1/21/26: Zohran Calls For ICE Abolition, IDF Buckles To Ms Rachel, India Joins Fight Against Saudis

Summary

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Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Episode: 1/21/26: Zohran Calls For ICE Abolition, IDF Buckles To Ms Rachel, India Joins Fight Against Saudis
Date: January 21, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode dives into a range of pressing political and international topics, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s sweeping reforms, his call for abolishing ICE, and his administration’s approach to anti-Semitism and childcare. The show then examines a high-profile confrontation between Ms. Rachel and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) over a West Bank soccer field, as well as the escalating proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, now drawing in India, over Sudanese gold and regional dominance. The show features in-depth analysis, sharp banter, and an interview with Zeeshan Hafeez, a progressive congressional candidate in Texas.

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1. Zohran Mamdani’s Reforms & ICE Abolition

(Segments: 02:47 - 13:41)

Key Points & Insights

• Zohran Mamdani’s Early Mayoral Initiatives:
  Mamdani emphasizes building a city government that’s as fast-moving as New Yorkers, citing swift actions such as putting “bad landlords on notice,” fixing a persistent bump on the Williamsburg Bridge, and announcing $1B in funding for universal childcare for younger children.

  “We’ve always wanted to build a city government that moves as fast as New Yorkers do... So day one, we put bad landlords on notice, right after that inauguration speech. Day six, we fixed a bump on the Williamsburg Bridge. Announced more than a billion dollars in funding for universal childcare.”
  — Zohran Mamdani (03:01)

• Universal Childcare Funding:
  Mamdani references money coming from the state, making free childcare a reality for more families and sparking positive personal stories from constituents.

• Abolish ICE Movement:
  Krystal, Saagar, and Emily discuss Mamdani’s position on abolishing ICE, highlighting his argument that ICE no longer serves a humanitarian or legal function.

  “I'm tired of waking up every day and seeing a new image of someone being dragged out of a car, dragged out of their home, dragged out of their life. What we need to see is humanity.”
  — Zohran Mamdani (04:30)

• Anti-Semitism and Policies on Israel:
  Mamdani revoked previous executive orders defining anti-Semitism in a way that conflated it with criticism of Israel, while increasing funding for hate crime prevention and security for Jewish New Yorkers.

  “But the rubric we judge ourselves on cannot be, are we keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe? It has to also be, are we celebrating and cherishing them?”
  — Zohran Mamdani (05:51)

• Talent and Political Savvy:
  The hosts note Mamdani’s political skill in connecting with both progressive voters and more moderate, affluent media personalities.

  “He's very talented. He knows what he's doing.”
  — Ryan Grim (12:37)

• Budget and Political Hurdles:
  Despite success so far, Mamdani faces opposition at the state level from Governor Kathy Hochul, who did not include tax increases on the rich in her recent budget – a challenge for funding further reforms.

Notable Quotes

• "He's picking a lot of low-hanging fruit that, if you come from DSA organizing world, you are going to be equipped to pick in a way that if you're Andrew Cuomo... you don't even know what bothers the average New Yorker."
  — Emily Jashinsky (11:07)

• "It is completely obvious... when you have moderate rich media women on the View fawning over you... that is as you're already in office... that's obvious evidence of a generational political talent."
  — Emily Jashinsky (12:37)

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2. Ms. Rachel vs. the IDF: Soccer Field Controversy

(Segments: 15:56 – 23:17)

Key Points & Insights

• Ms. Rachel’s Advocacy:
  The children’s YouTuber Ms. Rachel publicly backs attempts to save a West Bank soccer field slated for demolition by the IDF. Her support energizes social media and gains attention from Swiss MPs.

• Wider Consequences for Israel:
  UEFA is threatening to expel Israel from European soccer competitions due to Israeli teams’ participation in occupied West Bank territories, a move reignited by the soccer field controversy.

  “The entire occupation of the West Bank is illegal and they said they're going to demolish this soccer field...”
  — Ryan Grim (16:01)

  “...the fact that they would even get this close to demolishing the soccer field... and they don't want to be kicked out of the soccer league, kind of remarkable... It's that, like, it bothers you this much that these kids are playing soccer on this field, that you're willing to make it more likely that you're going to be kicked out of European soccer?”
  — Ryan Grim (19:29)

• Broader Implications:
  The hosts discuss how this incident exposes the depth of Israeli government priorities and hostility toward normalcy in Palestinian life.

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3. Gaza, UN, & Trump’s "Peace Board"

(Segments: 23:17 – 29:37)

Key Points & Insights

• Trump’s Board of Peace:
  Donald Trump proposes a "Gaza Peace Board" including high-profile figures like Tony Blair and, allegedly, Vladimir Putin. The board has a billion-dollar buy-in and is UN-blessed, but Trump envisages it potentially supplanting the UN itself.

  "Trump seems to want to replace the UN with whatever this is. He seems completely open to that."
  — Ryan Grim (25:55)

• Destruction of UNRWA Headquarters:
  The Israeli government bulldozes UNRWA’s Jerusalem HQ, drawing symbolic condemnation from the UN but no halt to operations, highlighting the power vacuum and competing visions for Palestine’s future.

• Practical Limitations:
  The hosts express skepticism about the board’s ability to resolve Gaza’s core issues, noting that Hamas remains active and that mass displacement continues.

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4. Interview: Zeeshan Hafeez, TX-33 Congressional Candidate

(Segments: 31:57 – 46:23)

Key Points & Insights

• Progressive Agenda:
  Hafeez positions himself as the only candidate in a low-turnout Democratic primary who refuses AIPAC money, calls Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide, and supports abolishing ICE, universal healthcare, a $20/hour minimum wage, and the Green New Deal.

  “You can tell by the fact that I'm using the term genocide that I absolutely refuse AIPAC and all pro-Israel money.”
  — Zeeshan Hafeez (34:48)

• Electoral Math:
  The race is a unique opportunity due to low voter turnout and a split establishment vote, making a progressive upset plausible, akin to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 victory.

• Local Issues and Platform:
  Hafeez emphasizes local needs: investing in public transit (DART), affordable housing, public education, and teacher pay versus oversized ICE salaries.

  “It's a sham that ICE agents get $50,000 signing bonuses while teachers are lucky to get one to three thousand dollars...”
  — Zeeshan Hafeez (39:20)

• Anti-War and Domestic Investment:
  Critiques both Trump and establishment Democrats for focusing resources on foreign wars rather than addressing domestic crises like homelessness and veterans’ care.

Memorable Segment

• “This is one of those weird situations where it's doable... Joe Crowley versus AOC election, I think 40,000 people, maybe actually something like 40,000 people voted... This is way less than that.”
  — Ryan Grim (44:33)

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5. Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Global Proxy Wars

(Segments: 48:42 – 65:16)

Key Points & Insights

• Saudi Acquisition of Sudanese Gold:
  In a shift from past years, Saudi Arabia announces it will start buying Sudanese gold—previously monopolized by the UAE—marking a new front in their proxy conflict, with Pakistan and India now also playing roles.

• Proxy Battlelines:
  The UAE is backing the RSF (a Janjaweed offshoot) in Sudan, while Saudi Arabia—alongside Pakistan and Egypt—supports the Sudanese army. India and UAE strengthen economic ties in response to Saudi-Pakistani cooperation.

  “This war between Saudi and the UAE really started in Yemen and then rolled into Sudan, where in Sudan it has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. But yeah, to now rope in India...”
  — Ryan Grim (52:12)

• Regional and Global Stakes:
  India's energy deals and the Red Sea’s strategic location make Sudan a nexus for global resource and power struggles. The hosts emphasize the importance of understanding the geographic and political context.

• ICC and African Wars:
  The ICC considers prosecuting the RSF for atrocities in Sudan, despite U.S. political figures like Lindsey Graham disparaging attempts to hold non-African countries accountable.

• Humanitarian Catastrophe:
  Massive human suffering continues:

  • Health system collapse in South Kordofan (61:57)
  • Potential massacres in El Obeid and El Fasher could dwarf recent conflicts elsewhere
  • The world’s (and especially U.S. policy’s) inattention to the Sudanese crisis is critiqued harshly

Notable Exchanges

• “The ICC is set up for African countries, for Africa, for Africans.”
  — Ryan Grim, quoting Lindsey Graham (58:18)

• “The UAE is driving this in a significant way. And the UAE is a top ally of the United States. We have empowered them throughout their rise into this. But they're becoming this little miniature power center on their own... but they are entirely vulnerable to American action.”
  — Ryan Grim (62:37)

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6. Closing Reflections and Media Critique

(Segments: 62:02 – 65:16)

Key Points

• The disparity in media attention between conflicts like Gaza and Sudan is stark, even as death tolls and humanitarian crises mount in both.

• The show concludes with explicit acknowledgment of U.S. complicity (especially via the UAE), and the fact that “Washington has been bought off,” but notes new political alignments could alter the balance.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Zohran Mamdani Interview & Policies: 02:47 – 13:41
• Ms. Rachel vs. IDF Soccer Field: 15:56 – 23:17
• Trump’s Peace Board & Gaza: 23:17 – 29:37
• Zeeshan Hafeez Interview: 31:57 – 46:23
• Saudi Arabia, Sudan, India & UAE: 48:42 – 65:16

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Episode Tone

The hosts blend news analysis, witty critique, and passionate advocacy, consistently drawing connections between U.S. foreign policy, domestic issues, and grassroots movements. They are unafraid to challenge political orthodoxy or call out contradictions in both Democratic and Republican leadership. Throughout, the mood is urgent, conversational, and occasionally sardonic.

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For more: breakingpoints.com | Episode available wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

[Ryan Grim]

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[Krystal Ball]

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[Emily Jashinsky]

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[Emily Jashinsky]

C Studio for details hey guys, Sagar and Krystal here.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for.

[Emily Jashinsky]

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[Krystal Ball]

This is the only place where you.

[Ryan Grim]

Can find honest perspectives from the left.

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And that simply does not exist anywhere else.

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[Emily Jashinsky]

Speaking of the Abolish ICE movement's political momentum, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani made his case for abolishing ICE on where else but the View? He was back with the ladies yesterday. Let's get to that.

[Zoran Mamdani]

To be honest, it feels incredible.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah.

[Zoran Mamdani]

You know, this is the dream of a lifetime. And we've always wanted to build a city government that moves as fast as New Yorkers do. You know, when a New Yorker's trying to walk somewhere, you don't get in their way. City government hasn't felt like that for a long time. So we've wanted to say that there's not gonna be any problem too big or too small for us to address. So day one, we put bad landlords on notice right after that inauguration speech. You know, day six, we fixed a bump on the Williamsburg Bridge Day announced more than a billion dollars in funding for universal childcare.

[Emily Jashinsky]

That was a huge bump, by the way. Yes, that was a huge bump. Where's that money coming from?

[Zoran Mamdani]

That's coming from the state. And what that does is it allows us to fix universal childcare for three year olds and deliver it for two year olds. We actually have a mother in the audience, Mallory, who is here with us and who, when the announcement was made, texted her husband to say it might be time for a second kid.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Aw.

[Zoran Mamdani]

And I think so often we think that these are decisions families are making on their own, but really we're giving them no choice when we say that childcare costs 25, $26,000 a year. Now it's something that they can actually get for free.

[Emily Jashinsky]

All right, so lots of friendly banter with Zora Momdani once again on the View. Here he is on abolishing ice. D2. In light of recent events, there have.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Been renewed calls from prominent Democrats to abolish ice. I want to know where you come down on abolishing ICE and if you believe that ICE has any legitimate law enforcement role.

[Zoran Mamdani]

You know, I am in support of abolishing ice, and I'll tell you why. Because what we. What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist. We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it's doing is terrorizing people, no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, no matter the facts of the case. And I'm tired of waking up every day and seeing a new image of someone being dragged out of a car, dragged out of their home, dragged out of their life. What we need to see is humanity. And there is a way to care about immigration in this city and in this country with a sense of humanity. What we're seeing from ICE is not it. And we have not seen that from them in a long, long time.

[Emily Jashinsky]

And finally, one more skeptical question from a View host, this time on Zoramdani's policies towards Jewish New Yorkers. Let's roll the clip.

[Saagar Enjeti]

One of your first acts as mayor was revoking executive orders related to the definition of anti Semitism and lifting restrictions on boycotting Israel. A staff appointee, which I know you've spoken to this a little bit with Alyssa's questions, had to resign over resurfaced.

[Ryan Grim]

Anti Semitic social posts.

[Emily Jashinsky]

How do you answer to Jewish New.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yorkers, which is the largest population outside.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Of Israel, who still don't maybe feel protected under your administration?

[Zoran Mamdani]

So this is an administration that will root out anti Semitism across the five boroughs. And you're right that we signed an executive order on the first day revoking every order that the previous mayor had taken after he was federally indicted. The reason we did that was because it was a day when New Yorkers looked at City hall and said, I don't know what's motivating these actions anymore. Is it the indictment or is it the interests of the city? And another order that we did ourselves was to keep the mayor's office to combat anti Semitism. This is an office and an administration that looks to fulfill those words, that commitment we've made. Increasing funding for hate crime prevention programming, increasing security for Jewish New Yorkers outside of synagogues and temples, and also saying that the rubric we judge ourselves on cannot be, are we keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe? It has to also be, are we celebrating and cherishing them? Because that's what it means to feel like you belong in a city. That's what we want to do forever.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Especially New York.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Especially New York.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah. Okay, so most of those women either just work in New York or own property in New York. Probably a couple of them live in New York at least.

[Ryan Grim]

And voters thoroughly charmed Think any voted for them?

[Emily Jashinsky]

I highly doubt that. Sunny Haasa might have voted for him. I don't know. But they're thoroughly charmed. I mean, here you have moderate wealthy women in New York City ready to get on board the Zo Run Mamdani DSA train.

[Ryan Grim]

I mean, how can. With that smile. Come on. How can you not? On the question of the anti Semitism definition, I wish sometimes he would spell out like why he got rid of explicitly conflates criticism of Israel with anti Semitism. Like it lumps those together in the examples of things that it considers a legal definition of anti Semitism. Like I wish he would kind of just say that for whatever reason, he clearly feels like there's. He doesn't want to get into the weeds on it and just wants to kind of hit Eric Adams instead. Let's linger for one second on that. On that. Fixing the bump on the Williamsburg Bridge. It sounds silly.

[Emily Jashinsky]

No, it doesn't.

