The News Roundup For July 25, 2025

24:07These are not small trading partners. They're huge ones looking at big rates. So I think that's part of the question to see whether that sentiment holds. Six months into the Trump administration, we should also check in on relations with the press and press freedom. The Wall Street Journal wrote the story late last week or earlier this week that Donald Trump had sent a suggestive lewd birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. I mention it because the Wall Street Journal was then banned from covering the White House for doing this story, Taylor. What's the state of press freedom under the Trump White House so far?

24:46Federal appeals courts have weighed in as well. Yeah, I would say it's fluid and there are definitely points of concern. And most notably, the initial story that got a lot of attention was the Associated Press, which is still battling with the Trump White House for access in what's called the press pool that goes into smaller spaces like the Oval Office or travels with the president. The White House actually this week hung up a framed letter from a judge basically reinstating the White House's ban on the Associated Press as they've been trying to wind that through court and pressure the legal system to let them keep the AP out of places.

25:20But that gives you an idea of the pride. It's a letter from the court that the president himself signed, and it's now hanging in the press briefing room. You talk about the Wall Street Journal not being allowed to travel with the president on Air Force One to the United Kingdom this weekend. So the White House, you know, they enjoy this battle, and they continue kind of the fake news mantra. At the flip side, they also say, hey, this is an extremely accessible administration. The president talks and takes questions almost every day. So do administration officials. But the landscape at the White House is changing.

25:47There's a lot of very clearly right-wing media outlets that are now daily presences there at the White House. Questions end up being softer and, you know, more complimentary. And so it ends up being, oh, if you're going to be critical, you could face consequences. That's a six-month check-in on the Trump administration. Meanwhile, one of the nation's oldest civil rights organizations is warning this week that the Trump administration's policies are an emergency for black Americans. Here's what National Urban League President and CEO Mark Morial told NPR's All Things Considered earlier this week.

26:19There's an unprecedented attack on the gains of the last 70 years. And think about it. 70 years ago, Brown v. the Board of Education began the dismantling of segregation in America. Ten years later, the passage of the Civil Rights Act. For the first time, there were legal protections against discrimination in fact, not just discrimination in law. In the last six months, we've seen the most aggressive assault on the progress we've made in modern American history. Alana Shore, most black folks didn't vote for President Trump, but he very much improved his standing with black voters, doubling his support from 2016 to 2020.

26:58What's been different for black Americans, do you think? What's the touchstone so far? Well, it's really the crackdown against DEI in all areas. I mean, this has equated, I think, to Black Americans being pushed out of positions of power and universities being encouraged to stop prioritizing diversity in hiring and in what they do. And that's underpinning a lot of what the Urban League is saying. We're rounding up the week's biggest headlines. Stay with us. We'll be back with more of The Roundup in just a moment.

27:30Welcome back to The Roundup. I want to check in on the story of SignalGate. That chat from earlier this year, that chat group was started by then National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who's now on the verge of becoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The thread included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg accidentally. And on it, Pete Hegseth shared details of war plans in Yemen. When the story broke, the secretary of defense said this. They know it's not war plans. There's no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information. Now, the Pentagon's independent watchdog says evidence shows that messages in that chat indeed came from a classified email marked secret.

28:20Taylor, the secret classification means that if the information gets into the wrong hands, it's expected to cause serious damage to national security. That clip I played from the tarmac from when Signalgate broke. Was the defense secretary lying? He was either not telling the truth intentionally or he was trying to underplay what actually took place. I mean, there's been a steady drip drip of information that shows it's pretty clear classified information, top secret information was being shared that could be labeled as war plans. And that, you know, this was in a chat that a journalist was included in and that in any other scenario, this would not be OK.

28:56I think the reason we're sitting here as August approaches and Pete Hegseth is still in his position is because he very publicly defended himself and aligned himself with the president and President Trump covets loyalty. And I think the most indicative thing about how the story blew over after weeks of getting attention was that when Mike Waltz, the former national security advisor, had his confirmation hearing for that ambassador position a week or two ago, it was an hour into the hearing that he was asked about this. And it was only a couple of questions. Then we kind of moved on. Well, another important part of this story is it wasn't just a journalist who was on.

29:28It was Jeffrey Goldberg, his editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, who's the last guy, really. I know him, his former colleague. You do not want to poke Jeff Goldberg and challenge his truthfulness in something like this. He was judicious in what he shared originally and what he put out there. And when they said there are no classified secrets, Jeff then said, well, you forced my hand. Here's what's out there. And that is what allowed us to sort of track, you know, more deeply where that original email came. And now the Defense Department IG, pardon me, says the exact same thing, Alana. Right. And it's important to look at this IG investigation in the broader context of Hegseth standing in the administration.

30:06And it's pretty low. Right now, his boss effectively on national security issues is Marco Rubio, who's technically on his same footing in the cabinet. But as we know, Rubio took over for Mike Waltz. So he's not in a good position right now. And what this tells me is whatever the IG ultimately puts out is going to make things worse for him. I want to also check in on the Trump administration's ongoing campaign to crack down and reshape higher education in America. Columbia University said this week it will pay$200 million to the federal government to restore most of the funding the Trump administration cut in March.

30:40The White House accused Columbia of, quote, inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students. Steve, what's the latest here? What's important now that Columbia University has decided to settle? They're not only paying the$200 million over three years. They're paying a$21 million Equal Employment Opportunity Commission challenge. They sanctioned and took actions against 70 students that were engaged in protests. They've promised to set up an ombudsman, an overseer to kind of watch their performance on a six-month basis to make sure that what they saw as the practice of anti-Semitism.

31:13that the administration argues was rampant on the campus is ceased. They're going to hire more people in the Institute for Jewish and Israel Studies. But what it is, is it's a real, it's a moment where a government intervened and has forced contrition from a major American university. And it is raising really interesting questions about the standing that universities have to withhold and withstand government. And it looks like they're also getting not only$400 million, it's$400 million restored in funding, but then it opens Columbia's pathway to billions of dollars of potential funding in the future.

