such as lithium. However, there are many differences between the left-wing governments, with some officials displaying concerns over climate change. The region needs higher growth, investment flows are tepid, and inconsistent policies have been driving off investors. There are major concerns about the region’s ability to fulfil the promises it makes.
Despite the Biden administration's announcement of federal vehicle electrification targets that would require over 60% of new car sales to be battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030, compared to under 6% in 2022, for the US, a new report has highlighted the carbon footprint created by producing and powering EV batteries. The report, which argues that EVs can create more carbon emissions than gas-powered vehicles when total lifecycle emissions are taken into account, highlights that the majority of the electricity used to power EVs is not generated from wind or solar power, but fossil fuels.
Spotify, the leading audio streaming service, reported that revenue in Q2 increased 23% YoY to €2.3bn ($2.67bn), better than the €2.18bn estimated by analysts. Subscriber growth also beat expectations, with a net addition of 7 million premium subscribers, bringing the total user figure to 232 million, an increase of 30% YoY. However, the company's net loss increased from €394m a year ago to €418m. Spotify also announced its acquisition of SoundBetter, a platform which connects music creators and producers with professionals for hire.
Transgender people in El Salvador continue to face discrimination and violence due to their gender identity, exacerbated by weak legal protection, a lack of social acceptance and the influence of Catholicism and evangelicalism. El Salvador’s supreme court ruled in 2022 that people should be able to alter the gender markers on their official documentation, but the government failed to meet a 2021 deadline to enact reform to facilitate that process. LGBTQ rights are said to be under threat in the country following a swing to the right in elections, with activists reporting increased homophobia and transphobia. Transgender citizens face practical challenges in their daily life due to misgendering or a lack of official documents that match their gender identity. Hospitals, banks and insurers are among those who refuse to respect the gender identities of transgender citizens. Violence against trans women in particular has increased in El Salvador in recent years, with police officers among those said to be operating with impunity.
The leaders of seven countries, including The Netherlands and Chile, have written a letter urging the Group of Seven (G7) to take the lead in phasing out fossil fuels before climate talks this year are due to begin. The letter says: “We must bring the fossil fuel era to an end and phase out fossil fuels. We call on you to take the lead and work with us to agree this at COP28". The COP28 climate summit starts in Dubai on 30 November. In May, G7 climate ministers agreed for the first time to “accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels”.
Leaders from the G7 countries will release a statement at their annual meeting in Japan calling for a reduction in trade with China, though also pledging to build “constructive and stable relations”. The statement will sit alongside a pledge of support for Ukraine, both in terms of budget and the release of military equipment, as the group prepares to intensify sanctions against Russia following its 2014 invasion of Ukraine. In addition, the G7 leaders will issue a statement calling for a world free of nuclear weapons and urging countries including Russia, North Korea, China and Iran to embrace non-proliferation.
Several countries across the Middle East have reportedly moved away from the US dollar in reaction to ongoing dollar rationing strategies set in place by the United States. As previously reported, on 15 May 2021 Iraq band all business deals and exchanges of the dollar with Iran, and underlining an existing case where the nation’s authorities made it more difficult for individuals to obtain dollars as the US had revealed increasing concerns that much of its currency was being smuggled to Iran, which is under sanctions. This extreme measure against the dollar has since highlighted a trend in the Middle East where the continuous slowing of the currency’s value has led Saudi Arabia's finance minister to state it is “open” to pricing oil sales using different currencies, including the Chinese yuan and the euro. Similarly, in February this year, Iraq confirmed its intention to conduct business with China using yuan, instead of dollars.
Canadian women are campaigning for gender balance in politics, aiming for more women to stand as party leaders. Canada ranks just 61st globally for women in its national parliament, fewer than European countries, Australia, Britain, and New Zealand. The authors suggest campaigning for gender parity in the style of Canadian suffragettes, using letter-writing, demonstrations, and petitions to highlight the obscurity and lack of diversity in Canadian politics. More women in government means policies better suited to women's needs and improved spending on issues that most affect women. Having constitutional guarantees on equality does not necessarily lead to recognition or change.
