The News Roundup For November 21, 2025

26:17We saw it happening in L.A., solid blue state, Chicago, solid blue state. This is the first time that Trump's immigration policies are getting tested in a battleground environment. And what I have heard from a number of Republicans on the ground are concerns that the administration is not communicating in their mind the central mission, which is to try and get people with criminal records off the streets. And instead, what they are seeing are endless videos on your TikTok or Instagram feeds showing ICE agents targeting what seems like people going about their days. and there was concerns raised to basically if they're going to go after landscapers and housekeepers and people— Daycare center workers.

27:05Daycare center workers, people who are part of the community who are just trying to live and do their jobs, that that's the concern, that that is what's going to leave a real bad aftertaste in the mouths of particularly suburban voters. And look, there is a massive Senate race that's going to happen in North Carolina a year from now. It's arguably going to be the most important for Democrats because this is the sort of best opportunity to flip a state and probably the most expensive. And immigration, these Republicans said to me, including former Governor Pat McCrory, was this concern that immigration was once a positive issue for Republicans, something they could proactively run on.

27:41And now because of what they are seeing on the ground, that there actually may be some real drawbacks here and there's real concerns here. Let's talk about affordability. On Monday, President Trump spoke in front of a group of McDonald's corporate workers and franchise owners at the company's impact summit. And the major focus of his speech was the economy. And, you know, I just might add this is also the golden age of America because we are doing better than we've ever done as a country. Prices are coming down and all of that stuff. And, you know, they talk about different terms for that. But I will tell you that nobody has done what we've done in terms of pricing.

28:21We took over a mess. We had the highest, think of it, the highest inflation in the history of our country. They say 48 years it was the history of our country. And now we have normal inflation. We're going to get it a little bit lower, frankly. But we have normal. We've normalized it. Megan, can I just ask you to just fact check some of that there in terms of where we're at with inflation? So inflation is certainly down from the height, the post-COVID height, you know, during the Biden administration. But people are still feeling the pinch, particularly at the grocery store. And Trump's tariffs and some other economic policies have really hurt consumers.

29:07We're seeing, particularly at the grocery store, heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, prices still being pretty high. Right. Prices for turkey are up 40 percent for a year ago, according to the Department of Agriculture. That's due to bird flu and increased demand for the holiday season. And do we have a sense in terms of tariffs how much that's affecting prices? So we are starting to see the tariff increases. Things like canned vegetables have gone up due to tariffs on metals. So these tariffs that were put in place several months ago, kind of at the outset of this administration, have been sort of rolling ever since.

29:43We didn't feel the immediate impact of them because, you know, because manufacturers had stockpiled a lot of these resources. Now is the crunch time and now is really where we're starting to see it. And particularly heading into the holiday season where people spending not just on food, but on electronics and other goods tends to go up pretty significantly. I think many Americans are going to be feeling that pinch in their pocketbooks. Trump's claims of an economic boom are also not squaring with labor market data. We just got jobs data this week from September, which showed that the U.S. added 119 ,000 jobs that month, far exceeding expectations.

30:24that's despite a slight uptick in unemployment to 4.4 percent, which is the highest level since October 2021. We also saw August numbers revised downward. Megan, what do these September numbers mean for how the economy is doing overall? So it's really a mixed bag. The unemployment rate is now at 4.4 percent, which is a four-year peak. That is not something that any president wants to see on their watch, particularly heading into the midterm election year. What is so important about this September jobs report is that this is the jobs report that the Federal Reserve is going to be relying on at its meeting next month.

31:06There will be no October jobs report thanks to the 43-day government shutdown. This is the first time since at least 1994 we won't have a jobs report. So the Fed is really going to be relying on this mixed bag report when it makes a decision whether to decrease interest rates or keep them where they are at year end. That is, of course, something that Trump has been pushing. He wants to see rates continue to go down, down, down. But there are a lot of Fed governors who are saying this report doesn't give them the confidence that the economy is where it should be in order for them to bring those rates down.

31:49Can I just ask, Arthur, usually when there's a shutdown, we have gotten the data just delayed, like how we just got September. Can I ask why we're not getting the full October report? We're also getting a lot of listener emails. Tom and Sarah have both emailed asking how we can trust reports going forward, worried that they'll be manipulated so the Fed will drop interest rates. I don't think people should worry about that because it's just too big of a group activity and the people who work for it. Because they're collecting surveys. Right. So there's no October jobs report. I actually spoke to former BLS Commissioner William Beach about this.

32:23The people who – that survey that gets the unemployment rate, they're calling up 60 ,000 households and asking them a bunch of questions. And it's not just like, do you have a job or not? It goes into great detail, and we got a ton of information. And so the people who would have been making those calls just weren't at work because the government was shut down. And this has never happened before because we never had such a long government shutdown before. And the shutdown encompassed the period where all those phone calls would have been made, and you can't make it up after the fact. You can't call those people now and say, well, how were you back then?

32:55So they're just going to skip it, which I don't think is a controversial decision for them. Even during the 35-day shutdown during Trump's first term, BLS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which does these surveys, had some back funds that they were able to tap so they could keep these calls going. That was not the case this time around. Lena, we saw some new polling this week from Fox News. 76 % of voters view the economy negatively. That's up from 67 % in July, 70 % at the end of President Biden's term. How much does all this data that we are talking about point to real suffering that's happening around the country?

