World Review: Putin-Xi Pact, India-Pakistan Crossfire, Netanyahu’s Push

Each Friday morning, I host a video podcast called “World Review with Ivo Daalder” where three journalists from major news outlets around the world join me to discuss the latest global news stories of the week.

“World Review is always fascinating. I love the fact that you can get journalists from around the world to participate since zoom is the medium.”

— A Subscriber to America Abroad

Another busy and eventful week.

Yesterday, countries in Europe celebrated V-E Day – the 80^th anniversary of the end of war in Europe. Today, Russia celebrated Victory Day—with a military parade designed to impress the world, including China’s President Xi-Jinping, of Russia’s military prowess. Xi is in Moscow for 4 days, in part to cement his relationship with Russia in declare their joint opposition to the United States—something Washington’s behavior these past three months has made a bit easier.

Also this week, an escalating war between two nuclear powers on the Indian subcontinent. New Delhi launched missile and air strikes against Pakistan on Wednesday in retaliation for the terrorist attack last month in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan is responding with strikes of its own. While Washington urges and end to the escalation, the mood in both countries is to escalate. Where will this end?

Finally, a look at Gaza. On Sunday the Israeli cabinet announced a qualitative change in its war against Hamas, calling up 10s of 1000s of reservist for a ground invasion and occupation. Gazans will be forced to relocate to the South. At the same time, a humanitarian crisis is threatening the very survival of its population because Israel has cut off all aid into the strip for the past 2 months. A new Israeli-run aid distribution system is to start operating soon, but is woefully inadequate to meet the pressing needs. How should the world respond?

I discussed all of these questions with Lee Hockstader of the Washington Post, Anton LaGuardia of The Economist, and Elise Labott, author of “Cosmopolitics” Substack.

I encourage you to watch or listen to the episode (and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!).