Will Trump back down from his threats of tariffs and trade wars? | The Bottom Line
Though cost cuts pursued by US President Donald Trump may be popular among many Americans, economists differ in their assessment of these measures' potential outcomes. Peterson Institute for International Economics senior fellow Joseph Gagnon tells host Steve Clemons that Trump’s idea that tariffs on imported goods can replace taxes is unrealistic. The United States government is bloated and needs modernisation, Gagnon argues. But while measures including firing thousands of federal employees and gutting USAID can save billions, what impact could they have on the national economy and on the country's trillions of dollars in debt? Join the conversation on the long-term implications of Trump’s “major reform” of the US government.
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Mearsheimer: ‘The Israelis lost in Gaza’ | The Bottom Line
Despite the rhetoric, US President Donald Trump will not be able to ethnically cleanse Gaza nor resolve the Ukraine war, argues University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer. Mearsheimer tells host Steve Clemons that Arab governments fear “the risk of being overthrown by their populations” should they bend to Trump’s desire to “clean out” the Palestinian people in Gaza. On Ukraine, Mearsheimer predicts a “frozen conflict” without a peace treaty, and warns that Trump should stop “slapping around” US allies if he wants their cooperation in Europe, Latin America and Asia.
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What role do US tech giants play in powering Israeli war crimes? | The Bottom Line
After Amazon and Google signed a $1.2bn contract to launch Project Nimbus, providing cloud technology to the Israeli government and the military, tech workers started to notice more Israeli use of artificial intelligence against the Palestinian people.Many of those engineers have become activists for “No Tech for Genocide”, including Zelda Montes, who was one of the dozens of Google staff who were recently fired for protesting against their company’s involvement with Israel.Montes and tech entrepreneur Paul Biggar, who founded Tech for Palestine, tell host Steve Clemons why they refuse to build technology used for oppression, surveillance, warfare and apartheid.
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US calls for ‘de-escalation’, but tensions rise in the Middle East | The Bottom Line
In this episode, host Steve Clemons speaks with Ussama Makdisi, professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley; and Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.The exchange of direct attacks between Iran and Israel is likely to subside, but the shadow war goes on, which could intensify as long as the war on Gaza continues, argues Vaez.And as long as the wider Palestinian issue remains unresolved, there is little to no hope for long-lasting stability throughout the region, says Makdisi, especially with the US policy of rejecting equal regard for the rights of the Palestinian people.
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Does Israel twist humanitarian law to justify Gaza carnage? | The Bottom Line
To the United Nations official tasked with reporting on Palestinian human rights, international law is clear: Israel should withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967.Instead, Israel aims for the “impossibility to continue civil life in Gaza,” as UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese tells host Steve Clemons.Israel doesn’t deny the killings and mass destruction, but instead justifies its behaviour as “compliance with international humanitarian law”, Albanese says.And the failure of governments around the world to force Israel to stop the onslaught only weakens the idea of international law, “because it creates precedents for others to violate it”.
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