DECODING TRANS-ATLANTIC RELATIONS MORE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT FALLOUT: The White House put out a statement at 8:27 p.m. Tuesday announcing a "US-EU Task Force on the Inflation Reduction Act." Why would there need to be a trans-Atlantic task force around a recently passed piece of U.S. legislation? The White House claims the task force is about "promoting deeper understanding of the law's meaningful progress on lowering costs for families, our shared climate goals, and opportunities and concerns for EU producers." My colleague Jakob Hanke Vela writes in that the task force is really a venue for European car industry voices (often German) to air complaints about the "Buy American" provisions for electric cars in the act. European automakers think the provisions are illegal under WTO rules, and are "furious," he said: The "EU has been discussing for months how to hit back. They don't want to rock the boat but clearly have had no success in addressing this via the Transatlantic Trade and Technology Council." THIRD TIME LUCKY FOR BRITS: Britains are onto their third leader this year, with Rishi Sunak. Still, you'd think President Joe Biden would get his name right. It's Rish-i Soo-nak, not Rashee Sa-nook — watch the video of Biden mangling his new buddy's name. In a readout of their first call, Biden underscored "their desire to further enhance cooperation on issues critical to global security and prosperity." The red flag for London: One-third of the 114-word White House readout was dedicated to warning Sunak not to mess with the Irish border. Italy's new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni got a 77-word statement, focused on expressing the pair's "readiness to work together within the transatlantic alliance." More about Rishi Sunak's first 100 days : A lot of it will be spent trying to clean up messes he helped to create . Did you know: The last time a British Prime Minister was both elected by voters and thrown out by them was Ted Heath, in 1974. PROGRESS, EUROPE-STYLE: In the space of 48 hours, one European female prime minister announced her intention to leave (Liz Truss ) and another arrived in office (Meloni). Not only that: "The UK now has a Hindu prime minister of Indian descent and a Muslim mayor of London of Pakistani descent," noted MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan. An Obama-style moment? Sunak's appointment is ground-breaking — he's a member of a racial minority running the government of his family's former colonizer. In Britain voters are spending less time on that point, than they are processing the rest of his background: Sunak and his wife have a net worth of more than $800 million . NEW EUROPEAN MINISTERS TO CARE ABOUT For all the upheaval in Britain and Italy, there are a lot of familiar faces coming back to the respective cabinet tables in each country. Here's your cheat sheet: In Britain, the big promotion went to Oliver Dowden , who will now run the Cabinet Office — the department that includes Downing Street operations. Otherwise, every major portfolio is in the hands of someone who was doing the job either one week or seven weeks ago. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt — appointed just 12 days ago under Truss — is the market-stabilizing ballast in the new government. In Rome, Meloni has deliberately attempted to head off criticisms that she is too radical in her first appointments. Giancarlo Giorgetti, a relatively moderate member of the far-right League party, is the economy minister , but was Meloni's second choice for the role. European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta turned her down. The interior ministry — in charge of immigration — goes to Matteo Piantedosi, a career civil servant with no party affiliation, though he was indicted in 2019, accused of helping Matteo Salvini kidnap refugees by refusing to allow disembarkation of passengers on boat attempting to illegally land in Italy. The defense ministry is now with a close ally of Meloni, Guido Crosetto, who led Italy's defense industry association for the past eight years. The most interesting choice is Antonio Tajani as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. He ticks the box of a safe pair of hands: He spent 25 years in Brussels as a member of the European Parliament, as a European Commissioner in the EU executive, and was eventually elected president of the Parliament. He's in line with Meloni on key issues, like China relations, having warned in 2017 that Africa risks " becoming a Chinese colony ." His quirkiest view is advocating a return to monarchy in Italy, but most importantly he's a long-time ally of Silvio Berlusconi (he was the former PM's spokesperson in the 1990s). Tajani's Brussels reputation is mixed: as an amiable, but far from intellectual, playboy. He was passionate about pet projects (often tourism or sports-related) but wasn't about to threaten anyone with a real strategy. When Global Insider cast around for reactions to this appointment, the feedback was similarly mixed. "His first phone call upon entering the Italian MFA was to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba. Huge plus," said a Lithuanian government spokesperson. "There was a saying in the EP at the time: 'If Tajani becomes president, anything's possible.' The Brussels version of Liz Truss failing upwards," said Blaise Baquiche, a U.K. Liberal Democrat politician. QUOTABLE "The first truly global energy crisis": That's how Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, described natural gas and oil markets today and into 2023 on Tuesday . Counterpoint: A mild fall in much of the northern hemisphere has allowed EU governments to reach 92 percent of gas storage capacity . ETHIOPIA — HEADING TOWARDS GENOCIDE IN TIGRAY: As peace talks start in South Africa , expected to run through Sunday, it's worth pausing to remember the humanitarian toll of Ethiopia's civil war. For all the attention heaped on Russia's war in Ukraine — because of the nuclear risks and global power effects — the human impact pales compared to the six million people in Tigray facing a healthcare crisis, which comes on top of 600,000 people killed in civil war in recent years, many of them civilians killed in deliberate attacks. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , who is from Tigray, also offers penetrating analysis of the civilian impacts of the war. He said Oct. 19 that there's a " very narrow window now to prevent genocide ." The BBC is often the source of the best Western reporting on the conflict: from the discovery of mass graves to animals scavenging corpses . CHINA CORNER BEIJING SECRETLY OPENED POLICE STATION IN NETHERLANDS: "The Chinese police have opened at least two offices in the Netherlands since 2018, without informing the Dutch government. That's illegal," reported RTL. Dutch authorities are now investigating a system of "overseas service stations" which officially exist to allow Chinese citizens to update their civil status (births, marriages, renew drivers license etc), but which in practice have also be used to intimidate Chinese critics of Beijing . Spy chief elevated: Chen Wenqing, minister for state security, is now a member of the Communist Party's 25-member politburo (a broader group than the seven-member politburo standing committee mentioned in Monday's Global Insider ). He's the first Chinese spy chief to sit on the party's top decision-making committee. CHINA'S WEALTHY HAVE A TARGET ON THEIR BACK: It's no secret that China's upper middle class and upper class have been shifting money out of the country for years, despite capital controls. You only need to talk to a Vancouver or Sydney real estate broker to figure that out. Now, President Xi Jinping is promising to "protect lawful income, adjust excessive income, and prohibit illicit income." It's vague, and that's the source of worry , per the South China Morning Post. China currently does not have either an inheritance or wealth tax, while a property tax plan has been discussed since last year as part of the common prosperity campaign. U.S. — SAUDI FRACTURING: President Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman really don't like each other . WSJ's Stephen Kalin, Summer Said and Dion Nissenbaum have a fascinating story detailing how Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman privately mocks Biden's mental abilities. TREND CORNER IRAN — IT'S RAINING SANCTIONS: Watch out for more U.S. sanctions this week. Iran meanwhile announced counter sanctions today against EU officials, after the EU launched its own sanctions against members of Iran's morality police Oct. 17. TRENDING — TRIDEMIC: A fear from doctors bracing for the possibility that respiratory syncytial virus, flu and Covid infections will combine to overwhelm hospitals in coming weeks. Reality check: These conditions will continue to co-exist, and it's not a new fear — it's a repeat of 2021 fears. The best way to manage the risk is prevention, a.k.a. vaccination, which exists for Covid and flu. COP27 INFO VIDEOS: When Global Insider went to log into online banking Monday, a website takeover stood between your host and his money. " COP27: Why it's important to watch ," the banner shouted. TECH CORNER CRYPTO GETS ANOTHER NEW POWERFUL CHAMPION: Rishi Sunak is now the most influential world leader to publicly embrace blockchain technology to remake financial markets. The Goldman Sachs and hedge fund alum is keen for London to have the crypto competitive edge against other financial centers. But he faces skepticism from two angles. First, from crypto pioneers: "I would be very careful when a politician says they are 'crypto-friendly,'" said Alex Gladstein , chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation and a Bitcoin advocate. "This is usually code for wanting to control, censor, constrict and regulate use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency," he said. "A wolf dressed in sheep's clothing," opined Bitcoin investor Preston Pysh . It's true that Sunak has worked with G-7 financial authorities on developing central bank digital currencies, a kind of crypto-adjacent digital asset which is anathema to many crypto die-hards. Others note that Britain already has a reputation as a money laundering capital, and as a place to park ill-gotten gains. There are questions about whether the U.K. can do a better job regulating crypto . Bottom line: Sunak has bigger priorities than crypto right now. But any London maneuvers to create a more friendly crypto environment will increase pressure on Washington not to let the U.S. fall behind. REALITY CHECK — TECH STOCKS ARE DOWN, SO WHAT? There's a lot of headline angst this week about big tech companies , including Alphabet, missing their quarterly targets or performing below market expectations. In many ways this is predictable: — Advertising-supported media outlets have struggled for years. Digital platforms that failed to diversify their income sources away from advertising were not going to outrun that trend forever. — The privacy concerns at the center of the ad issues have been rising for years. Consumers blocking ads and regulators limiting them is not a good place for platforms to be in. — We're in a recessionary environment. The stock dips (60 to 80 percent for some big companies) are painful, especially for staff who depend on cashing stocks for much of their income. Is it surprising? No. CONGRESS MEETS WORLD OOPS — PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS RETRACTS UKRAINE LETTER: In Monday's Global Insider we examined the way the U.S. may be underinvesting in diplomacy — but progressive Democrats showed this week that sometimes it's possible to overinvest in diplomacy . Including when the facts change in a war, making a mockery of efforts to nudge allies into peace talks. Will this hurt Democrats with voters? For now, this is a very Washington-centric drama. But it hurts Democrats' ability to claim unity and the moral high ground on Ukraine, just when Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, likely the next speaker of the House if his party claims the majority next month, gave them that opportunity by suggesting a GOP-led House might not continue funding Ukraine's defense. DOWN UNDER DELEGATION: What's Aussie for cybersecurity? Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Angus King (I-Maine) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), all members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, have been in Sydney and Canberra (with a habit of appearing in all-male photos). The Australian PM Anthony Albanese promises that Ambassador Caroline Kennedy really was in the room .
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