[Ryan Grim]

But like that combined with the deep cleaning of the subway. So there was this bump apparently on the bridge that was on a bike lane that was like a little bit treacherous and was the bane of every bike commuter's existence. Going to and from work or into and out of the city, including Mamdani. And he's like, you know what? Let's fix that.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Just do it.

[Ryan Grim]

And he showed up and like thanked the guys for fixing it. Yeah, like, like it's so easy.

[Emily Jashinsky]

It's low hanging fruit.

[Ryan Grim]

People are so grateful to like see the city do something to make their life better, even if it's as small as like making their ride like a little bit safer. Intern MJ put together a list of a bunch of the other executive actions that he's rolled out really quick. I don't know if we have any elements for these, but I can go through some of them. He re established the mayor's office to protect tenants. He did a bunch of other things to kind of.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Is that the Sia Weaver office?

[Ryan Grim]

She's involved in that?

[Emily Jashinsky]

Okay.

[Ryan Grim]

He did a bunch of other things to accelerate housing, ticking off NIMBYs in the process. We don't have to get into that.

[Emily Jashinsky]

She is the director of that. So maybe not the cleanest W for.

[Ryan Grim]

Zo Ron in that case, but he has stood by her, which suggested was like a good idea because if you notice. So he got rid of the person that was mentioned who had some, you know, anti Semitic posts. They mentioned it in the clip there that one of his people had to quit. By the way, that person either is Jewish or she's married to a Jewish person but had said some tweet that was like, this is indefensible. This looks anti Semitic. The fact that you are. We know you're not. Doesn't matter. Like it looks bad. And so they did. She did withdraw. But if you notice what the political effect of that is, it's going to be constantly brought up as an indictment against him. Did you notice how the question was framed? It wasn't like you got rid of this person, therefore that's a good thing and shows that you're willing to fight anti Semitism. It was used as an example of how actually your administration shot through with anti Semitism. So there's this.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

That's.

[Ryan Grim]

That's the trap of getting rid of people. Like if you get rid of C. Weaver, it's like, oh no, I hate white people. You got rid of this. One person hates white people.

[Emily Jashinsky]

The politics of it were very smart.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah. And then it tells the New York Post like, don't waste your time.

[Emily Jashinsky]

It's not debate.

[Ryan Grim]

Isn't going to maybe do two articles next time, not seven.

[Zoran Mamdani]

Yeah.

[Emily Jashinsky]

You don't need to send the photographer, right?

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah. You don't want to stake out her apartment. Let's see what else they do.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah.

[Ryan Grim]

The free childcare. Yes. I saw the announced new commitment to expand access to public bathrooms. And you've already seen that. Like they're already opening up new bathrooms. Like people are like, yes, more bathrooms. Good.

[Emily Jashinsky]

He's picking a lot of low hanging fruit that if you come from DSA organizing world, you are going to be equipped to pick in a way that if you're Andrew Cuomo in a bubble of wealth privilege, you don't even know what bothers the average New Yorker.

[Ryan Grim]

And there's some Lena Khan stuff in here. Department of Consumer Worker Protection. Crack down on illegal subscription tactics like fighting subscription tricks and traps. Like when you try to get rid of your breaking points premium subscription. And we try when we.

[Emily Jashinsky]

But nobody does.

[Ryan Grim]

Actually, that's true. Nobody has ever.

[Emily Jashinsky]

It's never happened.

[Ryan Grim]

Nobody has ever tried to do that. Why would you?

[Emily Jashinsky]

I wonder if Zoran has a BP subscription.

[Ryan Grim]

Look his email up in there. He should. He don't want to waste his time with the ads.

[Emily Jashinsky]

No.

[Ryan Grim]

Right.

[Emily Jashinsky]

He's busy.

[Ryan Grim]

Sued the same agency sued predatory delivery app Moto Click and the CEO for violating the city's delivery worker laws. Warned delivery apps to comply with worker protections. Announced $2.1 million settlement to address hazardous condition and tenant harassment across 14 buildings. Restarted the Just Home Supportive Housing initiative, which would create 83 new homes, which reversed something that Eric Adams had done. And it's January 21st. Like he's been in for exactly three weeks at this point. So I like his idea that New Yorkers walk fast. The city needs to also.

[Emily Jashinsky]

I mean, it's repetitive for us to say this at this point because we've literally been saying this since before anybody knew his name. But he's very talented.

[Ryan Grim]

He knows what he's doing.

[Emily Jashinsky]

It is completely obvious to the point where again, not only did he charm Donald Trump, but when you have moderate rich media women on the View fawning over you, eating out of the palm of your hand, that is as you're already in office, not even before you're in office, but they've seen a couple of weeks of your administration. I mean, we'll see how long it lasts. But that in and of itself is obvious evidence of a generational political talent.

[Ryan Grim]

Now, what he did not get yet, Kathy Hochul's budget just came out and it includes none of the increases in taxes on the rich that he wants to fund his agenda. And he's facing a significant, you know, looming shortfalls. So that is going to be a big fight playing out in Albany over the next weeks and months. But, so she's, she's, her opening bid is nothing even though she's funding his a universal child care program. But to go beyond that, he's going to need these tax increases and he can't do them on his own.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, we'll obviously continue to follow that story. No question about it.

[Krystal Ball]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra, SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures hey.

[Emily Jashinsky]

This is US Olympic gold medalist Tara.

[Krystal Ball]

Davis Woodhull and I'm US Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.

[Emily Jashinsky]

As athletes, our lives are about having a clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust. So when it came to getting the best mortgage, we chose PennyMac. PennyMac is proud to be the official mortgage provider of Team USA and you.

[Ryan Grim]

Learn more at pennymac.com PennyMac Loan Services, LLC equal housing lender NMLS ID 35953 licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions may apply.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Ready to change your Life? For just $2 a day, Orangetheory Fitness delivers one hour workouts that combine strength and cardio to help you burn fat, build muscle and fitness, feel unstoppable right now. Get a full month of unlimited classes for just $62. Don't wait. This offer ends soon. Visit orangetheory.com or your local studio and start your transformation today. Offer ends January 31, 2026. New members only. Premier membership, performance monitor and monthly billing required. Discount applies to first month only. Other terms apply. C Studio for details.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Another story that we've been following, Ryan, is the plight of Ms. Rachel.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, so actually Zoran and Ms. Rachel started his term off by pushing for universal Pre K by visiting a preschool class. One of the other things that Ms. Rachel made a crusade of recently was to try to save a soccer field in the west bank that the IDF claimed absurdly was constructed illegally. The entire occupation of the west bank is illegal and they said they're going to demolish this soccer field which is used by hundreds of kids every day in this kind of barren hellscape. One of the few places where they can get some get some normalcy, get some exercise, get some camaraderie. IDF is saying they're going to destroy it. Ms. Rachel stepped in to try to defend the kids soccer pitch. Let's roll this from her.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Hi friends, it's Ms. Rachel. I'm so happy to see you in your beautiful soccer field. We are going to do everything we can to help save the field and that every child has the right to play soccer and that you deserve to.

[Ryan Grim]

Have your wonderful field.

[Saagar Enjeti]

We are so sad about what's happening in the field and what's happening in the camp. Thank you for supporting, supporting us and.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Standing with us and thank you so much. We love you.

[Ryan Grim]

I am so proud to be one.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Of the people supporting you. And I know we've heard from. Some really, really big things are happening and I really believe in my heart that the field will be saved. Ana Beheve.

[Ryan Grim]

So it was Ms. Rachel versus the IDF. Ms. Rachel won. Put up this for now, put up this next element here. So Swiss MPs also teamed up with Ms. Rachel to put pressure on the Israeli government to urge them not to demolish this. This fight is playing out in the context of UEFA threatening to kick Israel out of European soccer league, which would be kind of cataclysmic culturally to. To Israel. Israel has. Has fought back. Has been. They were. There was supposed to be a critical vote yesterday. It got delayed until later in January. There's this organization called Game Over Israel that is trying to get them kicked out of UEFA. FIFA. Get. Get them. And the argument that they're making in Switzerland is they. That Israel is Israeli teams that are based in the west bank are just functionally illegal. And that you can't have. You would. You know, UEFA's own tax status is put into jeopardy by collaborating with teams that are blatantly violating the law. Like, you can't. Like it's illegal. Like the occupation is illegal. It just is. And you're participating in the occupation by allowing these Israeli clubs to play and play in UEFA. So they have this kind of sword hanging over their neck of getting kicked out of soccer league. The fact that they would even get this close to demolishing the soccer field when there's so much pressure in Europe to kick them out of the soccer league and they don't want to be kicked out of the soccer league.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Is.

[Ryan Grim]

Kind of a remarkable piece of evidence about how much confidence they have in their position. It's like, is it really that important for you to destroy this little soccer pitch? It's that, like, it bothers you this much that these kids are playing soccer on this field, that you're willing to make it more likely that you're going to be kicked out of European soccer. Really? Like that. That's insane, right? Like, just from a rational perspective of Israel's own strategic interests. That's nuts. And so the only way to explain it is just a level of, like, hostility to these kids just having fun on the soccer field.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, and we can put this job site report up the next headline. It's Israel is preparing land in Rafah to corral Palestinians into an area under full military occupation. The reason that I think it's Worth putting that up in the context of the conversation we were just having about. Ms. Rachel is to your point, about the interests, the political interests of Israel, Ryan? I think it's. The explanation is that they don't want any. I mean, they want everything. They want everything. It's, you know, understandably, they. Understandably from their. If you're putting yourself in the mines, ideologically of them, they want total buffer, and they'll. They don't always say it aloud. What that means is literally all of the land and taking everybody else out. And so I think that's. I think, probably maybe a more honest explanation for why they don't cede even a soccer team in the West Bank.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah. Yes. And so the whole piece is worth going through. And we teamed up with Forensic Architecture to put the piece together. They are expert at analyzing kind of satellite imagery to figure out what's going on over time. And what they're finding there is that in this roughly one square kilometer area in Rafah, which they completely control, they took over an area that was mostly still intact. Like, despite the kind of apocalyptic scenes you see over the rest of the Gaza Strip. There were still a lot of greenhouses. There were still a lot of homes that were still up. They bulldozed all these homes. They then cleared out all the rubble, and they have now compacted the ground in a way that experts say is prepping the ground for development of housing. They currently control about 53% of the Gaza Strip that they're occupying east of what they called the yellow line. And the suggestion here is that you're going to have this military base, you'll have this housing completely surrounded. You will allow Palestinians to come from the west of the yellow line, where they're still being kind of starved and shot at and bombed and denied medical care, and say, look, you don't like this? You want to live? Then come on over here. You will have a roof over your head. They're not even letting tents in for the most part, let alone the reconstruction that was promised as part of the ceasefire. It's like, oh, you don't like living outside for three straight years? Come on over here, live inside this prison camp, basically, and then gradually then creep the 53 to 55 60s and push until you control the entire thing. That seems to be the plan that is. That is unfolding in the face of Trump's Board of Peace, which has a kind of a different vision. Complementary, but a different vision.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, that's the next element we have here. Speaking of Trump's different vision for his board of peace. E4, let's put this up on the screen. You may have heard this news by now, but I'm eager to get Ryan's reaction to it. Vladimir Putin was reportedly invited to join the Gaza Peace Board by Donald Trump.

[Ryan Grim]

Almost a billion dollars, which.

[Emily Jashinsky]

What's the Tony Blair involvement in this?

[Ryan Grim]

He's like the boss of it. He's basically Lar Ellison's proxy on the board.

[Emily Jashinsky]

So the board is off to a hell of a historical.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, yeah. And he's. It's. It cost a billion dollars to join. He was he invited, apparently invited Lula, a bunch of the. Mark Carney, the Canadian who is in.

[Emily Jashinsky]

A bitter feud with at the moment.

[Ryan Grim]

He's going to join. They asked if he'd pay the billion dollars and he said, well, we will contribute and we'll contribute things that will go to the benefit of the Palestinian people, like whether in kind or cash or whatever. In other words, he's like, I'm not going to write Donald Trump a check for a billion dollars. Because Trump seems to like. Seems to be kind of like, just write that out to djt.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Just buy it in the meme coin.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, just buy a little billion dollars in the meme coin. Will do. And he also said, and it has to be exclusive to Gaza because the UN shockingly, did actually bless this Board of Peace. So people who want there to be this idea of international law can say, well, the UN did actually vote to approve this. Security Council voted for this. That's fine. What Trump wants to do is have it also run Venezuela, who God only knows what else.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, he talked a little bit about this at that White House briefing yesterday. He got a question about it, and this is how far he went. Let's roll. E5. Do you want your Board of Peace to replace the un?

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Well, it might.

[Zoran Mamdani]

I mean, the UN just hasn't been very helpful.

[Ryan Grim]

I'm a big fan of the UN.

[Zoran Mamdani]

Potential, but it has never lived up to its potential.

[Ryan Grim]

The UN should have settle every one of the wars that I settled. I never went to them. I never even thought to go to them.

[Emily Jashinsky]

They should be able to settle those wars.

[Zoran Mamdani]

They don't.

[Ryan Grim]

I believe you got to let the.

[Zoran Mamdani]

UN continue because the potential is so great.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Ryan, I don't think you're any defender of the UN's efficacy in this particular conflict. So maybe in the vacuum here, you have the pendulum swinging in another direction.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah. Trump seems to want to replace the UN with whatever this is. He seems completely open to that. Meanwhile, Israel is clearing the way for that. If you can put up E6 here, this VO the Israeli government took a bulldozer to the UN headquarters in Jerusalem, the UNRWA headquarters. Like just an utterly incredible scene. This is the chief relief agency tasked with providing education, housing, food, medical care to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, in the west bank, in Jordan, in Syria, and they just destroyed it. The UN Put out a Guterres, put out a statement condemning it. But, like, the contrast between a statement condemning it versus the visual of them just going in and knocking it down into the ground is quite striking. It's in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood, which is. Which was the neighborhood, actually, where Israel was evicting a bunch of Palestinians back in 2021, if you remember. And Hamas said if they didn't stop, they would shoot rockets at Israel over it, and that's what started that 2021 war.

[Emily Jashinsky]

So let's take Trump both literally and seriously on this UN Point and pull it through it a little bit more. What happens if Trump's peace board does step into the UN Power vacuum? Obviously, with Tony Blair, as we were just discussing, not merely in the background, but really at the forefront of what the operation would look like, you can guess which side of the conflict is going to be favorable to. Even if Donald Trump has kind of a real politic, pragmatic approach overall, if they step into the power vacuum here, Ryan, what do you think that looks like ultimately? I mean, we don't even know what the board looks like, to be fair, but it sounds to me like you have a lot of freelancing from people who are ultimately, ultimately going to be leaning in one direction.