31:54So it's a transaction. We're seeing a transaction, and what we're seeing at the price of it is freedom of speech on campuses. We're still on six months of the Trump administration. I think I sort of put that theme to bed, but we're still on it. What about on the environment and at the Environmental Protection Agency? EPA, we learned this week, is shutting down its scientific research arm. The Office of Research and Development gives expertise in environmental policies and regulations, including the dangers posed by toxic chemicals, smog, climate change, and wildfires. This move is part of the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to undo environmental regulations and to slash government.

32:32What does this decision mean for the future of environmental research at the EPA and across the government? Not good things, to say the least. And this is coming on the heels of reporting that the EPA might be about to pull what we call the endangerment finding, which is the scientific conclusion that greenhouse gases harm the environment. Well, we got this from Annie, who emails, can you please address? The New York Times and Washington Post reports that under Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, the agency is looking at pushing for the ultimate climate change denialism move, getting the endangerment finding, which Alana just mentioned, on carbon emissions buildup causing life -threatening harm to the entire human race.

33:12That is, I would argue, an even bigger deal than the scientific research arm. Both bad. Both a sign that the Trump administration is deprioritizing climate and the environment in a huge existential way. But if they pull this endangerment finding, suddenly we can no longer regulate tailpipe emissions in the same way. We can no longer regulate coal, which is still alive in this country and getting subsidies from the administration. It's got huge effects. I've had conversations with Zeldin and with Chris Wright, the energy secretary, over these first few six months. And there have been repeated attempts to just get them on the record.

33:41Do they believe the planet is warming? Do they believe in climate change? And they very artfully say, we acknowledge that, you know, humans are contributing in certain ways, but we largely feel that climate change efforts by the Biden administration and by previous administrations before that were stifling innovation and stifling economic growth. And our main priority is, you know, boost manufacturing, boost production. And we want to lower prices for everybody. And I will point out that this week, Zeldin was at a White House event where House Republicans gathered and celebrated with President Trump all their accomplishments over the last few months.

34:12And the president was going through the cabinet secretaries that were there. And he talked about Doug Burgum, the interior secretary and a few others. But then he said, Zeldin, you're my favorite right now. And he said, you're doing the toughest work. And Zeldin has really made it a goal of his to be out there fighting what they call wokeism, especially when it comes to the environment and really trying to use his perch as head of the EPA to broadcast that. This is not just going to cause trouble for what I would call the environmental left for people. There's an environmental right. There's Senator John Curtis of Utah.

34:43There are others that have created a conservative environment caucus. And this is giving them real grief. And so it's not a binary thing where one party is against, you know, climate science and the other is not. There are a lot of folks out there that are basically scratching their head and said, how do we get to this position? To Steve's point, there was a proposal to sell off federal lands, which is of a piece with the Trump administration's degradation of environmental policies of Biden. And that lost because Republicans didn't agree with Mike Lee on it. So there is a line here. Meanwhile, President Trump made a visit this week to the headquarters of the Federal Reserve.

35:17He did it with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Tensions between these two were on display as the president visited the central bank's headquarters, which is under construction, under renovation. He and Powell bickered a little bit over the renovations that were underway. You're including the Martin renovation. You just added in the third building. That's what that is. That's the third building. Right now, but it's a building that's being built. No, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago. It's part of the overall work. It's not new. Taylor, one of the people in our newsroom said that this scene was like the closing credits of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

35:56It's exactly the conversation you would see on a show like that if that's your thing. Or a veep. Look, the president has demanded that interest rates be lowered. He's threatened to fire the Fed chair. He can't do that legally. So now the renovation of the Fed headquarters is now a thing that the Fed chairman has to defend or else he might lose his job. Yeah, the White House, to justify if President Trump does go through with firing Jerome Powell, has to say it's for cause. So they've latched on to this renovation project, which is a big project. It's over two and a half billion dollars with a B for, you know, a building that a lot of important things happens to.

36:33But these board of governors only meet there a handful of times each year. So there's understandable frustration from the average person of why is this necessary? The Fed argues that this building is really old, that there are a lot of significant projects that have had to happen in order to get this project going through. But I think the president's team has latched onto this now. But they use this visit as a very public, you know, not shaming, but almost a moment for Powell to kind of say, look, we're serious about trying to embarrass you or pressure you. But Powell seemed to fight back and he's allowed to be in this role until May of 2026.

37:03And so far, he's showing every intention of wanting to do that. He did fight back in front of the press. It was sort of a remarkable scene, even though it was a little goofy. Still, they're not used to seeing things like that, even in this day and age. We're just about to wrap up the hour, and I want to get into your reporter's notebooks. Find out what stories you're watching for the week or the month ahead, what you think should be on our radar. Steve Clemens, you go first. Big deal. Next week, as I mentioned previously, August 1st is the big trade day. So are there going to be a lot of trade deals that come in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday?

37:32Or is there going to be a walk away and a further extension? Or are we going to basically see huge tariff walls that are really economically disrupting for major transnational companies for Mexico, Canada and the EU? I think it's the biggest story next week. Taylor? On the foreign policy front, we saw the Trump administration announced this week that basically talks between Israel and Hamas had fallen apart. Steve Whitcoff, the presidential envoy, was there to meet with them and decided to leave early. So the Trump administration is still dealing with that war as well as Russia, Ukraine. It'll be interesting in the coming weeks to see if there's any movement or if the president decides he wants to step away out of frustration.

38:10He's threatened to step away many times, kind of come back. The administration has thrown up his hands over Ukraine only to come back. You sort of can't throw up your hands and back away. You can't. And Congress gets involved and they weigh in on these things. And there's a lot of public opinion on it. So it's a story that they can't seem to shake. Alana? I'll be watching whether the Democratic Party can find its actual fight. Because, you know, back in the spring, there was a real to-do over this government funding. And they're about to, sorry to use this word, in the minds of the base, cave again and agree to fund the government.

38:40They're showing signs that they're going to just give in, as we reported this week. So that might change. We also might see cancellation of part of the Senate recess if they decide to fight back against some of these contentious diplomatic nominees. Democrats think they have their issue on Epstein. Is that not it or that's not long lived enough to stand up to be a salient to standing up on spending in a government shutdown? It really is a bet that the base will love their success on Epstein so much that it won't mind if they just work with the government, the Republican government yet again, because I think that's what they want to do.

39:10Yeah. And Democrats with a reputation among their supporters for always caving. They say Trump always chickens out. Actually, Democrats? Taco. It's not good. Right. Daco. Dems always chicken out. I guess we just coined it. You heard it here first. There it is. Well, I've been watching the major league draft. It's taco early. This is one where they're chickening out early. Right, so you won't notice. It's an early chicken. It's an egg. It's a pre-chicken. Egg out. I've been watching the MLB draft a lot. Nationals, Washington Nationals got the number one pick, Eli Willits, third youngest player selected in draft history, 17 years old.

39:49By the way, 15 of the first 32 picks in the MLB draft, shortstops, prospects. The MLB loves young shortstops. Keep an eye on them. See how they do. The deadlines for trades are coming up, and that's what I've been watching this summer. I want to thank Alana Shore, senior Washington editor for Semaphore, Taylor Popolars from Spectrum News, and Steve Clemens of the National Interest. Thank you all for joining us. Well, before we go to the global edition of the News Roundup, American pop culture lost three big names this week. Actor Malcolm Jamal Warner died on Sunday of an apparent drowning while swimming in rough seas in Costa Rica.

40:30He had an acting career that spanned 40 years of American television, including Suits and, of course, as Theo Huxtable on the 1980s hit The Cosby Show. Here he is trying to impress his sister's friend. It just seems to me like large families do a lot more sharing and have a lot more fun. That's exactly how I feel, especially the sharing part. Now, some guys might find it hard living with four sisters, but I think it's made me more sensitive to the wants and needs of women. Theo. Meanwhile, wrestling star Hulk Hogan died on Thursday at 71 years old. In private life, he was Terry Bolea. He was more responsible than any other grappler for bringing professional wrestling to gigantic audiences across America.

41:18Hogan's career was an arc of American pop culture, wrestling, movies, a reality show, a sex tape, unfortunately, with plenty of racist language, defamation lawsuits, and most recently, an appearance at the 2024 GOP convention in support of candidate Donald Trump. And finally, two-time Grammy Award-winning musician Chuck Mangione passed away this week at his home in Rochester, New York. Mangione's 1977 single Feel So Good reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He later became a voice actor on the animated TV show King of the Hill. A flugelhorn and a trumpet player, Mangione released more than 30 albums throughout his decades-long career.

42:01He was 84.

42:12Coming up in the global edition of the News Roundup, President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Whitcoff, travels to Europe for wide-ranging talks. But then things fall apart. Japan and the United States cut a massive trade deal and tributes pour in for British metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne. Stay with us. We'll be back with more after a short break.

42:37Let's get to the biggest headlines from around the world now and start in Gaza, where seeking food has become as deadly as the daily bombings. The United Nations says more than 1 ,000 people have been killed since May trying to get food from distribution sites, and that 120 people have died from malnutrition since the start of the war, and that 80 % of those are children. Dr. Moataz Harar is head of the emergency department at Al-Shifa Hospital. Here he is speaking to Al Jazeera. Most patients admitted to the hospital recently are not suffering from war injuries, but from severe malnutrition. Even some of our medical workers have fainted from lack of food.

43:16The situation is grave, but it's not new. It's just the number is rising rapidly. Joining us now from Amman, Jordan, Juliet Tuma, Director of Communications with the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, otherwise known as ANWA. Juliet, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. How would you describe the hunger situation that's underway for the estimated 2 million people in Gaza right now? We've never seen anything like this before in Gaza, despite the fact that Gaza, even before the war, was dependent on aid. And a lot of people were living in poverty and unemployment was prevalent. But we've never seen anything like this before, including during the times when we thought we have seen the worst.

44:11You've said that doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarian workers, among them, Anwar's staff, are fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while trying to perform their duties in Gaza. Now, Israel maintains that there are hundreds of aid trucks sitting inside Gaza awaiting distribution, that it's the United Nations and other international relief organizations that are failing to distribute it. Is that true? What are you hearing from your staff? Let me tell you about our staff. We have over 10 ,000 people working with UNRWA across the Gaza Strip. And every day for the past four or five days, we've been getting these SOS messages.

44:56Our staff are hungry. They're exhausted. They cannot find food, even though they're getting salaries every end of the month. So the issue is not with cash. The issue is with availability. There is simply not much food out there for themselves and their children. About the trucks, I don't know about what you just said. What I do know is that UNRWA has been banned for nearly five months now to bring what is 6 ,000 truckloads of supplies, including food and medicines that are currently in Jordan and Egypt. We've been banned from driving those trucks into Gaza. Now, we noted on Tuesday the U.N. Human Rights Office said that more than 1 ,000 Palestinians in Gaza have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food at distribution sites.

45:51That's since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, otherwise known as GHF, started operating in Gaza at the end of May. Now, the GHF says that this reporting is false. It blames Hamas for manipulating the media. A GHF spokesperson, Chapin Fay, admits there are problems with distribution, but also blames the UN. But GHF was never meant to meet the needs of the population alone. It is not enough. That is why we have routinely, and from the beginning, pushed for the UN and others to operate alongside us in Gaza. There have been many, many false reports that the UN is not allowed to operate in Gaza, that GHF has replaced them.

46:34that four GHF sites have replaced 400 UN access points. That is just not true. Juliet, earlier this month, your organization called for the end of GHF. Why does UNRWA believe that GHF is not helpful and a helpful aid infrastructure for Palestinians in Gaza? Well, what we've said is that this so-called humanitarian foundation is not at all humanitarian. It is taking more lives than saving lives. And the numbers that you have quoted, that a thousand people or more were killed while they were trying to get very, very little aid from this aid distribution center. They are verified by the United Nations.

47:28And the way we verify our data is extremely detailed. And we go through checking sources. We interview survivors. We interview medical workers. The numbers that are quoted are United Nations numbers. Juliette, before I let you go, what do you want the international community to know about the situation in Gaza right now? International charities and human rights groups are speaking out. More than 100 wrote an open letter saying Israel's blockade and ongoing military offensive are pushing Gazans towards starvation. What do you want people to know right now? It's not about what we want people to know.

48:11I think this war has been raging for 650 days, and it's a live stream on horror on our machines, daily live stream. So those who need to know should know by now about the catastrophe that's happening in Gaza. It's time for action right now. It's time for a change. It's time for a ceasefire because knowing and watching will not feed hungry children. It's time for a ceasefire. It's time to allow UNRWA to bring in much needed food and medical assistance to starving children in Gaza. Juliet Tuma, thank you. You're very welcome. That was Juliette Toome, a director of communications with the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, joining us from Amman, Jordan.

48:58Now to the rest of the international news roundup with our panel around the table and joining us from London. From London, Kriti Gupta, an anchor and correspondent at Bloomberg TV and Radio. Kriti, great to have you back. Thank you for having me. Here in the studio with me at WAMU, Felicia Schwartz, the diplomatic correspondent at Politico, just back from the Aspen Security Forum, where, Felicia, you'll share some of your news and reporting from there. True hardship assignment. At altitude, though, you probably didn't sleep very well. Alex Ward is here, national security reporter covering the White House and the State Department for the Wall Street Journal.

49:33He's also author of The Internationalist. Alex, great to see you again. Happy to be here. It was also in Aspen, and it was hard. Very, very. I feel badly for the two of you. Well, we just heard on the ground, or at least close to the ground from the region anyway, reporting on the situation in Gaza. On Thursday, the White House Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff met with senior Qatari officials and Israeli officials in Italy for continued negotiations over the Gaza ceasefire and hostage proposal. Within hours, Israel recalled its negotiators from other talks in Doha, and the U.S. soon followed, saying Hamas is not acting in good faith.

50:11Kriti, what do we know about where talks stand right now? And has the State Department given any indication about what alternatives might be to this latest round of faltering peace talks? We don't know about the alternatives just yet, at least from the U.S. perspective. But we have had reports and comments from several senior Israeli officials that are saying that talks are continuing as soon as next week. so that this isn't a complete collapse, as Steve Whitcoff had initially said, and to your point calling it a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire from the Hamas side of it. I think the key pieces, the key sticking points of these ceasefires have been the same throughout the entire negotiations, which is Israeli troop withdrawals, aid distribution, and ultimately what the permanent truce actually does look like.

50:59Because right now, the idea, what's on the table is only a 60-day ceasefire, and really focuses in on, and it has remained to be one of the key sticking points of, as that aid distribution happens, where and to what extent the Israeli military are still in Gaza and what those red lines actually look like. And that is something that Hamas has pushed back on time and time again, saying that even with aid distribution, that's the stuff that needs to get removed. Felicia? The thing that always dogs these talks is that there really isn't much of an alternative. You have members of the Israeli security establishment making the point that the only real way to get the hostages out at this point will be through diplomacy.

51:41There have been a few raids that the Israelis have done that were mostly unsuccessful. Some were successful. Trump at the White House this morning talked about taking the fight to Hamas or that they would need to be destroyed as he was on his way to Scotland. But Hamas, in addition to being a militant group, is also an ideology. And so I think that diplomacy is the only thing that will help this. Alex? Let's just put it bluntly. No one really wants a deal. The Israelis fear Hamas still being in Gaza. And there's a bunch of, to put it mildly, disagreement within Netanyahu's government about what the day after plan for Gaza would look like, even if there really isn't one.

52:21And then Hamas doesn't want to give up control of the region and at this point doesn't feel like it needs to because some of the narrative is going in their favor, including the French decision. And so the talks are already hard, even harder when no one actually wants a deal. I mean, that seems like the most critical point on the politics piece of this. Peace talks in Europe, peace talks in Doha. Alex Ward says nobody is incentivized to get a deal right now. Not Netanyahu, not others in his government, not Hamas. I don't know about the White House. If nobody actually wants one, what are we doing?

52:54We're going to go through the motions, it seems like. But the White House says they want to stop the killing and they're not doing anything to pressure Israel or Hamas really to get it done. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he's repeatedly declared his intention to reshape Gaza's future beyond a temporary pause in fighting that's under discussion now in Doha, in Europe and elsewhere. A major sticking point in ceasefire discussions is Israel's newly created Magan Oz corridor. The Israeli military has carved out this space between Khan Yunus and Rafa. Israel has stated plans to use the corridor to isolate the Rufatent city from northern Gaza, creating a walled-off holding zone for displaced Palestinians.

53:36Alex, what is this MAGN-O's? How does it function, and how does this play into plans for Gaza if a deal is ever reached? So tactically speaking, the Israelis would say that this is, as you just noted, it is a holding kind of corridor. It's also a logistics corridor, and it's also a potential line of demilitarization. So if ever there was a deal and Gazans want to return northward, they could actually inspect Gazans coming and see if they have weapons or whatnot and continue. So it would be like a checkpoint. At a broader level, one of the major sticking points in these negotiations is just Israel's military presence in Gaza.

54:11And Israel would like more of these, one because they want to have some say in the future security of Gaza because there's no day after plan. Another part of it is there's a bargaining chip in the talks, right? The more corridors and the more they have, arguably they could leave the negotiations with at least one of them as opposed to Hamas' wish, which is that Israel is completely gone. Now, so it could be more of like a maximalist thing as part of the broader negotiations, but on a tactical level, it's also what we discussed. So this is where we are. And of course, when you have people in Netanyahu's government saying they want Palestinians out of Gaza and they want Israel to stay in there, these kinds of corridors could be useful for that longer term deployment if that were to be the case.

54:51Given the other rhetoric, humanitarian corridors by another name could be seen as concentration camps or holding pens for ethnic cleansing if you've heard signals about that from other parts from the top of the Israeli government. And we've heard that from ministers. Now, granted, we have Israeli officials saying they disavow that kind of language, that that's not the Israeli policy, that these are just really military reinforcements and these are in some ways humanitarian reinforcements. But there's always been a lot of skepticism about really the IDF's intentions here. Meanwhile, the international community continues to look in.

55:26On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will recognize Palestine as a state at the U.N. General Assembly in September. And earlier this week, in a joint statement, the foreign ministers of 28 countries, including France, slammed Israel for, quote, drip-feeding aid into the Gaza Strip. It's a position that the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the United States both reject. Kriti, is there any sense that this letter I just mentioned, 28 nations, or France's recognition of Palestine, will add any meaningful pressure to Israel here? It does add pressure. Sure. I think the keyword is meaningful.

56:04And a lot of that simply comes from the fact that at the end of the day, it is the United States that provides the most military equipment and aid to Israel relative to the likes of the UK, France, Spain, among others in the European Union. And I'm sitting here in London. One of the key pieces of conversation in the UK has been the recent stopping of shipments and certain types of military equipment to Israel as well. And that was met with a lot of pushback right here in London as well. So from a symbolic perspective, yes, this absolutely matters. Before France, you had Spain, Ireland, and Norway, who had officially recognized Palestine.

56:42To add France to that, really add some meat to that consensus. But we are still a far cry from a more meaningful change in what that would look like. A statement from the UK, for example, would really swing that in the other direction. But again, until you have the White House's backing, to your point, it means very little. Felicia, meanwhile, Israel's war strategy still continues, as Alex has already mentioned. This week, Israeli military troops pushed into Dar al-Bulah, central Gaza city, where several aid groups, including the World Health Organization, are based. Dar al-Bulah is the only city in Gaza that has not seen major ground operations since the war began October 20th of 2023 after Hamas's horrific attack on southern Israel.

57:28It's been a refuge for Palestinians escaping other parts of Gaza during the war. Why is the Israeli military staying clear of this area until now? They had thought that this was a place that hostages were being held, so they wanted to avoid it. I think now we're seeing the confluence of a few things. One, unfortunately, of the hostages that are left, not as many of them. There are fewer hostages. Many are unfortunately dead. But I think more broadly, you know, you have this Israeli military strategy. Netanyahu wants to keep pushing. There are plenty inside of his government and in the military who think, you know, they've basically achieved all their goals and it's time to wrap up.

58:12And this is one of the last places they can carry out attacks and try to pursue this goal of routing Hamas because they haven't been there yet. Each week we check in on Gaza, of course. We also check in on the broader picture of Israel's campaign of proactively weakening its foes around the region, attacks on Damascus, attacks on Syria, even as Israel is involved in talks with the new Syrian government. We'll talk about Iran in the moment. Let's do that broader check in, Alex. What's the thinking now or the apparent strategy of Benjamin Netanyahu and his government as the bombings of Syria continued and Israel reaches out to preemptively weaken its enemies?

58:55Israel Unleashed. I mean, they are the undisputed military hegemon. They are in charge. I mean, granted, they have a not-so-secretive nuclear weapons program, but still, they've never, in recent memory, if maybe ever, had such a weak region compared to them. And that's allowed Netanyahu to really act as he'd like. And especially when you have a President Trump in the White House who is angry. I mean, he does get frustrated with Bibi when there are attacks in Syria or attacks elsewhere, and he says, please stop the killing, let's end all this stuff, including in Gaza, he's not really doing anything to corral Netanyahu.

59:31And so when you talk to the White House officials, what they basically say is, look, when Netanyahu steps out of line, you know, Trump can call him and then he, you know, takes his foot back over the line. Then you go, okay, but Netanyahu crossed the line in the first place in terms of the White House thinking. So, and Netanyahu knows this, Israel knows this. So Israel can kind of do it at once. It can start, you know, defending Jews in southern Syria and try to demilitarize the region, as they say. It can continue to go after Iranian proxies in the future, maybe after Iran again itself. And so you've got this space that Israel has not really enjoyed for a really long time.

1:00:03Now, speaking of Iran, this week, Iran's president Mahmoud Pazeshkian spoke to Al Jazeera, saying his country is prepared for any war Israel might wage against it, and that he's not optimistic about the ceasefire between Israel and Iran right now. Meanwhile, Western nations say they are seeking a solution to Iran's enrichment ambitions. Um, Kreeti, President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities again if diplomacy fails here. He's been warning Tehran to abandon enrichment. What are you watching for next year? Well, ironically, even though a lot of the conversations between what the negotiations are going to look like between Iran and the White House, it's Europe that actually may be moving the dial on this one, specifically around bringing Iran to the table and having that conversation in the first place with the White House.

1:00:51There's a deadline everyone should be aware of, which is coming up in mid-October around sanctions and whether or not they can extend sanctions. Now, one of the key pieces of this, and this was a part of the UN resolution that ratified that 2015 nuclear deal, which kind of helps enforce some of those sanctions. If it comes up and ends in October, there's a question here of how much leverage as Europeans and Americans actually have, or if you extend the sanctions, how much of a threat you have in future negotiations. And that's going to be a key piece in terms of bringing the Iranians back to the table in the coming weeks.

1:01:22But in the near term, we're still looking for evidence that this program is up and going. We have comments from the Iranian minister this week that said the U.S. strikes have stopped enrichment from now. We have new comments from the IAEA saying they have access to the country, but not to the nuclear sites themselves. So it's this kind of idea and information gathering of just where we are in terms of Iran restarting their nuclear program. Felicia, we heard a lot of reporting and some intelligence contra the White House after the attacks. President Trump said Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles were obliterated.

1:01:57Its entire program was obliterated. Some reporting saying, no, they still have several hundred kilograms of enriched uranium. Is that the most important thing right now? Is it the amount of uranium they might still have, whether enrichment has restarted? Kreeti is describing kind of a confusion going into where Iran really stands and what levers of influence will work. If you think about the goal of these negotiations or the military campaign, it's to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. So any and all of these things are important. I think the fact that they probably still have enough fissile material to build, you know, I mean, as many as 10 bombs still in some estimates, there is this amount of uranium that's missing that hasn't been accounted for.

1:02:41So I think, you know, there's always been a debate, can you bomb away Iran's program? Because they still have the knowledge and the know-how and material as well, because, you know, they've moved it, whatever. So I think that the, I still think, many of these parties agree that diplomacy is going to be the only option. And I just want to add an addendum to the deadline that Kriti mentioned. It is technically mid-October, but Russia has a chair of the Security Council in September. So there is a feeling that it really needs to get done this summer. And we're kind of running out of time. Alex, what about Israel on this question?

1:03:22Israel signaled that they're ready to go again at Iran if talks fail? Yeah. I mean, Israel has had a strategy in other countries, which they lovingly call mowing the lawn, right? And they would usually do that with Hezbollah or Hamas. And basically, it's a gruesome kind of idea because they go, okay, if there's a problem, we just bomb it. And if it pops up again, we bomb it again. So mowing the lawn or mowing the grass. And in this case, this is now extending to Iran. If there is a notion that the Iranians are moving towards a nuclear weapon, the Israelis will bomb it again. And as you've noted, Trump has said, hey, if there's a reason for the U.S.

1:04:00to get involved and bomb these Iranian facilities again, we'll do it. So now Iran is preparing for this eventuality. Our weekly check-in on Israel, its regional neighbors, Iran, its nuclear ambitions, and the path forward in the Middle East. We want to make a note of a piece of environmental news that also happened this week. On Wednesday, to be specific, in a landmark decision, the United Nations highest court told wealthy countries that they must comply with their international commitments to curb pollution or risk having to pay compensation to nations hardest hit by climate change. The International Court of Justice said that nations must address the, quote, urgent and existential threat of climate change.

1:04:43The opinion has been hailed by small island states and environmental groups as a legal stepping stone to make big polluters accountable and to help out smaller countries. As we leave the Middle East, let's check in on Istanbul now, where once again, negotiators for Ukraine and Russia met for ceasefire talks this week. It's the third round of talks held in Turkey and the first meeting since June. This one lasted just about 40 minutes. Felicia, that's not a very long meeting. What did they discuss? They did, again, agree to swap some prisoners. That's basically been kind of the only outcome of these talks.

1:05:21But I think, you know, there's hope that maybe Putin and Zelensky would get together. Putin has so far not wanted to do that. Any kind of real details on what an end of the war would look like, none of that was really discussed. Kritsi, President Trump gave a deadline for Russia last Wednesday in these talks. It was to accept a peace deal with Ukraine within 50 days or face sanctions on its oil and gas exports. Has that had any effect on the peace talks, on Russia's posture, or the negotiations? It hasn't really moved the dial just yet. I think there were some reports of Russia and Ukraine talking about prisoner swaps, but that's really not enough to kind of move the dial.

1:06:03And what's so key about that 50-day deadline, it's not similar to kind of the threats that Donald Trump has made in the past, because a key piece of that is not just sanctions, or I think he called it 100 % secondary tariffs, kind of using those two words interchangeably. not just on Russia itself, but talking about any countries that are aiding Russia. So that really broadens it out to things like China or India or even Iran in terms of their drone supplies. And that piece is really crucial because those are where trade negotiations and economic conversations are happening with China and India, specifically two key buyers of Russian oil and ways where money's actually flowing there.

1:06:39So it hasn't moved the dial yet, but it might as we approach that 50-day deadline. Now, Alex, Russia and Ukraine are now both relying heavily on drones for attacks and reconnaissance. How have drones changed the reality of this war and other combatants who are watching this war and planning their future conflicts? Well, we knew that the drones were being used to kill soldiers, but did we know that drones were being used to deliver food to the front lines? This is a bit new. This is a little doordashy. But drones have changed everything about this war, from where you do dugouts to where you put, you know, camouflage to how you move to everything.

1:07:20Now, this war for a long time has been, you know, when we think of wars, we think of sort of troops literally fighting it out, but it's been very much of a standoff, right? It's been missiles flying, it's been artillery, and it's been drones. But drones are cheaper, they're more maneuverable, they're very pinpoint. So they are now kind of the main method of warfare that the Ukrainians are using and the Russians are using, and it's causing all kinds of problems. But they are also the main way to get past the supply lines, to deliver food, to deliver other items. They are a massive mechanism front to end of this fight.

1:07:52They've also, Felicia, changed war propaganda. Drones, many of them, most of them have front-facing cameras. That footage gets on the Internet, gets into algorithms, and people watch the war through the lens, in this case of the Ukrainians, who want the world to see them succeeding in attacks. 100 percent. It completely changes. I mean, another thing that I'm thinking that it changes is manpower, right? You don't, you know, if they're both sides, this is a fight of will. And they can last a lot longer if they're using drones instead of people. All right, gang. This week, two announcements from the State Department.

1:08:25First, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issuing a statement directive restricting consulates and embassies from commenting on the legitimacy of foreign elections except in, quote, very rare occasions. Alex, you and your colleague Robbie Grammer broke this story at the journal. What does this move signal? This is a change. We're used to decades of the United States looking at other countries saying it's troubled by elections that were not run with integrity or elections that weren't free and fair. now the Secretary of State is saying, don't do that. So why? What's changing? Well, Donald Trump, when he was in Saudi Arabia, gave this speech that was basically, the United States is not going to get involved in other countries' affairs anymore.

1:09:06Sovereignty will be the coin of the realm. And this cable, which we obtained, and I should note that the daily signal was actually, they were given it to them first by the State Department, but we were the first to not be handed it. Not be spoon-fed it. That what it basically said was because of that, the U.S. shouldn't comment on what's going on in other countries' affairs. However, in certain instances where it matters to the U.S. interest, they will comment on the state of these elections. But it's a massive policy change. I mean, for basically 40 years, the U.S. has always commented on how other countries were doing their elections and pushing them towards freer and fairer votes.

1:09:45Exporting democracy and the ideals of democracy. It was democracy promotion. Now, granted, it's not like the U.S. would send monitors to make sure that no one was, like, stuffing ballot boxes or there were other irregularities. And now what this is is basically the U.S. will go, congratulations on your win, regardless of how the win came about. And this is huge. Now, again, they are basing this decision off of America staying out of other countries' affairs. As we've already talked about, the U.S. is not staying out of other countries' affairs, including bombing Iran. So it's not like they are following their own, you know, sovereignty ideas here.

1:10:16But this is yet another way for the U.S. to back off on democracy promotion, which I should note is a massive appeal to, say, a bunch of Gulf countries or even, say, a U.S. ally in NATO, Hungary. Second announcement from the State Department this week, the White House announcing, rather, that the United States would withdraw from the United Nations cultural organization, UNESCO. Yet again, UNESCO is the third U.N. agency that President Trump has pulled us out of this year following the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council. Alex, why is the Trump administration cutting ties with UNESCO now?

