What Actually Mattered This Week: Musk the Statesman?

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WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERED THIS WEEK?

Ukraine claws back more territory Russia is trying to absorb

Some of Ukraine’s territory that Putin ‘annexed’…Russia never even occupied.

Now Ukrainian forces are taking back swaths of territory, despite Russia’s mobilization.

None of these annexed regions are recognized by other countries. Even Belarus is taking a pass.

It would be pathetic if it wasn’t so evil.

Brazil election: The presidential race is far from over

Former President Lula won the first round in Brazil’s elections (as expected) but didn’t quite reach the necessary 50% to claim victory. He now heads to a runoff with populist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro’s on track to follow Donald Trump’s playbook: there is no scenario where he is prepared to admit he lost.

The good news? The impact on the outcome is close to zero.

Elon Musk Is Buying Twitter Again After Backlash On His Plan To End The Ukraine War

Elon Musk’s busy week started out with the news that he’s pushing forward with his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

Then on the app, he shared his solution to the Ukraine war, which includes handing over parts of the country to the Russians and dropping their application to join NATO.

But Elon doesn’t have his own peace proposal. Vladimir Putin has a proposal that Elon just repeated.

Dude, please stop trying to do geopolitics.

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TRUTHS, DAMNED TRUTHS, AND STATISTICS

% of Americans who say the united states should continue to provide weapons to Ukraine

August 2022: 51%

October 2022: 66%

-Reuters/Ipsos

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THE GZERO WORLD WE’RE JUST LIVING IN

GRAPHIC TRUTH

YOUR GZERO WORLD

In early September, in just 48 hours the U.K. got a new prime minister (Liz Truss) and a new king (Charles III, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II).

Both take over at a turbulent time in British politics, with no shortage of current and future challenges. To name just a few: a stagnant economy, sky-high energy prices, more Brexit fallout with the EU, and Scots demanding a fresh independence vote.

On GZERO World, I speak to former British PM Tony Blair (1997-2007), who believes there will be a lot of uncertainty over the next year or two if Truss insists on big tax cuts and big borrowing.

Blair also looks back at the queen's legacy and the future of the monarchy, explains why Brexit will hurt but probably not fragment the UK, and defends why we need to return to his comfort zone of the political center to fix today's problems.

For a longer, wider-ranging version of my interview with Blair, check out the GZERO World podcast.

WORLD IN 60 SECONDS

Why is OPEC+ cutting oil production? Why is the US unhappy about it?

Will there be fallout from North Korea firing a missile over Japan?

Finally, why is Elon Musk finally purchasing Twitter good news for Putin?

Find out in this week’s World in 60 Seconds!

Do you like what you’ve seen??Sign up for GZERO’s daily newsletter to stay informed.

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DIG DEEPER WITH MY BULLETIN

Where I make sense of global affairs with whatever I decide is honest & fair analysis.

Opinion | Putin is becoming more desperate. Could he use a nuclear weapon?

In case you missed it, Putin’s been busy:

-Mobilizing 300,000 conscripts

-Declaring annexation of 15% of Ukraine’s territory

-Threatening to use nukes

-Maybe/probably sabotaging Nord Stream 1 & 2

Click here for more deep dives from me

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BECAUSE THE INTERNET

What could go wrong?

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WHAT TO READ THIS WEEK

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

We test vaccines before we inject them into human beings, but a steady flow of untested new technologies is injected into our collective bloodstream every day. With “Invisible Women,” Caroline Criado Perez highlights one particularly insidious aspect of this problem. Her subtitle says it all: “Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.”?

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DEEP THOUGHTS

“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.” - Freya Stark

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Thanks for reading!?Please subscribe to Signal?for daily coverage from GZERO Media and my?Bulletin?for weekly deep dives from yours truly. And make sure to read my new book?The Power of Crisis?for a roadmap of this decade's great crises and how they might help us build a better world.

I am president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media and foreign affairs columnist at TIME. I currently teach at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and previously was a professor at New York University. You can follow me on?Twitter,?Facebook, and?Instagram.