"The World in 2:00": Recent Episodes
Luke N. Vargas
The day's top global headlines in 120 seconds. Presented by Luke Vargas at U.N. Headquarters in New York. Nationally syndicated by Talk Media News.
UN expert Richard Gowan peers into his crystal ball to diagnose the problems facing the UN in the near term.
From condemning China’s treatment of Muslim minorities to probing the gory details of the drug war in the Philippines, the Geneva-based council is making headlines this month.
'Maybe a decade ago, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was essentially the only terrorist organization operating in the Sahel. Now there's at least 10.'
Foreign Policy reported Tuesday that the two American allies will each boost their troop presence in Syria by 10 to 15 percent.
The U.N.’s top human rights official says she's “appalled” by conditions facing migrants detained after illegally crossing America’s southern border.
Is the UAE pulling out of Yemen, and new research touts the benefits of reforesting Planet Earth.
At least 44 migrants detained in the Libyan capital of Tripoli were killed in an airstrike this week, an attack a U.N. envoy said “clearly could constitute a war crime.”
New research finds emissions already locked in by the world’s existing infrastructure are enough to overshoot the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
A new week brings a new threat to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as Iran said Monday it has now stockpiled more low-enriched uranium than is under the terms of the agreement.
The Rand Corporation's Ariane Tabatabai assesses Iran's willingness to engage in diplomatic talks with the U.S.
U.N. human rights rapporteur Victor Madrigal-Borloz weighs in on how restrictive definitions of gender identity can harm transgender people.
Khalid Elgindy of the Brookings Institution shares his thoughts on whether another country could ever replace the U.S. as the lead Mideast peace broker.
Kim Clausing predicts where the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates will land in their positions on international free trade deals.
Stewart Patrick of the Council on Foreign Relations tells the program that China is happy to fill in the leadership vacuum created by a U.S. retreat at the United Nations.
The global #MeToo movement – and let’s be honest, anyone who’s ever worked a job – scored a big legal victory on Friday as UN members adopted a first-of-its-kind convention on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work.
The U.S. threatened to cap the number of skilled Indian workers granted special H-1B visas this week, opening a new front in the Trump Administration's effort to overhaul immigration policy.
President Trump's nominee for U.N. Ambassador said Wednesday the U.S. can still be a global leader, even if it withdraws from key treaties and U.N. organizations.
The remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal have had choice words this week for both the U.S. and Iran as tensions between the countries continues to mount.
Bad news for U.S. and other countries used to exporting their trash abroad: the world's 'pollution sinks' are fighting back.
The WHO stops just short of declaring an ongoing Ebola outbreak a global health crisis.
Iran’s Supreme Leader rejected the prospect of talks with the U.S. on Thursday, upending a diplomatic visit by Japan's prime minister.
Thousands of protesters clogged Hong Kong on Wednesday, battling police in a desperate effort to block an extradition bill that hands broad new powers to China.
A new video game aims to avert nuclear war by making diplomatic simulations cheaper and easier to run.
Sudan's diverse and historic pro-democracy protest movement faces a new test after the departure of long-time President Omar al-Bashir: getting rid of military leaders.
The new members of the U.N. Security Council are likely to amplify geopolitical divisions already impeding agreement on the world's crises.
The U.S. is reportedly preparing a more than $2 billion arms sale to Taiwan in a move likely to provoke tensions with China amid an ongoing trade spat.
The world’s most neglected displacement crises are all in Central Africa, according to a new report issued by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Did E.U. leaders commit 'crimes against humanity' by limiting search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean? A new claim before the ICC says yes.
The Balkan nation of North Macedonia took a step toward joining NATO on Monday. What would that mean for Europe, the U.S. and Russia?
While Mexico is responding cautiously to President Trump's latest tariff threat, that could change if the country's migration efforts remain unacknowledged.
Israelis will head to the polls again in September after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to build a ruling government after an April vote.
The U.N. kicked off a Decade of Family Farming on Wednesday, praising small farms as key to a sustainable future and pushing governments to connect them with social services, financing and greater market access.
