Pod Save the World - The new British Prime Minister

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

This week, Ben and Tommy talk about the new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, Israel’s bizarre rules for visitors to the West Bank, Chileans vote down a new constitution, an assassination attempt in Argentina, updates on Ukraine, Politico’s new owner, China’s covid lockdowns, Kenya’s election, Nigel Farage gets a new product line and a BBQ row roils France. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Welcome back to Pots Save the World. I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Ben Rhodes. Ben, viewers on our YouTube channel or Snapchat will notice you have a different background which signifies you are on the road. Where are you at? Yeah, there's a very large dragon behind me. I'm in I'm in Taipei. I'm in Taipei Taiwan Tommy. Nice. That is very cool. How much are we allowed to talk about at this point? Well, you know, I'm over here doing it's not a secret mission. Don't worry. But I'm over here doing a writing project, let's just say it this way. So there'll be more to come on what that is. But I'm talking to a lot of people. I actually had dinner last night with Emily Wu that careful listeners of this podcast will know was a guest recently. Very good Taiwanese meal.

Awesome. So yeah, I made it through quarantine in this room for three days and four nights. And now I'm out in the world here. And it's great. Listen, what you guys at home need to know is that Ben cares so much about you, the audience, that he's doing this show on a plus 15-hour time change. Is that correct, Ben? Yes, yes, yes. So much so that I missed my 6 a.m. Mark here, but I made it. I made it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. He's really great show today, and Ben is here, and there's a cool dragon behind him, and he's eating the delicious food of Taiwan. We're going to talk about the UK as a new prime minister. There's been a rough week, a couple rough stories over the weekend for Israel's record on

human rights and transparency. Chile voted down a new constitution, an assassination attempt, in Argentina. Some updates on Ukraine. Politico's new owner got a Washington Post profile, and it was a doozy, Ben. China lockdowns, much like your lockdowns there, some updates from Kenya, Canada, Afghanistan, and then finally, a grifter is hawking some new products in a barbecue row, Royals, France. So we got a lot to cover. No guests today, because obviously we are, Ben's on the road. But Ben, I imagine when you get back, you're going to have some serious jet lag. And so if you need to stay caffeinated. We have you covered. Go to cricket.com slash coffee. Now through Sunday, September 12th, there's going to be a sale. We get free shipping on orders over $35. If you use the code fuel up at checkout,

portion of every order supports register her. It's a great organization. It's working as register women voters across the country and activate them and get them to the polls. So check that out. Okay, Ben, first topic. Our friends in the United Kingdom have a new prime minister. Her name is Liz trust she's a 47-year-old conservative she most recently served as foreign secretary she defeated rishi sunak who is the former chancellor of the exchequer uh basically their treasury secretary by 57 percent to 42 percent in the recent conservative party elections so trust kicked his ass pretty much she's actively one of the longest serving ministers in the tory party she's been in a bunch of senior government roles continuously since 2012 she takes over from boris johnson our friend here at pod save

the world, but she takes the reins at a difficult time. You got skyrocketing energy prices, thanks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, double-digit inflation. She basically ran as like a Paul Ryan Republican, right? I mean, tax cuts, smaller government, love of free markets. Hard to see how that will work in this economic environment, but we'll see very hawkish on foreign policy, especially support for Ukraine, which is really continuity from Boris Johnson. Trust went from Brexit opponent during the referendum to Brexit support. order in government. Now the European Union members are watching to see what she'll do about the Northern Ireland protocols, which we've talked about many times here, but basically it'll determine

how the EU and UK trade relationship is managed and could impact the fragile peace in Northern Ireland. Trust is a third woman to serve as Britain's prime minister. She won a leadership race that was the most diverse in Britain's history, despite the Tory party being anything but diverse. So congrats to Liz Truss. Adios, Boris Johnson. We never liked you to be. begin with. Ben, here's a question for you. What are the odds that today is the best day she has an office with double-ditching inflation and energy prices going up like 80% in October? Like, this is just no knock on her. This is just a rough, rough situation to inherit as president. It reminds me the financial crisis for Obama. Yeah, like this is not exactly like winning the most

coveted prize in terms of the timing of becoming prime minister. I think, like to me, before we even get into Liz Trust, the fact that this is the fourth prime minister that they've had since Brexit, right, which wasn't that long ago, this is in 2016. So four Tory prime ministers, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Ellis Trust, that just to me shows before you even get into her that they don't know what the fuck they're doing. Like, you know, they don't know how to deal with the consequences of the decision that the Brexit campaign pushed, the Tory party pushed. And these are pretty wild swings, right? You know, like, these are four pretty, like, different kinds of people who've come in making, you know, some of the same promises, but with different flavors.

And so the instability of the Tory capacity to own up to the consequences of what they did, I think jumps out to me. I think that that leads to the point that, like, the campaign she ran was fairly disconnected from, like, planet Earth and reality. And in part, that's because she was trying to, you know, maybe that's who she is. But, you know, she's obviously also trying to appeal to this, you know, conservative party base that votes. And which, by the way, I should say, I think the reports I saw were that Sunak did much better with, like, the MPs. But that, you know, the voting public such as it is, you know, the card carrying toys out there chose her, which, who tend to be even more conservative, right? And just to like, to make this point, it's 160. thousand people voted in this leadership election that chose the head of the conservative party

that then de facto chose the new prime minister. That is just remarkable. 160,000 Tory party members just picked the new prime minister of the UK. It is a bizarre system in this context to me. Yeah, it's really weird. I was thinking about that too, like to go from 160,000 people to seeing her there with the queen. But her plans like make no sense. The government is they don't have revenue, they need to stimulate the economy, they need to deal with the cost of living crisis. Inflation is far worse there than other places. And she's talking about like being Margaret Thatcher and in cutting taxes, which means cutting spending that people depend upon, basically, and just kind of playing this part, you know, playing this role. I mean, so you see some of the

same infection, obviously, in the Republican Party here that like you just stand up and you, you yell about tax cuts and being a hawk and and that's all people want to hear. But like, that's kind of not really relevant to the like the massive snowball of problems that the UK is dealing with. Like so I think that I don't have a lot of optimism that she's going to be able to get her arms around the economic and fiscal challenges there. The Brexit thing, they won't, because they won't obviously admit that they were wrong, but they won't even admit that this is having negative consequences. It's like they have to keep insisting. I saw her speech, you know, like, it's just better than it's ever been. It's going to be so great, you know, like, and it's not,

you know, and you can even be for Brexit, which I obviously not, and say, okay, we got some tough issues to, like, rough waters to go through here because, you know, it's going to, there are these consequences of pulling out of this common market and isolating ourselves and our currency and our economy. But like, because they won't do that, you know, and because she's kind of, she had to kind of, reinvent herself as this kind of Boris Johnson acolyte. I just don't see, I don't have any confidence in her capacity to deal with this. Now, in Ukraine, I think she'll just, I bet you she goes there, right? You know, like she's going to pop up with Zelensky any moment now, you know.

Boris Johnson just went again recently. Yeah, yeah. So I, and that's to the good. I mean, I think she'll just, she'll be like a full-throated supporter of Ukraine. But guess what? That matters a lot less because they're not in the EU. You know, like if they were in the EU, like they could, you know, try to hold Europe together. Like now they're just another country that supports Ukraine.

So congrats to Liz Trust, not the most, you know, eloquent politician I've ever seen in my life. And not necessarily someone who has an agenda that I think is up to the message. Now, it's on labor. The election is probably not until 2024. She said, she indicated she's not going to call an early election. They have to hold an election, therefore, in 2024. laborist huge lead right now in public opinion polls. It's a huge opportunity for them to drive a message between now and then to make sure

that they're building a governing majority. And David Lammy can get in there as foreign secretary under the U.S. Stramer. Yeah, I mean, you flagged a couple clips from her speech over the weekend where she was talking about how it was disgrace that the UK was importing so much cheese. It was just like very kind of weird, parochial stuff in the context of this massive war between Russia and Ukraine that is making energy prices skyrocket. because it seems sort of like there might be two parts to her administration such as it is. It'll be like getting this energy challenge under control and then maybe trying to implement the agenda that she ran on.

But it seems almost impossible to do both at once. Yeah. I mean, these are still the kind of Brexit-type talking points. Like, you know, imagine becoming elected the leader of your country and like yelling at people about the outrage of the cheese being imported, you know. Honestly, I can see it here in the U.S. unfortunately. Well, no, but you could see it in the U.S. Well, Donald Trump, yeah, you could see anything. Well, that's fair, right?

I didn't say we never did it. But here, actually, I could see a reasonable person doing that in, like, the Vermont primary or something, right? It just, but it suggests to me that they're going to need to lose the Tories, knock on wood, and just kind of, like, wipe the Brexit talking points. They can still, again, I'm not asking people to say that that was wrong, you know, if they believed in it. But even if I'm, even if I was advising them, like in terms of how do you update your message, like the old like we shouldn't import cheese and that's a disgrace, you know, like let's kind of, you know, Boris Johnson was at least trying to do something a little more interesting, not substantive, but I think he was a catastrophe, but he was trying to make a message about, you know, working class voters and appealing to them. And frankly, he was spending too much money. That's the other problem is list trust has no money to spend because Boris spent at all, you know. So I don't know. I just, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I

I don't think she's going to be the second coming of Margaret Thatcher. Not that I like Margaret Thatcher, but Margaret Thatcher was around for a long time. I don't think Les Truss is going to be at number 10 for that long. I think Truss already went to get her audience with the Queen. Interestingly, she had to go to Scotland because the Queen is on summer vacation at her Scotland castle. But Truss is the 15th Prime Minister of the Queen's reign, which is amazing and a reminder of her longevity. So best of luck. We'll be talking more about this, I'm sure.

So, Ben, two stories out of Israel that were blown. up the world though, text chain this weekend. The first is on Saturday. There was a report that there was a new set of Israeli rules sort of mandating, you know, conduct in the West Bank in Gaza. And one of the rules said that foreign travelers to the West Bank must report romantic relationships with Palestinians to Israeli authorities, I think to the Israeli military within 30 days. These new rules also said that if a foreign visitor married a Palestinian living in the West Bank, they had to leave after 27 months for, quote, a cooling off period of at least half a year. And then I guess return, I literally have like no idea what that

means or what the context even is. These regulations also included a quotas for student visas and guest lecturers at Palestinian universities, but no such quotas at Israeli schools. The PLO called the new rules, quote, apartheid regulations that impose a reality of one state in two different systems. It seems like there was a ton of pressure pushing back on these rules from both European and American diplomats and Israel reversed course quickly on Monday. They dropped both this bizarre 30-day notification if you're dating someone rule and the quota for Palestinian universities and guest students and speakers. So very, very weird stuff happening there.

The second story is when we've talked about before, which is that an Israeli military investigation has finally concluded that it was highly likely that an Israeli soldier was the one who shot and killed Shireen Abu Akla, the day. a famous Palestinian American journalist who was killed in early May while covering the conflict. This came after months of stonewalling and claims by Israeli officials that Shereen was actually killed by Palestinian militants and not the IDF. Israeli government still maintains that if an IDF soldier was responsible, it was an accident and they said they will not charge or investigate anyone involved. So, I don't know, all together, it was just like a pretty rough weekend for, I don't know, common sense, Israel's human rights record and then just transparency. Banner Week. I saw the headline on the, you know, romantic relationship. And I literally, like, thought it was the onion or something. Like I, I, and then I, it was a BBC. And I was like, no, no, is that, I had to click on it and kind of read it carefully. And then I had to read it more than one time because it was so bizarre. I've never heard of anything like this. I read like five times. Like, what is this? Yeah, to understand. Did you understand it? It was like, population control. Like, what are we talking about? Can you not, what, what's going on here?

