What Actually Mattered This Week: Remembering Mikhail Gorbachev

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WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERED THIS WEEK

Last Soviet leader Gorbachev, who ended Cold War and won Nobel prize, dies aged 91

The last general secretary outlived his legacy—glasnost, perestroika, and ultimately, Soviet collapse—a statesman’s worst nightmare.

Putin called this collapse "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." He has devoted his dictatorship to undoing Gorbachev’s singular accomplishment…and driving Europe back into cold war.

Pakistan Floods Affect Millions, Leave Over 1,000 Dead

Maybe we should stop calling these "once-in-a-1,000-year storms."

We need to update that terminology more often because, frankly, the climate is no longer fixed and stable.

With 10 million displaced and an economy in freefall, Pakistan just can’t catch a break.

UN inspectors head to Ukraine nuclear plant in war zone

Kyiv and Moscow are blaming each other for shelling the area near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The military activity around the plant is reckless and way too close for comfort.

The world can’t afford another disaster like Chernobyl.

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TRUTHS, DAMNED TRUTHS, AND STATISTICS

% of Americans who haven’t worn a face mask in the past seven days: 44%

(Two-year record high)

-The Economist/YouGov

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THE GZERO WORLD WE’RE JUST LIVING IN

GRAPHIC TRUTH

YOUR GZERO WORLD

One year ago, U.S. forces departed Afghanistan after two decades of war. Their enemy was the Taliban, who didn't wait for all American soldiers to leave before taking over the country.

One year later, Afghanistan is in shambles. The country's economy has tanked, food shortages abound and women and girls face new restrictions on their freedoms. Still, most Americans believe President Joe Biden made the right call by ending this "forever war."

On GZERO World, I speak to former U.S. marine and CIA officer Elliot Ackerman, whose new book The Fifth Act, details the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Ackerman believes the U.S. military could have done a much better job at leaving the country, not to mention leaving so many Afghan allies behind.

Then, GZERO World speaks to Fawzia Koofi, who served as a member of Afghan Parliament from 2005 until 2021, about the grim new reality for women and girls in her country. A country she had to flee after the Taliban takeover.

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

MY QUICK TAKE

My quick take on Mikhail Gorbachev's extraordinary impact on the current world order.

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DIG DEEPER WITH MY BULLETIN

Is China’s Rise Inevitable, Why Should America Help Ukraine, and More: Your Questions, Answered

No, China’s rise to become the #1 global superpower is not set in stone.

See: slowing growth, zero covid, financial stability risks, demographic shifts, etc.

Mikhail Gorbachev is dead. So is his legacy.

Gorbachev wanted to bring free speech, economic openness, and accountability to Soviet society, but today's Russia is precisely the opposite of everything he hoped it could be.

Rest in peace to an extraordinary & truly world-changing leader.

Click here for more deep dives from me

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BECAUSE THE INTERNET

Kansas has everything.

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WHAT TO READ THIS WEEK

How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going by Vaclav Smil

We are lucky to live in an era of unprecedented comfort. But if some apocalyptic event suddenly rolled back all the technological advances we’ve come to rely on, how many of us would know how to rebuild this world? How many of us would even know how it worked in the first place? Vaclav Simil offers a provocative yet grounded analysis of the limits and possibilities of science and human progress. In doing so, he draws a blueprint for how to tackle the defining challenges of our time. This book is a welcome corrective for both the fatalism and the utopianism that so often dominate headlines. It’s an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the world we live in, and where we might be headed.

DEEP THOUGHTS

"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will." - Suzy Kassem

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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 .?