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   July 8, 2019 Who's Treating Migrants Worse: America or Europe? Amid heated domestic debate about the Trump administration's treatment of immigrants and asylum-seekers on America's southern border, the head of Der Spiegel's foreign desk, Mathieu von Rohr, argues in an editorial that Europe is treating migrants worse. After a charity-run ship docked in Italy against the government's wishes and its captain was arrested, and after reports that thousands of migrants remain in camps run by Libyan militias, von Rohr calls Europe's migrant response "shameful" and writes that EU governments have "outsourced the horrors and washed their hands of any guilt." Xi's Hong Kong Dilemma Hong Kong's protests have posed "the biggest challenge to the Chinese Communist party since the Tiananmen uprising of 1989," Gideon Rachman writes in a Financial Times column. The risks for President Xi Jinping are that dissent could spread to the mainland and that if he makes concessions, they could set a precedent for the rest of China, Rachman writes. At the same time, the protests are large enough that they could be difficult to repress with sheer force: As Rachman bluntly puts it, "[y]ou cannot shoot a million people." And cracking down would cost Beijing in global standing, Ian Buruma argues at Project Syndicate, writing that China "does aspire to a certain degree of respectability in the world. Sending tanks to crush protests in Hong Kong would make China look very bad—though this does not mean that the government would not do so, if it saw no other way." Is US-Iran Diplomacy Possible? Many observers have called for the US and Iran to deescalate tensions and start negotiating, but whether that's possible remains an open question. Former Iran nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian argues at The Guardian that by sanctioning Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Trump has "has effectively killed off any chance of diplomatic rapprochement so long as he is in office"—and that possible sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would only make things worse. In broader terms, Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams see an opening, writing in The New York Times that each side's demands, theoretically, can be reconciled: "Iran wants its economic sanctions lifted. The United States wants, at the minimum, an assurance that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons. Wisdom dictates that the United States and Iran commit to an agreement that addresses these mutual concerns." As America De-Globalizes, the World Looks Elsewhere While President Trump's protectionism and trade wars have led some to hail the end of globalization, Foreign Policy's Keith Johnson argues that while America turns inward, the rest of the world is open for business. "In reality," he writes, "outside of the United States, most other countries are racing to tear down barriers and embrace free trade with an urgency not seen in decades." The latest example is Europe's deal with the Mercosur trade bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), which, Anabel González of the Peterson Institute for International Economics wrote, sends "a signal to the world's protectionists that increased economic cooperation and integration can benefit all sides." That said, working around protectionism isn't easy. Vietnam may be one of the biggest winners of the US-China trade standoff, as countries seek to buy its exports, Tom Holland writes in the South China Morning Post—but its currency is now worth more, making its exports less competitive, and a new need for manufacturing equipment threatens to move it into a trade deficit. Even "for neutral countries that stand to come out on top, trade wars are anything but easy to win," Holland writes. Russia's Growing Middle-East Footprint In the latest episode of the Middle East Institute's "Middle East Focus" podcast, Becca Wasser of the RAND Corporation and Greg Myre of NPR discuss Russia's growing influence in the region. Cannily, President Vladimir Putin has boosted ties with almost all major regional players: Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt all "have a stronger relationship today than they did 10 or 15 years ago with Russia," Myre says. Russia has used economic ties to circumvent American and EU sanctions, "regain its status as a great power," and frustrate US policy, Wasser says. As for what Middle Eastern countries get from partnering with Russia, Wasser says Russia allows them to signal frustrations with allies like the US and hedge against other global powers. Share Tweet Fwd unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences  Copyright © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc. A WarnerMedia Company., All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to CNN newsletters. Our mailing address is: Cable News Network, Inc. A WarnerMedia Company. One CNN Center Atlanta, GA 30303 Add us to your address book What did you like about today's Global Briefing? What did we miss? Let us know what you think: GlobalBriefing@cnn.com Sign up to get updates on your favorite CNN Original Series, special CNN news coverage and other newsletters.​   Sign Up for Fareed's Global Briefing