Podcasts about british foreign office

For more than 30 years, Alexandra Hall Hall worked as a diplomat in the British Foreign Office, with postings in Washington, Bangkok, Delhi, Bogota, and Tbilisi, where she was the British ambassador to Georgia. She is now the co-host of the Disorder podcast. This is an interview from Friday's episode of THE FIVE 8. Having just returned from Tbilisi, she talks about the situation there. Plus: Holly Jolly.Follow Alex Hall-Hall:https://bsky.app/profile/alexhh.bsky.social Subscribe to The Five 8:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0BRnRwe7yDZXIaF-QZfvhACheck out ROUGH BEAST, Greg's new book:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D47CMX17ROUGH BEAST is now available as an audiobook:https://www.audible.com/pd/Rough-Beast-Audiobook/B0D8K41S3T Would you like to tell us more about you? http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Peter Wright is  a man whose life story reads like a gripping historical novel. Born in London, Peter's journey took him from the United Kingdom to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and eventually to South Africa then Canada. His tale is one of resilience, determination, and the power of choice in the face of adversity. Peter recalls an idyllic childhood in Rhodesia where his father, a British Foreign Office employee, was stationed. The family fell in love with the country, and became Rhodesian citizens. The political landscape in Rhodesia unfortunately was unstable and led  to a terrorist war that conscripted Peter when he was 18.  The war intensified, and by 1978, Peter made the difficult decision to move to South Africa, seeking a safer future for his children. He navigated the complexities of emigration, starting anew with limited resources. Throughout the episode, Peter emphasizes the significance of choice, determination, and gratitude. He shares harrowing experiences, including near-death encounters and personal losses, yet his outlook remains positive. His personal story provides an insight into the reality of war and its impact on people and families caught up in its path. Tune in to  gain a deeper understanding of how resilience and determination can shape your life. This story is a powerful reminder that it's not what happens to you in life, but what you do about it that truly counts. You can read more about Peter's life in his book, 5 Steps to Thriving on Adversity.     What they're saying:   “This is a beautiful book about life, its imperfections, its challenges, and its joys. It is a book of hope and wisdom for all of us facing a bump in the road.” –Pragito Dove   “Pat has woven together beautiful stories of life setbacks that have been transformed into spiritual growth. This book is a gift and a must-read for souls experiencing pain and yearning for growth.”   –Gary Hensel   Learn more at   Follow Bump on: ➡️  ➡️  ➡️  ➡️  ➡️ 

In this episode of the State Secrets podcast, we're talking with Cipher Brief Expert, Nick Fishwick, a former senior member of the British Foreign Office, about his column in The Cipher Brief titled, “The Lights are Going Out all over Europe”.  Fishwick is talking about Europe's relationship with Russia as it considers the possibility of war after Moscow's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022.  The decline of the relationship between Moscow and western governments which, until recently, still cooperated on issues ranging from counterterrorism to athletic competitions, is leading many in Europe to face the reality that war in Europe may be closer than they think. 

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of the severe conflict over immigration to Palestine during the post-Second World War period, and the British policy of deportation to Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949). It considers the perspective of actors such as the British Foreign Office, dominated by stubborn Ernest Bevin, and the Colonial Office, the Palestinian Jewish community and its underground Haganah and Palmach forces, the Palestinian Arabs, and the Colonial Cyprus authorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of the severe conflict over immigration to Palestine during the post-Second World War period, and the British policy of deportation to Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949). It considers the perspective of actors such as the British Foreign Office, dominated by stubborn Ernest Bevin, and the Colonial Office, the Palestinian Jewish community and its underground Haganah and Palmach forces, the Palestinian Arabs, and the Colonial Cyprus authorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of the severe conflict over immigration to Palestine during the post-Second World War period, and the British policy of deportation to Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949). It considers the perspective of actors such as the British Foreign Office, dominated by stubborn Ernest Bevin, and the Colonial Office, the Palestinian Jewish community and its underground Haganah and Palmach forces, the Palestinian Arabs, and the Colonial Cyprus authorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of the severe conflict over immigration to Palestine during the post-Second World War period, and the British policy of deportation to Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949). It considers the perspective of actors such as the British Foreign Office, dominated by stubborn Ernest Bevin, and the Colonial Office, the Palestinian Jewish community and its underground Haganah and Palmach forces, the Palestinian Arabs, and the Colonial Cyprus authorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of the severe conflict over immigration to Palestine during the post-Second World War period, and the British policy of deportation to Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949). It considers the perspective of actors such as the British Foreign Office, dominated by stubborn Ernest Bevin, and the Colonial Office, the Palestinian Jewish community and its underground Haganah and Palmach forces, the Palestinian Arabs, and the Colonial Cyprus authorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of the severe conflict over immigration to Palestine during the post-Second World War period, and the British policy of deportation to Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949). It considers the perspective of actors such as the British Foreign Office, dominated by stubborn Ernest Bevin, and the Colonial Office, the Palestinian Jewish community and its underground Haganah and Palmach forces, the Palestinian Arabs, and the Colonial Cyprus authorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/israel-studies

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of the severe conflict over immigration to Palestine during the post-Second World War period, and the British policy of deportation to Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949). It considers the perspective of actors such as the British Foreign Office, dominated by stubborn Ernest Bevin, and the Colonial Office, the Palestinian Jewish community and its underground Haganah and Palmach forces, the Palestinian Arabs, and the Colonial Cyprus authorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of the severe conflict over immigration to Palestine during the post-Second World War period, and the British policy of deportation to Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949). It considers the perspective of actors such as the British Foreign Office, dominated by stubborn Ernest Bevin, and the Colonial Office, the Palestinian Jewish community and its underground Haganah and Palmach forces, the Palestinian Arabs, and the Colonial Cyprus authorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

For more than 30 years, Alexandra Hall Hall worked as a diplomat in the British Foreign Office, with postings in Bangkok, Delhi, Bogota,Tbilisi, and Washington. She resigned in December 2019 because she felt unable to represent the Government's position on Brexit with integrity. She is the co-host, with Jason Pack, of Disorder podcast. In this discussion, she talks to Greg Olear about Georgia, British politics, the monarchy, the role of diplomacy in crisis zones, Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas War, the death of Navalny, and the Baltimore Ravens. Plus: 867-5309 (Ginni) (remix).Follow Alex:https://twitter.com/alexhallhallRead her columns at Byline Times:https://bylinetimes.com/author/alexandrahallhall/Listen to Disorder Podcast: https://linktr.ee/disorderpodPrevail is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/gregSubscribe to the PREVAIL newsletter:https://gregolear.substack.com/aboutWould you like to tell us more about you? http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short Subscribe to the PREVAIL newsletter:https://gregolear.substack.com/aboutWould you like to tell us more about you? http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

An alleged Russian spy was an Afghan refugee who had worked his way into the British Foreign Office. According to court documents, he had met two Prime Ministers, the King and Prince William during the course of his work. The man, known only as ‘C2' denies all the allegations.This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes. Guest: Emma Yeomans, News reporter, The Times.Host: Luke Jones.Get in touch: storiesofourtimes@thetimes.co.ukFind out more about our bonus series for Times subscribers: 'Inside the newsroom' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Aldo interviews Cath Bishop, an Olympian and former war diplomat. Cath shares her journey from being a non-sporty child to becoming an Olympic rower, training rigorously and competing in three Olympic Games. She discusses the challenges she faced and the pressure to perform, as well as the importance of defining success beyond medals. Kath also talks about her transition to working as a diplomat for the British Foreign Office, where she focused on conflict issues and rebuilding post-war zones. She reflects on the complexities of diplomacy in conflict situations and the lessons she learned from her experiences. In this conversation, Cath Bishop discusses the importance of support and vulnerability in a team, the need to look after each other, the role of coaching and challenging others, redefining success in education, the value of failure, childhood aspirations, and a book recommendation. Takeaways Success should be defined beyond medals and awards, focusing on personal growth, meaningful contributions, and lasting value. The pursuit of excellence should be balanced with rest, recovery, and a broader identity beyond one's profession or achievements. The pressure to win and the obsession with medals can lead to feelings of emptiness and a lack of fulfillment. In conflict situations, diplomacy is challenging and often limited by the hostile environment, but it is crucial to work towards political solutions and stability. True happiness comes from contributing to something bigger than oneself and finding purpose in one's actions. Support and vulnerability are crucial in a team environment. Looking after each other is essential for individual and team well-being. Coaching and challenging others can lead to personal growth and improved performance. Redefining success in education involves focusing on broader measures of achievement. Failure is a valuable learning tool and can lead to personal growth and improvement. Childhood aspirations can be diverse and may change over time. Margaret Heffernan's books offer valuable insights into culture and success. Interviewing Olympians who didn't win medals can provide valuable lessons and perspectives. You can find out more about Cath by going to her website: https://cathbishop.com/ This Episode is made in partnership with:  The Code Zone: https://bit.ly/3UlspmU Cold Case Inc (use the code MESSY and get an exclusive 15% discount): https://bit.ly/3HN75PD Riverside (get a 20% discount by signing up via this link): https://bit.ly/3HCU4IC

A perfect storm created the conditions for the Nazi's march to war. The naïve belief that you could kill Nazism with kindness (aka trade agreements from which bankers and businessmen personally hoped to profit) was held simultaneously by the US Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, the Governor of the Bank of England, Montagu Norman, and the second in command at the British Foreign Office, Orme Sargent. Their opponents in government argued that tough action was necessary to contain Germany ‘even at a cost' to those who had invested. They were consistently undermined.

Netflix's The Diplomat marks the first time that the British Foreign Office and the US State Department have made a... The post ClandesTime 260 – The Diplomat first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)

A WILD GOOSE CHASE - or so I initially thought. An ancient Chinese gemstone; to be returned by the British Foreign Office to Chinese delegates in a very glamorous ceremony... WAS GONE. And you won't believe where it was found... Honestly. You won't believe it. Follow me @DocJWatsonMD or get in touch via email docjwatsonmd@gmail.com Listener discretion is advised. This podcast is property of Goalhanger Podcasts. Copyright 2023. ------- SHERLOCK AND CO. Based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Paul Waggott as Dr. John Watson Harry Attwell as Sherlock Holmes Marta da Silva as Mariana Ametxazurra Thomas Mitchells as Peter Peterson Adam Jarrell as Stamford Michael Lyle as Henry Baker Written by Joel Emery Directed by Adam Jarrell Editing and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio Produced by Neil Fearn and Jon Gill Executive Producer Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

British aristocrat Donald Maclean, as a member of the Cambridge 5, worked his way to the top of the British Foreign Office while secretly working as KGB spy. His wife was in on it the whole time. How did an extremely wealthy and noticeable couple successfully spy for so long, and why? Learn about their backgrounds, deeds, and fates. This is the fourth episode to deal with the Cambridge 5. The other episodes are: Episode 7: Secret Agent Super Spy: Harold Kim Philby: The 1st in a series on the Cambridge 5, Episode 10: Kim Philby Part 2: I Really Must Be Going; The second episode on our series on the Cambridge 5, & Episode 11: Guy Burgess: I Gotta Be Me! This is the third episode in our series on the Cambridge 5. (First 2 are episodes 7 & 10) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ciafiles/support

