The Bottom Line: Recent Episodes
Al Jazeera
President Donald Trump was able to purge his most vocal critics within the Republican Party, as Americans voted for the congressional candidates who will run in November’s midterm elections. One of the most prominent politicians to be unseated was Representative Thomas Massie, who pushed for the release of the Epstein files. The Democratic Party partially released a report about performance that noted “a persistent inability or unwillingness to listen to all voters”. Host Steve Clemons asks former Trump aide Hogan Gidley, and Matt Duss – former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders – about the challenges facing both parties.
When United States President Donald Trump measures success by counting how many Iranian leaders the US and Israel have killed or how many Iranian boats or missile launchers have been destroyed, he’s looking at the “wrong metric”, argues a former US special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley. Malley told host Steve Clemons that the only way out of this war is “a settlement that respects our core interests, but also theirs”. To calculate the odds of a deal, Malley said, psychologists may be more useful than experts because “it really depends on the mindset of President Trump.”
When the United States threatens to take over countries and destroy civilisations, “these are the wild gesticulations of a sinking enterprise”, argues Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts. Wolff tells host Steve Clemons that US leaders refuse to face the reality that the US empire is in decline. Around the world, he adds, people are “deeply internalising” the lessons from the US's inability to defeat Iran. The people in the US are becoming “bitterly angry” at their situation, where the richest 10 percent of Americans own 80 percent of corporate stocks, making the stock market “utterly irrelevant” to the masses. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile
Israel is in a race against time to “lock in its domination” across the Middle East, argues former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy. Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, tells host Steve Clemons that Israel’s strategy of “permanent war” allows for only two types of countries in the region: either dependent, or “too collapsed, failed and fragile to pose any challenge”. Israel can try to block a US-Iran deal by advocating for “just one more major military operation” against Iran, and “heating things up” with constant attacks on Lebanese and Palestinians despite ceasefires on paper, Levy says.
Despite on-again, off-again negotiations, the United States has no other option but to pursue a diplomatic solution with Iran, argues Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. Nasr tells host Steve Clemons that the US-Israel war on Iran has shown the limits of military force. “You don't go to the table to demand surrender. The other side is not going to surrender because they haven't lost. So you have to cut a deal,” Nasr said, adding that Iran’s objective is to make sure the US and Israel understand that “war with Iran isn't easy”.
Iran will not be left alone to live in peace and prosperity “unless and until it normalises its relationship with the US and accepts Israel as a legitimate player in the Middle East”, argues University of South Florida political scientist Mohsen Milani. Milani and former White House official Elisa Ewers tell host Steve Clemons that another major stumbling block in Iran-US talks is uranium enrichment. If that is not resolved, or a vague interim deal is made in lieu of a more rigorous treaty, “in two or three years from now, we might see the outbreak of another war”, says Milani.
In this episode, experts with divergent world views agreed on one thing: it’s unlikely that the United States will resume the war on Iran. Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton tells host Steve Clemons that he still hopes for “regime collapse” in Iran, but that US President Donald Trump has failed to achieve his goals. In the second half, Georgetown University Associate Professor Nader Hashemi argues that the war had an opposite effect – strengthening Iran – and that the people of the region view the war “through the prism of the genocide in Gaza and what Israel is doing in Lebanon right now”. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile
The greatest threat to stability in the Middle East is not Iran, but “the US working closely together with Israel”, argues United States political scientist John Mearsheimer. Mearsheimer tells host Steve Clemons that the notion that the US and Israel are making a safer, more stable Middle East is “ludicrous”. And the idea that Iran is “the great destabiliser” in the region is “a myth that the US and Israel purvey”. After US President Donald Trump insisted that “We have all the cards; they have none”, Mearsheimer says the exact opposite is true - “and that's why we are in desperate straits”. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile
“The US has won” because Iran has become “incapable of being a significant threat” to the United States for at least three years, argues retired Lieutenant Colonel James Carafano, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Carafano tells host Steve Clemons that even if Iran were to rebound, “Trump will just mow the grass… and bomb them back to where they were.” The importance of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's ability to control access to it are exaggerated, Carafano argued. Israeli ideas of changing the government in Tehran are “irrelevant”, Carafano added, “because they can’t do it without us”.
“There is no good outcome” that can be gained from the United States-Israel war on Iran, argues the former ambassador of France to the US, Gerard Araud. Responding to US President Donald Trump’s attempts to get European countries more involved in the war effort, Araud tells host Steve Clemons that “If you wanted us at the landing, you should have thought of us at the takeoff.” Araud says the current moment is similar to the US quagmire in Vietnam in the 1960s, when the White House continued to surge and escalate, creating “an illusion” that the war was nearing a conclusion.
Israel’s leaders have finally found a United States president “stupid enough and reckless enough” to join them in a war against Iran, argues US Senator Chris Van Hollen. Van Hollen, a Democrat, tells host Steve Clemons that the US capacity to degrade the Iranian military has never been in question. “The question is to what end, both in lives and treasure,” he says. On the attempts by Israeli and US officials to frame the war as a holy quest, Van Hollen argues that “The last thing the world needs is a religious war.”
Even though the joint United States-Israeli war on Iran is in its early days, “we already are in a scenario where the US has lost control of this war,” argues Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. Nasr tells host Steve Clemons that Iran is the weaker party, but it “has the capability to create a much longer mayhem” than envisioned by the US and Israel. US goals for this war may be unclear, but “Israel’s goal is to arrive at a point where it’s the supreme power in the Mideast”, says Nasr.
US President Donald Trump is falling into the same trap as his predecessor, Joe Biden, when he tries to convince Americans that they’re better off financially, argues YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen. Cohen and Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, join host Steve Clemons to dissect Trump’s State of the Union address and vision for the United States. One of Trump’s strengths is the weakness of his main opposition, the Democratic Party, argues Cohen, as the party acts “in a way that's completely untethered to how the vast majority of Democrats actually feel”.
At its peak, the BRICS coalition of economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – was seen as a serious attempt to move away from the United States dollar and the domination of Western economic institutions like the World Bank, Group of Seven (G7), and International Monetary Fund (IMF). But BRICS members have different political agendas, and new forces are at play, argues economist Jim O’Neill, a member of Britain's House of Lords. O’Neill, who coined the term "BRIC" 25 years ago, tells host Steve Clemons that the US's economic policies may be the driver of its own decline, coupled with the economic rise of China and India. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile
The Republican Party currently controls the White House and both houses of Congress in the United States. But will that change in November? Among Republican voters, US President Donald Trump is still wildly popular, despite criticism over uneven economic conditions and brutal anti-immigration tactics. And within the Democratic Party establishment, there is no sign of a desire to shift towards a more progressive, less centrist platform – even as left-leaning Democratic Socialists make gains. Host Steve Clemons asks Republican strategist John Feehery and Amy Dacey, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, about Trumpism and the election prospects of both parties.
If the Trump administration adopts Israel’s “red lines” in the negotiations with Iran, the talks are doomed, argues Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Parsi tells host Steve Clemons that Iran is willing to reach a deal on its nuclear programme, as it did in 2015 with then-President Barack Obama. But a lot depends on “whether the US is willing to push back against Israel or not”. Israeli officials were “very upset” that the United States has so far chosen diplomacy over war, and demand that the US add new issues – especially Iran’s ballistic missiles – to the agenda. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile
United States plans for Gaza amount to a “theme park of dispossession” for Palestinians, argues Drop Site News Middle East Editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Abdel Kouddous tells host Steve Clemons the draconian measures planned for the two million shell-shocked Palestinians in Gaza are an Orwellian labyrinth of biometrics, bureaucracy and “a lab for government surveillance” – all meant to drive them out. Noting that Israel hasn’t “gone past phase one” of any ceasefire agreement with an Arab country, Abdel Kouddous warns that Israel is establishing facts on the ground in Gaza – including 50 military bases – “which eventually become permanent”.
United States President Donald Trump realises “the rules-based international order” never existed, and he’s “willing to turn his back on that”, former Trump administration official Christian Whiton argues. Whiton tells Steve Clemons that US foreign policy remained fairly consistent over the past 80 years while Trump is happy to upset “the globalists and the establishment unity party in Washington - Republican and Democrat - and all the generals”. In Europe, the US would like to see more populist, anti-immigration governments, Whiton said, adding that Western societies should “cast aside” the idea that they are “inherently racist, a patriarchy [with] … a racist, imperialist history”.
China’s domination of minerals - especially the copper needed for electrification, data centres, robots, cellphones and defence technology - is pushing the United States to ramp up its control of oil and minerals worldwide, argues Daniel Yergin, one of the world’s top experts in the economics of oil. In this episode, Yergin explains how Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, Russia and other issues are connected to the business of oil and the competition to control Earth's minerals. And while US President Donald Trump’s motives in Venezuela and Greenland are unclear, Yergin says one thing is certain: The US is desperate to achieve supply chain independence from China.
America First foreign policy means that the United States is becoming a country that opposes the rule of law, free trade and collective security, argues Ian Bremmer, president of the risk analysis firm Eurasia Group. Bremmer tells host Steve Clemons that the international system built by the US over decades “was going to reach a geopolitical bust” regardless of the advent of President Donald Trump. Washington’s decision to project power in Venezuela, coupled with rhetoric threatening Greenland, “makes the US more unreliable for its allies”, according to Bremmer, “and a much bigger driver of geopolitical risk on the global stage”.
The United States has realised it cannot keep “trying to police the whole world”, argues Victor Gao, the vice president of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing. Gao tells host Steve Clemons that improved China-US relations are “inevitable” although he warns that some American policymakers still view China as the number one threat and Chinese officials “never underestimate what American neofascists will cook up next”. In this wide-ranging conversation, Gao maintains that Beijing has replaced Washington as the world’s champion of free trade and won’t allow the US to dominate the field of artificial intelligence.
Months after being attacked by the United States and Israel, Iran finds itself in the crosshairs again, with Israeli officials lobbying US President Donald Trump to address Tehran's ballistic missiles. Veteran Iranian diplomat Javad Zarif tells host Steve Clemons that "everybody lost any faith in diplomacy" after Israel and the US attacked Iran following five rounds of reconciliation talks between Washington and Tehran. Zarif added that Israel has historically thwarted every opportunity for reconciliation between Iran and the US, and that Trump's style of diplomacy is disastrous, as it creates "negotiations that end up in war".
Two months ago, United States President Donald Trump held an international gala to celebrate his 20-point plan for peace in Gaza, but his plan has been stuck in phase one since then. Bronwen Maddox, the director of Chatham House – one of the world’s leading think tanks – argues that while Trump’s ceasefire slowed the horrific Israeli bombing of Gaza, “that doesn't mean we've got a plan for the future". Maddox tells host Steve Clemons that Iran is weaker, but Israel’s campaign to destabilise its neighbours, such as Syria, is dragging the region into further conflict, not peace and prosperity.
After years of support from the United States for the Ukraine war to continue “as long as it takes”, the Trump administration is now pushing to end Europe’s war – quickly and imperfectly. While details are still under negotiation, they include issues such as ensuring Ukraine never joins NATO and Russia’s control over about 20 percent of Ukraine. To understand the implications for Europe, the US and their relations, host Steve Clemons speaks with Kurt Volker, Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, and retired Colonel Heino Klinck, former director of US Army international affairs.
US diplomacy under President Donald Trump has a bigger chance of success because it focuses on transactional deals that “translate into improvements of people’s lives” instead of “theories about democracy, freedom and human rights”, argues Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Kagame, who has led Rwanda for more than 30 years, tells host Steve Clemons that he’s “never seen the level of focus, attention, energy and pressure” that the US president brought to the conflict between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, which led to the signing of a tentative deal between the two sides in Washington on December 4.
United States President Donald Trump insists he’s “created the greatest economy in the history of our country”, but to middle-class and poor Americans, argues economist Peter Atwater, the president sounds out of touch. Atwater tells host Steve Clemons that the economy has taken on a “K” shape, where the arrow pointing up indicates more wealth for the already rich, while the rest are pushed downward. Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City earlier this month brought the US’s “affordability crisis” to the forefront, as more people wrestle with the rising cost of food, housing and basics – amid a “no hire” job market.
United States President Donald Trump “looks at Saudi Arabia like a piggy bank or an ATM machine” and that’s why the recent Saudi-US summit focused on deals instead of strategic regional issues, such as Sudan, Palestine, Iran and Syria, argues political scientist Gregory Gause, professor emeritus of international affairs at Texas A&M University. Gause tells host Steve Clemons that if Riyadh can seal a deal to house a joint AI data centre, “that's the best guarantee of US security.” He adds that China may be Saudi Arabia’s biggest customer but the US is Riyadh’s “preferred partner on security, AI, economics and defence cooperation”. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
After the capital of capitalism voted for socialism and Democrats in two states trounced Republicans, United States President Donald Trump is worried that he won’t be able to impose his domestic vision for the nation, Republican strategist John Feehery argues. Feehery tells host Steve Clemons that Trump needs to refocus his energy from foreign policy to the domestic concerns facing Americans, especially the cost of living. On Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City, Feehery says: “Republicans have to be careful because if he turns out to be popular, that could be something that Democrats decide to run on.”
The United States and China have declared a truce in the trade war launched by US President Donald Trump in April, argues Evan Medeiros, former US National Security Council director for China. Medeiros tells host Steve Clemons that the deal reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump resolves the urgent trade issues between the two sides - tariff rates, soya beans and rare earth minerals - but China “remains committed to ensuring that Russia doesn't lose” in Ukraine. The US has more than 200,000 soldiers surrounding China, Medeiros adds, but Washington knows that “nobody wants to choose between the US and China.”
