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Podcast: COVID-19 and The Dark Winter to Come: Insights From Dr. Ashish Jha
During the week of the election alone, the daily COVID-19 US case rate shattered the pandemic's previous record, reaching well over 100,000. The grim milestone made it all too clear the biggest story of the year, and of perhaps our lifetimes, continues to be the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of The Brown University School of Public Health, joins Ian Bremmer to take stock of how things got so bad (again) and how we can brace for the dark winter that awaits us.
Listen:The US election may be nearly over (emphasis on nearly) but the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. During the week of the election alone, the daily US case rate shattered the pandemic's previous record, reaching well over 100,000. The grim milestone made it all too clear the biggest story of the year, and of perhaps our lifetimes, continues to be the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of The Brown University School of Public Health, joins Ian Bremmer to take stock of how things got so bad (again) and how we can brace for the dark winter that awaits us.
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Pakistan needs to stand up to India, says former Foreign Minister Hina Khar
After nearly eight decades of on-again-off-again conflict, India and Pakistan neared the brink of all-out war last spring. The intense, four-day conflict was an unsettling reminder of the dangers of military escalation between two nuclear-armed adversaries. Though the ceasefire was reached and both sides claimed victory, Delhi and Islamabad are still on edge and tensions remain high. On the GZERO World Podcast, former Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Khar joins Ian Bremmer to discuss Pakistan’s response to India’s strikes, which she believes were unjustified, and why Pakistan needs to defend itself from further aggression.
One fifth of the world’s population lives on the Indian subcontinent, and Khar says putting them at stake because of a political conflict is dangerous because “you do not know how quickly you can go up the escalation ladder.” Bremmer and Khar also discuss the US role in mediating the conflict with India, Pakistan’s domestic and economic challenges, its strategic partnership with China, and the dangers for global security if the world abandons a rules-based international order.
“As someone who was representing this country as foreign minister, I used to wonder, why were we reduced to eating grass to become a nuclear power?” Khar says, “And now, that is the only thing providing deterrence and security against a country which feels it can attack us anytime, any day.”
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're publishedAfter nearly eight decades of on-again-off-again conflict, India and Pakistan neared the brink of all-out war last spring. The intense, four-day [...]
Read More >Trump vs higher education, with Harvard's Noah Feldman
From lawsuits and executive orders to funding cuts tied to antisemitism claims, the Trump White House is targeting institutions like Harvard and Columbia in what Feldman calls an effort to undermine independent centers of truth. “Trump's gone after universities, he's gone after media, and he's going after courts,” Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman tells Ian Bremmer in the latest episode of the GZERO World podcast. “Each in its own way is an independent institutional voice telling people, ‘This is the way things are.’”
Feldman explains why this isn’t just about cancel culture or campus politics—it's about whether universities will remain places where truth is pursued freely, or "knuckle" under political pressure. He discusses Harvard’s legal fight with the administration, growing antisemitism on and off campus, and the deeper risks for American democracy if academic independence erodes.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published
From lawsuits and executive orders to funding cuts tied to antisemitism claims, the Trump White House is targeting institutions like Harvard and [...]
Read More >The new global trade wars, with Fareed Zakaria
President Trump’s policies swiftly rewriting the rules of global trade. As the United States imposes tariffs on allies and adversaries alike, do we risk losing our edge? On the GZERO World Podcast, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria joins Ian Bremmer to discuss what happens when globalization’s biggest champion becomes its biggest critic. For the past 80 years, the United States has been the beating heart of the free trade movement, the country that forced all the other countries in the world to open their markets. But now, Washington is tearing up the economic playbook—levying historic tariffs and recasting the world as a high-stakes, winner-take-all, zero-sum game.
Zakaria says we are living through an age of backlash to 30 years of globalization and that the next 10 years will be a period of “slowbalization,” where we'll see a much slower pace of growth and a much more political economy. Bremmer and Zakaria break down America’s retreat from global leadership, shifting power dynamics between the US and China, European pressure to become more self-sufficient, and whether the Trump administration’s economic gamble is worth the risk.
“The United States has gone from the leading advocate of free trade to being the most protectionist advanced industrial country in the world,” Zakaria warns, “We’ve always invited competition from the world’s best. If we move to something else, I think we lose that edge.”
President Trump’s policies swiftly rewriting the rules of global trade. As the United States imposes tariffs on allies and adversaries alike, do we [...]
Read More >Spy games and loyalty tests with Senator Mark Warner
It’s been a banner stretch for President Trump: a major strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, a sprawling tax-and-spending bill pushed through Congress, and a growing foreign policy resume. But beneath the surface of all the flag-waving and victory laps, Democrats like Senator Mark Warner are warning that the real story is unfolding in the shadows—inside an increasingly politicized US intelligence community.
In this episode of the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with the senior Senator from Virginia at his Capitol Hill office for a wide-ranging conversation about what’s breaking inside America’s national security institutions—and what that means for foreign policy decisions from Tehran to Gaza. Warner doesn’t hold back: “We’re in uncharted, dangerous territory. [Intelligence] Analysts are being told to change their conclusions—or lose their jobs.”
The two also dive into the fallout from the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the fragile push for a Gaza ceasefire, and why Warner sees a largely ignored civil war in Sudan as one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crises—and a rare opportunity for the US to lead.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're publishedIt’s been a banner stretch for President Trump: a major strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, a sprawling tax-and-spending bill pushed through Congress, [...]
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