How Turkey’s Soft Power Conquered Pakistan
July 17th, 2022
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a look at how Turkey’s TV drama “Ertugrul” reveals how neo-Ottoman fantasies are finding an enthusiastic audience in a country that struggles with Saudi and Western influence: When Esra Bilgic, the 27-year-old star of the popular Turkish television drama Dirilis: Ertugrul (“Resurrection: Ertugrul”), posted a picture of herself in a bralette and blazer on […]
Read more »China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway: Opportunities and Challenges for China
July 17th, 2022
Via The Diplomat, an article on how – while the hope is for the CKU route to begin construction in 2023 – there remain significant challenges to realizing the railway: After 20 years of negotiations, the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway is hoped to finally begin next year. An online meeting took place between China, […]
Read more »Firing of the NOC Chairman Risks Politicizing Libya’s Oil Company
July 16th, 2022
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), a report on how the recent firing of the NOC Chairman risks politicizing Libya’s oil company: In firing Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) board of directors, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah is trying to end oil blockades and encourage his eastern-based rival Khalifa Hifter to enter negotiations on a possible political settlement. But […]
Read more »Russia’s Dreams of a Red Sea Naval Base Are Scuttled—for Now
July 16th, 2022
Via Foreign Policy, an article on Russia’s scuttled plans for a Red Sea Naval Base in Sudan: Russia’s hopes of establishing a naval base at Port Sudan on the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, have run aground, according to two U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials have […]
Read more »The ‘Lithium OPEC’
July 16th, 2022
Via Week In China, a look at what some are calling the ‘Lithium OPEC’: Lithium – known as the ‘white petroleum’ – is a metal commonly used in the making of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). A dozen years ago in August 2010, Tianqi and Ganfeng, China’s leading producers of the metal, both went public […]
Read more »Using WhatsApp To Buy Red Snapper In Medellín
July 13th, 2022
Via Rest of World, an interesting look at how Colombian entrepreneurs have been using WhatsApp and Instagram to build e-commerce businesses: One morning in May, Sebastián Gil got a call at 8 a.m. from a fisherman in Bahía Solano — a small town on Colombia’s Pacific coast, around 200 kilometers from Gil’s home in Medellín — looking […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.