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To justify bombing Venezuela and abducting President Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump falsely accused him of leading the so-called "Cartel de los Soles". But the US Department of Justice was forced to admit that this "Suns Cartel" doesn't exist. The USA lied -- while the CIA actually has trafficked drugs in Latin America. Ben Norton reports. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44c0jf5ygyE Topics 0:00 US attacks Venezuela 0:21 (CLIP) Trump wants Venezuela's oil 1:12 Trump's colonial war on Venezuela 2:08 US DOJ admits it lied about Maduro 3:25 92-year-old judge oversees show trial 3:53 "Cartel de los Soles" doesn't exist 5:05 WMD lie 5:46 Venezuela does NOT produce fentanyl 6:28 Cocaine-producing countries 7:12 (CLIP) Biden official admits truth 8:21 CIA trafficked drugs in Venezuela 11:01 (CLIP) 60 Minutes on CIA drug trafficking 11:42 DEA agent accuses CIA of trafficking 12:58 CIA, cocaine, Nicaraguan Contras 14:47 Trump pardoned Hondura drug trafficker 16:13 (CLIP) Juan Orlando Hernández 16:39 Ecuador's drug-linked President Noboa 17:42 Colombia's drug lord Álvaro Uribe 18:50 USA armed Mexican cartels 19:34 US allies in Mexico are narcos 20:23 Drug links to Argentina's Javier Milei 20:43 Marco Rubio's links to cocaine trafficking 22:52 US Special Forces links to drugs 23:55 Trump attacks Colombia President Petro 24:37 Afghanistan opium production 25:59 Opioid epidemic in USA 26:34 Purdue Pharma and Sackler family 28:55 US imperialism based on lies 29:42 Outro

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We're talking with Andrew Hopper, Lead Pastor of Mercy Hill Church in North Carolina. Planted in 2012 with just 30 people, Mercy Hill has grown into a multi-campus, fast-growing church known for its gospel clarity and sending culture. In this conversation, Andrew shares why adoption and foster care have become central expressions of Mercy Hill's mission—and how those practices flow directly out of the gospel. He also unpacks the heart behind his book, Chosen: Building Your Family the Way God Builds His. Is your church unsure how to engage big social needs without drifting from the gospel? Are you looking for a way to mobilize people beyond church walls while keeping discipleship front and center? Andrew offers a clear framework for doing both. Doing good as a sign of the kingdom. // Andrew addresses a common tension churches feel between community engagement and disciple-making. Mercy Hill refuses to treat these as competing priorities. Acts of service—whether foster care, adoption, or family restoration—are not the kingdom itself but signposts pointing to it. Meeting tangible needs creates openings for gospel conversations. These ministries don't replace evangelism; they amplify it by demonstrating the heart of God in visible ways. A church’s collective heartbeat. // Mercy Hill's deep involvement in adoption, foster care, and family restoration didn't start as a top-down strategy but emerged organically from the gifts and passions within the church. Many leaders and members have adopted children themselves, shaping the church's collective heartbeat. Rather than attempting to address every social issue, Mercy Hill chose to focus deeply on a few—believing churches are most effective when they lean into the specific good works God has prepared for them. This focus has mobilized hundreds of families and created a powerful witness in their community. Rope-holding and shared responsibility. // Not everyone is called to adopt or foster, but everyone can hold the rope. Drawing from the William Carey analogy, Mercy Hill equips members to support families on the front lines through prayer, childcare, meals, financial help, and presence. Over time, they've learned that rope-holding works best when built on existing relationships rather than formal assignments. The goal is to ensure no family fights alone in what Andrew describes as intense spiritual warfare. Big vision with baby steps. // Mercy Hill isn't afraid to cast a bold vision—whether for global missions, adoption, or church planting—but they pair that vision with accessible next steps. Prayer nights, giving opportunities, short-term service, and relational support allow people to grow into greater obedience over time. High challenge without guilt creates healthy discipleship. Why Andrew wrote Chosen. // Andrew wrote Chosen: Building Your Family the Way God Builds His not to promote a program, but to give churches a theological foundation for engaging adoption and foster care. The book weaves together Andrew's family story, Mercy Hill's journey, and a deeply gospel-centered motivation rooted in Scripture. Designed to be used individually or in groups, Chosen includes discussion questions and practical guidance for churches or small groups wanting to explore this calling in community. Andrew's prayer is that the book would catalyze thousands of Christian families to participate meaningfully in caring for vulnerable children and families. Gospel-driven motivation. // Underneath everything is Andrew's conviction that gospel motivation outlasts guilt. Behavior rooted in grace goes further than behavior driven by pressure. Adopted people adopt people. Chosen people choose people. That theological clarity fuels Mercy Hill's sending culture, their community impact, and their ongoing growth. To explore Andrew's resources on adoption, foster care, and grab his book, Chosen, visit andrewphopper.com/chosen or follow him on Instagram @andrewphopper. You can learn more about Mercy Hill Church at mercyhillchurch.com. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Portable Church Your church is doing really well right now, and your leadership team is looking for solutions to keep momentum going! It could be time to start a new location. Maybe you have hesitated in the past few years, but you know it's time to step out in faith again and launch that next location. Portable Church has assembled a bundle of resources to help you leverage your growing momentum into a new location by sending a part of your congregation back to their neighborhood on Mission. This bundle of resources will give you a step-by-step plan to launch that new or next location, and a 5 minute readiness tool that will help you know your church is ready to do it! Click here to watch the free webinar “Launch a New Location in 150 Days or Less” and grab the bundle of resources for your church! Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. We have got a multi-time guest on, and you know what that means. That means that I really respect, deeply admire, and want you to listen up, and today is no exception. Excited to have Andrew Hopper with us. He is the lead pastor of a church that they should be following, that you should be following. He’s a lead pastor of Mercy Hill Church with five locations, if I’m counting correctly, in North Carolina, and is repeatedly one of the fastest growing churches in the country. I love this church on many levels. They’re centered on the gospel and have a radical commitment to sending people to the nations. They have a desire to make disciples and multiply churches. Andrew, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.Andrew Hopper — Man, I’m so pumped to be here. Love the podcast. Really appreciate it, man.Rich Birch — Yeah, I’m honored that you would come back. For folks that that don’t know Mercy Hill, give me a bit of a kind of an update. Tell us a little bit about the church.Andrew Hopper — Yeah.Rich Birch — Maybe update us from last time you were on.Andrew Hopper — Yeah, man. So just real quick, planted in 2012. We had 30 people, all you know kind of young professional age, and man, just really believe that God could do something incredible ah through, you know just through our our open hands, and he did.Andrew Hopper — And so it’s been 13 years. It’s crazy. We’ve been sort of pushing the same boulder up the same mountain for 13 years, just flywheel kind of concept and keep pushing. And ah the Lord has done an incredible thing, like you said, five campuses. And man, just moved into a new home and hub. That was from last time we had a chance. That’s been really great. Andrew Hopper — We were in a rented location for a long time as our main like broadcast campus. We’re a video-based multi-site. And so um it’s ah it was a three or four-year journey to raise the money and build this new facility. But we’re in, and the Lord has really blessed that with tons of new people, highest baptisms, sent ones, first time guest numbers, all everything that we’ve done. This has been a, you know, we’ve gone been on a ride – praise God for that. It’s it’s, um, it’s for his sake and his renown, but this year has been unlike the others. So it’s been…Rich Birch — Yeah, you were saying beforehand, it’s like 30 or something like 30 some percent year over year growth. That’s insane to keep up with.Andrew Hopper — It is man. And the, and the giving does not, uh, you know, the giving doesn’t happen.Rich Birch — Reflect that yet.Andrew Hopper — So it’s, it’s like, we’re trying to do ministry on a budget of a church that’s 3000, but a church that’s running 4,500. And it’s like, how do you do that effectively without killing everybody?Rich Birch — Nice.Andrew Hopper — All your staff, I mean, so, but we’re, we’re learning, man, we’re figuring it out. It’s fun. We got, we just planted our sixth church. So that’s apart from the campuses. This is first time, Rich, we’ve planted a church in our own city.Rich Birch — Oh, nice. That’s cool.Andrew Hopper — It’s been really, a really cool dynamic and it’s been fun. He’s doing great. Man, it was a college student that we met when he was 19 years old at North Carolina AT&T 10 years later. He’s an elder here. He’s done a lot of different things. And man, he goes and plants a new church in Greensboro about five minutes from one of our campuses and they’re doing great.Rich Birch — Wow. Yeah, that’s so good. Well, the thing, there’s lots I love about Mercy Hill, but one of the things that I’ve loved about your church from the you know the chance we’ve had to journey a little bit over the years about it is you just have real clarity around the mission, this idea of making disciples, multiplying churches. It’s like that has been rock solid from the beginning. When you think about we want churches to have discipleship at its core, this idea of a church that actually grows people up in their relationship with Christ. What matters most at the foundation? How are you keeping that so foundational to you know what’s happening at Mercy Hill?Andrew Hopper — Yeah, I think um I think that we always sort of bought into kind of what we see in Acts 2 as a little bit of a flywheel. We call it gather, group, give, go. A lot of churches have something like that.Andrew Hopper — The the difference, I think, at Mercy Hill a little bit than what I see ah in in in a lot of churches that we help mentor and coach is that 2020 hit and everybody was like, man, what is a church? What is discipleship? What are we going to do now? And and people were kind of… And I do think it was and it wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t just me. I mean, our, you know, our executive pastor Bobby, he was really integral in this. We sort of really doubled down on no, I kind of think the church is going to come back. Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — And I kind of think what we were doing is sort of what our church is set up to do. It kind of a brand thing. We are sort of a big box sending brand. And that, you know, for us, when we look at Acts 2, we’re like, dude, the gathering, there’s no more there’s no more important hour for discipleship and evangelism. And I know there’s a lot of things written against that. And people are kind of almost like downplaying it. Andrew Hopper — We’re just like, man, we just don’t believe it. We believe people need to be in a group. You know, we they need generosity is lead step in discipleship, give. And we got to teach people that there’s a mission bigger than themselves. And if we do that, it’s going to funnel more people into the gathering. Andrew Hopper — So I think fundamentally what I would say, we need to get, you know, we could talk about our value, you know we can talk about values to gospel and [inaudible] identity, but I think landing on you know, it’s very hard now to, to not get a word salad book form or thing. When you ask somebody, how are you making disciples? It can just be like…Rich Birch — Right. Very vacuous. Who knows what that means? Yeah.Andrew Hopper — For us, it’s just been a very clear, simple process.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — Like, man, we believe if someone is in the gathering, if they’re in relationship, if they’re being pushed on generosity, and if they’re living for a mission bigger than themselves, that’s a current of maturity that will move them. They just get in the stream, they’ll move.Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so good.Andrew Hopper — that’s kind of So you know for us, I think that’s as, you know we’ve we’ve tried to simplify things there.Rich Birch — Yeah. And, and your last episode, I’ve pointed a ton of people to it, uh, to really, and we really unpack a lot of what you talked about there in more detail.Andrew Hopper — Right. Yeah.Rich Birch — You’re going to want to go back and, uh, and listen to that. You’ve reached as a church, you’ve reached a lot of people who don’t grow up in church that it’s like, there’s a lot of people who are there. You know, we used to say we ain’t your mama’s church, but mama didn’t go to church, you know? So, you know, and it’s been a long time that people were there. What challenges have you seen, you know, helping move people from curiosity into real ongoing discipleship? So like, I think there are, we’re seeing a swell of attendance across the country. People are like, oh, I’m kind of interested in this, but we got to move them from just, oh, this is something interesting to like, oh, I’m actually want to grow my relationship with Jesus.Andrew Hopper — Yeah, I mean, and it’s it’s funny too, Rich, you probably have a better bird’s eye view of this than I do. But I feel like churches that have been faithfully growing for like the last 10 years, they’re not really doing a lot different now. Or even though there’s this big swell happening, what I do think is that some churches have sort of decided like, oh, clarity does matter.Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah, that’s true.Andrew Hopper — And don’t try to be friends with the culture. We’re going to speak in and be prophetic. And, you know, even even to the you know Proverbs 25:26 says, you know, there’s there there’s no there’s no benefit in a muddied spring. You know, it’s like you got to be sort of you got to figure out if we’re going to be clear.Andrew Hopper — So, I you know, for me, I think like and you’re right, we do reach most of the people that we reach that are in the camp that you’re talking about our college age. We reach a lot of people, though, ah that are, you know, they’re they’re coming back to the faith because they’re a southerner.Rich Birch — Sure.Andrew Hopper — You know, they they kind of they kind of were, you know, they they did have some church in their background. They’re coming back. Their kids are not only born, but they’re realizing they’re sinners and they don’t have answers. They’re trying to figure that out.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Andrew Hopper — They’re coming back to church.Andrew Hopper — And, you know, I think the biggest thing that moves people from like interest into a decision point is just being very clear on this is what the gospel is. This is the life it compels you to. Are you going to be in or out?Andrew Hopper — One of the things we say at Mercy Hill a lot is like, man, if you’re if you’re just intrigued, you know, if you’re interested, you’re not going to stay at Mercy Hill because we’re never going to let you, you’re going to get pushed every week. And it’s like, man, people are not really in or like that. I’m not going to do that. You know, they’re just like, no I’m not going to sit here and get like pushed every single week on something I don’t really… And the flip side is when people say, all right, you know what? Stake in the ground. I’m in.Rich Birch — Yeah, we’re doing this, yep.Andrew Hopper — I wanna look like this, I want to build my life on this. It’s like, well, now, you know, it’s it’s man, I’m hopefully, you know, putting tools in the belt every single week to live that life.Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, it’s good. I do think there was a time where people wandered into our churches where I don’t think that happens as much anymore. I think people, when they arrive, they come with questions, with live active questions that they’re trying to wrestle with, kind of regardless of where they’re they’re at in their journey.Andrew Hopper — Yeah.Rich Birch — And they’re what you to your point around, you know, there’s no benefit in a muddy stream. People aren’t looking for anything that sounds like, well, what do you think? Because the reason why they’re there is because they’re asking questions. And so, you know, they’re they’re looking for clarity, like I think you’re saying. Rich Birch — Well one of the things I love about your church is there’s a high commitment to, you’re you’re you’re tearing down what I think is a false dichotomy. Sometimes I think when churches come to this idea of outreach or making a difference in their community, there’s this there can be this gap or false dichotomy between doing good in our communities and making disciples. Like we gave that up at some point. We were like, you can’t, you know, we can’t do both of those things for some reason. Why, why did we do that? Why did we, as churches say, we can’t both make a difference in our communities and also make disciples?Andrew Hopper — Yeah, I think it’s, I actually have a lot of sympathy for the fundamentalist leaning. I know it sounds a little bit weird. Rich Birch — No, that’s fine.Andrew Hopper — Churches that led from the, you know, from the good do good in your city kind of thing. I don’t think they’re right, but I do have sympathy for that because I understand how quickly that sort of, you know, is so hijacked by liberal, by theological liberalism to where it’s finally man we’re digging wells and wherever but we’re not talking about who the true source of living water is. Like we don’t want to be offensive we just want to do good without speaking the whole you know you know live your life as a Christian only use words if necessary, whatever, you know. And and I so I understand why people kind of fled and have fled that.Andrew Hopper — Like, you know, I’ve even had our church before when I when I talk about adoption or we we have a ministry, and a ministry called No More Spectators. We’re like moving people towards community ministry. And we had people kind of going on like, oh, my gosh, this seems like a sign of like churches start going this way and then they lose the gospel.Andrew Hopper — And I’m like, well, the reason you’re kind of feeling like that is because a lot of churches have done that. You know, you’re not [inaudible] like that just out of nowhere. Now, of course, I think it’s a little bit immature and we’ve got to push through. The way we talk about it, Rich, is, man, we want to do good in our community as signs of the kingdom coming.Andrew Hopper — They are not building the kingdom. You know, if we go repaint a house or house a homeless person, one day that person would parted with that house, whether they, you know, get messed up and leave or whether they do great and then would die one day, you know.Andrew Hopper — Or, if we have, ah you know, if we go and, and you know, we’re going to, for example, we have ah ah a family in our church that they need a ramp built because, man, the the brother is struggling with MS and he’s, they’re they’re fighting it like Christians do. We’re going to go do that. You know, we’re going to go build that ramp. That ramp’s going to rot and die one, you know, rot and rot away one day. And, you know, whether it’s 100 years from now or whatever.Andrew Hopper — Like it’s not literally the kingdom. But when the outside world sees us engage and, you know, our church will talk about this primarily when we think about community ministry, we think about it in terms of adoption, foster care and families count, which I can talk to you about. I think it’s bringing a sign of the kingdom that is to the community around us to say, hey, this is not the gospel. But it sure points to the gospel. Rich Birch — Right, right.Andrew Hopper — You know, it’s a pretty good signpost of like, yeah, there’s a kingdom coming where kids aren’t separated from their parents, you know. And and so that’s kind of the way that we think about, it’s not, you know, it’s not the kingdom. It’s a sign of the kingdom that is coming.Rich Birch — Yeah, let’s let’s dive in. So adoptions, foster care, families count. These are not small issues. Like you started with like putting a ramp on, painting somebody – those are like, okay, I can organize my head around that. And then we jump to what I think are obviously significant. How, it can be easy, I think, for church leaders it can be easy where, you know, we got a lot of fish to fry in our own backyard. When you see big problems like that, help us unpack that. Why do you as a lead pastor, why are you passionate about these issues? Why are these the things that you’ve chosen?Andrew Hopper — I think it’s, man, I think it’s great. I mean if you can’t if you don’t mind I’ll go back and give you a little bit of context. I’m a context [inaudible]… Rich Birch — Yeah, absolutely. Let’s do it. Yeah. Andrew Hopper — …number one so I always want to frame it in where we’ve been. But the short answer to the question is I think that every church because it is made up of individual believers that have individual gift matrix, you know they’re they’re gifted the church is gifted in a unique way because the people which are the church are gifted in a unique way, right? Andrew Hopper — And so to me, you know, slapping, you know, a top down every single church has to to manifest signs of the kingdom in X way, which, for for example, I’m not to pick on it, but like, you know, the whole diversity church kind of movement. I love you know, if that’s your brand, that’s awesome. That’s great. Go, go bring signs of the kingdom in that area. But you know what people do is they take their thing and then slap it on every single church. You know, this is the sign of the kingdom that you have to manifest.Andrew Hopper — I don’t think that. It takes every kind of church to reach a city because there’s all you know, there’s every kind of people in the city. Right? For us, though, and I think for a lot of churches that that maybe are are made up a little bit like we are, I think there is a lot of meat on the bone for adoption, foster care, families count ministry. And I think churches could be greatly helped by latching on to maybe, you know, something in particular, maybe this, maybe this specifically. How we got there, Rich, was we had we had, you know, huge movement in our church in 2019. I was very convicted.Andrew Hopper — Some of the exponential stuff was coming out, you know, mobilizing people outside the walls of the church. And I really was, man, I was just really affected by that. And I don’t want the dichotomy, you know, I don’t want, well, you your people serve in the church and not outside the church. It’s like, no, most people serve outside the church. If you watch them, they are serving inside the church as well. It’s it’s like a it’s like, man, you know, just just because serving inside the church is not the finish line, don’t demonize it because it is a starting place.Rich Birch — That’s good.Andrew Hopper — So it’s like, I don’t like that kind of whole thing. But but it did affect me to say, OK, what are we doing to push to the outside? So we we we did a thing. You would have loved this, man. But it except for the fact that it didn’t really work that good. OK, it was awesome.Andrew Hopper — It was, we still have the domain name – nomorespectators.com – I had the tagline: Jesus didn’t die to create spectators. He died to create servants, not spectators, workers, not watchers. We, man, you could go to nomorespectators.com and, you know, it was like, it was like a funnel for all of these community ministry opportunities in our city. So it was, you know, people from the housing, you know, authority type stuff would post things. And it was, it was all this kind of, it had a bunch of stuff in it. Andrew Hopper — In the end of the day, great idea. It was a little too complex. Our people latched on to the foster care, pregnancy network, you know, ended up being families count, Guardian ad Litem and adoption. So our guy that was over all that at the time our sending director, which is hard for me to have a good idea that ends up dying hard, okay that’s just tough for me.Rich Birch — You had a great sticky statement and everything. Come on.Andrew Hopper — I’m the king of sunken cost bias. Okay. Like, I’m like, dude. And so finally around 2020, he came to me and he said, bro, I know this is hard for you. Cause it was like a two year initiative. He’s like, this is hard. He said, No More Spectators needs to just turn into Chosen. And it needs to be like, you had this idea for 30 different things. It just, this needs to be our niche, man. You know, we we don’t do a lot of these other things, but we do this really well.Andrew Hopper — And it was hard for me. Ultimately, it was great wisdom by them, not me. And we started going down that road. And partly, I think it’s because, Rich, is heart is near to my heart. I have an adopted daughter. A lot of our staff have adopted kids. We just have a guy right now. Our associate director of first impressions at the Rich campus is in Texas right now, you know, bringing their daughter home.Andrew Hopper — I mean, so it’s just, and so it’s sort of started to morph into, and the the the big thing I’ll say, and I, you know, I’ve been talking a lot here, but the big thing I’ll say is, if you think about the way I just ah described all that, it doesn’t start with the need in the community. It starts with the gift matrix of the church. The poor we will always have with us. Like there there is no there’s no scenario until Jesus comes back that there’s no kids that need to be adopted, you know.Rich Birch — Right, right.Andrew Hopper — And it’s just the reality of it. And so there’s always going to be need in the community. It’s more about, okay, what are the Ephesians 2:10 works that your church, because the church is made up of people who are individually called, what are the you know what are those works that God has set out for your church? Rich Birch — That’s good.Andrew Hopper — And, you know, so for us, we just felt like, dude, this is a a heartbeat thing. Our people got more, they get more fired up. The greatest thing I’ve ever been able to mobilize our people for prayer for is go to the abortion clinic and pray. I mean, a thousand people on their face in the pavement. It’s like, it just strikes a chord with our church and who we are. So we wanna run after that.Rich Birch — Yeah. Well, I love that. And we’re going to dig out a bunch of this, but let’s think about it first from a perspective of somebody who’s maybe attended your church. They just started. They’re they’re relatively new, you know. The idea of something as weighty as adoption or foster care, that’s a big ask. And you know when you yeah how do I experience that as someone who’s just new? What are some ways that I could get plugged in? What does that look like? That, that, cause I, I’m hard, it’s hard to imagine that I go from zero to, to, you know, adoption, you know, how do I end up or flying to Texas to, you know, pick up a kid. That’s a lot. Help me understand. How are you, cause I know you guys are so good at moving people along from kind of where they are to where you’re hoping to – what’s that look like? What’s the kind of, how do you bring people along in this?Andrew Hopper — Man, totally. I think you’re right. I think it’s a combination of big vision on one end and then baby steps on the other. But the big vision matters.Rich Birch — That’s good.Andrew Hopper — Like we don’t want to be scared of the big vision. So, you know, for example, our weekender process, which I know you talked about some, you know, that weekender process, you know, people literally for years, we would give them a passport application in the weekender process. Because we’re like you’re at this church you’re probably going to be overseas at some point on a mission trip. And so to me it’s like people are like dude that probably scares the crap out of people. And it’s like well, I mean we want to make sure they know what they’re getting into, you know. We’re not telling them they got to do that tomorrow… Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — …but that is the, and then and then there’s all these baby steps, right? Like hey come to you know, every February we do Sent weekend. Come to the prayer night. Like that’s a baby step. That’s not you getting on a plane to go to Nepal. But you know hey we’re doing this missions offering at the end of the year, like maybe get you know. So there’s all these I would say that our the way we think about Chosen ministry, which again: adoption, foster care, families count, and rope holding, which is a big part of this discussion… Rich Birch — Okay. Andrew Hopper —…is that way. It’s big vision on the front end so we’re never going to tell somebody, hey you know, I know you could never do this. Like I’ll never…I think people can do it and they should. Or or you know more Christians than are should. At the same time we’re also not guilting anybody. Like so I’m I you know the the first thing I’ll tell people is like, hey, you know we start talking about adoption. I always say always say, hey, we have not lined up a bunch of little kids in the lobby for you to take one home today, okay. And then I’ll tell them, that’s next week.Rich Birch — That’s great.Andrew Hopper — Okay, so yeah but and we we try hard to like put some levity in it. Man, we’re not everybody’s not going to do that. In fact, a minority, of a small minority is going to do it. But everyone can be involved and there are baby steps.Andrew Hopper — So we try to highlight giving, man. Like if you someone adopts from Mercy Hill, we pay 25% of their adoption. Okay.Rich Birch — Wow. Yep.Andrew Hopper — If they’re a member and they’re in a community group, they get 25%. All right, well, you know, we’re going to connect that. Like, man, you you are never going to adopt. You feel like that’s, but it’s like, well, I give $100 a month to the church. Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — Well, hey, what? You know, you’re you are you are supporting.Rich Birch — We’re making a difference.Andrew Hopper — We do parents night out, you know, for all of our foster and adoptive parents. We do it quarterly. It’s like, hey, those are opportunities to come and serve, man. You can serve the meal you can do. We do rope holding, which I know we’ll probably talk about. But but the the idea of rope holding is just like, man, I’m not going to do this, but I can be in the corner for somebody. They’re in my community group. I want to be their first call if they need a babysitter or they need, you know, a gift card, or whatever they need.Andrew Hopper — So I think, man, we try to do big vision. You know, we’re going we’re going to set a huge vision, you know, for 2030 for 2030. Actually, we just hit our vision for 2025, which is 200 adoptive or foster families. There’s a lot of ways people can be involved with it.Rich Birch — So good. There’s, I think thing I would encourage friends who are listening in, you really should be following Mercy Hill, Andrew, because I do think you’re a very unique communicator where you, and you just described it. And I think to you, it’s just like, that’s just what you do. But this idea of like, you’re calling people to a high bar, but you’re not leveraging shame, guilt. you know, it’s, and I think so many times our language can kind of lean in that direction. Or we can, if we really are trying to push people towards something, or we can just undersell the vision. You know We can be like, oh, it’s not that it’s not that big of a deal. You know It’s not for everybody. So I would encourage people to listen in.Rich Birch — Talk to me about rope holding. How is that, what’s that look like? Unpack what that looks like a little bit.Andrew Hopper — Yeah, so rope so the the the rope-holding analogy, which a lot of your listeners probably gonna already know this, but you know William Carey, Andrew Fuller, William Carey, father of modern missions, he’s he he he makes the statement, “I’ll dangle at the end of the rope in the pit, if you’ll hold the rope,” talking to Fuller. And Fuller held the rope for him. Like, you know, Carey the mission field, Fuller’s raising money, preaching sermons, organizing mission boards. So that’s kind of the picture. Right.Andrew Hopper — So we say, all right, not everybody is going to go down into the pit of foster care adoption, even even families count. I mean, these are these are massive spiritual warfare battlegrounds you know um which is one of the reasons why our church wants to be involved so much. I mean you if you want to talk about getting to the you can do all the rhetoric in the world, brother, you want to get to the very bottom of societal issues, you you be involved in somebody’s story that’s trying that’s trying to get their kids back from the foster care system. You’re trying to help them with that. I mean, every you could fatherlessness, poverty, drug abuse. I mean, everything you can think, you know.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — So this this is just spiritual war. So what we tell people is like, hey, man. If we got people that are mobilizing for for adoption and foster care, we better have people in their corne,r because the enemy is going to bring his war machine.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — And we see it all the time. I mean, you’re going to see, you know, a family steps in to adopt and you’re going to start seeing them, you know, there can be sickness. They can have marital problems. They can have financial things that come up. They can begin to believe lies, frustrations. I mean, There’s just so they can become, you know, their their heart can start getting hard toward the system. I mean, there’s so many things that come at them. And so what we say is we need people in their corner, right. Andrew Hopper — Now, it’s funny because like the way our church has operated was at first we said, all right, we’re going to we’re going to do, you know, the the community group is going hold the rope for the people. And and that that was fine. The problem is when we really kicked off this ministry, so many people got involved that it became overwhelming to the group. So we said we got to start this… Rich Birch — Right. Andrew Hopper — …rope holding ministry. The rope holder ministry is good. It’s like, what does a rope holder do? They kind of do whatever the person needs them to do. Rich Birch — Right. Andrew Hopper — So there are examples of the rope holding ministry going really well, where it’s like, hey, man, they’re they’re helping with ah child care with the other kids when they’re going to foster care appointments in court. And or, hey, we’re we’re helping you do some things around the house whenever you’re overseas doing your adoption, which is going to put you three weeks in country. You know, there are some good examples like that. Andrew Hopper — But the other thing that we’ve learned is, you know, foster care and adoption families that are that are walking through this, they’re going through a very trying time. And to just pair them with somebody they don’t know and say, hey, look, here’s your supporter, it can be a little bit like, oh, that’s awesome, and then they never reach out to them.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — They never reach out – the rope holder’s ready.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — But it’s just like, dude, I don’t I don’t know you. And this is a hard time.Rich Birch — Who are you? Yeah, yeah.Andrew Hopper — And so what we’re trying to figure out now as we reboot that rope holder idea is, you know, how how do you kind of integrate relationships they’ve already had? Almost like, hey, do you have this massive pool of people called rope holders? Or when an adoptive family comes up, you say to them, hey, who can we shoulder tap, rope holder for you.Rich Birch — That’s good.Andrew Hopper — And then we’ll train them.Rich Birch — Oh, that’s cool. Yeah.Andrew Hopper — But not have this pool, but say for you, we’ll put them in. So that’s kind of what we’re, so as part of our reboot for 2030, you know, that’s sort of what’s in our mind right now.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool.Andrew Hopper — We have a whole playbook for the way we’ve done it, which anybody, you know, if anybody wants any of those things, they can go to AndrewPHopper.com/chosen. And I can send you any of that stuff we have, but on the rope holder side, you know, just full transparency, we’re still, you know, kind of, of you know, and I’m sure it’ll always be that way that we make an improvement.Rich Birch — Yeah, always trying to make it better. Yeah. And I want to, yeah, at some point in this journey, you decided, hey, we’ve got to put this vision and framework into writing, like we and you actually ended up writing a book, and friends who are listening in, I want to encourage you to pick up a copy of this book. Listen, we’re almost half an hour in. I know you’re interested in this. This is the kind of thing you, Andrew’s a trusted leader. He’s, I’ve had a chance to take a peek at the book. This will be super helpful for you. But, but that’s a lot of effort to put this together into a book. What pushed you from just leading this ministry to ultimately saying, hey, I want to capture this into a resource that could help other people?Andrew Hopper — Well, you know, Rich, I never really saw myself as like a writer, just like a practitioner, man. Let’s just keep keep working on the thing and going.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — And truthfully, I got approached. Hey, would you have any interest in writing? You know, New Growth Press is the one that’s editing this book and putting it out. And it was funny, though, because the second I was asked, I was like, man, I know what we should do [inaudible] that should be what we should do. It’s it’s our it’s it’s my story’s family story with our special needs child that we’ve adopted. It’s our church’s journey. But more important than either of those two things, it’s a grounding in the gospel-centered motivation. Because I think that is what is so important. We don’t do guilt motivation. And you know, cute kids and sad, cute kids and and sad stories are good reasons, but they you need a great reason, because it’s hard. Rich Birch — That’s good. Yep.Andrew Hopper — You know, and the great reason is of course, adopted people adopt people. And so we delve way into the helplessness of our spiritual condition, how God adopted us and then how, you know, that provides a deep motivation for us to go and do the same for others.Rich Birch — Can you unpack that a little bit more? Because I think this is, ah to me, a core part of the book that I think is really helpful. Even if you’re maybe listening in, you’re thinking, okay, I’m not sure adoption or foster care is necessarily the thing, but you unpack this idea of gospel rather than guilt. And can you talk us through, you know, how, yeah, just talk us through that part, that concept a bit more. Just double click on that a little bit.Andrew Hopper — Yeah. So, you know, when we think about behaviors that flow from the Christian life, there’s really only two ways to think about it, right? Like one of them is we try to do things in order that God would approve of us, you know, that he would, you know, he would, ah he would, he would let us in his family, you know, those those types of things. And we, you know, this is for a lot of Baptistic world, which I am, this was kind of like, wow, this is really revolutionary, but that was 20 years ago – Keller and all that. You know, we just started understanding what more of a gospel center motivation. Andrew Hopper — Of course, the other way to think about Christian behaviors is you are part of the family because of what Christ has done for you. And the family has a culture. The family works a certain way. There’s fruit that will pop out in your life, not so that you can gain entrance into the vine. That’s not how it works. Like, ah you know, you don’t you don’t produce fruit to get in the vine. You produce fruit because you’re in the vine. Andrew Hopper — And so, you know, when we think about like like Titus 2, for example, we think about how the grace of God appears to all men, teaching us not just salvation, but teaching us to obey his commands. So there’s something about salvation that and is inherent to the gospel-centered motivation of of of going out, living the Christian life. You know, it’s it’s kind of the John Bunyan idea when they said, man, if you, you know, if you keep preaching this gospel message, people are going to do whatever they want to do. And he said, no, if I keep preaching this gospel message, people are going to do whatever God wants them to do. Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — You know, and so I think what we’ve done in this book is just say, hey, that that is true universally in our Christian life. Like if I’m not tithing and I’m stingy, I can do motivation in two ways. Number one, how dare you, you piece of trash that you never, you know why would you never give? Look what God, you know, blah blah blah, blah, blah, guilt, guilt, shame, shame. Right. Andrew Hopper — Of course, the other way to say is like, man, what kind of riches has God given you in the gospel? And what kind of inheritance do you now have as a son of the king? It’s like, all right, that’s powerful, you know, and it will it will take us places that guilt never can. Guilt will work for a while. You can put fire under somebody and it’ll move them. But if you put it in them, they’ll run through a wall, you know. Rich Birch — So true.Andrew Hopper — And so it’s like it’s like, hey, OK, so you could do it with all these different things. We’ve tried to take this book and do that with adoption to say, all right.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — We know James 1:27, we need to care for the fatherless and the orphan. We understand. I mean, dude, there ain’t, when you talk about metaphors, there’s two big ones, marriage and adoption, you know? And so if you want to do adoption well, we can do it from two motivations. One motivation is look how many kids need. That’s all and that’s all true. That moves my heart. You know, look, can you believe this story of this kid? And that’s fine.Andrew Hopper — Of course, you could do guilt, too. Like, how dare you, you know, have this nice, happy family and not go adopt a little poor orphan kid. You know, you could do guilt. All those things will be fine. They’ll put fire under you a little bit. But if you want to put the fire in someone that is going to carry them through the long haul of all this stuff, I think it’s better to start with: All right. There’s kids that need to be chosen. Were you chosen?Andrew Hopper — You know, so like one of the you know, one I’ll give you an example. We know of a family here in the tribe. They’ve got an awesome son that is 20-something years old, kids got Down syndrome, and they adopted him from Ecuador. And his story was one day a carpenter was working on this building and he heard cries coming out of a dump, like a trash heap. This child had just been born and been left you know with his deformities had just been left for the dumpster. Andrew Hopper — And they brought him to the orphanage. And next thing you know, you know about three or four years later, he got adopted by this family that we know. And that family’s father, he said, Eddie’s story is my story. I was pulled from a trash heap by a carpenter. And if you it’s like that is powerful. Rich Birch — Right. Yes.Andrew Hopper — You know, when you start thinking about, man, in my sin, I was one who had no part and parcel in the kingdom of God. I was headlong in rebellion. I had rejected. I was not a son. And God lavished his love upon me, that I would be called his child. And if if that has happened to me spiritually, how could I not want to do that? Or at least help those. you know I’m not saying that’s a call for everybody, but be involved in others that are doing that as well.Andrew Hopper — And so that’s what we say. Adopted people, adopt people, chosen people, choose people. And hey, I didn’t answer your last question. Rich Birch — That’s fine.Andrew Hopper — Okay. Your last question was, why did we write the book? Very simply, I think more people just need to think about what I just said. You know, and I think churches do. And I think that if, you know, a lot of churches have adoption-minded people and a little bit of of fuel in that fire might create some really cool ministry in that church. And this book lays really well for being like, man, make it a small group resource for eight weeks. You know, it’s got questions at the end of each chapter.Andrew Hopper — Like my my prayer is that this book would catalyze tens of thousands of Christian adoptions. Rich Birch — Wow. Andrew Hopper — And that’s why we wrote the book.Rich Birch — Yeah. It’s and I thought the same thing as I was looking through it, that this would be a great resource for a small group, a great resource as a staff training thing. Because again, I think there’s two things happening on two levels. From my perspective, there’s what you’re actually talking about – adoption, but then there’s how you talk about it. And I think even both of those, I think could be interesting as a as a staff team to kind of unpack and think about. How do we ensure that what we’re doing is so gospel-infused. That’s part of why i love you as a communicator. I think you do such a good job on that. It’s just fantastic. So I would strongly encourage people to pick it up.Rich Birch — Help me understand the connection. So Mercy Hill is known for, or at least from my perspective, known as a sending church. You know, the thing, one of the and I’ve told again, I told you this before, you’re the first church leader I’ve ever bumped into that has connected new here guests to number of missionaries sent. This like idea of like this funnel of how do we move people all the way along to that? I think that’s incredible. How does that kind of sending culture and adoption, how does that fit together? How does that help kind of fuel the flywheel of what’s happening at Mercy Hill?Andrew Hopper — Well, you you helped me think about this when you came and did our one day for our for our Breaking Barriers group, you know, for the pastoral trainings that we do. Because in your church growth book, you talk about how, ah you know, community ministry is used as an evangelism tool. I’m not, I’m probably butchering the way you talk about it.Rich Birch — Yep. Yep. Oh, that’s good. Yep. That’s great.Andrew Hopper — That was like a big light bulb for me because because we we definitely do that, but we have not leveraged the communications of that.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — And so, um you know, for us now, what we’re trying to really think about is how does our adoption of foster care ministry and rope holding and families count ministry, how does that create open? We call them open doors, right? Rich Birch — Yep.Andrew Hopper — Like, how does it create open doors, questions in the community, where people come in? And we’ve seen it. You know, so like when we’re talking about the sending culture, that pipeline starts when new people get interested in faith, they get interested in church.Andrew Hopper — And, you know, like, for example, we we had a guy, we just did a historic video. Man, he’s saved, baptized, serving now, ah or, you know, family, young family, prototypical Mercy Hill guy, like, man, just you know blue collar heart, white collar job, just that. I mean, just everything we talk about. Right. He’s our he’s kind of our guy. And the way he got connected was his boss had signed up to be a rope holder. And it just blew his mind. Like, why would a guy take limited time and go help these families? I mean, he of course, he thought it was a good thing. But it really intrigued them. Andrew Hopper — And so we’ve tried to we’re trying to leverage more of the communication side. It’s tricky. You don’t want to be like, hey, look at us you know in the community. At the same time, I’m like, man, this year, you know when we’re going to do a pretty significant upgrade to some of the there our foster care system has, there’s a house that has a backyard and the backyard is where families come to play with kids, play with their kids they’re trying to get back from the foster care.Rich Birch — Right. Yep.Andrew Hopper — And we’ve said like, you know what, man, if these parents are putting in, that needs to be like the best, the best backyard, and you know?Rich Birch — Right. Yeah, absolutely. 100%.Andrew Hopper — And so, you know, we’re, we’re going to do a significant investment in some, you know, whatever…Rich Birch — Play structures and yeah. Andrew Hopper — …like a, you know, whatever, like a pergola type thing. They’re going put a shed out there. All going to connect it, pavers, all that stuff is what we want to do. And, you know, we’re, we’re looking at that and I’m going like, yeah, I mean, I get it. Like you don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, but at the same time, that’s not for us. That’s for people that are interested to say like, why would a church do that? You know, like why do they care so much?Andrew Hopper — And it’s because, Hey, sign of the kingdom. We want to build families through adoption. We want to restore families through foster care and families count. This is part of that. So we’ve tried to we’ve tried to use it as a way. And I would really encourage church leaders to think about that. Like, hey, is your community ministry actually an evangelism strategy?Rich Birch — Right. Yeah, that’s good. Love that. And yeah, I would encourage you continue to encourage you to think through those things because I do think that there’s, we’ve seen that there’s huge opportunity for folks who don’t normally attend church. They’re interested the way I’ve said in other contexts is they see it as a good thing. We see it as a God thing. We’re not going to fight them over the semantics of it at the front end. Because like you say it’s it’s the kingdom puncturing through that grabs their attention and you’re like oh what what you know what’s going on there? It’s a first step – how do we encourage those people? Rich Birch — Like on that backyard project, I no doubt if you’re rallying a bunch of guys to go work there, I know that there are guys in your church who have friends who they could invite who don’t attend church who maybe would never walk in your church who’d say, hey, will you come and work for a Saturday for a couple hours and swing a hammer and help us do this thing? Let me explain what this is about.They absolutely would show up, right? 100% they’d show up and and they’ll get intrigued by that. And they’ll be like, oh, what’s going on there? That’s that’s fantastic. Rich Birch — Well, friends, unabashedly, I want you to pick up copies of, not just a copy, copies of this book. So where do we want to send people to pick up copies, that sort of thing?Andrew Hopper — Yeah, man, they can just go to andrewphopper.com/chosen. Rich Birch — Perfect. Yep.Andrew Hopper — The book’s out so they can pick up a copy. I mean, it’s also just like on Amazon or whatever, but that link will take you straight to New Growth Press.Rich Birch — Right.Andrew Hopper — So, yeah, man, would love it. Would love to hear from anybody who’s using it well in a church context um to catalyze Christian adoption.Rich Birch — Love it. Anything else you want to share just as we close and how can people track, go to the website, other places we want to send them as we close up today.Andrew Hopper — Also on Instagram, we have a lot of stuff on Instagram, andrewphopper on Instagram. Yeah, the last thing I would say as a closing thought, Rich, is you know, the Christian adoption boom has sort of happened 20 years ago. People started talking about this a lot more. And now you can feel in some of the podcast world and all that, there’s a bit of a backlash, not not to don’t do it, but also like, hey, no one told us how hard this was going to be. Andrew Hopper — You’re dealing with traumatic situations, kids that have been brought, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s crazy. One thing I try to do in this book is I try to say, Hey, that’s not a good reason to take our ball and go home, you know.Rich Birch — That’s good.Andrew Hopper — Instead we just need to try to shoot as straight as we can. And I do that in this book, man. It is hard. It’s you’re on the front lines of spiritual war. I mean, it’s almost like, dude, the, the, the greatest transfer of faith from one generation to another happens in the home. We love it when adults get saved. I get that. But let’s be honest. Statistically, where does it normally happen? Right. Rich Birch — Yeah. Kids. Andrew Hopper — And so if you got a home that’s broken apart, that Christians are trying to put back together, what did we think Satan was going to do? You know, and so instead of taking our ball and going home, let’s just call it what it is, and then ask the Lord to steel our spine… Rich Birch — That’s good. Andrew Hopper — …and to move forward with the mission. So, yeah, man, I’d love for people to pick it up. And I appreciate the time to talk about it today.Rich Birch — Andrew, thanks so much. Appreciate you. Just want to honor you for the work you do. You’re a great leader. And I love how God’s using you and your church to make a difference. Thanks for being on the show today.Andrew Hopper — Thanks, brother.

Mike has a few restaurant recommendations for Kristi Noem and the ICE team in town today!!The federal Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that Secretary Kristi Noem was in the Twin Cities, as a federal immigration crackdown continues.The agency posted a video to social media on Tuesday morning, showing Noem accompanying federal agents as they detained a man.The agency and Noem, in separate social media posts, labeled the video as being taken in Minneapolis — but it appeared to show the operation taking place at a building on Payne Avenue in St. Paul.DHS said the man is from Ecuador and is in the U.S. illegally, and that he's wanted for murder and sexual assault. Noem said that warrant is from Ecuador, and said he was also convicted of robbery and extortion. DHS and Noem did not provide further details on those cases.It was not immediately clear how long Noem would be in the Twin Cities.It's now been more than a month since federal officials announced an immigration operation targeting the Twin Cities. The agency has previously said that it's made hundreds of arrests.Gov. Tim Walz, who ended his bid for a third term Monday, sharply criticized the federal enforcement effort, raising concerns about both the scale of the operation and the lack of coordination with state officials. “We have a ridiculous surge of apparently 2,000 people not coordinating with us that are for a show of the cameras,” Walz said. “Why 2,000 folks? What are they coming to do? Do they want to coordinate with us?”MPR News contacted both ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to confirm the number of agents being deployed to Minnesota. DHS responded with a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, saying, “While for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint, DHS has surged law enforcement and has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members.”Walz said the increased ICE presence is creating fear among immigrant communities, particularly communities of color. “What he's [Trump] doing to the Somali community is absolutely unconscionable,” Walz said, adding, "If you want us to fix fraud, come and help us do that. They're not interested in that.” Walz said he views the federal action as part of a broader political attack on Minnesota. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Having visited all 63 U.S. national parks, we felt it was time to broaden our scope and explore one of the most popular and biologically diverse national parks outside the United States: Galápagos National Park. Located hundreds of miles west of mainland Ecuador, this archipelago of tropical islands straddles the equator. Because the islands were isolated from other landmasses for millions of years, many plants and animals evolved into species found nowhere else on Earth. Much of the wildlife you encounter in the Galápagos exists only there. Galaxy Cruises recently hosted our visit to this remarkable national park for four days and five nights aboard their EcoGalaxy catamaran. If you'd like to learn more about Galaxy Cruises, follow this link. And if you use the promo code MattandKaren at checkout, you'll receive a 5% discount. If you use this code, we may earn a marketing fee, but you won't pay anything extra. Here are some of the topics we cover in this episode: · A brief overview of the Galápagos, including a bit of history · Our stay in Quito, Ecuador's capital, for a couple of days before the cruise · The flight from Quito to the islands and the process of getting through immigration, customs, and paying the park entrance fee · Our daily activities during the cruise, including what we did and what we saw - like snorkeling in deep water for the first time while sea lions swam alongside of us · Our impressions of the EcoGalaxy, the crew, and the accommodations · And more! ----- We now post ad-free versions of our episodes on our Patreon account (search for mattandkarensmith). If you are interested in joining, follow this link to check it out. Subscribe to The Dear Bob and Sue Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and if you've enjoyed our show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. Five-star ratings help other listeners find our show. Follow us on Instagram at @mattandkarensmith, on Facebook at mattandkarensmith, or check out our blog at https://www.mattandkaren.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike has a few restaurant recommendations for Kristi Noem and the ICE team in town today!!The federal Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that Secretary Kristi Noem was in the Twin Cities, as a federal immigration crackdown continues.The agency posted a video to social media on Tuesday morning, showing Noem accompanying federal agents as they detained a man.The agency and Noem, in separate social media posts, labeled the video as being taken in Minneapolis — but it appeared to show the operation taking place at a building on Payne Avenue in St. Paul.DHS said the man is from Ecuador and is in the U.S. illegally, and that he's wanted for murder and sexual assault. Noem said that warrant is from Ecuador, and said he was also convicted of robbery and extortion. DHS and Noem did not provide further details on those cases.It was not immediately clear how long Noem would be in the Twin Cities.It's now been more than a month since federal officials announced an immigration operation targeting the Twin Cities. The agency has previously said that it's made hundreds of arrests.Gov. Tim Walz, who ended his bid for a third term Monday, sharply criticized the federal enforcement effort, raising concerns about both the scale of the operation and the lack of coordination with state officials. “We have a ridiculous surge of apparently 2,000 people not coordinating with us that are for a show of the cameras,” Walz said. “Why 2,000 folks? What are they coming to do? Do they want to coordinate with us?”MPR News contacted both ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to confirm the number of agents being deployed to Minnesota. DHS responded with a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, saying, “While for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint, DHS has surged law enforcement and has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members.”Walz said the increased ICE presence is creating fear among immigrant communities, particularly communities of color. “What he's [Trump] doing to the Somali community is absolutely unconscionable,” Walz said, adding, "If you want us to fix fraud, come and help us do that. They're not interested in that.” Walz said he views the federal action as part of a broader political attack on Minnesota. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The federal Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that Secretary Kristi Noem was in the Twin Cities, as a federal immigration crackdown continues.The agency posted a video to social media on Tuesday morning, showing Noem accompanying federal agents as they detained a man. The agency and Noem, in separate social media posts, labeled the video as being taken in Minneapolis — but it appeared to show the operation taking place at a building on Payne Avenue in St. Paul.DHS said the man is from Ecuador and is in the U.S. illegally, and that he's wanted for murder and sexual assault. Noem said that warrant is from Ecuador, and said he was also convicted of robbery and extortion. DHS and Noem did not provide further details on those cases.It was not immediately clear how long Noem would be in the Twin Cities. It's now been more than a month since federal officials announced an immigration operation targeting the Twin Cities. The agency has previously said that it's made hundreds of arrests.Gov. Tim Walz, who ended his bid for a third term Monday, sharply criticized the federal enforcement effort, raising concerns about both the scale of the operation and the lack of coordination with state officials. “We have a ridiculous surge of apparently 2,000 people not coordinating with us that are for a show of the cameras,” Walz said. “Why 2,000 folks? What are they coming to do? Do they want to coordinate with us?”MPR News contacted both ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to confirm the number of agents being deployed to Minnesota. DHS responded with a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, saying, “While for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint, DHS has surged law enforcement and has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members.”Walz said the increased ICE presence is creating fear among immigrant communities, particularly communities of color. “What he's [Trump] doing to the Somali community is absolutely unconscionable,” Walz said, adding, "If you want us to fix fraud, come and help us do that. They're not interested in that.” Walz said he views the federal action as part of a broader political attack on Minnesota. Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez said he has not received confirmation from the federal government about the reported deployment of 2,000 agents but said the impact of increased enforcement is already being felt across the city.“There hasn't been information shared with me at the city level,” Chavez said. “But what we are witnessing on the ground, is that we have already seen an escalation of ICE agents across our city and across the state.”Chavez said community members in South Minneapolis are reporting agents stopping and detaining people early in the morning as they head to work. “We have already seen it starting really early in the morning as people were heading to work, getting stopped and being kidnapped by ICE,” he said.He described seeing agents in tactical gear and an increase in unmarked vehicles.“We're seeing the tactical gear all over Lake Street and across South Minneapolis,” Chavez said. “We're seeing a ton of unmarked vehicles and we have witnessed folks already being detained.”Chavez said he is particularly concerned about racial profiling and due process. Meanwhile, the Immigrant Defense Network — a statewide coalition of more than 100 organizations — is launching constitutional observer trainings across the state to help community members document and respond to federal enforcement activity.

