Weekend Box #103: Germany Makes the Wrong Call, Mongolia Goes Orbit-Owl & more
Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business and cultural news from around the world.
GERMANY MAKES THE WRONG CALL
There were red faces and cross words this week among Germany, France, and other European allies over how to support Ukraine’s two-year fight against the Russian invasion and what might risk escalation to direct conflict with Russia.
It began with Russia’s RT leaking a conference call between the head of the German air force and his team, one of whom foolishly joined the secret call via his hotel’s wifi in Singapore. The airmen’s conversation revealed that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s previously stated reason for refusing to supply long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine - that they would require German airmen on the ground to operate them - may be false.
While this would be embarrassing enough for the Chancellor, their conversation also revealed that there are British personnel on the ground in Ukraine, helping their forces to use British Storm Shadow missiles.
Days later, France’s President Macron added fuel to the political fire while visiting Prague to discuss purchasing Czech artillery rounds for Ukraine. The president said Europe must not to be “cowards” in the defence of the embattled country, later denying that he was referring to Germany but saying that it was necessary to "shake up” France’s allies.
His comments channelled the late Senator John McCain, who some say spoke presciently in 2014 about the folly of trying not to provoke Vladimir Putin.
All European leaders recognise the threat of Russia winning in Ukraine and anticipate the security vacuum that could follow a second Trump presidency, but their incentives and risk appetites vary. Scholz’s sole area of popular domestic support currently lies in his positioning as a ‘peace chancellor’, committed to post-Second World War-style engagement with Russia and qualified support for Ukraine. Macron, who previously tried to negotiate with Putin, now revels in calling for European resolve and mobilisation, perhaps like our own Foreign Secretary, with more regard for his diplomatic standing.
EU TAKES A SLICE OF APPLE’S PIE
This week, Apple received a fine of €1.8bn from the EU for anti-competitive behaviour.
The Big Tech firm was found guilty of breaking the bloc’s antitrust rules by restricting app developers from promoting music subscription services cheaper than Apple Music, such as Spotify. This put customers at an unfair disadvantage, the EU said, since Apple users will have ended up paying much more than they otherwise would for music streaming.
The tech giant hit back, arguing that the European Commission did not present any credible evidence of consumer harm or consider the market context of a growing and competitive music streaming industry.
The ruling displays the sharper regulatory claws the EU now has thanks to the passing of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The Act aims to ensure large online platforms behave in a fair manner. Some of the changes it is forcing on big techs, including stricter privacy rules, happened at the start of this week.
Much of the thinking behind the DMA is that EU citizens and businesses find themselves at the mercy of American tech companies – Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta in particular. Yanis Varoufakis, left-wing politician and former finance minister of Greece, argues in his book Technofeudalism that the big US tech platforms have brought ‘feudalism’ back to Europe.
European tech companies such as Sweden’s Spotify and Switzerland’s ProtonMail have claimed for years US big techs have deliberately sought to unfairly crush rivals through tactics like preinstalling Gmail on new Android phones or Apple’s strict rules for the App Store.
Apple plans to appeal the decision, so we can expect years of legal wrangling. But at this juncture, the DMA appears to have claimed a victory for those keen to clip the wings of Big Tech.
Image credit/NASA Johnson on Flickr/License
MONGOLIA GOES ORBIT-OWL
Mongolia entered the global space club this week when it launched its first satellites into space, powered by SpaceX rockets.
The two low-orbit nano-satellites, named Ondosat Owl 1 and Ondosat Owl 2, were built by Mongolian satellite provider Ondo, tested with Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan and launched into orbit on March 4th. They were launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The Mongolian Government celebrated the momentous milestone that will improve connectivity in the sparsely-populated country and hailed it as the first step towards cultivating a domestic space technology and innovation sector.
“Mongolia’s historic achievement in sending a man to space in 1981 laid the foundation for today’s momentous occasion, showcasing the swift advancement of our domestic space endeavour,” stated Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene.
Mongolia is already in discussions with SpaceX to launch its next satellite project, the country’s first high-orbit national satellite.
Image credit/Jarosław Baranowski/License
FRANCE STRIKES THE RIGHTS CHORD
In either a happy coincidence or a well-planned electoral move, this week France voted to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution – just a few days before International Women’s Day. Politicians on the left and right pushed the bill through the Senate, and then to a vote in the lower and upper houses, where a three-fifths majority is needed to revise the constitution. This requirement was met in spades, with parliament voting 780-72 in favour, to riotous applause and a standing ovation.
Some questioned the need for this enshrinement, given the right to abortion is not in question in France, and that the percentage of its population that support the right is one of the highest in the world. Gérard Larcher, head of the Senate, argued that the move was unnecessary and that the constitution was not a ‘catalogue’ of social rights.
While this may be true, recent moves in Europe and beyond have given campaigners cause to argue that, without constitutional enshrinement, there is a risk that the right could be removed. They point to Poland, where the nationalist government severely restricted abortion in 2020, and to the 2022 US Supreme Court decision that effectively allowed individual states to ban the procedure.
The vote result might suggest this is a subject on which parties are aligned, with even hard-right Marine Le Pen backing the move. However, 42 of her 87 fellow deputies either voted against, abstained, or did not take part. Should her nationalist party triumph in the 2027 election, women across the country may well find themselves glad of this week’s ‘symbolic’ change.
The embattled Macron, facing tumbling approval ratings, a resurgence of populism, and Le Pen leading in the polls, will be glad of this moment of unity. To see the news dominated by pictures of the Eiffel Tower lit up with #MyBodyMyChoice, rather than ongoing protests or Olympic controversies, will be a welcome sight.
MINING THE PAST
What connects the 200th anniversary of famed chocolate makers Cadbury and the 40th anniversary of Britain’s 1984-5 miners’ strike? Aside from the fact they’re both this week, dig into the stories behind them and there’s lots to learn about radical and progressive approaches to work in British history.
If you don’t know: In 1879 George and Richard Cadbury moved their chocolate factory to Birmingham, and driven by their Quaker beliefs, they established a model village in the countryside for their employees. The facilities of the village exceeded the standards common for workers in the 19th century, and there were initiatives such as summer camps for young boys and encouraging younger employees to attend night classes.
Their support of their workers earned the Cadbury brothers a reputation as “pioneers in industrial relations and employee welfare.” It bears clarifying, however, that while progressive in their approach to work in Britain, the Cadburys were beneficiaries of slave labour overseas.
The miners’ strike, which began forty years ago on Wednesday, was a different story for British workers: not of advances in welfare, but fighting for it. From 1984-5, miners up and down Britain campaigned to prevent the closures of mines on which, it was argued, whole communities depended. Though their struggle ended in bitter defeat, it nonetheless led to remarkable displays of solidarity both nationally and internationally, as we touched on in the last Weekend Box.
Hywel Francis, in his history of the strike in the South Wales coalfield, noted the social cohesion of the region during the strike and the vital role women played as organisers, enabling the distribution of food amongst other key activities.
As many of these former mining communities still suffer from a lack of investment forty years on, the anniversary serves as a strong reminder not to let the people within them be forgotten.
And that’s it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audleyadvisors.com.
For now, that’s The Weekend Box officially closed.