Consider This from NPR

American Presidents have been trying to manage Russian President Vladimir Putin since the beginning of this century.There was George W. Bush, who met with Putin 28 times.Barack Obama and Putin sat down together 9 times.Joe Biden met with Putin only once.Past presidents had hoped to strike deals and push Russia toward a more democratic society.Instead, Russia started wars and tried to expand its borders.Soon, President Trump heads here to Alaska for his seventh meeting with Putin – and like his predecessors – he’s trying to get something out of Putin.This time he’s hoping to finally end the war in Ukraine.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

”The global trading system as we have known it is dead.”Those are the words of former US Trade Representative Michael Froman.He’s now President of the Council on Foreign Relations. If the era of global free trade is over, the question is…what comes next?  For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink and Tyler Bartlam.It was edited by Courtney Dorning.Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Two minutes — that’s how long President Trump says it will take him to figure out whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about finding a way to end his war with Ukraine.Details are still scarce — but Putin and Trump are set to meet Friday in Alaska.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t invited.What does Trump hope to achieve, and can he get it from Putin?  Ambassador John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser in his first term, was with Trump the last time Trump met with Putin. Bolton weighs in.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Trump said he’s taking over Washington and announced he’s deploying the National Guard to the city.And he made another big promise: that his administration would take control of the D.C. police.The president also mentioned other cities across the country with what he says are high levels of crime.As President Trump pledges to use his executive authority to control law enforcement in the nation's capital, there are questions about what happens now and what this might mean for other cities across the country.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Trump administration announced this past week that it has entered talks with the Cook Islands to research and develop seabed mineral resources. The Polynesian archipelago is one of only a handful of countries worldwide that has begun permitting this type of exploration, called deep-sea mining. Deep-sea mining is not regulated. There's no blueprint for how to do it safely, or responsibly. Which is why, for the last decade, the UN's International Seabed Authority has worked to draw up regulations. But President Trump — and one Canadian company — have posed a question: Why wait? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The question of whether Russian interference in the 2016 election was a decisive reason Donald Trump won the presidency is one that has dogged Trump for the better part of a decade.It's also been the subject of numerous investigations.But even though that question has been asked and answered, the current Trump administration is launching another investigation in an effort to reach a different conclusion. Last month, Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified documents and she leveled an unprecedented accusation: The Obama administration knowingly pushed the idea of Russian interference as false narrative to sabotage Trump's campaign. And this week, Attorney General Pam Bondi has authorized an investigation into the investigation of his 2016 campaign's relationship Russia. What is there left to learn? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The FBI is investigating at least 250 people who may be tied to online networks that target children.These networks encourage kids to hurt themselves, other minors or even animals. In some countries, they have been tied to mass casualty and terrorism plots.NPR's domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef has spoken with a family that experienced this firsthand. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In 2006, Ari Shapiro reported on how Hurricane Katrina made an already broken public defender system in New Orleans worse. The court system collapsed in the aftermath of the storm.Katrina caused horrific destruction in New Orleans. It threw incarcerated people into a sort of purgatory - some were lost in prisons for more than a year. But the storm also cleared the way for changes that the city's public defender system had needed for decades. Two decades later, Shapiro returns to New Orleans and finds a system vastly improved.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Fights over Congressional maps never used to be this intense. On Tuesday, Texas Republicans voted to issue civil arrest warrants for Democrats who fled the state.The GOP is trying to redraw house districts, and the proposed new map could give Republicans as many as five more House seats. That change could easily decide control of Congress. This fight is rippling out to other states too with President Trump urging Republicans to follow the lead of Texas. And Democratic governors saying they might follow the same path. Trump can be this transparent because there are no federal restrictions on redrawing districts for purely partisan gain. The Supreme Court said so in 2019.Gerrymandering has been part of U.S. politics for hundreds of years. How did it become a bloodsport?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Google's AI Overviews feature can deliver an answer to your question before you click a single link. But it spells bad news for the publishers that write the articles that power these AI summaries: their business models depend on site visits to sell ads. And some smaller publishers have already gone out of business as the use of AI summaries grows."The extinction-level event is already here," said Helen Havlak, publisher of tech news site The Verge.NPR's John Ruwitch reports on how companies are adapting to the artificial intelligence shake-up in Google search. And Google is a financial supporter of NPR, but we cover them like any other company.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy