Rubio Goes to Latin America, the Ceasefire Ends, Trump Proposes a Gaza Takeover
On this episode of American Prestige, headlines from around the globe.

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On this week's news roundup from American Prestige: Donald Trump proposes the US take over the Gaza Strip (0:32), prompting mixed responses at home (9:16) as well as abroad (15:18); the US vows to return to a "maximum pressure" Iran policy (17:08); in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the M23 ceasefire fizzles out (20:04); Trump threatens to cut off funding to South Africa over certain land policies (22:10); Ukraine offers minerals in exchange for Trump's support (25:02); Secretary of State Marco Rubio travels to Latin America, addressing tension over the Panama Canal (28:37), entertaining an offer from El Salvador to take in US convicts (30:44), as well as an offer from Guatemala to aid in deportations (32:14); China responds to Trump's tariffs (36:43); and the Trump Administration rigs Google searches concerning deportation cases (38:37).
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio deplanes at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, on February 4, 2025.
(Johan Ordonez / AFP via Getty Images)On this week’s news roundup from American Prestige: Donald Trump proposes that the US take over the Gaza Strip (0:32), prompting mixed responses at home (9:16) as well as abroad (15:18); the US vows to return to a “maximum pressure” Iran policy (17:08); in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the M23 ceasefire fizzles out (20:04); Trump threatens to cut off funding to South Africa over certain land policies (22:10); Ukraine offers minerals in exchange for Trump’s support (25:02); Secretary of State Marco Rubio travels to Latin America, addressing tension over the Panama Canal (28:37), and entertaining an offer from El Salvador to take in US convicts (30:44), as well as an offer from Guatemala to aid in deportations (32:14); China responds to Trump’s tariffs (36:43); and the Trump administration rigs Google searches concerning deportation cases (38:37).

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Danny and Derek speak with historian Alfred McCoy about how the Cold War operated as a global conflict influenced by decolonization, covert action, and geopolitical strategy. They discuss the role of individual intelligence operatives as “men on the spot”; Cold War rivalry and the collapse of European empires; how conflicts across Asia, Africa, and Latin America produced much of the war’s violence; the development of U.S. containment strategy and covert action institutions; and Iran as flashpoint in Cold War and post-Cold War geopolitics, and how Alfred interprets these conflicts through a lens of imperial decline and strategic chokepoints like the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz.
Buy Alfred’s book Cold War on Five Continents!
Reading recommendation: The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peaceby Paul Thomas Chamberlin.
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