[Ryan Grim]

They also seem to be forgetting that the Palestinian people still exist and Hamas still exists. Like, this is. You could. They can wish them away. They reached a ceasefire. Israel has violated the ceasefire basically on a daily basis, killing multiple people a day since it went into effect. But Hamas is still there. So, like, what's. Like, how do you. They seem to be trying to just skip over this. That part of it. Skipping to a place where they'd like to be.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah, because they won the war and eradicated Hamas. Right.

[Ryan Grim]

And that's 53%. They did, and they've completely leveled it.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah, but what did Blinken say as Biden was leaving office?

[Ryan Grim]

That they'd reconstituted the same number of fighters as at the beginning.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah.

[Ryan Grim]

And they rely on unexploded Israeli ordnance, you know, for their explosives. Homemade. A lot of homemade ammunition in that sense. So, like, I don't. It just Seems like kind of fantasy stuff.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah. Well, we'll see where it goes from here. Ryan, we have a guest who is joining us now. Let's get to him.

[Krystal Ball]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures hey.

[Emily Jashinsky]

This is US Olympic gold medalist Tara.

[Krystal Ball]

Davis Woodhull and I'm US Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.

[Emily Jashinsky]

As athletes, our lives are about having a clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust. So when it came to getting the best mortgage, we chose PennyMac. PennyMac is proud to be the official mortgage provider of Team USA and you.

[Ryan Grim]

Learn more at pennymac.com PennyMac Loan Services, LLC equal housing lender NMLS ID 35953 licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions may apply.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Ready to change your Life for just $2 a day, Orangetheory Fitness delivers one hour workouts that combine strength and cardio to help you burn fat, build muscle and feel unstoppable. Right now, get a full month of unlimited classes for just $62. Don't wait. This offer ends soon. Visit orangetheory.com or your local studio and start your transformation today. Offer ends January 31, 2026. New members only. Premier Membership Performance Monitor and monthly billing required. Discount applies to first month only. Other terms apply. See Studio for details.

[Ryan Grim]

All right, so joining us now to discuss all this is Zeeshan Hafeez, who's running for Congress in Texas 33rd district. Zeeshan, thanks so much for joining us.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Thank you for the opportunity. It's a pleasure to be here. And thank you for the amazing journalistic work that you all do.

[Ryan Grim]

Oh, man. Buttering us up to start. This is going to go smoothly, I see.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

I truly mean it. I truly mean it. You're doing a great service for the progressive cause across the country and I truly do appreciate it.

[Ryan Grim]

Emily doesn't like to hear that for sure.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Oh, the conservatives would say that I do a great service to the progressive cause.

[Zoran Mamdani]

You do.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

You do. You do too, Emily.

[Ryan Grim]

Oh, man. Oh, man. Now she's in trouble. So the reason we wanted to have you on is because you're kind of a different kind of congressional candidate. And so in the 33rd district right now there are, it's basically a three way race. You're third place. But the reason we think you have at least a fighting chance in there is that you have two members of Congress. Or is Colin Allred now a former member of Congress at this point?

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Technically, former member of Congress.

[Ryan Grim]

So you have Julie Johnson, who's a Democrat, and Colin Allred, who's also a Democrat, former football player who was going to run for Senate but then kind of got elbowed out of that race and is now running against Julie Johnson in this kind of redrawn district. So Texas, as we all saw, famously redrew its districts just like California and some other states did to try to goose the number of Republicans that could win in the state. So they're kind of cramming all the Democrats they can into the race. And my read is that if it was just you against a known member of Congress, then that's a pretty tough fight. You against two members of Congress who might split that kind of establishment vote could potentially let you slip into a runoff because Texas has this runoff system where if nobody gets 50%, the top two go into the runoff. So we just put up E6 again for a second to let you know what we were talking about kind of earlier in the show. This is in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, the Israeli government just literally destroying UNRWA's headquarters. This is the UN agency in charge of doing relief, education and healthcare for outstanding refugees in Gaza, west bank, in Syria, in Jordan and so on. And so I'm curious, what role, first.

[Krystal Ball]

Of all.

[Ryan Grim]

Are you taking AIPAC money? That's the Jennifer Welch question that every candidate now gets asked. And what role is Israel's ongoing genocide playing in congressional races now that we're in a kind of era of a so called ceasefire?

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Absolutely. No, first off, it's not a ceasefire. There's been over 1,400 violations of the ceasefire. There have been over 500 people killed in Gaza, over 250 people killed in the West Bank. Those are just very conservative estimates. So I would not say there is a ceasefire by any means. Genocide continues. Absolutely. You can tell by the fact that I'm using the term genocide that I absolutely refuse AIPAC and all pro Israel money. My two opponents, Julie Johnson and Colin Allred, have received a combined $700,000 from AIPAC in the pro Israel lobby. And the fact of the matter is, we need people in Congress right now that are willing to be on the right side of history, not only with the genocide. I think if you look at Colin and Julie, they're both establishment Democrats, as you mentioned, but on top of that, they do not stand on the side of abolishing ice. They do not stand on the side of fighting for the affordability crisis with real solutions like a real living wage of $20 per hour, affordable housing for all, providing universal health care through Medicare for all. These are real progressive issues. And the fact is that district 33 is now a district that Kamala Harris won by 32 points. And on top of that, this is a very low turnout district. In 2020, there was only 22,000 total votes in the Democratic primary. And in 2022, there was only 24,000 votes. It's a very low turnout race, a historic race where we have a progressive challenger up against two establishment Democrats who are both bought and paid for by the pro Israel lobby.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, that point about turnout rates is really important.

[Ryan Grim]

That's insane. 22,000.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Is that. Are you sensing that this issue is what energizes or one of many issues, but probably one of the primary issues that energizes people to get involved in campaigns like yours and then to end up actually voting. I mean, primaries can be low energy, low turnout and all of that. So when you're trying to squeeze in, in a race like this, do you find that's what right now, when you're out there campaigning, this is one of those things that gets people going, Emily.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

This is the one issue that gets standing ovations, that gets the crowd excited, that gets people excited. Because I am the only younger people.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Do you find it's a lot of younger people?

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

It's younger people, it's older people, it's people of color, it's everyone. Anyone of conscience. I think that numbers have said that 92% of Democrats are against Israeli military actions in Gaza. And what's happening, a lot of people are starting to see that it's a genocide. And I think this is a defining line and a defining moment in the Democratic Party this year that people, the primary voters will not support AIPAC sponsored candidates anymore. And I think this is also a moment to your point, Emily, where young voters are getting very excited because they want to do something about what's happening over there. They have seen the genocide unfurl on their social media in ways that have never happened in modern history in any other sort of action. So this is something that's not only energizing young voters, but it's energizing minorities and progressive voters, the labor union. A lot of folks are very excited about this. And my opponents, both, Julie Johnson, Colin Allred, refused to call it a genocide. One of my opponents refuses to even talk about. She refuses to even discuss Palestine in any of the public forums that we're at, even though just last week she approved $3.3 billion more to go and commit this genocide on our name. When Americans are dealing with an affordability crisis at home.

