The World in 60 Seconds - October 11, 2016

From the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires... it's the World in 60 Seconds!

Russia: Will Putin pay a price for hacking the US election?

Uh, not domestically, I think they’re happy with it, frankly. But internationally, yeah, the United States is going to put more directed sanctions on Putin, maybe even withdraw the ambassador.

US: Will the Democrats take Congress?

Uh, they’ll take the Senate, I think that looks pretty safe at this point. House, on balance, I’d say no, but the Republicans are going to lose some seats, they’ll be moderate seats; House is going to be harder to work with, and lead.

Brazil: Will Lula be President again?

Have you guys been watching the investigations? Lula is done! The next President is going to be someone, a complete outsider, not engaged with scandals.

Syria: Is the war going to escalate?

I don’t know if it can escalate much beyond where it is right now, but my god, Aleppo is basically done, it really pains me to say, and Assad’s not going anywhere. The Russians with that permanent base, Americans can complain all they want.

UK: Will Scotland become independent?

Uh, over time I suspect it actually will. A hard Brexit means a lot of agitated UK nations, but this is not a near-term issue. If they had it now they probably would not vote in favor. Gotta wait.

Anyway, that’s it! Next week, different country. I will see you guys at the World in 60 Seconds.

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Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group, foreign affairs columnist at TIME and Global Research Professor at New York University. He will be teaching a course on Global Political Risk with other Eurasia Group faculty at NYU Stern from October 24-25. To learn more and register for the course, click here . You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.