 | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer |
| | | | |  | | | | | | | The world should care especially about this conflict, not because the victims are European, but because the stakes for all of humanity are so high. | | | |  | Ian Bremmer Mar 10 |
| | | | It is day 15 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it seems like it's all anyone can talk about. In a country that rarely cares about what happens abroad, 84% of Americans say they are following the news about the war closely. Certainly, it’s getting far more attention than the conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, or Palestine ever have. I've seen a lot of commentators in the media assert that this is proof that most of us only care about the plight of other white Europeans and have no regard for the fate of poor and brown people in the developing world. In other words, that it’s just another expression of racism. Twitter See @TheDailyShow's post on Twitter. twitter.com/TheDailyShow | |
I understand that perspective. God knows it’s true that for too many, empathy is not color-blind. But it's way too simplistic in the case of Ukraine. In fact, this crisis has captured so much attention despite, not because, of the 2 million refugees already streaming into Europe being overwhelmingly white, Christian, and culturally European. Imagine how different the coverage would be if those 2 million people were coming into Europe from Africa, the Middle East, or Central Asia instead. Yet because Europe is so willing to welcome and integrate Ukrainians—it doesn’t say great things about humanity, but it is a reality we have to acknowledge—the exodus of the 5-10 million Ukrainians who are likely to leave Ukraine in the coming weeks isn’t nearly as much of a story as what's happening on the ground in Ukraine and the implications for NATO, for the global economy, and even for direct confrontation between the U.S. and Russia. So no, the main reason why this war is getting so much attention is not racism. It’s because of the outsized impact it could have on global prosperity and peace. When the world’s largest grain exporter attacks the fifth-largest grain exporter, and when the world’s largest gas exporter and second-largest oil exporter gets cut off from the global trade and financial system, the cumulative impact on everyone in the planet is so much greater than any amount of poverty, deprivation, and death Syrians, Afghans, and Yemenis are experiencing. It doesn't take away from their suffering, but it makes it completely understandable that everyone in the world would pay more attention to Ukraine than to them.  | gzeromedia  7.6Kfollowers |  | View more on Instagram. | Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine will ripple throughout the global economy in many ways, but one immediate conce... |
In particular, the impact of this war on poor people and poor nations around the world is going to be far greater than that of the conflicts we've seen in any of those countries. As usual, rich people and rich countries will be just fine; poor people and poor countries won’t. Paying more attention to Ukraine than to other tragic, albeit localized, conflicts is therefore justified. A second reason to care about this war stems from the fact that Russia is a military superpower. The risk of nuclear conflict between the U.S. and Russia poses an existential threat to all of us living in the world. The same cannot be said of any other conflict or humanitarian crisis. The West is unequivocally at war with Russia. NATO countries may not be sending troops to Ukraine, but they are sending money, supplies, and weapons to help the Ukrainians more effectively kill the invading Russians. They are imposing crippling financial sanctions with the stated purpose to decimate the Russian economy. They are trying to topple Putin’s regime. | gzeromedia 7.6Kfollowers | | View more on Instagram. | The US is at war with Russia.
There's great danger from Putin's interest in lashing out -- not just in consolidating ... |
Western countries may think this is just indirect fighting, but the Kremlin doesn’t see it that way. To them, these steps are as much acts of war against Russia as imposing a no-fly zone would be. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. But we have to acknowledge that the potential for significant escalation, including cyberattacks, economic warfare, disinformation campaigns, proxy terrorism, and yes, even direct military confrontation, makes this an incredibly dangerous environment for the whole world. To be clear, I'm not in any way predicting World War III. I don't think it's imminent. I don't even think it's close. But I recognize it's possible—and much more likely than it was nary a month ago. Are Ukrainians more deserving of sympathy than Syrians, Afghans, and other victims of conflict? No. Does the war in Ukraine matter more for the world than those other conflicts? Yes, and by a long shot. Given the stakes, it would be inconceivable—and indeed irresponsible—for us not to spend most of our time focusing on this crisis. ------------ |
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Russian warplanes are flying about 20 times more missions than their Ukrainian counterparts, though many never enter Ukrainian territory and simply lob long-range missiles from inside Russian airspace, a U.S. official said Friday. Read more »
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has “earned the hatred of the whole world,” according to the leader of Orthodox Christianity, who rebuked the Russian leader for inflicting a devastating war. Read the full story here. The House passed a $1.5 trillion government funding bill Wednesday night, setting the first new spending levels under the Biden administration, providing $13.6 billion in measures to support Ukraine, and marking the end of months of bipartisan budget negotiations. Read the full story here. IN THIS WEEK'S EDITION Here's what you need to know: Russian supporters stage protest rallies in Serbia and Central African Republic, Sub-Saharan Africa emerges as the global epicentre of terrorism, the world’s first Infinity Train can recharge itself, global supply chains will be re-written by the 'second Cold War', Brazil's Lula da Silva aims to strengthen ties with Mexico's ruling leftist party, there are five different type of core regrets. |
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SPECIAL EDITION: UKRAINE
Russian supporters stage protest rallies in Serbia and Central African Republic. Marches through the capitals of the countries involved thousands of people in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Japan, US and Europe banks risk losses from $150bn Russia exposure. Sanctions and an exodus of global companies from Russia dim the prospects of recouping a combined $150 billion in debt owed by the country and business.
