HOT AIR BALLOON FLIGHT

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Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good

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September 21, 2021

Louder Than Words

In his first address to the UN General Assembly, President Joe Biden called for global cooperation, avoidance of conflict, and cooler heads between China and the West. The world may not be convinced, Fred Kaplan writes for Slate: While it was a "refreshing contrast" to former President Donald Trump's "America First" diatribes, Biden can't escape "America's actions—Biden's actions—of the past several weeks, notably the bungled pullout from Afghanistan and the backroom deal to displace France as the supplier of submarines for Australia."
 
Then again, it was just a speech, after all: "Speeches to the General Assembly are bromidic by nature," Kaplan writes. "Few have spurred breakthroughs in peace or diplomacy. They are devices for world leaders to take a stance—to outline their goals and priorities—in broad terms. And Biden's speech did a good job at doing that."

What the US–France Spat Says About Europe

After France recalled its ambassador to Washington over a newly announced US–UK–Australia security partnership—and a submarine deal that nudges France out of the way as a supplier to Canberra—The New York Times' Roger Cohen puts the kerfuffle in context.
 
It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron warned in 2019 of NATO's "brain death" and as he has pushed for a more autonomous European foreign policy. The new trilateral partnership would seem to undercut that. "The submarine deal looks to the French like a requiem for alliances in an opportunistic new Asia-centric world of shifting partnerships," Cohen writes. 
 
But France has found few European allies willing to speak up on its behalf after Washington's end-around—and that highlights disunity in Europe, as the Cold War and the common enemy of the Soviet Union fade in the rearview. "We are right," political scientist Dominique Moisi tells Cohen, "but we are alone."

All About Immunity

What do we know about Covid-19 vaccines and the duration of immunity they provide? At Nature, Elie Dolgin sums up the evidence, as wealthy countries consider booster shots for various population segments. So far, it seems antibodies wane significantly over time, but B-cells and T-cells, which help the body rally disease-fighting antibodies in the future, seem to have long memories. Observational evidence indicates boosters help prevent infection, but one scientist tells Dolgin that more research is needed.

Bad for Business

After the Financial Times reported last week that China will force Alipay, the "super-app" that has boasted about 700 million monthly users, to spin off its loans enterprise, Beijing faces a new round of criticism over its alleged business unfriendliness. China's scuttling of Ant Group's IPO and security review of ride-share app Didi had already troubled entrepreneurs and produced calls for reassurances.
 
The Economist's Schumpeter column writes that if Beijing is seeking to rein in its own big corporations, foreigners wanting to do business there could also be scared off: "[S]ometimes all it takes is one too many shakedowns to convince even the hardiest industrialist to throw in the towel."

Will Covid-19 Sink Bolsonaro?

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro faces discouraging polls and a potential formidable opponent in next year's election, in former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. At Americas Quarterly, Brian Winter writes that Bolsonaro's disastrous response to Covid-19 may do him in: "The pandemic has created a tough environment for incumbents everywhere—as evidenced by recent election results in Argentina and Peru, two other countries in COVID's tragic per-capita 'top 10.' It's often said that presidencies boil down to one thing. For every global leader of the early 2020s, they will be judged by how effectively they limited the damage from the worst pandemic in a century. Over the last 18 months of denialism, antagonism and inattention to the crisis, Bolsonaro seems to have convinced most Brazilians that he is simply incapable of keeping them safe, an opinion they seem unlikely to change."