[Ryan Grim]

You know, I've heard people say, and I think Ta Nehisi Coates put it best when he said something like, people care about the issue because of the, the human cost, the human toll, but it's also a proxy for whether or not you're willing to kind of fight for anything at all. I think his, his quote was something like, if you're not willing to draw the line at genocide, how can I trust you to, you know, fight for democracy? So with that being said in this Dallas district, what, what is the thing that people want you to be fighting for in back in Dallas? Like, what is, what is the thing that is animating people right now?

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

I mean, there are a number of issues locally that are mattering to the local people. In Dallas, one of the things is rapid transit. DART has recently been defunded by multiple cities within the Dallas Fort Worth area. The federal government must come in and build a real transit system for Dallas Fort Worth. But on top of that, it's the standard things that matter to Americans all across the country. Imagine if we were able to invest in a Green New Deal. The reason why we don't have a Green New Deal for Dallas Fort Worth is we've been represented by people that are bought and sold by the oil lobby. I'm proud not only to be endorsed by Citizens Against APAC Corruption, but also Citizens Against Big Oil and track oil pac. So the fact of the matter is that we have a government that is being bought and sold and run by corporations, by foreign lobbies and by the billionaires. And I think the average American today is hurting. There's an affordability crisis and they are having trouble not only paying rent but affording groceries and taking care of the fundamentals to take care of their family. They would rather have someone who's going to fight for free public education, someone who's going to make sure that we have free public universities, free public trade schools and free public colleges like they have in Europe and invest in kindergarten through 12th grade by providing actual increases to teacher pay. I think that in this country it's a sham that ICE agents get $50,000 signing bonuses while teachers are lucky to get one to three thousand dollars to go in very specialized fields. And teachers start out at pays that are less than $50,000, whereas ICE agents are making six figures. I think that's unacceptable. And our nation has the wrong priorities because we have politicians. They're not willing to start fights on the right issues.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, speaking of that, actually, let's put this post from Lindsey Graham up on the screen. This is E9 over the conflict in Syria right now. Lindsey Graham has said there's use of military force by the new Syri Syrian Kurds and the SDF that would create tremendous instability in Syria and the region and would tell me all I need to know about this new regime. If military action is taken by the Syrian government, I will do everything in my power to revive the Caesar act sanctions, making them even more bone crushing. Now, of course you're not running against Lindsey Graham, but right now the Trump administration is facing criticism from Republicans and even internally that it's so focused on foreign conflicts from Venezuela to Canada to Greenland to of course basically all of the you know, Trump is constantly talking about how he solved eight wars and he just repeated today that the UN should have solved all of these eight wars that he solved. I noticed when we were talking about Israel earlier you mentioned you very I think you could tell us a little bit about this, but you pivoted to while we have an affordability crisis at home that Republicans are doing X, Y and Z or your opponents are doing X, Y and Z while we have an affordability crisis at home, can you talk a little bit about how making that connection and is powerful with voters in your experience, I imagine you've noticed that's something that lands.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Absolutely, Emily, that's a great point that you bring up. First off Donald Trump has launched nine illegal invasions in the last year as a, quote, unquote, peace president. The peace president has gone and essentially declared war on Venezuela without congressional approval, without there being a clear and imminent threat to the United States. So what he is doing is completely illegal and completely an impeachable offense. Instead of invading Venezuela, instead of fighting foreign wars, instead of potentially bombing Syria, Iran and other countries like I'm sure Lindsey Graham and others on the extreme right wing of the Republican Party would want to do, the American people would rather us invest at home. And the fact of the matter is, it's not just Republicans, it's establishment Democrats, the Julie Johnson's and Colin Allreds of the world that allow the Republicans to get away with this. Because the fact of the matter is they are bought and sold by AIPAC and the pro Israel lobby. And AIPAC would love nothing less than for the United States to go and bomb Syria, bomb Iran and destabilize the Middle East. So whereas the American people would rather have someone who's going to fight for stronger unions, who's going to fight for veterans benefits, veterans in my district are struggling. The VA is highly underfunded. Money could go to help providing better lives for the people that fought for our country. Instead of providing, instead of making more veterans who are going to come back with ptsd, who are going to be under threat because we're declaring war on Iran or Syria or anywhere else, we should be instead investing in the people who have already had to survive these foreign wars, people who came back from Afghanistan, people who came back from Iraq, people who came back from Vietnam and had to deal with the same things that our government is doing? Again, I think the American people know where this leads us and they would rather us invest here at home. Why can't we do things like what Bernie Sanders has proposed and invest in millions and millions of affordable housing units so we can fight a real war? The war that we should be fighting is the war on homelessness. One of my local communities here has recently passed a resolution to ban homelessness. That is not a real solution. We should be fighting a war on homelessness by building affordable housing units all across the country so that everyone can live a dignified life under a roof, under their head and their family's heads. That's what's important to the American people right now.

[Ryan Grim]

Well, Zeeshan Hafeez, thanks so much for joining us and good luck in your race. We'll be tracking it. When's the primary?

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

The primary actually starts with early voting. On February 17th. It goes from February 17th to the 27th. The actual election is on March 3rd. And we hope to take down two pro Zionist, pro Israel, APEC sponsored corporate establishment Democrats and bring a progressive blue wave. It happened in 2016, after 2016 when Donald Trump first came out into power. We hope that it will come again in reaction to his most recent attack on our government, on our democracy, on our civil rights.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, I mean, and it's one of those weird situations where it's doable in the sense that like In Joe Crowley versus AOC election, I think 40,000 people, maybe actually something like 40,000 people voted like it's not many at all.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

This is way less than that and less than that.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Joe Crowley was actually about to be the speaker of the House. He was one of the most powerful people in Congress. I'm going up against a one term congressperson and someone who hasn't been in Congress who could not win a Senate seat. So this is an entirely winnable seat. And the American people, the people of District 33 are tired of these politicians that are being bought by corporations, being bought by foreign interests and are not taking care of the American people at home and fighting for the issues that matter to the American people. So I encourage everyone who's interested in learning more about our campaign to Visit our website, www.zeeshanfortexas.com. we'd love for you to phone, bank, contribute, be involved. We're going to win this race. We're going to turn this, if this, if this country is going to go blue. If there's a plus 32 Democratic district, we don't need another corporate centrist Democrat. We need a true progressive who's going to fight for the values and start fights for us to go and support the American people and fight the real crisis. That's crisis, real home, the crisis of the affordability crisis.

[Ryan Grim]

Let's. All right, let's see if there's 10,000 people. Like it's not that many people out of a district of.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

We're saying 15,000 to be conservative based off of a 30,000 vote total. It's only, it's less than 10,000 just to get to a runoff because of the three candidates in this race. It's not that many people. And that's if you look historically there's not many races across the country where it's just so few votes. So this is a great chance to be involved in some real progress with someone who's not going to fight for corporations who won't take a single cent from corporate PACs or anything else who will end Citizens United and corporations control over our government and instead return the power to the only interest that matters, the interests of the American people.

[Ryan Grim]

All right, thank you Zeeshan. Up next, we're going to be doing updates from the conflict in Sudan. Stick around for that please.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Thank you so much.

[Krystal Ball]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com, and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures hey.

[Emily Jashinsky]

This is US Olympic gold medalist Tara.

[Krystal Ball]

Davis Woodhull and I'm US Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.

[Emily Jashinsky]

As athletes, our lives are about having a clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust. So when it came to getting the best mortgage, we chose PennyMac. PennyMac is proud to be the official mortgage provider of Team USA and you.

