The relationship between Putin and Xi is a "marriage of convenience," journalist Melinda Liu tells Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast. Russia's war in Ukraine has put China in an awkward spot: they condemn the invasion, but not the invader.   Liu, who has been Newsweek's Beijing bureau chief for decades, believes that Xi is likely as isolated and surrounded by sycophants as Putin, which makes predicting what he'll do next very hard. Chinese coverage of the war hasn’t been consistent, and neither is China’s historical relationships with Ukraine and Russia.     She also explains why Xi's biggest problem right now is not Putin, but rather China's zero-COVID policy, which now has 26 million people under lockdown on Shanghai. China is facing a challenge they never saw coming — and that "hits right to the soul."

China's uphill battles, from Putin to COVID: Newsweek's Melinda Liu

The United States will no longer play global policeman, and no one else wants the job. This is not a G-7 or a G-20 world. Welcome to the GZERO, a world made volatile by an intensifying international battle for power and influence. Every week on this podcast, Ian Bremmer will interview the world leaders and the thought leaders shaping our GZERO World.

News

Politics

On this episode of the GZERO World Podcast with Ian Bremmer, Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, advocates for cooperation over division on college campuses in response to protests, highlighting the need for civil discourse and pointing out that despite some instances of violence, most campuses engage in constructive dialogue.

Why campus protests worsen divisions, and how to mediate: Advice from Eboo Patel

It’s a big year for the US Supreme Court. In June, SCOTUS will begin issuing decisions on a number of politically charged cases, including abortion rights, gun control, and whether former president Donald Trump will stand trial for criminal cases, just as the 2024 election season shifts into high gear. Yale Law School lecturer and staff writer at The New York Times Magazine Emily Bazelon joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World Podcast to unpack some of the biggest cases on the docket this year, whats at stake, and what expected rulings will mean for the future of our democracy.

The US Supreme Court, less trusted than ever, votes on major cases in June: Emily Bazelon explains what to expect

In 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at a summit and described their “friendship without limits.” But how close is that friendship, really? Should the US be worried about their growing military and economic cooperation? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Pulitzer prize-winning national security correspondent for The New York Times David Sanger to talk about China, Russia, the US, and the 21st century struggle for global dominance.

The next era of global superpower competition: a conversation with the New York Times' David Sanger

US Ambassador to China Nick Burns joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World Podcast to look at the complex and contentious state of the US-China relationship. What do the world's two biggest economies and strongest militaries agree on, and where are they still miles apart? After Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met at a summit in San Francisco last November, it seemed like frosty relations were starting to thaw. But while China and the US have committed to re-engage diplomatically after the 2023 Chinese spy balloon low-point, there is still a lot of daylight–and no trust–between the two. So how stable is the US-China relationship, really? Are we adversaries? Frenemies? Toxic co-dependents? Burns and Bremmer discuss Taiwan, aggression in the South China Sea, China’s economic woes and national security push, and where one of the most consequential bilateral relationships between any two countries in the world goes from here.

Are the US and China frenemies now? Perspective from Nicholas Burns, US Ambassador to China

 On this episode of the GZERO World Podcast, while the Gaza war rages on with no end in sight, Ian Bremmer and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman discuss how it could end, who is standing in the way, and what comes next.  Currently, a rift between the Biden administration and the Israeli government over how to handle the conflict is widening. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including nearly 14,000 children, according to local health officials and the United Nations. And over a hundred Israelis remain hostages of Hamas. And to make matters worse, just this week, thousands of Israelis took to the streets to call for Netanyahu’s ouster, an Israeli airstrike in Damascus killed several top Iranian commanders (threatening a wider regional escalation) and another Israeli strike in Gaza killed seven aid workers in a food convoy for the nonprofit, World Central Kitchen. It may seem premature to talk about a resolution to this conflict, but Friedman argues that it is more important now than ever to map out a viable endgame. "Either we're going to go into 2024 with some really new ideas,” Friedman tells Ian, “or we're going back to 1947 with some really new weapons." Also, Friedman emphasizes the "codependency" between Netanyahu and Hamas, noting Bibi’s reliance on a right-wing coalition opposed to any progress toward Palestinian unity.

China's uphill battles, from Putin to COVID: Newsweek's Melinda Liu

Download our free app to listen on your phone