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Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail, filters ready to clog. H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
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This is a global production.
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C
Has what's being signed off on now made the world a better, safer place than before the war started on February 28 or not? And I think everybody still thinks that Iran emerges stronger. Maybe not a winner, but much stronger than it did and certainly much stronger than conventional wisdom held. Even US Intelligence has said that it appears that Iran, Iran may have kept about 70% of its launchers and its capability. I think that's really dangerous for the West. I think it's a very unsatisfactory result of this for America, for Israel, and for those who want to see Iran weaken.
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B
Now we have a regime that just is so brutal and now has a reason to be even more brutal because it's been attacked.
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C
They know they have a problem. They really know that they have a problem with the people and with disaffection and with anger. This is the latest episode of the X Files with me, Christiana Monport in
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London and Jamie Rubin in New York.
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C
Yeah, so here we are talking to you all as a mou. A memorandum of understanding has been announced, not yet signed, between the United States and Iran. So we're going to talk about that in the first segment. Has what's being signed off on now made the world a better, safer place than before the war started on February 28 or not? Are there less complications going ahead or are there more complications and unknowns? That's one thing. Then later on, we're going to talk about what does this mean for Ukraine right now? Again, as we speak, there is an EU meeting. I believe President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going to be there. And it's about sort of the first steps towards Ukraine joining the eu. It's a long way off, but gosh darn it, they have proven themselves to be well worth included in Europe, particularly if we continue to face a Russia threat. So we're going to talk about that. And then the last bit will be our recommendation. So shall we start? Jamie, we have been talking About Iran, about a possible deal for at least since April 9, when the first ceasefire was declared. President Trump keeps saying a deal is near, a deal is near, a deal is near. Iranians never said that, but Trump did because he wanted it to happen. And now at least they've announced a memorandum of understanding. At least President Trump has. Iran is not giving any details, and we should say that whatever has been announced, it won't be signed until Friday. So, Jamie, before I have you weigh in, let me just read. You know, this is Donald Trump posting on Truth Social. The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all. Exclamation mark. I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Toll free will discuss that and simultaneously herewith authorize the immediate removal of the United States naval blockade. Ships of Start your engines. Let the oil flow. President Donald J. Trump, in capital letters. What are you thinking?
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B
Well, I'm thinking that since the beginning, we've been talking about whether the US Would be able to effectively change the Iranian regime, make a better place for the people of Iran. We talked about how that Donald Trump and the administration called on the people of Iran to rise up and they would help them. And regime change was indeed the objective of the Israeli government and the United States government. That was discussed extensively. None of that has happened. There is a different group of people in charge, but by all accounts, they are as hardline as you could imagine. And we can talk about that a bit. And then the real truth, I think, is we're not really in a better place than when we started, given all the damage done to the world economy and the advantages Iran has accrued in terms of now having shown the ability to close the Strait of Hormuz. Yes, they lost their conventional navy, yes, they lost ballistic missiles. Yes, they lost a lot of leaders, but they showed remarkable resilience and they didn't capitulate a regime built on resistance. Whose ideology is resistance. I never thought it would. So I think it's a lot like you and I expected, which is that there wasn't any great gain and there were real losses to the world.
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C
So, so let's just lay it out for our, for our viewers, for our listeners, for anybody who tunes in to try to get an unfiltered view of what's going on now. I don't know, Jamie, but maybe this is the last podcast in a long time, maybe for 60 more days that we'll be talking about Iran. Maybe not. But if this MOU does get signed on Friday in Geneva, which Trump and the others have said. This is what JD Vance says it contains right now. Take a listen.
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B
Number one, this is the immediate opening of the Straits of Hormuz and of course, the lifting of the naval blockade that we've had on Iran along with it. The number two thing that it means is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and not just pursue a nuclear weapon, but procure or try to buy a nuclear weapon as well.
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C
So for those who are confused when he says Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, that was the whole world's position for decades. And certainly that was what was, you know, being being discussed on February 27th in Geneva between Iran, the United States and Oman and others mediating and attending that. So on that issue, well, let's just first take what is in it. What is in the memorandum is those, is those specifics about the blockade. Let's just say why that's important because prices have spiked everywhere. Asia is seriously hurting. They've had to ask for billions of dollars of relief from the Asia Development bank, from the imf, World bank, all of that kind of stu. But do we think, Jamie, that suddenly, as Donald Trump says, let the oil flow that it will, in other words, for people in Europe and wherever who are listening, will their oil prices go down very quickly and will all other prices that are affected inflation and the rest of it come down, including in
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B
the U.S. well, I kind of doubt that anything is going to happen too quickly. My understanding is that the oil experts were very, very concerned that we had used up so much of our Strategic petroleum reserve and used up so much of the capacity the United States and others had to take care count of the fact that no new oil was being shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, that we were on the verge of a price hike. The Wall Street Journal had a very powerful story saying that if this didn't change in the next couple of months, we could have seen huge increases in oil prices around very much around the time of the midterm elections. I don't think that's an accidental factor here, that this was reaching a CRIS crisis point. So I do think the oil prices will go down. They already have the futures, obviously, but I do think that will change the the commerce and Iran, of course, will also be able to earn money from oil being sold through the Strait of Hormuz to China and other countries. And that's where they're going to get an advantage. And so that's no different than it really was before. We started. And on the nuclear issue, as you pointed out correctly, this is not new to say the west, to say Iran, a nuclear weapon. Frankly, the previous leader said Iran was never going to have a nuclear weapon.
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C
You mean the one Israel assassinated?
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B
Correct.
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Khomeini. The old one.
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B
The old one. So, so what may be the big, big, big $64,000 question, as we used to call it. But I guess in the new era, it's the $64 million question is what will happen in the new nuclear talks that are scheduled to begin over after, I guess after Friday and take 60 days. I don't see a lot of incentives for them to be doing much better than they were doing before the war started. And that's why I say I fail to see what the big gain is on the nuclear question. I know what the damage is on the ground to people. Yes, Iran's conventional forces were weakened, but the whole Gulf was made vulnerable both in terms of the attacks on the Gulf countries. And the strait of horror loses closure. So it seems to me that this does not qualify as a net positive for the United States or the west or the world.
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C
And in fact, the US as we, as we talked about last time, and you were quoting this exclusive report, the U.S. has suffered significant and material damage on its bases in the Gulf states, which Iran did hurt, particularly taking out of operation the Al Uday base in Qatar, the Air Force base there, and damage managing other US assets in the region as well. Bahrain and the 5th Fleet is headquartered there, etc. So I think that is something that we're going to see and talk about in the future, because not just the physical damage, but what does it mean for the realignment of political, strategic and security postures over there? Will the US in any way, sort of, I don't want to say withdraw, but cut back even more in the Middle east just before we move on. What do you think, Jamie? I mean, up until now, you know, it's been American policy to always have bases there because that has been a massively important strategic area for the U.S. to be involved in. Do you think the same will hold true after this war?
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B
Well, it's a good question. I don't know the answer. Let me take it from both sides. Clearly the vulnerability of American bases in the region has now been shown. The Al Udeid base was virtually made unusable. Many other casualties occurred at American bases around the region. The countries that were hosting the United States now know how vulnerable they are for hosting the United States. And that used to be theoretical now, it's very practical. On the other hand, because Donald Trump and the administration have devoted so much of their administration's first year into this region, it's hard for me to see them just pulling out and they're claiming, you know, they're going to be the arbiter of the region and making all sorts of claims about people paying us to take care of everybody. And I just don't know where that ends up. I really don't. I just know that the idea that the Gulf states had, that they were an oasis of calm in, in the Middle east for business, for commerce, for travel, a hub of, like, Singapore, you know, they like to talk about it. I think that dream may have been punctured for a very, very long time.
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C
And I think everybody still thinks that Iran emerges stronger, maybe not a winner, but much stronger than it did and certainly much stronger than conventional wisdom held. Because as you and I discussed over and again, Iran has proven, and it's, you know, basically coming out now of the IRGC commander's mouths, that we showed that we can bear more, we can bear more pain and we can keep. Keep the battle up. And we did. And I think they proved that. What we've been saying the whole time, the issue over this six or however many nearly two months now of a sort of fragile ceasefire was who was going to blink on all of this. And it appears that Iran has not blinked on this issue because they've also got essentially cemented into this current round an mou, the Memorandum of Understanding phase, that Israel must stop bombing Lebanon. And Israel did do it over the weekend, another suburb, the suburb of Beirut again, the southern suburb of Beirut. And Trump went on social media or maybe even on telephone to Netanyahu and told both Iran and Israel to just, just stop it, basically cool down, calm down and just stop it. And to that end, Netanyahu is not a signatory, Hezbollah is not a signatory. Definitely Netanyahu's not happy about this. A lot in Israel, Jamie, are not happy about this deal or this MoU because they, the majority, believed that this war would make them safer. The whole majority in Israel, obviously a higher majority when it comes to Netanyahu's specific followers. But in general, they do in America, the polls show that they weren't pro this war. But I think it's really interesting that Israel is still there. Obviously has a lot of firepower and a lot of desire to keep sort of mowing the lawn, but Trump is saying no.
