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GZERO 2023 music playlist
It was a bumpy year, so bump and groove your way into the New Year with our 2023 playlist! We scoured the charts from Buenos Aires to Beijing for songs that captured the zeitgeist, from Ice Spice to Fela Kuti — and make you wanna boogie.
Playlist tracks
Inflation - “Expensive shit” by Fela Kuti
French protests – “Paris is a bitch” by Biga*Ranx
West African coups - “Soldier Take Over” by Yellowman
Milei elected - “Desesperada” by Sara Hebe
European migration - “Desaparecido” by Manu Chao
Politics in general - “Liar’s Dub” by Max Romeo
Climate change failure - “Sogno otro mundo” by Apres la classe and Manu Chao
Struggle between Mexico government and drug cartels - “La People” by Peso Pluma
Nigerian election - “I Told Them” by Burna Boy
Xi Jinping wins historic third term as Chinese president - “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat
25th anniversary of Good Friday agreement - “Jackie Down the Line” by Fontaines DC
War in Ukraine - “Heart of Steel” by Tvorchi
Power Barbie - “Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice
George Santos - “Banned in DC” by Bad Brains
UAW/SAG strikes - “Never Cross a Picket Line” by Billy Bragg
China economic weakness - “Made in China” by Higher Brothers and Famous Dex
Ukraine - “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush
Rise of AI - “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1” by The Flaming Lips
Colombia’s new drug policy – “Don’t Sniff Coke” by Pato Banton
US telling on India for killing Hardeep Singh Nijjar – “Exposing me Remix” by FBG Duck
Elon Musk unravels – “Where Is My Mind?” by Pixies
Chinese spy balloon – “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell
Biden-Xi meeting – "Bad Idea Right" by Olivia Rodrigo
The Black Sea grain deal – "Is It Over Now? (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift
Biden runs for president (again) – “Never Gonna Give You Up” – By Rick Astley
Putin survives Prigozhin revolt -- "Houdini" by Dua Lipa
Putin to Lukashenko – “Lil Boo Thang” by Paul Russell
North Korea fires more missiles for attention – “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling
- A Brazilian hip hop artist who brings his community not just music, but food ›
- 🔊 New Houthi single just dropped 🔊 ›
- Hip-hop artists with geopolitical beats ›
- A world in need of music therapy: Renée Fleming at Davos ›
- 10 images that captured 2023 - GZERO Media ›
- 2023 game changers that weren’t ›
- Top 10 game changers of 2023 ›
2023's biggest winners and losers in global politics
THE WINNERS
Putin
To be fair, things aren’t great for Vladimir Putin – NATO is still stronger, and his economy is weaker than it’d be if he hadn’t invaded Ukraine. But from a low bar, 2023 was a clear winner for the Russian strongman. Ukraine’s vaunted counteroffensive failed to impress, Western attempts to cap the price of Russian oil faltered, and even an insurrection by his warlord-in-chief only seemed to make him stronger. Putin heads into 2024 happily watching the US Congress squabble over further aid for Ukraine, and who knows, next Christmas might just come early for the Kremlin if Donald Trump can win the US election in November.
Trump
Speaking of which, at the top of this year, the twice-impeached Teflon Don looked like he’d be getting fitted for a prison jumpsuit rather than filing campaign papers. But the bevy of state and federal legal cases against him – some of which were hard for non-lawyers to make sense of – only fired up his base. As a result, he’s not only miles ahead of any GOP challengers for the 2024 nomination, some polls also show him outright leading Joe Biden, who has suffered with voters because of perceptions of his age, inflation, a migration crisis at the southern border, and his controversial handling of the Gaza war.
India
This year, India eclipsed China as the world’s most populous country, defended its title as the fastest-growing major economy, and even landed a spacecraft on the moon. At the same time, PM Narendra Modi used his country’s 2023 presidency of the G20 and his deepening ties with the US to position himself as a vitally important diplomatic bridge-builder between the wealthy G7 countries and the developing nations of the so-called Global South. Popular at home, increasingly influential abroad, and with a flag on the moon to boot, Modi – who faces elections in 2024 – has guided his country to a winner of a year.
