Podcasts about Caribbean Sea

Since early September, President Trump has ordered the U.S. military to conduct multiple lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea suspected of drug trafficking, resulting in at least 21 deaths. These unprecedented military actions raise critical questions about the identity of those targeted, the Administration's legal justification, and the scope of presidential power to designate “terrorists” and authorize lethal force. What checks exist from Congress, courts, or the executive branch to limit such authority?On this episode of the Just Security Podcast, cross-hosted with the Reiss Center on Law and Security, host Tess Bridgeman and co-host Rachel Goldbrenner are joined by experts Rebecca Ingber and Brian Finucane to analyze the facts, the law, and the broader implications of this military campaign in the Caribbean.They examine an important new chapter in the use of force against drug cartels and explores how far presidential powers extend in such contexts.Show Notes: This is a joint podcast of Just Security and NYU Law School's Reiss Center on Law and Security.Executive branch reporting on the vessel strikes, on Tren de Aragua, and related resources:48-Hour Report pursuant to the War Powers Resolution (September 4, 2025) (Note: For a living resource containing this and all other publicly available reports submitted pursuant to the War Powers Resolution since its enactment in 1973, see NYU Law's Reiss Center on Law and Security's War Powers Resolution Reporting Project)Notice to Congress Under 50 U.S.C. §1543a (Section 1230 of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act) (undated, made public October 2, 2025)National Intelligence Council, Venezuela: Examining Regime Ties to Tren de Aragua (April 7, 2025)Listeners may also be interested in Just Security‘s Collection: U.S. Lethal Strikes on Suspected Drug Traffickers (updated, Oct. 3, 2025), including:Mary B. McCord and Tess Bridgeman, What the Senate Judiciary Committee Should Ask A.G. Bondi on Drug Cartel Strikes (Oct. 3, 2025)Marty Lederman, Legal Flaws in the Trump Administration's Notice to Congress on “Armed Conflict” with Drug Cartels (Oct. 3, 2025)Daniel Maurer, US Servicemembers' Exposure to Criminal Liability for Lethal Strikes on Narcoterrorists (September 24, 2025)Ben Saul, The United States' Dirty War on “Narco Terrorism” (September 22, 2025)Annie Shiel, John Ramming Chappell, Priyanka Motaparthy, Wells Dixon and Daphne Eviatar, Murder by Drone: The Legal and Moral Stakes of the Caribbean Strikes (September 17, 2025)Brian Finucane, Asserting a License to Kill: Why the Caribbean Strike is a Dangerous Departure from the “War on Terror (September 15, 2025)Marty Lederman, The Many Ways

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) discusses the latest in the government shutdown fight and Trump's new escalation against Chicago; why the lack of a job report from the federal government is extremely bad news for the economy right now; and former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) discusses her comeback bid to return to Congress; how the Trump administration's continued strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea is more than illegal, it may be leading us to war. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Police have named the man who killed two people at a synagogue in Manchester. Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British man of Syrian descent, was shot and killed by officers outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. Also, Donald Trump has declared the US is now in an armed conflict with drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea. A man alleged to be a high-up figure in the Tren de Aragua gang has been arrested in Colombia. A former Israeli hostage who was held in captivity in Gaza for 16 months has called on Hamas to sign President Trump's peace plan. The disgraced rapper, Sean Diddy Combs, is set to be sentenced on prostitution charges. Luxembourg's Grand Duke Henri is formally abdicating his throne. There is a rogue planet gobbling up gas and dust at an unprecedented rate. Open AI's Sora app raises yet more concerns about artificial intelligence and copyright.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

Episode 211 of The Adventure Podcast features adventurer Ollie Treviso. Ollie recently completed a 14,000km, 20-month walk along the Andes, from Tierra del Fuego to the Caribbean Sea. In this episode, Ollie opens up about how far he's come - from a rugby-playing teenager abusing steroids and working as an insurance broker, to living in a cave in Gran Canaria, working on farms, and eventually discovering the power of slow, human-paced travel. Matt and Ollie explore his first long-distance walk across the UK, complete with an over-packed rucksack, no tent experience, and a rule never to pay for accommodation, and how these early stumbles laid the foundations for his South American journey. They also talk candidly about grief and loss, why walking feels most meaningful, resilience, identity, and the uneasy balance between adventure, ego, and storytelling. This conversation is longer than normal. But its honest, fun, and full of surprising side stories. What emerges is not just the tale of an epic trek, but an honest reflection on what drives someone to keep walking into the unknown.For extra insights from the worlds of adventure, exploration and the natural world, you can find The Adventure Podcast+ community on Substack. You can also follow along and join in on Instagram @‌theadventurepodcast.Chapter Breakdown 00:00 – 09:00 | Beginnings & Pandemic Shift: Ollie's early restlessness, failed plans for South America, and how COVID lockdowns unexpectedly pushed him into walking across the UK.09:00 – 14:30 | Discovering Slow Travel: First long walks through Wales, Scotland, and Land's End to John O'Groats; learning the hard way about kit, endurance, and the joy of stripping life back to basics.14:30 – 20:00 | Tragedy & Turning Points: Family loss and grief collide with his travels, bringing him home but also deepening his sense of purpose and the need to carry on.20:00 – 40:00 | Setting Out for South America: Why Ollie chose to walk the Andes, the decision to commit step by step, and the fears and motivations behind such a huge undertaking.40:00 – 1:05:00 | Hardship & Kindness on the Road: Encounters with strangers' generosity, moments of danger, and surreal cultural exchanges - from Venezuela to Argentina, including being mugged in Colombia.1:05:00 – 1:20:00 | Companions & Survival: The story of a stray dog that joined him in Chile, brushes with wilderness, and reflections on walking's unique intensity.1:20:00 – 1:32:00 | Records, Recognition & Resistance: How the “first to walk the Andes” label sat uneasily with him, fundraising realities, and the tension between storytelling and self-promotion.1:32:00 – 1:40:00 | Coming Home & Looking Forward: Post-expedition decompression, finding peace away from the road, and searching for balance between adventure, career, and life at home.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-adventure-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Trump declares a highly illegal “war on drug cartels” to distract from the Epstein Files, let's turn instead to a much-needed source of inspiration: Harriet Tubman. Described by her first biographer and friend Sarah Hopkins Bradford as “clairvoyant,” Tubman offers timeless lessons in resilience, strategy, and hope under brutal oppression. If you're looking for concrete ways to resist life under a chaos-weapon Russian asset, this week's bonus episode of Gaslit Nation is for you! We share an excerpt from our Book Club discussion of Harriet, the Moses of Her People by Bradford, a children's author who helped preserve Tubman's legacy. We also examine the asymmetrical warfare waged by today's nihilists–and no, we don't mean the ones in Congress–but the “lone shooters” who are actually working together to stage “performance shootings” for one another for a growing outlet for their despair and rage. Trump's government shutdown certainly doesn't help.  Look for the full recording of this week's salon and Read & Resist book club discussion on Monday morning, along with the Zoom link for Monday's salon at 4pm ET.  Our salons are a place to sharpen strategy, share solidarity, and to remember that you're not losing your mind: things really are that bad. And because despair is what the nihilists want, we're throwing a Gaslit Nation Halloween Party with Sister District. Costumes optional, democracy mandatory. We'll be fighting for must-win Virginia races, and yes, you should RSVP. Because if Harriet Tubman can face down the unimaginable, you can probably survive a Zoom party. Join us here: https://www.mobilize.us/sisterdistrict/event/847185/ Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! Show Notes: Harriet, the Moses of Her People https://uncpress.org/9781469607818/harriet-the-moses-of-her-people/  October Books: Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/deaf-republic Total resistance by Hans von Dach https://archive.org/details/totalresistance0000dach Read and Resist: Gaslit Nation's Book Club https://www.patreon.com/posts/read-and-resist-132804210?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Trump ‘Determined' the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told A notice calls the people the U.S. military recently killed on suspicion of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea “unlawful combatants.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/politics/trump-drug-cartels-war.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20251002&instance_id=163691&nl=breaking-news®i_id=48614702&segment_id=207041&user_id=097a378032011d6e8be1570cdce0a176 Was Trump's strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat legal?https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/was-trumps-strike-on-an-alleged-venezuelan-drug-boat-legal/ Clip: https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m26cxb7ixo2e   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: October 27 4pm ET – Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky + Total Resistance by H. Von Dach – Poetry and guerrilla strategy: tools for survival and defiance. Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: available on Patreon. Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: available on Patreon. Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect, available on Patreon. Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon. Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon. Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community  

Send us a textFeeling inspired? Sign Up for a Free Goal Setting Guide Want to watch? Episodes now available on YouTube!Questions, comments, feedback, or if you'd like to be a guest, email me!Stories from the Water is produced by http://254studio.comMusic credit:Epic Inspiration  by Rafael KruxLink: https://filmmusic.io/song/5447-epic-inspiration-License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Swimming sounds courtesy of swimmer Todd Lantry. Are you ready to swim with ease in the Caribbean Sea? Email me, shannon@intrepidwater.com for details! Space is extremely limited, and we kick off October 15th. Support the show

Recently the US Military has been bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela. This marks a major escalation, and a new development in the US Empire's hybrid war on Venezuela that has been waged over the last 20 years. In this episode we speak with Joe Emersberger who along with Justin Podour authored the book Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media, and Twenty Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela for Monthly Review Press. "All Elements in Place for a US Strike on Venezuela" by Joe Emersberger and Richard Harris on Venezuelanalysis We talk about the origins of this tactic of aerial assassinations, its deployment in international waters, and whether we could see the US expand its assassination program to target government leaders like Nicolas Maduro as we have seen the so-called state of Israel do - with full US backing - across West Asia. We also discuss the merging of war on drugs policies with the policies of the war on terror, and contextualize these so-called wars. Finally, we talk about some of the dynamics that hem in progressive and socialistic projects in Latin America, using Joe's long engagement with Ecuador as an example. Joe Emersberger is based in Canada. He is co-author of Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media, and Twenty Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela. His work can be found on Substack “Unedited Anti-Imperialism”. Older articles of his can be found on VenezuelAnalysis, Counterpunch, Fair.org, Znet and Mint Press News As always if you like the work that we do, the best way to support the show is through either to be come a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism or through either an ongoing pledge or one time donation through BuyMeACoffee.

Is the President authorized to blow up boats and kill suspected drug smugglers? Beth speaks with Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) about Trump's use of military force to strike vessels in the Caribbean Sea without due process, trials, or congressional authorization. The Senator explains why these extrajudicial killings violate constitutional war powers and put America at greater risk internationally. Why aren't Republicans checking executive overreach? Senator Van Hollen describes how the GOP has become a "rubber stamp" for Trump, abandoning its constitutional duty to provide checks and balances. From dismantling congressional war powers to remaining silent on due process violations, he explores what it means when an entire party contracts out its judgment to one person. What levers does Congress actually have right now? As the government funding deadline approaches, Van Hollen discusses the Democratic strategy of "creative confrontation" - from showing up at ICE detention centers to challenging book bans at the Naval Academy. He explains why he won't give Trump a "blank check" even from the minority, and what safeguards against illegal withholding of funds could look like in any budget deal. Ready to go deeper? Visit our website for complete show notes, exclusive premium content, merchandise, chats and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The U.S. military has blown up three boats in the Caribbean Sea in the past three weeks, killing 17 people aboard.Each time, President Trump has claimed that the boats were carrying drugs to the United States and that those killed were “narcoterrorists.” But he has offered no concrete evidence to back up this claim.Charlie Savage, who covers national security for The New York Times, tells us what he has learned about what may be the true objective behind these airstrikes and whether any of this is even legal.Guest: Charlie Savage, who writes about national security and legal policy for The New York Times.Background reading: Last week, Mr. Trump said the U.S. military had attacked a third boat suspected of carrying drugs, killing three.He has claimed the power to kill those suspected of drug smuggling.For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Elizabeth Frantz for The New York Times Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Today we're heading to Mexico's Riviera Maya, where jungle meets Caribbean Sea and where SHA has opened its newest sanctuary for health and healing. If luxury is about rare treasures, then perhaps the greatest luxury of our time is longevity — not just adding years, but adding vitality, clarity, and purpose to our lives. I'm joined by Alejandro Bataller, Vice President of SHA and the second-generation visionary behind this family-run brand. We chat about everything from behind-the-scenes stories of building SHA Mexico, to the treatments you can't find in the US, to the growing global fascination with living not just longer, but better.  Alejandro also shares insider details on the SHA philosophy, how their approach stands apart from other retreats, and inspiring stories of guests whose lives have been transformed. I hope you enjoy this interesting conversation with Alejandro Bataller.   Looking to book a luxury hotel? Get special perks and support the podcast by booking here: https://www.virtuoso.com/advisor/sarahgroen/travel/luxury-hotels If you want our expert guidance and help planning a luxury trip with experiences you can't find online, tell us more here and we'll reach out: https://bellandblytravel.com/book-a-trip/ Learn more at www.luxtravelinsider.com   Connect with me on Social: Instagram LinkedIn  

Today, we're traveling to a magical place in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Belize. And not just any place we're going to explore one of the most famous underwater sinkholes in the world: The Great Blue Hole. That's right, a giant hole in the ocean, so big it can be seen from space!⁠Birthday Shout Out Form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Resources, Books, Photos, Coloring pages and more!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mysterykidspodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patron⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Or a Subscriber on Spotify!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Several weeks after President Trump ordered a military strike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people supposedly suspected of drug smuggling, this saga has gotten much worst. Last Monday, Trump bombed another vessel, killing three. Again his administration released zero evidence supporting the decision, and the specifics in this case make this campaign look increasingly lawless. And we just learned that the White House is quietly circulating a draft bill that would vastly expand Trump's authority for these bombings. Its details offer a damning glimpse into how unrestrained he aims to be going forward. We talked to Brian Finucane, who's been writing great analysis of the situation as an editor at Just Security. He explains why the specifics of that draft bill are so alarming, why the bombings appear to constitute serious abuses of power, and why all this may be hurtling us toward darker lawlessness to come. (Since we recorded, Trump bombed a third vessel in similarly lawless fashion. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Several weeks after President Trump ordered a military strike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people supposedly suspected of drug smuggling, this saga has gotten much worst. Last Monday, Trump bombed another vessel, killing three. Again his administration released zero evidence supporting the decision, and the specifics in this case make this campaign look increasingly lawless. And we just learned that the White House is quietly circulating a draft bill that would vastly expand Trump's authority for these bombings. Its details offer a damning glimpse into how unrestrained he aims to be going forward. We talked to Brian Finucane, who's been writing great analysis of the situation as an editor at Just Security. He explains why the specifics of that draft bill are so alarming, why the bombings appear to constitute serious abuses of power, and why all this may be hurtling us toward darker lawlessness to come. (Since we recorded, Trump bombed a third vessel in similarly lawless fashion. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Several weeks after President Trump ordered a military strike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people supposedly suspected of drug smuggling, this saga has gotten much worst. Last Monday, Trump bombed another vessel, killing three. Again his administration released zero evidence supporting the decision, and the specifics in this case make this campaign look increasingly lawless. And we just learned that the White House is quietly circulating a draft bill that would vastly expand Trump's authority for these bombings. Its details offer a damning glimpse into how unrestrained he aims to be going forward. We talked to Brian Finucane, who's been writing great analysis of the situation as an editor at Just Security. He explains why the specifics of that draft bill are so alarming, why the bombings appear to constitute serious abuses of power, and why all this may be hurtling us toward darker lawlessness to come. (Since we recorded, Trump bombed a third vessel in similarly lawless fashion. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are the stories making Caribbean headlines.Amnesty International demands that the United States cease its military operations in the Caribbean Sea. On October 1, four Caricom nations will start complete free movement. Grenada has begun employing skilled laborers from Haiti and Cuba to finish building projects. Puerto Rico and Amazon Web Services have partnered to offer free online training sessions on AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. By the second quarter of 2026, the government of Guyana, led by President Dr. Irfaan Ali, plans to digitize the majority of its services. CARICOM countries are among those that have signed a historic United Nations accord to save our seas.Send news releases to news@pulseofthecaribbean.com. For Pulse of the Caribbean marketplace feature opportunities email biz@pulseofthecaribbean.com.Listen and subscribe to the  Pulse of the Caribbean Caribbean News Round Up for news you need to know. Send news releases and information to news@pulseofthecaribbean.com.

In the late 1890s a US congressman argued that the United States had the right to seize Cuba because he believed it was made of silt that had washed out of the mouth of the Mississippi River which made it literally US soil. That story inspired Puerto Rican Jewish poet Aurora Levins Morales to apply for a writing residency in New Orleans, and to travel the length of the river from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast, doing "poet research." In Silt: Prose Poems (Palabrera Press, 2019) she follows the pathways of water across the natural and social landscapes of the Mississippi River and the Caribbean Sea, tracing the real residues of their relationship, and turning that long story into a kind of prayer, for our waters, our planet and our lives.In this conversation, Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, Joanna Cifredo de Fellman (יוחנה סיפרדו פלמן) and Aurora Levins Morales discuss Silt in the context of contemporary Puerto Rico.  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

In the late 1890s a US congressman argued that the United States had the right to seize Cuba because he believed it was made of silt that had washed out of the mouth of the Mississippi River which made it literally US soil. That story inspired Puerto Rican Jewish poet Aurora Levins Morales to apply for a writing residency in New Orleans, and to travel the length of the river from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast, doing "poet research." In Silt: Prose Poems (Palabrera Press, 2019) she follows the pathways of water across the natural and social landscapes of the Mississippi River and the Caribbean Sea, tracing the real residues of their relationship, and turning that long story into a kind of prayer, for our waters, our planet and our lives.In this conversation, Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, Joanna Cifredo de Fellman (יוחנה סיפרדו פלמן) and Aurora Levins Morales discuss Silt in the context of contemporary Puerto Rico.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/poetry

Snogwarts graduates become Students of Briarwood, then compete for Sex Goddess.by jane700bond. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.Preface:While boarding school did a reasonable job of separating guys and gals, The Briarwood College of Incanting Arts could not stop us being normal horny teens and experimenting. They had separate single sex boarding houses, but this generally meant that, at night, gals would experiment with gals and guys would experiment with guys. Then they would experiment with the opposite sex in small forgotten rooms and outbuildings and in the woods and fields that surrounded the college.Ariella, a British gal aged 18, when this story starts, might appear to have more experience than would be otherwise expected. She is no virgin! This higher education academy further develops the craft of wizardry in areas of seduction and behavioral manipulation.The heroine is taught in the story, by the young teacher, Gabriella Peacock “The Sex Goddess awakens desires in others and lets them fulfill their own fantasies through her own vast appetite for sex. She does not enslave! She gives and takes pleasure and fun.”This adaptation is based on the script posted by Jane700bond.Part 1.The Briarwood College of Incanting Arts was the premier post-secondary college of wizardry in the world and it was seven years after Ariella Divine and her other 11-year-old contemporaries had first arrived at the enormous Snogwarts castle in the far north of Scotland. Now 18, they had started their first year and are to take their Advanced Level Wizarding exams. Being 18 gave them some privileges the younger students back at Snogwarts don't have. For example, she only had to share a room with one other dorm mate instead of five; and  like herself, all college students had their own set of bathrooms and showers. She had looked forward to coming back to Scotland after the long summer holiday and catching up with old friends and lovers. There were twelve pupils in the top year in Slither-in House that had survived the earlier years and advanced to The Briarwood College of Incanting Arts, six each of guys and galsAriella was universally acknowledged to have grown up to be beautiful. She was slim with black hair, stunning turquoise blue eyes and pale skin inherited from her Irish grandmother. As so often happens, she had grown during the long summer holidays. At 5 foot 7, she now stood a good bit taller, was rather more curvaceous and her breasts had filled out nicely.This latter bit of growing made her very happy as she had been rather flat chested until then, not really even an A cup and she hadn't worn bras. However, during this summer she was sure she could tell that her breasts had grown more each night of the holiday and she would experiment with them in front of the mirror before breakfast. Finally, in late August she achieved an ambition, to be able to play with her nipples with her own tongue. Soon, she thought, she would be able to suck her own teats!She deliberately dressed in a short-cut tee-shirt that was straining at the front as she wanted to show off her new weapons of sexual mass destruction. She appreciated the admiring glances from the people she passed in the street and in one or two cases, where she fancied the looker, returned the glance with a mischievous smile before she moved on. She had also noticed, the more her tits filled out, the more randy she was becoming!One adventurous day, late in the holiday, she had decided to go and look for some new bras that would fit her fast maturing body. This was to be her first proper bra fitting and Ariella was a little nervous about what was involved. Walking into the lingerie shop she noticed a rather stern woman behind the till and a much younger assistant with a nice face who Ariella thought was rather lovely. Choosing to ignore the matron and talk to the gal instead, together they discussed potential styles and colours and then, finding the gal ever more attractive, Ariella shyly asked if she could have a proper fitting. Ariella was so glad it was the young woman and not the foreboding manager who was to help her in such a personal manner. Cheerily the gal called out to the manager what she had been asked to do and led Ariella to the back of the shop.They squeezed themselves together into a small fitting room and both gals seemed to appreciate the closeness that this entailed. Currently Ariella was braless and she was aware that her now rather prominent and hard nipples protruded through the cotton of her top. Rather nervously Ariella stripped off her tee-shirt to reveal her newly blossomed breasts and the gal stood for a moment apparently admiring them, but maybe “just sizing her up professionally”, Ariella thought.The young gal's tongue was peeking through her lips as she concentrated. The sight of it began to make Ariella feel a little horny, but she had a first got a real buzz of excitement when the clerk passed the tape measure around her back and then under her breasts, gently lifting them slightly with warm hands to get the tape underneath and to measure her chest properly. It was the first time anyone else had touched these new larger and rounder mounds and she was surprised at how sensitive they were.Then the clerk had really made her gasp as she lifted her breasts again and then moved the tape up and tightened it over Ariella's nipples, the shop clerk's face showed a knowing impish grin. They were alone together in the small fitting room close enough to hug and Ariella was certain the gal would love to play a much more dangerous game in the curtained square if she had dared. The clerk's tongue was sticking out through her lips again as, with great absorption, she put her nose an inch from Ariella's chest and then read out the measurement with a surprising huskiness in her voice: “34-inch C-cup, I think. Shall I go and get some for you to try on?”The gal rather slowly pulled the tape from Ariella's chest, brushing as if accidentally the aureoles and hardened nipples - there was so little room, and it was such an intimate role she played, it could have been and accident - not! Ariella felt a heat between her legs as the clerk swished through the curtain and disappeared leaving her standing alone, half naked. She wondered about how horny she had become over the last couple of months as new hormones cruised her body. She seemed to think about sex more and more every day, her mind imagining a whole Karma Sutra of different possibilities with both guys and gals.Humping her large teddy bear had been the first surprise, the coldness of its glass nose on her clit and the bears soft fur between her legs made her appreciate the old stuffed toy in a very different way than when she had been a child. Then there was the head of the power-shower - wow what did that do when she sprayed between her legs and soaped herself? Then she had experimented in the kitchen when her parents were out. Olive oil was good, but coconut oil was better, especially when used to lubricate the banana with which she tested the tightness of her love canal by slowly parting her cunt lips with the black tip and gently pushing it in. The thing really to avoid, she discovered to her cost, was chilli oil. She had had to sit crying in a cold bath for half an hour after trying that on her clit and was not going to forget the heat of that exceedingly hot burning and painful orgasm.Even though it was a warm late August day, Ariella felt goose-pimples rising on her bare skin, especially around her exposed nipples and she shivered. The gal was about Ariella's age, a little shorter, with her blonde hair tied tidily up in a ponytail. She had golden-brown eyes which seemed to look through Ariella and know her deepest desires.Ariella could tell the clerk was experienced in dealing with bras as her chest was front heavy and needed good support. It would have had a challenge getting that pair of whoppers through adolescence without a substantial investment in fitting sessions. She must have had a lot of fans at school! Now, in a low-cut white top the deep tight valley of her cleavage exuded sex-appeal and invited an investigation into the warm hidden depths of its crevasse. Ariella wondered at her size, “34D or, more probably, Double D?” she thought, but did not know the answer.The young woman's lips were full like Ariella's and she was wearing a fashionable scarlet lip-gloss. As she had turned to leave Ariella, could not help but clock her beautiful pert backside in tight-fitting leggings. Nice, she thought, and imagined for a moment cupping that ass, whilst grinding herself into the gal as they kissed deeply, fiery hot nipples rubbing together. The heat and moisture between Ariella's legs became more noticeable and she felt the blood rise to her cheeks.After a few minutes, the clerk came back with a pile of boxes. “Shall I help you try them on?” She asked innocently.Ariella nodded, being her first time at a bra fitting, she barely dared to think what helping might involve; just having the gal measuring her had been arousing enough!The first bra was rear fastening and she put her hands out in front of her, hovering inches above the tempting cleavage, as the clerk threaded the straps up over her arms and then carefully and gently lifted Ariella's breasts into the cups to make them comfortable. Ariella shuddered with a little gasp of pleasure as the hands slowly moulded her flesh into the right position. The gal then leaned forward putting her head over Ariella's shoulder so she could see to fasten the bra at the back. The movement forward pushed the gal's own breasts into Ariella's hands. As Ariella hastily moved her arms to the side, the gal lent further forward and her own young covered bosom created a firm contact with Ariella's increasingly hard and aroused exposed peaks. The clerk expertly did up the bra and held the embrace for a few moments longer than necessary before moving her chin slowly back over Ariella's shoulder. Very deliberately, she kept her chin in firm contact with Ariella's skin as she moved her head down over Ariella's chest. Finally, the gal stopped with her nose rested on the link between the two cups of Ariella's cleavage. Ariella stood there quietly, so close to the clerk that she could smell the sweetness of the gal's breath. In a sudden a state of anticipation and rising desire, Ariella's heart began to race.“I better test the tightness.” The clerk said with a gulp, moving back slightly and leaving a gap of air between their heaving bosoms. With an air of expert concentration, she inserted a finger of each hand under the left and right straps and tested the tension. Then she moved her fingers around to the front inside the bra's material. She stopped, rather unprofessionally, with a finger on each nipple, then slowly inserting her thumbs up inside the cups, she pinched the teats gently making Ariella even more aroused. “A bit tight.” She said loudly, as if to an audience beyond the curtain. “Shall we try the next cup size up?” Reluctantly, Ariella thought, the clerk removed one of her hands and put her finger to her lips whilst miming a warning at the curtain with her eyes.There was a rustle outside and an authoritative female voice asked “How are things going Emelia?”“OK Miss Havisham,” the newly named Emelia replied “we'll find the right fitting in a minute or two.”“Fine”, came the response “I'll be by the till if you need me.” Again a rustle and footsteps moved away.“I'm sorry,” whispered Emelia to Ariella, “but I'm going to have to behave!” As if to contradict herself, she hovered her mouth directly over Ariella's breasts as she seductively reached around and neatly undid the bra. As the breasts came free her sweet lips were apart and a drop of saliva escaped and slowly dropped onto Ariella's newly unconstrained left breast. The clerk stared at the glistening drop for a moment and then quickly darted forward and took Ariella's nipple in her mouth, at the same time she passionately began to play with the other nipple with her hand, rubbing the teat between her fingers. Ariella gasped and grasped Emelia 's ass, cheeks and ground her hot crotch into the hottie, hoping their now engorged clits would connect somehow through their thin summer clothes. Half-naked, Ariella had never felt so hot.After a little while and some heavy breathing, aloud Emelia said, as normally as she could, “Have you tried a front-fastening bra?” With which she pulled her own top downward and unfastened her own bra as if demonstrating how it worked. Ariella gazed with amazement at the grapefruit sized tits and dived forward to take one of Emelia 's amazing large brown nipples in her own mouth. In sudden desperation for sexual satisfaction, she thrust her hand down the front of Emelia 's leggings and with urgency found her way through the flimsy panties to Emelia 's hot, hot cunt lips and started massaging her sex.Another rustle outside and Ariella smiled mischievously at Emelia as she said loudly “I think front-fastening is much more convenient, but can I try the next size up?”“Yes of course, Miss.” Said Emelia and with Ariella's hand still rubbing hard inside her panties and desperately trying not to gasp or moan, she started rummaging loudly through the boxes. “Here we are! Try this one. This one is a Tee-Shirt bra, just great for what you're wearing.”With the looming presence outside, Emelia shrugged and grinning naughtily, carefully removed Ariella's hand from her damp cunt and putting it to her mouth, and briefly licked her own sex juices from the other gal's fingers. After one last desperate deep honey-flavoured kiss, Emelia straightened her clothes, handing Ariella the new bra and showed her how it fastened by demonstrating with her own. “That's perfect,” called Ariella, in a business-like voice, “I'll keep this one on and take those please.”Checking in the mirror she looked decent, Emelia turned to go through the curtain. Ariella, had a last feel of her new friend's backside, slipping her hand between her legs and feeling the dampness there for a few moments. Using her thumb, she found Emelia's hot cunt lips through the material, making Emelia gasp before she moved off through the curtain. A moment later a woman thrust her head through and asked if everything was satisfactory.“Excuse me,” said Ariella haughtily “but I'm dressing, do you mind!” The head withdrew with embarrassed rapidity and for a moment Ariella sat down with a sigh, her hand undoing the button and then going down into her shorts to find her firm, stiff clit crying out for satisfaction. After a moment or two she stood and started to pull on her tee-shirt, but her hand went down into the tight darkness again for a few more moments of pleasure. She was still playing with herself and had her back to the curtain when Emelia came in. The buxom woman stood pressing herself hard against Ariella's back and licked her ear as she breathed deeply. Ariella could only just cope with the hot breath and tickling tongue, but when Emilia's hand thrust down the front of her shorts to join her own, she nearly came. Emelia said aloud “Your bras miss.”She kissed Ariella on the back of the neck and passed over a piece of paper with her number on it. “Fancy a drink tonight?” She asked quietly and then slipped away. Ariella adjusted herself, then incredibly aware of the dampness between her legs and the smell of sex on her hand, she marched out past the manager into the sunlight.That night had been a great way to end the holiday. Emelia may have been a muggle, but she was a very sexy muggle and great fun to be with. After a short drink it was obvious that they couldn't wait to get back to exploring each other's bare barely adult bodies, so with sex hormones going wild in their 18-year-old brains they almost ran from the pub to Emelia's small flat and were soon tearing each other's clothes off to try and cool their heated naked skin.It was wonderful for Ariella to bury her head in Emelia's large beautiful breasts and suckle her until Emelia groaned with longing. They were the biggest pair Ariella had ever played with and she loved the soft bouncing flesh and dark firm nipples. Ariella thought it so good to have her cunt licked and her clit teased by a gal who seemed to have much more experience than her school friend paramours. Ariella loved Emelia sitting on her face whist she probed the gal's deep dark love tunnel with her tongue and gently nipping with her teeth.Sitting there, with Ariella's tongue licking deep inside her, Emelia then brought her clit to orgasm and let Ariella drink an eruption of honey juices when she came. Ariella had no idea that a gal could cum like that, but lapped up the nectar as Emelia bucked and shuddered in climax.Ariella's face was now soaking wet with Emelia's cum juices and this made her own need to cum even more urgent. Emelia's hot lubricated cunt slid easily over Ariella's breasts and stomach, leaving a snail-trail of sex juices and then Emelia turned around to kneel between Ariella's now spread-eagled legs. Emelia sucked Ariella's nipples while she fucked her with two fingers, ever enlarging her hot pink wet hole. Then finding the magic g-spot, and at the same time using her thumb on Ariella's clit, Emelia was able to bring Ariella to a simultaneous climax. Ariella screamed in pleasure as the orgasms made her entire body shudder and tingle; it was the best sex she had ever had … to date.The two gals spent the night together sometimes snoozing until one or the other, with exploring fingers, would arouse the other and they would start their love-making again discovering new delights. Finally, the dawn found them wrapped naked around each other in exhausted sleep.Now Ariella was at The Briarwood College of Incanting Arts, and a year of intrigue, magic and adventure was ahead of her and in Briarwood there was more chance of interesting sex than in any of the others. After her adventure with Emelia, Ariella thought if might be fun trying to win the role of Briarwood Sex Goddess and bring the poor reputation of Slither-in alumnae to new depths of depravity. Whilst an honour not recognised by the college officially, Sex Goddess was a title given to one of the babes of Briarwood each year and, in celebration of her newly awakened sex drive, Ariella thought of the excitement to be had on the way to be crowned.Slither-in was the naughty house at Snogwarts, where the virtuous and the boring where not welcome. Slither-in students were specially chosen by the Sorting Hat that magically recognised that they would grow up to be as randy as hell; the guys were filled with testosterone and the gals, nymphomaniacs. What could possibly go wrong in a boarding school house where the final year students where all full of new found magical powers and ready to experiment?Ariella had left the express train late in the afternoon and entered the Briarwood womens' dorm, an ancient edifice of towers and dungeons. She went immediately to the house notice board. Firstly, there was a notice about uniforms.·         “Because of the current warm weather, and to maintain a healthy well-ventilated body, kilts and cotton shirts or blouses are the order of the day until the weather cools. In true Scots fashion kilts will be worn commando style by students. By order: Snake, the new Dean of Students”.Because the college was also in the north of Scotland, both sexes had a kilt as part of their uniform. The guys wore a more heavily pleated style, whilst the gals were lighter and shorter. The order to wear kilts was quite usual in warm weather, but the order for commando style was normally just for the guys. Ariella was intrigued and thought the coolness it provided would be a welcome change from wearing knickers all the time. But uniforms weren't needed until the next day when lessons started.Ariella then looked to see who was sharing rooms with whom and was surprised to discover the name of her roommate was unknown to her. It was unusual for a new pupil to join in the final year. She went to the Dean of Students to ask who Lucille l'Astique was and where had she come from.Dr. Snake, who just joined the college faculty this fall semester, had come from the Slither-in House at Snogwarts. He already knew several of the college students from their younger days. He was also Master of Defense Against The Dark Arts (or DADA for short) and, as suited the position, was a tall dark saturnine figure, about thirty-five years old. He often frightened the pupils of the other houses with his dark humour and ferocious tongue, but he has a soft spot for his own students and after seven years Ariella was on good terms with him. She knocked and went into his office where Snake lounged in his office chair, feet up on the large red leather desk. He looked up as she came in and stared at Ariella with surprise, seeming to slowly take in how she had flowered over the summer, his eyes roving deliberately from her shapely legs, her firm bare midriff and then he her clocked her expanded bosom, straining in its tight short tee-shirt. After lingering thoughtfully for a moment his eyes finally came to rest on the stunning beauty of her face.Then slowly lifting himself languorously from his chair he approached with a wide smile. “Why Ariella,” he said, “you have grown both taller and considerably more beautiful over the holiday.” His six-foot three height always made her feel like the little girl she had been when she had first met him. Now he looked down on her with satisfaction as he took in her new shape, examining the newly formed breasts that pressed against the tight cotton of her top. The look he gave may have been entirely appropriate for the supposedly evil DADA Snake, Dean of Students, but was probably inappropriate for your average teacher.His hands motioned in front of her and for a moment Ariella, heart thudding a little faster, thought he was going to grab her breasts and try them for size. But instead, as if by magic a badge saying “Prefect” appeared in one hand and with extreme delicacy, he pinned it over her heart, being careful not to let the sharp pin prick her skin. Ariella grinned with excitement at the honour - Prefect! She was so overwhelmed it did not occur to her that Dr. Snake was extraordinarily close. His hands continued to hover near her top as if he was wondering if he could dare lift it up and expose the secret delights it hid.He smiled again, “Umm,” he muttered “your lips have filled out beautifully as well. Gosh, it is nice to have such a sexy and beautiful damsel in my care. I like to make the beautiful ones my Prefects so I can get to know them better. Maybe in your case the badge should say “Perfect” instead of “Prefect” you look so good. Damsels are much more attractive to have around … and more tempting … than those horrible randy guys, I always think. I never make them prefects. You must come and have tea with me one day“ He finished abruptly.Snake had never spoken to Ariella like this before and she felt flushed and a little delighted to have caught the attention of the older wizard. "Sexy and beautiful!” she thought, “I like that description.”“Who is this Lucille l'Astique I am to share with?” she asked looking into his dark smiling eyes.“Ah, Lucille!” he said. “She is a French dame, daughter of the infamous wizard the Marquis l'Astique le Grand. She has had to escape to Britain as her father was recently arrested for using black magic! I hope you will welcome her and make friends… I know you like to be friendly with gals.” He winked and Ariella wondered quite what he knew exactly about her being friendly with gals.“She is probably feeling lonely and scared.” He continued, “So I thought of lovely you as the perfect companion. Please show her the ropes and mentor her through the complexities of Snogwart's life.”Ariella smiled and agreed to go and find the new gal and introduce her to the dormatory and the college. As she turned, Snake's hand patted her bottom and Ariella, instinctively, brushed the hand away with her own which then came in hard contact with a very hard snake in Snake's trousers. The doctor gasped and Ariella went brightly on her way thinking “Sex-goddess, I won't even have to try!”Up the spiral staircase to the women's study-bedrooms went Ariella, wondering what Lucille would be like. Her own French was reasonable, but she hoped the dame spoke English. Her bedroom was at the top of a tower with two staircases, which was split down the middle to divide the gals' and the guys' wings. As she walked in, she saw an elfish-looking figure wearing a light muslin shift leaning out of the window taking in the scenery. The sun shining on the dame made the shift almost see-through and Ariella stood transfixed for the moment looking at the golden figure, her youthful curves mere shadows under the material. Lucille straightened up and turned, the sun now illuminating the dame's strawberry-blonde hair in a halo of brightness. She turned and smiled at Ariella and Ariella's heart nearly stopped at the beauty of the dame before her. Ideas of herself as Sex Goddess disappeared as surely this was a real goddess revealed to her is all her power. “My goodness,” she whispered “you are beautiful!” and more loudly “Vous êtes très belle mademoiselle.”“Et tu!” said the stranger in a soft sexy voice.The young ladies were both beautiful. Ariella, long black braided hair with pale white skin from her Celtic ancestors, Lucille strawberry-blonde hair like rose-gold in an elf-bob, with honey-gold skin, toned by a more southern sun. Ariella, eyes turquoise blue like a Caribbean Sea and Lucille's green like emeralds. Both their bodies were at the point of maturity where the gawkiness of childhood is replaced by the perfect blossoming of young womanhood. Both with perfect breasts and hips and long and shapely legs. Ariella a fine round face with and sexy cupid-bow lips and Lucille with the high-cheek bones of an aristocrat and wide lip formed into a superior smile. It was as if Lucille was a goddess of the sun and Ariella goddess of the moon.They stood and stared at each other for a long moment then realising her tongue was licking her lips and a blush was extending up her neck, Ariella first broke contact. She said with a voice she later thought must have sounded like the excited gabbling of a 1950's gym mistress “Gosh Hello, I'm Ariella Divine, you must be Lucille l'Astique, fantastic to meet you, gosh! We're to share this room, so jolly - I'm so very happy to meet you! Welcome to Student Dorm House.” I came from Slither-in House, at Snogwarts. She stopped realising she was babbling nonsense.“Slither-in? Slither … in?” repeated Lucille slowly with a hint of a grin, the words rolling around her mouth, “Is that what a guy's cock does when he fucks you? Merde, it sounds like it!”Ariella was shocked, which was actually something she could hardly believe, given her life to date. Shocked not so much by the vulgarity that had just come out the mouth of this golden goddess, but by the sudden thought of a guy's cock slithering between her legs. Looking at the expression on Ariella's face Lucille smiled broadly and broke into a beautiful tinkle of laughter. She walked forward, put her arms on Ariella's shoulders and kissed her on each cheek in the continental style. “I am sorry,” she said, “but I had not realised; you are an innocent. So cute!”“Innocent?” gasped Ariella in indignation, “Me? Cute? I tell you mademoiselle; I'm going to be voted the Sex Goddess of Briarwood this year. You just took me by surprise - I had just never thought of the word Slither-in that way before. Quite an exciting concept really.”The blonde dame stepped forward and looked deep into Ariella's sea blue eyes “Is Sex Goddess a position in this place? Like Head dame? Wow! I thought you British didn't like sex.”Ariella, stared back and said a little quietly “Yes, we enjoy sex and Sex Goddess is a title you can win in. The idea is to make all the other pupils want to slave, to meet your every wish!”Lucille stepped closer still so that the two goddesses now touched each other, nipple to nipple. “Let's have a competition.” she said, huskily, the words spoken so close to Ariella's lips she could feel the breath of them. Ariella brushed her lips against those of the other dame, then she nervously pushed out her tongue and slowly parted Lucille's lips. Lucille responded and soon the gals were kissing passionately. Without letting go, Ariella led Lucille to one of the beds and there they lay together limbs tangled and breathing harder and harder as their bodies were turned on by the exploring hands of the other.To be continued..by jane700b

Questions are mounting about President Trump's decision to bomb a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board. The administration says these were drug cartel members who posed a threat to the United States, but many legal experts have concluded the bombing might have been illegal or a war crime. And this saga just got darker. Senator Tim Kaine and two dozen other Democrats just released a powerful letter laying out tough questions for the administration. The letter demonstrates the weakness of Trump's legal case in a freshly vivid way. And a Senate staffer tells us Kaine reached out to numerous Republicans in hopes of getting them to sign the letter, but damningly, none would. Meanwhile, new reporting indicates that the boat might have been turning around before getting hit, making Trump's decision look even worse. We talked to Scott Anderson, senior editor at Lawfare and author of a great piece analyzing the strike. He demystifies the legal and substantive complexities, sheds light on how brazenly Trump is stretching the law, and discusses whether we'll ever learn what really happened.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 2nd, 2025, the U.S. Navy killed 11 civilians on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that President Trump claimed was operated by the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, who were allegedly carrying drugs bound for the United States.  The response was swift. Legal experts weighed in on  whether this attack was a violation of international law and if it was considered a criminal act against civilians. So is this attack on civilians considered a war crime? And how will Venezuela respond to this attack?  On this episode of Lawyer 2 Lawyer, Craig joins guest Dr. Anthony C. Arend, Professor of Government and Foreign Service and Chair of the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Craig & Tony discuss the recent U.S. Navy attack on a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea. We will talk about the specifics and legal issues behind the strike, and whether this was a violation of international law, and a criminal act against civilians.

Questions are mounting about President Trump's decision to bomb a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board. The administration says these were drug cartel members who posed a threat to the United States, but many legal experts have concluded the bombing might have been illegal or a war crime. And this saga just got darker. Senator Tim Kaine and two dozen other Democrats just released a powerful letter laying out tough questions for the administration. The letter demonstrates the weakness of Trump's legal case in a freshly vivid way. And a Senate staffer tells us Kaine reached out to numerous Republicans in hopes of getting them to sign the letter, but damningly, none would. Meanwhile, new reporting indicates that the boat might have been turning around before getting hit, making Trump's decision look even worse. We talked to Scott Anderson, senior editor at Lawfare and author of a great piece analyzing the strike. He demystifies the legal and substantive complexities, sheds light on how brazenly Trump is stretching the law, and discusses whether we'll ever learn what really happened. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Questions are mounting about President Trump's decision to bomb a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board. The administration says these were drug cartel members who posed a threat to the United States, but many legal experts have concluded the bombing might have been illegal or a war crime. And this saga just got darker. Senator Tim Kaine and two dozen other Democrats just released a powerful letter laying out tough questions for the administration. The letter demonstrates the weakness of Trump's legal case in a freshly vivid way. And a Senate staffer tells us Kaine reached out to numerous Republicans in hopes of getting them to sign the letter, but damningly, none would. Meanwhile, new reporting indicates that the boat might have been turning around before getting hit, making Trump's decision look even worse. We talked to Scott Anderson, senior editor at Lawfare and author of a great piece analyzing the strike. He demystifies the legal and substantive complexities, sheds light on how brazenly Trump is stretching the law, and discusses whether we'll ever learn what really happened.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 2nd, 2025, the U.S. Navy killed 11 civilians on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that President Trump claimed was operated by the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, who were allegedly carrying drugs bound for the United States.  The response was swift. Legal experts weighed in on  whether this attack was a violation of international law and if it was considered a criminal act against civilians. So is this attack on civilians considered a war crime? And how will Venezuela respond to this attack?  On this episode of Lawyer 2 Lawyer, Craig joins guest Dr. Anthony C. Arend, Professor of Government and Foreign Service and Chair of the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Craig & Tony discuss the recent U.S. Navy attack on a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea. We will talk about the specifics and legal issues behind the strike, and whether this was a violation of international law, and a criminal act against civilians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this empowering episode of The Retreat Leaders Podcast, Shannon Jamail is joined by retreat host and business coach Raisah Salima Bickram for a deeply honest conversation about evolution, alignment, and energetic pricing in the retreat world. Together, they unpack what it means to outgrow clients, roles, and retreat formats—and how to move forward in integrity and confidence. Raisah shares her journey of raising her prices, honoring her worth, and navigating the guilt that can come with letting go of what no longer fits. Shannon and Raisah also dive into: Pricing from a place of energy and impact (not fear) Why fair pricing supports sustainability and transformation Offering scholarships without compromising profitability How to create aligned, soul-led retreats that evolve with you Standing firm in your message—even when trends suggest otherwise Whether you're a seasoned retreat leader or stepping into your first offering, this episode will inspire you to lead from a place of power, purpose, and authenticity About Raisah: Raisah Salima Bickram is a Spiritual Mentor and Business Coach who activates visionary women into their highest leadership and timeline. She is the founder of The Mind, Body + Soul Experience (The MBSX) and has designed and led over 30 retreats worldwide- ranging from intimate day experiences to transformative weekend immersions and international journeys. Her work explores themes of identity, expansion, healing, and the embodiment of sovereign leadership—guiding women to become the CEOs of their own lives. A certified somatic yoga teacher, sound healer, and Reiki Master, Raisah specializes in trauma-informed practices that create safe, sacred spaces for deep alchemy work. Her journey began in September 2020 with a pop-up backyard day retreat in Long Island, NY, where 18 attendees gathered. What started as a local gathering quickly evolved into a global movement. Since then, Raisah has guided retreats across the Caribbean Sea to the Indian Ocean, cultivating a community of clients who are drawn to soul work, sacred play, and exploration. Through her retreats, mentorship, and coaching, she supports women in unlocking their gifts, stepping into aligned leadership, and coming home to their truest selves. Today, Raisah continues to serve as a global retreat leader, business & mindset coach, and yoga teacher, weaving spirituality and strategy to empower women to rise into their fullest expression. Connect with Raisah: http://Thembsx.com  Instagram: @mbsx_raisah Special Offer: $200 off her Sedona retreat + free identity activation session for the first 3 bookings   The Retreat Leaders Podcast Resources and Links: Learn to Host Retreats Join our private Facebook Group Top 5 Marketing Tools Free Guide Get your legal docs for retreats Join Shannon in London  Join our LinkedIn Group Apply to be a guest on our show   Thanks for tuning into the Retreat Leaders Podcast. Remember to subscribe for more insightful episodes, and visit our website for additional resources. Let's create a vibrant retreat community together!   Subscribe:  Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Spotify   ------------ Timestamps by PodSqueeze: Guest Introduction: Raisa (00:01:34) Raisa introduces herself, her work as a business coach, spiritual mentor, and retreat leader. Defining Outgrowing Clients, Spaces, and Seasons (00:02:32) Discussion on what it means to outgrow clients, spaces, and seasons in business. The Discomfort and Necessity of Growth (00:03:00) Raisa uses the analogy of outgrowing shoes to explain the discomfort and necessity of growth. Letting Go and Aligning with New Clients (00:04:26) Exploring the importance of letting go of old clients and attracting those aligned with your current value. Fears Around Outgrowing and Raising Prices (00:06:58) Shannon discusses common fears: hurting clients and fear of not replacing them when raising prices. Accessibility, Pricing, and Scholarships (00:08:31) Raisa and Shannon discuss making retreats accessible, pricing for value, and offering scholarships. Energetic Reciprocity and Industry Impact (00:14:15) Shannon emphasizes the harm of undercharging and the importance of energetic exchange in pricing. Energetic Alignment and Personal Pricing (00:16:15) Discussion on how pricing should feel energetically aligned and unique to each leader. Evolving Offerings and Audience (00:18:19) How evolving retreat experiences naturally calls in a different audience over time. Authenticity and Co-Creation in Business (00:19:40) Raisa discusses the importance of alignment and authenticity in creating retreat experiences. Magnetizing Your Ideal Clients (00:21:29) How being rooted in your message and expression attracts the right clients. Staying True to Your Vision (00:22:31) Shannon shares an example of a retreat leader staying true to her unique retreat format. Leadership, Trust, and Not Diluting Your Offer (00:24:19) Raisa talks about sovereign leadership, authenticity, and trusting your vision. Setting Boundaries for Retreat Structure (00:26:44) Advice on not allowing partial attendance at retreats to maintain integrity of the experience. Raisa's Upcoming Retreats and Offerings (00:27:10) Raisa shares details about her upcoming Sedona retreat and her new Retreat Mastery program. Special Offers and How to Connect (00:29:44) Information on special offers for listeners and how to connect with Raisa online. Closing and Call to Action (00:30:57) Shannon wraps up the episode, encourages reviews, and shares where to find more resources.  

You and I will be glorified! Wars and rumors of wars! Chinese, Russian, North Korean, and Turkish leaders held the largest military parade in history in Beijing; The world now faces a choice between peace and war; The US Navy destroys a narcoterrorist boat in the Caribbean Sea; Venezuela is surrounded; and Israel is preparing for the decisive battle in Gaza City; evacuation orders have been sent, the battle is on!New episodes are released every Monday. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and leave us a rating on your podcast platform of choice. For more info or to support Burning Bush Ministries, visit our website at burningbushministries.tv.Follow us on social media:x.com/edifypodcastFacebook.com/edifypodcast Product Spotlight:Nashville Gold And Coin:https://nashvillegoldandcoin.com/Dr. Rhonda's Ultimate Daily Detoxifier:https://doctorrhonda.myshopify.com/discount/BURNINGBUSH?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fultimate-daily-detoxifierUse promo code Edify!Dr. Rhonda's Ultimate Immune Booster:https://doctorrhonda.myshopify.com/products/bpuibooster?_pos=2&_psq=ultim&_ss=e&_v=1.0Use promo code Edify!My Pillow:https://www.mypillow.com/?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=6481386640&cq_term=my%20pillow&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_plt=gp&gclid=CjwKCAjwue6hBhBVEiwA9YTx8D1g59gXEUjFegHoWVjHHx6V_dwQUAQpc2fT4fQqsK93A1s2W-XT-RoCeLsQAvD_BwEUse promo code B66

Jimmy and Children's Health Defense's Mary Holland discuss Donald Trump's recent shift in tone on Operation Warp Speed, highlighting his ultimatum to Pfizer to release full data on COVID-19 vaccines. They frame this as Trump aligning more closely with RFK Jr., who has long criticized vaccine safety and pandemic policies.  The two accuse Pfizer of fraud, cover-ups, and knowingly downplaying vaccine injuries, while suggesting legal consequences under the PREP Act for willful misconduct. They argue that Trump was misled by Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins, and Big Pharma interests, and that a broader “COVID reckoning” is coming as lies and conflicts of interest are exposed. Plus segments on the pushback RFK received after rooting out Big Pharma shills from the CDC and Trump's boasting about killing 11 suspected “drug runners” from Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. Also featuring Stef Zamorano!

//The Wire//2300Z September 5, 2025////ROUTINE////BLUF: VENEZUELAN AIRCRAFT CONDUCT FLIGHT OVER US NAVY SHIPS, PROMPTING US RESPONSE. BRITISH CABINET SHUFFLES PERSONNEL FOLLOWING RESIGNATION OF DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER DUE TO TAX EVASION SCANDAL. USA/INDIA RELATIONS DETERIORATE AFTER CHINESE DEFENSE SUMMIT.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Germany: Concern is growing regarding the sudden deaths of several politicians/candidates from the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Local party officials have reported that 7x candidates have died unexpectedly, two weeks before the next round of elections on September 14th. Analyst Comment: German authorities have stated that two of the deaths were from natural causes, however the others have not been explained. Independent verification is not possible at this time as government and party officials are withholding the names of the deceased for reasons of family privacy.United Kingdom: Several high-level positional changes have taken place throughout the British government following the departure of Deputy PM Angela Rayner. This morning Yvette Cooper announced her resignation from the Home Office, with Shabana Mahmood taking her place as Home Secretary. Cooper will become the Foreign Secretary, and David Lammy (the former Foreign Secretary) is to become Deputy Prime Minister.Analyst Comment: This reshuffling is largely due to several scandals that have plagued Starmer's government for several months. From the migrant crisis to internal corruption scandals, the last straw was the discovery that Angela Rayner had not paid property taxes on one of her residences, which totaled roughly £40,000 worth of tax evasion. This rapidly snowballed into a big scandal, especially since she has previously called out the tax-loopholes utilized by other politicians in the past.Caribbean: Yesterday, 2x Venezuelan F-16's conducted an overflight of the US Navy Task Force currently conducting operations in the southern Caribbean Sea. In response to this action, this morning the Pentagon announced the deployment of 10x F-35 fighter aircraft to Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico. This forward deployment will be conducted to allegedly engage in kinetic targeting of narcotics trafficking platforms, and also to provide more air-to-air targeting capabilities in the region.Analyst Comment: As expected, the situation has escalated. The deployment of F-35s usually points to one possibility...an expansion of the conflict. More specifically, F-35's would not be needed to target simple narco-vessels but would be a satisfactory platform for engaging more substantial threats, such as the F-16's the US sold to the Venezuelan military back in the 1980's.-HomeFront-Washington D.C. - Relations between the US and India have deteriorated somewhat over the past few days, following the trade negotiations that have been ongoing for some time. Earlier this week, China hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which coincided with a visit by President Vladimir Putin, and Prime Minister Modi. This summit resulted in India re-affirming their desire to strengthen ties with their fellow BRICS partners, instead of growing ties with the United States. This in turn has lead to a worsening of relations with the United States, and the White House taking a more hardball approach to trade negotiations with India. After the display of friendship between India and China, President Trump has floated the idea of blocking American tech companies from outsourcing work to India.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: There is another angle to the deteriorating US/India relations that is worthy of note. Brief scandal erupted on social media yesterday as multiple influential accounts were discovered to be posting suspiciously pro-India content, in response to the White House making statements that

This week, China hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation security forum, attended by 20 foreign leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and representatives of Ukraine's allies in a new round of discussions on Ukrainian security guarantees, while U.S. President Donald Trump renewed threats of sanctions against Russia. In the Middle East, Israel's campaign against Gaza City intensified while its Cabinet convened to discuss a proposal to further annex West Bank territory. In the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. launched a military strike against a vessel linked to drug smugglers who the Trump administration claim are operating under Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's orders. Read the full Weekly Forecast Monitor here: https://newlinesinstitute.org/forecast/week-20250905/ Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Tonight's rundown: Hey BillOReilly.com Premium and Concierge Members, welcome to the No Spin News for Wednesday, September 3, 2025. Stand Up for Your Country.  Talking Points Memo: Bill explains why progressive leadership doesn't work anywhere in the world and never will. Dr. Owen Anderson, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Arizona State University, joins the No Spin News to discuss the increase of reverse discrimination on college campuses and DEI narratives. A new poll shows that Americans are losing faith that hard work leads to economic gains. How many immigrants have left the U.S. labor force so far during Trump's second term? The latest on the Trump administration's strike against a vessel suspected of transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea. Final Thought: Check out our new Not Woke item at BillOReilly.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Wednesday, the U.S. military sank a small boat in the southern Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people. U.S. officials claimed the boat was transporting drugs to the United States from Venezuela and alleged the 11 people on board were narco-terrorist members of the international gang Tren de Aragua (TDA). The Trump administration has not produced evidence to support its assertion, but Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the administration “knew exactly who was in that boat.”Ad-free podcasts are here!To listen to this podcast ad-free, and to enjoy our subscriber only premium content, go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today's “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.Take the survey: What do you think about the recent strike? Let us know.Disagree? That's okay. My opinion is just one of many. Write in and let us know why, and we'll consider publishing your feedback.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on America in the MorningEpstein Debate Grows Victims of abuse suffered at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein stood in the Nation's Capital with lawmakers on Wednesday, urging Congress to pass legislation that would see the release of all the details of the government's investigation into the Epstein case.  John Stolnis has more from Washington.   Florida Vaccine Phase-Out It would be a first-in-the-nation rule.  Correspondent Haya Panjwani reports that Florida's governor and the State Surgeon General are planning a full phase-out of all childhood vaccine mandates in the Sunshine State.   Judge Rules On Harvard Funding A Federal judge has ruled on the Trump administration's more than $2 billion dollars-worth of funding cuts to Harvard University.   The details from correspondent Mike Hempen.    Demands To Remove RFK, Jr. Current and former Health and Humans Services staffers are calling for the agency's secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Junior, to resign.  Correspondent Clayton Neville reports.   Is New Orleans Next President Trump is looking at sending federal law enforcement and troops into another urban area, this time the largest city in a Republican-led state.  Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports.    Newsmax Lawsuit They face off on TV every day, both conservative, and both popular.  Now both Fox News and Newsmax will soon face each other in a court of law.   Correspondent Ed Donahue reports.      Latest On Caribbean Ship Attack More details are being learned about the attack authorized by the Trump administration on suspected Venezuelan drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday.  Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports. Vance Visits Minneapolis After several private meetings, Vice President J-D Vance says he and his wife were touched by the families of victims in last week's mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota that left two students dead and a number of others injured.  Correspondent Clayton Neville reports.    Latest On The NYC Mayor's Race There are reports that President Trump is working behind the scenes to have a hand in the selection of the next New York City mayor.  Sue Aller reports that Trump advisors have discussed a job in the administration for current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, if he were to end his reelection campaign.   Grand Juries Saying No In the Nation's Capital, prosecutors are struggling mightily to convince Washington, DC grand juries to indict people arrested in the Trump administration's crime crackdowns, including for those who have threatened National Guard troops, and even threatened President Trump.  Correspondent Ben Thomas reports.   Tariffs To The Supreme Court The Trump administration has officially asked the US Supreme Court to quickly decide whether he has the power to impose broad tariffs under a law designed for use during times of emergency.    Finally   A New England state may set the scene for a destination wedding for Taylor Swift.    Time to take out your dancing shoes, as the new contestants have been announced for Season 34 of Dancing with the Stars.  Kevin Carr reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan and Carl Cannon discuss this morning's Capitol Hill press conference featuring victims of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump's reaction, and the chances that the House will vote to release more of the Epstein files to the public. They also talk about the GOP's plan to rebrand “The Big Beautiful Bill” in order to help keep control of the House in 2026, and a Washington Post article outlining the Democrat's plan to retake the chamber. Next, Carl Cannon and RCP White House correspondent Phil Wegmann discuss the U.S. naval strike on a small craft in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump Administration claims was carrying drugs from Venezuela, as the U.S. ramps up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolos Maduro. And finally, Maggie Miller talks to RealClear Investigations writer James Varney about an enormous data center under construction in rural Louisiana that will house servers for Meta's rapid expansion into artificial intelligence. The $10 billion dollar project poses both challenges and opportunities for the local community and will require new sources of electricity.

This week, we're honored to welcome Oliver Treviso from Swansea, Wales, an adventurer whose extraordinary journey embodies the transformative power of getting lost to find yourself. Facing uncertainty and conflict between who he believed himself to be and who he wanted to become, Oliver made a bold decision that would change his life forever.Oliver takes us on his incredible 20-month trek along the entire length of the Andes Mountains—from Argentina to Venezuela's Caribbean Sea. Covering seven countries and 14,000 kilometers on foot, he describes stepping off the plane in Argentina and feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of what lay ahead.In this episode, we explore Oliver's transformation from a young man struggling with his identity to someone who found purpose through adventure. He shares harrowing stories from the trail and the unexpected kindness of strangers. Join us for a conversation about finding strength through solitude, the power of taking that first step, and discovering who you are when everything familiar is stripped away.

Are you ready to step into the world where £30K months are your baseline?In today's episode, I take you deeper into The Spiritual Millionaire Pathway™, and share how this journey isn't about more hustle, more clients, or more content — it's about aligning with luxury, certainty, and precision so that high-calibre clients say yes with ease.We explore:

Using an anvil to smash prey sounds like something Wile E. Coyote would try—unsuccessfully, of course. But some other creatures are a lot more successful at it: fish. More than two dozen species of fish have been seen using “anvils” to smash open their prey. All of them were types of wrasse, a colorful fish found around the world.Tool use has been observed in birds, mammals, and other animals on land. In marine environments, it's been seen in octopuses and crabs. And for several decades, the list has included wrasses.The fish grabs a potential dinner—a crab, urchin, or other morsel with a shell. It then swims to a rock, a coral, or some other hard surface—objects that scientists describe as “anvils.” The fish then smashes the prey against the anvil until the shell cracks open.A recent study added three species of wrasse to the list of anvil users, and confirmed the use by two other species. All five species were found in the western Atlantic Ocean, from the Caribbean Sea down to the southern coast of Brazil. The smashups were recorded by divers—either on video or in writing—then uploaded to a web site.On average, the fish had to smash the prey more than half a dozen times, in a bout lasting more than a minute. If one anvil didn't work, they'd move to another. Of the 16 prey-bashing episodes recorded, only one ended in failure. So perhaps the wrasse could teach Wile E. a thing or two about using an anvil to get the goods.

Using an anvil to smash prey sounds like something Wile E. Coyote would try—unsuccessfully, of course. But some other creatures are a lot more successful at it: fish. More than two dozen species of fish have been seen using “anvils” to smash open their prey. All of them were types of wrasse, a colorful fish found around the world. Tool use has been observed in birds, mammals, and other animals on land. In marine environments, it's been seen in octopuses and crabs. And for several decades, the list has included wrasses. The fish grabs a potential dinner—a crab, urchin, or other morsel with a shell. It then swims to a rock, a coral, or some other hard surface—objects that scientists describe as “anvils.” The fish then smashes the prey against the anvil until the shell cracks open. A recent study added three species of wrasse to the list of anvil users, and confirmed the use by two other species. All five species were found in the western Atlantic Ocean, from the Caribbean Sea down to the southern coast of Brazil. The smashups were recorded by divers—either on video or in writing—then uploaded to a web site.             On average, the fish had to smash the prey more than half a dozen times, in a bout lasting more than a minute. If one anvil didn't work, they'd move to another. Of the 16 prey-bashing episodes recorded, only one ended in failure. So perhaps the wrasse could teach Wile E. a thing or two about using an anvil to get the goods. The post Fish Tools appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin..

Luxury meets authenticity at Sirenian Bay Resort and Villas, Belize's only true all-inclusive paradise nestled along the pristine shores of Placencia. Join us as we peel back the layers of this extraordinary destination that has mastered the delicate balance between world-class amenities and genuine Belize-an character.Step inside our breathtaking Pelican Villa with its two-story layout featuring a private second-floor plunge pool overlooking the Caribbean Sea. We'll guide you through every corner of this meticulously designed accommodation, from the handcrafted wooden furniture to the Alexa-controlled amenities that seamlessly blend technology with tropical luxury. With nothing between our oceanfront villa and the turquoise waters but sand and swaying palms, it's the embodiment of barefoot luxury.Beyond our spectacular accommodations, we dive into the incredible culinary experiences orchestrated by head chef Marco. From customized beach dinners under the stars to private chef services, the resort's gastronomic offerings transcend typical all-inclusive fare. We'll share our favorite dishes and the unique dining settings that made our meals unforgettable.Adventure seekers will appreciate our exploration of Inky's – the entertainment complex with its fascinating origin story and range of activities including an 18-hole mini-golf course, pickle ball courts, and a state-of-the-art fitness center. Meanwhile, wellness enthusiasts will be intrigued by our firsthand account of unique spa treatments like coffee scrubs and banana leaf wraps that incorporate local ingredients and techniques.Whether you're planning your own Belize an getaway or simply craving a virtual escape, our intimate look at Sirenian Bay reveals why this boutique resort stands apart from typical Caribbean destinations. As the resort continues to expand with new villas and amenities, there's never been a better time to discover this hidden gem that exemplifies luxury with heart.Ready to experience the magic of Belize? Follow us @TheROAMies on Instagram and Facebook to see stunning photos from our adventure, or visit www.TheROAMies.com to learn more about planning your own unforgettable journey to SIrenian Bay.Thanks for your ongoing support!http://paypal.me/TheROAMiesAlexa and RoryThe ROAMiesPlease subscribe, rate and share our podcast! Follow us at:http://www.TheROAMies.comThe ROAMies: Facebook and Instagram YouTube and X.

Artist: AIWAA (Spain) Name: LIVE@THE MOON RISE PROJECT | TULUM, MEXICO | 2025 Genre: Organic House / Electronic Release Date: 27.07.2025 Exclusive: Deep House Moscow Enjoy AIWAA's new mix, recorded live at Delek Tulum during an unforgettable full moon night. On March 14th, The Moon Rise Project gathered souls under the stars to celebrate life, music, and our connection with nature. This set is a sonic journey that captures the essence of that ritual by the Caribbean Sea. Let yourself be carried by the beats, take a deep breath… and feel the magic of Tulum once again. AIWAA: www.facebook.com/AIWAAmusic Soundcloud: @aiwaamusic Instagram: www.instagram.com/aiwaamusic CONTACT (DHM): Email — deephousemoscow@hotmail.com Follow us: www.facebook.com/deephousemsk/ www.instagram.com/deephousemoscow/ vk.com/deephousemsk/

Fluent Fiction - Spanish: Healing Amidst Tulum's Ancient Echoes: A Father-Daughter Journey Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/es/episode/2025-07-23-22-34-02-es Story Transcript:Es: El viento cálido del verano soplaba suavemente a través de las ruinas antiguas de Tulum.En: The warm summer wind blew gently through the ancient ruins of Tulum.Es: El sol brillaba intensamente sobre las piedras grises, mientras las olas del mar Caribe rompían suavemente al pie del acantilado.En: The sun shone intensely over the gray stones, while the waves of the Caribbean Sea broke softly at the foot of the cliff.Es: Esteban y Lucía avanzaban lentamente por el sendero polvoriento, sus pasos enmudecidos por la arena blanca.En: Esteban and Lucía moved slowly along the dusty path, their steps muffled by the white sand.Es: Esteban, con el corazón aún dolido por la pérdida de su esposa, buscaba en las piedras ancestrales una conexión que pudiera sanar sus almas.En: Esteban, with a heart still aching from the loss of his wife, sought a connection in the ancestral stones that could heal their souls.Es: Lucía, aunque joven, llevaba una tristeza profunda en sus ojos, un eco del amor que había perdido.En: Lucía, though young, carried a deep sadness in her eyes, an echo of the love she had lost.Es: Sin embargo, en su corazón también ardía una chispa de curiosidad por el legado que su padre quería mostrarle.En: However, in her heart also burned a spark of curiosity for the legacy her father wanted to show her.Es: Mientras caminaban, Esteban señalaba los restos de los antiguos templos mayas.En: As they walked, Esteban pointed out the remnants of the ancient Mayan temples.Es: "Aquí, en este lugar," explicó, "nuestros antepasados vivieron sus vidas.En: "Here, in this place," he explained, "our ancestors lived their lives.Es: Construyeron estos santuarios para sus dioses, y dejaron historias en las piedras."En: They built these sanctuaries for their gods, and left stories in the stones."Es: Lucía miraba a su alrededor, tratando de imaginar cómo había sido todo hace siglos.En: Lucía looked around, trying to imagine what it had been like centuries ago.Es: El viento murmuraba entre las hojas, como si las almas de aquellos que una vez vivieron allí quisieran compartir sus secretos con ella.En: The wind whispered among the leaves, as if the souls of those who once lived there wanted to share their secrets with her.Es: Pero su mente también volvía, inevitablemente, a su madre.En: But her mind also inevitably returned to her mother.Es: Sentía su ausencia como un hueco en su mundo.En: She felt her absence as a void in her world.Es: Esteban, percibiendo el silencio de su hija, decidió contarle historias que muchas veces había compartido con su esposa, historias que ahora eran solo suyas para dar.En: Esteban, sensing his daughter's silence, decided to tell her stories he had often shared with his wife, stories that were now only his to give.Es: "Tu mamá y yo siempre quisimos traerte aquí," dijo con voz suave.En: "Your mom and I always wanted to bring you here," he said softly.Es: "Queríamos que supieras de dónde vienes.En: "We wanted you to know where you come from.Es: Que sintieras la fuerza de nuestra historia."En: To feel the strength of our history."Es: De repente, el cielo comenzó a nublarse y un trueno distante anunció la llegada de una tormenta.En: Suddenly, the sky began to cloud over and distant thunder announced the arrival of a storm.Es: Buscando refugio, padre e hija se apresuraron a una pequeña cueva que se abría al costado de una de las estructuras.En: Seeking shelter, father and daughter hurried to a small cave that opened beside one of the structures.Es: A salvo del aguacero, el sonido constante de la lluvia creó un espacio de intimidad.En: Safe from the downpour, the constant sound of the rain created a space of intimacy.Es: Esteban tomó un respiro profundo y, por primera vez desde que se fueron de casa, habló de su madre en un tono personal.En: Esteban took a deep breath and, for the first time since they left home, spoke of her mother in a personal tone.Es: "Ella siempre encontraba belleza en las cosas pequeñas,” dijo, sus palabras llenas de amor.En: "She always found beauty in the small things," he said, his words full of love.Es: "Te amaba más que a nada en este mundo."En: "She loved you more than anything in this world."Es: Escuchar sobre su madre así, su vida y su amor, hizo que Lucía sintiera un calor reconfortante en su pecho.En: Hearing about her mother this way, about her life and love, made Lucía feel a comforting warmth in her chest.Es: Ella miró a su padre, con lágrimas en sus ojos, pero también con una nueva comprensión.En: She looked at her father, with tears in her eyes, but also with a new understanding.Es: Al perder a su madre, también estaba ganando una conexión más fuerte con su padre y una historia que era de ellos dos.En: She realized that losing her mother also meant gaining a stronger connection with her father and a story that belonged to just the two of them.Es: Cuando la tormenta pasó, el sol volvió a brillar sobre las ruinas.En: When the storm passed, the sun shone again over the ruins.Es: Esteban y Lucía salieron del refugio, sintiendo que habían dejado atrás un peso.En: Esteban and Lucía emerged from the shelter, feeling as though they had left a weight behind.Es: Mientras miraban el esplendor del mar, con el legado de su madre y sus antepasados como una guía, supieron que no estaban solos.En: As they admired the splendor of the sea, with the legacy of her mother and ancestors as a guide, they knew they were not alone.Es: Juntos, caminaron de regreso por el sendero, con el sentimiento de que, aunque el camino adelante podía ser incierto, el amor y la historia que compartían les darían fuerza.En: Together, they walked back along the path, with the feeling that, although the road ahead might be uncertain, the love and history they shared would give them strength.Es: Y así, comenzaron su viaje hacia adelante, llevando consigo los recuerdos y las historias que nunca olvidarían, abrazados por el espíritu eterno de Tulum.En: And so, they began their journey forward, carrying with them the memories and stories they would never forget, embraced by the eternal spirit of Tulum. Vocabulary Words:the wind: el vientoruins: las ruinasthe cliff: el acantiladothe path: el senderomuffled: enmudecidosthe loss: la pérdidato heal: sanarthe soul: el almasadness: tristezathe curiosity: la curiosidadthe legacy: el legadothe remnants: los restosthe temple: el templothe sanctuary: el santuariothe ancestors: los antepasadosto whisper: murmurarabsence: ausenciathe void: el huecothe thunder: el truenothe storm: la tormentashelter: refugiothe downpour: el aguacerointimacy: la intimidadbeauty: la bellezato comfort: reconfortarthe chest: el pechoto gain: ganarsplendor: esplendoruncertain: inciertojourney: viaje

Continuing Livebearer Month, the Water Colors team is back to discuss wild-type live bearing fishes! This includes the family poeciliidae, and the tricky taxonomy that comes with it. Some species within poeciliidae are common staples in the aquarium hobby, while many of them are virtually unknown to hobbyists. Aquarists that specialize in livebearing fish have more than a few rare species to dream about! Which species have you kept? Join the discussion on the Water Colors Aquarium Gallery Podcast Listeners Facebook group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/788428861825086/ Enjoying the show? Support the gallery by shopping aquarium plants, merch, equipment, and more! https://watercolorsaquariumgallery.com/ Looking for more content? Become a YouTube member for exclusive access to behind the scenes livestreams! https://www.youtube.com/@watercolorsaquariumgallery Species mentioned in this episode, including episode notes from Calder: – Subfamily Poeciliinae Tribe Alfarini – Genus Alfaro: Small clade of central American livebearers that live in rainforests. Tribe Gambusini – Genus Belonesox: This is a highly specialized predator, with an extremely flexible upper jaw that enables it to take very large prey items for its size. – Genus Brachyrhaphis: Most are restricted to Panama and Costa Rica, but B. holdridgei also occurs in Nicaragua and B. hartwegi is from Mexico and Guatemala. A phylogenetic analysis published in 2015 suggested that Brachyrhaphis may not be of a monophyletic group. – Genus Gambusia: Gambusia contains over 40 species, most of which are principally found in freshwater habitats, though some species may also be found in brackish or saltwater habitats. The genus Gambusia comes from the Cuban term, “Gambusino”, which means “free-lance miner”[3] The type species is the Cuban gambusia, G. punctata. The greatest species richness is in Mexico, Texas, and the Greater Antilles, but species are also found elsewhere in the eastern and southern United States, the Bahamas, Central America, and Colombia. – Genus Heterophallus; A genus of small poeciliids found near the coast in calm waters of river basins in southeastern Mexico. Tribe Girardini – Carlhubbsia – Girardinus Tribe Heterandriini – Genus Heterandria: Most species occur in Guatemala and its surroundings, particularly Mexico, but the midget livebearer (H. formosa) comes from the southeastern United States. – Genus Neoheterandria: – Genus Poeciliopsis is a genus of poeciliid fishes that primarily are native to Mexico and Central America. The only exceptions are P. turrubarensis where the range extends into Colombia, and P. occidentalis where the range extends into Arizona and New Mexico. – Genus Priapichthys: native to Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia – Genus Xenophallus: Xenophallus umbratilis is a species of poeciliid fish native to the countries of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. This species grows to a length of 4.5 centimetres Tribe Poeciliini – Genus Limia: It comprises 22 described species found in fresh, brackish, saltwater, and hypersaline habitats of the Greater Antilles islands in the Caribbean Sea. A vast majority are endemic to Hispaniola. There has been a long-running debate on whether Limia should be considered a subgenus of Poecilia rather than a full genus. Most Limia species are detritivores and herbivores. – Genus Micropoecilia: Micropoecilia is a genus of poeciliids native to fresh and brackish water from the Amazon Basin to Trinidad. – Genus Phallichthys: Phallichthys is a genus of poeciliids native to Central America. They are hardy fish which inhabit stagnant and slow-flowing waters, making them well-suited to fishkeeping. – Genus Poecilia – Genus Xiphophorus Tribe Cnesterodontini – Genus Cnesterodon: south American poecilids – Genus Phalloceros: is a genus of poeciliids native to freshwater habitats in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina. The majority are endemic to southern and southeastern Brazil (only exceptions are P. caudimaculatus, P. harpagos and P. leticiae).[2] P. caudimaculatus has long been part of the aquarium industry and has been introduced to countries far from its native range.