Just ten countries and territories are responsible for more than half of the world’s corporate tax avoidance, according to a new report released Tuesday by the U.K. non-profit Tax Justice Network.
Could this weekend's European Parliament elections mark a high point for right-wing populism on the continent?
'There were expectations he would win the election again, but the scale of the victory has surprised a lot of people,' says Brookings India's Dhruva Jaishankar.
British Prime Minister Theresa May's latest Brexit proposal is running into stiff opposition in parliament.
Trade tensions, geopolitical uncertainty and costly natural disasters took a beating on 2019 GDP projections in a new U.N. report.
The US will host a foreign investment conference for Palestine next month, a prelude to the unveiling of a Mideast peace plan.
The UN warned Friday that fighting in Idlib, Syria risks provoking the "worst humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century."
Candidates vying to lead the E.U. agree that the continent has a populist problem. Now how will they fix it?
Duke's Bruce Jentleson says Russia's disruptive foreign policy is succeeding, with the US stymied in Venezuela and risking conflict with Iran.
Saudi Arabia blamed Houthi rebels in Yemen for a series of drone attacks against Saudi oil facilities on Tuesday, a day after ships carrying Saudi oil were attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.
U.S.-China trade tensions showed no sign of abating on Monday, as China announced that new tariffs would be placed on 5,000 different American products on June 1st unless a trade deal is reached before then.
More than 150,000 people have died over the last year in fighting between drug cartels and Mexican security forces.
In the face of US diplomatic pressure, European countries are struggling to offer Iran the financial incentives it was promised in the 2015 nuclear deal.
The world received a "C" grade from 28 think tank leaders this week for the state of international cooperation – bad news as global challenges mount.
The U.N. unveiled a new program Tuesday aimed at helping countries use travel information to detect, prevent and prosecute suspected terrorists.
President Trump dialed up the odds of a trade war with China on Sunday. If that comes to fruition, American farmers could be the biggest short-term losers.
President Trump dialed up the odds of a trade war with China on Sunday. If that comes to fruition, American farmers could be the biggest short-term losers.
A World Food Programme report says the weakest harvest in a decade has led North Korea to cut food rations to record lows of 11 ounces per person per day.
Why are conservative Latin American countries opening up their embassies to threatened opposition figures in Venezuela?
The U.K. became the world's first country to declare an 'environment and climate emergency' on Wednesday.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó tried but ultimately failed to inspire a military coup to topple President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday.
China's defense budget ballooned to $250 billion in 2018, part of a ten-fold increase since 1994.
Refugees International says those fleeing Myanmar this month report conditions in the country have not improved since a campaign of ethnic cleansing began in 2017.
Days after Islamic State attacks in Sri Lanka, anti-Muslim sentiment has swept the island, sending members of the island's Muslim community to seek protection.
A new study finds five years of war in Yemen has undone more than 20 years of human development in the country.
The US threatened to veto a German resolution at the U.N. unless references to “sexual and reproductive health” care for victims of sexual violence in conflict were removed.
Ukrainian voters rejected incumbent Petro Poroshenko’s reelection bid this weekend and chose instead to throw in their lot with comedian Volodymyr Zelensky.
Egyptian voters are poised to rubber stamp constitutional changes allowing President Sisi to remain in office until 2030, and the climate crisis may be pushing Americans to embrace some far-fetched geoengineering ideas.
Climate change protesters in the UK have made headlines by snarling traffic and public transit, but is their message getting across?
Critics contend blocking US tourists and US dollars from reaching the island will only decrease the chances of democratic change there.
Canada's decision to join on to a German-led Alliance of Multilateralism may be part of a broader trend by 'middle power' nations to opt of larger global power struggles and focus on delivering results.
The prospects of North Korean diplomacy look just as bleak now as they did after the failure of February's Trump-Kim summit.
Week in review: An ongoing Ebola outbreak worsens in the DRC, Sudan's al-Bashir is sacked in a coup and a private Israeli space craft crashes just short of the Moon.
Journalists may be hesitant to see Julian Assange as one of their own, but US charges against him could imperil all reporters.
