View this email in your browser Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by guest editor Jonah Bader.   December 3, 2018   Macron's Tipping Point Emmanuel Macron's presidency reached a "tipping point" this weekend, after anti-government protests that were "more virulent than anything we've seen in France since 1968," writes Jérôme Fenoglio in Le Monde, according to a translation by CNN. Macron faces "a deeply rooted crisis for which he bears very partial responsibility," Fenoglio writes. The "failure of successive governments has allowed anger to prosper," as feelings of "fiscal and social injustice" fester. "All the principles that made candidate Macron's campaign successful have boomeranged and made apparent the fragility of the president," Fenoglio argues. "The commando operation of back then is now a man on his own, with only a handful of loyalists placed in key positions. The blank slate on which reforms were to be written has become a deserted scene that the presidential party is unable to fill."   A Victory in the New Opium War Although Trump is touting the "incredible deal" on trade that he struck with Xi Jinping this weekend, it's unclear if the vague deal represents a true breakthrough. Yet Trump does appear to have won a concrete victory on drugs – getting China to classify fentanyl as a "controlled substance," which should lead to a crackdown on exports.  Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are now responsible for 41% of overdose deaths in the US, and American officials believe China is the leading source. "Beijing has been tardy in acting on its role in the fentanyl crisis," writes Shuli Ren for Bloomberg. "But if it now moves quickly, President Xi Jinping will have plucked some very low-hanging fruit in his bid to improve relations with Washington." "America now has its own opium war, and China is coming to its rescue." Mohammed bin Pac-Man An exclusive CNN report sheds new light on Riyadh's possible motivation in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A former court insider, Khashoggi had come to believe that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was a dangerous, power-hungry leader. "He is like a beast 'pac man,'" Khashoggi wrote to Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi activist living in exile. "[T]he more victims he eats, the more he wants." Researchers at the University of Toronto believe the Saudi government was spying on conversations between the activists, which contained much more than insults. "Khashoggi and Abdulaziz conceived plans to form an electronic army to engage young Saudis back home and debunk state propaganda on social media, leveraging Khashoggi's establishment profile and the 27-year-old Abdulaziz's 340,000-strong Twitter following," CNN reports. "The pair's scheme involved two key elements that Saudi Arabia might well have viewed as hostile acts. The first involved sending foreign SIM cards to dissidents back home so they could tweet without being traced. The second was money."   Dear Prudence "As the world order shifted dramatically, George H. W. Bush steered the ship of state with experience, expertise, and—though it launched a million gibes—prudence," writes Richard Fontaine in The Atlantic. "Bush aimed not to force into existence a better world, but to adapt to and shape circumstances for America's advantage. He sought not to roll geopolitical dice but rather to consider fully the consequences of both action and inaction. He seemingly wished to be judged not only on the victories accrued—Panama, Iraq, NAFTA, Germany, the Cold War—but also tragedies avoided: the wars not commenced, the chaos not unleashed, the blood and treasure saved rather than squandered." "Bush-style caution isn't right for every era… [b]ut with the world in dramatic transformation, and with the geopolitical stakes at their very height, George H. W. Bush's prudence was just what America needed. And the country could use a dose of it today."   Be the Global Briefing Editor! Hello loyal newsletter readers, Fareed here. Are you (or is somebody you know) eager? Ambitious? Do you have a passion for foreign policy? Are you a great reader of all things international? Can you write and edit well? If you answered "yes" to all of the above, please apply to be the next editor of this newsletter. Share Tweet Fwd unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences  Copyright © 2018 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