The Middle East Drug Fueling War, Crime and All-Night Parties
October 28th, 2024
Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, a look at how captagon is bringing big profits to Syria’s Assad regime and Hezbollah—and it’s triggering a health crisis: Another urgent conflict in the Middle East is playing out on the border between Syria and Jordan: a war against captagon, an amphetamine-like drug that’s taken off across the […]
Read more »Rare Earths: How Beijing Tamed a Lawless Industry and Gained Global Influence
October 28th, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at how Chinese state-controlled companies now run an industry once known for its acid pits, radioactive waste and smugglers: As recently as 2010, few industries were as lawless, and yet as central to the global economy, as China’s production of rare earth metals. Consignments of rare earths […]
Read more »China’s Massive Fishing Fleet Overwhelms Peruvian Locals in ‘David and Goliath’ Battle
October 28th, 2024
Via the Wall Street Journal, a report on how one of the world’s richest fishing grounds is under pressure: For three decades, Francisco Chiroque’s livelihood has depended on the jumbo squid that flourish off this country’s Pacific coast in one of the world’s richest fishing grounds. This year, his catch has collapsed. Chiroque and the […]
Read more »China Leveraging Laos To Link Up Its Southeast Asian Economic Interests
October 28th, 2024
Via South China Morning Post, a report on China’s growing interest in Laos: China aims to scale up infrastructure construction in uniquely strategic Laos to accelerate trade and investment throughout Southeast Asia as Chinese businesses scout for space to grow offshore, analysts said. Premier Li Qiang said during a four-day visit to the Southeast Asian nation […]
Read more »Meg Whitman’s Mission in Africa: American Tech Over Chinese
October 28th, 2024
Via Blooomberg, an article on how the U.S. ambassador to Kenya – the former eBay and HP CEO – has made a priority of counterbalancing Chinese influence on the continent: When Meg Whitman was living in California and running first eBay Inc. and then HP Inc., the idea that Africa had some role to play in her businesses rarely crossed […]
Read more »Shifting Alliances Put Horn of Africa On Edge
October 28th, 2024
Via Diplomatic Courier, a report on the shifting alliances putting the Horn of Africa on edge: In a significant diplomatic shift in the Horn of Africa, the leaders of Egypt, Somalia, and Eritrea convened in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, on 10 October 2024. As their discussions centered on forming an alliance that could include […]
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.