A dangerous world looms over G-7 summit: Weekend Reads
Bloomberg Politics Balance of Power
3:15 PM (5 hours ago)
Group of Seven leaders began their summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima in a somber mood over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Japan to join the meeting of rich democracies and speak in person with leaders of countries such as Brazil and India who’ve taken a more neutral stance over Vladimir Putin’s war.
He flew on a military plane from Saudi Arabia, which earlier hosted him and Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad at an Arab League summit, signaling Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s desire to showcase his country as a major diplomatic power.
In the US, White House and Republican negotiators are expected to hold talks through the weekend to avert a catastrophic default. President Joe Biden said he remains confident of a path forward.
Delve into these and more of our top stories in this edition of Weekend Reads. — Karl Maier
Zelenskiy arrives at Hiroshima Airport on Saturday. Photographer: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images
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G-7 Seeks Stable China Ties While ‘De-risking,’ Communique Says
A copy of the final communique seen by Bloomberg News says the G-7 leaders expressed the desire for “constructive and stable” relations with China even as they pushed ahead with steps to reduce dependence on Beijing for critical supply chains, Alberto Nardelli reports.
China, Russia Are Top Problems for G-7 Leaders Meeting in Japan
Crucial to the success in tackling issues ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine to how to address perceived “economic coercion” from China will be convincing countries in the Global South that G-7 needs their support, Rosalind Mathieson writes.
A fire caused by fragments of a downed Russian rocket in Kyiv on Tuesday. Source: Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry/AP Photo
Japan’s New Military Might Is Rising in a Factory in Hiroshima
Hiroshima, the first city to endure an atomic blast, is the center of both Japan’s pacifist movement and one of its key arms factories. Yoshiaki Nohara reports on how Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expanding his country’s military at an unprecedented pace in response to an increasingly aggressive China.
WATCH: Kurumi Mori reports that for people of Hiroshima, there’s only one true path: a world without nuclear weapons. Bloomberg QuickTake
Russia Is Adapting Arms and Tactics Ahead of Ukraine Offensive
Widespread perceptions of Russian army weakness are in some cases either out of date or misconceived, the UK’s Royal United Services Institute says in a report. As Moscow prepares to face a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Marc Champion writes, the study says its military is far from the spent force as it’s often described.
Biden dropped his reluctance to send F-16s to Ukraine after months of pressure from Kyiv and allied governments, announcing the US would support efforts to train Ukrainian pilots to use the fighter jets.
G-7 to Chase Russia’s Diamonds While Stopping Short of Total Ban
G-7 nations agreed to work together to track Russian diamonds, while stopping short of slapping Moscow with an outright ban on the lucrative gem trade. Alex Wickham and Alberto Nardelli explain that the move could pave the way for an import ban in the future.
Putin’s War Revives Russia’s Dark Tradition of Informers
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Anna Korobkova says she has been informing on her fellow citizens by presenting the authorities with 1,013 ‘donosy’ — the Russian word for denunciations. She’s perhaps the most prolific example of a growing number of Russians who are joining in the Kremlin’s crackdown on critics of the war.
A mural of Putin on a residential building south of Moscow on Feb. 23. Photographer: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images
Best of Bloomberg Opinion This Week
Ukraine Shows Wars Are Won by Strategy Not Power: Hal Brands
Turkey’s Erdogan Poised for a Third Decade in Power: Bobby Ghosh
India Has the World’s Fate in Its Hands: David Fickling
Pursuing Peace, Kishida Must Also Prepare for War: Gearoid Reidy
‘Heat Dome’ Shows There Are No Climate Havens: Mark Gongloff
Biden Confident US Will Avoid Default Amid Tense Debt Talks
The president downplayed fresh concerns that tensions in US debt-limit negotiations will lead to a default, saying Republicans and Democrats will bridge their differences. Jenny Leonard and Jordan Fabian report that a Republican walk-out of talks Friday shattered hopes that a deal was near.
Trump Changed the Rules to Make Winning the Nomination Easier
Republicans seeking to keep Donald Trump from becoming their nominee will have to overcome rules even more favorable to the former president than the ones that helped him in 2016. As Gregory Korte writes, more states in 2024 will award delegates through winner-take-all primaries — a system that aided Trump when opponents divided the vote, allowing him to be awarded all or most of the delegates with less than majority support.
Saudis Welcome Assad in Diplomatic Win for Syria’s Leader
Assad touched down in Saudi Arabia to attend an Arab League summit for the first time in 13 years, Sam Dagher reports. It’s a personal triumph for the 57-year-old Syrian leader, who a decade ago spurned the League’s mediation efforts as it sought to prevent his army crushing largely peaceful protests during the Arab Spring uprisings.
Record UK Migration Surge Set to Expose Government Divisions
The Office for National Statistics is poised to publish 2022 immigration figures next week that are widely expected to exceed the record 504,000 reported six months ago. As Lucy White writes, that’s a political problem for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who’s under pressure to deliver on a Tory promise to bring down the number of foreigners arriving in the UK each year — a central argument for Britain’s exit from the European Union.
The Economy Is Roaring Back, But Voters in Greece Count the Cost
Greece’s return from the depths of its economic crisis is impossible to miss in Athens. But as Sotiris Nikas and Paul Tugwell explain, the challenge for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis as he heads into a tight election this weekend is to convince Greeks that they aren’t being left behind in the transition from what he calls “old Greece” to the new.
Read this QuickTake on why Greece’s fractured politics weigh on its recovery.
What Gandhi’s Rare Win Over Modi Means for India’s 2024 Vote
Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party faces a long road ahead in its quest to unseat Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a national vote next year despite its win in the Karnataka state ballot. Bibhudatta Pradhan writes that the question is whether Gandhi can build on that momentum in the five remaining state assembly elections before the 2024 contest.
Paris Is Trying to Steal the UK’s Fintech Crown After Brexit
London’s crown as the biggest center for fintech startups in Europe is slipping and the French capital is trying to take advantage, Aisha S Gani reports. Just as Paris has benefited from the shift of finance jobs from the UK after Brexit, it’s now pushing to become a rival to London and Berlin as a center for fintech founders.
Best of Bloomberg Explainers This Week
How EU Wants to Stop Deforestation in Your Coffee
What’s the ‘Quad’ and Should China Fear It?
The Green Energy Transition Has a Chilean Copper Problem
Why Turkey’s Erdogan Faces His First-Ever Runoff Vote
How South Africa’s Blackouts Went From Bad to Worse
Dangerous 3,000 Mile Trek to NYC Began With Venezuela’s Collapse
With finding work in Venezuela impossible and his family going hungry, Pedro Tonito and his wife Adriana knew they had to flee. Nadia Lopez details the family’s six-month journey to the US, crossing though swamps and raging rivers and surviving machete-wielding gangs, knowing all the time they could be turned away at the border.
How TikTok Powered Thailand’s Move Forward Party to Victory
Call it the TikTok advantage. Pathom Sangwongwanich and Low De Wei report on how Thailand’s election-winning Move Forward Party used social media to get its message out more effectively than the other big parties, helping it capture younger voters and outperform pre-balloting polls.
And finally … A four-year-old boy who needs medication twice a day to help him breathe. A young girl with troubling mobility issues who has difficulty balancing. Babies born underweight, early and unwell. Amy Bainbridge and Angus Whitley report that more than three years after one of Australia’s worst wildfire seasons on record, its toxic legacy is becoming clearer — and exposing the potential health risks that lie ahead for increasingly fire-prone regions from America and Europe to Asia and Africa.
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