Today, Erdogan pivots to the Middle East. Anti government protests continue in Kenya. Outrage at gender based violence in India and the UK holds three key by elections From TLPR News, this is your daily briefing for Friday 21 July 2023. On Friday, Turkey's President Recep Erdogan announced plans to meet with Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a larger tour of the Middle East.
This week alone, Erdogan has visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar both to improve diplomatic relations and also secure investment agreements. He's been pretty successful in this respect. Saudi Arabia agreed to sign a lucrative arms contract with Turkey's Bakar defense firm, which makes drones as well as a whole load of other mini deals to do with energy and defense. In the UAE, Erdogan signed another $50 billion worth of investment deals, which comes hot on the heels of a Turkey UAE free trade deal inked in March after Turkey's presidential election.
Erdogan has been making a bit of a stir on social media by using the trips as a PR trip for Turkey's first domestically produced electric car, the tog, which he gifted to MBS and the leaders of the UAE and Qatar. Erdogan's apparently cozy relations with the Gulf states marked a significant diplomatic pivot. Turkey fell out with most of the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, in the 2010s over Erdogan's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies weren't so keen because they saw the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to regional stability.
Relations deteriorated further in 2017 when Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain blocked Qatar, a Turkish ally, over its alleged support of the Muslim Brotherhood and ties with Iran. However, in the past couple of years, Erdogan has made great efforts to mend relations with the Gulf states, presumably because he needs foreign currency to prop up his ailing economy and the oil exports from Gulf states have more dollars than they know what to do with. In this respect, Erdogan has been pretty successful. Qatar and the UAE have provided Turkey with some $20 billion in currency swap agreements recently, while Saudi Arabia deposited $5 billion into Turkey's central bank in March.
This arrangement also works pretty well for the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, which is trying to reduce its economic dependence on the us. Previously, Saudi Arabia used to recycle its dollars earned by oil sales by buying American exports, especially American weapons. But as Saudi US relations deteriorate, NBS has started looking for new markets there's more than a way. Be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to make the daily briefing part of your daily routine.
Or just search for us on your podcast app to listen along Protests continued in Kenya, which has been beset by political turmoil since last month when the government introduced tax hikes on fuel and cut subsidies on certain food staples. Like many countries around the world, Kenya is struggling with a cost of living crisis incurred by a global rise in food and fuel prices. But like many of its African neighbors, Kenya's predicament has been exacerbated by a rise in debt servicing costs as interest rates have risen. President William Ruto said last month that he needed to raise rates to balance state finances and avoid a sovereign default.
At least 20 people have been killed in the protests, mostly civilians shot by police, and over 300 have been arrested. The protests began last month, but they've been given renewed vigour by the opposition, led by former Prime Minister Odinga, who's called for protesters to return to the streets this week. Ruto has accused Odinga seeking leadership of Kenya through bloodshed, death and destruction of Kenyan property, while Odinga and his allies have accused Ruto of being out of touch and reneging on campaign promises to prioritise Kenya's poor. So that's what's been happening in Kenya today.
Let's move and discuss what's been happening in India. Outrage has been sparked in India and across the world after video footage went viral of two women being paraded naked by a mob of men before allegedly being gang raped. The incident took place on 4 May in India's northeastern state of Manipur, where ethnic violence has plagued the state for more than two months. The video of the incident prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence over the conflict, saying the incident had shamed India, that no one guilty will be spared, and adding that what happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven.
78 days after the incident, and only after the video went viral, police made their first arrest of one of the men involved. They've also opened a case for abduction, gang rape and murder against the other individuals. The police's delayed response has prompted criticism and accusations that they failed in their duty to help victims and enforce the law. The wide, rapid conflict is between the two largest groups in the area, the majority Meti people and the minority Kuki people.
More than 60,000 people have been forced from their homes, While at least 130 people have been killed. Our security forces struggle to end the violence. There are many reasons behind the latest violence, but one of the significant factors behind the recent flare up is kooky opposition to demands from Metis people to be granted official tribal status. If you want more content like this from tldr, then make sure you check out Nebula, where each week we release a round up of what's been happening in Westminster in our series this week in Parliament.
On Thursday, voters in three constituencies across England went to the polls in by elections that are seen as tests of both Sunak and Starmer's leadership. Pundits in the last few weeks suggested that all three by elections, which were caused by Tory MPs resigning, could be lost to opposition parties. As it turns out, only two of them were in Selby and Anstey. Labor overturned a 20,000 vote Tory majority in Somerton and Froome.
The Lib Dem similarly overturned a 19,000 vote majority. The shock result of the night was that Tories were able to successfully hold Uxbridge and south Ruislip in 2019. Boris Johnson won the seat with only a 7,000 vote majority. This was reduced to only about 400 votes last night, but the main thing is that the Tories did hold it.
Now it's worth saying that the main reason that Labour probably were not successful in taking the seat is because of the expansion of the Ultra Low emission zone, or EULEs, which has been introduced by the Labour mayor. City calm so any extrapolations nationally about their inability to take the seat probably aren't all that appropriate. Nonetheless, if you want to know more about this story, we've released a full video about this on the TLDR News UK channel. You can find it linked below.
We end with some other big news for the people of Amsterdam as the city's council has banned cruise ships from the city centre in a bid to cut pollution and reduce visitor numbers. Amsterdam attracts some 20 million visitors per year, which has put the city and its residents under some pressure. A statement from the D66 party, which jointly runs the city with two others, said polluting cruise ships are not in line with the sustainable ambitions of our city. It means the cruise terminal on the river near the main train station will close, though a timeline has not been finalised.
That's all we have time for on YouTube. But the briefing isn't over. That's because Vori sat down with Jack and quiz him on everything happening in the news this week. It's Friday so we're doing another daily briefing quiz.
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