Podcasts about between november

After the shocking news that a longtime, now-former Fresno Art Council employee stole $1.5 million in taxpayer funds, the Fresno art community is voicing its outrage, knowing that dollars dedicated to funding their projects are now corrupted. Mayor Dyer and City Council leadership released a statement regarding the missing funds. The Clovis City Council approved to display the national motto ''in God we Trust'' in the council chambers. Between November and December of last year a community survey was conducted on the proposal. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Philip Teresi on KMJ' on all platforms: --- Philip Teresi on KMJ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. -- Philip Teresi on KMJ Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | Podcast | Amazon | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After the shocking news that a longtime, now-former Fresno Art Council employee stole $1.5 million in taxpayer funds, the Fresno art community is voicing its outrage, knowing that dollars dedicated to funding their projects are now corrupted. Mayor Dyer and City Council leadership released a statement regarding the missing funds. The Clovis City Council approved to display the national motto ''in God we Trust'' in the council chambers. Between November and December of last year a community survey was conducted on the proposal. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Philip Teresi on KMJ' on all platforms: --- Philip Teresi on KMJ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. -- Philip Teresi on KMJ Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | Podcast | Amazon | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello everyone, a big thanks to all of you who joined the patreon and voted for this to be the next episode, you all are awesome. This is a part 2 about Hirohito's responsibility during the wars of 1931-1945, so if you have not heard part 1, perhaps go do so, or maybe you just don't care about 1931-1940 and just want to hear about the 1941-1945 period, hell by all means enjoy.   So last time we kind of left it on a bit of a dramatic cliff hanger. I spoke about Emperor Hirohito's involvement in what was called at the time the “China Incident”. It was not an official declared war until December of 1941. We left off in 1940, Hirohito was struggling with a situation of juggling two things: 1) how the hell to finally end the China War 2) how to do it without receiving horrible ramifications from the international world. On July 22nd of 1940, Konoe was back and formed a second cabinet. Notably General Hideki Tojo went from vice to army Minister during this time. If you guys ever want a podcast on Hideki Tojo, let me know, he is one rather bizarre figure that's for sure. Konoe tackled his job by holding an imperial HQ government liaison conference. For 90 minutes everyone worked on a new national policy designed to exploit the international situation, IE: Germany bulldozing europe.  The result was a document on national policy dated July 27th. It shifted focus to the “southern area” IE: southeast asia and the Pacific if the China war did not end quickly. Its basis was to exploit the foreign nations that had their hands full in europe, France, Britain and the Netherlands. It called for an invasion of French Indochina to establish bases to launch assaults against the Dutch East Indies for natural resources if diplomatic means failed. It acknowledged if the Dutch East Indies were seized through military means, Japan would also seek to fight Britain, but not the US, instead Japan would prepare for a possible war with the Americans. To all of this Hirohito approved. The army also kept pressuring its desire to ally with Germany. Throughout 1939-1940 Hirohito rejected this idea, not because of any ideological differences, it was because of Germans anti aggression pact with the USSR. If Japan were to ally to Germany, Hirohito wanted it to be mutually to fight the USSR. The Navy likewise opposed allying to Germany because they believed it would force Britain and the US to increase their aid to Chiang Kai-shek.   However the Blitzkrieg changed everything. Everyone was shocked at how well Germany was doing. Prince Chichibu repeatedly argued with Hirohito to change his mind over the alliance idea. Then suddenly the Navy changed their mind and began favoring an alliance. This changed came about in June of 1940 when the France fell. The Navy changed their mind based on a few factors, a major component was the belief if Germany and the USSR were allied, than at least Japan would not have to worry about the USSR and could focus on the pacific. Both the IJA and the IJN believed Hitler would soon take Britain and thus there was a huge desire to join the new international order on the winning side. A third factor was a new clause in negotiations with Germany and Japan, that if they allied Japan would not automatically be drawn into a war with Britain against her will. Some in the navy also believed perhaps Germany could help their diplomatic situation with the Americans. So the army and navy were now both demanding an alliance with Germany, it was all up to hirohito.    At an imperial briefing on June 19th of 1940, Hirohito asked chief of staff Prince Kan'in and the Army Minister Hata “At a time when peace will soon come in the European situation, will there be a deployment of troops to the Netherlands Indies and French Indochina?” Such as question revealed Hirohito's perception at the time that Germany was on the verge of victory and that he was gradually considering the deployment of troops in French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies as neither parent nation were in a position to defend their holdings. In regards to the China war, the Japanese sought to end leaks of materials getting into China from places like Hong Kong. Hirohito received reports indicated Britain would not accept closing the movement of materials into China via Hong Kong. The military acknowledged it would probably be required to invade Hong Kong and thus declare war on Britain. Upon hearing of this Hirohito remarked “Should that happen, I am sure America will use the method of an embargo, don't you agree?” To this his lord of the privy seal, Kido reassured him stating “the nation must be fully resolved to resist to proceed cautiously and not to be dragged into events precipitated by the overseas agencies”. Konoe's second cabinet resolved to end the China war, construct a new order in greater east asia and to complete war preparations as a national defense state. On July 27th at a liaison conference a document was adopted, affirming a course of advancing to the south and to ally with Germany. Japan would incorporate the Dutch East Indies, British Malaya and other resource rich areas of Southeast Asia into its new order while simultaneously bolstering its relationship with the Axis states. After hearing and reading everything, Hirohito sanctioned it all. Thus Hirohito had sanctioned the preliminary actions that would set Japan into a collision course with the US.   In September Japan began sending troops into northern French Indochina after concluding its Tripartite alliance with Germany and Italy. Now Hirohito was briefed beforehand by Army Minister Tojo and other chiefs of staff about securing bases in northern French indochina. Hirohito agreed to this under the belief acquiring such bases would stop more leaked materials going into China and thus contribute to the fall of Chongqing. But Hirohito also sanctioned it under the full knowledge it was preparing the Nanshin-ron advance and that carried a risk of going to war with Britain and by proxy the US. Naturally he wanted to thwart any war breaking out with the US by it seems his officials had convinced him they could manage most of their plans without aggravating the US.   On July 29th with the German offensive aimed at finishing off Britain, Hirohito summoned his chiefs and vice chiefs of staff to the imperial HQ. He began to question the prospects of war with the US. Prince Fushimi replied “[u]nless we complete our domestic preparations, particularly the preparation of our material resources, I do not think we should lightly start war even if there is a good opportunity to do so.” Hirohito then asked if  “the Army were planning to occupy points in India, Australia, and New Zealand.” But overall Hirohito seemed to be the most concerned about the US, Germany and the USSR. “Could Japan, obtain a victory in a naval battle with the United States as we once did in the Battle of the Japan Sea? . . . I heard that the United States will ban exports of oil and scrap iron [to Japan]. We can probably obtain oil from other sources, but don't you think we will have a problem with scrap iron?” In regards to the USSR “If a Japan-Soviet nonaggression treaty is made and we advance to the south, the navy will become the main actor. Has the army given thought to reducing the size of its forces in that case? . . . How do you assess the future national power of Germany? . . . Both Germany and the Soviet Union are untrustworthy countries. Don't you think there will be a problem if one of them betrays us and takes advantage of our exhaustion fighting the United States?I]t seems as though you people are thinking of implementing this plan by force because there is a good opportunity at this moment for resolving the southern problem even though some dangers are involved. . . . What does a good opportunity mean? [To this question Sawada replied: “For example, if a German landing in England commences.”] In that case wouldn't the United States move to aid Britain? . . . Well, I've heard enough. I take it, in short, that you people are trying to resolve the southern problem by availing yourselves of today's good opportunities.”   You can tell Hirohito understood the very real threat of an Anglo-American alliance and was very cautious. It seemed to Hirohito, that his officials were trying to take the limelight off the abysmal situation in China but emphasizing a southern advance. Well Americans response to the Japanese movement into northern French indochina was to see it as a direct threat. Something I have not paid much attention to was Hirohito's decision making being the direct result of trying to mediate between competing entities, ie: the IJA and IJN. At this point in time the IJA and IJN top officials had the power to simply stop governmental functions from occurring altogether whenever they were displeased with a decision. As you can imagine the IJA and IJN were also competing for resources and political power. Thus Hirohito spent a lot of time and effort trying to formulate decisions that at a minimum kept the governance going.    In the end Hirohito sanctioned Imperial HQ army order number 458, ordering the area army to begin the entry into French Indochina. Thus once again Hirohito sanctioned aggression aboard. America began what it called a “moral embargo” on aircraft parts, scrap iron and aviation gasoline. This was one of many gradual steps America took to incrementally sanction Japan, while aiding China to keep it bogged down. Japan's direct response was joining the Axis with a clause “to assist one another with all political, economic and military means if attacked by a power at present not involved in the European War or in the Sino-Japanese conflict”. This clause was designed specifically to check Britain and the US. Hirohito knew this was a turning point carrying the possibility of war with the US. Later he would blame some officials and even his brothers Chichibu and Takamatsu, but not his own actions sanctioning the Axis pact.    Speaking of his brothers, at this time Chichibu got severely ill with tuberculosis and as a result retired from active public life, now Prince Takamatsu stood as next regent. Thus Takamatsu would begin reading reports and advise Hirohito. Takamatsu like Chichibu approved the Tripartite Pact and found his brother Hirohito's performance lacking. Meanwhile Britain responded to the Tripartite pact by opening up the Burma road and America made a loan to Chiang Kai-shek.   The Soviets came to Japan for a neutrality pact and sweetened the deal by offering Soviet coal and oil concessions in North Sakhalin. Hirohito ratified the treaty on April 25th of 1941. 5 weeks later on June 5th, the Japanese ambassador to Berlin, General Oshima Hiroshi reported to Hirohito and the high command that Hitler was about to invade the Soviets. The Army high command sprang into action drafting plans to open a war with the Soviets while simultaneously advancing south into French Indochina. But many in the military also sought to wait until the time was ripe, and a rift emerged. Operation barbarossa commenced and on June 23rd the IJN high command gave their opinion that Japan should seize all military bases and airfields in southern French Indochina even at the risk of war with Britain and America. Can you say boy that escalated quickly?   There was obvious temptation to invade Siberia towards Lake Baikal, but at the same time the western powers were tightening sanctions on Japan, she needed resources. At this point Japan had been stuck in China for 4 years and 5 months, the army had expanded from 17 divisions totalling 250,000 men in july of 1937 to 51 divisions at 2.1 million men in December 8th of 1941. On July 2nd, 10 tens into Operation barbarossa, Konoe summoned an imperial conference to debate actions going forward. The consensus was that southern French Indochina needed to be taken and that it probably would not provoke the US going to war with Japan. Hirohito sanctioned it and on July 30th made a major operational intervention by advising General Sugiyama to build up forces in Manchukuo to prevent the Soviet Far Eastern Army.   Japan negotiated with Vichy France to allow Japanese troops to occupy southern parts of French Indochina. What was to be originally just 40,000 IJA forces turned into 185,000 and in response America increased sanctions and began preparing the Philippines for war. Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the US on July 26th and by August the 1st a total embargo of oil and gasoline exports to Japan. Konoe's cabinet, the military high command, pretty much everyone was shocked by how harsh the economic sanctions were. Emperor Hirohito told Sugiyama to halt mobilizing forces in Manchukuo and the army basically dropped all plans of attacking the USSR. A month after the US oil embargo suddenly the army had changed its mind to go all in on the southern advance. Britain likewise began sanctions against Japan and both Britain and the US managed to convince the Dutch to follow suit by refusing to sell oil to Japan. The Dutch even took it a step further and followed Americans lead in freezing Japanese assets.    Konoe was in full panic mode, be believed his ambassador to washington was a moron and sought to go in person to speak to Roosevelt. At 11:40am on August 4th Konoe spoke to Hirohito about the plan, but Washington kept making up excuses prolonging any meeting from taking place. Meanwhile Washington was building up its navy, and the IJN were stressing, in the words of Admiral Takagai “As time passes and this situation continues, our empire will either be totally defeated or forced to fight a hopeless war. Therefore we should pursue war and diplomacy together. If there is no prospect of securing our final line of national survival by diplomatic negotiations, we must be resolved to fight.” Hirohito understood the predicament full well, that each day Japan was wasting its oil reserves, if they were to strike it had to be quickly.    On september 3rd at a liaison conference it was decided Japan was to prepare for a war against the US, UK and Netherlands while simultaneously pursuing diplomacy. If diplomacy failed by early October the decision for war would be made. Konoe presented everything to Hirohito on September 5th and requested an imperial conference on the matter. The most important decision of his life was about to be made.    Now take a second to feel the moment. Germany's invasion of the USSR was in its 6th week and not producing a decisive victory; Britain was still in the fight and the Japanese ambassador to London reported back Britain would allow Japan to maintain its great power status and exert influence in asia if they stayed out of the European War and “re-examined their current policy”. An olive branch. Hirohito had options is what I am arguing. He could stale things, he could mobilize units into Manchukuo to simply threaten the Soviet border, he could simply stay out of new wars, even it the China war would get worse, but try to profit from the situation in Europe. He could stop the southern advance, lose the chance to seize the resource in southeast asia, but perhaps the US, UK and Netherlands would lift some sanctions.   After speaking back and forth with Konoe while scolding Sugiyama here is a bit of their conversation:    Emperor: In the event we must finally open hostilities, will our operations have a probability of victory?  Sugiyama: Yes, they will.  Emperor: At the time of the China Incident, the army told me that we could achieve peace immediately after dealing them one blow with three divisions. Sugiyama, you were army minister at that time. . . .  Sugiyama: China is a vast area with many ways in and many ways out, and we met unexpectedly big difficulties. . . . [ellipses in original]  Emperor: Didn't I caution you each time about those matters? Sugiyama, are you lying to me? Nagano: If Your Majesty will grant me permission, I would like to make a statement.  Emperor: Go ahead.  Nagano: There is no 100 percent probability of victory for the troops stationed there. . . . Sun Tzu says that in war between states of similar strength, it is very difficult to calculate victory. Assume, however, there is a sick person and we leave him alone; he will definitely die. But if the doctor's diagnosis offers a seventy percent chance of survival, provided the patient is operated on, then don't you think one must try surgery? And if, after the surgery, the patient dies, one must say that was meant to be. This indeed is the situation we face today. . . . If we waste time, let the days pass, and are forced to fight after it it is too late to fight, then we won't be able to do a thing about it.  Emperor: All right, I understand. [He answered in a better mood.]  Konoe: Shall I make changes in tomorrow's agenda? How would you like me to go about it? Emperor: There is no need to change anything.   There is no need to change anything. Konoe grabbed Hirohito for a private audience afterwards and tried to get Hirohito to revise the outline, but Hirohito ignored this. Hirohito at that point could have stopped or at least slowed down the countdown to all out war. Hirohito instead did not want to displease the pro-war factions in his military, perhaps he saw them as a threat to his authority. Hirohito was not at all pleased with the policy plan. When he was shown in on september 5th, he looked extremely irritated and blew up on Sugiyama and the army high command as a whole. 20 minutes before the Imperial conference on September 6th, Hirohito spoke with his lord of the privy Kido and told him he was going to raise some questions at the meeting. Kido told him that it would be best to leave the questions at the very end, basically he was advising to allow for things to go through. Thus Hirohito sat through the meeting and sanction the preparations for war. Here is a conversation between Hirohito and the Chiefs of the general staff:   Emperor: You may go ahead and mobilize. But if the Konoe-Roosevelt talks go well, you'll stop, won't you?  Chief of the General Staff: Indeed, your majesty, we will.  Emperor: I will ask you one more time: Is there any possibility that the north [that is, the Soviet Union] may move against us while we are engaged in the south [emphasis added]?  Chief of the General Staff: I cannot say that will absolutely not occur. However, because of the season it is inconceivable that large forces will be able to attack us   Meanwhile Konoe's deadline to reach a diplomatic resolution with the US was fast approaching. On October 13th Hirohito told Kido “In the present situation there seems to be little hope for the Japan–U.S. negotiations. If hostilities erupt this time, I think I may have to issue a declaration of war.” The next day Konoe held his last cabinet meeting and Army minister Tojo took the lionshare of talking:   For the past six months, ever since April, the foreign minister has made painstaking efforts to adjust relations [with the United States.] Although I respect him for that, we remain deadlocked. . . . Our decision was “to start the war . . . if by early October we cannot thoroughly achieve our demands through negotiations.” Today is the fourteenth. . . . We are mobilizing hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Others are being moved from China and Manchuria, and we have requisitioned two million tons of ships, causing difficulties for many people. As I speak ships are en route to their destinations. I would not mind stopping them, and indeed would have to stop them, if there was a way for a diplomatic breakthrough. . . . The heart of the matter is the [imposition on us of] withdrawal [from Indochina and China]. ...If we yield to America's demands, it will destroy the fruits of the China Incident. Manchukuo will be endangered and our control of Korea undermined   And so Konoe resigned two days later, but before he did his last official action was to recommend Prince Higashikuni to succeed him, in fact he got Tojo to do the same. Prince Higashikuni was deemed capable of controlling both the Army and Navy. And what did Hirohito say to this? He said no, and appointed Hideki Tojo. Why? As going back to the beginning of this series, to protect the Kokutai. He did not want a member of the royal family to hold the seat as Prime Minister during a time when war might be declared, a war that Japan might lose, which would toss the responsibility onto the imperial house. It was a threat to the Kokutai. Hirohito chose Tojo because Tojo was 100% loyal subject to the emperor. Tojo was the perfect fall guy if one ever existed.    Between November 8-15th, Hirohito received a full rundown of the Pearl Harbor surprise attack plan and sanctioned it. The deadline to reach a diplomatic solution with the US was set for midnight December 1st.    Hirohito ever since the Mukden Incident had expressed fear that not taking warlike actions, not pumping up the kokutai or not suppressing dissent would jeopardize the imperial system of government and damage the imperial institution itself. For Hirohito domestic conflicts were more dangerous than external ones, because they carried the risk of eroding the monarchy. As the time approached for his finally decision on declaring war, Hirohito requested a last round of discussion. The carriers enroute to Pearl harbor departed on november 27th, while on December 1st, 19 leaders, the entire Tojo cabinet and Emperor met. Tojo pulled a rather cheeky maneuver, he reported the response from America, the famous Hull note by stating “the United States . . . has demanded that we withdraw troops from all of China [emphasis added],” but in fact, Hull had used only the word “China.” Hara asked “I would like to know,whether Manchukuo is included in the term ‘China'? Did our two ambassadors confirm this point?” Togo's reply to this was “However . . . the American proposal [early in the negotiations on] April 16 stated that they would recognize the state of Manchukuo, so Manchukuo would not be part of China. . . . On the other hand . . . there has been a change in their position . . . they look upon Chungking as the one and only legitimate regime, and . . . they want to destroy the Nanking regime, [so] they may retract what they have said previously” A nonsensical gibberish answer, intentionally done to make everyone think America did in fact include Manchukuo, thus forcing everyone to see the demands as impossible to comply with. Togo finished the meeting : “Once His Majesty decides to commence hostilities, we will all strive to meet our obligations to him, bring the government and the military ever closer together, resolve that the nation united will go on to victory, make an all-out effort to achieve our war aims, and set his majesty's mind at ease. I now adjourn the meeting.” Hirohito simply nodded. Sugiyama remarked that the emperor did not show the slightest sign of anxiety, in fact he looked like he was in a good mood.   Hirohito's naval aid Jo Eiichiro wrote minutes on the first day of the pacific war, recording the emperors actions. 4 A.M. (Japan time): Japan issued a final ultimatum to the United States. 3:30 A.M.: the Hawaiian surprise attack was successful. 5:30 A.M.: Singapore bombed. Great results. Air attacks on Davao, Guam, Wake. 7:10 A.M.: All the above was reported to the emperor. The American gunboat Wake was captured on the Shanghai front. The British gunboat Petrel was sunk. From 7:15 to 7:30 the chief of the Navy General Staff reported on the war situation. At 7:30 the prime minister informally reported to the emperor on the imperial rescript declaring war. (Cabinet meeting from 7 A.M.). At 7:35 the chief of the Army General Staff reported on the war situation. At 10:45 the emperor attended an emergency meeting of the privy council. At 11:00 A.M. the imperial rescript declaring war was promulgated. 11:40 A.M. Hirohito conferred with Kido for about twenty minutes.] At 2:00 P.M. the emperor summoned the army and navy ministers and bestowed an imperial rescript on them. The army minister, representing both services, replied to the emperor. [At 3:05 P.M. the emperor had a second meeting with Kido, lasting for about twenty minutes.] At 4:30 P.M. the chiefs of staff formally reported on the draft of the Tripartite (Germany-Italy-Japan) Military Pact. At 8:30 P.M. the chief of the Navy General Staff reported on the achievements of the Hawaii air attack. . . . Throughout the day the emperor wore his naval uniform and seemed to be in a splendid mood.   Hirohito believed Germany would win, thus if with their help he believed Japan could thwart off the US until a negotiated peace. Having made his choice, Hirohito devoted himself to presiding over and guiding the war to victory at all costs. He was a extremely cautious person, every single campaign he looked for what could go wrong, made worse case scenario predictions and was very suspicious of reports from his high officials. He was notably very harsh and critical on said high commanders. Although he did not visit the war theaters as did other commanders in chief, he exercised and controlled influence on theater operations, both in the planning and execution whenever he chose to do so. As was the same case with the China war before it, he issued the highest military orders of the Imperial HQ, performed audited conferences and led to decisions transmitted in his name. He received generals and admirals to the imperial palace who gave full reports of the battlefront. He visited bases, battleships, various army and naval headquarters. He inspected military schools, you know the full shebang.    After 26 months of war, the naval air force had lost 26,006 aircraft, nearly a third of its total power, thousands of veteran pilots were dead. Hundreds of thousands of tons of warship was sunk, the merchant and transport fleet was crippled. Late 1943 saw the Americans turning the initiative of the war, Japan was on the defensive. Guadalcanal had been the major turning point. During the staled battle for the philippines, Hirohito pressed upon Army chief of staff Sugiyama to increase troop strength to knock out Bataan. The problem persisted, on February 9th and 26th Hirohito pressed Sugiyama again about getting more troops to take Bataan.   Hirohito was confronted with the prisoner of war issue after the doolittle raid. When the pilots were caught, Togo initially opposed executions, but many in the IJA sought all 8 men executed. Hirohito chose to intervene and commuted the execution of 5 out of the 8. Why just 5, no one knows to this day, but its theorized it was to demonstrate his benevolence while simultaneously giving a bit of what the army wanted.    The CBI theater took the lionshare of his attention in 1942, he continuously pressed up Sugiyama when a final blow would be delivered against Chongqing. When the Midway disaster occurred, Hirohito was given a full report of what happened, but he chose to hid the extent of the loss from the IJA. In fact in response to the Guadalcanal campaign he was heard once asking “I wonder if this is not the start of the AmericanBritish counteroffensive?” He urged his commanders to increase offensive activities and to toss all weapons possible at the enemy, because Japan needed more time to secure its reserves of vital oil, rubber and iron. When he heard the first report of the Ichiki detachment being wiped out, he simply stated “I am sure it [Guadalcanal] can be held.” With numerous reports pouring in about the men dying from tropical disease and starvation, Hirohito kept demanding greater efforts from them. Hirohito continuously applied pressure on his naval and land commanders to recapture the island. On September 15th, November 5th and November 11th he called for more IJA troops and aircraft to be allocated to it. Sugiyama was nervous about sending more IJA pilots as they were inexperienced in transoceanic combat and he sought to reinforce the north china army to hit Chongqing. Hirohito demanded it a second time and Sugiyama replied the IJA had deployed its air power instead to New Guinea and Rabaul. Hirohito continuously hammered the issue despite the high level commanders disagreeing with it. By late november it was clear guadalcanal was a lost cause.    At an imperial HQ conference on December 31st of 1942, the chiefs of staff reported they would cancel the attempts to recapture guadalcanal. Hirohito sanctioned it but stated “It is unacceptable to just give up on capturing Guadalcanal. We must launch an offensive elsewhere.” Hirohito forced the issue and it was decided the new strategic points would be in the solomons north of New Georgia and the Stanley range on New Guinea. Hirohito in fact threatened not to authorize the withdrawal of men from Guadalcanal until such a plan was made. Hirohito would go on to oppose the withdrawal from the Munda airfield on New Georgia since it contradicted the new defensive line. As the defensive perimeter in the central and northern solomons was crumbling, Hirohito continued to demand the navy fight decisive battles to regain the initiative so ships could begin transports supplies to the countless soldiers trapped on islands without them. When Hirohito heard of the navy's failure to reinforce Lae on March 3rd he stated  “Then why didn't you change plans immediately and land at Madan? This is a failure, but it can teach us a good lesson and become a source of future success. Do this for me so I can have peace of mind for awhile.” “Do this for me” would become his signature message.    In August of 1943 as the fall of the solomons progressed, Hirohito lambasted “Isn't there someplace where we can strike the United States? . . . When and where on earth are you [people] ever going to put up a good fight? And when are you ever going to fight a decisive battle?Well, this time, after suffering all these defeats, why don't you study how not to let the Americans keep saying ‘We won! We won!'[emphasis added]”” Hirohito berated his chiefs of staff and in the face of mounting defeats he remained undismayed, rigidly self disciplined and aggressive as ever. When he received a report on September 21st of 1943 that the allies were heading for Finschhafen he replied “Being ready to defend isn't enough. We have to do the attacking.”   When the Americans destroyed the main naval anchorage at Truk forcing the navy to evacuate it, leaving behind numerous tanks, the dream of fighting one great decisive naval battle in the central pacific was over.    On February 21st of 1944, Hirohito took the unprecedented action to force Sugiyama to resign so Tojo could assume his position, alongside that of army minister and prime minister. He did this to end dissent. Hirohito and Tojo oversaw the haymaker attempts in 1944, like operation Ichi-go and the Imphal campaign fall into ruins. It looked like the Philippines, Taiwan, Okinawa, the Bonin islands and eventually the home islands would be invaded. When Saipan fell, the home islands had at last come into range of the dreaded B-29 Super flying fortresses. Hirohito had warned Tojo “If we ever lose Saipan, repeated air attacks on Tokyo will follow. No matter what it takes, we have to hold there.” For two days his chiefs of staff explained the dire situation on Saipan was hopeless, but Hirohito ignored their advice and ordered Admiral Shimada to recapture it, the first department of the navy general staff immediately poured themselves into the problem. Day and night they worked, until a draft plan was created on June 21st, 3 days later the combined fleet gave opposition. Tojo and Shimada formally reported to Hirohito the recapture plan needed to be canceled. Hirohito refused to accept the loss of Saipan and ordered his chief aide General Hasunuma to convene in his presence the board of field marshals and fleet admirals. They all met on the 25th, upon which they all unanimously stated the reports indicating Saipan was a lost cause were valid, Hirohito simply told them to put it in writing and he left the room.    Hirohito finally decided to withdraw his support of Tojo, allowing Tojo's numerous enemies to take down his cabinet on July 18th 1944. But Hirohito was undaunted in determination to steal victory from the allies. Imperial HQ on October 18th ordered a decisive naval battle and the battle of Leyte Gulf was it. After the war Hirohito would go on the record stating “Contrary to the views of the Army and Navy General Staffs, I agreed to the showdown battle of Leyte thinking that if we attacked at Leyte and America flinched, then we would probably be able to find room to negotiate.” This statement shows the facts as they were, Hirohito and his chiefs of staff forced the field commander, General Tomoyuki Yamashita to engage the American invasion force in a place Yamashita did not want to fight nor prepared adequate defenses. It was a horrible loss.   The Kamikaze attacks increased as Japan's desperation wore on. On new years day of 1945 Hirohito inspected the special last meal rations given to departing kamikaze units. Iwo Jima fell. Okinawa remained, and Hirohito lashed out “Is it because we failed to sink enemy transports that we've let the enemy get ashore? Isn't there any way to defend Okinawa from the landing enemy forces?”  On the second day of Okinawa's invasion Hirohito ordered a counter landing by the 32nd army and urged the navy to counterattack in every way possible. It was a horrible failure, it cost the lives of up to 120,000 Japanese combatants, 170,000 noncombatants. The Americans lost 12,500 killed and 33,000 wounded. An absolute bloodbath.    Konoe re-entered the stage writing to Hirohito pleading with him to order a surrender because from his perspective “The Soviet Union is Japan's biggest threat. Defeat was inevitable, but more to be feared than defeat was the destruction of the Kokutai. Sue quickly for peace, before a Communist revolution occurred that would make preservation of the kokutai impossible”. Hirohito was taken aback by this, as he shared his military's hope that the Soviets would help Japan reach a peace settlement. So he rejected the advice of Konoe. Hirohito remarked “If we hold out long enough in this war, we may be able to win, but what worries me is whether the nation will be able to endure it until then.” Then Japan's intelligence units reported the Soviets were going to break the neutrality pact and join the war once the Germans were done. Meanwhile Tokyo was turned to rubble on March 9th 1945 by 334 B-29's dropping firebombs, 40% of the capital was destroyed, up to 100,000 were dead. Hirohito remained undaunted. 60 Japanese cities were leveled by firebomb campaigns. Europe's war finished. Then the battle for Okinawa was lost, suddenly Hirohito began looking for ways to end the war.   On June 22nd Hirohito personally informed the supreme war leadership council his desire to see diplomatic maneuvers to end the war. A special envoy was sent to Moscow, while Hirohito publicly issued an imperial rescript ordering the nation “to smash the inordinate ambitions of the enemy nations and achieve the goals of the war”. B-29's began dropping leaflets with joint declarations issued by the US, UK and China requesting the citizens of Japan demand their government surrender. Prefectural governors, police chiefs and officers began submitting home ministry reports on the rapid deterioration of the nations spirit.   Germany signed the unconditional surrender documents on May 7th and 8th of 1945, Japan was alone. Newly installed President Truman declared on May 8th, Japan's surrender would not mean the extermination or enslavement of the Japanese people, but the unconditional surrender principles remained unaltered. The Japanese meanwhile were awaiting word from the Soviets. The Americans unleashed their first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th of 1945 killing up to 140,000 people. Then on August 8th the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and began an invasion of Manchuria. On August 9th the second atomic bomb hit Nagasaki killing around 40,000 people.   Thus began the surrender clock as I like to say. After the first atomic bomb, Hirohito said and did nothing about the surrender terms. Hirohito then authorized Togo to notify the world on August 10th that Japan would accept the allied terms of surrender with one condition “that the said declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler.” The next day, Secretary of State Byrnes replied by alluding to the subordination of the emperors authority to the supreme commander of the allied powers. It was ambiguous as hell. The Japanese leaders erupted into arguments, and on August 14th, Hirohito went before a microphone and recorded his capitulation announcement which aired on August 15th to all in Japan, they surrendered. Why did it take so long?   The peace talks between the Japanese and Soviets went on through June, July and early August. Japan offered the Soviets limited territorial concessions and they refused to accept the envoy on July 22nd because the Japanese were being too ambiguous in their terms. There was continuous back and forth between the intelligence of Moscow and Japan trying to figure out the stance of the other, but then Stalin heard about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, he was shocked and ordered an invasion of Manchuria in response. In the meantime the Japanese were tossing all sorts of concessions at Moscow, they stated they would allow Japanese to be used as forced laborers in Siberia, a form of reparation as it were, that they would demobilize the military and so on. The response was the invasion of Manchuria.    Hirohito knew prior to the bombing of Hiroshima that the cabinet was divided on accepting the Potsdam terms. Hirohito also knew he and he alone could unify governmental affairs and military command. Why then did he wait until the evening of August 9th to surrender?   The reality of the matter is its complicated, numerous variables at play, but let me try to pick at it. The people of japan under the firebomb campaigns were becoming hostile towards the military, the government and many began to criticize the emperor. Hirohito was given reports from the Home Ministry from governors and police chiefs all over Japan revealing people were speaking of the emperor as an incompetent leader who was responsible for worsening the war situation. Does that sound like a threat to the Kokutai? People were starving en masse, the atomic bomb is flashy, but what really was killing the Japanese, it was starvation. The home islands were blockaded and the sea approaches mined as pertaining to the optimally named “operation starvation”. Hirohito knew full well how bad his people were suffering but he did not surrender for so long.   After Hiroshima was bombed, Hirohito delayed for 2 days before telling Kido at 10am on August 9th “quickly control the situation, the Soviet Union has declared war and today began hostilities against us”. Now here is a piece of Hirohito's surrender proclamation to the citizens of Japan    “Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are We to save the millions of Our subjects, or to atone Ourselves before the hallowed spirits of Our Imperial Ancestors? This is the reason why We have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the Joint Declaration of the Powers... The hardships and sufferings to which Our nation is to be subjected hereafter will be certainly great. We are keenly aware of the inmost feelings of all of you, Our subjects. However, it is according to the dictates of time and fate that We have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is unsufferable ”.   Hirohito wanted to obfuscate the issue of accountability, to prevent expressions of strife and anger and to strengthen domestic unity around himself, to protect and raise the kokutai. Did you know there was a rescript of this proclamation that was made to the entire IJA and IJN? Yes Emperor Hirohito gave out two different proclamations for surrender, here is what the armed forces heard.   “ Now that the Soviet Union has entered the war against us, to continue . . . under the present conditions at home and abroad would only recklessly incur even more damage to ourselves and result in endangering the very foundation of the empire's existence. Therefore, even though enormous fighting spirit still exists in the Imperial Navy and Army, I am going to make peace with the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, as well as with Chungking, in order to maintain our glorious national polity”.   The proclamation does not speak of the atomic weapons, but emphasizes the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. Hirohito was presented as a benevolent sage and an apolitical ruler that had ended the war. Hirohito sought to justify the surrender upon the bombs to the public, but did he believe so, did his armed forces believe so? People debate to this day why the surrender occurred, I love the fact there are two message offered because both are true. Hirohito's decision to surrender was based on numerous variables, the atomic bombs, the invasion of Manchuria by the soviets, but above all else, what really was important to the man, the emperor, the god? The kokutai. The Soviets were more of a threat to the kokutai, thus Hirohito jumped into the arms of the Americans. The language between the Americans and Japanese in the communications for unconditional surrender were ambiguous, but Hirohito and the high commanders knew there was zero chance of the kokutai surviving if the Soviets invaded Japan, perhaps the Americans would allow it to continue, which is just what they ended up doing. The entire purpose of this series would to emphasize how Hirohito definitely had a active role in the war of 1931-1945, he had numerous occasions where he could put the hammer down to stop the situation from escalating. But in the end when his back was against the wall, he did what he did to cling on to the Kokutai.   I shall leave you with this. On August 12th, as Hirohito came to inform the imperial family of his decision to surrender, Prince Asaka asked him whether the war would continue if the Kokutai could not be preserved, what do you think he said? “Of Course”. 

Toby and Goobz review Mutant League Football on Sega Genesis!The guys discuss the history, story, game play, fun facts and rate this game on a 1-10 scale at the end then let you know if the game is still worth playing!--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gameboree 2025 is coming up soon!November 1st - December 31st 2025!More info:https://www.badsecretmedia.com/gameboree--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join our Discord group!https://discord.gg/84T8khT Support the show and order a t-shirt! https://www.teepublic.com/user/secretlevels Join our Patreon!https://www.patreon.com/badsecretmediaFollow Secret Levels on all social media! Twitter: https://twitter.com/secretlevelspod Instagram: https://instagram.com/secretlevelspod Facebook Group Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/285925218891464/Toby's Live Streams on Twitch:https://www.twitch.tv/tobyvondoomMORE INFO:https://www.badsecretmedia.comGoobz's other podcast! The DeRailers Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDeRailers Toby's other podcast! Secret Transmission Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/secrettranspod ----------------------------------------------------------- Intro and segment music: https://gregoriofranco.bandcamp.com/musicRage Meter Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuBO6aDLM_4 Super Mario Brothers - Bluegrass Style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsrVEbpvU2U Pre-order the Tetris My Play Watch before October 24th to get an extra watch band!This watch will make a perfect gift for the holiday season!myplaywatch.com/tetris Gameboree 6 is close!Between November 1st - December 31st we will be raising money to support St Jude Children's Research Hospital!We will be doing weekly challenge streams on twitch.tv/tobyvondoom and do giveaways!We have some really cool prizes donated by awesome companies like Mega Cat Studios and MyPlayWatch!Be a winner this year and help make a difference!badsecretmedia.com/gameboreemyplaywatch.commegacatstudios.comSupport the show

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. 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.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/

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 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 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

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,...

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  

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.

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 

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.

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。）