Originally published by Ian Bremmer on LinkedIn: This Week's #Winners and #Losers
Back with my #winners and #losers for the week.
The Gorilla in the Room
Winner: The Internet—what would the average person with no zoo-keeping experience whatsoever do in a zoo-related emergency? Thanks to the internet, we now know.
Loser: Gorillas—Lots of 4-year olds. Not that many gorillas. #Scarcity
The Speech
Winner: The #NeverTrump movement—with Hillary Clinton onboard, it may finally get some traction.
Loser: Hillary Campaign Messaging—way, way too early for her to start playing the “lesser of two evils” card. That's should be a last ditch effort, not a campaign theme.
Food Fights
Winner: Bakers in Germany— far-left German MP hit with chocolate cake over her call to limit refugees into the country. No word if it was a German chocolate cake, which would have been deliciously ironic.
Loser: Vegans in Georgia—restaurant patrons in Tbilisi were attacked by ‘sausage-wielding nationalists’ bent on destroying the vegan way of life. #FirstTheyCameForTheVegans
Tech and Saudi Arabia
Winner: Uber—Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund invested an astonishing $3.5 billion in the ride hailing company. Trying to nip that whole “no women drivers” thing in the bud.
Loser: Saudis Stealing WiFi—A Saudi scholar and member of the Saudi king’s religious advisers issued a fatwa against stealing people’s WiFi. Of all the problem’s facing Saudi Arabia, doesn’t really feel that this one should be top of the list.
The Swiss
Winner: Swiss Engineers—unveil the world’s longest train tunnel cutting through the Swiss Alps, an engineering marvel that will significantly cut down transit times in one of Europe’s busiest transport corridors.
Loser: Swiss Hospitality—the town of Oberwil-Lieli paid $290,000 so it wouldn’t have to accept 10 refugees as neighbors. #TheseBrothersCanSpareALotMoreThanADime
Bothering Erdogan
Winner: Germany—its parliament adopted the symbolic resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide by Ottoman Turks, predictably angering Turkish President Erdogan. #StillTheRightThingToDo
Loser: Turkish Beauty Queens—2006 National Beauty Pageant winner Merve Buyuksarac was handed a 14-month suspended sentence by a Turkish court for posting an insulting poem about Erdogan on Instagram. #BeautyANDBrains
Foreign Endorsements
Winner: Kim Jong Un—endorses Donald Trump for President. Kim knows that if there is one world leader which makes him look relatively sane in comparison...
Loser: Nicolas Maduro—endorses his “revolutionary friend” Bernie Sanders for President. Seeing as he’s on the verge of being kicked out of office himself, Maduro should probably cool it with the “revolutionary” talk.
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.