The News Roundup For December 20, 2024
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You're listening to the 1A Podcast. I'm Nyla Boodoo, and it's time for the News Roundup. Let me paint you a picture of the east wing of the White House right now. It's festive, greenery and garlands adorn the lobby, and according to officials, guests can expect to be enveloped in, quote, the peaceful tranquility of nature as they begin their holiday tour of the White House. Nice. But the

But the mood a little further down from Pennsylvania Avenue is quite different. It's ridiculous. It's a horrible plan. And I tell you what, we need to have a serious look at who's leading this Congress, because if this is the best they can do, I mean, it's just it's total incompetence. This is a disaster. Republicans aren't happy. Neither are Democrats. If Elon Musk is kind of cosplaying co-president, I don't know why Trump doesn't just hand him the Oval Office or Speaker Johnson should maybe just hand Elon Musk the gavel if they just want that billionaire to run the country.

As ever, so much for us to talk about on our final news roundup of 2024. With us, a full house in studio, Eva McKend. Eva covers national politics for CNN. Eva, it's great to have you here. Great to be here. Arthur Delaney, senior reporter at HuffPost. Arthur, thank you for being here as well. I'm back. And Taylor Popolar is Washington correspondent for Spectrum News. Taylor, it's nice to have you in Washington in studio instead of being out on the campaign trail. It is so good to be here.

Hours before the deal fell apart, House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged the pushback from Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk and that he'd been texting with both of them. But speaking to Fox & Friends on Wednesday, Johnson outlined why this deal was worth passing.

By doing this, we are clearing the decks and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda. That's what we're gonna run with gusto beginning January 3rd when we start the new Congress, when Republicans again bring control. And all of our fiscal conservative friends, I'm one of them, will be able to finally do the things that we've been wanting to do for the last couple of years.

Eva, so we're winding back to the original deal that fell apart. Can you get us back to there first and tell us what happened? So Speaker Johnson, like he has done with past spending bills, had planned to bring up the compromise bill under a fast track process that requires two thirds majority for passage. He had to rely on Democratic support, as he has done before, and a smaller group of Republicans to get this over.

over the finish line. And in the final hour here, there were some Republicans, and really, Elon Musk came out and kiboshed the plan. This is giving us sort of telegraphing what the next four years potentially could look like with a multi-billionaire sort of with this outsized power to direct the narrative here in Washington. And that is how this entire deal fell apart. And now what we're seeing is—

The speaker trying to effort a clean CR, a clean continuing resolution, and get enough support to keep the government open. But Democrats right now have very little appetite for helping him.

So, Taylor, come January, Republicans will have full control of Congress. Why have this battle days before Christmas? Well, the margins are going to be even tighter in the House come January. Republicans will still be in control, but Speaker Johnson could be in a position at least for a couple of weeks where he could only lose one vote if Democrats are not willing to help him.

But really, as Eva alluded to, once Elon Musk got involved, then Trump got more actively involved in this. And it seemed sort of looking from the outside, it seemed almost like Trump was like, wait, wait, wait. If Musk is going to get involved, well, I want to add in a debt ceiling debate and I want to add in this. And so I think that prompted Congress to say and Republicans to say, well, Trump is the leader of our party, so we have to react.

As Johnson alluded to in that interview clip that you played, he was trying to set up a situation where in the first 100 days, Trump could come into office and say, all right, the government is open right now, but we're going to have a say in how kind of the purse strings are handled. But now you have this mess. I think it's also worth noting with Elon Musk, he is the world's richest man right now, and he technically—

Yeah.

Arthur, I just want to ask you, if the deal isn't reached and the government shuts down, tell us what happens. Because we hear partial shutdown. What practically would that mean after midnight tonight?

Well, so if it happens on the weekend, there's a little less impact. It actually gives them a bit of a cushion. But federal workers don't get paid. That's hundreds of thousands of people. Including like TSA agents. Right. So this is a problem if it goes on for long enough for people to miss a paycheck at the end of the month. This includes active duty members of the military. So that's a big deal. And then there are smaller effects like national park bathrooms will be closed. Right.

FAA service could get spotty because people won't be getting paid. People will be getting furloughed. It's chaos in a small way. But big things like Social Security and Medicare are running on autopilot. So that's why it's often referred to as a partial shutdown. Yeah, like the federal government's biggest money programs keep going, fortunately. But it looks like the shutdown is looking kind of likely right now.

We got this comment from Tom. I fear we are experiencing just the tip of the iceberg when you have an individual that uses his wealth to manipulate the government by threatening members of Congress with primaries if they do not fall in line. I guess we could be considered northern Venezuela. So Elon Musk was a big X factor on Wednesday, but really this is Trump driving the train. Maybe he barged in because he didn't like how Elon was stealing all the attention, but

Trump is the king of shutdowns. The longest shutdown that ever happened was Donald Trump's shutdown from 18 to 19. It started in December, just like this one, in the same manner where there was a congressional deal on the verge of passing the House and Senate. And all of a sudden, he said, I need money for my border wall that I said Mexico would pay for for several years. Which he never got the money for. Right.

The shutdown didn't even work for that. And it's the same situation again. You cannot overstate the degree to which this is not strategic.

It's just chaos. It's honestly pretty stupid, but we should not be surprised by it. It's what it's exactly what he did before. And it's what people voted for. It's what we're getting. We're actually hearing loud critics of the deal, including folks like Texas Republican Chip Roy, who had some choice words for his own party when a Democrat yielded her time to give Roy the floor yesterday. And increase the debt by five trillion dollars. That's what's going to happen right here by Republicans.

I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say, you think this is fiscally responsible. It is absolutely ridiculous. Ridiculous.

Speaker Johnson told reporters earlier this week his bipartisan spending bill was, quote, not a Christmas tree. Eva, how are people responding to that within his own party? What does it look like for Mike Johnson to remain speaker come January? Well, we've seen a few members indicate that they have no idea.

appetite for supporting him next year. Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky, for instance, said it would take a Christmas miracle for him to earn his support. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said,

who actually Speaker Johnson has made a lot of concessions to and has indicated that he plans to elevate her in a substantial way in the new Congress, joked about Elon Musk potentially being speaker. So he has a headache on his hands, but I will say what he has said

in his favor is that the majority is going to be so slim, it's hard to imagine who else Republicans can coalesce behind. So, yes, he is going to get a lot of pushback from Republicans, and maybe some of them will say that they won't support him. But ultimately, who are they going to get to replace him? Eva is so right. There's no alternative. But there is the option of having nobody in charge, which, remember, Republicans did for several weeks. Right.

last year. So I think that that's actually the way the next Congress could start.

which would be really unprecedented and weird because that's not a great way for a new president to start his first 100 days. But again, the way they appear to be stepping on a rake, like, yes, they're stepping on a rake. There's also this factor, and the reason Chip Roy gets a lot of attention is because he spends almost every day screaming about something on the House floor. But you have to remember, politically speaking, he was one of the members that endorsed Ron DeSantis for president and can't

pained alongside Thomas Massey from Kentucky. They were one of the few sitting Republicans who were willing to say, we want to move on from Trump in part because they are true small government conservatives who really want the federal government to shrink a bunch. They want a lot of funding to be taken away for things that a lot of people value, but they view it as hypocritical that Trump and the GOP during Trump's first term raised the deficit by so much that

that they wanted to fund the border wall with federal funds and all of that. So there are Republicans who are still kind of the traditional older school, you know, small government conservatives who Trump does not really represent anymore. And so how many of the 38 Republicans who voted against the most recent bill last night represent that? They would have voted against this anyway.

And they always do. Yeah, they vote against most things. But the Chip Roy clip you heard was him specifically railing against the thing that Donald Trump added to this, which is an increase of the nation's federal borrowing limit. So there was no strategy there. That made it harder to pass the bill. And he threatened a primary Chip Roy and Chip Roy didn't care.

Let's pause here. You're listening to the News Roundup. We're discussing some of this week's biggest headlines. Still to come, Donald Trump is suing a pollster for incorrectly predicting a Harris win in Iowa days before the election. Trump says it was intentional. We'll get into that and those who fear it's another attempt to intimidate his critics. That and more right after this break.

Let's discuss more of this week's biggest news. Eva, what else did you want to add about this debt ceiling, continuing resolution, will the government shut down conversation we were having just before the break? Well,

Well, I was going to say as an academic exercise, I think it is a valid question. Why do we have to pass spending bills in this fashion? Why can't there be standalone bills that receive adequate debate so that all members of Congress and by extension, the American people really know what their members are voting for? It's just that the time that they decide to have these conversations and these arguments is

I think don't make a lot of sense, right? Two days before the government is about to shut down, hundreds of thousands of people potentially going without pay is not the right time to be having these larger questions about how Congress should function.

Yeah. So he said it's not a Christmas tree. The speaker did. But it was adorned with lots of little bills. For instance, a thing on pediatric cancer research. And a lot of that stuff does get vetted in committee hearings. But Eva's right. Like it's never getting a big moment where it receives a debate on the House floor. It's all just getting lumped into these things. It catches a ride. So people are, you know, interest groups and the

Members of Congress who are drafting those items are familiar with it, but it doesn't get the significant airing that you'd think it could. And most of the rank and file members of Congress hate this process because many of them spend years trying to climb the ladder, trying to get on prominent committees like the Appropriations Committee that's supposed to divvy out how, when, where funding goes. And then a lot of these negotiations happen simultaneously.

behind closed doors, just with members of leadership and senior appropriators who are 10, 15 years invested into this have no idea what's happening and then have to respond to their constituents who are frustrated. So it's a very broken process. And during these election years, they've spent more time out of session than in session because there's so much attention paid to fundraising and campaigning that takes away from the actual legislating and governing that needs to happen.

Let's move to a case that's put the Supreme Court's recent presidential immunity ruling to the test. On Monday, New York Judge Juan Merchan said he would not throw out President-elect Donald Trump's hush money conviction case because of the Supreme Court's immunity ruling. Judge Merchan wrote, quote, the criminal charges here stem from the private acts of the defendant made prior to taking the office of the president.

Trump's lawyers argued the case violates the Supreme Court decision. The judge still has to decide if the trial should be dismissed because of Trump's presidential win. Eva, obviously, we're seeing Trump's legal team likely appealing this decision. The sentencing has been postponed indefinitely because of the election. So what comes next here? Well, essentially, the judge has made this argument that Trump's communications about the payments while he was in the White House did not touch on any official acts.

So we're waiting to see if he decides to throw out the case altogether. But given his track record, I would say it is unlikely. What is more likely is that he will punt sentencing until after the election. But it is quite remarkable. Trump will become the first president in history to enter the White House as a convicted felon should his efforts to dismiss this case ultimately fail.

Let's move to Georgia. On Thursday, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis from prosecuting Trump.

Willis, as a reminder, brought the state election interference case against Trump and his allies for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. The appeals court overruled the trial judge. It concluded Willis had created the appearance of a conflict of interest due to her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired. So, Arthur, what does this mean for the Georgia case now?

Well, they have to decide if they can get another prosecutor to take the case. That decision could also be appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court. Big takeaway. It's a disaster for the prosecutor and for the case. And nobody should hold their breath that that effort to get Trump succeeds. I think what's what's pretty stunning is.

The first half of this year, the campaign and Trump's political comeback was defined by these four criminal cases, two federal and then two state-focused ones. And in many ways, they've all collapsed. The Georgia one kind of for a separate reason because of the prosecutor's

personal conduct and personal matters. But when it comes to the two federal cases and this hush money trial, even though, as Eva pointed out, Trump is a convicted felon right now, voters by and large did not seem to care. And now because the presidency is such a protected entity, everything is kind of frozen in place. And Trump will likely be able to move on from this kind of scot-free minus what he had to go through this year in terms of all the scrutiny, time in the courtroom and all of that.

I've been talking to Democrats on Capitol Hill about the federal cases, and there's a lot of regret that the Justice Department waited like a year to even get started, apparently because the January 6th committee embarrassed them into doing it. And one lawmaker even told me if they hadn't waited so long, we'd have a different president coming in now.

The controversy over daylight savings time continues. It's splitting Republicans. Last Friday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, quote, the Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate daylight savings time, which is a small but strong constituency, but should not. Why is this a priority for President-elect Trump? I just like a thing in the news. And so he feels like talking about it. Everyone likes talking about daylights. Yeah, it's a pretty stupid conversation. Nobody even knows what he means.

Emily Brooks at the Hill newspaper went and talked to Republicans. And so there's ones who think we should stick with a standard time, which is more light in the morning and others who believe we should do what we should have permanent daylight savings time. And Trump's sided with the former in that message. And lots of people were just like, well, he didn't mean that he must prefer, uh,

permanent daylight savings time. And like the Republicans in Florida are like, well, that is the Florida position and he lives in Florida. So surely that's what he meant to say. And Tom Cotton of Arkansas was like, no, he meant what he said. So this is basically a big joke. And I don't, I wouldn't expect Congress to actually do it. They did it once before. I feel like every Congress people talk about this. They do. They all love it because they like get on TV.

Yeah, it's something that morning shows like. Yeah, it's like fun to talk about. But we did this in the 70s and they switched it back in less than a year because it was not good. People didn't like it. Kids were going to school in the dark and there were like car crashes. And then people were like, oh, we can just leave the clock the same but change the time that everything starts. It's just a wacky. You also like talking about this. I would just like to say we did a show about daylight savings time and why there's a move to repeal it. And you can find that at our website, the1a.org.

On Monday, President-elect Trump held his first press conference since his November win. The topics range from the high price of pharmaceuticals to the TikTok ban. What all stood out to you all from this press conference as well that we should talk about? I mean, it was a classic Trump thing.

press event where it was billed as this economic announcement, this Japanese telecom company, SoftBank, the CEO went to Mar-a-Lago to announce that throughout Trump's second term, his company is going to invest $100 billion and create, I think, 100,000 jobs in America, largely to do with AI, artificial intelligence. This CEO did the same exact thing when Trump won his first term, and it was kind of hard to track where those investments went and if the jobs that he pledged to create actually got

created. But then Trump took questions for over an hour on a myriad of topics. And I think it was just a reminder of how things are going to go once he returns to office in January. And that, like with the shutdown conversation, lawmakers are literally waiting to see what Trump will post on Truth Social. And then in these press events, people are waiting to see

what he'll comment on and what he'll weigh in on because it's, he kind of takes that opportunity to build the news cycle. So he touched on a host of topics ranging from policy to more personal issues, but it drifted very, very far from this economic announcement that his team was touting to kind of build momentum for his return to office.

We've already seen this news conference. How do we think that President-elect Trump is going to have more press conferences and news conferences than the Biden administration had? Oh, no kidding. I mean, that's a takeaway from the Trump press conference. Like, look, he's talking. And we don't see that as much with Joe Biden. We haven't seen that the past four years. No, especially lately, he's been very absent.

And there was that Wall Street Journal report that came out this week that in pretty great detail explored how the Biden team really sheltered the president as his age became more of a concern before the public largely got to see it on display in that debate back in June. But the Trump team, even his top press staff, we don't know if there will be traditional White House press briefings because Trump himself largely likes to dictate the message.

He might show up in the press briefing room more. He might take questions when he's going to or coming off of Marine One, the helicopter. So this was a little glimpse into what was for four years the norm. Biden retreated from that. I think Trump is just going to return to it. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter of a percent. It's the third reduction this year, last one of 2024. The Fed also expects to only slash interest rates twice next year if the economy holds up.

Arthur, what reaction did we see to this latest cut? The stock market was sad. The cut was no surprise. People were happy about the cut because it makes money cheaper. But when they said they would only do two cuts next year, people were sad about that and sold their stocks because they wanted more cuts. But inflation hasn't gotten all the way down quite as quickly as they'd hoped. So they're trying to sound a little sad.

meaner about it. And the prediction is that it will likely make fewer cuts next year. Eva, what does that say about where the Fed thinks the economy might be headed? Well, it means that there's more uncertainty regarding inflation and how the overall economy might shake out next year. The overall long-term rate, the neutral rate may be higher than we anticipated. But just for folks at home,

You know, this was the top issue of the election, this issue, inflation, cost of living, the economy. And so what this means for folks at home is that mortgage rates may stay six and above longer than everyone anticipated. Which is still, I will say, pretty high compared to what it was a couple of years ago.

It's also sad if any voters were hoping Donald Trump would actually make prices go down, which he said at every rally. Taylor, I don't know how many times you heard President-elect Trump say this. Constantly. What have we heard since he's been elected? What has he said? There was a point where he acknowledged recently that, you know, it might be difficult to make grocery prices go down. He talks a lot about how he interacted with one or two voters throughout this campaign and heard about grocery shopping, which he himself has not done yet.

for a very long time, even before he was a major politician. So that disconnect is always interesting. But I think what's fascinating is he made a ton of pledges throughout the campaign. I remember being in New Hampshire when he said, if you elect me, your energy costs will be cut in half in the first year. There's no way that he could guarantee that no matter how much energy production goes up, no matter how much the Fed weighs in on something. The Biden administration has struggled with this messaging because as we're here talking

sitting here talking about the interest rate. You go talk to a random person on the street. They have no idea what that means unless they're probably going to look to buy a house. Unless they're buying a house. And they say groceries still cost a lot and gas still costs a lot. And what is the government doing to help me? So I think it'll be a challenge for Trump when he gets back into office. He's very effective at channeling people's frustrations. But in terms of getting the federal government to produce solutions, that's always a

battle. Our price is going down. That doesn't happen outside of a Great Depression or the Great Recession. Those are the two most notable periods of price deflation in U.S. history. So we don't want that. That would be bad. We are in the final weeks of the Biden administration. What have we heard from Joe Biden?

They're having Christmas parties. They've got decorations. There's statements on the congressional situation coming from the press secretary. And some Republicans are saying, well, where's Joe Biden? Well, what do you want him to do? Like criticize you more? I mean, he's not, it's really their show, but...

Biden has not been around. He hasn't been. And, you know, obviously, he's the truest definition of a lame duck president right now who was literally pushed out of running for reelection because people weren't pleased with his performance and were concerned about his age. I think what's worth remembering, though, is that from his 36 years as a senator, he approaches things like government funding debates in a very old school way. It's Congress's job. It's Congress's job. Let staff handle it.

have all of his senior economic advisors who work for him in the White House now talk with the top aides to the congressional leaders, and they should figure out a deal. We live in a digital age now, though, where a top priority for a lot of members of Congress is to message on social media what's going on to try to pull the curtain behind, to pull back the curtain and show what's happening. And the Biden team has never really insisted on that. And to Arthur's point, you

He is a Democrat, Joe Biden. So a Democrat is still in the White House and Democrats control the Senate right now. So Republicans in the House, while they need to figure out how to get their own members on board with something, they also have to pass something that the Senate will take up and that Biden will take up. So I think that's why he's choosing to sit back in addition to kind of feeling deflated because his party was done with him.

As we're in the final weeks of this Biden presidency, I did want to ask you all about legacy. Maybe it's a little too early to ask that, but particularly as we're thinking about how this last month has played out, how do you think that will have a role on how history remembers Joe Biden?

Well, I think one of the few powerful acts that he has left is his power to pardon and commute sentences. I was at one of those White House Christmas receptions. And as I was leaving, I saw advocates advocating for clemency for some of the black women that have been incarcerated 20, 30 years, still caught up because of the war on drugs like Michelle Obama.

West, for instance. And so, you know, when you think about legacy, that's going to be a really important component. But right now, Democrats are having a conversation about what they want the future of the party to look like. But you see that the old guard is still holding on, I think, for dear life. We saw with the effort

with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez running to be the ranking member of the Oversight Committee and losing to Congressman Connolly. And so...

I think that that is the conversation now happening in the closing weeks of this year. Let's push pause and bring you some joyful news that the so-called murder hornets have been eradicated from the United States. This announcement came on Wednesday, five years after the invasive species was first identified in Washington state. These murderous monsters threatened honeybees and other plants.

pollinators. But according to USDA officials, the country has been murder hornet free for three years, which brings a whole new meaning to the word buzzer beater. Ah, one last joke for 2024. We're going to head to a quick break. You're listening to the News Roundup. We'll be back with more in just a moment. Now back to the conversation.

Moving now to Wisconsin. The community surrounding the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison is still reeling after police say a 15-year-old student shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before killing herself.

Two other students were also shot and are still in critical condition. Eva, what do we know about the shooter's motive in this incident? So our investigators are still combing through social media and documents to figure it out. But what we do know is that police say 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow was also planning a separate mass shooting with California man Alexander Paffendorf. The FBI says that Paffendorf

told Natalie, or at least that's what he conveyed to authorities, that he would arm himself with explosives and target government buildings. But it's unclear where Paffendorf is at this current moment. Classmates describe the teenager as shy and lonely.

And it's just a sad moment for this country as this is another tragic episode of gun violence. Right. And, of course, it's far from the only. We know that 13 people have died in school shootings this year. More than 50 others were shot and survived. And according to a Washington Post analysis, more than 31,000 kids across 21 states have experienced a school shooting this year in the U.S.,

Arthur, we were just talking about Joe Biden's legacy. Is his movement on this part of the conversation here?

Joe Biden signed a landmark bipartisan gun reform into law. The first big gun reform, I think, in decades and a major part of his legacy that has had a real impact. I mean, obviously, there are so many guns still and so many school shootings. It's not going to stop them. But for instance, as a result of that law, the FBI did something.

stop hundreds of people under 21 from buying guns due to things in their record that otherwise would not have come to light because before the criminal background check system didn't apply to people that age. So there was a major reform. It was bipartisan. Joe Biden got it done by not being that involved in the negotiation. It happened in the Senate. And that was a big deal.

It's pretty stunning when you zoom out and you talk to a lot of members of Congress just how both parties have essentially given up on this because they acknowledge that there's no type of consensus to actually get things done. Wisconsin Democrat Mark Pocan, the school that this shooting happened at is in his district, and he's a progressive through and through. But he told one of my colleagues, he literally said, we—

We know for a fact that Republicans aren't willing to engage with us on this. And we know that because of how tight the margins are in Congress, nothing will happen. And he said, it's just sad. And then you have things like the Supreme Court that you have to factor in because they recently ruled on bump stocks and reversing a ban on that. They're figuring out a ruling on ghost guns, which we saw in that CEO murder case. And so I think it's a pretty depressing conversation on the Hill because everybody releases their statements where they offer thoughts and prayers.

But then there's no attempt of solution from Congress other than this piece of legislation signed a couple of years ago. Taylor, to your point, we do have an update in the high profile shooting that we've been following, which is the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, who was fatally shot in Manhattan this week. New York's district attorney charged 26-year-old Luigi Mangione with murder as an act of terrorism. Taylor.

Taylor, what justification was provided for a terrorism charge here? So obviously people defer to, you know, big terror events that we know in our recent history, like 9-11, where thousands, if not millions of people were impacted. But the justification in this case is that Mangione carried out this assassination, allegedly with the intent of creating a chilling effect.

and trying to say, I want to go after the insurance agency. I want to create fear for other insurance executives, for people who could be held responsible for rising health care costs. So that's why they attach this to it. It, of course, also factors into the federal government's attempts to put him through a trial where there could be very –

intense sentences down the road, whether that's life in prison without parole, the death penalty is potentially on the table. But this terrorism charge, I think, is in many ways trying to send a message that while he only went after one specific person at this one specific time, he wanted to create a chilling effect.

Right, and we actually did hear NYPD Commissioner Jessica Titch condemning celebrations of Mangione in the killing. Let me say this plainly. There is no heroism in what Mangione did. This was a senseless act of violence. It was a cold and calculated crime that stole a life and put New Yorkers at risk. We don't celebrate murders and we don't lionize the killing of anyone.

And any attempt to rationalize this is vile, reckless, and offensive to our deeply held principles of justice.

Of course, the president-elect, if you missed this, is suing over a late election poll that showed Vice President Kamala Harris taking a surprising lead in Iowa. On Monday, Trump accused Ann Seltzer, her polling firm, the Des Moines Register, and its parent company, Gannett, of, quote, brazen election interference. The poll in question showed Harris up by three percentage points. In reality, 56 percent of Iowa voters chose Trump. Eva, what is the case now?

President-elect Trump is making here. So this is petty in true fashion, true to form for the former president. He is accusing them of consumer fraud and voter interference. But yes, this is a preview of what's to come.

He has often viewed litigation as an effective tool to sort of send a message here. I don't know how far this lawsuit is actually going to go, but it does indicate that he plans to continue to have a very adversarial relationship with the press, even if

They are well-respected. You know, Ann Seltzer, she is retiring now. She actually said that she advised the register that she wouldn't renew her contract prior to this election. But clearly, this is someone who is not politically motivated, who her entire career has shown that she really respects this polling as an institution.

But still, this is how the former president operates. There's a few things worth remembering in this one. I don't think there's any pollster out there who has accurately polled 100 percent of the races that they've been involved with. And Seltzer is very respected and had a pretty solid track record, especially, for instance, noting Obama's rise in Iowa when he was a largely unknown candidate. But she also had some other misses in previous races. So this was a big miss, but it wasn't like the first one that she's ever had.

I was at a Trump rally in Iowa just about a year ago, and Trump literally brought her up by name because there was a poll that she had released through the Des Moines Register that had him leading the Republican primary field by a large margin, and he praised her. He called her a legendary pollster. He said that, you know, she has this great poll out. He did say in that same clip, he said...

If it was a bad poll, I would have bad things to say about her. So that's how Trump operates. But I think if you pair this story to the ABC News litigation that we just saw, where ABC News ended up settling for about $16 million when you add up all the fees, a defamation case that the Trump team put against anchor George Stephanopoulos over an interview he had with South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace, where...

He was talking about Trump's case having to do with where he was found liable for sexual abuse, but Stephanopoulos used the term rape repeatedly in the interview. You saw ABC News decide to settle and not go through trial. Trump and Stephanopoulos were supposed to sit for four-hour depositions each this week, so they wanted to stop that and kind of prevent it from happening. But $16 million is a large sum of money, and there's growing distrust about traditional media. So all of this kind of piles onto each other. ABC News did not.

have to settle that case because there's a legal standard where if, say there is a minor inaccuracy, if what you're saying is substantially true, then that's protected by the First Amendment.

Which guarantees the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. But I think it's potentially part of a chilling effect. And there's concern from a lot of media organizations that with Trump returning to office where he's spoken, you know, pretty poorly about the press and has made threats before, that a lot of newsrooms that are already struggling financially could face further threats if they don't decide to either settle something or disregard it. Yeah.

Let's end on one final, very different media news story. Sesame Street is looking for a new network to call home. That's what I was wondering about today. Right, Brooke? Right, Brooke?

Holmes, well, the iconic children's show was let go by Warner Brothers, which decided not to renew its contract to air new episodes on Max. Old episodes will be available on Max through 2027. Hopefully they get a buyer. There's an old episode of Sesame Street where Big Bird tries to go back to nature and he couldn't hack it. So...

This is a serious situation. Okay. I don't even know how many miles all of you have logged in your reporting this year. Eva, let's just start with you as you look back on 2024. What stands out to you from this year? What are you going to remember?

I think that the Democrats sort of having an identity crisis and trying to figure out who they are as a party. It was a big focus of this year with President Biden stepping aside in the final hour and not deciding to run for reelection. Vice President Harris ascending to the top of the ticket. I was with her on the campaign trail routinely or consistently for four months.

And now that she has lost, you know, where Democrats go from here. I think that is the story that interests me most. I would say two things, politically speaking. One is Biden. One is Trump. Trump and I covered him for about the last six months of the campaign every single day. The comeback that he was able to have is just incredible.

remarkable and stunning and unprecedented. And I think it has the chance to really bend and shape and change a lot of our country's norms moving forward, because in many ways, while it was ultimately a fairly close election and it came down to key battleground states and all of that, he did win

in many ways, on a mandate saying he felt persecuted and people were frustrated and they were willing to give him another chance. And he's mapped out a lot of what he wants to do by installing a lot of the people we're going to have confirmation hearings for in January, a lot of controversial figures, some conspiracy theorists. It's going to be fascinating to see how that all factors into how the government operates, what drastic changes are made and what type of

you know, level of functioning there is. So that's the Trump story. The Biden story, and I had some conversations with a couple historians this week about this, just trying to figure out what his legacy will be. Because on the trail, Eva and I especially heard so much from voters who were saying all they really recognized about Biden was his old age. They saw visuals of it. They were concerned about it. This was before the debate, and they talked about things being too expensive. But Biden

got a lot of legislation passed, especially for a one-term president. And these historians told me things like the infrastructure law, things like inflation reduction, inflation reduction act that most voters have no idea what's even included in that. But these are programs and bills that are going to have an impact for years to come. If Republicans and Trump don't figure out a way to repeal it, stop it.

So the historian said that years from now, people may not remember the concerns about Biden's age as the first thing. They might say, oh, a lot of the country's infrastructure was able to be rebuilt and he was the person who led that charge. Or there might be conversations about the age and his kind of dramatic exit from the race at the last stage and how it led the Democratic Party to an identity crisis. I think this year was good practice for staying on our toes. There were a series of shocking events, starting with Donald Trump.

Donald Trump's attempted assassination and then the sitting president withdrawing from the race and switching to the vice president as the major party candidate. It's good practice because it felt like foreshadowing of major upheaval that Donald Trump has said he would deliver and I believe probably will, though perhaps not in exactly the way he intended. But already it's shutting down the government potentially tonight. And this is what it's going to be like. Constantly crazy.

What are you going to be working on in the new year? What are you keeping your eye on? Arthur, as you're talking about just sort of chaos, like how are you thinking about covering all of that? Well, one of the first things Trump said he would do is pardon the January 6th rioters. And many of these are people who attacked police, hundreds of them, in fact, violently assaulted police. And he's always given himself a little wiggle room in these statements like, well, I won't let out the real bad ones.

But will it be like that scene in Ghostbusters where they shut down their containment system and then all the monsters run wild over Manhattan? Or will he go back on his promise and leave them in prison? I'll be covering Trump a lot. And I think

One of the challenges of this year covering him on the trail that I'm going to try to continue to pursue is, for instance, when he holds a press conference for an hour and touches on 12 different very newsworthy topics, how do you as a reporter try to make sense of all of that, make it consumable in a changing media environment, and let people know, like, one—

here's what's actually happening or here's what he implied. Here's what he said. Here's what's unclear. But two, let's make sure that things don't get lost in the mix. The Trump campaign openly has talked about how part of his strategy has been to flood the zone so that you feel a bit disoriented and so that you can't keep track of everything. And I think as president, he's the most powerful person in the world. There's going to be a lot there to follow.

Eva? I'm curious to see how the most vulnerable fare in the Trump era. I was on the Hill this week where Democratic lawmakers were calling attention to a task force that President Biden created in 2021 to reconnect children that were separated under the first administration.

under the last Trump administration, many of those kids are still separated from their parents, upwards of a thousand. And so, you know, as we get Trump 2.0 here, whether it is undocumented folks or trans folks, some of the most vulnerable in our society, I'm curious to see how they fare. And I think that amplifying the experiences of the most marginalized is really important in this moment.

Thanks to the three of you, all of the journalism that you have done this year, Arthur Delaney, senior reporter at HuffPost, Taylor Populars, Washington correspondent for Spectrum News, and CNN's national politics correspondent, Eva McKend. Let's head to a quick break. When we return, U.S. diplomats are back in Syria for the first time since the fall of Assad.

The murder of a top general in Moscow brings the war in Ukraine to Putin's doorstep. And closer to home, Donald Trump's new tariff plan pushes Canada's embattled prime minister to the brink. Back with more in just a moment. Stay with us.

It's the International News Roundup here in studio with me in Washington. Felicia Schwartz is U.S. Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent at the Financial Times. Hi, Felicia. Hello. Nancy Youssef is also with us, National Security Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for being here, Nancy. Great to be with you. And joining us from London, Kreeti Gupta is an anchor and correspondent for Bloomberg TV and Radio. Kreeti, welcome back. Thank you for having me.

Let's start in Syria, where mass graves that could contain the remains of hundreds of thousands of people have been found in the week after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Here's the former U.S. war crimes ambassador at large, Stephen Rapp, speaking to NPR's Leila Fadl in Syria. Rapp visited two mass grave sites near Damascus and said the regime carefully documented what he's called, quote, a machinery of death.

There are tens of millions of documents that could provide us with the information on how every one of these people died. And frankly, this regime was document crazy. I mean, there is an immense trove of evidence.

Nancy, it was just a little over a week ago that these sites were notorious. But now that the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham HTS, who ousted Assad after more than 50 years of family dynastic rule, they've opened prisons, detention centers, burial sites across Syria. What are we learning now?

Well, I think first and foremost, we're seeing the collective, connective scar across the Syrian population. We don't know how many people are in these mass graves, but family after family, they've sought the change of a regime for years. And the first thing they're seeking is answers on their loved ones. There are signs all over Damascus of people with their phone numbers and pictures of their loved ones, ones they haven't heard about in years.

trying to find out what happened, trying to sort of fill in their family story that they were deprived of under this regime. And I think it's been the way people have responded to going to one site after another, seeking answers. And yet we know that many won't get those answers. We're learning that the majority of those that have come forth have discovered that their loved ones aren't in prisons. They're now searching these graves.

As you mentioned, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people potentially. The remains we are finding people burned, people having gunshots, people tortured and what we're seeing and what we learned so far.

And so I think we're getting the first window of people trying to understand what's happened to their families and piece together stories that they've been carrying with them for years, family after family, the 66 sites of mass graves potentially. And so I think the painful part of all this, it'll be impossible to know how many people were buried.

who they are, what happened to them, and in a fulsome way, despite the documentation that Mr. Rett made reference to earlier because of the chaos and the unraveling of the regime, the way it happened, there isn't a mechanism in place to really, in a more fulsome way, put these stories back together.

We're joined now by special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, Leila Milana Allen, who's just left Syria. Leila, welcome. As you are hearing Nancy talk about these several mass grave sites, you visited one grave site in East Ghouta, the location of a chemical weapons attack. What is it like engaging with the families and relatives that you're seeing at these sites?

It's agonizing, really. And, you know, of course, the environment right now in Syria is one of great joy. It's quite unbelievable to people that this regime, the Assad family, which lasted more than half a century, is suddenly gone in the space of two weeks. You know, no one saw this coming. Many people had started to give up and believe that they would be living like this forever.

But of course, there is so much pain because what's happening, what's really important here, you know, as we listen to what Nancy was saying there, is that we knew this was happening. This was not a secret. You know, there's a lot of resentment happening.

and anger amongst Syrian people, both inside the country and displaced and refugee Syrians, because Western nations knew this was happening. There's suddenly so much shock. There's so much, you know, outrage on the part of Western politicians damning this.

Everyone knew this was happening. There are incredibly brave Syrians, journalists, former prisoners, lawyers who over the years have risked their lives and sometimes died to smuggle photographs out of what was happening in prisons like Sednaya, to smuggle out information of what was happening in the chemical attacks in places like Eastern Horta, which happened in 2013. And of course, that famous red line that Barack Obama put down that,

chemical weapons would be unacceptable and then they weren't unacceptable. And Bashar al-Assad was allowed to continue doing this to his people for another decade. So it's really important to remind everyone of that, that while suddenly there might be a huge reaction here from Western politicians, this has in many ways been a sort of abandonment of the Syrian people. So they feel that and they know that. They don't really expect any more support now than what they've had. What they're asking for is at the very least a

a chance, you know, the lifting of sanctions, support from Western nations, money to rebuild right now. Because as people mourn their loved ones and search for their loved ones, so many people buried underground. I went to the exhumation of the first mass grave site that started done by, of course, the famous white helmets, the Syrian civil defense who are now operating across the country. Bones and skulls and pieces of human bodies buried in food bags, labeled with numbers of prisoners, no names.

I went round different hospitals trying to find bodies that had been discovered next to Sednaya prison, bodies of people who died very recently, terribly tortured. And of course, there's a race against time there to share their identities, to try and find their family members, because unless there's DNA on record, which there's unlikely to be, if they're not identified quickly, the decay in their bodies means they never will be. So while all this is going on,

At the same time, people are trying to figure out how they're going to rebuild their homes, how they're going to start their lives again. It's a really bittersweet and conflicting time across the country.

Layla, one last question for you is you think about tens of thousands of minorities fearing persecution that have fled Syria since the takeover by HTS, which is a Sunni Islamist group. HTS leadership has pledged tolerance and unity. Here's HTS leader who now goes by Ahmed Alshara speaking to the BBC this week.

The Syrian population has lived together for thousands of years. We're going to discuss all of it. We're going to have dialogue and make sure everyone is represented. The old regime always played on sectarian divisions, but we won't. We were welcomed in all the big cities by all the sects. I think the revolution can contain everybody.

Laila, many of these minorities, if we're thinking about the Jews and the Kurds, they've been marginalized in Syria for centuries. What happens now?

That's a slightly different take on it than many people inside Syria would say. Syria is an incredibly diverse place. It is not a sectarian place. It's deeply multicultural. And people there would say that, you know, actually, we've lived together for centuries. And it was the Assad regime that divided us. Essentially, what Bashar al-Assad did was that he said, look, the Sunnis are all ISIS. They're all going to come and kill you.

unless you side with me. Now, I went to where Bashar al-Assad is from the other day, in Latakia province, a village called Kaderha. And the Alawites there, the sect that he's from, said, look, all he did to us was he divided us from the rest of the Syrians. And he kept us in entrenched poverty. He only supported his family and his direct supporters. So actually what we want is to be reunited with the Syrian people. You know, currently we're seeing across the country Christians preparing to celebrate Christmas as they haven't been free to do so in decades.

Coming together, there were beautiful scenes the other day where young Muslim girls went and stood outside one of the main churches in Damascus and handed out roses to the Christian worshippers as they went in, which said on them, we will build it together. The Druze, who obviously live across the country, but particularly in the south in Suida, who have continued to protest and rise up against the Assad's for the last few years, even as other protests continue.

started to dwindle. They've agreed to work with HTS. The other really important thing here is HTS are not all the rebels who run the country. Now, they do come from Jabhat al-Nusra, which was a jihadist organization. And before 2015, when they changed, they were mostly foreign fighters who obviously had come to Syria to

engage in this jihad in the midst of all this chaos. They then changed and they became mostly Syrians. So that makes a huge difference because they come from the country themselves, so people are more likely to support them. But also this liberalization agenda that Ahmed al-Shahra has, that's his actual name. He had the name...

Mohammed al-Jalani, which he's been known by for the last few years because that's a jihadi name. He gave up that name and went back to his original name to show that he is liberalizing. He's made many statements saying, you know, women don't have to be covered. We're going to continue to allow people to practice whatever their minority religion is, to engage in communities. So,

At the moment, people feel a huge sense of hope, but they also are rising up and sort of saying, look, we're not going to let you lead us. We overthrew the Assad's. We're not going to let you lead us either if you don't continue with this. And the reality is HDS does not have enough fighters on its own to impose Islamist rule in Syria. Thank you for joining us. Please take care and be safe. And by the way, for all of you listening, you can catch all of Leila Milana Allen's incredible reporting on the PBS NewsHour. Thanks, Leila. Thanks so much.

Felicia, as we're talking about this coalition government, as we're thinking about different foreign governments beginning cautious engagement, what are we seeing here?

So pretty spectacular scene today. We had a State Department delegation led by Barbara Leaf and including Roger Carstens. He's the hostage envoy. Another senior U.S. diplomat meeting with Jolani in Damascus today. Many sources have confirmed that meeting took place. I mean, this is like almost unthinkable even, you know, a month ago that you'd have American diplomats on the ground in Syria, you know,

you know, engaging with what was until pretty recently the leader of a terrorist organization or technically still the leader of a terrorist organization, I should say. I mean, there's a $10 million bounty on Jelani's head. So the U.S. is really trying to engage here. It's fascinating.

As we're continuing the conversation around Syria, we know the U.S., U.K., E.U., and other international authorities imposed severe sanctions on Syria after President Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011. HDS is also under sanctions.

Kriti, as we were just hearing Felicia talk about this historic sort of move of U.S. delegation visiting Syria, what happens next here? What movement is there to remove or adjust these sanctions?

Well, that designation you said was the key piece to it because, as you mentioned, the U.S. does still designate HTS as a terrorist organization, as does the United Nations, by the way. The EU has a little bit of a different definition, but basically to get rid of the sanctions, you have to downgrade them as not as serious of a threat as a terrorist organization. That is the initial definition.

first step, which as Felicia was saying prior to the break, there has been kind of openness too. I would argue that just being based here in London, I've seen even more openness from the EU and more European leaders as a function of the fact that the new

in Syria and the new provincial government could actually be a real step change and distanced from Vladimir Putin. So some really strong comments from the likes of Kayakalis, who is the vice president of the European Commission and the former prime minister of Estonia. They're really harping on this idea that

that Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad were tied at the hip. So anyone aside from that relationship is a positive for the EU to the point that like the US State Department, they're also sending some pretty high up officials. But it all comes down to, we want to build this relationship and we want to do it

as by decreasing sanctions as a way of an olive branch to this new provincial government. But to do that, just procedurally, you have to get rid of that designation. And that's where the details are a little bit hazy. One last storyline I wanted to talk about with Syria. The UN Special Envoy for Syria has warned that the war, quote, has not ended yet in his visit to Damascus. He was specifically highlighting clashes this week between Turkish-backed armed groups and

and Kurdish fighters in the north of the country. Nancy, in exclusive reporting this week, your Wall Street Journal colleagues Alex Ward and Laura Seligman shared that some senior U.S. officials say Turkey, which is a member of NATO, and its militia allies are building up forces along the border with Syria, raising the alarm possibly for a large-scale invasion here. What is going on? That's right.

Broadly, what we've seen happen in Syria or potentially shaping up is that you have nations fighting for influence and territory inside Syria. We've seen Israel position itself in the Golan. There's a U.S. presence there that is supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces. And we've seen Turkey have tremendous influence on Syria.

And so broadly speaking, I think what you're seeing is Turkey trying to leverage its potential ability to shape outcomes in Syria. More specifically, they are worried about the SDF because they see them as aligned with the PKK. I'm sorry for all the letters in the alphabet today within Turkey and that they see that as a potential threat.

From the U.S. perspective, this is particularly dangerous for two reasons. One, it portends a potential more instability in an already volatile situation. And it, for them, threatens to take the SDF forces away from what they would like to see them focus on, which is containing a potential threat from the Islamic State or a resurgence of it in the midst of all this instability towards defending themselves and their allies. And so that's why there's so much concern.

But I think it really all speaks to more broadly how various actors are trying to position themselves given these dramatic events and the power vacuum that it has created as HDS tries to sort out how it will govern. Right. Let's talk about Israel's role in all of this. This week, the United Nations Security Council reiterated support for the UN Peacekeeping Force, known as UNDOF.

monitoring the Israel-Syria border, and it stressed the obligation of all parties to the 1974 disengagement agreement that established a demilitarized buffer zone between Israel and Syria. Israel seized this buffer zone following the fall of Assad on December 8th, and on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his troops will stay. I'm from the north, I'm from the north.

We are here at a critical juncture to decide on Israel's preparedness in this important place until another arrangement is found that guarantees Israel's security. Felicia, how does this blur Israel's northern border? They're basically occupying territory beyond the 1974 ceasefire arrangement that you laid out. And

following up on Nancy's point about, you know, American allies kind of in the crossfire in Syria. I think the U.S., you know, when we speak to U.S. officials about this, like they acknowledge that Israel has legitimate security concerns about a power vacuum happening in Syria. But

they want these Israeli deployments to be temporary. And you're seeing all these signs. I mean, you're having Netanyahu cross into Syria. On the day that this happened, there were rumors that he was going to be in Egypt to talk about a ceasefire. Well, actually, he stepped inside Syria. I mean, this is pretty stunning. And I think it's a huge challenge for this administration and the next one to kind of

keep Israel in line with the international agreements they've had or been under for quite a long time. Kriti, we also saw Israel launching more than 800 attacks this week on Syrian air defense systems and ammunition depots in a bid, they say, to disable the country's military capability. What do we know about these attacks so far?

We know that the, as you kind of outlined there, the main goal of this is to make sure, at least in the IDF's terms, is that any of the military equipment or the hardware that was left in the wake of Assad's kind of fleeing Syria don't fall into the wrong hands and don't fall into the hands of extremists. So their solution to that is to kind of, um,

basically get rid of them as quickly as possible. And they're doing it in really strategic places, specifically in Tardis, which is a coastal city on the western coast of Syria. It's also where a major Russian port is not too far from a major Russian air base as well. Now, Israel's military has talked about some of the kind of weapons that they have targeted, things like fighter jets,

helicopters, Scud missiles, cruise missiles, surface-to-sea precision guided missiles, a really wide-ranging array of weapons and of kind of technology there. But the IDF has said that they have destroyed about 90% of the identified strategic surface-to-air missiles. So kind of in their view, it's mission accomplished, but they're still kind of waiting to see what happens

what software that's kind of left still in the country is going to be maybe picked up by Russian forces that may still be there, some that are associated with those Russian bases. And again, really just kind of fighting any threat that the other rebel factions or extremists that exist in the country of Syria don't get their hands on that leftover weapon depots.

This week, Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza reached a grim milestone. More than 45,000 Palestinians have now been killed.

This week, among the dead, Khaled Nabham, a Palestinian grandfather who became known for his grief, charity, and defiance, and his love for his granddaughter Reem, who was killed in November last year. Images of him kissing her lifeless body and mourning the soul of his soul echoed the grief of so many Palestinians. Here he is speaking to Al Jazeera earlier this year.

Reem has a special place in my heart. She used to come and hug me every day, but now I'm the one who goes to hug her, spiritually, in her grave. Today, I was at her grave and spoke to her about our situation. Then I cried a lot. I cried alone, to myself.

This week, the Israeli army launched a new attack on the Kamal Adwan Hospital, sparking a fire that put the last functioning intensive care unit in northern Gaza out of service. The war in Gaza began after Hamas launched terrorist attacks on Israel in October of 2023, killing more than 1,000 and taking more than 250 hostages. Nancy, we had Bill Burns, the CIA director, landing in Qatar on Wednesday to try to advance a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

What's the status of those talks? Well, earlier in this week, I think you heard some optimism. To be fair, we have heard optimism before. I think this time it was spurred because there was a framework in which at least some of the issues that had been really precluding any deal were at least being addressed more directly and there had been some movement.

The talks right now would propose a 60-day truce during which Hamas would release hostages and Israel would release Palestinian prisoners. We started to hear room for Israel to keep troops in central Gaza and on the border. And so I think the fact that there was a place for troops, that there was an agreement on that raised hopes there.

Now, having said that, in the past, U.S. officials would be the most optimistic of everyone. This week, they were not. They were, I would argue, the most cautious of people. Notably, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations and made reference to Lucy trying to kick the football on Charlie Brown. And every time he set it up, you go to do the kick and you can't hit it. And so I think what everyone is signaling that there's progress.

I think the unspoken part of all of this is that the incoming Trump administration is leading to discussions that maybe weren't happening in the past because he has called or certainly on Hamas, but also broadly signal that he wants to see an end to this war and that there, I think the threat was that there'll be big consequences essentially if hostages aren't released. And so I think that's spurring more urgency than we saw just a few months ago.

Let's turn to Russia and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that's lasted nearly three years. On Tuesday morning, a top Russian general was assassinated in Moscow by Ukraine's intelligence service. The general, Lieutenant General Igor Kirilov, and his aide were killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter.

Kirillov was the chief of Russia's nuclear, biological, and chemical defense forces. He is the most senior Russian official to be assassinated by Ukraine on Russian soil. Kriti, what are we hearing from Ukrainian officials about this?

Well, they've, of course, fully claimed responsibility for the assassination. And this really comes, I think, in the context of chemical weapons, or at least the SBU, which is the Ukrainian Secret Service, said it had recorded more than 4,800 occasions since the invasion began where Russia had used chemical weapons on the battlefield. Back in May, the U.S. State Department had said the same thing, that they had recorded the use of

a chemical weapon, a poisonous gas that was first used back in World War I against Ukrainian troops, basically making the argument that these are war crimes that are being conducted by Russian troops and specifically under the umbrella or under the supervision of this Russian general. And on the Monday, the day before the killing, you had seen Ukraine charged with

charging the Russian general in absentia, saying he was responsible for the mass use of banned chemical weapons. Moscow, of course, denying those allegations. But that is the logic that Ukraine had used to commit the assassination.

Felicia, Nancy was just talking about a ceasefire and sort of these waning weeks of the year and of the Biden administration. I wanted to ask you the same thing about Ukraine. On Wednesday, President Zelensky arrived in Brussels to campaign for support among European allies. NATO Chief Mark Rutte has said the priority of Zelensky's visit is to, quote, do everything to ensure Ukraine is in the best possible position. That includes continuing to supply weapons systems to

This is right after President-elect Trump said Monday Ukraine should be prepared to make a deal with Russia and bring an end to Russia's war in Ukraine. For Zelensky, what are we hearing him say in this transition period right now?

He is trying. He's in such a delicate position. He is trying to do a few things. I think one, you know, he has continually publicly called for NATO membership or at least an invitation to NATO. And that, of course, requires consent of all the members of the alliance and, you know, chief among them, the U.S.,

President Biden has signaled that that's not something he's open to. A lot of European, I think Germany also is wary of it. Hungary is outright opposed, but many other European countries are in favor. So I think one, he's just trying to see if he might get any movement on that because Trump is, you know, that's definitely not going to happen under Trump. Yeah.

which I think is why it probably also won't happen now. Then, too, absent that, he needs to kind of make sure that Europe is kind of prepared to step up into this role that Trump has outlined for the continent, that they need to give Ukraine as much assistance as possible and take on more of a leading role while trying to keep the U.S. in line. So, you know, this is really kind of a do or die moment for him. Kriti, is Europe prepared to do that?

They say they are. And they say that they need to increase their defense spending. Mark Rutte, for example, trying to increase the NATO funding amount from 2% of your GDP to 3% of your GDP. A lot of European leaders are on board with that. But the problem is a lot of them are running these massive deficits now.

and have some pretty fractured governments as well. So not only do they not have money to meet those targets, but they also don't have majorities in their respective parliaments to be able to execute the decision-making to get the money to meet those targets. So it's a lovely thought, and everyone is on board in theory, but getting there is proving challenging.

Zakir Hussain, the groundbreaking percussionist who helped bring the Indian tabla, or hand drum, to the world stage, has died. Hussain was born in Mumbai. He's the oldest son of Ustad Al-Araqa, a tabla virtuoso himself. Here he is playing with his father. ♪

Hussain was a child prodigy who spent his youth playing with music's biggest names over his career that spanned six decades. He won five Grammys, collaborated with global jazz legends, Western classical orchestras, and international artists like George Harrison, Yo-Yo Ma, and Van Morrison. He died in a San Francisco hospital of a chronic lung disease. Zakir Hussain was 73 years old. ♪

Let's head up north to Canada, where political watchers are still reeling from this week's resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. The close ally of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quit and published a letter saying she disagreed with Trudeau's approach to dealing with incoming President Trump. Another cabinet member, Sean Frazier, also resigned.

68% of Canadians surveyed disapprove of Trudeau as prime minister. That's according to Angus Reid Institute, a nonprofit research organization. 1A covered the drama in Canadian politics earlier this week and whether Justin Trudeau can hold on or if his Liberal Party will face a no-confidence vote. Here's Althea Raj. She's a columnist for the Toronto Star and host of the Canadian politics podcast, It's Political.

I think if Mr. Trudeau is replaced, you will have a liberal leader that is more centrist and to the right. But most of the country is kind of, frankly, in that middle. So do they want to replace the middle with a right wing center, like more far right than we've had? I don't know. But maybe the appetite for change is so great that that's what they will pick. The only real option on the table at the moment.

Nancy, I'm just thinking about as we're thinking about all of the different movements across world political leaders. Can I just ask you about our neighbors to the north? Canada has to have a general election by October 20th, 2025. Trudeau's party's 21 points behind.

behind the rival Conservative Party in the latest polling average. How does our politics here, how much is that playing into all of this? Well, it's fascinating because to me what connects what's happening in Canada and parts of Europe is this debate about the post-COVID economy and its effect on inflation and people's ability to enjoy the same quality of life and immigration. This was all spurred because Justin Trudeau was trying to reaffirm

relieve Canadians who were feeling the pinch of inflation by removing a sales tax around the holidays and giving out $250 Canadian dollars to Canadians who make less than $150,000 a year. And his then finance minister rejected and rejected it soundly. She called it a costly political gimmick that he was doing and that he couldn't afford to do it now because Trump is threatening to levy

a 25% tariff on imported Canadian goods. 75% of Canadian exports go to the U.S., so it has a real impact on them. So the idea that things that Trump is threatening to do and that is leading to these second and third order effects in these countries, I think is really interesting and something we'll see potentially in the new year. So I think it's worth watching to see

to get a sense of how nations are reacting to the threat of tariffs, how they're adjusting and how it's leading them to reassess how they do things for their own domestic interests, including potentially a $250 check to residents ahead of the Christmas season. Let's talk about Germany, where the country's collapsing governing coalition officially met its end this week. A no-confidence vote in the German parliament

Parliament succeeded on Monday. It succeeded after MPs with the pro-business Free Democratic Party voted with the opposition. Kriti, what led to this end for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition government? Well, ironically, a lot of the similarities of what's kind of leading to the collapse of the Canadian government. It's immigration, it's finances, it's inflation, it's wage growth. And I think for this time around, it has to do with a really wonky, very Germany-specific topic called the debt break.

where I think we had talked about in our previous segment where Europe is trying to ramp up their defense spending. They're trying to compete with the United States. They're trying to kind of cushion themselves against any Trump tariffs that may be coming down the pike.

And for Germany to do that, they really need to be investing more in their own country, investing in infrastructure, investing in defense. And they can't do that because their government is only allowed to spend to a certain amount. And I would think of it kind of as using your debit card versus a credit card.

credit card where so many other nations like the US, like the UK, like France can kind of charge things to their hypothetical credit card and go beyond their actual limits and what's in their bank account. Germany can't do that because this thing called the debt break. So Olaf Scholz, the current prime minister of Germany,

Basically, he's trying to get rid of that limit that, on the one hand, makes Germany one of the safest kind of bond markets in the world and fiscal countries in the world. But it also prevents them, puts these massive handcuffs on that investment story. So the collapse of the government was spurred by this disagreement over...

Should Germany kind of let go of that reputation of being fiscally responsible and always paying their debts and never going past the income that they make? Or should they kind of throw that limit out the window and be able to then invest and spend more and really compete on a more global stage? And that has now led to a no-confidence vote that Olaf Scholz kind of did on purpose to create snap elections that come around, I believe, February 23rd of next year. Yeah.

Felicia, as we're just talking about Canada, as we're talking about German government collapsing, as we talked about this happening in France, can you just sort of put in context for us, let's just start with Europe, where things stand now at the end of 2024? Yeah.

Yeah. So as you said, I mean, you have the German government dissolving this week. French President Macron named the fourth prime minister in a year recently. You have, you know, the UK recently swore in a pretty strong government. In Italy, Giorgio Maloney's in a pretty good position. But overall...

Overall, you really have a kind of fragmented Europe at a moment that it really needs to be united as it deals with this challenge from President Donald Trump, who wants to see Europe take on more responsibility for the continent security challenges. And that will require a common position among them. And you have, you know, just as we kind of feel this.

kind of uncertain transition period here, you're going to be seeing that in Europe at this moment when it will be really important for all these countries to come together and form a common position. So, you know, some of these security challenges we've talked about today, whether that's, you know, in Ukraine, in the Middle East, we haven't really talked about China, but of course, you know, dealing with this competition with China is

We're approaching all of that with all of these countries who are in very kind of weak and transitional moments, and it's going to be a real challenge. Krithi, as we think about the fact that more than half of the world headed to the polls this year, as you look back on this year, what are the important trends that we need to note when we are just talking, first of all, about electoral politics?

I think the two that really stood out to me that I initially thought were very American-specific issues that I've now seen shown up in a variety of elections around the world were inflation and immigration. And they're almost tied together in terms of how...

how much people are taking home at the end of the day from their paycheck. And I think that has shown up in the conversation of immigration in the United States. We talk about it quite often in terms of the rhetoric that foreigners take American jobs. That's a similar rhetoric you hear in Germany, in the south of France, certainly in the UK as well, not to mention several other countries around the world. And it really ended up becoming a game changer for a lot of the polling. And you're already seeing that, by the way, in the polling of

of Germany's kind of far-right parties, or even in France and the rise of the far-right there, a lot of the rhetoric coming that resonates with people is immigration-focused. A similar one on inflation as well. It's how do you... Contributions to your pension fund. How do kind of...

a pay linked to inflation make it at the end of the day. And that's something that people certainly voted on in the United States in the form of tax cuts. And they're doing the same and certainly in Europe and I would argue in other parts of the world as well. I was going to ask you, Kriti, how you thought this played out in the UK election result this year.

It's funny, the UK was almost the exception of the rest because whereas so many countries around the world kind of shifted to the right, to more populist governments or even to parliamentary coalitions that broke down in the favor of the right, the UK did the exact opposite. And I almost think it's because they were replacing a conservative government that had been in place for about 14 years that had promised, by the way, a crackdown on immigration, a crackdown on inflation, tax cuts,

But because they didn't have the budget to kind of back up what they were talking about, the electorate said, well, if you're not going to do it, we'll give the other guys a chance. And that's why it led to this...

I think the biggest kind of a loss for the conservatives in the UK in, I want to say, at least two decades or so. But it does come back down to the same issues that I kind of pointed out there, immigration and inflation. And the folks that are able to deliver on that are the ones that kind of win the hearts of the people.

As we continue to look back on this year, I want to ask what stories of the year will stay with you. There's been so many. Nancy, can you pick one? To your point, there have been so many in the whiplash of sort of topics that we've gone to. I mean, I was just thinking about in the past month, who would have thought that the Assad regime would have fallen?

In the past two weeks. Right. We'd be talking about the potential impeachment of the South Korean president. We'd be talking about an Iran too weakened to sort of potentially bolster its proxies, that its proxies wouldn't be nearly as effective as they once were just a few months ago. There's a volatility, I feel like, with international news in general.

Um, the thing that I think about is sort of the future of the rule-based international order, because it feels like these wars this year have really challenged some of the sort of the key elements that have sort of sustained that. And I think that's something that I'm watching, um, over the past year. Can it really be the same system that we've operated under the last 40 years with this kind of volatility, with also this kind of change in how we conduct wars? Um,

I'm old enough to remember when targeting journalists was a no-go zone, and of course now we are targeted in wars. And this year we saw hospitals both in Gaza and in Ukraine targeted. How does that change how we conduct war? How does that change how we think about, again, the rule-based international order? And that's really what stayed with me. I feel like I've watched a shift in the –

way wars are conducted, and also just the volatility of the world such that we have to sort of be ready for really sudden and dramatic changes in places we weren't even thinking about a few weeks earlier. Kriti, what about you?

I mean, call me a millennial or a Gen Z or whatever, but the amount of times that TikTok has come up in the conversation I thought was quite surprising this year in the context of election, in the context of warfare. I'm hearing in Europe, in the context of influencing Romanian elections, for example, and then also in the States, using it as a kind of foreign policy, almost tariff,

carrot versus stick kind of tool against China. I thought that was pretty staggering. And you see it in other social media platforms as well, like Telegram, for example, used quite substantially in the Middle East and, of course, in Russia and Eastern Europe as well. Pavel Durov, the founder of that, arrested in France, put under house arrest. And it creates almost a precedent of how a lot of these big social media players can be held accountable in

in foreign countries that aren't their own because of the impact they have on things like national security, cyber warfare, et cetera. And I think going into 2025, that's going to be a big theme. But also in Europe, this is kind of Europe's moment to kind of make it or break it. They're either going to come out of this kind of almost doom loop or they're going to crack. And I'm going to be here to figure out which it is. Felicia, as we're thinking about looking back and looking ahead, what haven't we talked about that you wanted to mention? Pick

Picking up a bit on what Nancy was saying, I think there's been many moments covering U.S. foreign policy this year where it feels like the U.S. has kind of been in the backseat, like they're along for the ride. I'm thinking about in Ukraine, all these moments when Ukraine is asking for, you know, heavier weapons or this debate about deep strike happened for months and months and months. And U.S. is kind of dragging its feet and ultimately decided to do it or just thinking about, you know,

what happened after October 7th, the ways that Israel would, you know, make all these promises to the U.S. about how it was going to conduct the war or what it would do in ceasefire negotiations. And, you know, the U.S. kind of didn't, was pretty powerless to broker a ceasefire at many moments. And, you know, just to kind of like put a bow on it, we've talked about all these leadership challenges that the world will face and, you

You know, whether it's I think Trump has signaled, you know, a different, you know, he calls it America first, but perhaps a more real politic approach to the world's bit more transactional. But in some ways, like, you know, the U.S. has kind of stepped back from the world stage already. So I think this is really a kind of inflection point in the role that the U.S. will play in the world. And then, you know, also to pick up on Nancy's point about a weakened Iran situation.

I mean, I've been covering Iran for many years and the Iran talks and so on. 2025 is going to be a really big year in this file. The nuclear deal, these provisions called snapback, these are sanctions that the U.S. and other kind of world powers that negotiated the deal can reimpose. Even though the U.S. has left the deal, it's a little complicated. But basically the kind of last pressure point is

The U.S. has on Iran with this nuclear program through this deal expires next year, and it's going to be real crunch time for all these powers to come together and figure it out. And for all the reasons I just said, I don't know that we can meet that moment. And, you know, that could spark significant nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and beyond. I think we're at a very sensitive moment.

Nancy, I'll let you have the last word about what you're going to be working on in the new year, what you're going to be watching for in particular. Well, you know, we have all these new leaders coming in, notably in the United States. And it's the first time I think we've come into this sort of period with a real uncertainty about what's ahead, how it's going to shape up. When we look at some of the picks that the president-elect has made on this national security team,

There are some threads you can link between them, but in some cases you can't. And so I think we have to be prepared for surprises in terms of how they approach the Middle East, Ukraine, Asia, and even the use of the U.S. military within U.S. borders. And so I think 2025 is the year you have to be prepared.

ready to be surprised and try to understand where it fits in the broader context of all these areas that we've talked about around the world who are also going through their own shifts and changes. A big thank you to our panelists today for the last International News Roundup of 2024, for what you have contributed this hour, as well as your journalism throughout the past year. Felicia Schwartz, U.S. Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent at

The Financial Times, Nancy Youssef, national security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, and joining us from London, Kriti Gupta, an anchor and correspondent from Bloomberg TV and radio. Earlier in the program, you heard from Leila Milana-Allen, special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour from Syria. Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer. Chris Costano is our digital editor.

Maya Garg is our senior managing producer. Amanda Williams is our special projects editor. Aileen Humphries is the editor and producer of 1A On Demand. Barb Anguiano produces our podcast with help this week from Lauren Hamilton. Matthew Simonson also helps with the podcast and On Demand audio. Happy holidays. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington, distributed by NPR. I'm Naila Boodoo. Thanks for listening. This is 1A.