33:32It absolutely is pointing to real suffering, and it's reflecting how people feel about the state of the economy, which is what was at the core of the 2024 election, where when exit polls asked voters what was their ultimate deciding decision, it was affordability. That was at the core of so much of what people said. And just recently when we had elections in 2025, it was the same story. It was affordability is what people were voting on. So I think that's a reflection of how stressed people feel about their ability to afford everything from child care to mortgage payments to rent. And I think that that is a very big long-term problem for Republicans and Donald Trump as they face the midterms.

34:17because, once again, we expect that affordability is going to be at the center of what people are voting on. And if the economy does not turn around in some significant way, that spells a pretty challenging political environment for Trump. And we're starting to see that also then reflected in polling about how people feel about Donald Trump's handling of the economy, which was a strength in 2024. He was seen as a better steward of it than Kamala Harris. We've now seen that go the other way. and also Democrats edge on this sort of generic ballot, where we would say, you know, when people get asked, would you rather have a Democrat, vote for a Democrat in Congress or a Republican?

34:52Democrats are building almost now double-digit leads on that question a year out from the midterms. We're seeing Trump really try to seize on this affordability, saying, you know, this should be our word. But, and he's trying to, he's proposed sending out$2 ,000 tariff revenue checks to Americans to sort of sweeten the deal a little bit, to reclaim this mantle. But that actually has been met with stiff resistance on Capitol Hill from Republicans, even, who were saying, no, this would be inflationary, just like we saw with the COVID era relief, which would then only worsen the long-term problems, and also that there isn't enough tariff revenue to cover this.

35:42People are really used to inflation around 1 % or 2%, and you cannot overstate the power of high prices to provoke anger. Even when there's actual deflation during the Great Recession, people thought prices were shooting up. That's what they always say. And so if you actually have inflation running at 3%, like right now, people are going to really notice that. Can we do a lightning round so each of you can give me a quick sentence of reaction to these headlines? First, let's go to the courts. Arthur, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the deployment of National Guard troops to D.C. was illegal.

36:16On what grounds and what will happen now? Because you're not supposed to use troops to enforce laws, and that's D.C. law and federal law violated there. It's on hold for three weeks so that the Trump administration can appeal. The government's case against former FBI Director James Comey is on shaky ground after a hearing in a Virginia court on Wednesday. Alina, what happened there? What's the status of this case? Look, the judge had some really tough questions for Lindsay Halligan, who is the prosecutor in this case, a former White House aide. And there's open questions of whether or not she should even be in charge of this.

36:48But then also the errors that were made before the grand jury, there was a lot of sharp questioning around that. The judge is expected to rule before Thanksgiving. So we're going to get some answers quickly about where this goes. Right before we all go away for Thanksgiving holiday. On Tuesday, a federal court blocked redistricting efforts in Texas. The ruling said the state lawmakers attempt to redraw congressional lines at President Trump's urging was based on racial gerrymandering. Megan, what happens now? What does this mean for redistricting efforts across the country? Texas Governor Greg Abbott has already appealed to the U.S.

37:21Supreme Court. Yes, this will certainly head to the Supreme Court, although the Supreme Court has regularly decided that redistricting along racial lines is not OK. So they certainly have a steep hill to climb. This is a huge blow for Republicans' efforts to pick up seats. Texas was the big prize. That was five seats they were hoping to pick up. And remember, California passed just weeks ago Proposition 50, which will allow Democrats to— And not subject to any court disputes. There are, you know, obviously arguments to be made, but because this was done by voters, it certainly makes it much more difficult to undo it as rapidly.

38:03Last lightning round for you, Arthur. A page on the CDC's website was updated to falsely link autism to vaccines. What do we need to know more about this change? I mean, you said it. It's not true. And this was a predictable result of putting RFK Jr. in charge. and the key Senate vote who's responsible for that said, well, I live my life forward. All right. So as we talk about other stories you're working on, we have a few minutes to talk about what else we missed. There's so many other stories we could have gotten to or what you're watching for next week. Megan, let me start with you. What I'm watching for is this kind of continuing rift that we're seeing between House Speaker Mike Johnson and John Thune, both over the Epstein files and the Senate's quick passage of that without amendments, as well as over some legislation ranging from, you know, the economy to AI.

38:55There seems to be a growing rift that really could, you know, hurt their efforts to move forward with Trump's agenda before the midterms. A growing political rift. A growing political rift, yeah. Elena? So I have to put in a politics answer here because I'm representing Politico on the panel. So look, we are still a year away from the midterms. We are many months away from the first primaries come March, but we're hitting candidate deadlines at this point. And so we are seeing massive numbers of people getting into primaries, particularly on the Democratic side, that are going to shake up and change the composition of who is in Washington and could represent where the Democratic Party goes from here.

39:36So I'm really going to be watching how these primaries shape up, who has momentum, and and what that means come November. Arthur? I'll be following the Epstein stuff and the rift it's created in the Republican Party. And we forgot to mention that Zoran Mandami is headed to the White House this Friday afternoon to meet with President Trump. To your point, Elena, speaking of the future of the Democratic Party. Yeah, no, it's going to be a fascinating moment and we'll see whether or not it represents sort of the fireworks that we saw with Zelensky. Our reporting at Politico shows that that's not going to be Mandami's goal, but it may be Trump's.

