when you're born and raised in san francisco, you grow up wanting to make a difference. that's why, at recology, we're proud to be 100% employee owned with local workers as diverse as san francisco. we built the city's recycling system from the ground up, helping to make san francisco the greenest big city in america but we couldn't do it without you. thank you, san francisco. gracias, san francisco. -thank you. -[ speaks native language ] let's keep making a differene together. this is "gps", the global public square. welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria coming to you live. we'll begin today's show with a stunning announcement out of

israel. is the netanyahu era of israeli politics over. i'm talk to tom freidman of the "new york times." then, the strong man of a former soviet republic scrambled a fighter jet. the foe was a 26-year-old opposition journalists. will state sponsored hijacking as some have called it become a new tactic for despots around the world. i'm talk to the historian ann apple balm and the hannah luibokava. and then how did america, the world's wealthiest country, so badly bungle its initial covid response. >> china virus. >> was it donald trump? >> people think that goes away in april with the heat. >> or was it something much

bigger? michael lewis is here to tell us what he found. >> we didn't have a really respected and brave entity at the federal level to lead the response. >> but first, here is "my take." on a country divided on almost everything, one area of bipartisanship in the united states is alive and growing. fear of china. president biden said -- >> the chinese are eating our lu lunch. >> josh hally said they're well on the way to achieving the goal of world domination. they warn that the belt and road initiative and vaccine diplomacy are bolstering the soft power. let's look at what is actually happening on the ground. china's secrecy and deception of the origins of covid-19 have spurredin creingly called for thorough investigations worldwide including now from president biden. instead of being transparent and

welcoming international efforts to figure out what went wrong, beijing's attitude has been defensive and obstructionist, fuelling suspicions and conspiracy theories. this is part of a pattern. last week china's ambitious trade and investment treaty with the european union ran aground large by because of chinese overreaction. in march, the eu choose not to endorse the american characterization of china's act in zin chang against four local officials an the regional public security bureau. as stewart land notes in politico, the beijing counter attack came as a shock to everyone. it places broad sanctions on the entire eu political and security committee as well as the parliamentary subcommittee on humon rights, five leading european parliamentarians and those who study china. as a result, europe has all but

pulled out of the deal. or take china's relations with australia one of the main trading partners. australia has been assertive on trade and human rights but always worked to maintain constructive relt aigs. last year they called for an independent inquiry into the origins of covid-19. in response, china had what could only be called a freak-out. beijing hit australia with all kinds of trade restrictions and the chinese embassy in australia issued an extraordinary charge sheet of 14 grievances accusing australia of poisoning bilateral relation and demanding that the country's media and think tanks stop writing negative things about china. in april, the australian government canceled belt and road agreements made with china. all considered china's handling of relations with india. last year skirmishing netted

china 100 square miles of along along the frozen tund are you like himalayan border. the result is that india which has long been weary, is now much more willing. it is been a slew of chinese apps, excluding chinese companies from building 5g and joined u.s. and japan in the largest naval exercises in over a decade. meanwhile taiwan and japan and those in the south china sea have plenty of stories about aggressive military patrols and intimidation to assert its interest. china's current foreign policy is from the country during the ping era and after. back then the central objective was to ensure that the country's meteoric economic rise did not trigger resentment and counterbalancing from other

countries. the president tao described china's aspiration and strategy now chinese diplomats embrace conflict and hurl insists known as wolf warrior diplomacy. what is striking is that it has produced a series of own goals leading countries to adopt the very policies beijing has long tried to stop. there have also been serious consequences for its global imth, greatly diminishing the soft power. negative views toward china soared from 47% in 2017 to a staggering 73% in 2020. and if you think that is a u.s. phenomenon, here are the other countries. 73% in canada, 37% to 74% in britain. 32% to 81% in australia. 61% to 75% in south korea. and 49% to 85% in sweden. if there is a single theme in

international life these days it is rising public hostility toward china worldwide. president xi has approached con dated power for the party and himself. he has reasserted party control over economic poly putting curbs on the most innovative parts of the chinese economy and the technology sector and lavishing benefits on the most unproductive the state owned enterprised and pursuited an emotional foreign policy. in doing all of this he's dismantling the hard earned reputation as a smart and productive player on the world' stage, bringing to mind another period of centralized politics and aggressive foreign policy. the mao mara and that did not end so well for china. to go to cnn.com/fareed for a

link to my washington post column this week. and let's get started. benjamin netanyahu has been a policy for decades, he's been prime minister for the 12 years and served 3 years in the nate 90s but the netanyahu era may be coming to a close as a coalition is being formed to oust him. joining me now is tom freedman who was one once the jerusalem bureau chief for "the new york times" and now the foreign affairs columnist and the author of "from beirut to jerusalem". >> a classic. who knows where this goes because there need to be seven coalition agreements, lawyers will look at this, it might even go to court because it is not clear that you could have bennett as prime minister as the president had a asked la pead.

so there is a lot of complexity and it may play itself out over days but what does it mean if in fact the netanyahu era is over. >> if it is over, if it comes together with a national unite government in israel, let me put it in terms that americans could understand. this is bidenism coming to israel. it is a backlash against a leader who developed a personality cult, who basically lived by dividing people, who is extremely allegedly corrupt. he's now on trial for three corruption cases. it is the triumph of people who believe in institutions, the rule of law, and decency. it is the beginning potentially of a biden backlash in israel. >> but let me ask you, tom, when you look at some of the key figures here, bennett is

somebody who on the issue of israel-plastin is more hawkish, never giving up the west bank and he's talked about how you saw nothing wrong with killing arabs and you could see that lieberman advocated moving palestinians who are israeli citizens off the land. what does that tell us? how should we really welcome this? >> if this is a prelude to peace, that is not the case. but what bennett has been a strong advocate of, fareed, is a very strong autonomy for palestinians in the west bank. and i think you could see a consensus forming in this new coalition, this potential national unit coalition around

more separation and more autonomy for palestinians in the west bank as a potential stepping-stone for something else. right now, fareed, the most important thing for american diplomacy and american politics is to keep one thing alive and it is the two-state solution and i see this coalition potentially doing that because i think there is a common denominator for separation and real palestinian autonomy unless daily delegitimateization is a staple of netanyahu's force. >> tom, you've covered the middle east for 30 years. when you wrote from beirut to jerusalem, you were very hopeful about the two-state solution and you advocated it even then. at this point when you look at the encroachment of settlements and the israeli politically,

when you look at the degree to which palestinians dysfunction remains, gaza being ruled by hamas, do you understand and do you think that there will be traction for this idea that you are seeing going on the palestinian side and with some liberal zionists like peter beinart, maybe the only solution is one binational state in which you give the palestinians political rights within israel? >> i don't really see that happening, fareed. i think the best you could hope for -- i do think we're in the one-state reality more than in the two-state reality but i don't see it as a one-state reality in which the jewish majority basically gives full equality to the palestinian minority if you brought in the 2.5 palestinians from the west bank. but i do think we're in a phase where the dangers to israel are becoming apartheid state, are

becoming so clear, it became clear in the last two weeks here, fareed, we may be seeing in joe biden the last pro-israel democratic president of the united states. if you look where the rising left in that party is today. and therefore, i think you will see a stronger move toward building more separation and creating a much stronger autonomy and preserving the possibility for a two-state solution. that is the most we could hope for right now but that is a possibility with this new coalition. >> tom freedman, you're always to insightful on this. thank you. >> thanks, fareed. next on "gps", we'll dig into the bizarre story of belarus forcing a passenger plane down and then arresting a passenger who was a thorn in the side of the country's strong man leader.

