August 28, 2026 — In this week’s episode of Around the World, hosts Dhruva Jaishankar and Rachel Rizzo discuss the escalating trade conflict between the United States and Canada, highlighting the failed negotiations, retaliatory tariffs, and what the dispute could mean for the Trump administration ahead of the November midterm elections. They also cover shifting security dynamics in the Indo-Pacific as the U.S.-South Korea alliance faces new uncertainty, with the United States cutting short a joint military exercise and Trump’s renewed interest in meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. They end by recapping the Mecca Agreement, a new defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, and whether its NATO-style language will translate into meaningful security cooperation.
Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Image: The White House, Public Domain, via WhiteHouse.gov
Image: Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket, via Getty Images
Image: Anadolu / Contributor, via Getty Images