Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Sign up here. March 6, 2024 | |
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Terrible Times on the Front Lines, With US Aid Held Up |
Ukraine is struggling. Today a Russian missile struck 500 meters from a convoy carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, a source told CNN. At The Washington Post, Siobhán O'Grady and Serhii Korolchuk note Zelensky's difficulty generating consensus, and finalizing policy, on conscripting more troops. With US military aid blocked by congressional Republicans, Olivia Yanchik writes for the Atlantic Council, Zelensky has said the "most important thing is to unblock the sky" with air defenses and jets. Despite improvements, Yanchiik writes, Ukraine "remains highly vulnerable to Russian missile and drone attacks. While Kyiv now has relatively strong air defense coverage, other major cities such as Kharkiv, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia are far less protected and regularly experience deadly bombardments." The head of Ukraine's largest private power provider says his country is at risk of losing the energy war against Moscow, which has targeted Ukrainian power infrastructure, reports the Financial Times' Shotaro Tani. The grimmest picture is that of the front lines. At Der Spiegel, Christoph Reuter reports (with photos by Johanna Maria Fritz and Agentur Ostkreutz) on the misery of trench warfare, as ammunition-poor Ukrainian troops are hounded by Russian drones. "No one here is talking about offensives anymore," Reuter writes from the front lines in the Donbas. "(A)s long as the donor countries are not supplying anywhere near what they are consuming, the Ukrainians are having to ration their artillery shells. … With forced mobilizations and a war economy that mass-produces shells, tanks and drones, 'Russia simply has more of everything now,' says Edward, the company commander. … 'We hardly have any artillery shells left,' Commander Edward explained. 'At the moment, (first-person view) drones are our artillery.' … Tanks and guns worth millions are being destroyed by kamikaze drones that cost only a few hundred dollars. Those drones, in turn, are easiest to shoot down with shotguns of the kind used to hunt pheasants and ducks. This is what the war looks like in Ukraine in February 2024." Describing a recent Russian attack near Bakhmut that killed Ukrainian troops and drove them back from their position, Reuter writes that the commander of a small mortar unit "is so angry that he asks the questions himself: 'Did we expect an attack like this? Of course! Could we have prevented it? Of course, if we had enough artillery ammunition.'" |
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It's the election few seem to want. With Super Tuesday behind us, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are poised to face off again in November. The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Zitner and Annie Linskey remark: "Never has America had to choose between two candidates so old, and never in modern times has the choice been between two so strongly disliked hopefuls who both are essentially running as incumbents, already having established White House track records." More important than the general election, in some ways, is the utter transformation of the Republican Party. Trump's wins on Super Tuesday—and indeed, throughout the primary season—indicate that it's indisputably his party now. As many observers have noted, Trump collected low totals in some of the GOP's state contests, if judged as an incumbent. Nikki Haley, who exited the Republican presidential primary race today, managed to show that in some states, 30%–40% of Republicans (and Republican-primary-voting independents) reject Trump. At the conservative-standard-bearing magazine National Review, Noah Rothman warns against dismissing this dissatisfied contingent. But it's hard to ignore the sweeping changes to the GOP since 2016. The party now features trade protectionism, opposition to aiding Ukraine, and some sympathy for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters. In a detailed editorial, The New York Times marvels at the GOP's takeover by Trump, lamenting that it has become a personality cult, hinging on Trump himself rather than on long-held policies. "In a traditional presidential primary contest, victory signals a democratic mandate, in which the winner enjoys popular legitimacy, conferred by the party's voters, but also accepts that defeated rivals and their competing views have a place within the party," the paper writes. "Mr. Trump no longer does, having used the primary contest as a tool for purging the party of dissent. The Republican candidates who have dropped out of the race have had to either demonstrate their devotion to him or risk being shunned. His last rival, Nikki Haley, is a Republican leader with a conservative track record going back decades who served in Mr. Trump's cabinet in his first term. He has now cast her out. 'She's essentially a Democrat,' the former president said the day before her loss in South Carolina. 'I think she should probably switch parties.'" |
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Prepare for Another 'China Shock?' |
Noting that Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently urged Chinese citizens to buy more new things, Nikkei Asia's Katsuji Nakazawa writes: "China still has an overproduction problem, one that is perhaps more significant than ever now that (domestic) consumption has turned sluggish. The traditional model of exporting surplus goods at low prices while ignoring costs will eventually reach the end of its rope." At The Wall Street Journal, Jason Douglas warns that, as has happened before, the US (and the West, more broadly) could be flooded by inexpensive goods from China. That may sound enticing to anyone sick of high prices, but Douglas writes that US policymakers are scarred by the job-harming effects Chinese manufacturing has had before on US communities, and the West is waiting in a protectionist crouch. "Unlike in the early 2000s," Douglas writes, "the Western world now sees China as its chief economic rival and geopolitical adversary. The EU is considering whether Chinese-made electric vehicles are unfairly subsidized and should be subject to tariffs or other import restrictions. Former President Donald Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for November's presidential election, has floated the idea of hitting imports from China with tariffs of 60% or higher." |
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Sweet, Expensive Chocolate |
As Easter approaches, the Financial Times' Susannah Savage writes that chocolate prices are high and poised to climb higher. The El Niño weather pattern affected yields in Ivory Coast and Ghana, "which together produce around two-thirds of the world's cocoa beans," Savage writes. But "(t)his is not likely to be a temporary situation. While El Niño has catalysed cocoa's price surge and market speculators have exacerbated it by piling into futures, deep-rooted structural issues underpin the production squeeze. From climate change to chronic under-investment, these problems will not be resolved with a change in the season." |
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