🔥 French Parliamentary Elections Resulted in a Shocking Victory for the New Popular Front

Good Morning. 

Japan and the Philippines are expected to sign a key Reciprocal Access Agreement, facilitating mutual military visits and deepening their defense ties.

This pact, to be signed during a meeting of the 2 nations' defense and foreign ministers in Manila, comes as both countries face maritime disputes with China.

The agreement is part of a broader effort to strengthen security cooperation between the U.S. allies in the region, with Japan supporting the Philippines in its South China Sea claims and both nations working closely with the United States to bolster regional security.

This development reflects the growing strategic importance of the Philippines-Japan relationship in countering China's assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.

— 🐈‍⬛ Acoustic Kitty

THE BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT

The French parliamentary elections resulted in a shocking victory on Sunday for the New Popular Front, a coalition of leftist parties, which is projected to win the most seats but fall short of a majority.

This outcome represents a significant setback for Marine Le Pen's National Rally party, which had performed well in the first round.

The result was largely due to a strategic alliance between the leftist coalition and President Emmanuel Macron's party to prevent the far-right from gaining power.

Macron now faces the challenge of forming a government from diverse political factions, all while preparing for the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The New Popular Front's platform includes reversing many of Macron's economic policies, potentially leading to significant changes in French governance.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY & DIPLOMACY

Counterterrorism

• NATO leaders will discuss strengthening security ties with South Korea and Japan at their upcoming summit in Washington, in response to growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.

• China and Belarus are conducting joint "anti-terror" military exercises near the Polish border, strengthening their ties amid growing tensions with Western countries and showcasing their alignment with Russia.

Military & Defense

• Ukraine's Security Service reportedly struck a large ammunition warehouse in Russia's Voronezh region using drones, causing explosions and evacuations, while simultaneously intercepting Russian drone attacks and preparing a new Black Sea maritime strategy.

• Iran's Sahand warship capsized during repair work in Bandar Abbas port, injuring several people and potentially damaging the vessel equipped with cruise missiles and stealth technologies.

• The Economist estimates that between 462K and 728K Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the Ukraine war, surpassing Russia's losses in all its conflicts since World War II combined.

• Putin maintains that nuclear weapons are unnecessary for Russia's goals in Ukraine, but he continues to issue veiled threats and warnings to NATO about potential escalation.

Cybersecurity

• Cryptocurrency theft through hacks and exploits doubled to about $1.4B in the first half of 2024, with 5 large attacks accounting for 70% of the stolen funds.

• Twilio confirmed that hackers identified the phone numbers of users of its two-factor authentication app Authy through an unauthenticated endpoint, prompting concerns about potential phishing attacks targeting these users.

Counterintelligence & Espionage

• Satellite images reveal expanded intelligence installations at 4 Cuban military bases, suggesting potential Chinese involvement in developing facilities that could be used to monitor the US, though both China and Cuba deny these claims.

• Russian-linked disinformation campaigns are targeting France, focusing on sowing discord around the upcoming Paris Olympics and elections, using tactics such as fake news sites, social media manipulation, and AI-generated content to undermine French democracy and support for Ukraine.

Transnational Organized Crime

• A police chase in Los Angeles led to the discovery of 190 pounds of methamphetamine worth $3.4M, potentially linked to a larger operation involving the Sinaloa cartel and Chinese money laundering groups in Southern California.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

A Waymo self-driving vehicle in Phoenix was pulled over by police after running a red light and driving into oncoming traffic due to confusion caused by construction signage.

The incident, which occurred on June 19, was captured on police bodycam footage.

The vehicle eventually stopped in a parking lot, but the officer was unable to issue a citation to the empty car.

Waymo acknowledged the incident, stating that the vehicle briefly entered the wrong lane for about 30 seconds.

This event adds to ongoing concerns about the safety of Waymo's software, which is currently under investigation by federal regulators.

In other news…

Samsung Electronics forecasts a significant increase in second-quarter profit, with operating profit expected to rise nearly 16-fold year-over-year to 10.4T won ($7.5B), as the company's semiconductor business rebounds amid the AI boom and its efforts to advance in high-bandwidth-memory products.

MegazoneCloud, a major Asian cloud and AI services company, has selected JPMorgan and other banks to lead its IPO, aiming for a multi-billion dollar valuation amid growing investor interest in AI infrastructure firms.

4 volunteers emerged from NASA's yearlong Mars simulation habitat at Johnson Space Center, completing the first CHAPEA mission to study conditions and challenges for future Mars operations through simulated experiences and experiments.

Google's search results continue to rank AI-generated spam and plagiarized content above original reporting in news searches, despite recent policy changes aimed at combating this issue.

DEALS & FUNDING

Rheinmetall and Leonardo have formed a 50:50 joint venture to bid for Italian government contracts worth up to €20.0B ($21.5B) for armored vehicles, including tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

The Italian government, under Giorgia Meloni's leadership, has allocated this substantial budget to modernize the army's armored vehicles and aims to have much of the production done domestically.

This partnership comes after Leonardo's failed negotiations with KNDS and aligns with broader European efforts to foster collaboration among defense companies in response to geopolitical instability and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In other news…

AI startups attracted $27.1B in investments from April to June, accounting for nearly half of all US startup funding in that period.

Tesla's Model Y has been included in a Chinese government procurement list for official use in Jiangsu province, marking a significant milestone for the foreign-owned electric vehicle company in the competitive Chinese market.

Forestay, a Geneva-based VC, has closed its second fund at $220M, focusing on leading growth rounds for enterprise AI and SaaS startups across Europe and Israel, with a particular emphasis on Series B investments.

Canada is investing C$120M over 5 years to build a national chip network, aiming to boost its semiconductor sector amid increasing global competition, particularly from the United States' more substantial Chips Act investments.