The News Roundup For February 13, 2026

25:33But then Ohio Senator Bernie Marino, I think he told the organization notice that he was not going to return the donation and he was just going to kind of lean into it. So that's going to keep happening as more of these powerful people who are associated with Epstein continue to get scrutinized. Let's stay with talking about Congress for a moment. Some Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief after Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins announced Tuesday she will run for reelection. Senator Collins is 73 years old. She served five terms. In recent months, she's clashed with President Trump over his immigration policies and has taken steps to curb the deployment of federal agents in Maine.

26:09Megan, this race could control, determine the control, who controls the Senate. How does Senator Collins announcing her plans to run for your reelection affect the calculus here with the GOP? So she is probably the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the Senate, but she's also the only Republican who could probably win in this race. Trump did not carry Maine in the 24 election and isn't particularly popular throughout the state. So she's up against a relatively popular former governor, Governor Janet Mills, and a combat veteran as well who's been sort of had a bit of a rocky campaign but is sort of a constant fixture in the Democratic primary there.

26:57There are several states in the country when we look at the Senate map that seemed a sure bet for Republicans just a year ago. places like Alaska, Dan Sullivan's race there that suddenly seems increasingly competitive. It's still a very steep hill to climb for Democrats to win control of the Senate. They have to defend all of their seats and gain another four more. But without Collins, it makes it much more difficult. So this was a huge win for Republicans. More of the week's news to come right after a quick break.

27:33This week, an increasingly rare moment of bipartisan cooperation in Congress, even if it was a bit symbolic. On Wednesday, the House voted 219 to 211 to revoke the tariffs that President Trump imposed on Canada last year. Six Republicans voted with nearly all Democrats to pass the measure. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it can pass with a simple majority vote. We're calling this symbolic because if it manages to pass both chambers, Trump will likely veto it once it gets into his desk. Following the vote, Megan, the president, took to social media to threaten Republicans who voted against the tariffs, saying, quote, any Republican in the House or Senate that votes against tariffs will seriously suffer the consequences come election time.

28:17That includes primaries. Why are Republicans choosing to buck the president now? What does it say about his control over the Republican Party? So let me just back up just a hair and just say this was a vote that Speaker Johnson had tried to ward off for a long time and Democrats essentially forced his hand because he knew how politically damaging, potentially politically damaging this vote could be for vulnerable Republicans and for the House majority. The tariffs are not popular. You know, people are starting to feel the effects of the tariffs. when they go to buy cars or electronics or any host of items.

29:00So this vote really was an up or down vote on Trump's tariff regime, which is really a centerpiece of his economic agenda. Six Republicans decided to buck the president. So it wasn't a lot of them, but it was six of them. And they essentially decided they'd rather face the president's ire and threats of retaliation in primaries than to be seen as embracing his tariffs. For them, the calculation essentially was, in many of these cases, that embracing the tariffs would be more politically damaging for them than a potential Trump primary. So it really started showing the cracks in Trump's hold on the majority.

29:45And it also shows the ever-weakening House Republican majority, which seems to be shrinking by day. I used to say we could fit the majority in a sedan. Now it's like we can fit the majority in a Miata. The difference between that happens. I was going to say a mini Miata. Okay. Alana, can I ask, to Megan's point, there's some new data we have out this week, including from the Bipartisan Policy Center, showing that net tariff revenues in 2025 were$194 billion. That's up from$77 billion in 2024. how much of that is coming from U.S. consumers or being absorbed by U.S. consumers, I should say? Well, I'll quote the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which also released very high profile data this week showing that nearly 90 percent of that burden was borne by both American businesses and American consumers.

30:36Obviously, that's a lot. And it really bolsters the political argument that Democrats are making. You know, to Megan's point, I found the vote in the House very striking because personally I was shocked that it was only six House Republicans. I think Democrats looked at that small number, particularly among battleground seat occupants, and said, wow, we can't wait to use this in ads against these guys, particularly these battleground Republicans in farm states who are hanging back and supporting the president for whatever reason. Maybe they don't want him to trash them on Truth Social. But this data that clearly shows all this revenue is actually being squeezed out of American businesses is not really going to play well on the campaign trail.

31:15I think what's notable from the White House perspective over the last year, I've interviewed Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, Peter Navarro, who's one of the president's top trade advisors, Kevin Hassett, who leads the Economic Council. They will insist to you over and over and over again that American consumers are not paying for these tariffs. And I think this vote is indicative that even some Republicans data from the Federal Reserve, data from the Federal Reserve. You know, there's a lot of evidence there. The overwhelming majority of economists will say to you a tariff is paid at the port of entry and either the business on the U.S.

31:47side has to pony up the cost or the consumer who buys that product ends up paying for it. And it's striking that a year later, despite all the legal challenges, despite the economic indicators, the Trump administration continues to insist that is not what's happening. that's because that's what President Trump's view is. And folks in his administration don't want to cross him because as he's laying out, he will turn on somebody politically if they disagree with him on this. And we should note the effects of these tariffs have been somewhat delayed initially because a lot of manufacturers stockpiled equipment.

32:17So those arguments could, you know, sort of be perhaps somewhat valid or something that they could certainly rest on in the early months of the tariff regime. But of late, you know, when we're seeing these costs really go up, that is being felt by American consumers. And it's something that is only feeding into this affordability push heading into the midterms. Let's go to a major piece of climate news. On Thursday, the Trump administration announced plans to repeal a landmark scientific finding established in 2009 under the Obama administration. The endangerment finding concluded that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, pose threats to public health and welfare and is the legal basis for federal greenhouse gas regulations.