Or to disincentivize maybe foreigners from falling in love with Palestinians or something? I literally couldn't even, it's so bizarrely and specifically punitive and just nasty, right? That somebody, like, this went through a process and got announced, right? I'm glad they withdrew it, but like there was, you know, whatever committee is writing these rules, like work this up. Like months. Yeah. And someone was like, yeah, that's a good idea. Like, let's make sure that if, like, you know, Joe Blow from the U.S. is in the West Bank and falls in

the Palestinian that he's got to register and get the hell out of here. He's got to cool off and make sure he's going to think twice about whether he wants to marry this girl. Yeah, cooling off, B. You know, okay. I don't know, man. Like, I, all the, you know, if the human rights organizations, including the Israeli ones that talked about an apartheid system got buried in a avalanche of charge.

of anti-Semitism. Like, I just, what is this regulation then? Like, if it's like, like, like, what, is this normal? Like, how would, the defenders of, of all these, uh, measures that the Israeli government is taking against Palestinians, particularly in, in the West Bank, uh, how would you describe it, you know, like what? Something is innocent as dating. Yeah. What, what kind of law is this? Like, what kind of laws is that? Like, what kind of laws is if there different rules for, for dating, right? I mean, where are we going to get to? They're, they're different water fountains, but that's what? That's just like a water management system. Like I don't like this is getting ridiculous and people like you need to be able

to discuss it honestly here. On the second one I you know, I'm glad that this reached a conclusion that was very far from the gaslighting at the beginning that the Palestinian militants did this. I just have no hope, you know, that you know, you saw in the statement from the Israeli government that basically they're not going to do anything. They're not going to hold anyone accountable. And when I say hold anyone accountable, like there's both the killing itself. But then what about all the the laws that followed it? You know, like that that is anybody accountable for that? From elected officials and stuff. Yeah. And then in the U.S., like by the way, again, like to make clear, I'm not singling out of Israel, we talked, I think just on the last episode that this is our

problem with U.S. investigations. Absolutely. You know, like U.S. investigations. First thing I thought about that Pentagon rules. Yeah, the drone attack in Afghanistan, you know, we did, I think, a much more, you know, we didn't push, our government didn't fight the idea that this was a tragedy, but did this investigation, but then announced, well, we found that nobody did anything wrong, you know. And so I think on whoever government is that, like, does something horrible like this, if you're not going to hold anybody accountable, then it just, it just obviously diminishes both the justice piece and the conference you want to get people, won't happen.

And again, I saw the U.S. statement was basically like, we hope there's accountability, especially going forward in future operations or something, as if we'd already written off accountability in this one. And I just don't think there's much reason to believe that will be the case. I would hope that the next time they kill an American journalist, you know, who's internationally famous and beloved by Palestinians. I hope that doesn't happen again. But, you know, unfortunately, like, that's not the track record. Yeah, I would like to see the U.S. pushing a little harder. Speaking of Israel, I saw that Bob Menendez, he's the Democrat who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was leading a bipartisan delegation to Israel.

I think this is a couple days ago. He was joined by Senator Lindsey Graham, who I guess was taking some time off from his busy schedule of fighting efforts to force him to testify about his role in Trump's attempted coup attempt in the last U.S. election. And then Ronnie Jackson went from White House, he'll push him. doctor to, you know, bona fide Maga lunatic in the Republican House of Representatives, Menendez decided to use his trip to Israel with this august group to announce his opposition to President Biden getting back into the Iran nuclear deal. So basically, I just want to say, Ben, thank God for Democrats like Bob Menendez, what would we do without, you know, full-throated advocates for diplomacy like him in the Democratic Party? We'd be lost.

I mean, this is completely insane. And it's kind of like, hey, Democratic Party, like, we have to have a conversation about something because nobody ever, like, talks about this. But like the Democratic chair of the Senate Farm Relations Committee is flying to another country to basically oppose the efforts of the president of his own party accompanied by like the most insane people that he could possibly be with. Like Lindsey Graham, a chief apologist for Donald Trump, someone who's like, ducking the law. Like, maybe he's going, who last week was talking about riots in the street. Yeah, yeah. Trump is prosecuted. Yes. Maybe, maybe Lindsey Graham's over there. He's trying to figure out what country he might have to hide from his subpoenas.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, like, and after trying to, like, threaten, like, violence on the streets, sort of Donald Trump is not, like, you know, let go. So that, there's that guy. And then Ronnie Jackson, I mean, for our listeners who do not follow us that closely, I really urge you to just look at Ronnie Jackson's Twitter feed because it's like a window into like the like the absolute core of MAGA, you know. And so this is who Bob Menendez is choosing to go to another country with to announce

like the stalest position imaginable, you know, like some some hawkish language on Israel and Iran and U.S. foreign policy that could have been cut and pasted from like. like, I don't know, like the early aughts, you know, why is this person the Democratic chair of the Far Relations Committee? Someone in New Jersey needs to think about whether they're going to jump into a Democratic primary and just push him from the left. And I don't think, I don't think that the Democratic chair of any committee should be in lockstep with the president.

There should be differences. But this is like, this is next level stuff, right? And nobody, like, didn't get a lot of attention because, like, who would be super? surprised, right? I mean, I think everybody expects this. You know, Bob Menendez, you kind of price in, like, where he's going to be on something like Iran. But I do just think it, like, the fact that he's doing this is like Lindsey Graham and Ronnie Jackson, like, at a very sensitive time when the negotiations, like, appear to not be going well, teetering. I don't know, man. It's just, it's depressing. It sucks. Yeah. Okay. Another big story over the weekend was, uh, that progressives in Chile

were dealt to defeat this weekend when an effort to rewrite Chile's constitution was overwhelmingly voted down in a national referendum. This new draft constitution would have been one of the most progressive in the world. It included environmental protections, rights and protections for indigenous communities, gender equality, and a new national health care system. Sounds a bit like the early build back better bills that's been. But sadly, like, I don't know, 62% of Chalayan voters rejected the plan. 38% voted in favor. I saw some analysts who said maybe this thing was just too liberal and people weren't ready for it. Others were saying there was a lot of swirling disinformation. about the changes that might have led to the lopsided vote. I'm not sure. The outcome is being framed

as a loss for Chile's new, very young, leftist president, Gabriel Baric. But the efforts to rewrite the Constitution itself predate his election and tenure. Basically, the backstory is the Constitution was written while Augusto Pinochet was still in charge, like back in the 70s. And I think as a general matter, it's probably a good idea to update any governing document. written by a brutal dictator. This is like a rule of thumb. The movement to rewrite this Constitution, sort of started in earnest in 2019

when there are these big protests over a proposed increase in the subway fare. That ballooned into a broader movement and then pushed the president at the time, Sebastian Pinera, into calling for a referendum on whether or not to change the Constitution.

That referendum passed overwhelmingly. It started the process that got us to this draft. Then that draft was voted down by voters on Sunday. So basically now they start the drafting process over. Borech said he's going to reshape his cabinet potentially in response to the referendum, maybe bring it to more moderates. So, you know, look, admittedly disappointing news for progressives, but also like kind of how the system is supposed to work. You know what I mean? Like, we'll see. Yeah. I mean, first of all, yeah, if like your constitution dates back to Pinochet,

or actually, it's a rule of thumb, if your constitution was written by a regime installed by Henry Kissinger back coup, it probably needs updating. But a lot of this kind of, it wasn't like Burrits shut down and, like, wrote this himself. And so I don't think this should, you know, be seen as entirely a blow to him other than that he, you know, announced his support for it. But look, I mean, I do think, as much as I agree with a lot of the progressive principles, it's a constitution. It's not even build back better, right? It's not even just a law. Like, this is meant to be a document that presumably people can, you know, live under and agree with enough that they're comfortable with it under different administrations, you know, someday

there'll be a center-right government in Chile. So I think, you know, you're right. This is how the system works. Like, you know, you, these are all the progressive priorities that people would want in Constitution. It couldn't pass. So sit down with some people and figure out, like, where you can find something that's a little bit more in the middle that protects the most important of those priorities without alienating too much of the population. And, you know, I think it's a, It's a test of how far this Latin American left, in this case, Chilean left, can go before it kind of tips over into a space that makes the middle uncomfortable. Yeah.

Stinging this general region, quick our update from Argentina. So folks might have seen this video online. Last week, the vice president, Christina Fernandez de Kurchner, vice president of Argentina, survives an assassination attempt when a pistol was pointed directly in her face. Like, she was walking into her house, greeting some supporters. Someone got a gun like inches from her face, pulled the trigger, but it didn't go off. Police immediately arrested a 35-year-old Argentine man who had tried to shoot her. He was born in Brazil, reportedly he's into some like fringe right-wing ideologies and weird

interests. We don't know that much yet. But DeCurchner has been a huge figure in Argentina's political scene for decades. She was president for many years. She might make another run at the top job next year. She's also facing these new corruption. charges that accuse her basically, you know, funneling money to a friend. So pretty wild and terrifying scene, Ben. And again, like, of course, all caught on someone's cell phone camera

because it's 2022 and we tape everything. But scary stuff. Yeah, I mean, if people haven't seen that video, it's heroin because you see, I mean, if this gun didn't jam or whatever happened, this would have ended very badly. And you're right. You can't overstate, like, the massive figure she and her family have been in Argentina's politics. And at a time, like, she's been surrounded by drama for a long time. And the fact that this happened at kind of the height of her trial, obviously unrelated to that in a lot of ways, or maybe it was, who knows what this guy's motivation was, just points up like how much, you know, she's just kind of singular figure, whatever you think of her. We can talk about her politics and positions at,

another time, because right now you just want to, you're glad that she's alive and okay. Tommy, I think what jumped out to me, though, is we kind of hinted at this after Abe's assassination. It just feels like with the level of emotion and disinformation and conspiracy theory in politics today, online today, you're almost surprised there haven't been more political assassinations. Yeah. And I'm just very worried that we're in some period here. How is it not going to be the case that if you have people in all kinds, it's not to in the U.S., like all these places getting kind of completely spun up and radicalized online,

like how that's not going to lead to more incidents like this or like with ABE, you know, and whether that's someone who has kind of a very nutty kind of set of, I think, religious views, as was the case in Japan, or whether this guy may have been a right-wing extremist and got a weird right-wing in Brazil obviously stirred up by Bolsonaro. So that's what I put a pin in just like, man, I hope that this is not yet one more sign that we're in a phase of political violence here. Yeah, because once political violence starts, it's very hard to stop it. Yeah.

And it's very scary. Speaking of which, I mean, some updates from Ukraine. So the first is that it seems like this Ukrainian counteroffensive that we talked about last week against Russian forces in southern Ukraine might be making some progress. It's hard to figure out the reality because both sides, I think, are putting out propaganda or blocking real news. So it'll take a while to know for sure. But there's some positive anecdotal evidence.

The New York Times also reported that. the Russians are having to buy rockets and artillery from North Korea. So that's probably not a good sign for their ability to resupply their troops. I don't know that I'd want a bunch of North Korean shells in my unit's weaponry. But the most disconcerting update comes from this UN team that went in to inspect the Zaporizia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said, quote, we are playing with fire and something very, very catastrophic could take place. He's calling on all sides to withdraw troops from the area set up a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant and basically just get people to stop fighting

around, I think, five nuclear reactors. Unfortunately, the Russian UN ambassador pretty quickly swatted this idea down so they don't view it as serious. The risk, again, comes from the fact that this plant relies on... Can you imagine being that guy, by the way? That poor guy. Or not the people going to this thing? No, the fucking Russian. an ambassador, he's delivering those points. Like, oh, he's an asshole. Yeah, fuck that guy. Yeah, oh, we don't take this seriously.

Oh, you don't take a Chernobyl times five seriously. Yeah, I mean, like, but the risk, right, is this plant operates, its cooling systems are powered by outside power for safety reasons. And those, those power lines keep getting messed up by either fires or literally shelling. So the grid keeps going to having to operate on power that it's creating on its own, which all these nuclear experts say never ends well. It seems likely that all the Russian troops in this area have no idea what the stakes are. They probably are getting no good information. They don't know that they're risking creating a nuclear meltdown that will impact their families as well.

