What Actually Mattered This Week: Taiwan on Edge, Facebook Down
February 2020 file photo released by the Republic of China Ministry of Defense

What Actually Mattered This Week: Taiwan on Edge, Facebook Down

Let the GZERO newsletter help you make sense of global news

Wondering what an “infodemic” is? Coming this Wed 10/13: #GlobalStage will be live on LinkedIn, with Ginny Badanes, Nina Jankowicz, Rick Stengel, Yasmin Green, Matt Masterson, Kevin Allison, and Vijay Vaitheeswaran discussing how to protect democracy from disinformation. RSVP to watch live on LinkedIn.

You can find more information about the event here and more information about GZERO Media’s Global Stage project with Microsoft On the Issues here.

WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERED THIS WEEK

My thoughts on some of this week’s biggest news stories:

China steps up air incursions into Taiwan buffer zone after US-led drills

China's latest incursions into Taiwan's air defense zone may be unprecedented in number—but they're not incursions into Taiwanese airspace. Beijing wants to show they’re strong and assertive, but we’re not on the brink of World War III.

Of the China crises to watch out for right now, I’d be a lot more focused on Evergrande, power shortages, and domestic economic meltdown than the Taiwan ADIZ incursions.

Gone in minutes, out for hours: outage shakes Facebook

Six hours down. Big embarrassment for Facebook.

The fact that you can take half of the planet down in terms of an app that they use, so easily, it's a lot more dangerous than, say, just-in-time supply chain. Imagine if it had been something where companies use it fundamentally to work, like Amazon or Microsoft.

The big question after all this is whether or not it makes any of us think differently about the need for redundancy and resilience on digital sites.

Prefer long-form analysis? Here are my thoughts on the J curve and why the US is becoming less stable.

TRUTHS, DAMNED TRUTHS, AND STATISTICS

Annual public spending per child on early childhood care:

Norway $29.7K

Iceland $24.4K

Finland $23.4K

Denmark $23.1K

Germany $18.7K

Sweden $18K

New Zealand $10.3K

Spain $9.1K

Australia $8.1K

Israel $3.3K


US $500

-via New York Times

THE GZERO WORLD WE’RE JUST LIVING IN

More from GZERO Media (subscribe here)

GRAPHIC TRUTH?

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YOUR GZERO WORLD

Can President Biden tamp down growing global skepticism and persuade his allies that the US is really "back"? Or is America's credibility irreparably damaged no matter what Biden, or any future president, says or does? I’m joined on GZERO World by global affairs journalist and Middle East expert Robin Wright of The New Yorker to discuss why Biden, the most geopolitically experienced US president in decades, is already looking to hit the reset button on America's foreign policy. After four long years of the Trump administration's bull-in-a-china-shop approach to foreign policy, Joe Biden's assurances that America was "back" had been like Xanax to the diplomatic community. But some major foreign policy snafus in the past eight months have thrown America's renewed global standing into question. At the very least, it seems the honeymoon is over.

For a longer, more in-depth version of my interview with Wright, check out the GZERO World podcast.?

WORLD IN 60 SECONDS

What is China signaling by sending warplanes into Taiwan's air defense identification zone?

What are the Pandora Papers?

What's happening with Facebook?

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

Do you like what you’ve seen? Subscribe and stay informed.

BECAUSE THE INTERNET

Generational wealth but make sure it’s hidden

(by Paul Noth)

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WHAT TO READ THIS WEEK

Renewal: From Crisis to Transformation in Our Lives, Work, and Politics by Anne-Marie Slaughter

Before asking a lot from others, we must first ask much from ourselves. With “Renewal: From Crisis to Transformation in Our Lives, Work, and Politics,” Anne-Marie Slaughter takes on big questions on America’s divisions, dysfunction, and path to the future with a deeply personal look at her own response to challenges. In the process, she offers a courageous and imaginative look at how crises create reckonings that can inspire genuine positive change.

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DEEP THOUGHTS

“Impossible is just an opinion.” – Paulo Coelho


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Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media and foreign affairs columnist at TIME. He currently teaches at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and previously was a professor at New York University. You can follow him on?Twitter,?Facebook,?and?Instagram.


Piotr Segal

Freelance Translator w YouTube

3 年

Interesting thing is that when YouTube was down once, nobody cared, but Facebook's failure causes problemes. It's astonishing how significant the company has become.

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