Helen Walters

Akilah, another hug, if you will.

OK, come right here.

I have a question.

Thank you for sharing your story.

I speak on behalf of everybody when I say that we're so sorry for your loss.

We talked a lot this week about actionable hope.

What you're doing exemplifies a spirit that too many of us have no idea what you've experienced and what you do on a daily basis.

What advice do you give those who are trying to dig deep in this time to step up and to find actionable hope?

How do you do it?

Akilah, you're an inspiration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, TED Talks daily listeners.

I'm Helen Walters, TED's head of media and curation.

Today, we're bringing you a special episode of our original series, TED Explains the World, with political scientist Ian Bremmer.

Ian and I discuss why the US launched strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, and what we should look for next at this uncertain moment, including potential responses from Israel, China, and Russia, among others.

On June the 21st, 2025, the US bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, joining a war with Israel and plunging the world into uncertainty.

Today is Sunday, June the 22nd.

I am Helen Walters.

I'm head of media and curation at TED, and I'm joined by geopolitical expert and GZERO founder Ian Bremmer to make sense of the noise.

Ian, we also asked our community to share some of their questions for you.

So let's get right to it.

Tell us what you're hearing.

And let's start with one very important question.

Why did America decide to bomb Iran?

Wait, you just said the Israelis have a different opinion.

Do you mean the Israelis or do you mean the Iranians?

So I'm really curious about that.

Why do you think that Trump is tying himself so closely to Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu?

So I was reading a recent report that said 60% of Israelis think that Netanyahu should resign.

There's also the former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, who recently described Netanyahu, and I quote, as someone who lost his strategic and moral compass, dragging the nation into war motivated by personal political interests against our security and common future.

The war in Gaza remains a humanitarian catastrophe.

So what is Trump thinking and doing?

So you refer to the fact that much of the rhetoric around this, from the Americans at least, is that this is not about regime change.

J.D.

Vance has said that.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also said that this is not about having an open-ended war.

It is not about regime change.

So never mind the rhetoric.

Does this attack bring about regime change in Iran?

And what does Iran look like going forward?

So thank you for preempting my very next question, which is indeed about the potential response from Iran.

So the Iranian parliament today approved a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz, which doesn't mean that that will happen immediately, but they have approved it.

The Strait of Hormuz, of course, being the critical oil route between Iran and Oman, which, if that does happen, would have serious implications for the global economy.

Why would the Iranians not do that?

Do you think they'll do that?

What do you think will be the next moves from Iran?

So if it's true that, as you say, or as they say, that the Trump administration is not interested in pursuing all-out war here, if, as you describe these attacks, say an attack happens on an American military base, say that there are significant American casualties,

How far ahead are they thinking to plan for that type of thing?

And how are they planning to either avert that or to actually make sure that this does not escalate into full on conflagration and all out war?

So interesting.

What do you think are some of the tactics that Israel is using to try to draw the US further into this with them?

So what about the broader Arab world?

How does this change geopolitics in the region?

Let's talk about some of the other international players in this.

I'm reading a lot of chatter about China and about their connection to Iran and what they might do next.

What are you hearing?

What do you think President Xi will say?

And what should we expect from China on this?

Fascinating.

Okay, so what about Russia?

You referred earlier to Dmitry Medvedev talking about potentially sending nukes to Iran.

You seem very confident that that will not happen, but I do wonder what Putin's take on this will be, and also if Putin might use this as an opportunity with eyes on Iran to exploit anything in Ukraine.

OK, so we also have to talk about what's happening in the US.

So obviously, one side of the House and the Senate is absolutely virulently against this.

There have been calls for impeachment, et cetera, et cetera.

What's more interesting to me is that the core of MAGA ideology is anti-war.

Now, that's not because of some kind of hippie ideals of peace, but it's really a kind of an extension of that isolationist, America first type of thinking.

But I think it's fair to say that this is not that.

So what I'm curious to hear from you is how do you think that Trump actually reassures his base that he hasn't betrayed them?

And how does he make it clear that he's not signing America up for an endless morass and mess in the Middle East?

Certainly, as you might say, I don't think I would ever dare.

Okay, so the NATO summit is meeting in The Hague this week.

What are you expecting to hear from that?

Ian, it is always a pleasure to talk to you.

Thank you so much for your wisdom.

I commented earlier before we started recording that you are always calm, not always calming.

In this case, actually, this was pretty calming too.

So we're very grateful for your insight and really happy that you could join us.

We'll see you again soon.

That was Ian Bremmer talking to me, Helen Walters, for our original series, TED Explains the World.

This conversation took place on June the 22nd, 2025.

If you're curious about TED's curation, you can find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines.

Thanks for letting me join this week's episode.

Bye for now.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome, and thank you for joining.

I am Helen Walters.

I am head of media and curation at TED.

I am so happy to be here on April the 29th, 2025, the 100th day of the Trump presidency.

Now, the White House is touting this as the most productive and consequential start to any presidency.

Others have a different take, with a series of new polls indicating that the president's approval rating has dropped precipitously.

conflicting interpretations how very 2025 so who else but ian bremer to help us make sense of it all he's the founder and president of eurasia group ian helps us to process signal from noise ian thank you so much for being here and hello helen wonderful to be with you all right so we're going to think of this as some form of evaluation of the first 100 days of this administration and a look forward to what we should be expecting next now

We asked our community to share their burning questions that they want you to make sense of.

And far and away, the topic that they want to understand better is about the economy.

So Trump's so-called Liberation Day happened on April the 2nd.

The president described it as one of the most important days in American history.

What's your verdict?

What are we watching?

What should we be looking for?

I think it's fascinating to think about the rollout of the tariffs, which indeed seem to be kind of arbitrary and a little strange, at least to a lay person watching it.

We just saw that Jeff Bezos or Amazon are going to put a little tag on products on Amazon to denote how much of the cost is coming from tariffs.

Trump is not in favor of this plan.

What should we be expecting with consumer goods as we move forward over the next 100 days?

So given that the markets and everyone else threw up all over that policy, what is the future for that then?

How is Trump going to get himself out of this and actually towards a policy that does pay attention to the detail given that they do matter?

So you're quite right.

I do want to talk a bit more about China.

You allude to the fact that Trump seems to think that the conversations are ongoing with the Chinese officials.

I want to quote yesterday the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, who was speaking to a group of foreign ministers of BRICS countries.

And he warned them with some pretty severe rhetoric or severe language.

He said, and I quote, if one chooses to remain silent, compromise, or cower,

It will only make the bully want to push his luck more.

So America is obviously playing the role of the bully in this moment.

What should we make of what is happening with China?

Obviously, we're hearing one thing, but you know what is happening behind the scenes.

Tell us what we should be paying attention to.

Tell us what's going on and tell us what's to come.

So I'm curious if you agree, because the way that you describe it there, it sounds very plausible.

It sounds very convincing.

What is in it for the United States if they are backing away from all of this lengthy, years-long diplomacy that has been executed over the years?

What do they get from that?

Are they not, in fact, just handing a giant gift to the Chinese?

So you and I actually talked when President Biden met with President Xi in a historical meeting back in November 2023.

And that was the first time that President Xi had been to the US in six years.

This is maybe a really stupid question, but is there any chance that officials might somehow engineer a meeting between President Trump and President Xi anytime soon?

So what is the next milestone that we should be looking for here?

Is it July when the tariffs come up for re-examination?

Especially with China, what is the next milestone that we should be looking at?

But what's so interesting is that we've already seen the polls going down.

The favorability rating for Trump is already going down, and that is before these costs have really impacted the voters.

The voters are really having this sense or are about to have this sense of, wait, this is impacting me.

If they're a Trump voter, maybe they really like some of his policies, but people are having that, wait, the leopard eating my face moment of like, wait, this is actually really negatively impacting

So it seems to me that those polls are going to plummet yet further.

And we know that Trump really likes polls and he really likes to do well in them.

So again, sorry for like stupid questions, but what is he doing?

Why is he prepared to tolerate this negative opinion?

Indeed, we will.

All right.

Let's get back to international affairs and in particular, Ukraine.

We saw President Zelensky came to the U.S., had a very fractious meeting in the Oval Office.

We just saw President Zelensky and President Trump meeting at the Pope's funeral.

So what do you think?

What's happening?

What should we be looking for over the next 100 days and beyond?

Interesting.

And I want to talk a little bit more about Europe.

As you say, the Europeans have really stepped up.

I think you were in Munich when JD Vance went there and had his conversation with them and jaws dropped.

Jaws dropped.

were very very confused and surprised and upset by what he had to say and yet it is also true that the Europeans have indeed stepped up and have committed more of their more towards their defense budget so how is Europe kind of calibrating in this post first 100 days moment and how are they going to be approaching the US and also Ukraine and everything else going forward well you know

It's interesting.

Obviously, yesterday we saw the rolling blackouts occurring across Portugal.

And this is a really horrible joke that someone made, but someone I was talking to was just like, well, we'll see the report on what actually happened in about six years' time.

I'm wondering, if you wouldn't make that bet right now, what is the alternative?

Like, if Europe doesn't make that shift, what happens?

Really, really important.

All right.

So you mentioned both Mexico and Canada, and obviously Mark Carney was just elected.

I want to talk about immigration.

That is a banner topic that Trump had campaigned on.

It is also true to say that boarding crossings between Mexico and the US have plummeted since he took office.

Yet it's also true to say that fewer migrants have been removed.

by Trump and this administration then were removed by Biden in the previous 12 months.

There's also been some, I think it's safe to say, legally questionable deportation tactics being used.

A judge in Milwaukee County was just arrested for obstruction of justice by allegedly protecting a migrant in her court.

What's going on with immigration?

What's happening with the rule of law in the United States?

And what should we be watching here?

Ian, it turns out that we are running out of time, which is outrageous.

So I want to finish with one last question, which is you're obviously tracking this incredibly closely.

What should we be paying attention to over the next 100 days?

Well, Ian, we are so grateful to you for continuing to watch everything closely.

And we will indeed be asking you to come back to share your insights and your thoughts with us at some point soon, maybe in another 100 days.

For now, thank you so much for being here.

And thank you to everybody for watching.

We'll see you soon.