1:10:54We're used to UNESCO World Heritage Sites and things like that. It's a thing that a lot of Republican administrations tend to do. They don't really like UNESCO. They think anything related to the UN is bad. Multilateralism, not good. Also, it's this human rights organization, and they support certain sites that maybe are not pro-American. But it's just really that. They think it's a waste of American infrastructure time, resources. But it was just recently that UNESCO approved of Neuschwanstein, that castle in Germany that was the basis for a lot of Disney castles as a UNESCO site. So I don't really see the danger there.

1:11:25I feel like Disney is a pretty pro-American thing. But like that's - One of our chief exports, as it turns out. It turns out. And I've been to Neuschwanstein and like, it's fine. You know, it doesn't look like a Disney castle, but I can see why it's the basis. But anyway, all this to say is that this is kind of - UNESCO is just part of this UN groupings and ideas that the Republicans usually, especially this MAGA movement, just don't like. Some economic news from around the world now. Felicia, you reported from the Aspen Security Forum last week, way up there in the Aspen Valley in Colorado. That's an annual conference where government officials, diplomats, experts meet with the part of national security that's private big business with increases in NATO defense spending and looming tariffs on August 1st from the United States.

1:12:13The global economy was definitely on the minds of the conference. What were you hearing? What did you learn? Where is national security and the money spent on national security headed? One of the puzzling kind of things to observe in all of this is, one, like the tariffs haven't really shown up in the economy yet that much. There is supposed to be this big windfall for defense companies. But looming over all of this, the number one thing that businesses hate the most is uncertainty. You know, businesses plan at least a year out, if not more. Trump continually moves the deadline for these tariffs.

1:12:51If there's different rules for different countries, we're going to do one deal with one country. We're going to do blanket deals. So it makes it very hard for any of these companies to plan. And just the general uncertainty, you know, they're kind of—it hasn't shown up in the economy yet, but, you know, what will the economy be like in six months, for example? So basically at Aspen, I heard from a lot of defense companies who are feeling very kind of nervous about all of this. And the Trump administration's move to pull all of its Pentagon officials out of the conference just adds to this general environment where companies are really scared of running afoul of the Trump administration.

1:13:27Well, our friend and colleague, your colleague and friend Jack Detch, who's on the Roundup all the time, also reported not just the Aspen meeting where you were. The Pentagon is pulling its people out of all think tank conferences. Like this is a global thing. What's going on? Right. Exactly. I mean, they, you know, this plays to their base. They see these gatherings as elitist, out of touch. Does the base think about think tank conferences? I don't know that they think about think tank conferences per se, but it's a very easy, like, if you look at what the Pentagon is doing on social media, they've hired a lot of former right-wing journalists who are kind of flooding the zone with Fox News-y trolling to some extent.

1:14:05And I think it just bolsters the message. And I think, you know, so many of these companies rely on massive government contracts. And if we're politicizing these events where companies and government can meet, I think a lot of these companies are very nervous about, you know, what can they say and do to maintain these contracts. And I think this is just not something we've really experienced. So another form of message control from the Pentagon, in other words. Let's talk about Japan and its new trade deal. It's not necessarily avoidance of tariffs, but maybe some more certainty on tariffs. The U.S.

1:14:43finally reached that trade deal with Japan on Tuesday, Kariti, after eight rounds of talks. What do we know about the deal and who benefits? Well, it's a really interesting deal because we know there's kind of been this love-hate relationship between the United States and Japan. And it's mostly kind of manifested, at least prior to the steel, in the massive kind of conversation around U.S. steel, which is, of course, a Philadelphia-based steel manufacturer that had once supplied the steel for, you know, the Brooklyn Bridge and other major infrastructure projects around the country. it had a major cash problem.

1:15:21And the solution to that was Nippon's deal, this major Japanese company that was willing to not only buy it, but invest in it, kind of revamp it, and was really given, kind of the deal was completely vetoed by first the Biden administration and then the Trump administration. And it's been used as a bargaining chip to allow that foreign investment for quite some time in this trade deal. It also feels like it forged one of the key pillars of this trade deal, which is$550 billion worth of promised investment from Japan into the United States. That is a really big deal and a really big amount to invest from an entire country, as opposed to just a company or just one specific, you know, name your billionaire around the world, which has been the path that the Trump administration has taken since he took office earlier this year.

1:16:10The other components of this include a 15 % tariff rate. That seems high from where we originally started, but really paves the way for the idea that 15 % is an acceptable number to the Trump administration with some of its global trading partners, especially as we look ahead to a potential trade agreement with the EU, among others. Well, we'll talk about that agreement with the EU in just a second. Just staying in Japan, Kriiti, meanwhile, domestically, the liberal Democrats got absolutely crushed in elections in Japan. Did those results feed into the urgency or the ultimate success of the trade deal at all?

1:16:47That is the criticism, in fact, that Prime Minister Shiba is facing ultimately, that this is his kind of weakness or his proposed weakness around Japan, especially in the face of the United States, led to that collapse. That being said, he's not resigning. And this is a really big deal because it shows, and I think is symbolic of a trend that we've seen around the world, which is the shift to the right in the face of high economic costs, inflation, imports. Japan is dealing with one of the biggest inflation problems in the world right now, really weak currency, higher oil imports. Food is really expensive.

1:17:22If you're a Japanese citizen, it is hard to live in Japan right now. If you're a global citizen, it's a great time to visit because of how kind of cheap things are relatively to the rest of the world. And that's certainly something that's fed into the political story of Japan. Well, Kriti mentioned the European Union, Alex. the EU hasn't yet reached its deal with the White House on trade. If they reach one at all, tariffs on the EU will jump to 30 percent, according to President Trump, on August 1st, if an agreement isn't reached. But the EU says it's ready to retaliate. If that happens, what measures do they say they'll take?

1:17:55The EU always says it's ready to retaliate, and they are. I mean, they're actually quite savvy at this. What they usually do is they target products in districts of vulnerable Republicans. Oh, yeah, like Harley Davidson Motorcycles was one I remember. Yeah, I mean, in the first term when they were going through this, they were targeting bourbon and Mitch McConnell's in Kentucky because he was Senate Majority Leader at the time. So in this case, they're going to do the same. There will still be cars. It will be food. It will be all kinds of things. But they will target usually the president's party, and so that's what they're going to do.

1:18:27However, it does seem like there is some optimism that they'll make some deal at the 15 percent tariff level. So should we expect, Felicia, I know you're not a clairvoyant on trade. Maybe you are. Japan got 15%. Is the EU watching and saying, OK, the threat is 30. We can land at 15 just like Japan did. I think there's a lot of optimism around 15. And, you know, the EU is such a significant trading partner for the U.S. I think the other thing, too, is, you know, they've said August 1st is a hard deadline, but the talks could continue. Will we see some kind of, you know, construction where they have an agreement in principle and they keep talking?

1:19:04But, yeah, I think that, like, 15 is kind of the example now. Felicia Schwartz, bullish on 15 percent is the EU. Not a prediction. Don't hold me to it. No, no. Well, look. 15 percent Schwartz. Yeah. Anybody in the poly markets who's placing their bets based on what Felicia Schwartz just said, you're probably leaving money on the table. She does know her stuff. So I leave it to your own recognizance. More deal-making this week, this time in the Philippines. President Trump met with Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday at the White House. They made a deal on trade and the military. Felicia, what came out of that?

1:19:39So they agreed to set tariffs at 19 percent and that the U.S. would not face any tariffs in the Philippine market. And they've agreed to work together militarily. There was some mention of the South China Sea when they met in the Oval Office. But, you know, this is only a slight reduction. I think the rate that the Philippines was going to face was 20 percent. So, you know, not a big change here. But I do think, you know, this does send a sign to China that they're still going to work together militarily, that they have a strategic alliance that transcends this sort of transactional dealmaking that Trump is known for.

1:20:20Trump receiving him in the Oval Office like that, I do think, sends a clear signal. All right. We're getting ready to round out the hour. I want to leave some time to get into your reporter's notebook so that we know what stories either you're working on, if you want to tell us, or at least what stories you're watching that you think we should be aware of before your next big scoop comes out. Krita, why don't you go first? Oh, it's all about trade for me. I mean, August 1st is the big tariff deadline. You've heard the White House talk multiple times at this time that there will be no extensions.

1:20:51We'll see about that. He certainly said it before. But one of the big things is certainly, I mean, I'm based here in London. Everyone's waiting for the EU. Everyone's waiting for Europe right now to get ready to retaliate. And it's not just about products. It's about things like the Boeing. I mean, yes, products, but Boeing versus Airbus is a big, big debate here in Europe right now because after agricultural goods, and Disney arguably, Boeing aircrafts are the number one, number, I think, in your top three exports out of the United States. And that's something that Europe can easily target and has wanted to target for a very long time because they have their own kind of regional champion in Airbus.

1:21:26So I'm curious to see how that all plays out in the next week or two. All right, Kreeti Gupta of Bloomberg. Felicia? Well, other than the tariff deadline, which I think is just obviously the most significant story, this one's a little niche, But I'm kind of curious what's going to happen to Mike Waltz. He made it out of committee. Rand Paul tried to put a hold on him. Now, Mike Waltz is the former national security advisor. You remember him from Signalgate, and he's now nominated for U.N. secretary. Right. And I think, you know, not that the U.N., not that his position is necessarily the most interesting, but I think it's kind of a bellwether of how these, you know, Trump allegedly fired him over Iran, but then Trump bombs Iran.

1:22:04Like just how this kind of ideology is going to fare in the Republican Party. Alex? I mean, other than Trump's visit to Scotland, which will always be fun, and his, you know, hanging out with the Brits, I'm curious what was going to happen with Steve Whitcoff. I don't have any necessarily reporting here, but after this Gaza deal, I mean, I do know that he was planning to go to Doha in Qatar if a deal was moving forward. The fact that he didn't go and they put out the statement signals that it's yet another failure for him, right? Gaza deal hasn't worked out. Russia deal, Russia-Ukraine deal hasn't worked out.

1:22:30Iran deal obviously hasn't worked out. So what's his standing? I'm very curious. But the really big thing is on Sunday, it's Spain versus England in the Euro women's soccer finals. It's going to be the World Cup champion against the Euro champion. Everyone should tune in. One of the great sports events of the summer. Over the weekend, watch that. Don't forget the City Open either this weekend. City Open in Washington, D.C. Yes, I'm going to the finals Sunday. Tennis tournament in Rock Creek Park at the Carter Baron, right? Sports. Sports. Everyone loves sports. A big thank you to all of our panelists today for their analysis and insight on the week of international news.

1:23:00There's Kreeti Gupta, anchor and correspondent at Bloomberg TV and radio. Felicia Schwartz, diplomatic correspondent at Politico. And Alex Ward, national security reporter covering the White House and State Department for the Wall Street Journal. You can pick up his book, The Internationalists. Thank you all for joining us. But before we go.

1:23:26we remember ozzy osbourne who died on tuesday at the age of 76 born john michael osbourne he became known to audiences around the world as ozzy osbourne the prince of darkness he was also known as the godfather of heavy metal helping popularize the genre in the 70s and 80s of course as the frontman for Black Sabbath.

1:23:58Now, later on, Ozzy and his wife Sharon were credited with starting the OzFest Music Festival in 1996. In the early aughts, Ozzy, along with Sharon and their two children, would become enshrined in pop culture as one of the first reality TV families through their show on MTV called The Osbournes. But throughout his career, the headlines that followed Ozzy were troubling incidents involving heavy drug use, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and an incident from when I was a kid involving a bat. Turns out it was a true story. Ozzy Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2019. He reunited with Black Sabbath on July 5th for his final concert, Back to the Beginning, in his hometown of Birmingham, England.

1:24:42Time's gone by, it seems to be You could have been a better friend to me Mama, I'm coming home You took me in and you drove me out Yeah, you had me hypnotized Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer. Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our senior managing producer. Alexander Boti is our senior supervising producer. Amanda Williams is our special projects editor. Aline Humphries is the editor and producer of 1A On Demand. And Barb Anguiano produces our podcast. Special thanks to Matthew Simonson for additional podcast and On Demand support all this week. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington, distributed by NPR.

1:25:35I'm Todd Zwilich. Thanks for listening. We'll talk more soon. This is 1A. Thank you.