World Review: Iran War Resumes; NATO Lives Another Day; Russia's Fuel Crisis
A synopsis of this week's edition of World Review
Each week, I host a video podcast called World Review with Ivo Daalder where journalists from major news outlets around the world join me to discuss the latest global news stories of the week.
World Review can now be heard on Sundays, at 7:00 a.m. Central Time, on Chicago’s NPR station, WBEZ, or on the WBEZ app. We’ll still tape the show on Fridays, and post the video on YouTube and the audio version on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Now, on to this week’s show. Three fires burning at once this week: the return of open war between the US and Iran, a NATO summit trying to project unity it doesn’t quite feel, and a Russian economy running—almost literally—on fumes. Joining me were Peter Spiegel, managing editor of The Washington Post; Karin Axelsson, EU correspondent for Politiken in Brussels; and Anna Sauerbrey, foreign editor of Die Zeit.
While I encourage you to watch or listen to the episode (and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!), here are a few interesting things I took away from our discussion.
The Regime That Won’t Break
The week gave us two Iran stories that belong together, even though only one made headlines. Yes, the ceasefire cracked—strikes resumed across the Strait of Hormuz and into Jordan. But Peter’s more interesting observation was about the other event: the elaborately staged funeral for the Supreme Leader. A regime Washington keeps describing as decapitated and desperate managed, in his telling, an impressively orchestrated show of force in the streets. Resilience, not collapse, is the story.
Karin pushed on the European mood, which is somewhere between fury and helplessness. She invoked the German chancellor’s now-famous jab that the Americans have no strategy and that Tehran has Washington over a barrel—remarks angry enough that Trump threatened to pull troops out of Germany over them. Anna added the deeper problem: Europe has no leverage over Iran, no leverage over Washington, and precious little to do but watch. Her line that stuck with me was that Germany’s offer of a demining ship for the Strait shows just how limited Europe’s options really are.
Where this ends, nobody quite knows. Peter’s read is stark: Tehran now controls a chokepoint on global trade and isn’t giving it up, and neither side is moving. My own suspicion, which nobody on the panel talked me out of, is that we’re heading toward a world where ships simply pay a toll to pass—a tacit admission that the strait now belongs to Iran.
Learning to Shrug
NATO’s Ankara summit produced the usual pledges and photographs, but the more revealing dynamic was underneath: allies increasingly treating Trump’s threats as weather rather than crisis. Karin, fresh off the plane from Ankara, called the scene surreal—the alliance’s largest member bombing a neighboring country while everyone else at the summit quietly declined to support the war. Her sharpest image: a NATO diplomat telling her he wouldn’t sleep soundly until the alliance’s declaration was actually signed.
Underneath the unity theater, real fractures showed. Greenland resurfaced unprompted—Karin’s read is that Copenhagen sees Washington now as neither ally nor enemy but something to be managed. Anna and Peter both zeroed in on the deeper anxiety: is this Trump, or is this America? European officials increasingly suspect the latter, which means five percent defense spending pledges and new Canadian submarine deals with Germany and Norway aren’t just symbolic—they’re a hedge against a relationship that isn’t coming back, whoever wins the next American election.
And yes, there was also a small diplomatic embarrassment of the gift of a loaded pistol to attendees by President Erdoğan, who hosted the meeting. Most European nations have strict laws against gun imports and many left the gift in Ankara—except for the Belgian prime minister who apparently forgot he was carrying it home! Sometimes the funniest stories tell you the most about the state of an alliance.
Out of Gas, Not Out of Trouble
Russia’s economy is the story that may matter more than either headline. Anna walked through the toll of Ukraine’s drone campaign: refinery capacity down by nearly a third, fuel lines forming in Russian towns, even Moscow’s elite reportedly canceling Crimean vacations because long-range drones now reach that far too. Putin himself has had to publicly address fuel shortages—itself a tell.
The harder question was whether economic strain makes Putin more likely to negotiate or more likely to lash out. Karin relayed a vivid image from Danish intelligence circles: Putin as the cornered rat from his own childhood story, who doesn’t cower when trapped—he attacks. The fear in Nordic and Baltic capitals is a diversionary move against a NATO member, not a Ukrainian retreat.
Peter added a Washington data point: chatter, sourced partly to former CIA director Bill Burns, about Putin escalating toward the Baltics or Poland precisely because his position at home is weakening. Nobody on the panel thought this was likely—but as Peter put it, once an idea like that is in the air, it doesn’t fully go away. Anna’s closer was the more sobering one: the German security establishment isn’t panicking publicly, but privately, they’re alarmed.
Those are my quick takes on this week’s episode of World Review. To get the full story, please listen to the episode itself.