Ukraine Pushes Into Russia, 2024 DNC Begins, Foreign Hacking Targets Trump and Harris, and More

Ukraine’s surprise incursion of Russia’s Kursk region captures territory and stuns the Kremlin; the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Chicago with concerns of divisions in the party over support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip; U.S. intelligence is on high alert after foreign hacking attempts on both former President Donald Trump’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaigns; and Mexico turns down Ukraine’s request for it to uphold warrants to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court.   

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Host
  • Carla Anne Robbins
    Senior Fellow
Credits

Ester Fang - Associate Podcast Producer

Gabrielle Sierra - Editorial Director and Producer

Episode Guests
  • Miriam Elder
    Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow

Show Notes

Mentioned on the Podcast

 

Tim Alberta, “Trump Is Planning for a Landslide Win,” The Atlantic

 

Kevin Collier, Ken Dilanian, and Dan De Luce, “FBI Says It's Investigating Efforts to Hack Trump and Biden-Harris Campaigns,” NBC News

 

Alina Lobzina and Anton Troianovski, “Ukraine’s Incursion Into Russia Flips the Script on Putin,” New York Times


Jonathan Weisman, “Worried About a Convention Clash, Democrats Woo Uncommitted Delegates,” New York Times

Ukraine

In this special year-end episode, hosts Bob McMahon and Carla Anne Robbins sit down with the New York Times’ chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe Steven Erlanger to review the biggest stories of the past year and discuss developments to watch in 2025. They analyze the conflicts and political developments in the Middle East and Europe, President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for his national security team, the state of democracy worldwide, and more.

Syria

Syrians begin the early stages of government formation as global and regional powers scramble to devise a strategy for Syria after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad; Georgians protest their government’s postponement of European Union (EU) membership talks as Romanians look for answers following the cancellation of their presidential election results; the United Kingdom (UK) accedes to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership; and China opens an anti-monopoly case against U.S. chipmaker Nvidia.

South Korea

Impeachment looms for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose declaration of martial law spurred mass protests; French lawmakers passed the first no-confidence vote in more than sixty years, as the country is set to mark the the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral; Syrian rebels continue a surprise offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after seizing the cities of Aleppo and Hama; and U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump threatens 100 percent tariffs on BRICS nations.

Top Stories on CFR

Syria

China

Zoe Liu, the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies at CFR, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss how Trump’s victory is being viewed in China and what his presidency will mean for the future of U.S.-China economic relations. This episode is the seventh in a special TPI series on the U.S. 2025 presidential transition and is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

France

The fall of the French government, along with political uncertainty in Germany, has upped the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron amid growing European tensions over migration, Ukraine, and energy policy.