Lithium, a crucial input in the batteries powering electric vehicles, has the potential to save the world from climate change. But even green solutions come at a cost. Mining lithium is environmentally destructive. We therefore confront a dilemma: Is it possible to save the world by harming it in the process? Having spent over a decade researching mining and oil sectors in Latin America, Thea Riofrancos is a leading voice on resource extraction. In this episode, we discuss her 2025 book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, in which she draws on groundbreaking fieldwork on the global race for lithium. Taking readers from the breathtaking salt flats of Chile's Atacama Desert to Nevada's glorious Silver Peak Range to the rolling hills of the Barroso Region of Portugal, the book reveals the social and environmental costs of “critical minerals.” She takes stock of new policy paradigms in the Global South, where governments seek to leverage mineral assets to jumpstart green development. Zooming out from lithium, we also discuss the evolving geopolitics and geoeconomics of energy transition, critical minerals, and green technology supply chains. — Thea Riofrancos is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, a Strategic Co-Director of the Climate and Community Institute, and a fellow at the Transnational Institute. Her research focuses on resource extraction, climate change, the energy transition, the global lithium sector, green technologies, social movements, and the Latin American left. She explored these themes in her book, Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020), peer-reviewed articles in Cultural Studies, World Politics, and Global Environmental Politics, and her coauthored book, A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019). Her essays have appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, and more. Thea's latest book, which we discuss on this episode, is Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton 2025). Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton 2025) The Security–Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North in Global Environmental Politics 2022 Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020) A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

#ELOsoFumarTakes – #351stTake It's that time of year again… my Top Ten Cigars of 2025 are about to be revealed.       WELCOME BACK! HAPPY NEW YEAR! The night is here! The time is right! It's time for the #ELOsoFumarTakes Top 10 Cigars of 2025! Once again, the legendary George Brightman joins us for the Top 10 Countdown for the ages! I've sent George my top ten cigars for him to sample and taste test blind. He gives an honest breakdown alongside my own assessments. Enjoy! Criteria: It's vitola based. I had to have smoked the cigar for the first time in the last year and a half.* It must not suck. No limited edition cigars (i.e. TAA, shop exclusive) are eligible. A previous number 1 cigar winner (blend-specific, i.e. 2017 Winner Espinosa Habano) cannot be on this year's Top 10 or repeat as winner.* A company cannot have more than 1 cigar on the Top 10, however, may be considered for honorable mention.* THE BIG ONE: frequency of smoke. Basically, I had to have the means AND opportunity AND did, in fact, smoke the cigar frequently.   Just to review, here is last year's list: Top 10 Cigars of 2024: Tatuaje Havana VI Verocu Blue No. 1 Toro Grande BLK WKS Killer Bee Robusto Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut Robusto (2023 Edition) Joya de Nicaragua Cinco de Cinco Robusto Gordo Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Umbagog Bronzeback Plascencia Cosecha 149 Azacualpa Powstanie Connecticut Belicoso La Aroma de Cuba Connecticut Corona Micallef Blue Robusto Ferio Tego Summa Torpedo       Top 10 Cigars of 2025 (this year): 1) Kristoff Veinte Twentieth Anniversary Toro (Timestamp: 02:49:37) The Veinte Cigar follows the recipe template of incorporating tobacco from many regions. Blend-wise, the Veinte Anniversary consists of a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper over an Indonesian binder and a combination of Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania fillers. Wrapper: Brazilian Arapiraca Binder: Indonesian Filler: Nicaraguan, Pennsylvania Country of Origin: Dominican Republic Factory: Tabacalera Von Eicken S.R.L. Size: 6.25 x 54 2) Powstanie Connecticut Justice (Timestamp: 02:35:57) The Powstanie Connecticut features an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper over a Pennsylvania Broadleaf binder and aged Nicaraguan fillers. Production for Powstanie Connecticut comes from the Fábrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño S.A. factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Binder: Pennsylvania Broadleaf Filler: Nicaraguan Country of Origin: Nicaragua Factory: Fabrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño Size: 5.5 x 46 3) Perdomo 30th Anniversary Connecticut Epicure (Timestamp: 02:27:51) Produced at Tabacalera Perdomo in Estelí, Nicaragua, the Perdomo 30th Anniversary Connecticut features 100% Nicaraguan tobaccos grown on the Perdomo family farms in Condega, Estelí, and Jalapa. The cigar is highlighted by a 15-year-old Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper aged in bourbon barrels. Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Binder: Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Filler: Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Country of Origin: Nicaragua Factory: Tabacalera Perdomo Size: 6 x 54 4) United Gold Star Robusto (Timestamp: 01:54:14) The Gold Star features a Habano 2000 Intermedio wrapper from the Quevedo region of Ecuador. The blend also features a Sumatra binder and is composed of Connecticut Broadleaf and Dominican filler. The blend is slightly tweaked from the original limited edition. Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano 2000 Intermedio (Quevedo) Binder: Sumatra Filler: Dominican (Ligeros, Criollo '98, Corojo '98), Connecticut Broadleaf Country of Origin: Dominican Republic Factory: Tabacalera William Ventura Size: 5 x 52 5) Gran Habano Corojo No. 7 Toro (Timestamp: 01:49:49) The Gran Habano No. 7 is a Nicaraguan puro – namely, it uses 100% of the tobaccos grown in Nicaragua. In addition to the special hybrid wrapper used, the remainder of the blend uses Corojo tobaccos grown in Nicaragua. Wrapper: Hybrid (Nicaraguan) Binder: Corojo, Nicaragua Filler: Corojo, Nicaragua Country of Origin: Honduras Factory: G.R. Tabacaleras Unidas S.A. Size: 6 x 54 6) Trinidad Espiritu No. 3 Toro by Altadis USA (Timestamp: 01:40:05) Keeping to the release's theme, the Espiritu Series No. 3 features a Mexican wrapper from the San Andrés region. The Trinidad Espiritu No. 3 uses all Nicaraguan tobaccos for the remainder of the blend. Production comes from AJ Fernandez's factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. Wrapper: San Andrés (Mexico) Binder: Nicaragua Filler: Nicaragua Country of Origin: Nicaragua Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A. Size: 5 x 50 7) BLK WKS Studio Rorschach Sumatra (Timestamp: 01:31:42) This short robusto (4.5 x 48) delivers a robust, flavor-rich smoking experience. Featuring a Sumatra wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and filler, it opens with bold charred wood notes, followed by black pepper, and finishes with an underlying sweetness. A medium-plus cigar that consistently delivers. Wrapper: Sumatran Binder: Nicaraguan Filler: Nicaraguan Strength: Medium-plus Tasting Notes: Charred wood, black pepper, subtle sweetness Size: 4.5 x 48 8) Aladino Fuma Noche Super Toro by JRE Tobacco Co. (Timestamp: 01:09:00) JRE Tobacco keeps the blend close to the vest, but the cigar features a Maduro wrapper with Honduran binder and filler. Production comes from the Fabrica de Puros Aladino at Las Lomas Jamastran in Honduras. Wrapper: Maduro Binder: Honduran Filler: Honduran Country of Origin: Honduras Factory: Fabrica de Puros Aladino Size: 6.25 x 54 9) Cohiba Riviera Perfecto (Timestamp: 00:56:39) The Cohiba Riviera features a San Andrés Tuxtla wrapper over a Honduran Connecticut binder, with filler tobaccos from Honduras and Nicaragua. Production takes place at the STG Estelí factory in Nicaragua. Wrapper: San Andrés Tuxtla Binder: Honduran Connecticut Filler: Honduran (Jamastran, La Entrada), Nicaraguan (Condega, Estelí) Country of Origin: Nicaragua Factory: STG Estelí Size: 6 x 60 10) Bentley White Edition Robusto (Timestamp: 00:41:24) Vitola: Robusto Length: 5" Ring Gauge: 50 Country of Origin: Nicaragua Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Binder: Nicaragua Filler: Nicaragua Factory: Joya de Nicaragua Blender: Undisclosed Price: $14.00 Release Date: September 2024    

Steve and Matt McCully recount their father, Ed McCully's life story. National oratory champion, student body president at Wheaton, and would-be lawyer, until a change of heart led him to martyrdom as he reached the unreached tribes of Ecuador.

¿Por qué estoy aquí? No estamos aquí por casualidad ni por capacidad propia. La Palabra nos recuerda que Dios “nos salvó y nos llamó con llamamiento santo, no conforme a nuestras obras, sino según Su propósito y Su gracia” (2 Timoteo 1). El llamado de Dios no termina en nosotros: nos despierta, nos envía y nos conecta con las personas que necesitan esperanza.Support the show

Se registran dos sismos en Guerrero sin afectaciones México pide no viajar a Venezuela por motivos de seguridadPerú y Ecuador endurecen medidas migratorias contra funcionarios venezolanosMás información en nuestro podcast 

Prosigue en Indonesia la búsqueda de tres españoles desaparecidos tras el naufragio de un barco el 26 de diciembre. Estados Unidos captura al presidente venezolano Nicolás Maduro y a la primera dama, Cilia Flores, acusados de narcotráfico, tras una operación que causa unos cuarenta fallecidos. Maduro permanece en una instalación federal en Nueva York a la espera de juicio. La oposición, con María Corina Machado, declara estar lista para asumir el poder, aunque Trump la descarta. El Tribunal Supremo venezolano designa a Delcy Rodríguez como presidenta. La operación militar estadounidense genera reacciones divididas: Colombia, México, Brasil, China e Irán la condenan; Argentina y Ecuador la celebran. En deportes, el Real Madrid se enfrenta al Betis para reducir la ventaja del Barcelona en LaLiga, mientras Kylian Mbappé sigue recuperándose de una lesión sin fecha clara de regreso. Un experto analiza la influencia de la publicidad, especialmente en colonias como "Jax", en el público ...

NORDVPN OFFER  EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼https://nordvpn.com/ftlopm Try it risk-free with their 30-day money-back guarantee CTA: "To get the best discount on your NordVPN plan, go to https://nordvpn.com/ftlopm. Our link gives you 4 extra months on the 2-year plan. No risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! Please consider as it greatly helps us keep the show on the airhttps://nordvpn.com/ftlopm _____________________________________________________________ Please like and subscribe to our YT channel Special Affiliate Link for Official Aston Villa Merch: aston-villa-store.sjv.io/DVNAYd Special Affiliate Link for KitBag Aston Villa Merch  https://kitbag.evyy.net/RyVR1a Gym + Coffee UK Link:https://bit.ly/3Ny1oHU Gym + Coffee Ireland & EU Link: https://bit.ly/3pjVJgL Gym + Coffee AUS & NZ Link: https://bit.ly/3NBHeNs Gym + Coffee US & Rest of World Link: https://bit.ly/3Jz4b2q Follow on Twitter:    / lovemcgrathpod   Subscribe to our Audio Pod: Apple Podcast: https://t.co/6Vhm3BMLT6 Spotify: https://t.co/ny4xO1w7Lf If you would like to support us please find us on Patreon:    / fortheloveofpaulmcgrath   Part of the Sport Social Podcast Network https://podcast.sport-social.co.uk/po... For the Love of Paul McGrath is an independent fan channel. Made for Villa fans by Villa fans, FTLoPMcG provides you with the latest Villa transfer news, match previews, match reviews and much more #AVFC #AstonVilla #Transfer #Transferwindow #EPL #UTV Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave Davis looks at all the latest LFC news after a goalless draw against Leeds, including Slot comments and links to Ordonez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

En este 2025, América Latina ha virado a la derecha: Bolivia puso fin a 20 años de gobiernos de izquierda al elegir a Rodrigo Paz como presidente; Chile votó por José Antonio Kast y Honduras por Nasry Asfura, candidatos que gozaban del beneplácito y el apoyo de Trump. Daniel Noboa fue reelegido en Ecuador y Javier Milei logró una importante victoria en las legislativas argentinas. Analizamos este fenómeno con Alexis Medina, profesor de Asuntos Latinoamericanos de la Universidad de Franche-Comté. Rodrigo Paz, José Antonio Kast y Nasry Asfura son algunos de los políticos de derechas o de extrema derecha que han llegado al poder en este 2025 en Latinoamérica, una región que ha experimentado un marcado giro a la derecha en las urnas. ¿A qué se debe este cambio de dirección? Alexis Medina, profesor de Asuntos Latinoamericanos de la Universidad de Franche-Comté, sostiene que para explicar este fenómeno hay que evocar el alza de las tendencias populistas a nivel global, teniendo en cuenta, no obstante, las situaciones específicas de cada país. "Por un lado, hay una tendencia global de un giro no solamente hacia la derecha, sino incluso hacia la extrema derecha. Es algo que se observa también en Estados Unidos y en varios países europeos. La atomización de la sociedad y, por lo tanto, la búsqueda de chivos expiatorios, por ejemplo los inmigrantes, las minorías étnicas, los indígenas, etcétera. La acción colectiva se ve sustituida por un voto castigo a favor de la extrema derecha". Bolivia, autodestrucción del MAS y triunfo de la derecha Dicho esto, este profesor de la universidad francesa de Franche-Comté resalta que existen circunstancias propias de cada país, "factores internos", que explican este giro. "En el caso de Bolivia, por ejemplo, la victoria de la derecha se debe en buena medida a la autodestrucción del Movimiento al Socialismo, el MAS. En otros lugares, las fuerzas de derecha o de extrema derecha llegan al poder en un contexto en el que la izquierda estuvo gobernando, pero no estuvo a la altura de las expectativas que había despertado. Ese es el caso de Chile, por ejemplo, con el gobierno de Gabriel Boric: muchos chilenos consideraban que no estuvo a la altura y que no cumplió con esas promesas". En algunos casos, como el de Asfura en Honduras o el triunfo de Javier Milei en las pasadas legislativas argentinas, el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump estuvo presente, incluso supeditando su apoyo económico al país a que se cumplieran resultados que le complacían. ¿Cambiará esta postura la política internacional de Latinoamérica? Leer tambiénLos acontecimientos que deberían marcar al mundo en 2026 "Lo que es seguro es que estos gobiernos de derecha o de extrema derecha van a tener una relación más estrecha con los Estados Unidos de Trump. El mandatario estadounidense tiene buenas relaciones con el presidente de Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, con Milei en Argentina, y las tendrá seguramente con el nuevo presidente de Honduras, con Kast, etcétera. En cuanto a la relación con China, es posible que estos gobiernos de derecha o de extrema derecha sean reticentes a profundizar la dependencia económica que tiene América Latina con ese país. Pero yo no estoy tan seguro de hasta qué punto sean capaces de romper esa relación con Pekín, porque la presencia china en América Latina ya es relativamente antigua. China lleva varias décadas construyendo su influencia en la región. Va a ser difícil que países como Honduras, Ecuador o Argentina se distancien a nivel económico de China", concluye.

El presidente Petro busca imponer su agenda populista mediante maniobras que desafían las formas institucionales y la búsqueda del consenso. Si el Congreso hunde la ley de financiamiento, declara una emergencia económica espuria para decretar impuestos, seguro consciente de que ninguno pasaría un examen de constitucionalidad. Por la misma vía, vuelve a sacudir la agenda política y mediática anunciando el inicio de una propuesta de asamblea constituyente que no verá como Presidente, pero que le servirá de bandera en las campañas para las elecciones de congreso y la presidencial del 2026. Se nos vienen meses agitados “a ritmo Petro”. Todo esto sin mencionar el aumento del salario mínimo del 23% decretado unilateralmente sin el consenso de los sectores productivos horas después de grabar este episodio. Para hablar de esto y de los desafíos institucionales, en este episodio de Enclave Podcast María Alejandra Villamizar y Juan Carlos Restrepo conversan con Jorge Enrique Ibáñez Najar, presidente de la Corte Constitucional de Colombia, y quien fuera asesor de las asambleas constituyentes de Colombia y de Ecuador.

5 “Sleeper Hit” Gay Cities to Retire Abroad (Affordable, Safer, and Surprisingly Fabulous)What if your dream retirement is hiding in a gay city you've never even thought to look at?In this episode, we're going off-script and sharing five surprising gay cities for retiring abroad—places that are shockingly affordable, quietly queer-friendly, and built for real life (not just a two-week vacation).No, these aren't the usual suspects like Lisbon, Mexico City, or Valencia. These are the gay cities that deliver on what most LGBTQ+ retirees actually want: safety, healthcare access, affordability, and community—without the “big-city price tag.”✅ What you'll get in this episode5 unexpected gay cities that are great for retiring abroadRent + cost-of-living reality checks (with U.S. city comparisons)The real queer vibe: low-key, inclusive, livableVisa + residency options for Portugal, Ecuador, Italy, Spain, and ThailandWhy we're overweighting affordability in our gay cities research (because… math)

Mini podcast of radical history on this date from the Working Class History team.Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on patreon. If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at patreon.com/workingclasshistory.See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/todayBrowse all Stories by Date here on the Date index: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/dateCheck out our Map of historical Stories: https://map.workingclasshistory.comCheck out books, posters, clothing and more in our online store, here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.comIf you enjoy this podcast, make sure to check out our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History

Allen, Joel, and Rosemary break down the Trump administration’s sudden halt of five major offshore wind projects, including Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and parts of Vineyard Wind, over national security claims the hosts find questionable. They also cover the FCC’s ban on new DJI drone imports and what operators should do now, plus Fraunhofer’s latest wind research featured in PES Wind Magazine. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by Strike Tape, protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit strike tape.com. And now your hosts, Alan Hall, Rosemary Barnes, Joel Saxon, and Yolanda Padron. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Allen Hall: Podcast. I’m your host, Alan Hall, and I’m here with. Rosemary Barnes in Australia and Joel Saxon is down in Austin, Texas. Yolanda Padron is on holiday, and well, there’s been a lot happening in the past 24 hours as we’re recording this today. If you thought the battle over offshore wind was over based on some recent court cases, well think again. The Trump administration just dropped the hammer on five major offshore wind projects. Exciting. National security concerns. The Secretary of the Interior, Doug Bergham announced. The immediate pause affecting projects from Ted Eor, CIP and Dominion Energy. So Coastal [00:01:00] Virginia, offshore wind down in Virginia, right? Which is the one we thought was never gonna be touched. Uh, the Department of War claims classified reports show these giant turbines create radar interference that could blind America’s defenses. Half of vineyard winds, turbines are already up and running, producing power, by the way. Uh, and. I guess they, it sounds like from what I can see in more recent news articles that they turn the power off. They just shut the turbines off even though those turbines are fully functioning and delivering power to shore. Uh, so now the question is what happens? Where does this go? And I know Osted is royally upset about it, and Eor obviously along with them, why not? But the whole Denmark us, uh, relationship is going nuclear right now. Joel Saxum: I think here’s a, here’s a technical thing that a lot of people might not know. If you’re in the wind industry in the United States, you may know this. There’s a a few sites in the northern corner of Colorado that are right next to Nebraska, [00:02:00] and that is where there is a strategic military installations of subsurface, basically rocket launches and. And in that entire area, there is heavy radar presence to be able to make sure that we’re watching over these things and there are turbines hundreds of meters away from these launch sites at like, I’ve driven past them. Right? So that is a te to me, the, the radar argument is a technical mute point. Um, Alan, you and I have been kind of back and forth in Slack. Uh, you and I and the team here, Rosemary’s been in it too, like just kind of talking through. Of course none of us were happy. Right. But talking through some of the points of, of some of these things and it’s just like basically you can debunk almost every one of them and you get down to the level where it is a, what is the real reasoning here? It’s a tit for tat. Like someone doesn’t like offshore wind turbines. Is it a political, uh, move towards being able to strengthen other interests and energy or what? I don’t know. ’cause I can’t, I’m not sitting in the Oval Office, but. [00:03:00] At the end of the day, we need these electrons. And what you’re doing is, is, is you’re hindering national security or because national security is energy security is national security, my opinion, and a lot of people’s opinions, you’re hindering that going forward. Allen Hall: Well, let’s look at the defense argument at the minute, which is it’s, it’s somehow deterring, reducing the effectiveness of ground radars, protecting the shoreline. That is a bogus argument. There’s all kinds of objects out on the water right now. There’s a ton of ships out there. They’re constantly moving around. To know where a fixed object is out in the water is easy, easy, and it has been talked about for more than 15 years. If you go back and pull the information that exists on the internet today from the Department of Defense at the time, plus Department of Interior and everybody else, they’ve been looking at this forever. The only way these turbines get placed where they are is with approval from the Department of Defense. So it isn’t like it didn’t go through a review. It totally did. They’ve known about this for a long, long time. So now to bring up this [00:04:00] specious argument, like, well, all of a sudden the radar is a problem. No, no. It’s not anybody’s telling you it’s a classified. Piece of information that is also gonna be a bogus argument because what is going along with that are these arguments as well, the Defense Department or Department of War says it’s gonna cause interference or, or some degradation of some sort of national defense. Then the words used after it have nothing to do with that. It is, the turbines are ugly, the turbines are too tall. It may interfere, interfere with the whales, it may interfere with fishing, and I don’t like it. Or a, a gas pipeline could produce more power than the turbines can. That that has nothing to do with the core argument. If the core argument is, is some sort of defense related. Security issue, then say it because it, it can’t be that complicated. Now, if you, if you knew anything about the defense department and how it operates, and also the defenses around the United States, of which I know a little bit about, [00:05:00] having been in aerospace for 30 freaking years, I can tell you that there are all kinds of ways to detect all kinds of threats that are approaching our shoreline. Putting a wind turbine out there is not Joel Saxum: gonna stop it. So the, at the end of the day, there is a bunch, there’s like, there’s single, I call them metric and intrinsic, right? Metric being like, I can put data to this. There’s a point here, there’s numbers, whatever it may be. And intrinsic being, I don’t like them, they don’t look that good. A pipeline can supply more energy. Those things are not necessarily set in stone. They’re not black and white. They’re, they’re getting this gray emotional area instead of practical. Right. So, okay. What, what’s the outcome here? You do this, you say that we have radar issues. Do we do, does, does the offshore substation have a radar station on it for the military or, or what does that, what does that look like? Allen Hall: Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but if the threat is what I think it is, none of this matters. None of this matters. It’s already been discussed a hundred times with the defense [00:06:00] department and everybody else is knowledgeable in this, in this space. There is no way that they started planted turbines and approve them two, three years ago. If it was a national security risk, there is no chance that that happened. So it really is frustrating when you, when you know some of the things that go on behind the scenes and you know what, the technical rationales could be about a problem. And that’s not what’s being talked about right now that I don’t like being lied to. Like, if you want to have a, a political argument, have a political argument, and the, if the political argument is America wants Greenland from Denmark, then just freaking say it. Just say it. Don’t tie Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, new J, all, all these states up until this nonsense, Virginia, what are we doing? What are we doing? Because all those states approved all those projects knowing full well what the costs were, knowing how tall the turbines were, knowing how long it was gonna take to get it done, and they all approved them. This [00:07:00] is not done in a vacuum. These states approve these projects and these states are going to buy that power. Let them, you wanna put in a a, a big gas pipeline. Great. How many years is that gonna take, Doug? How many years is that gonna take? Doug Bergham? Does anybody know? He, he doesn’t know anything about that. Joel Saxum: You’re not getting a gas pipeline into the east coast anytime soon whatsoever. Because the, the east, the east coast is a home of Nimbyism. Allen Hall: Sure, sir. Like Massachusetts. It’s pretty much prohibited new gas pipelines for a long time. Okay. That’s their choice. That is their choice. They made that choice. Let them live with it. Why are you then trying to, to double dip? I don’t get it. I don’t get it. And, but I do think, Joel, I think the reason. This is getting to the level it is. It has to do something to do with Greenland. It has something to do with the Danish, um, uh, ambassador or whoever it was running to talk to, to California and Newsom about offshore tournaments. Like that was not a smart move, my opinion, but [00:08:00] I don’t run international relations with for Denmark. But stop poking one another and somebody’s gotta cut this off. The, the thing I think that the Trump administration is at risk at is that. Or instead, Ecuador has plenty of cash. They’re gonna go to court, and they are most likely going to win, and they’re going to really handcuff the Trump administration to do anything because when you throw bull crap in front of a judge and they smell it, the the pushback gets really strong. Well, they’re gonna force all the discussion about anything to do with offshore to go through a judge, and they’re gonna decide, and I don’t think that’s what the Trump administration wants, but that’s where they’re headed. I’m not sure why Joel Saxum: you’d wanna do that. Like at the end of the day, that may be the solution that has to come, but I don’t think that that’s not the right path either. Right? Because a judge is not an SME. A judge doesn’t know all of the, does the, you know, like a, a judge is a judge based on laws. They don’t, they’re, they’re not an offshore wind energy expert, so they sh that’s hard for them to [00:09:00] decide on. However, that’s where it will go. But I think you’re correct. Like this, this is more, this is a larger play and, and this mor so this morning when this rolled out, my WhatsApp, uh, and text messages just blew up from all of my. Danish friends, what is going on over there? I’m like, I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m not in the hopeful office. I can’t tell you what’s going on. I’m not having coffee in DC right now. I said, you know, but going back to it, like you can see the frustration, like, what, why, why is this the thing? And I think you’re right though, Alan, it is a large, there’s a larger political play in, in movement here of this Greenland, Denmark, these kind of things. And it’s a, it’s. It’s sad to see it ’cause it just gets caught. We’re getting caught in the crossfire as a wind industry. Yeah. It’s Allen Hall: not helping anybody. And when you set precedents like this, the other side takes note, right? So Democrats, when they eventually get back into the White House again, which will happen at some point, are gonna swing the pendulum just as hard and harder. So what are you [00:10:00] doing? None of, none of this matters in, in my opinion, especially if you, if you read Twitter today, you’re like, what the hell? All the things that are happening right now. RFK Jr had a post a few hours ago talking about, oh, this is great. We’re gonna shut off this off shore wind thing because it kills the whales. Sorry, it doesn’t. Sorry. It doesn’t, if you want, if you wanna make an argument about it, you have to do better than that. A Twitter post doesn’t make it fact, and everybody who’s listened to this and paying attention, I don’t want you to do your own research, but just know that you got a couple of engineers here, that that’s what we do for a living. We source through information, making sure that it makes sense. Does it align? Is it right? Is it wrong? Is, is there something to back it up with? And the information that we have here says. It is. It’s not hurting anything out there. You may not like them, but you know what? You don’t want a coal factor in your backyard either. Delamination and bottomline failures and blades are difficult problems to detect [00:11:00] early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. C-I-C-N-D-T are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their non-destructive test technology penetrates deep to blade materials to find voids and cracks. Traditional inspections completely. Miss C-I-C-N-D-T Maps. Every critical defect delivers actionable reports and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cic ndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions. Joel Saxum: When it comes down to sorting through data, I think that’s a big problem. Right? And that’s what’s happening with a lot of the, I mean, generalizing, a lot of the things that are happening in the United States in the last 10 years give it. Um, but people just go, oh, this person said this. They must be an authority. Like, no, it’s not true. We’ve been following [00:12:00] a lot of these things with offshore wind. I mean, probably closer than most. Uh, besides the companies that are developing those wind farms, simply because it’s a part of our day job, it’s what we do. We’re, we’re, we’re looking at these things, right? So. Understanding the risks, uh, rewards, the political side of things. The commercial side. The technical side. That’s what we’re here to kind of feed, feed the information back to the masses. And a lot of this, or the majority of all of this is bs. It doesn’t really, it doesn’t, it doesn’t play. Um, and then you go a little bit deeper into things and. Like the, was it the new Bedford Light, Alan, that said like, now they’re seeing that the turbines have actually been turned off, not just to stop work for construction. They’ve turned the turbines off up in Massachusetts or up off of in the northeast area? No, that they have. Allen Hall: And why? I mean, the error on the side of caution, I think if you’re an attorney for any of the wind operations, they’re gonna tell you to shut it off for a couple of days and see what we can figure out. But the, the timing of the [00:13:00] shutdown I think is a little unique in that the US is pretty much closed at this point. You’re not gonna see anything start back up for another couple of weeks, although they were doing work on the water. So you can impose a couple hundred million. Do, well, not a hundred million dollars, but maybe a couple million dollars of, of overhead costs in some of these projects because you can’t respond quick enough. You gotta find a judge willing to put a stay in to hold things the same and, and hold off this, uh, this, uh, b order, but. To me, you know, it’s one of those things when you deal with the federal government, you think the federal government is erratic in just this one area? No, it’s erratic in a lot of areas. And the frustration comes with do you want America to be stronger or do you want nonsense to go on? You know? And if I thought, if that thought wind turbines were killing whales, I’d be the first one up to screaming. If I thought offshore wind was not gonna work out in term, in some long-term model, I would be the first one screaming about it. That’s not Joel Saxum: reality. [00:14:00] Caveat that though you said, you’re saying if I thought, I think the, the real word should be if I did the research, the math and understood that this is the way it was gonna be. Right? Because that’s, that’s what you need to do. And that’s what we’ve been doing, is looking at it and the, the, all the data points to we’re good here. If someone wanted to do harm Allen Hall: to the United States, and God forbid if that was ever the case. That wouldn’t be the way to do it. Okay. And we, and we’ve seen that through history, right. So it, it’s, it doesn’t even make any sense. The problem is, is that they can shield a judge from looking at it somewhat. If they classify well, the judge isn’t able to see what this classified information is. In today’s world, AI and everything on the internet, you don’t think somebody knows something about this? I do. And to think that you couldn’t make any sort of software patch to. Fix whatever 1965 radar system they have sitting on the shorelines of Massachusetts. They could, in today’s world, you can do that. So this whole thing, it [00:15:00] just sounds like a smoke screen and when you start poking around it, no one has an answer. That is the frustrating bit. If you’re gonna be seeing stuff, you better have backup data. But the Joel Saxum: crazy thing here, like look at the, the, the non wind side of this argument, like you’re hurting job growth. Everybody that goes into a, uh. Into office. One of the biggest things they run on all the time, it doesn’t matter, matter where you are in the world, is I’m gonna bring jobs and prosperity to the people. Okay. How many jobs have just been stopped? How many people have just been sent home? How much money’s being lost here? And who’s one of the biggest companies installing these turbines in the states? Fricking ge like so. You’re, you’re hurting your own local people. And not only is this, you stand there and say, we’re doing all this stuff. We’re getting all this wind energy. We’re gonna do all these things and we’re gonna win the AI race. To the point where you’ve passed legislation or you’ve written, uh, uh, executive order that says, Hey, individual states, if you pass legislation [00:16:00] that slows or halts AI development in your state, the federal government can sue you. But you’re doing the same thing. You’re halting and slowing down the ability for AI and data centers to power themselves at unprecedented growth. We’re at here, 2, 3, 4, 5% depending on what, what iso you ask of, of electron need, and we’re the fastest way you could put electrons to the grid. Right now in the United States, it’s. Either one of those offshore wind farms is being built today, or one of the other offs, onshore wind farms or onshore solar facilities that are being built right now today. Those are the fastest ways to help the United States win the AI race, which is something that Trump has loud, left and right and center, but you’re actively like just hitting people in the shins with a baseball bat to to slow down. Energy growth. I, I just, it, it doesn’t make any logical sense. Allen Hall: And Rosemary just chime in here. We’ve had enough from the Americans complaining about it. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I mean, it’s hard for me to comment in too much detail about all of the [00:17:00] American security stuff. I mean, defense isn’t, isn’t one of my special interests and especially not American defense, but. When I talk about this issue with other Australians, it’s just sovereign risk is the, the issue. I mean, it was, it’s similar with the tariffs. It’s just like how, and it’s not just for like foreign companies that might want to invest in America. American companies are affected just, uh, as equally, but like you might be anti wind and fine. Um, but I don’t know how any. Company of any technology can have confidence to embark on a multi-year, um, project. Now, because you don’t know, like this government hates wind energy, but the next one could hate ai or the next one could hate solar panels, electric cars, or you know, just, just anything. And so like you just can’t. You just can’t trust, um, that your plans are gonna be able to be fulfilled even if you’ve got contracts, even if you’ve got [00:18:00] approvals, even if you are most of the way through building something, it’s not enough to feel safe anymore. And it’s just absolutely wild. That’s, and yeah, I was actually discussing with someone yesterday. How, and bearing in mind I don’t really understand American politics that deeply, but I’m gonna assume that Republicans are generally associated with being business friendly. So there must be so many long-term Republican donors who have businesses that have been harmed by all of these kinds of changes. And I just don’t understand how everyone is still behind this type of behavior. That’s what, that’s what I struggle to understand. Joel Saxum: This is the problem at the higher levels in. In DC their businesses are, are oil and gas based though. That’s the thing, the high, the high power conservative party side of things in the United States politics. The, the lobby money and the real money and the like, like think like the Dick Cheney era. Right. That was all Weatherford, right? It’s all oil and gas. Rosemary Barnes: So it’s not like anybody [00:19:00] cares about the, you know, I don’t know, like there’d be steel fabricators who have been massively affected by this. Right? Like that’s a good, a good traditional American business. Right. But are you saying it’s not big enough business that anyone would care that, that they’ve been screwed over? Joel Saxum: Not anymore Allen Hall: because all that’s being outsourced. The, the other argument, which Rosemary you touched upon is, is the one I’m seeing more recently on all kinds of social medias. It’s a bunch of foreign companies putting in these wind turbines. Well, who the hell Joel Saxum: is drilling your oil baby? This is something that I’ve always said. When you go go to Houston, Texas, the energy capital of the world, every one of those big companies, none of ’em are run by a Texan. They are all run by someone from overseas. Every one of ’em. Allen Hall: You, you think that, uh, you know, the Saudis are all, you know, great moral people. What the hell are you talking about? Are you starting to compare countries now? Because you really don’t wanna do that. If you wanna do that into the traditional energy marketplace, you’re, you’re gonna have [00:20:00] a lot of problems sleeping at night. You will, I would much rather trust a dane to put in a wind turbine or a German to put in a wind turbine than some of the people that are in, involved in oil and gas. Straight up. Straight up. Right. And we’ve known that for years. And we, we, we just play along, look. The fact of the matter is if you want to have electrons delivered quickly to the United States, you’re gonna have to do something, and that will be wind and solar because it is the fastest, cheapest way to get this stuff done. If you wanna try to plant some sort of gas pipeline from Louisiana up to Massachusetts or whatever the hell you wanna do, good luck. You know how many years you’re talking about here. In the meantime, all those people you, you think you care about are gonna be sitting there. With really high electricity rates and gas, gas, uh, rates, it’s just not gonna end well. Speaker 5: Australia’s wind farms are growing fast, but are your operations keeping up? Join us February 17th and [00:21:00] 18th at Melbourne’s Poolman on the park for Wind energy o and M Australia 2026, where you’ll connect with the experts solving real problems in maintenance asset management. And OEM relations. Walk away with practical strategies to cut costs and boost uptime that you can use the moment you’re back on site. Register now at W OM a 2020 six.com. Wind Energy o and m Australia is created by wind professionals for wind professionals because this industry needs solutions. Not speeches if Allen Hall: you don’t have enough on your plate already. Uh, the FCC has panned the import and sale of all new drone models from Chinese manufacturers, including the most popular of all in America, DJI, uh, and they clo. They currently hold about 70% of the global marketplace, the ban as DGI and Autel Robotics to the quote unquote covered list of entities deemed [00:22:00] a national security risk. Now here’s the catch. Existing models that are already approved for sale can still be purchased. So you can walk down to your local, uh, drone store and buy A DJI drone. And the ones you already own are totally fine, but the next generation. Not happening. They’re not gonna let ’em into the United States. So the wind industry heavily relies on drones. And, and Joel, you and I have seen a number of DJI, sort of handheld drones that are used on sites as sort of a quick check of the health of a, or status of a blade. Uh, you, you, I guess you will still be able to do that if you have an older dj. I. But if you try to buy a new one, good luck. Not gonna happen. Joel Saxum: Yeah. I think the most popular drone right now in the field, of course two of ’em, I would, I would say this, it’s like the Mavic type, you know, the little tiny one that like a site supervisor or a technician may have, they have their part 1 0 7 license. They can fly up and look at stuff. Uh, and then the [00:23:00] other one is gonna be the more industrial side. That’s gonna be the DJ IM 300. And that’s the one where a lot of these platforms, the perceptual robotics and some of the others have. That’s their base because the M 300 has, if you’re not in the, the development world, it has what’s called a pretty accessible SDK, which software development kit. So they’re designed to be able to add your sensors, put your software, and they’re fly ’em the way you want to. So they’re kind of like purpose built to be industrial drones. So if you have an M 300 or you’re using them now, what this I understand is you’re gonna still be able to do that, but when it comes time for next gen stuff, you’re not gonna be able to go buy the M 400. And import that. Like once it’s you’re here, you’re done. So I guess the way I would look at it is if I was an operator and that was part of our mo, or I was using a drone inspection provider, that that’s what comes on site. I would give people a plan. I would say basic to hedge your risk. I would say [00:24:00]basically like, Hey, if you’re my drone operator and I’m giving you a year to find a new solution. Um, that integrates into your workflows to get this thing outta here simply because I can’t be at risk that one day you show up, this thing crashes and I can’t get another one. A lot of companies are already like, they’re set and ready to go. Like all the new Skys specs, the Skys specs, foresight, drone, it’s all compliant, right? It’s USA made USA approved. Good to go. I think the new Arons drone is USA compliant. Good to go. Like, no, no issues there. So. Um, I think that some of the major players in the inspection world have already made their moves, um, to be able to be good USA compliant. Um, so just make sure you ask. I guess that’s, that. Our advice to operators here. Make sure you ask, make sure you’re on top of this one so you just don’t get caught with your pants down. Allen Hall: Yeah, I know there’s a lot of little drones in the back of pickup trucks around wind farms and you probably ought to check, talk to the guys about what’s going on to make sure that they’re all compliant. [00:25:00] In this quarter’s, PES Win magazine, which you can download for free@pswin.com. There is an article by Fran Hoffer, and they’re in Germany. If you don’t know who Fran Hoffer is, they’re sort of a research institution that is heavily involved in wind and fixing some of the problems, tackling some of the more complex, uh, issues that exist in blade repair. Turbine Repair Turbine Lifetime. And the article has a number of the highlights that they’ve been working on for the last several years, and you should really check this out, but looking at the accomplishments, Joel, it’s like, wow, fraud offer has been doing a lot behind the scenes and some of these technologies are, are really gonna be helpful in the near future. Joel Saxum: Yeah. Think of Frown Hoffer of your our US com compadres listening. Think of frown Hoffer as and NRE L, but. Not as connected to the federal government. Right. So, but, but more connected to [00:26:00] industry, I would say. So they’re solving industry problems directly. Right. Some of the people that they get funding research from is the OEMs, it’s other trade organizations within the group. They’re also going, they’re getting some support from the German federal government and the state governments. But also competitive research grants, so some EU DPR type stuff, um, and then some funding from private foundations and donors. But when you look at Frow, offerer, it’s a different project every time you talk to ’em. But, and what I like to see is the fact that these projects that they’re doing. Are actually solving real world problems. I, I, I, Alan and I talk about this regularly on the podcast is we have an issue with government funding or supportive funding or even grant funding or competitive funding going to in universities, institutions, well, whoever it may be, to develop stuff that’s either like already developed, doesn’t really have a commercial use, like, doesn’t forward the industry. But Frow Hoffer’s projects are right. So like one of the, they, they have [00:27:00] like the large bearing laboratory, so they’re test, they’ve tested over 500 pitch bearings over in Hamburg. They’re developing a handheld cure monitoring device that can basically tell you when resin has cured it, send you an email like you said, Alan, in case you’re like taking a nap on the ropes or something. Um, but you know, and they’re working on problems that are plaguing the industry, like, uh, up working on up towel repairs for carbon fiber, spar caps. Huge issue in the industry. Wildly expensive issue. Normally RA blade’s being taken down to the ground to fix these now. So they’re working on some UPT tile repairs for that. So they’re doing stuff that really is forwarding the industry and I love to see that. Allen Hall: Yeah. It’s one of the resources that. We in the United States don’t really take advantage of all the time. And yeah, and there’s a lot of the issues that we see around the world that if you were able to call f Hoffer, you should think about calling them, uh, and get their opinion on it. They probably have a solution or have heard of the problem before and can direct you to, uh, uh, a reasonable outcome. [00:28:00] That’s what these organizations are for. There’s a couple of ’em around the world. DTU being another one, frow Hoffer, obviously, uh, being another powerhouse there. That’s how the industry moves forward. It, it doesn’t move forward when all of us are struggling to get through these things. We need to have a couple of focal points in the industry that can spend some research time on problems that matter. And, and Joel, I, I think that’s really the key here. Like you mentioned it, just focusing on problems that we are having today and get through them so we can make the industry. Just a little bit better. So you should check out PES WIN Magazine. You can read this article and a number of other great articles. Go to ps win.com and download your articles today. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate all the feedback and support we receive from the wind industry. If today’s discussion sparked any question or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn and please don’t forget to subscribe so you [00:29:00] never miss an episode For Joel, Rosemary and Yolanda, I’m a hall. We’ll catch you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