Shownotes and Transcript... George Soros is one, if not the most, dangerous person in the world. This may sound like an overstatement but our guest today will explain why.  Richard Poe is a bestselling author and respected journalist, sixteen years ago he co wrote the most comprehensive analysis of the web that Soros has spun worldwide.  Detailing the connections, control, influence and how the monster we see today was created by the British and nurtured by the Americans.  This will shine a light on one of the most secretive and powerful individuals and show how ignorance has allowed his ascent. Richard Poe is a New York Times-bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He has written widely on business, science, history and politics. His books include The Shadow Party, co-written with David Horowitz; The Einstein Factor, co-written with Win Wenger; Perfect Fear: Four Tales of Terror; Black Spark, White Fire; the WAVE series of network marketing books; and many more. Richard was formerly editor of David Horowitz's FrontPageMag, contributing editor of NewsMax, senior editor of SUCCESS magazine, reporter for the New York Post, and managing editor of the East Village Eye. Connect with Richard... WEBSITE:     https://www.richardpoe.com/ TWITTER:     https://twitter.com/RealRichardPoe?s=20 SUBSTACK:  https://richardpoe.substack.com/ 'The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party' Available in print, e-book or audio book from Amazon  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Party-Hillary-Radicals-Democratic/dp/1595551034/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1 Interview recorded 21.6.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more...  https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Please subscribe, like and share!   Subscribe now Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Hello, Hearts of Oak, and welcome to another interview coming up with Richard Poe. He has co-written a book with David Horowitz. This was back in 2006, but still as relevant today. And that is The Shadow Party, how George Soros, Hilary Clinton and 60s radicals seize control of the Democratic Party. George Soros is a huge figure, and this is the first book that actually delves into his life and how he's been involved in color revolutions, coups all around the world. His life story, moving to the States, his involvement with the left. So much packed in. I know you will really enjoy listening to Richard unpacking delve deep into the life of George Soros. Thankful to have you with us today. Thank you so much for your time. (Richard Poe) Thank you, Peter. Great to be here. Good to be. And we are going to discuss your book. We're also going to discuss some articles, but just for the viewers. Richard Poe's probably 10, 11 different books and here are a number of them that we are going to look, Hilary's Secret War, but we're actually going to look today at The Shadow Party, How George Soros, Hilary Clinton and 60s Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party and you wrote that along with David Horowitz, who we've had the privilege of having on before. And now you're a bestselling author, a journalist, investigative reporter, and people can find at Richard Poe, @RealRichardPoe on Twitter and RichardPoe.com. And of course, Substack is there as well @RichardPoe. And I, Richard, I've actually found your your kayak video strangely entertaining, off-topic. I've enjoyed watching them. You must be a kayaker yourself.  No, I'm not. No, I am not. I just, I was intrigued. It was a whole, something completely different. So I enjoyed watching your documentary on it. Well, there is something fascinating about the kayak role. And it took me many years before I finally committed myself to learning it after, but I always used to just be mesmerized to watch people do that, whether on videos or in person, there's something magical about it. And once you actually learn it, it doesn't feel any less magical. It's, you know, of course, it's just like anything else. You learn the moves, you learn how to do it, But there's magic in it. It's something that just feels so wonderful. And I just had to make a film. A short film, five minutes, just trying to convey to people as best I could what this feels like, what it's really like to capsize in a small boat where you're jammed into a cockpit, you know, by your waist, hang upside down in the water, and then turn yourself right side up. You know it's, in a small way, I guess it's like jumping out of a plane with no parachute, and then somehow lifting yourself back onto the plane. Maybe that's too dramatic, but, that's how I like to think of it.  It's fun watching, of course, it's on your website, people can people can see it and there I mean just in The Shadow Party going to source there's so much to cover we'll we'll not do one of your marathon sessions that you do with Noor Bin Laden, those are all available for the viewers to watch you've just started doing them in video I know and that's all on substack but probably the book it's been out 2006 it came out. What led you to write it because now this is part of the conversation, the whole thing with, money, with control, with Soros. What led you to actually putting pen to paper on the book? Well I had researched Soros for many years. I first wrote about him in 1993, in my very first published book. It was called How to Profit from the Coming Russian Boom, and I had some expertise in Russia and I had been there as a business writer for Success Magazine. I had gone there a number of times in the early 90s to, cover the fall of communism and Soros was there, you know, he was part of the party, a big part of it. And at that time, I wrote very positively about Mr. Soros because I felt he was one of us, whoever us are, you know, us Westerners who are... And at that time, I believed very much in the Cold War narrative that we of the West represented freedom and democracy and all those good things. And we had to overcome communism. Communism was the great dragon. And, so Soros, I felt, was just one more person helping us to dismantle the Soviet Empire and teach the Russians how to become capitalists, quote-unquote, and become like us. It all seemed like a very noble enterprise at the time, and I wrote very positively about Mr. Soros and everything he was doing in Russia. I wasn't unaware that there was a dark side to Soros and some of his activities, but well, let's just say I wrote positively about him. And my book was quite influential. It was praised by the London Financial Times as being the first book to explain the privatization process in Russia, which was done by means of a voucher system. The government issued vouchers to every Russian citizen, every Soviet citizen, which were worth 10,000, how did it work? Each one was worth, you could be traded for 10,000 rubles, I think, 10,000 rubles worth of shares in any of the state-owned companies that were being auctioned off. And what happened, of course, is that this happened after my book came out. No one had a clue that this was going to happen. Soros and his cronies, they convinced Yeltsin to do shock therapy, as they call it, to basically de-control all prices and currency values, all at the same time, which led to immediate hyperinflation at catastrophic levels. And so these vouchers became worthless overnight and all the Westerners bought them up, and used them to acquire eventually the crown jewels of the Soviet economy. So this was one of the things that actually led, this is back in the early 90s, but it led to a lot of the ill feeling, between the Russians and the West, which we're now dealing with today, because at that time, the Russians were really.... There was an innocence about them. They were really so grateful in many ways. They wanted this kind of help from Westerners, and especially Americans. They trusted us in a very special way, in a way that they didn't trust other Westerners. And unfortunately, thanks to Mr. Soros and Jeffrey Sachs, who was working with him on this project, and a lot of people at Harvard University, almost instantaneously with the image of America as friend and savior was destroyed and we were perceived as a gang of thieves who were coming to strip the country of all its wealth. And I don't think that perception has ever left. So I was aware of that as it was happening, but as I said, that happened after my book was published. So my book was totally positive about Soros, but... Please tell me if I'm going to too many details about this, but to me it's a very interesting story because, see, Soros himself had declined my request to be interviewed for the book, but he did kindly allow me to interview some of his people, and I had some expectation that maybe, you know, Soros would like the book, it might lead to some further talks, interviews, whatever. But instead what happened is, I think it was only two years after my book came out, a very similar book came out. And this happens a lot in publishing, by the way. If they, the aesthetic of a certain book, they actually replace it with a similar book. So my book was called How to Profit from the Coming Russian Boom. This other book comes out a couple years later, I think it was from the Free Press. And it was called The Coming Russian Boom. They basically took a fragment of my title and made this other book, which also looked kind of similar, the cover design. And on the back of this replacement book, this book that was meant to replace mine, was a big plug by George Soros himself saying, if you want to read a book by real Russia insiders who really know what's going on, read this book. And just to make it clear, a known Soros operative wrote a review saying, Richard Poe's book is now totally out of date. You should now read this new book, which has an almost identical title to his and a similar colour design and which was published only two years later. So you ask, how did I first come across Mr. Soros? Well, it was that. Was I particularly upset? No, not really. I was on to other things, you know, writing other books. I just thought, Well, that's a little curious. But I think the reason they did that, I think the reason my book was disliked is one for the very reason that the Financial Times had said, because I had given such a clear, explanation of the privatization process and how it worked, and then shortly thereafter Soros and his cronies had completely corrupted the privatization process. So I think that was one thing that I did bad. And another thing I did, was I told the truth about the corruption in the Moscow city government, and I was clued in by certain people in Russia that Mayor Lushkov, who I had accused by name, was very disturbed with me, and that sales of my book in Moscow, particularly in the crucial airport bookstores where foreigners would be likely to buy it had been banned. And so, this was my very first book. You know, it got a star for excellence from Publishers Weekly, got reviewed in all the right places but obviously Mr. Soros didn't like it. He endorsed this competing book which appears to have been manufactured for the express purpose of outdating mine. So anyway, I don't mean to go into all that except just to emphasize that me and Mr. Soros go back quite a ways. I first ran across him, one might say ran afoul of him in Russia in the early 90s, as did so many people. And so then much later in 2004, I got a phone call from Chris Ruddy, the founder and editor of Newsmax. I was one of the original columnists at Newsmax. It was started in 1998, I believe, and I started in 1999. And Chris called me up. He says, look, we wanna do a big expose about George Soros and put it on the cover of Newsmax magazine. Would you like to write it? I said, sure, let's do it. And so, that led to my next encounter indirectly with Soros. I never actually have met him or communicated with him in person or directly, but it seemed every time I ran across him, something ill-omened occurred, you know, it was strange. So, I wrote this article, which seemed a perfectly legitimate exercise of free speech in the home of the free and the brave, the United States of America as working journalists. Why shouldn't we write an expose of George Soros? After all, he was coming out very publicly, speaking out on political matters, saying he was going to donate $25 million to oust President Bush from office. And that's why Newsmax wanted to write about him, all seemingly fair game, you know, and the type of thing one would normally write about. Well, so I wrote, what I wrote about was the same subject I'm writing about now, all these years later, that what Soros was actually doing, and what he was boasting that he was going to do was to go outside of the normal bounds of political electioneering in the United States. And he said, what I have done in other countries, I am now going to do in the United States. And he said, actually, he was going to do a regime change, quote unquote, to remove President Bush. So I was familiar at that point in large part because I had some experience in Russia, in Eastern Europe. I knew what a colour revolution was. Most people didn't at that time. I knew that Soros was involved in these things, and I knew he had helped overthrow a number of governments, not only in Eastern Europe, but all over the world. People think he just does this in Eastern Europe. He's done it in Africa, Asia, everywhere. But, um...When I heard Soros saying these things, I knew exactly what he meant, and I felt I need to explain this to the American people. And so my article was called George Soros' Coup, and it basically explained this guy does color revolutions, and he seems to be implying that he's going to do that here in the United States. Well, it didn't quite happen in the election of 2004, although there were some strange goings-ons from the Democrat side. But for our story right now, what is interesting is that my Newsmax cover story was a big success. I was immediately called to appear on The O'Reilly Factor with Bill O'Reilly. And I did a seven-minute spot on The O'Reilly Factor. The very next day, a completely new outfit, called Media Matters for America, which George Soros had helped to found. It was it was something he and Hilary Clinton and John Podesta and a few others had been totally involved with from the ground floor. So, they attacked me, in a way I'd never been attacked. I mean, there must have been three, four different articles all all about little old me, and basically saying that I was a liar, that I got all my facts wrong. You know, saying exactly the things that if they were true, would completely disqualify me to work as a journalist ever again. They were in fact defamatory. And... Well, can I just step back a little bit just to continue now, but colour revolution, it's something you have mentioned as a phrase, and I know there's a great article, we might get into the British aspect of it, but How the British Invented Colour Revolutions, you wrote back May 2021, and that's available on your substack, but that term colour revolutions probably will not mean anything to many people. It's still a term which isn't widespreadly used. Do you want to just touch on that to let the viewers know what you mean by a color revolution? Sure. A color revolution is basically, it's just a term that's used to describe what is basically a fake revolution. When foreign intelligence services go into a country and create a fake revolution which is meant to look like a people's uprising, a spontaneous uprising of the people, but is actually a foreign-sponsored coup, hiding behind the facade of a people's uprising. And just to give an example, not to get into my recent articles, but I recently discovered and have argued in some recent articles that the French Revolution and the Russian Revolutions were, in fact, color revolutions. It is my contention that the British Secret Services were behind both. But that's just to give an example where a revolution that most of us until now, until recently, have assumed, entailed some kind of spontaneous uprising by an aggrieved population. Yes, to some extent they were, but this, whatever discontent among the people may have manipulated by foreign intelligence services, making it a fake revolution, making it a foreign-sponsored coup, and this type of revolution has been nicknamed in recent years a color revolution. It's called that because often these revolutions use team colours to identify themselves. That for example, there was a so-called orange revolution in the Ukraine in 2004. And if you look at pictures on Google, you'll see crowds in a sea of orange banners, orange everything. And interestingly, even going back to the French and the Russian revolutions, They too had their team colors, team symbols. The French, of course, had their tricolour badges and their so-called Phrygian caps that they wore. Which were red with the tricolour badge on it. In the Bolshevik Revolution, of course, the colour was red again, red for socialism, red for communism. And they also wore a distinctive cap called the Scythian cap, which looks strangely like the Phrygian cap that the French had worn, but whatever. So even in such details as the use of these kind of evocative coloured symbols, and they weren't always colours. Sometimes they were flowers or other kinds of symbols. But they're called colour revolutions for that reason, because somebody decided to name them that. Originally, the first one that came to wide public attention was the so-called Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, during the fall of communism. And that too was, George Soros was heavily involved in that, as were many Western governments and intelligence agencies and so forth. And that was called the Velvet Revolution. It still is to this day. And that term Velvet Revolution actually caught on in Eastern Europe for quite a bit. Often these revolutions were called Velvet Revolutions, but somewhere along the line, they started calling them Colour Revolutions and that stuck. So I now use the term, it's not my favourite term, but that's what it means. A fake revolution generally orchestrated by a foreign intelligence agency or agencies, to masquerade as a popular uprising. And so George Soros has been involved in these, for many decades, funding them, being a public apologist for them, going before the press just to justify them and basically act as a propaganda voice to explain why it was necessary to do these. And the propaganda is very necessary because generally what happens in these so-called colour revolutions is that an election occurs, somebody wins, and that somebody is not the person whom the Western powers wanted to win. And so then they create an uprising saying the election was stolen, it was all fake, it doesn't match the exit polls, so let's bring all the people out into the street, often with quite a good deal of real violence. These things are often called bloodless coups, but I think they are rarely bloodless, and often they involve pretty significant violence. Certainly in 2000, when they overthrew Milosevic in Yugoslavia, there was very significant violence. They set fire to the parliament building. They had armed paramilitaries blocking all the roads around Belgrade, armed with military weapons. And... So, although they're considered bloodless, stereotypically, they're usually not. Any more than the Russian or French revolutions were. So, that's what it is. It seems like an exotic idea, but it's really not. Governments have been doing this for ages, but the British, in particular, I've learned in the last few years, have been doing this for centuries and really excel at it. It's often assumed that Americans are the ones who invented this and who are the best at doing it, but it's not true. Whatever we know, we learned from the Brits.  Let's go on Soros, because Soros, he obviously ended up in London as a refugee, then went to LSE, London School of Economics, went to the U.S. and it seemed to be that his desire was to to make money and return and something kind of happened on the way to the point where I think the midterms, I read somewhere what was a figure was a hundred and twenty eight million dollars I read and that made him the largest single donor in the midterms just past that election cycle and kind of something happened along the way for him just wanting to make money to actually being part of a mass funding campaign off the left?  Well I gave my theory on this very subject in a recent article called How the British Invented George Soros and basically the answer to your question, I think, is that Soros is not his own man. It is my contention that he was recruited as an asset of the British government, the British Foreign Office, and possibly of British intelligence agencies. The fact is that he has been from the beginning involved in activities such as regime change. In foreign countries, activities which, frankly, he would not be allowed to take part in unless, he were under the supervision of some intelligence agency or another. And it's often assumed that he works with the CIA and that he is a CIA asset, and that's generally the default position that most people take. But I believe that he is a British asset, and I made what I think is a pretty strong argument for it in my article. He came to England as a refugee from a communist Hungary when he was 17 years old. He lived in England for 9 or 10 years, during which he graduated from the London School of Economics. He started work in the city of London, learned the arbitrage trade. And during that time, it appears he was selected by a group of very powerful men who include some of the most famous names in global finance. And he was sent, I believe, to the United States to basically act as an agent for this group, this cabal, if you will, of British financiers. And one Lord William Rees-Mogg, who happens to be the father of Jacob Rees-Mogg, I have named him the man who created George Soros because he almost single-handedly created the legend or the myth of Soros as one, the greatest financial genius in the world, and two, as quote-unquote the man who broke the Bank of England. These myths, and I think both are myths, actually. Both of these myths were created and promoted by Lord Rees-Mogg and his colleagues at the Times of London. Rees-Mogg was the editor of the Times for I think 15 years and then he became a vice president of the BBC. But perhaps more importantly, he has a very unique position, or he had, he died in 2012, I call him a gateway or a bridge between worlds, because he was a man who was a very close personal friend of the British royal family, and he was also a very close personal friend of Lord Jacob Rothschild. And he was a bridge between the British aristocracy, you know, the British blue blood society, if you will, and the grubby world of City of London investment, where one had to rub shoulders with such characters as Hungarian refugees, such as George Soros. And Rees Mogg had that job. He moved between those worlds and he was a bridge between those worlds. And it's a little known fact that Soros' quantum fund, Soros actually leaked in one of his books, it was an authorized, and I think Soros actually commissioned this book, it was called George Soros, Messianic Billionaire, something like that by a guy named Kaufman. And in that book is a leak that the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II, was one of the investors in the Quantum Fund. Now, there's a great deal of secrecy, as you know, regarding investments by the royal family, this information is closely guarded, but quite often they leak information about where they're investing, such as famously in the mining company Rio Tinto. There were a number of quasi-official leaks about royal investments in that company. And I think they do this in order to pump the stock. I mean, I think when these leaks occur, it's because they're trying to pump the stock. And there was such a leak regarding Soros' quantum fund. So I think, and it appears to me that Soros was really an artificially created person. I don't believe at all that he was was the greatest genius in the financial world. I think he was built up into that by Lord Rees-Mogg. And for example, his greatest act of genius supposedly was breaking the Bank of England. Where in 1992, he supposedly shorted the Bank of England to such an extent that Britain was forced to devalue its currency by 20% And it was a huge catastrophe. But in reality. That story, actually, the story that Soros did it, comes from Soros himself. And it can't be proven because his operations are in the Netherlands Antilles, which is a secrecy jurisdiction, a banking haven. And there is no way to prove what he actually did in that operation. But it's come out that there were many, many players, including some of the biggest banks, biggest pension funds, biggest financial institutions in the world who were taking part in that run on the pound. And Soros was allowed by Rees-Mogg and his colleagues at the Times to take credit for it. And they actually named him in a big banner headline, the man who broke the Bank of England. But he was just one among many and by far not the largest. So, why did Rees-Mogg do this? Well, he quickly demonstrated that because Rees-Mogg's next move was then to write a series of articles explaining to the British people why Soros was a hero and that his devaluation of the pound had saved Britain from having to honour its commitment to enter the Eurozone because by devaluing the pound by 20%, Britain was no longer qualified to enter the European exchange rate mechanism and was no longer qualified to become part of the Eurozone, and that's why it still isn't to this day. And so Rees-Mogg just sang the praises of Soros, called him a hero. He said there should be a statue erected in front of the treasury of him and things like that. And other British journalists have said similar things, that he should get a knighthood and so forth and so on. So that's why I say it was all a myth. Soros himself didn't actually do it single-handedly. And moreover, far from being an attack on the British establishment, It appears to have been a British economic warfare operation which the British establishment deliberately inflicted on its own central bank for political purposes, and for which Soros was assigned to take the blame or to take the credit. So once he had done that operation, then he was very famous. He had become a celebrity overnight. The Times was doing everything it could to convince people he was a wonderful guy. And they immediately started saying what a genius and a financial prophet he was. And Rees-Mogg started saying, oh my goodness, Soros is buying gold. Let's pay attention to what he's doing because if he's buying gold, maybe we should buy gold too. So what happened was, I think this was in 1993, Soros's next assignment for this group around Rees-Mogg and Jacob Rothschild. His next assignment was to buy a large number of shares of Newmont Mining Corporation, I think was and is the largest gold mining operation in North America, and he bought them from Jacob Rothschild and Sir James Goldsmith. And so Rees-Mogg, was telling everyone from the Times, look, Soros is buying gold, but some people noticed, well, yes, but Rothschild and Goldsmith are dumping it. So what does that mean? Despite these ambiguities and puzzlements, they did succeed in hyping the price of gold. The price of gold skyrocketed. Rothschild and Goldsmith made a killing, as I think did some of their other associates in the St. James Capital Group, of which Rees-Mogg was an officer at the time. And strangely Soros himself supposedly lost money on that deal, which is very interesting because although his myth touts him as a lone wolf who only looks out for number one for himself. It really looks like he took one for the team in the great gold scam, as I call it, this gold hyping scam. It appears to have been done for the specific purpose of allowing Jacob Rothschild and Sir James Goldsmith to realize a profit on their previous purchases of Newmont Mining, which had been performing sluggishly. And so this operation appears to have been done for no other reason than to allow these two men, to make some money. And Soros took a hit on that one. He took a hit for the team. He was a team player. So based on these kinds of things, I mean it goes on and on. You could say it's kind of circumstantial evidence, but it's pretty clear that from the beginning, Soros, whatever his gifts and abilities may have been, I'm sure he's very smart, I'm sure he was selected because he was deemed to be a talented person and all that, but he certainly is not the greatest financial genius in the world, that's not how he made his money. He made his money by being adopted by this very powerful group in the city of London and serving them, being a good servant and being the public face of them and their operations. And so he went to America and the rest is history. But now today, he's presumably still alive, despite recent reports of his death, I mean, who knows anymore who's alive and dead. So true. But he has passed it over, we're told, to one of his sons. Do you think it's the end then of that era? Do you think the damage is already done? Do you think it's being passed over just to keep the financial side and it's not the political engagement? What are your thoughts as you kind of see that transfer? Well, I don't imagine that with all the investment which I will say which the British have done in building up the Open Society Institute, I can't imagine they'll simply abandon it. Obviously, it's not going to be the same without George Soros there. Alex Soros, I presume, is nothing more than a figurehead. The man who runs the Open Society Institute is its president, and he's a guy named Lord Mark Malloch Brown, a name with which you may be familiar. Malloch Brown has a similar career trajectory to Soros. He has been involved for decades in regime change operations in foreign countries, in rigging elections in places like the Philippines, and other such targets. And then in 2015, He had just, there was a British takeover of this company called Smartmatic, and by the way, Smartmatic is going around suing people for billions of dollars, so if you want me to shut up right now, I will. I won't say another word.  Feel free to give us your opinion, Richard. Well, whatever else one may or may not say about Smartmatic, what they did was sell voting, a voting system. And so in 2015, the same Lord Mark Malloch Brown, who had notoriously been doing regime change operations all over the world, obviously connected with intelligence. He was a high-level UN official under Kofi Annan. I mean, this guy was obviously, you know, had some role in the intelligence community, I would say. I would say it's obvious. But now he's running the Open Society Institute, but he was given that position right after the US election in 2020. And some people said that was his reward. I'm not gonna comment about that. But his Smartmatic machines and software became very controversial. And in 2015, he was openly trying to market his Smartmatic system to the United States. In the States, it's the state governments which purchase, you know, they each has its own policy for voting systems. So he was trying to sell these to state governments and people often say, well, he never succeeded. I mean, they have a few Smartmatic machines in LA, supposedly, and not nowhere else. All I can tell you is. And this I believe is the very subject of this multi-billion dollar lawsuit that's going on, but there were people in high places who seemed to be in the know, who were close to the Trump campaign. I believe Rudy Giuliani was one, Sidney Powell, others who were basically saying that the Smartmatic software was actually being used by other companies to run other voting machines and that in fact the Smartmatic software was the evil potion that enabled them to do all these alleged alterations of the vote. So, is any of that true? Well, I don't know. I can't prove it. And, you know, anybody who opened their mouth in public and spoke of it is now being sued. You know, defamation law is a very good thing. People should be allowed to sue for defamation. I do think it's very odd to have foreign companies providing voting software to the United States of America and then being able to sue people into silence who legitimately raise questions about the integrity of those systems. I find that very strange and disturbing. But that's what's going on. You know, back in 2000, I remember very well, there was a dispute, started by, you know, Gore. Gore challenged the election result, famously, and for weeks and weeks and weeks, the world watched in astonishment and horror as the United States seemingly descended into a third world country unable to count its own votes. But no one at that time ever suggested that people should not be allowed to have an opinion or to speak? About whether they thought that Bush or Gore had won. That would have been unthinkable. Suddenly that's the case. Suddenly that's the situation we're in. But anyway, whatever that means. So this Lord Mark Malloch Brown was right in the middle of that, right in the middle of that storm, right in the eye of the storm. And let me just remind you that he was a long-time friend and collaborator of George Soros. In fact he lived next door to Soros in a house provided by Soros in upstate New York when Malloch Brown was working as a UN official. He was some sort of aid to Kofi Annan and he was basically put up by Soros. And they're very good friends. And they've collaborated on many regime change operations throughout the world, which is not the sort of thing every normal person gets involved in. But these two, for them, that's a big part of their lives and has been for decades. So strangely, you know, this same Malloch Brown ends up as the CEO of Smartmatic. And then as soon as that operation is finished, he's appointed by Soros to be the president of the Open Society Institute. And now he's disappeared from sight. And everyone's pointing to Alex Soros saying, Alex Soros is now going to take over for George Soros, and that's fine, but I've got my eye on Malloch Brown. I mean, I doubt very much whether Alex Soros is actually running it. In fact, I remember some years ago, Soros actually tried to pass on the baton to, at that time, I think all his sons, If I remember correctly, he was trying to... He was trying to turn over Soros Fund Management, which is his investment arm, to his sons, and then he all of a sudden reneged and took it back. And people said, I thought you were going to give this to your sons, why did you take it back? And Soros, here's an interesting father figure for you. He said, well, I discovered that my sons didn't have the talent to run it. And the interviewer said, what sort of talent do you mean? He said the talent for making money. Wow.  So without going into all the Freudian or psychoanalytic aspects of it, I mean, whatever else one can say about Mr. Soros' sons, I can't imagine they're big fans of their father. Can I just finish off on the book. In 2010, Glenn Beck did a series, Puppetmaster, that was based on the shadow party on your book. I know he was cancelled soon after on Fox. I don't know whether it was linked to that, but this was probably the first book to expose sources funding off of color revolutions which we've discussed. It's not something that people are supposed to discuss and then you produce this book by a large publisher which I always find intriguing. Maybe it would be different if you redid it today but that with Glenn Beck putting that in and bringing it with Glenn Beck's reach on Fox and then getting cancelled this obviously is something that you're not supposed to discuss. Yes, at that time, it was an extremely sensitive subject. I did not realize how sensitive it was until after I put my foot into the punji steak, so to speak. But I knew I was pushing it, and that's part of the reason why I invited my then employer, David Horowitz. I actually invited him to co-write the book with me, hoping that his name would not only help promote the book, and make people take it seriously, but I thought maybe it might afford some protection for me. And I think it did all of those things to some extent. I think it would have been much worse for me if I had tried to write the book myself, I think it was a wise thing to do. But nonetheless, I was punished quite severely by the powers that be for daring to write about that, because these color revolutions, these are intelligence operations, and especially at that time when people were not writing about it, when to write about such things and to do it with a co-author of the stature of David Horowitz, and then to appear on Glenn Beck reaching you know an audience of millions, a national audience on Fox News. If you're in the national security establishment, if you're somebody who's involved with these operations and you're trying to project a certain image of their innocence and spontaneity and then someone comes along and puts out a narrative that says, oh actually this guy George Soros is pulling the strings behind these things. Well, you know, we can see now how sensitive, a lot of these intelligence people are to anyone tampering with their narrative, you know, with all the recent hysteria over misinformation and disinformation. And so forth. Well, they didn't used to speak so publicly about it, still pretending, that they weren't involved in media, that is, the intelligence community. Now they've dropped that pretence. Back then, we still were allowed to have this illusion that we are a free press, and we can say what we want and all that, but clearly I was interfering with a very important intelligence narrative. And I was doing so almost uniquely, and certainly the size of the platform that I had accessed was, and getting on national TV and all the rest, it was a challenge to the, It was a challenge to the national security establishment, whatever you want to call them, to the security forces, if you will. It was a direct challenge to them, and I was a small target, nobody else was writing about this. So it was a simple matter to silence me. And I want to say, you know, we talk a lot today about cancellation, and you know, people being cancelled and un-personed. And it's important to understand, you know, nowadays we see Tucker publicly thrown out of Fox News and we think that's what it means to be cancelled or Matt Taibi kicked out of The Intercept. And so we have this illusion that to be cancelled means that you're publicly punished for doing something good and thrown out and then everyone rallies to your rescue and you're even bigger and better than before. And supposedly that's what it means to be cancelled. But those are not real cancellations. The way cancellation is really done, and the way it's been done traditionally, and the way it's done usually, especially in free societies like ours, is very quietly, behind the scenes, very insidiously, so that nobody even knows it happened. And that's all I'm going to say about that.  Well, that's perfect end. And let's again just leave the viewers the shadow party, how George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and 60s radicals seized control of the Democrat Party. It's available. I listened to it. You can get his hardback, paperback. It is a huge subject that is relevant today, if not more relevant than it was in 2006 when you wrote it. Richard, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for coming along, sharing your thoughts on the book. Thank you.  Thank you, Peter.

How do we grow steady legs of resilience in uncertain times? In this episode Amisha talks with Ronan Harrington, a resilience expert and accomplished voice on the transformative power of adversity. He advises organisations and institutions on how to move from Burnout to Resilience and counts Deloitte, KPMG, Sky, the UK Government and Oxford University amongst his clients. He has held a variety of roles bridging personal and societal transformation as lead futurist to the British Foreign Office, co-coordinator for the political strategy for Extinction Rebellion and founder of Alter Ego, a European network of political leaders and activists growing connection between spirituality and politics. Ronan speaks about his strive to transform the political frameworks of our time by introducing spirituality and mysticism into its mainstream to forge deep cultural change. He believes that political acts can be acts of grace and his work with Alter Ego, was a space to decondition and nourish political leaders and activists into integrity. Amisha and Ronan share their personal histories of burnout and chronic health conditions, and how it has affected the way they move in the world. They recognise that attempting cultural transformation requires us to have a well-resourced support structure; financially, spiritually, emotionally and physically. Ronan talks about his work as a resilience leader finding ways to equip us with soft foundations and strong cores that can move with the tremors of our time. We learn that our times call for us to increase our forms of resilience in ways that enable us to embrace dualities, and to hold ultimate grief and ultimate possibility at the same time; muscles we need to grow to be able to fly closer to the sun. Links from this episode and more at allthatweare.org

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's not that simple. Perhaps (perhaps) it began in 1914. But the violence lingered on well after the armistices of 1918. So did the complicated questions of how to address that violence and the suffering that accompanied it. Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray are interested precisely in that moment where the official violence had ended but the real life violence continued. Their book British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923 (Routledge, 2022) asks a simple question: How did diplomats in London and on the ground in the Ottoman Empire attempt to achieve British goals in the maelstrom of violence following the Armistice of Mudros. Their answer is not quite so simple. They argue that the British response consistently prioritized human rights and human suffering. But in an environment of decreasing resources, interallied tensions and increasingly fierce resistance from Kemalist nationalists, their ability to pursue these priorities steadily shrunk. Eventually in the memorable words of the authors, British policy makers in London decided to embrace ethnic cleansing as a means of stopping genocide--exactly the opposite vision possessed by most modern leaders. Grubb and Murray provide a thorough examination of the ways national leaders can fail to protect human rights despite their own desire to do so. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's not that simple. Perhaps (perhaps) it began in 1914. But the violence lingered on well after the armistices of 1918. So did the complicated questions of how to address that violence and the suffering that accompanied it. Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray are interested precisely in that moment where the official violence had ended but the real life violence continued. Their book British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923 (Routledge, 2022) asks a simple question: How did diplomats in London and on the ground in the Ottoman Empire attempt to achieve British goals in the maelstrom of violence following the Armistice of Mudros. Their answer is not quite so simple. They argue that the British response consistently prioritized human rights and human suffering. But in an environment of decreasing resources, interallied tensions and increasingly fierce resistance from Kemalist nationalists, their ability to pursue these priorities steadily shrunk. Eventually in the memorable words of the authors, British policy makers in London decided to embrace ethnic cleansing as a means of stopping genocide--exactly the opposite vision possessed by most modern leaders. Grubb and Murray provide a thorough examination of the ways national leaders can fail to protect human rights despite their own desire to do so. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's not that simple. Perhaps (perhaps) it began in 1914. But the violence lingered on well after the armistices of 1918. So did the complicated questions of how to address that violence and the suffering that accompanied it. Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray are interested precisely in that moment where the official violence had ended but the real life violence continued. Their book British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923 (Routledge, 2022) asks a simple question: How did diplomats in London and on the ground in the Ottoman Empire attempt to achieve British goals in the maelstrom of violence following the Armistice of Mudros. Their answer is not quite so simple. They argue that the British response consistently prioritized human rights and human suffering. But in an environment of decreasing resources, interallied tensions and increasingly fierce resistance from Kemalist nationalists, their ability to pursue these priorities steadily shrunk. Eventually in the memorable words of the authors, British policy makers in London decided to embrace ethnic cleansing as a means of stopping genocide--exactly the opposite vision possessed by most modern leaders. Grubb and Murray provide a thorough examination of the ways national leaders can fail to protect human rights despite their own desire to do so. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's not that simple. Perhaps (perhaps) it began in 1914. But the violence lingered on well after the armistices of 1918. So did the complicated questions of how to address that violence and the suffering that accompanied it. Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray are interested precisely in that moment where the official violence had ended but the real life violence continued. Their book British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923 (Routledge, 2022) asks a simple question: How did diplomats in London and on the ground in the Ottoman Empire attempt to achieve British goals in the maelstrom of violence following the Armistice of Mudros. Their answer is not quite so simple. They argue that the British response consistently prioritized human rights and human suffering. But in an environment of decreasing resources, interallied tensions and increasingly fierce resistance from Kemalist nationalists, their ability to pursue these priorities steadily shrunk. Eventually in the memorable words of the authors, British policy makers in London decided to embrace ethnic cleansing as a means of stopping genocide--exactly the opposite vision possessed by most modern leaders. Grubb and Murray provide a thorough examination of the ways national leaders can fail to protect human rights despite their own desire to do so. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's not that simple. Perhaps (perhaps) it began in 1914. But the violence lingered on well after the armistices of 1918. So did the complicated questions of how to address that violence and the suffering that accompanied it. Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray are interested precisely in that moment where the official violence had ended but the real life violence continued. Their book British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923 (Routledge, 2022) asks a simple question: How did diplomats in London and on the ground in the Ottoman Empire attempt to achieve British goals in the maelstrom of violence following the Armistice of Mudros. Their answer is not quite so simple. They argue that the British response consistently prioritized human rights and human suffering. But in an environment of decreasing resources, interallied tensions and increasingly fierce resistance from Kemalist nationalists, their ability to pursue these priorities steadily shrunk. Eventually in the memorable words of the authors, British policy makers in London decided to embrace ethnic cleansing as a means of stopping genocide--exactly the opposite vision possessed by most modern leaders. Grubb and Murray provide a thorough examination of the ways national leaders can fail to protect human rights despite their own desire to do so. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's not that simple. Perhaps (perhaps) it began in 1914. But the violence lingered on well after the armistices of 1918. So did the complicated questions of how to address that violence and the suffering that accompanied it. Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray are interested precisely in that moment where the official violence had ended but the real life violence continued. Their book British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923 (Routledge, 2022) asks a simple question: How did diplomats in London and on the ground in the Ottoman Empire attempt to achieve British goals in the maelstrom of violence following the Armistice of Mudros. Their answer is not quite so simple. They argue that the British response consistently prioritized human rights and human suffering. But in an environment of decreasing resources, interallied tensions and increasingly fierce resistance from Kemalist nationalists, their ability to pursue these priorities steadily shrunk. Eventually in the memorable words of the authors, British policy makers in London decided to embrace ethnic cleansing as a means of stopping genocide--exactly the opposite vision possessed by most modern leaders. Grubb and Murray provide a thorough examination of the ways national leaders can fail to protect human rights despite their own desire to do so. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's not that simple. Perhaps (perhaps) it began in 1914. But the violence lingered on well after the armistices of 1918. So did the complicated questions of how to address that violence and the suffering that accompanied it. Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray are interested precisely in that moment where the official violence had ended but the real life violence continued. Their book British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923 (Routledge, 2022) asks a simple question: How did diplomats in London and on the ground in the Ottoman Empire attempt to achieve British goals in the maelstrom of violence following the Armistice of Mudros. Their answer is not quite so simple. They argue that the British response consistently prioritized human rights and human suffering. But in an environment of decreasing resources, interallied tensions and increasingly fierce resistance from Kemalist nationalists, their ability to pursue these priorities steadily shrunk. Eventually in the memorable words of the authors, British policy makers in London decided to embrace ethnic cleansing as a means of stopping genocide--exactly the opposite vision possessed by most modern leaders. Grubb and Murray provide a thorough examination of the ways national leaders can fail to protect human rights despite their own desire to do so. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's not that simple. Perhaps (perhaps) it began in 1914. But the violence lingered on well after the armistices of 1918. So did the complicated questions of how to address that violence and the suffering that accompanied it. Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray are interested precisely in that moment where the official violence had ended but the real life violence continued. Their book British Responses to Genocide: The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923 (Routledge, 2022) asks a simple question: How did diplomats in London and on the ground in the Ottoman Empire attempt to achieve British goals in the maelstrom of violence following the Armistice of Mudros. Their answer is not quite so simple. They argue that the British response consistently prioritized human rights and human suffering. But in an environment of decreasing resources, interallied tensions and increasingly fierce resistance from Kemalist nationalists, their ability to pursue these priorities steadily shrunk. Eventually in the memorable words of the authors, British policy makers in London decided to embrace ethnic cleansing as a means of stopping genocide--exactly the opposite vision possessed by most modern leaders. Grubb and Murray provide a thorough examination of the ways national leaders can fail to protect human rights despite their own desire to do so. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What truly is winning? Do you still win if you come second in the world, or have you lost? What if you come last or experience a business failure though learn lessons that last a lifetime? Is that a loss or winning in disguise? My guest Dr Cath Bishop is an Olympian, former diplomat, business coach and consultant, and author of ‘The Long Win', listed in the FT's Top 10 Business Books 2020. She competed in rowing at 3 Olympic Games, winning World Championships gold in 2003 and Olympic silver in Athens 2004. As a diplomat for the British Foreign Office for 12 years, Cath specialized in policy and negotiations on conflict issues, with postings to Bosnia and Iraq. Cath now works as a leadership consultant, executive coach, facilitator, and author. On this episode of The Business Elevation Show, we'll discuss the lessons from Cath's first book ‘The Long Win: the search for a better way to succeed' described by the Financial Times as ‘a deep and rewarding exploration of human motivation in sport, politics, business, and our personal lives'. Join us as we explore Cath's search for a better way to succeed and discover what winning really is.

What truly is winning? Do you still win if you come second in the world, or have you lost? What if you come last or experience a business failure though learn lessons that last a lifetime? Is that a loss or winning in disguise? My guest Dr Cath Bishop is an Olympian, former diplomat, business coach and consultant, and author of ‘The Long Win', listed in the FT's Top 10 Business Books 2020. She competed in rowing at 3 Olympic Games, winning World Championships gold in 2003 and Olympic silver in Athens 2004. As a diplomat for the British Foreign Office for 12 years, Cath specialized in policy and negotiations on conflict issues, with postings to Bosnia and Iraq. Cath now works as a leadership consultant, executive coach, facilitator, and author. On this episode of The Business Elevation Show, we'll discuss the lessons from Cath's first book ‘The Long Win: the search for a better way to succeed' described by the Financial Times as ‘a deep and rewarding exploration of human motivation in sport, politics, business, and our personal lives'. Join us as we explore Cath's search for a better way to succeed and discover what winning really is.

We talk to former British diplomat-turned-novelist Leigh Turner.Leigh tells us about his new novel Palladium, getting clearance from the British Foreign Office to write these books and the motivation behind his new career.We discuss managing crises - from civil unrest to planning for earthquakes and plane crashes, why representing the modern version of diplomatic life is so important and writing what you know.Leigh talks us about his early books - The Skip outside the Lenin Museum, Blood Summit and his anthology of hotel stories - and as the previous Ambassador to Ukraine, we talk about the conflict with Russia and what happens next.And he tells us why he wants to drink Macallan with the Queen.Home - Leigh Turner/Robert Pimm: novels, short stories and more (rleighturner.com)

Did you know that in the last year more Christians have been killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world combined? In 2021, at least 6,000 Christians died for their faith, and 80 per cent of those were Nigerians. Their murderers were – you may not be too shocked to learn – almost to a man Islamists. But, this being Nigeria, a supposedly secular state where northern provinces impose Sharia on their populations, the situation is chaotic.  Four different groups are implicated. They are: the notorious Boko Haram; the so-called 'Islamic State in West African Province'; armed bandits; and an ethnic group of Fulani militants, often described in the media as herders – which they traditionally are, but these days they seem to more interested in slaughtering Christians than in their livestock. To quote the Christian charity Open Doors, 'killing Christian men is a key strategy for these groups because it destroys livelihoods, with men tending to be the family's main breadwinner, and depopulates Christian communities.'  The violence employed by the Fulani herdsman in particular is so grotesque that I won't describe it in detail, but if I tell you that their targets include pregnant women and specifically their unborn children that will give you some idea of the apocalyptic horror involved. My guest on Holy Smoke today is a remarkable man: Pastor Ayo Adedoyin, based at Jesus House in London. He's also chief executive officer of an international development and human rights charity, PSJ UK, which tries to mobilise Africans in the UK into a cohesive voice on this subject. It's an urgent task. We're talking about a genocidal campaign that Ayo compares to the blood-soaked slaughter in the streets of Ukraine – but for years it hasn't attracted anything like the publicity it deserves. And the reason for that is that the international media and also international politicians don't seem particularly interested in the religious dimension of this conflict. The British Foreign Office – despite various promises – hasn't really responded to repeated calls to make it a higher priority. The Trump administration made some attempt, but a US administration led by a supposed Catholic, Joe Biden, has fallen quiet. Do please listen to what Pastor Ayo has to say. 

Robert is joined by Elinor Honigstein on this episode of Coffee with Curtis. Elinor is the Head of UK Office & Strategic Partnerships for the UK-Israel Tech Hub which is an initiative operated by the British Foreign Office. She shares with us the benefits of this trade partnership and her views on why Israel is continuing to see a tech boom. In addition Elinor is an advocate for women in tech and business. She recently was recognised as a TechWomen 100 Award Winner for 2021 and also is the founder of the VC Club & Women Leading Innovation Network. We tackle some big issues on the podcast.

ROBERT J LLOYD chats to Paul Burke about his philosophical historical crime novel BLOODLESS BOY, scientist/detective Robert Hooke and getting published with a helping hand from Christopher Fowler.BLOODLESS BOY: The City of London, 1678. New Year's Day. The body of a young boy, drained of his blood and with a sequence of numbers inscribed on his skin, is discovered on the snowy bank of the Fleet River. With London gripped by hysteria, where rumors of Catholic plots and sinister foreign assassins abound, Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, the powerful Justice of Peace for Westminster, is certain of Catholic guilt in the crime. He enlists Robert Hooke, the Curator of Experiments of the Royal Society, and his assistant, Harry Hunt, to help his enquiry. Sir Edmund confides to Hooke that the bloodless boy is not the first to have been discovered. He also presents Hooke with a cipher that was left on the body. That same morning Henry Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, blows his brains out. A disgraced Earl is released from the Tower of London, bent on revenge against the King, Charles II. Wary of the political hornet's nest they are walking into - and using evidence rather than paranoia in their pursuit of truth - Hooke and Hunt must discover why the boy was murdered, and why his blood was taken. Moreover, what does the cipher mean?Robert Lloyd is the son of parents who worked in the British Foreign Office, grew up in South London, Innsbruck, and Kinshasa. He studied for a Fine Art degree, starting as a landscape painter, but it was while studying for his MA degree in The History of Ideas that he first read Robert Hooke's diary, detailing the life and experiments of this extraordinary man. After a 20-year career as a secondary school teacher, he has now returned to painting and writing. The Bloodless Boy is his debut novel. He is at work on a sequel.Recommended:Lisa Jardine - Ingenious Pursuits (biography/history)Leonora Nattrass - The Black Drop (novel)Produced by Junkyard DogMusic courtesy of Southgate & LeighCrime TimePaul Burke writes for Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover, NB Magazine and the European Literature Network and edits/presents Crime Time FM.

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected a British claim that the Kremlin is seeking to replace Ukraine's government with a pro-Moscow administration, and that former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev is a potential candidate.Britain's Foreign Office on Saturday also named several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services, along with Murayev who is the leader of a small party that has no seats in parliament.Those politicians include Mykola Azarov, a former prime minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in a 2014 uprising, and Yanukovych's former chief of staff, Andriy Kluyev."Some of these have contact with Russian intelligence officers currently involved in the planning for an attack on Ukraine," the Foreign Office said.Murayev told The Associated Press via Skype that the British claim "looks ridiculous and funny" and that he has been denied entry to Russia since 2018 on the grounds of being a threat to Russian security. He said that sanction was imposed in the wake of a conflict with Viktor Medvedchuk, Ukraine's most prominent pro-Russia politician and a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.Murayev's Nashi party — whose name echoes the former Russian youth movement that supported Putin — is regarded as sympathetic to Russia, but Murayev on Sunday pushed back on characterizing it as pro-Russia."The time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is gone forever," he said in a Facebook post."Everything that does not support the pro-Western path of development of Ukraine is automatically pro-Russian," Murayev told The AP.He also said he supports Ukraine having neutral status and believes that "striving for NATO is tantamount to continuing the war." Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists have been fighting in the country's east since 2014, a conflict that has killed more than 14,000.Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko described Murayev as a significant figure in Ukraine's pro-Russia camp, but added: "Murayev is a second-place player. I don't think Murayev has direct connections in the Kremlin."The U.K. government made the claim based on an intelligence assessment, without providing evidence to back it up. It comes amid high tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia's designs on Ukraine and each side's increasing accusations that the other is planning provocations."The disinformation spread by the British Foreign Office is more evidence that it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, who are escalating tensions around Ukraine," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging app Sunday. "We call on the British Foreign Office to stop provocative activities, stop spreading nonsense."British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the information "shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking."Truss urged Russia to "deescalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy," and reiterated Britain's view that "any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs."Britain has sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine as part of efforts to bolster the country's defenses against a potential Russian attack.Mark Galeotti, who has written extensively on Russian security services, said: "I can't help but be skeptical" about the British claim."This is one of those situations where it is hard to know whether what we're facing is a genuine threat, a misunderstanding of the inevitable overtures that were being made to various Ukrainian figures by Russians or 'strategic communication' — which is what we call propaganda these days when we're doing it," Galeotti, who is honorary professor of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College, London,...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ronan helps organisations understand the coming decade of disruption, and how they can move from burnout to resilience. His talks are rare in that they combine big picture trends with the science of resilience, and are packed with lots of psychological tools to manage stress, anxiety and burnout. Audiences leave with a surprising dose of optimism about the future and confidence in their ability to cope with increasing complexity. His expertise comes from having worked as a scenario planner to the British Foreign Office and strategic lead at RethinkX, the Think Tank analysing technological disruption and its impacts on society. He is also a Client Director at Tough Cookie, which help major companies to improve their mental resilience. In the past year, he has delivered inspiring keynotes to KPMG, McKinsey-Aberkyn, and INSEAD, giving senior leaders the insights they need to respond to this moment of chaos and uncertainty. His talks are inspiring because they come from my own lived experience of being in senior leadership positions. He speaks openly about the stress of being a decision maker in chaotic environments. This includes the severe burnout he faced after leading the political strategy for the global climate movement. Now more than ever, audiences need to understand how to cope with crisis and adversity, and having experienced his own dark night of the soul, he can speak honesty about how to use it as an invitation to grow as a leader. His speaking topics include: Resilience in the Decade of Disruption Challenges and Opportunities in a post-Covid World Technology and Emerging Trends Employee Engagement Mental Resilience Health and Well-Being If you love this podcast: Fuel my podcast and buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Dbyd

It is well known that Britain supported General Pinochet, after he came to power in Chile in a military coup in 1973, but British covert action in Chile prior to the coup is not.Recently declassified documents demonstrate how, between 1960 and 1973, a secretive propaganda unit within the British Foreign Office sought to prevent, and later weaken, Salvador Allende's socialist presidency. Britain's role in Chilean coup#Chile #Coup #Pinochet #UK #BritishForeignOffice #Allende #SocialistResistance TV is a weekly show hosted by Chris Williamson the former Labour MP, Derby Council Leader and the founder of Resist Movement for a People's Party. With a socialist take on things we look at areas of concern for the left wing, Anti Racism, Anti Imperialism, MMT, Injustice, Britain's role in foreign affairs, 21st century Socialism, Alternative Media and more…Live Wednesday's on all our Social Media at 7pm and audio Podcast on Friday'sJoin Resist here www.resistmovement.org.ukSupport us with a donation here paypal.me/festivalofresistanceFollow Chris on Twitter @DerbyChrisW

Our Gutsy Guinea Pig for this week is Hammad Siddiqui, a LinkedIn expert (linkedin.com/in/hammadcoach). Jennifer and Scott discuss all sorts of things with Hammad, from the British Foreign Office to the Pottery Barn catalog. And we talk about speaking stuff too.

Due to AG's unexpected absence, please enjoy this episode of Prevail with Greg Olear. Click here to subscribe to Prevail: https://link.chtbl.com/prevail  Around the World with Arthur Snell In his career with the British Foreign Office, Arthur Snell was posted to some of the most consequential, and dangerous, places in the world: Zimbabwe, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq. He's now a managing director of Orbis Business Intelligence, where his colleague is Christopher Steele. In this discussion, Greg Olear talks to Arthur about, first, the current British political scene in general, with an emphasis on BREXIT and Russian interference; second, his remarkable career, and his view on Afghanistan and Iraq; and, finally, Orbis, Chris Steele, and the dossier. Plus: the return of Jeffrey Toobin to your TV screen. Follow Arthur on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SnellArthur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his career with the British Foreign Office, Arthur Snell was posted to some of the most consequential, and dangerous, places in the world: Zimbabwe, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq. He's now a managing director of Orbis Business Intelligence, where his colleague is Christopher Steele. In this discussion, Greg Olear talks to Arthur about, first, the current British political scene in general, with an emphasis on BREXIT and Russian interference; second, his remarkable career, and his view on Afghanistan and Iraq; and, finally, Orbis, Chris Steele, and the dossier. Plus: the return of Jeffrey Toobin to your TV screen. Follow Arthur on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SnellArthur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roger David Casement, known as Sir Roger Casement, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish nationalist. He worked for the British Foreign Office as a diplomat, becoming known as a humanitarian activist, and later as a poet and Easter Rising leader.

On this week's podcast, we're happy to have on Dr. Cath Bishop, Olympian, former diplomat, business coach, consultant, and author of ‘The Long Win’, listed in the FT’s Top 10 Business Books 2020.  She competed in rowing at 3 Olympic Games, winning World Championships gold in 2003 and Olympic silver in Athens 2004. As a diplomat for the British Foreign Office for 12 years, Cath specialized in policy and negotiations on conflict issues, with postings to Bosnia and Iraq. Cath now works as a leadership consultant, executive coach, facilitator, and author, and teaches on Executive Education programmes at the Judge Business School and Cambridge University.  She is also a regular speaker at Imperial College Business School and a Visiting Professor at Surrey Business School.  She teaches on leadership topics including resilience, high-performing teams, culture change, and inclusion.  In addition to all of this, Cath is also an advisor and advocate of ‘The True Athlete Project’, a non-profit organisation working to create sporting environments that enable athletes to thrive, and is Chair of ‘Love Rowing’, British Rowing’s Charitable Foundation aiming to bring rowing to more communities around the UK.   I listened to Cath speak about 'The Long Win', and the concept developed in her book really resonated with me. It's similar to my own High Performance Human approach and focusses on process and mastery rather than the outcome. If you are tired of the binary win or lose narrative which controls so much of life then you’ll love this conversation. In fact, the Financial Times described the book as "a deep and rewarding exploration of human motivation in sport, politics, business and our personal lives". Topics discussed today include: School sport, rowing, and the road to the Olympics Silver medal experience – pleasure or pain? Diplomatic world – is the language of winning the most beneficial approach to international relationships? How the original definitions of “sport”, “competition" and “winning” have been corrupted over the years Why Olympic gold medal winners can often feel a sense of loss and emptiness after victory The bizarre and somewhat disturbing allocation of return flight tickets for Olympic Gold medal winners and the rest of the team Why the winning at all costs attitude can be damaging in the long term Mastery/Process vs Outcome goals - being the best you can be The principles of ’The Long Win’, the 3C's, and how we can all formulate a different approach going forward To find out more about Cath Bishop, please visit her website You can also find Cath on these social media channels Twitter @thecathbishop  Instagram cath_bishop  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cath-bishop-a0029847/   Books mentioned: "Late Bloomers" by Rick Karlgaard “Think Again" by Adam Grant   Cath has presented a Ted X Talk on Resilience which you can watch/listen to HERE Take a 30 day trial in my SWAT Inner Circle for just £1. Watch this video for more information. Purchase a copy of my High Performance Human e-book featuring more than 30 top tips on how to upgrade your life. If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful.  Please click here to support the HPH podcast.  Thank you! Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes.  Links to all of Simon's social media channels can be found here.  For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

The NEW ISRAEL FUND and the Israeli Left – Few other NGO's in Israel conjure up stronger feelings than the NIF. Subversive anti-Israel front or patriotic agent for social change and justice? What really is the NIF (apart from one of the best examples of ‘Jewance' that we can think of) and what does the organization truly stand for? Moreover, as we just had our 4TH ELECTIONS in Israel this week, what happened to the Israeli left and where is it going? We sit down with MICKEY GITZIN, Executive Director of the New Israel Fund in Israel, a leading thinker, voice, and leader of the Israeli political left, to set the record straight. Mickey Gitzin is Executive Director of the New Israel Fund in Israel. He served as a city council member in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, where he chaired committees for diversity and public housing. He was also the Mayor's advisor for global development and innovation. Prior to joining NIF, Mickey was the founding director of “Israel Hofsheet” (Be Free Israel), a leading grassroots organization fighting for separation of religion and state in Israel. Previously, Mickey was the spokesperson for MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz) and the Associate Director of "Festival BeShekel," an organization advancing arts and culture in Israel's geographic and socioeconomic periphery. After completing his military service as an intelligence officer, he served as a shaliach (emissary) in South Bend, Indiana for the Jewish Agency for Israel. Mickey holds a Master's in Public Policy from University College-London, for which he received a Chevening Scholarship from the British Foreign Office and the British Council. In 2013, Mickey received NIF UK's Human Rights Award, and in 2015, NIF's Gallanter Prize for Emerging Israeli Social Justice Leaders.   Links: New Israel Fund https://www.nif.org/ (website) (English) NIF https://nif.org.il/ (website) (Hebrew) Mickey on Twitter https://twitter.com/Mickeygitzin?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (@Mickeygitzin) New Israel Fund on Twitter https://twitter.com/newisraelfund (@NewIsraelFund)   As always, make sure to subscribe to Jewanced on https://open.spotify.com/show/6984NiP7H1ULW9lJeVt8Ie?si=6LouGFFLTsq7N2bKJhLXRw (Spotify), https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jewanced/id1522195382 (Apple Podcasts), or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to our YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7r6xLC1K4Zf29i9ttxbNFg/ (channel). For more information, visit us at http://www.jewanced.com/ (http://www.jewanced.com)

Max Blumenthal begins by discussing the immense power imbalance between Israel and Palestine, which has led to enormously one-sided violence by the Israelis. The Palestinians, to be sure, have fought back, but Blumenthal says there’s a crucial difference between people defending their own territory, even when it sometimes results in civilian casualties, and an aggressor who moves in on other people’s land and deliberately targets families. Of course, with international support overwhelmingly behind the state of Israel, it’s very hard to get the real story out. If there’s one silver lining, explains Blumenthal, it’s that Netanyahu’s stranglehold on power makes it increasingly hard for so-called liberal zionists in the U.S. to back what Israel is doing. Blumenthal also discusses an investigation by his organization, the Grayzone, into the extensive effort by the British Foreign Office to coordinate pro-western media narratives in Russian-speaking countries and push pro-NATO candidates in Eastern European elections. Hundreds of documents obtained by the Grayzone reveal the extent of the corrupt relationship between the British government and supposedly unbiased media organizations like Reuters and the BBC. Blumenthal and Scott agree that this real scandal is much worse than even the most scurrilous “Russiagate” allegations, nearly all of which have turned out to be false. Of course, if the tables were turned, we would hear no end of outcry about this in the mainstream media—as it is, Twitter has done everything they can to silence the story. Discussed on the show: “Reuters, BBC, and Bellingcat participated in covert UK Foreign Office-funded programs to “weaken Russia,” leaked docs reveal” (The Grayzone) Director and writer of “Killing Gaza,” Max Blumenthal is a senior editor of the Grayzone Project and the author Goliath, Republican Gomorrah, and The 51 Day War. Follow Max on Twitter @MaxBlumenthal. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG.