33:08Let's talk about, Alana, how, first of all, you roll back this landmark scientific finding, like how the government can do that. Well, you know, it sounds kind of silly, right? The government can roll back science. But in this case, as part of the regulatory process, and we're zooming all the way back to the first Obama term here in 2009 when this finding was issued. As part of that regulatory process to kind of rein in the greenhouse gases that caused climate change, the EPA made this scientific finding, which was later upheld by a series of lower federal courts and the Supreme Court. There were no shortage of challenges to the validity of this finding.

33:46Of course, Trump can simply pull it back and honestly needed to pull it back because he's rolling back all of the regulations that it underpinned. He says this will save American consumers so much money on cars. Frankly, the data shows that all it will do is slow carbon reductions rather than really turn them back. I mean, it's definitely bad. But folks who are worried about overall global progress on climate change, you know, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it may be overinflated. the effect of this rollback. And we did get that question. Well, let me just say U.S. officials, to your point, Alana, are calling this the most significant rollback of U.S.

34:26climate policy to date. Megan, we got a question from Mark in Maryland saying the EPA, the administration has decided the EPA does not have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases. Yeah, and there's going to be a lot of consequences like this. A lot of consequences, some legal challenges here as well, which is obviously an ongoing theme of this administration. Environmentalists paint a much more, much starker picture here. The Environmental Defense Fund says it could cost Americans $1.4 trillion extra in additional fuel between now and 2055. And they also estimate that estimates that climate-linked damages could cost an additional$4.2 trillion.

35:11dollars. So let's go to some health news now. Measles cases are rising across the country with more than 500 cases reported in South Carolina. That's according to the CDC. 18 cases have also been reported in North Carolina, 72 percent of which involve people who were not vaccinated. The virus is hitting college campuses especially hard. In Florida, 49 students at Ave Maria University have contracted the virus since the semester began, despite 98 % of those students being vaccinated. Overall, the percentage of those who required hospital care this year is down 8 % from last year. No deaths this year have been recorded.

35:48Let's stick with viruses and vaccines. On Tuesday, the vaccine maker Moderna said its request to apply for approval for its mRNA flu vaccine was rejected by the FDA. Despite late-stage trials, which revealed the shot to be safe and effective, the first to use mRNA for a flu vaccine. Health officials defended their decision on Wednesday, but then FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty McCary told Fox News the agency might approve the vaccine eventually. Megan, the FDA has been going back and forth with Moderna for nearly three years. Is this rejection final then? No, it seems as though this could ultimately come to pass, that after more trials and whatnot, the FDA is saying potentially, you know, this could come to market.

36:34Let's switch gears to talk about social media and teen safety. Several major platforms, including TikTok, Snap, and Meta, have agreed to teen safety ratings amid increasing concerns over whether these companies are doing enough to protect young people's mental health. Taylor, how are these safety ratings going to work? So, you know, it's fascinating to look at this from the policy perspective, because in many ways, I think Congress at the federal level and even state lawmakers are late in responding to this because they've realized watching their own families, their own kids and whatnot, that, you know, there are dangers here.

37:07There are kind of addictive reasonings behind it. And there's also a constitutional debate about access to these platforms and, you know, what even children are able to have access to. So there's kind of a layered response in terms of trying to, you know, filter what children have access to, and then allowing these companies to let their platforms exist as they are. And it's something that we're seeing continue to be debated in Congress. I think this week, too, there's been a lot of online discourse about AI and the future of AI and what it has to do with our jobs and what positions it's going to disrupt.

37:44And all of this is wrapped up in an ongoing policy debate that we see a divide in concern and also a very slow-moving response from legislators? There's been a huge lobbying push from these companies, mostly against the legislation that is being pushed both at the state level and at the national level. This rating system is something that I think they feel like they can embrace because it is less, you know, harmful potentially to their business model, to their bottom lines, as this is, you know, a rating. You get a blue badge, I believe, on your product if you adhere to these various guidelines that are being put out there.

38:22But there is still that legislative push that is simmering. And it'll be interesting to see whether this quells that, whether they're getting ahead of efforts on legislation or whether this fuels it. And you compare that, I think it was Australia just a couple of weeks ago, you know, basically banned access to social media for children and took the biggest step kind of globally. And that's something that these companies are watching and people here in the U.S. are tracking too. A story some might have missed this week, the pride flag was removed from the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan in compliance with the Trump administration directive about non-agency flags at national park sites.

39:03Stonewall is widely thought of as the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ plus movement. Crowds and New York City officials gathered Thursday to protest the move and to raise a new pride flag. Well, we're going to touch on the Olympic news more in our international edition of the News Roundup, but we did see some athletes openly criticizing U.S. policies and politics. Alana, politics have always been part of the Olympics. What's different this time? Well, I think, you know, the boos for the vice president at the opening ceremonies show you that Europe in particular is paying close attention to what the Trump administration is doing in terms of aggressive protectionism, the bid for Greenland, and they're just not happy.

39:44I think, you know, then you saw the president himself go after some athletes for, you know, stating their own views in a relatively mild fashion about feeling a little bit awkward representing Team USA. So, you know, it was kind of a refreshing sign, frankly, as somebody who covers politics, that politics affects other aspects of human life. To Alana's point, Taylor, that J.D. Vance was loudly booed in the opening ceremony, which European media covered, NBC turned quietly away from, but certainly was very big on social media. What do you make of the reception of the U.S. in Milan and how the media is portraying it?

40:24I think especially in Europe, it's unsurprising because there have been so many clashes with the Trump administration over the last year. One of the first big international things Vice President Vance did last year was go to the Munich Security Conference, which is starting this week, and basically, you know, talked down to Europe and said, the U.S. doesn't want to do business with you on a foreign policy stage as we have for decades and you all need to rethink things. And that left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. Now, I've been in touch with the vice president's team. They argue that it's, you know, subjective to decide who, how loud the booze were.

