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Performers at the Paris 2024 Paralympics opening ceremony on Aug. 28, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Paralympic Games open in Paris, Slovaks re-up their air defenses, Ethiopia’s electrifying news, Mexico’s coalition close to supermajority
6: Slovakia is going to buy six mobile air defense systems from Israel in a deal worth about $600 million. The systems will replace ones that were sent by the previous Slovak government to neighboring Ukraine. The current government has clashed with its NATO allies over the wisdom of supporting Kyiv but has stressed the importance of defensive strength within the alliance.
1,550: Dam, that’s a lot of electricity. Ethiopia says that the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which straddles the Blue Nile and has stoked severe tensions with downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan, is now generating 1,550 megawatts of power, nearly double the output when it first opened in 2022. Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, sees the dam as the cornerstone of its long-term economic development.
1: Mexico’s ruling coalition is now just one seat shy of a supermajority in the Senate after two opposition lawmakers joined the Morena-led coalition of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his incoming successor, Claudia Sheinbaum. A supermajority, or two-thirds control, would permit changes to the constitution, no small issue as the incoming Congress takes up a controversial judicial overhaul that would see the direct election of all justices.
A view shows graves of killed Ukrainian defenders, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a cemetery in Kharkiv, Ukraine January 31, 2023.
Hard Numbers … after a year of war in Ukraine
300,000: Human losses on both sides of the conflict are mounting (and disputed), but there have been a whopping 300,000 military and civilian deaths on both sides, according to high-end estimates.
2.1 & 0.3: Russia’s economy contracted by just 2.1% last year, far less than predicted, due to continued sales of its discounted crude oil and adaptability. The IMF predicts a 0.3% growth rate for Russia this year thanks to high export prices.
51,000 vs. 40,600: Having seized roughly 51,000 square miles of Ukrainian land by late March last year, Russia has since lost roughly one-fifth of that. The Kremlin now controls about 40,600 square miles (17% of Ukraine), entirely in the south and east.
18 & 60: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has decimated the country economically, with roughly 60% of Ukrainians now living below the poverty line, compared to 18% before the war.
35 & 139 billion: Ukraine’s GDP has diminished by 35%, and Russian targeted attacks are slamming the country’s infrastructure, having caused US$139 billion worth of damage (so far). Well over a third of the country is now dependent on humanitarian aid to live.
Up to 1 million: A reported 8,087,952 Ukrainian refugees are now spread across Europe, with close to 5 million seeking temporary asylum. Millions more are displaced within Ukraine. An estimated 500,000 to 1 million Russians have fled their homeland, driven by economic unrest, politics, and military mobilization.
Ian Bremmer: Russia is a rogue state
Does Vladimir Putin have any real friends left?
In a Global Stage livestream conversation, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer says that the Russian president is losing China and India, who are telling him they're worried about the war in Ukraine dragging on. Not even the Kazakhs (!) are on his side anymore.
Russia, he adds, has gone in a few months from being China's most important partner on the global stage to Beijing's junior sidekick, and become a rogue state, like Iran but much worse.
It's not just that Putin has nukes — Russia's cyber and espionage power is now pointed at Europe like it hasn't been since the Soviet Union collapsed 30 years ago.
Watch the full Global Stage livestream from the 77th UN General Assembly here.
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- Russia-Ukraine war: How we got here - GZERO Media ›
- Is the West united against Russia? Sort of. - GZERO Media ›
- China-Russia relationship status: It's complicated - GZERO Media ›
- The limits of a China-Russia partnership - GZERO Media ›
- Ian Bremmer: Global middle class erosion making people hungrier ... ›
- Why is Russia on the UN Security Council? - GZERO Media ›
- Ian Bremmer: A political power vacuum is bad news for the world - GZERO Media ›
- Putin hosts Kim Jong Un at arms summit - GZERO Media ›
Putin's NATO miscalculation
After weeks of military buildup and lies, Russia has attacked Ukraine.
We are watching a worst-case scenario — a full invasion by land, sea, and cyberspace — play out in real time. With diplomacy dead, Western allies are now turning to sanctions.
The mood was somber at the recent Munich Security Conference, where world leaders were scrambling to avoid exactly this outcome.
But the invasion comes with a big unintended consequence for Vladimir Putin: NATO unity.
Russian aggression in Ukraine has brought NATO allies closer together than they've been since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- How to punish Putin - GZERO Media ›
- What We're Watching: Zelensky stays put as EU, US sanction Putin ... ›
- Russian cyber attack could trigger NATO's Article 5, warns NATO ... ›
- US & NATO will draw a hard line on Russian aggression in Ukraine ... ›
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US & NATO will draw a hard line on Russian aggression in Ukraine – Ian Bremmer
In recent years, the US has often shown an “unwillingness” to do much in response to states and non-state actors taking swings at values-based norms, GZERO President Ian Bremmer said recently at the Munich Security Conference. We saw that when the US failed to enforce its "red line" in Syria in 2013, when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, as well as when the military junta stole power in Myanmar a year ago, Bremmer says. So will Ukraine be any different? Bremmer thinks it will: it seems there’s been “a decision by the United States and all of its allies that this line is too far. Enough!”
Bremmer spoke with moderator David Sanger in GZERO Media's Global Stage livestream discussion at the Munich Security Conference.
Russian Eyes On Ukraine
With Ukrainian elections coming up, Russian pressure mounts. On GZERO World, we look at the Ukrainian Conflict and why Ukraine matters to Russia.
- Russian military escalation against Ukraine worries Europe - GZERO Media ›
- Should NATO embrace Ukraine? - GZERO Media ›
- Should NATO embrace Ukraine? - GZERO Media ›
- Russian military escalation against Ukraine worries Europe - GZERO Media ›
- Russia's makes unrealistic proposals as Ukraine buildup continues - GZERO Media ›
- Russia makes unrealistic proposals as Ukraine buildup continues - GZERO Media ›
Ukraine Always Get What You Want
Soon Ukrainians will head to the polls to a pick a president. And Putin is paying attention. Ian will dig into it and then dig a whole lot deeper with former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. And of course, we've got your Puppet Regime.