Russia's demand for US guarantees may hit nuclear talks, Iran official says. Russia’s demand for US guarantees that sanctions on Moscow would not harm Russian cooperation with Iran is not constructive for nuclear disarmament talks.
Protests across Russia see thousands detained. More than 10,000 people have been detained at protests in 53 cities.
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CONFLICT Malian army says dozens of its soldiers killed in jihadist attack. The west African state has been battling jihadist movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State for almost a decade, with around two-thirds of its territory outside state control. The head of the UN Mission in Afghanistan calls for collaboration with the Taliban government. Deborah Lyons pledged that the only way to help the country is to collaborate with the de facto government. The country faces a cessation of development aid since international forces left the country last August. Security forces in Nigeria kill at least 200 gunmen. In a security operation to clear armed gangs in Nigeria, at least 200 bandits have been killed in three days in Niger state.
China announces South China Sea drills close to Vietnam coast. China is carrying out more than a week of military drills in the South China Sea warning shipping to stay away.
Sub-Saharan Africa emerges as the global epicentre of terrorism. IEP’s Global Terrorism Index revealed that the region accounts for 48% of terrorism fatalities in the world, while the overall figure continues to decline.
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DEVELOPMENT Ten underreported emergencies. Countries have millions of people in need, suffering from food insecurity, civil war and poverty, including Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Honduras, Columbia and Niger.
Exoskeleton technology allows spinal injury patients to move again.
The electrodes read the signals from the brain being sent to the muscles, and the exoskeleton has the intelligence to compensate for any weakness and perform that movement for them. It also improves neuroplasticity.
2m in Tigray in urgent need of food – UN. In the first comprehensive assessment the World Food Programme has carried out in Tigray since the start of the war, 37% of the population were found to be severely food insecure.
Scientists solve 30,000-Year-Old Venus statue mystery. The world’s oldest known statue was carved by a hunter-gatherer culture known as the Gravettian people, and travelled hundreds of miles across the treacherous landscape of Europe before the last ice age.
The world’s first Infinity Train can recharge itself. The train uses the gravitational energy created on the downhill loaded sections of the rail network to recharge its battery power systems, eliminating the need for additional charging on the return trip to reload.
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ECONOMICS Global supply chains will be re-written by the 'second Cold War'. Growth in the global trade has stalled since 2008 with the Covid pandemic accelerating the on-boarding of manufacturing. Now the Ukrainian war will intensify the trends as the West and China and Russia form two distinct trading systems.
China plans 7.1% defence spending rise this year, outpacing GDP target. China’s military spending has outpaced last year's increase and the government's modest economic growth forecast for 2022.
Europe turns to Africa for natural gas imports. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced Europe to turn to African countries such as Nigeria, Algeria, Angola and Egypt for energy supply.
Sudan's economy tumbles in post-coup deadlock. Sudan is lurching towards economic collapse in the aftermath of a coup in October, with exports plummeting more than 85% in January and the currency sliding on the black market.
Turkey's inflation surges to 54%, highest in 20 years A Turkish official said upward risks on inflation are rising and energy prices would continue to put pressure on prices.