The US Vice President articulated a version of the Monroe Doctrine to say Venezuela was in Washington's back yard and not an appropriate space for Russian or other foreign interference.
By blocking a deal to allow Cuban players to legally play in the MLB, is the U.S. driving Cuban athletes back into the arms of human smugglers?
An ongoing power struggle in Libya may boil down to local politics, but the ensuing chaos is destabilizing an entire region.
"Before the campaign very light on policy, now I would say that the policy element of the debate is almost entirely non-existent, and that is what’s worrisome to me.”
In response to last month's mass shooting in New Zealand, Australian law makers have made tech companies criminally liable for hosting violent content.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó lost his parliamentary immunity this week, a move that could herald his impending arrest.
Canada's new 'tax and dividend' policy aims to change consumer behavior and lower emissions without breaking family budgets.
For the second time in a week, British lawmakers voted down four milder alternatives to Brexit, once again casting the future of Brexit in doubt. Some lawmakers have had enough.
British lawmakers reject Theresa May's Brexit deal for a third time, and the Red Cross announces a major humanitarian aid operation to help Venezuela.
'Climate change is moving faster than our efforts to address it,' UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has offered to resign if parliament can get her Brexit deal across the finish line in the coming days.
Some national security experts worry post-Mueller report fatigue has created a ripe opportunity to broaden its interference in American politics.
10 days after being hammered by Cyclone Idai, Mozambique continues to contend with a sprawling flood plain and acute aid constraints.
President Trump cast aside decades of American foreign policy precedent by announcing U.S. recognition of Israel’s claim to Golan Heights land captured from Syria in a 1967 war.
New Zealand's prime minister responds to last week's mass shooting in Christchurch by unveiling sweeping gun control legislation.
European Council President Donald Tusk said he'd back a short Brexit delay on the condition British lawmakers quickly agree on a Brexit deal – something they've thus far failed to do.
Relief workers are struggling to assess the damage from a tropical cyclone in Mozambique that U.N. meteorologists say is among the worst weather events to ever hit the southern hemisphere.
Vladimir Putin celebrated the occasion with a concert, even as many legal experts cite the anniversary as a low point of the modern international order.
China offered the U.S. a goodwill gesture in trade talks on Friday, telling Communist Party officials they shouldn't pressure foreign firms into handing over intellectual property.
New E.U. data shows a drop in first-time asylum claims, but the 2015 refugee crisis has still left its scars.
British lawmakers handed Prime Minister Theresa May her second major defeat this week, complicating her pathways to delivering Brexit later this month.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's defense of withdrawing U.S. diplomats from Venezuela has led some to think U.S. military action there could be in the works.
Italy's new right-wing government appears poised to ignore E.U. and American concerns by joining China's massive "Belt Road Initiative" infrastructure project.
The U.S. is reportedly asking countries that host American military bases to pay "cost plus 50" percent of the bill.
36 countries spoke out against Saudi Arabia's rights record at the U.N. Human Rights Council for the first time on Thursday.
Economists think President Trump is overly focused on the trade deficit as a measure of good trade policy, though the U.S. does want to continue growing exports.
President Trump's decision to end preferential trade treatment for Turkey and India could have unintended consequences, especially if India responds by retaliating over U.S. steel tariffs.
Venezuela's Supreme Court threatened opposition leader Juan Guaidó with 30 years in jail for leaving the country, but police failed to arrest him Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to face indictments on bribery and fraud charges, endangering his reelection hopes next month.
The U.S. and North Korea failed to ink an agreement in Hanoi to move the ball forward on denuclearization. What happens next?
Harry J. Kazianis and Bruce Jentleson preview what to expect out of President Trump's summit with Kim Jong-Un in Hanoi, Vietnam.
India and Pakistan claiming wildly different outcomes of Indian air strikes targeting a Pakistani terror camp on Tuesday. Does it matter if both outcomes can't be true?
Vice President Mike Pence used a visit to Colombia on Monday to appeal for more global support for the Venezuelan opposition.
Leaders of the Venezuelan opposition deadline say foreign aid will begin flowing into the country on Saturday, in direct defiance of orders from President Nicolás Maduro.