World Focus from Brussels Sveinn Helgason

Massive seismic activity has led to the evacuation of close to 4000 inhabitants from the fishing town of Grindavík, on the south coast of the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland.   I speak to my fellow Icelander, geophysicist Ari Trausti Guðmundsson, who explains the immense forces at work. Geoscientists still think it is likely that an eruption might start, close to or even in Grindavík itself. Already earthquakes, sink holes and other activity have caused huge damage to houses and infrastructure in the town. Few kilometers away, barriers are being built to protect the geothermal power plant in Svartsengi, next door to the Blue Lagoon, a popular tourist destination.  We also hear from  Gregory de Pascale, a geologist who went into Grindavík last Monday to assess the situation and inhabitants who were briefly allowed into their town to collect some of their most precious belongings. Special thanks to Icelandic National Broadcasting Service for providing material for the show. You can follow their coverage in English here:
https://www.ruv.is/english/2023-11-10-liveblog-reykjanes-peninsula-and-grindavik-396249

France plays a major role in Europe as one of the leading nations of the European Union,  plus being a founding member of NATO and a key Ally.  Nevertheless French governments have often been critical of the Alliance through the years. French President Emmanuel Macron has focused on strengthening the influence and status of France on the global stage, while also emphasizing the importance of Europe's strategic autonomy.  For this episode I travelled to Paris and interviewed dr. Élie Tenenbaum, the Director of the Security Studies Center at the French Institute for International Relations - IFRI.  We spoke about the war in Ukraine, the Middle East, the threat of terrorism and the role of France in NATO to name  few major topics. Before the interview with dr. Tenenbaum we hear President Macron announcing major military support to Ukraine earlier this year.

Major conflicts are raging in different parts of the world. The war in Ukraine continues and since early October, a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, following Hamas terrorist attack on Israel - adding a new chapter to the violent and complicated history of that region. Leaders of the European Union member states met in Brussels late last week to discuss these two conflicts and other pressing matters. In this episode I interview Belgian professor Sven Biscop, an expert at the Egmont Institute, about the role and the influence of the EU on the global stage. In this context we discuss the Middle-East, China, NATO, US politics and the support of the West to Ukraine, in a wide-ranging interview about geopolitics. 

Targeting LGBTIQ+  people is one tool that the Kremlin and other foreign threat actors use to manipulate the information space, in order to sow discord and weaken democracy, aiming to achieve their own political and even military objectives. The most prominent anti-LGBTIQ+ disinformation narrative, asserts that the West is trying to destroy everything that is good, normal, and moral by actively pushing ‘the LGBTIQ+ agenda.” The European External Action Service – the diplomatic service of the European Union  – launched a landmark report on this issue at a conference in Brussels last Monday, 23 October. The report identifies cases of foreign information manipulation and interference, or FIMI, targeting LGBTIQ+ communities in the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries, the Western Balkans and the Southern neighbourhood. Building on these cases, interviews with stakeholders and other work the report includes recommendations to address this threat, calling for a collaborative response, basically whole-of-society approach.  The goal is to protect diversity and human rights. In this episode I speak to three participants in the conference and below is a link to the report.
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/fimi-targeting-lgbtiq-people_en

US President Joe Biden  met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 18 October, in a high-stake visit to Israel, trying to break the latest cycle of violence in the region or at least prevent the current conflict from escalating even further. On 7 October the Hamas organization launched a horrific terrorist attack on Israel across the border from it’s bases in Gaza. Israel has retaliated with massive air strikes on the Gaza strip, also cutting fuel, water and other supplies to this densely populated area of around 2.2 million people. My guest in this episode is Erlingur Erlingsson, an Icelandic military historian and former diplomat. We speak about, the Hamas attack, what the Israeli military would face in Gaza as a ground invasion seems imminent, the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza, the possibility of a wider regional war, if there is any path to stability and peace and many other related topics. 

NATO ministers of defence meet  in Brussels today 11 October and tomorrow to discuss the war in Ukraine as almost 600 days have passed since the full-scale invasion by Russia on 24 February last year.  Volodymyr Zelensky President of Ukraine was welcomed to NATO's headquarters this morning by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, In this episode I speak to top Danish defence and miltary expert Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, a professor in political science at the University of Copenhagen.  He says the geopolitical implications of the war will be felt for generations to come. The use of Artificial Intelligence in warfare and the importance of innovation is another subject we address in this wide-ranging interview. We also discuss how the war in Ukraine has affected the defence strategy of Denmark, a founding member of NATO.