Threatscape - Mapping global risks in a changing world

Andrei Serbin Pont discusses the impact of the coronavirus in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro has become the leader of the coronavirus denial movement. In Venezuela, years of economic and political crisis have left Venezuela’s medical system in a state of almost total collapse. How will poor populations across the region deal with the loss of employment and need for social distancing. Andrei Serbin Pont offers an overview of the consequences of the pandemic in South America.

Andrei Serbin Pont is the Director of CRIES (Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales), a Latin American and Caribbean think tank.

Prof. Florian Bieber discusses authoritarianism and nationalism in the time of the Coronavirus in Europe. We speak about the situation in Hungary, state of emergency in Europe, the prospect of more decline of democracy and how to prevent it. Prof. Bieber is a political scientist working on inter-ethnic relations, ethnic conflict and nationalism, focusing on Southeastern Europe. He is a Professor in South East European Studies at the Center for South East European Studies of the University of Graz.

Discussion with human rights expert and journalist Jean-Paul Marthoz of Le Soir newspaper in Belgium. Topics include the lockdown in Brussels, China's persecution of journalists and citizen journalists, the recent expulsion of American journalists from China, the danger of information blackholes to global public health, the need for multilateralism and cooperation.

In this episode, Elise Thomas, researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, talks about China's changing narrative about the coronavirus, escalating war of words between Washington and Beijing, and the role of conspiracy theories and Chinese diplomats. We also talk on innovation sparked by the Covid-19 crisis and the question of regulations and privacy.

Elise Thomas is a researcher at ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre.

Andrew Stroehlein, European Media Director for Human Rights Watch, discusses the end of democracy in Hungary, the rise of other authoritarian political movements in Europe and the plight of refugees and vulnerable groups in Europe during the Coronavirus pandemic.

David Mulroney, Canada's former ambassador to China and current Distinguished Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, discusses China's recent public diplomacy to shape a global narrative over its handling of the corona virus pandemic. He discusses Canadian foreign policy, China's geopolitical objectives and what lies ahead.

Allie Funk (Freedom House) warns that the coronavirus is already triggering a backslide on freedom, not just in authoritarian regime but also in open and democratic societies. In this interview, we discuss the use of the virus as a pretext to crack down on human rights for political purposes, the shrinking media environment, propaganda narratives and disinformation disseminate by authoritarian regimes. How can the lack of access to information worsen the public health crisis and how can some of the measures imposed by governments lead to a lasting global backslide in fundamental freedoms.

Allie Funk is a Research Analyst for Freedom on the Net, Freedom House’s annual assessment of internet freedom. She serves as an expert on human rights in the digital age, and focuses on developments in the United States and the Asia region. Her writing has been published in the Washington Post, WIRED, the Hill, the Diplomat, and Just Security, among others.

Listen to our interview with New York Times journalist Muyi Xiao about life in Wuhan, Chinese citizens using social media to share info, China's use of Twitter to promote a narrative across the globe, and racism offline and online towards people of Chinese and Asian heritage.

Muyi Xiao is a producer for The New York Times Visual Investigations team. She is a Non-Resident Fellow at ChinaFile and was previously the ChinaFile Visuals Editor/ Xiao is a founding member of Chinese Storytellers, a community of Chinese non-fiction content creators.

As we watch the coronavirus spread across the entire planet, what impact will it have on human rights, democracy and geopolitics? Already we are seeing various actors use technology and disinformation techniques in their quest to create a global narrative and avoid blame.

 

From misinformation, hate speech and deep fakes, Sheldon Fernandez, CEO of Darwin AI, talks about what the tech community can do to keep people safe during the corona virus pandemic.

As we watch the coronavirus spread across the entire planet, what impact will it have on human rights, democracy and geopolitics? Already we are seeing various actors use technology and disinformation techniques in their quest to create a global narrative and avoid blame. From Russia to China and Iran, Ilan Greenberg of Coda gives a short assessment of the current coronavirus disinformation ecosystem. 

Ilan Greenberg is the publisher & editorial director of Coda Story. While on a fellowship at The Woodrow Wilson International Center in Wash DC, he began an extended conversation with Natalia Antelava that eventually resulted in a company dedicated to innovative, character-driven journalism covering the big storylines coalescing in all those places from where he had worked. Ilan also teaches writing in the Globalization & International Affairs program at Bard College.

Coda : https://www.codastory.com/