Today’s newsletter covers a new political party for Bolsonaro, a Lebanese minister who quits to help France, beef export restrictions in Argentina, antivax campaign and KGB on Facebook, coffee price increase and more.
Bolsonaro prepares for Brazil’s 2022 presidential election and joins a political party
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro joins the center-right Liberal Party as he needs to be affiliated with a party to run for the presidential election in 2022. He had left the Social Liberal Party a year after his election and failed to create his own political party. The move is a shift from his previous campaign against old-school politics.
Lebanon minister resigns ahead of France’s visit to Saudi Arabia
Lebanon’s minister of Information resigned ahead of France’s visit to Saudi Arabia hoping this would help solve diplomatic tensions between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon after comments he made about the war in Yemen.
Argentine authorities want to continue restrictions on beef export in 2022
Argentina has been limiting the export of beef in order to reduce domestic price increases on meat. The government would like to continue in 2022. In May, it banned exports for a month before slightly opening up again during the year. It particularly hit exports to China, Argentina’s main client.
First Facebook threat report: antivax brigade from France and Italy; Belarus KGB accounts
In November, Facebook removed an antivax network from France and Italy, Facebook accounts from the Belarusian KGB as well as accounts from employees of a Chinese company.
Coffee price increase: good news for Colombian producers, not for Turkish consumers
The price of coffee has never been higher in 10 years. Uncertainty about global supply after a bad year for Brazilian coffee plants drive the price increase. For Colombia, it means more revenue despite a smaller production. Revenue from coffee could generate 1% of Colombia’s gross domestic product in 2021, a first since 2002. But in Turkey, prices skyrocket with shipping costs and inflation.
Somewhere else in the world…
- Turkey’s finance minister Lutfi Elvan resigned from his position. He is replaced by his deputy, more loyal to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s economic policy. Elvan opposed the president’s strategy to cut interest rates. The Turkish lira has lost 40% of its value since September. Erdoğan wants to have low interest rates despite an annual inflation close to 20% this year.
- Chile launches a hydrogen project in the Magallanes region, the southernmost part of Chile. The infrastructure is supposed to include wind power and electrolysis capacity, desalination and ammonia plants. Chile plans to invest US $15 billion in the project, the largest of the country owned and operated by the French company Total Eren. Construction is expected to begin in 2025, with the production of hydrogen in 2027, with the objective of avoiding 5 million metric tons of CO2eq every year.
- Belgium is supposed to decide at the end of the month whether it can operate without nuclear power plants by 2025.
