The News Roundup For May 1, 2026

26:09No doubt in part because of the unpopularity of the war broadly that we've already been talking about. But this is also someone who really prizes both as a politician and as a former businessman being seen as a victor and not as a loser and as someone who can declare that this was a success. And so he told me in an interview about a week ago that he doesn't want to get a bad deal. he said to me last week in the Oval Office when I asked him this very question that you're asking, Todd, about when he thought it would be over. Don't rush me, Jeff. So broadly, I would say he's giving signals that he doesn't want to be rushed.

26:47That's more than a signal. That's exactly what he said. And yet he also does not want this to go on forever because politically it's pretty damaging to him and to his party. Well, it's not Jeff Mason that's rushing the president of the United States. It might be the economy. here in the U.S. and around the world. Pentagon officials may well have revealed the approximate cost of the war so far, that$25 billion. But you only have to look up at that sign that says regular premium or diesel in your town to know the start of the economic costs here. Gas prices have hit their highest average since the start of the war as of Friday.

27:22AAA says the average price in the U.S. for a gallon of gas,$4.39. That's up more than a dollar from this time last year. Brent crude prices also hit a new high. Briefly on Thursday,$126 a barrel. Alana Shore, prices keep rising. The Strait of Hormuz is still not open. What will we start seeing in the economy if energy prices in the U.S. continue to go up? Well, we're already starting to see signs of it. I mean, consumer confidence occasionally shows us some weird signs of staying alive. But in general, this dampens consumer spending in a huge way. It's expensive to go to the mall, see a movie, do anything.

28:07It's expensive to have goods shipped to you via truck. I mean, diesel fuel is even worse than regular fuel right now. And this high inflation is also going to have an effect on the Federal Reserve and interest rates, which affect mortgage markets and other borrowing costs. I thought it was really interesting this week that for the first time, a Republican senator publicly said, actually, I think the Fed might have to raise rates, which is a huge shift given the president's active, constant campaign to lower rates. So it just shows how this war is really working against the president's economic agenda so pervasively.

28:41I want to talk a little bit more about the Fed, about interest rates, and about Jerome Powell, the current outgoing chairman. We're going to take a quick break first. But Taylor, what are you hearing from your sources in the White House about the economic pressure on the president? Again, it's not Jeff Mason that's rushing the president. It's forces, I dare say, bigger than Jeff Mason. And Jeff's questions are always great to the president. The president insists that Americans are on board with paying for higher prices in the short term because he says the accomplishment of making Iran not have a nuclear weapon will be worthwhile.

29:14But on Thursday, I spoke with one of the president's top economic advisors, Kevin Hassett, and I brought up diesel fuel. I brought up fertilizer prices. And he basically sidestepped the question and said, we're meeting on that constantly. The president is focused on it and we're paying attention to it. But by the way, Americans, please trust us on this. Well, let's get to our break. Coming up, more on the Fed and on Jerome Powell, plus the fallout from the attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and a royal visit. We'll be right back.

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30:30And so essentially what we really want to do at Midi is democratize access to this type of care. Midi Health. Committed to helping women in midlife with paramenopause and menopause care. Accessible via telehealth visits. At joinmidi.com. This message comes from KeyBank. Scaling a successful business takes more than just grit. It takes the right relationship. KeyBank pairs the right strategy with the right financial tools to keep your business moving forward. KeyBank opens doors. More at key.com slash b2b. This message comes from DonorsChoose. Every day on DonorsChoose.org, teachers ask for the books, supplies, and learning materials their students need.

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32:03to$11.99 a month your first year. Terms apply on covered repairs. This message comes from Travel Nevada. Pop quiz. Where can you find 60 million acres to discover? The Silver State, a place like no other. The desert has a way with words. Ghost towns, saloons, and burrows and herds. No bluffs or limericks. Just wide open, wild, and terrific. It's time to get a little out there, to the heart of Nevada to be more specific. Plan your trip at www.travelnevada.com. Let's get back into our conversation now. Before we took a pause, Alana was talking about the Fed, the effect of rising inflation and what the Fed is doing and how lawmakers are reacting.

32:50Inflation rose to its highest mark in four years this week, 3.5%. Rising gas prices are a big part of it because there's such a key input to the rest of the economy. When you think about it, it makes some sense. Alana Shore, the board, the Fed voted on Wednesday to keep its main interest rate unchanged. You said lawmakers are talking about it. What's factored into that decision to not make any moves now? The interesting part of that decision was actually the three dissents against what's called the bias that these Fed board members have towards future rate cuts. So it's not just leaving it unchanged.

33:29It's questioning the very strategy of looking towards adjusting that. Well, the Fed meeting, this last Fed meeting, was likely Jerome Powell's last one as Fed chair. His tenure expires on May 15th. But during this meeting's press conference, he announced that he'll stay on as a Fed governor, which he can do until 2028. These legal actions by the administration are unprecedented in our 113-year history. And there are ongoing threats of additional such actions. I worry that these attacks are battering the institution and putting at risk the thing that really matters to the public, which is the ability to conduct monetary policy without taking into consideration political factors.

34:13Jeff Mason, President Trump, he has he's tried it all to get Jerome Powell to leave. Accusations of corruption, personal attacks, even a criminal investigation from his Justice Department. Powell was going to retire now that his chairmanship is up. We heard a little bit from him there. What's your view on what's driving him to stay on the board and maxing it out to 2018? Well, Powell said it almost very directly. He said that he was planning to retire, as you said, Todd, but it's going to stay on because of these investigations and because of these threats to the independence of the Fed. So he's drawing a direct line between the president's actions and his decision now to stay, sort of suggesting if you all had just let this go and let me continue to do my job, I'd be getting out of the way right now and you'd have a chance to nominate somebody else to fill the seat, which the White House really, really wants to do.

35:11I think you could also argue that he's staying to get under President Trump's skin, which it is, although the president was dismissive a little bit of that when he was asked about it yesterday, saying he doesn't really care if Powell stays. The most important thing to him is that Kevin Warsh become the new chairman. But, you know, that little piece of analysis aside, it seems very clear that Chairman Powell, when he is no longer chairman but is still on the board, is doing so because of his genuine concern about threats to the Fed's independence and him wanting to be there to remain a bulwark against that, at least for the remaining period of time that he can.

35:49Taylor, one reporter asked Jerome Powell how he was going to keep a low profile going forward, and he kind of just like sunk down behind the lectern. Physically sunk down behind the lectern. A funny economist. And everybody in the room laughed. Yeah. And I think that is also symbolism of how Powell is approaching this. He kind of, you know, doesn't seem to care anymore while also wanting to prove this point by staying on the board. Well, Jeff says the president just wants Kevin Walsh as his replacement. It looks like he's going to get him. New Fed chair. Who is Kevin Walsh? So Kevin Warsh, he he's been in the economics world for a long, long time.

36:24He, you know, we heard throughout his confirmation hearings that he was going to approach this. He kind of was on a balancing beam of trying to say, I'm going to approach this strictly by focusing on economic policy and not letting politics influence this. But then there were hints of him trying to cater to President Trump. He was asked over and over by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who won the 2020 election? Warsh would not answer that question. He kept saying, we got to keep politics out of monetary policy, as you just said. The question wasn't about monetary policy. It was who won the election?

36:59What do you take from his steadfast refusal to state a fact that everybody knows? He was completing a litmus test that has become ground zero for keeping the president on your side. And what President Trump has made clear to all of his nominees for appointments big and small is that they cannot cross him on certain matters, most specifically whether or not he actually lost the 2020 election, which he did, but he insists he did not. And I think that back and forth with Senator Warren was an indication of how Kevin Walsh is trying to approach this job. He's really wanted this job for a long, long time, and he, in many ways, is indicating that he's going to abide by what President Trump wants in terms of faster interest rate cuts and I'm going to go along with you politically.

37:47But it's striking because he's not the first and he won't be the last nominee who won't answer that question, even though it's very clear what the answer is. Well, we will be following the fortunes of Kevin Warsh on Capitol Hill. He had a hearing this week. He will face a vote. He is married to the Lauder fortune as well, key billionaire Trump supporters. Another fact of Kevin Warsh's profile that's worth knowing since he's likely to take over the Fed. Meanwhile, political violence, of course, came to Washington again last weekend. And this week, the fallout, the suspect in the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents Association dinner appeared in court this week.

38:23The DOJ charged Cole Thomas Allen, 31-year-old California tutor, with attempting to assassinate the president. In a note to his family sent minutes before he tried to break into the dinner past those metal detectors, the alleged attacker wrote that he believed it was a duty to target Trump officials. Taylor, where does the investigation into what happened at the metal detectors stand now? So what's striking, we got on Thursday night clearer and fuller security camera footage released by U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro. Her argument in releasing it, and I'm reading the tweet that she put out, is she goes, there is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire because we know one Secret Service agent was struck by a bullet.

39:07Thankfully, that agent had a bulletproof vest on, apparently saved his life and helped him avoid serious injury. But there have been questions and the Trump administration has been struggling to answer whether or not it was a case of friendly fire or whether or not Cole Allen actually did hit an agent with a bullet. In court, technically, in the legal documents, the government has not provided direct evidence that Cole Allen, a bullet from his gun hit that secret. And they haven't claimed it. They haven't claimed it. But then you have Jeanine Pirro putting out this footage and saying, at least in the public record, we know for a fact this was not friendly fire.

39:43So that's led to some interesting conversations because some of the charges that Cole Allen is facing are linked to the fact that they're calling this an attempted assassination, are linked to the fact that he did fire upon law enforcement, they are claiming. So it's striking because there's the public aspect of it and then there's the legal paperwork aspect. Well, in the wake of the attack, the administration seized on the incident to justify one of the president's pet projects, the White House ballroom. His supporters did the same thing. There were coordinated campaigns of social media activity immediately after the attack, promoting the need for the president's ballroom.

40:16He echoed that choice directly right after the attack. Here's what the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, told reporters earlier this week. We absolutely believe that there is no better example of why this ballroom is necessary, aside from all the very positive things the ballroom will bring to this country and to Washington, D.C., than what happened on Saturday night. Jeff Mason, you've spent many, many years, decades around the White House. You have some familiarity not only with the equities, I'll say, of the ballroom, but about what is required for presidential security. Give us your perspective on the claim that if only there were a 900 or 1 ,000 capacity White House ballroom, this would have never happened.

41:00And in order for the president to be safe, he needs the ballroom. Well, I think I'll draw on my experience having been president of the White House Correspondents Association nine years ago, which is to say that the Correspondents Association is a private organization. We wouldn't have or want access to a White House ballroom to put on that event. The president is using this as an argument for the ballroom because it is tied up in the courts facing legal challenges and deeply unpopular with the public. But it is a pet project and one that he really, really wants to see to fruition. But there's just no relationship between what happened on Saturday and the potential for the Correspondence Center to be held in that ballroom.

41:46Other events, perhaps, but it's not a ballroom that's going to be open for people's weddings or renting it out. The Correspondents Association rents the ballroom at the Hilton. How and whether that's going to continue after last Saturday is another issue. But the suggestion that perhaps a private organization of journalists that do not work for the president or for the government but for independent news organizations would try to use that ballroom for their annual event is not in line with reality. Also, ballroom or no ballroom, future presidents will want to be out in the country where Americans are, not on the White House grounds ensconced in a ballroom.

42:26So whether the ballroom exists or not, no matter how secure it is, the president will want to be outside of the perimeter, I'm sure, in the future. Alana, lawmakers are now under pressure to vote to authorize the ballroom. I don't get this. Hundreds of millions of dollars of private money from anonymous donors was raised to pay for the ballroom. Now the White House is putting pressure on lawmakers to vote for it and maybe even give money for it. What is going on? Well, there are two things going on here. One is there was actually a ruling in court that said that Congress needs to authorize the ballroom.

42:59So Congress still has to sign off now, even though the administration is appealing that. So that's the first part of this debate. The second is something that really only became clear after the dinner attack sort of stoked this White House interest in the ballroom. And that is that some Republicans think it strengthens the overall security argument for congressional approval if there's no private money and it's public money. Now, that opens a huge political can of worms as to whether taxpayers should be footing the bill here versus the arguably potentially worst situation of secret private donors.

43:30So Republicans have to figure this out if they want to get anywhere. And to be clear, I don't think they will. Kentucky's Senator Rand Paul, a Republican, but who often crosses Trump. It's been interesting. He's introduced legislation saying Congress should approve this ballroom for security reasons, but he is very against the idea of taxpayer dollars going toward it. And that's where there's some friction within the GOP. Well, lawmakers may be under some pressure to authorize the ballroom, but they've, I dare say, got more important matters to attend to, and they were voting on them all week long.

44:00What a mess in the House of Representatives. But here's some daylight. The longest federal agency shutdown in U.S. history is now set to end after the House narrowly passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, 76 days into the partial government shutdown. Now, Taylor, this funds the Coast Guard, TSA, FEMA, Secret Service, cybersecurity, all of the DHS functions except ICE and Customs and Border Protection on the front lines of President Trump's immigration crackdown. How did this happen? What's going on here? I think lawmakers finally exhausted themselves. As you said, 76 days, the longest ever government shutdown.

44:41The House ultimately conducted what was called a voice vote. So members didn't even have to physically be in the room for it to give you an idea of how much they wanted to go on recess. But it became clear over the last month after the Senate reached a bipartisan deal to fund most of DHS, except for ICE and CBP, that Republicans were going to pursue a separate process called reconciliation to fund those two specific agencies without Democratic support. House Republicans resisted it for the last month, but ultimately the White House even pressured them and said, we really need to end the shutdown.

45:11We're going to run out of money at the end of this week to pay DHS using emergency funds. That ultimately did it, but it was a really big mess. And DHS has almost 300 ,000 employees who went through a lot of turmoil throughout this. We talk about national security, intelligence and counterintelligence. It's a good time just to note that Congress extended FISA surveillance authority just by 45 days. There is no agreement in Congress about how to actually solve an impasse over FISA. They kicked the can. It's still alive surveillance, but only for 45 days, and we'll be keeping our eyes on that story as well.

45:47Real quickly, I cannot end this hour without talking about former FBI director James Comey and what he spells with seashells by the seashore. Comey's been arrested. I got to laugh. Comey's been arrested. He's been charged by Donald Trump's Justice Department again. The evidence, a photo he posted online of seashells on a North Carolina beach in the numbers 86 and 47. James Comey was in court. He self-surrendered. He's now been charged a second time. This time over a social media post with seashells that said 8647. Do you really think that he was endangering your life or threatening your life with that?

46:26Well, if anybody knows anything about crime, they know 86. You know what 86 is? It's a mob term for kill him. Taylor, why these charges? Why now? The president has made clear that Comey is one of his top political foes and that he thinks the Justice Department should be going after him. He and his attorney general are making this claim that that photo and the depiction of the numbers was a threat to the president. What's striking, though, a lot of people resurfaced online. Many prominent Republicans from former Congressman Matt Gaetz to GOP influencers have also used the phrase 86. And the attorney general was asked about that and basically said, well, we're not going to go after everybody who's posted this.

47:04But in this case, we think it's warranted. Anybody who's worked in a restaurant knows that 86 means to cancel or get rid of something or when you run out of something. If you're in the restaurant world, which I was as a youngster, that's exactly what it means there. And a little tease before the international portion of our news roundup, King Charles III arrived on these shores in a moment when the so-called special relationship between the United States and the UK seems officially frayed, especially over Iran. Jeff Mason, take just a quick minute. In your long experience, and you were on the sidelines of this visit, what stood out to you?

47:39Well, I was on the South Lawn for his official arrival and all the pomp and circumstance is really quite fascinating to watch. Also, as someone who's covered President Trump for so long, it's fascinating to see President Trump be so enamored with someone else. And he is enamored with the king. And the king knew that and used that knowledge, I think, in his speech to Congress, in which he made a strong case for uplifting NATO and alliances and even a few other things that I think could be seen as veiled or potentially not so veiled criticisms of President Trump about the judiciary, about climate change and about supporting Ukraine.

48:19So the president didn't take it as criticism. They had toasts later that night when they saw each other at the state dinner. But it was fascinating to watch, and I think this administration sees it as a success. They say monarchs, kings, especially in England, are useless. They're functionaries. They're over-moneyed and isolated. What if your king can actually serve a purpose with a president who really, really cares about that kind of thing? Maybe the Brits know that they've got a king up their sleeve. I want to thank Taylor Poplarz, national political reporter at the White House for Spectrum News, Jeff Mason, Washington correspondent for Bloomberg News, and Alana Shore, senior Washington editor for Semaphore.

49:04Thank you all for being with us. We're just getting started with this week's headlines. When we come back after a break, we'll have a new panel and all the news from around the globe. We'll be right back.

49:18This message comes from KeyBank. Scaling a successful business takes more than just grit. It takes the right relationship. KeyBank pairs the right strategy with the right financial tools to keep your business moving forward. KeyBank opens doors. More at key.com slash b2b. This message comes from DonorsChoose. Every day on DonorsChoose.org, teachers ask for the books, supplies, and learning materials their students need. Show classroom heroes the appreciation they deserve. Donate today at DonorsChoose.org slash local. Support for NPR and the following message come from HomeServe. Owning a home is full of surprises, and when something breaks, it can feel like the whole day unravels.

50:05HomeServe is ready to help. bringing peace of mind to 4.5 million homeowners nationwide. Plans start at just$4.99 a month. Sign up today at homeserve.com. Not available everywhere. Most plans range between$4.99 to$11.99 a month your first year. Terms apply on covered repairs. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. Let's turn to some international news for our weekly news roundup. The Strait of Hormuz is shut. No crude is getting through and no deal appears imminent. Oil company profits are soaring and the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon cannot be called a ceasefire at all. America's ambassador to Ukraine quits and Russia fights an insurgency in West Africa.

50:54It is a full house at WAMU Studios today with me around the table. Joyce Karam, editor-in-chief at Almonitor. She also writes Almonitor's weekly China Middle East briefing. Always good to see you, Joyce. Great to see you, Todd. Nancy Youssef is here, staff writer at The Atlantic, covering national security and the Defense Department, as always. Great to have you, Nancy. Great to be back. And Josh Keating is here, senior correspondent at Vox, covering foreign policy and world news with a focus on the future of international conflict. He's also the author of Invisible Country's Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood.

51:28Josh, great to see you again. Thanks for having me. All right, gang. Nine weeks ago, the United States and Israel launched their war in Iran. killed a Supreme Leader, wiped out military sites, and told 90 million Iranians it was their chance to topple the regime. You know what happened next. Iran restricted, then closed the Strait of Hormuz, cutting it off to about 20 % of the world's oil supply. It bombed its Gulf neighbors, and the regime survived despite assassinations of key leaders and a new Supreme Leader who's in hiding. President Trump said this week the U.S. military blockade of the strait has been 100 % foolproof, and there's only one thing left for Iran to do.

52:09We've got an amazing military. Now they have to cry uncle. That's all they have to do, just say, we give up. We give up. Two weeks ago, Nancy, you were on the air with us during a short-lived declaration from Iran's foreign minister and President Trump that straight poor moves was open to all, but the U.S. blockade would continue, the blockade of Iran's coast. It came hours after the start of a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. An end to the war in Iran seemed closer then than it does even today. What's the status of the strait now? So right after that show, the U.S. said it would maintain its naval blockade, which led Iran to say, well, then we're not going to reopen the strait.

52:53And so let me back up and say, what is the U.S. hoping to achieve with this blockade? It is saying if we stop Iranian ships from entering or exiting, then Iran will not be able to export oil. So what the U.S. is looking for is a scenario in which the Iranians are having to store oil on Karg Island, where the majority of their exports come out of, and eventually stop their oil production, and that that kind of economic pressure will drive them to the negotiation table. Iran has a different economic calculus. It is saying if we keep making it hard for the world's energy markets to travel through the strait and keep bringing on this economic pressure across the world, which we saw this week when Brent crude crossed$126 here in the U.S., we saw gas hit a four-year peak of$4.18.

53:41That will create the economic pressure on Trump to give Iran more favorable terms, and that's where we are. The president says that the blockade has been 100 percent effective. It has not because we've seen Iran try to get around it. For example, they'll move ships along their coastline outside of international waters to across Pakistan, across India to try to move some of their ships. But the tipping point, I think, will be if we see Iran really unable to do anything economically or the U.S. face such political pressure that it has to sort of revisit the negotiations. And so that's where you are.

54:18Having said all that, it's not even clear, though, the mechanisms in which you would start to strike a deal and what becomes an acceptable outcome. So we're in this sort of test of wills right now in terms of economic pressure that each side can tolerate. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mokhjabah Khamenei said Thursday in a written statement that he would protect the Islamic Republic's nuclear and missile capabilities. That sounds familiar. Let's back up, Josh. Iran put forward a proposal to open the strait earlier this week. President Trump rejected it. There's news of potentially a new proposal coming today to the intermediaries in Pakistan.

54:58What is Iran asking for now? Well, Iran's aim is basically to have a deal that would reopen the strait in exchange for the blockade being lifted and put off talks on its nuclear program for later. They want that to be negotiated in the future after a ceasefire deal. The pushback they're getting from the U.S. side, and reportedly Steve Whitcoff, President Trump's envoy, sent a counterproposal over the weekend, was that there should—basically to reintroduce the nuclear question into this ceasefire deal to have Iran agree to make certain concessions. So, you know, we're almost back to the dynamic we had before this war started when there are ongoing nuclear talks, which is Iran, you know, the way one former Trump administration official put it to me was Iran basically wants months of negotiations leading to a deal that looks something like the 2015 nuclear deal, which is, you know, 50 pages long and has 12 technical annexes, whereas Trump wants a sheet of paper he can hold up at a press conference in the near term.

56:01And those two sides are just as irreconcilable now as they were before the bombing started. We got news in the Wall Street Journal this week that the president ordered his aides to prepare for an extended blockade of the strait. That does not pretend an immediate deal. Also news that U.S. Central Command briefed President Trump on potential new military plans on Thursday. That's according to Axios. Joyce, what's your view on where we are with negotiations, military leverage and a way out of the blockade? So just in a nutshell, we're stuck. You know, it's been 60 days. The Hormuz is still closed.

56:41It's an unstable stalemate. We're waiting to see what's in the Iranian response now. So to get out of this stalemate, of this unstable situation, the president is again looking at military options. And those are not guaranteed, but we're looking here at three options, Todd. One would be going in again and hitting Iranian infrastructure, power plants, electric, just destroying their full power infrastructure. We don't know if this is going to work. The second option would be just resolving the nuclear part of the problem, which was the original plus regime change cause of this war. and we haven't done anything on it.

57:25So can he go in and get the uranium out? We will, that would be part two military operation. Part three, which seems, you know, where the administration and some regional countries are hedging is go in and open Hormuz, open the strait. Just force it out, have - Have a battle. Have a battle, clear the mines and force it to open. These are the three options right now. The third options would be, of course, to say, you know, I'm done. I'm going to declare a deal and get out of this. The problem for this administration is Iran knows they're under pressure, and Iran wants a better bargain. They keep upping their demands.

58:08They want now more sanctions relief. They're willing to give less, Mushtabah Khamenei's speech-giving less on ballistic missiles and on the nuclear program. So let's talk about the impact of the war in Iran itself. More than 90 million people live there. Iran sold$98 billion in exports last year, about half of that from oil. Economic crisis led to widespread protests that we all followed against the regime at the start of the year in 2026. And since the war started, American and Israeli strikes have hit about 20 ,000 factories, making everything from steel to pharmaceuticals. Iran's deputy labor minister says the country's lost at least a million jobs.

58:46The value of Iran's currency plummeted, hit a record low on Wednesday. Tehran resident Bahman Korsan said this to the Associated Press on Thursday about the depreciation of the real. The reason is economic instability. People are worried about tomorrow and they don't know what's going to happen. They try to convert whatever they have into dollars so their assets don't lose value. All of this means, Josh, what Nancy's saying, what Joyce is saying, what this resident in Tehran is saying. There's a standoff waiting to see which side buckles to economic pressure. first. How does that standoff look to you?

59:23Well, I think the sort of hopeful narrative that's come out of the White House this week, and Nancy referred to it earlier, is this question of storage capacity. President Trump actually said this week that at a certain point, Iran's oil production will explode if they can't export any more of their oil. And that's almost certainly over-optimistic. Kapler, the energy analytics firm, does predict they have about two weeks left of capacity before they have to start slowing things down. They're doing things like loading oil onto old tankers, trying to ship it by train to China. But, you know, I mean, it is going to be an economic hit.

1:00:00It could be devastating for the Iranian economy, but that doesn't mean that they're actually going to compromise politically. Those are two different things. One key fact here is you can't just shut off an oil well. It's got immense pressure behind it. So you turn it on, it keeps flowing. It's not easy. You can't turn it off like a shower tap. It doesn't work that way. So you got to find a place to put all that oil related issue just across the water from Iran. The United Arab Emirates, Nancy, just this week said they're leaving OPEC, the famous internationally famous oil cartel. Why leave and why now?

1:00:38So this is something they've been discussing for quite some time. So often we talk about the economic impacts on Iran, on the U.S., but the Gulf states have taken an economic hit as well. They haven't been able to move oil through the strait because of this war and have taken economic hits. I think for the Emiratis, this is an opportunity to be removed from some of the restrictions that they felt under OPEC to be able to move more oil. And it signals their own pathway, seeking an own independent pathway to recover economically from the hits that they've taken from this war. But it speaks to sort of the second and third order effects of these strikes and how it's changing the calculus, not only here and in Iran, but within among our Gulf allies as well.

1:01:22Does it weaken Saudi Arabia or complicate their lives to have the Emiratis leaving OPEC, or does it maybe make things easier for them? Well, I think we went from an organization that was able to speak with one voice to one that now appears to be divided, one that sort of had shared interests, to one maybe saying maybe we don't have shared interests anymore. But let's talk about oil. Let's talk about the money of oil. Profits at the British energy giant BP more than doubled over the first three months of this year following a surge in oil prices since this war began. U.S. companies Exxon and Chevron both saw lower profits, but they're expecting surging profits next quarter from this astronomically high price of oil that Nancy Youssef described.

1:02:04On Thursday, crude prices jumped to a four-year high on concerns that the situation could worsen in the Persian Gulf. We got this from Christine in North Carolina who asks, is making windfall profits for oil companies part of Donald Trump's Hormuz blockade strategy? That's one way to look at it, maybe. Joyce Karam, do these companies see this conflict as a boon for their bottom line? I mean, they won't admit it, but it is. It is a boon. I mean, we're looking at with BP, it went from$1.3 billion to$3.2 billion in earnings for this quarter. So it's a big, very big margin. With BP, the irony here is I can't but mention it.

1:02:48I mean, these are the guys why we are in this conflict in the first place. The 1950s coup in Iran driven by, you know, the CIA and BP against the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry. And here they are, you know, again, profiteering from this conflict. Obviously, it's not just BP, Total. You're mentioning now Axan expected to make more. So this brings the question, yes, you know, when this shock happened, when these disruptions happen, with no end in sight for the Hormuz Strait, they're just going to keep making more money. It's a fascinating dynamic from 1950. Heads, we win. Tails, we also win all these years later.

1:03:33Can we go back? I mean, it's pretty ironic. Well, meanwhile, the World Bank has been weighing in on what higher prices mean for the global economy. Now, this is extremely important. We watch an economic standoff between Iran and the United States. It's really between Iran and the whole rest of the world. A report released this week says energy prices are on track to increase by 24 percent this year, pushing up global inflation. Josh, what's the risk for the global economy? How long can this standoff go on before real economic crisis sets in? Well, I think it's going to occur in waves. And I think all the focus, understandably, is on oil.

1:04:14But this is also a fertilizer crisis as well. So prices of fertilizer are up 30 percent. And that World Bank report anticipated that 45 million people could be pushed into acute food insecurity if this crisis continues. And then you have sort of commodity inflation. And, you know, the prices of metals and other commodities are going to increase. So that's going to drive up inflation everywhere. And I do think here in the U.S. we're still a bit insulated from it. I mean, you're feeling it more so in California where I think gas prices have topped$6. And that's partially because they're importing a lot of oil from Asia.

1:04:54But, you know, this is going to be felt more acutely first in East Asia and Africa. But, you know, the Western countries, Europe and the United States, aren't going to be immune from the fallout forever. Well, we talked this week. You can find the conversation on the 1A.org all about the effect of these input price increases, diesel, fuel, fertilizer, and all of the knock-on effects on the American farmer. That conversation is important. But take that conversation and say, for people around the world who are even more on the margins than the American farmer, and there are tens if not hundreds of millions of them, you can see immediately the potential immediate effects of a global economic crisis.

1:05:35If the price of fertilizer goes up just a few percent when people are on the margins, it's critical. And it's some of the grim math of this war and the standoff. Nancy, you've been describing sort of taking a new view of the Strait of Hormuz, the blockade and what it actually means. That's right. I think so often we think about this as a binary conversation. When is the strait going to open? But the reality is we're in a new operating framework around the strait. Before February 28th, I think the Iranians thought that closing the strait was too risky. Now they see it as a key part of their leverage.

1:06:12And you're already seeing industry and others looking at this new framework. So I often think about it after COVID, where before COVID, supply chains were just in time. So they only kept enough excess supply to meet the immediate demand. And after that, it became just in case, where they kept excess supplies. There were new alternatives made. It led to a more resilient world economy, but also a costlier one. And I think we're potentially headed on the same pathway now. I think you're going to see oil companies looking at things like new pipelines, new ports, new routes, or paying whatever fee is necessary to go through the strait.

1:06:48And that all will change how the world economy works. And so whether there's a deal or not, whether there's an agreement, I don't think if you're someone who once depended on the strait, you can go back and just assume that everything will go back to the way it was. It is a new Iran. It is a new way to think about the strait. And it means a new global economic order. All of the consequences orbiting around this conflict, the world economy, of course, the Strait of Hormuz itself, as Nancy just described, OPEC, and of course Israel and its conflict with Lebanon. Israel has now ramped up its attacks in southern Lebanon despite what's called a temporary ceasefire brokered by the United States.

1:07:27It went into effect on April 17th. Since Wednesday, separate Israeli bombings have killed at least 28 people and injured 70 more, according to Lebanon's state news agency. Meanwhile, Israel continues its demands that the government in Lebanon completely disarm Hezbollah, which it does not have control over. Joyce, given the latest series of strikes, how would you characterize the state of the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel? Has it completely collapsed? Is it the wrong word for it? Where is this going? Yeah, it hasn't completely collapsed, but it's largely a ceasefire, a limited ceasefire.

1:08:06It doesn't include, as long as Israel is not bombing Beirut, is not bombing certain suburbs, it's okay to carry out attacks daily. And they've been happening daily in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has also been launching rockets at Israel. You say it's OK. OK in the eyes of the Lebanese government as long as Beirut's not being attacked? No, no. OK in the eyes of the Trump administration that brokered the ceasefire. So the American president has gone from enough is enough, no more bombing of Lebanon to OK, you can bomb here. You can destroy this village there. Just don't touch Beirut. We are the ceasefire.

1:08:46They managed to extend it for three more weeks. We have two more weeks to go, but the American effort now is to bring the Lebanese president, to bring the Israeli prime minister to Washington for a summit, for a big uptake, a very good look for the administration so they can make peace. The problem for the Lebanese president is he can't do such a thing with Israel, bombardment daily. So there are discussions up until this morning underway between the U.S. and the Lebanese government to just enforce a better ceasefire, to have a roadmap how to disarm Hezbollah. Because as you mentioned, Todd, the Lebanese government is not able to do that.

1:09:29And then the corollary question becomes, even if you get the photo op in the Rose Garden, even if you get Lebanon and Israel to shake hands and President Trump gets his pictures and his declaration that he wants, how can Lebanon make such a deal when Hezbollah is not in the room? No, Hezbollah is exactly the main fighter in this, is against that. So, and Lebanon itself, inside Lebanon, there is no agreement on making such deal. So, it's a very complicated situation. I understand the White House wants a good story, but I'm not sure we're going to see that very soon from Beirut. We talk about Israel and another aspect of Israel's reaction, not only to the war in Iran, but ever since the attacks in southern Israel in October of 2023.

1:10:16Palestinian authorities held elections in one single community in Gaza and in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Saturday. This marked the first ballot of any kind in Gaza since 2006, and the first Palestinian polls since Israel's war in Gaza began in October of 2023. Here's a voter in Deir al-Bala, Gaza, where turnout was 23 percent. We came hoping our days would become better. We want better things. We don't want to stay like this. The water is salty and barely reaches us. We want them to improve our situation. We are tired of this life. Joyce, how significant was this vote? What does it say about the direction of Palestinian leadership?

1:10:59So it was significant in a sense that Palestinian Authority was able to administer that vote. Politically, it was a big win for Mahmoud Abbas for his movement. But on the ground, Todd, as you mentioned, it was just restricted in one area in Gaza where the turnout was 22 percent. and Hamas did not participate. And in the West Bank, also Abbas was not challenged. So it's largely symbolic, but important that it happened. Well, there's election news inside of Israel as well. On Sunday, Israel's right-wing former prime minister Naftali Bennett and centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid announced that they would form an alliance designed for essentially one purpose, to topple the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

1:11:47These two joined forces after the 2021 election to end Netanyahu's leadership the last time. Josh, could they do it again? And what are they offering to the Israeli people that's different from Netanyahu? They're making sort of a strange bedfellows coalition here because they say the stakes are high. Well, it's worth noting these two formed a coalition that won an election back in 2021. That government collapsed about a year later, paving the way for Netanyahu's return. Naftali Bennett has described himself to Netanyahu's right. He is associated with the settler movement in Israel. He's talked about not ceding one inch of land of the Palestinians.

1:12:29Yair Lapid is more moderate, has at least paid lip service to a two-state solution, though there's a question about how far he would go in actually implementing it. So on the issue most Americans follow, these Israeli-Palestinian questions, there's not a huge difference. But I think they are promising to turn the page on a deeply unpopular Prime Minister Netanyahu, who's under fire not only for his ongoing corruption charges, but over the security failures that led to the October 7th attacks. And what I'm interested to see is what this will mean for the U.S.-Israeli relationship where we've seen support for Israel just plummeting in the United States across basically every demographic group of the last – particularly among Democrats over the last few years.

1:13:19So could a new government in Israel, even if on policy grounds it doesn't differ that significantly, but has this sort of polarizing toxic figure removed? And a new face or two new faces. Two new faces. Could that change anything for the U.S.-Israel relationship? Well, there's also, as always, as almost every week, a lot to talk about with Russia. And that also means there's a lot to talk about with Ukraine, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Julie Davis. She's leaving her post after less than a year on the job. According to reporting from the Financial Times, Davis is stepping down out of frustration with President Trump and his lack of support for Ukraine.

1:14:00Now, Davis's predecessor, Brigitte Brink, resigned last year, Nancy, for pretty much the same reasons. What do we know about Davis's short time as ambassador? Why she's leaving now specifically and so publicly? So you're right. It was very similar to her predecessor who stepped down after that infamous confrontation between Zelensky, Trump and Vance in the Oval Office last February. The current acting ambassador, who is technically assigned to be ambassador to Cyprus, said that she was stepping down in the coming weeks because she doesn't feel like that she can negotiate essentially the U.S. policy as it was up until recently in which we were providing every kind of support we could for Ukraine, trying to give them the arms and the diplomatic support for Ukraine to prevail.

1:14:49And what we've seen instead from the Trump administration is a real move away from that. The defense budget doesn't have money, for example, allocated to provide more weapons to Ukraine. And I think it signals two things. Both inside the State Department, this has become a challenging position for the diplomatic community to fill under this administration because I think for many it goes against the values that they think that the United States should be bringing to this conflict. This very ambassador job, this seat in Kyiv, it's been high profile ever since Marie Yovanovitch wound up testifying in Donald Trump's first impeachment.

1:15:24The ambassador job to Ukraine has been a high profile and difficult one since that moment. Sure. You're the facilitator for, at the time, billions of dollars worth of weapons. You're trying to get a negotiated settlement on one of the most complicated conflicts of our time. It's, of course, a high profile position. But if you're trying to do a policy different than what the administration wants, therein lies the conflict. And I think that's the one that you're seeing. So there's that internal ramification. And to me, for the external community, it's a real demonstrative display of the U.S. shift away from the priorities it had towards Ukraine.

1:16:02And I think she just sort of personifies that shift. And what you'll see is increased dependence for the Ukrainians on their European allies for weapons, for diplomatic support, for financial support. Well, Russia is watching. They may have liked to see the American ambassador folded up in Kiev, but they've got problems of their own. Vladimir Putin is not quite folding up the tent, but putting on a little bit less of a show in Red Square this year. Russia's defense ministry said in a statement that it's going to scale back its annual May 9th Red Square military parade as fighting in Ukraine's Donbass region slogs on.

1:16:38And this parade is a celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. It's worth noting that the pretext that Putin gave for the invasion of Ukraine in the first place was to fight Nazis in Ukraine. Joyce, what is this scale down of a military parade, which is for show? What does it say below the surface? It is for show, but it is the most important parade on Putin's calendar. This is the Victory Day parade. It's almost like Trump scaling down the July 4th fireworks. So what this tells us is, you know, that Putin is under strain. There is not enough, maybe perhaps there are not enough military equipment to show because they are getting blown up in Ukraine.

1:17:21There could be a security concern as well. and there could be resources. But the mood in Russia from the start of the Ukraine war till now, it's more somber. It's not the same economically, security-wise. So that all signals why they are scaling down this parade. Josh, what do we know about latest communications between President Trump and Vladimir Putin? They had a call this week. Trump says, as he always does, that Putin is eager to be helpful. Well, the two discussed the possible short-term ceasefire around the May 9th Victory Day celebrations. You know, we'll see if that happens. There have been previous short ceasefires when both sides have accused the other of violating them, but we're really not seeing any indications that Putin is actually serious about a permanent end to this conflict.

1:18:10We got this message from Robert who asks, how much is Putin making from the higher price of oil? We talk about Russia. We talk about the war in Ukraine. Revenue is a critical part of it, Josh Keating. How much is Vladimir Putin making right now? Well, in mid-March, there was an estimate from the Financial Times that Russia was earning an extra$150 million per day in oil sales, which would be a windfall of about$5 billion if it continues. But the thing is, Ukraine has shifted tactics and is now actively targeting Russia's oil infrastructure and its export ports to a much greater extent than it was before.

1:18:47So it's a question of how much they're actually deriving, given that Ukraine has clearly shifted to actively preventing them from benefiting from the higher oil prices and lifted sanctions. Vladimir Putin's army has its fight in Ukraine. He has a fight domestically as Ukraine attacks his oil infrastructure. And Russian mercenaries have a new fight on their hands as well. The West African country of Mali, it's in the throes of a years-long insurgency. And the military junta in Mali has partnered with the Russian paramilitary group AfrikaCorp. They were formerly known as the Wagner Group, if you've heard of them.

1:19:23Over the weekend, a coordinated attack by several al-Qaeda and Islamic militants. That's right. Al-Qaeda is still active in northern Mali. They forced the Russian mercenaries and the Malian government to retreat. Mali's defense minister was also killed in that attack. On Tuesday, the leader of the Malian military addressed the situation. As I speak to you now, security measures have been reinforced. The situation is under control, and sweep operations and security operations are ongoing. I would like to acknowledge the quality of the cooperation with our strategic partner, notably the Russian Federation.

1:20:02Nancy, you said first, what is a Russian paramilitary, private paramilitary, doing in Mali? So this one, Africa, of course, is more closely affiliated with the government than its predecessor, and they're trying to exert influence around the world in an area where they were welcomed. They came in after the government asked French and UN forces to leave several years ago after launching a coup, and this was their attempt to show their ability to exercise influence in a global hotspot through its forces. The problem is over the weekend, you saw these militant groups rise up, launch a series of attacks, one that killed their defense minister.

1:20:42And you saw the Afrika Korps forces leave hurriedly, leaving their equipment behind, leaving weapons caches. They really got out of town. They fled, very simply. And so what was supposed to be a means for Russia to show its reach actually ended up being a setback and one of the global terrorism hotspots. And so you now have a sort of uneasy calm in Mali right now, but a real uncertainty about future of security there in this area that has become a gravitational pull for all these groups who are seeking to exert control in the Sahel. Mali is a special place. It's a poor place. I spent some time there as a younger man and really got around the country.

1:21:23I've got a real place in my heart for Mali. But I think a lot of Americans would be surprised to hear those words, Al-Qaeda, that there's an Al-Qaeda insurgency still in the southern Sahel, the Sahara. That's right, because where do the terrorism groups operate? They operate where there are vacuums and opportunity to expand. And I think Al-Qaeda, ISIS, these groups are not dead. they are constantly looking for places to reconstitute themselves. We're seeing that in Somalia. We're seeing that in Mali. We're seeing that particularly across the African continent right now. And when there is global instability around the world, it creates also opportunities for them to exploit and try to expand.

1:22:00And that's what that represents. Global instability requires global money and global spending. And global defense budgets are now reaching their highest levels in nearly 20 years. America and its allies are leading this surge. A new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows European defense spending jumped 14 percent last year. Asia was close behind, climbing 8 percent. The United States, China, Russia, Germany and India were the biggest military spenders overall. They accounted for more than half of nearly three trillion dollars spent worldwide in 2025. Joyce Karam, what's what's driving this surge in military spending?

1:22:40specifically by the U.S. and its allies? Nota, these are big numbers. I think that globally, many countries are adjusting to a different conflict environment, to a more persistent conflict that we're seeing new wars that are erupting and not getting settled. We can talk about Russia, Ukraine, the war in Iran. The other element, they're hedging. They see an American president who is backing down on U.S. security commitments. They're Trump-proofing their budgets. So that, in a nutshell, is where many countries are. We're going to talk in a little bit, I think, about the Mertz spat with Trump and Trump possibly relocating bases in Europe.

1:23:26But this is all. There is serious fear in Europe and in Asia of less U.S. protection and diverting these resources overnight. Nancy, what's your view on why spending is going up so much around the world? What does it mean in practical terms to Trump-proof your country? Is it just an acknowledgment that the world is going to become a less stable place? Yes. I think what we're looking at – look, the U.S. Defense Department is asking for$1.5 trillion, which is almost more than all the world's militaries put together. And for me personally, what I worry about is when you build that kind of infrastructure around defense, does it potentially lead to more conflict?

1:24:04But to Joyce's point, I think we're no longer seeing conflicts that erupt and then go back down. What we're seeing is this persistent feeling of instability across the world in which countries are trying to protect themselves and build their own infrastructure around defense. I think up until a few years ago, there was an expectation that the United States would be sort of the nexus for defense building, defense weaponry, particularly for our allies. But even – and China and Russia are trying to counter that. And now you're seeing, particularly in Europe, an effort to build their own defense infrastructure.

1:24:41And that's very costly and it takes years and years and years to build up. $1.5 trillion in the Pentagon's budget request for 2027. That's their wish list. We will have to see if they get all of it or most of it. Josh, what about modern warfare justifies a budget that astronomical? What does the Pentagon want to do with it, especially in a world that Nancy and Joyce describe where defense spending is decentralizing? If the rest of the world is going to rely on the United States less as the nexus, how do you justify the line items in a$1.5 trillion budget? Well, part of it's just the scale of munitions needed in potential in conventional conflicts.

1:25:24I mean, I remember at the beginning of the Ukraine war, visiting factories, producing, you know, 155 millimeter shells. These are, you know, the kind of equipment that hasn't changed that much since World War I. But now you're talking about like Patriot interceptors, which cost$4 million a pop. And we've fired 1 ,200 of them in these wars. I mean, those numbers really add up. And, you know, interceptors especially have been referred to as the table stakes of modern conflict, just sort of the emphasis on air war and missiles. You know, these are very advanced systems. They cost a lot to make. The economics are not in your favor when you're conducting air defense just because it's so much cheaper to build a missile or a drone than an interceptor.

1:26:05And I think that adds up. And you add to that, you know, plans for potential conflict with China, you know, a ongoing nuclear modernization process, you know, the heavy emphasis this administration is putting on integrating artificial intelligence across, you know, all sectors of the U.S. military and the Pentagon. And, you know, we really are in a kind of transformational moment, I think, and it's going to be very expensive. You know, the question is, you know, why, you know, we have this trillion-dollar military now that has proven unable to achieve a strategic victory over Iran, you know, when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz using, you know, much less advanced capabilities.

1:26:46So, you know, I think it should raise a lot of questions about where this money is going and where we are when we're talking about a potential conflict with a country like China, a lot bigger, more advanced, more capable than Iran. Well, you speak of international military spending and military posture. Joyce just mentioned it. A very public spat this week between Washington and Berlin, raising questions about the future of America's relationship with Germany. On Monday, the chancellor, Friedrich Meritz, spoke to German university students. Listen. The Americans clearly have no strategy. And the problem with conflicts like this is always that it's not enough just to get in.

1:27:27You also have to get out. We saw this all too painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq. Well, President Trump fired back. Joyce alluded to it, Nancy, on social media, announced the U.S. was reviewing its troop presence in Germany after those cutting words from the chancellor there. How serious is this public fight? Forget about the back and forth between these egos. What does it point to? So I think it points to further fissures within the NATO alliance, ultimately. This is after the president of the United States had threatened to leave NATO multiple times, after he had threatened Greenland, and you're starting to see NATO allies in Europe start to think about the United States in a different paradigm than they did before.

1:28:09And to have not just the words that the chancellor said, because he in some ways reflected a sentiment here in the United States, but the response from the president about pulling troops out of Germany. We have 36 ,000 troops there, practically speaking. While the U.S. could do it, it would do so at the cost of its own interest because that basing there has been key for the United States, including the war with Iran. It's a hub, a strategic hub for the United States. And so pulling out now would be particularly problematic. But overall, we're seeing a Europe that is increasingly talking about its own approach, not only vis-a-vis NATO, but potentially going forward with Iran.

1:28:49Well, speaking of Germans and Washington, the Windsors started out in Germany. Did you know that? Back before America broke away from England. Back then, the Windsors were called the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Today, they're all English, and King Charles III wears that crown. The king and the queen arrived this week for a visit time to mark 250 years of American independence. Here's the king, Charles, addressing a joint session of Congress. Only the second British monarch ever to do so. The bond of kinship and identity between America and the United Kingdom is priceless and eternal. Well, we talked about King Charles's visit on 1A earlier this week, including with Bloomberg's Michelle Hussain, who followed the visit very closely from her perch in London.

1:29:35Here's her take on the king's speeches and public appearances. There was a very, very clever use of history and humor and plays on language. And the fact that it has gone down well, these speeches have gone down well across the aisle in the United States. Certainly, the president himself seems delighted. If all goes well, God willing, in the next couple of days, I think he will be able to return thinking at a very difficult moment he did as much as he possibly could. A very, very useful king, Joyce Karam. I mean, kings don't get to be extremely useful these days, but it appears with the state of American-British relations, this may have been a very strategic and useful visit by the king.

1:30:17Totally. King Charles came to Washington with a relationship strained with Trump and Stormer. They're not even on good terms when it comes to Iran, when it comes to tariffs. This is not the special relationship that we're used to. And he managed to get a few things from Trump, like the tariffs on whiskey, on scotch whiskey, were removed. That's a big win for him. Also, you know, his speech in Congress was just beautiful. You know, he was so diplomatic. He was soft in his approach. Without mentioning climate change, he mentioned, you know, nature and preserving nature. So he knew how to talk to that audience.

1:31:01And I have to say, it's beautiful that he ended his visit in Shenandoah and just not very far from here. Front Royal, not far from Washington, D.C. In a small town. Well, good feelings and whiskey tariffs removed. But I just want to mention this. A Pentagon memo leaked late last week suggests Washington could reconsider its support for British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. The Falklands, that's something the British do not want to hear, Josh. No, and I think that was pretty quickly walked back by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and it seemed to just be sort of a general fit of peak that was going on in the U.S.-U.K.

1:31:38relationship. And I think sort of seen as tit-for-tat for the British stance on the Chagos Islands, these islands in the Indian Ocean where a U.S.-based Diego Garcia is hosted. But, you know, I mean, okay, the Charles visit sort of brought to mind, to me, like that Trump just loves these personal relationships that really his ideal model of diplomacy is not, you know, through these big, you know, bureaucratic initiatives. It's powerful people doing favors for each other. And I think that's what he liked about this visit. Well, we got to go before we do the Falkland Islands, the shores of Dover, Calais makes me think of sounds of the ocean.

1:32:18Just just listen to this. Tell me what you think this is.

1:32:26What does that sound like, Nancy? I know the answer. It sounds like a seagull, but it's not a seagull. It's not a seagull because Nancy Youssef is right. Those are real people. We watched the videos. They're real, competing for the best screech at the 6th Annual European Seagull Screeching Contest. 70 people, 15 countries. It's a big deal. In a cafe in Belgium, in the adult category, junior category, and colony category. pretty good. Anyone want to do their best seagull? You look like you're dying to. Dead air. No takers. I'm doing a seagull sleeping. How about that? Silent as always. That's Nancy Yusuf from The Atlantic.

1:33:10Josh Keating, I want to thank you. From Vox, author of Invisible Country's Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood. And Joyce Karam, editor-in-chief at All Monitor. Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer. Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our senior managing producer. Alexander Bouttee is our senior supervising producer. Aileen Humphreys is our senior producer and editor of 1A On Demand. And Thomas Liu produces our podcast. Special thanks to Matthew Simonson for additional On Demand support this week. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington.

1:33:44It's distributed by NPR. I'm Todd Zwilich. This is 1A.

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