Consider This from NPR

• The long history of Russia's broken promises to Ukraine

  Representatives from Russia and Ukraine will be in meetings to try to hammer out details of a ceasefire on Monday. But peace is still a long way off.For starters it's only a partial ceasefire—no strikes on energy infrastructure. It's only for 30 days.And the Ukrainians and Russians aren't even meeting with each other. The U.S. will be a go-between.One of the biggest things working against a new agreement, is what happened after Ukraine's last agreement with Russia. And the ones before that.Ukraine says it won't trust a promise from Russia. It needs security guarantees. To understand why, you've got to go back to the birth of independent Ukraine.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

  --------  

  10:50
• Farming is uncertain — a trade war makes it more so

  Farmers already worry about things like crop prices, the cost of farm supplies and extreme weather.Now, President Trump's signature tariffs — and the federal government under the Trump administration — pose more big question marks.We hear from Ann Veneman, the Secretary of Agriculture under George W. Bush.And Robert Smith and Wailin Wong from NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money report on what economic uncertainty means for one farmer.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

  --------  

  11:11
• Trump is taking a hammer to traditional pillars of soft power

  The argument for international aid is in part a moral one, but it's also been about U.S. interests. As then-senator Marco Rubio put it in 2017: "I promise you it's going to be a lot harder to recruit someone to anti-Americanism, anti-American terrorism if the United States of America was the reason why they're even alive today."Now, as secretary of state, Rubio serves under a president who is deeply skeptical of the idea of international aid. "We're giving billions and billions of dollars to countries that hate us," President Trump said in a speech last month. His administration shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development. A federal judge said this week that move violated the constitution. What's left of the agency has been folded into the State Department.Trump has also moved to gut government-funded, editorially independent broadcasters like Voice of America, and attempted to effectively eliminate the congressionally-funded think tank the U.S. Institute of Peace.This sort of soft power has been a pillar of American foreign policy. Is the Trump administration walking away from it?We talk to former Democratic congressman and former secretary of agriculture, Dan Glickman, who sponsored the legislation that created the USIP. And NPR's Emily Feng reports on the legacy of Voice of America in China.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

  --------  

  14:54
• Measles is spreading. Are you safe?

  Measles continues to spread in West Texas and New Mexico. About 300 cases have been reported, since the outbreak began in January - but the actual number is likely higher. The communities where measles continues to spread people are largely unvaccinated. At the same time some isolated measles cases have been reported in a dozen other states - largely linked to international travel.In most of the U.S., vaccination rates are still high enough to stop a major outbreak. But if they continue to fall, we could see long-term consequences of measles in the future. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

  --------  

  9:23
• Is Trump defying the courts?

  "Oopsie, too late. "That post on X from the President of El Salvador got retweeted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the weekend with a laugh-crying emoji over a headline about a judge's ruling. The judge ordered the Trump Administration not to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador. That came after a Brown University physician in the United States on an H1-B visa from Lebanon was sent back. Even though a federal judge issued an order that she appear at an in-person hearing on Monday.In a court filing today, lawyers for the government said US Customs and Border Patrol officers said they didn't learn of the order until after the doctor was sent back.The administration insists it is not defying court orders. Trump hasn't yet openly and explicitly defied the courts. Can he undermine them just by flirting with defiance?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

  --------  

  8:36

More News podcasts

Trending News podcasts

About Consider This from NPR

Consider This from NPR: Podcasts in Family