The G7 has come under fire for insufficient commitments to renewables. In their final communiqué, Germany and Japan were criticised respectively for supporting the use of gas and coal, with commentators arguing that the G7 was losing vital leadership on climate change. The G7 pledged a fully to predominantly decarbonised power sector by 2035 and an acceleration of the phase-out of unabated coal power was welcomed. However, no deadline was set. Chile, the Netherlands and New Zealand led a group of countries in calling on the G7 to phase out fossil fuels and accelerate the development of renewables.
China dominates global processing of the critical minerals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage, however, control over the materials needed to power that transition is still up for grabs. After years of development and intense efforts to boost the market share of lithium-ion batteries, OEMs and battery suppliers have turned their attention to the supply chain challenges of raw materials. US officials have begun negotiating a series of agreements with other countries to expand America’s access to important minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite. But it’s unclear, which of these partnerships will succeed.
Leaders of Japan, Europe and other advanced nations, who are meeting in Hiroshima, agree that the world’s reliance on China for more than 80% of processing of minerals leaves their nations vulnerable to political pressure from Beijing, which has a history of weaponizing supply chains in times of conflict. On Saturday, the leaders of the Group of 7 countries reaffirmed the need to manage the risks caused by vulnerable mineral supply chains and build more resilient sources. Ministerial meetings have been taking place in Tokyo over the last week aimed at addressing supply chain vulnerabilities in critical technology sectors. Most notably, the US and Japan’s joint statement “core technologies can be provided through multivendor solution or disaggregated systems that combine different vendors’ products and services to achieve resilience and security of a network. In this context, the ministers affirmed the importance of the US-Japan cooperation on 5G and beyond 5G.”
The global demand for these materials is triggering a wave of resource nationalism that could intensify. Outside of the United States, the European Union, Canada and other governments have also introduced subsidy programs to better compete for new mines and battery factories and Chinese companies are still investing heavily in acquiring mines and refinery capacity globally. The G7 nations, together with the countries with which the United States has free trade agreements, produce 30% of the world’s lithium chemicals and about 20% of its refined cobalt and nickel, but only 1% of its natural flake graphite.
Iran has claimed it is fully capable of securing regional waters in cooperation with other regional actors after a Western allies' show of unity against Iran in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which was called "theatrical" by Tehran. The claim came as two Iranian warships finished an eight-month trip around the world and docked in the south of the country. On the other hand, two days earlier, the Middle East-based navy commanders of France, the United Kingdom and the United States toured the Strait of Hormuz.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will call for South American countries to have a larger say at multilateral organisations like the UN during a visit to the region. Delivering a keynote speech in Santiago celebrating 200 years of UK-South American relations, Cleverly will tell audiences that the “tectonic plates of world politics are shifting once again” and argue that South America should have a permanent seat on the UN’s Security Council. Cleverly will visit Chile, Colombia and Brazil as part of his diplomatic mission.
China’s SPIC in Advanced Talks to Buy I Squared’s Inkia
Bloomberg
23-05-22 13:23
State Power Investment Corp is reportedly in advanced talks to purchase Latin American power firm Inkia Energy from Miami-based infrastructure investment firm I Squared Capital. Details of the transaction being discussed have not been revealed. The deal for Lima-based Inkia could exceed a value of $2bn, according to an anonymous insider.
Pope sends Vatican official to Bolivia as abuse allegations escalate
The Toronto Star
23-05-23 01:00
The Vatican has dispatched one of its top investigators of sex crimes, Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, to Bolivia amid a pedophilia scandal that has shaken the country in recent months. The visit comes as former Jesuit seminarian, Pedro Lima, who has vowed to reveal more information on alleged cases of abuse, arrived in the country. Bertomeu’s visit, though planned earlier, aims to analyse the progress made in the field of the culture of prevention promoted by the Vatican. The Bolivian Episcopal Conference has said that Bertomeu’s trip is not directly tied to the recent allegations.
SNC-Lavalin will not face a lawsuit over failing to tell shareholders about a critical call with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada regarding a bribery case against it, ruled Ontario’s top court. Although subject to charges before and after the call regarding conduct in Libya in 2011, the company had been seeking a deferred prosecution agreement to avoid disqualification from lucrative national and international contracts. The Ontario Court of Appeal said the September 2018 call regarding the agreement did not alter the status quo and was not a material change. A class-action lawsuit sought $75m on behalf of those purchasing SNC between that date and 10 October, when trading was halted and its shares dropped in value by 13%.
The Guinness World Records book, which has been published annually since 1955, remains a reflection of humanity's interests and desires despite declining sales and changes to record categories. The company that produces the book has had to find new ways to make money in the age of social media, while the basis for establishing records is still judged on traditional measurements such as speed or height. However, some claim the records have become more sensationalist in order to appeal to an audience that can access extraordinary content on social media.
The Guinness World Records headquarters in London feels like any other office until unusual items are spotted, such as the puck from the longest ice hockey game and a toilet seat from a 2007 record-beating attempt. The editor-in-chief, Craig Glenday, who has been with the company since 2001, leads an extremely varied professional life. He visited Turkey to meet the woman who could project her eyeballs the furthest from her face and was almost amputated after he got an insect bite that led to an infection. But he has also shared in the joy of record attempt successes.
Despite the changes, Guinness World Records remains an enduring brand, and Glenday and his team invite people to try breaking a record. One visitor to the Guinness World Records office set out to be the highest standing person on one leg while being blindfolded, but failed to beat the current record of 31 minutes and 14 seconds. The idea for the business itself originated in 1951, when the managing director of Guinness, Sir Hugh Beaver, could not settle an argument about which game bird was fastest on a hunting trip in Ireland. He turned to identical twins Ross and Norris McWhirter who ran a fact and figure-provision service. A book cataloguing world records would be distributed to pubs that sold Guinness, while also creating an additional revenue stream for the brewery.
New York City has unanimously agreed upon a "Homeless Bill of Rights" including a "right to sleep outside". The unique law would be the first of its kind in the US, adding another layer of protection to existing rules requiring New York to provide shelter to any unhoused person who needs it. The Homeless Bill of Rights would improve housing initiatives by offering new protections for unhoused residents. However, advocates say that the confusing legal language of the bill leaves out the one right that would solve the problem: right to housing. The unhoused population in New York City has reached an estimated 78,000 people, and traditional shelter systems have been pushed to their limits.
UK foreign secretary James Cleverly has embarked on a mission to boost UK trade links with Latin America, while in Brazil he highlighted that business between the two nations had been held back by a lack of understanding on both sides. Despite being home to 664 million people, the region accounts for just 2% of imports and 2.5% of UK exports, according to the foreign secretary. By joining the Comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership, which already features Chile, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Costa Rica, the UK is hoping to open up links to the region via Latin American countries.
The adviser and diplomat Henry Kissinger celebrates his 100thbirthday on 27 May. Kissinger has played a part in American foreign policy throughout the past five decades, ranging from negotiating peace in the Middle East to conducting peace talks with Vietnam. In later years he provided support, consultancy and advice as an elder statesman for both Republican and Democrat Presidents in the US. However, Kissinger has also been accused of enforcing realpolitik policies and supporting repressive regimes in Pakistan, Chile and Indonesia. Among the detractors is former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who believed Kissinger to be a war criminal.
Wine expert David Williams has touted the benefits of orange wine, a variety that combines flavours found in white and red wines. Tippling Tango zinfandel-chenin blanc blend, Viña González Bástias Naranjo Orange, Blackbook Slow Disco Sauvignon Blanc and Vinos Oceanicos Las Cepas Paco El Reflejo Blanco Viña del Gurugú y Finca M Alta were among Williams's top picks.
