Skip to content
Search
Human content, AI powered search.

Latest Stories

What We're Watching

Telegram and X back down

Telegram and X back down

The Telegram logo.

Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash
Alex Kliment
By Alex KlimentSeptember 24, 2024
Alex Kliment
Alex wears a few different caps and tips them all regularly. He writes for the GZERO Daily, works as a field correspondent for GZERO's nationally syndicated TV show GZERO WORLD WITH IAN BREMMER, and writes/directs/voices GZERO's award-winning puppet satire show PUPPET REGIME. Prior to joining GZERO, Alex worked as an analyst covering Russia and broader Emerging Markets for Eurasia Group. He has also written for the Financial Times from Washington, DC, and Sao Paulo Brazil. In his spare time, he makes short films and composes scores for long ones. He studied history and Slavic literature at Columbia and has a Master's from Johns Hopkins SAIS. He's a native New Yorker, a long-suffering Mets fan, and owns too many bicycles.
See Full Bio
Make us preferred on Google

Score this one Nation-States 2, Tech Tycoons 0?

Pavel Durov, the CEO of the messaging app Telegram who was arrested recently in France on charges that his platform facilitated criminal activity and was refusing to help law enforcement investigate, has changed his tune.

After initially claiming it was “absurd” to hold a platform responsible for illicit content, Telegram now says it will share information with law enforcement “in response to valid legal requests.”

The about-face came just days after self-styled “free speech” crusader Elon Musk climbed down in his battle with Brazil. To refresh: Last month, Musk rejected a Brazilian court order for X to deactivate certain disinformation accounts, refused to pay relevant fines, removed X’s local legal rep, and launched a meme war against Brazil’s controversial disinformation czar.

As a result, X was banned outright in the 200-million-strong country, and that seems to have turned the tables. Now, the company is reportedly ready to take down the accounts, reappoint a rep in Brazil, and pay fines.

Depending on your politics, you may see all of this as a victory for the nation-state (nearly undefeated since the Peace of Westphalia, as GZERO’s Matt Kendrick points out) or as a hit to free speech and privacy. What’s your view? Share with us here.

xmusktwitterdurovfrancebraziltelegram

Latest Videos

10 years after Brexit: Is the UK moving closer to the EU again?play icon
GZERO Europe

10 years after Brexit: Is the UK moving closer to the EU again?

Why Europe isn’t falling apart despite political turmoil
ask ian

Why Europe isn’t falling apart despite political turmoil

Josh Shapiro on how Democrats can learn to love AI
GZERO World Clips

Josh Shapiro on how Democrats can learn to love AI

Trump’s ineffective pressure campaign on Iran and China
Quick Take

Trump’s ineffective pressure campaign on Iran and China

What Josh Shapiro wants the Democrats to learn from Pennsylvania
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

What Josh Shapiro wants the Democrats to learn from Pennsylvania

The false Thucydides trap?
GZERO Live

The false Thucydides trap?

More For You

Italy’s Meloni considers early election, Venezuela’s debt is much larger than first thought, EU talks to the Taliban

​Giorgia Meloni in Siracusa, Italy, on September 21, 2024.

Giorgia Meloni at the G7 Agriculture and Fisheries meeting in Siracusa, Italy, on September 21, 2024.

IMAGO/Gruppo LiveMedia via Reuters Connect
Elections on Giorgia’s mindItalian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is reportedly considering early elections, as her popularity dips amid a rising challenge from the far right. Italy must vote by the end of 2027, but Meloni is reportedly eyeing an April date. Meloni, a sharp-tongued right-wing populist, won in 2022 on promises to tighten [...]

Countries and smugglers go for gold, Denmark’s center-left leader backs EU deportation centers, Humans assist AI for its soccer goals

​Egyptian pounds, a gold bar and a necklace are seen during an interview with Mohamed Abdeen, an Egyptian jeweller, in Cairo, Egypt, on February 5, 2026.

Egyptian pounds, a gold bar and a necklace are seen during an interview with Mohamed Abdeen, an Egyptian jeweller, as demand for gold bars and coins rises in Egypt, with buyers seeking a safer store of value amid volatile markets and economic uncertainty, traders and industry officials said, in Cairo, Egypt, on February 5, 2026.

REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Gold bust along the Egypt-Sudan border Egypt said on Monday it arrested more than 200 people along its southern border – most of them foreigners – as part of a crackdown on illegal gold mining and smuggling in the area. The border region is rich in mines: if you know the regional name “Nubia” you’re actually saying the ancient Egyptian word for [...]

UK’s Burnham waits in the wings as Starmer resigns, Colombia’s “El Tigre” set to win, US-Iran talks continue

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer stands with his wife Victoria Starmer after announcing the timeline for his resignation, outside 10 Downing Street, in London, United Kingdom, on June 22, 2026.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer stands with his wife Victoria Starmer after announcing the timeline for his resignation, following Andy Burnham's decisive victory last week in the Makerfield by-election, outside 10 Downing Street, in London, United Kingdom, on June 22, 2026.

REUTERS/Jack Taylor
Starmer resigns, and the UK prepares to turn leftAfter less than two years in office, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday morning that he would resign as Labour Party leader. “I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision,” said a tearful Starmer outside Downing Street, who will exit office by [...]

US-Iran deal isn’t all good for Tehran, Colombians head to polls for presidential runoff, EU takes a page out of the US’s tariff book

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian displays a memorandum of understanding after signing it in Tehran, Iran, on June 18, 2026.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian displays a memorandum of understanding after signing it in Tehran, Iran, on June 18, 2026, after the document was signed by US President Donald Trump.

Iranian Presidency via ZUMA Press
What does the US-Iran deal mean for Tehran? The interim agreement to end the war, signed by both sides on Wednesday, appears to tilt toward Iran: it lifts the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, grants sanction waivers for Iranian oil products – meaning Tehran no longer has to sell oil at a discount – and gives the Islamic Republic access to [...]