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B
Well, that's really a big difference that we didn't have before. The US And Israel were aligned in the airstrikes that occurred in the run up to this war, the first set of airstrikes that destroyed the nuclear facility that led to the talks that could have perhaps resolved the issue before this war started. The Israelis and the United States were aligned. And the reason Israel is not happy as a, as a security matter is because they somehow thought that when this was all over, the threat from Iran was going to have been eliminated or so severely damaged that they didn't have to worry about their ballistic missiles anymore. And Iran still has a large quantity of ballistic missiles and drones, and that gives them a capability to threaten Israel. That has not gone away. And there's no evidence that they are going to give up Hezbollah support the Iranians. And in fact, they were threatening to hold the regime, the agreement up if Hezbollah was attacked again. And so I think that caused a rift between the United States and Israel. That's very rare where an American president really said some, you know, unflattering things about it. Netanyahu called him some, you know, names to reporters. And I think he does not want to see this agreement. That is the best that he can hope for in order to prevent this war from doing grave, grave damage to his political standing in this upcoming election for the reasons we've discussed many, many times. And he doesn't want to see Israel bring it down. And he's got something that few presidents have, which is that he really has the power to tell Netanyahu not to do things. And Netanyahu would be very, very loathe not to heed his, his calls.
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C
Are we going to be prudish and dignified, or can you tell me what Trump said to about.
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I don't remember the exact word, but
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C
it wasn't pleasant, it wasn't flattering. So you talked about ballistic missiles, and I think we should spend a few minutes on that because that was a. Remember, never included in the JCPOA agreements. And it was a major claim by both the Israelis and the Pentagon in all their briefings. Now, just going to quote, really, we're going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It'll be totally, again, obliterated. This is Trump before, you know, the end of the war. We believe they have protected a significant portion of their arsenal and capability. Those are now senior Western diplomats. And just to show you, there is a very interesting article in the Financial Times. That picture is of a, an underground city in the area of Yazd. Yazd is one of the big Iranian cities, and it's considered one of the mountainous areas where beneath the mountains, maybe 70 meters, maybe more, are these missile cities that according to this article, the Iranian sort of chief military commanders, before they were assassinated by Israel, had gone to North Korea, had seen how the North Koreans had seen, had protected their missiles and other, other weapon systems underground, came back and we're talking decades ago now, came back and over the last couple of decades did the same. So this article is quoting people in this region, in this city, saying that we watch these bunker busters, residents of Yazdan and the nearby areas, bombing and dropping and then, and then more missiles would be fired from there. We watched it. And so now, as we know, because even US Intelligence has said that it appears that Iran may have kept and survived about 70% of its launchers and its capability. I think that's a really important thing to focus on because I don't even know what to say. Their main goal, one of their main goals, to weaken Iran's missile capability has not come to fruition. Of course, it's slightly weakened, but not fully and not even wholly. And secondly, according to people like, you know, our friend Vali Nasser, who's a longtime analyst and now many others, including Iranians, are now saying commanders, that we're essentially banking on our military defense offense capability and not on trust of America or other negotiations because we have seen, A, we've been bombed in the midst of negotiations and B, it is only our strength on the battlefield that has brought us to this point. Now I think that's really dangerous for the West. I think it's a very unsatisfactory result of this for America, for Israel and for those who want to see Iran weakened. What do you think?
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B
The Iranian regime, the IRGC led regime now that has much more of a military color to it. The regime has shown resilience, has shown determination, and it's not what we wanted to see. I mean, the president and his advisors and the Israeli government and its intelligence services somehow thought there was going to be a revolution and they were going to change the regime and become cooperative with the West. And instead, I think you're going to have a lot of determined military leaders who are going to strengthen their military, see their military as their only real saving grace, as you put it. And Vali and others have said, and that we're going to have a more military regime. And in the end, you know, the difference between 75% or 50% missile capability is not a game changer for Israel because Israel is a relatively small place and they do have a good air defense and missile defense system, but it's not perfect. And obviously the countries in the region, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, they all now know that the Iranians, when pressed, will use their missiles against all of them and when fully pressed, will shut down the strait and cause the economic damage that they've done. So they've got powers that were more in theory are now more in reality. And we have no assurance that the nuclear file that is to be discussed will be achieved progress, significant progress will be achieved in it beyond just the of the facilities that occurred well before this war. Now, time to thank our partner for this episode. NORDVPN in foreign policy, you're always thinking about security. It's the main objective, keeping your data, your people, your country secure. And yet, on an individual level, a lot of us barely think about our own security online. That's where NORDVPN comes in. With NORDVPN threat protection feature, you're protected from viruses, malware, phishing sites, all those daily threats that could compromise your security. And if you're not the techie type, don't worry. NORDVPN is really simple to use. With one click, your Internet connection is encrypted through a secure server, hiding your IP address and keeping your personal information personal. Protect up to 10 devices with a NORDVPN account and all for the cost of about a cup of coffee a month. Plus there's a 30 day money back guarantee if you change your mind to get 4 extra months on a 2 year plan. Go to nordvpn.com thexfiles find the link
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A
in the episode Description Thumbtack Presents Tile Trouble Every single time I use my sink, I make eye contact with the uneven grout on my kitchen backsplash. The crooked corners eye me and I'm haunted by more tiling questions than I thought possible. What kind of pro can fix a backsplash? Can I replace one cracked tile or should I replace them all?
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B
What?
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A
What if I just use thumbtack? I can hire top rated pros, read reviews and compare prices with a tap all on the app. Thumbtack knows homes. Download the app.
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C
Let's just try to see if there's any positives. Is it positive that there are other stakeholders now who've encouraged and managed and sort of midwifed this memorandum? Whether it's Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar, you know, all of that is that are more stakeholders, something that gives any agreement more strength and more, you know, more tentacles. There are Diplomatic channels now right open between Washington and Tehran, although there were in the jcpoa. But just for those who never believed in the JCPOA and who believed it was just a ruse and just a diversion and just buying time for the Iranian regime to finally build the bomb and all the rest of it. What would you say about that? And now?
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B
Well, I don't think they have a very good leg to stand on because the failure to replace the jcpoa, that agreement that Obama made with anything better, meant that Iran started enriching uranium to a high degree and now has a very large quantity of 60% enriched uranium, which is really, it sounds 60 sounds like, you know, only a little bit more than 30, but it's actually much, much closer to what you need because of the way the physics work. It's not that hard to go from 60 to 98%, which is what you need, or 99%. And so they have a usable quantity of, of material now. It's buried underground right now, we think. But that failure to replace the JCPOA caused the Iranians to become closer to a nuclear weapon, not farther from a nuclear weapon, and led to the series of steps that we're in now. The Biden administration didn't fix this either, I have to say. But it began when Trump pulled out of the jcpoa and the Iranians began to have no confidence that any agreement could be kept. And so this is the problem in diplomacy when agreements aren't kept. There was no reason to pull out of it until a better agreement had been struck. And that could have happened. I do think the Iranians wanted to, some of them anyway, in the previous regime, rejoin the international community. That's why the, the agreement was struck. It wasn't a ruse. It was the best that, that Obama thought could be done at the time. I never thought it was perfect. I always thought it was a little overstated, but. But it achieved its arms control objectives, which was to delay the program, give inspections, make sure you had time to deal with it diplomatically, and then get a better agreement. As time went on and some of its sunset provisions began to set, and
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C
paradoxically, given the whole fact that the Iranian people have now been thrown under the bus again, it actually did empower those Iranians who were not particularly pro regime because sanctions did start to, you know, to lift. People were being able to do more business. People were being able to. There were tiny little grassroots civil society stuff, and it was empowering the people more than they had been for, for a very long time. The Kind of people that, you know, want freedom, want the end of a.
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B
Now what do we have? I mean, yeah, I know you. Now we have a regime that just is so brutal and shown its brutality and now has a reason to be even more brutal because it's been attacked. And I don't see the Iranian people right away being willing to stand up to that. I don't know, do you?
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C
I don't. But I tell you what, I wonder. And of course, this is Pollyanna again, but some Iranian officials have been saying this to me, and I say some, that they know they have a problem. They really know that they have a problem with the people and with disaffection and with anger and mismanagement of the economy and now this war and all the rest of it and the infrastructure that's been destroyed by Israel in the United States, etc. Etc. And they know they have to figure out how to keep people on side. That's what they say. So we'll see what that actually means. Before we go to the next bit, because we're, we, we need to go to our next segment. I just want to ask you, as former spokesman, you know, today I had a, a brain flash as I was reading all this and thinking, you know, what they called it, the five o' clock follies in Vietnam. All these endless US Briefings that essentially were over egged or downright lies, you know, about the body count and about how we're winning and this and that. I now decided to call this the pandering to the Pentagon poodles. What Hegseth and everybody else has been doing because they have invited guests, I. E. Influencers, MAGA ideologues, the actual, actual, main, you know, competent press corps has been mostly banned. I just think here we are, you know, the government of America tried to tell us one thing and we're here at a completely different thing.
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B
Well, this has been a problem for the whole Trump administration is the failure to have credible spokesmen who are concerned if they're given information that isn't correct and try to fix it. And one of the things I was struck by was a lot of the reporters telling me stories about how in this time the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, they don't get all worked up if they are found to have made a mistake. They don't say, oh my God, I gotta fix this. Or they don't go to extraordinary efforts to fix it. Or this whole idea of mistakes and changes and flipping and flopping and going back and forth and that's what's made because it comes from the top. The top man has a habit of saying one thing one day and another thing another day. That makes it pretty hard to to do the job at the lower levels. And it makes it very, very hard to combat a very sustained policy of propaganda from the other side. And Iran turned out to be very good at that, making fun of the Trump administration through their videos and other humorous devices because we couldn't respond quickly because only the White House can really speak this. And the president often did say one thing one day and something else the next day on the most important subject of all, which was the calling on the people of Iran to rise up. We will be there. We're there to help, and we're coming to help you. And then we didn't.
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C
Yeah, and I wonder whether there'll be this kind of thing, blaming after all of this. And certainly Pete Hegseth that the Pentagon has come in and should come in for his share of mismanaging the press in such a way. They stand there, they attack us, they call us treasonous and all the rest of it because we don't report on how great an operation this has been. And now we can see through the MOU what's been agreed and what's not been agreed and pushing off and what we've just discussed, that it may not turn out to be as great as they hoped or thought.
- [29:12]
A
Granger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail, filters ready to clog. H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. A burst pipe, a dead water heater, the AC calling it quits. Who do you call? HomeServe is an easy way to handle unexpected home repairs with plans covering stuff basic homeowners insurance usually won't. Instead of scrambling for a contractor, you make one call to get the repair process started. Join the millions of customers who trust HomeServe right now. Go to HomeServe.com podcast for 50% less your first year. That's HomeServe.com podcast savings compared to renewal price void in Florida.
- [30:16]
C
Now, Jamie, you remember that as the Iran war started or the war on Iran started. Volodymyr Zelensky said to me and others that every day this war goes on is a danger day for us. It means that every day the Iran war goes on, the negotiations, the attempts to settle. Russia's invasion of Ukraine takes another back step. And we've been reading, I don't know whether you take this seriously, but the longer this goes on, even Putin has started, apparently to let it be known that they would much prefer an actual professional negotiating team that just looks at this, you know, between Ukraine, Russia and the United States and all the rest of it, and not the same group of, of, of Trump favorites who go around doing all the negotiations all the time, everywhere. So I think that's, that's interesting. But of course we speak as Russia has launched one of its worst barrages on UK People have been killed in Kyiv and Kharkiv, the second city. And they attacked a very important UNESCO site which is a monastery and an Orthodox cathedral. You think Putin's getting desperate?
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B
There is a certain sense of desperation because as I understand the battlefield situation, and again, I'm just reading and hearing from people that I respect and trust is that the Russian army is not having a very good time of it, that the drone capability of the Ukrainians has kept the Russians from gaining much territory and they've also been able to hit deep, deep into the area in, that has supplied Crimea. And that's caused the Russians to decide to relocate much of their logistics from Crimea. This is after the Ukrainian so called drone navy took the, the Russian navy out of the region and really has shown a remarkable ability to use moder drone technology to damage Russia's ability to sustain a war in that region. And now they are losing capability there and actually losing some areas apparently on the ground, but most importantly not gaining territory and still losing tens of thousands of soldiers every every month. And this number is going to rise and keep rising with no end in sight. I think I saw in one of the newspapers, you know, that this is World War I level of warfare where there's no end in sight and no real change in the battlefield and longer
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C
than World War I last week it exceeded the number of years that World War I lasted. But look, I think what's so important is to keep emphasizing that Ukraine has adapted so well and so fast that actually Russia, which last year was telling us that it won this city and that city and this little strategic place and that one, and it was increasing by increments, but nonetheless increasing its land mass that it, it had seized actually is now being pushed back. The Ukrainians say they have recaptured several dozen square kilometers and it's important for them. And their commander in chief, who I met, I think it was last year, maybe a bit longer than that in the northeast region, General Syrsky and their new defense minister, who's Mikhailo Fedorov, they have really, really gone all out to really manufacture from the inside all these drones and all this asymmetric warfare. And they're waiting any longer for permission to dig rather to fire deep inside Russian territory. So as you said, the idea is to, as they say, to make Russians feel the cost of this war because up until now they haven't really, except for the mothers and the fathers who've lost their, their sons at the front. And I think this is having a huge, huge effect. And they're attacking logistics, as you said, they're attacking oil and energy infrastructure in Africa, south inside Russia, and basically really raising the pain level. But Jamie, what I also thought was really interesting is this is not just, hey, this is just because we can do it, is because the Ukrainians think that if they don't really try to bring Russia to the negotiating table soon, next winter, after the calamity that Russia incurred on their energy infrastructure this winter, next winter, they will not have been able to rebuild it and they will face a dramatic and dire humanitarian catastrophe. So all these bits are powering Ukraine's attempt to bring the Russians to the negotiating table.
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B
Well, I did enjoy hearing your account of the Russians wanting a more professional negotiating team, and I certainly would welcome that because I know during the last year of the Biden administration, some efforts were made to look into all the pieces of the puzzle. And boy, it's a complicated puzzle. It has sanctions, it has war crimes issues, it has Z protection, it has defense assurances, what kind of security guarantees there would be, what who would monitor the lines where the war would stop, what would happen to the people on either side. I mean, it's going to be a multi, multi month negotiation that has involved many, many diplomats. If we're ever going to end this war and it's going to take years to unravel all the damage done. So professionalism would be great. Obviously, there hasn't been a lot of that on this. I guess the, the only piece of negative impact that I would like to add to this is I just don't see President Trump going back at this. He saw this Iran thing become a lot harder than he ever dreamed. And he had already tried for him quite a bit on the Russia, Ukraine issue. You know, I gather President Putin called him on his birthday, was the first one to call him on his birthday on Sunday. And, you know, he still has this sense, sense that his job is to work closely with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and, you know, sort of control the world in some weird way, which of course he can't. But he seems to find that a more natural way of doing business than to side with the victim of this war, which is obviously Ukraine.
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C
Yeah. So again, Ukraine is really, really coming up in a very, very important way. And I don't know whether you read it, but you saw that in this, in the latest issue of where is It? The latest issue of Foreign Affairs, Jack Watling, who's a senior fellow at RUSI here, said that as Russia's battlefield performance is worsening, this is a turning point, and that Ukraine has a chance to push Moscow towards a ceasefire. So just to, just to read you, let me just read you, because you were talking about the phone call. This is what Putin reportedly said to Trump. Dear Mr. President, Dear Donald, I wholeheartedly congratulate you, such a bright, remarkable person and politician on your 80th birthday. Well, we'll see what Putin tries to get out of it. But more to the point, Jamie, Trump is going to the G7. It's being held in France. I was told this is a place where the allies need to treat him well, need to praise him for the MoU with Iran and need to get him on side either to hand over negotiating duties to them or somehow empower a, a, a way to really professionalize the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and the rest of the world to end this.
- [38:03]
B
Well, let's, let's hope that happens. I suspect that that is going to be a tough sell. I think they're going to be so many pieces of the Iran puzzle that still aren't in place that they're going to ask a lot of hard questions about Demining, the, you know, the Strait of Hormuz. And Trump is probably going to want Europeans to help do the Demining. There's going to be a discussion of if European ships should go in there. There's going to be a discussion about the nuclear file and what role the Europeans who used to play a role in negotiating that will have. They're going to ask hard questions on what we really have achieved from the war. I think they'll do it politely because they're all pleased. But I'm not sure that it's going to be a, you know, a time for we manage this One Iran. Now let's move on to Ukraine. We'll succeed there because Ukraine, let's face it, is is much, much more difficult. In this case, the United States just had to agree to certain things. In that case, you have to have Russia, which started the war and still doesn't understand it. It's not winning. That's the problem.
- [39:08]
C
Yeah, it's a big problem. Okay, well, look, that is a lot of meat that we have gotten our teeth into. And it's really important discussion right now because Iran is still on the edge. Russia, Ukraine, Trump is in Europe. It's going to be an interesting time to digest and Friday when this MoU with Iran is meant to be signed in Geneva. So we'll see who goes to do that.
- [39:34]
B
Well, I'm going to do some positives today. We have the potential for this war ending. But as a New Yorker, it was a very exciting few days to watch the New York Knicks finally win a championship and watch New York explode and yes. In excitement and you know, New York's had a rough ride and they are young mayor, I think is going to get a great boost from this.
- [39:58]
C
Otherwise known as Zoran Mamdani.
- [40:00]
B
Yes. And I think he's going to get a big boost from this. And I think New York's going to get a get a big boost from this. And it was exciting to watch. And, and it brought me some hope. And, and now I'm going to do something very unusual for me, which is I try to stay clear of politicians and politics and I'm not endorsing anybody. I'm just saying that I, a lot of the young people I talked to this weekend were impressed by this man, John Ossoff, who's running for for senator in Georgia. In Georgia. And who really has shown some great dignity and I think in the way he talks about our issues of the day reminds me of the kind of politicians that I think we should be putting on our list of serious politicians. I'm not an endorser. I'm not a political figure like that. But I've read a lot about him now in the New York Times long section this weekend. And I'd recommend people read it and draw their own conclusions. And so I wanted to say something for the young people and their youngish, I gather some of them really like him. And so let's, you know, the old guys have had their time. Biden, Trump, it's time for some young people to change.
- [41:07]
C
My recommendation is also very positive. It's tennis season, as you know, Jamie Open Season and Wimbledon is going to start in a couple of weeks. I just interviewed Chris Evert and Martina Navratolo for their documentary that is going to drop next week on the 26th, and it just got its premiere at the Tribeca Festival in New York. And it's really, really wonderful because I did not know the extent of their friendship. I knew their rivalry, but their friendship as well. And how their friendship oscillated depending on who was number one, who was number two, and how they were so lonely on the, you know, on the trail and how tennis life is really difficult. But not only that, how then in their post tennis careers and they both ended up with the number of Grand Slam titles, I believe it's 18 each. How they then battled cancer together, different cancers, but about the same time they both had relapses. They're both now in the clear. And it's just a remarkable story of rivalry and friendship and battling the same disease and support and all the rest of it. I just loved it. And the interview that I did with them was excellent. And the document documentary is very, very, very excellent as well. I've watched it and I did Rafa a couple of weeks ago when his documentary series came out. And that's brilliant as well because Rafa is also retired, obviously Rafael Nadal and he, it, it turns out that his whole career was really about suffering. At least that's what his uncle coach said, if you don't suffer, you won't be be great. And Rafa suffered a lot because he was seriously injured for a long, long time. And his, his victories and his record are incredible. When you see this series, it's really excellent. I recommend everybody watch it. So Rafa and the last set or the final set, that is the Chris and Martina documentary, all on Netflix. Highly recommend it because they're lessons for life, not just in sports. So that is, that's where I come down. You'll like it. You like 10 tennis, Jamie?
- [43:12]
B
Of course I do. That'll be fun to watch. We used to watch a lot of tennis.
- [43:16]
C
Yeah. By the way, did you dance in the streets? Because they said New York turned into one giant disco.
- [43:21]
B
It, it was an incredible thing. Our son danced in the streets. I'll tell you that.
- [43:25]
C
You were never a very good dancer. You didn't want to dance. Not that you weren't a good dancer. You didn't like dancing. That was a beef for me. So everybody, thank you for watching and for listening. Remember, remember, you can always listen for free on globalplayer.com and you can watch us on YouTube. You just look for us. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Searching Christiana Monport presents the X Files. Jamie and I will be back on Thursday with our Q and A episode. We all love to hear from you all the time. So thank you and goodbye. Bye, Jamie.
- [44:00]
B
Goodbye from New York. This has been a global production.
- [44:12]
A
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