Trump’s Gaza plan is in danger of going the way of the Oslo Accords, argues US journalist Chris Hedges: Never to be implemented beyond the first phase. Hedges tells host Steve Clemons that there are no guarantees that the US-brokered deal “will actually thwart the genocidal project that Israel is intending to carry out in Gaza and … the West Bank”. While a parade of US officials visited Israel to signify commitment to the ceasefire, Israel continued to restrict food and medicine to millions of Palestinians, and Israeli forces continued to occupy more than half of the Gaza Strip.
The US has forced Israel to end its war on Gaza, but now the challenge is “to be engaged every single day, several times a day” to make sure the ceasefire holds, says Israeli American activist Gershon Baskin, the cofounder of Alliance for Two States. Baskin tells host Steve Clemons that President Donald Trump was convinced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could force the Palestinians to surrender, but over time, it became obvious that “Hamas will never surrender.” Baskin predicts “there will be an awakening in Israel that we can’t keep doing this ... military strategies don’t work any more.”
Arguing that some places in the United States – primarily those governed by Democratic officials – are rampantly crime-infested, President Donald Trump has been deploying military forces to cities from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. Former National Security Council official Kori Schake tells host Steve Clemons that Trump is trying to enlist the US military to get involved in his culture war issues, such as immigration and political dissent. She warns that US forces should be kept out of politics “so that the American public continues to have confidence and trust in the military”.
The US plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza is designed, supervised and administered “primarily by people who are very staunchly pro-Israel,” and has little chance of delivering peace, argues Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University. “We’ve seen this movie before,” Walt tells host Steve Clemons. According to the terms announced by US President Donald Trump, Israel can argue at any time that the Palestinian side isn’t fulfilling its obligations and thus resume the war. Increasingly seen as a threat by other countries in the region, Israel “is in for a very troubling future”, Walt says.
French official Pascal Confavreux says the French-Saudi initiative takes the two-state solution "out of the moral danger" it was in. Pascal, spokesperson of the French Foreign Ministry, tells host Steve Clemons that France aims to end Israel’s war on Gaza by sidelining Hamas, reshaping the Palestinian Authority to make it more palatable to Israel’s right-wing government, and involving some Arab and Muslim states in the governance of Gaza. After his government recognised the State of Palestine for the first time on September 22, Confavreux argued that the alternative to a two-state solution is “an endless cycle of violence.” Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
New initiatives to support Palestinian statehood, while reflecting growing international attention, are “perpetuating the illusion” that a two-state solution can resolve the conflict with Israel, argues former US diplomat Rob Malley. Malley was a leading United States negotiator across the Middle East for decades, and was on the cusp of a new Iran-US deal in 2023 when he was suspended by then-US President Joe Biden. Malley’s new book, Tomorrow is Yesterday, details the damage done by decades of US involvement in Middle East peacemaking. Malley tells host Steve Clemons that Israel can't achieve normalcy or “absolute security” while sidestepping the issue of justice for the Palestinians.
In the aftermath of an Israeli attack on Qatar targeting the leadership of Hamas, American political scientist John Mearsheimer argues, “The Israelis are interested in making sure there are no negotiations that settle the conflict in Gaza.” Mearsheimer tells host Steve Clemons that the United States and Israel “basically act as a tag team”, and despite a mild rebuke by President Donald Trump, “the US supports Israel unconditionally”. He adds that Israel has three main strategic goals: expand territory, move the Palestinians out of all conquered territory, and ensure that all countries in the region are weak. #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
For decades, the United States has been courting India as a counterbalance to China in Asia. But after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to agree with US President Donald Trump's insistence that he had ended a Pakistan-India military conflict in May, Trump slapped 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods entering the US market. He also insisted that New Delhi stop buying discounted Russian oil. Host Steve Clemons asks Ravi Agrawal, chief editor of Foreign Policy, and Anja Manuel, executive director of the Aspen Security Forum, whether the India-US dispute is a temporary blip or the beginning of a major realignment.
As the popularity of the United States Democratic Party reaches historic lows, author Joan Williams argues that the party’s elitism is still pushing people away. Williams is the founder of the Equality Action Center at the College of Law at the University of California at San Francisco and author of Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back. She tells host Steve Clemons that, unless the Democrats realign themselves with the people, they will continue to founder and voters will continue to flock to populists. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
If Israel rejects the latest offer to pause its War on Gaza, it’s a sign that Israel “doesn’t want any deal,” argues US journalist and author Jeremy Scahill. Scahill, the co-founder of Drop Site News, tells host Steve Clemons that Hamas has offered major concessions on sticking points such as the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released, Israeli withdrawal from the border with Egypt, and the so-called GHF. But with carte blanche from the US to continue its war, the question remains: Will Israel decide to sign a temporary deal or pursue war? Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
As Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to meet his US counterpart in Alaska, there were no indications that a deal to end the Ukraine war was imminent. Editor of the National Interest, Jacob Heilbrunn, tells host Steve Clemons that US President Donald Trump “will try and reach an agreement with Putin and impose it upon Ukraine. If Ukraine refuses, then he'll wash his hands of it and say that Ukraine is the obstacle to peace.” Heilbrunn argues that Trump is “squeezing the remnants of what’s left of the American empire” and that “the American brand is tattered” globally. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
By offering nothing except continual massacre for the Palestinians, and attempting to subjugate the surrounding areas to its will, Israel finds itself “in a predicament of its own making”, argues former Israeli adviser Daniel Levy. Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, tells host Steve Clemons that Israel has put Arab leaders in a bind, as regional disgust grows towards Israel for its war crimes in Gaza. And while Western governments and cultural institutions have been carrying water for Israel for decades, argues Levy, some have begun “acknowledging things they worked hard not to acknowledge for an awfully long time.” Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Despite some pushback from his party to deal with the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza - especially Israel’s starvation policy - the US governing Republican Party remains unmoved. Republicans overwhelmingly support Israel’s tactics against the Palestinians, as support for Israel plummets among Independent and Democratic voters. Trump says he wants more food to reach Gaza via the militarised distribution mechanism, the GHF. But he criticised Western countries that spoke of diplomatic moves, such as recognising Palestinian statehood. Host Steve Clemons speaks with Republican analyst Mark Pfeifle and Democratic analyst David Bolger on Trump’s political calculations on Middle East policy. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Several groups of professors in the United States are suing the Trump administration over its policy of arresting, detaining, cancelling visas, and deporting students who participate in pro-Palestinian advocacy. The crackdown on free speech is creating a chilling effect across US academia, argues Jamil Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which is one of the organisations that brought the lawsuit. Jaffer tells host Steve Clemons that the issue is much wider than the rights of non-citizens in the country. The government's actions have the effect of "stifling a political viewpoint that the government doesn't like". Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Africa’s leaders have no one to blame but themselves if they cannot reach equitable trade deals with the United States, argues the former representative of the African Union to the US, Arikana Chihombori-Quao. Chihombori-Quao tells host Steve Clemons that US President Donald Trump’s “trade, not aid” policy opens up “an opportunity that African leaders were not awarded by the colonisers, the European nations, when they set out to exploit the continent of Africa”. She adds that African leaders should not allow themselves to be bullied by Trump, “because he has what you need, you also have what he wants”. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Israeli columnist Gideon Levy tells host Steve Clemons that almost all Israelis believe their country “has the right to do whatever it wants”. This includes war crimes and plans to create concentration camps for Palestinians in Gaza, in preparation for expulsion. Levy argues that it makes no difference if a Republican or Democratic administration were in power in the United States or if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or a different politician were in power in Israel. “The same war might have taken place, and the same crimes of war would have been committed,” he said. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Although it’s not clear that Israeli leaders want to end the "Forever War" they launched in the aftermath of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, the US has enough leverage to force a truce, argues Georgetown University visiting scholar, Khaled Elgindy. Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who quit in protest of President Biden’s Gaza policies, argues that Israel’s war was “not really about Hamas” but more about the Israeli desire to control Gaza, the West Bank and the wider region. Sheline and Elgindy delve into the details of the proposed ceasefire deal with host Steve Clemons. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
United States President Donald Trump can force Israel to end the war on Gaza if he shows the same gumption as he did with Iran, argues Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Parsi discusses the wider implications of the 12-day war on Iran with host Steve Clemons, including: Will Iran double down on its nuclear weapons programme? Will improved Iran-US relations lead to sanctions relief? Why did European leaders legitimise the unprovoked US and Israeli attacks, instead of calling for the “rules-based order” as they do in Ukraine? Does Iran have allies? Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Direct US involvement in Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran was a dangerous decision, argues Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East history at Johns Hopkins University. Hours before a ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran was announced, Nasr told host Steve Clemons that “the US doesn’t have a regime change option in Iran” and should be wary of humiliating Tehran, which would lead to long-term consequences. Nasr argues that the 12-Day War was meant to establish Israel’s dominance as the premier Middle East power, backed by Washington, with no room for challengers. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
US President Donald Trump has made his administration “a subcontractor, a junior partner” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objectives in the Middle East, argues Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen. As the president mulls further involvement in Israel’s attack on Iran, Senator Van Hollen tells host Steve Clemons that “This notion that you can just drop a few big bombs and be done with it misunderstands history, because there is a real risk that the United States will get dragged deeper and deeper into this war.” Van Hollen also criticised the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as “death traps” for Palestinians. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
United States President Donald Trump promised Americans that his crackdown on immigration would lead to a better life, but “now they’re seeing that isn’t working”, argues Democratic Congressman Rohit Khanna. Khanna tells host Steve Clemons that the Democratic Party “needs to respect American voters”. Americans “want to have hope again in America ... They’re tired of threatening to arrest each other.” He says Elon Musk could be an asset for Democrats, as he opposes several Trump initiatives, such as banning all international students, gutting scientific research, imposing blanket tariffs, and adding to the US government debt. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Despite the White House pressure to end the Ukraine war, which has resulted in face-to-face talks, it has only worsened. Andrey Kortunov, the former director of the Russian International Affairs Council, tells host Steve Clemons that war is a high priority for Moscow, and a low priority for Washington, so Russia is not in a rush to resolve the conflict according to United States President Donald Trump’s timeline. Former National Intelligence Council officer Angela Stent argues that the wider Russian strategy is to undo the Western advances made in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
By cracking down on immigration and defunding scientific research, the United States is slowly losing its position as the world leader in research and development, argues Holden Thorp, editor of Science journal and former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thorp tells host Steve Clemons that the US government had made a concerted effort over the past 80 years to fund scientific research, but with the changes ushered in by the administration of President Donald Trump, Thorp predicts the results will be “bad for science in general, and also for the US role in innovation”. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
With a battered economy and a restless population, Iran is as desperate as the United States to come together, Johns Hopkins University Professor Vali Nasr argues. Nasr told host Steve Clemons that US President Donald Trump's administration is eager to reach an arms control deal with Iran, and Iran is eager to grow economically. “Both of them have arrived, after 40 some years, at a juncture where they need to change the direction of their relationship,” Nasr said. Join the conversation on Nasr’s latest book, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, which explains how Iran’s anti-Americanism “is not ideological or theological”. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
United States President Donald Trump plans to tout trillions of dollars of Arab investments in the US as a major achievement, but other issues are at stake, says University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami. Israel is threatening to further destroy the Gaza Strip unless progress is made in its ceasefire talks with Hamas. Meanwhile, Israel has refused to allow any food to enter Gaza - home to more than 2 million Palestinians - for more than two months. And despite Israeli objections, Trump may soon be able to reach a deal with Iran on its nuclear program. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Is United States President Donald Trump leading his nation into economic ruin and authoritarian dystopia or correcting its course after decades of inertia? Republican strategist James Davis and Democratic strategist Joel Rubin tell host Steve Clemons that Trump has delivered on his promise to “shake the place up”. But not all Americans believe that the economic pain caused by trade wars will lead to long-term gain. With the Democratic Party in tatters, there is no alternative vision for the country on the horizon, leaving Americans wondering about rising costs and eroding freedoms. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
The deal offered by the United States is an “unfortunate compromise” that should be accepted by Russia and Ukraine, argues Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Lieven tells host Steve Clemons that Ukraine’s leaders should acknowledge that the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia over the past years are lost. He adds that Russia – by accepting a ceasefire on current battle lines – has “given up” on trying to occupy all the territory of Ukraine it had hoped for. Meanwhile, Europe “has nothing serious to offer” to end the fighting, Lieven says. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Veteran Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani argues that it’s “legitimate” for US President Donald Trump to be worrying about the widening gap between rich and poor in the United States, but his idea to force factory jobs back to the US is probably not going to work. Mahbubani tells host Steve Clemons that China will be damaged by the current trade war with the US, but “the Chinese are prepared to accept short-term pain for long-term gain”. The disarray in US policy is “a gift to China,” says Mahbubani. “I don’t see countries walking away from China.” Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama want the same things in the Middle East, argues Steven Cook, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations: “disentangling the US from its foreign adventures”. Cook tells host Steve Clemons that Trump wants a deal with Iran, and may be pressuring Israel to end its war on Gaza before his proposed trip to the Gulf region next month. There is a “trust deficit” between Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, adds Cook, and this explains why Trump told Netanyahu to “be reasonable” regarding Syria and Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
As the US government imposed tariffs on goods from all other countries, President Donald Trump has asked Americans to “hang tough". But economists are warning of negative consequences for American households and businesses. Georgetown University professor Michael Strain, who heads economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, tells host Steve Clemons that “the risk of recession is very, very real.” Trump believes that the tariffs will stimulate the US economy and bring jobs back after decades of outsourcing, Strain argues, but the opposite is more likely: costs will rise, manufacturing will decrease, and Trump’s approval rating will go down. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
If the sharing of private chats of top United States intelligence officials with a reporter “were a part of an episode of Veep [a satirical US TV series], I wouldn’t have believed it”, former Pentagon official Alex Wagner says. The chats touched on Yemen, Europe, and other foreign and domestic policy concerns. Wagner and military affairs journalist Kevin Baron tell host Steve Clemons that the inadvertent inclusion of the journalist in the Signal group chats indicates a level of “carelessness” that is more insidious than the Trump administration cares to admit. Despite the gravity of the mistake, no one expects any accountability for the officials involved. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
In a span of days, Israel resumed its bombing campaign against the people of Gaza, the US launched a war with Yemen, and President Donald Trump threatened Iran to negotiate with Washington or else face war. But despite all the aggression, is the US getting its way? Not necessarily, argues Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. He tells host Steve Clemons that “the US and Israel are not looking to establish a regional order that’s acceptable to the region itself.” Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
Far from being a tragedy for Africa, the demise of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the hands of President Donald Trump's administration should be cause for celebration, argues Arikana Chihombori-Quao, the former ambassador of the African Union to the US. Chihombori-Quao tells host Steve Clemons that USAID doesn’t have much to show for its decades of education and healthcare projects in Africa and often destabilised countries under the guise of environmental, human rights or social justice agendas. And if the US is not interested in Africa, African leaders shouldn’t beg for better relations, she said. “It takes two to tango,” the former diplomat said. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
As long as Israel keeps moving the goalposts, former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy argues, there's no way to reach phase two of the ceasefire in Gaza, which Israel itself signed. Levy, president of the US/Mideast Project, tells host Steve Clemons that the biggest question is whether the United States, which is the guarantor of the agreement, will allow Israel to scuttle it. Phase two requires Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and commit to the end of the war, which it is loath to do. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
United States President Donald Trump sees many European countries as extensions of the Democratic Party abroad, and thus his “adversaries”, argues Ed Luce, the US national editor at the Financial Times. Luce tells host Steve Clemons that the string of European leaders “bringing fruits to the volcano” in Washington will not be able to change Trump’s views on Ukraine or Europe in general. “America now sees the world as a jungle,” he says. The power vacuum left by the US will usher in “a dangerous time ... when you have the revenge of geopolitics, the return of history,” Luce says. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive
United States President Donald Trump's administration flipped the script on US-Europe relations in February. European officials were berated for being antidemocratic and were told their involvement was not needed in ending the Ukraine war. Meanwhile, US and Russian officials started meetings to end that war. Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute, argues that European fears of Russian expansion are greatly exaggerated. But Melinda Haring, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, tells host Steve Clemons that it’s dangerous for the US to reverse course on Ukraine and normalise relations with Russia.
Western ideals of morality and international law have been dealt a fatal blow by Israel’s war on Gaza, argues author Pankaj Mishra. Mishra, whose latest book is The World After Gaza: A History, tells host Steve Clemons that US and Israeli leaders are normalising the idea of mass expulsion of the two million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip and may eventually succeed in carrying it out as the world watches. The author dives into the racist logic behind some Western foreign policies and argues that India has lost “moral and diplomatic leadership” due to its support for Israel.
Though cost cuts pursued by US President Donald Trump may be popular among many Americans, economists differ in their assessment of these measures' potential outcomes. Peterson Institute for International Economics senior fellow Joseph Gagnon tells host Steve Clemons that Trump’s idea that tariffs on imported goods can replace taxes is unrealistic. The United States government is bloated and needs modernisation, Gagnon argues. But while measures including firing thousands of federal employees and gutting USAID can save billions, what impact could they have on the national economy and on the country's trillions of dollars in debt? Join the conversation on the long-term implications of Trump’s “major reform” of the US government.
Despite the rhetoric, US President Donald Trump will not be able to ethnically cleanse Gaza nor resolve the Ukraine war, argues University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer. Mearsheimer tells host Steve Clemons that Arab governments fear “the risk of being overthrown by their populations” should they bend to Trump’s desire to “clean out” the Palestinian people in Gaza. On Ukraine, Mearsheimer predicts a “frozen conflict” without a peace treaty, and warns that Trump should stop “slapping around” US allies if he wants their cooperation in Europe, Latin America and Asia.
After Amazon and Google signed a $1.2bn contract to launch Project Nimbus, providing cloud technology to the Israeli government and the military, tech workers started to notice more Israeli use of artificial intelligence against the Palestinian people.
Many of those engineers have become activists for “No Tech for Genocide”, including Zelda Montes, who was one of the dozens of Google staff who were recently fired for protesting against their company’s involvement with Israel.
Montes and tech entrepreneur Paul Biggar, who founded Tech for Palestine, tell host Steve Clemons why they refuse to build technology used for oppression, surveillance, warfare and apartheid.
In this episode, host Steve Clemons speaks with Ussama Makdisi, professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley; and Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.
The exchange of direct attacks between Iran and Israel is likely to subside, but the shadow war goes on, which could intensify as long as the war on Gaza continues, argues Vaez.
And as long as the wider Palestinian issue remains unresolved, there is little to no hope for long-lasting stability throughout the region, says Makdisi, especially with the US policy of rejecting equal regard for the rights of the Palestinian people.
To the United Nations official tasked with reporting on Palestinian human rights, international law is clear: Israel should withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967.
Instead, Israel aims for the “impossibility to continue civil life in Gaza,” as UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese tells host Steve Clemons.
Israel doesn’t deny the killings and mass destruction, but instead justifies its behaviour as “compliance with international humanitarian law”, Albanese says.
And the failure of governments around the world to force Israel to stop the onslaught only weakens the idea of international law, “because it creates precedents for others to violate it”.
In this episode, Annelle Sheline tells host Steve Clemons that the contradictions in US policy toward Israel’s war in Gaza made her job as a State Department officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor “so difficult”. Sheline announced her resignation publicly on March 27.
And Khaled Elgindy, a political scientist at the Middle East Institute, argues that US President Joe Biden is a big factor in the country’s stagnant policy toward Israel – supporting the war, with some alleviation of the humanitarian crisis. “Most people in the administration have probably moved on in their thinking,” Elgindy says.
The Biden administration has fallen into a predictable pattern on Gaza, according to Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch: Talk about concern for civilian casualties, but undercut any pressure on Israel to stop the war.
Roth tells host Steve Clemons that US President Joe Biden is engaging in “cynical” election politics by refusing to enforce the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire, or the World Court ruling ordering Israel to allow more food into Gaza, where starvation and disease are spreading because of Israeli measures.
US disregard for international law will have far-reaching consequences, says Roth.
All of Israel’s modern wars have ended with US intervention, but the current war in Gaza has gone on for half a year because “Biden is a slow learner”, argues University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick.
Israel needs an outside power to blame when it cannot achieve its aims. “That's because the war aims are fundamentally political, and the military cannot achieve them,” says Lustick.
Lustick and Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti talk to host Steve Clemons about the current situation on the ground and the debate within the Democratic Party in the United States.
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“Does the United States want to be complicit in genocide?” This is the question that US leaders should be asking themselves as Israel’s war on Gaza continues, argues Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
Sachs tells host Steve Clemons that Israel could not continue “for one day” without US support, and the rhetoric from top Democrats criticising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “meaningless” because no action is taken to stop the war crimes.
This has led to US isolation on the world stage, as Israel is allowed to continue “whatever they have in their minds… which will never lead to peace”.
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US Senator Chris Van Hollen says it is time for the Biden administration to tell Israel, “If you continue to ignore us, there will be consequences.”
Senator Van Hollen, who is one of seven senators (out of 100) to have called for a permanent ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, tells host Steve Clemons that Hamas’s surprise attack last year “does not justify the humanitarian catastrophe that we’re witnessing in Gaza”.
The Democratic senator from Maryland said that the United States has to use “all the levers of our power and influence” to allow more aid to get to starving Palestinians.
US policy on Israel “looks incoherent because it is incoherent,” argues Matt Duss, former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders, and this is making the United States look “feckless and weak”.
Duss tells host Steve Clemons that Israel is violating US law by using US-supplied weapons while preventing humanitarian aid. But President Joe Biden “has simply taken the tools of leverage off the table”.
Duss, the executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, says there are still no indications that the Abandon Biden movement within the Democratic Party, nor Israel’s war crimes, will lead to a shift in course anytime soon.
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The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was the last big medical facility in the Gaza Strip destroyed by Israel’s war.
The World Health Organization says Israel killed 627 doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other healthcare workers between October and January.
With almost no supplies entering Gaza, what is next for the 2.3 million Palestinians forced to live in inhuman conditions?
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Dr Thaer Ahmad, an emergency room physician in Chicago who recently returned from volunteering at Nasser Hospital; and with Dr Muaiad Kittaneh, a haematologist/oncologist who co-founded the Palestinian-American Medical Association.
About 20 countries have announced suspension of funding to UNRWA, the agency that has been providing services to Palestinian refugees since 1950.
The official reason for the suspension was Israel’s accusation that a dozen UNRWA employees in Gaza had participated in the October 7 Hamas attacks.
To understand the potential consequences of undermining UNRWA – especially amid a humanitarian catastrophe – host Steve Clemons speaks with Leila Hilal, a former adviser to the UNRWA commissioner-general, and Anne Irfan, lecturer at University College London and author of Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the International Refugee System.
The United States' support for Israel’s war on Gaza makes the country look ineffectual and hypocritical to the rest of the world, according to Harvard University professor Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.
Walt tells host Steve Clemons that Israel and the US-Israel relationship have changed over the decades, but US President Joe Biden is holding on to a view of Israel formed in the West in the 1970s.
By rejecting a ceasefire, the US looks like it "encourages conflict" instead of being a peacemaker, Walt argues, especially since Israel has no political strategy for resolving the Palestinian question.
American voters feel “impotent and hopeless” as they approach an election where the main choices are a “neo-fascist Pied Piper” (Donald Trump) or “the war criminals of the Democratic Party”, argues independent presidential candidate Cornel West.
West, one of the United States’s pre-eminent philosophers and justice activists, tells host Steve Clemons that President Joe Biden is enabling Israeli genocide and that Israel cannot be secure if “precious Jewish security and safety is predicated on the domination of precious Palestinians”.
West argues that recent talk of a two-state solution is “subterfuge – a refusal to deal with the 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank”.
Actions speak louder than words, so journalists should conclude that Israel’s war on Gaza is proceeding exactly as the Biden administration likes, argues Jeremy Scahill, one of the co-founders of the independent news website The Intercept.
Scahill tells host Steve Clemons that the United States offers political, legal, diplomatic and military support for Israel’s scorched-earth campaign, while some officials have voiced concern for Palestinian lives.
Scahill argues that even if Hamas did not exist, Israel would face armed resistance because, over the decades, Palestinians have been sent the message that diplomacy would not work and Israel would not treat them as human beings.
President Joe Biden’s failure to demonstrate the same regard and sympathy for Palestinian suffering as he has shown Israel has turned the United States into “Israel’s lawyer,” says former US State Department official Aaron David Miller.
Miller tells host Steve Clemons that Israel has lost the Western perception of being David in the story of “David v Goliath,” and its image will be further damaged the more its people veer to the right.
US officials “don't have any better answers right now than the Israelis do”, Miller says, adding that there will be no “open breach” in relations with the Netanyahu government.
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Israel waged 15 wars against Gaza in the last 75 years, and all failed to resolve the core issues, says former French diplomat Jean-Pierre Filiu, professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po.
Filiu tells host Steve Clemons that Gaza’s rich history as a trading post connecting Africa and Asia goes back 4,000 years. The way Israel has cut it off from the world “goes against its history and the nature of its people”.
He says Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s heritage sites - ancient mosques, churches, museums - means that “the memory of humanity is being erased before our eyes.”
By mimicking United States tactics in World War II in Germany and Japan, Israel has made a grave mistake with its war on Gaza, according to retired US Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt.
Kimmitt tells host Steve Clemons that Israel’s tactics - firebombing and “starting new” - have made it unwelcome among the peoples of the region.
Despite Israel’s assassination of a top Hamas commander in Lebanon and disruption of shipping routes in the Red Sea, the US is less concerned about regional instability than it was in October. The situation “has not hit US red lines,” he says.
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David Frum, staff writer for The Atlantic magazine and a pro-Israel supporter, tells host Steve Clemons that Israel and the United States should “avoid solution-ism” for the Palestinians and focus on day-to-day necessities, like food and water.
The way Israel has responded to the Hamas attack of October 7 was “inevitable”, Frum says, adding that “Israel has never been allowed this much scope to act”, by the US, United Kingdom and European Union.
Join this wide-ranging conversation on the internal debates within Israeli society, and how Israel envisions the future of the region, including rapprochement with Saudi Arabia.
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In the evangelical Christian worldview, the 1948 creation of Israel was a fulfilment of Biblical prophecy and the Palestinians are either “non-existent” or “the enemies of God, because they are the enemies of the State of Israel”, explains Palestinian human rights defender Jonathan Kuttab.
Kuttab tells host Steve Clemons that believers of this interpretation of holy scripture do not care about international law or catastrophic war in the region. “They say, ‘Bring it on. That’s the End Times. That’s the Second Coming. That’s wonderful.’”
And if 30 percent of Americans hold these beliefs, what is the impact on US policy on Palestine and Israel?
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“No national liberation movement in history is based on what its enemy wants,” says the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad.
For the Palestinian Authority to have any legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian people, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would have to expand its membership to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Fayyad tells host Steve Clemons.
Without achieving a "national consensus", the Palestinian Authority is in no position to rule the Gaza Strip when Israel's war on Gaza ends, Fayyad says. Otherwise, the United States' hopes for a “revitalised” Palestinian leadership are pointless.
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Contrary to what Israeli leaders say, the war on Gaza is not making Israel safer, according to political scientist Ian Bremmer, founder of Eurasia Group, which studies geopolitical risk.
Bremmer argues that the human carnage created by Israel in Gaza over the past few weeks is strengthening Hamas and isolating Israel.
Meanwhile, United States support for Israel’s actions has made Washington “more isolated … than the Russians were when they invaded Ukraine”.
Join host Steve Clemons as he asks Bremmer about the war on Gaza and its global ramifications, including the roles played by Iran, Saudi Arabia and some European countries.
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Israel has gone far beyond “going after Hamas” in the first 10 weeks of its war on Gaza, according to one of the United States' leading political scientists, John Mearsheimer.
He tells host Steve Clemons that murdering hundreds of civilians daily and starving the rest is a “punishment campaign” and “should be unacceptable to decent people all over the world”.
In this episode, Mearsheimer, who teaches international relations at the University of Chicago, looks into Israel’s long-term strategies and explains why the elites in the US, Europe and the Arab world are not taking concrete steps to stop Israel’s bombing campaign.
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University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami says US President Joe Biden is making his decisions on Palestine and Israel “based on personal beliefs, personal preferences, personal emotions,” and “not necessarily driven by a considered assessment of American interests at stake”.
Telhami tells host Steve Clemons that Biden’s “inability to show empathy” for the Palestinians is shocking, and that the president’s recent warnings to Israel were driven in part by his calculations for next year’s election.
All the talk about plans for “the day after” the war are distractions from the real-time death and destruction in Gaza, Telhami says.
For expressing their opinions on the Israel-Palestine, many Muslim Americans and Arab Americans have paid a hefty price, including the loss of jobs and suspension from college.
Universities across the US are also cracking down on student activism.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has received double the usual amount of reports of bias and requests for help, according to the executive director, Nihad Awad.
Speaking to host Steve Clemons, Awad warns that as the Israeli narrative continues “falling apart”, more attempts to dehumanise the Palestinian people will be seen.
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Some US officials have talked about the need to protect innocent Palestinian lives, but US President Joe Biden has said almost nothing.
Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Steven Cook says it was a mistake for Biden to have offered the “bear hug” - full, unconditional support for Israel.
Now Biden is stuck in a position of supplying Israel with the means to kill more Palestinians while asking Israel to allow basic food and water into Gaza.
Join host Steve Clemons in his wide-ranging conversation with Cook about where the war on Gaza is heading.
For many on the American right, the Palestinians are a proxy for Iran and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel are "criminals".
On the left, the Palestinian issue is about a nation striving for freedom.
The only thing both sides agree on is that peace and stability are highly unlikely anytime soon.
In this episode, host Steve Clemons gets two diametrically opposed takes on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The first is from former US National Security Advisor John Bolton. The second is from the former executive director of Human Rights Watch in the Middle East and North Africa, Sarah Leah Whitson.
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After the war on Gaza, US President Joe Biden says he wants to “reinvigorate” the attempts to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But the devil is in the details. After the Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel’s scorched-earth war on Gaza, will either side want to talk about peace and stability? Are Israelis willing to make the compromises that Palestinians would find acceptable, and vice versa?
Mara Rudman worked as a Middle East envoy in the Clinton and Obama administrations. She tells host Steve Clemons that US national security interests will force Washington to impose a resolution.
Israel has not explained what it seeks to accomplish in its war on Gaza beyond the destruction of Hamas, according to US General David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA and former commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Petraeus tells host Steve Clemons that the US has no choice but to remain a “steadfast ally” of Israel, lest China and other countries point to Washington’s abandonment of its friends.
In this wide-ranging conversation, the former CENTCOM commander added that “there are no hands going up in the region” to volunteer to manage Gaza after the war.
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President Joe Biden's rigid pro-Israel stance would have been considered convention for United States policy 50 years ago.
"It's not a mainstream position any more," says Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.
Alterman tells host Steve Clemons that Hamas's surprise attack on Israel, and Israel's continuing destruction of the Gaza Strip, will force major changes in the political leadership of Palestinians and Israelis.
There will be no progress unless Israel makes way for a solution "that gives dignity and some sense of self-determination to the Palestinians," says Alterman.
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When the US Congress voted to censure the only Palestinian-American member of the House, congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, it argued that she was “promoting false narratives” on the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.
Journalists Ryan Grim and Katie Halper tell host Steve Clemons that if Congress cannot bear to hear different views on Palestine, it is a worrying sign for American society at large.
Many Americans have been fired from their jobs for expressing their opinions, and pro-Palestinian student groups have been banned around the country.
But the debate endures as Israel’s war on Gaza rages on.
In Afghanistan, United States General Stanley McChrystal referred to “insurgent math” to explain how every civilian killed by US forces led to 10 new insurgents.
This is the same problem Israel is creating for itself by killing massive numbers of innocent Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to US Representative Seth Moulton, a Marine veteran who fought in Iraq.
“I want Israel and Palestine to have peace,” Moulton tells host Steve Clemons. But for that to happen, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to put forth a political solution and “explain to the Palestinians what their future is”.
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Israeli-American peace activist Miko Peled has been advocating anti-Zionism for decades, arguing that Western governments who back Israel “are supporting the fight against justice, the fight against peace”.
As US officials stress the need for a two-state solution, Peled tells host Steve Clemons that a serious peace between Palestinians and Israelis can only be achieved if all of them - followers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - live as equals and share the country.
The biggest problem facing the Palestinians, according to Peled, is that they are “political orphans” - they have no regional power defending their rights and aspirations.
While the United States government fully backs Israeli actions in its war on Gaza, other countries have taken a different approach.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Israel’s actions have “gone beyond the scope of self-defence”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pushed back against the Israeli and US classification of Hamas as a terrorist group, saying, “Hamas is not a terrorist group, it is a group of liberators who protect their land.”
Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Charles Kupchan tells host Steve Clemons that the US will have to get used to a world where Washington can’t always call the shots.
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Israel has killed more than 4,385 Palestinians, destroyed entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, and shut off food, water and electricity to millions of people after a Hamas attack killed more than 1,405 Israelis on October 7.
United States President Joe Biden wants to give billions of dollars of additional aid to Israel to pursue its military campaign.
The Biden administration is rejecting calls for a ceasefire, but mediating for small amounts of food aid for Gaza.
Daniel Levy, a former adviser to the Israeli government, tells host Steve Clemons that US support for Israeli warmongering is “leading to hell”.
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Decades of misguided strategy have wreaked havoc on the region, even before Hamas’s recent attack on Israel and the Israeli response in Gaza, according to Harvard University Professor Stephen Walt.
Global powers have allowed the status quo to fester. Washington still publicly calls for a two-state solution even though developments in the region have rendered this policy obsolete. Meanwhile, Israel believed it could keep a lid on Gaza indefinitely as it pursues its settlement policy in the West Bank.
So what can we expect now? Join host Steve Clemons in this wide-ranging discussion with one of the top US political scientists.
Was it an historic blunder for Western leaders to keep expanding NATO eastward, even though they knew it would provoke a war with Russia eventually?
Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs argues that the United States provoked the tragedy in Ukraine, and that the Biden administration should be working to resolve it, even if that means painful compromises – such as redrawing the map of Ukraine.
Sachs tells host Steve Clemons that the war is becoming less and less popular throughout Europe and the US, which means that large-scale funding may soon dry up.
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Will the Republican-led impeachment inquiry succeed in painting United States President Joe Biden as “crooked"? Will it backfire and be judged as a colossal waste of time? Can Biden’s attempt to paint the 2024 election as a “fight for democracy” work again? How much will Biden’s age affect his chances of winning? Will the economy play into the hands of Biden or his chief opponent, former President Donald Trump?
On this episode, host Steve Clemons asks pollsters Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, and Micah Roberts of Public Opinion Strategies, to weigh in on the main drivers of US public opinion.
A society overflowing with guns and drugs. Politicians who would rather cater to the extreme fringes of their parties instead of the country as a whole. And dark money flowing in from secretive billionaires with eccentric agendas.
This is the United States depicted in the novel The Last Election by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
Yang left the Democratic Party to start his own non-partisan party, called Forward.
He tells host Steve Clemons that the US is headed for a bleak future unless new leaders rise who are willing to "solve the problems that are literally driving us crazy".
The peace treaty signed by Palestinian and Israeli leaders on 13 September 1993 was a game-changer.
The Oslo Accords, brokered by Norwegian diplomats, were supposed to be a five-year plan. Palestinians achieved some degree of self-rule in disjointed parts of their historic homeland in return for recognising Israel as a legitimate state.
Three decades later, the Oslo plan still governs the relationship between the Palestinians and the Israelis – but a lasting peaceful relationship between the two sides is as unattainable as ever.
Host Steve Clemons asks Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti and Israeli politician Yossi Beilin about what went wrong.
The days of Africa's resources being used to benefit Western powers instead of the African people are dwindling, argues the former representative of the African Union to the United States, Arikana Chihombori-Quao.
Although a string of recent coups may give the impression that African nations are turning their back on the West, and looking more towards Russia and China, this is an oversimplification, according to the former diplomat.
She tells The Bottom Line host Steve Clemons that the US would be wise to decouple its policy from that of France if it wants to regain trust on the continent.
What if the fears of artificial intelligence are unfounded? Is AI nothing more than a “mashup” of everything available online? And is there zero possibility that machines could one day build other machines, making humans irrelevant?
Earlier this month, host Steve Clemons spoke with computer scientist Jaan Tallinn, who argues that AI poses an existential risk to humans.
This week, Steve talks with computer scientist Jaron Lanier for a totally different take: Humanity has nothing to fear. Lanier argues that we’ve been conditioned to fear that technology will reach the point of sentient being – fears perpetuated by science fiction.
Eight of the nine Republican candidates vying for their party’s nomination to run for president of the United States next year held their first debate and exposed the divisions inside today’s Republican Party.
Most agreed to support former president Donald Trump if he ends up winning the nomination.
They all demanded more security at the country’s southern border, and some called for military action inside Mexico to stem the supply of fentanyl amid high US demand.
Host Steve Clemons asks Republican former Congressman Rodney Davis and Semafor reporter Shelby Talcott about which candidates have a chance at progressing as Trump holds a commanding lead.
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Jaan Tallinn is no stranger to disruptive tech: 25 years ago he co-engineered Kazaa, which allowed for the free download of films and music. He also co-engineered Skype, which disrupted traditional voice and video communication.
But when he looks at the way Big Tech and governments are pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence, he worries about our future. Could we be fast approaching the point when machines don’t need human input anymore?
Host Steve Clemons asks Tallinn, who founded the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University, about risks and opportunities posed by AI.
With wildfires and relentless heatwaves, 2023 is on track to become the hottest year on record.
But temperatures have been rising for years, and journalist Jeff Goodall has been travelling throughout the US to document the changes that are already happening to life on the planet. He writes about his experiences in his new book, The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.
Join host Steve Clemons in this wide-ranging conversation on global warming change with Goodall and climate journalist Steve Mufson.
Whenever former United States President Donald Trump faces new legal trouble, he gets more donations and support from his base.
At least a dozen Republican politicians are competing to be the party’s nominee in the 2024 election, but opinion polls show that Republicans prefer Trump by wide margins.
Could the first Republican debate in Wisconsin on August 23 bring forth a breakout candidate who charms the public and mounts a serious challenge to Trump?
The Bottom Line host Steve Clemons takes a look at the Republican field with political reporters Julia Manchester of The Hill and David Weigel of Semafor.
Russia will be able to “turn the world upside down” if the West slows down its support for Ukraine now, says Chuck Hagel, a former United States secretary of defence.
To maintain the Western order, the Biden administration has no choice but to escalate the war, Hagel argues, even though domestic support for the Ukraine war will likely fall during the upcoming United States election season.
The Bottom Line host Steve Clemons discusses possible scenarios for the future of the war in Ukraine with Hagel and Ed Luce, the US editor of the Financial Times.
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For Washington, the negotiations with Iran are about making sure Tehran does not create nuclear bombs.
For Tehran, the negotiations are about easing the Western sanctions that have been holding back Iran’s economy.
And with elections being held in the United States and Iran next year, politicians are eager to reach a deal. So what is preventing an agreement?
The Bottom Line host Steve Clemons asks Iran experts Roxane Farmanfarmaian and Eli Lake about the chances of an Iran-US deal, the repercussions of the sidelining of veteran US negotiator Rob Malley, and the continuing protests in Iran.
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When great powers feel insecure and vulnerable, they lash out in unpredictable ways. This is what happened after the United States was attacked on 9/11, and it’s happening now as Russia feels besieged and encircled by NATO.
According to American political scientist John Mearsheimer, the Ukraine war could have been avoided if the West had abandoned the idea of Ukraine joining NATO from the start.
He tells The Bottom Line host Steve Clemons that the West is happy to support a frozen conflict that weakens Russia, but not NATO membership for Ukraine and direct involvement in the war.
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Millions of Americans say they are dissatisfied with both of the major parties: Democrat and Republican. And millions never vote. So why can’t any third parties break through and become viable alternatives? And could a big third party reduce the polarisation in American society?
Host Steve Clemons talks to political scientist Lee Drutman, author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America, and Holly Page, one of the co-founders of the No Labels organisation, which is trying to field third party candidates in United States elections.
The long-term effects of the pandemic are becoming more evident day by day. Globalisation was dying, but the virus accelerated the process. Loneliness has become the “invisible epidemic”. Since instability is the norm, younger investors are not afraid to make wild bets on meme stocks, NFTs or cryptocurrencies.
These are just some of the observations that Axios financial journalist Felix Salmon makes in his new book, The Phoenix Economy. He tells host Steve Clemons that some effects of the pandemic are positive, including tech innovations and the rise of wages due to labour shortages in some fields.
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Philosopher and activist Cornel West has a question: Why do so many Americans languish in prison, put up with indecent housing, or cope with decrepit schools and without proper healthcare when they live in the richest empire in the history of the world?
The United States presidential candidate is running on a third-party ticket, which historically gives him no chance of winning the White House in 2024.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Bottom Line, West tells host Steve Clemons that the country’s political elites are not interested in a robust conversation on wealth and justice, and that he aims to force that conversation onto the national stage.
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From humble beginnings in Chicago more than 50 years ago, the Special Olympics has grown into a major sports event.
This year the Games will be held in Berlin from June 17 to 25, with thousands of athletes competing from almost all participating countries.
Host Steve Clemons talks with Special Olympics Chairman, Tim Shriver, and Germany's ambassador to the United States, Emily Haber, about the impact that inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities is having on communities worldwide.
Purdue Pharma introduced the opioid painkiller OxyContin in the 1990s and promoted it aggressively as non-addictive.
United States government lawyers argued that the company’s owners, the Sacklers, knew how their medication was being abused widely, but doubled down on production – and profits. Recently a lawsuit was settled for $6bn.
Barry Meier, the author of Pain Killer (soon to be a Netflix series), started writing about the opioid epidemic 20 years ago when it was killing about 20,000 people yearly. He tells host Steve Clemons how corporate greed and government dithering have led that number to exceed 100,000 deaths last year alone.
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Americans’ trust in all levels of their government – including the presidency and Congress, and now the Supreme Court – is falling rapidly.
One of the top court’s justices, Clarence Thomas, was found to have been showered in pricey gifts from a billionaire businessman for years. The case has put the court’s ethics under scrutiny.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse tells host Steve Clemons that “dark money” – unlimited amounts of cash from undisclosed sources – has poisoned Americans’ faith in all pillars of US democracy.
So what are the consequences? And is there any way to restore faith in public institutions?
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Three months ago, United States President Joe Biden insisted that Ukraine does not need F-16 fighter jets, but last week in Japan, he joined the F-16 coalition.
The reason? Political risk analyst Ian Bremmer says the US and its allies are trying to put Ukraine in a stronger position for an eventual negotiated settlement with Russia, even if it means escalating the war over time.
In this episode, Steve Clemons asks Bremmer whether the G7 will soon matter less than BRICS, how the US and China will share global power, and why Biden cannot backtrack on many Trump-era trade wars.
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Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump claim they are fighting for the soul of the United States. And, as president, both were equally unpopular by their second year in office, hovering at about 40 percent approval ratings.
On The Bottom Line, host Steve Clemons asks Democratic and Republican campaign managers to weigh in on their candidates’ chances in the race for the White House next year.
Jason Miller, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, says his candidate’s anti-establishment message connects with millions of Americans - not only Republicans. Faiz Shakir, former campaign manager for Senator Bernie Sanders, says Trump’s candidacy ironically fuels support for the presumptive Democratic candidate, President Biden.
In their desperate attempt to “go viral”, digital media succeeded in disrupting and modernising traditional media outlets. But what has the price been?
Has the quality of information been sacrificed for content that will bring clicks and views? Is the drive for outrageous content that will drive comments and debate (“engagement”) tearing societies apart? In opinion polls, why do most Americans feel that the media do not care about people's best interests?
Host Steve Clemons talks with Ben Smith, former editor of Buzzfeed and current editor of Semafor, about his new book Traffic, chronicling the Age of Disinformation.
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Despite the declarations by French President Emmanuel Macron that the era of his country’s interference in Africa was “well over”, France - and the West in general - have been losing influence on the continent year after year.
Meanwhile, Russia, China, Turkey and other players have been ascendant.
Next month France will host the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, which aims to reset relations between the Global North and the Global South. But is it too little, too late?
Host Steve Clemons speaks with France’s minister of development, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, about his country's efforts to rethink its relationship with Africa.
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Both the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States agree that the government should borrow more money, but they disagree on spending priorities.
Is ballooning debt a problem? Is it a necessary evil? Can’t the US just print more money whenever it needs?
These are the issues on the table as negotiations start between Congress and the White House on raising the legally mandated limit on government borrowing, known as the debt ceiling. Currently the ceiling is set at $31.4 trillion.
On The Bottom Line, host Steve Clemons asks federal budget analysts Bobby Kogan and Gordon Gray about the next steps in the debate over runaway government spending.
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What does the United States want from the war in Ukraine?
Mainly, to put Ukraine in a good position when the time comes to negotiate. But there is “still a lot of fighting left” on both sides, according to Kevin Baron, executive editor at Defense One, a publication covering national security issues.
And Americans should consider their spending in Ukraine to be a “grand bargain” as Russia is being severely weakened without the loss of any American lives, according to Matt Dimmick, former director of Russia at the National Security Council.
On this episode of The Bottom Line, host Steve Clemons and his panel have a wide-ranging discussion about the future of the Ukraine war.
Historically, the United States punished nations that tried to trade oil using currencies other than the US dollar. But recently it has not been able to stop countries from branching out and making deals in other currencies.
Russia and China are leading the charge, but more countries may be jumping on the bandwagon, including Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
So, are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the dollar’s supremacy?
Host Steve Clemons puts this question to renowned energy market expert, Daniel Yergin, the vice chairman of S&P Global and author of The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations.
The district attorney of New York alleged that former United States President Donald Trump falsified his business records to conceal hush money payments to an adult film star, Stormy Daniels, in 2016.
At the heart of the lawsuit is whether this amounts to a “conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election”, according to prosecutors. Trump has denied all allegations.
Host Steve Clemons asks Yahoo News investigative journalist Michael Isikoff and Republican strategist Michael Ricci about the possible scenarios facing Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and how it affects the political landscape in the US.
Paul Rusesabagina is considered a hero by many for sheltering hundreds of Rwandans during the 1994 genocide. His story inspired the 2004 Hollywood film, Hotel Rwanda.
But in Kenya, his membership in an armed group landed him a 25-year sentence on terrorism charges, and he spent more than two years in jail in his homeland.
Diplomatic intervention by the United States resulted in a commutation of his sentence this month, and now Rusesabagina - who is a US legal permanent resident - is back with his family in Texas.
On The Bottom Line, host Steve Clemons asks Joshua Geltzer, the deputy Homeland Security Advisor, about the Biden administration's efforts to assist dozens of Americans jailed abroad.
It was supposed to be quick, and the invading American forces would be “greeted as liberators”, according to the neoconservative architects of the Iraq war in 2003.
But, in fact, that war would become a turning point for the United States and the world.
Historian Andrew Bacevich and journalist Jonathan Landay tell host Steve Clemons that the war’s consequences continue to unfold today, challenging the credibility of the “rules-based world order”, exposing the limits of what can be achieved through military force, and making people wonder what Washington means when it talks about “democracy promotion”.
In the last election, the Democratic Party in Florida lost hundreds of thousands of voters, while the Republican Party continues to grow.
Promising to fight against “woke” politics in the United States, Governor Ron DeSantis has attacked a high school programme teaching African American history and enforced a “Don’t Say Gay” policy in schools, among other initiatives to reinforce his conservative credentials in the expected lead-up to announcing his candidacy for president in 2024.
Host Steve Clemons asks Democratic politician Val Demings, a former police chief and congresswoman from Florida, about what her party is learning from what’s happening in her state.
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Economists call it “pandemic epiphanies".
During the first year of the COVID-19 lockdowns, people started questioning their life choices. Millions quit their jobs and pivoted to new fields.
When the economy started to open up in late 2021, companies in the United States had to pay more than pre-COVID salaries to recruit workers. American workers gained bargaining power in dealing with their companies.
But attempts to organise into unions are still met with ferocity by the biggest corporations.
Host Steve Clemons discusses the future of work with journalist Liz Hoffman, ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak and Indeed economist Nick Bunker.
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In a world faced with threats and challenges, many cynical politicians would rather kick the can down the road - and win votes - than make the tough decisions needed now.
At the same time, billions of people would happily trade globalisation for their old way of life, with nations embracing a “me first” attitude and eschewing inter-country cooperation and compromise for the collective good – even in dealing with pandemics and natural disasters.
Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed "Dr Doom" for predicting the 2008 crash of the United States economy years before it happened, tells host Steve Clemons how a US "debt trap", artificial intelligence and deglobalisation are part of the bleak future that awaits humanity within the next 20 years.
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In this special episode on the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine, host Steve Clemons gets two different takes on the conflict: from Moscow and Washington.
White House official John Kirby said that the United States wants to put Ukraine in a better position if and when it comes time to negotiate. The Biden administration understands that funding the war is becoming less popular, but believes that Americans are still willing to sacrifice for Ukraine's independence.
In Moscow, political scientist Andrey Kortunov argues that the West must learn that it cannot force all countries to play by Western rules.
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The killing of Tyre Nichols by a group of police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, has renewed the debate on reforming the police.
Some Americans argue that the institution should not be indicted just because there are a few “bad apples” in a local police force here and there. But others argue that the entire system has racism and inequality baked into it.
The question of how to change the culture across thousands of local police forces and communities is a thorny one.
Host Steve Clemons asks former Memphis police officer Thaddeus Johnson about the prospects for fixing law enforcement in the United States.
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From the outset of the war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron warned the West that Russia must not be "humiliated".
France was berated by its allies for its relatively low support for the war, as Macron argued that France needed to differentiate itself from the rest of the West in case it was needed as a go-between for the two sides.
More recently, Paris stepped up the pace of military support for Ukraine and joined Germany in its “change of course”.
Host Steve Clemons asks the French ambassador to the United States, Philippe Etienne, about the latest in Franco-American relations.
Is it futile to resist China’s superpower status? Is it time for the United States to live with it?
Depending on the answer, the world could be heading towards more stability – or chaos.
Kishore Mahbubani was a Singaporean diplomat for more than 30 years and served as president of the United Nations Security Council. He tells host Steve Clemons that the US should get accustomed to a multipolar world it can no longer dominate.
Mahbubani argues that the "Asian century" has already begun and that Washington should not allow issues such as Taiwan to ruin their relations.
When the newly formed Israeli government announced that it wanted to change the way courts work in Israel, alarm bells rang in Washington.
In places where court decisions may be vetoed by politicians, it is taken as a sign that a country is becoming less democratic, like Hungary.
University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole tells host Steve Clemons that although nothing will fundamentally shift in the United States-Israel relationship, Democratic Party leaders would prefer it if Israel had more "shared values" with the US to justify the high levels of Washington's support.
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For the first few months of the war in Ukraine, NATO countries generally pulled together to confront and isolate Russia.
But domestic concerns on both sides of the Atlantic threaten that unity.
Many European countries hesitate to adopt the same Ukraine policies advocated by Washington. And opinion polls indicate that many Americans would rather focus on inflation instead of funding wars abroad.
Host Steve Clemons discusses the future of the transatlantic alliance with former German diplomat, Boris Ruge; editor of The National Interest, Jacob Heilbrunn; and Al Jazeera bureau chief in Washington, DC, Abderrahim Foukara.
Republicans vowed to get tough on immigration and government spending as they took the reins of the House of Representatives last week.
But much of the Congressional politics of the next two years will be posturing, as any bill passed by the House of Representatives would have to pass in the Senate, which is still narrowly controlled by the Democratic Party.
Host Steve Clemons asks Republican strategists Rina Shah and Tim Constantine about what to expect over the next two years on issues ranging from abortion to Ukraine.
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President Joe Biden promised a “humane” immigration process on his first day in office, but not much has changed since the anti-immigrant policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Millions of people from Latin America make the journey north to cross into the United States every year, and the ones who make it get stuck for years in legal limbo, waiting for a hearing.
Steve Clemons speaks with immigration lawyer Allen Orr and reporter Uriel Garcia about how the debate among Americans on whether immigrants are welcome has stymied chances for any new laws to modernise the system.
As the Ukraine war becomes a "hurting stalemate" for both Russia and Ukraine, is the prospect of outright success for either side becoming impossible?
Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, argues that Kyiv and Moscow will soon have to make "awkward and painful" compromises if they do not want the conflict to turn into a “forever war".
He tells host Steve Clemons that many Americans still believe there can be a decisive “Hollywood ending” to the conflict, but, like we have seen with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this almost never happens in real life.
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According to the congressional committee looking into the riots that took place in the United States on January 6, 2021, former President Donald Trump inspired an insurrection against the country because he could not publicly accept that he had lost the 2020 election.
But to his loyal fans, Trump remains a folk hero, and the accusations against him are a witch hunt conducted under the guise of “defending democracy”.
So which is it?
Steve Clemons hosts a panel of journalists who have been following the legal investigations against Trump in Florida, New York, Georgia and Washington to learn if anything can harm his chances to seek office again.
Officials in the United States look upon Africans as people “in need of help” or people who “need to be told what to do”, and this is destroying relations between Africa and Washington, according to the former African Union representative to the US, Arikana Chihombori-Quao.
“The US needs to call a timeout and treat Africans with respect,” Chihombori told host Steve Clemons, adding that the US-Africa Leaders Summit hosted by the White House this week “will fail unless Americans see Africans as equals".
Chihombori-Quao argues that pan-African unity is the only path for the continent to be less dependent on outside powers.
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The richest man alive has bought Twitter and is bending it to his will. But Elon Musk is not the only billionaire who has a huge impact on society - they all do.
That’s why people are fascinated by the world’s top business leaders.
But is media hype to blame as well? Former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was also a media darling for years before the collapse of his company.
And what traits mark the difference between a successful CEO and a disastrous leader?
Host Steve Clemons talks to management gurus Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, professor of management at Yale University, and Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur.
Russia, China and smaller regional powers are increasingly refusing to play by the rules set out by the United States – and the reasons may lie within the US itself.
With the potential for radical foreign policy shifts after every election, other countries are not sure which Washington they are dealing with. And Americans are also becoming more inward-looking.
The result is a consistent loss of global standing for the US, according to Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Host Steve Clemons asks Haass if the biggest threat facing the American-led world order is the US.
The “woke” movement in the United States peaked two years ago, after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a white policeman in Minnesota.
But after years of confronting social injustice and structural racism, is the movement declining in influence?
Political scientist Ruy Teixeira believes so. He argues that the Democratic Party has taken note that Americans are tired of debating race, immigration, gender ideology and school curricula.
And after swinging from hard left to hard right, the American pendulum might just be heading back to the “normie” middle.
Join host Steve Clemons in this wide-ranging conversation on the future of the progressive movement in the US.
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In Cambridge Analytica and Facebooks heyday, the digital footprints of people around the world were used against them to impact elections in places including Trinidad, the Philippines, and the United States
While Cambridge Analytica has gone bust, all sorts of other companies are in the same business: collecting and analysing our data - and attempting to modify our behaviour.
Host Steve Clemons asks Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser and data rights activist David Carroll if there are any real solutions for privacy in the 21st century.
After years of tumultuous elections and acrimony, are there indications that the political temperature in the United States is calming down?
That is what Republican activist Janelle King and Democratic analyst Robin Johnson tell host Steve Clemons after the US midterms on November 8.
They pointed to several factors: no talk of widespread election fraud; voters on both sides generally preferred pragmatic candidates to hardliners; independent-minded voters split their ballots between candidates from either party; and people generally did not fall for fear-mongering messages from either party.
Join Clemons and his panel for a breakdown of what the elections mean for the future of the US.
With midterm elections only a few days away, both political parties in the United States are stoking apocalyptic fears in the hopes of rousing Americans to vote for them.
If people vote Democrat, according to the Republican argument, the country will crumble under a perfect storm of inflation, crime and immigration. But if people vote Republican, Democrats say the country’s democratic institutions and guardrails will be crushed.
Also, if the Republicans take back Congress, does it mark the end for the Biden agenda?
Host Steve Clemons gauges the country’s political temperature with Republican activist Grover Norquist and Democratic activist Amy Dacey.
A firestorm erupted in Washington after OPEC+ decided to slash global oil supply earlier this month.
Officials in the United States blamed Saudi Arabia and said they were reviewing whether the relationship with the kingdom still serves US interests. Saudi officials said their decision was purely economical, as the world faces a global recession.
But Democratic Party politicians said the timing was dubious – right before Americans head to the polls in the midterm elections.
Host Steve Clemons asks Saudi author Ali Shihabi and US policy expert Danielle Pletka about the next moves between Riyadh and Washington.
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After seven months of all-out war in Ukraine, there seems to be no quick end to the conflict.
Russia controls about 20 percent of the country, despite recent advances by the Ukrainian military, which is supported by Western intelligence gathering and weapons.
The United States is doubling down on the war effort, and so is Russia. Military reservists are being called up for duty, and President Vladimir Putin recently said he was “not bluffing” when he threatened to “make use of all weapon systems available” to defend his country.
Host Steve Clemons asks nuclear policy experts Kori Schake and Jon Wolfstahl about nuclear options and deterrence.
Is Donald Trump’s influence in his party waning?
In the Republican primary in Indiana, voters had to choose between two members of the US Congress.
The former president threw his weight behind Representative Mary Miller, who convinced voters that she was more pro-Trump than her opponent. She easily defeated Representative Rodney Davis in late June.
Congressman Davis tells host Steve Clemons that support for Trump is still strong in the country, and predicts that Republican candidates will wrest control of Congress from the Democratic Party this November.
While in Saudi Arabia last month, US President Joe Biden stressed that the United States was "not going anywhere" and wouldn’t "walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia, or Iran". But did his words reassure anyone?
High on his agenda was the prospect of a nuclear deal with Iran. But he expressed zero interest in resurrecting the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Steven Cook tells host Steve Clemons that the US agenda for the Middle East has become severely diminished.
Has something changed in China-United States relations after repeated visits to Taiwan by US politicians in support of the island's self-rule?
China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory, and has halted bilateral talks with the US on everything from climate change to drug trafficking and military coordination.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has stalled any action on lifting trade sanctions imposed by his predecessor on Chinese imports.
So, do the world’s two biggest powers see themselves as "strategic partners" or "strategic enemies"?
China’s ambassador to the US, Qin Gang, tells host Steve Clemons that there is too much at stake to risk a total breakdown in relations.
For President Joe Biden, the centrepiece of his agenda - and legacy - is the Inflation Reduction Act, covering climate, healthcare and taxation in the United States.
The war within the Democratic Party – which had stalled all previous iterations of the bill – had to be put on hold to get it passed. Progressives were irked that they had to compromise on a tax hike on billionaires.
But is this legislation enough to prevent the Republican Party from regaining control of Congress during the midterm elections this November? Congressman Ro Khanna joins The Bottom Line for a wide-reaching conversation with host Steve Clemons.
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China announced plans to flex its muscles near Taiwan in response to a visit Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, made to the island.
For China, Taiwan is a breakaway province that must be “reunited” with the mainland. For Taiwanese leaders, it is a sovereign nation that wants to maintain its status quo.
The US policy is called “strategic ambiguity” – supporting Taiwan’s autonomy for now while being cautious not to anger China.
International relations expert Stephen Walt tells Steve Clemons that the interests of Beijing and Washington are too interdependent for either power to risk escalation.
Whose message is swaying American voters in the lead-up to the midterm elections later this year?
Republicans want to focus attention on crime, immigration and inflation. Recent polls indicate that former President Donald Trump would win against President Joe Biden if presidential elections were held today. This is despite the year-long efforts of a Democratic Party-led panel that has been investigating Trump’s involvement in the efforts to reverse his election loss in 2020.
Host Steve Clemons asks Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle about the January 6 investigation, and his party’s prospects for holding onto power after November.
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In 2020, Dr Deborah Birx was appointed to lead the White House Coronavirus Response team.
At the same time, President Donald Trump was spreading misinformation and trying to convince Americans that he had everything "totally under control".
Two years later, the United States has more than 1 million deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Birx tells host Steve Clemons that she wrote her new book, Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late, because the US government is still not able to communicate effectively with its people when it comes to the coronavirus.
The United States is principally responsible for creating the crisis in Ukraine, according to University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer, and it has no current interest in reaching a negotiated settlement now.
Mearsheimer sees US sanctions against Moscow as an attempt to knock Russia out of the ranks of the great powers.
The way he sees it, the US has declared war against Russia, in effect, but the Ukrainian people are doing the fighting.
Join host Steve Clemons for this wide-ranging conversation about how both sides consider themselves locked in an existential threat, with no way out.
Normal relations between Afghanistan and the United States are not on the horizon after 20 years of war.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Zalmay Khalilzad, who was born in Afghanistan and has worked with several US administrations on Afghan affairs. Khalilzad has been the US representative to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations. Most recently, he was US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation under former President Donald Trump.
In this wide-ranging interview, Khalilzad talks about the chances for national reconciliation in Afghanistan, the country’s $7bn reserve fund held by Washington, and US foreign policy.
Mass shootings are a part of life in the United States. Some make national headlines, like the killing of elementary school children in Uvalde, or the targeted killing of Black people in a supermarket in Buffalo.
But Americans are not able to reach a grand consensus on what to do about it, and conservatives are steering the conversation away from guns and towards mental healthcare.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Anthony Barksdale, the former acting police commissioner of Baltimore, and researcher Mark Follman, author of Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America.
Three months into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, several NATO members say the priority should be an end to hostilities; but where would that leave Ukraine?
For the West, what are the objectives of the war? Is the goal to extend the fighting indefinitely to weaken Russia economically and militarily as much as possible?
In this episode, host Steve Clemons asks former US national security adviser John Bolton about the strategy of NATO in Ukraine, the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis, and former President Donald Trump’s claims that the war would not have happened if he were president.
Three months into the fighting in Ukraine, Poland has established itself as the main conduit of weapons and aid from the West to Ukraine. It has also absorbed the highest number of Ukrainian refugees, 3.4 million people. And it is working to end its energy dependency on Russia within months.
Russian leaders have warned Poland - which joined NATO in 1999, several years before it joined the European Union - against taking such a strident role against Moscow.
Host Steve Clemons asks Poland’s ambassador to the United States, Marek Magierowski, about the opportunities and challenges facing his country and region.
The debate in the United States on a woman’s right to abortion has raged on for decades.
For conservatives, it is about religious values and the country's future as a Christian nation. For progressives and many moderates, it is about individual rights.
If the US Supreme Court rolls back Roe v Wade in the coming months, it will be a milestone in the Culture Wars.
Host Steve Clemons asks journalist Julia Manchester and historians Jonathan Zimmerman and Andrew Hartman whether there is still room for compromise among the two camps on abortion and other values- and lifestyle-based issues like gay marriage, immigration and racism.
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NATO, the military alliance of Western countries, does not include Ukraine but is heavily involved in the current conflict as it supports the country in the face of Russia's invasion.
In the first half of this episode, host Steve Clemons talks with NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană about the alliance’s support for Ukraine.
And in the second half of the show, Steve talks with Time magazine correspondent Simon Shuster about the two weeks he spent with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team in their wartime compound in Kyiv. We ask what is going on in the mind of the Ukrainian leader these days?
Climate action was a major pillar of President Joe Biden’s election campaign, and he started his presidency by bringing the United States back into the Paris Agreement and promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
But hit with declining popularity, mainly due to inflation, his administration is encouraging more oil and gas drilling with hopes of lowering fuel prices.
Host Steve Clemons asks climate activists Jamal Raad and John Paul Mejia whether climate action has taken a back seat to Biden’s bigger concerns.
American-born British businessman Bill Browder did not set out to expose Russian money laundering operations and link President Vladimir Putin to those schemes. But after Browder’s Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested and found dead in his jail cell, the gloves were off.
Browder lobbied Congress for years until the Magnitsky Act was passed in 2012, allowing the United States to sanction individuals suspected of human rights abuses, including Russian judges, Saudis involved in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and Chinese officials linked to the abuse of Uighurs.
In this episode, host Steve Clemons speaks to Browder about his latest book, Freezing Order.
The Vienna talks aim to bring an end to the US sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The original agreement between Iran and world powers - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - was signed in 2015, offering Iran sanctions relief at the time in exchange for Iran reining in its nuclear programme.
In 2018, former US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of it and imposed harsh sanctions on Iran. The Biden administration decided to head back to the negotiating table with Iran in 2021.
Host Steve Clemons asks Cambridge University Professor Roxane Farmanfarmaian and Quincy Institute Co-founder Trita Parsi about when, and if, we can expect a renewed JCPOA.
A perfect storm of circumstances is helping dismantle the global economic system that the United States built over the past few decades.
The list of US-sanctioned countries and individuals gets longer all the time. The coronavirus pandemic and supply chain disruptions triggered Americans to wonder why more essential needs were not produced at home. And Biden’s “Buy American” agenda aims to “reshore” jobs and manufacturing and protect US industries – the opposite of globalisation.
Host Steve Clemons asks trade experts Inu Manak and Bruce Stokes if we are witnessing the end of the post-World-War-II financial order.
When Francis Fukuyama wrote the book The End of History and the Last Man after the Soviet Union was dissolved 30 years ago, he argued that the West’s version of liberal democracy had triumphed over all other ideologies.
Since then, an increasing number of countries are becoming more authoritarian or illiberal democracies.
Fukuyama tells host Steve Clemons that the Ukraine war is a turning point for Western-style democracy, and institutions such as NATO are getting a boost in popularity. People will eventually turn their backs on authoritarian, populist and nationalist ideologies and leaders, in his estimation, and relearn how to tolerate differences.
Washington is imposing harsh sanctions on Russia and supplying Ukraine with weapons, real-time intelligence and humanitarian aid. But the United States refuses to enter into a direct military confrontation with Russia, and Moscow has been careful to not expand the war beyond Ukraine.
Will these efforts lead to a ceasefire in the near term, or just create a long, drawn-out war that has no end in sight?
Host Steve Clemons speaks to former US Department of State official Margaret Peterlin and Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer about the likely scenarios for Ukraine, China’s strategy and the effects of US domestic policies on the war.
Anatol Lieven wrote a book in 1999 warning that, "Any attempt by ... Russia or the West to take Ukraine fully into an alliance with either of them would disastrously split Ukraine."
As the war with Ukraine enters its second week, Lieven says that the only solution in sight is for Ukraine to declare itself a neutral country, preventing it from joining any Western-led or Russian-led alliances.
Barring a deal of that nature, Russia and Ukraine could find themselves in a long-term quagmire. Join host Steve Clemons for a wide-ranging conversation on the possibilities for war and peace in the region.
In response to the war in Ukraine, the United States and Europe launched a barrage of sanctions barring Russia from accessing its hundreds of billions of dollars of reserves worldwide.
But sanctions have been imposed on other countries for decades - North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, among others - without much change in course for those governments.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Lee Jones, a professor of international relations at the University of London; and David Asher, an adviser to the US government on economic warfare strategies, whose work has ranged from Hezbollah in Lebanon to mobster John Gotti in New York.
Within years, China will overtake the United States as the world’s number one economy, and China’s influence is spreading worldwide - mostly at the expense of US global leadership.
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tells host Steve Clemons that this is the “decisive decade” in relations between the two powers. Either they find a way to share wealth and power, or they head down a collision course.
But with today’s political climates in the West and East – where politicians are rewarded for nationalistic tough-talk and zero compromise – is there hope for better relations between Beijing and Washington?
Inflation in the United States has hit its highest level since 1982 as prices jumped 7.5 percent between January 2021 and January 2022.
While some blame unabashed corporate greed or disrupted supply chains for the extra cost of everything from food to rent, Harvard University economist Jason Furman says the real reason is much simpler: it is you.
As long as demand for everything is high, and people are willing to pay steeper prices for the things they want, prices will continue to rise. It is simple supply and demand, argues Furman, who was the top economic adviser to the White House under former President Barack Obama.
Former US President Donald Trump had a lifelong habit of ripping up papers he was done with and throwing them on the floor, or in the rubbish, or stuffing them in his pockets.
By law, US presidents are required to hand over any papers they touched to the National Archives at the end of their service.
Trump has come under scrutiny because many of his papers were torn up and pieced together with tape, and archivists are not sure what he left out.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey, lawyer Anne Weismann, and government professor David Barker.
Russia has beefed up its military presence all along its border with Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin insists that Kyiv must remain firmly in the Russian sphere of influence.
Europe and the United States say there would be huge repercussions for Moscow if it invades Ukraine, and want Kyiv to lean more to the West.
For US President Joe Biden, the test is how to project strength after the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Host Steve Clemons speaks to former US special representative to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, about possible scenarios for the region and the political calculations of Putin and Biden.
In less than a year, US President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have sunk from a high of 57 percent in January 2021 to a low of 40 percent this January.
His attempt to pass the Build Back Better Act, which includes plans for a social and economic overhaul of the US, failed. As did the Democratic push to pass sweeping election reform.
Now, Biden must contend with inflation, a coronavirus surge and the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine.
Host Steve Clemons asks Democratic strategists Simon Rosenberg and Nomiki Konst what Biden has to do to recharge his party and his own popularity.
Ever since January 2002, the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has become synonymous for many with abuse of prisoners and disregard for the rule of law.
Of its 39 remaining prisoners, 18 are cleared for release, but waiting for a country to take them.
Is there hope that this jail will be shut down under US President Joe Biden? Host Steve Clemons asks lawyer John Bellinger III, one of the top legal advisers to the White House and State Department during the establishment of “Gitmo” in the Bush administration; and Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security.
Economists call it "The Great Resignation".
It started last April when the number of Americans who quit their jobs broke all records. This is not about a few people resigning here and there. Instead, every month, millions of Americans wake up one day and quit.
The seismic shift in the labour market is wreaking havoc everywhere from restaurants to hospitals, with millions of jobs unfilled.
What do employers need to know if they want to attract and keep workers? Have employee-labour relations changed forever? Host Steve Clemons speaks with Upwork chief economist Adam Ozimek and University of California law professor Veena Dubal.
Even a year later, most Americans cannot agree on what to call the events that took place on January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol.
The Democratic Party and most media call it an “insurrection", an attempted coup against a democratically elected government. Most Republicans reject that designation, admitting it was foolhardy, but not worthy of exaggeration.
But does the acrimony and mistrust between Americans threaten future elections as well?
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro, who barricaded himself in his office on that day, and Republican strategist John Feehery about the lasting effects of January 6.
In 2015, as the United States tightened its immigration policies under President Barak Obama, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany to one million refugees.
And while former US President Donald Trump told the world that the coronavirus would fade away as the weather warms up, she told the world – as a mother and a scientist – to take it seriously.
At the same time, Germany's far right skyrocketed in popularity during her tenure.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Kati Marton, author of The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel, to find out more about what she leaves behind.
If you are in the market for a coffin from the time of the Pharaohs in Egypt, or gold from the Inca Empire, you have come to the right place.
The United States is a major hub for the illicit trade in ancient artefacts. Buyers and sellers can take advantage of lax regulations to make deals on statues from Yemen or clay tablets from Babylonia fairly easily.
Shawnee State University Professor Amr al-Azm and Antiquities Coalition founder Deborah Lehr tell host Steve Clemons about their efforts to curtail the artefacts flooding to the West from all corners of the globe.
What started with one case in Wuhan in 2019 has led to five million deaths worldwide, with more than 800,000 in the United States alone.
And with a virus that mutates so quickly, no one knows when the COVID-19 pandemic will become as endemic as the seasonal flu.
In the meantime, "vaccine apartheid" means rich countries have abundant supplies of vaccines while most of the world has none - only prolonging the pandemic for everyone.
Host Steve Clemons talks to Dr Eric Topol, a scientist at Scripps Research, about the future of coexistence with COVID.
Every year hundreds of books are removed from school reading lists and public libraries across the United States.
Since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, books dealing with racism are increasingly the target of conservative parents and lobbying groups.
Even more insidious are efforts to ban freedom of thought on issues such as Palestine. Author Golbarg Bashi faced death threats, cancelled speaking engagements, and financial and social pressures after writing a children’s book, P is for Palestine, in 2017.
Join Steve Clemons and his panel for this conversation about the future of intellectual freedoms in the US.
The White House is hosting leaders from more than 100 countries in a virtual conference to discuss human dignity, accountability, fair elections and the political leadership of women. But around the world, the governments supported by the United States's national security establishment are some of the worst human rights abusers and kleptocracies. And domestically, US democracy continues to suffer from the outsized influence of money in politics, runaway polarisation among Americans, and even the violent contestation of elections without evidence of fraud. Host Steve Clemons asks Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about the prospects and contradictions in US efforts to fight corruption.
US President Joe Biden had been in office for a few days when he announced that he would hold a virtual “Summit for Democracy” to “push back authoritarianism’s advance” worldwide.
But after the world watched the disregard for rule of law, expansion of executive power and mistrust of elections spread throughout the United States, the question is: What moral authority does Washington have to lecture the rest of the world about democracy?
Host Steve Clemons speaks with former US diplomat Daniel Fried, Foreign Policy magazine columnist Elise Labott, and Progressive International Coordinator David Adler about the prospects for the summit.
Straddling the Syria-Iraq border, Baghuz was one of the last holdouts of the ISIL (ISIS) group.
Thousands of family members, refugees and prisoners were there when fighting erupted between ISIL fighters and American forces in March 2019; the United States called in an enormous air attack.
Recently, US Central Command acknowledged that 80 people, including civilians, were killed. But all internal procedures to investigate the potential war crime have been quashed, according to a report by The New York Times newspaper.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with the reporters that pieced together the investigation over a span of months, Eric Schmitt and David Philipps.
When President Joe Biden unseated Donald Trump and received the most votes of any US leader in history, liberals believed America was ready for real change towards more socialism.
But in reality, the Democrats have razor-thin margins in Congress, and the internal tug of war between progressives and conservatives has paralysed the party's agenda.
The schism became apparent as Biden tried to push his plans for US society and the environment through Congress, where they remain stuck.
Host Steve Clemons talks to Washington Post newspaper columnist David Von Drehle and Politico reporter Tara Palmeri about the recent shifts in US politics.
Americans have been debating the role of the police for decades, but the debate was energised last year during nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.
For many in the white majority, the police must be defended at all costs. If there are proven cases of abuse, they can be resolved on a case-by-case basis. For the rest, the police are seen as the main mechanism that enforces the status quo on society, including racial inequality.
Brooklyn College professor Alex Vitale tells host Steve Clemons that Americans should rethink policing, especially when dealing with schools, the homeless, and mental health cases.
For centuries, there was no significant challenge to the supremacy of white people in the United States.
White nationalists speak of “saving America” - but who are they saving it for? And who are they saving it from?
In the last few years, demographic shifts and changing attitudes have brought a sense of anxiety among whites, who fear they will lose their majority status, become “replaced” by minorities and face all kinds of hostilities.
Host Steve Clemons asks Kathleen Belew, author of A Field Guide to White Supremacy, and Wes Bellamy, author of When White Supremacy Knocks, about the future of race in American society.
When he retired from the military in the early 1990s, the former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell was one of the most trusted and admired leaders in the country.
But by the time he died on October 18, 2021, the role he played in selling the Iraq War to the American public had severely tarnished his reputation.
Powell’s biographer Karen DeYoung, a top editor at The Washington Post newspaper, tells host Steve Clemons that Powell regretted his role in the war but never admitted that he peddled lies in his infamous speech to the United Nations in February 2003.
Many world leaders made lofty environment-friendly promises at the United Nations General Assembly last month, and many more promises are expected next month during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
But is the planet getting closer to net-zero emissions? Are governments and huge corporations making the investments and changes needed to slow the trends of global warming, carbon emissions, pollution and extreme weather?
Join host Steve Clemons in a wide-ranging conversation on climate change with the chief sustainability officer at General Electric, Roger Martella; and the energy and environment reporter at The Hill, Rachel Frazin.
President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” plan aims to tax the rich, fight global warming, and make healthcare and education cheaper in the United States.
With such a social agenda, it would be expected for the Republican Party to block the plan, but instead, it faces pressure from within the Democratic establishment. The party’s moderates say the plan goes too far, costs too much, and alienates American voters who are scared of the "S" word (socialism).
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Faiz Shakir, the political adviser of Senator Bernie Sanders, and Jonathan Kott, a former adviser to Senator Joe Manchin.
Over its short lifespan, the World Bank’s Doing Business annual report was a big hit with investors.
But some governments, eager to attract direct investment and worried about their reputation, pressed the World Bank to boost their scores, according to a recent investigation.
Other countries found themselves dropping in the rankings due to the personal animus of World Bank officials or politics.
Host Steve Clemons asks Judith Kelley, a Duke University professor and author of Scorecard Diplomacy, and Fabrice Houdart, former World Bank senior officer, about the repercussions for the credibility of the World Bank and efforts to fight corruption worldwide.
After hitting all-time lows, relations between Turkey and the United States have been on the mend since June, when Turkey offered to take up a security role in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal. Now US diplomats are calling Turkey “an invaluable partner in the region”.
This, after years of mistrust due to the US refusal to sell its air defence system to Turkey which led to the purchase of a similar system from Moscow and Washington’s support for Kurdish fighters in Syria.
Join Steve Clemons as he asks Turkey experts Galip Dalay and Howard Eissenstat about the future of Turkey-US relations.
Canadian-American anthropologist Wade Davis holds a mirror up to the United States and sees a society in decline.
Davis argues that the US dominated the world in the post-WWII era because Americans came out of the war with a sense of common purpose. A vibrant, educated middle class dominated.
But now America’s social fabric is damaged, according to Wade. The top 1 percent have greater wealth than the bottom 90 percent and the promise of a decent life for a working family is shattered.
Join host Steve Clemons in a conversation that looks at today's America, inside out.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, US leaders painted the so-called “global war on terror” as an epic battle between civilisation and barbarism.
But instead of spreading democracy worldwide, 20 years later the world is sliding more towards illiberal security states and radicalised populations.
For many people, xenophobia and paranoia became justified. For many politicians, fear-mongering was an easy way to win votes. And for the rich and powerful, the trillions spent on national security equals major business opportunities.
Host Steve Clemons asks David Rothkopf, former editor of Foreign Policy magazine, about the effects of 9/11 on society and politics, and the US's role in the world.
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While COVID-19 deaths and lockdowns have become less frequent in certain parts of the world, the coronavirus still looms large over humanity.
Every year for 20 years, United States officials justified the war in Afghanistan as worthy and winnable. But after the deadline to withdraw was made, the same officials watched in shock and awe as the Taliban retook their country within days.
Former national security adviser John Bolton and other conservative critics of the Joe Biden administration argue that the US should have stayed in Afghanistan indefinitely, and warn against making any deals with the Taliban.
Host Steve Clemons asks Bolton what the US could ever hope to achieve with a perpetual presence in Afghanistan.
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Despite scepticism from many people, the appetite for cryptocurrencies has grown to a market valuation of $2 trillion. There is no going back, according to South African internet entrepreneur Vinny Lingham.
Lingham tells host Steve Clemons that crypto could “decimate” the traditional banking system if they were on a level playing field.
No amount of government crackdown, whether from China or the United States, can stop people from using the internet to innovate and cut out the middlemen, Lingham says. And it is inevitable that cryptocurrencies force banks to rethink their purpose, just as the internet forced newspapers to rethink their business models.
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The United States leaves Afghanistan as the Taliban seem to be retaking control of the entire country, city by city.
So what becomes of the government that Washington propped up and the military that it trained?
Andrew Bacevich, president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a retired colonel in the US Army, tells host Steve Clemons that Washington was blinded by its imperialistic notions that Afghanistan was in dire need of American intervention. And Afghanistan analyst Hashim Wahdatyar warns that Pakistan’s alliance with the Taliban does not bode well for the future of the region.
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Dissidents, politicians, journalists, business leaders - all have been targeted by intelligence agencies using Pegasus, Israeli spyware that can extract all data from phones without the users’ knowledge.
A global investigation called the Pegasus Project is shedding light on the scope and tactics of the hacking software.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with one of the co-authors of the project, Washington Post journalist Dana Priest, along with one of the main sponsors of the project, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, and John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher with Citizen Lab, which first exposed the work of Pegasus five years ago.
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One nuclear bomb can wipe out almost half a million people, yet the United States and Russia have thousands of these weapons. And seven other countries have created atomic bombs as well.
There is no way to reverse time and get rid of these weapons, and countries will spend billions to maintain and upgrade their arsenals, but to what end?
Steve Clemons talks about US nuclear strategy with former Congressman John Tierney, the executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest.
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For more than 20 years, Chris Matthews made a name for himself on the nightly TV show, Hardball on MSNBC, where he became famous for grilling American politicians and breaking down the country’s politics.
Less known is that he was a politician himself once, running for Congress in the mid-1970s, and working for former President Jimmy Carter.
From his front-row seat to decades of American history, Matthews tells host Steve Clemons about a different time in US politics. But has politicking changed much between the presidency of Richard Nixon and Donald Trump? Decide for yourself after watching this wide-ranging conversation.
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"The Conservation Game" dives deep into the trafficking of exotic animals, especially big cats like lions, tigers and leopards, across the United States.
For decades, TV personalities have trotted cute “ambassador animals” onto morning and late-night talk shows to talk about conservation and animal protection. But this documentary by Michael Webber shows us what happens afterwards when the animals are sold off at auction or kept in back yard cages on private property.
Host Steve Clemons asks about this largely unregulated trade in the US with Webber, Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin, and legal expert Carney Anne Nasser.
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This year “meme stocks”, like GameStop and theatre chain AMC, brought attention to market manipulation tactics and financial instruments such as "short selling" in the stock market.
Individual investors banded together online, especially on Reddit, and shot up the share price of several companies for a while.
Are we witnessing a new era when huge corporations and funds will have to pay attention to retail investors, known as "the little guy"?
Host Steve Clemons talks to wealth manager Lee Munson and Pennsylvania State Secretary of Banking and Securities Richard Vague about the forces at play on Wall Street.
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Former President Donald Trump launched his “revenge tour” against Republican politicians who have not sufficiently supported him, repeating his claims that he won the 2020 elections, and attacking the media and Democrats.
Months after leaving office, Trump is still a commanding presence in the Republican Party. But is it a winning strategy for the GOP to indulge Trump and tie its future to him? But also, is it safe for the Democrats to ignore him?
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Democratic pollster Celinda Lake and University of Pennsylvania political science professor Dan Hopkins about how Trump factors into both parties' tactics.
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Businesses in the United States say they are desperately looking for new employees; there are more than nine million available jobs across the country, and the labour crisis is slowing down economic recovery.
So, are people reassessing their lives because of the global pandemic, and deciding that low-paying jobs are simply not worth the cost and effort, especially when child care or elder care is involved? Or are they simply content to stay at home and receive an unemployment cheque and other government benefits?
Host Steve Clemons talks to employment experts Melissa Swift and Jeremy Robbins about transformations in the post-pandemic workplace.
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United States President Joe Biden has spent the week meeting with European leaders, including his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
It can be called his “I’m not Trump” tour, in which many European leaders indicated relief that the “America First” agenda of Biden’s predecessor is over - for now.
A looming cloud is the fear that all Biden’s talk about a new era of Transatlantic cooperation and alliance could subside again, if the Republican Party makes a comeback in the coming years.
Join host Steve Clemons’ conversation with Russia expert Matthew Rojansky of the Wilson Center and German Marshall Fund pollster Bruce Stokes.
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When former US President Donald Trump talked about the possibility that the pandemic was hatched in a lab in Wuhan, it was generally dismissed as a conspiracy theory tinged with racism. Now President Joe Biden is asking his intelligence agencies to look into it seriously.
Johns Hopkins University immunologist Gigi Gronvall says the “lab accident” hypothesis is much weaker than the “natural introduction” theory, which holds that the virus jumped from animals to humans.
Technology and healthcare futurist Jamie Metzl says China should not be afraid to open up and allow researchers to explore every possible scenario without quashing the debate.
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Reverend William Barber, president of the Repairers of the Breach social justice movement, tells host Steve Clemons that the US needs a “third Reconstruction” to really break free of its racist past.
The debate on how to teach US racial history rages in classrooms across the country.
Progressives believe Americans should know more about white supremacy and modern-day discrimination against Black and brown Americans in everything from housing to healthcare.
Conservatives believe that “critical race theory” pits Americans against each other and challenges the idea that the US is the greatest country in the history of the universe.
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Almost 30 years ago, a Norwegian power couple decided to bring together Palestinian and Israeli officials in Oslo with the aim of reaching a peace treaty. This led to a historic deal signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel at the White House in 1993.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Bartlett Sher, the director of Oslo, a new HBO drama telling the story of the secret talks.
And former Palestinian negotiations adviser Diana Buttu and former Israeli adviser Daniel Levy explain that as long as the ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands comes at “no cost,” the future for both sides is bleak.
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While unquestioning support for Israel is still the name of the game in Washington, DC, a growing number of Democrats are demanding political rights for Palestinians.
University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole is the founder of Informed Comment, a blog on US foreign policy in the Middle East. He tells host Steve Clemons that people are making the connection between Black Lives Matter and Palestine.
And while the “Arab street” has become divided and muted by Arab dictatorships, solidarity with Palestinians has shifted online globally.
Watch this wide-ranging conversation on the shifting dynamics of the Palestinian narrative.
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Fulfilling a campaign promise to “free the vaccine”, US President Joe Biden said he would support lifting patent protection on coronavirus vaccines, to make it easier for vaccines to get to people around the world who need them quickly.
But several Western governments and most drug manufacturers opposed his stance, arguing that Big Pharma would have little incentive to produce a vaccine in record time the next time a new global health emergency arises.
Host Steve Clemons speaks to Dr Michelle McMurry-Heath, president of the trade group Biotechnology Innovation Organization; and Ed Luce, a US columnist for the Financial Times.
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Dimitri Simes has been in the thick of United States-Russia relations for the past five decades. Born in Moscow, he arrived in Washington in the 1970s and never left. He has advised US Presidents Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Simes says relations will not “reset” between the two countries unless they compromise on Ukraine, which both consider part of their “backyard”. Until then, they can only talk about cooperating on climate change and nuclear proliferation.
Join host Steve Clemons in a wide-ranging interview with Simes, the CEO of the Center for the National Interest in Washington.
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As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden made all sorts of campaign promises in the run-up to the 2020 US election.
Some, like the $1.9 trillion stimulus package and the accelerated COVID-19 vaccination programme, have come to pass. Others, like police reform, gun control, and the federal minimum wage, are unchanged. On immigration, the Biden White House has adopted a softer tone, but nothing to remove the complications enforced by Donald Trump.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with pundits Liz Mair, a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, and Josh Marshall, the founder and editor of Talking Points Memo, to gauge the performance of the new administration.
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As Americans watched the murder trial of Derek Chauvin unfold, after the killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd last year, several new cases of the police killing minorities – one as young as 13 years old – were unfolding.
The United States is in the middle of an honest debate about the intersection of racism and policing, but reform for the sake of better race relations and more stable communities is elusive.
In this episode, host Steve Clemons speaks with Nana Gyamfi, the president of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and James Forman, Jr, a professor of law at Yale University, and finds that change is happening - slowly but surely.
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President Joe Biden faces resistance to key immigration policy reform in the United States, not only from “secure border” Republicans but from politicians in his own Democratic Party.
Lorella Praeli arrived in the US with her family from Peru as a child and lived as an undocumented immigrant for years. Today, she advocates for immigration as a co-president of Community Change.
And Francisco E González, who teaches about the political economies of Latin America at the Johns Hopkins University, argues that there is no indication that the US will ever invest enough money and time in Central America to fix the “root causes” of immigration.
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Former French Ambassador Gérard Araud sees the United States-China rivalry as the biggest diplomatic challenge ahead, and his advice for US policymakers is: Don’t force countries to pick sides.
At the same time, he warns against overestimating China’s power or underestimating US power.
Araud warns that Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 was not a fluke, as more people in Western societies consider their political systems “rigged”.
In this wide-ranging conversation with host Steve Clemons, Araud openly questions whether the West's “war on terrorism” in the Muslim world can be won by military means.
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Despite his campaign promises to “bring the vast majority of our troops home from Afghanistan”, US President Joe Biden is finding that ending the 20-year-old Afghan war is easier said than done.
At one point before the elections former President Donald Trump was ready to leave without much regard for the consequences, in fulfilment of his campaign promise to end the “forever wars”.
Political scientist Stephen Walt tells host Steve Clemons that the biggest fear Biden faces is the possibility that the country could break down even further on his watch once all foreign forces are gone.
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Election reform is one of the biggest political battles of the year in the United States after former President Donald Trump and his fans insisted the last election was “stolen".
Republican lawmakers in 33 states are proposing restrictions on voter registration and voting.
Senate Democrats are pushing the “For the People Act” to greatly increase the number of registered voters and make voting easier.
So which way will the United States go? Join host Steve Clemons as he speaks with Sadiqa Reynolds, CEO of the Urban League in Louisville, and John Fund, a columnist for National Review Online.
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Will the United States wind up sharing world domination with China, or will China eventually accept the US as the world’s sole superpower?
The Biden administration - just like the Trump administration before it - hopes to contain China’s growth and influence. President Joe Biden is trying to do the job by creating an alliance of four countries, the "Quad": Japan, India, Australia and the US.
Join host Steve Clemons and his guests, China experts Deborah Lehr and Randall Schriver, as they discuss the range of issues on the table, including Chinese students in US universities, Huawei, TikTok, Hong Kong, Uighur Muslims, and more.
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A Democratic Party-led proposal to raise the minimum wage in the United States would double the income of millions of Americans. But opponents fear that many small business owners would choose to fire some of their employees, outsource labour to other countries, slow down hiring, or decide to shut down if it passes.
Supporters say that the current federal minimum wage does not provide a liveable salary to millions of Americans and should be pushed to $15 an hour in phases.
Host Steve Clemons is joined by Rachel Greszler, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and Jacobin magazine editor, David Sirota, also the former speechwriter for Bernie Sanders during his 2020 presidential campaign.
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Donald Trump adviser Jason Miller talks to host Steve Clemons about the former United States president's role in politics and the conservative agenda.
Republican leaders are still split on Trump: House Republicans defend his legacy and coordinate closely with him, with their leaders travelling back and forth to see him at his resort in Florida; but Senate Republicans are trying their best to minimise his influence over the party.
In his first major speech after leaving office, given at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 28, Trump promised to help his party retake the White House and the Senate.
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US President Joe Biden says he wants to restart negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme, and Iran extended its permission for nuclear watchdogs.
This is the most progress the two parties have made since former President Donald Trump tore up the 2015 deal reached after years of negotiations, but there are no guarantees a new deal is imminent.
Cambridge University lecturer Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian and Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake lay out the possible scenarios for Iran-US relations over the next few months.
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The idea that the United States should be "made great" for white people is as old as the US itself, and today this notion is represented by almost 200 groups around the country.
Michael German was infiltrating white supremacist movements in the 1990s as a special agent for the FBI. His story was made into a film, Imperium, by director Daniel Ragussis.
In this episode, German and Ragussis tell host Steve Clemons about the challenges facing the Biden administration in confronting an ideology that permeates law enforcement, the military and society in general.
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Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, sees a number of challenges for the United States worldwide.
President Joe Biden outlined his foreign policy priorities in a speech on February 4, where he said he would like to see more refugees accepted into the United States, an end to the war in Yemen, and more support for LGBTQ rights worldwide.
Wilkerson believes domestic concerns, especially confronting the “white supremacist, evangelical” takeover of the Republican Party, will make it difficult for Biden to put energy into foreign policy.
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American labour leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta knows a thing or two about the plight of the working poor.
In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez co-founded the first labour union for farmworkers in the United States. Most of its members did not speak English and had never dreamed they had the power to stand up to huge corporations, which had money, political connections, and the local police on their side.
Now in her 90s, Huerta is still teaching America’s poor how to organise themselves and make their voice heard. She tells host Steve Clemons that people power can achieve the impossible: “¡Si. Se Puede!”
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COVID-19. Ebola. Zika. All diseases that started in animals, but spread to humans.
“We’ve created conditions where these pathogens can jump from animals to people,” says Jane Goodall, the British primatologist and one of the world’s most vocal activists for wildlife and habitat preservation.
Goodall says she sees hope for the future of the planet because people are finding new and improved ways to farm, treat animals, and push for social justice.
But she also tells host Steve Clemons that the environment will not get better unless poverty is alleviated. “Because when you’re really poor, you just do what you have to do to live.”
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John Bellinger served as a legal adviser to the White House and State Department during the George W Bush administration.
He was a prominent member of the “never-Trumpers”, the small group of Republicans who opposed Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2015 and voted for Joe Biden in 2020, arguing that Trump was a threat to US security and stability.
Bellinger tells host Steve Clemons that he is surprised by how widespread QAnon and other conspiracy theories are among Republican voters and leaders, including members of Congress. So how does the party move forward? Will it move closer to the centre or further away?
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Misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories have filled the vacuum left by the mistrust of media and politicians, which makes people doubt all information - both good and bad.
This has led to real-world consequences, such as the belief among some Americans that the results of the 2020 election could and should be overturned, and the hesitancy of at least one-third of the global population to take the coronavirus vaccine.
Watch the full interview with Richard Edelman, CEO of the public relations giant Edelman, which has been conducting its annual global survey, the "Edelman Trust Barometer", since 2001.
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On January 6, 2021 - a day that will be marked in the history books - supporters of Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. That morning the outgoing president had fired up his supporters during a rally called Save America, by repeating his promises to “never concede” election defeat and demanding that his devotees “show strength.”
So what do recent events mean for Trump's political future?
Congressman Joaquin Castro (Democrat-Texas) and Republican strategist John Feehery tell host Steve Clemons that it may not be worthwhile to remove him from office in his last days. But will Trump's stranglehold on the Republican Party continue? And is civil disagreement still possible in today's United States?
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Dr Anthony Fauci tells host Steve Clemons that the United States can go back to “normal” in the fall (autumn, which starts in September) of 2021 if 70-85 percent of Americans get vaccinated by the summer.
Warning that “things will likely get worse as we go into January” due to holiday gatherings, the chief medical adviser for President-elect Joe Biden said that more must be done to convince Americans that the global pandemic is a public health issue, not an issue of individual rights.
In this wide-ranging interview, Dr Fauci answers your questions, such as, “Do I need to wear a mask after I get the vaccine?”
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A coalition of 50 grassroots movements across the United States is demanding a “fundamental shift” in US national security and foreign policy.
Progressives are a minority in the Democratic Party and they have been trying to pull the establishment to the left for years. Some progressives have been hired to the Joe Biden administration, along with a majority of traditional bureaucrats.
Yasmine Taeb, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, tells host Steve Clemons that Biden’s team “understands that we're going to be holding them accountable to some of those campaign promises … that they made to progressives.”
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Daniel Yergin, an expert on energy, geopolitics and the global economy, explains how the advent of US shale oil has changed the dynamics of power, forcing Gulf states to rethink their futures, and how the transition to a zero-carbon world is still far-fetched.
Nations and corporations are increasingly torn between allegiance to the US or China, and this trend will shape the 21st century.
Yergin tells host Steve Clemons that although there is no competitor to US military power or the dollar now, more governments will be attracted to the Chinese model, because it comes without lectures about human rights or peoples’ right to dissent.
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