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Lifeguards on the beach at the Boatyard Beach Club in Bridgetown, Barbados, ensure safety on the turquoise blue sea, on January 7, 2025.
What We’re Watching: Caribbean islands come together, “Gen Z” protests hit Morocco, Afghanistan cut off from the world
Four Caribbean countries go border-free
The Caribbean island nations of Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have launched an EU-style free movement deal, letting citizens live and work across borders without permits. The move aims to curb the Caribbean’s longstanding brain drain of skilled workers who leave for North America and Europe. Critics worry it may mean tougher job competition in some of the countries, but supporters say that if the rollout goes smoothly more Caribbean countries could join, a big step toward binding the region’s economies and cultures more tightly together.
Yet another “Gen Z” protest…
First it was Indonesia, then Nepal, then came Timor-Leste, then it was Peru, and then Madagascar. Now, “Gen Z” protesters are going after the government in Morocco. Hundreds took to the streets of the normally stable North African nation of 37-million people to call for better social services and an end to corruption. They also denounced the amount of money the government has spent on building new soccer stadiums – Morocco is set to co-host the World Cup in 2030. Although GenZ 212, the group that organized the protests, urged demonstrators to stay peaceful, some torched cars and buildings and clashed with police.
Afghanistan goes dark
Afghanistan is entering its third day of a nationwide communications blackout after the Taliban government reportedly slashed more than 99% of the country’s internet and phone services on Monday, halting air travel, business, banking, and much of daily life. Officials cited morality concerns, but rights groups say the move is aimed at isolating Afghans and tightening control. The blackout is particularly difficult for Afghan women: internet access had allowed them to maintain access to the outside world after the Taliban curtailed their freedoms and career opportunities following their 2021 takeover.
In this photo illustration, TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone with the national flags of China and the United States in the background.
What We’re Watching: Trump and Xi’s Friday phone call, EU introduces new Russia sanctions, US plots Afghanistan return
The world’s most powerful pairing talk TikTok and trade
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly discussed how they can keep TikTok online in the United States and whether they can ease trade tensions during a phone call Friday morning, their first since June. The topic of trade is a thorny one, most recently due to disputes over Nvidia chip purchases. As for TikTok, the two superpowers were expected to finalize a deal for the sale of the social media app – a consortium of US firms is set to control the company. If the TikTok deal is completed, it’s possible that Trump and Xi could meet in person during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit being held in South Korea around Halloween.
EU introduces new sanctions on Russia
The European Union rolled out its 19th sanctions package to squeeze Russia’s war chest, pledging to end Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) imports by early 2027, blacklist 560 oil tankers, and target crypto platforms and Chinese firms doing business with Moscow. The package still needs to gain the approval of the 27-member bloc, but is expected to be adopted, and comes as Trump has said he is ready to sanction Russia but only if European nations stop purchasing Russian oil.
Is the US about to return to Afghanistan?
Trump declared Thursday that he wants the US military to regain control of the Bagram air base, a move that would return American troops to Afghanistan four years after withdrawal from the Taliban-held state. The move is all about China: the US has become increasingly wary of Beijing’s growing stockpile of nuclear weapons, and Trump highlighted the base’s proximity to the Asian giant as a reason to take it back. Actually regaining Bagram would require cooperating with the Taliban, a once-hostile foe of Washington. The two sides have been talking, but the noises right now suggest that a return to Bagram won’t be easy.Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner arrives at 10 Downing Street for a weekly Cabinet meeting in London, United Kingdom, on Sept. 2, 2025.
Hard Numbers: UK’s deputy PM resigns, US jobs market stagnates, Another earthquake hits Afghanistan, & More
£40,000: Deputy UK Prime Minister Angela Rayner has resigned from her role after it emerged that she legally avoided £40,000 ($54,000) in stamp duty – the tax incurred on buying a house – when she purchased a second home. Rayner also quit her roles as housing secretary and deputy Labour Party leader, which has prompted a major reshuffle: Foreign Secretary David Lammy replaces Rayner as deputy PM, and also becomes justice secretary. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper replaces Lammy at the helm of the Foreign Office.
22,000: The US economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Further, the rise in nonfarm payroll employment for June and July combined was revised down 21,000. The stagnant labor market will put extra pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at a faster pace.
3: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan Thursday, the third quake to hit the country this week. At least 2,205 people have now died as a result. Rescue efforts remain hampered by landslides and rough terrain, with helicopters delivering aid. The Taliban has appealed for international aid as aftershocks continue to rattle the quake-prone region.
102: At 102, Kokichi Akuzawa became the oldest person to summit Mount Fuji, climbing with family and friends. Akuzawa broke his own record, having set the last one when he scaled Fuji at 96.
370: Rescue workers have now recovered 370 bodies from a remote mountain village in Darfur, per a local leader, after landslides battered this area of western Sudan on Sunday. Meanwhile, aid workers are using donkeys to deliver aid to those who are still living. Heavy rains and floods continue to batter the area.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a press conference at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, in Mihail Kogalniceanu, near Constanta, Romania September 1, 2025.
What We’re Watching: Russia allegedly jams European leader’s plane, Ghana’s president fires the chief justice, Earthquakes devastate Afghanistan
Russia suspected of jamming von der Leyen’s plane
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane lost GPS navigation while approaching Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on Sunday. Pilots circled for an hour before landing manually with paper maps. Officials suspect Russian interference: GPS jamming and spoofing have surged along Europe’s eastern flank since Russia invaded Ukraine, raising fears of a potential air disaster. Brussels sees the incident as part of Moscow’s broader campaign to intimidate EU leaders and test NATO defenses. US President Donald Trump has not yet responded to the aggressive move against the EU’s leader.
Ghana’s chief justice fired in rare presidential move
Ghanaian President John Mahama has dismissed Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo after a commission found evidence of “misbehavior,” including misuse of public funds and interference in judicial appointments. Torkornoo, provisionally suspended since April, denies the claims, saying that they are politically motivated. Torkornoo is the first sitting chief justice in Ghana to be removed from office, a decision critics say threatens judicial independence and gives the executive branch outsized influence over the courts.
Taliban calls for help as earthquake death toll surpasses 1,400
The Taliban said that the death toll from Sunday’s devastating 6.0-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has now reached 1,411, with the United Nations warning that the total number will likely be much higher. The disaster has piled further misery in a country that is still recovering from the 20-year war that only ended in 2021. Making matters worse, another earthquake – this one hitting 5.5 on the Richter Scale – struck the area on Tuesday. The Taliban is calling for international help in what will surely be a test of the bonds they have been quietly building since seizing power four years ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Ukrainian Independence Day, Aug. 24, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Ukraine blocked from using long-range US missiles, Israeli strike on hospital, Taliban gaining legitimacy, & More
190: Ukraine has not been able to fire US-made long-range missiles – which have a range of 190 miles – into Russia, as Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby blocked Kyiv from using these weapons. Colby is a prominent China hawk who sees support for Ukraine as a distraction from challenging Beijing. Earlier this year, he blocked a weapons shipment to Ukraine, before US President Donald Trump overruled him.
20: An Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, per the Hamas-run health ministry. The Israeli Defense Forces said it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals.” Hamas has been known to put its military centers underneath hospitals.
1.3 billion: European and Asian postal services are halting US shipments after Trump revoked the de minimis tariff exemption, which had allowed packages under $800 to enter duty-free. With 1.3 billion parcels shipped under the rule last year, the change threatens global e-commerce, discount retailers, and potentially even personal gift-giving.
15: In a sign that the Taliban is gaining some measure of legitimacy on the global stage, at least 15 countries now have ambassadors in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, including China, Russia, Iran, and several Gulf states. Western countries have yet to embrace the Islamist militant group that now runs Afghanistan, but some are taking steps to engage with them, especially on issues of migration.
92%: Ukraine marked Independence Day with President Volodymyr Zelensky urging perseverance in Kyiv’s Maidan Square, as Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and US special envoy Keith Kellogg visited in solidarity. The holiday marks the day in 1991 when Ukraine’s Parliament voted to reject Soviet rule following a referendum that 92% of Ukrainians voted in favor of.
The global refugee crisis is at breaking point
The global refugee population is at historic highs, driven by war in Ukraine, violence in Sudan, state collapse in Venezuela, Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and a worsening humanitarian disaster in Gaza. On GZERO World, David Miliband, president & CEO of the International Rescue Committee joins Ian Bremmer to discuss the refugee crisis, the rise of forcibly displaced people around the world, and the crumbling humanitarian aid system amid the cancellation of USAID. What happens when the poorest countries are left to solve the hardest problems? And who–if anyone–is stepping up to help?
Miliband says that in 20 countries in crisis, there are more than 275 million people in humanitarian need, people that depend on international aid and organizations like the IRC to survive. There have been some recent positive developments—hundreds of thousands of refugees returning to Syria after the fall of the Assad regime, the potential for progress in the Eastern DRC, new technologies improving aid delivery. Still, Miliband says the world is facing a humanitarian crisis of historic proportions and unless the international community steps up, tens of millions will suffer.
“We face a new abnormal. 10 years ago, there were 50 to 60 million internally displaced people and refugees. Now, there's 120 million,” Miliband says, “The scale of impunity, the loss of international engagement is epic.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube.Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔). GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
A member of the M23 rebel group walks on the outskirts of Matanda in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, March 22, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Civilian killings in the DRC, Musk scraps plans for third party, Swedish church moves to altar-nate site, & More
140: Rwanda-backed rebels killed at least 140 civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in July, per Human Rights Watch, and the number could rise to 300. The two sides had seemed on the path to peace after signing a peace deal in the White House in June, but the killings suggest the conflict is far from settled.
30: Eemeli Peltonen, a 30-year-old Finnish Member of Parliament, passed away in the parliament building yesterday. It appears he died by suicide. The death of Peltonen, who was a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party, has shocked the country. He was one of the youngest politicians in the Finnish government.
79: A bus carrying Afghans who had been expelled from Iran crashed in western Afghanistan yesterday, killing 79 people. It was on its way from the border to the capital Kabul. Iran has deported hundreds of thousands of Afghans this year, in part over unsubstantiated claims that they were spying for the Israelis.
$290 million: So much for that third-party idea: Tesla owner Elon Musk is quietly shelving his own plan to fund a third party in the United States. Musk donated over $290 million to Republican campaigns ahead of the 2024 election, but had threatened to create a new party – and inject it with some of his cash – when Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill. It seems he realized he had a mountain to climb.
672: Talk about a pilgrimage! A 133-year-old church in northern Sweden – all 672 tons of it – completed its two-day relocation today, after shifting three miles down the road in the village of Kiruna. Risk of ground subsidence forced the move – the town’s history of iron ore mining meant the church was no longer on terra firma. To achieve the move, the whole building was placed onto a giant trailer and hauled at a steady pace of roughly 550 yards per hour.British soldiers with NATO-led Resolute Support Mission arrive at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan March 6, 2020.
Hard Numbers: Secret British plan resettles Afghans, More Palestinians die at aid sites, US AIDS relief lives on, robots take the field, & more
19,000: According to a BBC report, the personal details of 19,000 Afghans who had applied to move to the United Kingdom following the 2021 Taliban takeover were leaked in February 2022. The government learned of the data breach in August 2023 and created a secret resettlement scheme for those affected, as it was deemed they were at risk of harm by the Taliban. Under the program, 4,500 Afghans have relocated to the UK.
20: At least 20 Palestinians were killed in a stampede at an aid distribution site operated by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund on Wednesday. The UN says at least 875 people have lost their lives in the past six weeks alone while trying to access aid at these sites, with the majority reportedly gunned down by Israeli security forces. While Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians, it has said it is investigating the incidents.
$400 million: US Republican senators reached a budget deal on Tuesday that will preserve the $400-million President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, which helps to stem the spread of HIV in more than 50 countries and has reportedly saved 26 million lives. President Donald Trump had previously frozen funding for PEPFAR as part of his foreign-aid freeze.
2: A US citizen, Daniel Martindale, who spent more than two years spying on Ukrainian troops for Russia was awarded citizenship by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Martindale reportedly biked from Poland to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022, and surveyed key military positions and facilities from a Ukrainian village near the front line.
4: Our new robot umpire overlords have arrived! Last night’s Major League Baseball All-Star game – a meaningless but fun contest between the sport’s biggest stars – featured a trial system allowing players to appeal to a computerized system to challenge ball-and-strike calls made by human umps. Four out of the five challenges in the game were successful. The system could be introduced in meaningful games at the Major League level as soon as next season. Do we want this?