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Financial Times
US foreign policy correspondent for the Financial Times
PROFILE
Geoff Dyer
Guest
FROM Geoff Dyer
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Exploring ‘White Sands’ with Author Geoff Dyer It’s difficult to categorize the writer Geoff Dyer. He’s written fiction, non-fiction, essays and criticism. He’s written on many different subjects: jazz, art, photography, film and history. He won the National Book Critics Circle award for criticism a few years ago. His latest book is called White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World . It’s a collection of mainly travel essays, and in several of them, he explores America and also Los Angeles. But what he’s really exploring is our mortality, what these places mean to us as a culture and what happens to them when we move on.
To the Point
Hold and Release: Iran and the "Trespassing" US Sailors Just hours before the President spoke to Congress last night ten US sailors were captured in Iranian waters. They've now been released. Today, Secretary of State John Kerry thanked the Iranian government and called the sailors' release a victory for diplomacy, . "All indications tell us our sailors were well taken care of provided with blankets and food and assisted with their return to their fleet earlier today. I think we can imagine how a similar situation might have played out three or four years ago." Geoff Dyer is US foreign policy correspondent for the Financial Times .
To the Point
Syria's Civil War Goes Multi-national What started as an uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has become more complicated than ever. Russia and the US are dropping bombs on the same country, and although both are opposed to ISIS, they are on different sides of the civil war. At the same time, Iraq is inviting Russia to join the US by dropping bombs there. France is part of the American coalition, and Iranian troops have been sent to Syria, joining Hezbollah forces from Lebanon. And President Obama is accused of creating a Middle-East vacuum for President Putin to fill. We try to connect the dots.
To the Point
A Possible Nuclear Deal with Iran Divides Traditional Allies Nuclear talks will resume tomorrow between Iran, the US and five other countries, and the rhetoric is heating up on all sides of the issue. While the US says an agreement is "close," France says Iran's path to a bomb would still be too easy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the deal is a threat to its very existence, and Arab nations — including Saudi Arabia — are taking Israel's side. In Congress, Republicans, and some Democrats, say it's time to increase economic sanctions, not to relax them, as the proposed agreement would do. Why are the US and traditional partners so divided? Is a deal or the lack of a deal most likely to lead to war?
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To the Point
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
To the Point
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
To the Point
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.