What Actually Mattered This Week: Middle East Accords, WeChat/TikTok Ban, Japan's New PM

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Crisis Response & Recovery: Reimagining While Rebuilding?

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WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERED THIS WEEK

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

UAE, Bahrain and Israel sign historic accords at White House event

Between the Jerusalem embassy move and Bahrain/UAE-Israel normalization, Trump has accomplished more with core Middle East allies than anyone in mainstream media had expected.

The closest US allies in the region are Israel and the Gulf States (while the US was never an honest broker between Israel and Palestine). For Trump, those are his closest relations globally. Remember, his first trip as President—Saudi Arabia and Israel.

That was on display at this week’s signing.

US will ban WeChat and TikTok downloads on Sunday

Big news, but actual TikTok ban isn’t until November 12 (after the election), and the Oracle deal with TikTok (which government needs to approve) is still pending.

Yoshihide Suga named Japan’s prime minister, succeeding Abe

Suga was Abe’s right-hand man. Continuity > change

TRUTHS, DAMNED TRUTHS, AND STATISTICS

% who have confidence in each leader to do the right thing regarding world affairs:

Merkel 76%

Macron 64%

Johnson 48%

Putin 23%

Xi 19%

Trump 16%

-Pew Global Attitudes survey

THE GZERO WORLD WE’RE JUST LIVING IN

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GRAPHIC TRUTH 

YOUR GZERO WORLD

On GZERO World, Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne joins me to talk about how higher education is trying (and in many cases failing) to adjust to the pandemic this fall. Tessier-Lavigne made news in August by reversing a June decision to welcome undergraduates back to campus, determining that California's summer COVID outbreak made it untenable to bring most students back. How Tessier-Lavigne came to that decision, how Stanford intends to enforce COVID restrictions once all students do return, and what the future of higher education will look like in a post-pandemic world—all in this discussion.

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

WORLD IN 60 SECONDS

Can Putin rescue Belarus' President from his own people?

What to make of the Taliban peace talks in Doha?

Why is Mexico's President raffling off his own plane?

Finally, what can we expect from the 75th UN General Assembly?

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

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BECAUSE THE INTERNET

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DEEP THOUGHTS

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” – Reid Hoffman (shameless to include on LinkedIn, I know)

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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.