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Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he dives into today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Monday Headline Brief of The Wright Report, Bryan covers a massive FBI investigation into Somali fraud networks in Minnesota, the Trump administration's accelerating deportation and surveillance strategy, the growing political fight over prices and the Senate filibuster, improving drought conditions in the western United States, and major global developments from Africa, Latin America, China, and Australia. FBI Expands Probe into Somali Fraud Networks: FBI Director Kash Patel surged agents and resources into Minnesota following evidence of roughly nine billion dollars in suspected fraud tied to Somali-run daycare centers, Medicaid programs, food banks, and autism services. Investigators are now examining whether state officials and Democratic politicians enabled the schemes by shutting down early warnings. Bryan explains how viral footage showed dozens of fake daycare centers with no children enrolled, yet receiving massive public funds. Political Fallout and Questions for Democrats: Reports indicate that some Somali donors involved in the fraud also contributed to Democratic campaigns across multiple states. Governor Tim Walz previously halted fraud investigations after activists claimed discrimination. Bryan raises questions about whether these networks were used to generate political donations and votes, calling the potential scale of abuse "almost unimaginable." Trump Escalates Immigration Enforcement: ICE expanded highway operations targeting illegal migrant truck drivers in multiple states, while also arresting migrants at court check-ins who then skipped hearings, making them automatically deportable. The administration is deploying advanced tools, including facial recognition, license plate readers, and data from the IRS and Social Security Administration, to locate illegal migrants. Trump also increased the voluntary self-deportation bonus to $3,000, with airfare included, if migrants leave by December 31. Surveillance Tools Target Extremists: The same tracking systems are now being used to identify Antifa members and left-wing agitators under investigation for violence. DOJ officials say the effort responds to intelligence showing left-wing terrorism is now more prevalent than right-wing violence in the United States. Prices and the Filibuster Fight: President Trump warned that inflation and pricing will decide the 2026 midterms. With another government shutdown looming in January, he urged Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster to pass healthcare reform. A new GAO audit found widespread Obamacare fraud, including subsidies paid to deceased individuals and duplicate Social Security numbers. Western Drought Conditions Improve: California's drought has eased significantly, boosting agricultural water supplies. Lake Mead rose by three feet following recent storms, adding roughly seventy-two billion gallons of water, more than southern Nevada's projected annual usage. U.S. Strikes ISIS in Nigeria: The Pentagon launched missile strikes on ISIS training camps in northern Nigeria in coordination with the Nigerian government. Democrats criticized the strikes, while the White House rejected claims of racial motivation. Bryan warns that Islamist groups are attempting to establish a caliphate across central Africa. Trump Expands Influence in Latin America: The United States will reopen a strategic base in Manta, Ecuador, to counter narcotics trafficking and monitor Chinese influence. Conservative allies backed by Trump also won elections in Honduras, strengthening U.S. leverage across the region. China Signals Military Threats: Photos released by Chinese media show ballistic missiles concealed in cargo ship containers, a tactic that could be used to attack U.S. forces or ports during a conflict. Bryan says the images were deliberately leaked and amplified by Chinese bots as a warning to the West. Australia Downplays Islamist Attack: Australian officials claimed a recent ISIS-inspired attack on Jews was not religiously motivated, drawing sharp criticism. Bryan argues that refusing to acknowledge the crisis within Islam mirrors decades of Western denial and will lead to more violence. Listener Questions Close the Episode: Bryan answers questions on Ukraine's mineral deals, fuel supply risks tied to California refinery closures, and whether the American republic still exists. He argues the United States now functions more like a parliamentary democracy and explains why the filibuster debate reflects that deeper shift.   "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32     Keywords: FBI Somali fraud Minnesota, Kash Patel investigation, Tim Walz daycare Medicaid scandal, ICE deportation surveillance tools, self deportation bonus Trump, Antifa terrorism DOJ tracking, Obamacare fraud GAO audit, Lake Mead drought recovery, U.S. Nigeria ISIS airstrikes, Ecuador Manta base Trump, Honduras election Asfura, China cargo ship missiles, Australia ISIS attack denial, filibuster healthcare reform debate

Imparables es un documental de la Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos (OEI) que recoge historias reales de superación en cuatro países (Argentina, Brasil, Ecuador y Honduras), mostrando cómo la educación y la cultura pueden transformar vidas y comunidades enteras. Hoy nos acompañan dos de sus productores María Bensadón y Jair Esquiaqui. Escuchar audio

The Elephants are back! After a 12-year hiatus, Ivory Coast returns to the global stage for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. In this episode, we explore how manager Emerse Faé turned AFCON despair into a tactical masterpiece and whether captain Franck Kessié can lead this squad past the likes of Germany and Ecuador in Group E.We dive deep into the numbers behind their incredible qualifying run—including that legendary ten-game clean sheet streak—and analyze the explosive potential of stars like Amad Diallo. Join us as we discuss if this is finally the year Les Éléphants stampede into the knockout rounds for the first time in history. Ivory Coast World Cup 2026, Franck Kessié, Emerse Faé, African football predictions, Les Éléphants soccer

#ElGranMusical | Santiago Basabe. ¿Cómo termina el Ecuador en este 2025? by FM Mundo 98.1

Cierra el 2025, un año de importantes definiciones en la política en América Latina, marcado por profundos cambios electorales, levantamientos de protestas, movilizaciones migratorias y importantes debates sobre políticas públicas y derechos ciudadanos. Una de las tendencias más destacadas, en este balance político fue el avance electoral de fuerzas conservadoras en varios países como Argentina, Honduras, Chile y Bolivia. Por ejemplo, en Argentina, la Libertad Avanza partido de Javier Milei consolidó un fuerte respaldo en las elecciones legislativas, ampliando su presencia en el Congreso y confirmando el giro político del país hacia políticas económicas liberales. Asimismo, aunque por un estrecho margen destaca el caso de Honduras, el candidato conservador Nasry Asfura ganó la presidencia en un proceso electoral marcado por controversias y acusaciones de influencia externa, lo que simboliza una tendencia regional hacia el fortalecimiento de líderes de derecha y centro-derecha.Destaca el caso de Bolivia, con un importante cambio político tras la elección de Rodrigo Paz. Una ruptura histórica con la hegemonía del Movimiento al Socialismo, así como también el caso de Chile con la rotunda victoria de José Antonio Kast, marcando una reconfiguración política a las tendencias ya tradicionales de izquierda en la región. De igual manera, merecen atención especial la participación cívica demostradas en los referendos y consultas populares en Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala y Panamá, logrando canalizar la polarización y el descontento por medio de mecanismos institucionales. Lo cual se hizo presente también en la histórica elección judicial en México. Si bien el voto sigue siendo el principal instrumento de cambio y contestación con el poder, este mecanismo ya no representa una garantía de estabilidad y mejoramiento democrático. Altas cotas de polarización, sistemas de partidos fragmentados, creciente desarticulación intra-regional, precarización burocrática, violencia política, corrupción administrativa y altos niveles de inseguridad ciudadana, han sido los problemas que ha documentado buena parte de los estudios demoscópicos de este año.Todo lo cual ocurre en un año como el 2025, en el que los EEUU redefine su Estrategia de Seguridad Nacional de forma notable, poniendo nuevamente al hemisferio americano en el centro de su reforzamiento geopolítico con todas las implicaciones que traen consigo. Teniendo en su despliegue militar en el Caribe contra el "narco-régimen" de Maduro en Venezuela, su principal ejercicio práctico del nuevo corolario Trump de la Doctrina Monroe. Un incremento de tensiones durante meses que ha reconfigurado reacomodos, alianzas y profundas implicaciones hemisféricas para los primeros meses del 2026. En suma, tenemos un 2025 que será recordado como un año de cambios políticos profundos, alta crispación y redefinición de agendas públicas, que marcarán las nuevas rutas para el futuro político de América Latina.Analistas:Manuel Alcántara SáezMaría Puerta RieraEdición y Conducción:Xavier Rodríguez Franco

7-day FREE trial of our Intermediate Spanish course, Spanish Uncovered: ⁠⁠www.storylearning.com/podcastoffer⁠⁠Join us on Patreon: ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/storylearningspanish⁠⁠Glossaryparientes: relativesamistad: friendshipceviche: raw fish marinated in lemon juice, a typical dish from Ecuador and Perunoticiero: newstítulo: headlineconductora: TV hostperiodista: journalistcamisa: shirtreubicadas: relocatedsurgir: to ariseFollow us on social media and more: ⁠⁠www.linktr.ee/storylearningspanish

Solemos pensar que el nuevo año traerá grandes cambios; sin embargo, muchas veces las metas o propósitos que nos proponemos se abandonan en la segunda semana. Los problemas reaparecen y, una vez más, terminamos perdiendo toda esperanza. Entonces, ¿qué podemos hacer para generar un cambio real? ¿Cómo podemos recibir el nuevo año y caminar con firmeza frente a cada circunstancia o problema que se presente?Support the show

Send us a textWe end Season 5 with an episode about New Years' Eve in  Ecuador.  In 2002 Grandpa Edward Jeffrey Hill, Grandma Juanita Ray Hill, and five children (Abby, Hannah, Emily, Amanda, and Seth) were working in orphanages in Cuenca.  In keeping with Ecuadorian customs we made an effigy out of straw and old clothes. We had a lot of excitement on New Years as we kicked and kissed and burned our effigy. We learned that whether the old year was happy or sad was unimportant.  The new year is full of possibilities!! Happy New Year!  May 2026 be your best year ever!

El meridiano de Greenwich, una línea imaginaria que une los polos y pasa por el Real Observatorio de Greenwich en Londres, sirve como referencia para medir la longitud geográfica y establecer los husos horarios. Se fijó en 1884 durante la Conferencia Internacional del Meridiano. Se impuso a otros observatorios como el de París. El GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) fue el estándar internacional hasta su reemplazo por el UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), ya basado en relojes atómicos, aunque, eso sí, ambos están vinculados a este meridiano. La idea de fijar un meridiano principal data del siglo III a.C. cuando Eratóstenes de Cirene midió la circunferencia terrestre con una precisión notable. Observó las sombras que proyectaban los obeliscos en Asuán y en Alejandría en el mediodía del solsticio de verano y, tras hacer un experimento, demostró la esfericidad de la Tierra. Sobre ella trazó una cuadrícula imaginaria compuesta por paralelos y meridianos. La latitud es fácil de fijar. Se mide desde el Ecuador con líneas paralelas a distancias constantes. La longitud carece de una referencia natural y además los meridianos convergen en los polos por lo que se van estrechando. Eratóstenes fijó el primer meridiano y, a partir de él, cada cultura eligió su propio meridiano. Esto no importó demasiado hasta que comenzaron los viajes oceánicos de portugueses y españoles en el siglo XV. Pero calcular la longitud requería medir el tiempo de forma precisa, algo que no fue posible hasta bien entrado el siglo siglo XVIII. Fue un inglés llamado John Harrison quien resolvió el problema con un cronómetro marino de una precisión extraordinaria. La Revolución Industrial trajo nuevos ingenios como los barcos de vapor, los ferrocarriles y el telégrafo. Eso exigía una medida igual para todo el mundo. Y así es como delegados de 25 países se reunieron en Washington en 1884 para escoger el lugar de referencia para el meridiano cero. El elegido fue Greenwich por su observatorio, la tradición náutica británica y la pericia de sus cartógrafos. Francia se opuso y resistió hasta 1911. Durante esos años se referían al meridiano de Greenwich como "tiempo de París retrasado". Desde el meridiano cero se puede dividir la Tierra longitudinalmente con otras líneas imaginarias, las de los husos horarios. Pero ahí más que las matemáticas lo que ha terminado primando es la política. Cada país ha adaptado los husos a sus propias necesidades, de ahí que encontremos tantas anomalías, algunas realmente llamativas como el hecho de que un país tan extenso como China tenga el mismo horario, el de la capital, Pekín, que está en el extremo oriental del país. Algo similar sucede con la línea internacional de cambio de fecha, que oficialmente nunca se ha fijado. Discurre en torno al paralelo 180º en el centro del océano Pacífico, pero luego cada uno de los países de esa parte del mundo decide si prefiere estar en el hoy o en el mañana. El sistema de horarios y fechas tiene mucho de arbitrario, pero es funcional y ha conseguido que todos sepamos qué día y qué hora es en cualquier lugar del mundo. En La ContraRéplica: 0:00 Introducción 3:42 Historia del meridiano 1:17:12 Vikingos en el norte de España Bibliografía: “La historia del tiempo” de Diego Vega Ramírez - https://amzn.to/3MONnZT “Historia del tiempo” de Carlos Blanco Vázquez - https://amzn.to/48XbkXC “Historiones de la geografía” de Diego González - https://amzn.to/49iwjTI “On The Line: The Story of the Greenwich Meridian” de Louise Devoy - https://amzn.to/45pO3uS · Canal de Telegram: https://t.me/lacontracronica · “Contra el pesimismo”… https://amzn.to/4m1RX2R · “Hispanos. Breve historia de los pueblos de habla hispana”… https://amzn.to/428js1G · “La ContraHistoria del comunismo”… https://amzn.to/39QP2KE · “La ContraHistoria de España. Auge, caída y vuelta a empezar de un país en 28 episodios”… https://amzn.to/3kXcZ6i · “Contra la Revolución Francesa”… https://amzn.to/4aF0LpZ · “Lutero, Calvino y Trento, la Reforma que no fue”… https://amzn.to/3shKOlK Apoya La Contra en: · Patreon... https://www.patreon.com/diazvillanueva · iVoox... https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-contracronica_sq_f1267769_1.html · Paypal... https://www.paypal.me/diazvillanueva Sígueme en: · Web... https://diazvillanueva.com · Twitter... https://twitter.com/diazvillanueva · Facebook... https://www.facebook.com/fernandodiazvillanueva1/ · Instagram... https://www.instagram.com/diazvillanueva · Linkedin… https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-d%C3%ADaz-villanueva-7303865/ · Flickr... https://www.flickr.com/photos/147276463@N05/?/ · Pinterest... https://www.pinterest.com/fernandodiazvillanueva Encuentra mis libros en: · Amazon... https://www.amazon.es/Fernando-Diaz-Villanueva/e/B00J2ASBXM #FernandoDiazVillanueva #meridiani Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

Send us a textMerry Fresh-mas!

Hola mi gente! Today we are going to read, translate and listen about the Christmas in some Latin American countries and we are going to listen some interesting facts and traditions. I will be reading in Spanish very slowly and you will try to understand word by word. You will be learning some interesting words and new vocabulary and also you will be improving your listening skills in Spanish. I will translate the song in English and then read in Spanish again in a normal speed but explaining some words at the same time.. You can support me and my podcast if you want:Donate with PayPal:https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/spanishwithdennisYou can buy me a cup of coffee here:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/spanishwithdennisArgentinaEn Argentina, la Navidad se vive bajo el sol, pues sucede durante el verano. Al ser un país con fuerte influencia europea, específicamente de Italia y España, los argentinos suelen reunirse en Noche Buena para disfrutar de un asado argentino como platillo principal, y para la sobremesa suelen comer panettone, un  pan italiano de temporada. Finalmente, a la medianoche se congregan en la iglesia para la clásica "misa de gallo".BrasilEn Brasil, los brasileños también disfrutan del clima veraniego durante las festividades navideñas, por ello, sus tradiciones para la temporada también giran entorno a las actividades al aire libre y la convivencia familiar. En el centro de Laguna Rodrigo de Freitas de Río de Janeiro se levanta el impresionante "árvore de natal da lagoa", un árbol de Navidad de aproximadamente 85 metros de altura. ColombiaEn Colombia la Navidad comienza el 07 de diciembre con el "Día de las Velitas". Se trata de un festejo que se lleva a cabo en la víspera de la celebración de la Inmaculada Concepción, donde los creyentes salen a las calles con velas que llenan las puertas de los hogares para guiar el camino de la Virgen.PerúCada año en Cusco se organiza el mercado de Navidad también conocido como Santuranticuy o Venta de los Santos, donde comerciantes de todo Perú se reunén en la Plaza de Armas para vender sus productos religiosos, textiles navideños o comidas típicas.VenezuelaSe lleva a cabo una curiosa celebración llamada "las patinatas". En ella, avenidas enteras son cerradas para que niños y adultos puedan salir a patinar, ya sea en bicicleta, patines o patinetas. Mientras patinan, la gente disfruta de los villancicos que hacen que el ambiente se sienta súper festivo.ChileAl igual que en los otros festejos navideños latinos, en Chile también celebran esta fecha junto a seres queridos, pero algo especial que hacen los niños es abrir sus regalos justo a la media noche y salir a la calle a mostrarlos a sus amigos.EcuadorEn la capital de Ecuador se hacen las tradiciones esenciales, como las Novenas o la Misa de Noche Buena, así como la cena. Sin embargo, en las múltiples provincias del país las celebraciones son muy variadas. Por ejemplo, en Carchi adornan el árbol de Navidad natural más grande del país, y en Cañar organizan un desfile el 24 de diciembre al que algunos niños asisten vestidos de varios personajes bíblicos.PanamáDebido a que también en Panamá se celebra la Navidad bajo el sol de verano, la estética de la celebración es más bien de colores llamativos y flores tropicales. Por ello, días antes de las fechas importantes, los residentes acostumbran a pintar las fachadas de sus casas. Además, es una preparación especial para el Desfile de Navidad Anual My new Youtube channel: Spanish with Dennishttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVuRUMQGwtzBIp1YAImQFQMy new Discord server and chat and you can already join and write to me there:https://discord.gg/HWGrnmTmyCMy new Telegram channel and you can already join and write to me or comment there:https://t.me/SpanishwithDennisJoin my Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/spanishwithdennisSupport me by joining my podcasts supporter club on Spreaker:https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/slow-spanish-language--5613080/supportDonate with Boosty:https://boosty.to/spanishwithdennis/donateDonate with Donation Alerts:https://www.donationalerts.com/r/dennisespinosaDonate with Crypto currency:Bitcoin (BTC)1DioiGPAQ6yYbEgcxEFRxWm5hZJcfLG9V6USDT (ERC20)0xeb8f678c0b8d37b639579662bf653be762e60855USDT (TRC20)TXoQwsaiTGBpWVkyeigApLT8xC82rQwRCNEthereum (ETH)0xeb8f678c0b8d37b639579662bf653be762e60855If you have any other suggestions or recommendations on what other platform you can support me and my podcasts, please let me know. You can write to me on telegram.Thanks in advance!! Gracias por adelantado!My other podcasts you can find it on different platforms and apps:1-  Comprehensible Spanish Language Podcast2 - Crazy Stories in Spanish Podcast3 - TPRS Spanish Stories

Laura's back from a wonderful trip.

