Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Somalia is in the midst of a dangerous political standoff that has resulted in armed clashes in Mogadishu and other parts of the country. At the heart of the crisis is President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's controversial effort to extend his term in office by one year, from May 2026 to May 2027, through constitutional amendments that opposition leaders and several regional governments reject. Meanwhile, countries in the region are competing for influence in Somalia, raising the specter that outside forces could fuel a wider conflict. Aweis Ahmed of Chatham House explains what's driving the crisis, what's at stake, and whether a path to de-escalation remains.

Now that Democrats have won large majorities in the House and Senate, what influence might they be able to exert over US foreign policy? I'm joined today for this special day-after-the-election episode by Joel Rubin, a veteran of both Capitol Hill and the State Department and proprietor of The Briefing Book Substack, for a conversation about the tools Democrats might wield to shape US foreign policy. We kick off by discussing the implications of this election for the ongoing war in Iran, then turn to some of the Democrats' legislative priorities, including potentially restoring funding for foreign aid and global development. We also discuss some of the incoming chairs of key congressional committees and subcommittees. We close with a conversation about what this Democratic landslide means for the rest of the world and how it might reshape other countries' relations with the United States. This is a timely conversation that will provide useful context for understanding the far-reaching implications of these midterm elections.

We are down to the wire in the race for UN Secretary-General, as eight candidates vie to lead the United Nations. They are a diverse group of diplomats, but one thing unites them: each has made revitalizing the UN's role in peacemaking, conflict mediation, and conflict prevention a priority of their campaign. This reflects a broad recognition that the UN's role and influence in these areas have waned in recent years. So what can be done to restore the UN as a more meaningful player in global peacemaking? And what can the next Secretary-General personally do to promote peace and bring conflicts to an end? I'm joined today by Jeffrey Feltman, a longtime diplomat who served as the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and is now a senior fellow at the UN Foundation. We kick off by exploring why the UN has seemingly become less effective in conflict mediation and peacemaking in recent years. We then discuss concrete steps the next Secretary-General can take to revitalize the UN's role in peacemaking and conflict resolution, some of which Feltman outlined in a recent piece for [Re]Group.

About an hour after polls closed in Israel yesterday, I caught up with longtime Israeli politics analyst Joel Braunold, Managing Director of The Center Project, for a wide-ranging conversation about the implications of the election results. We kick off with a summary of where things stand (which has not changed much since the polls closed).  To that end, Joel argues that the results represent a profound rebuke of the coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, including its explicit policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. He then takes us deep into the complex parliamentary politics that will play out over the next few weeks as a new government seeks to form, including the implications of the strongest showing ever by Arab-Israeli parties. We then discuss what this vote means for Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza. I think you will find this timely conversation to be an accessible but nuanced take on how to make sense of these historically significant elections.

Over the last several years, a vast network of aging oil tankers operating under opaque ownership structures has emerged as a critical lifeline for countries facing Western sanctions—particularly Russia and Iran. This so-called shadow fleet now accounts for about 20% of all seaborne oil transport worldwide. Joining me to discuss how this rogue network of tankers evades Western sanctions, and whether we are witnessing the emergence of a parallel maritime trading system, is Nitya Labh of Chatham House.