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last sunday's ryan air flight 4978 started out as just another trip from athens, greece, to lithuania and but it was a pawn in an international incident after a security alert caused it to land in belarus. once on the ground it was boarded by those who arrested roman protosevich and the thorn in the side of belarus president l lukashenko and it was widely and strongly condemned by western nations. let me bring in hannah luibok

afterva and ann aiple balm where they published a piece on the incident titled other regimes will hijack planes too. it is a must-read. and explain this to us in historical consequence, the last time we heard that lucashenko, and theres with massive protests and government supported the protests, he seemed flailing and now this. explain. >> so, yes, you're absolutely right. lukashenko last summer seemed to be close to resignation, leaving this job. the entire country had turned against him and remember, this is a country that is created out of what used to be the soviet union, although it has a long history it had never been a state before and there was a --

a feeling that we as a nation for the first time are united in saying what we want and what we want is to be a democracy and to elect our own president. lukashenko manage totd stay in power. he lived through the crisis. partly because he escalated the level of violence that he had been using. and partly because he got support from russia. and so he was offered this hand of friendship from putin and that was clearly what prevented him from leaving the country and what made him decide to stay in power. i don't think the fact that he is still there means that people are any less determined that he should leave or that they don't want him to leave. but the level of violence there is now at an extraordinary high. i'm not sure that people outside of the country will believe it or really understand what has happened. people are being arrested off the street, people are tortured in prison and raped in prison. there have been several deaths in prison recently. a few days ago, a very young boy of 17 committed suicide in

prison. this is a very, very brutal regime now. and the fact that they were willing to hijack this plane shows that the degrees to which they are willing to defy the rule of law in the country but also around the world. >> and hannah, explain this 26-year-old journalist, who is he and why is lukashenko so afraid or enrai -- enraged by h. tell us about him. >> so it has become a journalist in a very young age. he basically got involved in all of these political activities. he's very brave. he's very loud. since 2019 he has been living in poland and he joined the team of this most influential telegram

channel, it is a social media network that protested belarus in the very popular in the country and in november of last year he was added to the kgb terrorist list by the kgb which is the security service agency in belarus which only shows that he is kind of -- lukashenko considers him a personal enemy because he's a blogger and who spreads information and informed citis inside and out of the country about what is happening in the country. but because lukashenko is so scared of information that is why he basically forced down a plane to detain ramman. >> and it feels like this is a -- a somewhat cruder version of a russian strategy which is to say that vladimir putin has made it appoint to attack pop

position leaders, opposition movements when they're abroad. lukashenko said this in recent days, we've eyes everywhere. you can't escape even if you leave the country? >> yes, absolutely. it is not just russia, actually. the whole phenomenon of what summer are called transnational repression is something that is growing rapidly. we have examples of russians trying to assassinate in some cases successfully their russian citizens in england, in germany, we have examples of the chinese kidnapping their citizens abroad. we have iranians that have been murdered dissidents outside of the country for a long time. but you're right this has now accelerated. >> and ann you raise in your atlanta piece, i want you to spell out a little bit, the real

dangers here because i think as the way 9/11 exposed us to the reality that people could turn planes into bombs, this reveals a reality that if an authoritarian regime wants to send a jet up to into space it could force any civilian airline anywhere in the world down. >> this is exactly why it is so important that the e.u. and the u.s. and other democrats react really strongly to this new level of provocation. because ultimately this is about breaking rules that are set up to help all of us. whether the laws of the sea, the laws of air traffic control, the point of those laws is to keep airplanes and ships safe. once those are broken, once autocracies are able to freely break those rules, we're all going to suffer. i can't tell you exactly how it will happen or when the next crash will be or when the next

catastrophe but the use of air traffic control or the commitation of air control is something that could have grave consequences for us all. >> hannah, and ann, this is a very important issue and you're very kind to have explained it to us. thank you. >> thanks, fareed. >> thank you. next on gps, the great writer and reporter michael lewis set out to understand how america could have bingled its covid response so badly in the first few months. what he found out will surprise you. he'll tell you all about it when we come back. >> if you miss a show go to cnn/fareed to a link to my itunes podcast.

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i'm now taking a big leap when i say that the u.s.'s response to the covid-19 pandemic was sub-par. for the wealthiest country in the world, to have among the highest per capita death rate is simply embarrassing and that is just one metric. lingering request is why as in why did the u.s. fair so poorly. the great writer michael lewis has pointed his pen at that question and the resulting book like all of his books is fantastic. it is called "the prem nigs, a pandemic story." the central kind of insight i think in your book is that this goes beyond donald trump. this is a much deeper issue. how did you come to that? >> you know, i didn't -- it

wasn't my own views that led me there. in fact, kind of surprised me that i ended up there. but i went looking for kind of the best characters to see this thing through, and when you spend time with people who have been in disease control or even before donald trump, they would have pointed out a couple of huge problems that would have made it difficult for us to respond no matter who was in the white house. and maybe the first is just basically an absence of a public health system. you've got these disconnected 3,000 people around the country local health officers with some guidance from the cdc, but also a lot of reasons not to completely trust the cdc. and that was sort of the other thing, that came up again and again was just how the cdc itself had ceased to be a center for disease control. charity, a local health officer wants to rename it for the centers for disease and

observation, for the observation of disease. whenever she was in a conflict, whenever she was on the ground trying to control some outbreak, of some other virus, she found that the cdc was more of an obstruction than an aid. and she actually banned them from her investigations. so she told you that that enterprise is not set up to do what people think it is set up to do. >> explain this more. because it is at the heart of the screw up. the cdc gets the first -- is late and then it has a bad test. why do you think this is happening? why was she -- was was something like charity dean so frustrated with the cdc? >> well, what she saw again and again, and the information and the stories before covid are so revealing. what she saw again and again is that when you're trying to control an outbreak, it is inevitably controversial. you're walking into a clinic of

a doctor spreading hep c and you're shutting down part of a college campus because of a mengingitis outbreak and people don't like is t so you're doing it over the objections of some fractions of the society. and when things got at all hot, the cdc would re treat. they don't want to be there or want controversy. so that was part one. and part two is what they did want, they wanted academic papers and they wanted was to figure out the science of whatever happened, write a paper about it and that is what the status was. and the problem with that as an incentive, is that if you're waiting for perfect data before you take any kind of action and the action is you write a paper, that the disease outbreak is over. that you -- the nature of disease control is sort of taking action with imperfect

information and condition of real ax biguity. it is like battlefield command. and she just sensed that the institution had lost its nerve. >> you had this amazing moment where you described how george w. bush reads john berry's book about the spanish influenza, and he decides that in fact the u.s. has exactly as you say a very bad national public health administration and he tries to reorganize it. does it work? >> it does work. i mean, it is an amazing story, that bush, you have a traumatized president with 9/11 in the rearview mirror and katrina just happened and someone thinks it is good idea to hand him a book about the 1918 pandemic and he comes back and said what is our plan and comes the answer, we don't have a plan. and these -- this collection of people, particularly two doctors, carter mitscher and

richard hatchet try to figure out the answer to a very particular question and it is what do you do to slow disease before you have vaccine? how do you minimize illness and death and the conventional wisdom at time which is hard to believe and it was entrenched in the public health community was you couldn't do much. social distancing, school closing and all of this stuff didn't work. and they thought that because in 1918 it seemed not to have worked. and so inside of the bush white house, these two guys and they're raul doctors, like an oncologists and an icu doctor reexamine what happened in 1918 and write persuasive papers about how the reason that st. louis had a fraction of the death rate of philadelphia was that they introduced these interventions earlier in relation to the arrival of the disease. and this wisdom ends up being buried in a plan about how you

intervene when you have a pandemic. that is becoming the official plan of the government and it is in the cdc. now the irony here is the cdc was regarded as the world's great health organization, spread this idea to other countries and like australia, australia has contained the virus using the playbook the cdc handed them. so either countries executed our plan much better than we did. of course it is too simplistic to say it is just that plan. it was a plan, but the plan is -- was easily adopted to covid and we did not -- for a bunch of reasons, did not completely internalize the plan. >> next on "gps", michael lewis will tell us more about the woman who predicted the severity of the covid-19 pandemic. that story and more when we come back. [sfx: kids laughing]

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with covid-19 swept the world, it caught many by surprise. but some people sounded alarm bells early on. dr. charity dean, a former california state health official was one of those people. she spent her career fighting outbreaks of fatal diseases lightning meningitis and tuberculosis. her bosses ignored her calls for urgent action against this novel coronavirus until it was too late. she's one of the stars of michael lewis's new book. you have many fascinating characters but charity dean is probably the principle one. talk a little bit about what is the most distinctive thing about this woman. >> it is the combination of having so much fear inside of

her with the ability to act so bravely. she -- her personal story is a lot like the tara westover story that grew up in an evangelical community, that they were supposed to just have children and have been obsessed with viruses as a small child and she leaves -- a lot of bad things happen to her and she has many reasons to be fearful. she is fearful, but adopted is a narrative i need to be brave in order to do the things i want to do and constantly sort of reminds herself that that is who she is. she's churchill and not chamberlain and that is what you need to do to do job she's destined to do which is stop people giving infectious diseases to each other. and the side of the story that was bring taking, you have

walked into a public local health office and i have not but when you walk in there you are walking into a netflix drama. what is going on pre-covid is to unbelievable, that it is life and death kind of every day. and it is outbreaks once a week. and it is -- you don't know what saved you, this woman stood between you and a tuberculosis outbreak and you never knew it happened, that is what interested me about her. it was the quality of the person in the situation. >> she said men underestimate me, they think that my spirit animal is a bunny and instead it is a f'ing dragon. i want to ask you about something about her that reminded me of your last book, the fifth risk. which is that all of these people incredibly impressive talented devoted who are not motivated by money. who are not doing this for the

money. you spent a lot of your time writing about wall street and people like that. but does it surprise you when you see these people with this level of dedication and hard work and they're just doing it because they think this is an important -- this is important work? >> i come to the conclusion that there is a separate gene, it the money gene. and some people have it and some people don't. and the people who are really effective in public service simply don't have it. if they have it, they're frustrated because they're not getting paid. this woman, charity dean walks away from they times the sum they would have made right away from private practice. take this job as a public health officer. and doesn't even think about it. doesn't like gnaw at her that i should be making more, i'm worth this. none of that crossed her mind. so instead she's animated and i think these other characters in the fifth risk are the same way.

what gets them out of bed every morning is not their bank accounts, it is a mission that they've identified, some almost -- you don't want to overstate this but it is a calling. she has a calling. and it overwhelms all other motivations. she doesn't need any other motivation. and to me the tragedy of all of this is that we currently live in a society that does not honor these people appropriately. because i think that -- i think what teased that more out of the population if we created a culture of recognition around it and people understood kind of sacrifices that some of the people made to do things for all of us. >> and you have a calling michael lewis, which is to tell us all about this stuff in these just amazing amazing books. thank you. >> thank you, fareed. >> i'm sorry to have to add a very, very sad quota to this

segment. michael lewis's 19-year-old daughter dixie and her boyfriend ross schultz were killed in a car accident earlier this week after we had taped the interview with michael. it is just a terrible tragedy. we send our condolences to the family and to all those who loved dixie and ross. may they rest in peace. tonight...i'll be eating a falafel wrap with sweet potato fries. (doorbell rings) thanks! splitsies? ♪ ♪

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and now for the last look. the last year and i half has taken a toll on our mental health to our financial well being and now new data shows how much our population is shrinking. it is the other side of the life cycle. all across the globe, birthrates are falling. the first babies conceived after the pandemic was declared were born in december 2020. but that month in south korea and italy, both rates fell 10%. in spain, both fell by 20%. and by january in poland, birth rates were down by almost a quarter. in fact, aggregated 21 different countries the economists found births fell 11% in january 2021 over the prior year. the magazine also noted that

countries with the highest covid-19 infection rate saw greater deck liked in birthrates. when u.s. census data was published, many was made of the comparison to 2019 but the sharpest dropoff came in december, an 8% drop and that trend looks to continue based on the true states that have release the data for 2021. a survey lastun found that a third of all american women wore postponing plans to have children or aiming for smaller families due to the pandemic. demographers point out that is the norm during massive crises but this is part of a larger trend that has been happening for decades in developed countries around the world. as gdp rises with higher education and more women in the workplace, instead of at home, couples marry later in life and have fewer children overall.