40:57And if you weren't there, then you're just basing it off of what you saw on social media. But the vice president also sort of prides himself on the fact that other world leaders might be a bit skeptical of him, might not embrace him with open arms. He's a very big isolationist figure when it comes to the foreign policy world. So I thought that was notable. The last thing I'll say just about the political politics of athletes speaking out, this administration is very pro elevating athletes and pop culture figures. Look at how Nicki Minaj has been featured very prominently for the administration when they side with them, when they disagree with them, then they talk about, oh, athletes should just stick to sports or singers should just stick to singing, and that's something we've seen amplified recently.

41:36That's all the time we have for domestic news today. A big thanks to our guests, Megan Scully, Congress Editor at Bloomberg News, Taylor Popolars, National Political Reporter for Spectrum News, and Alana Shore, Senior Washington Editor for Sembifor. But don't go anywhere. We'll be back with our global panel and headlines from around the globe right after this. Stay with us.

41:59Now let's get right into the international edition of the 1A News Roundup. Our expert panel is here with us for it all. Asma Khalid, co-host of The Global Story, a new daily podcast from the BBC. Hi, Asma. Hey there. Good to be here. Akhmar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, also with us here in Washington. Hi, Akbar. Hi, Nayla. And Greg Karlstrom, Middle East correspondent for The Economist. Hi, Greg. Always good to be with you. Let's start with on Wednesday. President Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House before the prime minister left Israel.

42:31He said this about his intentions for the face-to-face. On this trip, we will discuss a number of issues, Gaza, the region, but of course, first and foremost, the negotiations with Iran. I will present to the president our ideas about the principles in the negotiation. It was Netanyahu's sixth meeting with the president since Trump returned to power last year. Akbar, it's noteworthy this meeting between the two was more muted than previous visits. Little fanfare, close to the press. What's your read on the mood of this before we get to what we know of the substance? Certainly. We didn't see, we saw Netanyahu still express the same kind of amity and closeness with the Trump administration that he didn't have with the Biden administration, where he was a bit more defiant.

43:13But you also saw some Trump officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio in interactions with Netanyahu, look a little wary, look a little cautious. Netanyahu did not get exactly what he wanted from this meeting. And what we saw that with his departure on the tarmac, he couldn't specify still whether the U.S. is trying to get the limited deal with Iran that seems feasible or do the kind of broader deal that's very unlikely that Netanyahu is saying they have to get. And if Netanyahu can push them to say the only deal we got is a big deal, the much more likely outcome is war. The biggest indication, I would say, that they are not on the same page was the muted public response we saw from them.

43:52We did not see a press conference. We did not see an open press engagement. I mean, ultimately, what you saw was a social media post from President Trump after this all. And that, to me, was the biggest and clearest indication that they were not on the same page. I mean, Netanyahu and Trump, to my knowledge, have met more than any other world leader. during President Trump's now second term in the White House. And most of those other visits, you usually see some form of public interaction. You did not see that this time. Greg, Netanyahu was expected to urge Trump to widen diplomacy with Iran beyond its nuclear program to include limits on Tehran's missile arsenal.

44:28The issue of ballistic missiles was also top of the agenda last week when Washington and Tehran met in Oman. What do we know about whether Netanyahu got these guarantees? The public messaging from the Trump administration on this has been all over the place, which is unusual, obviously, because they're usually so disciplined in their public messaging. But, you know, a couple of weeks ago, the both public and private messages that I was hearing was that the administration was committed to this sort of comprehensive deal that would address the nuclear program, missiles, and then also Iran's support for militias, for proxies in the region.

45:05But then last weekend on Air Force One, President Trump said he might be OK with a nuclear-only deal. We've heard J.D. Vance talk about how America's only priority here is restraining the nuclear program. So it's not entirely clear what they want. Similar to last summer, I think last spring, the last time they tried to negotiate with the Iranians, where their red lines seem to be shifting all the time. But I think what's really important here is what Akbar said, which is that the missile program is not something that the Iranians are willing to negotiate at all. They have made that clear this time around.

45:41They made it clear last year, going back all the way to when Barack Obama tried to negotiate with them more than a decade ago at this point. So I think it's going to come down to does the Trump administration want some kind of a diplomatic deal at all? Are they willing to settle for a nuclear-only deal? because I don't think even with this enormous American military buildup in the region, I don't think Iran is going to negotiate around its missile program. Right. That's what I wanted to ask you about, Akbar, in terms of the buildup. We've seen warships, air defenses, fighter squadrons. On Friday, a second aircraft carrier deployed to the region.

46:16How much is that signaling the administration's desire to negotiate out? I think it's useful to think about this in terms of a realistic deal that could happen and then the fantasy that exists in Washington, right? And the fancy that exists in Washington is military pressure builds up. The Iranians capitulate in a whole range of options. That's extremely unlikely. But there's still a lot of folks here in D.C., Senator Lindsey Graham, sort of unconventional folks, Mark Levin, some Trump donors, people who are not necessarily in the administration but are quite pro-war and have been for a long time.

46:50So I would link the military buildup. Yes, it's being sold, I think, to President Trump as this will push the Iranians to get to a deal. But that's really quite unrealistic, given how people think the regime is thinking right now. And instead, what's becoming more likely is Trump gets to a point where he has all these shiny weapons in the region and feels it's time to use them. Osama, earlier Wednesday, Israel formerly joined the U.S.-backed Board of Peace, signing on to the initiative ahead of the meeting after weeks of hesitation. So that places Israel inside a forum that includes Western partners, as well as Turkey and Qatar.

47:24How much is this a strategic calculation tied to not just Iran, but also Gaza? Very much so. I mean, the Board of Peace, just for listeners who might not be totally familiar with it, is an extraordinarily controversial organization. It is one in which Donald Trump is the chairman, perhaps in perpetuity, even after he leaves the office of the White House. And its initial mandate was Gaza, to rebuild Gaza. It has since grown, I would say philosophically, to a much larger organization whose remit is very unclear. But the Trump administration sees it in many ways as a counterbalancing force to the United Nations.

