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00:00:15because it the race starts in
00:00:27The situation in the Middle East is very interesting with the
00:00:30Israeli parliamentary
00:00:32"I mean, if either of elections, but also we are going to speak about
00:00:36Serbia and upcoming elections in the United States
00:00:39and from Jerusalem joins me my friend and
00:00:43colleague Julian Borger, editor
00:00:46and um journalist for The Guardian who's in
00:00:49Jerusalem. JB, welcome back to program and
00:00:52one. Good to be with you. Um,
00:00:55Julian, you're in Jerusalem, we just passed
00:00:59the... um parliamentary elections, there is no clear
00:01:03winner, we have two blocks, one on the
00:01:06opposition side and one on the government side, but
00:01:10this is somewhat a neither of them has enough vote
00:01:13to uh form a government by itself.
00:01:17Arabs will look like kingmakers in this
00:01:20situation. What have you learned on
00:01:24the ground in Jerusalem and in Israel over the last day or
00:01:28two?
00:01:31"But yeah, absolutely, that the main sort of takeaway from these elections was the
00:01:35very striking turn out by Arab
00:01:38Israelis, Palestinians with the Israeli
00:01:41citizenship. Uh, they turned up in record
00:01:45numbers and now it looks like they are
00:01:48heading for
00:01:51matter. Let me 18, maybe 19 seats together in 120
00:01:53seat Knesset. Uh, that should give them a very
00:01:57powerful role. The trouble is you can only be a kingmaker if
00:02:00one side or another is prepared to cooperate with you and
00:02:04so far neither side, uh
00:02:07neither the government nor
00:02:11uh the the opposition, the Jewish opposition
00:02:14shows much interest in
00:02:18uh going into any kind of partnership with the Arab
00:02:21Israelis. So this is why we are at
00:02:24an impasse. If that wasn't the case,
00:02:28it would be clear that the Yahoo's government had fallen if if
00:02:32the uh Jewish opposition led by
00:02:35Gantz uh a
00:02:38retired general was prepared to go into some kind
00:02:41of agreement with the Arab Israelis, this would be all over very fast. But
00:02:45that's not the case. Uh Julian, you're often
00:02:49in the region. How impactful on
00:02:52these elections was what was
00:02:56happening over the last eight months with um Iran
00:03:00war? But also, did this show that
00:03:03Arabs finally figured out that they have
00:03:07their voice and their role in Israeli political
00:03:10life?
00:03:13Yeah, I mean, traditionally,
00:03:17Arab Israelis have been very ambivalent about voting
00:03:20because they don't believe that they will have much
00:03:23influence, they believe that the whole system excludes
00:03:26them. And they are largely right. And
00:03:31since uh proving and really proving it, but they
00:03:34have emerged as a major
00:03:37force in Israeli politics, but still there are
00:03:40no Jewish opposition parties apart from the
00:03:44very small Democrats who seem
00:03:47open to making a partnership across this racial
00:03:51divide.
00:03:54Julian, when it comes to Iranian war, how
00:03:57impactful uh it was for
00:04:01um the vote? Um, it doesn't look
00:04:04like people are that much against it, because
00:04:08we we still got enough votes with his
00:04:11coalition to be, I would say, an
00:04:14upper hand at the moment despite
00:04:17everything.
00:04:19No, absolutely, neither the Iran war nor uh
00:04:23Gaza were really part of this campaign because the Jewish
00:04:27opposition,
00:04:30those wars so it wasn't an
00:04:32issue. It was really striking
00:04:35actually and little Gaza was
00:04:38mentioned. When it comes to Donald
00:04:41Trump, uh he said that he helped Bibi
00:04:45also played on that card of uh Donald
00:04:48Trump. Was that good enough support for him at
00:04:51this point?
00:04:54It's hard to say um how much it made a difference. I doubt it did.
00:04:58The first time that Trump gave his endorsement
00:05:01to Netanyahu, it didn't move the dial in terms of
00:05:05the, it has been striking in the
00:05:09election into the opinion polls and the original exit polls
00:05:12showed that they really underestimated uh the
00:05:16support for Likud and Netanyahu is performing
00:05:19much better than the opinion polls uh before the election
00:05:22suggested. What are you hearing on the
00:05:26ground uh about um potentiality
00:05:29if either of these sides um
00:05:33get government, how they will uh
00:05:37act when it comes to Gaza, Lebanon,
00:05:40and um Iran at the moment?
00:05:45these uh major Zionist
00:05:49Jewish blocks uh took government, if they're for
00:05:52example, able to attract defectors from the other side and form
00:05:56some kind of majority government without relying
00:05:59on Arab Israelis, then I think it would be fairly unchanged. I mean, if
00:06:03the US wants to continuous war with
00:06:06Iran, I think both uh blocks will be happy to go
00:06:10along. Um, it
00:06:13may be that the opposition block would
00:06:16be more cooperative with the sort
00:06:20of Trump plan for Gaza than this, the Netanyahu
00:06:23coalition full of extremists
00:06:27who want to completely ethnically
00:06:31and settle it.
00:06:33So you may have a
00:06:36government, if the
00:06:39opposition block was able to form
00:06:43one that was a little bit more on Gaza
00:06:46went along with the Trump plan, let more aid in and
00:06:50pursued some form
00:06:53of uh some form of peace
00:06:56process. Uh, but the the the
00:06:59differences are really at the the margins when it comes
00:07:02to Gaza, the West Bank and
00:07:05Iran. Let's move to um
00:07:08story related to this region, you
00:07:12reported recently from Belgrade just ahead of parliamentary
00:07:16elections. Um, how do you
00:07:20see the result of the elections? You're covering this
00:07:23region for a long, long time from Milosevic
00:07:26to uh today. Were you
00:07:30surprised to see Vucic gone
00:07:32and accepting his
00:07:34defeat so
00:07:37easily on the election night?
00:07:39Yes, I was. I think that
00:07:44the various opinion polls before
00:07:47uh suggested that it would be tight, but it's clear that the opinion polls were
00:07:51not picking up the kind of undercurrents going on in the
00:07:55run up to the elections and in particular it seems like
00:07:58the apples underestimated the
00:08:02extent to which the the students were able to get out into the villages
00:08:05and make a difference in the villages where the rural
00:08:08electorate, of course, uh has been a base.
00:08:12So, yeah, I was
00:08:15uh uh taken by surprise by the degree of the victory
00:08:19and uh the fact that it was so clear, Vucic
00:08:23had little choice. Um, Julian, in your report from
00:08:26Belgrade you wrote about knocking on the
00:08:28door. Um, and
00:08:32that's a normal tactic in in United Kingdom that politicians
00:08:36during campaign are walking around and knocking on the door and
00:08:40asking people for their opinion. This was the first
00:08:42time that students deployed
00:08:46that tactics in Serbia. Was that a determining
00:08:49factor in getting people out to vote and to
00:08:53understand what is the difference between students
00:08:55and
00:08:59Vucic? Yeah, I think so. I mean, in canvassing does happen in elections, but I
00:09:02think the the students really had
00:09:05the uh had the numbers, the number of people to
00:09:08really...
00:09:14put emphasis on canvassing, on
00:09:17canvassing and in a country where the media, I think,
00:09:21that was an important factor, the ability to go around
00:09:25uh that thangle around state media and
00:09:29talk directly to uh thought to
00:09:33both have made a big difference.
00:09:36Um Julian, let me ask you something
00:09:39else. Um when you look at
00:09:42Serbia with the new government, do you
00:09:45expect anything to change in the future?
00:09:49Because as I said, you know Balkans very well over the
00:09:53last 30
00:09:53years.
00:10:00Yeah, I think
00:10:03it's really now the team can form a
00:10:06working administration, and I think the idea is that they
00:10:10will form a government that will agree on first of
00:10:13all trying to clean up Serbian politics
00:10:17and uh free it from the hold that the
00:10:21SNS has had on it for 14 years and then -
00:10:25to that go into the big policy debate
00:10:27about uh about Bosnia, about Kosovo, about the EU,
00:10:31about Russia. Uh, so it's really a big test now in
00:10:35this, what is really a political experiment, whether
00:10:39they can turn this huge desire
00:10:42for change into a functioning alternative
00:10:46government? Before I move to United
00:10:50States, does this look to you like
00:10:53Hungary 2.
00:10:56Peter Major second episode
00:10:59because he says that he is happy that the Budapest
00:11:02Express arrived to Serbia faster by
00:11:06politics than by
00:11:07rail. Yeah, I
00:11:10think
00:11:13the students and the opposition took inspiration from Hungary, but
00:11:17Serbia is different in that this was an experiment in direct
00:11:21democracy. Everything was decided by student plans where...
00:11:25and in
00:11:26Hungary
00:11:29and Tisha were more conventional
00:11:32parties. So
00:11:35different animal, but it is very much like Hungary
00:11:39driven by just weariness of
00:11:41an authoritarian
00:11:43regime.
00:11:47But it is something
00:11:50different in that it is an experiment, it
00:11:54is an experiment in very real sort of direct
00:11:57democracy where uh that decision has to be taken
00:12:01by a student plan uh
00:12:03and so it is really
00:12:07direct democracy. How long that they can keep that going
00:12:11when their representatives are in Parliament is another
00:12:16ask you this. United States will
00:12:19go on mid-term elections on Tuesday.
00:12:22You covered the States for a long time as especially during the
00:12:26Trump one, and we spoke so many times um during
00:12:30that uh his uh first term. What do you
00:12:33expect from um midterms?
00:12:37Speculation and projections at the moment
00:12:40are that the Democrats will take over House, but
00:12:44what with the Senate and what he can expect if they
00:12:47take at least one of the
00:12:49houses?
00:12:55Yeah, I mean, the Senate is really up in the air
00:12:58whether they can grab majority, but even if the
00:13:01Democrats can get both houses, there are limits
00:13:05on what they can do with an administration that
00:13:08is really trampled roughshod
00:13:12over the constitution, will try and
00:13:15govern uh without Congress. I mean, in theory,
00:13:19Congress has the power of the purse, so to cut off
00:13:22funding to government agencies and departments if they're
00:13:26doing things that it doesn't like and uh that it is
00:13:29legislated against. The question is whether this
00:13:33administration uh will pay any heed or find
00:13:37ways of channeling money that they once
00:13:40spent uh to where they want it spent.
00:13:42So,
00:13:45uh even if the Democrats have a really good day
00:13:48and do you say the extent to which they can rein in what has
00:13:52been very much an
00:13:55administration with authoritarian tendencies, uh
00:13:58is up in the air. Um, your
00:14:01newspaper and others reported recently about
00:14:05connections between Dodik and Republika Srpska
00:14:08and people around Trump and his administration and
00:14:12lobbying. Can uh that element of uh
00:14:15investigations be
00:14:18a major um trouble or major headache
00:14:21for him over the next two years if they get the
00:14:25House and all those investigation
00:14:28powers? Absolutely. I think this would be the one
00:14:32power they have. Once they have the House, they have the
00:14:34chairmen,
00:14:39chairs of the committees, they can start
00:14:42to invest all the dirt of what's been
00:14:46happening over the last couple of years. Again
00:14:49there is a caveat. They can issue subpoenas for members of the
00:14:52administration, and the administration can refuse uh
00:14:56to respond to them and and turn up and to give
00:14:59evidence. So what I think one
00:15:03can expect for sure is if the Democrats take
00:15:06over one of both the chambers of Congress is there will be
00:15:10a succession of constitutional crises
00:15:14over the the relative powers of of the branches of the
00:15:17government. Um, one more
00:15:20question is about Democrats
00:15:23themselves. They have...
00:15:25so many progressives or as they call
00:15:28themselves uh Democrats and
00:15:30socialists on their flank. If they
00:15:34have a majority or substantial
00:15:38number of those in House and in Senate,
00:15:41if, for example, wins, could
00:15:44that also have uh impact on their
00:15:47presidential race in two years,
00:15:53a year, it's not in two years. In two years we'll know who
00:15:57won this election.
00:16:00Yes, it could do. I mean, when it comes to
00:16:03choosing presidential candidates, the
00:16:06Democrats tend to sort of veer towards the the center,
00:16:10try and find a candidate that will
00:16:13appeal in the in the Midwest and in the in the South.
00:16:17But yeah, as you point out, politics are
00:16:20changing in in America and a new
00:16:22generation is making its voicing
00:16:25spell and more progressive arising to the top of the
00:16:29pile. And so it's possible
00:16:32you can imagine a progressive
00:16:35candidate that...
00:16:37like the Republicans have uh for many years
00:16:41now depends on the strength of feeling of the
00:16:44base, the commitment of debates and their ability to get the
00:16:48votes out on election day rather than going
00:16:51for something that is more centrist
00:16:55but uninspiring to the party base. Julian,
00:16:59thank you so very much for this report
00:17:02from Jerusalem and thank you for your
00:17:04time. The pleasure.
00:29:50stress, lack of sleep and a fast pace do to our body. We will
00:29:53talk about this with Dr. Jasmina Ćorović
00:29:57Kuburović, internal medicine specialist, cardiology
00:30:00subspecialist and ultrasound
00:30:03specialist. Good day, good day. How many times have you said, "I just need to make it through
00:30:06this day"? Tomorrow you wake up just as tired, with new
00:30:10obligations, the same promise that you will rest later.
00:30:13As a cardiologist, when we talk about heart health, I don't just ask
00:30:16about blood pressure, about blood fats. I also ask how
00:30:20you sleep. Research that has followed women in middle age
00:30:24for years has linked persistent insomnia and short sleep with a higher
00:30:27later cardiovascular risk. Sleep
00:30:31deserves our attention. What is the role of magnesium in
00:30:34our body, Doctor? Magnesium contributes to the normal function of muscles
00:30:38and the nervous system and normal energy
00:30:41metabolism and to the reduction of fatigue and exhaustion. That's why
00:30:44I recommend Pjur Magnesium Five to adults who want to
00:30:48supplement their magnesium intake. Because it contains magnesium from five
00:30:52sources: malate, citrate, bisglycinate, gluconate, and
00:30:55succinate, and the form is practical. The contents of one sachet are dissolved.