View this email in your browser Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good.   January 16, 2019 Brexit Hangover The deal is dead, but Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a no-confidence vote spurred by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. One bit of consensus has emerged, however, in that no one seems to support a "no-deal" Brexit, as The Guardian reports a "clear majority against this happening." May's only way forward is to abandon her fellow partisans, writes Financial Times editorial board director Philip Stephens: A good solution "means [May] leaving behind the kamikaze Brexiters in order to test cross-party support for continued membership of the EU customs union and of the single market."   Raqqa's Fragile Awakening An ISIS attack that killed four Americans in Manbij, Syria, on Wednesday has rekindled news about America's presence in the country, amid questions about President Trump's exit and his broader Middle East strategy. But Raqqa, the erstwhile Islamic State capital, has experienced a fragile revival, journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon writes in Foreign Affairs: Amid the wreckage, she found in Raqqa "the hum of a new normalcy, buzzing with shops, restaurants, and now traffic. That normalcy is perhaps the city's most remarkable sight. Its loss terrifies a populace that built it on the back of the fight against ISIS. And it hangs in the balance as facts on the ground in Washington shape facts on the ground in Syria." A "nearly invisible" U.S. presence "has produced real results"—and a hasty withdrawal, including by Kurdish forces threatened by Turkey in America's absence, could endanger the people Lemmon spoke with: "Everyone knows the moment is precarious. You can feel it moving around the city: everything is okay until it isn't." Facebook Looks Abroad Facebook is playing an increasingly important role in global politics, as the spread of disinformation—and in some cases, violence—have been tracked to the platform in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Mexico. A recent New York Times story detailed the sometimes fumbling efforts of moderators to enforce community standards around the world, where politics and language are nuanced. The platform tightened its controls on political advertising in the US, in response to scrutiny following 2016 election interference—for instance, requiring advertisers to verify they're domestic, requiring payer disclosure, and making ads searchable—and it's rolling out similar controls in India, Nigeria, Ukraine, and the European Union ahead of upcoming votes, the company told Reuters. One question this raises is: As Facebook becomes increasingly central to the spread of information, the conduct of debate, and political advertising, will the new policies work, and can the company keep up with the scale of its own role in global democracy? And can other platforms and services, like WhatsApp, do anything to ensure they're playing healthy roles in elections worldwide? China's Weaponry on the Rise Maritime expansionism, trade, and overseas infrastructure deals have dominated analysis of China's growing role in the world, but a US Defense Intelligence Agency report concludes that China is making progress in advanced weaponry, noting its ongoing development of an aircraft carrier, a probable nuclear-capable bomber prototype, stealth bombers expected to be operational no sooner than 20205, and the development hypersonic weapons. Defense News reports, noting that "a senior defense intelligence official called the idea that Beijing might soon trust its military capabilities well enough to invade Taiwan 'the most concerning' conclusion from the report."   What the Shutdown Says About Trumpism The US government shutdown might just be a domestic stalemate over the imperatives of those involved—Trump's promised wall; House Democrats' electoral mandate—but it also might be about more than that. Slate's Leon Krauze writes that "while Trump's current [shutdown] gamble appears doomed, his longer nativist con faces better odds." Quinnipiac polling shows support for Trump's border wall rising nine percentage points over the last year (from 34% to 43%), with 88% of Republicans supporting it, and Krauze argues that the "prolonged success of Donald Trump's nativist message among Republican voters and the way his manic insistence on the wall has apparently made noticeable inroads among the general public need to be taken seriously," pointing out that immigration remains the top concern among GOP poll respondents. In other words, while the shutdown appears stuck, nativist politics are succeeding under the radar. Partisan division over the shutdown has increased, Pew finds—and division over a wall on its own merits have widened steadily since 2016. Share Tweet Fwd unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences  Copyright © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc. 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