The World podcast: Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim discuss how the new US president will handle war in Middle East
Sky News and NBC News are jointly launching a new podcast on global affairs – and the first episode is out now, with a focus on how America’s next president might affect the crisis in the Middle East.
Sky News’ lead world news presenter Yalda Hakim and NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel have teamed up to share their experiences from the frontline in a new podcast that will be available every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts.
On The World With Richard Engel And Yalda Hakim, the pair will debrief from global flashpoints and discuss their encounters with the biggest decision makers.
They’ll also be joined by some of those key players to help make sense of world events.
👉 Click here to listen to The World With Richard Engel And Yalda Hakim wherever you get your podcasts 👈
With the US election on 5 November less than a month away, the pair discuss how a potential Kamala Harris administration will handle rising tensions between Israel and Iran’s proxies and, crucially, how this will differ from a potential Donald Trump administration.
But they also discuss how the ongoing Middle East turmoil might impact the American race – especially if Israel strikes Iran’s oil industry before the vote.
“I think that if Kamala Harris wins this election, it will be a continuation as far as Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned of how he has behaved under the Biden administration,” Hakim says.
She adds: “We’re still unclear of exactly what her policies are, what she stands for. She seems to be very thin on explaining exactly who and what she is and what her administration would look like.
“If Donald Trump gets re-elected… some people say the situation could get worse on the ground. [But] I’m not sure because Trump is so incredibly unpredictable. Last time, he left his adversaries and America’s allies guessing constantly.”
“It is unnerving,” Hakim adds.
She says: “I’ve had people who say to me, ‘If Donald Trump gets re-elected, we’re screwed. If Kamala Harris gets re-elected, we’re screwed.'”
Hakim and Engel discuss how the next US president would handle escalating Middle East tension. Pic: AP
Engel says that whatever the outcome of the election, there will be “turmoil in the US between the election and inauguration” – which is scheduled for Monday 20 January.
“If [Trump] wins he’ll start governing right away because that is his style,” he says.
“Let’s say he wins on 6 November. The 7 November is clear, and then he starts making policy.
“He has been saying the Ukrainians don’t need any more weapons, that they’ve had enough and they should have a peace deal. Or in Gaza, he is signalling how he wants that to end – that’s not policy at this stage.
“If she wins, it’s already clear that it’s very likely going to be a contested result in the courts. I’m estimating that there’s going to be a vacuum of power, some sort of chaos at the very least until inauguration, if not beyond.”
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One thing that will have a “huge impact” on the US election, according to Engel, is if Israel launches retaliatory strikes against Iran – and hits the country’s oil industry.
Engel says: “Suddenly gas prices are up. That’s not good for for Harris. It helps Trump. He can say, ‘Look at the chaos here. I would fix all of this.’
“So there are real consequences of what might happen [after] an Israeli reprisal.”
Agreeing, Hakim adds: “There will be some in the US who think, ‘Yeah, go in, smash Iran’… but that feels very much like a very simplistic, naïve approach to resolving what feels so deep and unresolvable at this moment.”
Listen below to a short introductory episode of The World podcast – then check out episode one wherever you get your podcasts, or at the top of this article.
Also on Wednesday’s episode, the pair discuss the anniversary of the 7 October attacks and ask whether there is a way out of further escalation in the region.
Episodes of The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim will be available every Wednesday on all podcast platforms.
Listeners can submit questions to the podcast by emailing theworld@sky.uk.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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