Worldly

Yochi, Jenn, and Zack discuss Israel's killings of dozens of Palestinian protesters in Gaza and why many Arab countries seem willing to give Israel a pass and instead focus on what they see as a growing threat from Iran. On Elsewhere, they look at Vladimir Putin's recent opening of a $4 billion bridge between Russia and the portion of Ukraine that Moscow had conquered and illegally annexed. Yochi stumbles over his Russian pronunciations, Jenn remembers watching beauty pageants as a child, and Zack defends the manliness of truck drivers. References! Yochi went on Today, Explained to give you all the background you need on the events in Gaza. You can also read Alexia Underwood’s explainer for that backstory.   Yochi picked 2014 as a concrete example of past protests held in reaction to Israel-Palestine tensions. Jenn walked through some of the smaller protests we saw this time around. She also talked about protests in Iran that weren’t related to the events in Gaza. A more in-depth look at “Linkage theory,” which Zack brought up as an older model for the Israel-Palestine conflict. Jenn was talking about the surprising alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Here’s a little more information about that. More context on the tweet from Bahrain’s foreign minister about Israel’s “right to defend itself by destroying sources of danger.” Zeeshan Aleem has this explainer on BDS in Palestine and more about the movement’s apartheid roots. We pulled the clip of Mustafa Barghouti from this BBC interview. Yochi gave a shout-out to Zack’s piece “Trump, Gaza, and the ‘blank check’ approach to Israel.” If you want to see Putin’s dramatic truck ride for yourself, there’s a video here. And finally, the Instagram celebrity cat that upstaged Putin. 

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On a special episode of Worldly, Yochi, Jenn, and Zack talk about President Trump's historic and dangerous decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, a move that angered America's closest allies and potentially set the stage for a new Mideast war. Israel and Iran started trading blows within a day of Trump's decision, and the situation could quickly get worse as American friends and enemies adjust to the new reality Trump has created. Yochi compares economic sanctions to football, Zack offers a hot take for the ages, and Jenn says the technical term for a trade war is "some real shit." Zack’s big explainer about what it means that we’ve withdrawn from the Iran deal … and some more context in a quicker form from Alex Ward. Yochi quoted Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s statements on the recent strikes. Here’s more background on that quote. As Jenn mentioned, we touched on some of the implications of an Iran-Israel war last episode. Alex also has a great piece on this that touches on the recent strikes. Yochi mentioned a previous strike that killed seven Iranian military personnel. Soon after becoming the new US Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell tweeted, “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.” Yochi talked about this tweet and the response it elicited from a former German ambassador. Zack dived into some fun wonky policy surrounding “blocking regulations” and how Europe might use them to deal with the current sanctions. Here’s the piece Zack was quoting when he said that an expert believes the Iran deal would have kept Iran from getting a nuclear bomb until at least 2041. John Bolton’s 2015 New York Times opinion piece “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.” We played a clip of Bolton talking about that op-ed. It was from an interview he did with Jon Stewart back in 2015. Jenn mentioned a more recent op-ed Bolton wrote for the Washington Post slamming the Iran deal.    She also mentioned that the International Atomic Energy Agency and a variety of other experts agreed that the Iran deal was effective. Yochi mentioned that President George W. Bush had had a request for bunker-busting bombs from Israel and declined. Here’s an old New York Times article with more details. Here’s the “winners and losers of the Iran deal” piece that Yochi suggested. For more information on the Iran deal, please check out Wednesday’s episode of Today, Explained. 

