What Actually Mattered This Week: Updated CDC Guidelines, Tunisia Turmoil
WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERED THIS WEEK
My thoughts on some of this week’s biggest news stories:
The CDC announcing indoor mask recommendation for areas of the country with the high transmission—in other words, least likely to follow their guidance.
This was the one country that kind of successfully had a transition during the Arab Spring and didn't revert to authoritarianism. But it's a weak constitution, and there’s massive unlimited employment, lots of government corruption and COVID on top of all of that. Lots of countries around the world on the back of COVID are going to experience much more political instability; Tunisia is leading the pack in North Africa right now.
TRUTHS, DAMNED TRUTHS, AND STATISTICS
% who say their country is in decline:
Brazil 69%
S Africa 68%
Italy 65%
Japan 62%
France 58%
US 55%
Spain 54%
Russia 50%
Mexico 48%
Great Britain 48% (presumedly they’ve just gotten used to it)
Germany 47%
Canada 43%
S Korea 41%
Australia 36%
THE GZERO WORLD WE’RE JUST LIVING IN
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GRAPHIC TRUTH
?YOUR GZERO WORLD
COVID-19 was a global catastrophe that blindsided the world's wealthiest nations, and it's far from over. But as disasters go, it was hardly unprecedented. Humanity has a long history of failing to prepare for the worst, from volcanic eruptions to earthquakes to famines to shipwrecks to airplane crashes to financial depressions. But how do we get better at preventing such calamities from happening, and how many seemingly unavoidable "natural" disasters are actually caused by humans? On GZERO World, I talk about all that and more with Stanford historian Niall Ferguson, who is just out with the perfect book for the topic, "Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe." Plus, a look at how one young Ugandan activist was literally cropped out of the global climate fight.
For a longer, more in-depth version of my interview with Ferguson, check out the GZERO World podcast.?
WORLD IN 60 SECONDS
As COVID-19 cases rise, are vaccine mandates coming?
What's happening in Tunisia and how will it affect the broader region??
Am I watching the Olympics, and what's my favorite event?
Find out in this week’s World in 60 Seconds! ?
Do you like what you’ve seen? Subscribe and stay informed.
BECAUSE THE INTERNET
On brand
?WHAT TO READ THIS WEEK
The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia by Bill Hayton
A lot has changed in the South China Sea since Hayton's book was published in 2014. The Philippines won a landmark international ruling against China in 2016 that (among other issues) dismissed Beijing's legal basis for its claim to much of the South China Sea ("nine-dash line"). Since Hayton's book was first published, there has started to be a global shift away from hydrocarbons and fish stocks in the region have dwindled—reducing, but not removing, some of the economic drivers for competition in the South China Sea. Beijing's land reclamation and militarization activities in disputed waters have also progressed dramatically since 2014. Nevertheless, Hayton's description of the historical basis for China's and other littoral states' claims in the South China Sea remains one of the best, and most accessible, available. It is as useful now as it was when first published, and has renewed relevance given China's increasingly assertive/aggressive posture in disputed waters. It remains indispensable reading for anyone wishing to understand one of the world's greatest geopolitical flashpoints.
DEEP THOUGHTS
“It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.” – Julia Cameron
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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.
Migration and Human Rights Management - Always Parenting - Striving to fix things in every aspect of personal and professional lives
3 年Love the GZERO. Watched some of the recorded interesting stuff you share and I find them instructive at many levels, communication wise, to name the least. But regarding Tunisia and despite legitimate current concerns, I would rather follow-up closely the next moves than already deem it could be a "leading example" of a chaotic series of post-covid victims .... Still early I think to get into assumptions since there is a real potential in the country for recovery from the pandemic ( long way, yes) as well as from the current other challenges...