Podcasts about Al Jazeera

A transcript of this episode is available here: https://thedanceedit.com/transcript-episode-99Subscribe to The Dance Edit Extra: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dance-edit-extra/id1579075769Links referenced in/relevant to episode 99:-Al Jazeera coverage of the viral dance video fueling women's rights debate in Egypt: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/13/viral-egypt-dance-video-fuels-womens-rights-debate-Broadway World story on the Dance on Camera Festival lineup: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/The-50th-Dance-on-Camera-Festival-Announces-Line-up-for-2022-Festival-20220110-New York Times article on Broadway's attendance slump: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/theater/broadway-omicron-closings.html-Dance Teacher story on the "radically welcoming" dance studio: https://dance-teacher.com/what-does-it-mean-for-the-dance-studio-to-be-radically-welcoming/-Sara Mearns' post on her diagnosis with depression and burnout: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYnIhgMO2GK/

The media's packed up from the hotel where Novak Djokovic was detained in Australia, but after the tennis player's deportation, more than 30 asylum seekers are still at the Park Hotel in the middle of Melbourne. The Australian Open brought the men's years of indefinite immigration detention into the spotlight. We look at two stories from the Park Hotel: one man deported from Australia, another still there.  In this episode:  Jamal, asylum seeker at the Park Hotel Allison Battison, founder and director, Human Rights for All (@HumanRights4A) Kate Walton, writer for Al Jazeera(@waltonkate) Connect with The Take:  Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

The research and reporting rabbit holes are some of the most seductive and appealing parts of the freelance writing comfort zone. You start off doing good work: nailing down facts, seeking rich data, locating interesting sources. But there's always another twist and turn, and you can easily lose your orientation and not know if you're getting closer or further away from what you and your story needs. If you've ever said that research takes as long as it takes, or noticed that it's taking so long that it interferes with (rather than supports) your writing goals, you've got to listen to today's episode.   YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY … Spotify playlist of the greatest hits on the Writing Coach Podcast (please rate the podcast while listening on Spotify) WCP 1 What's your problem? Download my free guide on how to pitch SHARE THE WRITING COACH PODCAST  Subscribe and write a review of the Writing Coach Podcast on Apple Podcasts or review on Spotify. Share your podcast takeaways and tag Rebecca on Instagram: @freelancewriterbootcamp  WORK WITH ME Apply for the next session of my small group coaching program: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter. Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Click here to apply: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast162

Guest: Jeffrey Kaye. We talk about his research and writing on the Korean War and the biological warfare that was waged. HIs work is based on years of experience and research including in depth research of the depositions by prisoners of war and other materials that required laborious and expensive efforts to obtain. In a bonus segment we talk about how the US biowarfare operations have changed since the offensive bioweapon programs were officially ended during the Nixon administration when the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention was ratified.  Jeffrey Kaye  is a retired psychologist. For nearly 10 years he worked part time with Survivors International in San Francisco, conducting both assessment and psychotherapy of torture victims. After 9/11, he joined others in protesting the activities of psychologists in the CIA and Department of Defense, some of whom who helped develop interrogation programs that have widely been exposed as including torture and other forms of cruel treatment of prisoners. He is also a blogger and an author of the book "Cover-up at Guantanamo". His articles have been published for many years on various media outlets including Counterpunch, The Guardian and Al Jazeera. FOLLOW Jeffrey Kaye on Twitter @Jeff_Kaye and find his work at Medium. Around the Empire aroundtheempire.com is listener supported, independent media. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on Rokfin rokfin.com/aroundtheempire, Patreon patreon.com/aroundtheempire, Paypal paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod, YouTube youtube.com/aroundtheempire, Spotify, iTunes, iHeart, Google Podcasts FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon.  Join us on TELEGRAM https://t.me/AroundtheEmpire Find everything on http://aroundtheempire.com  and linktr.ee/aroundtheempire Reference Links: Secret History: U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps Flyers' Confessions on Use of Biological Weapons in the Korean War, Jeffrey Kaye CIA, MKULTRA and the Cover-up of U.S. Germ Warfare in the Korean War, Counterpunch, Jeffrey Kaye / Insurge Intelligence "A Real Flood of Bacteria and Germs": Communications Intelligence and Charges of U.S. Germ Warfare During the Korean War, Jeffrey Kaye, Counterpunch New Revelations on Germ Warfare: It's Time for a Reckoning with Our History from the Korean War, Jeffrey Kaye, Counterpunch The Schnacke Affidavit: U.S. Admission of Offensive Germ Warfare Capability During the Korean War, Jeffrey Kaye, Counterpunch Censored: North Korea Accused U.S. of Working with Unit 731 War Criminals on BW Attacks, Jeffrey Kaye A Concealed War Crime: U.S. Anthrax Bombings of China During the Korean War, Jeffrey Kaye REVEALED: The long-suppressed official report on US biowarfare in North Korea, Jeffrey Kaye  

Neediness has been normalized in much of freelance culture, to our own detriment. Desperation compounds difficult situations by blocking our own resourcefulness. Even when desperation fuels our actions, it's not energy that's sustainable long term. Without defining neediness as a so-called negative frame of mind that needs (!) to be replaced with a “positive” one, today we look at thoughts and feelings that are more useful for getting the outcomes we want and enjoying our writing lives along the way. MENTIONED ON TODAY'S EPISODE WCP 56: Playing it safe WORK WITH ME Apply for the next session of my small group coaching program, Freelance Writer Bootcamp. Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter.  Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Let's get started: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast161

Join the authors for a book launch and discussion of "Coup: A Story of Violence and Resistance in Bolivia." In three dramatic weeks in October and November 2019, the fourteen years of progressive change that Evo Morales' pink tide government had worked to implement in Bolivia and beyond came to a screeching halt. President Morales was forced to resign after protests against his re-election to a fourth term in allegedly fraudulent elections erupted among the urban middle classes, anti-indigenous racists, and prominent conservative politicians. Join Linda Farthing and Thomas Becker in conversation as they discuss the story of this year of upheaval in Bolivia, providing a critical analysis of the 14 years of the MAS government that preceded it as well as the MAS return to power in 2020. The will relate personal accounts and commentary from women and men on the streets, leaders in social movements, members of the MAS party and government, survivors of Áñez's abuses, and intellectuals. Buy the book from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1745-coup Speakers: Linda Farthing is a journalist and independent scholar who reported and commented from Bolivia during the 2019-2020 coup for The Guardian, The Economist, Al Jazeera, Americas Quarterly, NPR and the BBC. She is the co-author of three books on Bolivia. Thomas Becker is an activist, attorney, and academic who has worked on human rights issues in Bolivia for over 15 years. He spent much of 2019-2020 in Bolivia investigating abuses carried out after the 2019 coup for Harvard Law School. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/2yv34EDD_pQ Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

The fundamental 5W1H questions you use when reporting are just as handy for examining your freelance life.  When it comes to setting writing goals, WHO will you become in the process of achieving your goal? Is your goal setting process setting you up for success? Have you chosen goals that are distracting you from the writing you really want to be doing? Or are you holding unmet goals against yourself? Some writers have such a hard time believing that they're good at setting at achieving goals, that even when it's accomplished, they downplay the achievement or forget there was any struggle. Today we'll look at some common pitfalls writers run into when setting and working on goals, including: “I'll have what she's having” goals: You're not really sure what you want, but see that somebody else seems to be happy with having set or achieved a goal, so you set that for your goal too. Celebrity crush goals: You've put a publication, niche, or story on a pedestal so high that you're not realistically pursuing it. Goal timeframe issue: You've set a goal, pursued it, and then think “I'm not going to make it in time” and slow down or stop. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE … WCP 20: Setting freelance writer goals WCP 32: Setting freelance writer goals, Vol. II WCP 45: Setting freelance writer goals, Volume III WCP 59: Setting freelance writer goals, Vol. IV WCP 97: Setting freelance writer goals, Vol. V WCP 119 I want to, I want to not WCP 1: What's your problem? JOIN ME FOR THE ALL-NEW 5W1H GOAL SETTING WORKSHOP  On January 10, I'm leading an all-new 5W1H goal setting workshop, exclusively for members of Freelance Writer Bootcamp. Register today for 2022 Bootcamp, and join us for this special opportunity to get coached live on your goals. It's the perfect pre-work for Bootcamp. Apply today: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com APPLY FOR FREELANCE WRITER BOOTCAMP Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter.  Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Let's get started: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast160

Tim was founder member of ITV's Cook Report team and subsequently spent nearly 10 years as producer-director in Yorkshire Television's acclaimed documentaries department making films for series as diverse as First Tuesday, Network First, Dispatches and Secret History. In addition to making high-profile documentaries through Interesting Films, he has also worked within the BBC, ITV and Al Jazeera.His work has been honoured by Amnesty International, the Royal Television Society, The International Association of Broadcasting, The International Documentary Association, UNESCO, The New York Festivals and the US National Academy of Cable BroadcastingThe Interesting Film Company was set up by Tim Tate, a multi- award-winning film maker and best-selling author.The company is now based around a small core of dedicated film-makers who have learned their craft within some of the most prestigious production companies and documentary teams in British broadcasting: Yorkshire Television, the BBC, Granada and Carlton Television; First Tuesday, Network First and The Cook Report.http://interestingfilms.co.uk/Tim Tate : Conspiracy of Silence (Censored Franklin Cover up Documentary Filmmaker)6 years ago #(censored, #conspiracy, #conspiracy of silence, #cover, #documentary, #edopperman, #filmmaker), #franklin, #franklin cover up, #report, #silence, #tate, #tim, #tim tate, #up

Tim was founder member of ITV's Cook Report team and subsequently spent nearly 10 years as producer-director in Yorkshire Television's acclaimed documentaries department making films for series as diverse as First Tuesday, Network First, Dispatches and Secret History. In addition to making high-profile documentaries through Interesting Films, he has also worked within the BBC, ITV and Al Jazeera. His work has been honoured by Amnesty International, the Royal Television Society, The International Association of Broadcasting, The International Documentary Association, UNESCO, The New York Festivals and the US National Academy of Cable Broadcasting The Interesting Film Company was set up by Tim Tate, a multi- award-winning film maker and best-selling author. The company is now based around a small core of dedicated film-makers who have learned their craft within some of the most prestigious production companies and documentary teams in British broadcasting: Yorkshire Television, the BBC, Granada and Carlton Television; First Tuesday, Network First and The Cook Report. http://interestingfilms.co.uk/ Tim Tate : Conspiracy of Silence (Censored Franklin Cover up Documentary Filmmaker) 6 years ago #(censored, #conspiracy, #conspiracy of silence, #cover, #documentary, #edopperman, #filmmaker), #franklin, #franklin cover up, #report, #silence, #tate, #tim, #tim tate, #up

When it comes to making lasting changes in your freelance life, I'm more a fan of experiments than of resolutions. The latter tend not to work so well, often relying on willpower or self-shame as fuel to get things done. Some industries have business models based on these negative, dysfunctional cycles, and you don't want to rope your own freelancing in with them. Alternatively, setting up a framework of experimentation conjures curiosity and exploration. For decisions to stick long-term, this is much more pleasant and productive. Following up is something that many freelance writers don't do on a regular basis. It's neither sexy nor exciting, but it is super effective as a simple method to boost your query acceptance rate, streamline planning by getting people to commit to dates and times, and it replaces doubt with confidence when it comes to decision-making about next steps. You can follow up on pitches sent to editors, requests to sources for interviews, late payments, letters of introduction, filing stories, and pretty much any other time when you need to hear back from a person to take your next step, or generally want to remind them that you exist. Two distinct and extremely supportive patterns emerge with regular, systematic followups: 1 - People tend to respond quickly to the follow up, even if they ignore the initial contact. 2 - Scheduling the follow-ups minimizes emotions and taking things personally.  Listen to this week's episode on the protocol of how to follow up (that's the external business skill), and the mindset adjustments necessary to get yourself to do it with ease all year long (that's the internal thought work). YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY … WCP 1: What's your (writing) problem? WCP 123: Why you don't follow up WCP 153 Archives: Pay me now! Free guide on how to pitch WORK WITH ME IN FREELANCE WRITER BOOTCAMP Apply for my small group coaching program, Freelance Writer Bootcamp. Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter.  We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. Click here to apply to work with me in 2022: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com Follow me on Instagram: @FreelanceWriterBootcamp More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast158

In this episode I talk to Lara Sabanosh who is the author of Caged - which is the true never-before-told other side of an international, headline story that captivated audiences around the world in 2015. From the Today Show, NBC News, small-town newspapers, to Al Jazeera, everyone told their own version of the events that left my guest today and her daughters exiled, the Commanding Officer of Guantanamo Bay's Naval Base dismissed, and her husband dead.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Srishti Jaiswal, independent writer and journalist, and Oishika Neogi, a human rights researcher and writer at Karwan-e-Mohabbat.Oishika talks about her story in Article14 on the widows of three people lynched in Jharkhand. On her responsibility as a reporter, she says, “We do report hate crimes, talk about it, but what after that? We forget. But these people have to live with it.”Srishti talks about her Al Jazeera report on the “human cost” of the farmer protests. “They won and it had been a great journey for them, but at what cost?” she says. “They have to live with this pain.” The panel agrees that the government fails at giving out data on everything from farmer deaths to lynching records. “The data collection is very weak within the government in every case,” Srishti says. “They don't realise how crucial it is.”This, and a lot more as they talk about what made news, what didn't, and what shouldn't have.Tune in.RecommendationsOishika MindhunterSrishtiThe Mindy ProjectLongform PodcastModern LoveNidhiBeware of Pity See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A buildup of troops on the border of Ukraine and Russia is worrying the world. The fear is war, but parts of Ukraine are already caught in the crossfire. Pro-Russia separatists are battling Ukrainian soldiers and have been for almost eight years. We go to Donbas, Eastern Ukraine with Al Jazeera correspondent, Charles Stratford to hear what people there are living through now and their thoughts on what may happen in the days ahead. In this episode:  Charles Stratford (@stratfordch), Al Jazeera correspondent covering Eastern Ukraine Mansur Mirovalev (@mirovalev), a freelance correspondent based in Kyiv, Ukraine Connect with The Take:  Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Should you pitch during the holiday season? Yes, if you want more assignments. No, if you want to take time off. There are two valid approaches to taking time off as a freelancer: 1. Take time off during conventional holidays. Editors and sources may be less available; family and friends may be off too. 2. Freelancers make their own schedules and don't need to conform to public holidays. If you want new assignments, pitch away. Many editors continue to check email and assign stories, and fewer freelancers pitch and/or are available. Note that if you had any resistance to pitching during the first 50 weeks this year, you'll have some now too. You'll come up with some very convincing sounding reasons why not to pitch before, during, or after the holiday season. (More about this on the Writing Coach Podcast episode 48, “100 reasons why not to pitch today.”) To butcher the proverb about the best time to plant a tree, the best time to address your mental drama about pitching was the day you began freelancing. The second best time is today. Writers who register now for the January session of Freelance Writer Bootcamp get early access to a Mindset mini course to start addressing these issues of internal resistance right away. Apply to work with me at www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com WORK WITH ME TO MASTER THE ART OF THE PITCH Apply for the January 2022 session of my small group coaching program, Freelance Writer Bootcamp. Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter.  We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. Let's get started: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com Follow me on Instagram: @FreelanceWriterBootcamp

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more All this month and next I will be promoting GiveWell.org and I hope you will consider sending them a donation. They will match new donors up to $250! Please go to GiveWell.org/StandUp Get your holiday gifts from one of the sponsors of the show! GetQuip.com/STANDUP Indeed.com/STANDUP and start a store or shop at Shopify.com/Standup 34 mins Dr. Jason Johnson is an associate professor of politics and journalism in the School of Global Journalism & Communication at Morgan State University and author of the book Political Consultants and Campaigns: One Day to Sell. He focuses on campaign politics, political communication, strategy and popular culture. He hosts a podcast on Slate called "A Word" He is a political analyst for MSNBC, SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio and The Grio. He has previously appeared on CNN, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Current TV and CBS. His work has been featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and on ESPN. He has been quoted by The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Wallstreet Journal, Buzzfeed, The Hill newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Dr. Johnson is a University of Virginia alumnus and earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1:02 Chabeli Carrazana is the 19th News economy reporter. Previously, she worked as a business reporter for the Miami Herald, where she covered the tourism industry, and the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered NASA, the private space industry and labor issues. Follow her on Twitter  read "Did the pandemic change dads forever?" 1:21 Eric J. Segall graduated from Emory University, Phi Beta Kappa 27  and summa cum laude, and from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was the research editor for the Law Review and member of Order of the Coif. He clerked for the Chief Judge Charles Moye Jr. for the Northern District of Georgia, and Albert J. Henderson of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. After his clerkships, Segall worked for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and the U.S. Department of Justice, before joining the Georgia State faculty in 1991. Segall teaches federal courts and constitutional law I and II. He is the author of the books Originalism as Faith and Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court is not a Court and its Justices are not Judges. His articles on constitutional law have appeared in, among others, the Harvard Law Review Forum, the Stanford Law Review On Line, the UCLA Law Review, the George Washington Law Review, the Washington University Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, the Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy, and Constitutional Commentary among many others. Segall's op-eds and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the LA Times, The Atlantic, SLATE, Vox, Salon, and the Daily Beast, among others. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and France 24 and all four of Atlanta's local television stations. He has also appeared on numerous local and national radio shows. Listen and Subscribe to Eric's Podcast Supreme Myths and follow him on Tik Tok! Check out all things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page

Unmarked graves, lost family members, and a reckoning long overdue – it's a story familiar to Indigenous peoples in both Canada and the United States, where residential schools for native children ripped apart tribal nations. The US boarding school system was even more extensive than Canada's, but much less is known about it, and its history is often surrounded by a culture of silence. So what will it take for a reckoning in the US? In this episode:  Kavitha Chekuru (@KaviChek), producer for Al Jazeera's Fault Lines (@AJFaultLines) Denise Lajimodiere (@DLajimodiere), author and academic  Eleanor Hadden, descendant of boarding school students Connect with The Take:  Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

When I started freelancing, I was 100% DIY. One of the tricky things about making a good living as a freelance writer is getting a feel for what to do yourself and where to spend–or invest–time and money. Some choices that seem to be saving short term wind up costing you in the long run. Let's look at some areas where you may want to invest in supporting your star employee. WORK WITH ME How do you land assignments that pay well enough to pay for these supports? Apply for the January 2022 session of my small group coaching program, Freelance Writer Bootcamp. Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter.  Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Let's get started: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast157

Na de langste kabinetsformatie ooit lijken de onderhandelingen dan nu echt in de slotfase aanbeland. Demissionair premier Rutte belooft een nieuw elan. Maar wordt het ook echt een breuk met het verleden? In Buitenhof: Hoogleraar Europese geschiedenis Mathieu Segers en Al Jazeera-correspondent Step Vaessen. Lang ging Zweden zijn eigen weg in de aanpak van de coronacrisis. Voor sommigen is de architect van het Zweedse coronabeleid, staatsepidemioloog Anders Tegnell, een held maar volgens anderen stort hij zijn land in de afgrond. Zijn de verschillen tussen Zweden en de rest van de wereld nog steeds zo groot? En hoe bedreigend is de omikronvariant? En een gesprek over een boek waarvan de communistische partij in China niet wil dat u dit leest. ‘Red Roulette' van de Chinese zakenman Desmond Shum vertelt het verhaal van hem en zijn vrouw Whitney over rijkdom, macht en corruptie op het allerhoogste niveau binnen de communistische partij. De nieuwsfoto is deze week gekozen door fotograaf Ahmet Polat. Bekijk deze en meer nieuwsfoto: bit.ly/3yhwI5Q Presentatie: Twan Huys Je kunt deze aflevering ook bekijken via de Buitenhof website: bit.ly/buitenhof-12-dec-2021

Na de langste kabinetsformatie ooit lijken de onderhandelingen dan nu echt in de slotfase aanbeland. Demissionair premier Rutte belooft een nieuw elan. Maar wordt het ook echt een breuk met het verleden? In Buitenhof: Hoogleraar Europese geschiedenis Mathieu Segers en Al Jazeera-correspondent Step Vaessen. Presentatie: Twan Huys Je kunt dit gesprek ook bekijken via de Buitenhof website: bit.ly/buitenhof-12-dec-2021

Climate change and its impacts have been central topics of discussion in Greece, especially after a summer of intense heat waves and devastating wildfires. Aside from creating a new ministry to exclusively handle the fallout from climate change, the Greek government has also announced ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, completely faze out the use of coal powered power plants, and invest in electrification and renewable energy. While the focus in Greece has been on this summer's wildfires, climate change is already having a wider impact on many aspects of Greek life. Journalist John Psaropoulos joins The Greek Current to discuss his latest four part series for Al Jazeera on the problems of climate change in Greece, and to look ahead at some of the steps Greece is taking in response.John Psaropoulos is an independent journalist based in Greece and Al Jazeera's southeast Europe correspondent.Read John Psaropoulos's four part series on climate change in Greece here: Climate change and human error shrivel Greek agricultureClimate change threatens Greek wetlands and ancient livelihoodsClimate crisis: The world has a long, hard climb to ‘net zero'Greece, a green energy laggard in Europe, boosts renewable energyYou can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:Greeks reject populism, Mitsotakis tells Biden's Summit for DemocracyWhy Biden is hosting more than 100 countries to talk about democracyBiden sounds alarm about global democracy at virtual summitCovid ebbing but deaths, intubations concerningVaccination platform opens for children

On the sidelines of COP26, Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as part of an effort to find a way to rebuild ties between Kathmandu and New Delhi--which had grown sour in the recent years, with a boundary dispute between the two as its low point. Around the same time, China trumpeted a donation of 1.6 million COVID vaccine doses to Nepal, as the country stays around a 30% vaccination rate. Discussions of Nepal often reduce it to a country sitting between two great powers—especially as relations between those two great powers worsen. Or, perhaps, as a strategically important country—but one whose history and people are rarely brought up. Amish Raj Mulmi's All Roads Lead North: Nepal's Turn to China (Context, 2021) published internationally by Hurst early next year, helps to fill in these critical details. Combining insights from centuries of history, to on-the-ground reporting along the China-Nepal border, Mulmi gives a full representation of Nepal's long relationship with its neighbors. Helen Li, freelance writer and journalist, joins Amish and me for this interview. Helen was stranded in Nepal during the COVID pandemic, and saw firsthand the interconnected between Nepal, India and China. In this interview, Amish, Helen and I talk about Nepal and China: what connects their countries, their economies, and their peoples. We talk about historical links, Tibetan exiles, investment, and what India thinks about all this. Amish Raj Mulmi's writings have been published in The Himalayan Arc: Journeys East of South- east and The Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2018; and Al Jazeera; Roads & Kingdoms; Himal Southasian; India Today; The Kathmandu Post and The Record. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of All Roads Lead North. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

On the sidelines of COP26, Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as part of an effort to find a way to rebuild ties between Kathmandu and New Delhi--which had grown sour in the recent years, with a boundary dispute between the two as its low point. Around the same time, China trumpeted a donation of 1.6 million COVID vaccine doses to Nepal, as the country stays around a 30% vaccination rate. Discussions of Nepal often reduce it to a country sitting between two great powers—especially as relations between those two great powers worsen. Or, perhaps, as a strategically important country—but one whose history and people are rarely brought up. Amish Raj Mulmi's All Roads Lead North: Nepal's Turn to China (Context, 2021) published internationally by Hurst early next year, helps to fill in these critical details. Combining insights from centuries of history, to on-the-ground reporting along the China-Nepal border, Mulmi gives a full representation of Nepal's long relationship with its neighbors. Helen Li, freelance writer and journalist, joins Amish and me for this interview. Helen was stranded in Nepal during the COVID pandemic, and saw firsthand the interconnected between Nepal, India and China. In this interview, Amish, Helen and I talk about Nepal and China: what connects their countries, their economies, and their peoples. We talk about historical links, Tibetan exiles, investment, and what India thinks about all this. Amish Raj Mulmi's writings have been published in The Himalayan Arc: Journeys East of South- east and The Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2018; and Al Jazeera; Roads & Kingdoms; Himal Southasian; India Today; The Kathmandu Post and The Record. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of All Roads Lead North. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

On the sidelines of COP26, Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as part of an effort to find a way to rebuild ties between Kathmandu and New Delhi--which had grown sour in the recent years, with a boundary dispute between the two as its low point. Around the same time, China trumpeted a donation of 1.6 million COVID vaccine doses to Nepal, as the country stays around a 30% vaccination rate. Discussions of Nepal often reduce it to a country sitting between two great powers—especially as relations between those two great powers worsen. Or, perhaps, as a strategically important country—but one whose history and people are rarely brought up. Amish Raj Mulmi's All Roads Lead North: Nepal's Turn to China (Context, 2021) published internationally by Hurst early next year, helps to fill in these critical details. Combining insights from centuries of history, to on-the-ground reporting along the China-Nepal border, Mulmi gives a full representation of Nepal's long relationship with its neighbors. Helen Li, freelance writer and journalist, joins Amish and me for this interview. Helen was stranded in Nepal during the COVID pandemic, and saw firsthand the interconnected between Nepal, India and China. In this interview, Amish, Helen and I talk about Nepal and China: what connects their countries, their economies, and their peoples. We talk about historical links, Tibetan exiles, investment, and what India thinks about all this. Amish Raj Mulmi's writings have been published in The Himalayan Arc: Journeys East of South- east and The Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2018; and Al Jazeera; Roads & Kingdoms; Himal Southasian; India Today; The Kathmandu Post and The Record. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of All Roads Lead North. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

On the sidelines of COP26, Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as part of an effort to find a way to rebuild ties between Kathmandu and New Delhi--which had grown sour in the recent years, with a boundary dispute between the two as its low point. Around the same time, China trumpeted a donation of 1.6 million COVID vaccine doses to Nepal, as the country stays around a 30% vaccination rate. Discussions of Nepal often reduce it to a country sitting between two great powers—especially as relations between those two great powers worsen. Or, perhaps, as a strategically important country—but one whose history and people are rarely brought up. Amish Raj Mulmi's All Roads Lead North: Nepal's Turn to China (Context, 2021) published internationally by Hurst early next year, helps to fill in these critical details. Combining insights from centuries of history, to on-the-ground reporting along the China-Nepal border, Mulmi gives a full representation of Nepal's long relationship with its neighbors. Helen Li, freelance writer and journalist, joins Amish and me for this interview. Helen was stranded in Nepal during the COVID pandemic, and saw firsthand the interconnected between Nepal, India and China. In this interview, Amish, Helen and I talk about Nepal and China: what connects their countries, their economies, and their peoples. We talk about historical links, Tibetan exiles, investment, and what India thinks about all this. Amish Raj Mulmi's writings have been published in The Himalayan Arc: Journeys East of South- east and The Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2018; and Al Jazeera; Roads & Kingdoms; Himal Southasian; India Today; The Kathmandu Post and The Record. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of All Roads Lead North. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

On the sidelines of COP26, Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as part of an effort to find a way to rebuild ties between Kathmandu and New Delhi--which had grown sour in the recent years, with a boundary dispute between the two as its low point. Around the same time, China trumpeted a donation of 1.6 million COVID vaccine doses to Nepal, as the country stays around a 30% vaccination rate. Discussions of Nepal often reduce it to a country sitting between two great powers—especially as relations between those two great powers worsen. Or, perhaps, as a strategically important country—but one whose history and people are rarely brought up. Amish Raj Mulmi's All Roads Lead North: Nepal's Turn to China (Context, 2021) published internationally by Hurst early next year, helps to fill in these critical details. Combining insights from centuries of history, to on-the-ground reporting along the China-Nepal border, Mulmi gives a full representation of Nepal's long relationship with its neighbors. Helen Li, freelance writer and journalist, joins Amish and me for this interview. Helen was stranded in Nepal during the COVID pandemic, and saw firsthand the interconnected between Nepal, India and China. In this interview, Amish, Helen and I talk about Nepal and China: what connects their countries, their economies, and their peoples. We talk about historical links, Tibetan exiles, investment, and what India thinks about all this. Amish Raj Mulmi's writings have been published in The Himalayan Arc: Journeys East of South- east and The Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2018; and Al Jazeera; Roads & Kingdoms; Himal Southasian; India Today; The Kathmandu Post and The Record. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of All Roads Lead North. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Byron Martin, CEO of Teknologize, joined us to talk about the Vestas ransomware attack and the great concept of cyber resilience: How companies can rebound after a cyberattack like the one Vestas recently suffered. Plus, we discussed global air pollution levels, India's offshore wind potential and infrastructure challenges therein, the Save Right Whales Coalition and got the engineers' take on the floating wind turbine structure Pivot Buoy from X1 Wind. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - EP90 - Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience with Byron Martin of Teknologize This episode is brought to you by weather guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPs upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning 00:00:21:08 - 00:00:48:22Unknownprotection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Up Time podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. 00:00:59:21 - 00:01:13:00UnknownAll right. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind energy podcast, I'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's show. We've got a great lineup and we also have a friend of up time joining us, Byron Martin, CEO of Teknologize, which is an IT firm in Washington state. 00:01:13:00 - 00:01:29:22UnknownHe's going to be joining us to talk about the implications of the Vestas cyber attack. Obviously, we mentioned this on the show in a past episode just recently when the story broke. But we wanted to get Byron, who's one of our our repeat guests now, since he's an expert, it's really kind of walk us through this. 00:01:29:23 - 00:01:47:19UnknownYou know, the response, the cyber attack and his term, which you learn today, cyber resilience, which is not just trying to prevent attack, but also how quickly can your organization bounce back once you have in breach? So really great talk with Byron will jump to that in about 15 minutes before that. 00:01:47:19 - 00:02:03:22UnknownWe're talking about air pollution. We're concerned about India's offshore wind potential and why that still is sort of waiting in the wings. And we're going to talk about Rosemary's neck of the woods with the star of the South Offshore Wind project, which has gotten some new legislation just passed, which is going to help pave the way for 00:02:03:22 - 00:02:18:07Unknownthat one. And then after our interview with Mr. Martin, we'll talk about a self orienting floating wind turbine prototype that's just now being christened and the Save Right Whales Coalition and how that's impacting offshore wind here in the U.S.. 00:02:18:17 - 00:02:34:05UnknownSo before we get going, be sure to subscribe to our uptime at tech news, which you'll find in the show notes of this podcast, as well as Rosemary's excellent YouTube channel on renewable energy. So let's get started. Rosemary, we this crazy article from Al Jazeera. 00:02:34:20 - 00:02:50:10UnknownThey did a great job with it, some infographics and sharing some some data here on the 100 most polluted cities around the globe. And unfortunately, 94 are within India, China and Pakistan. Obviously, you know, you've especially harped on the idea that, look, we're all in this together.

Grape seed extract found to extend lifespan of old mice Chinese Academy of Sciences and Mayo Clinic, December 7, 2021 A team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in China and the U.S. has found that injecting procyanidin C1 (PCC1), a chemical found in grape seed extract, into older mice extended their lifespan. In their paper published in the journal Nature Metabolism, the group describes the link between PCC1 and extended lifespan in mice and the experiments they carried out with the material. The researchers screened 46 plant extracts looking for anti-aging capabilities. They came across PCC1. Initial tests during screening showed it reduced the number of senescent cells in the human prostate. Such cells are known to contribute to aging. Intrigued with their results, the researchers tested it further. They found that at low doses it prevented senescent cells from contributing to inflammation, and at higher doses killed them outright without harming other cells. (NEXT) Gratitude may improve your health University of Michigan and University of California, San Francisco, December 6, 2021 Be thankful for what you have—it might improve your physical and mental health, according to a new global study that uses cell phone data. People who were more grateful had lower blood pressure and heart rate, as well as greater feelings of appreciation toward others. The study found that optimism was also linked to health and mental benefits, such as better sleep quality and more positive expectations and reflections. The findings showed that gratitude and optimism are positive psychological dispositions associated with beneficial outcomes. Gratitude highlighted the positive aspects of the day, whereas optimism minimized the negative aspects of the day, the study indicated. In addition, optimism was a better predictor of sleep quality and stress frequency and intensity than gratitude. (NEXT) Higher physical activity is associated with a better metabolic health risk factor profile in menopausal women University of Jyvaskyla (Finland), November 29, 2021 A study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä shows that menopausal transition is associated with unfavourable changes in metabolic health that may be mitigated with a physically active lifestyle. Especially, physical activity alleviated the increase in systolic blood pressure. In the study, the women were divided into three groups based on the change in their menopausal status during the follow-up period and the groups were compared to each other. Body composition, waist circumference, blood pressure, blood lipids and glucose and physical activity were measured twice during the four-year follow-up time. In all groups, the levels of several metabolic health indicators deteriorated. (NEXT) Could glucosamine and chondroitin support a healthy colon? Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, December 6, 2021 Use of the supplements, which are used for joint health support, was associated with a 23% reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer, according to data from the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study published in the International Journal of Cancer . “Results of this study suggest a potential beneficial effect of glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation on risk of colorectal cancer, and further support the previously observed association between use of these supplements and risk of colorectal cancer in the VITAL study,” wrote the researchers. “Additional study is needed to better understand the association between use of glucosamine and chondroitin and risk of colorectal cancer, and the mechanisms by which these supplements may affect risk of colorectal cancer.” (NEXT) Cannabis impacts sperm counts, motility in two generations of mice Washington State University, December 2, 2021 An intense but short-term exposure to cannabis vapor lowered sperm counts and slowed sperm movement, or motility, not only in the directly exposed male mice but also in their sons. The Washington State University study, published in the journal Toxicological Sciences, builds on other human and animal studies, showing that cannabis can impede male reproductive function. The current study uses more controlled circumstances than human studies, which often have to rely on surveys, and is the first known reproductive study to use vaporized whole cannabis in mice, which is the more common form humans use. (NEXT) Study suggests giving kids too many toys stifles their creativity University of Toledo, December 6, 2021 A team of researchers at the University of Toledo has found that children are more creative when they have fewer toys to play with at one time. In their paper published in the journal Infant Behavior and Development, the group describes their observational study of toddlers at play, what they learned and offer some suggestions for parents. The researchers found that the toddlers playing with four toys engaged in more creative activities than did the toddlers who had 16 toys to choose from. They also found, unsurprisingly, that toddlers with fewer options tended to play with each of the toys available to them for a longer amount of time. Much of that additional time, the researchers noted, was taken up with finding news ways to play with them. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) TO WATCH THE VIDEO PART OF THE GARY NULL SHOW GO TO PROGRESSIVERADIONETWORK.COM (NEXT) Rap Sheets for Pfizer and J&J PFIZER Rejected the government for distributing the vaccine… will do it itself CEO Albert Bouria – before reining the closing bell at stock exchange.. stated that those who do not vaccinated will be the weak links in stopping the pandemic Pfizer – second largest drug/biotech co in world – 4th highest earner in vaccines Product safety – it is heart valves were defected and caused a hundred deaths – investigation found company intentionally misled regulators knowing about hazards Celebrex.. in wake of vioxx – painkiller.. admitted in its trials the drug increased heart problems.  Settled 894 million – for Celebrex and Bextra (painkiller that causes cardio and GI risks) More recent – 1000 lawsuits or birth defects associated with its drug Zolof… Price fixing – as far back as 1950s with antibiotics. Such as tetracycline Price fixing over the years… AIDS drug, Lipitor (cholesterol drug) In 2016 the Justice Department announced that Pfizer would pay $784 million to settle allegations that it underpaid rebates to Medicaid on two of its drugs. 20 million paid to 4500 doctors for speaking on behalf of its drugs Busted for false Centrum claims for breast and colon health Racketeering fraud over Neurtonin – epilepsy drug Bribery – payments to foreign government officials.. and  bribing overseas doctors to increase foreign sales Selling off label Kickbacks from medicare Tax avoidance – using paper work to “relocate” to Ireland , tax haven Repeatedly paid fines for environmental violations at its research and manufacturing plants. In 2009 - dubious distinction of paying the largest-ever criminal fine at the time — $2.3 billion — for fraudulent and illegal promotion of four drugs, including a painkiller marketed at “dangerously high” doses. In 2016, a British regulator levied a $106 million fine against Pfizer for a 2600% increase in the price of a widely prescribed anti-epilepsy drug that increased the National Health Services' expenditures from one year to the next — for a single drug—from $2.5 million to $63 million. Pfizer is the top drug company spender in state elections, even outspending the industry's own lobbying group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRM). In 2014 Pfizer launched an effort to take over AstraZeneca that was designed not only to swallow a competitor but also to cut its tax bill by locating the headquarters of the combined operation in Britain. When AstraZeneca resisted the controversial move, Pfizer abandoned the bid. Then in November 2015 Pfizer announced a similar deal, worth $160 billion, to merge with Allergan and move the headquarters of the combined company to Ireland. The plan was dropped when the Obama Administration introduced new tax rules. JOHNSON AND JOHNSON In 2004 J&J agreed to pay up to $90 million to settle lawsuits linking the prescription heartburn medication Propulsid to several hundred deaths and many more cases of cardiac irregularity. During 2009 and 2010 the company had to announce a string of recalls of medications, contact lenses and hip implants. The most serious of these was the massive recall of more than 136 million bottles of liquid Tylenol and Motrin for infants and children after batches of the medications were found to be contaminated with metal particles. The company's handling of the matter was so poor that J&J subsidiary McNeil-PPC became the subject of a criminal investigation and later entered a guilty plea and paid a criminal fine of $20 million and forfeited $5 million. It also came out during a Congressional investigation of the matter that in 2008 J&J had engaged in what was labeled a "phantom recall." When faced with Motrin IB caplets that were not dissolving property, McNeil hired contractors to buy up the products in stores while making no announcement to the public. In 2013 J&J reached a deal with plaintiffs lawyers under which it would pay nearly $2.5 billion in compensation to an estimated 8,000 people who had received flawed hip implants. In 2016 two juries awarded a total of $127 million damages to women who sued J&J claiming that their ovarian cancer was caused by the talc in J&J Baby Powder. An award of $417 million was made by a California jury in 2017 and a verdict of more than $4 billion was awarded in Missouri in 2018 (an appeal court later reduced that to $2.1 billion). The New York Times reported in December 2018 that internal company memos from the 1970s discussed the possibility that its talcum powder could contain asbestos. In 1996 J&J reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission under which the company agreed to stop making what the agency called false claims about the failure rates of condoms in the marketing of its K-Y spermicidal lubricant. In 2010 J&J subsidiaries Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen had to pay $81 million to settle charges that they promoted the epilepsy drug Topamax for uses not approved as safe by the Food and Drug Administration The following year, J&J subsidiary Scios Inc. had to pay $85 million to settle similar charges relating to its heart failure drug Natrecor. In 2013 the Justice Department announced that J&J and several of its subsidiaries would pay more than $2.2 billion in criminal fines and civil settlements to resolve allegations that the company had marketed its anti-psychotic medication Risperdal and other drugs for unapproved uses as well as allegations that they had paid kickbacks to physicians and pharmacists to encourage off-label usage In a related Risperdal civil lawsuit, a jury later awarded $8 billion in damages but a Philadelphia judge reduced that by more than 99 percent to $6.8 million. In 2019 J&J and its subsidiary Ethicon, Inc. agreed to pay over $116 million to 41 states and the District of Columbia to settle litigation alleging deceptive marketing of transvaginal surgical mesh devices. In a separate suit brought by California, a state judge ordered the company to pay $344 million. In 2021 J&J reached an agreement with a group of states under which it would pay $5 billion to resolve litigation brought against its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals alleging improper sale of pain medications, contributing to the national opioid epidemic. In 2001 J&J agreed to pay up to $860 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company had misled consumers into prematurely throwing away disposable Acuvue contact lenses. The suits argued that the company drove up sales of its 1-Day Acuvue soft lenses by recommending that consumers use them only once, even though the product was identical to regular Acuvue lenses, which could be worn as long as two weeks. In 2011 J&J agreed to pay a $21.4 million criminal penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department resolving allegations of improper payments by J&J subsidiaries to government officials in Greece, Poland and Romania in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (NEXT) Weapons trade booms as profits hit record $531bn in 2020 Swedish think tank says world's 100 biggest arms firms were largely shielded from the effect of the pandemic. AL JAZEERA. 6 Dec 2021 Sales of weapons and military services by the world's 100 biggest arms companies reached a record $531bn in 2020, an increase of 1.3 per cent in real terms compared with the previous year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The Swedish think tank said 2020 marked the sixth consecutive year of sales growth by the top 100 firms, and came even as the global economy shrank. Overall sales were 17 percent higher than in 2015 when it first included data on Chinese firms. “The industry giants were largely shielded by sustained government demand for military goods and services,” Alexandra Marksteiner, researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said in a statement on Monday. “In much of the world, military spending grew and some governments even accelerated payments to the arms industry in order to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.” Firms in the United States continue to dominate the industry, with total sales of $285bn from 41 companies accounting for about 54 percent of all arms sales among the 100 biggest companies. The top five companies in the ranking since 2018 have all been based in the US, SIPRI said. Arms sales from the top Chinese firms amounted to an estimated $66.8bn in 2020, 1.5 percent more than in 2019. Chinese firms accounted for 13 percent of the Top 100 arms sales' total, ahead of the United Kingdom, which had the third-largest share. “In recent years, Chinese arms companies have benefited from the country's military modernization programmes and focus on military-civil fusion,” said Nan Tian, SIPRI senior researcher. “They have become some of the most advanced military technology producers in the world.” The seven UK companies recorded arms sales of $37.5bn in 2020, up by 6.2 percent compared with 2019. Arms sales by BAE Systems – the sole European firm in the top 10 – increased by 6.6 percent to $24bn. (NEXT) You'd Better Watch Out: The Surveillance State Has a Naughty List, and You're On It John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead, December 7, 2021 No longer does the all-knowing, all-seeing, jolly Old St. Nick need to rely on antiquated elves on shelves and other seasonal snitches in order to know when you're sleeping or awake, and if you've been naughty or nice. Thanks to the government's almost limitless powers made possible by a domestic army of techno-tyrants, fusion centers and Peeping Toms, Santa can get real-time reports on who's been good or bad this year. This creepy new era of government/corporate spying—in which we're being listened to, watched, tracked, followed, mapped, bought, sold and targeted—makes the NSA's rudimentary phone and metadata surveillance appear almost antiquated in comparison. Tracking you based on your health status. In the age of COVID-19, digital health passports are gaining traction as gatekeepers of a sort, restricting access to travel, entertainment, etc., based on one's vaccine status. Whether or not one has a vaccine passport, however, individuals may still have to prove themselves “healthy” enough to be part of society. For instance, in the wake of Supreme Court rulings that paved the way for police to use drug-sniffing dogs as “search warrants on leashes,” government agencies are preparing to use virus-detecting canine squads to carry out mass screenings to detect individuals who may have COVID-19. Researchers claim the COVID-sniffing dogs have a 95% success rate of identifying individuals with the virus (except when they're hungry, tired or distracted). These dogs are also being to trained to ferret out individuals suffering from other health ailments such as cancer. Tracking you based on your face: Facial recognition software aims to create a society in which every individual who steps out into public is tracked and recorded as they go about their daily business. Coupled with surveillance cameras that blanket the country, facial recognition technology allows the government and its corporate partners to identify and track someone's movements in real-time. One particularly controversial software program created by Clearview AI has been used by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to collect photos on social media sitesfor inclusion in a massive facial recognition database. Similarly, biometric software, which relies on one's unique identifiers (fingerprints, irises, voice prints), is becoming the standard for navigating security lines, as well as bypassing digital locks and gaining access to phones, computers, office buildings, etc. In fact, greater numbers of travelers are opting into programs that rely on their biometrics in order to avoid long waits at airport security. Scientists are also developing lasers that can identify and surveil individuals based on their heartbeats, scent and microbiome. Tracking you based on your behavior: Rapid advances in behavioral surveillance are not only making it possible for individuals to be monitored and tracked based on their patterns of movement or behavior, including gait recognition (the way one walks), but have given rise to whole industries that revolve around predicting one's behavior based on data and surveillance patterns and are also shaping the behaviors of whole populations. One smart “anti-riot” surveillance system purports to predict mass riots and unauthorized public events by using artificial intelligence to analyze social media, news sources, surveillance video feeds and public transportation data. Tracking you based on your spending and consumer activities: With every smartphone we buy, every GPS device we install, every Twitter, Facebook, and Google account we open, every frequent buyer card we use for purchases—whether at the grocer's, the yogurt shop, the airlines or the department store—and every credit and debit card we use to pay for our transactions, we're helping Corporate America build a dossier for its government counterparts on who we know, what we think, how we spend our money, and how we spend our time. Consumer surveillance, by which your activities and data in the physical and online realms are tracked and shared with advertisers, has become big business, a $300 billion industry that routinely harvests your data for profit. Corporations such as Target have not only been tracking and assessing the behavior of their customers, particularly their purchasing patterns, for years, but the retailer has also funded major surveillance in cities across the country and developed behavioral surveillance algorithms that can determine whether someone's mannerisms might fit the profile of a thief. Tracking you based on your public activities: Private corporations in conjunction with police agencies throughout the country have created a web of surveillance that encompasses all major cities in order to monitor large groups of people seamlessly, as in the case of protests and rallies. They are also engaging in extensive online surveillance, looking for any hints of “large public events, social unrest, gang communications, and criminally predicated individuals.” Defense contractors have been at the forefront of this lucrative market. Fusion centers, $330 million-a-year, information-sharing hubs for federal, state and law enforcement agencies, monitor and report such “suspicious” behavior as people buying pallets of bottled water, photographing government buildings, and applying for a pilot's license as “suspicious activity.” Tracking you based on your social media activities: Every move you make, especially on social media, is monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. As The Intercept reported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies are increasingly investing in and relying on corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior. This obsession with social media as a form of surveillance will have some frightening consequences in coming years. As Helen A.S. Popkin, writing for NBC News, observed, “We may very well face a future where algorithms bust people en masse for referencing illegal ‘Game of Thrones' downloads… the new software has the potential to roll, Terminator-style, targeting every social media user with a shameful confession or questionable sense of humor.” Tracking you based on your phone and online activities: Cell phones have become de facto snitches, offering up a steady stream of digital location data on users' movements and travels. Police have used cell-site simulators to carry out mass surveillance of protests without the need for a warrant. Moreover, federal agents can now employ a number of hacking methods in order to gain access to your computer activities and “see” whatever you're seeing on your monitor. Malicious hacking software can also be used to remotely activate cameras and microphones, offering another means of glimpsing into the personal business of a target. Tracking you based on your social network: Not content to merely spy on individuals through their online activity, government agencies are now using surveillance technology to track one's social network, the people you might connect with by phone, text message, email or through social message, in order to ferret out possible criminals. An FBI document obtained by Rolling Stone speaks to the ease with which agents are able to access address book data from Facebook's WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage services from the accounts of targeted individuals and individuals not under investigation who might have a targeted individual within their network. What this creates is a “guilt by association” society in which we are all as guilty as the most culpable person in our address book. Tracking you based on your car: License plate readers are mass surveillance tools that can photograph over 1,800 license tag numbers per minute, take a picture of every passing license tag number and store the tag number and the date, time, and location of the picture in a searchable database, then share the data with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies to track the movements of persons in their cars. With tens of thousands of these license plate readers now in operation throughout the country, affixed to overpasses, cop cars and throughout business sectors and residential neighborhoods, it allows police to track vehicles and run the plates through law enforcement databases for abducted children, stolen cars, missing people and wanted fugitives. Of course, the technology is not infallible: there have been numerous incidents in which police have mistakenly relied on license plate data to capture out suspects only to end up detaining innocent people at gunpoint. Tracking you based on your mail: Just about every branch of the government—from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between—now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to spy on the American people. For instance, the U.S. Postal Service, which has been photographing the exterior of every piece of paper mail for the past 20 years, is also spying on Americans' texts, emails and social media posts. Headed up by the Postal Service's law enforcement division, the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) is reportedly using facial recognition technology, combined with fake online identities, to ferret out potential troublemakers with “inflammatory” posts. The agency claims the online surveillance, which falls outside its conventional job scope of processing and delivering paper mail, is necessary to help postal workers avoid “potentially volatile situations.” Fusion centers. Smart devices. Behavioral threat assessments. Terror watch lists. Facial recognition. Snitch tip lines. Biometric scanners. Pre-crime. DNA databases. Data mining. Precognitive technology. Contact tracing apps. What these add up to is a world in which, on any given day, the average person is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears. Big Tech wedded to Big Government has become Big Brother. Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by a vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops. In an age of overcriminalization, mass surveillance, and an appalling lack of protections for our privacy rights, we can all be considered guilty of some transgression or other. So you'd better watch out—you'd better not pout—you'd better not cry—‘cos I'm telling you why: this Christmas, it's the Surveillance State that's coming to town, and you're already on its naughty list. (NEXT) Vitamin D: Government Should Have Promoted to Combat Pandemic Joel S. Hirschhorn, December 06, 2021 There seems to be an endless refusal by the public health establishment to fight the pandemic with the best science-based tools.  Instead, they keep pushing vaccines. Great German research provides unequivocal medical evidence that the government should be strongly advocating two actions: 1. Take vitamin D supplements and 2. Have your blood tested for vitamin D. The title for this October 2021 journal article says it all: “COVID-19 Mortality Risk Correlates Inversely with Vitamin D3 Status, and a Mortality Rate Close to Zero Could Theoretically Be Achieved at 50 ng/mL 25(OH)D3: Results of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”  [25(OH)D3 refers to metabolite of the vitamin in blood] In other words, there is clear evidence that the lower your vitamin D level the greater your risk of dying from COVID infection.  Moreover, the data clearly show that you need a blood level of at least 50 ng/mL. Odds are, however, that very, very few people have been tested for their vitamin D level.  This is a situation where waiting for testing is not the prudent approach.  Vitamin D pills are pretty cheap and it is perfectly safe to take a healthy daily dose to maintain a good immune system.  I take 4,000 IUs twice daily. Here are a number of highlights from this research and other sources; the discussion is aimed at informing people with information not provided by Big Media, Big Government and Big Pharma. Vitamin D is an accurate predictor of COVID infection.  Its deficiency is just as significant, and perhaps more so, than more commonly discussed underlying medical conditions, including obesity. To be clear, there is a level of vitamin D for an effective strategy at the personal and population level to prevent or mitigate new surges and outbreaks of COVID that are related to reduced vaccine effectiveness and new variants. In the German study, fifteen other studies were cited that showed low vitamin D levels were related to cases of severe COVID infection, and seven studies that found positive results from treating ill patients with the vitamin. The German study noted: “The finding that most SARS-CoV-2 patients admitted to hospitals have vitamin D3 blood levels that are too low is unquestioned even by opponents of vitamin D supplementation.” The German study “followed 1,601 hospitalized patients, 784 who had their vitamin D levels measured within a day after admission and 817 whose vitamin D levels were known before infection.  And the researchers also analyzed the long-term average vitamin D3 levels documented for 19 countries.  The observed median vitamin D value over all collected study cohorts was 23.2 ng/mL, which is clearly too low to work effectively against COVID.” Why does this vitamin work so well?  The German study explained: A main cause of a severe reaction from COVID results from a “cytokine storm.” This refers to the body's immune system releasing too many toxic cytokines as part of the inflammatory response to the virus.  Vitamin D is a main regulator of those cells.  A low level of the vitamin means a greater risk for a cytokine storm.  This is especially pertinent for lung problems from COVID. Other studies On a par with the German study was an important US medical article from May 2021: Vitamin D and Its Potential Benefit for the COVID-19 Pandemic.  It noted: “Experimental studies have shown that vitamin D exerts several actions that are thought to be protective against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infectivity and severity.  … There are a growing number of data connecting COVID-19 infectivity and severity with vitamin D status, suggesting a potential benefit of vitamin D supplementation for primary prevention or as an adjunctive treatment of COVID-19.  … there is no downside to increasing vitamin D intake and having sensible sunlight exposure to maintain serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D at a level of least 30 ng/mL and preferably 40 to 60 ng/mL to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection and its severity.” This confirms the German study and its finding of a critical vitamin level of 50 ng/mL. Daniel Horowitz has made this correct observation about vitamin D supplementation: “An endless stream of academic research demonstrates that not only would such an approach have worked much better than the vaccines, but rather than coming with sundry known and unknown negative side effects.“ There are now 142 studies vouching for the near-perfect correlation between higher vitamin D levels and better outcomes in COVID patients. From Israel came work that showed 25% of hospitalized COVID patients with vitamin D deficiency died compared to just 3% among those without a deficiency.  And those with a deficiency were 14 times more likely to end up with a severe or critical condition. Also from Israel, data on 1,176 patients with COVID infection admitted to the Galilee Medical Center, 253 had vitamin D levels on record and half were vitamin D-deficient.  This was the conclusion: “Among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, pre-infection deficiency of vitamin D was associated with increased disease severity and mortality.” Several studies have come from the University of Chicago.  One found that a vitamin D deficiency (less than 20 ng/ml) may raise the risk of testing positive for COVID-19, actually a 7.2% chance of testing positive for the virus.  And that more than 80% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were vitamin D deficient.  And Black individuals who had levels of 30 to 40 ng/ml had a 2.64 times higher risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than people with levels of 40 ng/ml or greater. On the good news side is a new study from Turkish researchers.  They focused on getting people's levels over 30 ng/mL with supplements.  At that level there was success compared to people without supplementation.  This was true even if they had comorbidities.  They were able to achieve that blood level within two weeks.  Those with no comorbidities and no vitamin D treatment had 1.9-fold increased risk of having hospitalization longer than 8 days compared with cases with both comorbidities and vitamin D treatment. (NEXT) The explosion of Covid PTSD cases is a mental health crisis in the making The Guardian, 7 Dec 2021 When the Covid-19 pandemic began, people working in the trauma field knew the psychological toll would be colossal. In the spring of 2020, I began interviewing professionals about the mental health fallout of the pandemic, specifically its impact on frontline medical staff. During the first wave, two in every five intensive care staff in England reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. That work continued for almost a year, during which time a second wave hit and the initial traumas were exacerbated. But it wasn't only frontline workers who were experiencing trauma symptoms: Covid has posed perhaps the biggest threat to mental health in England since the second world war. Now, at the tail end of 2021, the pandemic is still not over. The NHS forecasts that nationally, there will be 230,000 new cases of PTSD as a result of Covid-19. It is not only social care and medical staff who will be affected. Those who lost loved ones, and those who have been very ill or hospitalised (35% of Covid-19 patients who were put on a ventilator go on to experience extensive symptoms of PTSD) may also suffer. Then there are those living with the effects of domestic and sexual abuse, which may have worsened due to lockdown, and children and young people whose lives changed immeasurably due to our shift to a state of emergency. I imagine that some women whose birthing experiences were marked by the pandemic will also be experiencing symptoms. The explosion of post-traumatic stress disorder is a medical emergency, and a further strain on our creaking services. Without proper action and investment, it is a national mental health crisis in the making.

Today we're assessing the global reaction to the Omicron variant and the allegations of injustice that surround it.  In this episode: Fahmida Miller (@FahmidaMiller), Al Jazeera's correspondent in South Africa Carol Bouwer (@bouwercarol), South African businesswoman and TV personality Connect with The Take:  Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Fish have a sacred role for the Klamath Tribes in the Klamath Basin, which spans part of Southern Oregon and Northern California. An 1864 treaty gives tribes the "exclusive right of taking fish in the streams and lakes,” but drought and poor water quality are killing the fish and causing a fight over resources between indigenous tribes and white farmers who were promised certain water allocations of their own. A new Fault Lines documentary by Al Jazeera called "When the Water Stopped," delves into the different sides of the conflict that is fueled by climate change, decades of federal land mismanagement and racism. According to activist and Klamath tribal member Joey Gentry, “our water crisis still exists today because of racism against the tribe, and racism against the tribe exists, in part, today because of our water crisis." We'll talk with Gentry and environmental reporter Emma Marris about the ongoing conflict and what it will take to resolve it.

When you're interviewing a source for an article, you'd want to do some followup if they said: “I don't know how a key part of my job works.” You'd ask the question again, or come at it from a different perspective. It should be the same when you wonder why you did (or didn't) get assigned a story idea you pitched. If your default is “I don't know,” you're not using the power of evaluation and reflection to show you the way forward in your next pitch.  The better you are at identifying the reasons why you are and aren't getting the work you want, the more growth and control you'll have over your writing life. Sometimes resistance to evaluation comes from a place of entitlement, or a sense that you have a right to a certain assignment. Today's episode looks at the impact of evaluating yourself routinely, and how unrecognized entitlement can interfere with the process. JOIN ME FOR A LIVE MASTERCLASS Sustainable freelance writer success Wednesday, December 8 I'll teach you a proven blueprint for pitching and selling freelance article ideas; how to turn a once-off assignment into an ongoing gig; and my very best tip for getting silent editors to respond to you. Bring your questions for the live Q&A portion of this masterclass.  A replay link will be sent to those who register ahead of time. Register for this free masterclass: www.rebeccalweber.com/masterclass WORK WITH ME TO MASTER THE ART OF THE PITCH Apply for the January 2022 session of my small group coaching program, Freelance Writer Bootcamp. Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter.  We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. Let's get started: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com Follow me on Instagram: @FreelanceWriterBootcamp More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast156

In mid-November, following the re-election of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Congress passed and President Biden signed the RENACER Act, which escalated an ongoing economic war against President Daniel Ortega. In this episode learn about what the RENACER Act does as we examine the situation in Nicaragua and find out and why Daniel Ortega has a target on his back. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536. Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes Essential Background Episodes CD102: The World Trade Organization: COOL? CD167: Combating Russia (NDAA 2018) LIVE CD186: National Endowment for Democracy CD187: Combating China Rabbit Hole Episodes CD041: Why Attack Syria? CD067: What Do We Want In Ukraine? CD108: Regime Change (Syria) CD131: Bombing Libya CD156: Sanctions – Russia, North Korea & Iran CD172: The Illegal Bombing of Syria CD176: Target Venezuela: Regime Change in Progress CD190: A Coup for Capitalism CD191: The “Democracies” Of Elliott Abrams CD208: The Brink of the Iran War CD224: Social Media Censorship CD225: Targets of the Free Marketeers CD229: Target Belarus U.S.-Nicaragua Relations Maureen Taft-Morales. November 4, 2021. “Nicaragua in Brief: Political Developments in 2021, U.S. Policy, and Issues for Congress.” Congressional Research Service. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. September 14, 2021. U.S. Relations With Nicaragua William I. Robinson. August 19, 2021. “Crisis in Nicaragua: Is the Ortega-Murillo Government Leftist? (Part I)” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Clare Ribando Seelke. March 17, 2008. “Nicaragua: Political Situation and U.S. Relations” [RS22836]. Congressional Research Service. Maureen Taft-Morales. April 19, 2007. “Nicaragua: The Election of Daniel Ortega and Issues in U.S. Relations [RL33983] Congressional Research Service. IMF Staff. May 16, 2006. “Nicaragua : Staff Report for the 2005 Article IV Consultation, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Reviews Under the Three Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, Requests for Rephasing and Waiver of Performance Criteria, Financing Assurances Review, and Request for Extension of the Arrangement.” The International Monetary Fund. Author's Name Redacted. May 16, 1997. “Nicaragua: Changes Under the Chamorro Government and U.S. Concerns” [96-813 F]. Congressional Research Service. Edgar Chamorro. January 9, 1986. “Terror Is the Most Effective Weapon of Nicaragua's 'Contras.'” The New York Times. Fred Hiatt, Joanne Omang, Michael Getler and Don Oberdorfer. April 7, 1984. “CIA Helped To Mine Ports In Nicaragua.” The Washington Post. Nicaragua Relationships to Russia and China 100% Noticias. September 9, 2021. “Nicaraguan Parliament Ratifies Security Agreement with Russia. Havana Times. “Russia, Nicaragua ink information security deal.” July 19, 2021. TASS: Russian News Agency. Frida Ghitis. June 8, 2017. “A Russian Satellite-Tracking Facility in Nicaragua Raises Echoes of the Cold War.” World Politics Review. Cristina Silva. May 22, 2017. “New Cold War: Is Russia Spying on the U.S. From a Nicaragua Military Compound?” Newsweek. Carrie Kahn. November 17, 2016. “U.S. To Monitor Security Agreement Signed Between Russia And Nicaragua.” NPR Morning Edition. John Otis. June 4, 2015. “Nicaraguan Canal Plan Riles Landholders.” The Wall Street Journal. Matthew Miller. May 4, 2014. “China's 'ordinary' billionaire behind grand Nicaragua canal plan.” Reuters. 2021 Sanctions “Nicaragua Leaves the Organization of American States.” November 19, 2021. Telesur. U.S. Department of the Treasury. November 15, 2021. “Treasury Sanctions Public Ministry of Nicaragua and Nine Government Officials Following Sham November Elections.” Antony Blinken. November 15, 2021. “New Sanctions Following Sham Elections in Nicaragua.” U.S. Department of State. Ned Price. August 6, 2021. “The United States Restricts Visas of 50 Additional Nicaraguan Individuals Affiliated With Ortega-Murillo Regime.” U.S. Department of State. Antony Blinken. July 12, 2021. “The United States Restricts Visas of 100 Nicaraguans Affiliated with Ortega-Murillo Regime.” U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of the Treasury. June 9, 2021. “Treasury Sanctions Nicaraguan Officials for Supporting Ortega's Efforts to Undermine Democracy, Human Rights, and the Economy.” “Nicaragua Minimum Wage.” Minimum-Wage.org 2021 Nicaraguan Elections “North Americans Debunk US & OAS Claims on Nicaragua Election.” November 10, 2021. Kawsachun News. Monique Beals. November 7, 2021. “Biden slams Nicaragua's 'sham elections,' calls Ortegas autocrats.” The Hill. Meta (formerly Facebook). November 1, 2021. “October 2021 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report.” Meta (formerly Facebook). November 1, 2021. “October 2021 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report Summary.” Nahal Toosi. October 26, 2021. “Tiny Nicaragua is becoming a big problem for Joe Biden.” Politico. Antony Blinken. October 22, 2021. “The United States Applauds the OAS Resolution Condemning the Undemocratic Electoral Process and Repression in Nicaragua.” U.S. Embassy in El Salvador. Carlos Dada. October 6, 2021. “La prioridad ahorita es que no nos maten; luego, la justicia y la democracia.” El Faro. Kai M. Thaler and Ryan C. Berg. August 24, 2021. “To replace autocrats of Nicaragua, think beyond this fall's election.” The Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. December 11, 2020. “Nicaragua opposition figure seeks rule changes for 2021 vote.” The Associated Press. Foreign Agent Law Guy José Bendaña-Guerrero. May 2, 2021. “Changes in Nicaragua's Consumer Law.” Marca Sur. “Nicaragua: National Assembly Approves Law To Defend Its People. December 22, 2020. Telesur. LAND Staff. October 29, 2020. “Nicaragua Approves Cybercrime Law.” Latin America News Dispatch (LAND). Associated Press. October 15, 2020. “Nicaragua passes controversial 'foreign agent' law.” ABC News. Oretega's Arrested Opponents Felix Maradiaga Biography. World Economic Forum. Felix Maradiaga Curriculum Vitae. Academia.edu Cristiana Chamorro Biography. The Dialogue: Leadership for the Americas. Cristiana Chamorro LinkedIn Profile. Juan Sebastian Chamorro LinkedIn Profile. Samantha Sultoon Biography. The Atlantic Council. Jared Genser, Brian Tronic, Stephanie Herrmann, and Michael Russ. October 28, 2021. “Petition to United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.” Perseus Strategies. Tom Phillips. October 22, 2021. “Nicaraguan business leaders arrested in Ortega's pre-election crackdown.” The Guardian. “Nicaragua: Police arrest 2 more opposition contenders.” September 6, 2021. Deutsche Welle (DW). Ismael López Ocampo and Mary Beth Sheridan. June 9, 2021. “As election looms, Nicaraguan government arrests Ortega's challengers.” The Washington Post. “Ortega Holds Arturo Cruz Prisoner at Interrogation Jail.” June 7, 2021. Havana Times. “Nicaraguan police detain another opposition presidential contender. June 5, 2021. Reuters. “Nicaragua: Opposition Leader Linked To Money Laundering Scandal.” June 3, 2021. Telesur. The Guardian Staff and agencies in Managua. June 2, 2021. “Nicaragua police detain opposition leader and expected Ortega challenger.” The Guardian. Trump Era - April 2018 Protests Paz Gómez. August 25, 2021. “The Break-Up: COSEP's Love Affair with Daniel Ortega.” Impunity Observer. Mary Beth Sheridan. August 4, 2019. “Nicaragua's Ortega is strangling La Prensa, one of Latin America's most storied newspapers.” The Washington Post. U.S. Department of the Treasury. April 17, 2019. “Treasury Targets Finances of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's Regime.” Samantha Sultoon. November 29, 2018. “Trump administration's new Nicaragua sanctions strategically target the top.” New Atlanticist Blog from the Atlantic Council. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Nicaragua [Executive Order 13851] November 27, 2018. Federal Register Vol. 83 No. 230. Rocio Cara Labrador. November 26, 2018. “Nicaragua in Crisis: What to Know.” Council of Foreign Relations. Rafael Bernal. November 01, 2018. “Bolton dubs Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua the 'Troika of Tyranny'” The Hill. Mabel Calero. July 26, 2018. “Daniel Ortega buries his model of alliance with private companies that lasted 11 years.” La Prensa. Max Blumenthal. June 19, 2018. “US govt meddling machine boasts of ‘laying the groundwork for insurrection' in Nicaragua.” The Grayzone. “Pension reforms in Nicaragua leads to violent protests and opposition from business groups.” The Caribbean Council. Foreign “Assistance” to Nicaragua About ForeignAssistance.gov National Endowment for Democracy Grants Awarded to Fundacion Nicaraguense para el Desarrollo Economico y Social National Endowment for Democracy Grants Awarded to Instituto de Estudios Estrategicos y Politicas Publicas Associated Press. August 26, 2021. “Nicaragua Orders Closure of 15 More NGOs.” U.S. News and World Report. William I. Robinson. August 20, 2021. “Crisis in Nicaragua: Is the US Trying to Overthrow the Ortega-Murillo Government? (Part II)” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Elliott Abrams. June 9, 2021. “Biden and Democracy in Nicaragua.” Council on Foreign Relations. Ben Norton. June 1, 2021. “How USAID created Nicaragua's anti-Sandinista media apparatus, now under money laundering investigation.” The Grayzone. John Perry. August 4, 2020. “The US contracts out its regime change operation in Nicaragua.” Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Responsive Assistance in Nicaragua [RFTOP No: 72052420R00004] “Section C - Statement of Work.” March-April 2020. USAID OIG Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office. October 24, 2019. “Financial Audit of the Media Strengthening Program in Nicaragua, Managed by Fundación Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Para la Reconciliación y la Democracia, Cooperative Agreement AID-524-A-14-00001, January 1 to December 31, 2018 (9-524-20-004-R)” USAID. IMF Western Hemisphere Department Staff. June 27, 2017. “Nicaragua : Selected Issues.” The International Monetary Fund. Richard Falk. February 21, 2012. “When an ‘NGO' is not an NGO: Twists and turns under Egyptian skies.” Al Jazeera. Laws S. 1064: RENACER Act Sponsor: Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) Passed by Voice Vote in the Senate November 3, 2021 House Vote Breakdown Law Outline Sec. 2: Sense of Congress "Congress unequivocally condemns the politically motivated and unlawful detention of presidential candidates Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Felix Maradiaga, and Juan Sebastian Chamorro." "Congress unequivocally condemns the passage of the Foreign Agents Regulation Law, the Special Cybercrimes Law, the Self Determination Law, and the Consumer Protection Law by the National Assembly of Nicaragua..." Sec. 3: Review of Participation of Nicaragua in Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement "The President should review" the continued participation of Nicaragua in the agreement. The authority listed is Article 21.2 of the agreement that says, "Nothing in this agreement shall be construed... to preclude a Party from applying measures that it considers necessary for the fulfillment of its obligations with respect to the maintenance or restoration of international peace or security, or the protection of its own essential security interests." President Trump issued an Executive Order on November 27, 2018 that said that the response to the protests that began on April 18, 2018 "and the Ortega regime's systematic dismantling and undermining of democratic institutions and the rule of law, its use of indiscriminate violence and repressive tactics against civilians, as well as its corruption leading to the destabilization of Nicaragua's economy constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States." Sec. 4: Restrictions on International Financial Institutions Relating to Nicaragua Directs the United States Executive Director at the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund to "increase scrutiny of any loan or financial or technical assistance provided for a project in Nicaragua" and "to ensure" that the loan or assistance is administered through an entity with full independence from the Government of Nicaragua. Sec. 5: Targeted Sanctions to Advance Democratic Elections The Secretary of State and Secretary of Treasury, "in consultation" with the intelligence community, "shall develop and implement a coordinated strategy" for implementing targeted sanctions in order to "facilitate the necessary conditions for free, fair, and transparent elections in Nicaragua." Targets sanctions specifically at... Officials in the government of President Daniel Ortega Family members of Daniel Ortega High ranking members of the National Nicaraguan Police Members of the Supreme Electoral Council of Nicaragua Officials of the Central Bank of Nicaragua Party members and elected officials from the Sandinista National Liberation Front and their family members Businesses that conduct "corrupt" financial transactions with officials in the government of President Daniel Ortega, his party, or his family. The sanctions are authorized by the 2018 law (outlined below) against "any foreign person" who, on or after April 18, 2018... Used violence "or conduct" that "constitutes a serious abuse" against protestors Taken "actions or policies" that undermine "democratic processes or institutions" Any current or former government official that used "private or public assets for personal gain or political purposes" Any current or former government official involved in corruption related to government contracts Any current or former government official involved in bribery Any current or former government official that transferred the proceeds of corruption Arrested or prosecuted a person disseminating information to the public The sanctions include... Asset blocking of "all property and interests in property" if they are in the United States, come within the United States, or come within the possession or control of a "United States person." Exclusion from the United States and revocation of visas and other documents. Anyone who "violates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation" of sanctions can be hit with a civil penalty of a $250,000 maximum fine or up to twice the amount of sanctions violating transaction and/or a criminal penalty of up to $1 million or up to 20 years in prison. Sec. 6: Developing and Implementing a Coordinated Sanctions Strategy with Diplomatic Partners Requires the Secretary of State to coordinate with other countries - specifically Canada, members of the European Union, and governments in Latin America and the Caribbean - to impose the sanctions together "in order to advance democratic elections in Nicaragua." Sec. 7: Inclusion of Nicaragua in List of Countries Subject to Certain Sanctions Relating to Corruption Adds Nicaragua to an annual report that gets submitted to Congress. The people identified in the report who are accused of corruption in regards to government contracts, bribery, extortion, money laundering, or "violence, harassment, or intimidation directed at governmental or non governmental corruption investigators" will have their visas revoked and be prohibited from entering the United States. Sec. 9: Classified Report on the Activities of the Russian Federation in Nicaragua The Department of State - working with intelligence officials - will submit a classified report to Congress within 90 days about... Cooperation between the Nicaraguan military and Russian military, intelligence, security forces, law enforcement, and Russian security contractors. Cooperation between Russia and Nicaragua in telecommunications and satellites Economic cooperation, specifically in banking Threats that cooperation between Russia and Nicaragua pose to "United States national interests and national security." Sec. 12: Supporting Independent News Media and Freedom of Information in Nicaragua The Secretary of State, Administrator of USAID and the CEO of the United States Agency for Global Media will submit a report to Congress listing all media "directly or indirectly owned or controlled by President Daniel Ortega, members of the Ortega family, or known allies of the Ortega government" and it will access the extent to which Voice of America is reaching the Nicaraguan people. Sec. 13: Amendment to Short Title of Public Law 115-335 Renames the "Nicaraguan Human Rights and Anticorruption Act of 2018" the "Nicaragua Investment and Conditionality Act of 2018" or "NICA Act" H.R. 1918: Nicaragua Human Rights and Anticorruption Act of 2018 Signed into law on December 20, 2018 Sponsor: Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) Law Outline Sec. 2: Sense of Congress on Advancing a Negotiated Solution to Nicaragua's Crisis Congress wanted the Catholic Church of Nicaragua to negotiate for early elections on behalf of "civil society", the student movement, private sector, and the "political opposition" Congress did like that the Government of Nicaragua was refusing to negotiate Sec. 4: Restrictions on International Financial Institutions Relating to Nicaragua Forces the Treasury Secretary to instruct our representatives at the World Bank Group and Inter-American Development Bank to oppose "any loan or financial or technical assistance to the Government of Nicaragua for a project in Nicaragua." We can support loans "to address basic human needs" or "promote democracy in Nicaragua" Sec. 5 : Imposition of Targeted Sanctions with Respect to Nicaragua Authorizes sanctions against "any foreign person" who, on or after April 18, 2018... Used violence "or conduct" that "constitutes a serious abuse" against protestors Taken "actions or policies" that undermine "democratic processes or institutions" Any current or former government official that used "private or public assets for personal gain or political purposes" Any current or former government official involved in corruption related to government contracts Any current or former government official involved in bribery Any current or former government official that transferred the proceeds of corruption Arrested or prosecuted a person disseminating information to the public The sanctions include... Asset blocking of "all property and interests in property" if they are in the United States, come within the United States, or come within the possession or control of a "United States person." Exclusion from the United States and revocation of visas and other documents. Punishes anyone who "violates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation" of sanctions with a civil penalty up to a $250,000 fine or up to twice the amount of sanctions violating transaction and/or a criminal penalty of up to $1 million or up to 20 years in prison. The asset blocking sanctions do not authorize the blocking of goods imports. Sec. 6: Annual Certification and Waiver Allows the President to waive the travel restrictions and sanctions. Sec. 10: Termination The sanctions authorized by this law expire on December 31, 2023. Audio Sources Kawsachun News - Nicaragua 2021 Election Observer Press Conference November 10, 2021 Moderator: I present Paul Pumphrey from Friends of the Congo. Paul Pumphrey: Here in Nicaragua, I saw a free and fair election. I talked to many people who were not a part of the Sandinistas party. And yet they themselves said they were willing to accept whatever result happened in the election. Moderator: Next we have Craig Pasta Jardula who is a journalist based in the United States. Craig Pasta Jardula: Mainly, I want to talk about the process, meaning the chain of custody, because that's something that we really saw that was great here in Nicaragua, it made this election a home run. The chain of custody is very strong here, including the fact that in Nicaragua, we have something that is awesome that a lot of countries need to adopt, which is where the vote is cast, it is counted, that ensures a strong chain of custody. Moderator: Next is Rick Cohn from Friends of Latin America. 13:05 Rick Cohn: I want to speak just a little bit though a group of 11 of us went to Bilwi on the Caribbean coast. And in the United States, one of the things they'll use to say this election is fake, is that a high percentage of people voted, and a high percentage of people voted for the FSLN. And that can't happen, because American politicians that would never happen. Well, so I want to say something about why the voters told us they were voting. They told us that basically, they had two Category Four and Category Five hurricanes last year, and the government came and saved their lives, saved many, many lives. And, you know, people have trust in that government. And then the government came in and made sure the electric was up. In Puerto Rico from a year earlier, electric still isn't isn't working, because they, you know, are making money selling electric, but it still doesn't work. They told us they had new roofs put on almost immediately they were delivered. They told us that the schools were rebuilt. All of the schools were in good condition. Oh, the schools and some of them have new buildings. So we had a situation where they were very happy with the performance of the government. And that is why -- oh, they also told us they had one kilometer of road before the FSLN came into power from the neoliberal period, now they have 500 kilometers. And with 70 more kilometers, they'll be able to drive from all the way to Managua, which they've never been able to do in history. So they told us these things. And the FSLN party received the highest percentage of votes, but that's not strange, because they really support the government. They received 86.7% of the vote. You know, there's no way that's made up - it's not fake. It's where they're at. It is certainly the biggest deficiency in democracy in Nicaragua is the interference that there is so much interference from the US government and the media, and the censorship and the lies that they tell. That's the interference that's occurring in this election. 33:52 Rick Cohn: Corporate media like Facebook, well, all of the corporate media including Facebook and Twitter, but social media, are actually just part of the US system and they're contracted to provide information back and forth, they're actually an aspect of the government and they close 1000s of people's accounts, who are people, and I met some of them, they're actual people, and they close their accounts. And they weren't, you know, anyone who was saying anything other than the fact that they may have been supporting the Nicaraguan people or opposed to the the sanctions on Nicaragua. AN INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE TO ORTEGA'S DESTRUCTION OF DEMOCRACY IN NICARAGUA September 21, 2021 House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, Migration and International Economic Policy *Hearing not on C-SPAN Witnesses: Emily Mendrala Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Laure Chinchilla Former President of Costa Rica Co-Chair at The Inter-American Dialogue Ryan Berg, PhD Senior Fellow in the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Oct. 2018 - Apr. 2021: Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Apr. 2018 - Oct. 2018: Research Consultant at The World Bank July 2014 - Oct 2014: US State Department negotiator at the Organization of American States (OAS) 2009: Intern for Paul Ryan Berta Valle Wife of Felix Maradiaga Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ): The regime has rounded up nearly every potential challenger to Ortega and has not even tried to hide these arrests and forced disappearances under the veneer of legality. 05:42 Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ): Having written the NICA Act with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), I am frustrated that the International Monetary Fund recently provided $350 million to the regime. The IMF should not take Ortega's us word for it that these funds will be used to address the COVID pandemic. 06:53 Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ): We should also begin preparing a number of severe diplomatic consequences, assuming Nicaragua's election in November becomes a coronation for Ortega. Nicaragua should be suspended under the International Democratic Charter on November 8, and its participation under the Central America Free Trade Agreement should be reconsidered. 10:39 Rep. Mark Green (R-TN): On November 7 a political farce will be held, claiming to resemble elections. No one should be fooled about the outcome -- any hope of unseating the socialist dictatorship is sitting inside of Ortega's prisons. 13:56 *Emily Mendrala: As you are well aware, the Ortega-Murillo government has carried out a ruthless crackdown over the past several months, canceling the registration of opposition parties, incarcerating journalists, opposition leaders, potential presidential candidates, students, private sector leaders and others who defend free and fair elections, attacking the free press, closing long standing NGOs that provide humanitarian and medical assistance to Nicaraguans in need. 15:06 Emily Mendrala: In the face of sham elections in Nicaragua, we and our international partners must continue to denounce and push back against the Ortega-Murillo government's anti-democratic rule as well as its use of Russian-inspired laws to carry out repression. 17:56 Emily Mendrala: Through USAID we continue to support Nicaraguan civil society, independent media and human rights defenders. Our continued support assures Nicaraguans that the outside world has not forgotten them. 19:06 Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ): Are we using our voice? Is the administration using its voice and vote with international financial institution to oppose loans and other financial assistance to Ortega? Because I have to tell you, it's very upsetting to me that we do all this work here. We asked the administration to put sanctions on different people. And yet the IMF, which we probably contribute the largest amount of money, or if not, one of the largest amounts of money, they seem to just ignore what's going on in Nicaragua. And it has to -- I intend to write a letter to the IMF. And hopefully we'll have them before this committee, because this is not acceptable. 20:22 Emily Mendrala: We are using our voice and our vote and every opportunity in front of multilateral institutions to oppose lending to the Ortega-Murillo government. We will continue to use our voice, vote and influence to advocate against lending from international financial institutions to the Ortega-Murillo government and we will also continue to collaborate with international partners where appropriate: EU, Canada and others to do the same. 30:43 Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX): The upcoming November 7 elections will be neither free nor fair 1:04:30 Berta Valle: Even though Félix [Maradiaga] has dedicated his life to serving our country, the regime has charged him and others with a conspiracy to undermine national integrity. The government is alleging that Félix and others were part of a global conspiracy to use foreign resources, including from the US Agency for International Development, the International Republican Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy to harm the interests of the nation. 1:16:33 Ryan Berg: As well as November 7, I think we need to declare Nicaragua's elections illegitimate under current conditions. 1:27:16 Ryan Berg: Thank you, Congressman Green, for the question. Yes, the two countries that I would point out as extra-hemispheric actors who have have come into the hemisphere to shore up the Ortega regime are Russia and Iran. Russia, we've seen with a significant presence in Nicaragua for a while. Its increased its presence in past years, to an extent that I think should be very alarming for the US government. Not only does it have a number of port agreements with Nicaragua, and access to the Caribbean, where it can engage in anti access and area denial capabilities, potentially. But also in cyberspace. We saw recently the Russians and Nicaraguans sign a major agreement in the cyberspace, particularly to help the regime not only increase its domestic security apparatus, but to spy potentially on the opposition on our own citizens, and indeed, potentially on on other governments in Central America, depending upon the strength of the equipment transfers that we'll see in future. So they have a whole number or whole range of capabilities that they are developing within Nicaragua, that there are signals intelligence stations that are actually quite close to the US Embassy in Managua. And so that's that's Russia, Russia has an interest in shoring up this regime on the cheap. And I think Iran has approached the regime in a number of ways, most specifically, in offering partnerships to circumvent US sanctions architecture, in which it excels, because of the sanctions architecture that it has been under for so long. And we haven't seen as deep I would say, as a presence of the Iranians in Nicaragua, but it's it's there and it's also concerning. I think, in general, Congressman, part of the Ortega regime's plan for survival is to sort of recreate a situation of rivalry and enmity in Central America again, and lend a platform for major geopolitical competitors to the United States to increase their capabilities on the US doorstep and I think that's a significant aspect of this political, economic and social crisis here. 1:35:50 Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ): If the Ortega regime moves ahead was stealing this November's elections the international community must come together to impose a very steep price. John Bolton: Miami Dade College's National Historic Landmark Freedom Tower November 1, 2018 John Bolton: The "Troika of Tyranny" in this hemisphere -- Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua -- has finally met its match. John Bolton: Today in this hemisphere we are also confronted once again, with the destructive forces of oppression, socialism and totalitarianism. In Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, we see the perils of poisonous ideologies left unchecked. Nicaraguan President Speech at the United Nations General Assembly September 25, 2007 16:50 President Daniel Ortega: The General Assembly is simply a reflection of this world where a capitalist and imperialist minority is imposing global capitalism to impoverish the world continue to enslave us all and promote apartheid against Latin American immigrants and against African immigrants in Europe. This global capitalism is one beast and it has tentacles everywhere. 25:30 President Daniel Ortega: They have to understand once and for all, that just as they have managed to profit from privatizations that have given rise to these huge multi-nationals that then set up in developing countries, they say that they are helping us. No business person provides assistance, they simply go to earn as much money as they can, they don't go to invest. Developing countries are considered to be insecure countries, and we are simply being ransacked. If we compare the volume of riches that they're extracting from our countries -- the capitalists in developed countries I'm talking about -- through their major companies, the globalized multinationals. If we can compare that wealth with what the Latin American immigrants send back to their families from the U.S. or the Asian and African families in Europe send back to their families, it is a miserable amount compared to the volume of wealth that is extracted on a daily basis by these forms of institutionalized oppression. 28:30 President Daniel Ortega: These companies are simply using cheap labor. They are benefiting from clauses in free trade agreements. I've got us free trade, why not? Free trade for societies and nations. But clearly in that system, it's the law of the jungle the strongest will impose themselves on the rest. What well the world needs is fair trade. What the world demands is really a genuine change in the capitalist, globalized, imperialist economies, that is where we need to have a change. They have to change this concept that they have of a free market. They have to change the slant of these free trade agreements. Nicaraguan Presidential Address to Congress April 16, 1991 20:00 President Violetta Chamorro: My government is committed to radically reducing government intervention in the economy and the enormous bureaucratic apparatus that we have inherited. Our Congress approved a law that authorizes private banks to operate and encourages foreign investments and is studying the privatization law in order to convert government to businesses. We are rapidly advancing towards the establishment of a social market economy. Restrictions on prices and salaries must be lifted. Likewise, we have initiated a serious economic stabilization program accompanied by the corresponding tax reforms in order to discipline and improve and decrease public spending to encourage domestic production and to stimulate private domestic and foreign investment. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