48:04I think what is noteworthy is there's a number of European countries who have said, no, no, we don't want to be a part of this. China doesn't want to be a part of this. And so the countries that you see signing on board, these are countries that want to maintain a loyal relationship with the United States. And Israel has multiple reasons for wanting to do this. We talk about Iran, but also, I mean, Gaza is still core to this all. I mean, there has been, and at the outlining of this announcement, we saw Jared Kushner at Davos just last month talk about this real estate vision for Gaza. It is worth pointing out that in this idea of rebuilding Gaza now, you have countries like Israel who will be sitting there at the table, and to my knowledge, you really don't have active Palestinian participation on this board of peace.

48:48No, the top three layers of the Board of Peace have not a single Palestinian. It's only when you get to the technical implementation, which is, given that we're talking about the future of their region, 2.2 million Palestinians living in Gaza, and a future Israeli-Palestinian peace, you can't get there if you're not incorporating those views. Greg, later this year, Benjamin Netanyahu faces voters for the first time since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which badly dented Netanyahu's reputation on security. I want to remind everyone he's also facing a trial for corruption and is leading a coalition being held together with a right wing faction, which he's had a number of disagreements.

49:28Where does Iran factor into winning the Israeli election, and what would that mean for cementing Netanyahu's legacy? So I think the interesting question in that election is actually whether Iran won't factor in at all, which would be unusual. I mean, Netanyahu has been Mr. Iran for decades. No matter what you ask him, he finds a way to bring the conversation back to Iran. There was a funny moment about 15 years ago when someone asked him about the high cost of living in Israel, and he somehow found a way to talk about Iran's nuclear program in the course of that answer. But we did an interview with him at The Economist about a month ago, and when asked about Iran, Netanyahu described them as, his words, a second-rate power, and basically said they're not that significant right now.

50:19So Iran has been so diminished by the wars of the past couple of years, by its own domestic problems, that it may not, unless there's a catastrophic war to come later this year, it may not factor into the Israeli political discourse. I think what's more important is going to be Netanyahu's relationship with Donald Trump. He's counting on Trump to make him look like a statesman on the world stage. He's counting on Trump to continue pushing for a pardon in that criminal trial, which Trump has done repeatedly. He's asked the Israeli president to pardon Netanyahu. I think Netanyahu wants more of that as we head towards campaign season.

50:59And that may limit his room to maneuver politically a little bit because he just cannot afford to get on bad terms with the Trump administration. I wonder how, Akbar, the Israeli public views the relationship with Trump, if that's a plus or a minus. Well, we know that the Israeli public quite likes President Trump. It's one of the few publics globally that has said they see confidence in him as a strong leader. You don't see that from Europeans. You don't see that from a lot of people in other regions. I think that Niyahu has been successful in playing Trump the same way that he played the Biden administration.

51:33I mean, it's been consistent. Out of one side of his mouth, he'll say, yes, let's go towards peace in Gaza, still bombing, killing Palestinians all the time, not moving towards the Palestinian state, and no response from the Trump administration. So Trump, in some ways, while he is tougher, and he'll say, I got them to ceasefire, Netanyahu's big plea to the Israeli public is, I can steer U.S. politics. I can steer international affairs in our direction. And that's where the Iran link comes back. Because a lot of the concern about this potential Iran strike is, will they get there before the summer?

52:04Trump has indicated they might. That also helps Netanyahu. If he can show, I took the U.S. back into yet another strike on Iran, He's the statesman extraordinaire to Israel. This week, Iran marked the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution as the country's theocracy remains under incredible pressure, as we've been talking about both from the United States but also internally. Iranians are angrily denouncing Tehran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests, struggling with economic turmoil in the country. Iran's president has called for unity, apologized for the, quote, shortcomings that exists after the recent state violence and said the country is not seeking nuclear weapons.

52:48We are not willing to own a nuclear weapon. We cannot allow for our relations with our regional and neighboring countries to collapse, yet we are faced with a conspiracy from imperial powers. We're using all our strength to reinforce peace and harmony in the region. It is the people of the region only who can solve our own problems. Together with Muslim countries, we can resolve our problems without any intervention by alien Westerners. Greg, we're seeing a real split screen of events in Iran right now. Millions of Iranians gathering in the streets, celebrating, carrying flags, chanting revolutionary slogans, but notably the Ayatollah addressing events in a pre-recorded message, not in person, and the president apologizing for the crackdown that killed thousands.

53:31Does that signal how much pressure the regime is under right now? It's under a tremendous amount of pressure. And yes, the anti-government protests that started last month have stopped for now, but I don't think anyone should read anything into that beyond the regime was simply able to deploy an enormous amount of force that scared protesters into staying home. All of the structural problems that caused those protests in the first place, the economic crisis in Iran, the environmental degradation there, the foreign policy failures of the past few years, all of that is still in place. And so all of the pressures on the regime are still there.

54:13And I think President Pazeshkian talking about shortcomings as he did, saying that he was ashamed at, you know, seemingly implying that he was ashamed at the regime's response to these protests, the horrific crackdown that's killed at least 7 ,000 protesters last month. You know, I think that may end up reinforcing the idea that this regime is almost unreformable. This is a president who was elected as a reformist, right, who was elected to try and make some changes in the system. But obviously he is subordinate to the supreme leader. He's much weaker than the Revolutionary Guard, than other elements of the Iranian system.

54:53He's been simply unable to make any sorts of reforms in the system. And so maybe he thought by apologizing he would placate some segments of Iranian society. But I think by doing that, you know, he's more likely to reinforce the idea that there is simply no fixing the governing system of the Islamic Republic. Akbar, many will remember President Trump saying he was going to come to the aid of these protesters. We haven't heard as much from the administration since then. What else are we hearing from inside the U.S. right now? Absolutely. I think what you see with this, with what's happening in Iran, with the celebration of the revolution, and even with how U.S.

55:29officials are thinking about this, shows you how the human rights of actual Iranians are just nowhere in this conversation right now. President Trump is no longer talking about the protesters who were attacked or justice or accountability there. And even Iranian-Americans, of whom there are several who are being detained right now, one of them, a journalist, Rezaf Ali Zadeh, has been in there for more than 500 days now. That's not a factor I'm hearing in the negotiations, which is so interesting, right? Because previously, Iran and America have been able to do prisoner swaps, hostage releases.

55:59because of the way the diplomacy is working and how it's kind of fumbling, those concerns about just average people aren't being raised. Yeah, I mean, very much the negotiations now seem to be focused almost exclusively on some sort of nuclear negotiation. And I think what is important to keep in mind, you know, we were talking earlier about Netanyahu and Trump and what they want is that after this meeting, we saw President Trump post on social media saying that, you know, no definitive deal had been reached, But he did say that he insisted that the negotiations with Iran should continue. And I think that it is important to understand that what we see from President Trump, I don't see a clear articulation often of certain foreign policy priorities.

56:42You know, human rights or protesters may not really be top of mind. We haven't really seen any indication that it is. But what is often of a top priority for the president is trying to reach deals, various deals. We've seen this time and again. And so for him, I do think it's really paramount to reach some sort of deal. Now, again, we can talk about this. We talked about Netanyahu being under electoral pressure. President Trump will have to deal with his own Republican base, some of whom could very much see a new nuclear deal as a version of Obama's deal 2.0. Let's stay in the region, but let's move to the occupied West Bank.

57:16This week, the Israeli government made changes to rules around land registration in the occupied West Bank, making it easier for Israeli Jews to buy property. In addition to allowing Jews to buy property in the West Bank, Palestinian territory that Israel has occupied since 1967 in defiance of international law, the Israeli government has also ordered that previously sealed land registries in the West Bank be opened up to the public, identifying and exposing Palestinian landowners. In a statement, extremist far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrik said this, quote, we are deepening our roots in all parts of the land of Israel and burying the idea of a Palestinian state, end quote.

58:01Akbar, we have more than 500 ,000 Israelis, including Smotrik, living in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law. There's around 3 million Palestinians there. What kind of concerns have these new rules raised about annexation of the West Bank? Many Palestinians are calling this, unfortunately, we've just seen every step going towards this direction being called this too. But this really feels like the moment, the final nail in the coffin of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. And I think the concern here is you've seen the Trump administration up to the president come out and say, we don't want the annexation of the West Bank.

58:36The Europeans have inevitably come out again and said, we don't want to see this. But the kind of, frankly, hypocrisy and fecklessness in a lot of those statements is so exposed here because there has only been creeping annexation with no response, either from the US or from the Europeans. So while we're all still talking about somehow we'll get towards two-state solution, Board of Peace, as we discussed earlier, no actual steps to go there have been taken. And for Palestinians, including Palestinian Americans, many of whom have been killed with no consequences, not just in violation of international law, but also U.S.

59:11law, there just has not been any kind of question of justice. We did hear President Trump say this in September of last year. I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. No, I will not allow it. It's not going to happen. Greg, what reaction has there been to this move by the administration and what have we heard globally? Well, obviously, there's a lot of concern about this amongst Palestinians, countries in the region and globally. And, you know, I think underlying this is the question of what does annexation mean, right? Trump says, I won't allow it to happen. The world says we won't allow this to happen.

59:47So if an Israeli official comes out, if Prime Minister Netanyahu comes out and says we are formally annexing the entirety of or a large chunk of the occupied West Bank, Like, obviously, that would cross a red line for many countries around the world. But what we have seen, not just under this Israeli government, but I think going back for a number of years now, is this process of de facto annexation. No one is going to say we are annexing this territory, but they are going to take a series of steps, not just this most recent one. But, you know, since this Netanyahu government came into power, even down to very mundane things like expanding and improving the roads that connect settlements in the occupied West Bank to Israeli proper to make it easier for Israeli settlers to commute back and forth, even very banal things like that.

1:00:35they're doing these things that amount to a de facto process of annexation, but never cross that threshold of actually doing it in law and therefore never seem to trigger a response from the international community beyond these sorts of expressions of concern. Yeah, I mean, one thing we've seen repeatedly from the Trump administration is in words saying that they are in theory ruling out Israeli annexation of the West Bank. But we have not seen any measure of policy from this White House showing that they are actually opposed to settlement construction. I think one of the biggest examples you can give is actually, in fact, on day one when we saw this new administration come in, it lifted sanctions that had been put in place under the previous Biden administration that involved sanctions on some involved in settler violence.

1:01:23Those sanctions were lifted on day one. I mean, we look back to sort of steps taken with new announcements of settlements in December. Shortly after that move was made, again, we heard from President Trump, you know, basically saying that, you know, he and Netanyahu may not be in 100 percent alignment around this. But we've never seen a real concrete change in policy from this White House that suggests it is fundamentally opposed to what's going on. Right. And that kind of blurriness and gray area permits the escalation of a kind of culture of violence here. I mean, one of the people on whom Trump lifted sanctions, Dean Onlevy, a violent settler identified by the Biden administration, went on to kill a filmmaker of No Other Land, one of the best-known movies about Israel-Palestine in recent years, within six months of Trump lifting sanctions on him.

1:02:11So, you know, you're seeing how this kind of sense of impunity, even if they're not saying formal annexation, can create kind of dangerous consequences. Let's talk about Vice President J.D. Vance traveling to Armenia and Azerbaijan this week. Vance is the first U.S. president to visit Armenia. He was in the country as part of the administration's follow-up to a U.S. broker deal aimed at ending a decades-long conflict between the two countries. And while he was there, Vance visited a site called the Armenian Genocide Memorial. That's the nation's official national monument, remembering his citizens who died under the Ottoman Empire's brutal control during World War II.

1:02:48But a tweet posted and then quickly deleted to his Twitter account has caused a major uproar. The initial post on Vance's official X account said he was visiting the memorial to, quote, honor the victims of the Armenian genocide, end quote. It was soon replaced with a second post that showed when he wrote in the guest book, as well as a clip of the vice president Usha Vance laying flowers. A spokesperson traveling with the vice president blamed the post on staff and not part of the delegation traveling with Vance. Greg, most U.S. presidents, except for President Biden, have avoided the term genocide.

1:03:22Can you explain the context for us here, why this is so significant? Right. It shows you the gap, I think, between what is true and what is politically advantageous. The genocide against the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire a little more than a century ago, that is something almost universally accepted by historians and scholars. It is recognized by dozens of governments around the world. But as you say, the United States, with one exception, no president has called it that, has recognized it as a genocide. And the reason for that is because they don't want to upset or offend the Turkish government, which insists that it was not a genocide, that Armenians were deported or expelled, but not exterminated.

1:04:09And so that is their position. They contest that a genocide ever happened. And the United States values its relations with Turkey, which is a NATO ally, which, you know, right now, if you look around just around the Middle East, is very heavily involved in trying to mediate talks between the U.S. and Iran, played a role last year in negotiating the ceasefire in Gaza, plays a major role in Syria, which the Trump administration obviously has invested quite a lot of effort in trying to stabilize and reintegrate into the world after the fall of the Assad regime. So there's simply, I think, no desire there to offend the Turkish government by calling a genocide a genocide.

1:04:49The closely watched Munich Security Conference gets underway today. Ahead of the kickoff, the Munich Security Report described President Trump as the most powerful figure challenging existing rules and regulations, saying the world is in an era of, quote, wrecking ball politics, end quote, being led by the U.S. This comes as Politico released a new poll of global citizens raising fresh concerns about the stability of the global order in the U.S. as a loyal partner. As he departed from Munich, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to the press. The old world is gone, frankly, the world I grew up in, and we live in a new era of geopolitics.

1:05:25And it's going to require all of us to reexamine what that looks like and what our role is going to be. Akbar, we're seeing so many Democrat politicians from the U.S. there. Governor Gavin Newsom, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both will be addressing the main conference. How unusual is this opposing party foreign diplomacy effort at this in Munich? I think it's useful to think back to the last time there was a disagree of rupture between the U.S. and its traditional allies in Europe, which was after the 2003 Iraq invasion. You saw very much an effort to say all of America is not the Bush administration as the kind of Bush administration's record got worse and worse.

1:06:01Now these democratic politicians are trying to present themselves as future leaders of the party. Ocasio-Cortez's speech is especially interesting because she's trying to talk about multinational oligarchy and corruption, an issue I think people care about a lot when the Epstein files, but that gets to the broader question about Munich, which is, are global elites just talking to each other or are they representing anything for real people? I know that many of your colleagues, frequent 1A roundup guests are there. We are going to hear from them next week. Asma, can I start with you? And then Greg, what will you be watching for from Munich?

1:06:33Oh, a lot. I mean, Munich, I think, is a really interesting setting. I've gone in the past, right? It's a, just for folks who might be familiar, it's a place where a number of world leaders go, security officials, intelligence people, and they all cram into this hotel ballroom that you clearly think is overcapacity. I've heard it described as Davos for national defense, but it sounds very small. But it's so crowded, so, so crowded. But it is, I think, a really interesting venue to understand what the sort of gut check is on the global mood at a particular moment. And one of the things I think that is important to keep in mind is, last year, the vice president, J.D.

1:07:08Vance, really, you know, I think took Europe by surprise with the public scolding of saying, you know, you need to step up on defense, criticize them for ignoring their own populist movements, and criticize them for having what, in his view, was a lack of free speech. This year, I think, is what I am really watching for, is what the view from Europe is in response. They've had a year now to understand that the unraveling with the United States is real. It is perhaps not going back any time in the near future. And how are they going to navigate that climate? It is an ongoing conversation. We've seen many indications of the U.S.-Europe relationship unraveling over the last several months and how people in the room are responding this year.

1:07:51The European leaders, we've already begun to see some of that, I think is really, really key. Lastly, I'll say Rubio is expected to talk tomorrow, Secretary of State. I don't anticipate he will have a very different message from J.D. Vance. He, though, being a diplomat, might present the message in a slightly different way. Greg, before we go to Ukraine, I do want to just follow up with you on Munich. From your vantage point in the world, what you're going to be watching for? Two things for me. One, obviously, is Iran and particularly what countries in the region say and how they try to convince the United States not to carry out strikes in Iran.

1:08:24Because with the exception of Israel, every other country in the Middle East is really opposed to the idea of American military action there. So that's one thing. The other is what Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, say about one another. The big story in the Gulf over the past month has been this worsening dispute between these two big Gulf powers. They're at odds in Sudan, in Yemen, various other places. So even though they're neighbors and they're allies, they are locked in this increasingly heated geopolitical battle. And they're both trying to convince the West, the U.S. in particular, to take their side.

1:09:01They are on the right side of this battle. So curious how they try and lobby various Western governments that are at Munich over the weekend. Thanks for that, Greg. Let's go to Ukraine. While multilateral talks between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia have stalled, there are continued Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy and transportation infrastructure. A Russian missile and drone strike against facilities in Odessa overnight on Wednesday led to more than 95 ,000 people losing power. Ukraine requested emergency assistance from Poland for electricity. These recent Russian strikes continue to kill people in Ukraine, including 10 just this week.

