WORLD ROUNDUPWhen Populism Succeeds | Facing the China Question | Stopping Migrants from Leaving Africa, and more
· Putin Wants You to Think He’s an Anti-Woke Crusader
By pitching himself as a hero to the U.S. right, he’s taking a page from the 1960s North Vietnamese playbook to undermine support for Ukraine
· British Police Try to Stop Migrants Leaving Africa
Officers to work with Tunisia and Algeria as Italy warns of 400,000 attempted crossings
· Indian Official Suspended After Ordering Reservoir to Be Drained After He Dropped His Phone into It
Food inspector Rajesh Vishwas, who dropped his phone in Kherkatta dam while taking a selfie, asked divers to find the device
· Facing the China Question
What should, or can, be done about China’s power overseas?
· The Next Chinese Tech Threat Is Already Here
Cellular modules are used in a vast array of industrial applications,collect huge amounts of data. Chinese companies dominate the global cellular modules market
· When Populism Succeeds
El Salvador’s brutally effective gang crackdown is creating a dangerous new model for aspiring autocrats
Putin Wants You to Think He’s an Anti-Woke Crusader (Jeremy S. Friedman, Foreign Policy)
As the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign grows closer, the war in Ukraine and Washington’s support for Kyiv stands to play a bigger role in the Republican primaries than foreign-policy issues normally do. Republican candidates of the not-too-distant past portrayed Russia as an enemy, but this time around the primaries will feature voices much more ambivalent about the war and U.S. military aid. These voices include those of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who referred to the war as a “territorial dispute” and not part of the U.S.“vital national interests,” and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who said that if elected he would “not give another dollar to Ukraine.” Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has refused to say who he thinks should prevail in the conflict. These statements, among others, suggest that Republican candidates are playing to a base that is increasingly skeptical of both the utility and the justice of the war effort.
The specter of an antiwar right is hard to square with the image that generations of Americans have held of the 1960s antiwar movement: long-haired hippies clashing with police, singing “Give Peace a Chance.” Despite their myriad differences, some of those opposed to their respective wars today and half a century ago share a common element: Both base their opposition on deep-seated critiques of U.S. policymakers and institutions, and both see that critique reflected in the U.S. overseas adversaries—the North Vietnamese leadership then, and Russian President Vladimir Putin now. Worryingly, in both cases, the U.S. adversaries have taken advantage of these alignments to try to exploit domestic divisions for foreign-policy ends. Republicans opposed to U.S. support for Kyiv will find themselves played should they fail to recognize Putin’s moves as the gambits they really are.