As we reach yet another milestone -- broadcasting in 82 countries -- we close our 2nd season – another fantastic year of investigative journalism. The truth is hidden; it must be pursued! We delivered a record 18 episodes in this calendar year! In this episode of Light ‘Em Up we focus on The Julius Jones case, race and the death penalty, and its application in the U.S.  We examine the glaring errors that infected this case from its inception.  We investigate the true fact pattern, unpacking the background, case specifics and share 7 grounds on which Julius Jones' case not only cried out for clemency but also demands that the decision be reversed and Mr. Jones be freed.In 1999, Julius Jones was convicted of murdering a white businessman.  Although he had an alibi, he was convicted and languished on death row for >20 years.The U.S. ranks 5th worldwide for the number of executions.  “It's devastating to have the United States [be] the only Western developed country that executes people — and the only country in the Americas to do so,” Ivan Simonovic, the U.N.'s assistant secretary-general for human rights, stated in a recent interview with Al Jazeera to which we were granted exclusive access.We feel that it is crucial to shine a light on and to analyze the representation that a defendant received at trial, on appeal, and in sentencing and any other post-conviction proceedings, especially for those facing execution. There is no “do over” with an execution. In this country race has always mattered ... and will always matter. The death penalty in America is very expensive policy to pursue, it is defined by bias and error and thus fatally flawed, its application is racist.  It targets the most vulnerable people in society (especially the mentally ill) and helps to further corrupt the integrity of our criminal justice system. Defendants continue to be convicted and sentenced to death based on such arbitrary factors as: 

On this episode of AGSC, Tamsyn and Paniz are joined by...each other, to talk about the reason they first met years ago: campus sexual assault, and the profound uselessness of the university administrators getting paid to address it. Having spent many years organizing, researching, and writing about the issue since then, they have seen how universities spend all their time and money on programs like consent education and sweeping policy change, without seeing any actual reduction in the number of students being assaulted on their campuses. Paniz and Tamsyn talk about why these neoliberal approaches don't meet survivors' actual (namely, material) needs or take into account the role of power in sexual violence - and what we can do instead. Resources for survivors: Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/ Multicultural Women Against Rape (counselling, court support, advocacy, and other programs for survivors of all genders) TRCC/MWAR 24/7 Crisis Line: 416-597-8808 Gerstein Crisis Centre: 416-929-5200 Assaulted Women's Helpline: 416-863-0511 For more information about Tamsyn's human rights case and sexual assault at U of T: Tamsyn Riddle, “Why I Filed my Human Rights Complaint Against U of T.” The Varsity, 2017. Hilary Beaumont, “Rape victims say Canadian universities are failing them.” Vice, 2016. The SIV report: Wright, Jessica, Dhunna, Simran, Riddle, Tamsyn, De Gannes, Paulysha, & Berzins, Taylor. 2019. End the Silence, End the Violence: Experiences and Understandings of Sexual Violence at the University of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario: Silence is Violence. More about Andy Orchard: Olivia Bowden and Marco Chown Oved, “U of T received formal complaints against ex-Trinity College provost accused of sexual harassment, but he wasn't punished.” Toronto Star, Oct. 21st, 2021. Aljazeera. Degrees of Abuse. 2021. Articles about campus sexual violence policy in Canada: Bourassa, Carrie, Melissa Bendig, Eric J. Oleson, Cassandra A. Ozog, and Jennifer L. Billan. "Campus Violence, Indigenous Women, and the Policy Void." In Sexual Violence at Canadian Universities Activism, Institutional Responses, and Strategies for Change, edited by Elizabeth Quinlan, Andrea Quinlan, Curtis Fogel, and Gail Taylor, Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2017. Lopes-Baker, Aliza, and Mathew McDonald. 2017. “Canada and United States: Campus Sexual Assault Law & Policy Comparative Analysis” 41: 13. Quinlan, Elizabeth, Allyson Clarke, and Natasha Miller. 2016. “Enhancing Care and Advocacy for Sexual Assault Survivors on Canadian Campuses.” The Canadian Journal of Higher Education; Toronto 46 (2): 40–54. Shariff, Shaheen. 2017. “Navigating the Minefield of Sexual Violence Policy in Expanding ‘University Contexts.'” Education Law Journal; Scarborough 27 (1): 39-58,XI-XII. The idea of students as revenue generating units: Quinlan, Elizabeth. "Institutional Betrayal and Sexual Violence in the Corporate University." In Sexual Violence at Canadian Universities Activism, Institutional Responses, and Strategies for Change, edited by Elizabeth Quinlan, Andrea Quinlan, Curtis Fogel, and Gail Taylor, Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2017. Systems of oppression and sexual violence victimization: Brubaker, S., Keegan, B., Guadalupe-Diaz, X., & Beasley, B. 2017. “Measuring and reporting campus sexual assault: Privilege and exclusion in what we know and what we do.” Sociology Compass,11(12). doi: 10.1111/soc4.12543 DisAbled Women's Network. 2019. More than a footnote: A research report on women and girls with disabilities in Canada. Retrieved from https://www.dawncanada.net/news/mtafreport/. Egale Canada. 2016. Discrimination and Violence against Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Women and Gender Diverse and Two Spirit People on the Basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression. Retrieved from http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CEDAW_NGO_CAN_25380_E.pdf Adam Cotter and Laura Savage. “Gender-based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces,” StatCan. (2018) The Courage to Act report: Khan, F., Rowe, C. J., and Bidgood, R. (2019). Courage to Act: Developing a National Framework to Address and Prevent Gender-Based Violence at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada. Toronto, ON: Possibility Seeds. For sources on the history of policymaking about sexual harassment and violence in US workplaces, see: Williams v Saxbe (413 F Supp 654). In this case, a US Court recognized that sexual harassment constitutes discrimination in the workplace. Title VII is a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Frank Dobbin and Erin Kelly, “How to Stop Harassment: Professional Construction of Legal Compliance in Organizations” (2007) 112: 4 American Journal of Sociology 1203. Lauren Edelman, “How HR and Judges Made It Almost Impossible for Victims of Sexual Harassment to Win inCourt” Harvard Busines Review (22 August 2018). Elizabeth Potter “When Women's Silence Is Reasonable: Reforming the Faragher/ Ellerth Defence in the #MeToo Era” (2020) 85:2 Brooklyn Law Review 603. For sources on the history of policymaking about sexual harassment and violence in Canadian workplaces, see: Janzen v Platy Enterprises Ltd, [1989] 1 SCR 1252. In this case, the Supreme Court of Canada found that employees are entitled to work in an environment free from sexual harassment. Constance Backhouse, “Sexual Harassment: A Feminist Phrase That Transformed the Workplace” (2012) 24:2 CJWL 275. Karen Schucher, "Achieving a Workplace Free of Sexual Harassment: The Employer's Obligations" (1994-1995) 3 CLELJ 171. For sources on the history of sexual harassment policymaking in Canada (pre-2010), see: University of British Columbia v Berg, [1993] 2 SCR 353. In this case, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that universities were under the purview of human rights law. Nora Gillespie, "Sexual Harassment Policies in the University Context" (1994-1995) 3 CLELJ 225. John Kilcoyne, "The Politics of Policies: Responding to Sexual Harassment on Campus" (1994-1995) 3 CLELJ 33. Four source on the history of sexual harassment policymaking in Canada (post-2010), see: Government of Ontario, “Developing a Response to Sexual Violence: A Resource Guide for Ontario's Colleges andUniversities” (Toronto: Ontario Women's Directorate, 2013). METRAC Action on Violence, “Sexual Assault Policies on Campus: A Discussion Paper” (30 October 2014). Courage to Act Report Kristin Rushowy, "Province adds $3M in funding for on-campus safety" Toronto Star (19 March 2019). Dear Colleague Letter of 2011. The “Letter” was a 21-page-long policy that clarified ambiguities that may have existed regarding PSIs' responses to sexual violence. Arguably, the DCL introduced new requirements in addressing sexual violence complaints. US law had recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title IX in as early as 1980. Defamation articles: Douglas Quan, "She accused a university prof of sexual assault. Now he's suing for defamation. Some fear the ‘landmark' case could have a chilling effect" Toronto Star (8 April 2021) Leah Hendry, "McGill University professor sues student and colleague for $600K" CBC (5 July 2018) Paul Cherry, "McGill University student sues school, newspaper, associations and accuser" Montreal Gazette (18 Nov 2020) Tyler Kingkade, "As More College Students Say “Me Too,” Accused Men Are Suing For Defamation" Buzzfeed News (5 Dec 2017). Production by Paniz Khosroshahy and Andre Goulet

How do China, Hezbollah, int'l NGO's, Iran, Palestinian politics, Gaza, Israel, Jihadism, and illicit financial networks connect? Dan and Benny sat down with Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, terrorism finance analyst and Senior VP of Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies to find out! Dr. Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he oversees the work of the organization's experts and scholars. He is also on the leadership team of FDD's Center on Economic and Financial Power, a project on the use of financial and economic power as a tool of statecraft. Jonathan previously worked as a terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he played an integral role in the designation of numerous terrorist financiers. He has held previous think tank research positions at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Middle East Forum. Jonathan has written hundreds of articles on the Middle East, along with more than a dozen monographs and chapters for edited volumes. His new book, Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War (FDD Press 2021), challenges and corrects the some of the wildly inaccurate news reported during the conflict. It is the first book published on the war. His three other books have made unique contributions to the field. State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State (Palgrave Macmillan 2013) argues the main roadblock to Palestinian statehood is the Palestinian Authority's political dysfunction and mismanagement. Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine (Palgrave Macmillan 2008) is still the only book on the market that analyzes the ongoing Palestinian civil war. Al-Qaeda's Armies: Middle East Affiliate Groups and the Next Generation of Terror (Washington Institute for Near East Policy 2004) was the first to explore the al-Qaeda franchises of the Middle East.  Jonathan testifies often before Congress and publishes widely in the American and international media. He has appeared on American television channels such as Fox News and CNN, and Arabic language television channels such as Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera.  Links: https://www.fdd.org/ (Visit) Foundation for Defense of Democracies https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JMFWWDV/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 (Read) Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CGFJ0XU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 (Read) State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002BZDDN8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 (Read) Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine  https://www.amazon.com/Al-Qaedas-Armies-Middle-Affiliate-Generation/dp/156171884X (Read) Al-Qaeda's Armies: Middle East Affiliate Groups and the Next Generation of Terror https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/11/29/robbins-the-hamas-caucus-gets-it-wrong-on-gaza/ (Read) a recent article by Jonathan in the Boston Herald: The Hamas Caucus gets it wrong on Gaza https://www.fdd.org/in_the_news/2021/11/25/all-things-considered/ (Listen) to Jonathan on NPR's All Things Considered https://www.fdd.org/category/in_the_news/?expert=jonathan-schanzer (View) all news articles by Jonathan Schanzer Follow Jonathan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JSchanzer?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (@JSchanzer) Follow Jonathan on https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.schanzer (Facebook) https://foreignpolicy.com/author/jonathan-schanzer/ (See) Jonathan at Foreign Policy magazine As always, make sure to subscribe to Jewanced on https://open.spotify.com/show/6984NiP7H1ULW9lJeVt8Ie?si=6LouGFFLTsq7N2bKJhLXRw (Spotify), https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jewanced/id1522195382 (Apple Podcasts), or wherever...

On this episode of AGSC, Tamsyn and Paniz are joined by...each other, to talk about the reason they first met years ago: campus sexual assault, and the profound uselessness of the university administrators getting paid to address it. Having spent many years organizing, researching, and writing about the issue since then, they have seen how universities spend all their time and money on programs like consent education and sweeping policy change, without seeing any actual reduction in the number of students being assaulted on their campuses. Paniz and Tamsyn talk about why these neoliberal approaches don't meet survivors' actual (namely, material) needs or take into account the role of power in sexual violence - and what we can do instead. Resources for survivors: Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/ Multicultural Women Against Rape (counselling, court support, advocacy, and other programs for survivors of all genders) TRCC/MWAR 24/7 Crisis Line: 416-597-8808 Gerstein Crisis Centre: 416-929-5200 Assaulted Women's Helpline: 416-863-0511 For more information about Tamsyn's human rights case and sexual assault at U of T: Tamsyn Riddle, “Why I Filed my Human Rights Complaint Against U of T.” The Varsity, 2017. Hilary Beaumont, “Rape victims say Canadian universities are failing them.” Vice, 2016. The SIV report: Wright, Jessica, Dhunna, Simran, Riddle, Tamsyn, De Gannes, Paulysha, & Berzins, Taylor. 2019. End the Silence, End the Violence: Experiences and Understandings of Sexual Violence at the University of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario: Silence is Violence. More about Andy Orchard: Olivia Bowden and Marco Chown Oved, “U of T received formal complaints against ex-Trinity College provost accused of sexual harassment, but he wasn't punished.” Toronto Star, Oct. 21st, 2021. Aljazeera. Degrees of Abuse. 2021. Articles about campus sexual violence policy in Canada: Bourassa, Carrie, Melissa Bendig, Eric J. Oleson, Cassandra A. Ozog, and Jennifer L. Billan. "Campus Violence, Indigenous Women, and the Policy Void." In Sexual Violence at Canadian Universities Activism, Institutional Responses, and Strategies for Change, edited by Elizabeth Quinlan, Andrea Quinlan, Curtis Fogel, and Gail Taylor, Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2017. Lopes-Baker, Aliza, and Mathew McDonald. 2017. “Canada and United States: Campus Sexual Assault Law & Policy Comparative Analysis” 41: 13. Quinlan, Elizabeth, Allyson Clarke, and Natasha Miller. 2016. “Enhancing Care and Advocacy for Sexual Assault Survivors on Canadian Campuses.” The Canadian Journal of Higher Education; Toronto 46 (2): 40–54. Shariff, Shaheen. 2017. “Navigating the Minefield of Sexual Violence Policy in Expanding ‘University Contexts.'” Education Law Journal; Scarborough 27 (1): 39-58,XI-XII. The idea of students as revenue generating units: Quinlan, Elizabeth. "Institutional Betrayal and Sexual Violence in the Corporate University." In Sexual Violence at Canadian Universities Activism, Institutional Responses, and Strategies for Change, edited by Elizabeth Quinlan, Andrea Quinlan, Curtis Fogel, and Gail Taylor, Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2017. Systems of oppression and sexual violence victimization: Brubaker, S., Keegan, B., Guadalupe-Diaz, X., & Beasley, B. 2017. “Measuring and reporting campus sexual assault: Privilege and exclusion in what we know and what we do.” Sociology Compass,11(12). doi: 10.1111/soc4.12543 DisAbled Women's Network. 2019. More than a footnote: A research report on women and girls with disabilities in Canada. Retrieved from https://www.dawncanada.net/news/mtafreport/. Egale Canada. 2016. Discrimination and Violence against Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Women and Gender Diverse and Two Spirit People on the Basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression. Retrieved from http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CEDAW_NGO_CAN_25380_E.pdf Adam Cotter and Laura Savage. “Gender-based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces,” StatCan. (2018) The Courage to Act report: Khan, F., Rowe, C. J., and Bidgood, R. (2019). Courage to Act: Developing a National Framework to Address and Prevent Gender-Based Violence at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada. Toronto, ON: Possibility Seeds. For sources on the history of policymaking about sexual harassment and violence in US workplaces, see: Williams v Saxbe (413 F Supp 654). In this case, a US Court recognized that sexual harassment constitutes discrimination in the workplace. Title VII is a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Frank Dobbin and Erin Kelly, “How to Stop Harassment: Professional Construction of Legal Compliance in Organizations” (2007) 112: 4 American Journal of Sociology 1203. Lauren Edelman, “How HR and Judges Made It Almost Impossible for Victims of Sexual Harassment to Win inCourt” Harvard Busines Review (22 August 2018). Elizabeth Potter “When Women's Silence Is Reasonable: Reforming the Faragher/ Ellerth Defence in the #MeToo Era” (2020) 85:2 Brooklyn Law Review 603. For sources on the history of policymaking about sexual harassment and violence in Canadian workplaces, see: Janzen v Platy Enterprises Ltd, [1989] 1 SCR 1252. In this case, the Supreme Court of Canada found that employees are entitled to work in an environment free from sexual harassment. Constance Backhouse, “Sexual Harassment: A Feminist Phrase That Transformed the Workplace” (2012) 24:2 CJWL 275. Karen Schucher, "Achieving a Workplace Free of Sexual Harassment: The Employer's Obligations" (1994-1995) 3 CLELJ 171. For sources on the history of sexual harassment policymaking in Canada (pre-2010), see: University of British Columbia v Berg, [1993] 2 SCR 353. In this case, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that universities were under the purview of human rights law. Nora Gillespie, "Sexual Harassment Policies in the University Context" (1994-1995) 3 CLELJ 225. John Kilcoyne, "The Politics of Policies: Responding to Sexual Harassment on Campus" (1994-1995) 3 CLELJ 33. Four source on the history of sexual harassment policymaking in Canada (post-2010), see: Government of Ontario, “Developing a Response to Sexual Violence: A Resource Guide for Ontario's Colleges andUniversities” (Toronto: Ontario Women's Directorate, 2013). METRAC Action on Violence, “Sexual Assault Policies on Campus: A Discussion Paper” (30 October 2014). Courage to Act Report Kristin Rushowy, "Province adds $3M in funding for on-campus safety" Toronto Star (19 March 2019). Dear Colleague Letter of 2011. The “Letter” was a 21-page-long policy that clarified ambiguities that may have existed regarding PSIs' responses to sexual violence. Arguably, the DCL introduced new requirements in addressing sexual violence complaints. US law had recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title IX in as early as 1980. Defamation articles: Douglas Quan, "She accused a university prof of sexual assault. Now he's suing for defamation. Some fear the ‘landmark' case could have a chilling effect" Toronto Star (8 April 2021) Leah Hendry, "McGill University professor sues student and colleague for $600K" CBC (5 July 2018) Paul Cherry, "McGill University student sues school, newspaper, associations and accuser" Montreal Gazette (18 Nov 2020) Tyler Kingkade, "As More College Students Say “Me Too,” Accused Men Are Suing For Defamation" Buzzfeed News (5 Dec 2017). Production by Paniz Khosroshahy and Andre Goulet

“Is my pitch too long?” If you're asking the question, the answer is probably yes.  The question you really need answered is not how long your pitch should be, but why your pitch is too long: You've generated a bunch of options without making choices about what's most important and what to cut back on. You likely are leaving out some key components. This pitch may be any length, but the picture is blurry. You and the editor have a very clear sense of what the story will be, but you've gone way beyond what's necessary (or efficient). You're acting as if you have the assignment in hand, or as if you're writing on spec. You haven't done a proper copy edit. 10, 20, or 30% of your words can be trimmed to make the writing more concise. Without addressing #1, your pitches won't be effective. Without addressing #2, your pitches won't be efficient. Without addressing #3, your pitches won't be ready for the editors at your dream publications.  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Download my free guide on how to pitch and learn the 5 proven steps to writing pitches that sell: www.rebeccalweber.com/howtopitch Apply to join my small group coaching program: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com SHARE THE WRITING COACH PODCAST WITH OTHER WRITERS Subscribe and write a review of the Writing Coach Podcast on Apple Podcasts. Share your podcast takeaways and tag Rebecca on Instagram: @freelancewriterbootcamp  WORK WITH ME Apply for the January 2022 session of my small group coaching program, Freelance Writer Bootcamp. Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter.  Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Let's get started: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast155

Jud Brewer MD PhD (“Dr. Jud”) is a New York Times best-selling author and thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery”, having combined over 25 years of experience with mindfulness training with his scientific research therein. He is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center and associate professor in Behavioral and Social Sciences and Psychiatry at the Schools of Public Health & Medicine at Brown University. He is also the executive medical director of behavioral health at Sharecare Inc. and a research affiliate at MIT.   A psychiatrist and internationally known expert in mindfulness training for addictions, Brewer has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including both in-person and app-based treatments for smoking, emotional eating, and anxiety. He has also studied the underlying neural mechanisms of mindfulness using standard and real-time fMRI and EEG neurofeedback. He has trained US Olympic athletes and coaches, foreign government ministers, and his work has been featured on 60 Minutes, TED (4th most viewed talk of 2016, with 17+ Million views), the New York Times, Time magazine (top 100 new health discoveries of 2013), Forbes, BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera (documentary about his research), Businessweek and others. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, among others.   Dr. Brewer founded MindSciences (which merged with Sharcecare Inc. in 2020) to move his discoveries of clinical evidence behind mindfulness for anxiety, eating, smoking and other behavior change into the hands of consumers (see www.drjud.com for more information). He is the author of The Craving Mind: from cigarettes to smartphones to love, why we get hooked and how we can break bad habits (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017) and the New York Times best-seller, Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind (Avery/Penguin Random House, 2021). Follow him on twitter @judbrewer.

This week is the start of the year-end holiday season in the United States, which is associated with a lot of personal and professional stress. This episode looks at meditation as a concentration practice that can help you center yourself before writing. When I was a kid, an adult I trusted made some negative comments about meditation that stuck with me a long time. Even though I logically reject those comments now as being incorrect, I still sometimes remember them and think I may be judged for sharing my practice with anyone (let alone with the entire internet).  Ironically, meditation itself helped me become aware of the impact those comments had on me, and on deciding I wanted to change my mind about what that person had said. This week's episode includes a short meditation at the end. MENTIONED ON TODAY'S EPISODE Jack Kornfield Tara Brach Sylvia Boorstein WCP 16 Freewriting for freelancers WCP 66: Reading and advice from Margaret Atwood WCP 122 Freelancing while sick SHARE THE WRITING COACH PODCAST WITH OTHER WRITERS Subscribe and write a review of the Writing Coach Podcast on Apple Podcasts. Share your podcast takeaways and tag Rebecca on Instagram: @freelancewriterbootcamp  WORK WITH ME Apply for the January 2022 session of my small group coaching program, Freelance Writer Bootcamp. Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter.  Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Let's get started: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast154

There is a dark underworld of Palestinian crime syndicates operating within Israel. Al Jazeera Arabic's Tamer Almisshal examines this rarely reported but growing phenomenon. He meets victims, gangsters and those attempting to keep a lid on a spiralling trend of lawlessness directed at Palestinian citizens of Israel. He asks how the organised crime gangs work, who protects them, where they source their weapons, why murder rates are increasing and, importantly, what the Israeli police are doing to protect the Palestinian citizens of Israel? Some accuse Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye, or worse, colluding with and infiltrating the gangs for political reasons, while Benjamin Netanyahu announced a multimillion-dollar initiative to combat these crimes. But until little has changed and Palestinian victims add this problem to their already challenging lives in Israel.

In this editon of North Carolina: First in Zeit, Jack and Miles discuss the Rittenhouse RetCon, the Lakers brawl, Target staying closed on Thanksgiving, Al Jazeera's list of backsliding democracies, mass robberies (or flashrobs, if you will), and Oliver Stone's new JFK documentary Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Xi Jinping is consolidating his position as the all-powerful president of China. But who is the man at the top of the sharpest pyramid in the world of politics?This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Host: David Aaronovitch.Guest: Michael Sheridan, former foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times and author of The Gate to China: A New History of the People's Republic & Hong Kong.Clips: ABC, South China Morning Post, No Comment TV, BBC, CCTV Video News Agency, Periscope Film, Al Jazeera, CBS, VICE News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more Christian Finnegan  is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in New York City. BUY HIS NEW ALBUM--- "Show Your Work: Live at QED"   Finnegan is perhaps best known as one of the original panelists on VH1's Best Week Ever and as Chad, the only white roommate in the “Mad Real World” sketch on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show. Additional television appearances as himself or performing stand up have included “Conan”, “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”, "Would You Rather...with Graham Norton", “Good Afternoon America” and multiple times on The Today Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and on History's I Love the 1880s. He hosted TV Land's game show "Game Time". As an actor, Finnegan portrayed the supporting role of "Carl" in the film Eden Court, a ticket agent in "Knight and Day" and several guest roles including a talk show host on "The Good Wife". In October 2006, Finnegan's debut stand up comedy CD titled Two For Flinching was released by Comedy Central Records, with a follow-up national tour of college campuses from January to April 2007. “Au Contraire!” was released by Warner Bros. Records in 2009. His third special "The Fun Part" was filmed at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston on April 4, 2013 and debuted on Netflix on April 15, 2014.   Ophira Eisenberg is a Canadian-born standup comedian and writer. She hosted NPR's nationally syndicated comedy trivia show Ask Me Another (airing on 400+ stations) where she interviewed, joked, and played silly games with some of the biggest and funniest folks in the world.  Lauded as “hilarious, high risk, and an inspiration,” Ophira filmed her comedy special Inside Joke, when she was 8½ months pregnant. The show's material revolves around how she told everyone that she was never going to have kids, and then unexpectedly found herself expecting at “an advanced maternal age.” Inside Joke can be found on Amazon and iTunes, along with her two other comedy albums, Bangs!and As Is. She has appeared on Comedy Central, This Week at The Comedy Cellar, Kevin Hart's LOL Network, HBO's Girls, Gotham Live, The Late Late Show, The Today Show, and VH-1. The New York Times called her a skilled comedian and storyteller with “bleakly stylish” humor. She was also selected as one of New York Magazine's “Top 10 Comics that Funny People Find Funny,” and hailed by Forbes.com as one of the most engaging comics working today. Ophira is a regular host and teller with The Moth and her stories have been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and in two of The Moth's best-selling books, including the most recent New York Times Bestseller Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible. Ophira's first book, Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamyis a comedic memoir about her experiments in the field as a single woman, traveling from futon to futon and flask-to-flask, gathering data, hoping to put it all together and build her own perfect mate. She is also sought after as a brilliant interviewer and moderator, and has interviewed dozens of celebrities, writers, and actors. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Ophira graduated with a Cultural Anthropology and Theater degree from McGill University. She now lives in Brooklyn, NY where she is a fixture at New York City's comedy clubs Brian Kahn is a journalist covering climate change, easily the world's most important issue. He is currently the managing editor at Earther after serving as a senior reporter for two years. Brian has an MA in Climate and Society from Columbia University and is currently a faculty member for the program. Brian's writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Grist, the Daily Kos, Mashable, Quartz, Salon and Yale Climate Connections and been cited in the New York Times, Washington Post and Slate. I've done TV and radio interviews on CBC, Sirius XM, Al Jazeera, NPR, SkyNews, i24 News and Wall Street Journal Live.   Check out all things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe   Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page

