Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

At time of recording, votes in the United States election were still being counted. It appears that the vote totals so far are highly favorable to Joe Biden. Boston Globe columnist Michael Cohen discusses the results, such as we know them, and what they reveal about the American electorate and what, if anything, the results mean for America's role in the world.

Protests in Thailand took an unexpected turn in October when young Thais began demanding reforms to the Monarchy, a traditionally revered institution. This added to demands that the prime minister, who took over in a coup in 2014 immediately resign. Benjamin Zawacki, Senior Program Specialist at the Asia Foundation and author of the book "Thailand: Shifting Ground between the US and a Rising China," explains what is driving protests in Thailand. We kick off discussing the role of the monarchy in Thai society and politics before having a longer conversation about what this protest movement means for the future of Thailand.

Rethinking Humanitarianism is a new podcast for anyone with an interest in the future of humanitarianism, from donors to NGO executives, frontline responders to policy wonks — basically if you've got an eye on the aid sector, this podcast is for you. The podcast is co-hosted by Heba Aly, director of the independent newsroom The New Humanitarian, and Jeremy Konyndyk, senior policy fellow at the non-profit think tank the Center for Global Development. Today's episode features the debut of "Rethinking Humanitarianism" https://tnh.news/podcast

It's the late summer, and an unexplained influenza virus is killing international travelers. Researchers quickly identify the virus as a genetically engineered flu-strain. Intelligence agencies find irrefutable evidence that the virus was created in a secret bioweapons laboratory in a middle income country. It was accidentally released. By the end 50 million people are killed by this pathogen. This was the scenario presented to a group of experts at the Munich Security Conference in February who participated in what is known as a "tabletop exercise" to understand how key international players might respond to a situation like this--and identify ways that such a scenario might be prevented from unfolding in the first place. My guest today, Jaime Yassif, helped to design and implement this table top exercise. She is a senior fellow at NTI for Global Biological policy and programs. And in our conversation we discuss what this fictional scenario reveals about very real gaps in international policies to prevent a catastrophic biological weapons event.

Today's episode was taped live in front a virtual audience as part of a series of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network. The episode today, which is the eighth and final in our series, examines the relationship between climate security and inequality in Indonesia. The episode kicks off with Grazia Pacillo, senior economist CGIAR Climate Security, explaining the results of a report about the impact of climate variability on inequality in Indonesia. I then moderate a discussion with a diverse array of panelists who dive deeper into the ways in which climate variability impacts economic and social inequality in Indonesia and what can be done about it.

In early October a video began to circulate on social media in Nigeria depicting a gruesome act of police brutality. The perpetrators of the police violence were from a notorious police unit called the Special Robbery Squad, or SARS. As this video went viral, Nigerians voiced their own stories of being victimized by this police unit. The hashtag #ENDSARS was born. But the story does not end there. Olorunrinu Oduala, helped to transform this hashtag into a massive youth-led protest movement against police brutality in Nigeria. What started as a hashtag has become a concrete set of demands for police reform and accountability, around which millions of young people in Nigeria have mobilized.

Today's episode was taped live in front a virtual audience as part of a series of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network. The episode today, which is the seventh in our series, examines the relationship between climate security and inequality in Vietnam. The episode kicks off with Grazia Pacillo, senior economist CGIAR Climate Security, explaining the results of a report about the impact of climate variability on inequality in Vietnam. I then moderate a discussion with a diverse array of panelists who dive deeper into the ways in which climate variability impacts economic and social inequality in Vietnam and what can be done about it.

In the short history of modern humanitarianism, great crises have often inspired reform in how the international community approaches emergency situations. Jessica Alexander wrote a sweeping review of how big crises over the last thirty years have compelled the humanitarian aid sector to change how it operates. Her article culminates with a discussion of how the current COVID crisis is forcing a new kind of reckoning in the aid sector. Jessica Alexander is a longtime humanitarian worker and editor of The New Humanitarian's Rethinking Humanitarian Series, which is where her article appears. She is also the author of Chasing Chaos: My Decade in and Out of Humanitarian Aid We kick off our conversation discussing how the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide in the mid 1990s gave rise to a more formalized humanitarian aid sector. We then discuss how big crises like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake forced changes to how international humanitarian relief operates, before having a conversation about how COVID might force some fundamental changes in the aid sector. Rethinking Humanitarianism Chasing Chaos, My Decade in and Out of Humanitarian Aid World Food Program podcast episodes

Today's episode was taped live in front a virtual audience as part of a series of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network. The episode today, which is the sixth in our series, examines how to achieve climate security through strengthening partnerships across sectors, disciplines and geographies. Panelists: Robert Malley, President & CEO, International Crisis Group Claudia Sadoff, Executive Management Team Convener and Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact, CGIAR Hans Olav Ibrekk, Policy Director - Section for Energy, Climate and Food Security, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Franck Bousquet, Senior Director, Fragility Conflict and Violence Group at the World Bank

Cote d'Ivoire president Alassane Ouattara is seeking a constitutionally dubious third term in office in elections scheduled for October 31. Opposition supporters have taken to the streets, and several people have been killed in clashes. Cote d'Ivoire has a history of election-related violence and a chaotic situation in the run-up to these elections suggests that the country may erupt in violent conflict. Mohammad Diatta, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, explains the high-risk political crisis unfolding in the Ivory Coast