On this episode of our Spanish Civil War Interview Series I was joined by Stephen Rainbird. Stephen's research focuses on the political relationship between Spain, Britain, and Portugal in the years before and during the Second World War. Our conversation focused mostly on the reaction of British political leaders to the events in Spain that led up to the Civil War, and then some of the reasons that the British government chose the path that it did during the conflict. We also discuss the very important matter of piracy in the Mediterranean during the war, where the pirates somehow got ahold of Italian submarines, spoke Italian, and were getting paid by the Italian government, weird situation really.

Once again, Dr. Mark Galeotti joins Matt to discuss yesterday's sentencing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and what it means for Russia's short and long term future. Is this the end of the first installment of Navalny's battle with the Kremlin, which peaked with his poisoning at the hands of the FSB in August 2020? Mark lays out Navalny's possible next steps, and how the ongoing standoff in neighboring Belarus figures into these events. They also discussed Mark's latest book, released just last week: A Short History of Russia. (https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Russia-Largest-Invented/dp/1335145702/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17IRK8CYKFGAR&dchild=1&keywords=a+short+history+of+russia+mark+galeotti&qid=1612395851&sprefix=a+short+history+of+russia%2Caps%2C229&sr=8-1) We hope you enjoy!! https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51+6v+VL2WL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg For Galeotti's previous episode with us, listen to "In Moscow's Shadows": https://www.slavxradio.com/galeotti ABOUT THE GUEST Dr Mark Galeotti has been researching Russian history and security issues since the late 1980s. Educated at Cambridge University and the LSE, he is now an Honorary Professor at UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies and a Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI. He also remains a senior non-resident fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague and for 2018-19 a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. He is also the director of the consultancy firm Mayak Intelligence. Previously he has been Head of the Centre for European Security at the Institute of International Relations Prague, Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, head of the History department at Keele University in the UK, an adviser at the British Foreign Office and a visiting professor at MGIMO (Moscow), Charles University (Prague) and Rutgers (Newark), as well as a visiting fellow with the ECFR. His books include We Need To Talk About Putin (Ebury) and The Vory: Russia's super mafia (Yale University Press), several Osprey books, and the edited collections The Politics of Security in Modern Russia (Ashgate) and Russian & Soviet Organized Crime (Ashgate) and he is a regular contributor to Jane's Intelligence Review, Oxford Analytica and many other outlets. He is a columnist for Raam op Rusland and the Moscow Times. NOTE: This episode was recorded February 3rd at 10am CST via Zoom. CREDITS Host/Co-Producer: Matthew Orr (Connect: facebook.com/orrrmatthew) Co-Producer: Tom Rehnquist (Connect: Twitter @RehnquistTom) Associate Producer: Lera Toropin Associate Producer: Cullan Bendig Assistant Producer: Samantha Farmer Assistant Producer: Katherine Birch Assistant Producer: Zach Johnson Assistant Producer/Administrator: Kathryn Yegorov-Crate Recording, Editing, and Sound Design: Michelle Daniel Music Producer: Charlie Harper (Connect: facebook.com/charlie.harper.1485 Instagram: @charlieharpermusic) www.charlieharpermusic.com (Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by Charlie Harper, Ketsa, Blue Dot Sessions) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (Connect: facebook.com/mdanielgeraci Instagram: @michelledaniel86) www.msdaniel.com DISCLAIMER: The Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin. https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/9/9a59b135-7876-4254-b600-3839b3aa3ab1/P1EKcswq.png Special Guest: Mark Galeotti.

Romanian rugby boomed in the 1950s, threatening the Five Nations dominance of European rugby union, as its club sides proved to be more than a match for the top English and Welsh teams. Then the British Foreign Office stepped in... The new ‘Rugby Reloaded’ uncovers the secret history of Anglo-Romanian ‘rugger diplomacy’ and discovers an unknown league link. If you think that politics in rugby is a recent thing, think again. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

From being categorised as ‘not a sporty child' to winning and Olympic medal and authoring a best selling book on winning. What and incredible insight and experience! Dr Cath Bishop is an Olympian, former diplomat, business coach and author. She competed in rowing at 3 Olympic Games, winning World Championships gold in 2003 and Olympic silver in Athens 2004. As a diplomat for the British Foreign Office for 12 years, Cath specialized in policy and negotiations on conflict issues, with postings to Bosnia and Iraq. Cath now works as a business consultant, leadership coach and author, and teaches on Executive Education programmes at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University and is a Visiting Professor at Surrey Business School. Cath speaks at events globally on topics of leadership, high performing teams and cultural change. Her first book ‘The Long Win: the search for a better way to succeed', published October 2020, was described by the Financial Times as ‘a deep and rewarding exploration of human motivation in sport, politics, business and our personal lives' and listed in their Top 10 Business Books for 2020.    If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes. It only takes a minute and really makes a difference in helping to convince new listeners. Thanks so much it - is much appreciated!! For show notes and past guests, please visit www.sportstories247.com Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Please make contact at: sportstories247@gmail.com Follow Sport Stories: Twitter:            twitter.com/sportstories_ Instagram:       Instagram.com/sportstories247 Facebook:        facebook.com/sportstories247 LinkedIn:         https://www.linkedin.com/company/sportstories YouTube:          Sport Stories YouTube Channel Find out more about Dave at: www.thesummitpartnership.com Follow Dave: Twitter:    https://twitter.com/SummitDave LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davelevine3   Success Quotes or sayings: I didn't know how to access sport and fitness at an early age The concepts were playing out – trying hard at school, wanting to learn and working out how I could become better at something I was interested., curious and intrigued I was conscientious and hard working and used these principles Really understanding – what's the drama behind the piece Searching and being curious all the time Find something that is so exciting I want to bury myself in it I was categorised as not a sporty child I saw opportunities which I believed were not open to me There was a real joy when I found sport – it was all mine Striving is a real part of me – I struggle to switch it off The tension between the learning process and performance outcome measurements An interest in looking at things beyond just the answer Peoples answers and reactions gave you a sense there were ‘good ways to go' and ‘bad ways to go' What about them – this is what I often struggle with – the constant segregation I was doing well but feeling  really uncomfortable at the same time I feel uncomfortable about the labels we put on people I was totally released from outcomes – it was a really lovely thing. I just wanted to do ourselves proud I realised the was a process of ‘you just have to get on with it!' You had to opt in – there was no option of opting out The scenario was - I cannot run away so had to run towards. There was no spotlight on JUST you! Focussing on yourself as well as others I am afraid of the water and still am…. Yet being ON the water is my favourite place Lots of things exclude you...how can we emphasise how to INCLUDE you [Watch for] sweeping statements that teachers (and developers) make Fun being so important even when we put in more training and take things ‘more seriously' The performance narrative that arrived was dense and oppressive – but thought that is what you have got to do to be an Olympic rower? I then threw myself into this narrative… I tried to learn all this ‘dominant winning language'. I found this really hard! I am so glad I loved the sport and being on the river Having a broad network of connections and friends was so important My other interests were a lifeline and necessity for me to be able to perform I did things to an obsessive degree which at times came at a cost The importance of compassion and mindfulness in sport Seeing sport in the broader framework is really helpful to performance Making sense of the obsession with winning – who are the real winners? You can't control the result…you can control what you do. Let's see what we can learn and then see where it takes us… Importance of connecting performance at a deeper level and to what comes afterwards Curiosity and learning is the positive fuel It is not about enjoying sport and therefore lowering standards – which is often what people fear   Quick fire questions: The books that you would recommend are? Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking by Matthew Syed A Bigger Prize: When No One Wins Unless Everyone Wins by Margaret Heffernan   How do I prepare to be the best version of myself… Time to exercise everyday Be really present and in the moment   In one sentence – What advice would you give to your teenage version of yourself? Don't obsess over the results, be present and more of what I take joy from   Who has made a big impact on you? Ron and Roger – coaches I had at University   Whos' Sport Story would you be really interested in hearing? Daley Thompson - Decathlete     Coaching questions I would like to pose: 1 What perceptions do you have of yourself and others that are limiting and how might you change them? 2 How has your position in your family helped or hindered your beliefs and attitudes towards hard work and success? 3 How would you define success for you on your own terms? 4 How does being the best version of you and the notion of ‘winning' sit for you? 5 Win or lose: What are you going to gain regardless of the result?     Contact info: www.cathbishop.com @thecathbishop

My guest on today's show is a dear friend Michelle Hakata. Michelle is an independent public health communications expert working in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. She is passionate about public health issues relating to sexual and reproductive health rights of women. Michelle has significant experience of working with non-governmental organisations, diaspora groups and the private sector on development, analysing trade and investment flows to Africa and remittances. In this episode Michelle reminisces about her journey as a journalist in Zimbabwe, her work with British Foreign Office, the Commonwealth Business Council and finding her niche as an expert in public health communications

Prof Gaynor Johnson explores the often-overlooked role civil servants in the formulation of foreign policy, including the role of women in the British Foreign Office. She discusses innovative methodological approaches to the study of diplomatic history, including the use of prosopography. Gaynor has published widely in the field of international history on topics ranging from fanaticism and warfare to interwar appeasement. She led a major AHRC project on British and French attitudes towards European integration between 1919 and 1957. A major preoccupation of her work has been the study of diplomacy and diplomats. She has published studies of Robert Cecil, Eric Phipps and Lord D'Abernon to name but a few. She has been Professor of International History at the University of Kent since 2013. She sits on the executive committees of the British International History Group and the Transatlantic Studies Association and was previously book reviews editor for the International History Review. She is also an Honorary Researcher at the Centre for War and Diplomacy. Gaynor's article 'Women Clerks and Typists in the British Foreign Office, 1920-1960: A Prosopographic Study' has just been published and you can find a full copy here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09592296.2020.1842066 Music credit: Kai Engel, 'Flames of Rome', Calls and Echoes (Southern's City Lab, 2014).

Mike Croll has been around a crisis or two - some violent and some peaceful - starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall. He's worked for the Halo Trust in Cambodia, and with the British Foreign Office, European Union, United Nations and more recently, Facebook.  He's an old friend of your host Mark Valley and they share a few laughs as Mike offers some thoughts about Security from ancient times to the present and into the future.  And there's a bonus guest around 48:52 who drops in - Mike's son, Ben Croll, shares his experience as 17 year-old young American in the times of the Black Lives Matter Movement and Covid-19, and his hopes for the future.   Episode 47Books by Mike Croll:History of LandminesLandmines in War and PeaceResources:The Halo Trusthttp://www.death-clock.orgLinkedIn.com/in/mike-crollIf you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please consider signing up as a contributing patron and join the community for exclusive commentary, and content.  A $10 a month donation will really keep us going - https://www.patreon.com/thelivedropAlternatively, if you would like to help make Season Three operational you could offer a one time donation of any amount right here ---> https://www.paypal.me/thelivedropThank you for listening and your support,Mark ValleyCreator/Host Get bonus content on Patreon Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop TODAY'S HEADLINES: More details emerged about forced hysterectomies at a prison for immigrants in Georgia. At least seventeen women may have been subjected to the procedures by one doctor, though the full scope is yet to be revealed. Meanwhile, low-income students are giving up on college as a result of the pandemic. Experts fear a new lost generation in higher education. And lastly, there were some big wins for progressive candidates in Delaware this week. A social worker won an upset victory over a forty-year incumbent in the state senate. THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW: Democrats demand hysterectomies investigation New information emerged yesterday regarding the unsettling account of forced hysterectomies at a for-profit immigration detention center in Ocilla, Georgia. Washington State Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal released a statement after meeting attorneys for the women who were subjected to the sterilization procedure. Jayapal said QUOTE It has become clear that the initial reports are likely part of a horrific pattern of conduct. There may be, at minimum, seventeen women who were subjected to unnecessary procedures from just one doctor, often without appropriate consent or knowledge, and with the clear intention of sterilization ENDQUOTE. Jayapal added that it's possible there are similar cases for individuals who were already deported. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also demanded an investigation yesterday, calling upon the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General to inquire into what she called QUOTE a staggering abuse of human rights ENDQUOTE. More than one hundred and sixty Democrats signed a letter demanding that the I.G. investigation begin immediately. In the meantime, other details about what has been happening at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility emerged from Jayapal’s preliminary Congressional investigation, which she pledged to continue. As Jayapal said: One woman, who was nearly deported, consulted the doctor simply about her menstrual cycle. She was put under for what she was told would be a simple procedure, only to wake up and find that the doctor had removed part of her reproductive organs without her knowledge or consent. Another woman, already deported, apparently went in to see the doctor for a simple condition related to diabetes and ended up having gynecological surgery. Two additional women apparently were shackled to the bed, reported to have had surgical procedures including a hysterectomy. The new details add substance to the whistleblower account we told you about yesterday. All information has so far come through attorneys for the women who have been victimized, but the public hasn’t yet heard from those women directly. Nor have we seen any documents or other evidence about the nature and scope of the procedures. It will take time to get all the answers, but we haven’t heard the last on this story, that’s for sure. Poorer students dropping college Across the country, low-income students are dropping out of college. Others are making the decision not to enroll at all. According to the Washington Post, some one hundred thousand fewer high school seniors completed financial aid applications this year. What’s more, an August survey by the US Census found that students from families annual with incomes under seventy five thousand dollars are nearly twice as likely to cancel all their plans to take classes this fall, compared to students from families with incomes over one hundred thousand dollars. And tuition deposits are down down eight point four percent among families making less than sixty thousand dollars a year. Enrollment trends so far show especially steep drops among Black students and rural white students. While some students are adapting to the situation by applying to lower-cost colleges, enrollment at community colleges seems to be hard hit. The drop in enrollment is unique to the pandemic, the Post says. During the 2008 Great Recession, college enrollment grew, as is typical during economic downturns. Bill DeBaun, data director for the National College Attainment Network, said the ultimate fear is this could be a lost generation of low-income students. A number of students told the Post they couldn’t justify the expense of full tuition in order to take online classes, without the benefits of college attendance such as access to a library and other facilities. Progressive upset in Delaware Political primary season is over. And there were some stunning results this week in Delaware’s state primary, which concluded on Tuesday. In the thirteenth district, social worker Marie Pinkney, a political newcomer running on a progressive platform, defeated the powerful and long-serving Senate President Pro Tem David McBride. According to the Associated Press, McBridge joined the Delaware state senate in 1980 and hadn’t faced a primary challenger since 1986. Pinkney advances to face Republican Alexander Homich in the general election. Pinkney was one of four Delaware candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party to win seats this week. The others were Larry Lambert in House District Seven, Eric Morrison in House District Twenty-Seven, Madinah Wilson-Anton in House District Twenty-Six, and Shané (SHAW-NEIGH) Darby for Wilmington City Council district two. All minus Morrison are people of color. There was another result worth mentioning: Lauren Witzke, another Q-Anon kook, won the US Senate Republican primary, and will challenge incumbent Democrat Chris Coons in November. According to the Daily Beast, Witzke has also endorsed the idea of Trump becoming a lifelong king of the United States, and said she believes that the earth is flat. Fortunately, Coons is favored. AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES: Hurricane Sally, a storm that meterologists said seemed to come out of nowhere, slammed Florida and Alabama yesterday. It was downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall, but it still brought massive and destructive flooding. Georgia and South Carolina are in line to be hit by the center of the storm today. Batten your hatches, folks. Attorney General Bill Barr last week suggested to federal prosecutors that they might charge some protesters with sedition – that is, the crime of conspiring to overthrow the US government. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news yesterday, as well as the fact that some federal prosecutors were taken aback by Barr’s suggestion. As well they should be! Michael Caputo, the Health and Human Services spokesman who posted an unhinged Facebook Live rant about left-wing insurrectioninsts in his department and called upon Trump supporters to stock up on ammunition, will be taking a leave of absence. According to the New York Times, Centers for Disease Control director Robert Redfield told a Senate panel yesterday that he was deeply saddened by Caputo’s comments and said his remarks about government scientists committing sedition were false and offensive. To say the least. Decolonization news: the country of Barbados announced it would remove England’s Queen Elizabeth the Second as its head of state. The move toward full sovereignty will take effect next November, when Barbados celebrates fifty-five years of independence. Per CBS News, both Buckingham Palace and the British Foreign Office said the matter is up to Barbados, which, historically speaking, is a big step forward for the Brits. That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report. Sept 1, 2020 - AM Quickie HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner WRITER - Corey Pein PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

We speak to Venezuelan FM Jorge Arreaza after a coup attempt by Silvercorp mercenaries, which Venezuela alleges were hired by US President Trump. He discusses Iran’s oil shipment to Venezuela along with assistance to revive Venezuela’s oil industry, US attempts to block the shipment, the uncovered secret Venezuelan Reconstruction Unit within the British Foreign Office which is alleged to be for post-regime change Venezuela, allegations of Venezuela sponsoring terrorism by the United States, the US and EU’s support for Juan Guaido, a deal reached with the UN to allow Venezuela to access its gold reserves in the Bank of England which was prohibited by PM Johnson, Venezuela’s coronavirus response, the impact of sanctions on ordinary Venezuelans, Venezuela’s relationship with Russia, China, Cuba and Iran, allegations of narco-trafficking by the US against President Maduro and more!

Not sure of the exact date of this early Media Network but I am guessing 10.01.1985 We started with a visit to the Sunspot Index Data Centre in Brussels. I remember assuming that with a name like Koekelenberg, the head of the centre would speak Dutch, but discovered he would only speak French and a smattering of English. Belgium remains a mystery to me with the language divide. We then looked at a proposal for a new Radio Free Europe programme called Radio Maccabee. The programme concludes with reports about various strange stations coming out of the northern part of South Africa. Irish music has been heard, but no station announcements. Reporter Roger Tidy went down to Stockbridge Post Office to investigate a letterbox announced by the South African political clandestine station Radio Truth which is beaming to Zimbabwe. We included several off-air clips from the station. The British Foreign Office wasn't all that interested. Richard Ginbey has been noting some strong signals from Burundi, Kenya and Mauritius.  

Howdy folks, Double J here, with an OpGCD invasion of the Good Vibrations Podcast, 2019 Alternative Theory Year End Review. This is where Mr. Mark Devlin, host of Good Vibrations Podcast, sits down for a convo with Mr. Darren Williams, famously of Liverpool England, for a year end review of Darren’s top 10 Alternative Theory (aka. Conspiracy Theory) type topics. However, Mark Devlin is heavily engaged in other research matters at this time…so I’m baaaaaack, Double J here…with another invasion. Just like the 2018 Year End Review on Good Vibrations Podcast. Offering my unique brand of Operation GCD-style humor to Mr. Darren Williams’ (once again, famously of Liverpool England) top 10 Alternative Theory type topics of 2019. Connect with Mark Devlin Good Vibrations Podcast (available on apps podcasts are found): Emailmark@markdevlin.co.uk Websitehttp://www.markdevlin.co.uk Twitter@djmarkdevlin Connect with Darren Williams Twitter - @DazAltTheory Numerous guest appearances on Good Vibrations Podcast, Operation GCD, & many other Alternative Theory type podcasts. Connect with Double J & the Operation GCD Podcast (available on apps podcasts are found): Twitter - @OperationGCD Email - OperationGCD@gmail.com Website - www.OperationGCD.com Links & Show Notes DazAltTheory Top 10 of 2019 Notes 1). Stephen Dorril - senior lecturer in journalism at Huddersfield University (UK) whom specializes in researching the activities of British Military Intelligence was contacted by the wife of a deceased MI6 Agent (the Wife died in 2014). The Agent - Peter Hornsby was Lead Editor of the MI6 covertly funded Magazine: Flamingo (1961 - 1965) It deliberately targeted, the new influx of Black People from the then British Colonies in The Caribbean & West Africa. MI6 feared the ideology of Communism that was going throughout The Third World would arrive in the UK via the new immigration into the nation which was required after the devastation of World War 2 to the infrastructure & public sector, so the magazine was designed as a means to cleverly attack Communism by promoting Anglo – American values. Geopolitical articles within the magazine where of a serious nature near identical to media releases from the British Foreign Office's semi-secret Information Research Department. Also, revealed by Dorril was numerous Community Centres throughout London that serviced the mentioned new intake Afro – Caribbean Community where funded by C.I.A fronts in the form of 'charitable foundations' with the aim of identifying potential threats along with recruitment of new operatives. These Community Centres where also found in the major cities throughout the UK (Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield & Leeds) therefore was this C.I.A / MI6 Network even more extensive ? The revealing of this by Stephen Dorril – an academic along with author of numerous books on British Military Intelligence is important yet also worrying as it proves the covert manipulation of The Black Population of Britain. Therefore, has this continued in various ways such as elevating carefully chosen individuals from The British Black Community within Pop Culture (Music, Acting, Television Presenting & Journalism) with the counter narrative being individuals WITH talent that are deemed to not being able to be turned or having honour values being prevented from having opportunities ? If, this is the case then the UK is more tightly controlled than East Germany during the Cold War. Source: “Sex, ska and Malcolm X: MI6’s covert 1960s mission to woo West Indians” - theguardian.com/uk [ Saturday 26th January 2019 ] PAGE 1 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 2). The best friend of the current Pope whom was given the role of Treasurer for the entire Roman Catholic Church – Cardinal George Pell was found guilty of sexual offences against minors occurring in 1996 in his native Australia. One of the victims died of a drug overdose in retaliation in 2014 due to the impact of the abuse. This was without doubt, the most important news story of 2019 as it places the decision making plus general awareness of Pope Francis into question YET the significant Mainstream Media Outlets within the Western World didn't place the proper focus upon this scandal compared to say allegations made towards the historic sexual behaviour of R&B Singer R. Kelly in the SAME calender year which was a media hype – fest. Pell was sentenced to Six Years with parole happening after Three Years & Six Months along with being for the rest of his life on the Sex Offenders Register. Pell who remains an archbishop and a member of the College of Cardinals has been placed in protective custody during his incarceration has been visited by former Australian Prime Minister (2013 – 2015) Tony Abbot. A national outrage occurred in Australia due to this with Abbot justifying this by 'simply visiting a friend'. Then, on Christmas Eve 2019 – a group of local Catholics as a show of support for Pell decided to sing Carols outside the Melbourne correctional facility. Seems, they should re – read their Bible for... Matthew 18 : 6 Sources: “George Pell: Cardinal found guilty of sexual o ences in Australia” - bbc.co.uk/news [ Tuesday 26th February 2019 ] “Christmas Eve carolers for Cardinal Pell gathered at Melbourne prison” - catholicherald.co.uk [ Thursday 26th December 2019 ] PAGE 2 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 3). A concrete “altar” & a pagan metal plaque was discovered on Whinny Hill above St. Margaret’s Loch in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh (Scotland). Holyrood Park, which is also known as The Queen’s Park, is a royal park that remains part of Holyrood Palace, The Queen’s official residence in Scotland. The various articles don't detail how it was discovered yet photos show it BEFORE it was removed by unknown person(s) embedded in the ground within a section of turf cut into a triangle shape. A concrete altar was found buried beneath the topsoil and apparently was surrounded by “display objects”. It was later discovered that rather than the first believed ancient relics, one of them was carefully embedded into the ground using concrete & was part of artwork available on – line from Portland (USA) based artist: Maxine Miller. One of the pieces that was placed in concrete is priced as $75.00 (£54.00p) known as: Horned God and Goddess Celtic Elemental Pentacle Wall Plaque Cold Cast Bronze Miller's artwork is based in ancient occult knowledge. Therefore, what was discovered contemporary occult ceremonial worship ? Sources: “Satanic Plaque and Altar Unearthed in The Queen’s Holyrood Park in Scotland” - ancient-origins.net [ Saturday 22nd June 2019 ] “Mysterious ‘Altar’ unearthed in Holyrood Park most likely used by pagans not devil worshippers” - scotsman.com [ Saturday 22nd June 2019 ] “Mystery as pagan altar and symbol unearthed in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park” - edinburghnews.scotsman.com [ Saturday 22nd June 2019 ] Horned God and Goddess Cel c Elemental Pentacle Wall Plaque Cold Cast Bronze available at maxinemillerstudios.com PAGE 3 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 4). The following is NOT saying that MSC & J.P. Morgan Asset Management are involved in illegal activities. American Customs and Border Protection impounded 20 Tones high – grade Cocaine with a value of $1.3 Billion (£765. 9 Million) on Monday 17th June 2019 at Philadelphia’s Packer Marine Terminal from a container ship: MSC Gayane. The Ship is owned by global Merchant Bank: J.P. Morgan Asset Management and chartered to Mediterranean Shipping Company commonly known as MSC. Earlier in 2019 on Thursday 28th February – ANOTHER MSC Container Ship - the Carlotta docked at the Port Newark – Elizabeth Marine Terminal which is the major Port of New York and New Jersey. The main container ship facility for goods entering and leaving the New York Metropolitan area representing... New York City, Long Island, New Jersey inc. Newark and Jersey City & Connecticut (Stamford). MSC Carlotta was searched in a joint operation involving: US Customs and Border Protection, US Coast Guard, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration commonly known as The DEA, New York Police Department commonly known as the NYPD and the New York State Police. What was found was 1.5 Tones of high – grade Cocaine $77 Million (£58. 9 Million) making it the largest sizure of narotics at that Port in 25yrs. The MSC Carlotta was bound for London (UK). So, in the SAME calender year on the American East Coast the amount of high – grade Cocaine confiscated totalled $1. 300. 77 Billion [ one billion three hundred and seventy - seven million ] (£824. 8 Million) was on container ships of the SAME company whose ownership is represented in corporate offices in Geneva (Switzerland) [ MSC ] & Mid - town Manhattan (New York City, USA) [ J.P. Morgan Asset Management ]. The nation with the lowest GDP thus the poorest in the world is South Sudan (African Continent) that was worth in 2019: $275.1 Million (£210. 5 Million). Therefore, the Cocaine found was £614. 3 Million MORE than South Sudan. The mentioned is NOT saying that MSC & J.P. Morgan Asset Management are involved in illegal activities. PAGE 4 4 continued). Sources: “MSC pays millions to release MSC Gayane a er drug seizure” - safety4sea.com [ Tuesday 16th July 2019 ] “U.S. Seizes MSC Container Ship A er Record Drug Bust” - wsj.com [ Tuesday 9th July 2019 ] “New threat' as record-breaking $77m of cocaine seized at New York port” - news.sky.com/uk [ Monday 11th March 2019 ] “A Shipping Manifest Said the Container Held Dried Fruit. Inside Was 3,200 Pounds of Cocaine” - nytimes.com [ Monday 11th March 2019 ] “£1 million of cocaine bound for London seized in 1.5 tonne New York drugs bust” - mylondon.news [ Monday 11th March 2019 ] “Ship Seized In Record $1.3 Billion Cocaine Bust Belongs To JP Morgan” - zerohedge.com [ Wednesday 10th July 2019 ] The 20 countries with the lowest gross domes c product (GDP) per capita in 2019 (in U.S. Dollars) – statista.com [ Monday 9th December 2019 ] Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... PAGE 5 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 5). Hacker group known as: The Dark Overlord announced it had obtained unauthorized data connected to September 11th 2001 Insurance Claims from the following three firms... Silverstein Properties, Hiscox Syndicates Ltd & Lloyds of London. Via, Twitter & other Web Sites it declared that they had reviewed the data placing them into five sections known as Layers with Layer 5 having the most sensational content. To, have the sections revealed was based upon an amount chosen by them paid via the digital currency: Bitcoin. Layer 5 being worth in American Dollars: $2 Million (£1.5 Million) Crowd – funding paid for the documents in Layer 1 to be revealed thus proving the hack did in – fact take place. What was noticed was a sudden vast transfer of Bitcoin from one account to another yet due to the manner digital currency is the sender & receiver are anonymous yet the ripple is visible. In, December 2019 – a British Man: Nathan Wyatt 39yrs old of Wellingborough (Northamptonshire, UK) was extradited to St. Louis (Missouri, USA) under Federal Charges of being a key member of the hacking collective. Who paid for Layers 3 to 5 ? What information was on these sections that reveal unaware details relating to what happened in Manhattan on that tragic day of Tuesday 11th September 2001 ? The Mainstream Media of the Western World seemed to be done with this incident once payment was made. Sources: “Ransom Moves: The Dark Overlord Keeps Pressuring Vic ms” - bankinfosecurity.com [ Friday 4th January 2019 ] “Dark Overlord hackers release alleged 9/11 lawsuit documents” - nakedsecurity.sophos.com [ Thursday 3rd January 2019 ] “The Dark Overlord & 9/11 Documents: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know” - heavy.com [ Friday 4th January 2019 ] “Cybersecurity Expert on Dark Overlord's 9/11 Data: It Might Paint Bigger Picture” - sputniknews.com [ Monday 14th January 2019 ] “Pack your bags, you're going to America, Lord Chief Jus ce tells accused Brit hacker” - theregister.co.uk [ Monday 18th November 2019 ] “UK extradites Dark Overlord hacker Nathan Wya to the US” - teiss.co.uk [ Thursday 19th December 2019 ] PAGE 6 6). The following is NOT saying that Kevin Spacey is involved in illegal activities. On, Christmas Eve 2019 (Tuesday 24th December 2019) via his official YouTube Channel – the two time Oscar® Winning Actor: Kevin Spacey released a video titled: “KTWK” (Kill Them with Kindness is the full meaning) This 59 second video performed as the fictional character: “President Frank Underwood” from Netflix Series - "House of Cards” was a follow – up to a previous YouTube video titled: “Let Me Be Frank” As, with “KTWK”, the earlier YouTube video was released by Spacey on Christmas Eve 2018 (Monday 24th December 2018). What, makes “KTWK” different is 24hrs later on Christmas Day 2019 (Wednesday 25th December 2019) in the rural Norwegian Community of Lommedalen (40 minutes drive west of the capital Oslo) - Ari Behn committed suicide. In December 2017, Behn said that Spacey had groped his genitals in 2007 during the V.I.P after - party for the Nobel Peace Prize held in Oslo. Why, this go global attention was at the time of the incident Behn was married to Princess Märtha Louise of Norway whom is 4th in line to the Norwegian Throne & 26th in line to the British Throne. On, Sunday 29th December 2019 – the respected Pop Culture expert & author Christopher Knowles published a blog entry regrading Spacey titled: “Kevin Spacey, Super-Villain at Large” This article inspired me to look at the roles Spacey has played particularly focusing on Films. A significant amount of roles are characters that play Professional Criminals some having superior intelligence... “Keyser Söze” - “John Doe” - “Lex Luthor” - “Doc” - Turkish Crime Lord who operates a decades old international network. a serial killer bent on savagely punishing those who have committed the seven deadly sins bringing attention to evil in a world that he claims has accepted any & all types of immorality. billionaire industrialist that happens to be the arch – enemy of “Superman”. mysterious kingpin of an Atlanta (Georgia, USA ) based crime syndicate. Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... Then two portrayals based upon real – life individuals... “Michael Lynch” - loosely based on Martin Cahill, infamous Dublin crime boss assassinated by The IRA. James Arthur Williams - only person in the state of Georgia (USA) ever to be tried four separate times regarding a single homicide. PAGE 7 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 6 continued). What is strange is actors commonly leave roles that have popularity due to fearing they will be type – cast to the characteristics displayed in what made them popular. Yet, the work done by Kevin Spacey shows a deliberate choosing of master – criminals. The symbolism used in BOTH “Let Me Be Frank” & “KTWK” is fascinating from props such as specific Coffee Mugs to home ornaments to the emphasis placed by Spacey on specific words using the cadence of the fictional character - “President Frank Underwood”. In, September 2019 – an anonymous massage therapist who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Spacey died, according to a notice filed in court by the actor's attorneys. The individual, suing as a "John Doe", filed claims in September 2018 with the allegation of being forced to grab the actor's genitals twice during a massage two years earlier at a private residence in Malibu. The combined etymology of “Roger 'Verbal' Kint” & “Keyser Söze” translates into contemporary English as... Famous Verbal King A rather apt description of Kevin Spacey. The mentioned is NOT saying that Kevin Spacey is involved in illegal activities. Sources: “Norwegian Author and Kevin Spacey Accuser, Dies at 47” - hollywoodreporter.com [ Wednesday 25th December 2019 ] “Massage therapist who accused Kevin Spacey of sexual assault dies” - pagesix.com [ Wednesday 18th September 2019 ] “Kevin Spacey, Super - Villain at Large” - secretsun.blogspot.com [ Sunday 29th December 2019 ] “Joe Rogan Reacts to the Kevin Spacey News” - JRE Clips Channel on YouTube ( https://bit.ly/2QHRw2e ) [ Monday 24th December 2018 ] “Kevin Spacey's Latest Bizarre YouTube Video” - JRE Clips Channel on YouTube ( https://bit.ly/2QHRw2e ) [ Monday 6th January 2020 ] PAGE 8 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 7). Katherine Keating is the 38yr old daughter of former Australian Prime Minister: Paul Keating (in office December 1991 – March 1996). You've likely have seen Katherine as the woman Prince Andrew is waving goodbye to in a very friendly manner at the then Manhattan Townhouse home of a certain Jeffery Epstein in December 2010. Whilst, Paul Keating was an overtly anti – British Royalty to such an extent he declared this in a famous February 1992 speech with Elizabeth The 2nd being in the audience at Sydney (Australia), his daughter is the complete opposite being a friend of Prince Andrew. Katherine is a New York Socialite to such an extent she attended the 2019 Halloween Party of the acclaimed Film Director - Todd Phillips. You might have enjoyed, Phillips most recent Film: “Joker”. Katherine attended the Party in fancy dress as that mentioned film main character: “Arthur Fleck” in full face – paint. Why, Katherine Keating has my attention is recent footage of her pleasant goodbye with Prince Andrew has her face blurred out. This doesn't need to occur as the incident happened along with footage & still photographs of others from that day being used yet NOT edited. In, a now difficult to locate video - Katherine Keating during her time working at The Huffington Post interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell that was made for Social Media. Ghislaine Maxwell ultimate ambition from my research was to be Chief Executive for an NGO given the role by The United Nations to protect marine biology of ALL International Waters. If, Ghislaine Maxwell was successful her TerraMar Project would have had Diplomatic Immunity which would have covered their compete fleet of Ships & Submarines along with Employees. As, international regulator of the world's International Waters – it would have given the TerraMar Project complete access to EVERY Dock yet Customs Enforcement would be banned from doing inspections. With, what has been revealed about Ghislaine Maxwell since the arrest of her former lover Jeffrey Epstein in July 2019 – we should all be thankful that she never obtain such levels of power including unrestricted international travel. Katherine Keating is part of a collective of selected individuals known as: The 21st Century Council. This is funded & part of The Berggruen Institute. Nicolas Berggruen identified firstly that Western Nations have populations that have realized the competing political elites care MORE for party ideology plus globalism than their socio-economic struggles. Secondly, Developing World Nations particularly China are too strict in the rule of their populations leading to a lack of creativity placing restrictions on GDP expansion. The 21st Century Council wish to use their expertise as individuals in the 25yr to 60yrs age range whom work in Politics to Pop Culture to advise nations on the best way of managing their populations. PAGE 9 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 7 continued). Katherine Keating has a number of positions on various boards yet her main job is Chief Sustainability and Strategy Officer of Maverick an American entertainment company. Keating head up a department that provides strategic resources to partner companies in the entertainment, technology and direct-to-consumer industries. She is supported by two subordinates: Head of Policy and Research & Head of Development. These are few names that Maverick represents... Paul McCartney Madonna Britney Spears U2 It's surprising that the MeToo Movement lead by American actress, activist, model & author Rose McGowan has been somewhat quiet regarding the associates, acquaintances & friends of Jeffrey Epstein ? Sources: Katherine Kea ng interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell in 2014 for The Hu ngton Post promo ng the work of The TerraMar Project [ a mirror copy due to original being deleted ] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a0rj6QdjW8 “Inside the high-al tude world of Katherine Kea ng” - afr.com [ Thursday 22nd August 2019 ] “How Katherine Kea ng's fortunate life among New York's elite barely skipped a beat a er video emerged of her being shown from Je rey Epstein's apartment by Prince Andrew ” - dailymail.co.uk [ Monday 25th November 2019 ] “Katherine Kea ng Joins Maverick as Chief Sustainability & Strategy O cer” - variety.com [ Thursday 15th November 2018 ] “Revealed: Why Katherine Kea ng was visi ng Je rey Epstein's mansion” - smh.com.au [ Saturday 21st September 2019 ] “Prince Andrew's links to Je rey Epstein” - bbc.co.uk/news [ Saturday 16th November 2019 ] The TerraMar Project O cal YouTube Channel - youtube.com/user/terramarproject PAGE 10 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 8). On, Thursday 12th December 2019 during her acceptance speech as the first ever recipient of The Billboard (American Music Industry Media Outlet) Woman of the Decade Award, for being one of the most accomplished musical artists over the course of the 2010s Taylor Swift accused the billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros of participating in "toxic male privilege" due to bankrolling music executive Scooter Braun, who outbid Swift to purchase the rights of her music from her first record label. Swift said: “This just happened to me without my approval, consultation, or consent. after I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I’m told was funded by the Soros family, 23 Capital and The Carlyle Group.” adding Ithaca Holdings, 23 Capital, The Carlyle Group & Soros family are: “...potentially harmful force.” The Carlyle Group is an American multinational private equity, alternative asset management & financial services corporation. It has invested in the following... Booz Allen Hamilton, Freescale Semiconductor, Getty Images, Nielsen Holdings etc. Monday 10th to Tuesday 11th September 2001 at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel of Manhattan (New York City, USA) held an annual general meeting of The Carlyle Group which had... Sir John Major (former UK Prime Minister 1990 – 1997) George H. W. Bush (former American President 1989 – 1993) Shafiq bin Laden – the eldest billionaire Brother of a certain Osama bin Laden. The conference was stopped due to the attacks on The World Trade Centre. Swift has 85.5 Million Followers on Twitter & 125 Million Followers on Instagram. It will be interesting to see if Swift repeats her displeasure towards Soros & The Carlyle Group yet her mention of them has introduced Alternative Research to a significant percentage of her vast devoted fanatical following. Sources: “Taylor Swi Blasts George Soros For Exploi ng Her Music Without Her ‘Consent’ ” - dailywire.com [ Friday 13th December 2019 ] “Taylor Swi calls out the unregulated world of private equity” - qz.com [ Saturday 14th December 2019 ] “From 9/11 To PRISMgate - How The Carlyle Group LBO'd The World's Secrets” - zerohedge.com [ Monday 10th June 2013 ] “George W. Bush: “My Dad Was Mee ng with the Brother of Osama on September 11”, 2001. Does That Make Him a Terror Suspect ?” - globalresearch.ca [ Tuesday 17th March 2015 ] PAGE 11 Top 10 of 2019 Notes (Continued)... 9). As, the UK was winding down in preparation for Christmas – one of the highest courts in the land: Investigatory Powers Tribunal of the High Court voted 2 to 1 that MI5 (Internal) & MI6 (External) CAN engage in torture, killing & other illegal activity under the protection of the nation for ‘the greater good’. This ruling is a contradiction going AGAINST the foundation of Law in Britain.. The Magna Carta, which means ‘The Great Charter’ one of the most important documents in history it established the principle that everyone is subject to the law, even the king and guarantees the rights of individuals, the right to justice & the right to a fair trial. Yet, it seems Military – Intelligence along with Black Op’s of The UK can now commit serious offences under the protect of the very law that is supposed to prosecute such behaviour. This means that the UK in the 21st Century is in some ways no different to East Germany under the control of the infamous: Stasi (1950 – 1990). Sources: 10). Source: “MI5spiescankillwithoutfearofprosecu oniftheycanprovepublicinterest, High Court rules” - telegraph.co.uk [ Friday 20th December 2019 ] “Magna Carta: What is it – and why is it s ll important today ?” - independent.co.uk [ Monday 2nd February 2015 ] “It's cool for Brit snoops to break the law, says secre ve spy court. Just hold on while we pull o some legal jujitsu to let MI5 o the hook...” - theregister.co.uk [ Friday 20th December 2019 ] Man who receives a bone marrow transplant discovers sections of his body have replaced his DNA with that of the donor including four months after the transplant his semen contained 100% of his donor’s DNA...!!! “When a DNA Test Says You’re a Younger Man, Who Lives 5,000 Miles Away” - nytimes.com [ Saturday 7th December 2019 ] Every January, I wrap – up the ten things that got my attention for the previous year. This started with looking at 2017. If, you’d like to hear my thoughts on 2017, 2018 & now 2019 please search for: Mark Devlin Good Vibrations Podcast At, the time of writing this Good Vibrations is hosted at spreaker.com Also, please go to www.operationgcd.com/podes whom have a fantastic archive. Additional Information: Am, always on Twi er: @DazAltTheory - h ps://twi er.com/DazAltTheory END. PAGE 12

As the British oligarchs beat the war drums in order to trap Donald Trump in another war, hoping, thereby, to defeat him in 2020, the claim is made, repeatedly, that the Chinese are ruthlessly suppressing a Muslim religious minority, the Uyghurs, in Xinjiang province, requiring sanctions and further loud and obnoxious interventions by the U.S. This is the same phenomena whereby Americans are revved up to support Al Qaeda in Syria in order to secure regime change against Assad or to cheer the riots in Hong Kong being staged by our rotten National Endowment for Democracy, the British Foreign Office, and the world’s leading dirty dope money launderer, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

  Understanding and Buying Holiday Travel Insurance   Learn the nuances of buying travel insurance so you're actually covered for unforeseen accidents, delays, sickness, theft and more.  Many claims are denied because people don't understand their policy. Don't make that mistake and learn what to buy.   Why Buy Travel Insurance? You buy holiday insurance to help mitigate some of the lossesyou face when your holiday doesn’t go as planned, especially through no fault of your own.  Without insurance, you can be out a significant amount of cash for bookings you are no longer able to use. Americans now spend close to $3 billion a year on travel insurance, and that’s up almost 20%!  I buy holiday travel insurance for every trip I take. To me, it’s a small price to pay for piece of mind in case something goes wrong, plus I have 24 hour assistancewhen something does go wrong.  It's super important to UNDERSTAND what travel insurance is and the types of things it can cover.  It doesn't cover 'stupid' or negligence like being under the influence.  And it's only to try to make you 'whole' not compensate you for your loss.  So in an approved claim, you in effect, get back the money it cost you had the unfortunate event not taken place.  In this podcast episode, I get to better understand travel insurance in my interview with Phil Sylvester of World Nomads.   Links Mentioned:  Active Travel Adventures podcast   World Nomads Insurance quote  Costa Rica podcast episode Tanzania safari podcast(Mickey faceplant!)   The Best Travel insurance can cover things: Before your trip: You or an immediate family member gets sick or dies Your tour or cruise gets cancelled (in fact this just happened to me after I already bought my expensive plane tickets and some non-refundable Airbnb’s before and after my tour) Your flight gets delayed   During Your trip: Your bags get lost, damaged or stolen You miss your connections due to other delays Something you booked gets cancelled You get sick or injured (or worse) Your destination experiences a natural disaster or terrorist attack   HOW TO FILE A TRAVEL INSURANCE CLAIM Before you go: Put in the cloud a copy of your travel insurance policy.  Make sure you know the 24 hour Assistance Contact number and your policy number. READ YOUR POLICYduring the grace periodto make sure that it will cover the risks you don't want to assume.  Please don't ignore this! Something happened...What Do I Do? You will need to call the Assistance Hotline and have this information available: Your current contact phone number Your policy number Be able to describe the problem Be able to tell them your location   World Nomads is my 'Go To' insurance company when I travel for an adventure because they "GET" adventure!  Virtually every adventure I cover on our companion Active Travel Adventures podcast is automatically included in their standard policy - unlike many travel insurance policies!  If you use my links you'll be helping to support the show - at NO additional cost to you -Thanks!  Kit   Not all companies cover all problems that can happen before and after your trip.   Before purchasing any travel insurance policy, you should understand how the policy will help you if these events occur:   MEDICAL NEEDS   What if I get sick or hurt BEFORE my trip?  If you or an immediate family member gets seriously sick or dies and you need to cancel or delay your trip, your travel insurance can kick in.  Note that if these same loved ones get sick or dies while you’re traveling, you are also usually covered to get back home where you are needed. For you, you would need a doctor’s certification that you are unfit to travel or you, your travel buddy or immediate family member be hospitalized , or God forbid, dies. What about dental?  If you have sudden dental emergencies, like an infection or an accident that breaks your jaw, these are the kinds of things most policies will cover.  But they will deny getting that crown you wanted. It covers sudden changes to what were healthy teeth for things that can’t wait until you get home.   What if I get sick or hurt ON my trip?  Travel insurance is NOT health insurance, so most policies do not cover pre-existing conditions.  If you have a pre-existing condition, then be doubly sure to read your policy. Some policies will allow for pre-existing conditions if purchased far enough in advance.  But if you get hit by a tuk tuk in Bangkok or get Dengue Fever in Brazil, this is when you’ll be glad to have travel medical coverage. This kind of coverage takes care of in and out patient medical care, prescriptions, ambulances, etc.  It won’t however cover you for stupidity like getting drunk and passing out on the street to then get hit by said tuk tuk. It will get you healthy enough to travel so that you can either finish your trip or get back home to where your regular medical insurance will kick in. Also super important:  make sure that the activities that you are planning to do are covered under your policy. Many travel insurance policies do not cover adventures.  That is one reason I recommend my affiliate partner World Nomads.  They understand adventure and virtually everything I cover on the Active Travel Adventures podcast is automatically included with their policies.   If you get sick or hurt and are in such bad shape that you need to get home NOW, then you will be glad you have:   Emergency Medical Repatriation  If you get so sick or injured that you cannot continue with your trip, you may require emergency medical evacuation, which can cost over $300,000 -- Ouch!  But if you’re in a country that doesn’t have shall we say, the most advanced medical care and hospital system, you want to buy travel insurance from a company that will get you out of there and into the hands of quality doctors and facilities pronto.  You want a company whose medical team can decide whether to help rearrange your trip to accommodate fixing your problem or figure out the best way to get you out of there, whether by ground ambulance, air ambulance, sea level aircraft, helicopter evacuation, flight changes and upgrades with medical staff if need be.  But what happens in a truly worst case scenario: What if I die on my trip?   Look over your policy to see if it will cover bringing your body home.  Some will pay for the local burial or cremation. Some will pay for the cremains to come home, some with some without a loved one as escort.  Choose your policy based on what you want covered here. Note also that suicide or deaths caused by alcohol or drug abuse will not be covered.  Most policies will also exclude pre-existing conditions. If one of your immediate family members dies while you’re on your trip, this is usually covered.    PERSONAL BELONGINGS   What about my stuff?  How does travel insurance cover my belongings?    Baggage:    Delays:  Most policies cover getting some necessary items if your bags are delayed for a certain period of time.  This will include things like necessary toiletries, perhaps a jacket. Lost:  The carrier has lost your bags.  Most policies cover a specific amount of loss.  If you have fancy electronics, jewelry or cameras, you may need a special rider.  Also check with your homeowner’s insurance policy as you may have coverage there already.  Likewise, some credit cards are now offering some travel insurance that can cover several of the items we are talking about today.  Review your credit cards to see which offers the most comprehensive plan and then consider booking your trip with that card. Damaged by carrier.  If the airline, for example, busts your bag roughly throwing it onto the carousel, this is usually covered. Stolen.  Assuming you weren’t careless and forgot to get your bag off the bus, or you didn’t go to the restroom and leave your bag in the lounge, if your bags get stolen and you’ve taken reasonable precautions, stolen bags are usually covered.  You must file a police report to file a claim. And before you buy a policy, make sure that the country you are living in AND the country you are traveling to are covered under your policy. I see that some do not cover Brazil, for example.   OTHER PERSONAL BELONGINGS: Note also that most prescription drugsare covered if stolen. Stolen Passportsare often NOT covered, so check with your policy.  I think it’s a good idea to take a photo of your passport and visa, and then email it to yourself and a loved one.  I also keep a photocopy in my purse and suitcase. I’ve never had need to use them, but I’m sure if I do, I’ll be grateful for this foresite.  If someone uses my passport fraudulently, my travel insurance company can also help me here. Credit Cards.  If your credit card gets stolen, it’s not usually covered by your travel insurance policy, but your company’s hotline may be of some assistance.  They MAY cover getting the new card to you. On the copy of your passport, write the last four digits of your credit card number and the toll free international or national number to reach customer service if you need their help.  This is what you take a picture of and email to yourself. If your credit card gets stolen and you then don’t have another to continue your trip, this is not considered a trip interruption because you can devise a backup plan. There are limits for the total claim and for an individual item. Say $1000 total and maximum $500 for an item.  So if only my $750 camera got stolen, I could only claim the $500. If you’ve got fancy stuff, consider getting a rider unless you are willing to absorb the excess loss.   Motor Vehicle Accidents Your travel insurance policy probably WON'T cover the damage to your vehicle so MAKE SURE if you rent or drive a vehicle that either your normal auto insurance policy covers you WHERE you will be driving. Otherwise, you will need to purchase the very expensive optional insurance that the lender will offer.  CHECK BEFORE YOU LEAVE SO YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO! So the bottom line is, your travel insurance should cover the medical costs of the accident, but not the physical damage to the car.  CAVEAT:  You MUST be driving with a valid license for that country (which may mean an international license) AND not be under the influence or otherwise breaking any laws.   COUNTRY ISSUES What if there’s a natural disaster?   In April 2015, there was a massive earthquake in Nepal, killing over 9000 people.  Most travel insurance policies will kick in to get you home after a disaster, but you need to examine your policy before you buy it, or during the free cancellation grace period afterwards.   If you get hurt in the disaster, then the medical issues we already discussed kick in. If the airports or other transportation systems are shut down, or your accommodations get destroyed or your tour company cancels, this is where you’ll be glad that you have travel insurance coverage.  A natural disaster is likely to kick in several components of your travel insurance policy from trip interruptions, delays and cancellations, to possibly some of the medical coverages. A good travel insurance company will have a 24 Hour Hotline to assist you in making arrangements to help solve your crisis. Note that if a major typhoon is forecasted to hit the Phillipines next week, and you decide to book a trip there during this time, that clause would be excluded because the natural disaster was a known entity.  However, if you booked your trip three months earlier, they could not forecast that particular typhoon. Your policy will usually cover you if you follow the advice of authorities. So that could mean cancel the trip if they are advising evacuation, but no insurance kick in if they do not.  Also, if the authorities advise evacuating , but you decide to watch the storm and then get hurt, you’re going to get denied.  In a similar vein, let’s talk about terrorism.   Terrorism There are limits to the terrorism clauses, but if the even is unforeseen, as most terrorist attacks are, then whatever medical or interruption clauses that might be triggered provided you did not book your trip AFTER the terrorist event.   You can’t utilize this clause if you simply get nervous about traveling some place and want to back out of the trip.  Authorities would have to recommend that people no longer advise visiting a place for the trip cancellation or interruption to kick in.  I had assumed, wrongfully, that when I purchased my travel insurance for my upcoming Middle East trip, that if the terrorist threat increased, that my insurance would kick in.  NOT! There would have to be a serious incident in the places that I am going for me to utilize this clause.   Bottom line is you need to really READ YOUR POLICY during the grace period.   Bottom line is you need to really READ YOUR POLICY during the grace period.   Lots of claims get deniedbecause people are not following the policy guidelines or terms.  For example, again on my Mid East trip, my trip expanded from my original tour. My policy requires me to be covered from door to door from my house.  So the first policy I paid for is null and void because I am now traveling both before and after. So I learned my lesson. Completely plan my trip BEFORE i buy a policy.     Certain companies have guidelines as to WHEN a policy must be purchasedrelative to the date of the first deposit.  If you have an expensive trip in mind, it doesn’t hurt to poke around the insurance website ahead of time to see what the purchasing time windows are.   Then one you’ve planned your trip, add up the NON-REFUNDABLE PORTIONS.  Some things like many hotel rooms you can cancel, right? So don’t include those.  Tally up how much you would be out of pocket if you have to cancel your trip. That’s how much to get the quote for.   Travel Insurance companies calculate rates based on the following: Total cost of the non-refundable parts of the trip Your country of home residence Your destination or destinations.  If you are going several places, generally they want you to list the furthest, but double check so that you are following the rules.  It is worth the call to find out. On my upcoming trip, even though I will be spending the most time in the US, the furthest country is Jordan, so I was instructed to input Jordan.  I noticed my rate quote was the same, however, I didn’t want them to have any loophole to squiggle out of if I have a claim. Your age.  The older you are the higher the cost. Your pre-existing conditions, especially if you want to cover them.  If you have pre-existing conditions, it pays to shop around. Some will allow coverage if bought far enough in advance. How comprehensive you want your policy to be.  Are you adding pre-existing conditions, a jewelry or electronics rider?  If you are going on an adventure, is your activity covered or do you need a special rider?   What about other insurances? Credit Cards.  As mentioned, some offer a skeleton coverage of certain items listed above.  It doesn’t hurt to use a credit card that offers some travel insurance, but I don’t think it’s a good substitute for a comprehensive policy. Travel Agent or Airline coverage:  When you check out, often you’ll be asked to get travel insurance to cover your purchase.  This will only cover the ticket you just purchased. If I am traveling domestically and think that it will be pricey if I have to go home unexpectedly because of Mom, I might buy it, but I usually still prefer the comprehensive policy. Also keep in mind that some agents will sell you a cruise cancellation policy.  This technically is NOT an insurance policy. I still say, stick with a comprehensive policy.   How to Choose Which Travel Insurance and Get a Travel Insurance Quote I recommend World Nomadsbecause they understand adventure and they have a real person review all claims, instead of a machine.  Their policy basically, as it should, requires that you use common sense and don’t be stupid or do stupid things.  And if you’re head is on straight, they are there to help you out when something goes wrong. Your goal is not to make a profit off of your claim, just to not be out of pocket.  I find them affordable and are usually my go to. They do have policy limits that mean I can’t always use them (like my really long and expensive Mid-East trip), but they are my general ‘go to’ insurance company.  If you use my link, you can get a quick travel insurance quote and at no additional cost to you, you’ll be helping to support the show.  If I can’t use them, then I use: InsureMyTrip.com  I like this website because I can easily compare travel insurance policies and then pick the right policy for a particular trip and my risk tolerance for that trip.  They also have a third person advocate, so if you get denied a claim you feel should have been honored, they can step in and take a look and possibly help. Whichever method you use, I find it easiest to buy my travel insurance online.     CAUTIONS: Cheap travel insurance may not be good travel insurance.  READ THE POLICY. You get a grace period for several days up to two weeks.  During that time, you can review the policy to see if it is the right fit for you.  If you see that you missed something, you can cancel and get your money back so you can find a better policy. You are most likely going to have to upfront a lot of the expensesand then get reimbursed.  I would recommend bringing a credit card with a high limit in case of an emergency.  Otherwise come up with a back up plan (ie, a family friend or relative that may be able to front you some cash). Complete Transcript Note: This is a machine trasncript bound to be full of boo boo's. I provide it (unedited) so that those taht prefer to read rather than listen to the show have the means to do so.  I apologize for any errors:)   Kit: (00:00) Okay. Kit: (00:02) Six months before my husband passed away. Kit: (00:06) Okay. Kit: (00:06) We were sitting in our office and our desperate right next to each other and bill was in remission and somebody had called me to ask me do something. This is in November, asked me if I wanted to do something the following June. And I said, no, I couldn't really plan cause I didn't know what bill's health had been like because his cancer had come back twice already. And so I was just kind of keeping things in limbo. When I hung up, he said, listen kid, I'm feeling good right now. Why don't you go take a trip? All I'm feeling good. And after a couple of years of medical and the stress of bills, cancer and just all the drama and the rentals weren't doing that well. And so anyway, I said, that sounds really sweet. I said, I have always wanted to go to Africa. I knew that would be some place but with never want to go. Kit: (00:47) He said, well go if you can find somebody to go with you. So I emailed my girlfriend Mickey. I said, Hey Mickey, do you want to go to Africa and go to safari within 15 minutes? She emails back. Yeah, let's go. So here we are November and we decided we're going to go on a safari in January. So we ended up driving to Washington d C to get our visa because we didn't trust mailing our passport there and getting it back in time in case there's a snafu because at the time was so short, had another story for another day about the Snafu that happened on the way to the DC. But anyway, so we finally, we go off on our adventure. We head to Turkey for a few days to kind of recoup a little bit of the jet lag before we head into Tanzania. We land at like two o'clock in the morning as all the flights seem to, or picked up by a tour company who takes us to this nice little eco lodge that we're supposed to sleep for a couple of hours, get up, have breakfast and go out in the safari. Kit: (01:38) Everything's great. We've got this cute little room. It's got the mosquito netting. It's kind of cute. Nothing fancy, but it's nice. We sleep maybe two or three hours, get cleaned up. We're walking down this dirt path on the way to where the restaurant area was in the lodge and single file path and all of a sudden I hear Mickey Stumble and I turn around and she does a face plant and just smooshes her face in. So we are in this backwoods area and she's just bleeding and her nose is smooshed and we can't even use the water from the faucet cause it's not sterile enough. So we had to use bottled water, try to clean it and the people at the lodge couldn't have been any nicer, but we just, they just didn't have the, the medical facilities there. Finally we get the doctor and the doctor actually recommended that she be flown to Kenya for treatment and she's like, no, no, no. Kit: (02:32) I just want the stitches and the doctor does it. Everything's fine, no infection. But he doesn't let her go out into the Bush on the safari because of the risk of infection. She'd be too far away from medical care. So she ends up having to spend the entire five day safari time at that lodge, which in hindsight turned out to be a good thing for her because a, she ends up making friends and family members out of everybody she meets and she still keeps up with all those folks this many years later. But B, turns out also that she gets car sick and 70 something years old needs to use the restroom a lot. Not a good combination when you're in a jeep and a safari bumbling around on, on rocky rutted roads. So anyway, end up being a blessing and thank God that she bought the travel insurance even though it took a while to get all the paperwork and all that. Eventually she was reimbursed for the expenses. So today we're going to be talking about travel insurance and I've got an expert on travel insurance and travel safety with us from world nomads and we're going to learn all the ins and outs of travel insurance, what to look out for, what you should be looking for. And without further ado, let's get started. Kit: (03:43) Welcome to the adventure travel show podcast. I'm your host kid parks. Today we're chatting with Phil Sir Vester from world nomads, the company I now buy my travel insurance from. And in full disclosure is also an affiliate of active travel adventures and the adventure travel show. So Phil is a travel safety expert for world nomads out of Australia and he's here today to answer all of our questions about travel insurance. Bill, welcome to the program. Phil: (04:08) Thanks very much for having me. Kit: (04:10) I know people are gonna think travel insurance sounds kind of dry, so let's get people off with a good start and let's tell them some fun stories to show them. This is going to be a fun show. Tell me your favorite happy ending travel insurance story. Phil: (04:23) Oh, we have so many. Oh, okay. Here's one. There was a Florida guy and he was doing base jumping in Switzerland, would you believe? And ended up hanging on a rock ledge quite a way off the ground and was quite badly injured. He got rescued and we got him back home to Florida and because of his head injury it had to be a low altitude flight. You can't just put them on a regular commercial plane, but we got him home and he made a full recovery. So, you know, that was very expensive for us, but it was a great outcome for him. The downside of it is we don't have a base jumping anymore. Kit: (05:01) And one reason I, I should note, the reason I switched to world nomads from my previous carrier is because I cover adventure travel and I didn't realize a lot of the things I was doing wasn't covered under regular policies. Phil: (05:13) Yeah, yeah. Look, we've got, ah, you know, I think it's about of, uh, over a hundred, nearly 200 adventure activities that we will cover. And generally they're ones that are not covered by other people as well. But you know, there are certain things that we don't cover. You know, like if you wingsuit flying or as we'd like to call it plummeting, uh, you know, it's not going to be covered. Kit: (05:37) Oh, I've seen video of that. Yeah. Now that's pretty cool. It was crazy. We don't cover anything that the bar is set, so I've got to be able to do it. And I'm 58 years old and I'm only in reasonable shape. I'm not like a super athlete, so for the most part we just do hiking, biking, paddling, nothing too crazy or too adrenaline kind of stuff. Yeah, so I bet you you also have some pretty interesting, weird stories Phil: (05:58) of just like freaky things. Can you tell us one of those and then we'll get into some of the nitty gritty? Okay. We've had three broken penises. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. I'll explain this. All right. Just stick with me. Okay. Where are your tone joins the bottom of your mouth? There's that little bit of skin there that sort of, you know, little, yeah, that's a frenulum. All right. Men have got to, yes, the other ones down there, if you tear that it plays a lot and there is an operation that you need to reattach it. It's called [inaudible] to me. I see. And we've had that come up with three times. People that have been away on holiday and they've been having some, you know, some wee time with their partner and something's happened and it's got torn. Kit: (06:46) That's a different kind of adventure than what we cover on this show. However. Phil: (06:50) Yeah. Okay. Uh, okay. Yeah, let's hear it. Few years ago there was a, a customer traveling in India and noticed he had an insect bite and it was getting, you know, kind of itchy and whatever. And then he noticed that it was actually moving underneath there and something that laid its eggs under his skin. So he went to the doctor and the doctor said, go buy a piece of mate and strap it to your lake because the lava inside the maggots inside will be attracted to the role made on the outside, not the inside. And they did, they all lift his leg and went into the meat and he threw it away. We paid for the doctor's appointment, but he had to buy the piece of meat himself. Kit: (07:29) Well that one seems like you came out pretty good on that one. Phil: (07:32) [inaudible] Kit: (07:34) so let's, let's, let's talk a little bit about why should people buy travel insurance? Just to like a, a brief thing. Cause I'm gonna ask you some more detailed questions, but just kind of give us a synopsis of what should be going through our heads when we say, oh, we've got this great trip. Why should we cough up a little extra money? Phil: (07:48) Because there are always unexpected things that happen that mean that you're not able to go on the trip or continue the trip or I have to end it early and these are things that people are just not planning for. I mean who would know a volcano would go off in Iceland and ground or flights in Europe who would know that you know you're going to get hit by a BMO when you're crossing the road in Indonesia, who would know if a close family member is going to be suddenly very ill, which means you have to stay home. These things you can't plan for it. You don't know they are unforeseen. And this is what travel insurance is there for, to make sure that you don't end up out of pocket and don't forget. And travel insurance, it's insurance, it's not compensation. So it's going to make sure that you end up financially where you were if that thing had not happened, but it's not going to compensate you for a bad experience. Kit: (08:42) Right, right. And actually the reason that you just brought up about the a loved one or something, that's the main reason that I started buying travel insurance is I have elderly parents now, it's just an elderly mother. But at 93 and a half years old I that I might get the call one day. I travel so much that I need to go home instantly and they stick it to you at the airfares. And some of them, the tours I do are extraordinarily expensive and I just don't want to be out that much cash. Phil: (09:07) Yep. Yep. Well every sensible willed out. Kit: (09:10) So let's, let's talk about, that's one of the key things that most policies covered and that's trip cancellation. So I'm going to ask you about a couple of different things that I know of about trip cancellation. You can tell me a little bit about what are the kinds of things we need to be looking at. One of which is like natural disasters. You talked about the Iceland and weather things like who decides how bad is a disaster and how does all that work? Phil: (09:32) Well it varies a little bit. I mean it's pretty obvious with the volcano cause when it goes bang, that's it. You know an earthquake, same thing but a a natural disaster. If you, if you check out like the State Department's travel section, they will put up warnings about when things, you know, when they advise you not to travel to a destination. That's a big key factor. The British Foreign Office also do those warnings as does the Australian Foreign Office defect. So we kind of take that is you know the Bible basic. If they say to their citizens, don't go here, then you are not, you can't travel against the adviser. View of the old covenant h case is judged on its merits as well. We have underwriting teams everywhere and they will look at events and they'll go, well this has happened. How has that kind of impact our travelers? And so they will, you know, we're, we're constantly monitoring things that happen around the world. Phil: (10:27) But basically if it works this way, if the, if there's been, you know, some sort of incident in the place that you're going, if the planes are still flying there, if the hotel still open and you know, the roads are still open, you're going. But if any of those things are not happening, you know, like you can't get to it. The roads blocked. The hotel has been forced to close. The tour has had to be canceled because of this incident or you know, there's no, no flights going in and out of the destination, then that's the taste. Kit: (11:00) All right, let's, let's take that a step further with terrorism, which is unfortunately something we have to deal with these days at the State Department, let's say, uh, I'm actually this fall going to several places that are a level two, which it's advise a little bit more caution than the level one. If the State Department moves at two a level three does that kick in the insurance because now it's more advisedly not to go what is level three? So I think it's four levels. So level three is saying, Eh, not a good idea. Like Nicaragua right now is a level three and that they're almost in civil war. Phil: (11:33) Yeah, no you're good for level three but you know, don't go near any of the protests in the streets of Managua. But you know, if there's no advice, no level four advice, then you, yeah, you can use the travel insurance has not yet been cut off. Kit: (11:48) And then now on the the death or a serious illness of a loved one, what are the parameters? Who defines loved one? Phil: (11:55) Look, it is actually defined in the policy wording in the PDS. So yet somebody asked us, we did get a question, somebody said my dog died. Does that count as a close family member? We're really sorry and we understand how you feel about your dog. But no. Yeah, it's generally siblings, parents in laws, but it probably wouldn't extend to cousins. But again, every case is judged on its merits. I mean, if you're sharing your life and you're living in the same house as a cousin and it's a cousin that dies, then we'll, we'll say to that, Kit: (12:31) okay, that actually sounds pretty fair at fair than I would've thought. Um, how about, and then sometimes there's coverage for layoffs if you get laid off and now all of a sudden cash could be a problem. Is that typical or is that something you need to look for? Phil: (12:43) Okay. It does happen. The amend, the one of the other providers as we've got [inaudible] policies for US citizens is if you get called up for military service or you get called up for jury duty or if the business that you work for goes into liquidation, you know, it goes bankrupt and you're required to be there to help clean up and things like that. So there's a lot of reasons why you can cancel around those sorts of areas. Kit: (13:08) Yeah. It sounds like you're actually using some judgment calls, which is nice cause it sounds like it's some of the things that are above and beyond what, what you read in the actual policy. Cause I've looked at the website kind of extensively. So you've talked about the weather and then also if you miss a flight or a connection through no fault of your own. How's all that work? Phil: (13:27) Okay. This is complicated. If you, which lots of us do because you know we'd like to book our own trips and our own flights. If you book a flight from