What We're Watching: Finally, a trade deal

Trump gets his deal – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that Democrats will back the USMCA, the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Crucially, the bill will also have support from the nation's largest labor union. This is a major political victory for President Trump, who promised he would close this deal, but it's also good for Pelosi: it shows that the Democrats' House majority can still accomplish big things even as it impeaches the president. But with the speed of the Washington news cycle these days, we're watching to see if anyone is still talking about USMCA three days after it's signed.

Read Now Show less

Hard Numbers: A billion people without ID

1.5 million: China said it has "returned to society" some 1.5 million mainly Muslim Uighurs detained in internment camps in Xinjiang. The detainees were released after "graduating" from vocational training, according to Beijing, but increasing international criticism and a string of damning media exposes are believed to have pressured China to release them.

Read Now Show less

Will Articles of Impeachment help Democrats in the 2020 election?

What happens next, now that the Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against Trump?

Well, the Democrats vote almost unanimously, in all likelihood, to impeach Trump with no Republicans on board. And then he's acquitted by the Senate. Probably do get higher turnout from the Dems in 2020 because they're so angry about Trump with the failed impeachment.

Read Now Show less

Why is Amazon suing the Pentagon?

Well, Amazon and Jeff Bezos say that President Trump intervened to block them from getting a giant cloud computing contract with the Pentagon because Trump doesn't like Bezos because he owns The Washington Post. Not sure it will go anywhere. But it does open another avenue into whether Trump abused his office of the presidency.

Read Now Show less

What We're Watching: Macron unfazed

Macron not backing down over pensions – Despite six days of mass unrest that has paralyzed Paris' public transport system and dented both tourism and Christmas retail, the government will stand firm on a proposal to reform and unify the country's 42 different pension plans. France's pension system, one of the most generous of any major industrialized country, has major budget shortfalls that contribute to the country's ballooning deficit. Last year, Macron abandoned a proposed fuel price hike that ignited the Yellow Vest movement. But overhauling France's "welfare state" was central to his 2017 election platform, and acquiescing to protesters this time around would be political suicide. France's prime minister – tapped to lead the pension reform project – is expected to announce the plan's final details tomorrow. We're watching to see how this might escalate things further.

Read Now Show less

Hard Numbers: Finland for the win again

4: The World Anti-Doping Agency handed Russia a four-year ban from all major sporting events, precluding its participation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, and soccer's 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Russia has three weeks to appeal the ban, which its prime minister says is the result of "chronic anti-Russian hysteria."

Read Now Show less

Inequality in American Cities

In the latest episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, we're examining enormous income and quality of life disparities in some of the most liberal, Democratic spots on the U.S. map—major cities. Urbanist and author Richard Florida explains the reasons why large urban areas contain such extremes—the richest and the poorest people often dwelling within blocks of one another. Ian first breaks down the historic trends that at one point pushed the "haves" to the suburbs and the "have nots" into inner city neighborhoods, and how that has reversed over time. Later in the program, GZERO visits the South Bronx, per capita the poorest congressional district in America, and checks in with a nonprofit group making a difference there for people in need. Room to Grow serves families with children ages 0-3, providing them resources and counseling to increase their chances of success. Finally, in Puppet Regime, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has some of his own ideas about urban development.

Most Popular

Latest