One Sentence News / July 12, 2023
Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Turkey agrees to allow Sweden to join NATO
Summary: In the final hours before NATO’s summit in Lithuania on Tuesday, Turkey approved Sweden’s request to join the defense pact, after blocking their accession for more than a year.
Context: The Turkish government’s opposition to Sweden joining NATO was ostensibly based on the Swedish government’s failure to punish (to Turkey’s standards, at least) members of a Kurdish group living in the country who are connected to armed Kurdish groups that oppose the government in Turkey; all 31 current members of the alliance have to approve new members, and Turkey and Hungary have been the only holdouts against Sweden—and the Hungarian government also recently said they would support Sweden’s accession, which suggests NATO could add its 32nd member state, soon.
—The Wall Street Journal
Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
Summary: A judge in California has given Microsoft the go-ahead to buy video game giant Activision Blizzard, following five days of testimony and just before the July 18th deadline to close the deal; that said, the company still has issues in the UK, where regulators have moved to block the proposed acquisition, with an appeal from Microsoft still working its way through the court system.
Context: If this deal does go through as planned, one of the world’s biggest tech companies will acquire one of the world’s biggest video game companies, making Microsoft the third largest gaming company in the world after Tencent and Sony; much of this case has hinged on antitrust concerns, since Microsoft is behind the Xbox brand, and allowing them to acquire all the intellectual property and infrastructure owned by one of the world’s biggest gaming companies could centralize too much power in just one entity, hindering competition; the judge in this case seems to believe that competition will still be feasible within the industry post-acquisition, though, so if Microsoft can get things situated in the UK soon, or if they’re willing to rope-off the UK as a market, there’s little standing between them and closing this deal.
—The Verge
Foxconn dumps $19.5 billion Vedanta chip plan in blow to India
Summary: Electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn has pulled out of a $19.5 billion chip-making joint venture with Indian conglomerate Vedanta, potentially foiling Indian Prime Minister Modi’s efforts to expand the country’s semiconductor offerings.
Context: The companies involved haven’t given a reason for the backtracking on this development—there are rumors that concerns about approval delays for the incentives Foxconn would have enjoyed may be at the center of things, though this is unconfirmed at this point—but in any case, Vedanta has said it will move forward with the project and has lined up other partners to replace Foxconn; India has been keen to expand its semiconductor industry, as just a few countries, most notably Taiwan, dominate global output, and investing in this aspect of their economy, today, could put them in a good spot, economically, over the next decade.
—Reuters
Not quite 30% of American households are now single-person households according to US census data, which is a new record high—up from around 8% in 1940, 18% in 1970, and 29% in 2022.
—The Hill
~40%
Amount by which e-bike use has jumped in India over the past year.
The numbers are still relatively small (from 4.05% in 2022 to 5.63% in May of 2023, according to government data) but figures in individual cities (Goa: 17.2%, Kerala: 13.66%, Karnataka: 12.19%) are already quite a lot higher than that national average.
This upswing is being attributes to the low cost of using such vehicles, improved access to charging infrastructure, and the adoption of e-bikes by delivery fleets.
—Quartz
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