Keeping Up With the Korruption in Kazakhstan

Tommy and Ben talk through a week that includes US and Iranian airstrikes, a peace agreement, a Supreme Court double-header, and the French debate about air conditioning.

First up, Israel and Lebanon have signed a 14-point peace agreement in Washington, but people on both sides question whether the deal will ever be implemented, and some in Lebanon fear that it could actually be a recipe for civil war. Meanwhile, the US ceasefire with Iran has produced a week of airstrikes and fighting over what was actually agreed to. Then a brazen new example of corruption combines a mining deal with Kazakhstan, the sons of both President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and $1.6 billion in federal funding. Then the guys dig into how Supreme Court rulings on the preservation of birthright citizenship and the gutting of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians will impact American foreign policy. They also cover the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela and the impact on the interim government, the debate within France over air conditioning while Europe bakes under a historic heat wave, and the most devastating World Cup losses so far this tournament. Then Tommy speaks to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof about Elon Musk’s brazen lie that “nobody died” as the result of Musk and DOGE “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”

For Friends of the Pod, the boys answer listener questions about how live audiences influence political speeches. They also recount some of their tougher culinary experiences while on diplomatic clock.

Buy Ben’s book All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches and subscribe to his Substack here.

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast, episode title, and episode date.