How do you combine your passion for triathlon with a love for travel? On this episode, we're discovering the perfect balance between training, adventure, and cultural exploration. Join me, as I share my travel stories—from skiing in the Pyrenees mountains of Spain for cross-training to swimming in the stunning Caribbean Sea and planning my next trip to the breathtaking Galapagos Islands. We're also sitting down with Monica Gould, a seasoned traveler and marathoner who recently completed the iconic Tokyo Marathon. Monica shares her experiences running through the vibrant streets of Tokyo and extending her adventure to explore the serene temples of Japan and the vibrant life of Thailand. Get inspired as she tells us how traveling for her passion has added new depth to her running and personal life. This episode is about going beyond your comfort zone, making the most of your travels as an athlete, and discovering the incredible rewards of adapting your training to new environments. Whether running ancient paths, swimming in tropical waters, or cycling through mountain ranges, every trip brings an opportunity to grow, both on and off the course. What's Inside: Tips for blending travel with triathlon training Stories of skiing, swimming, and running across the globe Monica Gould's inspiring Tokyo Marathon and cultural adventures A sneak peek into upcoming adventures like the Galapagos Islands Join the Journey: Travel doesn't mean putting off your athletic goals; it's a chance to thrive, explore, and create unforgettable memories. Tune in to hear how you can transform your travels into a fulfilling part of your fitness lifestyle. Call-to-Action: Subscribe now to Hilary Topper on Air on Apple Podcasts (or your favorite platform), and don't forget to leave a review! We'd love to hear your travel and training stories—tag us on social media or drop us a message. Who knows? You might even be featured in an upcoming episode! Follow Us: Stay connected for more travel tips, athlete stories, and behind-the-scenes updates. Happy training and safe travels!

Lecture 6 Part 2LECTURE OUTLINE: Reimagining the Caribbean — History, Identity & Invention1. Defining Key Terms & Unsettling MythsWhat is the Caribbean?What it is not:Not simply “a group of islands surrounded by the Caribbean Sea.”That colonial compass would erase Belize, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.The Caribbean is not just geography — it's history, identity, and ideology.A Construct, An Invention:Ian Meeks and Norman Girvan argue the Caribbean is an invention, molded by the European gaze since 1492.The so-called “discovery” was really colonial construction — cultural erasure dressed as exploration.The Socio-Political Caribbean:Social scientists ask: In whose interest is society designed?Whose narrative dominates?Often, the Caribbean's story has been told through the lens of its colonizers — not its people.Economic Caribbean – A Dependent Capitalist Model:According to Neoliberalism (2021) and the "Washington Consensus", Caribbean economies were shaped to serve external interests.Ramesh Ramsaran: Structural Adjustment transferred power from local to global hands — a feature of life in the Global South.These are the legacies of debt, austerity, and manufactured dependency.Global South vs Global North:New language, same old hierarchies.The “Global South” replaces “Third World” — a more palatable term, but still denotes marginalization.2. A People in Paradox: Race, Identity & AgencyThe Problem of the Caribbean is the Problem of the Black and Brown PositionWherever Black or Brown bodies are found — so too is systemic exclusion.Not due to essence, but to constructed inferiority.Colonization as Psychological Violence:Fanon: Colonization turns man against himself.Du Bois: The Black soul peers through a veil, always asking: “Am I enough?”Morrison: We are told to strive toward whiteness — only to find we can never truly arrive.Depersonalization & Loss of Agency:Colonialism stripped humanity. The enslaved weren't just shackled in body — but in being.This leads to malady: acting against our own interests.Afrocentricity vs Eurocentricity:Afrocentricity: a way of seeing.Eurocentricity: the only way of seeing.The former offers liberation. The latter demands assimilation.Diaspora Realities:Caribbean immigrants are often seen as threats cloaked in exoticism — "two sharp teeth," as you wrote.Their potential is feared, their labor exploited.Kenneth Clark's “Dark Ghettoes”:Ghettoes aren't just places — they are conditions.Whether in Philly or Kingston, Harlem or Port of Spain, these spaces reflect economic colonization.Externally: Poor housing, crime, disease.Internally: Apathy, self-loathing, compensatory bravado.3. Postcolonialism – Not the End, But the EchoPostcolonial ≠ Post-ColonizationFanon in Black Skin, White Masks: Black and White locked in a tragic performance — each role scripted by Empire.In Wretched of the Earth: Freedom is radical; it requires rupture, not reform.The Paradox of Independence:Haiti and Cuba led revolutions — and were punished for their audacity.Independence does not equal inclusion.4. Center vs Periphery — Who Gets to Speak?Homi Bhabha's Lens:The center is the mainstream — the dominant culture, the "norm."The periphery is where African spirituality, literature, and lifeways have been cast.In the Caribbean, this leads to self-scorn: bleaching skin, abandoning roots, ridiculing Revivalists or Rastafari.5. Supplementary Content for Today's SessionReading & Discussion: CLR James – The Black JacobinsCLR James (a Trini) told the story of Haitian revolutionaries, but through a European framework.His education gave him tools, but not always the right lens.We question: Was this truly “history from below?”By Rev. Renaldo McKenzie, Professor of Caribbean Thought at Jamaica Theological Seminary, Author of NeoliberalismSubscribe https://anchor.fm/theneoliberalVisit us: https://theneoliberal.com https://renaldocmckenzie.com

What is the Caribbean?What it is not:Not simply “a group of islands surrounded by the Caribbean Sea.”That colonial compass would erase Belize, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.The Caribbean is not just geography — it's history, identity, and ideology.A Construct, An Invention:Ian Meeks and Norman Girvan argue the Caribbean is an invention, molded by the European gaze since 1492.The so-called “discovery” was really colonial construction — cultural erasure dressed as exploration.The Socio-Political Caribbean:Social scientists ask: In whose interest is society designed?Whose narrative dominates?Often, the Caribbean's story has been told through the lens of its colonizers — not its people.Economic Caribbean – A Dependent Capitalist Model:According to Neoliberalism (2021) and the "Washington Consensus", Caribbean economies were shaped to serve external interests.Ramesh Ramsaran: Structural Adjustment transferred power from local to global hands — a feature of life in the Global South.These are the legacies of debt, austerity, and manufactured dependency.Global South vs Global North:New language, same old hierarchies.The “Global South” replaces “Third World” — a more palatable term, but still denotes marginalization.The Problem of the Caribbean is the Problem of the Black and Brown PositionWherever Black or Brown bodies are found — so too is systemic exclusion.Not due to essence, but to constructed inferiority.Colonization as Psychological Violence:Fanon: Colonization turns man against himself.Du Bois: The Black soul peers through a veil, always asking: “Am I enough?”Morrison: We are told to strive toward whiteness — only to find we can never truly arrive.Depersonalization & Loss of Agency:Colonialism stripped humanity. The enslaved weren't just shackled in body — but in being.This leads to malady: acting against our own interests.Afrocentricity vs Eurocentricity:Afrocentricity: a way of seeing.Eurocentricity: the only way of seeing.The former offers liberation. The latter demands assimilation.Diaspora Realities:Caribbean immigrants are often seen as threats cloaked in exoticism — "two sharp teeth," as you wrote.Their potential is feared, their labor exploited.Kenneth Clark's “Dark Ghettoes”:Ghettoes aren't just places — they are conditions.Whether in Philly or Kingston, Harlem or Port of Spain, these spaces reflect economic colonization.Externally: Poor housing, crime, disease.Internally: Apathy, self-loathing, compensatory bravado.Postcolonial ≠ Post-ColonizationFanon in Black Skin, White Masks: Black and White locked in a tragic performance — each role scripted by Empire.In Wretched of the Earth: Freedom is radical; it requires rupture, not reform.The Paradox of Independence:Haiti and Cuba led revolutions — and were punished for their audacity.Independence does not equal inclusion.Homi Bhabha's Lens:The center is the mainstream — the dominant culture, the "norm."The periphery is where African spirituality, literature, and lifeways have been cast.In the Caribbean, this leads to self-scorn: bleaching skin, abandoning roots, ridiculing Revivalists or Rastafari.Advocating a position of pre-colonial victory and agency.Reframes the narrative of discovery with African presence before 1492.CLR James (a Trini) told the story of Haitian revolutionaries, but through a European framework.His education gave him tools, but not always the right lens.We question: Was this truly “history from below?”We must not be content with being “included” in someone else's story.We must write our own — in our tongues, through our eyes, from our depths.As Toni Morrison said: “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.”Let us reclaim that power. End or Part 1.Rev. Renaldo McKenzie is Professor of Caribbean Thought and Author of Neoliberalism. Visit us at The Neoliberal Corporationhttps://theneoliberal.com

When tropical storm systems barrel across the Atlantic Ocean toward North America, they often take aim at the Lesser Antilles—an arc of small islands that marks the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea. In fact, the islands often are the first thing forecasters talk about when a tropical system heads our way.The Lesser Antilles arc from the U.S. Virgin Islands, near Puerto Rico, all the way down to South America. They comprise three separate groups: the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, and the Leeward Antilles. The Windwards extend farthest into the Atlantic. They were the first stop for European sailing ships, which followed the prevailing winds to the Americas.Most of the islands are volcanic. They formed as two of the plates that make up Earth's crust plunged below the Caribbean Plate. As the rock descended, it melted. Some of the molten rock then forced its way upward, building the islands.Earthquakes rock some of the islands. And some of the volcanoes that built the islands are still active. A massive eruption that began in 1995, for example, destroyed the capital of the island of Montserrat, and forced most of the population to leave the island.Despite the volcanoes and hurricanes, many of the individual islands are popular tourist sites. Places like the Virgin Islands, Aruba, and Martinique offer tropical beaches, coral reefs, rugged mountains, and other natural attractions—at the edge of the Caribbean Sea.

What does sofrito—a base of herbs and spices used in Puerto Rican cooking—have to do with reimagining business, food security, and conveying a history lesson about a rich and sometimes complex culture? For today's guest, it's everything. If you've ever wondered how to weave your culture, creativity, and calling into one powerful movement... then this episode is the recipe you've been looking for. In this episode, you will hear:   Food has a cultural foundation passed through generations. Cultural identity can be preserved and taught through everyday meals. How to make the best sofrito if you don't have time to cook. Food is more than just food – it's heritage, intention, and a story. The story of the Puerto Rican pasteles is shared. Food choices are power moves, shaping local or global economies. Imagination makes it possible to wear multiple hats and still stay rooted in purpose. You don't need permission to do things differently, just the will and a plan. This episode is brought to you by Fertile Imagination: A Guide for Stretching Every Mom's Superpower for Maximum Impact by Melissa Llarena Audible   Audio Edition: https://www.amazon.com/Fertile-Imagination-Stretching-Superpower-Maximum/dp/B0CY9BZH9W/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0   Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Fertile-Imagination-Stretching-Superpower-Maximum/dp/B0CK2ZSMLB   Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Fertile-Imagination-Stretching-Superpower-Maximum/dp/B0D5B64347/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0   Or, download a free chapter at fertileideas.com       About Crystal Diaz   Crystal Díaz has spent nearly two decades at the intersection of food, marketing, and cultural advocacy. She co-founded PRoduce, Puerto Rico's digital marketplace for locally grown food. Crystal is also the force behind El Pretexto, the island's first culinary farm lodge, where food and imagination meet 2,600 feet above sea level. A committed advocate for food security, she collaborates with Espacios Abiertos to advance agricultural policy. Crystal holds two master's degrees, including one in Food Studies from NYU. She's been recognized by Fast Company and El Nuevo Día for her creative leadership and impact in the local food movement. Quotes that can change your perspective:  “If you really want to learn about something and you're obsessed about it, there's always ways to learn, to make it happen.” – Crystal Díaz   “With every single meal that we do, with every single snack, everything that we eat, you are impacting economies. And if you want to support your local communities and you want to see them, everybody having a better life, you might want to spend that dollar closer home and making sure that all of the ingredients that are on that food are closer to home so that money stays closer to home.” – Crystal Díaz   “Sofrito is very personal. You know? It's part of how your family has done it… but also learn that there is a lot of history into it. It's not something that we do because we do it. There is a lot of history to it.” – Crystal Díaz   “We are on a little island. We don't have that much territorial extension, so we can't think about our agriculture as other countries that have large extensions of terrains and flats and stuff like that. We need to think about it differently.” – Crystal Díaz   “Puerto Rican food is full of history, is complex enough, is flavorful enough, and varied… so I can pull something like this [a culinary farm lodge] up in Puerto Rico.” – Crystal Díaz SHARE this episode with fellow food lovers, cultural storytellers, and moms on a mission to raise rooted kids. Crystal's insights on local food, identity, and imagination will inspire anyone looking to nourish their family and community from the inside out. Let's keep our culture alive—one pastel, one sofrito, and one big idea at a time. Supporting Resources:   Website: https://www.elpretextopr.com  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elpretextopr  Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/@elpretextopr/ Subscribe and Review   Have you subscribed to my podcast for new moms who are entrepreneurs, founders, and creators?  I'd love for you to subscribe if you haven't yet.    I'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast for writer moms. About Fertile Imagination   You can be a great mom without giving up, shrinking, or hiding your dreams. There's flexibility in how you pursue anything – your role, your lifestyle, and your personal and professional goals. The limitations on your dreams are waiting to be shattered. It's time to see and seize what's beyond your gaze. Let's bridge your childhood daydreams with your grown-up realities. Imagine skipping with your kids along any path – you, surpassing your milestones while your kids are reaching theirs. There's only one superpower versatile enough to stretch your thinking beyond what's been done before: a Fertile Imagination. It's like kryptonite for impostor syndrome and feeling stuck when it's alert!    In Fertile Imagination, you will awaken your sleeping source of creative solutions. If you can wake up a toddler or a groggy middle schooler, then together with the stories in this book – featuring 25 guests from my podcast Unimaginable Wellness, proven tools, and personal anecdotes – we will wake up your former playmate: your imagination!  Advance Praise    “You'll find reality-based strategies for imagining your own imperfect, fulfilling life in this book!” —MARTHA HENNESSEY, former NH State Senator    “Melissa invites the reader into a personal and deep journey about topics that are crucially important to uncover what would make a mom (and dad too) truly happy to work on…even after the kids are in bed.” —KEN HONDA, best-selling author of Happy Money    “This book is a great purchase for moms in every stage of life. Melissa is like a great friend, honest and wise and funny, telling you about her life and asking you to reflect on yours.” —MAUREEN TURNER CAREY, librarian in Austin, TX   TRANSCRIPT   00:00:00 Crystal: Come up with ideas to make it easier for food producers to produce more food because we are in a little island. We don't have that much territorial extension. So we can't think about our agriculture as other countries that have large extensions of terrains and flats and stuff like that. We need to think it differently.  00:00:25 Melissa: Welcome to the Mom Founder Imagination Hub, your weekly podcast to inspire you to dream bigger. Plan out how you're gonna get to that next level in business, find the energy to keep going, and make sure your creative juices are flowing so that this way you get what you really want rather than having to settle. Get ready to discover founders have reimagined entrepreneurship and motherhood.  00:00:47 Melissa: Ever wonder how they do it? Tune in to find out, and stretch yourself by also learning from diverse entrepreneurs who might not be moms, but who have lessons you can tailor about how you can disrupt industries and step way outside of your comfort zone. I believe every mom's superpower is her imagination. In this podcast, I'm gonna give you the mindset, methods, and tools to unleash yours. Sounds good? Then keep listening.  00:01:17 Melissa: So what does sofrito, which is essentially a base of herbs and spices used in Puerto Rican cooking, have to do with reimagining business, food security, and passing along really critical history lessons. Well, for today's guest, it is everything. And if you've ever wondered how to weave your culture, creativity, and calling into one powerful movement, then this episode is the recipe you've been looking for.  00:01:49 Melissa: Welcome to the Mom Founder Imagination Hub. This is your weekly podcast designed to inspire you to dream bigger in your business and your life. Also, to help you find the energy to keep going because how are you going to sustain what's necessary to be big and to keep your imagination flowing so that this way you could feel inspired, lit up like a Christmas tree or Hanukkah candles. I'm your host Melissa Llarena. 00:02:17 Melissa: I'm a mom of three high energy boys. No. They did not get their energy from me. Psyched. They did. I'm also a best selling author of Fertile Imagination and an imagination coach for mom founders who are reimagining what success and motherhood can look like on their own terms, and that's really important.  00:02:34 Melissa: Now, if you've ever stirred a pot of sofrito, you already know this. Right? You know that the blend of flavors tells a deeper story. It tells a story that sometimes has made its way across generations. It preserves a culture, and it does nourish more than just our baby's bellies.  00:02:56 Melissa: So today's guest, I am thrilled to invite Crystal Diaz. Now she's taken the same approach in terms of her business ventures. She's a foodpreneur, culture keeper, I love that, and community builder. She wears four hats and in today's episode we're gonna go through each of those hats. One of which is as the owner of El Pretexto, i.e. The Excuse, a culinary farm lodge in the countryside of Puerto Rico where she serves 100% locally sourced meals and lives her mission every day.  00:03:33 Melissa: She has lots of degrees and an MA in food studies from NYU, which is why if you're watching the video, you could see, I hope, my NYU t-shirt. Hit subscribe if you see it and you love it. Subscribe on YouTube. Hit follow on this podcast. 00:03:53 Melissa: A little bit more about Crystal. She was recognized by Fast Company as one of the most creative people in business in 2022 and was named one of El Nuevo Diaz women of the year in 2023. She's the real deal. In this episode, we're gonna explore how Crystal uses her imagination as her main ingredient, whether it's in terms of the way that she's carving away for Puerto Rico to have its own food centric cultural immersive experience or even by how she decided to commute to NYU from San Juan every single week, which was creative in and of itself, or even in terms of the way that she describes the depth of a very famous Puerto Rican dish.  00:04:43 Melissa: Oh, and side note, I actually have her real life best on the planet, sofrito recipe. My gosh, do not run away, For sure. Check out the sofrito recipe we articulated in this conversation. You're gonna walk away with yummy ideas for how to use your own imagination to nourish your business, your family, and community, and it's gonna be so important even if you're not working in food.  00:05:13 Melissa: So before we dig in, I would appreciate if you hit follow, if you're listening to this on iTunes. Why hit follow? Because every time someone hits follow on iTunes, it tells me that I need to bring more guests with stories like this to the podcast. And I get really excited and when a mom is excited, it is a very good day in her entire home. So go ahead, hit follow. You will absolutely get that dopamine hit that everybody needs or if you're watching this on YouTube, then hit subscribe. I would be so appreciative and again, I will do the dance of joy. Okay. So enjoy the conversation.  00:05:54 Melissa: Crystal Diaz, thank you so much for this conversation on the Mom Founder Imagination hub. We are delighted to have you here. Crystal, just to kind of set off the scenery, why don't you explain to us where you are in Puerto Rico? What's outside your windows? 00:06:10 Crystal: All right. Well, let's… our imagination hub in a car. We are in San Juan, and you drove forty five minutes south, up to the mountains. Now we are in Cayey. I am at El Pretexto, which is also my home, and we are overlooking… we're up in the mountains, 2,600 feet over sea level, overlooking the Caribbean Sea at the south, and all the mountains slowly winding down all the way to the coast. 00:06:43 Crystal: And you will have some crazy chickens surrounding you. In my patio while you are probably sipping a wine or a coffee, depending on the time of the day. Enjoying the view and, surrounded by trees, lush greenery all over the place. And there are gardens on your side, also as well. So you are surrounded definitely by nature and you feel at peace. That's where we are.  00:07:15 Melissa: Oh, okay. Cool. So let's bring that sense of peace to this conversation. I am excited because I'm sure any listener right now who is a mom, has a business, might feel a little frazzled now and again. But right now, for the next thirty minutes, this is a peaceful zone. We are in Puerto Rico right now. 00:07:37 Melissa: Okay. So, Crystal, now I'm gonna ask you an obvious question, as you just described what you are surrounded by in Puerto Rico. But you attended NYU, and I'm just kind of super curious. You could have stayed in New York, let's say. Right? You could have been like this chef at a restaurant in New York City, Michelin star, etcetera, etcetera. But you decided to return home. And so I'm just curious, like, what informed that decision?  00:08:13 Crystal: Well, you will be surprised with my answer because I never left home. I commuted every single week to New York. Coming on to the city, take my classes, back to my home. So for two years, I was traveling every week to New York for one day.  00:08:34 Melissa: Oh my gosh. Yeah. That is so surprising. Okay. So now I'm just curious here. Okay. So you were on a plane. So, usually people complain about their commute. Right? 00:08:48 Crystal: Uh-huh.  00:08:49 Melissa: They have this whole return to work aggravation. Here you are getting on a plane every single week to take courses at NYU. So then let me ask you this other question. So I know that it's a little off track, but now I'm just way curious. Why did it have to be NYU? That's quite the pull.  00:09:13 Crystal: Yeah. Well, my background is in marketing, and I have a BA in Marketing with a Minor in Advertising and Public Relations. Then I worked with a newspaper for fourteen years. So my background is all about business and marketing. Then I did a first master degree here in Puerto Rico, in the University of Puerto Rico, about cultural action and management. And then, I wanted – because at this point, I believe that I am not passionate anymore. I am kind of obsessed with food, and I guess we will get into that later. 00:09:58 Crystal: But, I wanted to learn the policy part of it. And in Puerto Rico, we don't have any program in any of the universities nor public or private, specifically about food, and way less food policies and advocacy and that type of perspective on the food system, which is what I wanted to learn. So that's why I ended up in New York. I decided to do this because it's a direct flight. So it's gonna be a three hours and a half flight going in, then the one hour in the A train until Westport. 00:10:49 Crystal: Even though I know it's intense, it was pretty straightforward. You don't have make a stop then take another plane. And I was studying and reading all my plane hours, so there's no excuse to not complete your assignments, I guess.  00:11:07 Melissa: Yeah. I love that. Okay. So, hey, that is 100% using your imagination because I think a lot of us, myself included, I wouldn't have considered that to be an option in my mind. I still don't. Right? It's gotta be a certain set of circumstances that make that a possibility. But, I love that now that's an idea that we just planted in someone's head. Right? If they really are obsessed. Right?  00:11:35 Crystal: And if you really want to learn about something and you're obsessed about it, there's always ways to learn, to make it happen. And to my point, New York is so expensive that I spend way less money in flight tickets than actually living there.  00:11:56 Melissa: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Okay. So this is really interesting. Okay. So you could have stayed in New York, but you didn't even choose to stay in New York when you were taking classes at NYU. So now you have the whole, like… that's just so that's fascinating, Crystal. You really gobsmacked me right now with that piece of information.  00:12:18 Melissa: So along the same lines of using your imagination and thinking totally out of the box, let me ask you this one question. So, El Pretexto, of course, we'll go into what it is and all of that. But I also wanna understand because on your website, you say that you've traveled the world. Right? So you've seen all these different culinary experiences. And using your imagination and imagining where or how would you imagine Puerto Rico's cuisine fitting into the landscape of world gastro– I can't say the rest of that word, but I know it's a real word.  00:12:57 Crystal: Yes. Well, for me, I love to travel. I am a girl of no luxuries. Right? I don't care about purses or new shoes or jewelry. It's like I don't judge, but I don't care. So where I spend my money and my time, which I can't… money, you can recover it somehow, but time is just one time. You just have every minute that you have.  00:13:27 Crystal: And I like to spend those traveling and getting to know other cultures and exposing myself to other cultures. And I think that those travels have pushed me to understand and appreciate what we have back here at home and also understand the opportunities that we have back here at home. Not everybody is doing it perfectly, but you can definitely learn how it is done in other places. And I'm talking generally. Right? Depending on what you are interested.  00:14:01 Crystal: But you always learn of how the world do things in other places. So, I in my case, I love food and I try to expose myself, not only to eating in good restaurants or good food, but I love to go to markets. I even go to supermarkets every time I travel. I like to visit farms and I noticed, especially in Mexico, you can see this – Peru is developing this a lot and Italy has it all set. 00:14:40 Melissa: On lockdown.  00:14:41 Crystal: But you have these culinary experiences where you get to… expose to their cuisine, with a local chef and and you go to their farmers' markets and you get the whole country but with a special focus in food. And I was like, “You know what? Puerto Rican food is full of history, is complex enough, is flavorful enough, and varied so I can pull something like this up in Puerto Rico.” So that's how one of our offerings about the curated food experiences came to be because I was sure that somebody will have the curiosity to get to know Puerto Rico from its food.  00:15:33 Crystal: So that's how I got into there. And I think that because I am obsessed with the fact that Puerto Rico imports 90% of everything that we eat, I am then focused on cherish and enhance and share that 10% what it can be if we actually put a lot of effort into grow that 10% into 20%, let's say.  00:16:08 Melissa: That's interesting. So okay. So, I mean, I'm not cynical, but, in my opinion, I kind of believe that the person that controls food source kinda controls a lot. And that's not fantastic. And so I'm just wondering from a policy perspective and as you think about this share of stomach or however it's really considered, are you also part of that conversation too? Like, are you actively advocating for that too?  00:16:45 Crystal: Yes. Yes. I always say I have a couple of hats for all those also thinking that you only have to do one thing and one thing only. If you want to do one thing and one thing only, that's okay. But in my case, I am focused on food, but I try to deal with it from different perspectives. So I have four hats.  00:17:09 Crystal: And one of my hats, specifically works with food policy advocacy. And we try to understand the local food policies that are in place, understanding what programs work, what programs doesn't work, and then trying to make it as… to come up with ideas to make it easier for food producers to produce more food. 00:17:41 Crystal: Because we are in a little island. We don't have that much territorial extension, so we can't think about our agriculture as other countries that have large extensions of terrains and flats and stuff like that. We need to think it differently. And I am not against importation. We all have globalized diets, and we love olive oil, and we can't produce that in Puerto Rico. And we love wine, and we can't produce that in Puerto Rico.  00:18:16 Crystal: So it's not like, all the way 100%. That's not what I mean. But definitely, we should aim to have, let's say, half of our stomach-share full of food that is produced locally. Not only because of its nutritional value, but also because it means economic growth and development for our island and our local communities. So every dollar that you spend on food… somebody might be hearing us while they are eating something.  00:18:55 Crystal: So you imagine whatever you're eating right now, let's say it cost you $1. It depends on where the ingredients came from, that dollar went to that place. It depends on where it was processed, part of that dollar went to that place. And then if you bought it in the supermarket or if you bought it in Amazon, to who you gave that share of that dollar.  00:22 Crystal: So with every single meal that we do, with every single snack, everything that we eat, you are impacting economies. And if you want to support your local communities and you want to see them, everybody having a better life, you might want to spend that dollar closer home and making sure that all of the ingredients that are on that food are closer to home so that money stays closer to home. And that's how I see it. 00:19:58 Crystal: How do we make that that share of that dollar that we as consumers have the power to choose where it goes. And, by the way, there are some parts that we have the power and some part we don't have the power. I understand that. But how do we make an effort in whatever way we can to stay as close as possible to our home.  00:20:24 Melissa: So I think you said that… was that one out of your four hats? 00:20:28 Crystal: Yes.  00:20:29 Melissa: What are the other three?  00:20:30 Crystal: Well, El Pretexto, which is a bed and breakfast, is our Puerto Rico's first and only culinary farm lodge. This is my home, but I also welcome guests here. So El Pretexto is my second one. I'm the co-founder of PRoduct, which is a digital marketplace that connects local food producers with consumers directly. We're trying to shorten that food chain and make it easier and convenient to get local products on your home. We deliver island wide. So that's my third hat. And then I have a super small, digital, marketing agency with another partner, and it's all focused on food and beverage. So everything is about food but from different perspectives.  00:21:25 Melissa: Yeah. That's so interesting because it's almost like you have a little supply chain kind of going on. Right? It's like we've got a lot going on, but it's all related to eating, which is essential. But I think it's smart. I mean, you have your little niche there. Huge niche. We keep being hungry, so you're in a good spot, I would say.  00:21:49 Melissa: So let me understand this idea about food and how you saw it as an opportunity for Puerto Rico because it has a rich history. Right? So me as a mom, for example, I'm second generation from a Puerto Rican perspective. As a mom, for me, passing down culture is urgent. It's almost on the verge of extinction, I feel, because of where I am generationally. Like, I'm, quote, unquote, “amongst people that I know I'm not,” quote, unquote, “supposed to know Spanish.” I'm not, quote, unquote, “supposed to literally make rice and beans every day,” which by the way, I don't have to. But my goodness, my children really like their rice and beans. And I am so lazy. So that is all I make because I just want one pot.  00:22:40 Melissa: But anyway, so culture, food, that's the one way that I pass it along. Right? You are what you eat. So guess what? My kids are Puerto Rican and Cuban, at this stage. Yes. They have Dominican in them, but, hey, that's just my culinary preference. So tell me about this idea of culture, Puerto Rican culture. And I would be super curious if you could maybe choose an example of a cuisine or food and just kind of walk us through how that kind of expresses culture or maybe there's a story behind it that is unique to Puerto Rico.  00:23:20 Crystal: Well, for me and my mentor used to be doctor Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra, which was the only food historian in Puerto Rico. He passed two years ago, but I learned so much from him and pretty much I was his daughter. He inherit me all his library, which I have here, home. And, so we discussed this a lot. And I think that we both shared that the ultimate dish that represents the Puerto Rican culture will be the pasteles. For those that doesn't know what a pastel is, it's a tamal like preparation. But the tamales are corn based and they use corn leaves to wrap it up. The pasteles puertorriqueños is made out of a dough made out of root vegetables mainly. 00:24:20 Crystal: It will have bananas and plantains that we got from our African in [inaudible]. It will have pumpkin, which were already with our Taino peoples here in America. It will have yautia, which also was here in Puerto Rico. And then, it will have some pork stew that was brought by the Spanish people. So you have in one dish our full heritage of the three cultures that have conformed the Puerto Rican-ness in just one dish.  00:25:01 Crystal: And then that works too will use, what is the ultimate base of flavor of the Puerto Rican cuisine, which is the sofrito. And the sofrito itself also is a blend of African, Spanish, and Taino ingredients, but it's a bricolage of flavors and smells that then go into the stew that then is used to make the pastel. And the pastel is also representative of the most authentic Puerto Rican soul because el pastel is wrapped as a gift.  00:25:40 Crystal: And if you were poor and there was a lot of poverty in Puerto Rico at some – we still have, but there used to be a lot of poverty back in the days. If you didn't have any resources, monetary resources to gift things, you will make pasteles with the things that are on your patio. You will have that growing up in your patio, in your garden, and then you will do pasteles, and you will gift that to your adult, kids, to your sisters, to your brothers.  00:26:13 Crystal: And so because it's – now we have technology, and now we can use food processors and so on. But back in the day, you had to grate that by hand. So if you have that gift, I am not only gifting you my talent and the products that I grow in my patio, but I'm also gifting my time. So it's a very meaningful way of telling someone that you really care about them. 00:26:42 Crystal: And that's all about Puerto Ricans. We care. We care a lot. We want to share everything that we have. And all the visitors that we have, they all can say that Puerto Ricans are always nice to them. Even if we have people that doesn't speak so much English, they will take you to whatever place you wanted to go, trying to understand you and enjoying our island. So I think that the pastel is representative of all the goodness of the Puerto Ricans.  00:27:16 Melissa: Let's pause for a second. If you've been nodding your head all along while listening to Crystal talk about food as fuel for imagination, then I wanna put this on your radar. My book, Fertile Imagination is for any mom who's ever thought, “I know I'm capable of more, but I don't know where to start.”  00:27:39 Melissa: And as one Amazon reviewer said this of my book, Fertile Imagination, which is all about maximizing your superpower to make your maximum impact, She says this, “It's a non judgmental kick in the butt to start valuing your whole selves and to create a new reality where we combine motherhood with our big dreams. Whether you're chasing an idea during nap time or whispering your big vision,” this is hilarious, “into a spatula, then this book is your creative permission slip.”  00:28:17 Melissa: You're gonna hear stories, especially if you like this conversation with Crystal. You're gonna hear a story as well from a podcast guest that I had here who is a James Beard award winning chef, Gabriele Corcos. And you're gonna learn about how he has really latched on to this idea of novelty as his way to explore new categories of interest in his one beautiful life. So I want to just be sure that you realize that this conversation is the beginning of the process. I wanted you to see through Crystal how if your imagination was reawakened, you can start to reimagine how you approach your own life. And I think that's important.  00:29:04 Melissa: But then the book, Fertile Imagination, goes on and adds some tools that you can actually use to incorporate your imagination into your one divine life. And here's the thing, because you could use your imagination from any place you are in the world, you won't have to hop on a plane and go to any place. You can actually just close your eyes and replug in to the little girl that you once were who had all these beautiful ideas that you wanted to play out in the world and that's what I want for you. 00:29:41 Melissa: So here's what I have for you. Just go ahead to fertileideas.com. If you're driving, if you're running, if you're walking, you could do this in a bit. Just go to fertileideas.com and you could download a free chapter of my book, Fertile Imagination. What's really amazing about that chapter is that that chapter basically takes you to a place where you can go and travel back in time, to that moment when you were most free, to that moment where you had the world totally ahead of you and you were imagining what you wanted for your one divine life. That's what I did when I got on stage at the Magnet Theater in New York City 100 years ago now, so it feels. 00:30:25 Melissa: But I talk about that moment for me in that chapter that you can get for free right now on fertileideas.com. So back to the show. Again, shop the book. This episode is brought to you by Fertile Imagination, every mom's superpower. Go to fertileideas.com. Grab the free chapter. Why not? What are you gonna do? Have an amazing time reading a free chapter? That's the way to set yourself up for success for this summer. All right. Enjoy the rest of the conversation.  00:30:55 Melissa: I've never ever heard of un pastel in that way. I'm just like… it's fascinating because I also think it's… maybe it's just me, but I feel like there's a bit of an acquired taste to it too. Like, for me. Right? When I think about a pastel and I compare it to a tamal, I do not think about a Mexican tamal at all. I think about Cuban. I think about– 00:31:26 Crystal: Yeah. Sure. 00:31:28 Melissa: And for me, it's really fascinating to hear the story behind the pastel in the sense that it's very, very comprehensive. You could… I mean, I bet you there's probably books already. Or maybe you're gonna write a book. Maybe you got a fourth – a fifth hat to wear, right? You can write about pasteles. I mean, it's not a bad gig.  00:31:49 Melissa: But I think it's really interesting. And I think it's a testament to the fact that irrespective of where someone travels to the depth with which they can get to know and appreciate a culture is almost unlimited in a way, right? It's… like, for me and my family, I am not a Disney World person. But I've been to Disney World because it's kinda like, “Oh, we just go to Disney World and I have three kids.” And you got a cat. That's a little bit of a cat. She's got a cat. If you're watching this on video, you see her big and fluffy cat. Is your cat Puerto Rican though? 00:32:29 Crystal: She is Puerto Rican. She is a sato cat.  00:32:31 Melissa: Aw.  00:32:32 Crystal: She's a rescue one.  00:32:34 Melissa: So cute. She probably eats pasteles because she's got meat on her. She's a solid cat. But, yeah, just the depth with which you could understand a culture, what I'm hearing from you, Crystal, it can absolutely include history and and careful attention to the food that you're eating. Right? I think about just everywhere that I've traveled and every time I've eaten food, it's kind of like there's almost a story or a reason for why something is on a plate, and it's not always superficial. It's not just labor profile. It could have to do with political conversations. It could have to do with whoever decided that that food would make its way to that region.  00:33:27 Melissa: But let me ask you this question then. So just to kind of close-up this conversation on something that I think is very practical, I'm gonna ask you a very selfish question. Okay, so I'm on the quest for the perfect sofrito. I'm gonna tell you what I do for my sofrito. So it's my ritual on Sundays. I take all the peppers that I find, red, green, yellow, and even orange because it comes in that pack. I also then buy cilantro. I'm in Texas, so let's just be mindful I'm limited in some of the things I can get.  00:34:05 Melissa: Also because I'm a health conscious mom, I put bone broth in the blender so that this way things can blend. Right? I put onions. I put garlic. I put some oregano. That is what's in my sofrito on a good day. Melissa's like, “Okay. I am ready to make a sofrito.” How can I enhance that sofrito, or how do you teach people that visit El Pretexto how to make their own sofrito?  00:34:39 Crystal: Well, sofrito is one thing as the pasteles. Right? Everybody have their own recipe, and everybody says that their mom's sofrito is the best. Right? [inaudible] My mom's sofrito is the best. So that's the one that I do. And I'm happy to share the recipe for you because I have it written.  00:35:03 Crystal: But there are two schools of Sofrito to begin with. The school that says you do your Sofrito on a Sunday and you don't touch it… you don't do another Sofrito batch up until that one is gone in one or two weeks. And then you have my mom's school, which is you do your sofrito every time that you're gonna cook. 00:35:28 Melissa: Gotcha. Right.  00:35:31 Crystal: Obviously, that's nice for those that are retired and have all the time in the world. I do it that way. I'm not retired, but it's because I have a– 00:35:40 Melissa: That's your job. 00:35:41 Crystal: That's how she does it. And I don't want to, to your point, I want to continue her way of doing things. So, there are onions. We don't use all the colors of the bell peppers. We actually use cubanelle pepper. Onion cubanelle, then we will have the aji dulce, the sweet little pepper we need. We will have the cilantro, but we will also have culantro. [inaudible]. Yeah? And then, we will have garlic in it, a little bit of oregano, and pretty much that's the base. 00:36:29 Crystal: So depending on who you ask, there are people that will omit having the onion, and they will do it when they are cooking, if they're doing a batch. And then you will have people that will go all the way in with a lot of culantro in it, so it has that strong flavor to it. My mom's is more balanced in how much goes of each little thing in there. And we also use the bone broth, but not to blend the sofrito, but to stew the rice. If it's gonna be a stew rice, we will do bone broth instead of water with the rice. 00:37:18 Crystal: And then, the beans, we like them vegetarians. We don't use any hams or meat cuts into it. But, again, that's us. There are people that say that the most flavorful ones is with a piece of ham in it and whatever. But, I like… my mom's and mine are vegetarian. And my cat starts again.  00:37:43 Crystal: But, sofrito is is very personal. You know? It's part of how your family has done it. And as I told earlier, it's also a blend of these three cultures that goes into it. A lot of cultures have mirepoix or other type of base of flavors into their food and this is ours. So you have to make it yours but also learn that there is a lot of history into it. It's not something that we do because we do it. There is a lot of history into it. But, yeah, happy to share my mom's one with you. 00:38:29 Melissa: Yeah. For sure. Crystal, this was so amazing. So I would say around now, a lot of individuals are planning their summer holiday trips and vacations and all of that. So, maybe you can share where people can learn more about you, can learn more about El Pretexto if that's an option to them to kind of explore, and just follow your journey. 00:38:53 Crystal: Yeah. Sure. Well, a friendly reminder that it is an adults only project. So this might be your chance to… El Pretexto actually translates to “The Excuse.” So this might be your excuse to having your parents take care of the kids and hop down to the island and have a little bit of a honeymoon. But, El Pretexto, you can find it at elprotextopr.com. We're also in social media @elprotextopr in Facebook and Instagram.  00:39:30 Crystal: There you will meet our chickens and photos of our garden and our harvest and the breakfast, and maybe you get a little bit hungry. In our website, you will find different options because you could come for a weekend or you could come for a weekday stay, but also you could come for these curated food experiences, which are in very specific dates around the year. We also have dinners, farm to table dinners in our property. We invite guest chefs to cook dinners, around the year.  00:40:08 Crystal: And, also, I take people to other places in the countryside to enjoy a beautiful lunch, but getting to know another piece of countryside around the island. So, El Pretexto is no other thing than the celebration of the beautiful diverse countryside of Puerto Rico. And you can check all the information there. So, yeah, feel free to follow me there.  00:40:37 Melissa: Thank you so much, Crystal. This has been amazing. Have an awesome rest of your day. Keep enjoying the peace and serenity of the mountains and the Caribbean Sea and all the beauty that you see outside your window. Thank you so much for this conversation.  00:40:53 Crystal: Thank you. Thank you for the invitation.  00:40:56 Melissa: So what's your version of a sofrito? Right? Let's take it out of the kitchen and into your home office. What sort of things for you can you put together to create your next big idea, whether it's something for business, something for your personal life or something for your family this very summer. I am so excited to have had Crystal Diaz for this conversation because I think she's inspiring all of us. She's giving us a good idea of all the ways that we could color our own individual rainbows.  00:41:33 Melissa: At the same time, I want this to just remind you that your imagination could be stirred into anything, right? Especially like tonight's dinner. So catch up on Tuesdays on the Mom Founder Imagination Hub and until then, keep cooking up ideas that only you can serve. I honestly think there's a place in this world for imaginations. And irrespective of AI and technology, at the end of the day, it's only as good as the person behind the computer screen, our prompts, our ideas, the way that we decide to use these resources.  00:42:10 Melissa: And that is the best case for you to actually keep your imagination going and playing with it. So thank you for this conversation. And again, if you are interested in learning more about the book, just go to fertileideas.com. Have an amazing rest of your day, moms.  

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we hear a lot about what it was like to travel around the Caribbean Sea. It's very pretty, but it can be tough to navigate the sometimes shallow waters. Can you imagine how many things are at the bottom of the Caribbean?  I have this daydream that I often draw to mind of draining certain seas and parts of different oceans. After they are drained, I imagine myself walking on the bottom looking at all the interesting treasures and pieces of history. I think that would be wildly cool to do.  Mother Cabrini is getting close to Port Limon and she is anxious to get to shore to find someone to help her understand her swelling problem.  Let's turn to page 120 to hear. 

My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Rick Glaze, author of the book Eight Pieces of Eight. Rick published the kayaking adventure, The Purple River in 2021, Spanish Pieces of Eight, a sailing adventure/mystery, and Jackass a Short Story Collection in 2022. He was a Columnist at San Francisco's Nob Hill Gazette, attended the Stanford University Creative Writing Program, and is a graduate of Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, and MTSU.   He is an award-winning songwriter with two CDs, a Pandora radio station, credits on Country Music Television (CMT), BBC Radio, as well as radio airplay. Rick has rafted the Grand Canyon, the Salmon and Rogue Rivers as well as sailed throughout the Caribbean Sea.   In my book review, I stated Eight Pieces of Eight is a contemporary adventure full of mysticism, romance, and strong family ties. And let's not forget the treasure!   If you've ever wanted to go on a treasure hunt, then this book, the second in his series, is not to be missed. We soon find ourselves on a quest for lost Spanish treasure with Bev, her odd brother, her obsessed cousin, and a new-found boyfriend in a rural area filled with caves near Nashville Tennessee. Bev has inherited a sixth sense like her mother, and this sixth sense allows her to understand a mystical map that glows and changes offering clues to find a missing chest full of gold. But the map gains control of the owners, causing them to forsake all else for the possible treasure. Will the same thing happen to Bev when she comes into possession of the ancient map?   The twists and turns were fun and kept me guessing. And I learned quite a lot about Tennessee caves. The character development wasn't quite as deep as I would have liked and sometimes the dialogue seemed rushed, but even with these issues, I enjoyed the book and now want to know more. Luckily, the book ends in such a way that I believe I will get my wish!   Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1   Join the Novels N Latte Book Club community to discuss this and other books with like-minded readers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3576519880426290   You can follow Author Rick Glaze: Website: http://www.Rickglaze.com FB: @rickglazebooks X: @RicksbooksRick Tik Tok: @Rickglazeauthor IG: @rick.glaze   Purchase Eight Pieces of Eight on Amazon: Paperback: https://amzn.to/42j5XgS Ebook: https://amzn.to/41BZNch   Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor IG: @terimbrown_author X: @terimbrown1   Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors   #rickglaze #eightpiecesofeight #mystery #contemporaryadventure #terimbrownauthor #authorpodcast #onlineforauthors #characterdriven #researchjunkie #awardwinningauthor #podcasthost #podcast #readerpodcast #bookpodcast #writerpodcast #author #books #goodreads #bookclub #fiction #writer #bookreview *As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Rev. Renaldo C. McKenzie, continues with the Lectures in Caribbean Thought at Jamaica Theological Seminary. This week Group 2 presents on Belize and Guyana, two countries that are located on the southern mainland of America bordering the Caribbean Sea. Group 4 will present on Bahamas and Cayman Islands.Rev. McKenzie introduces the Lecture first by discussing the tariffs placed on the Caribbean by the US.Subscribe: via any streamhttps://anchor.fm/theneoliberalThe Neoliberal Corporation, https://theneoliberal.comrenaldo.mnckenzie@jts.edu.jmrenaldocmckenzie@gmail.com

President Trump has been threatening to “take back” the Panama Canal since he regained power. In this episode, listen to testimony from officials serving on the Federal Maritime Commission who explain why the Panama Canal has become a focus of the administration and examine whether or not we need to be concerned about an impending war for control of the canal. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via Support Congressional Dish via (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes Current Events around the Panama Canal March 5, 2025. the Associated Press. Sabrina Valle, Suzanne McGee, and Michael Martina. March 4, 2025. Reuters. Matt Murphy, Jake Horton and Erwan Rivault. February 14, 2025. BBC. May 1, 2024. World Weather Attribution. World Maritime News Staff. March 15, 2019. World Maritime News. July 29, 2018. Reuters. Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 U.S. Department of State. The Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative” Michele Ruta. March 29, 2018. World Bank Group. The Trump-Gaza Video February 26, 2025. Sky News. Laws Audio Sources Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation January 28, 2025 Witnesses: Louis E. Sola, Chairman, Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) Daniel B. Maffei, Commissioner, FMC , Professor, Scalia Law School, George Mason University Joseph Kramek, President & CEO, World Shipping Council Clips 17:30 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Between the American construction of the Panama Canal, the French effort to build an isthmus canal, and America's triumphant completion of that canal, the major infrastructure projects across Panama cost more than 35,000 lives. For the final decade of work on the Panama Canal, the United States spent nearly $400 million, equivalent to more than $15 billion today. The Panama Canal proved a truly invaluable asset, sparing both cargo ships and warships the long journey around South America. When President Carter gave it away to Panama, Americans were puzzled, confused, and many outraged. With the passage of time, many have lost sight of the canal's importance, both to national security and to the US economy. 18:45 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): But the Panama Canal was not just given away. President Carter struck a bargain. He made a treaty. And President Trump is making a serious and substantive argument that that treaty is being violated right now. 19:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): President Trump has highlighted two key issues. Number one, the danger of China exploiting or blocking passage through the canal, and number two, the exorbitant costs for transit. 19:20 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Chinese companies are right now building a bridge across the canal at a slow pace, so as to take nearly a decade. And Chinese companies control container points ports at either end. The partially completed bridge gives China the ability to block the canal without warning, and the ports give China ready observation posts to time that action. This situation, I believe, poses acute risks to US national security. 19:50 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Meanwhile, the high fees for canal transit disproportionately affect Americans, because US cargo accounts for nearly three quarters of Canal transits. US Navy vessels pay additional fees that apply only to warships. Canal profits regularly exceed $3 billion. This money comes from both American taxpayers and consumers in the form of higher costs for goods. American tourists aboard cruises, particularly those in the Caribbean Sea, are essentially captive to any fees Panama chooses to levy for canal transits, and they have paid unfair prices for fuel bunkering at terminals in Panama as a result of government granted monopoly. Panama's government relies on these exploitative fees. Nearly 1/10 of its budget is paid for with canal profit. 21:25 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Panama has for years flagged dozens of vessels in the Iranian ghost fleet, which brought Iran tens of billions of dollars in oil profits to fund terror across the world. 21:40 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): And Chinese companies have won contracts, often without fair competition, as the infamous Belt and Road Initiative has come to Panama. China often engages in debt trap diplomacy to enable economic and political coercion. In Panama, it also seems to have exploited simple corruption. 32:40 Louis Sola: The Panama Canal is managed by the Panama Canal Authority, ACP, an independent agency of the Panamanian government. The ACP is a model of public infrastructure management, and its independence has been key to ensure a safe and reliable transit of vessels critical to the US and global commerce. 33:25 Louis Sola: In contrast, the broader maritime sector in Panama, including the nation's ports, water rights, and the world's largest ship registry, falls under the direct purview of the Panamanian government. 33:35 Louis Sola: Unfortunately, this sector has faced persistent challenges, including corruption scandals and foreign influence, particularly from Brazil and China. These issues create friction with the ACP, especially as it works to address long term challenges such as securing adequate water supplies for the canal. 33:55 Louis Sola: Although the ACP operates independently, under US law both the ACP and the government of Panama's maritime sector are considered one in the same. This means that any challenges in Panama's maritime sector, including corruption, lack of transparency, or foreign influence, can have a direct or indirect impact on the operations and long term stability of the canal. This legal perspective highlights the need for diligence in monitoring both the ACP's management and Panama government's policies affecting maritime operations. 34:30 Louis Sola: Since 2015, Chinese companies have increased their presence and influence throughout Panama. Panama became a member of the Belt and Road Initiative and ended its diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Chinese companies have been able to pursue billions of dollars in development contracts in Panama, many of which were projects directly on or adjacent to the Panama Canal. Many were no bid contracts. Labor laws were waived, and the Panamanian people are still waiting to see how they've been benefited. It is all more concerning that many of these companies are state-owned, and in some cases, even designated as linked to the People's Liberation Army. We must address the significant growing presence and influence of China throughout the Americas and in Panama, specifically. 35:20 Louis Sola: American companies should play a leading role in enhancing the canal's infrastructure. By supporting US firms, we reduce reliance on Chinese contractors and promote fair competition. 36:55 Daniel Maffei: Because the canal is essentially a waterway bridge over mountainous terrain above sea level, it does depend on large supplies of fresh water to maintain the full operations. Panama has among the world's largest annual rainfalls. Nonetheless, insufficient fresh water levels have occurred before in the canal's history, such as in the 1930s when the Madden Dam and Lake Alajuela were built to address water shortages. Since that time, the canal has undertaken several projects to accommodate larger, more modern ships. In the last couple of years, a trend of worsening droughts in the region, once again, has forced limits to the operations of the canal. Starting in June of 2023 the Panama Canal Authority employed draft restrictions and reduced the number of ships allowed to transit the canal per day. Now the Panama Canal limitations, in combination with the de facto closure of the Suez Canal to container traffic, has had serious consequences for ocean commerce, increasing rates, fees and transit times. 39:30 Daniel Maffei: Now, fortunately, Panama's 2024 rainy season has, for now, alleviated the most acute water supply issues at the canal, and normal transit volumes have been restored. That said, while the Panamanian government and Canal Authority have, with the advice of the US Army Corps of Engineers, developed credible plans to mitigate future water shortages, they also warned that it is likely that at least one more period of reduced transits will occur before these plans can be fully implemented. 41:55 Eugene Kontorovich: We shall see that under international law, each party to the treaty is entitled to determine for itself whether a violation has occurred. Now, in exchange for the United States ceding control of the canal which it built and maintained, Panama agreed to a special regime of neutrality. The essential features of this regime of neutrality is that the canal must be open to all nations for transit. That's Article Two. Equitable tolls and fees, Article Three. An exclusive Panamanian operation, Article Five. The prohibition of any foreign military presence, Article Five. Article Five provides that only Panama shall operate the canal. Testifying about the meaning of the treaty at the Senate ratification hearings, the Carter administration emphasized that this prohibits foreign operation of the canal, as well as the garrisoning of foreign troops. Now, Article Five appears to be primarily concerned about control by foreign sovereigns. If Panama signed a treaty with the People's Republic of China, whereby the latter would operate the canal on Panama's behalf, this would be a clear violation. But what if Panama contracted for port operations with a Chinese state firm, or even a private firm influenced or controlled in part by the Chinese government? The Suez Canal Company was itself, before being nationalized, a private firm in which the United Kingdom was only a controlling shareholder. Yet this was understood to represent British control over the canal. In other words, a company need not be owned by the government to be in part controlled by the government. So the real question is the degree of de jure or de facto control over a Foreign Sovereign company, and scenarios range from government companies in an authoritarian regime, completely controlled, to purely private firms in our open society like the United States, but there's many possible situations in the middle. The treaty is silent on the question of how much control is too much, and as we'll see, this is one of the many questions committed to the judgment and discretion of each party. Now turning to foreign security forces, the presence of third country troops would manifestly violate Article Five. But this does not mean that anything short of a People's Liberation Army base flying a red flag is permissible. The presence of foreign security forces could violate the regime of neutrality, even if they're not represented in organized and open military formations. Modern warfare has seen belligerent powers seek to evade international legal limitations by disguising their actions in civilian garb, from Russia's notorious little green men to Hamas terrorists hiding in hospitals or disguised as journalists. Bad actors seek to exploit the fact that international treaties focus on sovereign actors. Many of China's man made islands in the South China Sea began as civilian projects before being suddenly militarized. Indeed, this issue was discussed in the Senate ratification hearings over the treaty. Dean Rusk said informal forces would be prohibited under the treaty. Thus the ostensible civilian character of the Chinese presence around the canal does not, in itself, mean that it could not represent a violation of the treaty if, for example, these companies and their employees involved Chinese covert agents or other agents of the Chinese security forces. So this leads us to the final question, Who determines whether neutrality is being threatened or compromised? Unlike many other treaties that provide for third party dispute resolution, the neutrality treaty has no such provision. Instead, the treaty makes clear that each party determines for itself the existence of a violation. Article Four provides that each party is separately authorized to maintain the regime of neutrality, making a separate obligation of each party. The Senate's understanding accompanying to ratification also made clear that Article Five allows each party to take, quote, "unilateral action." Senator Jacob Javits, at the markup hearing, said that while the word unilateral is abrasive, we can quote, "decide that the regime of neutrality is being threatened and then act with whatever means are necessary to keep the canal neutral unilaterally." 46:35 Joseph Kramek: My name is Joe Kramek. I'm President and CEO of the World Shipping Council. The World Shipping Council is the global voice of liner shipping. Our membership consists of 90% of the world's liner shipping tonnage, which are container vessels and vehicle carriers. They operate on fixed schedules to provide our customers with regular service to ship their goods in ports throughout the world. 47:15 Joseph Kramek: As you have heard, using the Panama Canal to transit between the Atlantic and Pacific saves significant time and money. A typical voyage from Asia to the US or East Coast can be made in under 30 days using the canal, while the same journey can take up to 40 days if carriers must take alternate routes. From a commercial trade perspective, the big picture is this. One of the world's busiest trade lanes is the Trans Pacific. The Trans Pacific is cargo coming from and going to Asia via the United States. Focusing in a bit, cargo coming from Asia and bound for US Gulf and East Coast ports always transits the Panama Canal. Similarly, cargo being exported from US and East Coast ports, a large share of which are US Agricultural exports, like soybeans, corn, cotton, livestock and dairy also almost always transits the Panama Canal. The result is that 75% of Canal traffic originates in or is bound for the United States. 48:55 Joseph Kramek: We've talked about the drought in 2023 and the historic low water levels that it caused in Lake Gatún, which feeds the canal locks, a unique system that is a fresh water feed, as contrasted to an ocean to ocean system, which the French tried and failed, but which is actually active in the Suez Canal. These low water levels reduced transits from 36 transits a day to as low as 22 per day. Additionally, the low water levels required a reduction in maximum allowable draft levels, or the depth of the ship below the water line, which for our members reduced the amount of containers they could carry through the canal. This resulted in a 10% reduction in import volumes for US Gulf and East Coast ports, with the Port of Houston experiencing a 26.7% reduction. 51:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Are you aware of allegations from some vessel operators of disparate treatment such as sweetheart deals or favorable rebates by Panama for canal transits? Louis Sola: Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman, we have become aware through some complaints by cruise lines that said that they were not getting a refund of their canal tolls. When we looked into this, we found a Panamanian Executive Order, Decree 73, that specifically says that if a cruise line would stop at a certain port, that they could be refunded 100% of the fees. And as far as I know, that's the only instant where that exists. 53:05 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): So Panama was the very first Latin American country to join China's Belt and Road Initiative, and right now, China is building a fourth bridge across the Panama Canal for car traffic and light rail. Chairman Sola, why should Chinese construction of a bridge near Panama City concern the United States? Louis Sola: Mr. Chairman, we all saw the tragedy that happened here in the Francis Scott Key Bridge incident and the devastation that had happened to Baltimore. We also saw recently what happened in the Suez Canal, where we had a ship get stuck in there. It's not only the construction of the bridge, but it's a removal of a bridge, as I understand it, called the Bridge of the Americas. It was built in 1961 and that would paralyze cargo traffic in and out of the canals. 53:55 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Panama also recently renewed the concessions for two container ports to a Chinese company, Hutchison Ports PPC. Of course, Chinese companies are controlled by the Communist Party. How does China use control of those ports for economic gain? Louis Sola: Mr. Chairman, I am a regulator, a competition regulator. And the Chinese ports that you're referring to, let me put them into scope. The one on the Pacific, the Port of Balboa, is roughly the same size as the Port of Houston. They do about 4 million containers a year. They have about 28 game tree cranes. The one on the Atlantic is the same as my hometown in Miami, they do about 1 million containers. So where Roger Gunther in the Port of Houston generates about $1 billion a year and Heidi Webb in Miami does about $200 million, the Panama ports company paid 0 for 20 years on that concession. So it's really hard to compete against zero. So I think that's our concern, our economic concern, that we would have. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Commissioner Maffei, anything to add on that? Daniel Maffei: Yeah, I do too also think it is important. I would point out that you don't have to stop at either port. It's not like these two ports control the entrance to the canal. That is the Canal Authority that does control that. However, I think it's of concern. I would also point out that the Panamanian government thinks it's of concern too, because they're conducting their own audit of those particular deals, but we remain very interested as well. 56:25 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Would the facts discussed here be considered violations of the neutrality treaty in force right now between the United States and Panama? Eugene Kontorovich: So I think Senator, I think potentially they could, but it's impossible to say definitively without knowing more, in particular, about the degree of Chinese control and involvement in these companies. I think it's important to note that these port operation companies that operate the ports on both sides, when they received their first contract, it was just a few months before Hong Kong was handed over to China. In other words, they received them as British companies, sort of very oddly, just a few months before the handover. Now, of course, since then, Hong Kong has been incorporated into China, has been placed under a special national security regime, and the independence of those companies has been greatly abridged, to say nothing of state owned companies involved elsewhere in in the canal area, which raised significantly greater questions. Additionally, I should point out that the understandings between President Carter and Panamanian leader Herrera, which were attached to the treaty and form part of the treaty, provide that the United States can, quote, "defend the canal against any threat to the regime of neutrality," and I understand that as providing some degree of preemptive authority to intervene. One need not wait until the canal is actually closed by some act of sabotage or aggression, which, as we heard from the testimony, would be devastating to the United States, but there is some incipient ability to address potential violations. 58:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): If the United States determines that Panama is in violation of the treaty, what is the range of remedies the United States would have for that treaty violation? Eugene Kontorovich: So I think it may be shocking to people to hear today, but when one goes over the ratification history and the debates and discussions in this body over this treaty, it was clear that the treaty was understood as giving both sides, separately, the right to resort to use armed force to enforce the provisions of the treaty. And it's not so surprising when one understands that the United States made an extraordinary concession to Panama by transferring this canal, which the United States built at great expense and maintained and operated to Panama, gratis. And in exchange, it received a kind of limitation, a permanent limitation on Panamanians sovereignty, that Panama agreed that the United States could enforce this regime of neutrality by force. Now, of course, armed force should never be the first recourse for any kind of international dispute and should not be arrived at sort of rationally or before negotiations and other kinds of good offices are exhausted, but it's quite clear that the treaty contemplates that as a remedy for violations. 1:03:20 Louis Sola: I believe that the security of the canal has always been understood to be provided by the United States. Panama does not have a military, and I always believed that there's been a close relationship with Southern Command that we would provide that. And it would be nice to see if we had a formalization of that in one way or another, because I don't believe that it's in the treaty at all. 1:05:05 Daniel Maffei: While we were down there, both of us heard, I think, several times, that the Panamanians would, the ones we talked to anyway, would welcome US companies coming in and doing a lot of this work. Frankly, their bids are not competitive with the Chinese bids. Frankly, they're not that existent because US companies can make more money doing things other places, but even if they were existent, it is difficult to put competitive bids when the Chinese bids are so heavily subsidized by China. 1:06:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): What would China's incentive be to heavily subsidize those bids to undercut American companies and other companies? Daniel Maffei: Yeah, it's not a real short answer, but Senator, China's made no secret of its ambitious policies to gain influence of ports throughout the globe. It's invested in 129 ports in dozens of countries. It runs a majority of 17 ports, that does not include this Hong Kong company, right? So that's just directly Chinese-owned ports. So it has been a part of their Belt and Road strategy, whatever you want to call it, the Maritime Silk Road, for decades. So they believe that this influence, this investment in owning maritime ports is important to their economy. 1:07:05 Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE): In 2021, Hutchison was awarded those two ports, Port Balboa and Port Cristobal, in a no-bid award process. Can you tell me, does the United States have any authority or recourse with the Panama Canal Authority under our current agreement with Panama to rebid those terminal concession contracts. And perhaps Mr. Kantorovich, that's more in your purview? Louis Sola: Senator, both of those ports were redone for 25 years, until 2047, I believe. And they have to pay $7 million is what the ongoing rate is for the Port of Houston- and the Port of Miami-sized concessions. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE): And it can't be rebid until after that date? Louis Sola: Well, I believe that that's what the comptroller's office is auditing both of those ports and that contract. That was done under the previous Panamanian administration. A new administration came in, and they called for an audit of that contract immediately. 1:20:10 Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Are the companies now controlling both sides of the Panama Canal, the Chinese companies, subject to the PRC national security laws that mandate cooperation with the military, with state intelligence agencies. Does anyone know that? Eugene Kontorovich: They're subject all the time. They're subject to those laws all the time by virtue of being Hong Kong companies. And you know, they face, of course, consequences for not complying with the wishes of the Chinese government. One of the arguments -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Wouldn't that be a violation of the treaty? And isn't that a huge risk to us right now that the Chinese -- Eugene Kontorovich: That is a threat to the neutrality -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): If they invaded Taiwan, invaded the Philippines, they could go to these two companies saying, Hey, shut it down, make it hard, sink a ship in the canal. And wouldn't they be obligated to do that under Chinese law if they were ordered to by the PLA or the CCP? Eugene Kontorovich: I don't know if they'd be obligated, but certainly the People's Republic of China would have many tools of leverage and pressure on these companies. That's why the treaty specifically says that we can act not just to end actual obstructions to the canal. We don't have to wait until the canal is closed by hostile military action. Thatwould be a suicide pact, that would be catastrophic for us, but rather that we can respond at the inchoate, incipient level to threats, and then this is up to the president to determine whether this is significantly robust to constitute -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): So aren't we kind of walking up to the idea of a suicide pact, because we've got two big Chinese companies on both ends of the Panama Canal, who, if there's a war in INDOPACOM, Taiwan that involves us and China, these companies would be obligated to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party and PLA? I mean, are we kind of walking up to a very significant national security threat already? Eugene Kontorovich: Yeah, certainly, there's a threat. And I think what makes the action of the Chinese government so difficult to respond to, but important to respond to, is that they conceal this in sort of levels of gray without direct control. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Let me ask you on that topic, as my last question, Professor, let's assume that we find out. And again, it wouldn't be surprising. I think you can almost assume it that these two companies have Chinese spies or military officials within the ranks of the employees of the companies. Let's assume we found that out, somehow that becomes public. But I don't think it's a big assumption. It's probably true right now. So you have spies and military personnel within the ranks of these two companies that are controlling both ends of the Panama Canal for you, Professor, and Chairman Sola, wouldn't that be a blatant violation of Article Five of the neutrality treaty, if that were true, which probably is true? Eugene Kontorovich: Yeah, I do think it would be a clear violation. As former Secretary of State, Dean Ross said at the ratification hearings, informal forces can violate Article Five as well as formal forces. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Is there any evidence of Chinese spies or other nefarious Chinese actors embedded in these companies? Louis Sola: Senator, we have no information of that. That's not under the purview of -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): But you agree that would be a violation of Article Five of the neutrality treaty? Louis Sola: I do. 1:26:25 Daniel Maffei: Senator Sullivan was talking about Hutchison Ports. That's actually the same company that runs terminals on both ends of the canal. I am concerned about that. However, if we want to be concerned about that, all of us should lose a lot more sleep than we're losing because if there are spies there, then there might be spies at other Hutchinson ports, and there are other Hutchinson ports in almost every part of the world. They own the largest container port in the United Kingdom, Felix Dow, which is responsible for nearly half of Britain's container trade. They control major maritime terminals in Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Myanmar, the Netherlands, South Korea and Tanzania. If owning and managing adjacent ports means that China somehow has operational control or strategic control over the Panama Canal, they also have it over the Suez, the Singapore Straits, the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel. 1:35:45 Louis Sola: The fees that I think we are looking at, or have been looked at, the reason that we went there was because of the auctioning of the slots. And so what Panama did is they had a smaller percentage, maybe 20% allocation, and then they moved it up to 30% and 40% because it became a money maker for them. So as they were doing -- Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): Okay, let me interject here. The auctioning of the slots gives these the right to skip the queue? Louis Sola: Yes, ma'am. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): Okay, so just for the record there. Continue. Louis Sola: So the auctioning of the slots. Under maritime law, it's first come first serve, but Panama has always put a certain percentage aside, and they started to put more and more. So we got a lot of complaints. We got a lot of complaints from LNG carriers that paid $4 million to go through, and we got a lot of complaints from agriculture that didn't have the money to pay to go through, because their goods were gonna go down. So if you look at the financial statements -- I'm a nerd, I look at financial statements of everybody -- the canal increased the amount of revenue that they had from about $500 million to $1.8 billion in the last three years just because of those fees. So this is what is very concerning to us. 1:39:20 Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN): Do you know of any instances where the United States has been singled out or treated unfairly under the neutrality treaty in the operation of the canal? Daniel Maffei: I do not. I would add that one of the reasons why saying the US is disproportionately affected by raises in Canal fees and other kinds of fees at the canal is because the United States disproportionately utilizes the canal. 1:44:55 Louis Sola: We have a US port there, SSA, out of Washington State that I actually worked on the development of that many years ago, and helped develop that. That used to be a United States Navy submarine base, and we converted that. As far as the two ports that we have, they're completely different. One is a major infrastructure footprint, and also a container port that's moving 4 million containers a year. That's really phenomenal amount. That's more than Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and you've probably got to get Tampa and a little bit of Jacksonville in there to get that type of volume. And on the other side, we have a very small port, but it's a very strategic port on the Atlantic. So how are the operations done?I don't know how they don't make money. I mean, if you want to come right down to it, if they've been operating the port for 20 years, and they say that they haven't made any money, so they haven't been able to pay the government. That's what concerns me is I don't believe that we're on a level playing field with the American ports. 1:58:50 Eugene Kontorovich: I think the charges and fees are less of an issue because they don't discriminate across countries. We pay more because we use more, but it's not nationally discriminatory. 1:59:00 Eugene Kontorovich: The presence of Chinese companies, especially Chinese state companies, but not limited to them, do raise serious issues and concerns for the neutrality of the treaty. And I should point out, in relation to some of the earlier questioning, the canal, for purposes of the neutrality treaty, is not limited just to the actual locks of the canal and the transit of ships through the canal. According to Annex One, paragraph one of the treaty, it includes also the entrances of the canal and the territorial sea of Panama adjacent to it. So all of the activities we're talking about are within the neutrality regime, the geographic scope of the neutrality regime in the treaty. 2:00:30 Daniel Maffei: I actually have to admit, I'm a little confused as to why some of the senators asking these questions, Senator Blackburn, aren't more concerned about the biggest port in the United Kingdom being run by the Chinese. Petraeus in the port nearest Athens, one of the biggest ports in the Mediterranean, is not just run by a Chinese-linked company, it's run directly by a Chinese-owned company, and I was there. So you're on to something, but if you're just focusing on Panama, that's only part. 2:01:45 Louis Sola: About a year ago, when we were having this drought issue, there was also a lot of focus on Iran and how they were funding Hamas and the Houthis because they were attacking the Red Sea. What the United States has found is that Iranian vessels are sometimes flagged by Panama in order to avoid sanctions, so that they could sell the fuel that they have, and then they can take that money and then they can use it as they wish. Panama, at the time, had a very complicated process to de-flag the vessels. There was an investigation, there was an appeals process. By the time that OFAC or Treasury would go ahead and identify one of those vessels, by the time that they were doing the appeals and stuff like this, they've already changed flags to somewhere else. So when we went to Panama, we met with the Panamanian president, and I must say that we were very impressed, because he was 30 minutes late, but he was breaking relations with Venezuela at the time because the election was the day before. We explained to him the situation. The very next day, we met with the maritime minister, with US embassy personnel and Panama actually adjusted their appeals process so to make it more expedient, so if the United States or OFAC would come and say that this Iranian vessel is avoiding sanctions, now we have a process in place to go ahead and do that, and 53 vessels were de-flagged because of that. 2:06:05 Sen. John Curtis (R-UT): Is there any reason that China can't watch or do whatever they want from this bridge to get the intel from these containers? And does that concern anybody? Louis Sola: Well, it definitely concerns Southern Command, because they've brought it up on numerous occasions that there could be some sort of surveillance or something like that on the bridges. 2:20:30 Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): We segregate ourselves artificially in a way that they do not. We segregate ourselves. Let's talk about military. Let's talk about intelligence. Let's talk about economics. They don't. China doesn't work that way. It's a whole of government approach. They don't draw a delineation between an economics discussion and a military one. And their attack may not look like Pearl Harbor. It may look like an everyday ship that decides, you know, it pulls into the locks and blows itself up. And now the locks are non-functional for our usage, and we can't support an inter ocean fleet transfer, and our ability to defend it, as you referred to Chairman, is now inhibited by the fact that we no longer have the military infrastructure around the canal that we did just as recently as 1999. 2:21:10 Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): So from a commercial perspective, do the shipping companies have concerns over the security of the narrow waterways? We've the Strait to Malacca, we've got the Suez Canal, we've got Gibraltar, we've got Panama. Is that a concern that's thrown around in the boardrooms of the largest shipping corporations in the world? Joseph Kramek: Senator, I think it's something they think about every day. I mean, really, it's drawn into sharp relief with the Red Sea. It was what I call a pink flamingo. There's black swans that just come up and there's pink flamingos that you can see, but you don't act. But no one really thought a whole lot that one of the most important waterways in the world could be denied, and moreover, that it could be denied for such a sustained period. The good news is that -- Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): And denied, I might add, by a disaffected non-state actor of Bedouins running around with rocket launchers, who also managed to beat us in a 20 year war in Afghanistan. My point to saying all this is we're just debating operational control of the canal, yet it seems very clear to all of us that a very simple act can debilitate the canal and eliminate our ability to use it in a matter of minutes with no warning, and we have no ability to intervene or stop that. To me, that means we do not have operational control of the canal. 2:30:40 Daniel Maffei: I will say that certainly we need to look at other kinds of ways to get US companies in positions where they can truly compete with the Chinese on some of these things. Blaming it all on Panama really misses the point. I've seen the same thing in Greece, where Greece didn't want to give the concession of its largest port to a Chinese company, but because of its financial difficulties, it was getting pressure from international organizations such the IMF, Europe and even maybe some of the United States to do so. So I just ask you to look at that. 2:31:20 Daniel Maffei: Panamanians are making far more on their canal than they ever have before. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it's going to the right place. But where they're really making the money is on these auctions, and that is why it remains a concern of mine and I'm sure the chairman's. That is where we are looking at, potentially, using our authority under Section 19 of the Merchant Marine Act where we could, if we can show that it is a problem with the foreign trade of the US, it's interfering with foreign trade of the US, there are certain things that we can do. Senate Foreign Relations Committee January 15, 2024 Clips 4:01:40 Marco Rubio: The thing with Panama on the canal is not new. I visited there. It was 2016. I think I've consistently seen people express concern about it, and it's encapsulized here in quote after quote. Let me tell you the former US ambassador who served under President Obama said: "the Chinese see in Panama what we saw in Panama throughout the 20th century, a maritime and aviation logistics hub." The immediate past head of Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, said, "I was just in Panama about a month ago and flying along the Panama Canal and looking at the state owned enterprises from the People's Republic of China on each side of the Panama Canal. They look like civilian companies or state owned enterprises that could be used for dual use and could be quickly changed over to a military capability." We see questions that were asked by the ranking member in the house China Select Committee, where he asked a witness and they agreed that in a time of conflict, China could use its presence on both ends of the canal as a choke point against the United States in a conflict situation. So the concerns about Panama have been expressed by people on both sides of the aisle for at least the entire time that I've been in the United States Senate, and they've only accelerated further. And this is a very legitimate issue that we face there. I'm not prepared to answer this question because I haven't looked at the legal research behind it yet, but I'm compelled to suspect that an argument could be made that the terms under which that canal were turned over have been violated. Because while technically, sovereignty over the canal has not been turned over to a foreign power, in reality, a foreign power today possesses, through their companies, which we know are not independent, the ability to turn the canal into a choke point in a moment of conflict. And that is a direct threat to the national interest and security the United States, and is particularly galling given the fact that we paid for it and that 5,000 Americans died making it. That said, Panama is a great partner on a lot of other issues, and I hope we can resolve this issue of the canal and of its security, and also continue to work with them cooperatively on a host of issues we share in common, including what to do with migration. 4:38:35 Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT): Now, President Trump has recently talked a little bit about the fact that there are some questions arising about the status of the Panama Canal. When we look to the treaty at issue, the treaty concerning the permanent neutrality and operation of the Panama Canal, we're reminded that some things maybe aren't quite as they should be there right now. Given that the Chinese now control major ports at the entry and the exit to the canal, it seems appropriate to say that there's at least an open question. There's some doubt as to whether the canal remains neutral. Would you agree with that assessment? Marco Rubio: Yes. Here's the challenge. Number one, I want to be clear about something. The Panamanian government, particularly its current office holders, are very friendly to the United States and very cooperative, and we want that to continue, and I want to bifurcate that from the broader issue of the canal. Now I am not, President Trump is not inventing this. This is something that's existed now for at least a decade. In my service here, I took a trip to Panama in 2017. When on that trip to Panama in 2017 it was the central issue we discussed about the canal, and that is that Chinese companies control port facilities at both ends of the canal, the east and the west, and the concerns among military officials and security officials, including in Panama, at that point, that that could one day be used as a choke point to impede commerce in a moment of conflict. Going back to that I -- earlier before you got here, and I don't want to have to dig through this folder to find it again, but -- basically cited how the immediate past head of Southern Command, just retired general Richardson, said she flew over the canal, looked down and saw those Chinese port facilities, and said Those look like dual use facilities that in a moment of conflict, could be weaponized against us. The bipartisan China commission over in the House last year, had testimony and hearings on this issue, and members of both parties expressed concern. The former ambassador to Panama under President Obama has expressed those concerns. This is a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted. The second point is the one you touched upon, and that is, look, could an argument be made, and I'm not prepared to answer it yet, because it's something we're going to have to study very carefully. But I think I have an inkling of I know where this is going to head. Can an argument be made that the Chinese basically have effective control of the canal anytime they want? Because if they order a Chinese company that controls the ports to shut it down or impede our transit, they will have to do so. There are no independent Chinese companies. They all exist because they've been identified as national champions. They're supported by the Chinese government. And if you don't do what they want, they find a new CEO, and you end up being replaced and removed. So they're under the complete control of their government. This is a legitimate question, and one that Senators Risch had some insight as well. He mentioned that in passing that needs to be looked at. This is not a joke. The Panama Canal issue is a very serious one. 4:44:30 Marco Rubio: In 2016 and 2017 that was well understood that part of the investments they made in Panama were conditioned upon Panama's ability to convince the Dominican Republic and other countries to flip their recognition away from Taiwan. That happened. Jen Briney's Recent Guest Appearances Travis Makes Money: Give and Take: Music by Editing Production Assistance