The Current

The Horn of Africa, home to over 200 million people, is experiencing high levels of fragility from both violence and climate change. The World Food Program says that the current conflict in Sudan is “risking the world's largest hunger crisis across the region." Jeffrey Feltman, visiting fellow in International Diplomacy in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Brookings, joins The Current to talk about the humanitarian and security crisis unfolding in Sudan and the Horn of Africa. Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-can-be-done-about-sudans-deepening-humanitarian-catastrophe/ Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.  

On May 30, former president Donald Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury of 34 felony counts of falsification of business records in the first degree. The case revolved around payments made before the 2016 presidential election to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, in exchange for her silence about her allegation of an affair she had with Mr. Trump a few years prior. To talk about what the trial verdict suggests for governance, politics, and the rule of law, Norm Eisen, senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings and chair of the Anti-Corruption, Democracy and Security Project, joins The Current. Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-the-trump-hush-money-trial-verdict-means-for-politics-and-the-rule-of-law/ Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Following President Putin's visit to Beijing, Angela Stent and Yun Sun examine Russian and Chinese cooperation over the last two years, how China benefits from the relationship, what to watch for as their economic, military, and diplomatic relations continue to evolve. Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-dynamics-of-the-russia-china-partnership  Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Cities and states have a variety of policy options to help combat high housing costs. Brookings Metro Senior Fellow Jenny Schuetz and Gary Geiler, assistant director of San Diego’s Development Services Department, discuss how accessory dwelling units (ADUs) can be part of cities' toolkits for adding affordable housing. Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/cities-need-more-housing-adus-can-help The Current is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Find this and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Brookings scholar Constanze Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on the United States in Europe and a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings, talks about whether foreign policy issues matter to U.S. voters, and also what's at stake for the world in the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Show notes and transcript The Current is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Find this and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed four bi-partisan bills in a $95 billion foreign aid package with monies going to aid Ukraine, to the Indo-Pacific region to counter China, to offensive and defensive weapons to Israel, and to humanitarian aid for Gaza and elsewhere. Molly Reynolds, senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings, joins The Current to talk about how these bills were passed in a deeply divided House of Representatives and the potential risk to Rep. Mike Johnson's speakership. Show notes and transcript Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.  

The recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore after being struck by a container ship is both a human tragedy and an economic disaster. Six construction workers doing repair work on the bridge lost their lives when it plunged into the cold Patapsco River. The wreckage of the bridge now sits in the channel that connects Baltimore Harbor to the Chesapeake Bay, effectively closing the Port of Baltimore. Joe Kane, a fellow in Brookings Metro, talks about the economic impacts of the disaster and prospects for rebuilding the bridge.

The U.S. has recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic's economic disruption with a strong economy, but a strong economy alone doesn't address all the challenges Americans face. As part of the Brookings Election '24 initiative, Wendy Edelberg talks about where the economy is doing better - increasing wages, decreasing inflation - and other areas where social policies can step in to fill the gaps on housing, child poverty, and more. Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-a-strong-economy-can-and-cant-fix  Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

The third Summit for Democracy takes place March 18 to 20, in Seoul, South Korea. The theme of the summit is democracy for future generations. To talk about the summit’s critical importance and the role of anti-corruption work in the support of democracy, Ambassador Norm Eisen joins The Current. Eisen is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings and chair of the Anti-corruption, Democracy, and Security Project. Show notes and transcript Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

"Russia has failed in its biggest goals, but those failures may be reversed. Ukraine's successes are not guaranteed to endure, and at the moment, momentum seems to be shifting at least modestly in Russia's favor." Two years after Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Michael O'Hanlon takes stock of where the war stands and what happens if the U.S. House of Representatives fails to authorize additional financial and military aid.  Show notes and transcript: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/is-russia-winning-in-ukraine/ Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.