Welcome to the Crusades, Episode 1: Rome, 1095

Subscribe now for the full episode and access to all news specials. Derek welcomes back to the show Jason Stearns, associate professor at Simon Fraser University and author of The War That Doesn't Say Its Name: The Unending Conflict in the Congo, to talk about the state of play between the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as well as the ceasefire between the DRC and Rwanda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content! Get our "Welcome to the Crusades" miniseries! Derek welcomes back to the show Dalia Hatuqa, a journalist specializing in Israeli/Palestinian affairs and regional Middle East issues, to talk about the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. They recap what has been happening to Palestinians in Gaza while the world was distracted by Israel’s war with Iran, discuss the lost generations of Gazan children, the massacres at “aid distribution centers,” increased home demolitions and settler violence in the West Bank, the current relationships of the Palestinian Authority and Jordanian government with Israel, the regional dynamics after the recent war with Iran, and what Netanyahu’s next move might be. Read Dalia’s piece from March in The Guardian, “For Palestinians, this was never a ceasefire.”       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode. Don’t forget to purchase our “Welcome to the Crusades” series before the price increases next week. Subscribers get a 25% discount! Richard Beck, senior writer at n+1 and author of Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life, joins the program to talk about the rise of interest in studying the far right since 2016. They discuss liberal critics’ focus on the fascistic style of the current right, how the recent “rise” of the right is more of a political dealignment occurring in both parties, whether Trump has an ideology and the role of ideas in the Trump administration, the pitfalls of trying to cohere such an incoherent figure, the effect of long election cycles on liberal commentators, and whether Trump is just a symptom of a political rupture that can’t be reduced to a single figure.     Read Richard’s piece in n+1, “Fret, Hedge, React: On reading the right.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t forget to purchase our “Welcome to the Crusades” series before the price increases next week. Paid AP subscribers get a 20% discount, so subscribe today! Danny and Derek broadcast from an undisclosed resort location. This week: an update on the conflict with Iran, including the ceasefire (2:34), Trump’s disagreement with US intelligence assessments (5:25), the status of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities and material (10:15), and the potential for new US-Iran talks (15:46); with the latest conflict with Iran on hold, there are now questions whether Netanyahu will finally come to the negotiating table over Gaza (18:22); the 2025 NATO summit was held and addressed topics like a 5% defense spending minimum, while members states ingratiated themselves with Donald Trump, and the latter held a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy (22:09); China is taking new steps on curbing fentanyl (32:37); and the Supreme Court gives the Trump administration the green light to send migrants to unaffiliated third countries (34:58).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and access to all of our breaking news specials. Investigative journalist Eli Clifton is back on the show, this time to share his thoughts on Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York's Democratic mayoral primary. Eli also just got back from Iran and analyzes where things stand amid a tenuous ceasefire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content. Ben Freeman and Nick Cleveland-Stout from the Quincy Institute join the program to talk about their Think Tank Funding Tracker, a repository that tracks funding from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Pentagon contractors to the top 50 think tanks in the United States over the past five years. The group discusses think tanks’ role in the “military-intellectual” complex, what specific foreign funders like the UAE and UK might be looking to influence, why certain governments like Ukraine and China gave little to no money, the lack of transparency among individuals working in sectors like journalism and government who also work with think tanks, the utilization (and under-utilization) of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, how to restructure the order so that expertise isn’t limited to these kinds of institutions, and how to make think tanks more democratically accountable in the meantime.  Read the Quincy Institute's brief on their project, “Big Ideas and Big Money: Think Tank Funding in America.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for all breaking news specials and commercial-free content. Danny and Derek break down the details of today's strike by Iran against the US Al-Udeid air base in Qatar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode. Danny and Derek discuss last night's attacks, what the strategy of the US was, what the strategy of Iran might be, what an invasion of Iran would look like, the US role in the Middle East, and the Axis of Resistance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and much more content. Note: This episode was recorded Friday, June 20 in the afternoon. Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, to talk about when and how the US will become fully involved in Israel’s war with Iran. They discuss the major interest groups within the Trump 2.0 administration, why the Iranians would continue negotiating with the US at this point, how European leaders are navigating the crisis, the war as a part of global colonial domination by the North Atlantic/Western Europe, whether Iran can see a way out of this cycle with Israel, the bogus argument of the enrichment “red line,” how other Arab states in the Gulf are responding to the conflict, and the goal of regime collapse.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content. No ChatGPT here—our em dashes are organic. This week: in the Iran-Israel war, an update on the casualties and targets (1:52), US involvement remains in question (7:45), Ayatollah Khamenei refuses to surrender (14:47), and US and Israeli intelligence agencies disagree over “evidence” of Iran pursuing a nuclear weapon (18:14); Trump quits the G7 summit early, possibly due to Israel-Iran, and later insults French president Emmanuel Macron (20:59); the IDF is still killing dozens per day in Gaza, mostly near aid sites (24:23); the US military is withdrawing from most of its bases in Syria (27:11); the Thai government might be on the verge of a collapse (29:56); the DRC and Rwanda approve a “draft” peace agreement (33:57); in Russia-Ukraine, Trump cancels a normalization meeting while shutting down a sanctions working group (36:39), and Russia carries out its deadliest strike of the year on Kyiv (37:55); Trump decides to expand his travel ban (40:14); and in a New Cold War update, a new trade détente with China does not include critical minerals for military use (42:43). Listen to Derek’s special with Akbar Shahid Ahmed on US involvement in the Israel-Iran war. Also be sure to download our miniseries with the crew from We’re Not So Different, Welcome to the Crusades. We have posted E1 and E2 on our feed as a free preview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices