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The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line

Written by: Al Jazeera
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 A weekly take on US politics and policies and how they affect the world.2026 Al Jazeera Media Network. All rights reserved. Politics & Government
Episodes
  • How much of Trump’s foreign policy is driven by minerals and oil? | The Bottom Line

    How much of Trump’s foreign policy is driven by minerals and oil? | The Bottom Line
    Jan 18 2026
    China’s domination of minerals - especially the copper needed for electrification, data centres, robots, cellphones and defence technology - is pushing the United States to ramp up its control of oil and minerals worldwide, argues Daniel Yergin, one of the world’s top experts in the economics of oil. In this episode, Yergin explains how Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, Russia and other issues are connected to the business of oil and the competition to control Earth's minerals. And while US President Donald Trump’s motives in Venezuela and Greenland are unclear, Yergin says one thing is certain: The US is desperate to achieve supply chain independence from China.
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    25 mins
  • After Maduro: Is the US driving global instability? | The Bottom Line

    After Maduro: Is the US driving global instability? | The Bottom Line
    Jan 11 2026
    America First foreign policy means that the United States is becoming a country that opposes the rule of law, free trade and collective security, argues Ian Bremmer, president of the risk analysis firm Eurasia Group. Bremmer tells host Steve Clemons that the international system built by the US over decades “was going to reach a geopolitical bust” regardless of the advent of President Donald Trump. Washington’s decision to project power in Venezuela, coupled with rhetoric threatening Greenland, “makes the US more unreliable for its allies”, according to Bremmer, “and a much bigger driver of geopolitical risk on the global stage”.
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    25 mins
  • Has the US made peace with the rise of China?

    Has the US made peace with the rise of China?
    Jan 4 2026
    The United States has realised it cannot keep “trying to police the whole world”, argues Victor Gao, the vice president of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing. Gao tells host Steve Clemons that improved China-US relations are “inevitable” although he warns that some American policymakers still view China as the number one threat and Chinese officials “never underestimate what American neofascists will cook up next”. In this wide-ranging conversation, Gao maintains that Beijing has replaced Washington as the world’s champion of free trade and won’t allow the US to dominate the field of artificial intelligence.
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    24 mins
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