Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Dionne Searcey travelled to the Central African Republic to report on a story that has previously lead to the murder of other foreign journalists. In July 2018 three Russian journalists were killed in the Central African Republic while investigating Russia's growing presence in the country. Their murder last year, however, has only increased international attention on Russia's shadowy aims in the Central African Republic. Dionne Searcey is a reporter for the New York Times and her story, published in late September, exposed evidence of Russian involvement in illicit diamond mining. More broadly, though, her story explains and identifies the contours of Russia's growing political interests in the Central African Republic. And at the center of this story is a man named Yevgeny Prighozin. He is a Russian oligarch and close ally of Vladimir Putin, and has been indicted in the United States for his role in interfering in the 2016 Presidential election. He is also the owner of a mining company that has extracted millions of dollars worth of diamonds from the Central African Republic. This was done through legal mining operations -- but also likely through illegal mines operated by armed rebel groups. We kick off discussing Yevgeny Prighozin before having a broader discussion of Russian involvement in the Central African Republic and what this signals about Russian-African relations more broadly. I've posted the article on Global Dispatches Podcast.com and encourage you to read it. It also includes some stunning images from photographer Ashley Gilbertson https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

Kurdish forces have a long history of siding with the United States. And the United States has a long history of eventually selling them out. The latest iteration of this dynamic unfolded when Donald Trump ordered a small US military contingent to withdraw from Kurdish controlled parts of Northeastern Syria in advance of a likely Turkish military operation. The move came after phone call between Trump and Turkish President Recep Teyyep Erdogan in which Trump apparently acquiesced to a Turkish military operation against Kurdish fighters from the region. The situation is rapidly evolving -- so what I opted to do with this episode is speak with an expert on Kurdish politics and diplomacy, Morgan Kaplan, who provides some background and context so you can understand events as they unfold. Morgan Kaplan is the executive editor of the academic journal International Security at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School We kick off discussing the YPG -- these are the Kurdish forces who were the backbone of the fight against ISIS in Syria, and who control territory near the Turkish border. The US had backed them, while Turkey long accused them of being terrorists. We then discuss some of the broader geopolitics of this situation, including Turkish interests in the region; the role of Moscow and Damascus; and of course the Unites States fraught history with the Kurds. https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

The battle of Mosul began exactly three years ago this month. Iraqi government forces and allied Kurdish militias with backing from the United States and other key international partners sought to re-take Mosul from ISIS, which captured the city two years earlier. Mosul is the second most populous city in Iraq. The fighting that ensued was the most intense urban warfare since World War Two. tThe liberating forces went neighborhood to neighborhood, house to house, to recapture territory. It took nearly a year, but eventually ISIS was evicted from Mosul in the summer of 2017. In a new book, the journalist James Verini embedded himself with the liberating forces and the civilians displaced by the fighting. He witnessed the fighting and its impact first-hand which he masterfully recounts in his new book: They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate. On the podcast James Verini discusses the significance of this battle to both the fight against ISIS and the overall politics of the region. We kick off discussing the long history of Mosul and events leading up to its capture by ISIS and eventual liberation by Iraqi and allied forces.

Gulalai Ismail won't tell me how she came to New York. Doing so, she says, will put too many lives at risk. Gulalai Ismail is a longtime human rights activist in Pakistan. Her organization, Aware Girls, helped to train the likes of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai and hundreds of other Pakistani girls, mostly in the very conservative parts of the country rife with Islamist militants. She has faced numerous death threats over the years for her outspoken promotion of the rights of women and girls, but it was not until she began speaking out against the Pakistani government that she felt compelled to flee the country. As she explains, she was put on a most wanted list for her leadership and participation in a protest movement this year seeking accountability for human rights abuses committed by the Pakistani security forces during counter-terrorism operations. This was when harassment and threats directly from the government forced her into hiding. She publicly resurfaced in New York in September, where she is now seeking political asylum. https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

My guest today, Kumi Naidoo, is Secretary General of Amnesty International. He's a longtime activist and civil society leader who joined the anti-apartheid movement as a teenager and for many years lead Greenpeace. In September, ahead of the UN Climate Summit, Amnesty International conferred its highest honor, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, to Greta Thunberg and the Friday's for the Future Movement. In this conversation I sought to draw out Kumi Naidoo's perspective as a longtime activist on this burgeoning transnational youth climate movement. That is the focus of much of our conversation in this episode. We met in Amnesty's offices across the street from the United Nations, where days earlier hundreds of young people gathered for a Youth Climate Action summit. From a UN perspective, this was a pretty interesting and unique event. And Secretary General Antonio Guterres was very transparent that he sought this kind of youth engagement as a means to pressure government to take more meaningful action on climate change. We kick off discussing what impact he's seen from this youth movement around the UN and beyond. At times this conversation gets heavy. And I just want to thank Kumi Naidoo for both taking the time to speak during a very busy UNGA week and more importantly. https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

Around the United Nations you will often see CEOs of major companies participating in meetings and events around sustainability. Meaningful corporate participation is fairly commonplace at the United Nation these days. But this was certainly not the case ten years ago and more, when I'd regularly see Hans Vestberg around the United Nations as one of the very few corporate leaders engaging on development and sustainability issues. Hans Vestberg is the CEO of Verizon and he is on the Global Dispatches podcast to discuss the role of 5G technologies in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. We kick off with a discussion about what exactly 5G is, and how it can be used to advance sustainable development. We then have a discussion about his own commitment to sustainability issues and how Verizon has integrated the Sustainable Development Goals into its corporate strategies.

