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.
Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.
Speaking with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.
“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States, going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Pic: Reuters
It comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a “very good conversation” with Mr Trump late on Monday. He thanked him for the “willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings”.
Weapons being sent from to Ukraine include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which the country has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.
Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.
Mr Zelenskyy previously criticised Vladimir Putin’s “desire to drag [the war] out”, and said Kyiv was “working on major defence agreements with America”.
It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump over Mr Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.
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Trump threatens Russia with ‘severe’ tariffs’
During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call”, but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Mr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”
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Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.
He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.
Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.
Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.
“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.
It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.
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Trump says Putin ‘talks nice and then bombs everybody’
During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”
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Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.
He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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UK aims to build relationship with Syria
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
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