| | | | |  | | By Ryan Heath | Presented by Open Society Foundations | Check out the weekly Global Insider podcast.| Follow Ryan on Twitter.
| | | Sweden's governing party backs NATO membership: A formal membership application may be announced today. Chips minus subsidies: The U.S. and EU announced they are averting a potential subsidy race to the bottom as they work to boost chip production, and will "address trade-distortive non-market policies" pushed by rivals, after a Trade and Technology Council meeting designed to reassess a world they said has "changed dramatically" since the Council first met in September 2021. Joint statement here. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the new president of the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. is sending a large and notably senior delegation, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, to pay respect in Abu Dhabi following the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who began serving as UAE's prime minister in 1969, before the country gained independence. Lebanon election: We're still waiting for close to final results, but Times of Israel reported the terror group Hezbollah and its allies — which held 71 of 128 seats — "appear to have suffered some losses" and may struggle to retain a majority in Parliament, including because some of their traditional partners may not win any seats in the legislature. The Saudi-aligned Lebanese Forces party declared significant gains, Reuters reported.
| | A message from Open Society Foundations: The courage of the Ukrainian people touches all of us who value democracy. At the Open Society Foundations, we've been confronting tyranny head on for decades. Join us in supporting Ukraine and everyone fighting to determine their own destiny around the world. Because in the fight for free and open societies, we are oppression's biggest opponent. Learn more. | | | | | | Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — who has been shifting his country toward closer ties with Washington — will be the first Greek leader to address a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday. WHERE TO JOIN GLOBAL INSIDER THIS WEEK: Join us in-person on Wednesday for POLITICO's 2nd annual sustainability summit to explore the policies, strategies and innovations that can get the U.S. to a sustainable future faster. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-N.C.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Rostin Behnam, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are among the confirmed speakers. You can RSVP to attend in-person or watch live.
| | | | INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | U.K. — BREXIT, AGAIN: U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has told the EU that the British government won't be sticking by its agreement on border management between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The EU's negotiator Maros Sefcovic warned that if the U.K. acted on its threat, the EU could restrict access for Northern Ireland businesses to the EU single market. Analysis: This what the EU feared (and many predicted) the U.K. would do once Brexit had been achieved. Expect Brussels to play hardball. GERMANY — RESULTS FROM BIGGEST STATE ELECTION: Germany's center-right Christian Democrats and the Greens emerged as winners in an important state election on Sunday. Preliminary results from the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state and with an economy bigger than Turkey's, put the Christian Democratic Union of incumbent State Premier Hendrik Wüst first on 36 percent of the vote. The Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz landed second with 27 percent — the first time they've polled below 30 percent in Germany's industrial heartland since the end of World War II. The Greens tripled their vote tally to 18 percent.
| | | | A message from Open Society Foundations:   | | | COVID — AFRICA FINALLY HAS ENOUGH COVID SHOTS, BUT TRUST HAS EVAPORATED: Erin Banco reports for POLITICO from Ghana, the first country to receive vaccine shipments from COVAX. "So far, the country has administered more than 14 million shots — 9.6 million of which came from the U.S., according to government data shared with POLITICO. … But Ghana has struggled to ramp up its vaccination rates. … 19.8 percent of the total population is fully vaccinated." "A lot of people don't want it. They think the white people from America and Europe are here to get rid of them," said one woman in the Worawora village … people here watched on CNN as people in the U.S. and across Europe lined up to receive their jab. Western leaders promised the shots were on their way. But nothing came. In the time that Ghanaians had to wait, misinformation about the vaccine spread and frustration grew, people here say. Religious leaders told their followers that Covid shots would send them to hell. Others heard the vaccine would hurt pregnant women and their babies." FOOD — INDIA SUSPENDS WHEAT EXPORTS: In the wake of soaring temperatures, India, the world's second-largest producer of wheat, has suspended exports of the grain. The biggest food security problems from this ban will emerge in India's neighboring countries — which are already feeling the strain from a lack of imports from Russia and Ukraine.. ECONOMY — THE STRATEGIC CHALLENGE OF CHINA'S DIGITAL YUAN: China, unlike Russia, might soon be ready to run its economy without the need for the global SWIFT payments system — transacting without touching the U.S. monetary system. China is years ahead of the U.S. in its thinking about digital currencies. When President Joe Biden issued a March executive order — "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets'' — it created a series of 2022 deadlines for government agencies to assess the risks, opportunities and national security implications of creating a central bank digital currency. But Biden was already playing catch up. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) — the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — told Global Insider "China is thinking about the post-SWIFT world." While there isn't yet much day-to-day usage of the digital yuan, Beijing says that at least 261 million Chinese citizens — one in five — have set up digital yuan wallets. And Beijing is working to bake digital yuan obligations into trillions of dollars of contracts for its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, and contracts with OPEC countries. Despite its lack of a coherent digital dollar policy, U.S. rule of law and its deep and liquid capital markets continue to contrast sharply with China's restricted capital markets. And while U.S. markets lack European-style privacy protections, they are not "at the whims of the Chinese Communist Party, and the ways they want to control and track everyone," McCaul noted. While SWIFT dominates global payments today, and seven out of 10 SWIFT payments are transacted in U.S. dollars or euros , the lack of global norms around central bank digital currencies leaves China space to engage with any of the 100 or so governments that are piloting their own currencies — perhaps allowing them to build onto, or interact with, the Chinese digital yuan backbone. Reality check: One way to blunt China's currency diplomacy would be for the U.S. to lead a global effort to foster norms for central bank digital currencies, around security, privacy and rule of law. Biden's Executive Order gives the Treasury until July 7 to come up with a "framework" for that engagement. But before the U.S. can have global impact, it needs to figure out if it's going to have its own central bank digital currency or not, and how it would even operate. If the U.S. isn't ready to speed up development of a digital dollar, it could apply tougher export licensing controls, choking China's access to the tech that it is using to build out the digital yuan. "The massive processing power that's required for a lot of this comes back to chips. So, yes, we definitely need tougher export controls on that," McCaul said, frustrated that only around 2 percent of U.S. technology exports to China are controlled or restricted.
| | | | DON'T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO's new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | UKRAINE FRONTS BY THE NUMBERS: Around 1 in 3 of Russia's invasion force is dead, injured, captured or deserted , up from 25 percent in April, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence. ESTONIAN NATO REQUEST: Estonia has asked NATO for command centers capable of overseeing more than 10,000 troops and the bloc's military operations in the Baltics, the country's Defense Minister Kalle Laanet told Nikkei . Estonia's defense ministry plans to increase its budget to 3 percent of gross domestic product in 2024. The latest figure is about 2.2 percent for 2021. MOSCOW COUP WATCH: Ukraine's head of military intelligence told Sky News a slow coup is underway to remove Russian President Vladimir Putin. Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov said he was "optimistic" about Russia's battlefield defeat, suggesting that the loss would lead to Putin being removed from power. TURKEY CONDITIONS FOR NATO EXPANSION: Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said on Sunday after a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Berlin that his government would not oppose applications by Finland and Sweden to join NATO, but wants Helsinki and Stockholm to drop export bans aimed at Turkey, and measures to prevent to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, from operating in those countries. PREFAB VILLAGES FOR UKRAINE'S RETURNING REFUGEES: Kyiv-based architecture studio Balbek Bureau has developed a low-cost, temporary housing design for the millions of displaced Ukrainians who want to return. The blueprint, named Ukraine System , calls for prefabricated wood-framed units of around 200 square feet, configured in a village-like arrangement. Slava Balbek, himself a refugee, said the design is being rolled out at 10 sites already. THE LONG-TERM FUTURE OF UKRAINE'S DESTROYED CITIES: A group of 120 Ukrainian architects is meeting and planning how to rebuild the country. More here on what they're trying to avoid while moving quickly to replace damaged infrastructure.
| | A message from Open Society Foundations: The courage of the Ukrainian people touches all of us who value democracy. At the Open Society Foundations, we've been confronting tyranny head on for decades by working to build vibrant and inclusive democracies across the globe. In the eyes of tyrants, everyday citizens are the enemy. Our decency is our strength. Our state of mind is the enemy of their sad, sorry state. Join us as an enemy of tyranny by supporting Ukraine and everyone fighting to determine their own destiny around the world. Learn more. | | | | | | EUROVISIONS — ZELENSKYY PLEDGES TO HOST SONG CONTEST IN MARIUPOL: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is nothing if not an optimist, suggesting that a "free, peaceful, rebuilt" Mariupol is where the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will be held, after Ukraine pulled off one of the highest-scoring wins in the contest's seven decades on Saturday. Learn more about the cultural symbols displayed by Ukraine's winning entry. DEAD — THE SEVEN OLIGARCHS WHO'VE DIED THIS YEAR: Oligarchs have suddenly starting committing suicide, or engaging in murder-suicides with their families, if official investigations are to be believed. Surviving family members tend not to believe those theories, and it seems unusual that an executive would commit suicide over a leg injury, as one suicide note claims. Welcome to the wild world of mysterious oligarch deaths. Thanks to editor Ben Pauker and producer Hannah Farrow. SUBSCRIBE to the POLITICO newsletter family: D.C. Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook | Paris Playbook| EU Confidential | D.C. Influence | EU Influence | London Influence | Digital Bridge | China Direct | Berlin Bulletin | Living Cities | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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