1:09:37A strike in Ukraine's northern region of Kharkiv struck a home and killed a father and three of his children and injured their mother. Akbar, European Union leaders from the bloc's 27 member states gathered at a castle in Belgium on Thursday. Can you tell us about their goal and what they're hoping this plan will do? Certainly. European leaders are feeling, as Asma mentioned, kind of adrift, right? And really have gotten the message that that could be not just a Trump era shift, but a generational shift in how much they can rely on the U.S. So as they're looking to what happens with Ukraine, the very low likelihood of any kind of deal that many of those European powers would see as fair, they're trying to shore up their own defenses.

1:10:19They're talking about this economic plan to issue, critically to issue joint debt, and also to kind of have a two-speed European Union. So, the countries that want to move forward towards more integration, more market power, as a counterweight, importantly, not just to Russia, but also to America. So, this is Europeans coming together and saying, we don't want to be alone in the world facing the US, China, and Russia. Washington has now kind of been put in that grouping that they're really worried about. And specifically, they're looking a lot at European tech champions. They want to reduce their reliance on the American tech sector, which tells us something interesting about the Trump administration, its closest to tech billionaires, and how other countries in the world are responding to that.

1:11:01I want to ask you also about something President Zelensky said, something that hasn't come up for a few weeks, whether or not Ukraine should hold elections. Zelensky said his country will only hold new elections, including for president, after it has a ceasefire with Russia, as well as security guarantees it's requested from Western allies. There's a real sequencing issue here. The U.S. has said, we won't give you those security guarantees for Ukraine until Ukraine and Russia reach an agreement. And particularly the Russians are saying, we want the whole of this disputed territory of the Donbass.

1:11:33Ukraine is saying, we can't give that to you. So everyone's kind of at a strange impasse, but there's a real desire on the US side to get some kind of settlement by the summer so that President Trump can crow about being a peacemaker. And from President Zelensky's standpoint, yes, he doesn't want to make huge concessions to the Russians, but he also sees a presidential election in Ukraine as a way for him to hold on to power and kind of be the steward to a new era. Greg, can I ask you, Russia is trying to rearm after sending so many drones and missiles into Ukraine, not just for this war, but from the future.

1:12:09This came from the head of Estonia's intelligence service on Tuesday. What did we learn about what rearming looks like? Right. And Estonia, obviously, it's a very small country that borders Russia. And so they spend a lot of effort, their intelligence services spend a lot of effort monitoring what's happening in Russia. They're thought to have a very good sense of what the Russians are doing. And this report that they came out with several days ago looked at, among other things, it cited some statistics around artillery shell production. So the Estonians say Russia is producing about 7 million artillery shells a year.

1:12:46Now that is up from 4.5 million just back in 2024. So in that, almost doubled over the course of just two years. And then obviously other areas where Russia is building up as well. Now, the Estonian conclusion was that Russia is not planning to invade Estonia or another NATO country in 2026. So they don't see this as a buildup aimed at an imminent military offensive. But they see it as Russia rearming in the context of the war in Ukraine. Obviously, it'll use a lot of those shells and those other things in fighting in Ukraine. But the worry is what happens next? What happens after that war? does Russia turn its sights to other small countries in the region?

1:13:33And obviously, there's a real fear of that. Let's go to Hong Kong. On Monday, 78-year-old newspaper founder Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges that he endangered Chinese national security. Lai founded Apple Daily in 1995, two years before Hong Kong was handed over from British to Chinese rule. It became part of China under the country's one country, two systems principle. Lai's son, Sebastian, spoke to the AP in London. The people of Hong Kong were promised by the United Kingdom and China that they'll have 50 years of one country, two system, where the freedoms will be protected.

1:14:07Those freedoms have been destroyed.

1:14:12So every single day my father's in prison is a reminder of that. Lai, a British citizen, has been in prison since 2020. The UK is calling for his release. China says he's their citizen and should be punished. Asma, your podcast, The Global Story, had an episode this week about Jimmy Lai's sentencing. First, what should we know about the outcry, especially across the world, around his sentencing? Will it make a difference? It doesn't appear as of now that it will make a difference. We saw an outcry even prior to his sentencing, just in the run-up to the very, you know, sort of, I think, eyes on the trial itself.

1:14:49That didn't make a difference. There has been pressure on the Trump administration to intervene in this case. Even in the run-up to the election last year, we heard President Trump be asked about Jimmy Lai's case. And at the time, he said it would be easy to get Jimmy Lai out. He essentially said he'd get him out 100 percent. Now, if we fast forward to where we are now in this most recent environment, just last month, we heard President Trump essentially say that he's brought up the issue with President Xi of China. But ultimately, this is an issue for President Xi. And Naila, this speaks to me of how the case of this man and the trial and the sentencing of Jimmy Lai is about so much more.

1:15:34That's what I wanted to ask you about. Yeah, because your episode talks about how much Jimmy Lai represents Hong Kong. And I wondered how you think we should understand from this case what democracy looks like there now and what this means for the rest of Southeast Asia as well. Yeah, I mean, well, Hong Kong, and we sort of walked through this all in the episode, but Hong Kong was a British colony for more than 100 years. And then in, what was it, 1997, it was officially passed back under this sort of unusual agreement that it would have its own degree of autonomy. In a nutshell, though, in around 2019, 2020, there was this new national security law passed.

1:16:10And Jimmy Lai's sentence now is the harshest punishment to be handed down under this new law. Naila, the reason, though, I think that this is about more than Jamila and more than what is just going on in Hong Kong is that we are living now and we see this time and time again in multiple examples of just geopolitical issues going on. We see that the world order that we've known is totally different, the world order we've known since after World War II. And we now see, I think, a movement towards an era of strong men and them sort of carving out these spheres of influence. And what we are seeing with President Trump is, I think, a degree of acceptance to President Xi's sphere of influence is Hong Kong.