40:12Thank you so much to our guides for this hour. Elena Schneider, national political reporter for Politico, Megan Scully, Congress editor for Bloomberg News, and Arthur Delaney, senior reporter for HuffPost. Don't go anywhere. We'll be back with more guests in this week's global headlines right after this.

40:31And now for the international portion of our news roundup, we're so happy to have El Monitor senior news editor, Joyce Karam, back in the 1A studio after family leave. Welcome back, Joyce. Hey, Naila. Great to be back. Felicia Schwartz, also joining us on the line, diplomatic correspondent at Politico. Hi, Felicia. Happy Friday. Thanks for having me. And rounding out our powerhouse panel from London, Kreeti Gupta, anchor and correspondent at Bloomberg. Hi, Kreeti. Great to be here. Hi. Another week, another visitor to the Oval Office. This one was warm. We've worked with all presidents. Just jump along all the way.

41:06Son of the lead, Mr. President. Thank you. And Trump doesn't give a fist pump. I grabbed that hand. I don't give a hell where that hand's been. I grabbed that hand. Filled with pomp, circumstance, but also tension. Your Royal Highness, the U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9-11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? Who are you with? And the same to you, Mr. President. Who are you with? I'm with ABC News, sir. You're with who? ABC News, sir. Fake news. ABC fake news. One of the worst. One of the worst in the business.

41:41As far as this gentleman is concerned, he's done a phenomenal job. You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don't have to embarrass our guests by asking a question like that. A visit to the U.S. by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the country, was the first since 2018 and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist and high-profile critic of the Saudi regime. This is what bin Salman had to say about the murder of Khashoggi.

42:16It's been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We've did all the right steps of investigation, et cetera, in Saudi Arabia. and we've improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. And it's painful and it's a huge mistake. And we are doing our best that this doesn't happen again. Joyce, what a week to come back to the roundup. Your take on those moments at the White House? Well, it's definitely a big comeback for MBS, for Mohammed bin Salman. This is a guy that was seen as a pariah, isolated, shunned on the international stage seven years ago. And here he is, not getting just a warm reception.

42:52This is just an extravaganza for the Saudi leader. You know, we saw the horses, the trumpets, the military fly over. Donald Trump went out of his way to say, welcome back. You are almost my favorite Middle Eastern leader, and I'm not just going to roll the red carpet for you. I'm going to defend you when it comes to the Jamal Khashoggi killing. The Mary Bruce question was not even intended for Trump. That was intended for the crown prince. And from that answer, you can tell how much the administration puts weight on the relationship. When it comes to security, the Saudis secured the F-35s, the jets.

43:38They got a defense MOU, but they didn't get what they wanted also, everything they wanted. They didn't get a defense pact. They wanted that, but that has no chance passing Congress. They didn't get a nuclear treaty. They also wanted that. They didn't get an executive order like the one that Qatar got in the aftermath of the Israeli bombardment. But overall, this was a, on optics, this was a slam dunk visit for MBS. This is a guy that can comfortably, someone say, no, he's viewed as the future king. He got the optics of a state visit, and he's completely, you know, banking on to cash this comeback in other ways internally and with the Europeans, with other international players.

44:31I do want to get back to MBS's image on the world stage, but Felicia, first, can I just ask about the president's reaction to Mary Bruce, these comments? How is that playing out among others in the administration and among world leaders? I think for Trump, within the administration at least, they feel that they're unfairly covered. I think the kind of lashing out at the press plays well with his base. And that's not the only reporter that Trump lashed out at this week. He said quiet piggy to a Bloomberg reporter who asked about the Epstein files. So I think this is Trump's tactic is to kind of lash out when he gets questions he doesn't like.

45:13In terms of how it played on the world stage, I think that there's just a lot of, you know, Trump is Trump. There's so many outrages. I don't know that, I feel like privately, you know, maybe diplomats texted me being like, oh my God, did you see that? But, you know, he's kind of, he's the guy that everyone has to deal with. So it's a bit of a muted acceptance, perhaps. Kriti, in this visit, the Saudi Crown Prince told President Trump that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia will increase its investments of nearly$600 billion in the U.S. to nearly a trillion dollars. We got no details, nor a timetable.

45:51So what are these investments likely to look like? Well, it's interesting because as Felicia kind of mentioned, there's a lot of promises that were being made. And MBS had a lot in his docket, a lot in his Christmas wish list that I think he was coming to the White House with, including, as they were pointing out, the nuclear kind of agreement, a critical minerals agreement. They did get some of that. You saw that in the statement But just for context, that$1 trillion promise, that is another$400 billion from the$600 billion they had already talked about investing when Donald Trump went to the Middle East earlier this year.

46:23There's also the$1 trillion as a whole is equivalent to about a year's kind of general GDP or output for the Saudi kingdom. So this is a really big promise. And that's why the fact there's no timetable is really significant. I think the biggest success of some of these deals in terms of this investment actually comes to the defense picture. and the chips picture, which I'll get to in a moment, but the defense picture, MBS has been wanting American F-35s for a very long time. This is the highest, most capable, most high-tech defense technology or one of that the United States has. Israel is the only player in the region that has access to that.

47:00This is something that has gotten bipartisan pushback in Washington. It's gotten international pushback, but it's something that you've now seen the door open to from Donald Trump. It's still going to take a couple years for that delivery to happen, for that production to happen, etc. But that was probably the biggest defense deal. That being said, that's a multi-billion dollar deal. We're still far away from the trillions. The other trillions, or the other billions, I should say, are coming from potential chip exports. And I think this is another key piece here. As Donald Trump is dealing with national security pushback on sending chips to China, one of the things he did do in this meeting is actually make Saudi Arabia and upgrade them as a more significant ally.

47:39And that kind of circumvents some of the security issues that have existed in the past when it comes to sending both defense and things like chip technology to the Middle East. To your point about the president announcing on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia would be designated a major non-NATO ally, Faith emailed, President Trump appears to be promising stronger U.S. support for non-NATO allies, even as he refuses to confirm adherence to Article 5 of NATO. How much are these promises worth? Felicia? So this is a title that, you know, obviously confers, it sounds fancy, and it does, as Kriti said, you know, upgrade the security alliance somewhat.

48:20It does ease weapons transfers. It elevates the relationship. But this is also a designation that there are 19 other countries that the U.S. calls major non-NATO allies, you know, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, others. And basically what this does is it's more symbolic than anything else. It doesn't do the kinds of things that both Joyce and Kriti mentioned. They wanted a defense treaty. They wanted, you know, a guarantee that if Saudi Arabia is attacked, The U.S. will defend them. So it sounds very nice. And I do think faith is correct that Trump is lavishing a lot more support and praise on the Middle Eastern allies than it seems like he is NATO.

48:59But this is more symbolic than anything else. I don't think it substantively changes the relationship that much. So we've talked about investment deals, arms sales. One deal that did not get signed, the Abraham Accords, the 2020 agreements that saw four Arab states normalize ties with Israel. For more than a year, the Saudis have insisted they will not sign a deal unless it includes a serious path to creating a Palestinian state. We heard the Crown Press talking about that in that news conference. The Israeli prime minister says that's not even on the table, Joyce. That's sort of our trillion-dollar question.

49:33Now what? Well, it's not surprising at all that the Saudis came to Washington at this time and did not want to touch anything that has to do with the Abraham Accords. The regional atmosphere, the regional environment is still very toxic when it comes to Israel, when it comes to what's happening in Gaza. So this visit, you know, a few years back was dubbed as he's going to come, he's going to announce normalization with Israel. The word normalization didn't even come up. There was no announcement. What we're seeing now is the train is frozen in its tracks when it comes to the Abraham Accords. The administration is working on adding countries, but none of these countries are Arab.

50:16They've added Kazakhstan. They are working to add Indonesia. But these are not Arab countries. These are not countries that have stake with the Palestinians or in the conflict directly. For the Saudis, their message was clear. We're decoupling our relationship with the United States and a future one, perhaps, with Israel. But don't bring the two together. And we're fine not getting a defense pact. We're fine not getting a nuclear treaty. But we cannot internally and regionally budge on the normalization before we see a path to a Palestinian state. And you look at what's happening in Gaza today, that path is definitely not conceivable.

51:00Let's move now to Gaza, where there have been some of the deadliest Israeli airstrikes since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect on October 10th. Gaza health officials say at least 33 people have been killed this week, most of them women and children. The renewed escalation came after Israel said that its soldiers had come under fire in Khan Yunus on Wednesday. Israel said no soldiers were killed and that the military responded with strikes. Hamas has denied firing towards Israeli troops. Officials in the territory say more than 300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since the ceasefire.

51:36More than 69 ,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. On Monday, the U.N. Security Council endorsed Donald Trump's plan for Gaza, including the deployment of an international stabilization force and a possible path to a sovereign Palestinian state. Felicia, how does this UN vote build momentum for the next phase of the ceasefire? On the one hand, it is very important. I think a lot of the countries that are looking to contribute troops and funding wanted to see the UN bless this so that they felt comfortable contributing. So I think it's an important milestone. But on the other hand, just as you said, the situation on the ground does not seem hospitable at all for things to move to a transition phase.

52:27Hamas still has three bodies of deceased Israeli citizens to hand over. There's huge questions over every part of this plan, whether that's the time it's going to be implemented, where Palestinians are going to live. Hamas is in control of the Strip. There's no clear plan of how they're going to disarm. They've made no indication that they're willing to do that. So I do think it's very important to get the backing of the world, but I don't know that it substantively changes anything immediately. Hamas rejected the resolution on Gaza, saying it imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Strip.

53:06The resolution was also rebuked by China and Russia in the Council, and it's received criticism from residents in Gaza. We reject this matter as they initially said the Palestinian would take control of the Gaza Strip, and we were enthusiastic about it. But things will be unclear with the international forces, and we do not know what might happen tomorrow. This could help Trump tighten his grip on Gaza and work towards establishing a Rivera there, as he himself said before. Our people are able to rule the Gaza Strip. We don't need Arab forces or foreign countries to rule us. We are the people of this country and we will bear responsibility for it.

53:49I completely reject this decision. This is our land and our country. And we don't want outsiders to rule us. Kriti, given the criticisms that we're seeing from residents inside Gaza, the resolution being rebuked by China and Russia and the council, where do we go from here? Well, it's fascinating because the exact kind of criticisms that you just heard from residents of the area are the exact arguments that Russia and China are making when it comes to, again, the concerns of the international guardianship, where you go from there, who actually makes up the international peacekeeping force. Russia's kind of representative also said that the plan sidelines Palestinian participation altogether.

54:33I think this is one that's really interesting, though, because you do see these criticisms. They also didn't say no to it. They didn't veto it. So from here, you could potentially move forward. But I think having kind of direct buy-in from people on the ground is really important. And that's a case that some of the European countries on this side of the Atlantic are making as well, although you did also hear support for the resolution, the likes of France, for example, very much in favor of it. Strikes in Gaza came as Israel also announced a string of attacks targeting Hezbollah. And another Israeli airstrike killed 13 people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ian El-Halway, the deadliest Israeli attack on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict a year ago.

55:17A Hamas official in Lebanon at the camp spoke to Al Jazeera. It is a message of intimidation to our Palestinian people in the camps, meant to produce political outcomes. It's one of many forms of pressure that our Palestinian people are being subjected to. Joyce, what did we hear? Anything from Lebanon, from other reaction in the region to this strike? There is a lot of concern in Lebanon that the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in the south is falling apart. We're seeing strikes day in, day out from the Israeli side. There is a lot of pressure on the Lebanese government to do more to dismantle Hezbollah's military capabilities.

56:02The head of the army of the Lebanese army was scheduled to be in Washington this week, but his visit got canceled because of this issue. The Congress, Lindsey Graham and other senators, saw him as not doing enough on dismantling Hezbollah. So they canceled the visit altogether. But the situation is very concerning in a sense because if the fighting is still ongoing in Gaza and if you see Hezbollah rearming in Lebanon, that means Israel is getting ready to do maybe not a long-term war but another short escalation on its northern border. the Hamas refugee camp, the refugee camp where they hit Hamas, would evidently be part of that.

56:54I want to discuss some reporting this week that emerged about a controversial scheme to take Palestinians out of Gaza run by an organization called Al-Majd Europe. Last week, a chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians from war-term Gaza, many without required travel documents, landed at an airport near Johannesburg. After 12 hours of scrambling, the group was allowed to disembark into the care of a local charity organization. And a lengthy statement on Tuesday that Almagd Europe did not directly acknowledge organizing the flight. And on Tuesday, the South African foreign affairs minister said this.

57:31It is indeed an issue of concern to us. It does look like it represents a broader agenda. to remove Palestinians from Palestine into many different parts of the world. And it's a clearly orchestrated operation. Joyson, what's going on here? It's very concerning. And it's, Al-Majd, as you mentioned, is based in Europe, but it's a very murky organization. We don't know who started it. There are reports. It's an Estonian with also Israeli links. But what happened in this case with the 153 Palestinians, they've arrived in South Africa. They've been held on the runway for over 12 hours because nobody knows what their papers are.

58:23They don't have exit stamps from Gaza. We learned later that Kogat, the Israeli official administrator there, facilitated their exit. They can't go into South Africa as asylum because they haven't applied for that. So South Africa particularly is interesting because Palestinians are allowed to go in there for a 90-day period with no visa. Is that how they've received them currently? So that's how they receive them, but this period will eventually expire and we don't know what's going to happen. The broader concern here is this is another Israeli push to get Palestinians out of Gaza. This comes hand in hand where Israel is creating the buffer in northern Gaza.

59:13They're planning on at least partial occupation of the territory and, you know, an effort, systemic effort, to try to get Gazans out. We mentioned the U.N. resolution. the UN resolution assigns Trump as, you know, a de facto leader of this Gaza transition through this board of peace that it establishes. So if you're a Palestinian in Gaza, of course, you may want to get out. But the mechanism that this is done raises questions over is this population transfer and will we see more of these flights in the future? Right. Is it fair to say that this feeds fears of ethnic cleansing? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

59:58And it's consistent with what we've seen in the last couple of years happening in Gaza, you know, forcing Egypt to take Gazans, forcing other countries to accept them. This week, the World Food Program warned of a deepening hunger crisis across the world amid a funding shortfall. In their 2026 Global Outlook report released on Tuesday, the U.N. agency said an estimated 318 million people will face acute food insecurity in 2026. For some perspective, that's more than double the number in 2019. The organization said it estimates its operational requirement to stand at$13 billion for 2026, but current forecasts suggest that the World Food Program may receive only half that amount.

1:00:45In addition to Gaza and Sudan, where famine has been declared, Afghanistan, Yemen, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are some of the other hotspots of concern. Felicia, just as we talk about this, what role has the U.S. pulling out in terms of being a donor to this program helped put it more into crisis? It's been the U.S. was the number one donor and it's caused such significant shifts on the ground. And the U.S. also has sort of lost interest in intervening. And so all of this contributes to this crisis bubbling up to the fore. Let's move down to Ukraine, where Russia's full-scale invasion drags on in the east and south of the country.

1:01:25Axios reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration has drafted a new 28-point peace plan to end the war, and they did so in consultation with Russia. Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levin on Thursday. Special Envoy Whitcoff, Marco Rubio, have been working on a plan quietly for about the last month. They've been engaging with both sides, Russia and Ukraine, equally to understand what these countries would commit to in order to see a lasting and durable peace. Kriti, before we get into the main parts of this still unofficial plan, can I just ask what the reaction has been from your part of the woods, from European countries in particular?

1:02:07A real sense of shock, awe, deja vu that this is happening yet again. when Zelensky and Putin had initially been broached earlier this year to talk about meeting potentially in Alaska, it turned into just a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, European leaders were largely left out of it and made those feelings very, very clear that they wanted to be a part of any sort of security guarantees, any sort of funding conversations, and very much be a part of that dialogue for the future of the continent, not just for Ukraine. It is clear from these developments that they have not been briefed.

1:02:46In fact, many of these leaders were in South Africa for the upcoming G20 summit this weekend and a series of other events in South Africa this week where they kind of learned about it from the media as opposed to from their colleagues, one in Kiev and in the United States as well. So shock, awe, and again, a lot of deja vu. Felicia, what are the main parts of this still unofficial plan we should point out? I think the key ones here are, first, it requires Ukraine to give up its eastern Donbass region and Crimea. They have to swear off of NATO membership, though they would be able to join the EU.

1:03:23They'll have to reduce the size of its military. It envisions all sorts of future U.S.-Russian-European cooperation and U.S.-Russia committees that would monitor the imposition of this plan. and all kinds of things that are, as Kriti said, causing alarm bells all over Europe and Ukraine, because basically it seems like these are the terms that the U.S. has— it doesn't seem like Russia has really changed its views at all, but basically that the U.S. has moved closer to where they are. Kriti, it sounds like the idea of what Felicia has just outlined is a non-starter for Ukraine and also for Europe.

1:04:03Absolutely. And it's been a non-starter from the beginning. And I think the point that Felicia made around the Donbass region, we should just clarify here. There are pieces of the Donbass region that are still under Ukrainian control. So ceding the entire region actually means ceding more territory that has already been gained, not just kind of freezing the conflict on the lines of battle, which was the former proposal. The other piece I'll add to what Felicia said is the security guarantees. And that's where this is kind of confusing in terms of the 28-point plan, because it feels like they're saying there won't be a NATO security guarantee, but there will be a U.S.

1:04:38and European transatlantic guarantee that Ukraine would then pay for, which, again, seems very similar to what a NATO security guarantee would be. So a lot of question marks around those two points. On Sunday, President Zelensky wrote on the social media site X that Ukraine and Russia are working on another prisoner exchange that he says could bring up to 1 ,200 Ukrainians home. The talks were mediated by Turkey in the UAE. Joyce, Zelensky also was in Turkey on Wednesday to restart peace talks with Russia. He planned to meet Turkey's President Erdogan, U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff. Where did these Turkish-moderated negotiations between Russia and Ukraine end up last time?

1:05:15And what happened this week as all of these news of this peace plan is leaking out? No, for sure. I mean, Turkey is an interesting player here because they are a member of NATO, but at the same time, they are close to Russia. They haven't participated fully in the sanctions against Russia. So at this particular moment, you're seeing Erdogan, you know, play mediator between the Americans and Zelensky. Zelensky. You've mentioned the peace plan. The peace plan, I mean, as Kriti mentioned, they don't even talk to the Ukrainians. This is the maximalist Russian position. You know, keep the territory you're holding now, pause the war, even Russian, enlist Russian language in these areas.

1:06:04Even the Russian Orthodox Church has to be reinstated in Ukraine. So there is a lot of Russian influence that they're trying to bring back. They also, you know, in the 28 points that Ukraine can never become a member of NATO. That's, you know, stated bluntly. And then the other

1:06:27point that they make that's very problematic for the Ukrainians is they will get security guarantee from the Americans, but it could be temporary if an attack resumes. So you're seeing Turkey step in a little bit to just to mediate between the Americans and Zelensky. For Zelensky particularly, this is a weak point he is in. He is embroiled in a corruption scandal, and this puts more pressure on him at a wartime in his country. While Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was in Turkey this week for talks, at least 26 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack in western Ukraine. Fighting on the front lines continues to intensify ahead of winter.

1:07:09That's especially true in the city of Zaporizhia in the southeast and with Russia's assault on the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Pokhrost. Broadly, Joyce, what is the state of fighting between Russia and Ukraine right now? What are we seeing after nearly four years of war? I mean, it's terrible. We're approaching four years in this war. It's very much a war of attrition. And I love for now, Russia controls around 19 percent of Ukraine's territory. They're pushing deeper in the east and Donetsk. But it's very much a war of attrition. Casualties wise, we've seen hundreds of thousands in military casualties, tens of thousands in civilians.

1:07:54But very much the Russian side is completely dug in. There is no indication, despite the peace plan, that this will be over anytime soon. Let's go to the Caribbean, where all eyes are on the standoff between the U.S. military and Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro. On Monday, the president says it will have new options for attacking Maduro. That's because the official designation will go into the effect of the U.S. naming Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organization. Washington says Maduro leads the alleged drug cartel. Maduro says that's not true. Since September, U.S.

1:08:30forces have killed at least 83 people in more than 20 strikes on small boats the U.S. says are ferrying fentanyl to Americans. Analysts say the U.S. is poised for immediate strikes on Venezuela, home to more than 28 million people. Felicia, we've been covering these boat strikes and U.S. military buildup for weeks, asking if President Trump's real aim is regime change. President Trump has wanted to oust Maduro since his first term in the White House, but there's been so many missed signals from the president over this issue. Do we know what's going on? I think this has been one of the kind of frustrating, definitely all the diplomats, analysts they talk to are very frustrated because it really is unclear what Trump wants to do.