destination to destination B, stop over it with the intention of going to destination C and you book airline number one for a and B, but you book airline number two for B and c and you miss the connection. That's your fault. That's your problem. You didn't allow enough time to be able to make the connection. Whereas if you had booked from a to B to c with airline one the whole way through, it's their responsibility to get you to see. So if you're held up or delayed or your missy connection in destination B, they will sort it out for you and they will put you on the next flight. But in the first scenario where you've got two different airlines as far as airline two's concerned, when you just don't show up, they don't know where you've come from, they don't know you've got a connecting flight, you just haven't showed up. And airline one has, when they eventually get you to destination B, they fulfilled their commitment to you. So it's your fault for not allowing enough time to make the connection in between. So don't leave it a couple of hours if it's really important that do it. Stop over, have a day in the, in destination B. Yeah, Kit: (14:43) that, that's actually happened to me and d was not covered. So I get that one. Now Phil: (14:48) we will book our own cheap flights and we like to make it up ourselves. Right. I get that. But just have to be aware that you leave enough time. Right. Right. Now what about the lost or delayed luggage? How's all that work? You obviously have got to report it as soon as you can at the airport. Always keep those baggage tickets. They stick on the back of your boarding pass varies from, cause I'll take it, you've got not just Americans listening and maybe it's some British people this, no, no actually we are. We're international and we have over a hundred countries. We've got like 13 different policies that cover people from around the world and the wording unfortunately slightly different in the mall. So generally though, if your luggage is delayed for more than 12 hours, in some cases it's only six hours, but you know it's like say 12 hours, check the policy wording, you can then go and spend and get some essentials to make it up. Phil: (15:41) That might mean that you need to go and get some new underwear. You need some toothpaste, you need, you know, some pajamas a you, it may be in a cold climate and you need a new jacket or something like that. You're entitled to go and get those up to a certain amount, which I think is around about $250 a day. And you can claim that back now if it's gone for more than 24 hours, I think there's 24 24 hours. If it's that and then it's considered completely lost, then it's basically as if it's been stolen and we'll pay out the maximum benefit that we've got for your luggage. Now let's switch gears to something that's, that can be really, really expensive and that's medical. So let's, let's talk a little bit about if somebody's got a preexisting condition. For example, a lot of our listeners are over, let's say over a certain age, over 60 a lot of people that we interview here, and they may have diabetes or they may have some heart conditions. Phil: (16:34) How does all that work? Again, with like I said, 13 different policies and different wordings and what have you said, check the policy in the world nomads policy for your country of residence. But there are some of those conditions which we do cover. But if it's not on the list of things we do cover, then we don't. And if you are traveling and something happens that is related to that condition, it won't be covered. So we are not necessarily the right policy for you cause not all policies are everything to everyone. So the reason you should read the policy wording is to make sure that it's right for your circumstances. So you, if you have a preexisting medical condition, you may need to go and choose a different provider who does on their own providers who have screening processes and they will say, yeah we'll cover you for that for an extra premium or no we're not going to cover you for that but we'll cover you for this whatever. We're not one of those because that just adds a layer of complication and slows things down. We are a different type of travel insurance and we might not be right for you. Okay. Now would that be something, do you know of going to like ensure my trip back calm would be a good resource to do that? Sure, Yep. I know of the brand in Australia that has a screening process, but I'm not aware of, I don't know. Kit: (17:49) I used them before I switched to you, but I don't remember them ever asking me about any preexisting conditions. So I guess the bottom line is to read your policy in check while you still have the grace period. That's going to be the only time you can get your money back. If it turns out you inadvertently bought a policy that's not suitable for you. Uh, how about if you have an accident or sudden illness or you eat something? Oh boy, you got sick. What do you do then and what kinds of things are covered there? Phil: (18:15) You have medical bills, so if you're overseas and new VOR, ill look, if it's a minor complaint, find an near clinic and get the medicines that you need and what have you and keep the bill that you get from the clinic and then submit that and you'll be reimbursed if it's a major incident and you're admitted to a hospital. Sadly, when you're admitted to the emergency department, as soon as they've stabilized you to make sure you're not going to die and they've stemmed the bleeding, one of the next people you will see will be somebody from the front office with a clipboard and they're going to be asking you how you're going to pay for this treatment. I'm serious. The person with the clipboard turns up and that's when you go, here's my world nomads policy number, give them a call and they will call our emergency assistance teams and we will swing into action there. Now our in house medical teams will liaise with the people treating you to make sure you're getting the best possible treatment. We will assess the hospital that you're in and decide if there's actually a better one nearby and if it's possible medically advised to move you to get the better quality care and we will pay the bills up front so you can concentrate on getting well rather than having to find your credit card in your wallet. Kit: (19:33) Right now when my girlfriend Mickey, we were in Tanzania and she had a really bad fall and they wanted to fly her to Kenya. She chose not to. Would that have been something when the locals are even saying you shouldn't get that treated here, you better go into the next country, you get better treatment. Is she a doctor? She's not. The doctors were saying exactly she adult number cause she's stubborn. The start ended well but if everybody's saying Eh, you know cause a lot of places we go to our go to may be a little dicey when it comes to the medical scene there. So Phil: (20:07) yeah call, call our emergency assistance team and no it shouldn't be called in emergency. It's like customer assistance team and traveler assistance team. Really like give them a call and say look this has happened. I've had a fall. The locals here and saying don't get this treated here. Go to Kenya. What do you advise we will, you know, you'll probably end up speaking to our in house nurse or our in house doctor who will make the best assessment they can over the phone. And then if it's decided that, yeah, okay, we can't tell from here, whatever, and you do need better treatments so it will get arranged and we'll get you somewhere where you're going to get quality care. And I got to say, if the locals are saying don't do it, I would whoa, Kit: (20:49) you hear that Mickey? Uh, it just, it's, it's so hard cause you know, you, you're so excited to go on your trip and we are walking to breakfast the morning of our safari and she just does this face plant and just smushed her face in and she's just, and she's also, you know, be fuddled and you know, just, it just wasn't what you're expecting that day and you know, surprises happen. And she was just being shook up and stubborn. She's like, no, I'll just go ahead and stitch me up here. So whatever. Like I said, it ended up working out fine, but it was a little traumatic morning. She's pretty tough then, right? Yeah, she's very tough. She's very tough lady, so she's pretty cool. Yeah. All right. So now let's say what, is there any kind of coverage amounts we should ask for or is this something that you have a choice on or how does all that work and any recommendations there? Okay. Phil: (21:41) In Australia, the United Kingdom, we're kind of used to travel insurance being the way it is through world nomad. But Americans are kind of used to a different type of insurance won't see you. This is the value, this is the cost of my trip, this is a value of my trip. And then you get charged and certain percentage of that of the cost as your premium at doesn't work that way. With world nomads, what determines the cost of your premium here is the maximum benefits payable. So you know there was a limit of say $1,500 on lost luggage. So that's the maximum benefit that you can claim and given. And then you go across all the other benefits against which you can claim that determines what the premium will be. So if you are going on a $500,000 trip to tens and year, your insurance premium determined by the, the better maximum benefit of Alpha will be saved. I don't know what it is. I'm making this up. Maybe you know a $150 if you're going on a $50,000 trip to Tanzania, it will still be $150 because of the maximum defined benefit that's payable. So you won't pay any more if you're going on a luxury trip as if you going backpacking somewhere. It's the same because it's defined by the maximum benefit possible. Kit: (22:59) Okay, so so it's so it looks like we need to look at the policy to see what the coverage limits are and if we see that there's a huge gap between what the coverage limits are versus our trip. And most of our trips aren't anywhere near those kinds of things. I've looked at your policies, everything that I've covered so far for the most part outside of maybe Kelly would fall within those ranges. But if you're doing some extraordinary luxury trip, you need to check that closely before you buy. Did I get that right? Phil: (23:26) January. The thing that happens most often is people have got really super duper expensive camera equipment and the maximum benefit for the leading camera is not going to replace it. You know, you might have a $5,000 camera and it's not going to be covered by our benefit limit, but in that case, people who've got big cameras that generally are a part of some sort of professional association or Semiprofessional Association and you know, or photography club or something like that. And those clubs generally will have insurance policies for their members to cover their equipment. So you make sure that your camera equipment is covered in some other way. The world nomads policy has got that equipment benefit level and if that's not sufficient, then you know, you should look at getting additional insurance to cover a specific item Kit: (24:14) and US citizens at Leisha check their homeowners policy because sometimes in particularly we have a rider, you may have coverage there. Phil: (24:20) Oh totally. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. A lot of home policies will cover it. Things like laptops and cameras when you take them out of that out of the house. Yeah. And they often have higher benefit limits than we do at world nomads. So you know, so you walk into breakfast in Tanzania and you fall and split your face open, but also smash your camera. We will do the medical stuff, but don't claim the camera from a, the camera damage without his claim. The camera damage with your other insurance Kit: (24:47) and when you buy something expensive, make a copy of the receipt because a lot of times your credit card company will offer some insurance because they figured we're going to forget all about it. So that's another little hidden insurance benefit that you may have and not even realize you have now also gets a little bit confusing with the insurance with the Schengen travel insurance in Europe. Can you explain a little bit about that? That whole thing was kind of new to me anyway. Phil: (25:10) You know, the USTA that you need to get into America, which is you have to apply for clearance for these at free entry. It's kind of like a visa to say you don't need a visa. Right. That's what's going to happen in Europe as well. You're gonna need to apply so that they can screen you beforehand to say that you're eligible for visa free entry. That's all that is. Kit: (25:32) I thought there's a requirement for travel insurance with that now too. Uh, Phil: (25:36) probably a requirement for medical insurance. So your travel insurance will cover that. Kit: (25:40) Oh, okay. That's probably what they're going after. Okay. All right. Yeah. So yeah, cause I understood that you had to show some kind of proof of insurance. Phil: (25:47) You've already got travel insurance, which includes medical, you see if you've only taken out trip insurance, so you have any cupboard, you know the flight that doesn't include medical, which is why travel insurance is as an all encompassing trip insurance, medical insurance, evacuation insurance as a combined product. That's why that's better to have because as you say, and you know you're going to have travel insurance anyway. Kit: (26:12) Right, right. And then also I read too that sometimes some travel agencies and cruise lines and all that, they'll push travel protection, which is quite different from travel insurance. Can you talk about that a little bit? Phil: (26:25) Yeah, that, that's like the trip detection. So what they are doing there is they are selling a product and you can buy it at a kiosk at airports in the United States you are offering insurance against the cost of that travel ticket so it doesn't cover anything else. It doesn't cover your medical costs. It probably doesn't cover loss of your baggage and what have you. But if the flight is delayed or the flight is canceled, then you can make a claim for insurance compensation thing that to cover your costs that you've lost. So it only covers one thing and they are making around about, I would suggest, I don't know for sure, but I reckon they're making about 50% commission on that insurance that they sell you. Kit: (27:07) Yeah, that's about what I read too. So, yeah, so it's not necessarily a good value. And, and people are getting confused between protection and insurance or what they have in their mind, what they're buying. Phil: (27:18) Correct. And they're using the word protection for that reason. Kit: (27:22) Is there any tips you can give us about how to not only just evaluate insurance policy, but also the company behind it? Because there's, you know, everybody's heard of the nightmares, oh, I bought insurance and they didn't pay anything and Blah, blah, blah. How we evaluate looking at a company Phil: (27:40) such a major, it's really great for that. Go onto the company's website, find their Facebook site, find that, see what people are saying, go on other travel forums, see what people are saying it as well. Because you know, read it is a great place to find information like that as well. It is such a heavily regulated industry worldwide that there are no dodgy operators. You're not going to buy insurance and it's not properly bad. It just doesn't happen. So you're pretty safe with going who maybe you choose with the product that they are offering, which is right for your circumstances. It's very, very, you're not, you're just not going to fond an insurance company that goes bankrupt. But their processes for handling claims about whether they are good at that or not, we'll be very, very clear on social media. But don't forget as well, lots of people get very upset on social media of like, oh, I paid all this money and they won't pay my claim. Phil: (28:34) There's not an entitlement to be paid for something. You actually have to play by the rules. And in lots of cases, people you know, have done things which are not covered. We had a case recently where a customer was upset, they got altitude sickness was, they were in Nepal and they were at 4,900 meters, but they had purchased a policy that only covers up to 4,600 meters and now it's only 300 meters and can, yeah, but you know, that's what the policy wording said. You know, that's the one you chose, but then you've done something different. You've just, so maybe you originally plan not to go above that altitude, but then suddenly you found a reason to, he could've called us up an upground new policy to get covered, but you didn't. So now you're saying, oh, it's not fair that you've rejected my claim. We ended up paying by the way, because you know, yeah, it is only 300 meters or so, but a lot of the complaints that you get, Oh God, they won't pay my claim. It's, yeah, it's because you don't qualify to get it paid. Kit: (29:37) Okay, and then that brings up the other thing too is a lot of times are mad because they might've done something negligent or they might have been under the influence or can you talk a little bit about that and maybe give some stories about that? Phil: (29:49) Yeah, sure. Here's an example for you. For Australian customers who go to Bali a lot, it's very great destination. We go there a lot. It's very close by. It's like our Cancun place. 60% of the claims that are made related to motorcycle injuries out of Bali, we reject because they are not licensed to ride. They're not wearing a helmet or that under the influence or what we call the unhappy Trifecta. All three drunk, no license, no helmet. And they crash and fall off like a client, sorry, not happening. So we reject 60% of those, uh, those, those requests. Kit: (30:28) I like beer. So if I have one beer and something happens to me, I'm not covered. Or do you have to have a certain limit or, or, or is there a, a formula that you use? Phil: (30:38) Yeah, every case is judged on its merit. Somebody will assess your claim and they will make investigations and they will get the toxicology report from the hospital where you're admitted and we'll find out how much alcohol was in your system. And then they will make a person, a person will make a decision on whether your state of intoxication may have contributed to what happened to you. So there's no hard and fast rule because common sense prevails. And I know people will find this hard to believe. But it is true if we get somebody and you know, these are people that we care about, these are our customers, these are our, you know, these are nomads. We want them to travel. We will look and go, well under this part of the policy, we wouldn't pay that claim. But, uh, there's a contradictory part of the policy over here that says we are able to, to pay it. Phil: (31:29) You know what, let's use that one and pay the claim. And as long as you can justify that, I mean then we can, we can look after you and we're gonna we don't, we don't want to strand people in hospitals with huge bills. If there's some way that we can find that is going to pay it, then we will do that. So some a person is making that assessment on your claim. So, you know, we try and put as much humanity into that as we possibly can. But if you're over 0.05 or 0.08 or whatever the legal blood alcohol limit it is in the place where you have the accident, then it's very likely that it's going to be, you know, a contributing factor. But look, if you've had one drink and your sensibly walking back to your accommodation rather than riding a motor scooter and a vehicle Koreans off the road and hits you, you could be as drunk as a skunk, but as long as you know, because that was somebody else's fault, you did not contribute to what happened to you. Phil: (32:24) So it's interesting as well by the way, because we were looking at this now that they've legalized cannabis in Canada and it's like how do we treat that? And there is such a, you know, people do go to destinations because cannabis legal or at least dispensed in places in the United States and the same thing applies. But the, in Canada, the government has said if you are intoxicated, if you are under the influence and you have a traffic accident, then you will be judged. So the Canadian government advisers don't smoke and drive at all. And we would be kind of following that advice as well. So that's the rural set up there. But I mean it's really easy to determine what your blood alcohol level is, but not quite sure how it is to determine how intoxicated you are by cannabis. So go easy. Kit: (33:13) And then also if somebody is, we do a lot of hiking on this program. If so many clients at the top of the mountain, they're just too tired to come down. You don't send a helicopter for them, do you? Nope. Nope. That's their problem. Right? Have people tried? Phil: (33:28) Sure. We've got a massive problem with that in Nepal at the moment because there are lots of helicopters operating there and a lot of very tired and grumpy and saw people at the tops of Trex who can't face another four days trekking back. And it is a problem. And, and if they are claiming to have symptoms of altitude, mountain sickness, altitude sickness, then first priority is to look after their welfare. So, you know, they will get medically evacuated and yeah, and it's, it's a problem if you are at the top of mountain and you haven't planned well on up, what will happen is night will fall, a blizzard will come, the local Alpine rescue team will be throwing in an action and they will come and get you off the mountain and put you in a hospital. Then that's where your travel insurance takes over and we start paying your medical bills and we are canceled and miss trips and all that sort of stuff. So No, there is no helicopter with the world nomads, you know, our little symbol Sanchez, the little sort of in command, there's no helicopter with cheers plays and on it that will come and get you. Sorry, Kit: (34:42) I definitely get that. You've got so many people that are hidden to Nepal, they're not doing their training, they have no altitude prep at all. And then they just wanna be able to show an Instagram that they did this or they did that. So now I totally get that you shouldn't have to pay for somebody arriving woefully unprepared. Phil: (34:57) Why would you put yourself in that position in the first place? I mean, it's like airbags in cars, right? So people go, I've got their bags so they stopped wearing their seatbelt. You know? Why would you put yourself in the position where you haven't planned appropriately, where you may find yourself too tired to get back down where you've gone? Why would you do that to yourself? Kit: (35:14) Well, they may not have the experience to know. Yeah, maybe. I think with Instagram and, Oh, I've got another question coming up about that. You know, they, they see people doing all these things and they want to do it and they may, you know, I heard of somebody thought she was going to the Appalachian trail, pushing a shopping cart, you know, I was like, has she done any homework whatsoever before she started out? Phil: (35:35) Well, here is another about travel insurance. All right. We don't cover the stupidity. Seriously. You're doing a really dumb thing. We don't cover that. Kit: (35:43) Got It. Got It. All right. What about people that are not traveling so specific with specific dates? And this is a very personal question because I got a really complicated project this fall that I'm going to multiple destinations over the course of several months with time in between that I haven't really, I haven't booked the flight yet. I book the tours, booked the conferences, so combined it's too much. So do I do an individual policy or do I do chunks of policies or how, how do I do something like that? And what do you do with people that are just traveling nomadically and don't really know where they're going to be? Is there annual policy or chunk policies or what do we do? Phil: (36:22) Well, you can get a policy that covers you for the world worldwide. So let me get this straight. So you're going away and then you're coming back at an indeterminate time. At the end of all of this, you're not coming back home in between. Correct. By a policy right now because you've already outlaid money on tools and what have you. Get a policy now that covers the dates that you're going to go. And if you don't think you're ever going to come back, then get worldwide for up to six months. Now. Federal regulations when you can't do more than six months at a time, but you can renew your will nomez policy while you're on the road. So you just get online and extend it. And if you've got worldwide then you can go anywhere that you like. But if you know you're going to a specific region, you can get a policy for Asia, you can get a policy for South America out of world nomads. So it doesn't really matter where you go within that region. Kit: (37:12) How about some credit cards bragged that they offer travel insurance? Can you talk about that? Phil: (37:17) Yeah, sure. And they do. And the policies are generally underwritten by the same people that are underwriting, you know, specific providers. But you again have to read the policy wording to see what they cover. They often have a higher deductible than a it standalone travel insurance provider. And there may be criteria around how it's activated. Do you have to tell them beforehand? Do you have to have paid all of your trip portion of your trip or pay for on the credit card. So make sure you know how it's activated. Then check who the emergency assistance company is that they are using. Cause it's not, you know, somebody in your bank who's going to help you and you're in trouble. They've, they've got service provider, find out who they are and you know you can make an assessment of those as well. And the other thing is what is the emergency assistance number that comes with your credit card insurance? Phil: (38:12) You have to dig around pretty hard to find that sort of information. And the other thing is you don't know exactly how much you pay for that. They go, it's complimentary, it's included in your credit card. But they don't tell you how much that travel insurance policy is actually costing you. You've got a willed nomads, you know you're paying, you know, $109 for that policy, but you get this complimentary, not free, but complimentary travel insurance and they're stinging you for it. It's all the charges that you're paying for that. So it's actually not very good value either. And just on a personal level, if you're, you know, if you've just face planted in Tanzania, are you really going to call your bank to look after you? Why wouldn't you know like let's get a, you know, let's get a specialized travel insurance provider to run it for you. I don't know, like it's there and if it suits you again, you know, like I said, we'll know him as policies. I'm not going to be perfect for everybody. Maybe the one that comes with your credit card is perfect for you, then go for it. Kit: (39:16) What about to a, sometimes our car insurance here in the states covers, at least in the United States, I've never, I can't remember overseas if I rent a car, I'm covered on that. Does that translate in travel insurance when you're traveling outside of the area or can you talk about that a lot? Phil: (39:35) Well, you'll so unsure about it. I'm pretty sure everybody else's does. My American car insurance cover me for that excess damage waiver. I think they call it, Kit: (39:45) does my car coverage? If it says it does, does that cover a scooter in Vietnam for example? I have no clue. Phil and I went back and forth on this auto insurance and what's covered and what's not covered, and I edit out all that junk because the bottom line is, is you need to check with your auto policy here at home first and see what is covered there. And if it doesn't cover you where you're going, you're going to need to buy whatever the insurance is at the place that you're going with whatever the vehicle is, whether it's a scooter or a car, whatever. And the key thing is, is you've got to make sure that you have a valid driver's license for the location that you're going to be in. And that might require having an international driver's license. You have to wear the hell about or follow whatever the rules of the roads are in that country. Kit: (40:30) And you can't be breaking any rules, which means you can't be under the influence and you gotta be following the law. So your travel insurance basically will cover the medical problems if you have an accident and assuming that you are following the rules but it will not cover the auto vehicle damages. That's what your auto policy needs to cover. And if you don't have an auto policy, you need to buy one from the company you're renting from. So that's the bottom line. And some policies may cover your deductible on auto accident but not the actual accident. So I can not emphasize more clearly you need to read the policy, you get a grace period after you buy the policy, you download the policy, you actually read it and see is this a suitable policy for you and are you willing to take the risks that are not covered. Your policy will spell out in black and white what is and what is not covered. And you cannot expect them to make exceptions. That's just the way it is. Okay, so let's switch gears and let's talk about stolen baggage. Phil: (41:37) The biggest problem we have, and it's a little unfair, is what's what's considered to be unaccompanied baggage. If you are not paying proper attention to your belongings and they get stolen, the loss may not be covered. And sometimes that gets down to, oh I just put it on the table now turned around for one second. And it's like, yeah, well that was unattended baggage as opposed to, you know, I, I left it over there and walked away to another shop and came back, which is quite obvious. So sometimes it can sound really unfair about the way it is treated. So please look after your belongings. Don't put your cell phone down on a table and turn around just for a second. Cause in some places that we traveled to, they are or can be solid on the black market for like, you know, a month with wages for somebody local. So look after your belongings, don't leave them unattended. And don't be surprised if you do and your claim is questioned. Kit: (42:40) Let's, so let's talk about theft. You're walking through the markets and somebody snatches your purse. Phil: (42:46) So you had it on under your arm. They still grabbed or they cut, they cut the strap and ran off with that. Yep. Is that covered? Yeah, it happens all the time. Hatton. Just recently, actually a friend of mine works for a big international airline and they have had two or three of the cabin stuff, have had the handbags snatched by motorcycle thieves. You know, they ride by and just pull them off. There's an Australia woman who died because of that, about three or four years ago. So yeah, look, if you're injured in that, yes. If the bag has got valuables in it and it will often have things like your passport in it, yeah. Then the cost of replacing those items will be covered. That is absolutely. They left lots of baggage. Yes. It's covered. Plus you may have been injured as well, so we'd cover your medical bills Kit: (43:34) and so what kind of proof do we have to present to you? It's something like that. I mean, I don't take a picture of what's in my purse. How do we have to show you that we've actually had a loss? Phil: (43:42) Well, it's pretty obvious with a passport. I don't have it. I can't leave the country. I need to go and get a new one. If it's something like a camera or something like that, and you should do this with all of your positions that you take away. Nobody keeps the receipts when they bought stuff. You know, maybe you've had your camera for five years and you don't know where that receipts gone and what have you. But to prevent fraud, we're going to need some sort of proof that you owned it in the first place and some sort of proof that I actually was stolen from you. So the proof that you had it in the first place, if you've got the receipt, great, nobody does. But if you tape, you're the one person that does,

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials; Tarrytown Chowder Tuesdays!Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, an Iowa teacher confronted Republican Senator Joni Ernst on gun control at a town hall.On the rest of the menu, Facebook and Instagram removed the accounts of white supremacist James Allsup, although his YouTube account remains up; another white nationalist is arrested for threatening to attack a Jewish Community Center, this time in Ohio; and, the Florida Bar shredded Matt Gaetz for his 'unprofessional and reckless' attempt to intimidate a witness.After the break, we move to the Chef's Table where the British Foreign Office is concerned at reports that a Hong Kong staffer is detained in mainland China; and, in a retrial, an El Salvadoran court acquitted a woman accused of killing her stillborn child.All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.Bon Appétit!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” ― Ernest Hemingway "A Moveable Feast"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/20/1880103/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Tarrytown-Chowder-Tuesdays

Spare a thought for poor old Harold Nicolson... Mr Nicolson was a senior clerk in the British Foreign Office, and by mid-February 1919, he had already had his patience strained and his grand ambitions challenged. What lay ahead of this man once the American President departed for the US is a story not often told - the human tale. Here we hear it all and lay it bare. Between the period of 19th February and 9th March 1919, this clerk was busier than he had ever been in his life, sitting in primarily on the Greek and Czech Committees, but he was not just a busy man, he was also a disillusioned man.From consulting Nicolson's diary we can see clear as day the sheer exhaustion and frustration with the whole process begin to take root and then take over. Nicolson would lash out at Czech delegates, he would work until the sun came up, and then he would return to his desk only to find that the Foreign Office had delivered the latest boxes of papers for him to sift through. It was a job which no man could do for long, but thanks to the record which Nicolson provides, the Paris Peace Conference looms into view and we can see it for what it really was - a great idea on paper, but one which was disastrously executed. Though he was only one clerk among many, one could imagine that if an expert like Nicolson was feeling the strain, his colleagues would be feeling it too...To access the Foreign Relations of the US papers which I allude to in this episode, which provides the minutes for the Council of Ten from 15 Feb-14th March and beyond, follow this link: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv04*****************The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->Visit the homeland for this new project!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month! ->Follow WDF on Twitter! ->Join the Facebook group!->Subscribe on iTunes! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this two-part series investigative journalist Mohamed Elmaazi joins us from London. Mohamed has been working on what is potentially one of the most explosive international scandals in recent years. Hacked documents have exposed a secretive “charity” think tank, the Institute for Statecraft, which is funded by the British Foreign Office, the US State Department, NATO, Facebook, a neoconservative foundation and others. Mohamed located their London office in a neo-gothic mansion, Two Temple Place, and later accompanied a British MP on an unwelcome visit. One of the Institute for Statecraft’s projects, The Integrity Initiative, possibly a front for military intelligence, is a covert propaganda network of politicians, journalists, academics, researchers and military officers engaged in smearing political leaders and interfering in the affairs of other allied governments. Mohamed Elmaazi is a journalist with experience in human rights law, with degrees from American University in Cairo and SOAS. He contributes to Open Democracy, The Canary, the Grayzone and The Real News Network.  FOLLOW Mohamed on Twitter at @MElmaazi. Around the Empire is independent media and you can support it at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on December 22, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Inside the Temple of Covert Propaganda: The Integrity Initiative and the UK’s Scandalous Information War, Gray Zone, Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal Institute for Statecraft slams door in Labour MP’s face, The Canary, Mohamed Elmaazi Labour’s Chris Williamson warns of ‘British interference’ in Spain’s national security affairs, The Canary, Mohamed Elmaazi Briefing note on the Integrity Initiative, Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Jake Mason, Piers Robinson CyberGuerilla site, Nov 5 post, Nov 29 post  

In this two-part series investigative journalist Mohamed Elmaazi joins us from London. Mohamed has been working on what is potentially one of the most explosive international scandals in recent years. Hacked documents have exposed a secretive “charity” think tank, the Institute for Statecraft, which is funded by the British Foreign Office, the US State Department, NATO, Facebook, a neoconservative foundation and others. Mohamed located their London office in a neo-gothic mansion, Two Temple Place, and later accompanied a British MP on an unwelcome visit. One of the Institute for Statecraft’s projects, The Integrity Initiative, possibly a front for military intelligence, is a covert propaganda network of politicians, journalists, academics, researchers and military officers engaged in smearing political leaders and interfering in the affairs of other allied governments. Mohamed Elmaazi is a journalist with experience in human rights law, with degrees from American University in Cairo and SOAS. He contributes to Open Democracy, The Canary, the Grayzone and The Real News Network.  FOLLOW Mohamed on Twitter at @MElmaazi. Around the Empire is independent media and you can support it at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or at aroundtheempire.com. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire. Follow Joanne Leon at @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Facebook. Recorded on December 22, 2018. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Inside the Temple of Covert Propaganda: The Integrity Initiative and the UK’s Scandalous Information War, Gray Zone, Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal Institute for Statecraft slams door in Labour MP’s face, The Canary, Mohamed Elmaazi Labour’s Chris Williamson warns of ‘British interference’ in Spain’s national security affairs, The Canary, Mohamed Elmaazi Briefing note on the Integrity Initiative, Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Jake Mason, Piers Robinson CyberGuerilla site, Nov 5 post, Nov 29 post  

After World War II, the globe was divided in half between the capitalist West and the communist Soviet Union. Even though no shots were fired during the Cold War, the intelligence agencies of these two spheres were constantly vying for critical information that could give their side an edge. In the United Kingdom, Donald Maclean graduated from the right school. He attended the right university. He came from good British stock. And he entered public service just as his country desperately needed intelligent and capable young men to help combat the rise of fascism in continental Europe. Donald Maclean was also a Soviet spy. To talk about Maclean's life as a Soviet agent, I am joined by Roland Philipps. He is the author of A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean. Roland went into publishing on graduating from Cambridge and until recently was the publisher of the author John Murray. He has edited leading novelists, politicians, historians, travelers, and biographers. A Spy Named Orphan, his first book, arises from lifelong connections to Donald Maclean and Roland's grandfather was Roger Makins, Maclean's boss at the British Foreign Office. He is currently working on a new book about Special Operations Executive, the Double-Cross system, Collaboration and Resistance in the Second World War. Want to listen to new episodes a week earlier and get exclusive bonus content? Consider becoming a supporter of the podcast on Patreon! Like the podcast? Please subscribe and leave a review! Follow @CMTUHistory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia) speaks here for @KGNU with Roland Philipps, about his new book, the first full biography of one of the twentieth century’s most notorious spies. Donald Maclean. Maclean was one of the most treacherous spies of the Cold War era and a key member of the infamous "#CambridgeFive" #spyring, yet the full extent of this shrewd, secretive man’s betrayal has never been explored—until now. Drawing on a wealth of previously classified files and unseen family papers, A Spy Named Orphan meticulously documents his extraordinary story. Roland Philipps unravels Maclean’s character and contradictions, informed by a domineering father in a childhood at once liberal and austere. Maclean became infatuated with Communism during his school days, even before his time at Cambridge. A model diplomat, he rose through the ranks of the British Foreign Office rapidly, never arousing suspicion of his chilling double life. He married an American woman despite his sexual ambivalence and increasing antipathy to the United States. He was prone to alcoholic binges that should have blown his cover, yet they never found their way onto his record. A sworn enemy of capitalism, he had access to some of the greatest secrets of the time, transmitting invaulable intelligence to his Soviet handlers on the atom bomb and the shape of the postwar world. Maclean was a spy who loved and loathed the role. In a brazen escapade, he successfully eluded the incredulous authorities to defect to the Soviet Union, where he worked and lived unrepentantly for the next thirty years. Philipps offers memorable portraits of Maclean’s coconspirators—Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, and Anthony Blunt—as well as the gifted Russian spymasters of the period; a vibrant evocation of Cambridge and London between the wars; colorful descriptions of Maclean’s postings in Paris, Cairo, and Washington, D.C.; and a riveting re-creation of the tense international code-breaking operation that ultimately exposed him. A gripping tale of blind faith and fierce loyalty alongside dangerous duplicity and human vulnerability, Philipps’s narrative will stand as the definitive account of the mysterious and elusive man first codenamed "Orphan."

Donald Maclean was one of the most treacherous spies of the Cold War era and a key member of the infamous "Cambridge Five" spy ring, yet the full extent of this shrewd, secretive man’s betrayal has never been explored—until now. Drawing on a wealth of previously classified files and unseen family papers, A Spy Named Orphan meticulously documents his extraordinary story. Roland Philipps unravels Maclean’s character and contradictions, informed by a domineering father in a childhood at once liberal and austere. Maclean became infatuated with Communism during his school days, even before his time at Cambridge. A model diplomat, he rose through the ranks of the British Foreign Office rapidly, never arousing suspicion of his chilling double life. He married an American woman despite his sexual ambivalence and increasing antipathy to the United States. He was prone to alcoholic binges that should have blown his cover, yet they never found their way onto his record. A sworn enemy of capitalism, he had access to some of the greatest secrets of the time, transmitting invaulable intelligence to his Soviet handlers on the atom bomb and the shape of the postwar world. Maclean was a spy who loved and loathed the role. In a brazen escapade, he successfully eluded the incredulous authorities to defect to the Soviet Union, where he worked and lived unrepentantly for the next thirty years. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ronan is the founder of Alter Ego, a global network of progressive leaders exploring the connection between personal, cultural and political renewal. He is also the Head of Strategy at Perspectiva, a research institute building the intellectual foundations for a more conscious society. His background is in political strategy and organisational change. Before the age of 28, he was a consultant scenario planner to the British Foreign Office, and a Director of Futures, Strategy and Animation at RPC, an award winning City Law Firm. In this episode, Ronan talks about growing up in a small town in Ireland, moving to London and his relationship with faith and psychedelic drugs. He also talks about the need for better conversations - not only to advance our politics, but to better ourselves as human beings. This episode also features a conversation between Theos staff Simon Perfect and Anna Wheeler, who talk about how music has helped them navigate their own faith. For more information on Theos, follow @theosthinktank on Twitter. You can also follow Elizabeth Oldfield on Twitter at @theoselizabeth.

In 1971 during the Cold War, the UK expelled 90 Soviet diplomats suspected of spying. They'd been allowed into Britain in an attempt to improve relations, but it had been discovered that they'd been carrying out espionage instead. George Walden was a young diplomat on the Soviet desk in the British Foreign Office at the time. Photo: British Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home (left) shakes hands with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko (right) at Heathrow Airport, 26th October 1970. (credit: Ian Showell/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The ability to make language—words extend from the page…to become alive… to dance in the mind of a reader…creating vivid pictures that map time and space…weaving multiple experiences into a common tapestry of human history is an ability that only a few writers possess. It would not be a stretch to place such writers in the deep tradition passed down by generations of ancient priest, mystics, thinkers, storytellers, teachers who are often referred to as oracles. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o fits seamlessly in the long line of historical oracles who possess foresight and insight in the continuities that crisscross our human past, present, and future. Every group of people have these oracles, but to hear them…to see them is an art. We have lost the patience and humility to listen to them. These vessels of ancestors, conveyors of deep thought…channelers of truths…that provide guidance for our deep praxis of humanity. Ngũgĩ, as he is known, comes from an oral tradition of storytellers. A novelist, playwright, and essayist who sits alongside the likes of Nigeria's Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka in the modern African pantheon, he is a recurrent favorite for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Ngũgĩ's life encompasses British colonialism and the anticolonial struggle for Kenyan independence; the tragedy of despotism in a free Africa; and exile…all of which he effortlessly weaves into his work. According to a November 16, 2016 interview in the Financial Times with Ngũgĩ , the author recounts Ngũgĩ's reflection of winning a Nobel: “A Nobel would be validating but not essential.” Ngugi wa Thiong'o was born in 1938 a village north of Nairobi, one of 28 children. In the 1950s, his older brother, Good Wallace, joined the Mau Mau anticolonial resistance against the British occupation whose prison camps were described by the then-solicitor general as having been “distressingly reminiscent of conditions in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia”, according to previously secret documents released by the British Foreign Office in 2012.According to Ngũgĩ in the article: The British response to the rebellion was brutal and relentless. It even extended to weaponizing language itself” Further recalling this period, Ngũgĩ goes on in the article to say that it is was “the British who gave movement the name of Mau Mau— as if to say it was a meaningless movement”. Ngũgĩ reasons that “If they had said or called it the, ‘Land and Freedom Army', as [the fighters] called it themselves, then they would be articulating the aims of the movement, right?” Today, I invite you to listen to a recent reflection by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Dr. Micere Githae-Mugo…on their work…The Trail of Dedan Kimathi. The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, a collaboration between Ngũgĩ and Mi Sheree-Mugo, is a response to colonialist writings about the Land and Freedom Army (aka the Mau Mau movement), which traditionally depicted the movement and its leader, Dedan Kimathi, as mentally unbalanced and vicious. They choose to present a counter narrative to this image by highlighting how the movement and its leader was seen by many of the peasants and laborers of Kenya. In this reflection, they explore the politics of memory; the relationship between naming, forms of power, and resistance. Enjoy the program

In today's podcast we hear that Olympic Destroyer may have started with a supply-chain compromise back in December. The British Foreign Office blames Russia for NotPetya pseudoransomware, and the Russian Foreign Ministry says they didn't do anything. Trend Micro researchers find a new Monero cryptomining campaign underway. Coinherder phishes in alt-coin wallets. The Satori botnet has expanded its target list. A new IoT botnet, DoubleDoor, gets into routers with a one-two punch. Ben Yelin from UMD CHHS, on New Jersey taking on the FCC and net neutrality.  Guest is Scott Register from Ixia on security issues with the coming 5G cellular rollout. And the LoopX ICO vanishes into thin air. 

Debbi Mack interviews mystery author Daniella Bernett on the Crime Cafe podcast. The transcript is below, if you'd like to read it. Or download the PDF copy and read it later. Debbi: Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe. Your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I am your host Debbi Mack. Before we get started, I'd like to mention that you can buy the Crime Cafe Box Set and Anthology, as well as Crime Cafe merchandise on my website. Just go to debbimack.com and click on “Crime Cafe” and look for the buy links. And while you're there, please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. Thanks! Now I'd like to introduce my awesome guest who's just released the third novel in her mystery series. It's Daniella Bernett. Hi Daniella, I'm so glad to have you on today. Daniella: Hi, hi Debbi. I'm glad to be here today too! Debbi: Awesome! Well, let's talk about your series. Even though, strictly speaking it's the Emmeline Kirby/Gregory Longdon Mystery Series, I see Emmeline as a very strong and independent female protagonist. Do you think of her as the primary protagonist of the two? Daniella: Yes, I do. Yeah, she is definitely the primary protagonist. Emmeline is a journalist, so she's inherently curious about many topics. So, of course murder would intrigue her and she would want to see that justice is done and to ensure transparency and she's also a bit reckless, which gets her into trouble a lot of the time. But, I have Gregory there who's a jewel thief. He balances it out. He's on the other side of the law, so who better than the criminal to know how a fellow criminal's mind works. And yet the two of them do have similarities because for Gregory he's a gentleman and murder is not the done thing. So, of course he cannot let a murderer go free. So, in that sense, they are similar and their paths cross and they work together to see that justice is done. Debbi: And of course they're both a little bit attracted to each other; more than a little. Daniella: Oh, yes well they do have a past. They are former lovers, but in my first book, Lead Me Into Danger, they hadn't seen each other in two years and Emmeline literally runs into him in Venice after she witnesses two men tried to murder a fellow colleague of her. And then they become embroiled in a chase for a Russian spy in the British Foreign Office and so on and so on and things take off from there. The first book, Lead Me Into Danger, takes place in Venice and London. Debbi: Those are exotic places. Daniella: Yes. In the second book, Deadly Legacy, which is about a hundred million dollars in stolen diamonds, and murder of course. That one takes place entirely in London. And then my new one, From Beyond the Grave, which just came out, it takes place in Torquay, in Devon which is along the English Riviera. Debbi: Wow! You pick some very interesting spots to set your stories. How do you choose the locations? Daniella: Well, first of all, I've been an Anglophile since I was a little kid, so England, anything about England always attracted me. So when I started writing my stories, of course my characters had to be British, they had to take place in England or in the British Isles. So, that's why they take place in Britain. Debbi: In Britain. And how did you choose Venice or the other place? Daniella: Venice, well Venice is, aside from London, Venice is one of my favorite cities. I adore Venice! I've been there several times and I simply love it and Venice itself has its own history of intrigues; political intrigues and Machiavellian machinations and so forth. So, naturally that fit in quite well with my storyline. Debbi: [agrees] Where do you see Emmeline and Gregory going? Can you give us a hint of where they might be heading in future books? Daniella: Well, to start, let's take it from Beyond the Grave, which is the book that just came out. Emmeline is, you know, she hasn't seen Gregory,

Back in 1958 an Englishman by the name of Cyril Parkinson published a book titled, Parkinson's Law and The Pursuit of Progress. It was filled with wickedly humorous essays based on his time in the British Civil Service including one about how many people and how much time it took to get something done. Members of British Foreign Office set out to prove his observation and succeeded. It's truer today than ever. You'll learn all about people pyramid schemes and bureaucracies.

Today's guests are Andrew Grant and Daniella Bernett. Andrew Grant "False Positive": A seven-year-old boy has disappeared from his home in the Birmingham suburbs. But the more Detective Devereaux digs into the missing child's background, the more he discovers about his own past, eventually shaking loose a series of harrowing truths—about bloodlines, mass murder, obsession, and what two damaged detectives have in common with the innocent victim they're so desperate to save. Daniella Bernett "Lead Me Into Danger": A journalist, a jewel thief, and a Russian spy…when their paths cross, it’s murder. Journalist Emmeline Kirby hasn’t laid eyes on her former lover Gregory Longdon, a jewel thief, in two years. But she literally tumbles into his arms, after she witnesses two men attempt to murder her friend and fellow journalist, Charles Latimer, in Venice.  When Charles is ultimately killed, Emmeline is determined to bring his murderer to justice. But as she and Gregory delve deeper, they become ensnared in a hunt for a Russian spy in the British Foreign Office, who has his sights set on keeping his identity a secret at all costs—as Charles found out too late.

Clare Balding asks why and when did the British government get involved in sport. How did sport become part of politics, in a country which had always prided itself on keeping them apart? The Nazis threw immense resources behind the German team for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, while the British Foreign Office still thought sport should be, ' a private affair between private individuals' free of government interference. However by the 1950's post war politicians began to think that physical recreation and games might be a cure for the general apathy and discontent of British youth as exemplified by the teddy boys, mods and rockers of the era. Professor Tony Mason of The International Centre for Sport Culture and History at De Montfort University explains the importance of the 1957 Wolfenden Committee's report in broadening access to sporting facilities for all sectors of society. Technical presentation: John Benton Producer: Lucy Lunt.