Hi Global Recap readers,

BREAKING NEWS: Welcome to the end of the world as we know it!

Just kidding, it’s only the end of the week.

You know what that means.

Time to wrap up the week with some juicy geopolitics gossip. Who’s been naughty and who’s been nice?

Let’s find out.

📈 Top News

🎁 U.S. taxpayers gift Taiwan weapons. The Biden administration has granted Taiwan $80 million to buy American-made weapons and equipment. So essentially, US taxpayers are footing the bill.

So where is this money coming from? From the Foreign Military Financing program. What’s significant is the fact that the FMF program is typically reserved for sovereign nations.

China is of course furious at the U.S. for violating the communist regime’s “one-China” policy.

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👵 Chechen leader’s mom sanctioned, he’s Furious. The U.S. slapped sanctions on the mother of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, and Putin’s pal, for her role in deporting Ukrainian children to camps in Chechnya. Kadyrov is not happy and vows revenge in a bizarre new video (link below).

He threatens to “do anything” if the U.S. doesn’t remove the sanctions.

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🎣 U.S. Ambassador to Japan dines on controversy. Rahm Emanuel took a bite out of controversy by feasting on Fukushima’s seafood and produce.

He’s just eating fish, so what?

Well, China has banned Japanese seafood imports, while protestors from Asian countries are protesting Japan’s release of treated radioactive water from the 2011 nuclear disaster site.

🐸 People online are jokingly speculating that he will glow in the dark soon.

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🇮🇷🇮🇶 Iranian mastermind + four Iraqi militia members get life for killing a US citizen. In a twist of fate, five kidnappers screwed up their own plot. They nabbed Stephen Troell, an unsuspecting English teacher, hoping for a hefty ransom. But, they accidentally shot him dead. Slippery hands I guess.

The U.S. welcomed the verdict.

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🌍 African Union suspends Gabon following the coup. Gabon’s coup leaders are feeling the heat to restore constitutional order, but they’re not sweating it. They’re determined to swear in General Brice Oligui Nguema as the transitional leader on Monday, come hell or high water.

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✍️ In-Depth

China
China’s Latest Controversy-Stirring Map

China has just released a new edition of its standard map, and it’s causing quite a stir.

Why?

They’ve decided to include some disputed territories as their own, even though other countries have claimed them.

Here are the hotspots, but if you’re a geopolitics buff, you’ll already know them.

🇮🇳 Arunachal Pradesh: A state in northeastern India that China claims as part of its historical domain. India disagrees. Many believe this to be one of the reasons why BRICS will never be a unified bloc.

🌊 South China Sea: A vast body of water in Southeast Asia, rich in resources and vital for trade. China claims it all.

🇹🇼 Taiwan: I am sure I don’t need to explain.

🌴 Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island: Now, this is the REALLY interesting part of the map - a point of contention between China and Russia, supposedly settled in 2005 by sharing the area. But now, China is taking advantage of Russia’s weakness by claiming it all.

When the map was released, many affected countries fired back, but not Russia. Many speculated that Putin didn’t have the guts to stand up to Xi’s land grab, but Russia finally broke its silence with a weak sauce response from Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

Was it strong enough? Or just a bare minimum reply to a serious threat?