Nicolás Maduro
It was a feliz 2023 indeed for the strongman of Caracas. Most of the world quietly stopped supporting his erstwhile rival Juan Guaidó (remember him?), and rising global oil prices forced Washington to rethink its financial stranglehold on Caracas, offering oil sanctions relief in exchange only for some spotty promises that Maduro will hold a free and fair presidential election next year (fat chance.) By the end of 2023, an emboldened Maduro was even feeling frisky enough to threaten to invade his neighbor Guyana.
People willing to play Golf in Saudi Arabia
At first, it seemed inconceivable. Surely the whispers about Saudi Arabia offering golfers hundred-million-dollar contracts to defect to the desert were just fairway gossip, right? But Riyadh made it real when the Saudi-backed upstart LIV Golf absorbed the 107-year-old PGA Golf Tour in June. Critics said the Saudis were just “sportswashing” away an awful human rights record, but supporters said it was time to bust the PGA’s stuffy old monopoly. Meanwhile, the greens look even greener as prize money grows, and even the last-place finishers in LIV tournaments can take home $120,000!
THE LOSERS
AI Cassandras
In March, Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence leaders published an open letter warning that AI systems posed “profound risks to society and humanity” and called for a “public and verifiable” six-month pause in “the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”
It didn’t happen. Increasingly complex and powerful AI systems may indeed pose existential dangers for the human race (alongside their tremendous benefits), but a global pause in any form of technological progress – let alone one this pervasive, powerful, or flat-out entertaining – is impossible to enforce. For the Ancient Greeks, it was Cassandra’s fate to be ignored. But wasn’t it also her destiny to be correct? 2024 will be a huge year for AI.
Benjamin Netanyahu
The wily rightwinger returned to power in Israel late 2022 despite his ongoing legal troubles, but it’s been downhill since. All summer, he faced massive protests over his plan to weaken Israel’s courts. Then, the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust occurred on his watch, prompting fierce domestic criticism of the failures of intelligence and strategy that enabled Hamas to attack on Oct. 7. Israeli society broadly supports Bibi’s stated aims of defanging Hamas and bringing home the hostages (two goals that may in fact be in conflict), but a majority of Israelis still want him to resign.
Migrants on the move
This year the political winds began to shift swiftly against migrants and asylum seekers seeking new lives in the world’s leading economies. In the EU, the number of migrants neared levels not seen since the Syrian refugee crisis in 2016, boosting anti-immigrant politicians and forcing the EU to tighten asylum rules in a long-debated migration policy reform. Meanwhile, in the US, record numbers of undocumented migrants crossed the southern border, empowering Republicans in Congress to hold up funding for Ukraine for tighter border policies. Expect tough talk on migration to play well in the EU Parliament elections next June and the US presidential election in November.
Imran Khan
The hugely popular former Pakistani Prime Minister – who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in 2022 – went from looking like he might sweep back to power in elections this year to being locked up in prison, forced to use an AI replica to get his message out. He was imprisoned in August on corruption charges that he and his followers say are bogus, and the elections that were supposed to return him to power were postponed until next year. His legal troubles may keep him off the ballot entirely. Still, he remains an immensely potent force in Pakistani politics, making a 2024 comeback impossible to rule out.
People who opposed coups in Africa
On the heels of coups last year in Mali and Burkina Faso, this year saw governments deposed in both Niger and Gabon. Niger’s democratically-elected government was overthrown by soldiers from the presidential guard in July. Similarly, Gabon military officers seized power in August, unseating the longtime president shortly after he was declared the winner of a contested election. The recent coups come amid a larger trend of increasingly frequent coups in the region – nine over the past three years – which have harmed economic well-being and raised concerns about regional security.
The very biggest losers: Anyone who didn’t subscribe to the GZERO Daily Newsletter
A no-brainer right here. Anyone who wasn’t getting the Daily in 2023 lost out on the best daily dose of global politics that’s out there – delivered right to your inbox with insight, kindness, and humor. The good news is you can still subscribe – sign up here, and you’ll already be a 2024 winner before the year has even begun!
Hard Numbers: Deadly terror attack in Paris, troubled South China Sea waters, migrants in English Channel, COP28 methane plans, twins for 70-year-old mom
3: A 26-year-old French national who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State attacked three people near the Eiffel Tower in Paris late Saturday, killing a German tourist and leaving two others, including a British man, wounded. President Emmanuel Macron called the incident "a terrorist attack."
135: More than 135 Chinese vessels “swarmed” the Julian Felipe reef off the coast of the Philippines in the South China Sea on Sunday. China and the Philippines have been involved in an increasing number of such incidents, as China aggressively asserts its claim to the sea under its so-called nine-dash line.
190: French authorities rescued 190 migrants off the coast of Calais in northern France over the weekend. The migrants were trying to cross the English Channel on dinghies to reach Britain, but authorities did not specify from which country the migrants had originally come.
30: At this week’s COP28 meeting in the UAE, the Biden administration unveiled final rules aimed at reducing the US oil and gas industry’s release of methane to help in the fight against climate change. Nations attending the summit had to detail how they will cut methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.
70:A 70-year-old Ugandan woman has become the oldest woman in Africa to give birth. Safina Namukwaya delivered a boy and a girl on Wednesday by cesarean section after conceiving through IVF. Born at 34 weeks' gestation, the babies are healthy and weigh 2 kilograms each. They were Namukwaya’s second delivery in three years, following the birth of a girl in 2020.The Graphic Truth: Where immigrants to US & Canada come from
When it comes to immigration policies, Canada and the United States often go in opposite directions. Ottawa’s per capita total towers over Washington’s – 1.05 to 0.30 – because it strategically positions immigration as a cornerstone of its economic growth plan. In short, it bolsters the labor force.
But last week, we told you that 44% of Canadians (up from 27% last year) now think that immigration levels are too high, the biggest change in sentiment pollster Environics has seen in more than four decades. While this has prompted a new government cap on newcomers, the cap is high: 500,000 a year.
In stark contrast, US immigration policies are subject to the winds of changing administrations, and immigrants are often cast as a strain on the economy, limiting the number of jobs and resources available for Americans.
So where do most immigrants to the US and Canada come from? India tops the list for Canada, with the number of Indians who have become permanent residents in Canada tripling since 2013. India is No. 2 on the US list, beaten by more than twice as many migrants from Mexico.
We look at the top 10 countries of origin for immigrants to both countries.
Eritrean riot fuels Bibi backlash
Over 150 people were injured, eight seriously, during violent clashes between hundreds of Eritrean migrants in Tel Aviv, Israel, over the weekend. Protesters breached police barriers, smashing storefronts, car windows, and an event set-up at the Eritrean embassy. Riot police responded with tear gas and stun grenades, and at least 30 officers were injured in battles with demonstrators. Thirty-nine suspects, including some found to be carrying weapons, tear gas, and an electrical stun gun, were arrested.
The rioters wanted to shut down a celebration of the rule of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, 77, a vicious autocrat who has governed the country since it became independent in 1993. Eritrea, sometimes called “the North Korea of Africa," holds no elections, has no political parties or independent courts, restricts free speech and the press, and compels military service and forced labor. These conditions continue to spur Eritreans to flee; nearly 18,000 now call Israel home, after arriving illegally through Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Even before this weekend’s shocking violence, however, Eritreans in Israel faced limited sympathy. The current government considers them “illegal job migrants,” not refugees. Former Interior Minister Eli Yishai was quoted as saying that he wanted to make their lives “so miserable that they would want to leave.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called them a threat to Israeli national security and “our national identity.”
The violence has now given Netanyahu grounds to act on these sentiments. On Sunday, he announced that 1,000 people supportive of the Eritrean regime would be deported and ordered ministers to draw up a plan to remove all African migrants from Israel. Right-wing politicians have chimed in their support, and Bibi may also use the situation to bolster his much-criticized Supreme Court reforms, since the court had previously stymied government attempts to deport illegal migrants. It looks like Eritreans seeking to escape tyranny back home may become political pawns in their adopted land.
Hard Numbers: Books attacked, Trump trial looms, migrant children drown off Greece, Evergrande crisis deepens, redheads celebrate
2: Donald Trump’s election-interference trial will begin in March 2024, two years earlier than he and his lawyers had requested. The date selected by a federal judge on Monday means the proceedings will begin right smack in the middle of the Republican primaries — and just a day before Super Tuesday. Trump still holds a commanding lead in the race to be the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee, but others are gaining a little ground.
4: Four migrant children drowned off the Greek coast on Monday while trying to cross the Aegean Sea from neighboring Turkey in a boat. The dead ranged in age from 11 months to 8 years. Some 12,000 migrants have arrived in Greece by sea this year — in July, hundreds died when a boat capsized.
2 billion: Chinese real estate firm Evergrande, AKA the world’s “most indebted property firm,” lost more than $2 billion in market cap on Monday amid ongoing concern about its ability to pay back its loans. The firm’s fate is intricately tied to broader concerns about China’s economy, which has relied heavily on property investment to boost growth in recent years. See our explainer here.
5,000: Ginger banger alert! Some 5,000 redheads gathered in the Netherlands for the annual Redhead Days Festival, which celebrates pheomelanin pride. Only about 2% of the world’s population has natural red hair.
Hard Numbers: Trump’s bond, Saudis target Ethiopian migrants, missing in Maui, Ecuadorians’ pro-Amazon vote
200,000: Former President Donald Trump's bond in Georgia has been set at $200,000 ahead of a Friday deadline to turn himself in. As part of his release conditions, Trump, who is reportedly set to surrender for processing on Thursday, is banned from using social media to intimidate witnesses.
750,000: Saudi border guards have reportedly opened fire and launched explosives at Ethiopian migrants fleeing their country’s civil war in recent years, killing hundreds as they tried crossing into Saudi Arabia from Yemen, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. Some 750,000 Ethiopians now live in Saudi Arabia, the majority of them unauthorized.
850: That’s the number of missing people in Maui, Hawaii, following last week’s devastating wildfires. While 850 is far lower than the earlier estimates, which were closer to 2,000, officials are asking locals to give DNA samples to help with the sluggish victim recovery effort.
59: Ecuadorian voters failed to deliver a decisive win to any of the country’s presidential candidates on Sunday, paving the way for a runoff vote in October. But there was a clear win for the Amazon with 59% voting in favor of a referendum to reject all oil exploration in Yasuni National Park.
A Greek migrant tragedy
At least 79 people died on Wednesday when a boat carrying migrants sank in the Aegean Sea off the Greek coast, marking the deadliest tragedy since the 2015 migrant crisis. The boat, which reportedly originated in Libya and was heading to Italy, was carrying Pakistani, Syrian, and Egyptian nationals.
The Greek Coast Guard said it had been made aware of the vessel’s unusual movements the day before the accident, but that the boat had rebuffed offers of help. For now, details on what Greek authorities knew – and when – remain murky, but what is clear is that the Greek government has taken a hardline stance against asylum-seekers departing from Northern Africa and seeking to reach the European Union via the Mediterranean.
In fact, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his New Democracy Party won 40% of the vote in last month’s election in large part due to its tough-on-migrant stance.
The European Union has long struggled to implement an effective bloc-wide migration policy and has been reluctant to pick fights with the Greek Coast Guard because it relies on Greece, and other coastal nations, to guard EU borders.
What’s more, this tough-on-migration approach appears to resonate with European voters in many EU states (think Italy, Hungary, and Germany) and so many governments remain committed to employing cynical tactics to keep migrants out.
But migrants fleeing economic collapse and political implosion in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa continue to view a dangerous boat ride across the Mediterranean as a risk worth taking. That explains why 2023 has seen some of the highest asylum-seeker rates in Europe in years.