Freelancers often ask: How do I get a client to pay an invoice that's past due? Instead of a how to on chasing payments, today we're asking and answering a better question: How do you get clients to pay you on time in the first place? If you've had more than one late-paying client in the past few years, following the actions recommended in this episode can shake up the way you approach billing. I share some very practical things you can do straight away to break a cycle of late payments and improve your cash flow. You may find yourself resistant to invoicing sooner than you currently do. If that's the case, it's an indication that you expect clients to pay you late.  Follow my recommendations in this episode for a 90-day experiment to assess what happens when you're not the one slowing down your own payments.  You can expect these things to happen:  1. You will experience discomfort when it's time to invoice sooner. That's what always happens when you step outside the familiar comfort zone. We can expect and anticipate that you'll come up with some compelling reasons why not to do this. This doesn't mean anything has gone wrong; it's something to observe while sending the invoice out. 2. You will have zero pushback or negative response from your clients.  3. You will be paid more quickly by some of your clients. 4. You will establish or deepen your belief and expectation that you deserve to be paid promptly. Here's a PDF that goes along with this episode. It recaps the steps I cover in the podcast, plus includes what to include in your invoice and what to do if the client doesn't pay in 30 days. YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY A freelancer's guide to timely payments PDF (companion for this episode) WCP Episode 11: Money and negotiation blocks Modern Journalist Toolkit 2: Getting paid electronically WCP 144 Archives Vol. V: What's your (writing) problem? WCP 148 Archives Vol. VII: Company policies WCP 141 Decision making for financial growth WORK WITH ME: APPLY TO FREELANCE WRITER BOOTCAMP Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter in my small group coaching program: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com Alumni of Freelance Writer Bootcamp, have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. Click here to join the small group waitlist: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast149

Join us for a discussion of white supremacy, the human rights crisis, and public policy in the twenty years since 9/11. The Institute for Policy Studies, Haymarket Books, and the Center for Constitutional Rights present “Grasping at the Root: White Supremacy and the so-called “War on Terror”, the second event of a 4-part series marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The conversation with scholars, lawyers and journalists is an invitation to reflect and interrogate the pillars of white supremacy upon which the U.S. constructed the last twenty years of policy. The post-9/11 human rights crisis is but the latest chapter in over half a millennium of colonialism, capitalism and war. Only in situating today's injustices within a history of U.S. domination, exceptionalism and impunity, can we begin to chart a new future rooted in accountability, solidarity and interdependence. To mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Haymarket Books and our partners are pleased to present a 4-part series, "Just Resistance: 20 years of global struggle against the post-9/11 human rights crisis." The series is an opportunity to bring together our colleagues and comrades from impacted communities across the world, to center stories of survival, and to contextualize the last two decades of U.S. policy within a history of imperialism, domination and impunity. Speakers: Nana Gyamfi is the Executive Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), the largest Black-led social justice organization representing the nearly 10 million Black immigrants, refugees, and families living in the U.S. A Movement attorney for the past 25 years, Nana is co-founder of Justice Warriors 4 Black Lives and Human Rights Advocacy, both dedicated to fighting for human rights and Black liberation. She is the current President of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and a member of the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table. Nana is a former professor in the Pan African Studies Department at California State University Los Angeles, and has long been a sought after voice for legal and political insight into issues affecting Black communities. Tiara R. Na'puti is a Chamoru scholar (Guåhan/Guam) who focuses on issues of Indigenous movements, colonialism, and militarism in the Mariana Islands archipelago. She is currently a 2021 Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellow working with Independent Guåhan a community organization educating the island's public about sovereignty and addressing climate change as an urgent challenge brought about by the island's colonial political status. She is also a new faculty member in the Department of Global & International Studies at University of California Irvine. Dr. Maha Hilal is a researcher and writer on institutionalized Islamophobia and author of the forthcoming book Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11. Her writings have appeared in Vox, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Newsweek, Business Insider, and Truthout, She is also Co-Director of Justice for Muslims Collective where she focuses on political consciousness and narrative shifting programming. Dr. Hilal earned her doctorate in May 2014 from the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University in Washington, D.C. The title of her dissertation is “Too damn Muslim to be trusted: The War on Terror and the Muslim American response." Moderator: Khury Petersen-Smith is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he researches and discusses the War on Terror, the militarization of borders, and the Palestinian freedom struggle. Khury is a student of Black internationalism, researches US militarization and resistance in the Pacific, and builds solidarity against US empire. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/WRhcwcJiuEk Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more This Week's Sponsors are The Quip Electric Toothbrush GetQuip.com/Standup and Indeed.com/StandUp 37 mins Born in the Great State of New Jersey, Dean Obeidallah's comedy comes in large part from his unique background of being the son of a Palestinian father and a Sicilian mother. Dean, an award winning comedian who was at one time a practicing attorney, co-starred on Comedy Central's “The Axis of Evil” Comedy TV special. He is the co-creator of Comedy Central.com's critically acclaimed Internet series “The Watch List” featuring a cast of all Middle Eastern-American comedians performing stand up and sketch comedy. Dean has appeared twice on ABC's “The View,” on the nationally syndicated TV series “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” and was one of five comedians profiled in the recent one hour TV Special entitled: “Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age” which aired in the US on PBS and internationally on BBC World and Al Jazeera. Dean co-directed and co-produced the award winning documentary “The Muslims Are Coming!” featuring a tour of American-Muslim comedians performing free comedy shows across the heartland of America in the hopes of using comedy to foster understanding and dispel misconceptions about Muslims. The film also features special guest interviews with various well known people including: “The Daily Show's” Jon Stewart and Assif Mandvi, Russell Simmons, Soledad O'Brien and Ali Velshi, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, comedians Lewis Black, David Cross, Lizz Winstead and Colin Quinn as well as Congressman Keith Ellison, and many more. The film is now available on Netfilx, iTunes and Amazon.   Dean co-created the comedy show “Stand up for Peace” along with Jewish comic Scott Blakeman which they perform at colleges across the country in support of peace in the Middle East and as a way of fostering understanding between Arab, Muslim and Jewish-Americans.   He is writes for MSNBC, CNN and The Daily Beast as well as other publications.   Dean is also the co-creator and co-producer of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival .He is also proud to serve as the Executive Director of The Amman Stand up Comedy Festival – the first stand up comedy festival ever held in the Middle East Dean is proud to have received the first annual “Bill Hicks Spirit Award” for “thought provoking comedy” (named after the late comedian Bill Hicks) from the NY Underground Comedy Festival and the Hicks' Family.   1:13 John Avlon is an author, columnist and commentator. He is a senior political analyst and fill-in anchor at CNN, appearing on New Day every morning. From 2013 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief and managing director of The Daily Beast, during which time the site's traffic more than doubled to over one million readers a day while winning 17 journalism awards.  He is the author of the books Independent Nation, Wingnuts, and Washington's Farewell as well as co-editor of the acclaimed Deadline Artists journalism anthologies. Avlon served as chief speechwriter to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists award for best online column in 2012. After the attacks of September 11th, 2001, he and his team were responsible for writing the eulogies for all firefighters and police officers murdered in the destruction of the World Trade Center. Avlon's essay on the attacks, “The Resilient City” concluded the anthology Empire City: New York through the Centuries and won acclaim as “the single best essay written in the wake of 9/11.” His first book, Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics was described by Barron's as “a rewarding portrait of a political trend the established parties have tried to ignore” and hailed by TheModerateVoice.com as “the best political book ever on American centrist voters.” Wingnuts: How The Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America was praised by President Bill Clinton, who said “Wingnuts offers a clear and comprehensive review of the forces on the outer edges of the political spectrum that shape and distort our political debate. Shedding more heat than light they drive frustrated alienated citizens away from the reasoned discourse that can produce real solutions to our problems.” The two Deadline Artists anthologies, which Avlon co-edited with Jesse Angelo and Errol Louis won acclaim from the Washington Post as “one of the greatest collections of newspaper articles ever compiled” while the American Journalism Review described it as “the most addictive journalism book ever.” Avlon has appeared on The Daily Show, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, PBS, and C-Span.  He has spoken at the Kennedy School of Government, the Citadel, the State Department's visiting journalist program, and civic organizations around the nation. He serves on the board of Citizens Union of New York and The Bronx Academy of Letters as well as the advisory board of the Theodore Roosevelt Association.  He was appointed to the New York City Voter Assistance Advisory Committee in 2011.  Avlon is also a co-founder of No Labels – a group of Democrats, Republicans and Independents dedicated to the politics of problem-solving and making government work again. In a profile, author Stephen Marshall wrote “Avlon talks about politics the way ESPN anchors wrap up sports highlights.” Columnist Kathleen Parker wrote, “Americans who are fed up with the Ann Coulter/Michael Moore school of debate and are looking for someone to articulate a commonsense, middle path, may have found their voice in John Avlon.” He is married to Margaret Hoover, the author of American Individualism and host of PBS's Firing Line. The New York Times says, “Their telegenic union may be a lesson in overcoming the orthodoxies that divide us.” They live in New York City with their son, Jack and daughter, Toula Lou. Check out all things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page

In October, Haiti's problem with gangs got international attention when 16 Americans and 1 Canadian were kidnapped. They are still captive, but Haitians have long faced kidnappings and gang violence. Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds examines this chronic wave and talks to Jimmy 'Barbecue' Cherizier, one of the most notorious gang leaders in the country. In this episode:  Rob Reynolds (@RobReynoldsAJE), Senior Correspondent at Al Jazeera English Connect with The Take:  Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

Ajmal Ahmady is the former governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan and is now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Ajmal joins Macro Musings to talk about his experience as a central bank governor in Afghanistan and the challenges now facing the nation's economy. Specifically, David and Ajmal discuss his unique role as the country's central bank chief, the structure of the Afghan monetary system, the state of the nation's economy moving forward, and more.   Transcript for the episode can be found here: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings   Ajmal's Twitter: @aahmady Ajmal's biography and profile: http://www.afghan-bios.info/index.php?option=com_afghanbios&id=4307&task=view&total=696&start=36&Itemid=2   Related Links:   Ajmal's Twitter thread about Afghanistan's collapse: https://twitter.com/aahmady/status/1427265049668636674?lang=en   *Why Afghanistan Fell: An Insider's Account of What Went Wrong* by Ajmal Ahmady https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/afghanistan/2021-10-11/why-afghanistan-fell   *Severe Drought Adds to Afghanistan's Woes, Endangering Millions as Economy Collapses* by Sune Engel Rasmussen https://www.wsj.com/articles/severe-drought-adds-to-afghanistans-woes-endangering-millions-as-economy-collapses-11633872935#:~:text=Severe%20Drought%20Adds%20to%20Afghanistan's,Millions%20as%20Economy%20Collapses%20%2D%20WSJ&text=The%20drought%20has%20compounded%20the,Taliban%20overthrew%20the%20previous%20government.    *Regional Power Back Aid for Afghanistan as Russia Hosts the Taliban* by Aljazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/20/russia-hosts-taliban-for-talks-but-warns-no-recognition-for-now   David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

With Russia becoming increasingly brazen on NATO's Eastern flank, the Baltic nations aren't looking as safe as they once were. Could we see another unofficial invasion of the Baltic states by Russia's little green men, and if so how would NATO respond? This week we sit down with our panel and talk through NATO's Baltic defence plan, and what needs to change to be able to guarantee the safety of NATO's Eastern frontier.  On the panel this week.  - Mathieu Boulegue (Chatham House) - Thomas Graham (CFR) - David Shlapak (RAND) Follow the show on @TheRedLinePod Follow Michael on @MikeHilliardAus For more info please visit - www. theredlinepodcast.com

Canary Cry News Talk #410 - 11.12.2021  GEN NARRATIVE: Winter Waxxine Wonderland, Klaus' Great Narrative, Ecopreneur - CCNT 410 WEBSITE/SHOW NOTES: CanaryCryNewsTalk.com LINKTREE: CanaryCry.Party SUPPORT: CanaryCryRadio.com/Support MEET UPS: CanaryCryMeetUps.com ravel Podcast (Basil's other podcast) Facelikethesun Resurrection (Gonz' new YouTube channel) Truther Dating experiment   INTRO 3:09 Clip: Amal update Clip: Biden on when his knee grows    FLIPPY 15:45 “Can't Help Myself” robot arm art is bloody (Truth or Fiction)   GREAT RESET…NARRATIVE 24:35 Klaus Schwab announces the GREAT NARRATIVE (RT)   Note: WEF says we need “Ecopreneur Revolution” (WEF) Robots already taking over in Great Resignation (ZDNet)   COVID19/I AM WACCINE 45:20 Clip: Pfizer CEO Bourla confusing answer from question about communication Virginia pharmacy incorrectly administers covid waccines to 112 children (CNBC) Why are cases surging in highly waxxed areas? (Yahoo News) [CDC - MMWR, MedRxiv Israel]   Party Pitch BREAK 1: Executive Producers, Paypal, Patrons 1:20:28   IT WILL KILL 1:45:43 Man who traveled to space with Bill Shatner dies in plane crash…Medidata sus (KRQE)   CYBERPANDEMIC [Results] Cyber Polygon Results from WEF (Sociable)   CHINA 2:03:19 China military documents reveal why they invested in AI (Breaking Defense) China's new military toy might dominate pacific (RT)   BREAK 2: Art, Reviews, Jingles, Meet Ups 2:17:42   GEOENGINEERING 2:44:58 Clips: Climate prophetess of the NWO from 1800's (NBC, Storyteller)   SPACE POPE REPTILIAN 3:00:47 Francis says if we don't fight climate change, we will face God's judgment (Jesuit Review)   ADDITIONAL STORIES: Miso Robotics Native Ad (Newsweek…the took it down…haha) Robot that paints wall with one million spots (Interesting Engineering) Answering FOIA, CDC has no record of unwaxxed spreading virus after testing positive Miami, first city to give Bitcoin dividends to residents (CoinDesk) Inflation rose 6.2% in October, largest in 30 years (Wapo) COP26 draft for final deal towards 2030 (Aljazeera)  Corporate Execs call for White House to fight inflation (Politico) 10 states sue Biden over mandates (Reuters) Human trials for ebola waccine set to begin (Guardian) Why the Green New Deal should be scrapped (Guardian Opinion) Softbank raises $188 million for robot arm (Deal Street Asia) Exorcist and Demonologist breaks down Astroworld satanism (DailyCaller)   PRODUCER'S ep410: Executive Producer Brett H**   Ass. Executive Producer EmiBob* Amanda P*   Producers Kathleen C, LittleWinged1, Spearsdesert, Denise W, Scott K, Gail M, Heatheruss , 57 Chevy Girl, Sir Sammons Knight of the Fishes, Morv, Sigrah the Beast, A Unique Jewelery Boutique, Sir Casey the Shield Knight, Doughty the Coyote, JC, Jackie U, Andy K, Green Mountaineer, Veronica D, Shagen, Child of God, DrWhoDunDat, Runksmash, Ciara   Patreon Kay B ebonie F   ART: Dame Allie of the Skillet Nation Sir Dove, Knight of Rustbeltia Ryan N   MICROFICTION Runksmash - Basil, Gonz and NFG watch as the MEGA BASILs battle. The city is in ruins as finally one is victorious limping he goes to his maker, the original B. A. S. I. L. leaves the collective “Did I… save you…” he asks falling at Gonz's feet, battery exhausted   Epilogue: At some point in the past a familiar robotic father pats the shoulder of a young man “Now son, if you ever time travel it's inevitable you're going to have to go back and kill your past self, so just be grateful for the seconds you have. ”

One of the best ways to start the new year strong is to finish this one strong as well. We want to make sure you're investing, rather than just spending time, money, and energy to get clients. When you are ready to get yourself a new assignment, do you factor in the prior investment you've already done to secure your existing clients? Or do you go out looking for a new client each time you need more work? As freelancers, we say we want anchor clients or regular retainers. But often we get caught up in the thrill of landing a new client, without reflecting on the actual amount of time, money, energy, focus, etc., required to secure that new relationship.  In today's episode, we break down what it really looks like to pursue a sustainable strategy instead of relying on once-offs that eat up your finite resources. SHARE THE WRITING COACH PODCAST WITH OTHER WRITERS Subscribe and write a review of the Writing Coach Podcast on Apple Podcasts. Share your podcast takeaways and tag Rebecca on Instagram: @freelancewriterbootcamp  WORK WITH ME Apply for the January 2022 session of my small group coaching program: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com Break into your dream publications and get paid well while covering stories that matter. Bootcamp alumni have used these proven pitching processes to break into the New York Times, the Guardian, Bustle, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many more. We cover all the external skills to improve your pitch acceptance rate, and the internal mindset work to keep you from getting in your own way. Click here to get started: www.FreelanceWriterBootcamp.com More info and complete show notes: www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast152