Podcasts about between november

Between November 25th, and December 10th - which is today, International Human Rights Day - activists try to focus public attention on the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. As these days of activism wrap up, host Jeff Douglas spoke with Ann de Ste Croix to check in on the situation in this province. She's the executive director of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia. A warning, we will be talking about gender-based violence in some detail. So please listen with care.

In Nigeria's largest city, a powerful story is unfolding - one that shines a light on the urgent struggle for housing rights and urban resilience. In this episode, we sit down with the creative team behind the new film "The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos," which dramatizes the real-life tragedy of the Otodo Gbame informal settlement.Between November 2016 and April 2017, over 30,000 residents of this waterfront community were violently evicted, with nine drowning and two shot in the process. Our guests - lead actor Temi Ami-Williams, director/producer Bisola Akinmuyiwa, and director Temi Ogungbamila - have worked tirelessly with community members to craft a cinematic experience that demands our attention.But this is more than a movie - it's a work of resistance, part of a broader campaign led by Slum Dwellers International. For decades, they've stood alongside organized communities to challenge forced evictions and build inclusive cities.You can also support the launch of the film, or request a screening.Learn more about the film, and the work of Slum Dwellers International.Support the show

“Today's Morocco is a prime example of what a great peaceful coexistence and international cooperation can be with an Arab country.” Eli Gabay, an Israeli-born lawyer and current president of the oldest continuously active synagogue in the United States, comes from a distinguished family of Jewish leaders who have fostered Jewish communities across Morocco, Israel, and the U.S. Now residing in Philadelphia, Eli and his mother, Rachel, share their deeply personal story of migration from Morocco to Israel, reflecting on the resilience of their family and the significance of preserving Jewish traditions. The Gabay family's commitment to justice and heritage is deeply rooted. Eli, in his legal career, worked with Israel's Ministry of Justice, where he notably helped prosecute John Ivan Demjanjuk, a Cleveland auto worker accused of being the notorious Nazi death camp guard, "Ivan the Terrible." Jessica Marglin, Professor of Religion, Law, and History at the University of Southern California, offers expert insights into the Jewish exodus from Morocco. She explores the enduring relationship between Morocco's Jewish community and the monarchy, and how this connection sets Morocco apart from its neighboring countries. —- Show notes: How much do you know about Jewish history in the Middle East? Take our quiz. Sign up to receive podcast updates. Learn more about the series. Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 ___ Episode Transcript: ELI GABAY: Standing in court and saying ‘on behalf of the State of Israel' were the proudest words of my life. It was very meaningful to serve as a prosecutor. It was very meaningful to serve in the IDF.  These were highlights in my life, because they represented my core identity: as a Jew, as a Sephardic Jew, as an Israeli Sephardic Jew. These are the tenets of my life. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations – despite hardship, hostility, and hatred–then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not. This is The Forgotten Exodus.  Today's episode: leaving Morocco. MANYA: There are three places Eli Gabay calls home: Philadelphia, the city where he has raised his children; Morocco, the land where his parents Rachel and Amram were born and his ancestors lived for generations; and Israel, his birthplace and original ancestral homeland. Eli has been on a quest to honor all those identities since he left Israel at the age of 12. ELI: On my father's side, they were all rabbis. On my mother's side, they were all businesspeople who headed synagogues. And so, my grandfather had a synagogue, and my other grandfather had a synagogue. When they transplanted to Israel, they reopened these synagogues in the transition camp in Be'er Sheva. Both families had a synagogue of their own. MANYA: For the past five years, Eli has served as president of his synagogue--the historic Congregation Mikveh Israel, America's oldest continuous synagogue, founded in Philadelphia in 1740. Descended from a long line of rabbis going back generations, Eli is a litigation attorney, the managing partner of a law firm, a former prosecutor, and, though it might seem odd, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Nicaragua in Philadelphia. But the professional role that has brought him the most acclaim was his time in the 1980s, working for Israel's Ministry of Justice, decades after the Holocaust, still trying to hold its perpetrators accountable. CLIP - ‘THE DEVIL NEXT DOOR' TRAILER: Charges were filed today against John Demjanjuk, the 66-year-old Ukrainian native, who's accused of being a Nazi death camp guard named Ivan the Terrible. The crimes he was accused of… MANYA: We'll tell you more about that later. But first, we take you to the Jerusalem Israeli Gift Shop in northeast Philadelphia, a little slice of Israel on the corner of Castor Avenue and Chandler Street. [shofar sounds] Every day, amid the menorahs and shofars, frames and mezuzahs, Eli's 84-year-old mother Rachel Gabay, the family matriarch and owner of thisJudaica shop, is transported back to the place where she grew up: Israel. ELI: My father was a teacher all his life, and my mother [shofar sounds] runs a Jewish Judaica store that sells shofars, you can hear in the background. RACHEL: It's my baby. The store here became my baby. CUSTOMER: You're not going to remember this, but you sold us our ketubah 24 years ago. RACHEL: Yeah. How are you, dear? ELI: Nice. CUSTOMER: We're shopping for someone else's wedding now. RACHEL: Oh, very nice… For who? CUSTOMER: A friend of ours, Moshe, who is getting married and we wanted to get him a mezuzah. MANYA: For Rachel, Israel represents the safety, security, and future her parents sought for her when in 1947 they placed her on a boat to sail away from Morocco. By then, Casablanca had become a difficult place to be Jewish. Israel offered a place to belong. And for that, she will always be grateful. RACHEL: To be a Jew, to be very good… ELI: Proud. RACHEL: Proud. I have a country, and I am somebody. ELI: My father's family comes from the High Atlas Mountains, from a small village called Aslim.The family arrived in that area sometime in 1780 or so. There were certain events that went on in Morocco that caused Jews from the periphery and from smaller cities to move to Casablanca. Both my parents were born in Morocco in Casablanca. Both families arrived in Casablanca in the early 30s, mid 30s. MANYA: Today, the port city of Casablanca is home to several synagogues and about 2,000 Jews, the largest community of Morocco. The Museum of Moroccan Judaism in suburban Casablanca, the first museum on Judaism in the Arab world, stands as a symbol of the lasting Jewish legacy in Morocco. Indeed, there's been a Jewish presence in what is considered modern-day Morocco for some 2,000 years, dating back to the early days of the establishment of Roman control.  Morocco was home to thousands of Jews, many of whom lived in special quarters called “Mellah,” or Jewish ghetto. Mellahs were common in cities across Morocco. JESSICA: Morocco was one of the few places in the Islamic world where there emerged the tradition of a distinctive Jewish quarter that had its own walls and was closed with its own gates. MANYA: Jessica Marglin is a professor of religion, law, and history at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the history of Jews and Muslims in North Africa and the Mediterranean. JESSICA: There's a bit of a debate. Were these quarters there to control Jews and force them to all live in one spot and was it a sort of form of basically repression? Or was it a way to protect them? The first mellah, the one in Fez is right next to the palace. And so there was a sense that the Jews would be closer to the Sultan or the Sultan's representative, and thus more easily protectable. It could be interpreted as a bad thing. And some Jews did see it as an unfair restriction. But I would say that most Jews didn't question the idea that Jews would live together. And that was sort of seen as natural and desirable. And there was a certain kind of autonomous jurisdiction to the mellah, too.  Because Jews had their own courts. They had their own butchers. They had their own ovens. Butchers and ovens would have been kosher. They could sell wine in the mellah. They could do all these things that were particular to them. And that's where all the synagogues were. And that's where the Jewish cemetery was, right? It was really like a little Jewish city, sort of within the city. MANYA: Unlike other parts of the Middle East and North Africa where pogroms and expulsions, especially after the creation of the state of Israel, caused hundreds of thousands of Jews to abruptly flee all at once – spilling out of countries they had called home for centuries – Jews chose to leave Morocco gradually over time, compared to the exodus from other Arab countries.  JESSICA: When I teach these things, I set up Morocco and Iraq as the two ends of the spectrum. Iraq being the most extreme, where Jews were really basically kicked out all at once. Essentially offered no real choice. I mean, some did stay, but it was choosing a totally reduced life.  Versus Morocco, where the Jews who left did so really, with a real choice. They could have stayed and the numbers are much more gradual than anywhere else. So there was a much larger community that remained for years and years and years, even after ‘67, into the ‘70s.  Even though they kept going down, it was really, it was not like Iraq where the population just falls off a cliff, right? It's like one year, there's 100,000, the next year, they're 5,000. In Morocco, it really went down extremely gradually. And that's in part why it's still the largest Jewish community in the Arab world by far. MANYA: Morocco's Jewish history is by no means all rosy. In all Arab countries, antisemitism came in waves and different forms. But there are several moments in history when the Moroccan monarchy could've abandoned the Jewish population but didn't. And in World War II, the Moroccan monarch took steps to safeguard the community. In recent years, there have been significant gestures such as the opening of the Jewish museum in Casablanca, a massive restoration of landmarks that honor Morocco's Jewish past, including 167 Jewish cemeteries, and the inclusion of Holocaust education in school curricula. In 2020, Morocco became one of four Arab countries to sign a normalization agreement with Israel, as part of the U.S.-backed Abraham Accords, which allowed for economic and diplomatic cooperation and direct flights between the two countries. MANYA: Oral histories suggest that Jews have lived in Morocco for some 2,000 years, roughly since the destruction of the Second Temple. But tangible evidence of a Jewish presence doesn't date as far back. JESSICA: The archaeological remains suggest that the community dates more to the Roman period. There was a continual presence from at least since the late Roman period, certainly well before the Islamic conquests. MANYA: Like other parts of the Middle East and North Africa, Jews in Morocco were heavily concentrated in particular artisanal trades. Many were cobblers, tailors, and jewelers who adorned their creations with intricate designs and embellishments. Gemstones, carved coral, geometric designs, and symbols such as the Hamsa to bless the wearer with good fortune and protect them from the evil eye. JESSICA: And there were certain areas where they kind of were overrepresented in part because of stigmas associated with certain crafts for Muslims. So gold and silver jewelry making in certain parts of Morocco, like in the city of Fez, Jews were particularly overrepresented in the trade that made these gold threads, which are called skalli in Moroccan Arabic, and which are used to embroider sort of very fancy clothing for men and for women. Skalli for instance, is a very common last name for Jews.  MANYA: Jessica notes that in the 12th and 13th Centuries, Morocco came under the rule of the Almohad caliphate, a fundamentalist regime that saw itself as a revolutionary reform movement. Under the Almohad dynasty, local Christians in North Africa from Morocco to Libya all but disappeared.  Jews on the other hand stayed. She suspects Morocco developed its own version of crypto-Jews who superficially converted to Islam or at least lived outwardly as Muslims to survive.  JESSICA: There's probably more of a sense of Jews had more experience of living as minorities. Also, where else were they going to go? It wasn't so obvious. So whatever conversions there were, some of them must have stuck. And there are still, for instance, Muslim families in Fez named Kohen . . . Cohen. MANYA: Jews chose Morocco as a place of refuge in 1391, when a series of mob attacks on Jewish communities across Spain killed hundreds and forcibly converted others to Christianity. As opposed to other places in Europe, Morocco was considered a place where Jews could be safe. More refugees arrived after the Alhambra Decree of 1492 expelled Jews from Spain who refused to convert. That is when Eli's father's side of the family landed in Fez.  ELI: Our tradition is that the family came from Spain, and we date our roots to Toledo, Spain. The expulsion of the Jews took place out of Spain in 1492 at which time the family moved from Spain to Morocco to Fez. MANYA: At that time, the first mellahs emerged, the name derived from the Arabic word for salt. Jessica says that might have referred to the brackish swamps where the mellah were built.  JESSICA: The banning of Jews from Spain in 1492 brought a lot of Jews to North Africa, especially Morocco, because Morocco was so close. And, you know, that is why Jews in northern Morocco still speak Spanish today, or a form of Judeo Spanish known as Haketia. So, there were huge numbers of Iberian Jews who ended up throughout Morocco. And then for a long time, they remained a kind of distinctive community with their own laws and their own rabbis and their own traditions. Eventually, they kind of merged with local Jews. And they used Spanish actually, for decades, until they finally sort of Arabized in most of Morocco. ELI: My father's family, as I said, comes from a small town of Aslim. The family arrived in that area sometime in 1780 or so after there was a decree against Jews in Fez to either convert to Islam or leave. And so in a real sense, they were expelled from that region of Fez. There were Jews who arrived throughout the years after different exiles from different places. But predominantly the Jews that arrived in 1492 as a result of the Spanish expulsion were known as the strangers, and they integrated themselves in time into the fabric of Moroccan Jewry.  MANYA: For Eli's family, that meant blending in with the nomadic Amazigh, or indigenous people of North Africa, commonly called Berbers. Many now avoid that term because it was used by European colonialists and resembles the word “barbarians.” But it's still often used colloquially.  ELI: Aslim is in the heart of Berber territory. My father's family did speak Berber. My grandfather spoke Berber, and they dressed as Berbers. They wore jalabia, which is the dress for men, for instance, and women wore dresses only, a head covering.  Men also wore head coverings. They looked like Berbers in some sense, but their origins were all the way back to Spain. MANYA: In most cases across Morocco, Jews were classified as dhimmis, non-Muslim residents who were given protected status. Depending on the rulers, dhimmis lived under different restrictions; most paid a special tax, others were forced to wear different clothes. But it wasn't consistent.  ELI: Rulers, at their whim, would decide if they were good to the Jews or bad to the Jews. And the moment of exchange between rulers was a very critical moment, or if that ruler was attacked. MANYA: The situation for Jews within Morocco shifted again in 1912 when Morocco became a French protectorate. Many Jews adopted French as their spoken language and took advantage of educational opportunities offered to them by Alliance Israélite Universelle. The borders also remained open for many Jews who worked as itinerant merchants to go back and forth throughout the region.  JESSICA: Probably the most famous merchants were the kind of rich, international merchants who dealt a lot with trade across the Mediterranean and in other parts of the Middle East or North Africa. But there were a lot of really small-time merchants, people whose livelihood basically depended on taking donkeys into the hinterland around the cities where Jews tended to congregate.  MANYA: Rachel's family, businesspeople, had origins in two towns – near Agadir and in Essaouira. Eli has copies of three edicts issued to his great-grandfather Nissim Lev, stating that as a merchant, he was protected by the government in his travels. But the open borders didn't contain the violence that erupted in other parts of the Middle East, including the British Mandate of Palestine.  In late August 1929, a clash about the use of space next to the Western Wall in Jerusalem led to riots and a pogrom of Jews who had lived there for thousands of years. Moroccan Jews also were attacked. Rachel's grandfather Nissim died in the violence. RACHEL: He was a peddler. He was a salesman. He used to go all week to work, and before Thursday, he used to come for Shabbat. So they caught him in the road, and they took his money and they killed him there.  ELI: So my great-grandfather– RACHEL: He was very young. ELI: She's speaking of, in 1929 there were riots in Israel, in Palestine. In 1929 my great-grandfather went to the market, and at that point … so . . . a riot had started, and as my mother had described, he was attacked. And he was knifed. And he made it not very far away, all the other Jews in the market fled. Some were killed, and he was not fortunate enough to escape. Of course, all his things were stolen, and it looked like a major robbery of the Jews in the market. It gave the opportunity to do so, but he was buried nearby there in a Jewish cemetery in the Atlas Mountains. So he was not buried closer to his own town. I went to visit that place. MANYA: In the mid-1930s, both Amram and Rachel's families moved to the mellah in Casablanca where Amram's father was a rabbi. Rachel's family ran a bathhouse. Shortly after Amram was born, his mother died, leaving his father to raise three children.  Though France still considered Morocco one of its protectorates, it left Morocco's Sultan Mohammad V as the country's figurehead. When Nazis occupied France during World War II and the Vichy regime instructed the sultan to deport Morocco's Jews to Nazi death camps, he reportedly refused, saving thousands of lives. But Amram's grandmother did not trust that Morocco would protect its Jews. Following the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt, the Axis Powers' second attempt to invade North Africa, she returned to the Atlas Mountains with Amran and his siblings and stayed until they returned to Casablanca at the end of the war.  ELI: There was a fear that the Nazis were going to enter Morocco. My father, his grandmother, took him from Casablanca with two other children and went back to Aslim in the mountains, because she said we can better hide there. We can better hide in the Atlas Mountains. And so my father returned, basically went from Casablanca to the Atlas Mountains to hide from the coming Nazis. MANYA:  In 1947, at the age of 10, Amram went from Casablanca to an Orthodox yeshiva in England. Another destination for Jews also had emerged. Until then, no one had wanted to move to British-controlled Palestine where the political landscape and economic conditions were more unstable.  The British restricted Jewish immigration making the process difficult, even dangerous. Additionally, French Moroccan authorities worked to curb the Zionist movement that was spreading throughout Europe. But Rachel's father saw the writing on the wall and took on a new vocation. RACHEL: His name is Moshe Lev and he was working with people to send to Eretz Yisrael. MANYA: A Zionist activist, Rachel's father worked for a clandestine movement to move children and eventually their families to what soon would become Israel. He wanted his children, including his 7-year-old daughter Rachel, to be the first. RACHEL: He worked there, and he sent everybody. Now our family were big, and they sent me, and then my sister went with my father and two brothers, and then my mom left by herself They flew us to Norvege [Norway].  MANYA: After a year in Norway, Rachel was taken to Villa Gaby in Marseille, France, a villa that became an accommodation center for Jews from France who wanted to join the new State of Israel. There, as she waited for a boat to take her across the Mediterranean to Israel, she spotted her brother from afar. Nissim, named for their late grandfather, was preparing to board his own boat. She pleaded to join him. RACHEL: So we're in Villa Gaby couple months. That time, I saw my brother, I get very emotional. They said ‘No, he's older. I told them ‘I will go with him.' They said ‘No, he's older and you are young, so he will go first. You are going to stay here.' He was already Bar Mitzvah, like 13 years.  I was waiting there. Then they took to us in the boat. I remember it was like six, seven months. We were sitting there in Villa Gaby. And then from Villa Gaby, we went to Israel. The boat, but the boat was quite ahead of time. And then they spoke with us, ‘You're going to go. Somebody will come and pick you up, and you are covered. If fish or something hurts you, you don't scream, you don't say nothing. You stay covered.  So one by one, a couple men they came. They took kids and out. Our foot was wet from the ocean, and here and there they was waiting for us, people with a hot blanket. I remember that. MANYA: Rachel landed at Kibbutz Kabri, then a way station for young newcomers in northern Israel. She waited there for years without her family – until one stormy day. RACHEL: One day. That's emotional. One day we were sitting in the living room, it was raining, pouring. We couldn't go to the rooms, so we were waiting. All of a sudden, a group of three men came in, and I heard my father was talking. His voice came to me. And I said to the teacher, taking care of us. I said ‘You know what? Let me tell you one thing. I think my father is here.' She said ‘No, you just imagination. Now let's go to the rooms to sleep.'  So we went there. And all of a sudden she came to me. She said, ‘You know what? You're right. He insists to come to see you. He will not wait till morning, he said. I wanted to see my daughter now. He was screaming. They didn't want him to be upset. He said we'll bring her because he said here's her picture. Here's her and everything. So I came and oh my god was a nice emotional. And we were there sitting two or three hours. My father said, Baruch Hashem. I got the kids. Some people, they couldn't find their kids, and I find my kids, thanks God. And that's it. It was from that time he wants to take us. They said, No, you live in the Ma'abara. Not comfortable for the kids. We cannot let you take the kids. The kids will stay in their place till you establish nicely. But it was close to Pesach. He said, we promise Pesach, we bring her, for Pesach to your house. You give us the address. Where are you? And we'll bring her, and we come pick her up. JESSICA: Really as everywhere else in the Middle East and North Africa, it was the Declaration of the Independence of Israel. And the war that started in 1947, that sort of set off a wave of migration, especially between ‘48 and ‘50. Those were the kind of highest numbers per year. MANYA: Moroccan Jews also were growing frustrated with how the French government continued to treat them, even after the end of World War II. When the state of Israel declared independence, Sultan Mohammad V assured Moroccan Jews that they would continue to be protected in Morocco. But it was clear that Moroccan Jew's outward expression of support for Israel would face new cultural and political scrutiny and violence.  Choosing to emigrate not only demonstrated solidarity, it indicated an effort to join the forces fighting to defend the Jewish state. In June 1948, 43 Jews were killed by local Muslims in Oujda, a departure point for Moroccan Jews seeking to migrate to Israel. Amram arrived in Israel in the early 1950s. He returned to Morocco to convince his father, stepmother, and brother to make aliyah as well. Together, they went to France, then Israel where his father opened the same synagogue he ran in the mellah of Casablanca. Meanwhile in Morocco, the Sultan's push for Moroccan independence landed him in exile for two years. But that didn't last long. The French left shortly after he returned and Morocco gained its independence in March 1956. CLIP - CASABLANCA 1956 NEWSREEL: North Africa, pomp and pageantry in Morocco as the Sultan Mohamed Ben Youssef made a state entry into Casablanca, his first visit to the city since his restoration last autumn. Aerial pictures reveal the extent of the acclamation given to the ruler whose return has of his hope brought more stable conditions for his people. MANYA: The situation of the Jews improved. For the first time in their history, they were granted equality with Muslims. Jews were appointed high-ranking positions in the first independent government. They became advisors and judges in Morocco's courts of law.  But Jewish emigration to Israel became illegal. The immigration department of the Jewish Agency that had operated inside Morocco since 1949 closed shop and representatives tasked with education about the Zionist movement and facilitating Aliyah were pressed to leave the country. JESSICA: The independent Moroccan state didn't want Jews emigrating to Israel, partly because of anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian sentiment, and partly because they didn't want to lose well-educated, productive members of the State, of the new nation. MANYA: Correctly anticipating that Moroccan independence was imminent and all Zionist activity would be outlawed, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, created the Misgeret, which organized self-defense training for Jews across the Arab countries. Casablanca became its center in Morocco. Between November 1961 and the spring of 1964, the Mossad carried out Operation Yakhin, a secret mission to get nearly 100,000 Jews out of Morocco into Israel. JESSICA: There was clandestine migration during this period, and a very famous episode of a boat sinking, which killed a lot of people. And there was increasing pressure on the Moroccan state to open up emigration to Israel. Eventually, there were sort of secret accords between Israelis and the Moroccan King, which did involve a payment of money per Jew who was allowed to leave, from the Israelis to the Moroccans.  MANYA: But cooperation between Israel and Morocco reportedly did not end there. According to revelations by a former Israeli military intelligence chief in 2016, King Hassan II of Morocco provided the intelligence that helped Israel win the Six-Day War. In 1965, he shared recordings of a key meeting between Arab leaders held inside a Casablanca hotel to discuss whether they were prepared for war and unified against Israel. The recordings revealed that the group was not only divided but woefully ill-prepared. JESSICA: Only kind of after 1967, did the numbers really rise again. And 1967, again, was kind of a flashpoint. The war created a lot of anti-Zionist and often anti-Jewish sentiment across the region, including in Morocco, and there were some riots and there were, there was some violence, and there was, again, a kind of uptick in migration after that. For some people, they'll say, yes, there was antisemitism, but that wasn't what made me leave. And other people say yes, at a certain point, the antisemitism got really bad and it felt uncomfortable to be Jewish. I didn't feel safe. I didn't feel like I wanted to raise my children here.  For some people, they will say ‘No, I would have happily stayed, but my whole family had left, I didn't want to be alone.' And you know, there's definitely a sense of some Moroccan Jews who wanted to be part of the Zionist project. It wasn't that they were escaping Morocco. It was that they wanted to build a Jewish state, they wanted to be in the Holy Land. ELI: Jews in Morocco fared better than Jews in other Arab countries. There is no question about that. MANYA: Eli Gabay is grateful to the government for restoring many of the sites where his ancestors are buried or called home. The current king, Mohammed VI, grandson of Mohammed V, has played a significant role in promoting Jewish heritage in Morocco. In 2011, a year after the massive cemetery restoration, a new constitution was approved that recognized the rights of religious minorities, including the Jewish community.  It is the only constitution besides Israel's to recognize the country's Hebraic roots. In 2016, the King attended the rededication ceremony of the Ettedgui Synagogue in Casablanca.  The rededication of the synagogue followed the re-opening of the El Mellah Museum, which chronicles the history of Moroccan Jewry. Other Jewish museums and Jewish cultural centers have opened across the country, including in Essaouira, Fes, and Tangier. Not to mention–the king relies on the same senior advisor as his father did, Andre Azoulay, who is Jewish.  ELI: It is an incredible example. We love and revere the king of Morocco. We loved and revered the king before him, his father, who was a tremendous lover of the Jews. And I can tell you that in Aslim, the cemetery was encircled with a wall and well maintained at the cost, at the pay of the King of Morocco in a small, little town, and he did so across Morocco, preserved all the Jewish sites. Synagogues, cemeteries, etc.  Today's Morocco is a prime example of what a great peaceful coexistence and international cooperation can be with an Arab country. MANYA: Eli is certainly not naïve about the hatred that Jews face around the world. In 1985, the remains of Josef Mengele, known as the Nazis' Angel of Death, were exhumed from a grave outside Sao Paulo, Brazil. Eli was part of a team of experts from four countries who worked to confirm it was indeed the Nazi German doctor who conducted horrific experiments on Jews at Auschwitz. Later that decade, Eli served on the team with Israel's Ministry of Justice that prosecuted John Ivan Demjanjuk, a retired Cleveland auto worker accused of being the notorious Nazi death camp guard known as “Ivan the Terrible.” Demjanjuk was accused of being a Nazi collaborator who murdered Jews in the gas chambers at the Treblinka death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. In fact, Eli is featured prominently in a Netflix documentary series about the case called The Devil Next Door. CLIP - ‘THE DEVIL NEXT DOOR' TRAILER: …Nazi death camp guard named Ivan the Terrible. The crimes that he was accused of were horrid.  The Israeli government is seeking his extradition as a war criminal. And that's where the drama begins.  MANYA: Demjanjuk was convicted and sentenced to death, but the verdict was later overturned. U.S. prosecutors later extradited him to Germany on charges of being an accessory to the murder of about 28,000 Jews at Sobibor. He was again convicted but died before the outcome of his appeal. ELI: Going back to Israel and standing in court and saying ‘on behalf of the State of Israel' were the proudest words of my life. It was very meaningful to serve as a prosecutor. It was very meaningful to serve in the IDF. These were highlights in my life.  They represented my core identity: as a Jew, as a Sephardic Jew, as an Israeli Sephardic Jew. These are the tenets of my life. I am proud to serve today as the president of the longest running synagogue in America. MANYA: Eli has encountered hatred in America too. In May 2000 congregants arriving for Shabbat morning prayers at Philadelphia's Beit Harambam Congregation where Eli was first president were greeted by police and firefighters in front of a burned-out shell of a building. Torah scrolls and prayer books were ruined. When Rachel opened her store 36 years ago, it became the target of vandals who shattered her windows. But she doesn't like to talk about that. She has always preferred to focus on the positive. Her daughter Sima Shepard, Eli's sister, says her mother's optimism and resilience are also family traditions. SIMA SHEPARD: Yeah, my mom speaks about the fact that she left Morocco, she is in Israel, she comes to the U.S. And yet consistently, you see one thing: the gift of following tradition. And it's not just again religiously, it's in the way the house is Moroccan, the house is Israeli. Everything that we do touches on previous generations. I'm a little taken that there are people who don't know that there are Jews in Arab lands. They might not know what they did, because European Jews came to America first. They came to Israel first. However, however – we've lived among the Arab countries, proudly so, for so many years. MANYA: Moroccan Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Eli, Rachel and Sima for sharing their family's story.  Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible.  You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

May 6th through 10th is National Teacher Appreciation Week, and Tuesday, May 7th, is National Teacher Day! All year long, but especially this week, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the amazing teachers who give their best every day to ensure students receive a high quality, engaging education that prepares them for their next steps in life.   A few words or a note of thanks would go a long way toward letting your favorite teachers know what a positive impact they've had on your life. If you'd like to share some of these kind words or a story online, don't forget to use the hashtag #ThankATeacher. Thank you, Teachers! You ROCK and you make us Proud to be HSD! Our featured event is the Moon Tree planting that took place on Friday, April 26th, at Tamarack Elementary School! Between November 16th and December 11th, 2022, more than 1,000 seeds from five different tree species traveled 270,000 miles from Earth on the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft and orbited the moon. After the flight, moon trees were grown in eight USDA Forest Service facilities. Tamarack's seedling, a sweetgum, was grown at the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station during the 2023 growing season. The seedling was presented to the school by representatives from the Forest Service and UPS - official shippers of the Moon Trees, and partners in the effort to provide interactive engagements and educational booths about the importance of environmental conservation and tree planting at Moon Tree planting sites. Many thanks to 4th grade teacher Shannon Jones who successfully applied for the Moon Tree at Tamarack! May 6th through 12th is also National Nurse Week, and Monday, May 6th, is National Nurse Day! We are so grateful to our dedicated team of District Nurses for providing expert voice for optimal, equitable student health. And we are so proud of our Lead District Nurse, Tracy Evers-Selleck, for being named Oregon's School Nurse of the Year for 2024! Way to go, Tracy! Hot News is produced and emailed to HSD families and staff each week school is in session. Please add the address to your “safe sender” list to make sure you always receive the latest issue. Please also bookmark our district website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hsd.k12.or.us⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay informed about what's happening in our district and schools.

From AP: Sex and drug tourism has long been a problem in Medellin, but the dangers came to a head late last year. Between November and December, eight American men were killed, many after meeting local women who are often used as pawns by criminal groups that target foreigners.Now the tourism boom has presented officials with a new set of dark challenges, including an uptick in sex trafficking and the killing of tourists and Colombian women after rendezvous on dating apps.“This area has spun out of control,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutiérrez said recently while touring a park known for the sex trade.Meanwhile per mercatornet: Both New York and California, as well as the rest of Nevada, are inching toward the decriminalization of prostitution. Now, decriminalization is not the same thing as legalization of prostitution. Under legalization models, prostitution supposedly comes above ground, and prostitutes are taxed like any other worker, and purportedly fall under workplace safety requirements. In practice, of course, prostitutes in countries where it is legal report no increase in safety, and trafficking actually increases. Governments are simply not capable of, nor interested in, providing the type of oversight that would be necessary.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/depraved-and-debaucherous--5267208/support.

Between November 30 and December 12, 2023, the United Arab Emirates hosted the 28th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A major outcome of COP 28 was the conclusion of the first-ever Global Stocktake — a mechanism to measure collective progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. For fossil fuel producers, who were granted the highest representation in the history of COP, the inclusion of language on “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner” was perhaps the most striking of the COP 28 outcomes. This webinar will explore the following questions: What are the main outcomes of COP 28? Do these get us on track to keeping 1.5°C within reach? Does the phrase “transitioning away from fossil fuels” signal an end for the fossil fuel industry? What are the geopolitical implications of the phrase for fossil fuel producers and consumers such as the Gulf states and their major energy partners, such as China, Japan, and South-east Asia?

Last time we spoke about the Railway Protection Movement and the Wuchang Uprising. Emperor Guangxi and Empress Dowager Cixi were dead leaving regent Zaifeng in charge of the ailing dynasty. Alongside their deaths, the Guangzhou-Hankou and Sichuan-Hankow railway lines would become the trigger to end the Qing dynasty. The people were already angry, but would become furious when news came that the railway lines were going to be nationalized using foreign loans. Some in Sichuan attempted financing their railway line to thwart the foreigners, but in the end they simply were unable. Zaifeng unleashed the brutish General Zhao Erfeng to quell the protesters, but this massively backfired. Revolutionaries within the Hubei army unleashed an uprising in Wuchang. The mutineers formed a military government representing Hubei with Li Yuanhong as their leader. The year is 1911, Wuchang is but the spark that will light the flame of revolution.   #87 The Xinhai Revolution of 1911   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The insurrection that broke out in Wuchang on October 10th of 1911, was not a sheer accident. It was part of a larger event occurring all over China. Revolutionary leaders like Dr. Sun Yat-sen had inspired multiple groups of revolutionaries, many of whom recruited men within the New Armies forming in the provinces. These groups also had links to secret societies. If you pop open wikipedia and look up the Xinhai Revolution or 1911 revolution one of the first things you will notice is the page consists of a long list of uprisings. Uprisings sprang out all over China. Some of these groups were connected, many were not at all. A famous revolutionary leader, Song Jiaron founded the Revolutionary Alliance in 1911. Song Jiaoren and Huang Xing helped Sun Yat-sen start a second uprising in Guangzhou that failed, and this basically ended the Revolutionary Alliance's role as the dominant revolutionary group. When the Wuchang uprising began, all these leaders were taken by surprise. The Hubei revolutionaries had very loose connections to the revolutionary alliance. It was Song Jiaorens intent to use the Revolutionary alliance as a sort of authority over the multiple revolutionary groups. Song Jiaoren advised the Wuchang uprisers to take it slower, but they simply were impatient for action.  As a result of the Wuchang uprising, the Qing court ordered the Minister of War, General Yinchang and General Feng Guozhang to lead the Beiyang Army to quell the rebellion in Hubei. In the last episode I mentioned Admiral Sa Zhenbing was also asked to take the Qing navy to quell the rebellion, but they simply sailed off to Shanghai and got caught up in their own sort of mutiny. Now while this was going on, back in 1909 Yuan Shikai, the man who created the Beiyang Army, had been relieved of all his posts by Zaifeng. Yuan Shikai kept networking with influential figures during his exile. Something particularly important he did was manage his contacts that could help him remain in control of his precious Beiyang army. He married his niece to his adopted son Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui was reported to him regularly the ongoings of the beiyang Army. Now the Qing court knew the only force capable of quelling the rebellion was the Beiyang army, but their loyalty seemed to still be with the exiled Yuan Shikai. The Qing court in a panic had been repeatedly requesting Yuan Shikai return, offering him first Viceroy of Huguang and then Prime Minister of the Imperial Court. But Yuan Shikai kept procrastinating, stating he had a foot ailment and could not take such appointments. The Qing court kept begging and on October 30th, Yuan Shikai finally agreed and became Prime Minister on November 1st. As soon as Yuan Shikai took this position he asked Zaifeng to withdraw from Politics, effectively resigning as regent. After this Yuan Shikai formed a new cabinet, notably Han dominant. Empress Dowager Longyu awarded Yuan Shikai the noble title of Marquis of the 1st rank. Basically the Qing court was bending over backwards to please Yuan Shikai because he literally was holding them hostage because he made it clear the Beiyang army was his to command alone. Meanwhile Yinchang and Feng had traveled to Hankou by rail and attempted to seize control over the city's northern suburbs. By October 18th, 1000 revolutionary soldiers had attacked Liujiamiao train station located at the northern approach to Hankou. The rebels were driven back initially, but later that day they regrouped and with the help of railway workers ambushed a train coming in with Qing soldiers. The train derailed, as Qing soldiers fought the rebels, but many also fled for their lives. 400 Qing soldiers were killed by the revolutionary force who proceeded to capture Liujiaomiao. The revolutionaries were greatly emboldened and grew to a force 5000 strong. On October the 20th, the rebels attacked Wushengguan, but were dealt a defeat and forced to withdraw back to Liujiaomiao. Despite the defeat, the rebels had proven themselves capable and this had an enormous impact. On October the 22nd, Tongmenghui in Hunan province led by Jiao Defeng and Chen Zuoxin declared an uprising at Changsha. They captured the city, killing the local Qing general and announced a new Hunan Military government in opposition to the Qing dynasty. Alongside this on October 22nd, Tongmenghui in Shaanxi led by Jing Dingcheng, Qian Ding and Jing Wumu launched an uprising and captured Xi'an after two days of battle. The Hui muslim community was divided on who to support. Hui of Gangsu supported the Qing dynasty while Hui of Shaanxi supported the revolutionaries. The Hui muslims of Xi'an joined the revolutionaries to slaughter Manchu, but General Ma Anliang led over 20 battalions of Hui Muslims to fight for the Qing against a revolutionary army led by Zhang Fengui. Within the Xi'an area, over 20,000 Manchu would be massacred by revolutionary forces. However Ma Anliang would be very successfully fighting back for the Qing forces, it was only after learning later on that the throne was abdicating that Ma Anliang would change sides. Thus Hunan and Shaanxi had both declared independence from the dynasty. Back in Hubei, the Qing court removed Yinchang from command and handed formal power to Yuan Shikai whose loyal lt's Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang were right and ready for action. Duan and Feng led the 1st and 2nd armies who marched upon Wuhan. By the 26th, the Beiyang Army was advancing by rail and stormed the northern suburbs of Hankou. They began their assault using heavy artillery and machine guns to devastating effect. The revolutionary forces took 500 deaths, under the rather poor leadership of Zhang Jingliang. It was suspected Zhang Jingliang was sitting on the fence, possibly collaborating with the Qing. The revolutionaries would lose control over Liujiamiao and regain it twice. By the 28th Liujiamiao saw house to house fighting between the two sides. On that same day Song Jiaoren and Huang Xing arrived to Hankou from Shanghai. They came to offer their support to the revolutionaries. Huang Xing had brought over 1000 revolutionary troops to help bolster Wuchangs 5000 strong force. With the additional support the revolutionaries were able to hold the Qing forces back, but they lacked heavy artillery and machine guns. The Qing forces were dishing out severe casualties. Facing such tough resistance, Feng Guozhang became enraged and ordered Hankou razed to the ground. A fire would burn throughout the city for over 3 days. By the 1st of November, the Qing had seized control over Hankou, but both sides had suffered casualties in the thousands as a result. On November 3rd, Li Yuanhong handed command of the revolutionary forces to Huang Xing who had proven himself a more capable military leader. New recruits from Hunan began to boost their force and by November the 11th the province declared independence. Around this time, the Qing Navy had effectively defected, multiple warships had gone to assist revolutionaries in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. An uprising broke out in Hangzhou seeing revolutionaries capture a large quantity of military supplies. Here a young Chiang Kai-shek captured some government offices and gradually Hangzhou. The revolutionaries of Zhejiang and Jiangsu raised a siege against Nanjing using Qing warships. The siege was led by Xu Shaozhen, Chen Qimei and other defected generals. Between November 24th to December 1st, the revolutionaries captured Wulongshan, Mufushan, Tianbao, Yuhuatai and countless other Qing strongholds. On December 2nd, Nanjing fell to the revolutionaries, it was a tremendous victory.  Back over in Hubei, the revolutionaries now 13,000 strong at Hanyang, forded the Han river marching to take back Hankou. Yuan Shikai was on the other side of the river leading a force 30,000 strong. While many revolutionary leaders sought to defend Hanyang, it was Huang Xing who seized the initiative. On November 17th the revolutionary forces began an artillery bombardment of Hankou from the Guishan heights, before launching a two-pronged attack. Their artillery was quite inaccurate and as their infantry advanced, Yuan Shikai's artillery quickly pinned down their right flank. This saw the revolutionary left flank managing to ford the river alone, whom ran into Qing defenders who easily repelled them back by the 18th. The revolutionary army suffered 800 casualties in the disastrous attempt. On the 21st of November, Yuan Shikai launched an attack against Hanyang. One force bypassed the revolutionaries' defenses by assaulting Xiaogan further to the west. The two armies gradually converged and fought at Sanyanqiao. The next day another Qing force forded the Han river from Hankou and seized the strategic heights in Hanyang. The revolutionaries sent reinforcements twice from Wuchang to advance across the Yangtze river to Hanyang, but suffered tremendous casualties in the process. Another group of revolutionaries in Wuchang planned to cross the Yangtze to advance to strike Liujiamiao behind the Qing defensive lines, but apparently their commander got too drunk and failed to initiate on time. As a result his force failed to help the general assault which saw the Qing artillery bombardment the revolutionaries as they attempted crossing the Yangtze. Facing such terrible losses, the Hubei revolutionaries began to preserve their strength, causing outrage amongst the Hunan revolutionaries. After a week of brutal house to house combat, Yuan Shikai's forces gradually fought their way to the center of Hanyang. There they captured the munitions factory and revolutionaries artillery position upon Guishan. By November 27th, the revolutionaries were in a full retreat from Hanyang after suffering 3300 deaths trying to defend the city. By the end of November, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang both submitted plans to Yuan Shikai on how to deliver the killing blow to Wuchang. However despite their victories at Hankou and Hanyang, things overall were not good for the Qing loyalists. During the battle for Hanyang, as Huang Xing became the defacto commander in chief, Song Jiaoren had decided to withdraw south of the Yangtze to create a secondary revolutionary center. This was of course occurring everywhere in China. The fight to dethrone the Manchu empire had created an enormous power vacuum that many were eager to set upon. Within weeks of the Wuchang uprising, as I had mentioned over in Shanghai leaders of the revolutionary alliance began an uprising declaring Shanghai independent. This spread to Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and soon 14 provinces had seceded. With so many provinces declaring independence and so many revolutionary groups vying for power, the need for a central government became a necessity. If the movement was to survive, regional rivalries needed to be overcome, national unity was essential. Wuchang and Shanghai being two of the strongest factions began to clash, but while they did the siege of Nanjing saw the great secondary capital seized by rebels.  Now while all of this was going on, secret talks were being made between the revolutionaries and none other than Yuan Shikai. Unbeknownst to the Qing court as they continuously lavished Yuan Shikai with titles, he was being tossed countless bribes to come to the revolutionary side. On november 3rd the Qing Court under immense pressure had passed the 19 articles, intending to finally reconstitute the Qing government into a constitutional monarchy. 6 days later Huang Xing cabled Yuan Shikai inviting him to join their republic. Yuan Shikai was thus in one of the most advantageous positions possible. For he and he alone could control the strongest army in CHina, the Beiyang army. He could crush the rebels in Wuchang, but he did not do so. In fact he had held his men back the entire time. On December 1st, Yuan Shikai agreed to a 3 day cease-fire and secretly began talks with the revolutionaries in Hankou. The 3 day ceasefire soon turned into another 3 days, then 15 days, and finally it encompassed all of december. On December 2nd Nanjing fell, and the revolutionaries agreed the new provisional government should be set up there. Revolutionary leaders met there and passed an outline on December 3rd on how they would create a republic. A public announcement was made that within a week's time they would elect a provisional government. This all was done within the scramble for power, for example Song Jiaoren and Chen Qimei had stayed in Shanghai attempted to hold their own assembly. On December the 18th, a North-South Conference was held in Shanghai trying to figure out how to solve issues between the north and south. Yuan Shikai sent his subordinate Tang Shaoyi to negotiate with the revolutionaries in Wuhan. Meanwhile the revolutionaries chose Wu Tingfang to speak to the foreign powers of the UK, US, Germany, Russia, France and Japan about helping support their new republic. Thus simultaneously, the Revolutionaries were negotiating with foreign powers to fix future deals with their republic as they negotiated with Yuan Shikai to allow their revolution to succeed. In the end, it was Yuan Shikai who held the keys to the car as we say. You might be asking yourself, ok, but where is Dr. Sun Yat-Sen during all of this? At the offset of the Wuchang uprising Dr Sun Yat-sen was in Denver Colorado. He had been in the US for quite some time fund raising for revolutions. He was shocked to find out about the Wuchang uprising and there was little he could do about everything. Huang Xing was thus his 2nd in command trying to hold the fort down for him. Dr Sun Yat-Sen with his closest foreign advisor and friend, Homer Lea rushed over to Britain trying to secure financing for a future Chinese republic, before sailing back to China by December 21st. He had come back just in the nick of time as the presidential election was held on December 29th. Over 45 representatives from 17 provinces participated and Sun Yat-Sen received 16 out of 17 votes. On January 1st of 1912, Sun Yat-Sen announced the establishment of the republic of China in Nanjing and was inaugurated as the provisional president of the republic. General Li Yunhong was made provisional vice president; Huang Xing became minister of the army; Song Jiaoran became director general of law making and countless other positions were filled. At the same time many leaders sought to establish the new flag of the republic. Wuchang wanted to use their 9 star flag; Lu Hadong wanted to use his Blue Sky with a White sun flag; Huang Xing favored a flag bearing the mythical well field system of village agriculture, but in the end a major compromise was met. The new flag would be the banner of 5 Races under one Union. If you google the flag, you can see its 5 colors; red for Han, yellow for Manchu, blue for Mongols, white for Muslims and black for Tibetans. This was all grand, but there was one problem, Yuan Shikai could obliterate their new republic at any moment. To solve the Yuan Shikai problem, some of the revolutionaries sought to lure him to the south. To do so they began secretly negotiating with him, offering to appoint him president over the new Nanjing government. However if Yuan Shikai were to move to the south, he would lose the power of his northern armies. On January 16th, while returning to his residence, Yuan Shikai was ambushed in a terrorist attack organized by the Tongmenghui. 18 revolutionaries  tried to kill him with a bomb at Donghuamen in Beijing. 10 Qing guards were killed in the process, but Yuan Shikai was not seriously injured. Yuan Shikai sent a message to the revolutionaries the next day pledging his loyalty to their cause and asking them not to try assassinating him again. To make a point, Yuan Shikai secretly ordered his troops to begin looting and burning down parts of Beijing like the Dong'anmen gate. Thousands of people were killed in this type of mutiny. Yuan Shikai was showcasing to the rebels the new government would be in Beijing and that he refused to move to Nanjing where he would not be able to control his military as effectively.  In the meantime there was the pesky issue of…well the Qing dynasty and their emperor still existed! The entire time Yuan Shikai and the revolutionaries were playing game of thrones, Yuan Shikai was also manipulating the Qing court. Yuan Shikai told the Qing court and Empress Dowager Longyu the revolutionaries would butcher them all, unless dramatic concessions were made. Zaifeng stepped down as regent on December 6th, and the Empress Dowager Longyu took over the empire. Yuan Shikai made it clear to her, Puyi had to abdicate the throne, because he would not be able to protect them from the revolutionaries. On February the 12th, Yuan Shikai and Empress Dowager Longyu met, and as recalled in Puyi's autobiography “The Dowager Empress was sitting on a kang [platform] in a side room of the Mind Nature Palace, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief as a fat old man [Yuan] knelt before her on a red cushion, tears streaming down his face. I was sitting to the right of the widow and wondering why both adults were crying. There was no one in the room other than the three of us and everything was very quiet; the fat man snorted as he spoke and I couldn't understand what he was saying... This was the time when Yuan directly raised the question of abdication”. Yuan Shikai pressured Empress Dowager Longyu, by stating the imperial family's lives would not be spared if the emperor did not abdicate. If the revolutionaries reached Beijing before an abdication, the provisional government would not honor and terms between them. On February the 3rd Longyu gave Yuan Shikai full authority to negotiate the abdication terms between the Qing dynasty and the provisional government. Yuan Shikai sneakily drew up his own terms and dispatched it to the revolutionaries. The Imperial edict of abdication of the Qing Emperor would thus end 276 years of Qing rule and imperial rule that has lasted over 2132 years. Nearly 4000 years of monarchy had come to an end. Throughout China's grand history, old dynasties had always been replaced by new dynasties. After 1911, it was the first time a monarchy was completely overthrown and a republic was ushered in.  Puyi would retain his imperial title and be treated as a monarch by the new Republic. Puyi and the royal family could remain in the northern half of the Forbidden city and the Summer palace. The Republic would grant them an annual 4 million taels. The reign of the last Qing emperor Puyi, had thus come to an end. All of this was negotiated through Yuan Shikai with the revolutionaries. He promised the revolutionaries he would get the emperor to abdicate, in return to be made the president of the new provisional government. It was a masterstroke of deception and power grabbing. In many ways you game of thrones fans can think of him as little finger if he actually won the throne…well maybe in the books he might still do so if Martin ever gets his fat ass to finish them.  The revolutionaries really had no choice in the matter. During the battles, Yuan Shikai proved his Beiyang army was overwhelmingly more powerful. The only reason Yuan Shikai did not crush the rebellion was simply because he sought the best outcome for himself. After working most of his life to bring an end to the Qing dynasty, to usher in democracy, Dr Sun Yat-sen had to give up his presidency. It was a bittersweet moment to be sure. Dr Sun Yat-Sen is considered the Father of the Nation by both China and Taiwan. Though Dr Sun Yat-Sen had to step down, he still fought bitterly to keep the new capital as Nanjing rather than Beijing. But Yuan Shikai's powerbase was in Beijing, his Beiyang Army and loyal officers were all there.  On February the 14th the issue came to a vote in the provincial senate, 20-5 in favor of Beijing vs Nanjing, there were two other votes for Wuhan and Tianjin. The senate majority wanted to secure the peace with Yuan Shikai, and there was also the added effect of checking against a Manchu restoration or Mongol secession. Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing argued for Nanjing to balance against Yuan Shikai's power base in the north. Li Yuanhong presented Wuhan as a compromise, the provincial senate voted again, this time 19 vs 6 for Nanjing. Sun Yat-Sen then dispatched Cai Yuanpei and Wang Jingwei to persuade Yuan Shikai to move to Nanjing. Yuan Shikai welcomed the delegation and agreed to the move, but then suddenly on February 29th riots and fires broke out all over Beijing. It was allegedly orchestrated by Cao Kun a loyal officer under Yuan Shikai. The chaos gave Yuan Shikai pretext to stay in Beijing, lest the unrest continue. Thus Yuan Shikai won the issue, Beijing would be the capital. The battles during the Xinhai revolution had raged on for 41 days and in the end 13 provinces joined the revolution. In October of 1912 Yuan Shikai conferred honors to commanders on both sides of the battles to commemorate the founding of the new republic. It is estimated the battles had taken the lives of 4300 soldiers. Yuan Shikai was air quotes elected provisional president of the republic of China on February 14th and sworn in March 10th. In 1912, the Chinese national assembly elections were held, the first for the new republic. 30,000 electors chose 2000 members of the provincial assemblies and 596 members of the house of representatives and 274 senate members were elected by the provincial assemblies. Adult males over the age of 21 who were educated, owned property, paid taxes or who could prove they resided in China for more than 2 years were allowed to vote. Its estimated 40 million people registered for the election, that's roughly 5% of the population. Now Sun Yat-Sen was not going to allow Yuan Shikai to steal the new republic without a fight. Sun Yat-Sen was no fool and knew he  would have to take a backseat for awhile so he asked Song Jiaoren to lead the political war effort to try and dismantle Yuan Shikai's stranglehold. Song Jiaoren mobilized the Tongmenghui. He offered an alliance to like minded small parties to join the Tongmenghui and thus ushered in the Kuomintang on August 25th of 1912 at the Huguang Guild Hall in Beijing. Song Jiaoren's KMT party won 269 out of 596 seats in the house of representatives and 123 seats out of 274 in the senate. The remaining seats were taken by the 3 other parties; the republicans led by Li Yuanhong; The Unity Party led by Zhang Binglin and the Democratic Party led by Tang Hualong. There were countless other smaller parties, but effectively Song Jiaoren was regarded as the next prime candidate for the position of Prime Minister. The 3 other losing parties all merged into the Progressive Party under the leadership of Liang Qichao and thus they were the opposition.  At this point Yuan Shikai held overwhelming executive power and Song Jiaoren was leading the fight to dismantle that. During his campaigning Song Jiaoren made it abundantly clear he vehemently desired to limit the powers of the president. He also always took the chance to be critical of Yuan Shikai's obvious ambitions. Song Jiaoren from the very beginning began a campaign against Yuan Shikai, accusing him of attempting to restore a monarchical system, most likely to make himself Emperor. Song Jiaoren was learning from Dr Sun Yat-Sen and proved himself a very capable politician, but he also made a ton of enemies, above all else, Yuan Shikai. It looked like Song Jiaoren's first major action would be to push for an election of a future president. On March 20th of 1913, while traveling with a group of colleagues to parliament in Beijing, Song Jiaoran was shot twice at the Shanghai railway station by a lone gunman named Wu Shiying. Wu Shiying had been contracted by Ying Guixin, the leader of the Green Gang an underworld group. Ying Guixin also happened to be the chief of intelligence for Chen Qimei and a close associate of Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai had his secretary Zhao Bingjun order the hit. Song Jiaoren died two days later from his wounds. An investigation was made implicating Ying Guixin in the assassination, but Ying Guixin fled for his life and was murdered by two unknown swordsmen. Then Zhao Bingjun was poisoned. Talk about loose ends? Chinese media sources all pointed fingers at Yuan Shikai and indeed the population basically knew it was him. However there was no significant evidence to pin the crime upon Yuan Shikai and thus he was never actually implicated.  Yuan Shikai was busy planning further assassinations of his political enemies and in april he secretly secured a loan of 25 million pounds sterling from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Japan. This loan was used to bolster his Beiyang Army. In order to secure this loan the Beiyang government had to cede partial control over its national treasury to foreign ownership as leverage. This of course was humiliating and done without parliament causing massive outrage. The ones giving the most voice against Yuan Shikai were of course the KMT, whose leader had just been assassinated. Yuan Shikai began a process of bribing and killing his KMT enemies. Yuan Shikai began dismissing governors who were pro KMT and did whatever he possibly could to collapse them.  Meanwhile as a result of the formation of the republic of China, all the revolutionary armies had been disbanded, but their soldiers were not compensated for toppling the Qing dynasty. This led to wide scale discontent. Yuan Shikai continued to gradually seize control over the government, while increasing his Beiyang Army and diminishing any other military forces that could threaten him. Yuan Shikai had thus greatly angered the revolutionary soldiers and the KMT. His political abuses were rampant, he was using violence to basically dissolve any opposition. The paint was on the wall as they say. Dr Sun Yat-Sen and the KMT would not stand for it any longer, there was to be a second revolution. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Wuchang Uprising was a springboard for other uprisings that ushered in the Xinhai revolution. The Qing dynasty had fallen and now a new Republic of China had emerged, but for how long could this experiment last? Yuan Shikai sought to seize ultimate power and it seems he was winning.

A 43-year-old man from Broomfield, Colorado, has been arrested on charges of killing his wife after engaging in months of stalking and harassment. Daniel Bartholemew Krug allegedly posed as his wife's ex-boyfriend, leading to a tragic outcome. The investigation revealed a disturbing sequence of events, with Daniel Krug accused of relentlessly stalking and sending threatening messages to his wife, Kristil Krug. The 43-year-old is now facing charges of brutally beating and stabbing her to death in their family home. The ordeal began when Daniel Krug called Broomfield police on December 14, expressing concern about his wife's well-being after months of alleged stalking by her ex-boyfriend. However, subsequent investigations uncovered a chilling twist - Daniel had been posing as Kristil's former partner, orchestrating a plan to frame him for the crime. Upon arrival at the couple's residence, first responders discovered Kristil Krug in the garage, displaying signs of blunt force trauma injuries and a stab wound. Despite efforts to save her, Kristil succumbed to her injuries, leading to the arrest of Daniel Krug. Authorities believe that in the months leading up to the murder, Daniel impersonated Kristil's ex-boyfriend, sending threatening messages with the intention of framing the other man for the crime.  On October 31, 2023, Kristil Krug reportedly filed a police report, alleging that the ex-boyfriend, now suspected to be Daniel Krug, had escalated his offensive behavior. The messages included requests for a hookup, disturbing suggestions for self-harm, and an email offering to harm Daniel Krug, accompanied by a photo of Daniel in his workplace parking lot. Among the email messages: • "i know how to satisfy u" • "U dont belong in that big house. U belong with me." • "Ill get rid of him and then we can be together." • "Ill do it for us Help me get rid of him then we can be together. Just like u want." • "U dont want him i know u want me." Between November 1 and December 14, Daniel Krug allegedly assumed the identity of the ex-boyfriend, sending an additional eight messages to his wife. One message accurately pointed out that her vehicle registration had expired, while another mentioned her visit to the dentist on November 9. A November 13 message hinted at a plan to eliminate Daniel Krug and be together. The message reads, "U belong with me. I'll get rid of him and then we can be together…they let me park and walk right into his (place of work)…Give me the signal and he wont come home."  Detectives discovered tampered security measures at the Krug residence, including taped-over doorbell cameras and disabled security cameras on the day of Kristil's death. Daniel Krug, the only person with access to the security cameras, has not provided an explanation for their deactivation. Forensic evidence further linked Daniel Krug to the crime, tracing the IP address used for threatening messages to the public Wi-Fi at his workplace. Kristil Krug's mother informed authorities that her daughter intended to divorce Daniel, citing rough treatment towards the children, and planning to use photographic evidence for custody. As the investigation unfolds, a GoFundMe initiative supporting the couple's children has amassed over $43,600. In a surprising twist, a family member initiated a GiveSendGo page to aid Daniel Krug's legal defense, maintaining his innocence and suggesting an unidentified assailant remains at large. Daniel Krug, who denies any involvement in his wife's murder, is currently held in detention with a $5 million bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for February. Want to listen to ALL of our podcasts AD-FREE? Subscribe through APPLE PODCASTS, and try it for three days free: https://tinyurl.com/ycw626tj Follow Our Other Cases: https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com The latest on Catching the Long Island Serial Killer, Awaiting Admission: BTK's Unconfessed Crimes, Delphi Murders: Inside the Crime, Chad & Lori Daybell, The Murder of Ana Walshe, Alex Murdaugh, Bryan Kohberger, Lucy Letby, Kouri Richins, Malevolent Mormon Mommys, Justice for Harmony Montgomery, The Murder of Stephen Smith, The Murder of Madeline Kingsbury, and much more! Listen at https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com

A 43-year-old man from Broomfield, Colorado, has been arrested on charges of killing his wife after engaging in months of stalking and harassment. Daniel Bartholemew Krug allegedly posed as his wife's ex-boyfriend, leading to a tragic outcome. The investigation revealed a disturbing sequence of events, with Daniel Krug accused of relentlessly stalking and sending threatening messages to his wife, Kristil Krug. The 43-year-old is now facing charges of brutally beating and stabbing her to death in their family home. The ordeal began when Daniel Krug called Broomfield police on December 14, expressing concern about his wife's well-being after months of alleged stalking by her ex-boyfriend. However, subsequent investigations uncovered a chilling twist - Daniel had been posing as Kristil's former partner, orchestrating a plan to frame him for the crime. Upon arrival at the couple's residence, first responders discovered Kristil Krug in the garage, displaying signs of blunt force trauma injuries and a stab wound. Despite efforts to save her, Kristil succumbed to her injuries, leading to the arrest of Daniel Krug. Authorities believe that in the months leading up to the murder, Daniel impersonated Kristil's ex-boyfriend, sending threatening messages with the intention of framing the other man for the crime.  On October 31, 2023, Kristil Krug reportedly filed a police report, alleging that the ex-boyfriend, now suspected to be Daniel Krug, had escalated his offensive behavior. The messages included requests for a hookup, disturbing suggestions for self-harm, and an email offering to harm Daniel Krug, accompanied by a photo of Daniel in his workplace parking lot. Among the email messages: • "i know how to satisfy u" • "U dont belong in that big house. U belong with me." • "Ill get rid of him and then we can be together." • "Ill do it for us Help me get rid of him then we can be together. Just like u want." • "U dont want him i know u want me." Between November 1 and December 14, Daniel Krug allegedly assumed the identity of the ex-boyfriend, sending an additional eight messages to his wife. One message accurately pointed out that her vehicle registration had expired, while another mentioned her visit to the dentist on November 9. A November 13 message hinted at a plan to eliminate Daniel Krug and be together. The message reads, "U belong with me. I'll get rid of him and then we can be together…they let me park and walk right into his (place of work)…Give me the signal and he wont come home."  Detectives discovered tampered security measures at the Krug residence, including taped-over doorbell cameras and disabled security cameras on the day of Kristil's death. Daniel Krug, the only person with access to the security cameras, has not provided an explanation for their deactivation. Forensic evidence further linked Daniel Krug to the crime, tracing the IP address used for threatening messages to the public Wi-Fi at his workplace. Kristil Krug's mother informed authorities that her daughter intended to divorce Daniel, citing rough treatment towards the children, and planning to use photographic evidence for custody. As the investigation unfolds, a GoFundMe initiative supporting the couple's children has amassed over $43,600. In a surprising twist, a family member initiated a GiveSendGo page to aid Daniel Krug's legal defense, maintaining his innocence and suggesting an unidentified assailant remains at large. Daniel Krug, who denies any involvement in his wife's murder, is currently held in detention with a $5 million bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for February. Want to listen to ALL of our podcasts AD-FREE? Subscribe through APPLE PODCASTS, and try it for three days free: https://tinyurl.com/ycw626tj Follow Our Other Cases: https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com The latest on Catching the Long Island Serial Killer, Awaiting Admission: BTK's Unconfessed Crimes, Delphi Murders: Inside the Crime, Chad & Lori Daybell, The Murder of Ana Walshe, Alex Murdaugh, Bryan Kohberger, Lucy Letby, Kouri Richins, Malevolent Mormon Mommys, Justice for Harmony Montgomery, The Murder of Stephen Smith, The Murder of Madeline Kingsbury, and much more! Listen at https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com

This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist. The three-month-old mutual cooperation agreement that the private-sector-owned Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) signed with State rail enterprise Transnet is already boding well, RBCT chairperson Nosipho Damasane emphasised on Thursday. "Over the last few months, we've already experienced a very strong engagement platform," Damasane highlighted at a media briefing covered by Mining Weekly (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Particiating in the briefing with Damasane and RBCT CEO Alan Waller were Acting Transnet CEO Michelle Phillips and Acting Transnet Freight Rail CE Russell Baatjies. "We've actually worked together in collaboration to improve this value chain," she added, describing the mutual cooperation agreement as allowing Transnet and RBCT to jointly explore opportunities for joint investments in assets and infrastructure to support South Africa's coal industry in the north corridor. It allows the public-private partnership to collaborate on matters relating to the uplifting of performance. Between November 2023 and today, the initiative has enabled the public-private partnership to procure locomotive spares in the form of batteries and compressors in December. The initiative is delivering a jointly managed project plan and looking at a joint Transnet-RBCT assessment for the corridor. Within the period, Transnet Freight Rail proved that it can consistently deliver coal volumes of more than a million tons a week. An initiative is already in place to renew from April improved 24-hour rail line security surveillance by RBCT, Rapid Rail Police and Transnet. Procurement processes are being speeded up and every effort is being made to maintain, enhance efficiencies and signaling. Working with Transnet has already reduced the export cycle time. Work is under way to to cut this from 99 hours to 75 hours on certain aspects of the corridor and to decrease loading and offloading time. "We now have visibility and involvement around what we can do together and how can we as industry also assist, because this is for the benefit of everyone. "We've also looked at the improvement of the rolling stock and making sure that the inspections that are happening on the line are proper, the improvement of the overhead traction equipment OHTE in the system and, most importantly, we're in the joint planning process with Transnet Freight Rail. "Our 30-trains-per-day process has already started working. There is very strong ambition coming from RBCT and very strong support coming from Transnet and we're going to try to get the volumes back to their former glory," Damasane told the many journalists present. Coal exported has fallen from a record 76.47-million tons in 2017 to 47.21-million tons, the lowest since 1992. More than 78% of last year's coal exports were to Asia, with India buying 19.73-million tons.

Last time we spoke about the landing at Saidor and the drive against Sio. The Australians were still advancing across Shaggy Ridge when General MacArthur unleashed an amphibious assault against Saidor to cut off the Japanese escape and isolate Sio. Numerous features were seized up the large ridge and the Americans successfully amphibiously assaulted Saidor and seized their airfield. General Adachi placed the 51st and 20th divisions under the command of General Nakano, who was tasked with advancing to Gali to try and secure a new supply point. Meanwhile efforts were made to try and contain the new threat in Saidor while simultaneously holding back the Australians in the south. Over on new britain the airdrome was seized as Colonel Katayama launched a failed counter attack against the Marines. The Marines tossed back the attack and began their own advance further inland. This episode is Ledo Road Offensive Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  The Americans had landed at Cape Gloucester, Saidor and were carrying out massive attacks against Rabaul. As we had seen previously, on November 5th, aided by bad weather, a surprise air raid was made by the USS Saratoga and Princeton, led by Rear-Admiral Frederick Sherman that inflicted heavy damage to 4 cruisers within the harbor; Maya's engine room was smashed by a bomb killing over 70 men; a 500 lb bomb hit Mogami; Takao took 2 500 lb bomb hits while 3 500 lb bombs narrowly missed Atago killing 23 seamen and caused severe damage to the ship's plating. 2 other cruisers and 3 destroyers also suffered light damage. Captain George Chandler flying a P-38 fighter pilot described how “There were B-24 bombers up high and B-25 bombers attacking right down on the deck dropping ‘frag' bombs on the airplanes along the runways … we did our best work at high altitude, but we also took part in combat a thousand feet off the ground.” The devastation caused Admiral Miniechi Koga to withdraw his forces to Truk, thus ending the IJN threat to Bougainville. A Japanese naval officer would later admit that they had given up on Bougainville mainly because of “the serious damage received by several Second Fleet cruisers at Rabaul by carrier attack …” The successful  raid against Rabaul left Halsey ecstatic. “It is real music to me and opens the stops for a funeral dirge for Tojo's Rabaul.” On November 8th, reinforcements led by Rear-admiral Alfred Montgomery task force 38, with the new fleet carriers USS Bunker Hill, Essex and Independence. With the added carrier strength on November 11th, a follow up air raid was made seeing the IJN cruiser Agano torpedoed and badly damaged, while 35 Japanese aircraft out of 120 launched in a counter attack against the carrier force were shot down. Montgomery would not lose a single ship. Admiral Koga's decision to send carrier pilots to bolster Rabaul had quite literally blown up in his face. Koga's air fleet had lost 43 of its 82 Zeros, 38 of its 34 Vals, 34 of its 40 Kates and 6 Judy spotter planes. Over 86 of his 192 experienced pilots and crew had perished, and he had only inflicted minimal damage to Nimitz fleet, it was a disaster. Yet the fantastical reports from Japanese pilots kept pouring in, claiming the air battles over Bougainville were infact won by the IJN air forces. Newspapers in Japan reported victories that added up to the destruction of 5 American battleships, 10 carriers, 19 cruisers and 7 destroyers. The reality was the destruction of 2 cruisers, the USS Birmingham and Denver. By mid november Vice Admiral Kusaka was finding it difficult to sustain attacks against allied convoys feeding supplies to Empress Augusta Bay. On November 12th, Rabaul only had 113 Zero's of which only 59 were operational. Crews were suffering from malaria and other diseases, no one was granted rest as they were limited in personnel and under constant attack. The quality of ground crews and pilots was deteriorating every week.  From November 12 through December 16, the daytime skies over the Gazelle Peninsula remained relatively quiet, as the US carrier forces had departed to support operations in the Central Pacific. AirSols received a new commander on the November 20th, Major General Ralph Mitchell who continued to support operations in Bougainville and General Kenney's Fifth Air Force was supporting preparations for the landings in western New Britain. The lull gave Admiral Kusaka a brief opportunity to recuperate as replacements began to arrive from the Marshalls and Truk. The Imperial Japanese Navy would take six months to replenish its carrier pilots with less well-trained and inexperienced replacements. In the meantime the carrier fleet itself, Japan's most expensive and precious strategic asset, was forced to remain idle in Truk as Nimitz began his island hop through the Central Pacific Meanwhile the Torokina airfield had become crude but operational. The Seabees had created a single 4750 foot by 200 foot strip. It lacked taxiways, hardstands and buildings, but by December 10th it could launch aircraft. Soon the Seabees would carve 2 additional landing trips in the jungle 3 miles further inland. The first would be a mile long, the second 8000 feet or so for bombers. Unlike the Japanese airfields on the Gazelle Peninsula which would take more than a year to complete, both of these American airfields took a month. You often hear, especially from marine veterans of the pacific, praise for the Seabees, such a colossal advantage in logistics paved the way to victory. A massive fighter sweep was launched on December 17 consisting of 32 Corsairs, 24 F6Fs, and 24 RNZAF Kittyhawks from airfields at New Georgia and Vella Lavella who rendezvoused at Torokina, topped off their fuel tanks, and hit  Rabaul. The strike was led by Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington, the commanding officer of Marine Fighter Squadron 214, better known by its nickname, the "Black Sheep Squadron". The three types of aircraft had different flying characteristics and different cruising speeds. The Kittyhawks, slowest of the bunch, took off first. The plan was for them to come in at 15,000ft, and lure out the Japanese. Next came the Hellcats, flying above the Kittyhawks. And the last were the Corsairs, who flew top cover. It was a long flight over open water, calculated to make the pilot of a single-engine aircraft nervous. If the engine failed it was a long swim home. They were intercepted by 35 Zeros, with the Kittyhawks getting the first jump on them. After the Kittyhawks made their first pass, shooting down a Japanese fighter, the advantage switched over to the more agile  Zeros. The Kittyhawk squadron leader's plane was fatally damaged and a second Kittyhawk went down after colliding with a Zero. Remarkably, both pilots survived. Meanwhile the Hellcats and Corsairs, at high altitudes, were coming up empty. The Corsairs circled Lakunai field finding no targets. Pilot Boyington exchanged insults with an English-speaking Japanese officer over the radio, but despite his challenges found no targets in the air. When all aircraft returned to base, the score was even. Two Kittyhawks and two Zeros were lost; one each due to the collision and one shot down by both sides. It was a rather disappointing fighter sweep, but would become just one of many against Rabual over the course of the next 3 weeks. The next raid came two days later seeing 48 B-24s launched, but 32 were forced turned back. The remaining 16 bombers escorted by 51 were intercepted by 94 Japanese fighters, yet they also suffered from the bad weather. Less than half made contact with the enemy. In the resulting fight, 5 Zeros were shot down and 10 allied aircraft were lost, but only two were shot down. The other eight were due to a mid-air collision and landing mishaps, all near home. The weather persisted to be so bad, it was only on the 23rd another sortie could be launched. B-24s escorted by Corsairs and Hellcats bombed Lakunai. Radar gave the Japanese some early warning and nearly 100 Zeros were scrambled. 60 made contact with the bombers after they hit Lakunai. No bombers were lost, but 2 Corsairs were shot down in the ensuing dogfights. Yet the Americans had a twist, they followed up the raid with a fighter sweep of 48 Corsairs. They arrived 15 minutes after the bombers left, surprising the airborne Japanese fighters, most of whom lacked radios. 6 Zeros were shot down, several others damaged and only 2 Corsairs lost.  2 days later, another fighter sweep preceded by bombers was launched claiming 18 aircraft kills, but it was probably closer to 5. In comparison the Japanese pilots would claim 55 kills, a number greater than the american force sent. On the 27 another sweep was launched against Cape Gloucester downing 7 Japanese aircraft for one American. 28 Corsairs returned the next day but this time the Japanese held the advantage, sandwiching the Marines between 2 large groups of Zeros. 3 Corsairs were shot down, but so were 3 Zeros, with 2 others badly damaged. On 30th 36 Liberators escorted by 20 Hellcats and 20 Corsairs, bombed Rabaul. 1 B-24 was lost on the raid, hit by antiaircraft fire. No air combat occurred. On New Years day 15 B-24s and 68 escorting fighters met heavy fighter opposition. 40 Zeros had been sent to Rabaul from Truk, manned by veteran pilots. 1 B-24 was shot down, and two others badly damaged. On January 2 48 US fighters raided and on the 3rd another 44. The two sweeps took out a handful of fighters. The last sweep was on the 5th seeing another 2 zeros downed. Meanwhile back on December 24th, Admiral Sherman's task force 37 raided Kavieng. The operation had two purposes, 1) was to distract attention from the landings at Cape Gloucester and 2) to interdict sea traffic between Truk and Rabaul. The 5000-ton naval transport Tenyru Maru was sunk and several other ships were damaged. After this task force 37 made several raids against Kavieng through January 4th. They managed to shoot down 10 Japanese fighters, damaged IJN cruiser Noshiro and destroyers Fumizuki and Satsuki. On Janaury 6th, the bomber strip at Piva became operational, thus Rabaul was now within range of allied light and medium bombers, basically it was pounding time.   On January 7th, 16 Avengers and 24 Dauntless raided Tobera airfield. From medium altitudes the Avengers dropped 2000lb pounds smashing the paved runways. The Japanese managed to shoot down 3 fighters and one dauntless, but Tobera was temporarily not operational. It was the first time any Rabaul airbase was neutralized from bomb damage. This would be followed up on the 11th by a low level attack against Vunakanau by B-25's, damaging 8 parked aircraft. Then on the 14th, Simpson Harbor was attacked by 16 Avengers , 36 Dauntless and fighter escorts. The Japanese tossed 84 fighters but the allies held such a tight formation it was difficult to get at the bombers. 2 bombers were lost before reaching Lakunai; 1 to a mid-air collision and 1 to antiaircraft fire. When the Allied aircraft finally arrived, clouds shielded Lakunai so the bombers switched to targeting the ships in Simpson Harbor. The Avengers carried 2,000lb bombs, limiting their effectiveness. Regardless, they landed hits on the 15,400-ton-displacement oiler Naruto, and thus ended its goal of becoming the Hokage. . . sorry folks could not resist that one. The destroyer Matsukaze was also damaged alongside 5 other vessels.    AirSols came back to hit simpson harbor and blanche bay 3 days later sinking  the Komaki Maru, Kosei Maru, Yamayuri Maru, Hakkai Maru and Iwate Maru. To take down the combined 30,000 tons of shipping AirSols lost 8 P-38s, 1 Hellcat, 1 F4U, 1 Avenger, and 1 Dauntless. The rest of January saw so many raids, sometimes 2-3 on the same day, thus I can't spend the entire podcast listing their actions, but the losses were brutal. For the Americans they would lose 23 aircraft between January 23rd-30th, for the Japanese it was around 37. By the end of the month, Rabaul was being bled dry of planes, thus the rest was withdrawn to Truk with around 40 pilots. To make up for the withdrawal, Admiral Koga brought over the air groups of carriers Junyo, Hiyo and Ryuho on the 25th adding 62 zeros, 18 vals and 18 kates to Admiral Kusakas dwindling forces. Does that not sound like performing the exact same action that saw such devastating losses in late december to early january? Yes, yes it does.    Moving over to New Britain, General Shepherd had just smashed the Japanese positions along Suicide Creek. While seizing Suicide Creek some Americans captured a Japanese dispatch saying “It is essential that we conceal the intention that we are maintaining positions on Aogiri Ridge. Concerning the occupation of this position, it is necessary that Aogiri Yama is maintained.” While making arrangements for the Japanese assault against Target Hill one, Lieutenant Abe had occasion sent field dispatches to Warrant Officer Kiyoshi Yamaguchi, one of his platoon leaders. The dispatch mentioned command post locations, hour of attack, and other orders. Yamaguchi, with that seemingly incredible indifference to basic security which the Japanese so often demonstrated, simply stuck the dispatch in his pocket and carried it with him to the assault. Marines found it on his body the following morning, thereby gaining their first inkling of the existence of a terrain feature which appeared as such on none of their maps but upon which the Japanese appeared to place great importance, for reasons not yet clear. Aoigiri Ridge was not in the American maps and it was currently held by the 2nd battalion, 53rd regiment and 2nd battalion, 141st regiment. Behind the ridge was a wide trail leading to Magairapua, connecting Matsuda's HQ with Borgen Bay. The trail was heavily used and concealed extremely well from American aircraft. Back over at the American lines, by January 5th, the 3rd battalion, 7th marines had pulled back into the reserve, allowing the weapons company, 7th marines to occupy the extreme left along the shore to prepare for Shepherds offensive against Hill 150. The new formation launched their attack at 11am on the 6th. Tanks surged forward to smash a roadblock held by the 2nd battalion, 141st regiment on the left trail. Artillery was deployed on a nearby hill hitting the Japanese lines as A company tried to break through but was quickly pinned down by the roadblock. The tanks eventually burst through the roadblock sending the Japanese packing.   The americans advanced through the increasingly swampy terrain, facing weaker resistance. B company crossed a small stream and stormed Hill 150 during the afternoon, securing it. Further right, C company and the 3rd battalion, 5th marines were surprised to be held up by extremely heavy fire from the until then unknown feature, Aogiri ridge. The men had no other choice than to pull back to a safe distance to dig in as they reported back the presence of the heavily fortified position. The Japanese would unleash carnage upon the men for 2 days whenever they tried to press forward. On the 7th the commanding officer of the 3rd battalion, 5th Marines, was wounded and replaced by Lt Colonel Lewis Walt. The next day, Walk's men were cautiously inching forward under heavy enemy fire through dense jungle, when they first encountered the ground rising in steepness. At this point Walt realized the feature had to be Aogiri Ridge.    On the 9th, the assault battalions resumed their attacks, this time with heavy artillery support against Aogiri ridge. Walt was reinforced with Companies K and L from the 7th marines, but the advance was extremely slow and painful. Two Japanese bunkers were knocked out with white phosphorus grenades, but that ended the limited gains. Walt personally began pushing a 37mm gun excruciating foot by foot up Aogiri ridge, firing a volley of canisters every few feet. Somehow he managed to get the gun up the steep slope into a decent position to sweep the ridge, allowing the gain of a foothold on the crest of Aogiri. The loss of the ridge was a huge threat to Matsuda and Katayama's positions, so the latter decided to throw his reserves in a desperate but ferocious counterattack.   At 1:15am on the 10th, Katayama sent his recently arrived 3rd battalion to attack the reverse slope. However the Marines held firm and would end up repelling 5 consecutive banzai charges with a fury and persistence unparalleled in the campaign. On the 4th try a Japanese major and two company officers succeeded in knifing through the Marine cordon almost to Colonel Walt's fox hole, 50 yards behind the front line. At that instant one of two short rounds in a 60-round artillery barrage burst in a tall tree almost directly overhead, and the major died there, sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. The 5th charge was blunted by artillery and the Japanese finally cut their losses and pulled back. The Japanese had suffered immense casualties, seeing all 3 of their battalions depleted, forcing Katayama to pull off Aogiri ridge that very night. The morning of the 10th saw Walk's men securing the feature and then discovering the vital Magairapua trail. The marines went to work mopping up the area until January 12th, whereupon Shepherd planned to seize Hill 660. The feature was guarded by the 6th company, 141st regiment supported by a number of guns of the 30th machine cannon company. The fresh 3rd battalion, 7th marines, led by lt colonel Henry Buse Jr were to perform the main assault, with the 1st battalion extending the perimeter behind them. To help the effort, the weapons company,7th marines of Captain Buckley would begin constructing a roadblock between the eastern base of Hill 660 to the shore of Borgen Bay, hoping to cut off the defenders escape route.   At 08:00am on the 13th, after artillery, mortars and the 5th Air Force performed a bombardment of the area, the last Marine offensive commenced. A intricate system of small arms and automatic weapon positions going up the summit unleashed fire upon the marines, quickly pinning down I company. L Company attempted swinging to the right, but were also pinned down. Engineers worked a light tank forward far enough to place fire across a gorge demolishing the more troublesome enemy weapons. By late afternoon, together with artillery supporting fire, the pinned-down companies were rescued and withdrawn for the night. Meanwhile the Weapons company worked with their bulldozer, by 1030 they had skirted the eastern base of the hill and set up an all-around perimeter. There they dug in clearing fields of fire for about 60 yards to both north and south, placing their half-tracks and tanks in supporting positions. The only opposition they encountered during the advance was by two Japanese machine guns and emplaced near the summit of the hill. With all said and done they successfully cut off the Japanese line of retreat.  On the morning of the 14th, the 3rd battalion resumed their assault, with their leading companies advancing to the right working their way up. One unit nearly got atop the crest before coming under fire from heavy machine guns. They got to a position where they could bring 60mm mortars to bear, and went to work neutralizing the machine gun positions before a final surge carried them across the summit. The Japanese fled down the crest heading east, coming straight into the line of fire of the Weapons company below. The result was a terrible rout, seeing many escape to the safety of the swamps to the hills southeast. By the end of the 14th, the marines had seized Hill 660 and were performing mop up operations through the following day. At 5:30am on the 16th, Katayama ordered the 6th and 11th companies, 141st regiment to counter attack Hill 660. Soon the marines were face to face with a large banzai charge, seeing the fighting getting up close and personal. But small arms, rifles, 60mm mortars and 81mm artillery broke the Japanese. Over 110 Japanese bodies would be found after the fight. This ended Shepherds offensive, as the remnants of Colonel Sumiya's forces began to arrive to the Borgen Bay area. Over the next few days, the exhausted 7th marines were relieved by the 5th marines and 2nd battalion, 1st marines who had recently been recalled after completing their mission at Green Beach.  After suffering the defeated in Borgen Bay, General Sakai decided to order the 1st battalion, 54th regiment to reinforce Talasea and for Matsuda to launch a last ditch effort, a suicidal one at that, to obliterate the enemy. But the men were in no condition for such an offensive, thus Katayama elected to postpone it for now. Since every man was needed for the defense of Borgen Bay, Colonel Sato took the remainder of his commander and departed Rooke Island to join the main body. Now that Hill 660 was secured, the Americans began a new method of patrolling; this time their patrols would specifically seek out and destroy what was presumed to be exhausted Japanese units, before the division would attack the defensive line at Borgen Bay-Itni river. Yet that is it for new Britian, as we are going to be traveling over to the CBI theater. Between November 22 to December the 1st, two conference were held between the Allied leaders. The first was the Cairo or “sextant” conference on November 22-26th, between President FDR, Sir Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek. The second was held in Tehran on November 28-December 1st between FDR, Churchill and Joseph Stalin. You might be asking, why did they all not meet up together. The crux of it was the Soviet-Japanese neutrality Pact and to a lesser extent, though probably not in Chiang Kai-Shek's mind, Stalin was aiding the CCP. Because the Soviets had not declared war on the Japanese, it would not look to good if they met with the leader of China, likewise Chiang Kai-shek was not too forthcoming to meet with Stalin. The easy fix was to just have two different conferences. Overall the conferences did not really touch too much upon the Pacific war. But Stalin did promise to declare war on Japan within ninety days after the end of the European War. In return he demanded military and logistical concessions in Manchuria, maintenance of Outer Mongolia under Soviet control as well as sovereignty over the Kuril Islands that stretched from north of Japan to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. When Chiang Kai-shek heard about this he had suspicious and noted “The influence of this conference on China will be great. I hope Roosevelt isn't plotting with Churchill and Stalin against me.” Soon his suspicion would turn to anger when he discovered there were secret protocols relating to Manchuria.  Stalin had made some assurances to Mao Zedong that once the Soviets were in the war against Japan, they would have forces to bear down into China to help tip the scale for the CCP against the NRA. Yet after the war, it would seem promises made by Joseph Stalin were not always kept.  Another important aspect of the conferences was the British decision to cancel Operation Buccaneer, the invasion of the Andaman Islands, because Admiral Mountbatten's landing crafts were required for landings in southern france. The Joint chiefs of staff were livid at this, because it came at the same time the Japanese were reinforcing Burma. FDR overruled them and agreed to the British decision and this in turn greatly pissed off Chiang Kai-Shek. Yet at the same time, the Cairo declaration had lifted up the morale for the Chinese army and people to continue their war against the Japanese. The declarations made by the Tehran conference implied publicly that the CBI theater was all but abandoned to the mercy of Japan's air and land forces. Thus it would be no coincidence the Japanese thought it ripe to launch an all-out offensive against China.  In the meantime, the rather aggressive Admiral Mountbatten was trying to salvage what he could of the situation. To try and please Chiang Kai-Shek, he proposed Operation Pigstick. The operation was something Mountbatten had wargamed a bit, it was to be a landing on the southern Mayu peninsula aimed at hitting Akyab. He began assigning landing craft for the amphibious operation, only to be immediately slapped down by Alanbrooke and told to return 3 fast tank landing crafts that were direly needed for operations against Italy. Mountbatten hoped to retain 2 slower tank landing craft, but Cunningham requested them. Pigstick was to be 2 divisions plus 2 brigades who would be used in a southward advance down the peninsula and 1 division in an amphibious assault aimed at surrounding and destroying not less than 20,000 Japanese. An additional landing similar to PIGSTICK, could perhaps be launched in the Ramree-Cheduba area, could take staging areas that would put 15 Corps within reach of Rangoon. Speaking of Ramree, if any of you have heard this kind of myth about over 1000 Japanese being eaten by crocodiles on that island, over on my personal channel the pacific war channel I did a full investigation into the so called “ramree island massacre” story. A little sad about its performance not going to lie. Dramatically improved my lackluster animation skills for it, came out really well and I did a silly impersonation at the beginning, anyways check it out its a fun one! Alongside Pigstick, Mountbatten changed the Tarzan operation into Operation Gripfast, calling for an offensive on north and central Burma with an airborne landing at Indaw to sever the Japanese line of communications to Myitkyina. But now Chiang Kai-Shek was very wary of anything British, so he rejected the plans on December 19th. Alongside pissing off Chiang Kai-Shek, his estranged wife, Joseph Stilwell was also again angry with the British, particularly Mountbatten. At one point Mountbatten proposed moving certain American units into the Hukawng valley to help the offensive there and Stillwell burst out ‘I should like it placed on record that I am responsible for the training of all American forces in this theatre and I am the person to decide when they are adequately trained and can move forward.' Mountbatten replied: ‘I accept that in principle, but would remind you that these troops are being trained under British officers. I am responsible for operations and will decide when units move into the fighting lines. In other words, general, I should like to place on record that I am Supreme Commander out here and what I say goes.' Stilwell took it good-humouredly and laughed. ‘We none of us dispute that,'”. That day Stilwell wrote a letter to his wife, referring scathingly to Mountbatten as ‘the glamour boy. He doesn't wear well and I begin to wonder if he knows his stuff. Enormous staff, endless walla-walla but damn little fighting . . . And of course the Peanut is unchanged. The jungle is a refuge from them both.' The men would all share some screaming matches against another, until Stilwell would shock everyone by exclaiming “I am prepared to come under General Slim's operational control until I get to Kamaing.” It was a truly bizarre idea, Mountbatten asked how such a thing would work, and both Slim and Stilwell asked to discuss the matter amongst themselves. The two men would agree on tactical essentials such as getting more Chinese divisions for the Ledo force and to use the Chindits to assist in hitting Myitkyina. Slim and Stilwell shook hands and Stilwell said to him ‘I would fight under a corporal as long as he would let me fight.' Slim would later reflecte ‘In practice this illogical command set-up worked surprisingly well. My method with Stilwell was based on what I had learnt of him in the Retreat – to send him the minimum of written instructions, but, whenever I wanted anything, to fly over and discuss it with him, alone. Stilwell, talking things over quietly with no one else present, was a much easier and more likeable person than Vinegar Joe with an audience. Alone, I never found him unreasonable or obstructive. I think I told him to do something he did not approve of on only two or three occasions, and on each he conformed, I will not say willingly, but with good grace.' In the end Operation Pigstick never became a reality, because the landing crafts were needed for the Italian campaign and thus the hope of meeting Chiang Kai-sheks continued demand for an amphibious operation was gone. It was almost like the British never intended to go through with such a thing in the first place, woops that is just my opinion. Meanwhile the British-Indian command elected to start a new operation in Arakan. The brutal hard-won lessons of 1st Arakan battle had been absorbed in India Command, with senior British officers determined to avoid similar mistakes. The new operation was the subject of meticulous reconnaissance, planning, and rehearsals. A series of lectures, war games, models of the grounds and syndicate discussions were held for commanders, staff and regimental officers whom carefully considered countering Japanese offensive tactics and assaulting prepared defensive positions like those witnessed at Donbaik. A carefully planned programme of continuous, progressive and intensive training was put in hand for all corps and divisional fighting, support and administrative troops to practice necessary skills, including using brigade boxes, aerial resupply and the infiltration and envelop- ment of enemy positions. This comprehensive training programme culminated in intensive rehearsals and combined arms training with artillery, tanks and close support aircraft carried out near Lohardaga, over ground resembling Arakan, simulating attacks on mock Japanese defensive positions on jungle-clad hills. General Auchinleck assigned the 15th corps, reconstituted at Ranchi with the 3 best trained divisions available: Major-General Harold Briggs' 5th Indian Division; Major-General Frank Messervy's 7th Indian Division and Major-General Christopher Woolner's 81st West African Division.The 26th Indian Division formed the corps reserve. Command of the 15th corps would be given to Lt General Philip Christison. The plan called for the 5th and 7th Indian divisions to advance along the summit of the Mayu range towards Maungdaw and Buthidaung while the 5th and 6th west african brigades would provide flanking protection. On November 1st, the 2 Indian divisions began their advance and by mid november would make contact with a Japanese outpost.As the 7th Indian division advanced astride the Kalapanzin River they ran into stiff resistance. Efforts to dislodge Japanese defenders near Awlanbyin and Letwedet, showcased the formidable difficulties that attacking Japanese defensive bunker positions presented. Most were built on razor-back ridges, through which were burrowed fire positions, affording a limited approach, while the reverse slopes protected troops from view and bombardment. With the precipitous Goppe Pass initially only suitable for porters, pack transport and pack artillery, 7th Indian Division quickly devised other methods to overcome enemy defenses, since normal stereotyped, set-piece attacks stood little chance of success without supporting field artillery. Aircraft proved an ineffective substitute, moreover, with dive-bombing having only a transitory effect since the broken terrain and dense jungle absorbed blast leaving defenses and morale largely intact unless a lucky direct hit was made. The Indian forces began to infiltrate and bypass the well-entrenched Japanese defenses, giving the impression they would soon unleash a frontal attack upon them at any moment. General Messervy's would say of the action  “'We will undoubtedly have a Neapolitan sandwich of British - Japs - British, but it will be one made by ourselves, and with the initiative in our hands it will soon be transformed to British - British - Jap.” They were gaining ground and with it valuable combat experience. On the night of November 30th, the 15th Indian Corps commenced large-scale operations to drive in the Japanese outpost line astride the Mayu Range. A series of brisk skirmishes were fought by 33rd Indian Infantry Brigade on the jungle-cloaked ridges south of Awlanbyin quickly evicting small determined parties of Japanese infantry from carefully prepared platoon and company defensive localities. This was by no means an easy task since most heavily camouflaged positions were built atop steep hillsides overlooking paddy fields that provided an open field of five and difficult going for advancing troops. Earlier directions about infiltration paid off in practice. An attack on Awlanbyin west redoubt from the rear through thick jungle achieved complete surprise. Although a neighboring Japanese position initially held out, its garrison withdrew on 2nd December after being cut off. The 33rd Brigade columns  crossed the Ngakyedauk Chaung and occupied the area from Ngakyedauk village to the ridge about 1.5 miles north-west of Sinohbyin village. By December3rd, they extended the area of operation to the hills overlooking Maungyithaung and Sinohbyin. The 89th Brigade, meanwhile, pushed forward down Tatmin Chaung and established forward positions on the hills south of the chaung, one mile west of Tatmingyaungywa. By mid-month, 7th Indian Division had reached the main enemy positions covering the Tunnels and Buthidaung, and the opening of the Ngakyedauk Pass to wheeled traffic in late December considerably eased resupply and allowed the divisional artillery to join the formation. However, both the Indian divisions were under orders not to get engaged in serious fighting with the Japanese, so the advance stopped there. It is also important to note, in November 1943,  Spitfires were deployed in Bengal for the first time. The 615th and 617th squadrons were based in Chittagong to protect the vital port and also to cover the Arakan. Within one month, the Spitfires destroyed four Japanese photographic reconnaissance aircraft. Previously, the Dinah's range, speed and height had enabled them to fly with impunity over the Allied forward bases and the Hurricanes were unable to catch them. The Japanese reacted by sending out fighter sweeps in order to test the Spitfires and whittle down Spitfire strength. However, by the end of December, the Japanese lost 22 aircraft, another 33 were damaged, and the Allied loss was only 13 aircraft. The greatest air battle occurred on the last day of 1943. On that day, No. 136 Squadron destroyed 12 and damaged 11 when a mixed force of Japanese fighters and bombers attempted to attack the light naval force along the Arakan Coast. The Japanese carried out one strategic attack when on 5 December 1943, 60 bombers and fighters, including some naval aircraft, in two waves bombed Calcutta. The Japanese lost two aircraft and another five were damaged. The three and a half squadrons of Hurricane fighters, including half a squadron of night fighters which were defending the area lost five aircraft and another six were damaged.  To the west the 5th Indian Division had also encountered stiffening resistance from Japanese outposts as it advanced southwards along the coastal plain towards Maungdaw, through the foothills further north and along the spine of the jungle-clad Mayu Mountains. They soon discovered that overcoming Japanese bunker defenses presented particular difficulties. As the division would report "The great difficulty in attacking Jap "hill top" positions lies in the concealment of the actual bunker or weapon pit' one brigade commander later wrote, and in the practical impossibility of deploying attacking troops in thick jungle, particularly where the approach runs along the top of a razor backed ridge.' In each case, patrols infiltrated between these localities isolated them from supplies and reinforcements with the result that Japanese normally gave up ground without a contest. A newsletter prepared by the HQ of 5th Indian Division reported: 'The only way to deal with the Jap def positions is by INFILTRATION. Recent experience has shown that the Jap has produced nothing new in def tactics... It is almost physically impossible in hilly and thick country to have every post covered by another, the posts can be eliminated piece- meal by infiltration tactics.' After the outline of the main Japanese defenses became apparent this approach was also increasingly applied at brigade level. At the end of December 1943, the 5th Indian Division held the area from the sea to the crest of the Mayu Peninsula and the 7th Indian Division moved into the Kalapanzin Valley. By the end of the month they reached Maungdaw. The advancing 5th Indian Division discovered that frontal assaults could not be completely avoided, however, when Japanese troops were determined to stay put. During this advance, the 161st Brigade moved to the high ground to the northeast of Bakkagona about five miles to the north of Razabil. On 30th December, 161st Indian Infantry Brigade assaulted Point 124, but the 4/7th Rajputs were held up by dense jungle and heavy mortar and machine fire and suffered heavy casualties. For six days assaults continued with the forward infantry regularly reaching the Japanese defenses before being driven off by showers of hand grenades and supporting machine-gun from every other enemy defensive position within range. Only after a 'policy of strangulation, starvation, and attrition was adopted', did its defenders withdraw. The 5th Indian Division immediately began probing the main Razabil defenses, while its 123rd Indian Infantry Brigade patrolled the western foothills of the Mayu Range and northern side of Razabil, particularly two hill positions dubbed Wrencat and Wrenkitten. To do so an indirect approach was again advocated by Major-General Harold Briggs in note on tactical policy issued on 4th January, stressing the importance of patrolling to identify positions held by the Japanese and infiltration to seize vital ground in their flanks or rear that would either provoke Japanese counterattacks or force a withdrawal. Meanwhile Stilwell arrived to Shingbwiyang on December 21st and assumed command of the Chinese forces in India. To relive the trapped battalion of the 112th regiment at Yupbang Ga, Stilwell and General Sun planned to send the entire 114th regiment to break the Japanese center at Yupang Ga to rescue the 112th, then hook north to envelope the northern fragment of the Japanese defensive line. On December 24th, they unleashed artillery and launched the infantry into the Japanese lines. The 114th regiment managed to envelop the Japanese right flank by the afternoon and soon a breakthrough emerged allowing for them to make contact with the 112th. Sun's men then surrounded the Japanese pocket during the night and would wipe them out the next morning. And thus the Chinese had gained their first victory at Yupbang Ha, though the Japanese still held the river crossing, so Stilwell began plans for another assault set after Christmas. On December 28th, Sun ordered 3 battalions to attack the north, while the 1st battalion, 112th regiment would sweep to the right, getting behind the 3 Japanese outer strongpoints. The chinese forces rapidly broke the Japanese outer defenses creating a breach while the 1st battalion, 114th regiment broke through the river defensive line. The Japanese tossed a large counterattack, but it would be repelled by the night time. Now Yupbang Ga was in allied hands as the surviving Japanese companies split into smaller groups trying to hold out for many days. With the fall of Yupbang Ga, the Japanese were forced to withdraw from Sharaw Ga as well, so elements of the 2rd battalion, 113th Regiment were be able to seize it by December 30. In the meantime, as the 22nd Division's 65th Regiment had been sent towards the Taro Plain to try and secure the southern flank, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 114th Regiment had been sent south to cross the Tanai Hka at the Kantau ford in an effort to cut off the enemy withdrawal line. By the end of 1943, with the loss of 315 killed and 429 wounded, Sun's 38th Division had gained complete control of the Tarung Hka.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Things were deteriorating for the Japanese on New Britain as American Marines were seizing features and gradually pushing them into Borgan Bay. Within the CBI theater a ton of drama amongst the high commanders was surprisingly not resulting in disaster, as operations in Burma were kicking off with great results. Perhaps Burma could be saved.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. The past several weeks have seen the publication of a slew of high-profile opinion surveys on the war with Hamas. They include deep looks into the psyche of the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and a probe into how Israeli Jews and Arabs differ in perspectives. Out of the United States, there are a few surveys that take the temperature of the American electorate during the war with Hamas. Among those with findings featured in the podcast is the poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR). Between November 22 and December 2, questions were asked of 1231 adults, of whom 750 were interviewed face to face in the West Bank and 481 in the Gaza Strip. The findings are eye-opening. Next, we speak in depth about the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, an online survey within the United States from December 13-14 among 2,034 registered voters. Rettig Gur notes that on several questions, voters in the 18-24 age group seemed to express contradicting or muddled views. He explains why. We also speak about The New York Times/Siena College poll of 1,016 registered US voters that was conducted by telephone from December 10 to 14. With similar, yet different questions about the war with Hamas, it is interesting to compare findings with the previous survey. Finally, we discuss the Israel Democracy Institute's seventh flash survey that was carried out between December 11–13, with 503 men and women interviewed via the internet and by telephone in Hebrew and 101 in Arabic. The schisms in Israeli society are made crystal clear. This week on What Matters Now, ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur sits down for a frank discussion of some of the polls' findings in the first of an ongoing series of bi-weekly conversations on varied topical issues. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on iTunes, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, PlayerFM or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Get Big Out Loud Radio: Where we explore living the complex, funny, and beautiful ride of life with Kari Knutson and Dr. Pat Baccili.Between November and January, we celebrate many holidays in the United States. These celebrations can bring joy and fulfillment as well as stress and overwhelm. There are usually high expectations along with more obligations, time with people we may not see that often, and opportunities for strong emotions to arise. All of which can take us from calm to overwhelmed in a matter of moments. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we'll talk about the tipping point of the holiday season, share ideas for how to find balance in the chaos, and tangible ways to realistically enjoy this time of year.Kari Knutson, M.A. is a professional speaker, school counselor, storyteller, mother, closet rap artist, itchy foot traveler and chronic extrovert. She is an expert in the field of Emotional Intelligence (also known as EQ) and Human Development.Her company, Knutson Speaks takes psychology ‘off the couch' and brings it to the people. She does this through presentations where she demystifies concepts in psychology and turns them into clear, tangible, and relevant takeaways that people can use to help transform their personal and professional lives.Website:http://www.knutsonspeaks.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Get Big Out Loud Radio: Where we explore living the complex, funny, and beautiful ride of life with Kari Knutson and Dr. Pat Baccili. Between November and January, we celebrate many holidays in the United States. These celebrations can bring joy and fulfillment as well as stress and overwhelm. There are usually high expectations along with more obligations, time with people we may not see that often, and opportunities for strong emotions to arise. All of which can take us from calm to overwhelmed in a matter of moments. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we'll talk about the tipping point of the holiday season, share ideas for how to find balance in the chaos, and tangible ways to realistically enjoy this time of year. Kari Knutson, M.A. is a professional speaker, school counselor, storyteller, mother, closet rap artist, itchy foot traveler and chronic extrovert. She is an expert in the field of Emotional Intelligence (also known as EQ) and Human Development. Her company, Knutson Speaks takes psychology ‘off the couch' and brings it to the people. She does this through presentations where she demystifies concepts in psychology and turns them into clear, tangible, and relevant takeaways that people can use to help transform their personal and professional lives. Website: http://www.knutsonspeaks.com/

Welcome to Get Big Out Loud Radio: Where we explore living the complex, funny, and beautiful ride of life with Kari Knutson and Dr. Pat Baccili. Welcome to Get Big Out Loud Radio: Where we explore living the complex, funny, and beautiful ride of life with Kari Knutson and Dr. Pat Baccili. Between November and January, we celebrate many holidays in the United States. These celebrations can bring joy and fulfillment as well as stress and overwhelm. There are usually high expectations along with more obligations, time with people we may not see that often, and opportunities for strong emotions to arise. All of which can take us from calm to overwhelmed in a matter of moments. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we'll talk about the tipping point of the holiday season, share ideas for how to find balance in the chaos, and tangible ways to realistically enjoy this time of year. Kari Knutson, M.A. is a professional speaker, school counselor, storyteller, mother, closet rap artist, itchy foot traveler and chronic extrovert. She is an expert in the field of Emotional Intelligence (also known as EQ) and Human Development. Her company, Knutson Speaks takes psychology ‘off the couch' and brings it to the people. She does this through presentations where she demystifies concepts in psychology and turns them into clear, tangible, and relevant takeaways that people can use to help transform their personal and professional lives. Website: http://www.knutsonspeaks.com/

Between November and January, we celebrate many holidays in the United States. These celebrations can bring joy and fulfillment as well as stress and overwhelm. There are usually high expectations along with more obligations, time with people we may not see that often, and opportunities for strong emotions to arise. All of which can take us from calm to overwhelmed in a matter of moments. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we ll talk about the tipping point of the holiday season, share ideas for how to find balance in the chaos, and tangible ways to realistically enjoy this time of year.

Between November and January, we celebrate many holidays in the United States. These celebrations can bring joy and fulfillment as well as stress and overwhelm. There are usually high expectations along with more obligations, time with people we may not see that often, and opportunities for strong emotions to arise. All of which can take us from calm to overwhelmed in a matter of moments. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we ll talk about the tipping point of the holiday season, share ideas for how to find balance in the chaos, and tangible ways to realistically enjoy this time of year.

Between November and January, we celebrate many holidays in the United States. These celebrations can bring joy and fulfillment as well as stress and overwhelm. There are usually high expectations along with more obligations, time with people we may not see that often, and opportunities for strong emotions to arise. All of which can take us from calm to overwhelmed in a matter of moments. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we ll talk about the tipping point of the holiday season, share ideas for how to find balance in the chaos, and tangible ways to realistically enjoy this time of year.

Between November and January, we celebrate many holidays in the United States. These celebrations can bring joy and fulfillment as well as stress and overwhelm. There are usually high expectations along with more obligations, time with people we may not see that often, and opportunities for strong emotions to arise. All of which can take us from calm to overwhelmed in a matter of moments. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we ll talk about the tipping point of the holiday season, share ideas for how to find balance in the chaos, and tangible ways to realistically enjoy this time of year.

Between November 30 and December 10, 2023, the United Arab Emirates will host the 28th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It becomes the fourth Arab country to host the event. COP 28 brings the world together at a critical moment for humanity, as we stand at the halfway point between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 deadline for GHG emissions to decline. This webinar raises the questions: What can we expect from the UAE as host of COP 28? Will the event be a course-correction COP? Perhaps more importantly,  how will governments and businesses adapt to this momentum and implement practical climate solutions? To answer these questions and more, the Middle East Institute and the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Singapore will bring a panel of experts from the both countries for their views on these questions, and their implications for governments and businesses.

It's Halloween again and for the Courage My Friends podcast series, this means it's a time for stories. Returning with our annual ‘mouth open, story jump out' episode, storytellers Kesha Christie of Talkin' Tales, Njoki Mbũrũ recent recipient of the Community Foundations of Canada Transformational Storytelling Fellowship and Rani Sanderson, storytelling workshop facilitator with StoryCentre Canada, share in stories and conversation about the power of storytelling for community work, transformation and social change.   Christie reflects on the power of stories: “When we share stories openly and honestly, we hear the heart of the other person. We're able to understand each other. It's the way that we pass down our beliefs and traditions. And it's also a way for us to question the society around us. It gives us a different view.” Reflecting on transformative storytelling, Mbũrũ says: “If storytelling continues to be extractive and commodified, then it becomes a product. And transformative storytelling is not about producing a series that is a hit show. It's not just about a product that is sellable. Transformative storytelling is really about honoring the dignity, the consent, the self determination and the sovereignty of whoever is giving a story.” Sanderson talks about how stories build connection: “Stories breed stories ... Somebody tells a story and then somebody else tells a story and then somebody else tells a story … Oh, that reminds me of this. That reminds me of this thing. And suddenly you have a whole room of people talking where maybe nobody, especially younger people [who] were a bit reticent to speak about some issues, some topic, just something. And during the pandemic, a lot of that was just about being isolated and lonely.” About today's guests:  Kesha Christie is an accomplished storyteller who uses African and Caribbean folktales to connect people and cultures. Her engaging performances and insightful commentary have earned her a reputation as a respected voice in the storytelling community, and she has performed at a variety of venues and events across Canada. Kesha also runs her own platforms, including the “Walk Good” podcast and “Talkin' Tales” YouTube channel, where she shares her passion for storytelling and its ability to bring people together. She is deeply committed to preserving and promoting African and Caribbean cultural traditions, and her work continues to inspire audiences of all ages. To learn more about Kesha and her work, visit www.talkintales.ca Rani Sanderson has a background in film studies and production, later obtaining her Masters of Environmental Studies, where she concentrated on community-engaged arts and environmental education. For the past 15 years she has been facilitating workshops, with a focus on digital storytelling. In 2015 she was invited to head up StoryCentre Canada, (building on the work of American partners) where she develops and implements digital storytelling workshops for non-profit organizations across the country.StoryCenter founded and pioneered the Digital Storytelling methodology of participatory media creation in 1992, and has since taught hundreds of workshops around the world with a variety of communities and organizations.  Njoki Mbũrũ is a storyteller, poet, and immigrant from Kenya who is currently living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Building on her completion of the LEVEL Youth Public Policy Program through the Vancouver Foundation in 2020, she has continued to advocate for policies, projects, and partnerships that uplift the leadership and voices of Indigenous and Black people and communities. Between November 2022 to August 2023, Njoki completed a storytelling fellowship with the Community Foundations of Canada; an experience which has now propelled her to deepen her exploration of the relationships between public policy, emerging technologies, and philanthropy. As a guiding framework for her relationships and imagination work, she is guided by the question: "What else is possible?"  Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.   Image: Kesha Christie, Njoki Mbũrũ, Rani Sanderson / Used with permission. Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.  Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Grace Taruc-Almeda, Karin Maier and Jim Cheung (Street Voices)   Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.  Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.  Host: Resh Budhu. 

In this address to the IIEA, Simon Coveney TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment delivers a keynote address discussing the recently published White Paper on Enterprise 2022-2030 and its implications for SMEs and multinationals based in Ireland. Following this, the event features a panel discussion during which Martina Fitzgerald, CEO of Scale Ireland, and Dr Frances Ruane, Chair of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, who respond to the Minister's presentation and share their perspectives on the White Paper. The event will be chaired by Dan O'Brien, IIEA Chief Economist. About the Speakers: Simon Coveney TD is the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, appointed in December 2022. He is also the Deputy Leader of Fine Gael. He has served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2022 and Minister for Defence from 2020 to 2022. Between November 2017 and June 2020, he also held the office of Tánaiste. He has previously served as Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government from 2016 to 2017, Minister for Defence from 2014 to 2016, and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine from 2011 to 2016. Martina Fitzgerald is CEO of Scale Ireland, the independent not-for-profit organisation representing Irish tech start-up and scaling companies. There are currently more than 2,200 tech start-up companies in Ireland, employing more than 50,000 people around the country. Martina is also actively involved in the global and European networks of start-up organisations and has contributed to many of the pan-European initiatives. Martina is also a board member of Dóchas, the Irish association of international development and humanitarian organisations. Prior to 2019, Martina was a leading national journalist, including as Political Correspondent with Ireland's national broadcaster, RTÉ, and the author of a critically acclaimed best-selling book, Madam Politician, on the subject of Irish female government ministers. Dan O'Brien is Chief Economist of the Institute of International and European Affairs. He is also Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at University College Dublin's Geary Institute and a regular media commentator on economic and public policy issues. For three years, from mid-2010, Dan was economics editor of The Irish Times, analysing and commenting on a wide range of Irish, European and global issues. Prior to that, he spent a dozen years, based in London and Geneva, as senior economist and editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, an arm of The Economist Newspaper Group. Dan has also worked for the European Commission and as a consultant for the United Nations and Forfás, an Irish government in-house think tank. Frances Ruane is an Honorary Fellow at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and a Research Affiliate at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). She is Chair of the National Competitiveness Council and represents Ireland on the European Productivity Network. An economist, she held academic and senior administrative positions at TCD between 1977 and 2006, and was Director of the ESRI from 2006 to 2015. Her research interests are in economic development, international economics and public policy, and she has published widely in these areas. Frances was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2003 and served as President of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland from 2016-2019.

Meet Keri. A 39-year-old mother of two - who's in the process of going back to school for a graduate degree - who had been struggling with her diet, body image, and relationship with the scale for far too long. In late 2022, she recognized that if she ever wanted to break free of the weight loss-regain cycle, she needed to learn how to put herself first and also address some of the deep emotional hang-ups preventing her from achieving sustainable success. After years of stalking me on social media (kidding - sort of), she invested in herself and made herself a priority by joining The 5% Community. Between November 2022 and April 2023, we didn't focus on dieting,  but instead on doing some deep work improving her relationship with food, rebuilding her foundational habits, and practicing letting go of perfectionism and control. And the results that have followed since this commitment to putting herself first have been nothing short of incredible… Both inside and out! In today's episode, you'll hear directly from Keri about the thought, beliefs, stories, and habits she's worked to overcome to not only lose double-digit pounds and inches, by to exponentially increase her energy and confidence. Oh, and what she's done to improve her relationship with teh scale! Start listening now! Thank you for being here. If you found today's episode valuable, please share it with a friend or family member who would benefit from hearing today's message. Learn more about how I can help you feel, look, and be your best - schedule a call with me today.  Want to specifically learn more about how HYPNOTHERAPY can help you conquer emotional and binge eating, reclaim your sense of worth, love, and confidence, and help you feel your best? Schedule a call with me today.  Follow me on Instagram - @paulsaltercoaching  How I Can Help You: I help women over 30 lose weight and rebuild limitless confidence so that they never have to diet again.  To date, I've personally coached more than 1,500 women and helped them to collectively lose 10,000+ pounds of body fat and keep it off for good, while simultaneously empowering them with the education, strategies, and accountability needed to feel and look their best. Learn more about how I can help you feel, look, and be your best - schedule a call with me today.

In 1942, as the country reeled from the attack on Pearl Harbor, trained male pilots were in short supply. Qualified pilots were needed to fight the war. The Army also was desperate for pilots to deliver newly built trainer aircraft to the flight schools in the South. Twenty-eight experienced civilian women pilots volunteered to take those ferrying jobs. They formed the country's first female squadron late summer 1942. Between November 1942 and December 1944, 1,074 more women were trained to fly first in Houston and then moved to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX. Nancy Love and Jacqueline Cochran founded the two programs (Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and Women's Flying Training Detachment) that became the WASP. WASP flew every aircraft in the Army's arsenal. In addition to ferrying, they towed gunnery targets, transported equipment and non-flying personnel, and flight-tested aircraft that had been repaired before the men were allowed to fly them again. For over two years, the WASP went on to perform a wide variety of aviation-related jobs and to serve at more than 120 bases around the country. The man who championed the WASP was Army Air Forces Commanding General “Hap” Arnold. He was revered by the U.S. Congress, but in June 1944 when he sought to officially designate the WASP as members of the United States military, Congress said “no.” After a protracted fight, the WASP were granted military status in 1977, thanks to a law signed by President Carter. These 1,102 Women Airforce Service Pilots flew wingtip to wingtip with their male counterparts and were just as vital to the war effort. Sarah Byrn Rickman, WASP author and historian --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

7/12/23 - There's a good chance that you've never heard of Our Lady of Beauraing. Between November of 1932 and January of 1933, five children Belgium received 33 visitations from Our Lady. Why isn't this apparition more well-known? Today we'll unpack it all and take a look at how Our Lady's seemingly-simple messages actually hold a great deal of meaning and weight.

"I attribute a good deal of my success to dumb luck. So that might be one of those areas where it kind of raises its head. But I also believe that when you put yourself in a situation where you are willing to show initiative and a spark, you will be blessed with the faith and support of those around you." Tim Bernardi is an experienced writer and entrepreneur who seemingly stumbled into a role in the construction industry working on some pretty epic theme park attractions. He may also be one of the best examples of someone that has followed their passions and embraced the spark each and every time it comes. Tim's story has as many twists and turns as some of the epic theme park projects he has been a part of. When I first Tim him I knew him as someone who worked in construction project management with Mader Southeast on some amazing theme park attractions. His construction experience has led him to projects with Universal Creative, Walt Disney Imagineering, and custom homes. His path getting to where he is today has been anything but linear. In fact, it was a career he - almost quite literally - stumbled into after years in hospitality and selling his publishing agency.  Tim's entrepreneur spirit doesn't just believe that people should pursue what they enjoy doing. He has seen the benefits that come when you take initiative toward those interests. In the end, he learned that by expressing yourself and always going the extra mile, you can be rewarded with faith from your mentors and leaders. In this episode, you discover: the theme park attraction where his original desktop computer now resides the “dumb luck” moment that lead to Tim's career in commercial construction. how Tim Bernardi used his precociousness to advance his career. what happened when his CEO invested faith in him to plan and execute an event with no budget limit “There are small miracles every day that sometimes aren't quite as apparent.” Episode Highlights: [00:04:38] A speech class I took in high school allowed me to start to categorize my thoughts and realize the power of words. If Young Tim brought anything forward, it's the ability to use the bullet point function on Microsoft Word. [00:07:02] When you went to UK, what was your career vision? My career originally was going to be political science. But I didn't really start combining the skill sets from debate with writing until I got into the student paper at Valencia. Now my passion is technical writing and organizing thoughts and editing. [00:08:34] I was a Jungle Cruise Skipper at Disney's Magic Kingdom in the fall of 1982. Went back to the University of Kentucky for one semester. Moved back down to Orlando in May of 83 and did  some steam train work for a couple of years in the Magic Kingdom. [00:09:48] When I was living in Florida, I started a publishing company. The concept that on a small computer that set on my desk I could do newsletters, flyers, forms. Why did I decide to sell the agency? Someone came and offered me a bunch of money " [00:12:53] I still write protocols and standard operating procedures and technical writing as well. It's a lot of those skills that we just go through and do that we don't realize are marketable skills [00:14:28] Eventually you realize that passion is something that you can monetize. [00:18:27] I'm the facilitator of the Construction Safety Peer Group of Central Florida. Many of those people there are individuals who I regard as leaders. People who invested in me and who showed belief in me. That makes you feel essential and essential. [00:27:15] What can I do to serve others within the scope I'm qualified? And where can I maybe personally grow and help others as well? There's a selflessness to doing that to your organization or to a nonprofit. But there is also a personal return on investment on it. [00:30:33] Between November 2017 and January 2022, we managed 27 different construction sites on Walt Disney World property. Over those Times had some remarkable experiences. One that stands out to him was when Pandora was almost finished and ready to open. [00:37:05] Stop and take in the work that you have done. Enjoy what you have built out of it. I personally loved the Sorcerer's hat at Hollywood Studios. It's just a reminder that don't just rush from one project to the next. [00:39:14]  We don't have the capacity to acknowledge every blessing that comes our way. There are small miracles every day that sometimes aren't quite as apparent. [00:44:50] Even the quietest and the smallest blessings that are out there that aren't easily recognized are still there.   Connect with Tim on LinkedIn   Connect with Katie About Katie: https://www.katiecurrens.com/about Connect with Katie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiecurrens/ Follow Katie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katie_currens/ Follow the Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onesparkstories/  

This week we sit down to with author and van lifer, Dot Bekker. Between November 2018 and August 2019, Dot traveled from Spain to her hometown in Zimbabwe in an old, self-converted campervan; A 1998 Blue Ford Transit, lovingly named BlueBelle, who also happened to be a 2WD. That's right, Dot & BlueBelle, against all odds, (slowly) drove 20,000km solo to get 'home to Africa'. And the stories & insights that she shares with us from this trip are truly inspirational. Dot's hope is to motivate others to take on challenges and to realise their own potential because as she wrote in her book, ”if an ordinary sixty-year old woman could make something extraordinary happen, then so can you.” Dot's Book “Going Home to Africa” is available here: https://amzn.to/3YVVwMx Learn more about how you can connect with & support Dot's charity work here: www.goinghometoafrica.com Send Dot your emojis on Instagram here: @goinghometoafrica

Hey, Sleepyheads! Between November 28th - December 23rd 2022, we ran a supporter's drive with a goal of reaching 1000 new premium supporters across our podcast network, Slumber Studios. We're so grateful to everyone who signed up or showed support in any way you could! ❤️ Though we've reached the end of the drive, we'd still love for you to join us on Get Sleepy Premium! The benefits include ad-free listening, close to 500 full-length stories and meditations, and exclusive bonus episodes each and every week! You can also 'gift a subscription' to a friend or loved one - perfect for the festive season!

On Tuesday, 12/6 I recorded this episode and although I could see myself on screen the output did not record the video for some reason but this MESSAGE is OH SO POWERFUL. Perhaps that was God's plan, no distractions, only the WORD. Between November 12th and today, December 7th, my aunt, brother-in-law, brother-in-law's brother, and now this morning (12/7) my grandma has been called home a day after recording this message. Ironically on 12/2 after finding out my brother-in-law died, my 4 year-old daughter reminded me in the midst of my tears not to cry and what happens when we die. She said God brings us all back! Back to normal (spiritual beings). There has been so much death and grief in my family, amongst my friends, and on my timeline that I felt led by the spirit to record this message. Rest in Power 11/12/22: Aunt Suzette (57) 12/2/22: Brother-in-law Deshane (36) 12/4/22: Brother-in-law's Brother Reco (31) 12/7/22: Grandma Martha (82) Join me on my grief journey as I seek God for answers to help me fight the fear of death and find faith in the midst of life's trials. May God give everyone grieving in this season divine revelation and peace that surpasses all understanding. Scriptures 1 Corinthians 15 - The Resurrection of the Dead 1 Thessalonians 4v13-18 The coming of the Lord Ephesians 6v12 We don't wrestle against flesh and blood Proverbs 12v25 and 28 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop, but a good word makes it glad Psalm 16v7-11 My heart is glad, and my flesh shall rest in hope  Hebrews 2v13-18 Through death God destroys the enemy  Proverbs 10v24-32 Righteousness vs Wickedness Matthew 5v45 God sends rain on the just and unjust 2 Samuel 1v11-27 David's lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan his son  Rate, comment, share, and subscribe to The Confidence Restored Podcast today. Love the Show? Buy Us a Coffee To help support the costs associated with producing the CC: America Podcast you can now buy us a coffee to show appreciation. Visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ccamerica Follow our blog & access other show links at confidencerestoredpodcast.com The Confidence Restored Podcast presented by CC: America is available for replay on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Amazon.  New episodes are typically added every other week. On occasion a new show will be added weekly. To stay informed follow us on IG (@ccamericallc). Show Sponsor Today's show is sponsored by Confident Connotations, www.confidentconnotations.com. Providing inspirational apparel and products that promote confidence, inspires life and sparks conversation. Opening Music Surface by Loxbeats | https://soundcloud.com/loxbeats      Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com        Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US CC: America LLC, contractors, and staff expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, special, etc. damages and expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, the podcast or the information presented in this podcast.  

Financier, philanthropist, and longtime president of the World Sephardi Federation Nessim Gaon was proud of the Sudanese birthright that made him part of a long lineage of Jews from Arab lands. However, with growing antisemitism in Sudan, he also believed Israel offered the only safe haven for Jews around the world and devoted his life to constantly improving the Zionist project.  Gaon's oldest grandchild, Dr. Alexandra Herzog, deputy director of Contemporary Jewish Life for American Jewish Committee, shares the story of her grandfather's flight from Sudan, his quest for equality in Israel, and his pursuit of peace between the Jewish state and Arab nations that led to the historic 1979 accord between Israel and Egypt. Along with Dr. Herzog, oral historian Daisy Abboudi describes great changes in Sudan that take place during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which saw the country emerge from a period of Islamic extremism to a land of possibilities for Jewish pioneers. However, this brief window of openness closes once again as Gaon's cousins, Diana Krief and Flore Eleini, describe how following Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, Sudan once again became a terrifying place to be a Jew.  ___ Show notes: Sign up to receive podcast updates here. Learn more about the series here. Song credits:  Saza Niye Glemedin; Penceresi Yola Karsi: all by Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Hatikvah (National Anthem Of Israel, Electric Guitar)”; Composer: Composer: Eli Sibony; ID#122561081 “Frontiers”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI); Composer: Pete Checkley (BMI), IPI#380407375 “Adventures in the East”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI) Composer: Petar Milinkovic (BMI), IPI#00738313833. “A Middle East Lament”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Alpha (ASCAP); Composer: Dan Cullen (PRS), IPI#551977321 “Mystic Anatolia”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Alpha (ASCAP); Composer: Okan Akdeniz (MSG), IPI#37747892568 “Modern Middle Eastern Underscore”: Publisher: All Pro Audio LLC (611803484); Composer: Alan T Fagan (347654928) “Fields Of Elysium”; Publisher: Mysterylab Music; Composer: Mott Jordan; ID#79549862 ___ Episode Transcript: ALEXANDRA HERZOG: Oftentimes, I asked him, would you want to go visit Sudan? If you could, would you? And you know, he would tell me, ‘Well, I have this image in my head. And I want to keep it that way.' And I think that it was so loaded for him in terms of memories, in terms of, you know, vibrancy of life and I think he wanted to keep it as this frozen image. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in Arab nations and Iran in the mid-20th century. This series, brought to you by American Jewish Committee, explores that pivotal moment in Jewish history and the rich Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations as some begin to build relations with Israel. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience.  This is The Forgotten Exodus. Today's episode: Leaving Sudan MANYA: When Diana Krief and her 95-year-old mother Flore Eleini look back on their family's life in Sudan, they conjure dark memories. Flore remembers enjoying afternoon tea outside with her mother-in-law when soldiers armed with bayonets stormed the garden. FLORE ELEINI: Life was normal, life was good. And then, little by little. it deteriorated. We were the very, very last Jews to stay in the Sudan. And then, after the Six Day War, of course, they came, you know, in the street, they were shouting, kill, kill, kill, kill the Jews, kill, kill, kill the Jews. And one day, I thought it was our end. MANYA: Her daughter Diana remembers soldiers raiding their house and posters of decapitated Jews outside their home. DIANA KRIEF: It's actually by others that I came to know that I was Jewish, that I was a Jew, you know, born in a Jewish family. They used to come in front of the house with posters of Jews in the Mediterranean Sea with their heads cut off, and blood everywhere. That's the first time I had actually seen the land of Israel. I didn't know that we had a land before.  And it was “itbah” the whole time. And even when we would put the radio on, they would sing“itbah itbah al yahud.” That means “slaughter, slaughter the Jews”. And this always stayed in my memory. MANYA: In 1968, Flore and Diana were among the last Jews to flee Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan. They followed a path to Geneva blazed by Flore's cousin, Nessim Gaon, a financier and philanthropist born and raised in Sudan who had moved from Khartoum to Switzerland a decade earlier.  Gaon, who died in May 2022 at the age of 100, was a legend in modern Jewish history. As a longtime president of the World Sephardi Federation, he worked to raise the profile of Sephardic Jews around the world and level the playing field for them in Israel – where Arabic speaking Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews were often looked down upon.  On the contrary, Gaon believed they offered Israel a gift – a link between the Jewish state and their former homes in the Arab world. Gaon himself offered a shining example. He persuaded his dear friend, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to meet with Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat, which led to the historic 1979 accord between Israel and Egypt – the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab nation. ALEXANDRA: For him when Israel was built, it really was like a miracle. He really, truly believed in the possibilities that Israel could offer. He also realized that Sephardic Jews could play a role in creating a bridge between Israel and the Arab countries, and that they would be able to help in creating peace or at least creating dialogue between some of those countries. And that's really what he did in his conversations with Anwar el-Sadat and Menachem Begin.  MANYA: That's Gaon's oldest grandchild, Dr. Alexandra Herzog, who now serves as the deputy director of Contemporary Jewish Life for American Jewish Committee. As her last name indicates, her mother Marguerite, Gaon's daughter, married into the Herzog dynasty. Alexandra's paternal grandfather was former Israeli president Chaim Herzog, and her uncle Isaac Herzog, is the Israeli president today.  But in addition to that proud legacy, Alexandra is especially proud of the impact her maternal grandfather made in helping Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews – a slight majority of Israel's Jewish population, but a significant majority of its Jewish poor – thrive, succeed, and lead in the Jewish state. Gaon was the driving force behind Project Renewal, an initiative launched in the 1970s to rehabilitate some of Israel's most distressed neighborhoods and improve education and social services there. He developed a bar mitzvah program that provided the education, ceremony, and gifts for thousands of underprivileged boys. And tens of thousands of young Sephardi leaders from impoverished neighborhoods received university scholarships. ALEXANDRA: A lot of the people who came out of this program are actually mayors or members of the Knesset – important people in Israel who actually have, as a ripple effect, a strong impact on the lives of other people as well. MANYA: The history of Sudan's once tiny and tight-knit Jewish community is limited to the late 19th and early 20th centuries – a brief window when it was safe to be Jewish in that Northeast African country. But the Sudanese diaspora's connection to that country runs unusually deep.  Sudan, Egypt's neighbor to the south, was much more than a waystation during the age of migration. It was a land of possibilities. Even if their forefathers spent centuries elsewhere, their descendants today often identify with the fleeting generations spent in Sudan. DAISY ABBOUDI: If you speak to people who were there, and you say, where are you from, they will say, Sudan, in a very proud, but definitive way. MANYA: That's Daisy Abboudi, a London-based oral historian of Sudanese Jewish history, who began her career by interviewing her own grandparents. DAISY: Sudanese is very much part of their identity and their descendants kind of focus on Sudan. And I know, there's this kind of phenomena from around the Middle East – a kind of nostalgia of looking back. There's kind of an inherited nostalgia that exists as well. But it's particularly strong in Sudan for a country where people didn't have thousands of years of roots. And I'm kind of always wondering, why? Why has it got this pull? MANYA: The reason could be embedded in the history of Sudan and the pioneering spirit of the Jews who landed in this rustic pocket of Northeast Africa, where the Blue and White Nile Rivers converged, the constellations shone brightly in the night sky, and the scent of jasmine and gardenia floated in the air. In the early 19th century, Sudanese and Egyptian residents lived under Ottoman rule. Jews in Egypt – and the few there might have been in Sudan – faced harsh taxes. But that changed toward the end of the 19th century, as the Ottoman Empire fell, and British forces took over Egypt, before moving south. With them came Christian missionaries who intended to “civilize” the tribes there. An opposition and independence movement began to build, led by a self-proclaimed Mahdi, who claimed to be the foretold redeemer of the Islamic nation. The 1966 epic film, Khartoum, depicts the infamous 1884 Siege of Khartoum, in which the Mahdi, portrayed by Hollywood superstar Laurence Olivier, defeated the popular British General Charles Gordon, played by another Hollywood legend of Ten Commandments fame, Charlton Heston. DAISY: When this independence movement starts, it's led by a man who calls himself the Mahdi, which means the kind of chosen one, and he wins, basically. He conquers Sudan quite quickly and then promptly dies of malaria and his successor takes over. But this period of independence, once it was established, is called the Mahdia, after the Mahdi.  It was an Islamic state, basically in that it was quite extremist. All the non-Muslim people living in Sudan had to convert to Islam. This was a law that was targeted at the missionaries who were there, but of course these Jews that were living there got caught up in that policy. MANYA: When the British conquered the Mahdi in 1898, that conversion law was revoked, and some converts reverted back to Judaism. The British built a railway line to supply the army and connect Egypt to Khartoum, the capital of the dual British-Egyptian colony. And soon, Sudan became a destination for Jewish families who sought to build economic opportunities from the ground up. DAISY: It was a kind of a mercantile community, a lot of shops, import-exports, cloth, gum Arabic, hibiscus. A couple of families grew and then traded hibiscus, which was like the main ingredient in cough syrup at the time. Don't forget, at that time, Sudan was very new – Khartoum especially, in terms of on the map in terms of European consciousness, obviously not new in terms of how long it's actually been there. But it was kind of seen or perceived as this new frontier. It was a bit off the beaten track.  There wasn't the mod cons or luxuries even of the day. So, it was people who were willing to take a little bit of a risk and dive into the unknown who would actually go to Sudan. MANYA: According to historian Naham Ilan, though the community was deeply traditional, it was largely secular and introduced many of Sudan's modern conveniences.  Morris Goldenberg from Cairo was the first optician in Khartoum. Jimmy and Toni Cain, refugees from Germany, ran a music hall and cabaret. Jewish students attended private Christian schools. By 1906, the Jewish community of Egypt invited Rabbi Solomon Malka, a Moroccan rabbi who was ordained in British Mandate Palestine, to lead Sudan's Jewish community. He was supposed to stay for only a few years, but instead stayed and purchased his own manufacturing plants, producing sesame oil and macaroni. His son Eli would later write the foundational history of the community titled Jacob's Children in the Land of the Mahdi: Jews of the Sudan. DAISY: When Rabbi Malka came, he was the shochet, he was the mohel, he was the rabbi. He was everything, it was a one-man band. The community was already kind of focused in Khartoum in 1928 when the synagogue was built. The club was built in 1947. I think the peak in terms of numbers of the community was early to mid-1950s. And that was about 250 families. So even at its peak, it was a very small community. MANYA: Community is the key word. Everyone knew each other, looked out for each other, and when Israel was created in 1948, they raised money to help some of their fellow Jews seek opportunities in that new frontier. Those who left weren't fleeing Sudan – not yet. That shift didn't happen for at least another decade. When things did start to turn, Nessim Gaon would lead the exodus. He had seen what could happen when Jews ignored warning signs and stayed where they were unwelcome for too long. Gaon's family arrived in the early 20th Century when his father got a job working as a clerk for the British governor of Port Sudan. Gaon was born in Khartoum in 1922. ALEXANDRA: As for a lot of Sephardi families, they basically moved with opportunities and changes of power in different countries. So they went from Spain, to Italy, back to Spain. And then they went into the Arab lands. So I know that they went into Iraq, then they went into Turkey. And they spent quite some time actually in Turkey, until they finally went to Sudan and Egypt. MANYA: As a young man, Gaon left to attend the London School of Economics. Shortly after he returned, he encountered British officers recruiting soldiers to fight for Winston Churchill's campaign against the Nazis.  ALEXANDRA: He just went in, signed up, and the next day, he was sent to the front. His family was not so excited about that. And he was actually under age, he wasn't really supposed to be able to sign up at that time. But when they figured out his age, you know, in the army, it was already too late. He just felt that he needed to be useful and do something. And that's what he did.  MANYA: Though he knew about the uneasy life for Jews in Sudan preceding his family's arrival there, what Gaon witnessed during World War II while stationed in places like Iraq ensured he would never take for granted his safety as a Jew. ALEXANDRA: Even though he never spoke about all of the things that he saw in great detail, he did a lot after the war, to help survivors go to Israel. It was very important to him to try to help those who had survived to actually go into a place of safety. He knew what it meant to be a Jew in danger. MANYA: Gaon and his future wife of 68 years, Renee [Tamman], exchanged letters every day when he was away at war and kept every single one. And after his return, from that point on, they never spent more than three days apart. The couple soon began to build their family. But because of rudimentary medical care in Sudan, it was difficult. Three of their children died before their daughter Marguerite was born in 1956. They were buried in Khartoum's Jewish cemetery. Sudan became independent in 1956. But the ties to Egypt ran deep. Later that year, when French, British, and Israeli forces attacked Egypt over Gamel Abdel Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal, the anti-Jewish tensions trickled south. DAISY: The Suez Crisis, in the end of 1956, kind of spikes a bit of antisemitism. There is a talk in the newspapers about antisemitism, Zionist things, plots. There were a few things that made life slightly more difficult, but not in a very impactful way on daily life. MANYA: There were other signs too. When the winner of the Miss Khartoum beauty pageant was discovered to be Jewish, she lost her crown. When Jews had matza imported from London for Passover, it had to be packaged in plain boxes without a Magen David. Given what Gaon had witnessed in World War II, that was enough to leave. He, his wife, and only daughter at the time went to Geneva. ALEXANDRA: That was a blooming community, they were happy, they were together. And they were able to create and expand on their Jewish life. And I think that, at some point, when it became clear, when they saw the signs of that antisemitism coming their way again, they just felt like, “OK, we've seen this before, not just in Sudan, but also from the history of the Holocaust. And we need to take proactive measures, and make sure that we're safe. MANYA: When they left, Gaon and his wife told no one. They packed only enough bags for a vacation. They even left the doors unlocked and food in the refrigerator so no one dropping by their home would get suspicious. ALEXANDRA:  My grandmother always told us how some part of her broke a little when they just left the house. They really pretended that they were just going out and they would come back. They would tell us how hard it was when they turned and they looked at the house the last time and they knew that they had left most of their things. That they had a whole history there. That they had children there who were still going to be there and it was really difficult. And so, they took everything [with] them, left to Switzerland, and made a life there. MANYA: The decade that followed was particularly tumultuous in Sudan. The country had its first coup of many, and a military government took over. In 1960, all of the Jews who had left Sudan had their citizenship revoked. Another revolution in 1964 restored civilian rule.  DAISY: It's at that time, that a lot of the north-south tension kind of comes into things. And there was a lot of violence in that revolution, a lot of rioting. And the violence was tribal, north-south tribalism, a lot of violence against southern tribes, people from the South in Sudan.  But that scared the Jewish community that there would be violence and murders in the streets, and that signaled that this was no longer this stable country that they had been living in. And that's when more people start to leave. MANYA: By this point, acquiring an exit visa had become difficult for Jews, especially those who owned businesses and properties. Much like Gaon and his wife had left under cover of vacation, people began acquiring tourist visas with return tickets they never used. In the summer of 1967, the Six-Day War became a flashpoint in Khartoum. DAISY: There was a lot of rhetoric against Jews, in the newspapers, accusations of Zionism, Zionist spies, slurs, the lot. The Jewish young men who didn't know the right people to avoid it, were arrested for the duration of the war, and then released subsequently. And then after the Six Day War, the Arab League Summit, and the declaration of the three Nos. That actually happened in Khartoum, so you can imagine the atmosphere in Khartoum at that time was not pleasant. MANYA: The Three Nos. No peace with Israel, No recognition of Israel, No negotiations with Israel. These were the pillars of the Khartoum Resolution, the Arab world's proclamation denying self-determination for the Jewish people in their biblical homeland. The Arab League Summit convened in Khartoum on August 29, 1967 and the resolution was adopted days later. Flore recalls how Muslim friends and colleagues suddenly turned on them. Returning home from a trip, her husband Ibrahim's business partner brought back a framed picture and insisted that Ibrahim read its engraved inscription out loud: “The world will not have peace until the last Jew is put to death by stoning,” it said. Another friend asked Flore one day where she hid the device she used to communicate with Israel, implying she was a spy. During a visit to Geneva, Ibrahim was warned not to return because there was a price on his head. Flore said their delayed departure was a source of tension between her and her husband, who even for years afterward, couldn't believe his beloved Sudan had betrayed them. But the time had come for most Jews, including the extended family that Nessim Gaon had left behind, to abandon their homes and fortunes in Sudan and join him. FLORE: My husband had confidence in them. And we had a lot of problems between my husband and me because of this. Because I said ‘Ibrahim, this is not a country for us.' He says: ‘You don't know anything. They won't harm us. They won't do that.' He had confidence, he couldn't believe it. Until my husband became very old. He died at the age of 94. And he always, always, in his heart, he said that they cannot harm us. But he had illusions. He had illusions. MANYA: The Gaons also could not return. It was simply too dangerous. But in the 1970s, when Nessim Gaon learned vandals might have desecrated the Jewish cemetery in Khartoum, he resolved to retrieve their children and other family members who were buried there. From a distance, he coordinated an airlift for several prominent Sudanese families, including Rabbi Malka's descendants, to transfer the remains of their loved ones out of Sudan to be reburied in Jerusalem where he knew they would be safer. It was this sincere belief about the promise of Israel and the promise of peace in the region that led Gaon to encourage and attend a meeting between Menachem Begin and Anwar el-Sadat in 1977. ALEXANDRA: He saw opportunities there to create a peace with Egypt and he told Menachem Begin we can create peace with the Arab countries. And so Menachem Begin took him to meet with Anwar el-Sadat. They had a meeting and they hit it off right away, because they spoke the same language, they came from the same place.  MANYA: Over the next two years, Gaon worked discreetly in the background to ease both of their minds, find common ground, and reach a consensus. When the two leaders were ready to sign a treaty in 1979, Gaon gave them both the Swiss pens they used to make it official.  ALEXANDRA: They actually called him first thing after signing, and told him: ‘Nessim, it happened. We did it.' And, you know, it was something that he was very proud of, but that we were not really allowed to talk about in the outside.  He truly believed in the possibilities, in the outcome. That's what he focused on. He wanted to better the lives of people both in Israel and in Egypt, and he cared about, you know, the Sephardi Jews that were part of that narrative as well. MANYA: Sudan was one of only two Arab nations who supported the accord. Egypt was suspended from the Arab League for ten years and el-Sadat was assassinated in 1981.  Still, Gaon never stopped trying to pave the way for more peace negotiations. In fact, much later Israel tapped him to meet privately with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Unfortunately, the outcome was not the same. ALEXANDRA: We did not really want him to go and meet with Arafat because we were worried. I mean, Arafat had a long history of terrorism and we were a little bit scared. Arafat actually told him that at some point, there was a murder order on his head. They were considering killing my grandfather. And they decided not to, because he realized that he was an Arab like him. When my grandfather told us about this, we all went like, [gasp], what are you saying? But he was very calm about it. And he said: ‘You know, I, I stood there and Arafat told [me], I knew that you were doing a lot of good things. And you know, you were not doing anything bad towards the Arab populations. And you are very respectful. This is your background as well. And so we decided not to go ahead with it.' But I think my grandfather found it very difficult to talk to Arafat. And Arafat was not ready to make peace. MANYA: By this time Gaon had become a grandfather, Alexandra's Nono – the one who taught her how to whistle and play backgammon. The one who blessed her before long trips. The one who taught her his first language, Arabic. The one who passed down his love for the beauty of Sephardic Jewry and his concern about it being overshadowed and undervalued around the world and in Israel. ALEXANDRA: He was so idealistic about Israel, and really believed in it and thought it was such an important project. He also was very critical of it in terms of its treatment of Sephardic Jews. He was very sensitive to it, and he really worked hard to change that.  He was a little bit darker skinned. And he came from Sudan, he was born there. So he saw himself really, as a Sephardic Jew who had the opportunity here to educate this new country and to help this new country understand how Sephardic Jews could actually help and be positive agents within the country. MANYA: He also believed that the Jewish world must acknowledge and respect its own rich diversity for the benefit of everyone – Jewish, non-Jewish, Israeli or Diaspora. As president of the World Sephardi Federation, he traveled the world to encourage others to step up and show that Jewish history is not just an Eastern European, Ashkenazi narrative. ALEXANDRA: The more you're open to people who come from a different background, the more you also know how to interact with non-Jews and with countries that are maybe antagonistic to you. I think that it was a way for him to sort of bridge conflict to say: if you make an effort within the Jewish people, then you learn how to talk to everybody. MANYA: Daisy Abboudi said telling the stories of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews is complicated. Are they migrants? Are they refugees? What do they want to be called, and why? And then there's the ambivalence some Israelis have had about welcoming all Jews, some of whom still feel affection for nations that wish Israel did not exist. In their eyes, it's a fine line between affection and loyalty. DAISY: It's not an easily packaged short story. It feeds into so many different kinds of strands and politics and it's such a messy period of history anyway, with colonialism and the end of colonialism and nationalism, and, and, and, and. I think it is too big and too much for people to kind of get their heads around. And so people just don't. MANYA: But Gaon believed that leveling the playing field and making sure everyone has equal opportunities to education and leadership is where it starts. As part of Project Renewal, he often walked the streets of the most distressed neighborhoods in Israel to hear firsthand what residents there needed and advocated for them. In addition to the scholarships, bar mitzvah programs, and Project Renewal initiative, Gaon also held court at the King David Hotel whenever he traveled to Jerusalem. Sephardi residents would line up around the block to meet the man who invested and believed in them. ALEXANDRA: Years later, when he was quite influential, he got a letter from the Sudanese government to tell him that they would love it if he took back the nationality. At the time, he decided not to.  He wanted to keep the memories and the life that he had in Sudan and all of the legacy of Sudan without specifically being connected to a government or a political situation that he disagreed with and that was difficult and unpleasant to Jews. I know that oftentimes, I asked him, would you want to go visit Sudan? If you could, would you? And you know, he would tell me, ‘Well, I have this image in my head. And I want to keep it that way.' And I think that it was so loaded for him in terms of memories, in terms of, you know, vibrancy of life and what he experienced, and I think he wanted to leave it that way, and not be sort of surprised or sad, or, shocked by the changes possibly. I think he wanted to keep it as this frozen image. I hope that one day I can go both to Sudan and to Egypt and see those places myself and get a sense of putting the pieces of the puzzle together and getting a sense of what life might have been. MANYA:  It's unclear when it will be safe for Jews to travel to Sudan again. Between November 1984 and January 1985, Sudanese, Israeli and U.S. officials worked with Gaon and Alexandra's father, Joel Herzog, to facilitate an airlift of thousands of Ethiopian Jews from refugee camps in Sudan to Israel. Operation Moses, as it was called, ended abruptly in January 1985 as soon as Sudan's Arab allies caught wind of the joint effort, stranding many Ethiopian Jews there. Some were eventually rescued, but not all.  ALEXANDRA: He not only helped fund the mission, which was very secretive, but he also took care of all of the details of the infrastructure from making sure that they could take a bus, to the plane, to a ship. He really took care of all of the details. And it was important to him because he wanted to make sure that fellow Jews would be in a place of safety. MANYA: Tribal conflict and civil wars also have continued. Feeling neglected by Khartoum, the largely agrarian South Sudan gained independence in 2011 after two civil wars. Warring factions within the South agreed to a coalition government in 2020.  Meanwhile, since 2003, millions of Darfuri men, women and children from three different ethnic groups have been targeted in what is considered the first genocide of the 21st Century – atrocities that continue today.  In 2019, Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir was pushed out of office by a series of peaceful protests. The following year, Sudan's fledgling civilian government announced its intentions to join the Abraham Accords as part of a larger effort to engage with the international community and secure international assistance. This included an agreement by the United States to remove Sudan from its state sponsor of terrorism list. But yet another military coup in 2021 derailed any efforts toward diplomacy and that plan was put on hold until a civilian government is restored.  Gaon died before seeing it become a reality.  ALEXANDRA: He really saw Sudan as his home. That was the place that he knew, that he grew up in. And I mean, again, he had gone to London before to study, he still came back to Sudan. You know, he went to war, he came back to Sudan and came with a lot of different layers of understanding of what it meant to be a Jew, in a lot of different countries, a lot of different places.  MANYA: Alexandra said he carried those layers and lessons with him throughout his life, as well as immense pride that he came from a long lineage of people living in Arab lands. For Nessim Gaon, the Jewish tradition was and always should be a big, diverse, inclusive tent. ALEXANDRA: One of the memories that really sticks with me is how during the Kohanim prayers at the synagogue, my grandfather would take his tallit, his prayer shawl, and put it on top of all of his children and grandchildren. And my grandmother would do the exact same thing with us in the women's section.  And of course, from time to time I would peek and look at this beautiful tent that was extended above all of my family members. And what was really special to me, was how we knew at that moment that we were being blessed by both my grandparents and that if someone was around and looked completely alone, they were welcomed under our tent.  And this really represents for me, what my grandparents were, they were warm. They were inclusive, loving and generous. And really they extended the tent, our family tent, to all the Jewish people. MANYA: Sudanese Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who in the last century left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations. Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Alexandra, Flore, and Diana for sharing their families' stories. Does your family have roots in North Africa or the Middle East? One of the goals of this series is to make sure we gather these stories before they are lost. Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to find more of these stories.  Call The Forgotten Exodus hotline. Tell us where your family is from and something you'd like for our listeners to know such as how you've tried to keep the traditions and memories alive. Call 212.891-1336 and leave a message of 2 minutes or less. Be sure to leave your name and where you live now. You can also send an email to theforgottenexodus@ajc.org and we'll be in touch. Tune in every Friday for AJC's weekly podcast about global affairs through a Jewish lens, People of the Pod, brought to you by the same team behind The Forgotten Exodus.  Atara Lakritz is our producer, CucHuong Do is our production manager. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Sean Savage, Ian Kaplan, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name, for making this series possible. And extra special thanks to David Harris, who has been a constant champion for making sure these stories do not remain untold. You can follow The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can sign up to receive updates at AJC.org/forgottenexodussignup. The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed the episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.  

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle.The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings:- First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career- Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene- Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly worksFor more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle.The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings:- First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career- Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene- Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly worksFor more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle. The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings: - First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career - Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene - Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly works For more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle.The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings:- First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career- Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene- Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly worksFor more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle.The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings:- First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career- Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene- Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly worksFor more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle.The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings:- First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career- Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene- Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly worksFor more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle. The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings: - First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career - Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene - Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly works For more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle. The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings: - First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career - Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene - Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly works For more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

Between November 2021 and February 2022 Sir Greenwood was interviewed three times. The interviewer is Lesley Dingle.The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings:- First Interview (16 November 2021): Early Life and Career- Second Interview (23 November 2021): LSE, ICJ and Master of Magdalene- Third Interview (1 February 2022): Scholarly worksFor more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-law-eminent-scholars-archive

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.Quick note! Go to multifacetedacg.com, select Shop, and check out the new merchandise featuring my koala mascot, Mac. Discount code is MACSBACK until February 28, 2022, and podcast merchandise drops in March. Now let's go!Youre tuned into An Album a Day. Show start.Were alphabet hopping from the letter A which, in this case, stands for various positive adjectives like amazing, awesome and absolute to the letter M with one group, by way of the letter T. Using Naver Vibe to listen to this group will be a worthwhile resource.A-Prince was a group re-established in 2012 under New Planet Entertainment. Prior to the boy band being called A-Prince, they were known as TAKEN and had made their debut in November 2011. They released one song under the name TAKEN called Only You, and then re-named themselves A-Prince for their re-debut in July 2012. From there, the 5-member group consisting of Sungwon, Minhyuk, Seungjun, Siyoon, and Woobin released Youre the Only One, an extremely synthesized pop ballad. A-Prince followed the re-debut with Hello, their first mini album on November 6, 2012. The lead track is nothing without its music video. The cuteness levels are heavily imposed upon the guys with aegyo left and right. Im not a foreign commentator who hates on aegyo, it serves its purpose. In the case of A-Prince, the dance version video of Hello has them throwing aegyo daggers at their target fanbase and it feels like it was demanded and not wanted. By this point in their short time as A-Prince, they physically appear to be in between concepts, for lack of a better description. Yes, they were young, but they did not seem naive. Taking a look at the previous pre-debut members (something I encourage you to see at Kprofiles.com) drives that point home, in my book. That aside, the mini album consisted of three songs and two instrumentals. Their second mini album was released on June 25, 2013, entitled Mambo, consisting of three Korean songs, a Japanese version of their 2012 single Hello, and three instrumentals. Mambo pushes the dance music energy with every track, incorporating a relentless 808 and synthesizers left and right. Given the time period it came out, its the right sound for the era but it isnt the most appealing production quality. By the time they made their orange-haired final comeback with Peter Pans Kiss in March 2014, the synthesizers were cemented as the only real memorable sound of this group. They disbanded not too long after and four of the five young men re-debuted, some with new stage names, under the group name MAP6 with a different entertainment label. Between November 2015 and May 2017, MAP6 released four Korean singles and one Korean single album consisting of three tracks. The music was much more dynamic and memorable but the focus was an attempt at grabbing the attention of the Japanese audience by this point. The group is reportedly on hiatus due to military enlistment but I am inclined to keep an eye on them for a comeback.K-pop fans on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being essential listening and 1 not worth mentioning, the A3Day rating for A-Prince/MAP6 is a 4. Ultimately, as A-Prince they were a cute boy band created to pull on the heartstrings of their fans but no opportunity to grow from that concept,...

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own. Quick note! Go to multifacetedacg.com, select Shop, and check out the new merchandise featuring my koala mascot, Mac. Discount code is MACSBACK until February 28, 2022, and podcast merchandise drops in March. Now let's go! You're tuned into An Album a Day. Show start. We're alphabet hopping from the letter A – which, in this case, stands for various positive adjectives like “amazing,” “awesome” and “absolute” – to the letter M with one group, by way of the letter T. Using https://vibe.naver.com/today (Naver Vibe) to listen to this group will be a worthwhile resource. A-Prince was a group re-established in 2012 under New Planet Entertainment. Prior to the boy band being called A-Prince, they were known as TAKEN and had made their debut in November 2011. They released one song under the name TAKEN called “Only You,” and then re-named themselves A-Prince for their re-debut in July 2012. From there, the 5-member group consisting of Sungwon, Minhyuk, Seungjun, Siyoon, and Woobin released “You're the Only One,” an extremely synthesized pop ballad.  A-Prince followed the re-debut with “Hello,” their first mini album on November 6, 2012. The lead track is nothing without its music video. The cuteness levels are heavily imposed upon the guys with aegyo left and right. I'm not a foreign commentator who hates on aegyo, it serves its purpose. In the case of A-Prince, the dance version video of “Hello” has them throwing aegyo daggers at their target fanbase and it feels like it was demanded and not wanted. By this point in their short time as A-Prince, they physically appear to be in between concepts, for lack of a better description. Yes, they were young, but they did not seem naive. Taking a look at the previous pre-debut members (something I encourage you to see at https://kprofiles.com/prince-members-profile/ (Kprofiles.com)) drives that point home, in my book. That aside, the mini album consisted of three songs and two instrumentals.  Their second mini album was released on June 25, 2013, entitled “Mambo,” consisting of three Korean songs, a Japanese version of their 2012 single “Hello,” and three instrumentals. “Mambo” pushes the dance music energy with every track, incorporating a relentless 808 and synthesizers left and right. Given the time period it came out, it's the right sound for the era but it isn't the most appealing production quality. By the time they made their orange-haired final comeback with “Peter Pan's Kiss” in March 2014, the synthesizers were cemented as the only real memorable sound of this group. They disbanded not too long after and four of the five young men re-debuted, some with new stage names, under the group name MAP6 with a different entertainment label.  Between November 2015 and May 2017, MAP6 released four Korean singles and one Korean single album consisting of three tracks. The music was much more dynamic and memorable but the focus was an attempt at grabbing the attention of the Japanese audience by this point. The group is reportedly on hiatus due to military enlistment but I am inclined to keep an eye on them for a comeback. K-pop fans on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being essential listening and 1 not worth mentioning, the A3Day rating for A-Prince/MAP6 is a 4. Ultimately, as A-Prince they were a cute boy band created to pull on the heartstrings of their fans but no opportunity to grow from that concept, say in the same vein as BtoB or Astro. As MAP6, they shined in a different way with better production quality. There is real potential for a dynamic comeback if they choose to continue in entertainment after their commitment to their...

Welcome to the London South East, Investing Matters podcast episode 4, where Peter Higgins had the pleasure of speaking with Kernow Asset Management founder and Chief Investment Officer, Alyx Wood. Alyx has been investing since the age of fifteen, trained as Chartered Accountant with KPMG, before being a Fund Manager at Deutsche Bank and then Downing Capital. Alyx founded Kernow Asset Management in 2019. Between November 2019 and April 2020 Kernow's contrarian long/short UK equity strategy made an investment return of 41.2%. During this podcast Alyx shares his and Kernow's focus points, the uniqueness of running a small nimble high performance boutique asset management company. He touches on what Investing Matters are most important to him including matching your personality to your investing style, what to look for in a Fund Manager, ESG investing and much more. We hope you enjoy this podcast and we look forward to hearing your feedback. Please subscribe to this podcast on your platform of choice.

Join Jackie and Rich   on a new episode  of SmashCuts Podcast as they  discuss  the  movies and shows  they've watched Between November and the first two weeks of December.

If there's one industry that has revived itself full swing, despite the pandemic, it's the wedding industry. Between November 14th and December 13th itself, there were around 25 lakh weddings in India. Come take a closer look at the Indian wedding industry as well as a short history into weddings in India.

Ian Collins is a British radio and television presenter and journalist and author. Collins became a presenter on Invicta FM in Kent. He joined the newly launched Talk Radio UK in 1995, which later became Talk Sport. He presented the Overnight show, Ian Collins and the Creatures of the Night from 1995 to 2002, then the Late-Night Weekend Show, Ian Collins: Unbranded from 2002 to 2004, replacing Tommy Boyd. Collins replaced Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs on the afternoon show from for a short time at the start of the Iraq War in 2003. In 2004, he replaced Mike Dickin on the mid morning show, including a spell co-hosting the show with Mike Parry. From May 2006, Collins moved on to host The Ultimate Late Show, which he both wrote and produced along with Alan Hyde. He then moved to the late night slot in 2008 after James Whale left the station. Collins also presented The Incredibly Early Breakfast Show. In February 2012, he presented his first show on LBC. He left LBC in September 2018. Between November 2018 and June 2020, Ian was a joint presenter of BBC Radio Kent's Breakfast Show The Wake Up Call with Anna Cookson. He replaced John Warnett who moved to the Drive Time Show. During 2019, Ian returned as a stand in host on talkRADIO's weekday 13.00-16.00 show. and became permanent during the summer of 2020.

We are revisiting our Health Coverage Open Enrollment podcast. There are just a few more days to enroll in Marketplace health coverage!   Today our topic is health coverage - specifically open enrollment for the health insurance marketplace, aka the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. If you or anyone you know currently do not have health insurance coverage – during a pandemic no less – now is your time! Between November 1 and December 15, you can get free help from impartial, certified counselors who will help you get no-cost, low-cost, or the most affordable coverage options available. We're going to get into revealing details of who doesn't have coverage and how accessible no-cost or low-cost coverage might be for many currently uninsured Arizonans. We're also going to talk about what the Affordable Care Act really gave us – and what we could all lose out on if it were to go away. And we're going to get into those details because, honestly, it is a reality of U.S. health care that some type of insurance coverage is needed in order to get healthy and stay healthy. And here's the thing: the Affordable Care Act is an expansive law that benefits all of us in ways we might even be starting to take for granted. Ending it will negatively affect everyone's well-being, yet somehow there are many misleading messages are out there trying to discourage people about its very existence and functions. Our guests today have a lot to say about all of this, so let's get to it. It's time to talk about access to coverage and care, in particular just how accessible 2021 health insurance coverage is between right now and December 15, 2020.

Between November 2019 and March 2020, I became involved for the first time in my life in a high stake local political election process , in my home town of Perpignan, France, as a media and public engagement coach for Caroline Forgues, the candidate running for City Hall for the "Alternative Perpignan Ecologique et Solidaire" citizen led movement (Municipalist mouvement). Despite being a small town, the election carried national resonance as it looked likely that the far right National Front party of Marine Le Pen (now called National Rally) would win the city, a first for a city of over 100,000 inhabitants since the 1980's and a litmus test for the party in the perspective of the national presidential election of 2022. This time round I am taking the seat of the interviewee and my friend and colleague Anna Turley is leading this interview, helping me pull out the learnings of this extraordinary political experience from the perspective of media and communication.

My Support My Choice is a research project led jointly by the Health and Social Care ALLIANCE and Self Directed Support Scotland and funded by Scottish Government, with the aim of understanding people’s experiences of Self-directed Support (SDS) in Scotland. Between November 2018 and February 2020, over 600 people who received self-directed support (SDS) or had been assessed in the previous 12 months – took part in this research. The full report, as well thematic reports have now been published. We spoke to Lucy Mulvagh, Director of Policy and Communications at the ALLIANCE and Donald McLeod, Chief Executive of Self-directed Support Scotland to get an overview of the scope, findings and recommendations of the research. Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes.

Between November 1943 and October 1944 Charles Owen DSO DFC flew 55 missions as part of Bomber Command. His extraordinary hand written diary describes these sorties in brilliant detail. Al Murray reads extracts here. With many thanks to his son, Oliver Owen.We Have Ways has a membership club which includes a live version of the podcast streamed on the internet each Thursday evening. There are also five free audiobooks on the site. Join at Patreon.com/wehavewaysA Goalhanger Films productionProduced by Joey McCarthyExec Producer Tony PastorTwitter: #WeHaveWays@WeHaveWaysPodWebsite: www.wehavewayspod.comEmail: wehavewayspodcast@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

WHAT'S UP EVERYBODY! This week on THE '90s Podcast, John is joined by Gregg Gregory to talk about the self-titled debut album of one of the most under listened to band of all time; Ben Folds Five, by Ben Folds Five.   Catch up with John on Social Media Twitter (@welshjrc1984)| Instagram (@welshjrc1984)   Thanks to Gregg! Twitch | The Hollow Decks   For More information on The Because Maybe Network check out our website: becausemaybenetwork.com   Find The Because Maybe Network on Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube   For business enquiries: becausemaybepodcast@gmail.com   Between November 1st and December 31st, The Because Maybe Network is raising money for The Movember Foundation. Check out our progress! Because Maybe Moustache and Mullet Drive   Music The Spellbreaker by Tri-Tachyon – Free Music Archive Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International   Intermission: Just A Blip by Andy G. Cohen – Free Music Archive Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

We got some.. unfortunate news from Dr. Bonnie Henry today. Between November 16th and 24th, there were some miscalculations that occurred. Which means on some days the numbers were a lot lower, but also some days they were a lot higher - than what we were told.

WHAT'S UP EVERYBODY! This week on THE '90s Podcast, we have 2 seperat analysis of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. First John goes in depth about the ins and outs of the game, then he is joined by The Kid who will give his insight.   Catch up with John on Social Media Twitter (@welshjrc1984)| Instagram (@welshjrc1984)   For More information on The Because Maybe Network check out our website: becausemaybenetwork.com   Find The Because Maybe Network on Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube   For business enquiries: becausemaybepodcast@gmail.com   Between November 1st and December 31st, The Because Maybe Network is raising money for The Movember Foundation. Check out our progress! Because Maybe Moustache and Mullet Drive   Music The Spellbreaker by Tri-Tachyon – Free Music Archive Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International   Intermission: A Day In The Sun by Per Kiilstofte – Machinima Sound Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

WHAT'S UP EVERYBODY! This week on THE '90s Podcast, we analyze New Adventures in Hi-Fi by R.E.M., an album recorded at shows, and in the studio, which is deeper and more complex than ANY R.E.M. album up to that point.   Catch up with John on Social Media Twitter (@welshjrc1984)| Instagram (@welshjrc1984)   Special thanks to this week's cohost Gregg Gregory thehollowdecks.com | Gregg on Twitch   For More information on The Because Maybe Network check out our website: becausemaybenetwork.com   Find The Because Maybe Network on Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube   For business enquiries: becausemaybepodcast@gmail.com   Between November 1st and December 31st, The Because Maybe Network is raising money for The Movember Foundation. Check out our progress! Because Maybe Moustache and Mullet Drive   Music The Spellbreaker by Tri-Tachyon – Free Music Archive Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International   September Sky by Per Kiilstofte – Machinima Sound Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International  

WHAT'S UP EVERYBODY! This week on THE '90s Podcast, we look at 2 Game Boy games that started their own universe! Pokémon Red, and Pokémon Blue! We also talk about a big change coming to The Because Maybe Network!   Catch up with John on Social Media Twitter (@welshjrc1984)| Instagram (@welshjrc1984)   Special thanks to this week's cohost Sarah Connolly Twitter (@Sconnolly318)| Instagram (@sconnolly318)   For More information on The Because Maybe Network check out our website: becausemaybenetwork.com   Find The Because Maybe Network on Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube   For business enquiries: becausemaybepodcast@gmail.com   Between November 1st and December 31st, The Because Maybe Network is raising money for The Movember Foundation. Check out our progress! Because Maybe Moustache and Mullet Drive   Music The Spellbreaker by Tri-Tachyon – Free Music Archive Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International   Hello Michael by Loyalty Freak Music – Free Music Archive Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) - Public Domain Dedication  

Today our topic is health coverage - specifically open enrollment for the health insurance marketplace, aka the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. If you or anyone you know currently do not have health insurance coverage – during a pandemic no less – now is your time! Between November 1 and December 15, you can get free help from impartial, certified counselors who will help you get no-cost, low-cost, or the most affordable coverage options available. We’re going to get into revealing details of who doesn’t have coverage and how accessible no-cost or low-cost coverage might be for many currently uninsured Arizonans. We’re also going to talk about what the Affordable Care Act really gave us – and what we could all lose out on if it were to go away. And we’re going to get into those details because, honestly, it is a reality of U.S. health care that some type of insurance coverage is needed in order to get healthy and stay healthy. And here’s the thing: the Affordable Care Act is an expansive law that benefits all of us in ways we might even be starting to take for granted. Ending it will negatively affect everyone’s well-being, yet somehow there are many misleading messages are out there trying to discourage people about its very existence and functions. Our guests today have a lot to say about all of this, so let’s get to it. It’s time to talk about access to coverage and care, in particular just how accessible 2021 health insurance coverage is between right now and December 15, 2020.

On this week's The Aid Station, we head to Tokyo, Japan, where we are joined by Osamu Uemura, ASICS Corporation, Commercial R&D Lead. Osamu manages the business development team, sources the new technology and business ideas for creating minimum viable products to commercialise. In this episode he shares how he started in the industry - working for an insurance company, a professional soccer team, a non-profit organization, getting an MBA in the United Stated, then he joined ASICS digital team in Boston. He also talks about how life has been like in Japan during COVID and the possibility of in-person events in a few months and how they adapted by creating virtual events. Between November 11 to 22, they are doing the first World Ekiden Race. The Ekiden is a Japanese relay that's all about teamwork, rivarly and competition. Learn more about the event here: https://www.asics.com/gb/en-gb/mk/asics-world-ekiden Listen to the end for his tips on leadership, mentorship and meditation that helped him develop his management skills and to keep himself calm. Watch my talk with Osamu now. #TheAidStation #MassParticipationWorld #ASICS #WorldEkidenRace

Día de los Muertos, also known as Day of the Dead is a holiday that is celebrated to remember those who have passed away. Between November 1st and November 2nd those who have passed away return to the land of the living. In Groovy Girl's first bonus episode, Lily speaks with her friend Abigail about this special celebration. Abigail shares how her family celebrates this holiday, the mood and emotions behind her family members coming to the land of the living, and she even paints a picture of what her ofrenda looks like this year. She shared with me an image of her family's ofrenda, which will be posted on Instagram at @groovygirlspod. If you are interested in learning more about Day of the Dead https://dayofthedead.holiday is a really informative website. Remember that the better we can understand the diversity of cultures and special celebrations in our country and world, the more united we become.

Between November 1976 and May 1977, four young women and girls were murdered in or near Washington County, Pennsylvania. For decades, authorities believe that this was most likely the work pf a serial killer. It would take major advancements in DNA technology to prove that there were multiple killers. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the crimes of what the press originally dubbed The Washington Strangler. The murders struck fear in the hearts of residents in Washington County. Many years later, the police began to unravel parts of the mystery, using DNA to solve some of these murders. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital Production

Between November 1976 and May 1977, four young women and girls were murdered in or near Washington County, Pennsylvania. For decades, authorities believe that this was most likely the work of a serial killer. It would take major advancements in DNA technology to prove that there were multiple killers. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the crimes of what the press originally dubbed The Washington Strangler. The murders struck fear in the hearts of residents in Washington County. Many years later, the police began to unravel parts of the mystery, using DNA to solve some of these murders. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between November 1896 and May 1897, thousands of mysterious flying objects were spotted across the continental U.S. All that remains of the official story are the newspaper articles. But were they part of the cover-up?

Between November 1896 and May 1897, thousands of mysterious flying objects were spotted across the continental U.S. All that remains of the official story are the newspaper articles. But were they part of the cover-up?

Between November 1896 and May 1897, thousands of mysterious flying objects were spotted across the continental U.S. All that remains of the official story are the newspaper articles. But were they part of the cover-up?

Between November 1896 and May 1897, thousands of mysterious flying objects were spotted across the continental U.S. All that remains of the official story are the newspaper articles. But were they part of the cover-up?

EP196 - Apple Flagship, News, and Listener Questions   A weekly podcast with the latest e-commerce news and events. Episode 1946 covers a visit to Apple's new flagship on 5th Ave in NYC, recent industry news, and listener questions. Apple 5th Ave Flagship Reopens News 2019 Holiday season has 6 fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas Credit card companies release new e-commerce payment flow EMV SRC  Best Buy moves to one-day delivery Nordstrom opens New York Flagship Barneys Bankruptcy eBay, Nike, and Underarmour get new CEO's Google Shopping flash sale and ‘buy on google’ Listener Questions Q1: Michelle Grant - Amazon and Walmart have patents around predictive shipping. Could you speculate on what impact predictive shipping will have on commerce? You mentioned it in episode 187, but it would be great to get more details. Q2: Holly Marie Pfeifer What’s the future look like for personalization with ITP cracking down on Safari and talks about Google being close behind in restricting third party cookies? Q3: Jeff Vogl I saw Jason’s question to Tobi about performance and PWAs, do you see them actually sticking? I know they “hot” right now, but how many PWAs do either of you have on your phone? Of those, besides Amazon, how many do you really use? Seems like something that works for the Amazons and Nordstrom’s of the world, but do you see it as a mid market reality? Q4: Karri Koivuniemi Any new info regarding what Adobe is doing with the Magento? What's your brief take on the current ecom platform landscape? Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 196 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday October 24th, 2019. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode is being recorded on Thursday October 24th 2019 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:37] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners, Jason I've been firmly planted here in North Carolina lately but I understand you've been traveling around a lot and one of the places I'm super jelly that you got to go to is Apple's new flagship tell tell us about that experience. Jason: [0:57] I sure sucks. So this is the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York city so this was one of the first kind of. Architectural a distinct stores that Apple opened. And I I would I shouldn't remember what year it opened that I don't so it was called the cube so you know it was an underground store but above the ground they built this giant glass cube, with the floating Apple logo in it and you you kind of walk in and you either take a glass elevator or walk down this glass stairway into this underground store and the store has been closed for, probably a year while they were remodeling it and they opened it. Just in time for the iPhone 11 launch so I wasn't there on the launch day but I was there the next week and got a chance to check it out. Scot: [1:50] Wrinkle does it have that or they caught Town Hall kind of I would like the big wall in them. Jason: [1:57] Yeah it does it it is there new. Format the sort of city format so it has live trees in it it has a big Auditorium where they have a lot of educational content. This is already a quite large door and that it dramatically expanding in size so it's, it's a very big store one of the you know the old one was underground and it was all artificial lighting one of the things they did this time as they installed a bunch of. Fancy skylights so you know skylights throughout the roof and they all have light meters on them so the ambient light in the store, adjust to how bright the sky lights are so when it's bright outside the store is almost you know fully sunlit, but at night or on on overcast days there's more to ambient Lighting in the store so it's sort of a clever. [2:56] Fancy system I check a little bit because the this was the first store to have the glass staircase and that that's become a signature item for apple and then this door it was quite, controversial that the staircase is super expensive to build, and then a couple years after they opened it they had to remodel it and they upgraded the staircase and I don't know if you remember this but at the time like, the vendor took out the old staircase and through the stairs away in dumpsters outside of. [3:29] The store and entrepreneurial Apple Fans when dumpster diving collected these. These individual stairs from the glass stairs and sold them on eBay for quite a lot of money and. Scot: [3:45] I'm not forget dumpster dive to make some money. Jason: [3:48] Apple is really well I'm glad you didn't because Apple was really pissed and they they liked sued everyone that had one and tried to get them back and they like famous with, fire the vendor that did the work and you know if it became this Big Brand thing the Apple didn't want these like. This old Remnant from their store out on the market today it felt like a ginormous over reaction to a. You know some fans like like loving the Nostalgia of Apple but I will say it rains and snows a lot of New York and it was super impractical like all these people with wet shoes. Walk into the super slippery glass stairwell and the first thing Apple had to do like the first week they open the store is they had to hire a full-time guy with a mop. Just to be like constantly cleaning the stairwell and overtime with Abate they did is they threw in the towel and they they had like rubber, covers, did they would have over the glass stairwell for you know the winter season and so when I went back the first thing I was interested in it was that you at the stairwell and they totally gave up on the glass stairwell and it's now metal steps with like. Like a traction on it and stuff and I I imagine to myself that that was a about a piece of value engineering that they could only do after Steve Jobs have passed because I don't think he would have never accepted that. Scot: [5:16] How pedestrian metal stairs I would never go in that store. Jason: [5:19] Yet still at school the story is beautiful but I would not say it like. Move the ball forward in any meaningful way like it it uses all of the the traditional Apple gestures it feels very much like any of their other more modern Flagship stores and it's, it's quite big but there's nothing that you can get at that store that you can get at dozens of other Apple Stores and bigger equals. More of the same stuff not necessarily new stuff so in general like based on the amount of hype they had around the store I would call it slightly overwhelming it's a perfectly fine store there's nothing wrong with it but. It wasn't as I don't know evolutionary over previous stores as I had hoped. Scot: [6:07] You mean underwhelming you said overwhelming. Jason: [6:09] Oh gosh yes I apologize exactly meant underwhelming one kind of cool thing, yeah because some of the the new products that the what's it called the homepod is meant to be a sort of an audio file, Calibre product like they do hit now have like a. Like I so living room and then in an enclosed whistling space where you can kind of walk into a a little living room with a leather couch that's a little reminiscent of these. Magnavox ads from the 80s and you know listen to the airpod in a in an enclosed room instead of just on one of their wooden tables. And there's a secret exit I guess is the other interesting thing now so if you do. Scot: [6:55] What. Jason: [6:57] Yeah so if you you know there's a tourist entrance which is this stairwell and they're often is a line to get the bag down the stairs and into the store and it it's cool but it's kind of inconvenient answer they now have a like a. 10 of a discrete stairwell and a side entrance that you can like if you're local and needed to grab something you could pop in and out without going through the tourist entrance. So that's mine my scoop on Apple Fifth Avenue. Scot: [7:26] Any other trip reports to of what you've seen out there. Jason: [7:31] Also on that trip I visited some other New York retail that we talked about the Nike House of innovation store before and I want to go back cuz I've been there during the grand opening and to their true that they've done a month they continue to evolve that store and they actually had a pretty cool exhibit on the ground floor so. They have a a new like cushioning technology that they're promoting that uses thousands of little beads in the shoes. And so they they built kind of like I don't know what the best way to call it like almost like like one of those ping pong ball pits. [8:11] That you that you know kids would play in they built a giant caged pit, were the entire floor is this cushioning technology and then they figured out a way to project a digital image on the entire floor so they have things like. You know I cash a fake colored balls thing where you can run around and kick balls around and try to pop balls they're all virtual balls but it causes you to jump up and down on this floor a lot and you can you know you have all these bites. Different sort of instagrammable physical moments and you know people were in New York were in line to sort of get their picture taken in this so I kind of cool novel. Digital physical experience and. In the way you got in line is you had to be a nikeplus member and be running the app in the store and only then could you get in the queue so I thought that was kind of a clever experiential elements. To add to the to the Nike store and Nikes leaning heavily into forcing you to be a nikeplus member and having a lot of self-service mobile experiences in the store so this this kind of perfectly played into all of those things. Scot: [9:26] Lyrical will this episode of the Jason Scott show aside from the the trip reports is really focused on we're going to do some non Amazon news so you're where we have been Curry Amazon a lot here lately so wanted to catch up on some non Amazon news then we've also had a fair number of Wooster questions kind of TWP out on our Facebook page for we've had a pretty good discussion going so Jason watch on the new side. Jason: [9:53] So the first news item was sort of saving for our holiday show it's already starting to come up a few times so I thought I would that we needed to briefly mention it here. The way the calendar works this year. Thanksgiving falls on the latest calendar day it possibly could which means there are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then there were last year and the reason I bring this up is, a lot of retailers are going to tell you you know that if they're their sales are soft at all it was because they had fewer selling days to sell this year and it already came up in the Amazon earnings call which was today, in a couple of other retailers have already issued cautionary tales that they have 6 who is selling days. And maybe we'll talk about this little bit more in a in a holiday took a show but, what are listener should know is that there's no science to the fact that when there's fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas that consumers spend less for holiday so like. [11:01] Back in the 1950s holiday shopping started on Thanksgiving and went through Christmas but for the last several decades holiday show shopping and started in the very beginning of November and went through Christmas. And there are still the same 61 days. Between November 1st and Christmas and New Year's at that there have always been in so like what tends to happen is when there are fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Purchases get compressed more and then there's less of a lowlands in shopping between the. Thanksgiving holiday in the Christmas cut off but I just want to sort of pre-plant listeners cuz we're already starting to see articles. Almost all of the retail data supports the fact that the number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas doesn't have a material impact on. Holiday sales so when you hear that be skeptical it's a little like when retailers by in the weather. Scot: [12:01] She just took away the everyone's excuse for a bad holiday. Jason: [12:04] Yeah yeah sorry about that but like I feel like there should not be an excuse like everyone should have a good holiday. Unless something wacky happens with tariffs between now and then. I would seems unlikely so more newsy is so now get off my soapbox more Newsies stuff this week there was a new launch of a, a very boring Lee names product called the EMV, SRC in EMV is the name of a joint venture that MasterCard Visa Discover Card Diners Club. And a couple other companies started so it's a joint venture of all the credit card companies and SRC stands for secure retail checkout. So they watch the new product this week and, longtime listeners will remember that most of the credit card companies tried to wash their own check out services so there was a thing called check out by Visa there's MasterCard check out and these guys all wanted their home button on your Ecommerce checkout page, to have a alternative checkout flow. That was provided by the credit card company and they wanted to store your credit card instead of having the the retailer store the credit. [13:22] And they all have kind of you know what those products died they were never very successful customers number adopted them until they have now launched a new initiative, which has the same same sort of goals but it's not branded for an individual credit card it's it's branded as. Click and buy and it's you know in it it obviously works with any of the the credit cards and so it's an alternative checkout flow that's really designed that compete with PayPal. And today they announced their first three retailers head had launched and I think those retailers are Rakuten. November which is a donation site for a charity and one of the movie theaters at had launched and so this is. In theory an easier faster more secure way for for customers to check out and if you store your credit card in it on one side. And you could use that store credit card and any other site that use this flow and they so they've made the flow available for free and it's open so. And I think it's kind of lame. Scot: [14:34] Zoe has a big setup for it being line. Jason: [14:37] Yeah well so it's a step in the right direction when I get weight makes way more sense that they have to have a joint product in the each try to have their own product I used to call that. NASCAR in the checkout where you know all these different companies wanted to put their logo on your check out. So now you know it's Consolidated down to one there absolutely is a customer benefit like if you know the customer would love to be able to store their payment information in one secure place, and then be able to use it in any of the places they shop so if a bunch of retailers all adopted this checkout flow. It would save customers time cuz they could go to a new retailer that they never shopped at before and still not have to type their. They're shipping address and payment information because it would be stored in the the EMV SRC. So that makes sense and I think it's a smart play for for the company is to consolidate but here's my problem. [15:33] The people that should be the best in the world at a checkout form should be the credit card companies and they should you know follow all the best practices and make it as a little friction as possible and therefore isn't that great bike it's very kind of. A pedestrian middle-of-the-road checkout with a lot of practices that we now know aren't the best. They make you type every individual field for address and you know we know it works way better to have a single feel than and use like a a Maps API to do a autosuggest. You know it just it's surprising they didn't have a great check out for a while and then like PayPal. They make it kind of redundant so the way that these first retailers implemented it. You have to type your shipping address. Before you select your payment method so you don't have the benefit of this service should be that you don't have to take your shipping address but the retailers are making you type your shipping address before you get to the payment method so. To me that was just kind of disappointing. [16:40] So we'll see we'll see if it get some adoption or they do a Gentoo and try to you know I'm sure they're all listening to this and you know we'll take my advice. Which I will happily give them for free so a couple other little news Tibbetts that I promise will be shorter. Best Buy hasn't has announced that they're moving to one day delivery for e-commerce so you know obviously, Amazon send big ripples in the industry by doing one day delivery in Walmart quickly announced they would match and Target matches by using, store delivery and so now you know we see another big player Best Buy feeling like they're forced to go to one day delivery which I'm sure is going to be. A very expensive thing for Best Buy to implement so that's interesting seeing seeing more retailers follow suit there. Today is actually a big day in New York retail, there's there a Nordstrom store has been a flagship store has been playing there for a couple years and it just open today so Nordstrom open the men's store a little over a year ago in New York and now they have a you know like one of the best examples of there. Their women store available in New York City and I know that. The New York retail trade press was shopping at store today and I'll head that very favorable comments about the first day. Scot: [18:04] Cool I saw an article that said your Nordstrom was doing all this stuff to improve the brand and into Wall Street just kind of young and I think the Stock's been down about 25% year-to-date whatever they're doing hasn't been seem to get traction. Jason: [18:21] Yeah I mean like for a while the the growth had been in the discount stores which it for Nordstrom is Nordstrom Rack in the main light stores have been lagging and that you know they finally had to conceive the day the discount stores were cannibalizing the main line stores and you know opening 1 new story isn't likely to really move the needle this is like by all accounts has a great store it's a risky store because like vemos. Retail saturated Market in the world for sort of luxury department stores is New York City and you know that most of their competitors have, how much longer relationship with with the New York Shopper so, for for local New Yorkers it's going to be interesting to see whether whether Nordstrom is able to entice them, I see a lot of shopping in New York happens from Taurus and Nordstrom has a good brand so, I by no means think it's it's not going to work but I kind of think this could be become Nordstrom's best store and it still isn't going to be. You know a huge economic windfall you know happy story in the stock goes through the roof. [19:37] Diametrically opposed one of those historic New York department store brands Barneys has been in bankruptcy for a while and we are all waiting to see if they were going to, be able to emerge from bankruptcy with some sort of restructuring or they were going to liquidate or what the story was. You know Barney's is a strong luxury department store brand in New York Bike there you know heavily feet up. Featured in the The Sex in the City TV show. And you answer a lot of New Yorkers had a strong affinity for the brand. And then out today that they are not going to be able to restructure so they they sold all the assets to a company called authentic brand Group which is a we often Call ABG. I'm an ABG the holding company that owns the licenses to a bunch of. Mostly failed retailer so it's like the Nine West and Nautica and Frederick's of Hollywood and they license out the the. [20:45] The intellectual property for these these Brands to operators that want to run stores and so they it seems like the intention is to close all the bunnies doors except one in Boston. And they have already announced that they have a customer that they're going to license. The brand asset to and that customer is Hudson Bay Company which owns Saks Fifth Avenue so. Yeah Saks and Barneys would have been you know direct bitter competitors for a long time and you know it. Clear how they're going to use it yet but like in some way Saks Fifth Avenue is going to try to Leverage The Barney's brand which is. Interesting but almost certainly bad news for all the. The employees working in the in the Barney stores and you know people that like had a particular affinity for the bunnies experience. Scot: [21:36] How many Barney stores are there again. Jason: [21:38] Yes I was afraid you were going to ask me that and. Scot: [21:41] Have a uncanny Central would get one of our interns to work on it while I'm fucking in a. Jason: [21:46] Yeah if we ever had like notes or or like rehearsals or something like that would be super helpful under 10 I want. Scot: [21:54] We do rehearse every show three times so I don't don't get blisters confused by by the don't make it seem like we don't prepare for this thing. Jason: [22:02] Got you in my head I want to say at 7 stores so it's not a huge number of stores the a few of them ended up being inserted wackadoodle places like they open the wheel Las Vegas store. Scot: [22:17] They're pretty big. Jason: [22:18] Yeah it was their big beautiful stores. Scot: [22:21] Macy's size in my brain 20000 square feet. Jason: [22:23] Yeah but they were like no I think they're like considerably larger like 230,000 square feet. Scot: [22:33] This could be good from all again or bad depends on your perspective. Jason: [22:39] Yeah so I think they are like they are an anchor in a couple of miles but there's like something you know that the Manhattan stores were mostly freestanding stores their first non Manhattan store was like a Chicago store from the 90s I think they have a good store in Beverly Hills they actually there's two me a doom the mall trying to open in New Jersey it's called American dream and it's it's owned by the same people that own Mall of America and they've been trying to open the small for like 20 years and it's supposedly, can a partially open this month but guess who the the tenant retail anchor was supposed to be in that mall. Scot: [23:21] Barney's. Jason: [23:23] You got it so that's where obviously not happening so that's a yet another setback for for those guys I'm sorry not rooting against them but it just seems like that. A little bit of a wackadoodle concept in the current market it so definitely you know sad, to see Barney's go it'll be interesting to see what sax does with the brand you know sex is on kind of turnaround of their own trying to change their fortune and so, you know I think there's a lot of evidence that. When's red algae that does not work is to take to distress Brands and add them together so Kenny Mart plus years was not significantly stronger than Sears alone so what will see if if Saks and Barney's have a different approach. Scot: [24:15] Doesn't that don't sound terribly promising. Jason: [24:18] I'm super negative on these news items today I should have found some happier news. Scot: [24:22] You're grumpy Jason forgot grumpy Jason tonight. Jason: [24:24] Yeah also it's not a good week to be a retail brand CEO it seems like they're all losing their jobs. Scot: [24:31] Yeah and it's not entirely clear so an interesting one is both the Nike and UnderArmour CEOs have switched over. Nike + it's not entirely clear what's going on the lot of them site you know kind of standard just want to spend more time with family and all their stew lot of rumors that there's a lot of meat you kind of stuff happening out there that. You know that this is one reaction that I have no idea if that's true or not, eBay's CEO left in September that was kind one of the first ones and he just had a disagreement with a board board I want some start kind of dismantling eBay and if he wants all the parts to stay together so they the CFO took over there but I mention eBay because the new CEO of Nike is John Donohue who was the previous to Devin winning CEO of eBay, from eBay for SAS software business called servicenow and now he's running Nike, the new CFO is currently running until Under Armour I think president of the US took over on a reminder. Jason: [25:44] Yeah internal promotion what's a little interesting they're like I think you're right on Nike so 890 had phenomenal economic performance and Nike Revenue probably doubled during Mark Mike Parker's rain in Nike so that one didn't feel, like financial performance-related and there was a lot of controversy around. Like they're not being a lot of gender diversity in the senior management team at Nike and you know some sunlight you know not very good policies for treating female athletes in Nike inside I don't know if the cumulative effect of all of that was the deal or if he just chose to leave like Tiana I haven't heard any strong rumors on Nike but it almost certainly wasn't financial performance and Nikes case because they were you know they're frankly doing really well Under Armour has struggled more and what's interesting there is like the biggest rival for Under Armour has been the North American market and so you know now that the founder Kevin plank steps down I think he still the chairman of the board ebony step down from the day today and the guy they promote is the president of North America which is the market that that has been struggling so interesting and nothing else. Scot: [27:02] So that wraps up the news for show there was one thing I wanted to mention the news so I think one of the most under-reported and discussed in the industry Market places that I'm excited about I is the Google marketplace now they don't call it that I think that's part of the problem that the the way they articulate this to sellers what I would call sellers Merchants if they call it, Google shopping actions which is a terrible name and then for consumers you you can see it called by on Google the spin around 4 about two years if I recall and it's been on this kind of slow boil and what's, reason I mention it in the new section is here today right before we got on I got a email from Google shopping saying they were having a flash sale that's like you can't have a flashlight but look at what they've done is they've gone to all the the sellers that are in the buy on Google program, I'm in first while they've upgraded the program where I was able to use it on my iPhone and my Apple browser, I'm on my desktop and it's much easier to use than a then it has been in previous iterations work Sky Android only intact and to kind of like the Google Play permissions in and. [28:23] Payment methods do you have set up so it's really good experience so we'll put a link in the show notes to the splash page and I was able to get $40 off of a pair of iPods that had my eye on the new generation of some older ones so I was just blown away by The Experience got a really nice one page checkout the shipping was very Amazon asking that is Snappy so you know there's there's we talked about on the show about how Amazon's ads are really threatening Google looks like Google's waking up to this and I'm cautiously optimistic that this Mark this kind of by on Google it is a pretty interesting new and trending Marketplace world and I would encourage our our books to maybe this experiment without as a holiday item I think it's relatively easy to turn on if you already have you know you can go to Google shopping list. Jason: [29:22] Yep and it correct me if I have this wrong but in my mind this is sort of the successor to what used to be called Google Express rides are there there's both of delivery service but there was a, Google Express shopping portal where they aggregated all the items that work, being sold by Google Express and now they have this new portal which is shopping. Google.com which Aggregates all the sellers that are using the the. Google shopping actions tools to sell products on the Google platform is that am I thinking about that right. Scot: [29:59] Yesterday so they had two actions separate then they kind of had it inside of Express then Express kind of as we. As you know it kind of went away and now they're kind of gotten rid of that brand this far as I understand so they've gone through kind of like four or five iterations here that have been. Part of the reason I don't think a lot of people are talking about this is it it is very confusing but now I just want experience I went through was actually really good reggae email and it said there's a flash sale prices were really good it seems like Google was supplementing them took me to a page that was, coherence and really only shop on Google items that the only other thing I've noticed is you can now if you do a search result Uber Google shopping I get an Amazon Prime like filter which says you know hey show me only the buy on Google items that are in this market place and what's nice about that is you know it's got a cart metaphor so I don't have to go to 6 different retailers websites to buy stuff and and then the flash sale is nice because it also has a bunch of additional discounts to really nail the user experience it still think they need to do a lot on The Branding but I think. This is good cuz I can Foundation we have the right pieces in place to go do some Brandon that would make sense. Jason: [31:20] Yeah I know and it definitely seems like Google is fully committed to figuring shopping out and it makes sense that they would cuz obviously you know there's a lot of chatter about Amazon stealing ad revenue from Google news so you know if your, if your Google it would make sense that you'd want to have a viable shopping experience to try to protect that Revenue. Scot: [31:43] Absolute cool that wraps up our news part of program and let's jump into some listener questions. Jason: [31:57] Questions their questionnaire questionnaire questions. Scot: [32:02] Jason you know I don't, I feel like I've put my thumb on the scale or something but mostly questions are actually in your realm so I'm going to we're going to go into an interview style here. We usually like to alternate but really miss these are in your room so jump into a man and you're going to be the guy answering most of them so the first question comes from longtime listener frequent guests Michelle Grant and she says Amazon and Walmart have both have patents around predictive shipping could you speculate on what impact predictive shipping will have on Commerce we mentioned it in episode 187 but she'd like to get more details. Jason: [32:41] Oh. Now I have to try to remember what we said in 187 better than Michelle remembers it and that light. Scot: [32:47] You said you were the world's leading expert on it is Farrakhan. Jason: [32:50] Yeah I trust Michelle's memory a lot more than I trust must be haven't heard about predictive shipping before like super literally it's this notion of another way to call it would be in Tissa Batory shipping to say like hey using big data and your typical trans I assume you're about to run out of peanut butter so I'm going to send you a new jar of peanut butter and if I'm right and you needed peanut butter great you keep the peanut butter and I'll charge your account for it if I'm wrong here's some super easy way to return in the peanut butter and you won't be charged for it so. [33:34] It's a specific version of a broader category of experiences that I'll call Auto replenishment right and you know Auto replenishment to me is this notion that, today my shopping is very inquisitive like if you need peanut butter, you either go online find the right peanut butter added to your card and buy it or you drive your store find the peanut butter and and pay for it but you you had to take a bunch of overt actions to get that peanut butter and increasingly in the future there going to be a lot of products that you're going to get implicit lie without having to take all those steps and so, the ways you might get an implicit product or it might be predicted we ship to you which is what Michelle was specifically asking about. [34:21] You might have a webcam in your kitchen that's keeping this noticing how much you use peanut butter and ordering pink peanut butter for you when you when you need it kind of like a video version of Amazon Alexa. You might have a smart trash can that notices what packages you throw away and automatically reorder them. You might have a fridge that let you very easily tell it when you use the last of the milk or the eggs or something and increasingly you might have a bunch of. Internet-enabled devices that know when they're out of their consumables right so already you can have a water filter pitcher that knows when it needs a new filter in orders that you can have a dishwasher that orders more soap when it needs it, and so you know there's a. Using all of these techniques that iot devices the smart kitchen and the predictive shipping there's a significant amount of purchases that we that we have to explicitly do today that will probably happen in puts Italy in the. The not-too-distant future incident. [35:26] Specifically answered Michelle's question I think the cumulative effect of all of this Auto replenishment can have a huge pronounced effect on retail, so so I've had my team do some sort of. Studies on you know what percentage of products in a typical Walmart store for example. [35:51] Would be suitable for auto replenishment and in the answer is it ends up being about 40% of the skews in a Walmart are things that you could. Reasonably expect to be fulfilled via Auto replenishment, and so imagine the world was calling five years from now when you never go to the store to get toilet paper or paper towels or peanut butter because through one mechanism or another all those things. Show up when you need them at your house suddenly the Walmart store is 40% too big and. [36:26] A bunch of the reasons that you had to go to a store have gone away so the number of visits that you have to that store, have gone away in the amount of Isles you're going to walk in that store that are you know potentially going to cause you to serendipitous we discover new products and impulse items, have gone away and so the you know we talked in most markets that like if you can change the market by 10 or 15%. That really is an inflection point that can dramatically change the whole market and so if. Auto replenishment can get to 40% like that that would be. A pronounced change in retail and the way I like to talk to retards about it the way I think about it is you know I used to spend a lot of time at Best Buy. The 40,000 square foot store 10,000 square feet of that store where designed to sell these things that came on plastic circles called music. [37:26] And people would buy a new music in some cases every week so you might visit a Best Buy store 50 times to buy music and you probably only shop for a TV every 2 or 3 years. [37:37] Because you come to that store every week, you have to walk by the TVs and when you're ready to buy a TV. Most likely buy it from Best Buy so what happens in the world when no one buys plastic circles anymore and you all download your music on Spotify. [37:50] Suddenly the 40,000 square-foot Best Buy store is 10000 square feet too big and has a huge economic problem and then Best Buy's case. They they really struggled with what to do with that Gap that was both the traffic driver and you are significant, square footage in their store they tried a bunch of things today what they mostly do is outsourced that space they sublease that space so Apple buy some of that space Samsung buy some of that space, Microsoft buy some of that space and they sort of have a Bazaar of of a brand funded displays that I have taken up that space and they've done some different things to, replace the traffic they provide lawn services there now weaning into Health Smart Home all these different things but none of the things were completely successful at replacing the traffic that that CDs wants gave to Best Buy and you know it's very possible that grocery stores and you know major Mass merchants will go through this same same Quagmire where where they'll have to figure out you know changes to their business model to accommodate the fact that they're certain kind of products that we're just not likely to, explicitly shop for at some point in the future do you buy my version of the future at all. Scot: [39:11] I do you know the thing I would add and eating you do a, ask it what you talked you do where you talk about this where you wouldn't when you just drive it people may be saying you know that's really weird like stuff I haven't ordered shows of my house that's weird but what I think happens is where I need to loosen up to that little bit and use the example of you know 10 years ago people would say never get in the car the stranger now we press a button on her phone and do it all the time ride sharing apps and don't think twice about it if people put all their food on Instagram and stuff thanks to her behavior changes faster than we give it credit for and how do you say example of Stitch fix right so there's there's millions of subscribers to stitch fix that are used to the cycle of I get a box of stuff and I return pretty good chunk of it and I keep some I think that's the kind of the format it would take is you imagine you get all use Amazon cuz that's my I go to you say yes imagine you just kind of get this weekly box from Amazon and in there, you keep 60 70% of it and then Amazon's coming to your house so much in your neighborhood so much they don't mind picking up a bunch of stuff I hate you get back convenience factor without way you would you would really think of it as wasteful I think a lot of people kind of look at in the weather be super wasteful cuz it's actually more efficient. [40:29] Put more stuff in that box and it's Greener if you could be, the math of that in an Amazon you could actually pass a bunch of shipping savings to you as well when you stay so I didn't hear you say is just a simple one and I think the Amazon patents kind of Simply around one of the times I saw was around you know frequently people in my house on my Amazon account will throw things in the car and just kind of like leave it there for their fries and they won't check out to Amazon could preemptively ship stuff like that to you know so or if you spent a fair amount of time on an item page and items under their not to do that with a high consideration product like a digital camera but you know what say you're you're you know you're looking at a pair of shoes they can go ahead and ship you two or three sizes that shoe knowing you'll probably take one and you were probably going to do that exact same real kind of return pattern anyway if they've shipped that with a bunch of other stuff already on its way it kind of Ride Along Ride Along quote a quote for free or for very little, there's just kind of like science fiction where all the devices are ordering for you but there's kind of simpler stuff we can do in the interim to get there. Jason: [41:39] Oh for sure and I would even say it like, there's lots of signal the retailer can use to inform that prediction and you met you know the browsing signals that you mention the the stuff left in car that the actual purchase history but, like let me give you a scenario that's even easier so what happens when Kroger buys a popular app for tracking your calories online and they now know for a big chunk of their customers like what they ate at every meal because you logged your food consumption into your diet at right so now Kroger knows not only what you browse for and what you bought but actually when you consume it and so they can you know super accurately, predict when you need more of those items and it it you know it's not black magic or anything like there's a gentleman reason that some users would want to tell Kroger when they use those items, because I got some some benefit for that and I guess they're one of the thing I throw in there is predictive shipping doesn't. [42:44] Automatically mean to your house so there's a flavor predictive shipping that in essence is already have and it happening some of the Amazon patterns for predictive shipping, actually are proposing that they would predict that we ship popular items to the basement of your condo building our apartment building right so I can predict like I can aggravate the predictions for you know the 50 people that live in this building and I can Amazon can we space in though in the basement of that building and they can stage the stuff that that buildings most likely to buy in the basements and then when they get ordered the delivery cost is from the basement to the the unit instead of from the Fulfillment center to the unit right so a flavor predictive shipping is. [43:33] Predictably staging the stuff closer to the consumer and I would argue Prime now is sort of a version of that already where you know they have they put them in centers that are several hours from metropolitan areas and those those filming centers have a million items and then they take the 60,000 items that they're most likely to sell to that metropolitan area and they put that in a smaller Warehouse that's a 30 minute drive from most of the residents in that City and you know increasingly they might stage even more popular items more closely the customers to enable the one day delivery in all these other services so I I feel like baby steps in predictive shipping is kind of staging items closer and I do think it's totally realistic that In Our Lifetime you know there's white I did it just doesn't make sense that you should have to stress about running out of toilet paper. Scot: [44:25] Yes it's going to be one thing the e-commerce industry delivers to the world cool our second question comes from Holly Marie Pfeiffer and it says what's the future look like for personalization with ITP cracking down on Safari and talks about Google being closed behind and restricting third-party cookies. Jason: [44:45] Yeah well so I'm have to interpret this question. Partly because there was a thing called 3rd party cookies and they mostly are already not allowed so you know a cookie is a little digital footprint and it gets laughed when you visit a website and it can store some data, that that website uses about you right and so for a while it was possible to four. When you visit us a Retailer's websites a walmart.com Walmart could have permission to go look at a cookie that shared amongst many websites and that was called a third-party cookie Vera Bradley security reasons browsers don't allow that anymore so walmart.com can only see cookies that are designed for walmart.com and no other website can see those cookies so it said that kind of. Personalization has already tightened up but there are lots of other ways that browsers try to identify you and share information about you and I think Holly's main point is the internet is kind of cracking down on all of those ways so there's a thing called browser fingerprinting. And essentially you know I can ask the browser. [46:12] For thousands of settings that you have set in your unique browser and your combination of settings for all those settings kind of. Equals a unique fingerprint that's going to be different than almost any other user on the internet and so by. [46:27] Asking your browser all those questions I can create a unique fingerprint for you to identify you uniquely Scott even if you delete all your cookies and so there's a you know a fair amount of. Advertising based personalization on the web that leverages these fingerprinting Technologies, and increasingly the browser is not letting you asking all those questions because they realized that it was being exploited for for privacy reasons, and by default the browser isn't storing cookies at all or is much more restrictive than its privacy policies then then they used to be and so there are a lot of us that feel like, a lot of the ways that a marketer would have leverage third-party data to improve. Their ability to Market to you when you're in a particular website are all things that for a variety of privacy reasons are, going away and they're going to be more restricted right and so you know today when you go visit a website you visit Walmart Walmart knows everything that you told Walmart about it but Walmart can also go to. Axiom and Epsilon and all these third parties and buy a bunch of extra data about you that they could potentially use to Market to you, and you know there's probably like. [47:47] Nearer than further future when marketers aren't going to be allowed to apply any of that third-party data to you so they're only going to be allowed to use data, about you that you had explicitly provided to them and and they they have disclosed their collecting and what they're doing with and so, it does change a bunch of marketing tactics that does change. Did the palette of personalisation options that you have available but frankly like I would argue that we are doing an extraordinary crappy job of personalizing experiences to all the data that we have access today in to the fact that some of that data might be less accessible to us as marketers in the future like like, you know do a great job with all the data you have before you you're crying about not having access to more day that's why I feel like there is a huge opportunity to dramatically improve personalization you don't even with just first-party data and so I personally don't view it as a a disaster that the sort of wild west of third-party data is is likely going to go away. Scot: [49:02] Call Melinda secret time time so we'll probably maybe do the short version of these this next question comes from Jeff Vogel I saw Jason's question to Toby about performance and pwas do you see them actually sticking I know they are hot right now but how many pwa either of you have on your phone of those besides Amazon how many do you use seems like something that works for the Amazon to Nordstrom's the world but do you see it as a mid-market reality. Jason: [49:33] Oh Jeff it's so cruel. Just short answers and then gives me a juicy p p w a question. Scot: [49:41] Take all the time you want it's our podcast. Jason: [49:45] Yeah yeah that's got so so first of all the the question he's referencing is the founder and CEO of Shopify did a kind of ask me anything on Twitter, that's Toby and I took the liberty of asking him a question about you know is there any plans to dramatically improve, Paige performance, on Shopify sites and specifically of Shopify was going to move to something like Progressive web apps and Toby was nice enough to give a video response to my question and he said we're absolutely, doing major evolutions of our performance right now so stay tuned for you no big announcements about us optimizing our performance which candidly is a problem with Shopify it's not a particularly. Bass performing e-commerce experience at the moment so glad to hear that Toby is committed to fixing that and I floated pwas as one of the primary ways you would do that and Toby didn't agree with me like so he's like we support pwa, but that's really not the best way to get performance so this requires like a slightly deeper dive. Jeff I suspect the way you're thinking about pwas is exactly backwards right sappy wa stands for Progressive web app. [51:07] And it has this unfortunate word in it app and so when most people here that they go oh, pwa is a replacement for Native apps and what you would do is you go to a website that's a pwa and you'd quick save on my homepage and now you have an icon on your phone that you can click. Anytime you want to do lunch this pwa and you know he he's referencing that guy shike aren't only really big companies going to be able to convince people to save the pwa is to their homepage. And here's a funny thing what a pwa really is is it's a best practice way to build a mobile website. [51:45] And you never have to store it on your homepage it simply means if starbucks.com is built as a pwa when you go to starbucks.com from your mobile phone. You're going to get a highly mobile optimized experience that's likely to load much faster be perceived as welding Fastener and support the very latest. Mobile capabilities in your browser so it's using your browser to deliver a great mobile experience native apps, are indexed by Google so if you do a search on Google you're not going to get pointers to the, the interior content inside of a native app but a progressive web app is a website so it all of its content is indexed on Google you can get a result on Google click on that result and it'll take you right to that part of the progressive web app. It just so happens that as an optional feature of progressive web apps. [52:37] If it's a app if it's a website you use a lot you can save it to your desktop in or to your phone home screen and then there will be an icon that you can use to lunch at but you're really just watching. That Brands website and so I actually think. Pwa most benefits the not Amazon's of the world Amazon is about the only retailer that successfully has God than 50 million consumers to download and install their app like almost no other retailer can get a native app installed on a lot of. Devices Amazon can so if you're not Amazon and you want to Rich mobile experience. [53:15] A pwa is the way to go right now so I at the moment disagree with Toby I think. Pwa is are much more important for mobile performance then apparently Toby believes they are. Time will tell there are a bunch of retailers that have launched pwas and a reporting dramatically better. Performance and therefore business metrics as a result the example I use a lot is in the US Starbucks has a mobile app and super successful. But as they've expanded all these other countries they didn't rewrite that mobile app they built a pwa so in China the way you would do mobile order and pay the way you would do Starbucks pay is through the pwa website that Starbucks belt, and they have built a a pwa version of their website in the US now and you can try it and it basically it'll mobile web browser gives you all the functionality. [54:13] Previously you you would have needed an app to get so I think it's a really good experience. You don't see tons and tons of deployments right now because they're frankly really hard to build them so they're expensive to build. I'm in a ton of retailers just spent a bunch of money building building a responsive design website and saw the last thing they want is Jason Goldberg to fly in and go your responsive website sucks you should build a really expensive pwa to replace it right and so. Quite frankly there just a lot of retailers that aren't in cycle on. Making that kind of investment right now but almost every retailer that is having to make a new investment in their mobile experiences. [54:51] Is adopting pwa in the first crop of those that did are getting great performance so. I'm actually curious to have a Toby's a super smart guy. Cheers to have a longer conversation with him then you can have on Twitter to understand why she's not as bullish but my. Sort of skeptical suspicion is Shopify just isn't particularly well architected to. Replace the webstore model with a pwa web store and you know they built their own Paradigm they they have this development language called liquid and Toby obviously loves the stuff that he built so he believes the fastest way to get a mobile website is a better implementation and liquid and they support pwa is kind of a bolt on but not really is coordinated technology and so I suspect part of Toby's hesitation is that his architecture just doesn't support it as well but, hopefully I'll get the chance to have a deeper die with him and then we'll find out. Scot: [55:58] Cool that's a good tie into this final listener question this comes from Carrie and I'm not going to say carries last name cuz I won't say it right so will call Kerry k any new information regarding with a Dobby is doing with the Magento platform and kind of a it's a two-parter here as we're trying to go fast and then this is one you can do really fast what's your brief take on the current status of all of the Commerce platforms. Jason: [56:25] Yeah so that it's a better time than you might imagine because I'm like Shopify Magento is kind of all in on Progressive web apps, like here here's a kind of my Readers Digest on the Adobe and Magento first and then the overall landscape later show magenta was a super popular e-commerce platform it's been deployed millions of times it's you know most people that the plated didn't pay for it and it's you know open source on-prem solution and that was called magenta 1.0 so there's Tennessee. They're they're still running magenta 1.0 there's a you know even more sites that installed magenta 1.0 at one point and then just kind of abandon their business right so, it's been a super popular platform for a long time in the last three or four years if you were small business that wanted to do lunch and e-commerce site you were Louis less likely to pick. Magenta which is hard to install and host and all these things and way more likely to pick Shopify so Shopify his gain way more traction while I would argue Magento has lost a lot of traction with small businesses, but while that was happening, Magento didn't stand still they built Magento 2.0 which was much more modern architecture for an e-commerce platform it was better in a lot of ways. [57:44] And only one piece of bad news Magento got very few people to use Magento 2 and very few of the, the the magenta one sites have migrated to Magento 2, but Magento 2 is better in most ways and today Magento 2 is one of the platforms that had the best native support for Progressive web app. [58:10] So well they don't have like Magento is kind of A Tale of Two Cities they have a long in the tooth old e-commerce platform that that has a lot of flaws but has a huge install in loyal install base, and they have a new platform which is much better which supports much more modern standards and better security. And they don't have a lot of traction with it yet and then you know when they found them in that circumstance they got bought by Adobe. Which you know it has a huge investment in content management this platform called Adobe experience manager AEM. An AEM scomar strategy was to partner with e-commerce platforms so you know what a job you would say is. Run AEM in IBM websphere or run a.m. and sap hybris together and we have these design patterns that let you run these two super you know expensive complicated pieces of the software together. [59:12] So at the moment. I would say Adobe has not merge those two strategies like they now that they own Magento they they have a strategy that says hey run AEM and Magento together. Like we used to talk about running hybris or sap. And like I don't think they've got a lot of traction on that like it it frankly doesn't fit because in Magento is cheap and then in a.m. is expensive so if there's not. Like a huge amount of overlap of someone that wants those two platforms. And then separately they have this pure magenta solution which is hey you don't need a Content management solution adopter magenta to you know Embrace Progressive web apps and embrace the future and its really great solution so, what we're all waiting for is Adobe to kind of reconcile those two strategies and say like hey how does AEM fit into the Magento 2 pwa World am is not very good at pwas but you know with Magento is selling their vision of the future there they're talking heavily about pwa so is there in a little bit of an awkward place right now and we're all waiting to see how they they reconcile those those two pads there's there's a number of ways they could do it and frankly adobe's acquired a lot of other Technologies in the past and ultimately been able to do a pretty good job of weaving them together. Scot: [1:00:38] And then the second part of that question was some of the other platforms you've spent a fair amount of time on Shopify and Magento maybe throw was still a little big conversation there and then walk up to Salesforce Oracle sap platforms. Jason: [1:00:57] Play my one sentence answer is the state of e-commerce platforms right now is. Convoluted right so that you know that the entry-level small business platforms of choice Magento and Shopify and as I've already mentioned Shopify phenomenally gaining traction, and very low low risk easy implementation a lot of things going for it Magento 1.0 open source not so much not gaining a lot of new users One Step Up from that they're their platforms that are you meant to be like slightly more Enterprise friendly like you mentioned Bigcommerce and I would call you I would say Bigcommerce as a kind of. Stayed flat and Shopify his kind of successfully moved into Bigcommerce is space so they have a new flavor of shutters not that new now but. A newer flavor of Shopify called Shopify plus which kind of targets directly the Bigcommerce is of the world which were maybe like one step up Market from. From Shopify Bigcommerce is going to support more things like B2B workflows and things that that Shopify probably doesn't have yet they're a bunch of. [1:02:11] Newer platforms at the next step up that don't have very big installed bases but they're all these platforms like, mozu and. Commerce Tools in Alaska path and you know a whole set of platforms that each have some pros and cons but just don't have a huge installed base. And then you get up to the what what was the Big 4 which platform is most likely to be used by my clients and be used by it like big Enterprise clients it was demandware which is now Salesforce Commerce Cloud which. Is doing really well has a lot of traction and you know they're probably doing a really good job of evolving the platform. And then there are these three on-prem so in that that pop on his cloud-hosted platform. Dentistry on Prem platforms that were really big amongst Enterprises there was IBM websphere Commerce which I didn't actually sold and you know now. Is a little bit of forts platform there's Oracle atg and there's sap hybris and I would argue that all three of those platforms have wildly lostine. As users have seen how expensive and high-risk they are to install and how long the installation takes and how much of that experience you get out of these smaller cheaper platforms for a fraction of the price. [1:03:39] Sap hybris has a bunch of features that are not in Shopify plus but once you paid $10,000 for a year of Shopify Plus. It's really hard to spend millions of dollars and wait 9 months or 12 months for implementation of, of sap hybris so I would like say at the moment the Enterprise platforms are really kind of tanking, it remains to be seen what what will replace them do man wear his you know star Salesforce Commerce cloud is done by far the best of those Enterprise Solutions, and the the small business guys are growing up with their clients and so you know that the shopify's in the world have have many more Enterprise clients now that some of those. Originally small businesses like Warby Parker you know have gotten bigger on that platform. And not you not argue there's a bunch of new technologies that all the it guys like that are micro service-based and all of these new Frameworks, and it seems like that's what all the customers want but like. No one platform has kind of won the majority of users on that platform so at the moment it's a it's a very fragmented market and it's it's difficult to pick a winner so it's to be honest not the best time in the world to pick a new platform if you don't have to. Scot: [1:04:58] Yes some of the api-based funds called themselves headless which I think is bad Ben marketing unless it's Halloween. Jason: [1:05:05] Yes and pretend most of like there's not perfect overlap but most of the Headless systems or API BAE systems are. What we would call Micro service pay system there are ways to be headed west without microservices but that's getting in the nuances that we probably don't need to get into on the show. Scot: [1:05:25] Can you be headless without microservices but still do pwas without third-party cookies and predictive shipping. Jason: [1:05:34] I was going to say yes till you threw in. Scot: [1:05:37] Cool started to sound like a little word salad which means it's probably time to land the plane here. Jason: [1:05:46] Yep if I'm totally confused anyone and you want to ask me five questions feel free to hit us up on Twitter or Facebook page, you know is if we added value on the show we sure would love it if you jump on the iTunes and get us that five star review where one of the best reviewed e-commerce podcast on the web and frankly we'd like to keep that status and I need your help to do it. Scot: [1:06:09] We hope you enjoy this episode of industry news and listener questions. Jason: [1:06:15] Until next time happy commercing.

From the Simplr studios in San Francisco, this is your weekly briefing.  OpeningWith your E-Commerce Retail Briefing for today, Friday, September 20, 2019, I'm Vincent Phamvan.A new survey revealed that Gen Z’s worries about mental and emotional well being affects their shopping habits. An overwhelming amount of those surveyed said they preferred making purchases and discovering new products in stores. They also said turning to brick-and-mortar was a way they disconnected from the digital world.First, here are some retail headlines.Amazon Rolling Out Amazon PayCodeRetail giant, Amazon, announced they would be rolling out Amazon PayCode in the U.S. in the coming weeks. The new checkout option will allow customers to pay for their Amazon orders at one of 15,000 Western Union locations. Instead of using their bank card, customers can choose the PayCode option to receive a QR code they can take to a Western Union location and pay for their order.Sally Beauty Launches Credit Card ProgramSally Beauty Holdings announced they were launching a private label credit card program for Sally Beauty Supply through an agreement with Alliance Data. According to a press release, the credit card program is expected to pilot in select stores in 2020, followed by a national rollout for stores and e-commerce. Sally Beauty will be adding on the credit card program to its existing Sally Beauty Rewards Loyalty Program, which has over 15 million active members.  Fanatics Hires CFONike’s former corporate audit and chief risk officer, Michener Chandlee, is joining Fanatics as their CFO. He’s joining the Fanatics team as the company is targeting sales of more than $2.5 billion this year, up from $2.2 billion in 2018. Chandlee had been with Nike since 2001 and is well versed in the sports apparel industry. Fanatics CEO, Doug Mack, said that gives him the ideal skill set and experience to lead their finance organization as they continue to scale.  Annual Holiday Retail Sales Expected to GrowAccording to an annual holiday retail forecast, retail sales are expected to boost between 4.5 and 5 percent in 2019. Between November and January, holiday sales are expected to exceed $1.1 trillion. The report also notes that e-commerce sales are forecasted to grow 14 to 18 percent to between $144 and $149 billion over the period, up from 11.2 percent growth in 2018.Gen Z May Be A Surprising Saving Grace For Brick-and-Mortar StoresAccording to a report from A.T. Kearney, Gen Z shoppers may be a surprising saving grace for brick-and-mortar stores. The report revealed that consumers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four prefer to do their shopping in stores. 81 percent of Gen Z consumers surveyed said they prefer to make purchases in stores and 73 percent said they like to discover new products in stores. Those surveyed revealed that the Gen Z demographic overwhelmingly looks to brick-and-mortar stores as a way to disconnect from the digital world.The data uncovered that Gen Z deals with a lot of stress, with 23 percent saying they were stressed out or overwhelmed by the news and 22 percent reported being stressed by social media. Because of this, Gen Z tends to make more health and wellness related purchasing decisions than other generations. 46 percent of Gen Z said they were concerned about their mental health and wellbeing compared to 38 percent of millennials.The report sheds light on the first full generation of digital natives and the importance of the experience retailers provide both online and offline.  Thanks for listening to the latest episode of the E-Commerce Retail Briefing. Don't forget, Simplr can help you scale up your customer service with 24/7 support. Find out more at Simplr.ai. Until next time.          

On this episode of the VIP Ignite podcast, your host Deneen White is excited to introduce you to Bob Leone. Bob broke into the music industry in 1976 as the principal songwriter and keyboardist for the RCA recording group, Flame whose producer was the legendary Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy also produced albums for Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, U2, Patti Smith, Dire Straits, Gwen Stefani, The Pretenders, and Iggy Azalea, among other international superstar acts. Jimmy was also Flame's co-manager. Bob has been critiquing songs professionally for more than 35 years. He conducted weekly song critique sessions for the Songwriters Guild of America, where he served as National Projects Director from 1981 to 1988. In 1988, Bob began his 18-year tenure as the National Projects Director for the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame and its parent organization, the National Academy of Popular Music. In 1990, Bob created the Songwriters Hall of Fame Songwriter Showcase program. Between November 1990 and October 2006, he produced and hosted 59 of these critically-acclaimed standing-room-only events, which were held four times a year at the most renowned New York City music venues, including The Cutting Room. Many of those featured at Bob's events were offered publishing, production and record deals as a result of their appearances. Many who were unknown at the time of their performances are now international stars...Stefani Germanotta (Lady GaGa), Lizzy Grant (Lana Del Rey), and Rachel Platten (“Fight Song”) were among them. If you want to learn how you can learn from experts like Bob Leone and more, register for our next live webinar here: https://ammsociety.com/webinar-registration 

On this episode of the VIP Ignite podcast, your host Deneen White is excited to introduce you to Bob Leone. Bob broke into the music industry in 1976 as the principal songwriter and keyboardist for the RCA recording group, Flame whose producer was the legendary Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy also produced albums for Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, U2, Patti Smith, Dire Straits, Gwen Stefani, The Pretenders, and Iggy Azalea, among other international superstar acts. Jimmy was also Flame’s co-manager.  Bob has been critiquing songs professionally for more than 35 years. He conducted weekly song critique sessions for the Songwriters Guild of America, where he served as National Projects Director from 1981 to 1988.  In 1988, Bob began his 18-year tenure as the National Projects Director for the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame and its parent organization, the National Academy of Popular Music.  In 1990, Bob created the Songwriters Hall of Fame Songwriter Showcase program. Between November 1990 and October 2006, he produced and hosted 59 of these critically-acclaimed standing-room-only events, which were held four times a year at the most renowned New York City music venues, including The Cutting Room.  Many of those featured at Bob’s events were offered publishing, production and record deals as a result of their appearances. Many who were unknown at the time of their performances are now international stars...Stefani Germanotta (Lady GaGa), Lizzy Grant (Lana Del Rey), and Rachel Platten (“Fight Song”) were among them.  If you want to learn how you can learn from experts like Bob Leone and more, register for our next live webinar here: https://ammsociety.com/webinar-registration  

Episode 4 with Tamsin Sheehy, co-owner and lead teacher trainer at The Shala Cape Town Yoga School. Tamsin has been teaching for 15 years and has led over 11 teacher trainings. Listen to this episode as we explore the components of a 200hour and 300 hour teacher training as well what it means to be a good teacher.Email Tamsin: tamsin@theshala.co.zaShow Notes:View upcoming 200 hour and 300 hour Teacher Trainings at The Shala Cape Town Yoga SchoolFind upcoming Events and Workshops at The Shala Cape Town Yoga SchoolView Weekly ScheduleABOUT THE SHALA CAPE TOWN YOGA SCHOOLThe Shala is a boutique-style studio and sacred space for people to explore the practice of yoga with the support of inspiring and hands-on teachers.We serve to create an individual experience for each student and offer classes suitable for all levels of yoga experience. With continuing education as our focus, The Shala offers Beginners Classes, Advanced Practices, Workshops, Courses and certified Yoga Teacher Training Courses.The studio is housed in an elegant heritage building on Dunkley Square in the historic Gardens area of Cape Town, and offers changing rooms, shower facilities and a beautiful yoga studio with high ceilings, vintage wooden floors and reinforced structural beams that support our Suspension Yoga hammocks.Every detail of this unique space has been created with care and intention. The interior is designed @envy_and_co to provide a connection to the environment and to the individual. The walls are decorated with local artists including Robyn Denny, Jennifer Morrison and Tanya Bonello. We have recently added a lounge space for students to gather before and after classes and where we also host our talks and workshops.ABOUT TAMSINSeeking a holistic form of body movement led Tamsin to her first yoga class. In 2004, after four years of dedicated practice in a diversity of yoga lineages including Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Iyengar yoga, Tamsin completed her first teacher training with Louisa Sears at Yogarts, an Australian based yoga school in Bali. She subsequently completed an intensive two-year Bihar teacher training with Carly Louw at Yoga Connection in Pretoria and travelled to Kerala, India 2006 to study Sivananda asana, chanting, puja and philosophy. In 2009 Tamsin completed a philosophy-rich Ashtanga style yoga teacher training with Shimon Ben Avi. Between November 2016 and March 2018, Tamsin completed her 300hours Advanced Yoga Teachers Training with Patrick Creelman and Rinat Perlman in Hong Kong.She has a special interest in the role of yoga as a practice of healing and repair on all levels of Being. Her most inspiring work comes from teaching on The Shala’s Teacher Training programmess. The art of lymphology and digestion are key focus points for workshops and courses. Tamsin opened The Shala – Cape Town Yoga School, in 2007, and in 2018 will run her 12th 200hour Teachers Training Course.Tamsin dynamically weaves together elements from each of these diverse yogic traditions and therapeutic schools of thought to offer alignment based yoga classes that work on strength and body intelligence. Tamsin’s creative and well-paced sequencing, anatomically precise instruction and hands-on adjustments combine to provide her students with a safe and sacred space to immerse themselves deep in their practice and develop an intuitive relationship with their bodies. Over and above simply instructing poses, Tamsin emphasizes the importance of helping students find the subtle, internal connections that make up these poses through conscious breath and movement. She encourages students to ‘move in the direction of yoga’ – to develop a sustainable self-practice and integrate the teachings of yoga into all aspects of their lives to find greater balance of mind, body and spiri  

Between November of 2016 and June of 2018, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) saw it's membership jump from 5,000 to over 40,000. This hour we'll explore what socialism means today, and why the ideology is having a resurgence. Plus, why are more young people getting involved in the movement? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Between November 5th and 9th in years gone by, John Lennon met Yoko Ono for the first time - find out where, Richard Branson was in trouble over the word Bollocks and why an inside joke of Randy Bachman led them to having a HUGE hit on there hands.. It's the This Week in Music History Podcast with Marty Miller from Nova.ie and Radio Nova.

Hello Listener! Thank you for listening.  If you would like to support the podcast, and keep the lights on, you can support us whenever you use Amazon through the link below: It will not cost you anything extra, and I can not see who purchased what. Or you can become a Fluffle Supporter by donating through Patreon.com at the link below: Patreon/Hare of the Rabbit What's this Patreon? Patreon is an established online platform that allows fans to provide regular financial support to creators. Patreon was created by a musician who needed a easy way for fans to support his band. What do you need? Please support Hare of the Rabbit Podcast financially by becoming a Patron. Patrons agree to a regular contribution, starting at $1 per episode. Patreon.com takes a token amount as a small processing fee, but most of your money will go directly towards supporting the Hare of the Rabbit Podcast. You can change or stop your payments at any time. You can also support by donating through PayPal.com at the link below: Hare of the Rabbit PayPal Thank you for your support, Jeff Hittinger.   Easter is a season that has popularized the purchase of rabbits as surprise "Easter bunnies" for young people Easter morning. Please remember to learn about how to care for a rabbit prior to purchase and that rabbits are a 5-10 year commitment. Chinchilla rabbit These rabbits are so named “chinchilla” due to the similarity of their striking fur to that of the South American Chinchilla. That particular animal is a rodent and it’s fur has been much sought after the fur trade. The development of a rabbit with similar fur quickly made these rabbits highly sought after. Rabbits are a lagomorph and in a different order than that of the rodents and should not be confused with them. Domesticated Chinchilla rabbits have a fur pattern that mimics that of their wild cousins. The 4 types discussed in this podcast have the same type of banding to the hair shaft or ticking that is called the Agouti pattern. However the main difference is that of the color. Wild rabbits and hares have a brown and yellow pigment to their fur where as the chinchilla breeds and varieties have a slate blue (gray) and pearl (white) coloration. The banding to the hair shaft is: blue, pearl, black, white, black. This gives the rabbit it’s distinctive look and the colors or bands can be seen by blowing into the fur. Each of these Chinchilla rabbits have a distinguished history of uniqueness and accomplishment. These breeds are the Standard Chinchilla, the American Chinchilla, Chinchilla Giganta, and the Giant Chinchilla. Today there are four separate breeds of Chinchilla rabbits, distinguished primarily by size, for they all have the same black tipped fur with the silvery pearl glint. A Brief History of Each of the Chinchilla Rabbit Breeds: Standard Chinchilla Somewhere in the fog-shrouded past of French bunny-history a kit was born to wild agouti colored rabbits, but it was missing half its color. In every other way it looked exactly like its littermates - lush, black and white-tipped fur, but instead of the rufus red or tan sheen underneath the dark tipping that gives chestnut agoutis their wild-rabbit coloring, a silvery pearl glint glowed within the fur of this strange but fascinating young rabbit. And the French farmer in whose hutch this beautiful rabbit was born was suddenly had a new breed. We don't know his name, but we do know that chinchilla-colored rabbits flew out of the hands of Le Bonhomme Chinchilla, his nickname on the quays of the Marche aux Oiseaux in Paris where he hawked his rabbits. Parisians were enchanted with these exotic rabbits whose coats were very nearly identical to the color of South American chinchillas. The ‘official’ Chinchilla breed history lists Monsieur Dybowski, a French engineer and rabbit breeder, as the creator of the Chinchilla rabbit. Without a doubt, chinchilla fur color predated Monsieur Dybowski, who apparently was the driving force behind the development of the Chinchilla breed as it is known in France today. The first Chinchillas were created by a French engineer M.J. Dybowski and were shown for the first time in April 1913 at Saint-Maur, France. Mr. Dybowski put together a blue Beveren doe with a chestnut agouti buck - a local French farm rabbit of no particular bloodline - and voila, he got a chinchilla-colored rabbit. The quality of the fur on these first chinchillas was poor, so various breeds were introduced to improve the density and pearl-white ring color under the jet-black tipping. 1913 was when chinchillas were first shown in France, and in 1914, Mr. Dybowski’s chins took top honors at the national show. The new breed took the rabbit world by storm as the ideal fur rabbit, which so greatly resembled the South American Chinchilla lanigera. A Mrs. Haidee Lacy-Hulbert of Mitcham Surrey, imported the first of the breed to England in the summer of 1917. A British exhibitor presented a shipment at the New York State Fair in 1919. The first and smallest of the chinchilla breeds is the Standard Chinchilla. The Standard Chinchilla rabbit was first bred in France. It was created by M. J. Dybowski, a French engineer. He used Himalayans, Beverens, and wild Agouti colored rabbits to develop the breed. They were first debuted for exhibition in Saint-Maur France in 1913. The very next year they were shown at a major international rabbit show in Paris, France. From there popularity grew as they attracted attention from other breeders. In 1917, a Mrs. Haidee Lacy-Hulbert imported them to Mitcham, Surrey (UK). They were next exhibited in 1919 in Yorkshire, England. That was also the same year they were first seen in the United States. Other varieties used to further develop and perfect the Standard Chinchilla were: the Marten Sable, Siamese Sable, Silver Fox, and the Squirrel and Smoke Pearl. It is thanks to the Standard Chinchilla and sports from the creation of the Chinchilla breeds that have gone on to be used in the creation of more breeds of rabbits than any other! After the show, he sold all the stock to Edward H. Stahl and Jack Harris. The original Chinchillas were rather small at 5 to 7 1/2 pounds, and American breeders set out to produce a larger animal that would be better suited for meat and pelts. Standard Chinchillas weigh up to 7 ½ pounds in the USA. Maximum adult weight in the UK is 6.73 lb (3.060 kg). They are a medium-small breed. ***The Standard Chinchilla is the smallest of the Chinchilla breeds. Mature bucks should weigh 5-7 pounds. Mature does should weigh 5 ½ to 7 ½ pounds. The Standard Chinchilla is considered a compact breed. American Chinchilla Leave it to Americans to not be satisfied with the smallish size of the standard chinchilla. They bred selectively for larger size and finer meat. The American Chinchilla is the most rare of the Chinchilla breeds. Its small population is largely due to the demise of the rabbit fur industry of the late 1940’s. Despite the breed’s fine meat producing qualities, producers of today prefer an all white rabbit for the meat market. The American Chinchilla is a large, hardy and gentle animal, with mature bucks weighing in at 9 to 11 pounds and does at 10 to 12 pounds. They produce large litters, have good mothering instincts, and fryers reach market weight quickly. At the New York State Fair in 1919, all Standard Chinchilla stock exhibited was purchased by Edward H. Stahl and Jack Harris. It was known that these rabbits would be very popular and lucrative for the fur trade. These gentlemen and many others set about to create an even larger rabbit from the Standard Chinchilla. This larger rabbit was first known as the Heavyweight Chinchilla. It was created directly through selectively breeding the Standard Chinchillas for larger size. Both the Standard and Heavyweight Chinchillas were accepted as breeds in 1924. Shortly thereafter the Heavyweight name was changed to the American Chinchilla. The name was soon changed to American Chinchilla – possibly because a giant version of the breed was already in development. Two decades after the “Belgian Hare Boom” of 1900, which kicked off the rabbit fancy in this country, the chinchillas were by far the most popular breeds. Between November 1928 and November 1929, no less than 17,328 Chinchillas were registered through the American Rabbit & Cavy Breeders Association (American Rabbit Breeders Association, Inc.) This is a record yet to be broken by any other breed of rabbit. Large commercial operations were set up to produce and sell the rabbits in mass. In the 1940’s, however, the bottom fell out of the fur market. Because there were so many breeders, there is no single person that can be credited with the development of the American Chinchilla, though the breed can be credited with making a large impact with rabbit keepers and other rabbit breeds. The Chinchilla rabbit has contributed to the development of more breeds and varieties of rabbit worldwide than any other breed of domestic rabbit. Sports from the Chinchilla have created the Silver Martens and American Sables in the United States, and the Siamese Sable and Sallander breeds abroad. The American Chinchilla is now listed as critically endangered by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC). ***The American Chinchilla is a large breed of rabbit. Mature bucks should weigh 9-11 pounds and does 10-12 pounds respectively. The American Chinchilla is to be of the commercial body type. The American Chinchilla or "Heavyweight Chinchilla" is larger than the Standard Chinchilla, it has a commercial body type but the same roll back coat. Standard Chinchillas bred for large size produced this breed. Chinchilla Rabbits originated in France and were bred to standard by M. J. Dybowski. They were introduced to the United States in 1919. Bred to be a meat and fur rabbit, the American Chinchilla Rabbit can be shown/exhibited or kept as a stocky, hardy pet. American Chinchilla Rabbits do not require regular grooming. Adult American Chinchilla Rabbits weigh different for each sex. Males (Bucks)- 9-11#, and Females (Does) 10-12#. These stocky rabbits have a slight curve to their medium length bodies, beginning at the nape of their necks and following through to the rump. They carry their ears straight erect. The quality of the pelt is first and more important when breeding for the "Standard Of Perfection". American Chinchilla Rabbits are a six-class breed in show. (Any rabbit that matures over 9 pounds is a 6-class breed, maturation weights under 9# are 4-class breeds.) The American Chinchilla Rabbit was bred from large Standard Chinchilla Rabbits in order to produce a meatier rabbit. They were originally called Heavyweight Chinchilla Rabbits. Junior and intermediate American Chinchilla Rabbits may be shown in age classifications higher than their own if they are overweight. Bucks and does under six months and nine pounds are considered juniors. Intermediate American Chinchilla Rabbits are bucks and does six to eight months of age. American Chinchilla Rabbits are good breeders, with an average litter of 6-9 kits. Chinchilla Giganta Development of the Chinchilla Giganta began in 1917 in England, and refinement continued in Germany and Europe. Chinchilla Rabbits were interbred with Flemish Giants and other European giant breeds. They were recognized as a breed in France by 1948. It is suspected that Chinchilla Gigantas are significantly larger than the Giant Chinchillas of the USA but identical in every other way. Giant Chinchilla Standard Chins had no sooner arrived in America, than folks began working to create a giant version. Mr. Ed Stahl was instrumental in this effort. The Standard Chinchilla was crossed mainly with White Flemish Giants and American Blues, with a touch of New Zealand Whites and Champagne d’Argents. Giant Chinchillas were recognized by the ARBA in 1928. Today the Giant Chinchilla is heavy boned and long bodied, with commercial value being a prime consideration. Their maximum weight is listed as 16 pounds (does). Giant Chinchillas are included on the "Watch" list of the ALBC, as their numbers have been dwindling. It was during this same time period that Edward H. Stahl set about to produce the largest of the Chinchillas for the fur industry, The Giant Chinchilla. Like the American Chinchilla, the Giant Chinchilla is a breed that was developed exclusively in America. It was developed for the popular meat and fur industries of the era. According to The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy: “…In the basement of his home he began experimental breeding using a pure Chinchilla buck of large size, and with perfect color, to does of New Zealand Whites and several other large breeds. The offspring from the cross with the White Flemish and the American Blue does had reasonably good coloration with progress toward a larger size, and were used for continued selection. On Christmas morning, 1921, a Giant Chinchilla doe was born that he considered his ideal. He named her the “Million Dollar Princess.” A proposed working standard was presented for the American Chinchilla Giant in 1924, but was withdrawn in favor of the American Chinchilla (Heavyweight Chinchilla). At the demand of breeders of these giants, the standard was again proposed in February 1928, and this time the standard was accepted for the Giant Chinchilla. It should be noted that Edward H. Stahl, is the first and only individual to ever make a million dollars from the sale of rabbit breeding stock and is considered the “Father of the Domestic Rabbit Industry in America.” ***The Giant Chinchilla is the largest of the Chinchilla breeds. Mature bucks should weigh 12-15 pounds and does 13-16 pounds respectively. The Giant Chinchilla is to have a semi-arched body type. The Giant Chinchilla is one of the few really unique breeds of rabbits. It is the only breed that calls for a moderately long body type and the only Chinchilla breed or variety that has a normal commercial fur (fly-back). It is the only giant breed that is judged primarily for its commercial value and qualities as a five pound fryer at two months of age is not uncommon. The Giant Chinchilla is one of the best, if not one of the greatest, all purpose rabbit breeds raised in the United States. The Giant Chinchilla is a very beautiful rabbit when it is in prime coat and has good color. If the Giant Chinchilla is handled frequently it becomes a very big baby. The Giant Chinchilla is one of the first breeds to have been developed in the United States. Now I have a letter written by Carl W. Filliater Mr. Carl Filliater, served as the Giamt Chincilla club president for many years. He passed away in the Spring of 2015, and he is greatly missed. There are many articles by him in the Table of Contents at http://www.giantchinchillarabbit.com/mr-carl-filliater.html to help you learn about the Giant Chinchilla rabbit. The following information was obtained by talking with older members of the American Rabbit Breeders Association, most of them Judges, from back in the early 1940’s , with a couple back in the late 30’s, what I have read in a book copyrighted in 1926 and Second Edition Revised in 1929, authored by none other than Mr. Edward H. Stahl, the developer of the GIANT CHINCHILLA. The name of the book is CHINCHILLA RABBITS-Standard, Heavyweight, and Giant,-The Fur Rabbit De Lux. I also now have almost every standard from 1929 through 2015. What I don’t have I could get through Eric Stewart. Over the years we have been led to believe that the “Million Dollar Princess” was a large rabbit weighing in at 14 ¾ pounds when she was about (I am guessing here) 10 to 11 months old. Yet Mr. Stahl’s history of the Giant Chinchilla, under the “WHAT SIZE IS WANTED” section states “For an ideal meat producing rabbit, we do not want one that is too large. It is proven fact that the rabbits that weigh from nine to eleven pounds at maturity have generally been accepted as the ideal meat producing rabbit. Therefore, it would be advisable to make the Chinchilla Giant not over eleven pounds, and to disqualify them when they reach over twelve pounds.” That is an accepted fact to this day. Check the weights of the so called Commercial Breeds in our present Standard of Perfection. When I first started raising Giant Chinchillas, around 1968-69, and showed them for the first time a young popular Judge stated; “Why are you messing with these? The whole breed is nothing but junk. I have never seen one that came close to the Standard. And unless someone works a long time with them I probably never will see a good one. You have some good animals in the other two breeds you show, don’t bother with these.” At that time I did have some of the best Tort Dutch and was the first Tort breeder in several hundred miles area to have a Tort Dutch junior buck to go Best Opposite Sex of breed. I sold him at that show for an outrageous price. He later was Best Of Breed a couple of times. After that my Torts went to pot. I also showed Checked Giants and did some winning with some tough competition. But the die had been cast, that Judge presented me a CHALLENGE, and I am still working to raise a Giant Chinchilla that comes as close as possible to the Standard of Perfection. I have had a lot of hurdles to cross to get to where I am at now. Still a long way to go, but with each breeding I can see a great improvement. I have not yet seen a Giant Chinchilla worthy of a Best In Show, PER THE STANDARD OF PERFECTION. I capitalized, as there has been a couple that were picked as Best in Show. This goes to show that the Judges don’t really judge according to the Giant Chinchilla Standard. It is up to the Giant Chinchilla Breeders to educate the Judges. As a Licensed Judge I CAN NOT voice my opinion, unless the Judge ask for my opinion of their judging, then I can let them have it. As several Judges found out I am not afraid to unload on them. Made them a little better Giant Chinchilla Judges. By talking with the older members of the American Rabbit Breeders Association I found, up to the early to middle 1940’s the Giant Chinchilla was a very outstanding rabbit, winning Best in Show many times or being right up there in contention. It was about that time that other members of the Chinchilla Giant Association took control and tried to make it the large rabbit of the Flemish size. Instead of breeding the rabbit to fit the Standard, they changed the Standard to fit the rabbit. Breeding Light Gray Flemish Giants into the Giant Chinchilla. A well know Flemish Breeder from New York, stated he had sold several Light Gray Flemish Bucks and Does to an officer of the Giant Chinchilla Association. There were other breeders doing the same. And that is when the Giant Chinchilla started to lose its standing in the rabbit world. By breeding the Light Grays into the Chins, the weight had to be raised for the 1944 Standard from Does being 11 pounds to 11 pounds and up; Bucks was raised to10 ½ pounds and up and it changed the fur from a FLYBACK to a ROLLBACK TYPE, but they did not change the standard. At about that time is when the length and surface color started to change. The surface color went from a wavy color to a salt and pepper color ( or an even ticking over the whole body), which is what the Light Gray Flemish requires. It was left at one inch long which was still a FLYBACK length. In the 1947 Standard the weights were raised to-Does 12 pounds and up, with Bucks 11 pounds and up. No top weight. At the same time Heavyweight Chinchillas were raising their weights also. The length of fur was left at one inch. The 1950 Standard was changed to what it basically is today. The note “This breed is to be judged primarily for its commercial value, its meat production qualities to be given first consideration”, was added. The weights were raised; Minimum weight of Senior Does, 13 pounds, top weight of 16 pounds. Minimum weight of Senior Bucks, 12 pounds, top weight of 15 pounds. Ideal weights: Does 14 to 15 pounds; Bucks 13 to 14 pounds. Some additional DQ’s were added, such as extremely short or long body. The long body coming from the Flemish Giants. Length of fur was changed to1 1/8 inches, with the statement “Fur Structure, Quality, and condition to conform with the A.R.& C.B.A., Inc., Fur Standard. This statement says it must be a Flyback Type fur, but with the extra 1/8 of an inch, starts it into a RollBack Type fur. At This Point I Would Like to Say (Bite My Tongue) There Very Possibly Has Not Been A Good Pure Breed Giant Chinchilla Sold Since 1944. Breeders have been breeding other breeds into the SO Called Giant Chinchillas trying to get the fur shorter and with Flyback and the wavy color back. MYSELF INCLUDED. That is why breeders are still getting whites in the litters. White under-color next to the skin, which is a DQ, and a white toenail, every once in a while. In the 1956 Standard the weights were left as was, but the length of the fur was changed to 1 1/8 to 1 ¼ inches. With the statement changed to read “The fur should conform with the A.R.B.A., Inc., Fur Standard. Here again the last statement calls for a Flyback Type Fur, but the length makes it a Rollback Type of fur. In the 1966 Standard, salt and pepper appearance (even ticking) was added as a FAULT. And the following were added as DQ’s-brown or yellowish under-color; dirty brown tinge in the light ring color; yellow nape in the neck. The fault and DQ’s came from the Light Gray Flemish Giants that had some Sandy Flemish Giants bred into them. To this day Giant Chinchilla breeders are having problems with the salt and pepper appearance, surface color. In the early 1970’s the American Rabbit Breeders Association advised all Specialty Clubs to put their Standards into a certain format, which is being used to this day in the Standard of Perfection. Then Giant Chinchilla President Al Butler appointed me to do the deed and have it ready for the 1975 edition of the Standard of Perfection. It had to be presented to the members of the Specialty Club, with their approval, before being sent on to the Standards Committee Chairperson. After many phone calls with Al and Charles Meyers, than Chair of the Standards Committee, it was presented to the membership. The only change that was made to the Standard was “Body to be medium length….” This was suggested by the Standards Committee with the suggestion “If the Association didn’t make the change, the Committee would “. When I was changing the format, with the suggestions of Mr. Meyer, we tried to get the membership to make a few changes to the Standard. But no deal. In the late 1970’s I had a nice Giant Chinchilla Doe, at that time as far as I knew she was pure Giant Chinchilla. I showed her and won Best of Breed as a Giant Chinchilla. On a dare from a couple of Flemish Giant Breeders I also entered her as a Light Gray Flemish Giant in the same show. As it turned out the same Judge judged both breeds. When he placed her first in the class of several Light Grays, and then made her Best Light Gray, he made the statement “This is the first I have ever seen a rabbit win in two different breeds. To do that, one of the Standards is messed up.” Since that show I have made it my mission to get the Standard of the Giant Chinchilla changed so that it is the only breed fitting our Standard. I have gotten the Association to make a few changes and there is one more I hope to get made. There are several well known Giant Chinchilla Breeders who keep saying “Let’s Keep the Giant Chinchilla as Mr. Stahl made it, do not make these changes.” I hope with this article, and others published in this Guide Book, they will see that the wrong changes were made a good many years ago. And as I have said elsewhere in this article “Changes have been made to make the Standard fit the rabbit instead of making the Breeders breed the Rabbit to fit the Standard.” Respectfully Submitted; Carl W. Filliater Coat Chinchilla Rabbits have a soft, short, rollback coat which does not need much maintenance in order to keep it healthy. Most rabbits shed during the fall and spring, which means you may find more hair indoors than you usually do. Simply brush your rabbit once biweekly for a few weeks until they cease shedding so much. Colors There is only one color accepted by the ARBA with the Chinchilla rabbit, and that’s the color of an actual chinchilla. ARBA’s Standard of Perfection for this breed contains the phrase: “color is to resemble real chinchilla.” What does that mean? The color is to look just like that of those cute little rodents you see in exotic pet stores, the Chinchilla lanigera. That is, a rich, varied, sparkling blend of black and white. The under color is dark slate blue at the base and the top edge is a darker blue with a portion of light gray in between. The slight eye circles are well defined and of a light pearl color and the underside of the tail is also white while the topside is mostly black with a few white hairs. Eye colors can be brown, blue-grey or marbled, but dark brown is preferred. The color is produced by a banded hair shaft – each hair has bands of black and pearl-gray pigment. At a show, judges are supposed to consider the color quality of each band, as well as their definition from each other, and the overall look of the top coat. The American Chinchilla’s coat is a lengthy rollback – an ideal length of 1 ¼ inches. Coats under 1 inch in length are faulted, as well as coats that are so long they resemble wool. Fur is to be smooth and glossy. Fur and color together pack more points in the standard than the body type, which is to be the same as other commercial breeds such as the Californian. Petting your American Chinchilla Rabbit’s head, neck, back and ears is very much encouraged. Care Requirements The Chinchilla Rabbit does well in indoor or outdoor enclosures so long as they are not exposed to extreme heat or cold. Outdoor enclosures should be lifted from the ground to protect them from potential predators and have a ramp to the fenced bottom so they can hop about on the grass below. Indoors rabbit cages need to be large enough so the rabbit can easily stretch out and considering the Chinchilla’s size, it needs to be rather large, which is why this breed isn’t recommended for apartment dwellers. Enclosures should be made of wire walls and a plastic/metal bottom to hold bedding, which needs to be spot-cleaned every day and completely replaced at the end of every week. In terms of food, the Chinchilla’s diet does not differ from that of other rabbits. This means they need to have a diet of hay and a healthy mix of high-quality pellets, fruits, leafy greens and vegetables. There are some fruits/vegetables/leafy greens that are better in terms of nutritional value to rabbits and others that should be avoided at all costs. Apples are a great treat, for example, but iceberg lettuce does not contain enough nutrition to be beneficial to your rabbit’s health. Always do your research on what you plan to feed to your rabbit and when in doubt, call and ask your local veterinarian. Health While some rabbits have health issues related to their fur, the Chinchilla Rabbit has no such problem or any other hereditary disease. However, there are some issues pet rabbit parents need to be made of aware of so they can prevent these health problems from developing in the first place. Rabbit teeth never stop growing and the only thing that keeps their teeth a manageable size is a diet high in hay – this is why a high percent of hay in the diet is crucial. Overgrown rabbit teeth can grow into their jaws and face, and is painful. If you find less droppings in your rabbit’s cage, they are less active than usual, and aren’t eating as much, check their mouth for overgrown teeth. To deal with overgrown teeth, take them to your veterinarian for a trimming. Owners also need to check their bunny’s ears for any sign of ear mites, and outdoor rabbits need to be carefully checked for any sign of flystrike, which is an extremely painful condition that is mostly fatal. Bucks and does can also be neutered/spayed, just like dogs and cats. Bucks can be spayed as young as 3.5 months, while does can be spayed once they are 5-6 months old. Temperament/Behavior This breed of rabbit was developed mostly for their pelt and meat in the 1900s, consequently they are very much at ease being handled by humans. This means they also make great pets for single, couples or even seniors who would like a pet the size of a medium-sized dog but has less maintenance involved. Rabbits can be difficult to potty-train, but it does not mean it is impossible. In fact, many pet rabbit owners have found success with plenty of time, patience and lots of rewards. Some have gone the extra mile by placing a few litter boxes in corners of their home (instead of having just one) so their rabbit does not have to travel too far to find a litter box to do the deed. They may take longer than the average dog or cat, but rabbits are intelligent enough to understand when they are supposed to do their business in a particular area. In terms of playtime, every rabbit takes to toys a little differently – some may be perfectly content with home-made DIY toys while others may enjoy more mentally-stimulating toys from your local pet store or dollar store. Whatever it is, always make sure it is bunny-safe and won’t break apart into pieces your rabbit can accidentally swallow and hurt itself internally. Having said that, your rabbit’s personality will flourish the longer they are outside of their enclosures engaging and interacting with their human family. Petting their heads, necks, backs and ears is completely acceptable and very much encouraged. Many rabbits also enjoy having all of this done while in the comfort of your lap, just like lap dogs (but with less drool!) Uses Chinchilla rabbit was mainly bred to be a meat and fur producing breed. But today it is mainly kept for meat production rather than fur, due to the demise of the rabbit fur industry during the late 1940s. The breed is very suitable for commercial rabbit farming. Special Notes Chinchillas are very hardy, docile, good natured and very gentle rabbit breed. They are good breeders, with an average litter of 6-9 kits. The does produce large litters and have good mothering instincts. The bunnies grow faster and reach market weight quickly. The Chinchilla rabbit has contributed to the development of more breeds and varieties of rabbit worldwide than any other breed of domestic rabbit. It is a very suitable breed for commercial meat production. And their meat to bone ratio is very good. On average American Chinchilla rabbit’s lifespan is between 5 and 8 years. The breed is also very good as pets. Even the novice can take good care of them, and they do not require regular grooming. http://www.petguide.com/breeds/rabbit/american-chinchilla-rabbit/ https://www.raising-rabbits.com/chinchilla-rabbits.html http://rabbitbreeders.us/american-chinchilla-rabbits https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/americanchinchilla http://www.raising-rabbits.com/chinchilla-rabbits.html http://exclusivelyrabbits.blogspot.com/2011/10/brief-history-of-each-of-chinchilla.html http://www.roysfarm.com/american-chinchilla-rabbit/ http://chinchilla.co/chinchilla-rabbit/ http://www.giantchinchillarabbit.com/giant-chin-history.html © Copyrighted

I’ve been looking forward to today’s show since my very first visit to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, over two years ago. It was clear even then that they were doing something completely new for a regulatory agency. They were innovating. Not just creating new regulations, but actually rethinking how to create them. Reinventing the regulatory process itself. Specifically, they were responding to the novelty and especially the rapid pace of technology change in finance by creating an innovation initiative and soon thereafter, the world’s most famous regulatory sandbox. Today’s guest is Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s head of Strategy and Competition. In this episode, he tells the story of how they first realized they had to change, how they did it, and, importantly, what they’ve been learning so far. We sat down together last month during the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas, where we also did a fireside chat on the regulatory stage and where, for the first time, Chris shared their new report on lessons drawn from their first several cohorts of sandbox companies. Most of our listeners know what these sandboxes are -- they’re also sometimes called reglabs, greenhouses, or a new generation of pilot projects. They’re being adopted by a leading cadre of regulators, including a few in the United States, who have realized that the speed of innovation today is outstripping traditional regulatory processes, which means policymakers are going to have to invent something new to keep up. Part of what they’re inventing are these small, safe “testbeds” where they can get hands-on with new ideas, understand them, shape them if appropriate, and generate insights to feed back into mainstream regulatory activities. The original version, really, was in the United States in the CFPB’s Project Catalyst, which inspired the FCA to build something similar. But it was the UK’s much bigger and bolder effort that then caught the world’s attention and has now inspired several dozen imitators around the world, according to Aspen Institute research. Here is an article I wrote with more on how the program is designed. The FCA itself grew out of the financial crisis, as the UK decided to separate prudential banking oversight from a new entity focused on “conduct.” In some ways the restructure mirrors the U.S. decision to create the CFPB after the crisis, except that the FCA’s remit is not limited to consumer protection. The UK Prudential Regulation Authority is now housed in the Bank of England in the old City, while the FCA inhabits contemporary offices out in Canary Wharf, in an area burgeoning with startups and financial companies converting old warehouses to cool new space. In our talk, Chris describes what the FCA is doing in both the sandbox and the agency’s wider set of innovation initiatives -- and again, what they’re learning so far. He cites the FCA’s advantage over many regulators in having a mandate that includes fostering competition. He debunks some misconceptions about the UK sandbox, including that it waives or dilutes consumer protections. He touches on their work in regtech (a topic we’ll soon return to with the FCA’s regtech head, Nick Cook, in an upcoming show). He talks about the sandbox’s global imitators and also how the UK cooperates directly with other countries to ease the path for their respective innovators. And he shares his concern that if even one of these global sandbox experiments “catches a cold,” we could see a contagious loss of confidence that could undermine regulatory innovation, worldwide. I admire the FCA’s deft mixing of a very high-profile, exciting initiative with, simultaneously, a strong note of humility. They always emphasize that they don’t have all the answers, that they’re just learning as they go. But this, you see, is actually the key. The thing they figured out -- and believe me, it doesn’t come easily to regulators (or to anyone, for that matter) -- is that it’s not going to be possible, anymore, to figure things out before acting, in the way policymakers used to do. Instead, regulatory institutions are going to have to learn to navigate permanent and daunting, technology-driven uncertainty. They won’t have the option to hold still and wait for clarity to materialize...because it won’t. They need to find ways to move ahead iteratively and collaboratively. Testing -- sandboxes and reglabs -- will be essential to that. It’s a huge change, in both process and culture, for both regulators and industry. The sooner everyone starts making this shift, the better. The FCA’s humble tone is right and wise, but my view is that this regulator has shown not only vision, but also courage. They decided to take the risk to strike out in uncharted territory, to begin to blaze a new kind of policy pathway, and they’re inspiring many others to follow them. More on Christopher Woolard: Christopher Woolard is Executive Director of Strategy and Competition, and an Executive Board Member of the Financial Conduct Authority. He’s responsible for policy, strategy, competition, market intelligence, consumer issues, the Chief Economist's department, communications and the Innovate initiative. He is chair of the FCA's Policy Steering Committee and a non-executive board member of the Payment Systems Regulator. Christopher joined the FCA in January 2013. Previously he was Group Director and Content Board member at Ofcom. He has spent most of his career in regulation or policy development including working at the BBC and in government as a senior civil servant. He is a Sloan Fellow of London Business School.   Here are resources and links to items mentioned in the episode: Financial Conduct Authority Website FCA Project Innovate FCA Innovation Hub FCA Regulatory Sandbox FCA Report on Sandbox Results My podcast with Wai-Lum Kwok on Abu Dhabi’s Reglab More for our listeners I’m in the midst of a busy set of travels that will produce some fascinating podcasts. Between November 1 and December 20, I’m traveling to seven countries -- three in Asia, three in Europe, and one in Africa -- to speak on fintech and regtech for both industry and regulators. As I mentioned, we’ll have a podcast with the Nick Cook, who leads the FCA’s innovation work on regtech, recorded at Regtech Enable in Washington. We have one coming up with Wells Fargo’s Braden More on payments innovation. We’ll have Nerd Wallet CEO Tim Chen, and Cross River Bank CEO Gilles Gade. We’ll have one in London with the charismatic CEO of Starling Bank, Anne Boden and with the trade association Innovate Finance, and also a lively discussion with a group of amazing innovators working in Europe and Africa. We’ll have one with Michael Wiegand, who heads the Gates Foundation’s work on financial services for the poor. And back in the U.S., we’ll have a show with Financial Services Roundtable CEO Tim Pawlenty...to name a few! Plus, I’ll be recording a special series straight from the floor of the American Bankers Association conference on financial crimes, in December. I hope to see many of you there and at other upcoming events, including these: S&P’s Fintech Intel, December 13, New York The African Fintech Forum, December 18-19 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast www.africafintechforum.net Dutch Central Bank, December 20, Amsterdam Please remember to review Barefoot Innovation on iTunes, and sign up to get emails that bring you the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts, at jsbarefoot.com. Be sure to follow me on twitter and facebook.  And please send in your “buck a show” to keep Barefoot Innovation going. See you soon! Support our Podcast Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Between November 30 and December 5, 2010, five incidents took place along a coastal stretch of only a few kilometers. At least two sharks were involved, an oceanic whitetip shark and a mako shark. A review is given, together with a most likely scenario leading to those incidents of which one ended fatal.  

Between November 1966 and December of 1967, the Point Pleasant, West Virginia area was plagued by creepy and downright terrifying sightings of a flying humanoid creature. That creature would eventually receive the moniker of Mothman. This series of unexplained sightings culminated in the unexpected collapse of the Silver Bridge which claimed the lives of 46 people. Fast forward to modern day Chicago... There have been numerous sightings of a similar type creature in and around Chicago proper. Is this somewhat of a replay of the events that took place in West Virginia all those years ago? Or is there another explanation. Take a listen to the accounts of these sightings and let us know what you think. Send us feedback or sightings/experiences at one of the following. Email: unexplained.reality@yahoo.com Twitter: @unexp_reality Instagram: unexplained.reality FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Unexplained-Reality-1502717676446840/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClvAy2ounhEeAJ3P1H0F1Jg To Donate to the Podcast --> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/unexplainedreality PayPal: unexplained.reality@yahoo.com

2017-04-03 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.China says the international community must step up efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery in regions of conflict.China&`&s permanent representative to the United Nations made the appeal at a Security Council debate on human trafficking.The envoy said the international community should support countries concerned in combating such criminal activities by providing them with targeted assistance in law enforcement, border control and financial regulation.The envoy said the international community should uphold unified counter-terrorism standards and take coordinated and concerted action to fight against crimes of human trafficking and enslavement.He added that the world need to take an integrated approach with political and economic means to stem the financial flow to terrorist organizations from human trafficking and enslavement so as to dismantle their criminal networks.Human trafficking thrives in regions where conflict prevails and the rule of law is weak. Extremist groups have been capturing and trading enslaved women and children to obtain funding for their terrorist activities.This is Special English.The World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, Director General Francis Gurry has lauded China&`&s strong performance in international patent and trademark filing.Gurry told the press that China&`&s performance has been quite extraordinary. In terms of international patent applications, the number of applications from China rose by 44 percent in one year.The WIPO revealed that China filed 43,000 applications under the organization&`&s patent cooperation treaty last year, up from 30,000 two years ago.This compares to the 56,600 and 45,000 applications filed by the United States and Japan respectively.China&`&s trademark and industrial designs filings, which are handled by WIPO&`&s Madrid and Hague systems, also showed strong growth last year, with China ranking fourth in terms of the number of global trademark applications made in 2016.Gurry explained that China-based filers are behind much of the growth in international patent and trademark filings, making great strides in internationalizing their businesses as the country continues its journey from "Made in China" to "Created in China".While the United States and Japan continue to lead the way in terms of the number of patent applications, growth in China has been sluggish, with the United States posting a 1 percent drop in the number of international patents filed last year.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. A United Nations official says China&`&s aid to the education sector in Africa is helping to boost teacher training, a key component in skilling the population to fast track development.UNESCO&`&s Regional Office for Eastern Africa recognized China&`&s contribution to Africa&`&s education sector over the years.The director of the office said they value the initiative in teacher training in Uganda and other countries in Africa. This will revitalize the teaching profession.Through UNESCO, China donated equipment to three teacher training institutions in Uganda in March. More than 100 tutors were trained and 270 pieces of Information Communication and Technology and studio equipment were donated.The director said tutors were skilled on how to integrate technology with traditional methods of training.China is funding an 8-million-U.S.-dollar project through UNESCO. The project aims at narrowing the educational quality gap on the continent.The project is called "Enhancing Teacher Education for Bridging the Education Quality Gap in Africa". It aims to accelerate progress towards the achievement of Education for All and the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is quality education.The four-year project that started in 2012 focuses on providing a sufficient number of qualified teachers in Africa through training programs.This is Special English.The AG600 amphibious aircraft is expected to make its maiden flight over land in the first half of this year and on water in the second half of 2017.Its developer AVIC said similar in size to the Boeing 737, the AG600 will be the world&`&s largest amphibious aircraft.The state aircraft maker, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, said the the 37-meter AG600 has a wingspan of 40 meters and a maximum take-off weight of 54 tonnes.The aircraft has already received 17 orders due to its multiple uses in fighting forest fires and marine rescue.The first AG600 was completed in the southern city of Zhuhai in July last year, and shown to the public at the 2016 China Airshow.According to a chief designer, the AG600 is like a ship that can fly, due to its advanced gas-water dynamic engineering and underwater corrosion resistance technology.With four China-made turboprop engines, the AG600 has been described as having a "ship&`&s body" with high mounted single-cantilever wing.It can collect 12 tonnes of water in 20 seconds, and transport up to 370 tonnes of water on a single tank of fuel.With excellent maneuverability and a relatively wide range of search scope, the AG600 is very useful in marine resource exploitation, marine environmental monitoring, resource detection and transportation. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. China&`&s domestic underwater glider reached a depth of 6,300 meters during a mission in the Mariana Trench, breaking the previous record of 6,000 meters held by a U.S. vessel.Codenamed Haiyi, which means sea wings in Chinese, the underwater glider was developed by the Shenyang Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is used to monitor the deep-sea environment in vast areas.The Haiyi is carried by deep-sea submarine support ship Tansuo-1. It dived down 12 times and traveled over 130 kilometers during its four-day mission, collecting high-resolution data for scientific research.This is Special English.China aims to build 136 new airports by 2025. That&`&s according to a plan by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Civil Aviation Administration of China.The facilities could become a world-class airport complex of international and regional transport hubs.China began an airport construction boom in 2008 when the government began spending on infrastructure to offset the global financial crisis.Service improved remarkably, but current airports are far from adequate and are unevenly located throughout the country.By the end of 2015, China had 207 civil airports and is expected to have around 260 by 2020.In 2015, China&`&s airports handled 910 million passengers and are expected to deal with 1.5 billion passengers in 2020 and 2.2 billion by 2025.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.HarperCollins Publishers will translate mathematics textbooks from Chinese schools and publish them in Britain.Under an agreement signed at the London Book Fair, some primary schools in Britain will use 36 books, including math textbooks, supplementary textbooks and teacher&`&s textbooks from Shanghai primary schools starting in September.The textbooks will be translated from Chinese into English to deliver a complete math program for primary school students.Apart from publishing textbooks, Britain will also spread the Shanghai Teaching for Mastery Program in the country. It is a four-year program backed by 41 million British pounds in funding announced by the British Department for Education in July 2016.Colin Hughes, Managing Director of Collins Learning, said the collaboration can make a significant contribution to raising young people&`&s mathematics performance, which is essential to their future success in learning and in life.Shanghai students achieved good performances in reading, math and sciences in the Program for International Student Assessment in 2009 and 2012, drawing global attention to education in the Chinese city.A Shanghai-England teacher exchange started in 2014. In September 2014, 73 teachers and educational administrators from 45 English primary schools and relevant departments visited schools in Shanghai. Between November 2014 and March 2015, 61 mathematics teachers and researchers from Shanghai visited 48 English primary schools and performed teaching demonstrations.This is Special English.China is topping the list of students studying the Myanmar language at the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon which attracts many international students.The university said the attraction for the Myanmar language study is due to the fact that Myanmar has good business opportunities in Southeast Asia.The number of overseas students, who take Myanmar language courses for the current academic year at the university reached 250. Chinese students top the list with 112, followed by South Korean, Japanese and Thai students.Meanwhile, almost 400 students are attending the Chinese language course, with 440 others studying English and 600 for Japanese.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. China&`&s tsunami warning center in the South China Sea is expected to start trial operations this year.The work teams of UNESCO&`&S Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, have held a meeting in Shanghai to discuss tsunami alerts in the region.The meeting suggested that this year&`&s session should approve the testing of the center before the end of the year.The meeting also called for collaboration between the new warning center and another two in the Pacific Ocean.An official from China&`&s National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said issuing tsunami alerts to the international community is an important move for China to boost regional marine cooperation and participate in global ocean governance.The meeting also called for improving data sharing by establishing a monitoring network for earthquakes and tsunamis in the South China Sea region.The meeting was attended by representatives of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the U.S. National Weather Service and the Japanese Meteorological Agency.This is Special English.A total of 1,400 people died as a result of infectious diseases on the Chinese mainland in February.According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, there were 486,000 cases of infectious diseases reported on the mainland in February.Almost 280,000 cases were classified as Class B infectious diseases under China&`&s Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, and they resulted in 1,400 deaths.Viral hepatitis, tuberculosis and syphilis accounted for 96 percent of cases in this category.Category C diseases were responsible for more than 207,000 cases and 12 deaths. Infectious diarrhea, foot and mouth disease and influenza were the most prevalent in this category, accounting for 94 percent of cases.This is Special English.Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific has announced its first full-year loss since 2008.The group reported an attributable loss of 575 million HK dollars, roughly 74 million U.S. dollars, for last year.The loss per share was 15 HK cents compared to earnings per share of 153 HK cents in the previous year.The total revenue last year dropped 9 percent to 93 billion HK dollars. The group&`&s passenger revenue last year was 67 billion HK dollars, a decrease of 8 percent from 2015.The group&`&s cargo revenue last year was 26 billion HK dollars, a decrease of 13 percent compared to the previous year.Total fuel costs for Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon, before the effect of fuel hedging, decreased by 5 billion HK dollars compared with 2015.（全文见周六微信。）

Major shifts are predicted take place in our market in 2017, so today I want to relay those shifts and give you an idea of where our market currently stands. Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report What’s been happening in our real estate market lately? Here are four major impending shifts as predicted by the NAR you need to know about:1. First-time buyers will play a big part in home sales in 2017. In fact, one-half of those buyers will be millennials. Today, about 33% of younger first-time buyers comprise the whole buying public. In 2017, it’s projected that 55% of the buying public will be first-time buyers. Of that 55%, about 61% of those first-time buyers will be millennials. 2. Affordability will become a big factor with the onslaught of first-time buyers. In 2016, the big issue for buyers was a lack of inventory. In 2017, the issue will be qualifying for a loan.3. There are three primary attributes buyers will look for in 2017: safe neighborhoods, a larger living space, and a larger yard space.4. Competition for properties in the suburbs will heat up. This means if you’re looking to buy or sell in 2017, it’s important that you get a jump on that action as soon as possible.In light of these impending shifts, I want to provide you with a statistical comparison of the current markets in LA County and Orange County.Competition is heating up for buyers and sellers.In LA County, the median home price is $484,630, which is over a 9% drop between October and December of last year. Year over year, between November 2015 and November 2016, we had a 5.8% increase in median home prices across the board. When you compare the last two years, from November 2014 to November 2016, we had a 25.3% increase in home values. As a whole, LA County has an unsold inventory of 3.3 months. The average days on market for homes sold is at 36 days. In Orange County, the median home price is $734,500, which is actually a 2% drop from October 2016 to November 2016. Year over year, between November 2015 and November 2016, the median home price rose 4.2%. Between November 2014 and November 2016, property values increased by 26%. Coincidentally, Orange County also has an unsold inventory of 3.3 months. The average days on market for homes sold, however, is at 49 days. Obviously, any of these stats would be specific for any micro-markets within either county, but this gives us an idea of where the market in our region stands as these NAR predictions begin to unfold. If you have questions about this topic or any other real estate needs, please feel free to give me a call. I look forward to speaking with you!

This is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.Four Chinese volunteers have concluded their 180-day stay in a sealed space capsule in south China&`&s Shenzhen City, testing technology intended for space exploration.The volunteers, three men and one woman, were selected from 2,100 candidates after the Astronaut Center of China launched a call for volunteers in May last year. They have lived in a sealed capsule with a floor space of 370 square meters for the past 180 days.The project shed light on the physiological effects of a hermetic environment and changes to biological rhythms.The volunteers told the Xinhua News Agency that they were exhausted and had suffered both mentally and physically during the latter part of the test.One of the volunteers said the support and encouragement from colleagues outside motivated them to hold on. Two other volunteers said they practiced Tai chi and read books to keep busy.One of the purposes of the project was designed to test a life support system based on technology used on the Shenzhou spacecraft.Data was collected on the growth of plants during the experiment, as well as the emotional, intellectual and physical condition of the volunteers.This is Special English.A series of awards has been presented in Beijing to people and agencies who have contributed to the development of China&`&s education industry over the past year.The annual awards, called Golden Wings, were launched by Chinese internet technology company NetEase&`&s education channel in 2009. The theme of this year&`&s awards was exploring the future of China&`&s education.Zhou Chenggang, president of New Oriental Education and Technology Group&`&s overseas study consultancy arm Vision Overseas, won the award for outstanding contribution to education.Actress Zhu Yuanyuan won an award for her role in the TV series A Love for Separation, which tells the story of a couple who send their young children away to study overseas. A vice president of NetEase Media and Technology Group said in his keynote speech that China&`&s education system is improving all the time, but is still far from perfect.A senior officer of the Chinese Society of Education said that in an era of rapidly evolving technology, the core of education is still people. He said what is significant is the interaction between teachers and students, as well as the affection between them.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.British education officials expect the benefits of the Shanghai Mastery Model for Teaching and Learning Math to reach about half the primary schools in England as a result of an exchange program now well underway. In the third round of the program that started more than two years ago, some 30 math teachers from Shanghai ended their two-week stay in the United Kingdom, in which they shared their Chinese-style teaching methods in 35 primary schools. In July, the UK government rolled out the Chinese mastery approach to math instruction in more than 8,000 institutions, using funding of up to 41 million pounds, roughly 52 million U.S. dollars, over four years to improve British students&`& performance. Clare Fowler, director of math education policy for England at the UK Department for Education, said teaching methods for math in UK schools have changed a great deal. The exchange program between China and the UK started in September 2014, when 71 British math teachers went to Shanghai to spend time with their exchange partners at high-performing schools and colleges. Between November 2014 and March 2015, more than 120 math teachers from China taught at more than 200 schools in the UK and almost 1,000 British teachers listened to the classes taught by their Shanghai counterparts.This is Special English.Chinese and Israeli research institutes and companies are keen to cooperate on developing medical robots.Nine Israeli companies attending an exposition in Guangzhou have brought with them robotics currently used in spinal surgery and 3D imaging, as well as medicinal dosage handling devices.Israeli Robotics Association Chairperson Zvi Shiller said Israel has developed robots to help the disabled go to the toilet, shower and climb escalators. Israeli firms are actively looking for partners to produce and sell their robots in the Chinese market. More than 40 Chinese companies have shown interest during the expo, while others have pitched business ideas to their Israeli counterparts.One Chinese tech firm is investing heavily in patrol robots. A senior company official said his team have had a hard time overcoming some technological issues two years into the project and are hoping to find Israeli partners.Another Chinese tech company is working to combine speech recognition with health care. The company is working with its major shareholder China Mobile on a series of voice-to-text and text-to-voice applications.In a recent experiment with Peking University, the company designed a voice recognition device for doctors. The device captures the dialogue between doctor and patient and transcribes it into a formal diagnosis report without the doctor lifting a finger.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.China aims to open around 10 national development zones to seek solutions for sustainable growth as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.A plan has been released by the State Council, China&`&s Cabinet. It envisions more coordinated development between economy and society in the zones, with science and technology playing a large role.Specific measures should address the key tasks outlined in the 2030 Agenda, endorsed by the United Nations Summit for Sustainable Development last year.The plan lists prevention of serious and infectious disease, elder care, targeted poverty elimination, and treatment of soil and water as key tasks. Policy support, including financial backing, is promised.The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a blueprint for eradicating poverty worldwide by 2030.By piloting innovative projects in the development zones, China hopes to replicate successes nationwide and offer China&`&s solutions to other countries.This is Special English.Only 9 of 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland have raised the minimum wage level in 2016. This compares to 2015&`&s 27 provincial-level regions that raised the minimum wage by an average of 14 percent.According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Shanghai has the highest minimum monthly wage of 2,200 yuan, roughly 320 U.S. dollars. Beijing tops the hourly minimum wage list by raising its standard to 21 yuan per hour in September.City and provincial governments in China have the authority to set their own minimum wage standards, and are required to adjust the level at least once every two years.China&`&s GDP grew by 6.7 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2016, holding steady with the previous two quarters, but still the slowest growth since the global financial crisis. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That&`&s mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues.A compilation of remarks by Chinese President Xi Jinping on comprehensive and strict governance of the Communist Party of China has been published by the Central Party Literature Press.The book brings together 370 paragraphs from more than 80 sources, including speeches and articles, by Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, between 2012 and 2016.Divided into 10 subjects, the book focuses on topics including ensuring the Party&`&s role as the leader of socialism with Chinese characteristics, firming ideals and beliefs and showing zero tolerance to corruption.Many of the remarks in the book are being published for the first time.The publisher said in a press release that careful study of the remarks will be conducive to understanding the significance of properly governing the Party and grasping its basic requirements and key tasks.Study will also help Party building and ensure the Party can unite and lead the people to new prospects in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. This is Special English.The Ministry of Education has published a tailored curriculum for blind, deaf and intellectually challenged primary and junior high school students to better cater to their needs.This is the first time that China has formulated a specialized curriculum for disabled students since 1949.The curriculum covers 42 subjects, including 18 for blind students, 14 for the deaf and 10 for the intellectually challenged.The content and teaching requirements have all been modified to accommodate disabled students.China published similar documents in the 1990s, although in a more general format.The ministry said the new curriculum meets the requirements for improved special education and will play a major role in facilitating education equality.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.An elite primary school in Beijing has denied allegations of bullying on its campus after an open letter written by a Beijing mother about how her 10-year-old son was bullied at school went viral online. The Zhongguancun Second Primary School said in a statement that the incident was accidental and did not constitute bullying or violence. However, the statement said that the school was sorry for any hurt caused to the student and his parents. The faculty was told by the three students involved that one of them emptied a rubbish bin over the victim from the adjacent cubical, just, in their words, "to tease him", while the third child was watching and laughing. The victim&`&s mother posted an open letter on WeChat, describing how her son had been bullied for almost a year, and that he suffers from acute stress disorder, which is characterized by severe anxiety and depression. The mother&`&s open letter has been shared more than 100,000 times on WeChat, and read more than 6 million times on Weibo within days of being posted. The parents of the "bullied" student are not immediately available for comment on the school&`&s latest statement. This is Special English.Procurators in Beijing have begun criminal proceedings against companies and dozens of individuals implicated in a huge fraud case involving tens of billions of yuan.An online peer-to-peer lending platform, Ezubao, had cheated members of the public out of almost 60 billion yuan, roughly 8.6 billion U.S. dollars, through fake investment projects the company advertised on its website from June 2014 to December 2015.The company defaulted on loans worth almost 38 billion yuan, which lead to the initial investigation.The firm&`&s parent companies along with 10 people will stand trial on charges of fraudulent fund-raising, while 16 other individuals face charges of illegally absorbing public deposits.The defendants were also prosecuted for smuggling precious metals, illegally possessing weapons and undocumented border-crossing.This is Special English.More and more Chinese people have begun to value the superb craftsmanship of historical relics restorers in the Palace Museum, the former imperial palace, in Beijing.This happened especially after Chinese Director Xiao Han&`&s three-episode TV series was released in January.From this Friday, his documentary film "Masters of the Forbidden City" is set to hit the big screen.（全文见周六微信。）

t-Radio recently had the privilege of meeting and speaking with Swedish chef, Jonas Lundren, a renowned master of the culinary arts, a former Bocuse d'Or winner and currently a judge of the Bocuse d'Or competitions around the world. Chef Lundgen boasts over 15 years of experience in some of the most recognized restaurant kitchens from around the world, including the Square in London, Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, The French Laundry in Napa Valley California, Swissotel the Stamford in Singapore, and Bagatelle in Oslo as head chef for more than 3 years. After more than 10 years abroad, he decided to completely focus on the Bocuse d'Or, widely regarded as the most prestigious competition for chefs, winning a Silver medal in 2009. Between November 2011 and June 2014 he ran Restaurant Jonas and Jonas Food & Wine Bar in Stockholm, before moving on to work with the restaurant Yolo in Djursholm.

Our consumption-based economy relies on the linear production cycle (cradle to grave), which has been made possible because of seemingly inexhaustible supplies of inexpensive energy and inexpensive raw materials, and our indifference to pollution and waste. The downside of a linear production cycle is the creation of a “throw-away society” that disposes vast quantities of valuable resources prematurely in landfills and incinerators. While there has been some progress in diverting resources away from disposal through pollution controls and a shift toward the circular production cycle (cradle to cradle), we continue to landfill the majority of the “underused” waste we create. Simultaneously, we mine and harvest virgin raw materials that require processing and energy. The combination is a highly unsustainable practice. The costs of raw materials and landfill disposal have increased, which has reignited interest in landfill mining to recover the resource value of underused waste lying in landfills. However, technological barriers have until recently made landfill mining prohibitively expensive. Using onsite technological innovations, Maine’s ecomaine has become the first American landfill mining operation to profitably recover post-burn metals. ecomaine’s 20-acre ash monofill received approximately 800,000 tons of ash from its waste-to-energy plant between 1988 and 2009. Between November 2011 and November 2013, 22,000 tons of metals were recovered from over 220,000 tons of ash, and sent offsite for resmelting. Over 10,500 cubic yards of material has been removed from the monofill, thereby increasing available physical space and avoiding future expansion costs. With more than 6,000 former and 1,900 current landfills in the US, the landfill mining potential is substantial and it is possible that the results of this project can be applied to other sites.

Between November and December, 2008, Grand Valley's Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies held two conferences -- one in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one in Washington, D.C. -- exploring the legacy and lessons of the George W. Bush presidency. The conference included keynote addresses by Rufus Fears (University of Oklahoma), John Burke (University of Vermont), Stephen J. Wayne (Georgetown University), and Kasey Pipes (Former Bush speech writer); and panel presentations by Louis Fisher (Library of Congress), Brian Flanagan (Grand Valley State University), Karen Hult (Virginia Tech University), Dale Herspring (Kansas State University), Thomas Keck (Syracuse University), Michael Nelson (Rhodes College), Mark Rozell (George Mason University), Mitch Sollenberger (University of Michigan-Dearborn), Charles Walcott (Virginia Tech University), and Gleaves Whitney (Grand Valley State University).

Between November and December, 2008, Grand Valley's Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies held two conferences -- one in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one in Washington, D.C. -- exploring the legacy and lessons of the George W. Bush presidency. The conference included keynote addresses by Rufus Fears (University of Oklahoma), John Burke (University of Vermont), Stephen J. Wayne (Georgetown University), and Kasey Pipes (Former Bush speech writer); and panel presentations by Louis Fisher (Library of Congress), Brian Flanagan (Grand Valley State University), Karen Hult (Virginia Tech University), Dale Herspring (Kansas State University), Thomas Keck (Syracuse University), Michael Nelson (Rhodes College), Mark Rozell (George Mason University), Mitch Sollenberger (University of Michigan-Dearborn), Charles Walcott (Virginia Tech University), and Gleaves Whitney (Grand Valley State University).

Between November and December, 2008, Grand Valley's Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies held two conferences -- one in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one in Washington, D.C. -- exploring the legacy and lessons of the George W. Bush presidency. The conference included keynote addresses by Rufus Fears (University of Oklahoma), John Burke (University of Vermont), Stephen J. Wayne (Georgetown University), and Kasey Pipes (Former Bush speech writer); and panel presentations by Louis Fisher (Library of Congress), Brian Flanagan (Grand Valley State University), Karen Hult (Virginia Tech University), Dale Herspring (Kansas State University), Thomas Keck (Syracuse University), Michael Nelson (Rhodes College), Mark Rozell (George Mason University), Mitch Sollenberger (University of Michigan-Dearborn), Charles Walcott (Virginia Tech University), and Gleaves Whitney (Grand Valley State University).

Between November and December, 2008, Grand Valley's Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies held two conferences -- one in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one in Washington, D.C. -- exploring the legacy and lessons of the George W. Bush presidency. The conference included keynote addresses by Rufus Fears (University of Oklahoma), John Burke (University of Vermont), Stephen J. Wayne (Georgetown University), and Kasey Pipes (Former Bush speech writer); and panel presentations by Louis Fisher (Library of Congress), Brian Flanagan (Grand Valley State University), Karen Hult (Virginia Tech University), Dale Herspring (Kansas State University), Thomas Keck (Syracuse University), Michael Nelson (Rhodes College), Mark Rozell (George Mason University), Mitch Sollenberger (University of Michigan-Dearborn), Charles Walcott (Virginia Tech University), and Gleaves Whitney (Grand Valley State University).

Between November and December, 2008, Grand Valley's Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies held two conferences -- one in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one in Washington, D.C. -- exploring the legacy and lessons of the George W. Bush presidency. The conference included keynote addresses by Rufus Fears (University of Oklahoma), John Burke (University of Vermont), Stephen J. Wayne (Georgetown University), and Kasey Pipes (Former Bush speech writer); and panel presentations by Louis Fisher (Library of Congress), Brian Flanagan (Grand Valley State University), Karen Hult (Virginia Tech University), Dale Herspring (Kansas State University), Thomas Keck (Syracuse University), Michael Nelson (Rhodes College), Mark Rozell (George Mason University), Mitch Sollenberger (University of Michigan-Dearborn), Charles Walcott (Virginia Tech University), and Gleaves Whitney (Grand Valley State University).