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Yochi, Jenn, and Zack talk about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s over-the-top media blitz designed to sway President Trump to nix the Iran nuclear deal and about how Israel’s shadow conflict with Iran is threatening to explode into a new Mideast war. On Elsewhere, they discuss the Ukrainian government’s abrupt decision to stop cooperating with the Mueller probe after Trump agreed to sell the country advanced US-made missiles. Yochi awards Paul Manafort the gold medal in the Trump Corruption Olympics, Jenn insists ledgers are “sexy,” and Zack busts out some Latin. Links: We spent the first part of the episode discussing this powerpoint speech from Netanyahu, but you can watch it in full here. You can also watch Netanyahu’s full Fox and Friends interview. Zack wrote a piece about that interview, if you’d like some more background and context. We reference it a few times in the show. And here’s Zack’s piece about the IAEA report that already documented a lot of the things covered in Netanyahu’s presentation. Yochi mentioned that he’d covered the finalization of the Iran deal under President Obama. Zack has also covered the Iran deal and was suspicious of claims that the Obama administration made. We got a bit technical this episode about Iran building bases, so here’s some more background information on that. Yochi mentioned Neri Zilber’s piece about Iran and Israel’s shadow war. You can read that piece in full here. Jenn and Zack were talking about the ways that the history of the Iranian regime informs its approach to the Iran deal and to Israel. Here’s a reading suggestion from Jenn on that. Here’s the 2015 Foreign Policy piece by Phillip Smyth that Jenn mentioned about Iran’s plans to use Syria as a new front in its fight against Israel Yochi quoted a Ukrainian official at the beginning of Elsewhere. That quote came from this New York Times piece. For a slightly different take on Ukraine’s intelligence sharing with the Mueller investigation, read this New York magazine piece.   The team talked about Michael Cohen’s many, many scams. And here’s more about the mystery of who took pro-Ukrainian language out of the Republican Party’s 2016 platform. 

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Yochi, Zack, and special guest Dara Lind discuss Monday's bloody terror attack in Toronto, which was carried out by a member of a fringe anti-woman movement called "incel," short for "involuntary celibate." On Elsewhere, they talk about how French President Emmanuel Macron used an official visit to Washington to charm President Trump in private and then bash him subtly in public. Zack explains black pills, Dara says there's a cheat code for Donald Trump, and Yochi can't shake the mental image of Trump brushing dandruff off Macron's shoulder. References! Throughout the episode, we’re drawing on Zack’s explainer on incel. Here’s a good breakdown of Monday’s attack and how it unfolded. Zack mentioned that Reddit banned the first incel forum. Here’s some more information about that. Yochi talked about school shooters emulating the Columbine shooters, and the ways research around that topic might apply here. This New Yorker piece walks through that research. The response to Elliot Rodger written by the father of one of his victims. Watch President Macron and President Trump’s dandruff exchange.   You can also watch Macron’s full speech to Congress, or read some of the most interesting quotes from that speech and some analysis of his visit. Zack and Dara discussed Macron’s election. Here’s more background on that. Yochi mentioned awkward handshakes several times. Here’s a rundown of some of Trump’s many awkward handshakes. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 24/7, free, and confidential support for people in distress. 1-800-273-8255 

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On a special all-North Korea episode, Yochi, Jenn, and Zack talk about CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s secret meeting with Kim Jong Un, the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is serious about setting aside the belligerent rhetoric and having a historic face-to-face summit between Donald Trump and Kim. There’s no guarantee the meeting will happen, or that the two men will strike a deal. One thing is clear, though: The diplomatic push is the biggest and riskiest gamble of Trump’s entire presidency. Yochi tries to quote Jenn’s colorful language and fails, Jenn says “shit kickin’” like a true Texas girl, and Zack says a lot of funny stuff that got cut in editing. Links! The Washington Post piece that Jennifer referenced breaking the news that Pompeo met with North Korean leadership Yochi wrote a piece about what a war with North Korea would look like. Spoiler: It’d be grim. Yochi mentioned Zack’s piece about Trump’s policy contradictions Zack mentioned that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was sometimes perceived as a moderate but also pushed for more hawkish approaches. Here’s some more context on that. Jenn mentioned that Tillerson and Pompeo had very different relationships with Trump, and went into what that might mean for their influence on his foreign policy choices. This article goes into that a little more. We have a lot of pieces about North Korean denuclearization at Vox, but here’s one from Jenn that talks about what that denuclearization might mean and walks through some of the possible trade-offs that might be made to get there. Jenn’s take was that some of the “madman” rhetoric out of the White House might have foreign leaders scared. Here’s the piece about Xi that she mentioned while defending that take, and another piece diving into the subject. She also mentioned interviews with a high-level North Korean defector. Zack sided with North Korea experts who are skeptical of the idea that North Korean leaders are scared of Trump’s rhetoric. Here’s a piece that outlines their pushback. The Washington Post piece we pulled the statistics on South Korean support for reunification from. Jenn touched on the differences between the current and previous presidents of South Korea. Zack spoke about political data from the US that suggests political identity is shaped early. Our daily Vox podcast, Today, Explained, also has some fantastic foreign policy episodes! 

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Yochi, Jenn, and Zack talk about President Trump’s threats to bomb Syria after a brutal chemical weapons attack there — and why a US military strike won’t have much impact on the country’s civil war. On Elsewhere, they talk about Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who just cruised to reelection despite (or perhaps because of) his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and at times anti-Semitic rhetoric. Zack shows off his knowledge of Emerson, Yochi mocks Bashar al-Assad’s unusually long neck, and Jenn decides it’s okay to body-shame a genocidal dictator. Show Notes! -The war in Syria, explained. -For more background on Syria, listen to the latest Today, Explained primer. -Yochi mentioned photos that make Aleppo look like Leningrad after WWII. -Zack mentioned “siege, starve, and surrender” as a strategy. Here’s a lot more context on that. -Jenn talked about the ways Russia and Assad spin the narrative around chemical weapons attacks. -More reading on the Russian nerve agent attack in the UK that Yochi mentioned, and on the killing of Kim Jong Nam. -Yochi mentioned two Pentagon leaks — one involving Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the other involving Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford. -This BBC piece gives some good background on Prime Minister Orbán, and on his statements about George Soros. -Jenn mentioned Sarah Wildman’s piece about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Europe-bashing hot mic. -Zack talked about the demographic trends in Hungary, drawing on this article in the Guardian. -And this piece talks about Orbán running on an anti-immigrant platform even though there are more anti-immigrant billboards than immigrants and refugees who were let into Hungary in all of 2017. 

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Yochi, Jenn, and Zack talk about the growing crisis on the Gaza-Israel border, where Israeli troops killed 19 Palestinians during violent clashes with protesters, sparking fears of all-out war. On Elsewhere, they turn to Malaysia, which just passed the world’s first law banning “fake news” — clearing the way for journalists to be imprisoned if they anger the government. The Malaysian law is the latest and strongest example of how President Trump’s rhetorical war on the American media is spurring other world leaders to wage a literal one. Zack sings the Law and Order theme song, Yochi recalls a trip to Gaza City, and Jenn offers a creative idea for a new CSI spin-off. References: Jenn's explainer on the violence at the Gaza-Israel border US envoy Jason Greenblatt's comments on Hamas State Department's comments on Hamas Jeff Goldberg's conversation with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman NYT piece on Malaysia's 'fake news' ban 

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It’s Part 1 of a special crossover with Vox’s The Weeds. On this week’s Worldly, Yochi, Zack, and Weeds host Dara Lind discuss Trump’s national security cabinet reshuffle — and whether the appointment of incoming National Security Adviser John Bolton increases the risks of war with North Korea and Iran. Trump spent his first year in office surrounded by officials preaching policies of relative restraint, but those advisers have been pushed out and replaced with ones who want the US to tear up the Iran nuclear deal and prepare for war with North Korea. Yochi talks about knife fights, Zack confuses everyone by making a Meghan Trainor joke, and Dara sings the praises of sexy alliances. 

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Yochi, Zack, and special guest Alexia Underwood talk about why President Trump's top aides begged him not to congratulate Vladimir Putin for winning this week's sham Russian election -- and why Trump ignored them and did so anyway. On Elsewhere, they talk about Venezuela's decision to take a page from the Bitcoin playbook and develop the world's first state-run crypto currency, the petro, and why Russia may soon roll out one of its own. Alexia shows off her Arabic accent, Zack deftly uses the phrase "fiat currency," and Yochi marvels at the possible creation of the phrase "crypto-ruble." 

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Yochi, Jenn, and Zack talk about the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the UK with a deadly nerve agent. The British government says Russia was behind the startling attack, but it’s not clear how far they — or the Trump administration — are willing to go in response. On Elsewhere, they talk about how a French far-right party tried to rebrand itself to hide its racist and anti-Semitic history, but wound up adopting the name of an infamous group that cooperated with the Nazis during World War II. Zack shows off his French, Jenn thinks “Le Google” is a thing, and Yochi bids a fond farewell to former Secretary of State Rex “Mr. Charisma” Tillerson. 

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