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| Happy Wednesday, Insiders! Today's newsletter covers: - 🚀 India became the fourth nation to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon
- ⚖️ The U.S. Justice Department has charged thousands with pandemic relief fraud
- 🎥 Netflix shares rose on Wednesday after the streamer's Q2 results surpassed expectations
And much more! If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Your faithful IDB writer, Daniel
p/Dan-Smith | |
| 1 | | South Africa's foreign minister said that leaders of the BRICS bloc will establish mechanisms to welcome new members. More than 40 countries ― including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Venezuela, Algeria, and Argentina ― have expressed interest in joining. More: - BRICS refers to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
- The bloc formed the New Development Bank (NDB) to offer an alternative to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for countries seeking financing.
- Former Brazilian president and NDB chief Dilma Rousseff said the bank plans to lend $8B-$10B this year, with a goal of lending 30% in local currencies.
- The leaders of BRICS nations have spoken about their desire to move the international trade and debt system beyond its current reliance on U.S. dollars.
Zoom Out: - All of the leaders of BRICS nations attended a summit in Johannesburg except Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- Because Putin is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and South Africa is party to the ICC treaty, South Africa would be obliged to arrest Putin if he entered the country.
- As a result, South Africa asked Putin not to attend in person.
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| 2 | | Netflix stock is up over 4.5% on Wednesday as industry analysts praise the company's introduction of an ad-supported tier and its efforts to crack down on password sharing. 
What the numbers say: Netflix gained 5.89 million new subscribers in the second quarter, well above the 2.1 million expected by analysts. Moreover, 23% of new Netflix users picked the ad-supported plan in July, up 4 points from June and the highest portion since the ad tier's launch in November. Relevance: Jason Helfstein, a senior analyst with Oppenheimer covering the internet, published a research note arguing that Netflix's 2025 revenue could grow by 40% compared to 2022 thanks in large part to the add-supported plan and the crackdown in password sharing. He estimates that Netflix will recapture "46% of the total estimated 100 million account sharers" by the end of 2025 and that the company will add a total of 63 million new subscribers by then. What's next: Following Netflix's success, Disney is now actively exploring ways to address streaming subscribers who share accounts, with the changes expected in 2024. Analysts predict that other streaming services will likely follow suit. | | | |
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| 3 | | A Mar-a-Lago employee changed his testimony in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. Yuscil Taveras testified that Trump and two of his aides were behind "efforts to delete security camera footage" at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. More: - In his grand jury testimony in March, Taveras claimed that he didn't recall any conversations about security footage at Mar-a-Lago.
- In July, Taveras stopped working with an attorney who was partially paid for by a pro-Trump political action committee and agreed to be represented by a public defender.
- Prosecutors allege that fellow Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos De Oliveira, who was charged in the case, asked Taveras to delete CCTV footage that investigators were seeking.
- The footage could have shown the movement of boxes containing classified documents throughout Trump's estate.
Zoom Out: - Taveras was not charged with any crimes in the classified documents case, which is set to go to trial in May 2024.
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| 4 | | GOOD NEWS: India became the fourth nation to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the moon — and the first to land a spacecraft in the moon's south polar region. More than 7.5 million people watched the landing attempt on YouTube and many more followed the event on Indian television networks. More: - India's first attempt at a moon landing with the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft failed in 2019.
- The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was launched on July 14.
- The Vikram lander and Pragyan rover that safely landed on the moon today are largely the same as the ones that were contained in the Chandrayaan-2.
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| 5 | | The Justice Department has charged 3,195 people for offenses related to pandemic relief fraud. The Small Business Administration (SBA) inspector general estimates that $200B+, or over 17% of the ~$1.2T in pandemic loans the agency disbursed, were given to "potentially fraudulent actors." More: - Prosecutors allege that a tax professional in New Jersey who told clients that the government was giving out "free money" filed over 1,000 false tax forms that led to over $124M in COVID tax credits being disbursed.
- 371 defendants have been criminally charged, 119 of whom pled guilty or were convicted.
- The Justice Department said that 63 defendants had connections to violent crime and 25 were involved in transnational criminal networks.
- In late June, the Labor Department had 163,000 open investigations into unemployment insurance fraud during the pandemic.
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| 6 | | In a 4-1 vote, South Carolina's Supreme Court upheld a state law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. South Carolina was one of the few remaining states in the southeastern U.S. in which abortions were easily accessible. More: - Wednesday's decision reversed a January ruling in which the Court blocked a similar bill banning abortion after six weeks, finding that the legislation violated the state's constitutional protections for a person's privacy.
- South Carolina Supreme Court Justice John Kittredge, who voted with the majority, wrote that state lawmakers can make policy decisions even if the six-week ban "infringes on a woman's right of privacy and bodily autonomy."
- Kittredge said that the ban does not violate the state's constitution because a woman's right to privacy "does not outweigh the interest of the unborn child to live."
Zoom Out: - South Carolina is the only U.S. state whose top court is composed entirely of male justices.
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- Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a short-lived mutiny against the Russian military in late June, was reportedly among 10 people killed in a plane crash in Russia.
- North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum may miss Wednesday's GOP presidential debate after he was injured while playing basketball on Tuesday.
- More than 100,000 people in Pakistan have been evacuated from their homes over the last three weeks as deadly flooding continues to ravage the country.
- The Justice Department accused the two founders of the Russian Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer of laundering more than $1B in funds for criminals.
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 | Writer | | Dr. Daniel Smith is an Inside writer with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow him on Twitter @DJS12321 or email him at Daniel@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by NO ACCOUNT ASSOCIATED WITH THE EDITOR | |
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