Originally published by Ian Bremmer on LinkedIn: This Week's #Winners and #Losers
Back with my #winners and #losers for the week.
Turkish Politics
Winner: Recep Tayyip Erdogan—the Turkish president continues to consolidate power after ousting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu this week, paving the way for Erdogan to rewrite the country’s constitution.
Loser: Europe—Europe really needs the refugee deal with Turkey to work out. The departure of the pro-EU Davutoglu, the main negotiator of the EU-Turkey refugee deal, makes that much more difficult now.
Paul Ryan’s Week
Winner: Dealing with Puerto Rico—going against many of his Republican colleagues, the House Speaker announced this week that Congress will find some way to help Puerto Rico, a US territory, restructure its $72 billion debt.
Loser: Dealing with Donald Trump—the House Speaker announced this week that he’s “not ready” to support Donald Trump, which probably won’t endear him to the Republican colleagues he’s pissed off over Puerto Rico.
British Democracy
Winner: Sadiq Khan—the Labour MP is set to become London’s next mayor following this week’s local elections, making him the first Muslim leader of a major Western capital.
Loser: Boaty McBoatface—despite an overwhelming victory in an online poll, the polar research ship will be named after naturalist David Attenborough. As consolation, the name “Boaty McBoatface” will instead grace a drone submarine.
The Cruz-Fiorina Ticket
Winner: Ted Cruz—he may have lost the 2016 GOP battle, but he got out in time to set up his 2020 run once Trump (probably) loses the general election this fall. #LiveToZodiacKillAnotherDay
Loser: Carly Fiorina—clocking in at just 7 days, Fiorina’s VP bid is the shortest in modern American history. Her political future isn’t helped by the fact that she had two failed campaigns in a single primary season.
Dirty Minds
Winner: Brazil—entrepreneurs in the country are pitching an adults-only theme park called ErotikaLand. Even with the government falling apart, Brazilians still know how to have fun.
Loser: China – By order of the Chinese government, Chinese internet users can no longer stream themselves ‘seductively’ eating bananas. #KeepTheInternetWeird
Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group, foreign affairs columnist at TIME and Global Research Professor at New York University. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.