Friday Focus: Israel in Crisis – Chinese Warnings

Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths, Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates.  The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus.   On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice and Rudyard start the show with a discussion of the ongoing crisis in Israel over proposed sweeping reforms to the country’s high court. What is at the root of the mass public protests over the high court changes? Are we seeing the emergence of deeper, more intractable fault lines in Israeli society coming to the fore? What could this political and possibly soon constitutional crisis mean for the future of Israel as a democracy? Friday Focus wraps up with a discussion of the return of a war of words between Beijing and Washington over the state bilateral relations between the two superpowers. To access full-length editions of the Friday Focus podcast, consider becoming a donor to the Munk Debates for as little as $25 annually, or $.50 per episode. Canadian donors receive a charitable tax receipt. This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue. More information at www.munkdebates.com.