So genuinely terrifying. Ben, I've been thinking about this a lot. It's like you're reading about it. And like, I can't imagine any scenarios really where I would want NATO to get directly involved except for maybe to secure this nuclear power plant. Maybe that's a slippery slipperly. well, maybe it's a stupid idea, maybe it's logistically impossible. But like, how do you create a safe zone around five nuclear reactors if you have to rely on Vladimir Putin? I just have no idea. I have no idea either.

I mean, logistically, I think that, you know, NATO, they would never allow for like a NATO, any presence from kind of a NATO country, not, never mind NATO. But you're right. Like the alarmism of the people that came back from this visit. it was not reassuring, you know? No. Like these people went, they took a look, and they were like more freaked out when they left than when they went in.

That's never a good sign. No. And the scenarios, again, like, you know I've talked about our experience of Fukushima, but like, and I, yeah, we've all read about Chernobyl. So like, not a nuclear scientist here, but read enough to know that like, you can't cool the stuff down and you start to have like a meltdown or leakage, like it can escalate very quickly. Like shit can get very real. And I guess I don't, part of the issue is just how do you get the attention of Putin? Well, first of all, the people in the area who are doing the shelling,

like the Russians, like I, they're talking about the first people that are going to be like affected by radiation. They will die immediately. So part of me is like, is there some effort that needs to be undertaken to just educate the, the forces in combat around this area? Like, do you know what you're doing here. But I think Putin, you have to get through to him. And I do think that I'm glad that the UN came out with like this kind of hyperbolic tone. It's the right tone. It's not, it's hyperbally correct. But I think this is a time to get like a lot of international voices. You know, again, like the Chinese, like people that the Russians will listen to like, just stop. Like just this is a global security incident.

potential catastrophe, just your fucking war sucks to begin with, like, just move it as far away from this nuclear plan as you can in the time being. And then yes, like in terms of securing it, like, I honestly think there should be creative proposals about like, can we get some, if the Russians aren't going to leave without, and allow Ukrainians to retake this, can we bring in some other, can we find some people from some other country that everybody's doing? Chinese troops. I don't care. Anybody. Yeah, maybe not, yeah, like I'm the Chinese, but like, like anybody, like any, any third country or collection of countries, just secure this place. Make sure that there are people there who can run it.

And that has to be, I think, a subject of a lot of international effort. This is a good thing for the UN to focus on. It's not like the UN has been able to stop this war. But like things like the grain crisis, the food crisis, this nuclear crisis, like this is where I think you want the UN to be working with like a broad, the broadest possible number of countries. Yeah. I mean, and look, there's a second energy crisis, which we talked about this many times, but the Russians have now officially cut off supplies of natural gas to Europe through the Nord Stream one pipeline until they say, until the West lifts sanctioned. So previously, there's been a pretext.

It's been like, oh, there's a maintenance issue when Nord Stream needs to go down or some other pretext. But this latest announcement came directly after the G7 countries formally announced that they're going to try to cap the price of Russian oil as a way to limit Putin's ability to profit off of energy prices increasing and fund his war. The Nord Stream pipeline, again, is a pipeline that goes from Russia to Germany and delivers natural gas. There's other pipelines. Some go through Ukraine.

Some go through Turkey. Those are still flowing. But there's been a huge reduction in already reduced flows. I saw one analyst estimate that Russian natural gas flows are down 80% since 2021. So again, like, I know we bring this up a lot and maybe it seems redundant and boring. But like, I just, I don't think the world is really pricing in. how big of a deal it would be if Europe was basically cut off from natural gas. Basically, you're in a position where you're hoping there's a warm winter and that will determine what happens

in this war. If it's really cold this winter, people in Europe might freeze. European economies will potentially shut down. Entire industries will shut down. If it's warm enough, they might be okay. But there's also, you know, there's these droughts all over Europe that are reducing power from hydropower flows. So it's like World War II all over again, right? We're like D-Day only happened because there was a break in the bad weather or, you know, Napoleon or Hitler couldn't invade Russia because they were driven back by like horrible cold. And now we're back in that same position where we're just kind of hoping like that Europe doesn't freeze because Russia cuts off their energy. It's terrible. in a word.

It does. And the reason to talk about, too, is because, like, this is Putin's war strategy. Like, this is talking about this is, like, more relevant even than talking about, like, what his military movements are in one part of Ukraine. And, and look, I think they said the quiet part out. They moved from the maintenance point to just saying, like, lift the sanctions or else, you know. And so they've got this kind of energy gun pointed at Europe's head, which, again, first of all, like to those who might think that things are going swimmingly in the Russian war plan and the

sanctions aren't working, well, clearly, like, the sanctions are having some impact around the Russians wouldn't be taking this kind of drastic attempt to exert leverage. Clearly, by the way, the sanctions are working too because they wouldn't be turning to North Korea in Iran to supply themselves. Part of that's because they're not getting the technological inputs that they need to run their own factories to produce their own stuff. But, man, let me tell you, like, if you were going to pick your suppliers in the world for, like, you know, modern military equipment, I don't know that North Korea and Iran would be the top of my list, right? So I think it does show that Russia is a bit cornered here and they're lashing out.

And, you know, I think the question is also, it's not just a question of whether Europe can withstand that, which is a huge issue, as you point out, like, how much is part of it so hard for Europe in responding is that are they just bluffing? Because the Russians would lose a lot, if they just stopped altogether any relationship, energy relationship with Europe. So this is like a high-stakes game of chicken. I think what is clear is like if you ever needed an indication about why we need to get off fossil fuels. Like I know it's not going to solve the short-term problem, but I think it's worth making the point that like in the long term, we can't allow people like Putin have this degree of leverage over Europe.

I think they're also going to be looking for any other patch they can find. I saw, you know, down there talking to Qatar, like, but, but just, you know, open every cupboard, you know, in your own reserves, talk to anybody else that can become a different supplier. The U.S. is obviously trying to help do that. That's gas, but that's, you know, terminals and distribution networks and supply chains that are not all going to be ready and online by the winner, so I'm not suggesting that, but, you know, can it curb some of this blow a little bit? And then be, prepare your public.

And, you know, I see each country is taking different, um, approaches, you know, they may need to get together and be like, okay, what are, how are we going to cap energy prices? How are we going to cap energy uses? Like, you know, Germany's trying to get people out of cars and in finding alternative ways of getting around. Like, but this has to be done now. Like, you know, before. And the Saudis just announced they're going to reduce oil up it by 100,000 barrels a day. So they're fantastic. Thanks again. Yeah. But also the Russians sanctioned 25 more Americans, including Sean Penn and Ben Stiller. So that'll probably, yeah. turn the tide. Well, I guess like the, the, the, the, the max said in front of the pot of the best

response to that, which is, I guess Sean Penn and Ben Stiller would not be an under siege three with Steven Seagal, you know, Steven Seagal, Russia's most famous American emigre. Speaking of Germany, the Washington Post wrote a profile of the new German billionaire owner of Politico, and it is a doozy, and we're going to talk through it quickly so you don't have to read it. The guy's name who runs Axel Springer, which is his German media conglomerate, Same as Matthias Dopfner. I'm going to divide the piece into eye rolling and worrisome. Here's a worrisome bucket then.

So Dopfner's analysis of the U.S. media is like that classic both sides, rich guy, false equivalence crap, that he thinks the times in the post are drifting too far left. Conservative media is too Trumpy. So therefore there's a path down the middle for Politico. But in fact, we all know that that path that he's talking about right there, those are not equally distant things, right? It's like right of center, if not pretty clearly conservative. How do we know he's clearly conservative, Tommy?

Are you just assuming? No. The post reported that he sent the following email. They say in the piece, Duffner's own politics or something of a mystery, but he sent this email to friends in 2020 that said, quote, do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3rd and pray that Donald Trump will again become president of the United States of America? Now, if your response to that is, well, maybe he was just kidding.

Maybe that was just sarcasm. He also argued in this email that Trump was right on five of the six most important. important issues of the last half century. Those include defending the free democracies against Russia and China, pushing NATO allies to spend more on defense, tax reforms, Middle East peace efforts, and challenging tech monopolies. The post says Dauphner implied that Trump had, quote, fallen short on climate change. So I guess, I don't know, denying the climate change is manmade is just falling short at this point. But yeah, really mysterious political views there have been, real mystery is what I think. I didn't understand the mystery part. Like, that's not a big fucking mystery,

Right? No. Nor is it like some massively new novel insight that this guy thought he had, you know, on the golf cart ride down the mountain from Davos about, you know, both sides journalism. Let's just like break this apart because like I was really frustrated that even like this kind of bizarre series of statements he made were just kind of taken at some degree of face value. I'm not, you know, like, just the fact that I had to read them, frankly. It pained me that I had to read this quote about the five of the six.

First of all, like, I'm not sure that's my top list of the last 50 years, but like, let's put that aside. Like, a lot of shit has happened in 50 years. And I'm not sure, like, you getting a tax cut would be, like, in my top five last 50 years. Like, challenge the tech monopolies. Like, what, the tech monopolies did, I didn't, Tommy, did, is Amazon not here anymore? He waned about conservatives getting shadow banned. You actually fundamentally change their business models or their monopolies. I was, like, what, he did nothing. Like, he, he started too social. Right. So I guess. Mateus Doppler, who has a name like he should be like the villain and diehard four,

like it doesn't feel to me like too social did that, right? That's the first one. He continued a longstanding effort to push NATO countries to spend more in defense. I wasn't new. We've passed a 2% threshold thing at a NATO summit in the Obama years and started to push countries and everybody, George Bush was pushing that, right? So that's been done consistently, right? Middle East peace, we've dealt with the Abraham Accords, like repeatedly on this podcast,

challenged China and Russia, like China and Russia, like emerged in a much better position at the end of the Trump years than they were going in. Why am I doing this? Because I actually think that this was like a disturbing window into the ways in which people might try, in the same way that everybody was relentlessly kind of some people trying to normalize Trump when he was in office, like this kind of post facto, well, maybe actually he did some things like they were quite smart, you know, like, I think that's dangerous because it's bullshit. You know, like, Trump didn't solve it in these problems.

Just because he yelled at some things that some rich German guy cares about doesn't mean he's like the best president of last 50 years. That's fucking insane. And the fact that this guy like owns Politico now is like pretty alarming. Not that Politico was like a paragon of takes that I appreciate before that ownership stake. And also like, you know, I don't know how activists people want their tech billionaire media owners to be. But in Europe, Axel Springer staff are required to sign a pledge committing to principles that include a disavowal of racism, sexism, and political or religious extremism. All seem good.

But by the way, in the U.S., you'd be accused of like some woke agenda if you did that. But also support for a United Europe, Israeli statehood and a free market economy. And again, like, those are perfectly fine positions to hold. I support all of those. But like Trump wasn't for a United Europe. He called himself Mr. Brexit. Yeah. So like the whole thing is just, it's bizarre.

And like, you know, to your Davos point, I mean, the piece of the, describes him as often seen in black v. Necks and skinny suits that strike a continental pose among the self-styled thought leaders in the power corridors of Davos, Bilderberg and Sun Valley, in that while other new billionaires invest in yachts, Doppler built an art museum to houses collection of female news by female artists said to be the world's largest. I mean, it's like, this is like a parody of what, how you would describe some elitist guy who has like an art collection and like goes to Bilderberg. I don't know. It just drives me crazy. Everything about this tries me crazy. like because this is the guy this guy is like the reason that there's like a massive global right wing populace

backlash to like people like him and yet he's the guy he's also supporting like oh my god it's it's it's it's if it'd be funny if it wasn't like so infuriating yeah and they're like some random german guys coming in to buy a bunch of american media properties and he owns like this major right wing tabloid in germany that's very influential like i mean i don't know it's sort of like we observe these things from afar and sort of praise these people for being. being rich and tall and like having a square jaw. And it's like, wait, actually, this is kind of disturbing that you're making your media employee sign this sort of like loyalty pledge on a bunch of issues.

And we had the, well, yeah, even just a, even if there are like anodyne statements that you don't necessarily disagree with, like the selection of the list, right? You know, because there's a lot of other things you could, like, this is not something you should want like journalists to be doing, period, full stop. And yeah, like yet another oligarch. I mean, Rupert Murdoch, another foreigner. I don't know, Tommy, I don't try to be, you know, we poke fun sometimes at the CNN alarmism online. But like, you know, between like what already sprawling conservative media and this guy in Politico and like some right wing dudes like, you know, purging CNN, like it is like, you know, it's a little alarm.

I think anyone can and should be able to like start media companies, invest in them do whatever they want. I hate when clearly center right, if not like conservative positions are described as like straight down the middle based on sort of an arbitrary, subjective set of values that in a different context might be criticized as as too liberal or woke. Specifically, you're like disavowal of racism, sex and like political extremism, all things that I fully support. And I think that you could imagine Fox News doing a segment attacking, you know, MSNBC for making some, like political extremism, all things that I fully support. And I think that you could imagine Fox News doing a segment, uh, attacking, you know, MSNBC for making, someone's sign yet here it's described as this sort of like down the middle you know new take on journalism like what is this yeah like here's the guy with like a different approach like because there's nobody else who's ever been in American journalism we supported like the tax cuts and and Israel like like and and and and and and challenging the tech monopolies of like like the whole thing is just like yeah it was weird weird weird weird sorry okay a couple quicker updates that We'll go through quickly because we've been going a little bit long.

So, you know, obviously COVID is still a problem here in the U.S. like swirling around, but vaccines have made it a lot more manageable. I just signed up actually for my next booster later this week. Everybody listening should too. But I just want to flag that COVID remains a nightmare for people in China because of the government's COVID-zero policy and lockdowns. I think I read that on Sunday there were 1,500 new cases in China. But right now, something like 60 million, 60 million people in China are dealing with partial or full lockdowns, according to the Chinese media. That includes like major economic centers, big cities,

et cetera. And, you know, the Chinese Communist Party is going to hold its once every five years meeting on October 16th. President Xi Jinping will almost certainly get a third term in that meeting. But so maybe they'll like, I don't know, then maybe he'll calm down with the stuff after that. But there's also reports, you know, that they might be developing a new vaccine that could be inhaled as an aerosol. Maybe that will help. But it is just remarkable. I mean, Ben, you just went through like a four-day quarantine in your hotel. I mean, can you imagine still do? dealing with constant rolling blackouts like that locked down entire cities in September of 2022. It's just unimaginable to me.

It's insane to me. I mean, yeah, it was like three days, which meant like four nights in hotel room. And it was pretty rough. But I found myself thinking like I wasn't that bad. But if this was like a week even, like it would have been really hard. 14 days, I would not be here. Like there's no question. I couldn't do that.

And actually people here, the one thing I'll say is a lot of people here, commenting on this about how insane it is because it's this kind of arbitrary thing where it's like you're going about your life in China and it's like all the sudden, nope, you got to get in your apartment 14 days and there's kind of a brutalism to it, you know? Because if you disobey or even challenge the guidance, like it doesn't end well for you. And so I think it speaks to a number things. Like one, like how much China has fucked this up, right? Like these are people that ran all these political influence campaigns about how great they handle COVID. They have fucked this up. They've shot themselves in the foot. Their economy has taken a massive, massive hit. I think their

economy is projected to grow at the lowest rate annually of the 21st century in China. Like, this is a problem. And they already have structural problems in their economy and locking down tens of millions of people because the government doesn't want to admit that its COVID policy is wrong is going to have consequences for them. That's going to hurt the government too, by the way. Also, like, we don't talk enough about like what like the people caught in the middle of this because sometimes they can statistics China's so big you know 40 million people 60 million people like just feel for these people like the terror of just like people in Shanghai who couldn't get food people in Shanghai remember who are like yelling out the window and like so this is really like dystopian crazy

shit I do think the question that like you raises the right one which is at the party Congress after Xi consolidates power gets his third term you know his maid emperor or whatever Can he then pivot off of this and admit he's wrong? And that's the thing to watch. That is the thing to watch. A quick update of Kenya. So we talked previously about Kenya's presidential election on August 9th. It was the deputy president, William Rudo, against an opposition leader named Drayal Odinga.

Rudo won. Odingo said he was going to contest the results in court as he has done many, many times in the past. But quick update for everybody this time, Kenya's Supreme Court upheld the results. And now it is all but guaranteed that Rudo will assume the presidency in Odinga will end up retiring after losing literally five presidential elections. So happy trails, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, I think the one thing here is, like, in some ways, as usual with Kenya, there was a lot of brinksmanship and unease, but the system kind of held. But like now, like Will Rudo govern as a small D Democrat? The guy has some autocratic and corrupt tendencies. So I hope he doesn't.

I hope he ends up being a president who delivers on what he's told his base that he's going to take care of like that kind of hustler class, the poorest driving classes in Kenya. But, you know, watch, let's watch out for any democratic behavior here, too. Yeah. Canadian police are still hunting for a second suspect in a grisly series of stabbings that happened over the weekend. He killed 10 people, wounded 18 more. One of the killers was found dead. Right as we were walking to the studio, there were some reports that there was a second suspect.

His brother, actually, had been spotted on an indigenous reserve in Saskatchewan, where most of these attacks took place. We don't know the motive yet. Some of these attacks seem targeted. Some seem random. but a lot of people were wondering and worried about whether this was a targeted attack on Canada's indigenous communities. So I'm sure we'll follow up on this next week, but just wanted to know we were kind of monitoring this one. Yeah, just horrific. And again, you like, the, the,

they had a, you know, AR-15. They're just thinking how much worse. I think about that all the time. A suicide bomber in Kabul blew himself up outside of the Russian embassy Monday, killing four Afghans, a Russian security guard, and a top diplomat. Russia is, one of the few countries that has maintained an embassy under the Taliban, along with China, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan. There have been a number of ISIS attacks in Kabul since the Taliban took over, but is not yet clear who is responsible for this one. So we'll, again, keep an eye on it. Yeah, but I thought, you know, this is like a huge kind of embarrassment to the Taliban, given that Russia is one of their few supporters, given that they want to indicate that it's a

secure place for embassies to be. So that was my main takeaway is like that Taliban's not exactly off to a roaring start and their governance of Afghanistan, you know. No, they sure aren't. Okay, Ben, so two lighter things to close here. So at the top we discussed, the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, I want to check in and see what another former right-wing British leader is up to. Here's a clip. Well, the working day is over, and that means it's time for a drink.

Yes, it's 6 o'clock. Let's go and do it. Now, welcome to my latest product. Yes, it's Farage gin. I know you've seen me drinking pints of beer. I love a pint of draught beer in a pub. But when it comes to home drinking, when it comes to a nice summer's evening, I just love a gin and tonic.

That was Nigel Frasch, the former Brexit leader in full-time right-wing asshole, going full Trump and slapping his name on some products. First of all, bullshit that he waits until 6 o'clock has his first chain and Sonic. That was exactly my headline. What do you think's come back, though? Is it going to be stakes or ties like his buddy? Trump? Let's see. Farage, like actually cigarettes, you know, like he's a big smoker, right? Like a Nigel brand of cigarette. Because like... Six o'clock. Come on.

A.m. 9 a.m. with the fucking gin and tonic, right? Actually, 9 a.m. is just straight gin. Like, you start watering it down with tonic around lunchtime, Nigel. I mean, just to talk about a Brexit grifter, man. This guy, this is like the ideological leader. The Brexit people don't get enough shit. I know this is where we started, but like, look at these people, man. They're jokes. The leaders of this campaign were Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. They basically like burned down their own country, like cut off ties with Europe, right? Like it's a pretty major thing. And then he's out hawking gin and Boris Johnson.

Red, white and blue gin. Yeah. I mean, come on, man. And you know it's some gross ass gin. Like, stick to some Bombay Sapphire. Stick to what works. Wait, actually, why don't we have crooked gin, though? It's crooked coffee.

I don't know. Or crooked whiskey or something. Look, I'm down. Let's work up that. Lastly, Ben, speaking of stakes, there was quite a row in France now happening over barbecue. Again, we got to figure out of scale. There's like fracas, brouhaha, row. We need the sources up.

But the backstory is a French member of parliament from the Green Party named Sandrine Rousseau was making the case that reducing red meat consumption is key to addressing climate change. She's obviously right. In her speech, she said, quote, we have to change our mentality so that eating a barbecue entroquet, I don't know what the fuck that did. A barbecue leave all the same. this in. Won't for a coat is no longer a symbol of virility.

I don't know. That comment pissed off everybody from the far right to the Communist Party. They all waited attacking her. The Times had a great story in the back and forth. Here's why I want, like, I think all of us want to talk about this. She's right. It is absolutely true that reducing cattle farming in particular in consumption of red meat will impact climate change.

It's key to addressing, you know, and reducing CO2 emissions. I don't know if meat and virility are tied in France. I'm not French. I'm not going to weigh on that. Here's my note. True or not true, let's just not make these condescending presumptuous arguments, right? It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. It's going to backfire. You don't have to attack people's identity or make them feel bad. How about an argument about how we're all in this together and how minor tweaks and all of our diets can add up, right? But like when you overstep like this and you condescend to people, you end up having a backlash. I guarantee you like the Don Jr. of France is going to

decide to eat more meat every single day and put it on Instagram, right? And then the left just think you're annoying. Like, I don't know, maybe this is going to sound Neo Lib. Sorry, but it's just a totally self-defeating argument. Hence, we're talking about it. Yeah, I'm sure the entreco sales surge, you know, like this had the opposite of the intended effect. Yeah, it's just, it's like, why, why lead with this? I mean, it does raise like the uncomfortable issue of like plant-based meat, or plant-based meat substitutes, which are not things that, like, you know, as someone who likes to barbecue myself, like I'm particularly excited about. But I think the way, if you believe that we're going to have to steadily substitute, you know, plant-based food for some of the meats that we

enjoy, at least turn the dial a little bit, you're right. If it had that conversation, like, I've seen like David Chang and some other people out there trying to do it by like, hey, I'm surprised by how good this tastes. Make it tasty. Yeah, try this. This is, it'll shock you how good this tastes. It's a good substitute for a burger every now and then. He's not saying like, don't grill burgers anymore.

He's saying like, this is actually not bad. Like it's actually really good. Try it. So you have to kind of, yeah, like there's another way of entering the conversation here. Yeah, you can be like you can't change your entree else you'll feel emasculated. Yeah. But I'm seeing a bunch of a burger. I know.

A bunch of French dudes. A bunch of French dudes that just want to grill out. I love this article because the other communist party member waited and it was like, it's not about virility, it's about your pocketbook and what you can afford. It's like also a good point. Yeah, yeah. The virility I don't get. I mean, I don't know if they like to eat meat in France.

We like to eat meat here. But if you think that like eating a bunch of meat is going to make you more, I'm just going to go out of limit and say that there's not a direct correlation there. Yeah, I don't know. Probably also like a long history that someone will tweet at us about. marketing and big corporate interest selling us on eating to eat more meat versus other things. And that may be completely right, right? That may be completely true. And the point is, if you want to change that, you don't change it by turning people and say, like, hey, you men, you're not viral and stop eating meat. Like, just as a matter of practical politics, it's not like a good way

to frame your message. Bring them along with you. Yeah. It'll go better. Okay, that is it for us this week. Ben, thank you for doing this pod on plus 15 hours. The people thank you. Next week, I think we're all back together, right? Yeah. And I'll have lots more to say about this trip to Taiwan in the coming weeks and stuff. Great place, fascinating place, wonderful people. Like, you know, big Taiwan fan here. I'm so glad to be here. All right. Talk to you next week. See you. Pots Save the World is a crooked media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our producer is Haley Muse. Saul Rubin is our associate. producer. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Segglin is our sound engineer.

Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim, and Amelia Montuth to upload our episodes and videos at YouTube.com slash crooked media.