The United Nations General Assembly, better known as UNGA, kicks in New York this week. Hundreds of heads of state, business and civil society leaders and dignitaries of all stripes will descend on the UN for a week of events, meetings, and of course speeches. UNGA is the single most important and action-packed week on the diplomatic calendar -- a behemoth of diplomatic events. On the line with me to preview the big stories that will drive the agenda at UNGA this year is Margaret Besheer, the UN correspondent for Voice of America, and Richard Gowan, the UN director of the International Crisis Group. We discuss a key youth summit on climate, the UN Climate Action Summit, how tensions between the United States and Iran may shape events at UNGA, and many other key moments, events, and ideas to watch during UNGA. If you have 25 minutes and want to learn the storylines that will drive the agenda at UNGA this year, have a listen. https://patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres discusses climate change in this special episode of the Global Dispatches podcast. On Tuesday, September 17th Antonio Guterres sat down with Mark Hertsgaard of The Nation and Mark Phillips of CBS News for an interview conducted on behalf of Covering Climate Now. This is a global collaboration of over 250 news outlets, including the Global Dispatches Podcast and UN Dispatch, to strengthen coverage of the climate story. The interview with Antonio Guterres was conducted on behalf of all participating members of this coalition and I am glad to be able to present the podcast version of it to you. If you are listening to this episode contemporaneously, I'd encourage you to check out the episode I posted earlier this week that gets into a little more detail about the UN Climate Action Summit; and later this week, I will have an episode that previews all the big stories that will drive the agenda around the UN Week in New York. After the interview concludes, I'll offer some short commentary about my big takeaways. I've covered the UN for nearly 15 years and I think Antonio Guterres' remarks in this interview for reasons I explain. If you are new to the podcast: welcome. Global Dispatches is a global affairs podcast that typically features my interviews with diplomats, NGOS leaders, policy experts journalists and academics all around topics of world concern. I encourage you to subscribe the show and check out our robust archive.

The UN General Assembly convenes at United Nations headquarters in New York next week. As in every year, UNGA is an annual opportunity for heads of state to come to the United Nations to meet each other and address the world. What distinguishes the UN General Assembly this year is a series of key events and meetings focused on climate change. Of these events and meetings the most high profile is what is known as the UN Climate Action Summit. This will take place on Monday the 23rd of September, and will include top government officials, business leaders, and civil society members bringing to the table concrete action plans to accelerate progress on addressing climate change. Today's episode of the Global Dispatches podcast is dedicated to explaining just what that Climate Action Summit entails and what to expect from this major climate meeting at the United Nations. On the line with me to discuss the significance of this summit and what it hopes to achieve is Cassie Flynn, she is the strategic advisor on climate change in the executive office of the UN Development Program, UNDP. She is the someone who has very much been involved in aspects of planning the summit and in this conversation offers a curtain raiser for the summit itself, and discusses some of the broader expectations for this event. The Climate Action Summit at the UN is the capstone to several climate related events happening at the UN, including a Youth Climate Summit that will feature young leaders from around the world. In this conversation we discuss how these events relate to each other and directly to the Paris Climate Accord. If you have twenty minutes and want to better understand the UN Climate Action Summit, have a listen. This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.

In late August it appeared that the United States was very close to an agreement with the Taliban that would see US troops withdraw from the Afghanistan. Leading the negotiations on the US-side was Zalmay Khalilzad, a widely respected former US Ambassador to the UN who is an immigrant to the US from Afghanistan. He also served as US Ambassador to Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban. Significantly, these negotiations did not include the Afghan government, rather they were direct negotiations between the US and the Taliban. By early September it appeared that the two sides had reached a deal. Then, on September 7th Donald Trump appeared to upend the deal in a tweet suggesting that a planned meeting between the US and Taliban at Camp David had been cancelled, apparently ending these talks. But then, days later, he fired National Security Advisor John Bolton who had largely opposed negotiating with the Taliban in the first place. So where does this leave the peace process and negotiations for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan? And what happens next? On the line to discuss these questions and more is Daniel Serwer. He is a professor of conflict management and American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Study and a scholar at the Middle East Institute Daniel Serwer has had a long career in and out of government participating in peace talks and peace building efforts around the world, including Afghanistan. We kick off discussing just what Zalmay Khalilzad was negotiating with the Taliban before having a longer conversation about how those talks broke down and what comes next. If you have 20 minutes and want to get up to speed on US diplomacy towards Afghanistan, then have a listen. https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches