Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Subscribe here. July 25, 2021 On GPS, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET: First, Fareed gives his take on the apparent politicization of vaccines in America.
"There is one striking thing that distinguishes this pandemic from all previous ones in history—the speed with which humankind came up with a vaccine," Fareed says. "But what science has given, politics seems to be taking away. Despite having ample supplies of the vaccine, America is stuck with roughly 60% of the adult population fully vaccinated, ensuring that the pandemic will linger, perhaps forever. Given the tools to end this tragedy, we are choosing to live with it."
The partisanship of vaccines has been stark: As of June, 86% of Democrats had received a first vaccine dose, but only 52% of Republicans had, Fareed points out, while GOP officials publicly signal opposition to vaccine mandates. "Some Republican politicians and conservative media figures are finally urging people to get vaccinated," Fareed says. "But they may be too late … it is the Republican Party and the conservative media, by their actions and negligence, that are endangering America's economy—and, far more importantly, the lives of its people."
Next, in a worldwide exclusive interview, Fareed discusses one of the most complicated regions with one of its most astute observers and influential players: King Abdullah II of Jordan, who shares his thoughts on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the differences between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, and more.
After that: As the Delta variant rages, what will the next phase of the pandemic look like? Fareed asks two leading experts, University of Edinburgh global public-health chair Devi Sridhar and former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden.
Finally, Fareed examines the Northern Hemisphere's summer of extreme weather and what it says about the environmental fluctuations to come.
Where Does Cuba Go From Here? Following this month's extraordinary protests in Cuba, Jon Lee Anderson writes for The New Yorker that the communist regime is in new territory, with cell phones and the Internet spreading information (unlike during the country's last large protests, in 1994)—and with a non-Castro leader caught between difficult forces.
Where Fidel Castro had a personality cult and (for part of his reign) could provide for Cuba via Soviet Union subsidies, Anderson maintains that President Miguel Díaz-Canel has offered dissatisfied citizens "no solutions, only repression." Díaz-Canel now finds himself "boxed in by circumstances. Having been embarrassed by the Cuban uprising, he must show strength in order to preserve order. But to placate the public's rising frustrations, he must also signal moderation, which he has belatedly tried to do … But to call for dialogue, or else to 'open up,' as many outsiders—the European Union and Pope Francis, among others—have urged him to do, could telegraph weakness to the boldest Cuban dissidents, and provoke new demonstrations. In any event, it seems a certainty that the unrest in Cuba has not ended." Will Colombia Tack to the Center? Following protests initially sparked by President Iván Duque's proposal for tax reforms, Colombia has seen unrest throughout much of the country. But as broad discontent simmers, people may be looking for a centrist solution, Leonie Rauls writes for Americas Quarterly: While the civic fabric has been torn on Duque's watch, leftist opposition leader Gustavo Petro may be considered by some voters to be too aligned with the protesters' sentiments and might also suffer, politically, from the chaos.
"[I]t's not clear that leaders like Duque and Petro are hearing calls for unity and compromise" ahead of next May's presidential election, Rauls writes. "It may be too early to consider what kind of candidate can unite the center. But ultimately, many voters are not necessarily looking for something radical, said Mariana Ardila, an attorney at Women's Link Worldwide based in Bogotá. 'Colombians just want someone who understands the problem of deep inequality.'" Europe Tries to Move On From Trump A veritable nightmare for European leaders, given his reported beratings, NATO skepticism, and tariffs, former President Trump is gone from the international scene—for now. And that's giving Europe a respite during which it can steady itself on the world stage, Riccardo Alcaro and Nathalie Tocci write for the Italy-based Instituto Affari Internazionali.
Since President Joe Biden's arrival, Europe has put an important win on the board, they point out, as European initiatives to tax US-based Internet giants have effectively pushed the US to back a 15% global corporate minimum tax. When it comes to China, Biden appears willing to force European countries into the tough position of choosing between Washington and Beijing, which no one will want to do.
But above all, the Biden years offer a chance for a reset and to think about how Europe can best throw its weight, according to Alcaro and Tocci: "Trump has been beaten but not defeated, and in 2024 he or someone like him may well win the US presidency again … Ultimately, the best way to prepare for another antagonistic president is to use the chance of a benevolent one to reduce the EU's vulnerability to the United States while also increasing its strategic value for Washington on existing and emerging challenges." In the current issue of Foreign Policy, a slew of prominent economist and thinkers share high-level views on our economic zeitgeist, in which central banks keep interest rates at rock bottom, heaps of money are injected into the global economy, and governments spend on stimulus like never before—all while the pandemic threatens to exacerbate inequality, both between rich and poor countries and among the citizens of each, and as unwritten rules of corporate responsibility are being reshaped to include things like climate change and racial equity.
To describe the state of things, author and FP Analytics senior adviser Antoine van Agtmael coins the term "Fuzzynomics," which he explains as "today's post-pandemic recipe for new and old problems. Above all, it means spending your way out of trouble. It means throwing out the rulebook in the uncertain hope that it will work—in the same way that pumping up the global economy using monetary policy worked after the global financial crisis or Keynesian fiscal spending saved capitalism after the Great Depression. Western democracies seem to have little choice other than to keep printing and spending money as they fight a polarizing battle to keep in check a growing part of the electorate … that has lost faith or simply refuses to face reality." |