1:16:52And regardless of what we saw from the president during the campaign, we don't see him intervening. The most recent words we've heard from him is, this is up to President Xi, is essentially what he is saying now. And that's a terrifying prospect, right, for people in Hong Kong, people in China, but also, as you mentioned, Naila, people in Taiwan, people across Southeast Asia, where there is a growing fear of Chinese influence and what that looks like, that comes in the context of the U.S. rolling back democracy promotion, rolling back talk of human rights. You've seen the State Department say, we're not even going to cite, for instance, attacks on LGBT equality, which these are often canaries in the coal mine of a broader pullback of democratic erosion.

1:17:32And I just think, you know, I think I'll start to your point. Certainly there's a desire among strongmen to go back to that era of spheres of influence. I think that's really hard to do when people have tasted freedoms. That's what you're seeing from Hong Kongers who are saying, we knew what it was like when we weren't in this Iron Crip. So the unpredictable factor there is, how do those populations push back in new and creative ways? Before we get to your reporter's notebook, I want to stop at the Milano-Cortina Games, where Stevenson Savard became the first cross-country skier to compete for Haiti at the Winter Olympics.

1:18:04He will finish. Man from Haiti.

1:18:12Oh, a little bow. Stevenson Salah, he has taken his bow. Taking a bow as he crossed the finish line 64th, the crowd cheered him in a heartwarming moment that resonated far beyond the results, what everybody loves about the Olympics. We've got a few minutes to look into your reporter's notebook, what we maybe missed, what you're watching for next week. Greg, can I start with you? Well, the obvious one for me is Iran, as it has been just about every week since the start of the year. There's now a second American aircraft carrier group sailing east towards the region. And so keeping an eye on what happens there.

1:18:50The other one, surprisingly, in the Middle East and the Gulf in particular, is the fallout from the Epstein files. Just earlier today, the boss of DP World, which is a major ports and logistics conglomerate in Dubai, he stepped down because he was mentioned quite often in the Epstein files. He was quite close to Jeffrey Epstein. So the fallout from this in the Gulf, I mean, it's a region where Epstein, when he was alive, tried to do business quite often. It was not very successful in doing that. But posthumously, the fallout from his emails and from these files is having quite an effect in the region.

1:19:29And Osmo, we saw that in the UK this week as well. We did with the British. I mean, we've seen it, I would say, in many different spheres with the British elite. You can talk about whether we're talking about the royal family, right, and increasing pressure on Andrew, who I would say, be careful with what we title him. He's no longer a prince. But also in the former British ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson. He was appointed by the British prime minister, and there is now increasing pressure on the British prime minister from within his own party as a result of what we've seen in these Epstein files.

1:20:04Right. Seems like Sarmer survived the leadership challenge this week. Asma, what are you looking for? What's in your notebook? Okay. Let me take us in a slightly different direction. We were just talking a moment ago about the Olympics. I'm a big fan of the Olympics. I love the Olympics. Love it. It's a moment of joy in a very sort of, you know, chaotic, ever-changing world. Well, the thing I was going to say that I'm really interested, though, is that even in the Olympics, you can never escape geopolitics. And so we are working on an episode for next week, actually, about bans in the Olympics, and in particular the ban we have seen on Russia in the context of the Ukraine war.

1:20:38Russia has not actually—Russian athletes have not been able to participate under their own Russian flag since, I believe it was the Sochi Olympics. It's been one thing after another, first the allegations of doping and then the war in Ukraine. Oh, I thought you were going to talk about the Ukrainian. Oh, we're talking about all of it. I mean, the question I have is do bans work? I mean, the idea is they're symbolic, but they've been used not always consistently. And yeah. Right. I was even thinking of the Haitian uniform that had to be changed because they said that Toussaint Le Overture was a political figure and could not have that statement in the Olympics.

1:21:13So it's an interesting question, right? It is a very interesting question. How to keep the politics out of the athletics. And Afghanistan was banned during the early years of the Taliban, but notably was not banned when the Taliban came back to power more recently. Akbar. I'll go back to Epstein because I am someone actually who was mentioned in the Epstein files myself, where Steve Bannon, Jeffrey Epstein emailed Steve Bannon asking about an article I wrote. And Bannon's response was three words that I think about all the time. He just said, very gay Pakistani. So I do think we'll continue to see Epstein files fall out from my fellow Epstein mentionees.

1:21:53I'm also tracking the Board of Peace of Gaza that we talked about. President Trump is hosting some of those leaders next Thursday. It's going to be a test of whether this is something serious. I think a lot of, as Asma mentioned, a lot of Europeans, a lot of major powers have said we're not participating. Where does Gaza go from here, where the U.S. has played such a key role in avoiding any conversation about accountability, about possible Israeli war crimes? Those cases have been closed. How do we get justice for the Palestinians who've lived through now almost three years of war? Well, thanks to all of you, our panelists today.

1:22:26Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent at HuffPost. Greg Carlson, Middle East correspondent at The Economist. And Asma Khalid, co-host of The Global Story, a daily podcast from the BBC. be sure to check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer. Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our acting executive producer. Alexandra Bote is our acting senior managing producer. Aileen Humphreys is our senior producer and editor of 1A On Demand. Barb Anguiano has been our longtime podcast producer and sometimes show producer. Today's her last day with us and we'll miss her so much along with her pungent for sharing excellent coffee and snacks.

1:23:07And a big thanks to Matthew Simonson for additional podcasts and on-demand support this week. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington, distributed by NPR. I'm Naila Boodoo. Have a great weekend. Let's talk again soon. This is Planting.

1:23:37Bye.