News - WFP Out of Food in Gaza, US-Rwanda Migrant Deal, National Security Advisor Waltz Reassigned

May Day is no more, but the world, sadly, does not revolve around the left. This week: a new report on 2024 global military spending shockingly shows it has increased (2:05); the UN’s World Food Programme is out of food in Gaza (4:05), the IDF herds people into Rafah (5:55), and the PLO creates a vice presidency in anticipation of a successor to Mahmoud Abbas (8:32); in Syria, violence between security forces and Druze militias kills over 70 people (12:18); the US bombs a migrant center in Yemen (16:14) as Houthi/Ansar Allah forces continue to shoot down drones (17:58); the Iran-US nuclear talks have been postponed (19:35); there are rumblings of imminent armed conflict between India and Pakistan (21:48); Trump claims to have spoken with President Xi Jinping of China as both economies take a hit from the former’s tariffs (24:31); a court ruling may upend South Korea’s election (28:00); Nigeria sees an increase in jihadist violence (30:00); Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers set a deadline for a peace deal (32:10); in Russia-Ukraine, Russia’s Kursk operation appears to be at its end (34:03), Trump and Zelensky meet at Pope Francis’ funeral (35:33), and the US and Ukraine finally sign a mineral deal (37:26); the Trump administration designates gangs in Haiti as terrorist groups (39:54); the Liberal Party wins Canada’s election (41:19); Donald Trump relieves Mike Waltz of duty as national security advisor, but appoints him as UN ambassador (44:03); and the US is negotiating with Rwanda so that the latter may take migrants on the former’s behalf (48:50).  Grab a copy of Spencer Ackerman’s current run of Iron Man! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Carolyn Eisenberg, professor of history at Hofstra University, to talk about the fall of Saigon on its 50th anniversary. Be sure to check out Carolyn’s award-winning book ⁠Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and much more content⁠. Please listen to ⁠our Sino-Soviet primer episode⁠ and part one of this discussion for some background! Danny and Derek welcome back Jeremy Friedman, assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy at Harvard, to talk about the Sino-Soviet Split. The conversation picks up in the 1960s with the Soviets’ push for peaceful coexistence vs the PRC and developing world’s push for anti-imperialist armed struggle, how the Cultural Revolution affects the calculation, Mao’s growing distrust of the USSR, the split itself, ideological vanguardism vs elitism, imperialism without capitalism, whether a split was inevitable, and more.   Grab a copy of Jeremy’s book⁠ ⁠⁠Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and much more content! Danny and Derek are joined by Van Jackson, author of the ⁠Un-Diplomatic⁠ newsletter and podcast, Elizabeth Shackelford, Senior Policy Director at Dartmouth’s Dickey Center and foreign affairs columnist with The Chicago Tribune, and Ishaan Tharoor, foreign affairs columnist and anchor of Today's WorldView at The Washington Post, to talk about the second Trump Administration’s first hundred days in office. The group delves into what differentiates Trump 2.0 from 1.0, what he’s been able to enact of his agenda from both the last and current terms, the frailty of American institutions, the imperial presidency, parastatal institutions, the efficacy (or inefficacy) of public protest, how the White House and NSC undermine the State Department, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and much more content. Derek makes his grand return to the AP newsroom! This week: Pope Francis dies (0:30); India sees the worst attack on civilians in Kashmir in years, prompting fallout on India-Pakistan relations (6:35); the US carries out its deadliest airstrike on Yemen to date (14:39); Qatar and Egypt propose a new ceasefire plan for Gaza (18:07); the US and Iran see progress in their nuclear talks, but the Trump administration continues to demand zero enrichment (21:27); Trump has once again changed course on tariffs (26:28); in Sudan, the RSF closes in on Al-Fashir (29:46); it is unclear whether peace talks for the DRC-M23 conflict are making progress (32:30); Russia’s operation in Kursk nears its end (35:10); Vladimir Putin offers to halt the war at the current front line, but this and Trump’s peace proposal meet resistance from Zelensky (36:33); the US State Department releases a reorganization plan (45:13); and more leaks and discord are apparent at the US Department of Defense under Pete Hegseth (48:01). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe today for an ad-free experience and much more content! Derek once again speaks with Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, this time to talk about where things stand in Gaza and the West Bank. They discuss the collapse of the January ceasefire, the blockade on Gaza aid, the push for outright ethnic cleansing in Gaza, what country would be willing to aid Israel in that effort, what it would mean for Hamas to disarm, Israel taking the same approach to Jenin and its environs in the West Bank as Gaza, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny and Derek welcome to the program Luke Savage, writer at Jacobin and host of the Michael and Us podcast, to talk about next week’s election in Canada. They delve into why Justin Trudeau resigned, Liberal Party candidate Mark Carney, how Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party are handling Trump, the US threatening Canada’s sovereignty, the political salience of Trump’s tariffs and how they might affect Canada’s economy, the state of the Canadian left, the Bloc Québécois, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and much more content! One last news roundup without Derek, but Danny and Alex Jordan of the Quincy Institute are on the case! This week: the RSF announces plans to form a parallel government in Sudan (1:33); US-Iran nuclear negotiations continue in Oman (7:21); the US and Saudi Arabia discuss giving the Kingdom access to nuclear technology (14:19); the Trump trade war continues despite him dialing back certain tariffs (18:40); Xi Jinping tours Southeast Asia (22:44); President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador visits the White House amid the controversy of Kilmar Ábrego García’s deportation (27:15); ICE is ramping up the arrest of pro-Palestine voices in the US (31:14); center-right candidate Daniel Noboa wins the presidential election in Ecuador (32:56); American envoy Steve Witkoff says a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is imminent (34:36) and President Vladimir Zelenskyy appears on 60 Minutes (40:42); and the Israeli government announces that it will escalate its attack on Gaza (43:13).  Danny then speaks with Afeef Nessouli, a volunteer currently in Gaza working with Glia, a medical organization that “empowers low-resource ​communities to build sustainable, locally-driven healthcare projects.” Please consider donating to Glia to help Afeef and Palestinians doing medical work in Gaza. Afeef also works with Shabab Gaza, a local project that provides food for victims of the genocide. You can donate if you DM them @shababgaza1 on Instagram. If you’d like to follow Afeef please check out his Instagram handle @afeefness, where he’s been sharing his experiences in Gaza. And catch Alex Jordan on X/Twitter @alexjordanatl and on the Quincy Institute’s upcoming YouTube program “Always at War," which he will co-host with Courtney Rawlings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and much more content. Please listen to our Sino-Soviet primer episode for some background! Danny and Derek welcome back Jeremy Friedman, assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy at Harvard, to talk about the Sino-Soviet Split. They lay out the state of play in the mid-1950s, the potential for détente, how the two powers are reconciling with their increasingly competing interests, the implications for the Soviet Union’s image among other communists in the wake of Khrushchev’s “secret speech”, theoretical transformations in what communism means during this period, how decolonization plays into the split, why Khrushchev pulled Soviet aid when China needed it most, and more through the mid-1960s. Grab a copy of Jeremy’s book Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In anticipation for our two-part conversation on the Sino-Soviet split, we're reposting the episode we did laying the groundwork. Danny and Derek welcome Jeremy Friedman, Marvin Bower associate professor at Harvard Business School, for a discussion about the Sino-Soviet split. They talk about the early days of the revolutionary states’ relationship, the differences in their ideologies, the external forces shaping each nation’s trajectory, the heyday of their cooperation, and the beginning of the fissure in the mid-1950s. Grab a copy of Jeremy’s great book Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices