Ukraine may be gearing up for a wartime election; And, Meta battles a massive Chinese disinformation campaign

Market Watch

• Indian benchmark indices ended the day in the green, with the Sensex increasing 11 points at 65,087 and the Nifty rising 4.80 points at 19,347.
• Sectorally, Nifty Bank (-0.59%) and Financial Services (-0.50%) shed the most, while Realty (+1.42%) and Metal (+0.92%) gained the most.

Four things:

• Maruti Suzuki is planning a Rs 45,000 crore investment to double production capacity in 8 years.
• ICRA has predicted IT services revenue growth will drop to 3% in FY24 from 9.2% last year.
• Car dealerships anticipate a 4-year inventory high due to new launches and festive season expectations.
• SoftBank is reportedly offloading its 1.17% stake in Zomato for Rs 940 crore at Rs 94 per share.

Ukraine considers elections to boost Zelenskyy’s popularity

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may call for an election next year, despite the war-torn country currently being under martial law.

• “The logic is that if you are protecting democracy, you must also protect it during the war. And one way to protect it is elections,” he stated in an interview, hinting at his course of action.?

Yes, but:?Critics have questioned the reality of Ukraine’s democratic credentials even before Russia’s invasion, and suggested that Zelenskyy’s position may be weakening as he has failed to deliver on anti-corruption promises.?

• To add fuel to the fire, the Ukrainian president has consolidated the country’s media environment by merging all national TV channels into one state-run platform, justifying the need for a “unified information policy.”
• He also suspended at least eleven rival parties — including Ukraine’s biggest opposition party The Opposition Platform for Life — over national security concerns due to alleged links to Russia.

A threat of a coup? Retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson has suggested that Zelenskyy may fear being ousted in a military coup over Ukraine’s failure to achieve a battlefield breakthrough in its counteroffensive.

• “Zelensky very well could be ousted in a coup within the next three to four weeks, because of the great disgruntlement among troops on the eastern front,” Johnson told Redacted host Clayton Morris.

The US connection: American lawmakers from both political parties, during a visit to Kyiv last week, emphasised that elections are “necessary for democracy.”

• In response, Zelenskyy urged Western governments to provide funds for Ukraine to hold polls, insisting, “I will not take money from weapons and give it to elections.” He suggested around $135 million would be the minimum required sum.?

The DailyBrief take: Suspending major political parties and consolidating media outlets into state enterprises are hardly the acts of anyone claiming to “defend democracy.” Under such circumstances, any election that Zelenskyy would hold in Ukraine would most definitely be a sham.

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‘Spamouflage’: Meta uncovers massive Chinese influence network, shuts down nearly 9,000 accounts

Meta says it has shut down nearly 9,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to a massive Chinese influence network that aimed to advance Beijing’s interests and criticise its rivals worldwide.

The big picture: The covert operation, named ‘Spamouflage’ by cybersecurity experts, has been active since 2019, and has been linked to Chinese law enforcement agents.?

• The group mainly promoted positive narratives about China — e.g., its policies in Xinjiang — while attacking US and Western foreign policies, as well as researchers and journalists who criticise China.?
• For example, one of the campaigns Spamouflage ran claimed the Covid virus originated in the US; the group even published a 66-page “research paper” to support this statement, and promoted its research on various online forums and through social media posts and videos.?
• Apart from Instagram and Facebook, the network’s activities spanned over 50 platforms and forums online, including YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, and Medium.

Yes, but: Meta stated that the majority of engagement on Spamouflage posts was artificial and came from within its own network, indicating that the influence operation failed to penetrate audiences outside its own echo chamber.

• This was attributed to poor quality control and the irrelevance of many acquired pages to the campaign's content.

ICYMI

• India’s private sector investment has started to surge, according to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
• OpenAI has released ChatGPT Enterprise, targeting businesses, while Google has launched its Duet AI tools for Google Workspace.
• The Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Pragyan rover has detected the presence of sulphur and several other elements on the moon’s surface.
• India’s aviation industry is investing heavily in expansion, yet thousands of trained pilots remain unemployed — why?
• A drone attack on the airport in the Russian city of Pskov has destroyed military aircraft and disrupted air traffic.
• Apple has officially announced its plans to launch the iPhone 15 series on September 12.
• A Maharashtra government panel has recommended that Ola and Uber drivers pay a fine for every cancellation to be given as a rebate to the affected passenger.
• Patients in England are set to be the first in the world to receive a cancer treatment via injection that takes just seven minutes.