[Ryan Grim]

Learn more at pennymac.com PennyMac Loan Services, LLC equal housing lender and MLS ID 35953 licensed by the Department Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions may apply.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Ready to change your Life for just $2 a day? Orangetheory Fitness delivers one hour workouts that combine strength and cardio to help you burn fat, build muscle and feel unstoppable. Right now, get a full month of unlimited classes for just $62. Don't wait. This offer ends soon. Visit orangetheory.com or your local studio and start your transformation today. Offer January 31, 20206 new members only Premier Membership Performance Monitor and monthly billing required Discount Applies to first month only. Other terms apply. See Studio for details.

[Ryan Grim]

Saudi Arabia has announced a deal with the Sudanese government to start buying its gold. We put up F1 here. So last year something like 99% of Sudanese gold was sold to the United Arab Emirates which is basically a crime family that masquerades as a country that engages in a lot of money laundering and other and other serves other services that are useful to Western governments and crime syndicates. About most of that gold, like the bulk of it was sold through the black market. But even the gold that was sold through the regular market went through the uae. Sudan is one of the, one of the countries that has kind of the greatest kind of stores of gold remaining. Gold prices over the last year have surged like if you were, if you were a gold bug the last 10.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Years.

[Ryan Grim]

It'S been a good run for you for a very long time. So now Saudi Arabia as its, it's going through its hot war and its fallout with the UAE is announcing that it's going to send the Sudanese, it's going to purchase Sudanese gold and put it through its own kind of processing facilities that it has in Saudi Arabia. This is all part of the crackup between these one time allies in the Gulf that is entirely reshaping relations everywhere. You know, from Africa into, into Asia. The UAE is backing the, that's the United Arab Emirates. They're backing what's called the RSF Rapid Support Forces which is, if you remember the Janjaweed from the Darfur conflict back in 20 years ago. They're basically a derivative of the, of the Janjaweed which carried their, they carried out a genocide then, they're doing it again now. The UAE is arming them to the hilt. You put up F2. They even got into a border clash with Chad and are sort of apologizing for that. They're realizing they're kind of overstepping things a little bit here as their patrons are coming under intense pressure. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have teamed up to offer like a billion plus weapons package to the Sudanese army. If that comes through and the RSF's supply chains are cut off, it's going to be difficult for them to keep carrying out the assault that they're under or the offensive that is underway in Sudan now.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, and give us the big picture ripple effect potentially of this as well. We can put the next element on the screen. This is from Reuters and this was just from Monday. India UAE signed $3 billion liquid natural gas deal agree to boost trade and defense ties at Leaders meeting. That's the Reuters headline, Ryan. The International. I mean, it's crazy to see the. It's not crazy. It's predictable. But a proxy conflict like this bring in even bigger players than just Saudi and uae. I mean, it's all over. Pitting people all over the world against each other in a proxy conflict that is primarily between them.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. This war between Saudi and the UAE really started in Yemen and then rolled into Sudan, where in Sudan it has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. But yeah, to now rope in India, the way to think about it is that Pakistan and India, you know, could. Oil and water, could not hate each other anymore. And so as Saudi Arabia has linked up with. With Pakistan and tightened its relationship a couple. Was it weeks ago, maybe a month ago or more, inked a. Inked a security agreement with Pakistan which gives Saudi Arabia then the kind of nuclear umbrella of the. Of the Pakistan Pakistani nuclear weapons. So they're tightening their relationship. And so then as Saudi Arabia and the UAE fall out, the UAE links up with India. They also have ideological sympathy with each other. The uae, ironically, is as, like, hostile to Islam as a quote, unquote Muslim country could possibly be. Like, they're out funding Tommy Robinson to go around, like, attacking Muslims. Like, they're. They're constantly whipping up Islamophobia in Europe. Like, this is the uae. Like, it's. I know. Like, if you're just coming to this fresh, you're like, wait a minute.

[Zoran Mamdani]

What?

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, yeah, it's strange.

[Ryan Grim]

They're doing what?

[Emily Jashinsky]

And there's like, Arab Spring.

[Ryan Grim]

They hated the origins.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Origins of this Muslim Brotherhood.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, The UAE hates the Muslim Brotherhood, hates Qatar, which they call like, an outcropping of. Of Muslim Brotherhood. They felt like the Arab Spring, which was pushing for democracy in the Gulf, was a direct threat to their autocratic rule, which of course it was. It is like they. They're. They're like a couple thousand people, you know, ruling over this, you know, extra. Extraordinary amount of wealth and. And people and. And migrant labor. Like, it's like apartheid doesn't even do justice to the level of inequality, political and legal and financial and economic that exists in their country. So they see any of that as a threat. They led the coup to overthrow Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Egypt is now teamed up with actually, Saudi Arabia in the Sudanese conflict. And so India also, and Modi in particular, they have as much hostility to Muslims as the UAE does. So there's some ideological affinity there. But more importantly, there's the money, like India. India's a growing economy, needs energy. UAE has energy to spare. Yeah, UAE can also do, like I was saying, like, all sorts of financial services in the gray area that allow. That. Allow for that kind of world to world to flourish and to make sense of it, we can put up F4 again. I heard from people last week who said that this map was actually, like, very helpful. It's not as if this is the first time that anybody has seen a map, but, like, in the news, for whatever reason and also in our history books when we learn about these things, the kind of. The players are talked about as if they're all kind of sitting in a bar together, rather than, like, laid out geographically in important ways in ways that, like, define the relationships. So you have the Red Sea here, which is the critical waterway that runs through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean and also through the Gulf of Aden. So along that is. That's everything, like control of the world in some ways, kind of runs through there. And so that's why Saudi and the UAE were fighting for the southern tip of Yemen. It's why both China and the US have. Or does China still have a base in Djibouti? I know they did for a long time, but the US has a massive military base in Djibouti. The. The, you know, Eritrea is split off from Ethiopia there. Ethiopia has no access to the Red Sea. Sudan has a bunch of ports along the Red Sea which are. Which are critical to, you know, both Saudi Arabia and the uae. And there, obviously, you have the border there between Egypt and Sudan.

[Emily Jashinsky]

And also just look at how massive Sudan is. I mean, it's just. It's a huge, huge country, and it.

[Ryan Grim]

Used to be bigger. The one you're looking at, the bottom there is South Sudan, which is. Which was broken off after the last. The last genocide that unfolded back in the 2000s.

[Emily Jashinsky]

And just full of resources. I mean, we just. We were talking about gold prices earlier, but that's. I mean, it's not just gold, like we were talking about India. It's the liquid natural gas. It is.

[Ryan Grim]

And to the west of Egypt there, you've got Libya. And so the UAE was building its ports throughout the Red Sea, was building its strength in Yemen and also in Libya, because they basically run Libya now through Haftar. And so they basically had encircled Saudi Arabia. And there was then a clash in Yemen between Emirati and Saudi proxies. And after that, Saudi. Saudi Arabia then attacked the. Attack the Emiratis. And here we are with this continuing to Play out. So now here comes India kind of inking this strategic deal with the uae. Meanwhile, if the ICC is still allowed to do business, is it no. Or just against. Just not against Israel.

[Emily Jashinsky]

I mean, I guess we'll see. But was it ever really even allowed.

[Ryan Grim]

To do business in Africa? In fact, there was this incredible quote. This incredible quote from. It was obviously Lindsey Graham, who.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

On.

[Ryan Grim]

A call with Kareem Khan, who is the chief prosecutor at the icc, said, what are you doing going after. We could find the exact quote, but it was like, what are you doing going after Israel? The ICC is set up for African countries, for Africa, for Africans. And so the icc, within its remit, apparently says it is. It is indeed going to try to bring charges against the RSF. Let's roll F5.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Mr. President, Excellencies, since I last addressed this council, the situation in Darfur has darkened even further. Darfuris as we speak, are being subjected to collective torture, rape, arbitrary detention, executions, mass graves, all perpetrated on a massive scale. This criminality is being repeated in town after town in Darfur. It will continue until this conflict and the sense of impunity that fuels it are stopped.

[Ryan Grim]

The fighting is continuing despite the. Despite the ICC. You can put up up F6 here. This is also from drop site. Intense fighting erupted on the North Kordofan Khartoum border as the Sudanese armed forces and the RSF clashed fiercely for control of the strategic Omdurman Bara export road, a key supply route linking Central Sudan with Western fronts. A large RSF force launched a surprise assault along the road with heavy artillery and drones used by both sides. Sudanese army units reportedly repelled the attack, inflicting significant losses on the rsf while both sides continue to contest this vital quarter. This is all, if you can see that map there, headed towards a conflict over El Obeid, which, as we said last week, estimates are somewhere between half a million to a million people sheltering. And if the ICC is announced, by the way, that it's prosecuting atrocities committed in Al Fasher, which is the. We talked about last week, could have been up to 150,000 people killed in El Fashure. Just an absolutely staggering number.

[Emily Jashinsky]

The. Especially for the media coverage, by the way. Yes. Compare that in your own mind.

[Ryan Grim]

It's double. Yeah, double the number of Palestinians killed in, as far as we know, like the official death count in Gaza is half what the upper estimates are in the Al Fashr massacre. And El Obeid, if the RSF manages to take control, could see an even bloodier massacre. And meanwhile, the famine and the health collapse continues and put up F7 also from Dropsite. The Sudan doctors network warns that the health system in South Kordofan is near collapse after more than two years of siege and ongoing fighting. Kadougli, it said, has five government hospitals and 10 health centers. About 50% of facilities are out of service or operating at half capacity. Many have shut down entirely due to shortages of staff, medical supplies and blood bags. The network warns the siege and war have made basic health care increasingly inaccessible for civilians.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Just, I mean, to your point about the reaction to Gaza and the reaction to this, I mean, I think we covered Gaza constantly and that's partially because we tend to think these things are also funding it. Yeah, yeah, we're funding it, but we tend to think these things are important when you have mass levels of human suffering that is just ongoing and in the shadow of the world media's attention. That's how this stuff happens.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah. And in this case, the way that I would explain it as mattering to the United States is that the UAE is driving this in a significant way. And the UAE is a top ally of the United States. We have empowered them throughout their rise into this. But they're becoming this little miniature power center on their own. But they are entirely vulnerable to American action. A little tiny push. If you cut off one flight from New York to Dubai or London to Dubai, one a day, it was reduced one a day, they would absolutely freak out. This is before you get into sanctions or investigations or anything else, but just, just backing off a tiny. You know what? You know what? Maybe. But the UAE has completely purchased. All of Washington has bought, bought off basically every college and university, well, in the United States that matters. So we'll talk about it. But nobody else is going to.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, I mean, I was just going to say the way that Donald Trump likes to do business, they bought him, well, years ago. I mean, there's been, I think there's been a Trump Tower in Dubai for, since like 2005. But I'm looking at a Forbes headline now from October. And the headline is, this Gulf Nation is powering Trump's money making machine. And here's a sentence from it. Eight years later, from 2017, the UAE, home to the metropolises of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has become a hub for the Trump Organization's international expansion. So again, just saying, in reiterating your point about the level of pressure that UAE is sensitive to. So there are a lot of different pressure points just from the way Donald Trump likes to do business as President, meaning he has business deals in places that he likes to then pressure politically, geopolitically. So there are a lot of different avenues for change in this situation. But.

[Ryan Grim]

Right. And the thing that you would think, given that you'd be like, oh, well, this is baked. Like they've completely bought the president and all of our institutions.

[Emily Jashinsky]

No, not necessarily.

[Ryan Grim]

Like, the only thing that makes it a live fight is that Saudi Arabia is against them right now. Also has bought everybody.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yep. So. So someone's going to have to pay a little more money.

[Ryan Grim]

Yes, we got a fair fight.

[Emily Jashinsky]

It's a Mafia racket.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, we got a fair fight. Yeah. Yeah, you're going to have to have to pony up a little bit more.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, Ryan, thanks for continuing to cover this at Dropsite and thanks for continuing to, you know, push for these updates every week on Wednesdays. That is going to do it for us today.

[Ryan Grim]

And I will be gone next week. I think I'll be in Monday with Sagar because then I'm going to Mexico.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Oh, fish.

[Ryan Grim]

To see a little bit of Fish. So I'll see you down there.

[Emily Jashinsky]

All right. Well, yeah, if you're in Mexico, you'll see Ryan. And if you're a premium subscriber, you'll see us in just a bit on the live. Ask me anything that we're about to broadcast here from the studio. So please, please join us for that and subscribe if you can do the free options, of course, subscribe on YouTube. It helps us so much if you do that and it helps us a lot if you subscribe wherever you get your podcast. But if you're coming across our videos, give us a subscribe. It's really, really helpful. You can also get a premium subscription [e-mail] that's how you get access to the AMAs and more great content. The videos hit you. The full show hits your inbox every day before it's available to the public in one piece. So breakingboyce.com that's where you can go. And you will see Ryan Monday and then we'll do another one of these the week after when you're back tan, rested and ready from Fish.

[Ryan Grim]

There you go.

[Emily Jashinsky]

See you then. Everyone.

[Ryan Grim]

At cvs, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night, and we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and yeah, healthy snack.

[Saagar Enjeti]

At cvs, we're proud to serve your.

[Ryan Grim]

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[Zeeshan Hafeez]

This is Julian Edelman from Dudes on.

[Ryan Grim]

Dudes with Gronk and Jewels.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Sunday mornings I've got my game day ritual. Coffee, lucky socks, and now new Morning Uncrustable sandwiches.

[Ryan Grim]

It's all about that 12 gram protein boost with the new Uncrustables Bright eyed berry or up and apple flavors.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Bright Eye Berries got a feisty receiver.

[Ryan Grim]

Energy up an apple. Your classic do it all tight end.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Soft, pillowy, packed with protein and easy.

[Ryan Grim]

Enough for Gronk to grab from the freezer. Whether you're on the couch, driving to the tailgate or heading to the locker room, new morning Uncrustable Sandwiches are the MVP of snacks.

[Zeeshan Hafeez]

Your new Sunday kickoff ritual starts here with new morning Uncrustable sandwiches packed with 12 grams of protein.

[Ryan Grim]

Janice Torres here and I'm Austin Hankwitz. We host the podcast Mind the Business, Small Business Success Stories produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Intuit QuickBooks. We're back for season four to talk to some incredible small business owners. The big thing about working at tech is that it's ever evolving, ever changing. Everyone's a rookie. That's how fast the industry is changing. So what I'm really excited about is to be part of that change. So listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.