some of this is obviously a good sign. gender equality and educational attainment with r worthy goals. a decline in teen pregnancies accounts for one of the biggest parts of the u.s. declining birthrate. i think most would agree that is a cause for celebration. and in a world of limited resources, there are a virtue to having fewer people on the planet but the pace matters a loxt because when people stop having babies the labor force shrinks and with it the tax base. >> it is good to be here on this solemn occasion with so many friends. >> let's go to delaware, joe biden speaking now on memorial day weekend. >> general, good to see you and thank you for everything you do for for the delaware national guard. i saw general this morning. he's becoming not only a general but a great friend. a great friend.

he was at beau's memorial mass this morning. thank you for being here. and by the way, hunter has had one shot, not two and he's just making sure that everybody is okay. me and my family, we've tried to participate in this event every year. because it is important tradition in the delaware community. even last year and those early dark days of the pandemic, jill and i didn't want to let memorial day pass like every other day and there was no event here where we came to lay a wreath at the plaza. it is the first time since we have done an event since the lockdown in march because we were determined, determined to honor the fallen, to pay tribute to the men and women braved every danger for sacrifice for the country because as a nation, we must always remember, always

remember. we must remember the price that was paid for our liberties and remember the debt that we owe those who have paid it. and the families left behind. my heart is torn andn half by the grief the communities who are never whole again. folks, it is also important tradition in our family as many of you know, this is a hard day for us. six years ago today hunter lost his dad and i lost my son. it is the first year his passing back in 2016, the general did a great honor in inviting us to a ceremony renaming the delaware national guard headquarters in beau's honor. i note that when beau said he's been in and out of iraq 25 times

and i said you're a field grade officer. and i said i have no delusion who runs the united states army. it is the master sergeants. they run the army. well i woke up that morning carrying beau in my ear saying not me, dad. today is not about me. it is a memorial day. you shu be over at the bridge. and if he were here, we would be here as well. paying his respects to all of those, all of those who gave so much to our country and particularly honoring the gold star families. you know, a lot of time passes but you you all know better than i do, as well as i do, that the moment that we celebrate it is the toughest day of the year. we're honored, but it is a tough day. it brings back everything. and so i can't thank you enough for your continued service to the country and your sons, your

daughters, they live on in your hearts and in their children as well. and we have to carry on without them. but i know how hard it is for you. beau didn't die in the line of duty but he was serving at delaware national guard unit in iraq for a year, one of the proudest things he did in his life. so thank you for allowing us to grief together today. and i know how much the loss hurts, i know the black hole it leaves in the middle of your chest, it feels like you may get sucked into it and not come out. gatherings like this and help and while i know nothing i could say to ease the pain, i just know that each year it gets a little bit, little bit easier. and i promise you the day will come when the mention of the fame of your son or daughter, husband or wife, they will in fact bring a -- not a tear to your eye but a smile to your

lips. folks, i hope that day comes sooner than later. folks, you know, despite all of the pain, i know the pride you feel in the loved one and that you lost and those who are still serving. the pride and the bravery and the service to our great american experiment. our military community is the solid spine of this country. it is the spine of the nation. and on my first memorial day as commander-in-chief and i want to reaffirm my long-standing belief. we have many obligations in the nation but we only have one truly sacred obligation and that is to equip those with send into harm's way with all they need and care for them and their families when they return home

and when they don't. and all of us who remain have a duty to renew or commitment to the fundamental values to our nation in their honor. the values that have inspired generation after generation to service that so many have died to defend. every day since i've vice president i've cared a card with the exact number of troops killed in our operations in afghanistan and iraq. not an approximation or a rounded number. an accounting of every live laid down for our country over the 20 years of war. today it is 7,036 military members and fallen angels that have given the last full measure of devotion as lincoln termed it in the modern conflicts and we'll never forget they are the guardians and were the guardians, they're the guardians of us and we're the guardians of their legacy, the inheritors of

t their mission and the sacrifice that is not in vain because every american democracy endures. we have been tested. and we still will sure by be tested further. but i know that we as a people are up to the task. each generation of americans received a precious gift of liberty and we work to share it with more people to make our country more open, more free, more fair, to bring us closer, closer to making our american creed reality for all americans. that all women and men are create add equal. that all women and men equalifily deserve to be treated with dignity. that all men and women deserve equal rights, equal protection to build a future for their families and hope and opportunity.