1:09:15Like you said, there is this buildup of naval assets around the country. He talks one minute about ordering strikes, the next about talking to him. I think that Venezuela is like a big strategic challenge for Trump and his administration. We see that the administration kind of thinks of the world in spheres of influence and that the Western hemisphere is their sphere. And having Venezuela unstable, even if it's not, you know, a big source of producing fentanyl or even cocaine or anything. The fact that it's like unstable means that it's a place that drugs can pass through. The lack of good governance creates massive migrant flows, which of course is a huge campaign issue for Trump.

1:09:59So I know he just wants to solve this problem. What that means to him, I think it changes by the day. But this weak and illegitimate Venezuela, regime is a real, real problem for him. Joyce, what are the risks for the U.S. if Trump strikes in Venezuela? There's definitely big risk, and it's not unclear what the president wants at a time. He's talking about, you know, possibility of regime change in Venezuela. And then at the same time, we're also ready to talk with Maduro. So it reminds me with what's happened with Iran. We're ready to sit down on the table with you, but we can also carry out strikes, which happened.

1:10:42Maduro, as we know, he stole the last election, so he's already seen as an illegitimate leader. The U.S. with the designation of the cartel in Venezuela, the major one, it's definitely laying the ground for legal ground to attack Venezuela. At the same time, this could go for a deal. But if the U.S. strikes, I mean, this is no, you know, walk in the park. This is complicated. This is risky. Venezuela could target assets, American assets in the Caribbean. They could, if the U.S. sends troops into Venezuela, they could be attacked as well. So this is extremely complicated. And at this moment, hearing what the administration is saying, it really looks like a regime change talk unless a deal is reached with Maduro in the coming short term.

1:11:43U.S. attacks are impacting Venezuela's neighbors, especially Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia and Ecuador. Two known survivors of boat strikes are from Colombia and Ecuador. This fisherman from Trinidad is staying closer to shore for safety and is losing money fast. He spoke to the UK Channel 4's Anoushka Astana. So you're scared this boat could get struck? Yeah. Little Das normally drives his boat almost 30 miles from shore to secure the best catch. But now he doesn't dare go beyond 10. How much money are you losing? Plenty. Plenty. Plenty. Out of what you were making, is it half? Is it... That's not half you're making right now.

1:12:28Channel 4 also spoke with Lynette Burley in Trinidad. Her 26-year-old nephew, Chad Joseph, was killed in a boat strike in October. It's a big loss because he blew up this boat. You can't even get a body to bury. So no body and no closure. His auntie revealed the family is planning to take legal action against the Trump administration. Are you considering that? Yes, I don't. Money, whatever, that still doesn't bring him back to life. No, but that's a general lesson. What all you're doing is wrong and you need to stop because it's not stopping. That's Lynette Burley of Trinidad and Tobago speaking to the UK's Channel 4.

1:13:08Critics of the strike say the U.S. Coast Guard should board boats and look for drugs, which was standard procedure until now. We know the Caribbean is not a major source of fentanyl to the U.S. How long can the U.S. justification for what it's doing stand up? probably not very long one of the key pieces of research that have started to circulate in the media and has been known by people familiar with the region for some while is is that fentanyl which is as the administration has claimed isn't really something that comes from when venezuela in fact the bigger narcotics issue is cocaine and it's mostly using venezuela as a transport to get from the likes of columbia or peru for example into not actually the united states at all it crosses the ocean and it comes to Europe.

1:13:51But it is starting to become more clear, especially in the financial community and in the kind of oil community, that there is a Russian connection here. And that's why the warship story is so interesting, or I should say the Caribbean story is so interesting, because Bloomberg actually did some reporting this week that suggested that there are Russian oil tankers that are headed and have been headed to Venezuela for quite some time. But the U.S. warship presence in the area has actually deterred them. And you can see that on tanker and shipping tracking data. So the argument that this is all about fentanyl is starting to show cracks and it's starting to become a bigger question of who is actually funding these flows from around the world.

1:14:31Yeah, crazy. That's an interesting question. I will say I was texting with my family in Trinidad this morning about everything. I know people are watching these U.S. ship buildups. There's lots of WhatsApps about what's going on. Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Kamala Persaud-Bessasar, supports the strikes but said this week she won't let her country be used as a base for U.S. attacks on Venezuela. Felicia, can I just ask you a little bit about that? The Caribbean alliance, CARICOM, last month reaffirmed its commitment to being a zone of peace. Trinidad and Tobago did not sign on to that.

1:15:04Lots of criticism from other countries by that. What are the tensions to watch for here? particularly as we're talking about these different Caribbean nations? Yeah, they're in a tough spot because on the one hand, you know, their population is actually feeling the effects of this. But on the other hand, they don't have much leverage when it comes to the U.S. I mean, Trinidad and Tobago is permitting the Marines to do joint training there. Of course, like that is... That's part of a previous agreement, sure, that's been in existence for a long time. Exactly, exactly. But it all sends symbols, right?

1:15:37that, I mean, it's a provocative action, even if it's not connected. And so, yeah, you know, she's a relatively new leader. I would say the region as a whole has some fragile governments that are, you know, facing down this kind of threat of the U.S. and, you know, also have their own concerns about instability in Venezuela and, you know, probably would like to see the U.S. do something about it, but, you know, perhaps not this. So they're really between, like, a rock and a hard place. Venezuela's main opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month. She lives hiding in Venezuela and on Tuesday published a freedom manifesto.

1:16:16Joyce, Machado says she has a plan for the first 100 hours and the first 100 days if Maduro is toppled. What do we know about this plan and what opposition she might face? Well, the plan, as you mentioned, it's for the next 100 hours, next 100 days. It's very much it's she keeps it vague. It's very much talks about these big, big objectives, restoring the rule of law, property rights, freedom of speech and assembly, reenergizing private investment, opening the economy, tackling state corruption, which we know is very high in Venezuela, ensuring credible elections and rebuilding. institutions. There is not much details when each of these items will be achieved, but it's very much, you know, her vision if a regime change is achieved in Venezuela.

1:17:11Geopolitically, if Machado comes to power, this would be a big pivot for Venezuela, you know, back into the U.S. camp, the pro-Western camp, even after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She praised Trump. She's seen also as a figure that's close to Israel. So what Krita has mentioned, you know, with the Russian fleet and everything heading, but then reversed course, we would see if Machado comes to power a geopolitical pivot in Venezuela's direction. Okay, we've gone through a lot. We have a few minutes left for us to talk about what's in your reporter's notebook, what maybe we missed or what you're watching for next week.

1:17:51Kriti, can I start with you? Yeah, let's do it. In fact, I was just keeping an eye on what the tariff negotiations between the United States and Europe look like. We've already had a framework agreement, this kind of baseline 15%. Howard Lutnick is expected to be in Brussels this weekend to start discussing some of the exemptions to that. And a big piece of it is going to be food tariffs. Politico actually ran a headline earlier today with their reporting suggesting that the EU was requesting booze, pasta, and cheese tariff exemptions. I've got to say the Europeans definitely have their priorities right, but it's a big story here when it comes to what the exemptions and carve-outs actually are, because if you get exemptions for food, can you then get exemptions for other industries like pharmaceuticals, autos, chips, etc.?

1:18:36Right, which plays interesting, Felicia, into cost considerations and prices as part of U.S. domestic concerns. Felicia, I don't know if you want to weigh in on that as well as what's in your reporter's notebook. I was going to say, well, I'll skip the financial talk for now and just stick with that. One, of course, I'm really looking forward to seeing my family for Thanksgiving here in America. But other than that, I think President Trump, it's kind of been reported this morning that he set a Thanksgiving deadline for the Ukrainians to kind of accept or not accept his peace plan. So on the one hand, I hope that like all these other Trump deadlines, that one might not be that serious because otherwise I think I'll be having some copy with my turkey.

1:19:22Joyce? Well, I mean, if a war doesn't break out, a new war doesn't break out in the Middle East with Lebanon, then we're looking at Sudan next week. Donald Trump has voiced renewed interest in solving the conflict. There's been meetings inside the administration on Sudan. There is a push to designate the RSF, the rebel groups that's taking areas near Darfur. So we'll be keeping a close eye on that. And obviously, yeah, Thanksgiving, the Turkey and all that comes with that. Joyce, can I just ask you a follow up about Sudan? what you're hearing from within the administration about what their motivations are to try to resolve that very difficult conflict.

1:20:07So that ties into the Mohammed bin Salman visit and the Saudi demand from and ask from the Trump administration to do more on Sudan. This has morphed into a proxy war. You're seeing Egypt, a little bit Saudi on the one hand supporting the government in Khartoum. And then you're seeing UAE, others, Libya supporting the rebels, the RSF. We're seeing reports of famine, of massive displacement from Sudan and little U.S. attention. So we're hoping that, you know, with the Saudi ask, with Trump's renewed interest, that maybe we could see a ceasefire translate in the country. It's been a heavy hour of world news, so let's end with something uplifting, some exciting news from the world of soccer, or as the rest of the world says, football.

1:21:01The tiny Caribbean island country Curaçao will go to the 2026 World Cup as the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the marquee event in global men's soccer. Curaçao is an autonomous territory of just over 150 ,000 people within the Netherlands Kingdom. And this. Haiti, for the first time since 1974, are going, yes sir, they are going to the World Cup. 0-0 is the final score in Costa Rica. And Haiti, through all the trials, through all the tribulations that their country has gone through, that their FA has gone through, that these players have gone through, they have overcome. And Haiti, yes, Haiti, will play at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

1:21:54It's the stop of football dreams. Can't help but smile at that. A big thank you to our all-star panel, Joyce Karam, Senior News Editor at El Monitor, Felicia Schwartz, Diplomatic Correspondent at Politico, and Krithi Gupta, Anchor and Correspondent at Bloomberg. Thanks for your time. My Kid is our sound designer and engineer. Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our senior managing producer. Alexandra Boti is our senior supervising producer. Aileen Humphreys is the editor and producer of 1A On Demand. And Barb Angiano produces our podcast. Special thanks to Matthew Simonson for additional podcast and on-demand support this week.

1:22:32This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington, distributed by NPR. I'm Naila Boudou. Have a great weekend. This is 1A.

1:22:45Thank you.