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POLITICS
Brazil's Lula da Silva aims to strengthen ties with Mexico's ruling leftist party. The former Brazilian president has improved his chances in the presidential race by aligning with Mexico's MORENA party, and promised closer ties if he wins the presidency. Honduran minister says new mining restrictions not retroactive. The Honduran government's recent push to sharply restrict mining will not apply to existing projects, days after the Environment and Mining Ministry pledged to cancel permits.
Libya's Bashagha says he will not use force to take office. The man chosen by Libya's parliament as the new Prime Minister said that he expects to take office in Tripoli peacefully despite the incumbent's vow to hold onto power.
The Polish government said it would increase its defence spending to 3% of GDP in 2023. This exceeds the 2% NATO target which aims to ensure the alliance’s military readiness. Poland has welcomed over a million people fleeing Ukraine.
Philippine President Duterte signs an executive order to boost nuclear energy. According to the Energy Secretary, the initiative will pave the way for the entry of small modular reactor (SMR) technology into the country. |
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SOCIAL
An African judge approves ascension to the Zulu throne. Prince Misuzulu Zulu ascends to the throne after the death of the king and will rule one-fifth of South Africa's population, represented by 11 million Zulus. Belgians rush for iodine tablets due to nuclear threat. Nearly 30,000 Belgians went to get free iodine tablets, following reports of fighting near Chernobyl in Ukraine and nuclear threats from Russia.
There are five different types of core regrets. Largest study ever finds that 80% of people globally suffer from regret. The most common are in regards to the loss of connection in relationships, poor moral decisions and not speaking their mind.
Spanish prosecutor drops probes into former King Juan Carlos. Spain's national prosecutor's office has dropped two investigations into alleged fraud in former King Juan Carlos's business dealings after failing to find sufficient evidence of criminal activity.
Faecal transplants change gut microbiome, improving mood.
Through transplanting gut microbiome from people without mental disorders, people suffering from bipolar disorders have been cured. |
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Our tractors should be ploughing fields and feeding the world, not towing enemy tanks MARCH 7, 2022 by Oleg Ustenko
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As elections approach, Viktor Orban is struggling to neutralise a decade of pro-Putin messaging MARCH 7, 2022 by Marton Dunai in Budapest
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The loss of Russian supply will be hard to replace even if the US shale industry increases production MARCH 7, 2022 by Derek Brower
Yesterday, the Department of Justice indicted Henry “Enrique” Tarrio on a conspiracy charge in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tarrio is a leader of the far-right extremist Proud Boys, the white supremacists that former president Trump told to stand back and stand by in his September 2020 debate with Joe Biden. Tarrio was not at the Capitol itself on January 6th because a court had ordered him to leave the city the day before after destroying a Black Lives Matter banner at an earlier protest. The indictment charges that before leaving the city, Tarrio met with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and others in a parking garage. He also texted with someone who talked about “revolution” and sent a plan called “1776 Returns″ that called for occupying “crucial buildings” in Washington with “as many people as possible.” Tarrio allegedly agreed with the texter and added “ I’m not playing games.” The indictment of someone who was not physically present at the riot expands the circle of those identified as part of the conspiracy. Violating the law the indictment identifies carries a sentence of up to 20 years. Also yesterday, the Justice Department prevailed in the first case against a January 6 defendant as a jury unanimously found Guy Reffitt guilty of obstructing an official proceeding. Prosecutors produced what the New York Times called “exhaustive” evidence, illustrating just how extensive their investigations have been. The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol has also been busy. It has been engaged in a legal fight with John Eastman, the lawyer who wrote the Eastman memo outlining a plan for then–vice president Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election. Eastman has been fighting desperately to stop the committee from seeing his emails around the time of the insurrection, claiming that they are covered by attorney-client privilege and that former president Trump was his client. But the committee noted that there is no evidence there was such a relationship between the two of them, and that privilege doesn’t hold if it is covering up a crime or fraud. Each time the court has sided with the committee, Eastman has thrown more sand in the gears to slow down or stop the document review. Today, a federal judge decided he would personally review 111 emails sent between January 4 and January 7, 2021, to see if they should be protected or given to the committee. Also today, the January 6 committee issued a subpoena to an email fundraising vendor whose ads pushed the lie that the election was stolen. The committee wants to learn more about the ads and how they motivated rioters, as well as “the flow of funds, and whether contributions were actually directed to the purpose indicated.” Trump advisor Stephen Miller today sued to block the January 6th committee’s November subpoena for his phone records. Miller is on a cell phone plan with his parents and says that the subpoena might pick up the other numbers on the account. He also says it violates his privacy rights because there are personal communications about his wife and newborn daughter. On March 3, the January 6 committee subpoenaed Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of Donald Trump, Jr., since she was in “direct contact with key individuals, raised funds for the rally immediately preceding the violent attack on the United States Capitol, and participated in that event.” Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) noted that Guilfoyle had “backed out of her original commitment to provide a voluntary interview.” Other people involved in the attempt to overturn the election are in more immediate trouble. Tina Peters, the Republican clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, along with her deputy, Belinda Knisley, has been indicted by a Colorado grand jury on a number of charges stemming from the release of confidential information from the county’s election systems. That information apparently got turned over to those “investigating” the election numbers. Peters says she is simply exposing the criminality of voting machine manufacturers and politicians. She is currently running for the office of secretary of state in Colorado. Trump’s former lawyer Sidney Powell is also in the news, this time because a committee of the State Bar of Texas asked a district court to judge Powell for professional misconduct with regard to overturning the 2020 election and to “determine and impose an appropriate sanction.” BuzzFeed broke the story tonight that Powell, whose nonprofit has raised significantly more than $15 million, has been paying the legal expenses for members of the Oath Keepers. Another person pushing the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson, paradoxically strengthened a lawsuit against the network. Smartmatic, a company that makes voting machines, has sued FNC over the many instances of FNC personalities falsely claiming that the voting machines had been part of a massive voter fraud in 2020. FNC says the lawsuit is “baseless” and an assault upon the First Amendment. Today, New York Supreme Court Judge David B. Cohen ruled that the case against FNC can go forward because the statements of its personalities were baseless and reckless. One of the key points in the decision was Carlson’s own initial dismissal of Powell’s outrageous claims. Carlson’s repeated demands for proof of her claims and her inability to provide any suggest that FNC knew, or should have known, that Powell was lying. And yet, for all the mounting evidence that there was a conspiracy surrounding Trump to overturn the will of the voters—the centerpiece of our governmental system—in the 2020 election, key Republicans are doubling down on him. Trump’s attorney general William Barr has just published a book detailing how Trump lied about the election and threatened democracy. And yet, on a tour to sell the book, Barr on Monday told NBC's Savannah Guthrie that he would nonetheless vote for Trump if he were the Republican nominee in 2024. “Because I believe that the greatest threat to the country is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic Party, it’s inconceivable to me that I wouldn’t vote for the Republican nominee,” he said. This same conviction that Democrats must be stopped at all costs is pushing the drive to destroy democracy by concentrating political power in state legislatures. In a dissent this week, four right-wing Supreme Court justices indicated they support a further step in that concentration, backing a legal argument that state legislatures have ultimate power to determine their own voting procedures, including the selection of presidential electors, regardless of what a majority of voters want. Under the dressing of new legal terminology, this is, at heart, the old state’s rights argument. If a state’s legislature can determine who gets to vote, a minority can control that legislature and entrench itself in power, passing laws that keep the majority subservient to those in control. It was this very concept Congress overrode in 1868 with the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, saying that no state could deprive a citizen of the equal protection of the laws. Resurrecting it now would pave the way for a January 6th–type coup through the law, rather than through the plots of a ragtag mess of insurrectionists. — Notes: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/08/enrique-tarrio-indicted-proud-boys/  Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVanceJoyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance  Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, a leader of the extremist group the Proud Boys, has been indicted on a conspiracy charge in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. https://t.co/19MT0wesGB March 8th 2022 1,581 Retweets6,195 Likeshttps://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-race-and-ethnicity-donald-trump-chris-wallace-0b32339da25fbc9e8b7c7c7066a1db0f https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/leader-proud-boys-indicted-federal-court-conspiracy-and-other-offenses-related-us-capitol https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/09/guy-reffitt-conviction-january-6/ https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/09/eastman-emails-disclosure-jan-6-committee-00015869 https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/09/politics/stephen-miller-phone-records-subpoena-lawsuit-january-6/index.html https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/2022-2-23.BGT%20Letter%20to%20Salesforce.com%20Inc..pdf https://january6th.house.gov/news/press-releases/statement-rnc-lawsuit https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/2022-3-3.BGT%20Letter%20to%20Guilfoyle%20-%20Cover%20Letter%20and%20Schedule_Redacted.pdf https://january6th.house.gov/news/press-releases/select-committee-subpoenas-kimberly-guilfoyle https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mesa-county-colorado-clerk-tina-peters-indicted-big-lie-election-data-leak https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/sidney-powell-funding-oath-keepers-defense https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/09/judge-uses-tucker-carlsons-own-words-against-fox-news/ https://www.businessinsider.com/former-ag-bill-barr-suggests-hed-vote-for-trump-again-in-2024-2022-3 https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-kavanaugh-gorsuch-barrett https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/09/gop-pushes-for-an-earthquake-in-american-electoral-power-00015402
On June 5, 1944, the day before the D-Day operation in which the Allied forces in World War II invaded German-occupied western Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his 29th Fireside Chat. Roosevelt told the American people that Rome had fallen to American and Allied troops the previous day. He used the talk not only to announce this important milestone in the deadly war, but also to remind Americans they were engaged in a war between democracy and fascism. And while fascists insisted their ideology made countries more efficient and able to serve their people, the Allies’ victory in Rome illustrated that the ideology of fascism, which maintained that a few men should rule over the majority of the population, was hollow. Rome was the seat of fascism, FDR told his listeners, and under that government, “the Italian people were enslaved.” He explained: “In Italy the people had lived so long under the corrupt rule of Mussolini that, in spite of the tinsel at the top—you have seen the pictures of him—their economic condition had grown steadily worse. Our troops have found starvation, malnutrition, disease, a deteriorating education and lowered public health—all by-products of the Fascist misrule.” FDR continued: “We and the British will do and are doing everything we can to bring them relief. Anticipating the fall of Rome, we made preparations to ship food supplies to the city…we have already begun to save the lives of the men, women and children of Rome…. This, I think, is an example of the magnificent ability and energy of the American people in growing the crops, building the merchant ships, in making and collecting the cargoes, in getting the supplies over thousands of miles of water, and thinking ahead to meet emergencies—all this spells, I think, an amazing efficiency on the part of our armed forces, all the various agencies working with them, and American industry and labor as a whole.” “No great effort like this can be a hundred percent perfect,” he said, “but the batting average is very, very high.” That speech highlighting logistics as a key difference between democracy and fascism comes to mind these days as we watch democracy and authoritarianism clash in Ukraine. A report last month by Washington, D.C., nonprofit Freedom House, which studies democracy, political freedom, and human rights, painted a bleak picture. “Global freedom faces a dire threat,” authors Sarah Repucci and Amy Slipowitz wrote. “Around the world, the enemies of liberal democracy—a form of self-government in which human rights are recognized and every individual is entitled to equal treatment under law—are accelerating their attacks.” In 2019, Russian president Vladimir Putin told the Financial Times that the ideology of liberalism on which democracy is based has “outlived its purpose.” Multiculturalism, freedom, and human rights must give way to “the culture, traditions, and traditional family values of millions of people making up the core population.” Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has been open about his determination to replace western-style democracy with what he has, on different occasions, called “illiberal democracy,” or “Christian democracy,” ending the immigration that he believes undermines Hungarian culture and rejecting “adaptable family models” with “the Christian family model.” According to President Joe Biden, Chinese president Xi Jinping believes that autocracies are “the wave of the future—democracy can’t function in an ever complex world.” Freedom House documents that for sixteen years, global freedom has declined. Authoritarians are undermining basic liberties, abusing power, and violating human rights, and their growing global influence is shifting global incentives toward autocratic governments and away from democracy, “jeopardizing the consensus that democracy is the only viable path to prosperity and security, while encouraging more authoritarian approaches to governance.” Over the past year, 60 countries became less free, while only 25 improved. “They’re going to write about this point in history,” Biden told a group of news anchors in April 2021, shortly after he took office. “Not about any of us in here, but about whether or not democracy can function in the 21st century…. Things are changing so rapidly in the world, in science and technology and a whole range of other issues, that—the question is: In a democracy that's such a genius as ours, can you get consensus in the timeframe that can compete with autocracy?” The last few weeks have demonstrated the same advantage of democracy over authoritarianism that FDR saw in the fall of Rome. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was supposed to demonstrate the efficient juggernaut of authoritarianism. But Putin’s lightning attack on a neighboring state did not go as planned. Ukrainians have insisted on their right to self-determination, demonstrating the power of democracy with their lives. At the same time, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown the weakness of modern authoritarianism. Putin expected to overrun a democratic neighbor quickly, but his failure to do so has revealed that his army’s perceived power was FDR’s “tinsel at the top”: lots of bells and whistles but outdated food, a lack of support vehicles, conscripted and confused soldiers, and compromised communications. The corruption inherent in a one-party state of loyalists, unafflicted by oversight, has hollowed out the Russian military, making it unable to feed or supply its troops. That authoritarian government, it turns out, depended on democracies. As businesses pull out of Russia, the economy has collapsed. The ruble is worth less than a penny, and the Russian stock market remains closed. Today, the Russian economic ministry announced it would take the property of businesses leaving the country. Notably, it claimed the right to take about $10 billion of jets that had been leased to Russian airlines, quite possibly a way to get spare parts for the airplanes the huge country needs and can no longer get. Putin is trying to prop up his power by insisting his people believe lies: on Friday, he signed a law making it a crime for media to produce any coverage the government says is “false information” about the invasion. He is now pushing the false claim that the U.S. is developing biological weapons in Ukraine, and has requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council tomorrow to discuss this issue. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby called the story “classic Russian propaganda.” In contrast, democracies and allies, marshaled into a unified force in large part by Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the U.S. State Department, have done the boring, complicated, hard work of logistics, diplomacy, and intelligence, a combination that has crushed the Russian economy and is enabling the Ukrainian army to hold off an army 8 times its size. While there is a horrific humanitarian crisis inside Ukraine, those over the borders have managed the extraordinary logistics of processing and moving 2 million refugees from Ukraine in two weeks. In 1944, FDR pointed out that democratic government was messy but it freed its people to work and think and fight in ways that authoritarian governments could not. In Fireside Chat 29, he warned his listeners not to read too much into the fall of Rome, because fascism had “not yet been driven to the point where [it] will be unable to recommence world conquest a generation hence…. Therefore, the victory still lies some distance ahead.” But, he added, “That distance will be covered in due time—have no fear of that.” —- Notes: https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/june-5-1944-fireside-chat-29-fall-rome https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/28/politics/china-us-democracy-autocracy/index.html https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/FIW_2022_PDF_Booklet_Digital_Final_Web.pdf https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48795764 https://thehill.com/policy/international/544970-biden-warns-chinas-xi-sees-autocracy-as-wave-of-the-future https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/world/europe/russia-ukraine-media.html https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/10/russia-plans-to-seize-assets-of-western-companies-exiting-country https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-demands-us-explain-biological-programme-ukraine-2022-03-09/
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We close out this weekly edition of our "Virtual Route 66" with this courtesy the team at the Daily Stoic:
We spend so much time on stuff that doesn’t matter, that we don’t even like. Maybe it’s a job or a commute to that job. Maybe it’s doom scrolling on our phone, answering emails. Maybe it’s arguing with a spouse, maybe it’s arguing with strangers on the internet. You know the kind of stuff that you just kinda get sucked into. You hate it but you let it fill up so much of your life. Marcus Aurelius, frustrated with some obnoxious thing that was consuming his days, once asked himself. “You’re afraid of death,” he said, “because you won’t be able to do this anymore?” That’s the thing about memento mori. It’s so clarifying. If you had unlimited time, maybe you wouldn’t mind spending two hours a day in traffic. Maybe you wouldn’t need to steer clear of the cesspool of Twitter or the endlessness of your inbox. If suddenly death was real to you--if you were given a few months or years to live--what would you immediately spend less time doing? What would the “this” that Marcus Aurelius referred to that you would cut out? Well cut that thing out now, not later. Because death is real. You do not have unlimited time. None of us do. Which is why we have to get serious now.
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