Worldly

The long-awaited Worldly live episode is here! In a taping at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Zack, Alex, and Jenn discuss the notion of “maximum pressure” — a phrase coined to describe Trump’s North Korea policy that has turned out to describe the closest thing we have to a Trump doctrine. They discuss what “maximum pressure” is, how effective (or not) it’s been, and which countries Trump has used it on. They also have a great time at the taping — well, Jenn and Zack do, because they make fun of Alex a whole lot.

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It’s a Democratic debate special! Zack, Jenn, and Alex break down the big foreign policy issue dividing the candidates: whether the liberal international order the United States set up after World War II is working, and what reforms are necessary if it isn’t. They examine the views of four leading candidates — Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren — and analyze a really revealing exchange from Wednesday night’s debate.

Here’s Alex’s piece describing the ideological split among 2020 Democrats.

You can watch Biden’s speech here…

…and Buttigieg’s here…

...and Warren’s here…

...and Sanders’s here.

Zack’s beef with Bernie Sanders’s 2016 positions on trade.

Vox explained the debate’s winners and losers.

The Pentagon released the names of the two deceased soldiers.

Zack has an explainer on Tulsi Gabbard’s fake pacifism.

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Zack and Alex break down the past few weeks of worrying news about Iran. They discuss (what seem to be) Iranian attacks on oil tankers, Iran announcing that it was thinking about breaking the terms of the nuclear deal, and the US sending more troops to the region. Then they discuss what it all means: just how interested certain parts of the Trump administration are in war with Iran, the ways in which Iran’s actions are playing into their hands, and how similar this situation is to the Bush administration’s march to war with Iraq.

Come see our live show on June 24!

Alex’s most recent update on the drone attack.

Here’s John Bolton’s original statement on Iran

Alex has an explainer on the entire US-Iran standoff

The Council on Foreign Relations has a detailed explainer on the Strait of Hormuz

See the video and pictures of the oil tanker attacks released by the US military

Both Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel say it looks as though Iran is behind the oil tanker attack

Japan’s government won’t say Iran is responsible, even though a Japanese company owned one of the damaged vessels

This Vox video explains the Iran nuclear deal in three minutes

Here’s Alex again on the US sending 1,000 troops to the Middle East

Yes, John Bolton has called for regime change in Iran 

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Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the huge protests in Hong Kong that erupted over a controversial amendment to the city’s extradition law — and why the fight is really about protecting the city’s freedoms from Beijing’s attempts to repress them. They play audio clips recorded and sent to the show by protesters in Hong Kong explaining why they’re demonstrating and what it’s like on the ground, and discuss the big-picture issues surrounding democracy and rights in China. Zack ends the show with a characteristic monologue, Alex makes the obligatory Guns N’ Roses joke, and Jenn declares herself “old.”

Links:

Alex’s explainer has the background on Hong Kong and the recent extradition law change.

Jenn described this video in which protesters rushed to put out tear gas grenades as they rained down on the crowd.

How Hong Kong remembers Tiananmen.

This is a good article on the belief that economic liberalization in China would produce a shift toward democracy — and why that didn’t happen.

The details on Xi Jinping’s historic power grab last year.

A past episode on China’s “concentration camps” for Muslims in Xinjiang province.

The Great Firewall, explained

Vox’s Johnny Harris, who helped us with this show, did an episode of his YouTube show “Borders” on the Hong Kong-mainland divide.

The Worldly live show taping is at 6:30 ET on June 24 at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy! Here’s the registration link.

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Nice Try! is a new podcast from Curbed and the Vox Media Podcast Network that explores stories of people who have tried to design a better world, and what happens when those designs don't go according to plan. Season one, Utopian, follows Avery Trufelman on her quest to understand the perpetual search for the perfect place. Enjoy this special preview of the first episode, Jamestown: Utopian for Whom, and subscribe to Nice Try! for free in your favorite podcast app.

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Jenn and Alex explain how months-long protests to oust a brutal dictator in Sudan, once so hopeful, have fallen victim to a bloody repression campaign. After initial peaceful talks, a government-linked paramilitary group decided to attack demonstrators, killing as many as 100 people and dumping bodies in the Nile River. The worry now is that Sudan is turning into another Arab Spring-like horror story, meaning that another repressive regime may ultimately survive despite the will of the people. Jenn shows off her Middle East expertise, Alex hosts Worldly for the first time, and both hope the Sudanese protesters get justice.

References:

This piece from Vox’s Jen Kirby outlines how the military coup that ousted Bashir happened and why protesters still weren’t satisfied.

And this piece from former Vox intern Salwa Sadek takes a look at the women who have been at the forefront of the protest movement in Sudan.

Here’s more on what we know about the death toll so far and the reports of sexual assault against protesters.

This is a great article about how the Rabaa Massacre in Egypt ended the Arab Spring.

For a good primer on the Arab Spring more generally, check out The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Jenn also mentioned that this week was the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China. The New York Times has a great collection of their recent coverage of that event here.

And as promised, here’s the reservation link to our LIVE SHOW! bit.ly/link-worldly

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Jenn, Alex, and special guest Jen Kirby (who goes by Kirby in our shows) explain the shocking results of the European parliamentary elections. The world's second-largest exercise in democracy produced big wins for Europe's left-wing Green Party, some gains for far-right politicians, and a collapse of traditional centrist parties. The gang breaks down what these results actually mean for the people of Europe, the European Union, and the rise of fringe parties around the world. The result, it seems, is that extremist parties may be more mainstream now than you think. Jenn shows off her hosting chops, Alex records under a hot blanket, and Kirby drops some sweet, sweet European politics knowledge.

As promised, here’s the reservation link to our LIVE SHOW! bit.ly/link-worldly

Here’s Jen Kirby’s fantastic piece explaining what happened in the elections.

This has a good breakdown of the voter turnout in past elections and how much higher it was this time around.

If you want to know more about the policy positions of European Green parties, you can read all about them here on their website.

We quoted a political scientist who told Germany’s The Local about the Green parties capturing “the zeitgeist.” That’s from this article. 

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Zack, Jenn, and Alex break down how a six-hour video of a far-right party leader drinking in Ibiza brought down Austria’s government. The story involves a fake Russian oligarch’s niece, a far-right party founded by former Nazis, and a plot to subvert the country’s independent media. The Worldly hosts make sense out of this sprawling drama, and explain what it tells us about the broader far-right movement across Europe. Alex tells us what it’s like on the ground in Austria (he’s actually there), Zack practices his German pronunciations, and Jenn manages not to curse for once.

Alex wrote a fantastic explainer on the whole scandal.

Der Spiegel, one of the two media outlets that viewed the secret video, has a great piece laying out everything that was on the tape.

Here’s a selection of clips from the longer conversation, with subtitles. 

This feature on Hungary from Zack explains why references to trying to build a media landscape like Viktor Orbán’s are so scary.

Here is the anatomically implausible music video for the Vengaboys song that has become the anti-Strache anthem.

Jenn mentioned this Vox article about the far-right parties in Europe joining forces to win seats in the European parliamentary elections.

The head of Germany’s far-right party AfD said Austria’s scandal was “singular” and had nothing to do with them.

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Zack, Jenn, and Alex examine Trump’s trade war with China, which appears to be back on after negotiations failed to produce a deal. They run through how we got here, what’s happened so far in terms of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs, and what the costs of economic tensions between the world’s two largest economies are for ordinary Americans, Chinese citizens, and the world. On Elsewhere, they discuss a disturbing story about a Malaysian teenager who died by suicide after polling her Instagram followers on whether she should live or die — and what this says about the problems of managing social media’s dark side worldwide.

Links:

Our colleague Matthew Yglesias has an explainer on Trump’s China trade war.

Some recent research shows the complexity and murkiness of the debate over US job losses from trade with China.

The New York Times has a great piece outlining the various ways China manipulates US companies that want to do business in China, including forcing them to hand over valuable intellectual property.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics has a timeline of the US-China trade war.

Here’s a really good episode of Marketplace from September 2018 that explains why prices on goods don’t go up immediately in a trade war.

The IMF estimated that the trade war may cause a 0.2 percent slowdown in the global economy.

Jessica Chen Weiss explains at the Washington Post how China is rolling out nationalist propaganda over the trade war.

We played a CNN clip of a conversation with a farmer.

A brief description of the Malaysia Instagram story.

A list of international suicide prevention hotlines.

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Zack, Jenn, and Alex talk about a scary rise in tensions between the US and Iran in the past week — a (possibly inflated) Iranian plot against American troops in the Middle East, and an Iranian announcement of plans to stop abiding by the terms of the nuclear deal. National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has long supported going to war with Iran, appears to be intentionally escalating the situation — and it’s not clear how much of an off-ramp there is. On Elsewhere, they discuss dictatorial Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s move to overturn the results of an election he doesn’t like, and what it says about the new model of authoritarianism in places like Turkey and Hungary.

References!

You can read Bolton’s entire Iran statement here.

Alex has an explainer on the standoff.

The Daily Beast reports that the Trump administration inflated Iran intelligence. 

Iran declared that it wouldn’t abide by certain parts of the nuclear deal.

Zack has you covered on Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran deal and what it means.

Alex has a long feature on worsening US-Turkey ties that details many of Erdogan’s authoritarian actions.

Here’s the Amnesty International statement on how Turkey jails tons of journalists.

CNN has a good piece on the Istanbul mayoral elections and why the results were such a big deal.

It’s worth watching two videos of protesters in Istanbul banging pots and pans.

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