Greetings this Tuesday. In today’s Globely Daily, we look at Kenya’s Pres. William Ruto’s U.S. visit, last week’s Xi-Putin meeting, the U.S.-China race for green metals in Central Africa, Narendra Modi’s fearmongering over Muslim birthrates, and the behemoth that is China’s EV giant BYD.
PIVOT STATES
🇰🇪 Kenya’s Ruto Comes to America
Kenyan President William Ruto is in the U.S. this week on the first state visit of an African leader during the Biden administration. He’s also the first Kenyan leader to visit Washington in two decades. A decade ago, he was persona non grata. Now he’s being feted by the world’s most powerful country because he leads a pivot state in a pivotal region: East Africa. China is a factor. So too is Haiti.
👀 SEE ALSO: Inside the Ethiopia-Somaliland Maritime Deal — A Conversation with Horn of Africa Expert Michael Woldemariam
LEADERS
🇸🇰🇨🇳 Xi-Putin Meeting: The China-Russia Relationship Becomes More Unequal
Last week’s Xi-Putin meeting ended with a big hug, but so far, it’s unclear what tangible results came out of the visit.
NETWORKS
🇦🇴🇨🇩🇿🇲🇹🇿 The Lobito Corridor vs. TAZARA
A game of ports is heating up in Central Africa as the West and China back competing green metal transport routes: the Lobito Corridor and TAZARA. It centers on the Central African Copperbelt, a landlocked region stretching across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, bordered by coastal states Angola and Tanzania. It’s a region where China has a deep presence in the region, going back to the 1970s.
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IDEOLOGIES
🇮🇳 The Colonial Roots of Modi’s Hindu Nationalist Demogoguery About Muslim Demography
Narendra Modi’s insinuation that Muslims “have too many children” is the latest iteration of a long history of Hindu demographic fears.
TECHNOLOGIES
🇨🇳🇺🇸 BYD Has Big Plans. Can Biden Stop It?
The Biden administration’s new tariffs on Chinese EV imports are aimed at staving off the entry of brands like BYD into the U.S. market. BYD is now China’s top automaker and aims to become a global brand, following the footsteps of Japanese and Korean brands.
👀 SEE ALSO: Why Joe Biden’s China EV Tariffs Might Work
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The Globely News team tracks the leaders, states, networks, ideologies, and technologies that are reshaping the world order. From AI and electric vehicles to the rise of China, we've got you covered.