Wednesday December 24, 2025 Ecuador Told to Pay $220 Million to Chevron

SHOW 12-22-25 THE SHOW BEGINS WITH DOUBTS ABOUT FUTURE NAVY. 1941 HICKAM FIELD 1. Restoring Naval Autonomy: Arguments for Separating the Navy from DoD. Tom Modly argues the Navy is an "underperforming asset" within the Defense Department's corporate structure, similar to how Fiat Chrysler successfully spun off Ferrari. He suggests the Navy needs independence to address critical shipbuilding deficits and better protect global commerce and vulnerable undersea cables from adversaries. 2. Future Fleets: Decentralizing Firepower to Counter Chinese Growth. Tom Modly warns that China's shipbuilding capacity vastly outpaces the US, requiring a shift toward distributed forces rather than expensive, concentrated platforms. He advocates for a reinvigorated, independent Department of the Navy to foster the creativity needed to address asymmetric threats like Houthi attacks on high-value assets. 3. British Weakness: The Failure to Challenge Beijing Over Jimmy Lai. Mark Simon predicts Prime Minister Starmer will fail to secure Jimmy Lai's release because the UK mistakenly views China as an economic savior. He notes the UK's diminished military and economic leverage leads to a submissive diplomatic stance, despite China'sdeclining ability to offer investment. 4. Enforcing Sanctions: Interdicting the Shadow Fleet to Squeeze China. Victoria Coates details the Trump administration's enforcement of a "Monroe Doctrine" corollary, using naval power to seize tankers carrying Venezuelan oil to China. This strategy exposes China's lack of maritime projection and energy vulnerability, as Beijingcannot legally contest the seizures of illicit shadow fleet vessels. 5. Symbolic Strikes: US and Jordan Target Resurgent ISIS in Syria. Following an attack on US personnel, the US and Jordan conducted airstrikes against ISIS strongholds, likely with Syrian regime consultation. Ahmed Sharawi questions the efficacy of striking desert warehouses when ISIS cells have moved into urban areas, suggesting the strikes were primarily symbolic domestic messaging. 6. Failure to Disarm: Hezbollah's Persistence and UNIFIL's Inefficacy. David Daoud reports that the Lebanesegovernment is failing to disarm Hezbollah south of the Litani River, merely evicting them from abandoned sites. He argues UNIFIL is an ineffective tripwire, as Hezbollah continues to rebuild infrastructure and receive funding right under international observers' noses. 7. Global Jihad: The Distinct Threats of the Brotherhood and ISIS. Edmund Fitton-Brown contrasts the Muslim Brotherhood's long-term infiltration of Western institutions with ISIS's violent, reckless approach. He warns that ISISremains viable, with recent facilitated attacks in Australia indicating a resurgence in capability beyond simple "inspired" violence. 8. The Forever War: Jihadist Patience vs. American Cycles. Bill Roggio argues the US has failed to defeat jihadist ideology or funding, allowing groups like Al-Qaeda to persist in Afghanistan and Africa. He warns that adversaries view American withdrawals as proof of untrustworthiness, exploiting the US tendency to fight short-term wars against enemies planning for decades. 9. The Professional: Von Steuben's Transformation of the Continental Army. Richard Bell introduces Baron von Steuben as a desperate, unemployed Prussian officer who professionalized the ragtag Continental Army at Valley Forge. Washington's hiring of foreign experts like Steuben demonstrated a strategic willingness to utilize global talent to ensure the revolution's survival. 10. Privateers and Prison Ships: The Unsung Cost of Maritime Independence. Richard Bell highlights the crucial role of privateers like William Russell, who raided British shipping when the Continental Navy was weak. Captured privateers faced horrific conditions in British "black hole" facilities like Mill Prison and the deadly prison ship Jersey in New York Harbor, where mortality rates reached 50%. 11. Caught in the Crossfire: Indigenous Struggles in the Revolutionary War. Molly Brant, a Mohawk leader, allied with the British to stop settler encroachment but became a refugee when the British failed to protect Indigenous lands. Post-war, white Americans constructed myths portraying themselves as blameless victims while ignoring their own Indigenous allies and British betrayals regarding land rights. 12. The Irish Dimension: Revolutionary Hopes and Brutal Repression. The Irish viewed the American Revolutionas a signal that the British Empire was vulnerable, sparking the failed 1798 Irish rebellion. While the British suppressed Irish independence brutally under Cornwallis, Irish immigrants and Scots-Irish settlers like Andrew Jackson fervently supported the Continental Army against the Crown. 13. Assessing Battlefield Realities: Russian Deceit and Ukrainian Counterattacks. John Hardie analyzes the "culture of deceit" within the Russian military, exemplified by false claims of capturing Kupyansk while Ukraine actually counterattacked. This systemic lying leads to overconfidence in Putin's strategy, though Ukraine also faces challenges with commanders hesitating to report lost positions to avoid forced counterattacks. 14. Shifts in Latin America: Brazilian Elections and Venezuelan Hope. Ernesto Araujo and Alejandro Peña Esclusapredict a 2026 battle between socialist accommodation and freedom-oriented transformation in Brazil, highlighted by Flavio Bolsonaro's candidacy against Lula. Meanwhile, Peña Esclusa anticipates Venezuela's liberation and a broader regional shift toward the right following leftist defeats in Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile. 15. Trump's Security Strategy: Homeland Defense Lacks Global Clarity. John Yoo praises the strategy's focus on homeland defense and the Western Hemisphere, reviving a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. However, he criticizes the failure to explicitly name China as an adversary or define clear goals for defending allies in Asia and Europe against great power rivals. 16. Alienating Allies: The Strategic Cost of Attacking European Partners. John Yoo argues that imposing tariffs and attacking democratic European allies undermines the coalition needed to counter China and Russia. He asserts that democracies are the most reliable partners for protecting American security and values, making cooperation essential despite resource constraints and political disagreements.

14. Shifts in Latin America: Brazilian Elections and Venezuelan Hope. Ernesto Araujo and Alejandro Peña Esclusapredict a 2026 battle between socialist accommodation and freedom-oriented transformation in Brazil, highlighted by Flavio Bolsonaro's candidacy against Lula. Meanwhile, Peña Esclusa anticipates Venezuela's liberation and a broader regional shift toward the right following leftist defeats in Ecuador, Argentina,1910 NATIONAL LIBRARY OF BRAZIL

In questo episodio del nostro Simple Italian Podcast vi porto con me a Cuenca, Ecuador. Ci siete mai stati?Buon ascolto!▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

What if your next big adventure did more than give you a view, what if it gave you perspective?In this episode, Kelly sits down with Frank Castro, founder of Adventure International, a luxury adventure outfitter known for high-end trekking and mountaineering experiences rooted in ethical guiding, fair wages, and deep respect for the local teams who make expeditions possible.Frank shares how his early years operating in Tanzania sparked a mission to raise the standard for Kilimanjaro outfitting, not just through elevated logistics and top-tier gear, but through meaningful investment in guides, porters, cooks, training, and long-term community impact.From there, Adventure International expanded into the Himalayas, Peru, and Ecuador, later growing into eco-dome glamping, conservation-driven safari camps, luxury surf travel, and privately guided U.S. National Parks experiences.This conversation explores what makes a truly exceptional adventure DMC, why risk management is everything in high-altitude travel, and why more travelers are seeking experiences that reset the nervous system and reconnect them to what matters.You will learn:How Adventure International began as a high-level Kilimanjaro operator grounded in ethical labor practicesWhy luxury adventure travel sits at the intersection of challenge and comfortWhat travel advisors should look for in an adventure DMC, especially for high-risk itinerariesHow Adventure International expanded from Tanzania into Nepal, Peru, and EcuadorWhy eco domes, glamping, and conservation-led travel are shaping the futureWhat families should consider when planning adventure travel across age rangesWhy nature-based travel is becoming essential in a screen-heavy worldHow North America is emerging as a powerful adventure destination post-COVIDWe talk about:00:00 Intro 01:00 Travel Kinship, DMCs, and the role of ethical operators02:00 The origin story, Tanzania, Kilimanjaro, and “doing it the right way”04:00 Ethical operations, wages, training, and industry shifts06:00 Expanding into Nepal, Peru, and Ecuador09:00 Eco domes, safari camps, and conservation impact12:00 Luxury surf travel and concierge-style itineraries13:30 COVID, U.S. National Parks, and family adventure travel16:00 What makes a great adventure DMC and risk management realities21:00 Setting expectations for iconic treks and crowd realities23:00 Building balanced itineraries with elevated extensions25:00 Why adventure travel is rising as nervous system medicine28:00 Transformational moments and shared humanity on the trail32:00 Family travel guidance and age considerations35:00 Slowing down, North America focus, and full-circle travel39:00 Closing reflections and next stepsResources & Links:Ready for your next adventure? Click here to view our Trip Planning Packages & 2025 Pricing: https://transform-with-travel.captivate.fm/packages Connect with Adventure InternationalFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/100063483463682/info/#YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/AdventureIntnlInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/adventureinternational/Website:

Manuel Iris served as Poet Laureate of Cincinnati, Ohio, and as Writer-in-Residence at both the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library and Thomas More University. In 2021, he was named a member of Mexico's National System of Art Creators, one of the country's highest honors for artists. Author of six poetry collections, Iris has been awarded the Mérida National Poetry Prize (2009) for Cuaderno de los sueños and the Rodulfo Figueroa Regional Poetry Prize (2014) for Los disfraces del fuego, a book that was also a finalist for Ecuador's International Poetry Prize Ciudad de la Lira. In 2025, Iris received the Ambroggio Prize from the Academy of American Poets for his book The Whole Earth is a Garden of Monsters/Toda la tierra es un jardín de monstruos. Manuel Iris has given readings, lectures, and talks across Mexico, the United States, and Europe. He currently resides and writes in Cincinnati, Ohio. Find more on Manuel here: https://manueliris.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Think about the biggest improvement you've made as a poet this year and write a poem that showcases your skill. Include what you've learned in the notes with your submission. Next Week's Prompt: Write a villanelle that involves a trip. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

¡Tenencia gratis! Edomex dará subsidio si pagas entre enero y marzo  Ciencias del Agua y la Tierra, nueva carrera en la UIEMMilitares en Ecuador reciben condena por desaparición de menores afrodescendientesMás información en nuestro Podcast

World news in 7 minutes. Wednesday 24th December 2025.Today: CAR election. Uganda Starlink ban. Congo cobalt. Sweden Thunberg arrested. Britain farm tax. Ukraine security talks. Hong Kong K-Pop. India lynching protests. Venezuela piracy law. United States battleships. Ecuador soldiers sentenced. United States powerball jackpot. AI actor.With Juliet MartinSEND7 is supported by our amazing listeners like you.Our supporters get access to the transcripts written by us every day.Our supporters get access to an English worksheet made by us once per week. Our supporters get access to our weekly news quiz made by us once per week. We give 10% of our profit to Effective Altruism charities. You can become a supporter at send7.org/supportContact us at podcast@send7.org or send an audio message at speakpipe.com/send7Please leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify.We don't use AI! Every word is written and recorded by us!Since 2020, SEND7 (Simple English News Daily in 7 minutes) has been telling the most important world news stories in intermediate English. Every day, listen to the most important stories from every part of the world in slow, clear English. Whether you are an intermediate learner trying to improve your advanced, technical and business English, or if you are a native speaker who just wants to hear a summary of world news as fast as possible, join Stephen Devincenzi, Niall Moore and Juliet Martin every morning. Transcripts, worksheets and our weekly world news quiz are available for our amazing supporters at send7.org. Simple English News Daily is the perfect way to start your day, by practising your listening skills and understanding complicated stories in a simple way. It is also highly valuable for IELTS and TOEFL students. Students, teachers, TEFL teachers, and people with English as a second language, tell us that they use SEND7 because they can learn English through hard topics, but simple grammar. We believe that the best way to improve your spoken English is to immerse yourself in real-life content, such as what our podcast provides. SEND7 covers all news including politics, business, natural events and human rights. Whether it is happening in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas or Oceania, you will hear it on SEND7, and you will understand it.For more information visit send7.org/contact or send an email to podcast@send7.org

In this episode we travel to Ecuador to discover a beautiful and meaningful legend: La leyenda del colibrí. Learn why this tiny, colorful bird is considered a powerful symbol of love, hope, and connection, and how—according to legend—the colibrí became the secret messenger of thoughts and feelings between people. This story reminds us that you don't have to be big to be important.If you enjoy the podcast, please support us by rating and reviewing, and share this episode with someone who loves legends and Spanish stories. Your support helps the podcast grow ❤️ Transcript HERE!Click here if you want information for my virtual Spanish class!

Brand new to you shows start tomorrow; Bari Weiss facing major blowback over pulling 60 Minutes segment on Venezuelans deported to Ecuador; right-wing grift; Epstein files release; divorce rates increasing in rural America; state GOP leaders not handing over fraud evidence; Trump indicates support for Mike Lindell as governor nominee; Michael Brodkorb previews and reviews…

The man was busy harvesting onions when we prayerfully approached him during the home visits we were conducting on our mission trip in Ecuador. In broken Spanish, I told him my friends and I’d like to briefly speak to him about the Bible. He paused to listen as we shared our testimonies with him. One of my teammates took out his Bible and started reading Scripture aloud (in English). What a sacred moment it was to hear Scripture being read on the side of the Andes mountains and to see the man reading along in Spanish with the booklet we had given him! We talked with him and his family who’d been working off in the distance, prayed for them, and continued to the next house. As we walked along the mountainside reading Scripture and talking to people about Christ, I thought of Jesus and His disciples walking along the hills and valleys of Israel during His earthly ministry. Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation.” The prophet was referring to the time when God’s people would return to their homeland after years in exile, but it still applies to us today whenever we share the Good News of Jesus with others. Our opportunities may not be in the spectacular Andes, but wherever God has placed us, the Holy Spirit can help us share the message of salvation with those He puts in our path.

Pick a controversial topic. Whether it's immigration, race, climate change, the role of religion, or the economy, many of our assumptions that we view as completely reasonable can seem whacky or wrong to others. This may well include very smart, thoughtful people, who've had very different life experiences than our own.Our guest for this episode is Chauncey Williams, a Democratic-leaning Braver Angels volunteer in Denver.He was shocked when Donald Trump was first elected President in 2016. But instead of retreating into his political silo, Chauncey began a unique project. On different occasions he set up a table with two chairs in local parks, and invited total strangers to have conversations about important public matters. “One of the important things I came to realize is that I walk into a lot of those conversations with a host of assumptions about folks that aren't always true,” Chauncey told us. “I've often been fascinated and humbled by realizing my own limitations in knowledge, and having that revealed,” he said. “I've had this happen on more than one occasion… As uncomfortable as it is, I also welcome it.”In our revealing interview Chauncey shares what he learned from his “chats in a park” project. We hear two audio extracts from his nuanced conversations— one with an outspoken conservative who challenged Chauncey on his views of drop boxes during elections, and another with a recent immigrant from Ecuador who explained what diversity meant to him and his family.Chauncey Williams lives in Colorado where he is involved with the Southern Front Range and Denver Alliances. This year, he helped launch a "Share Your Story" event to learn how others came to their views on specific political topics and on politics, generally. He is a member of Braver Angels Denver Alliance.“How Do We Fix It?” reports on the people, projects and ideas of Braver Angels, the cross-partisan citizen's movement that brings red, blue, and other Americans together in a working alliance. Braver Angels is building new ways for Americans to talk to one another, and act as courageous citizens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Viajar por Latinoamérica es una experiencia increíble, pero el tema del dinero puede generar muchas dudas:

Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) President Trump prepares to address the nation tonight, fueling speculation about what he may announce. Bryan walks through the most likely possibilities, from the economy and falling inflation to explosive new revelations showing the Biden DOJ pushed ahead with the Mar-a-Lago raid despite FBI warnings that no probable cause existed. Trump may also signal major changes on marijuana policy or escalate pressure on Venezuela, as the White House orders a blockade of oil tankers that could trigger cascading unrest in Caracas and Havana. Abroad, China hardens its grip on the Panama Canal by blocking US-led efforts to reclaim port operations, raising the stakes for American naval access. Trump counters Beijing's influence by naming Peru a major non-NATO ally, part of a broader strategy to lock down South America's Pacific coast alongside new conservative governments in Chile and Ecuador. In Europe, the Green Revolution falters as Brussels backs away from banning combustion engines and Ford writes down nearly $20 billion after abandoning its electric truck push. The episode closes with remarkable scientific news from Japan, where researchers discovered a bacteria found in the Japanese tree frog that eradicated tumors in mice with a 100 percent success rate, offering new hope for future cancer treatments.    "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32     Keywords: Trump national address, US economy data, Mar-a-Lago FBI raid documents, DOJ lawfare, marijuana reclassification, Venezuela oil blockade, Panama Canal China, Peru non-NATO ally, South America strategy, EV collapse Europe, Ford EV losses, combustion engine reversal, Japanese tree frog cancer research

Ernesto Araujo and Alejandro Pena Esclusa analyze Latin America's rightward shift, citing Chile's rejection of a leftist constitution and election disputes in Honduras. They attribute leftist defeats to the failure of socialism and credit the "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine for encouraging democratic changes against regional narco-regimes. CHILE, ECUADOR, BOLIVIIA

The Andean Condor is one of the largest flying birds in the world. With a wingspan that can stretch over 10 feet across, the condor doesn't flap so much as sail, using rising thermals to glide across the Andes for hours. Once revered in Inca mythology as a messenger of the gods, the Andean Condor now graces the coat of arms of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. But like many scavengers, condor populations are declining due to threats like lead poisoning and habitat loss.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chevron has been awarded $220 Million in the Ecuadoran Amazon pollution case. The award comes from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, part of Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration. From 1964-1992, Texaco polluted thousands of acres of Amazonian rainforest and poisoned its residents. In 1993, those residents took Texaco to court. In 2001, Chevron acquired Texaco and took its debts (including the billions it owes Amazonian residents). In 2011, an Ecuadoran court awarded the residents $9.5 billion in damages for the pollution and poisoning. Since then, Chevron has waged a legal and public relations against the Indigenous people of the Amazon and their lawyers. This award is part of a 16 year process through the ISDS system. In our latest, Scott talks with Paul Paz y Mino (@paulpaz.bsky.social) about Chevron's history in Ecuador and this case. Bio// Paul Paz y Mino- Deputy Director at Amazon Watch.Paul has lived in Chiapas, Mexico and Quito, Ecuador, promoting human rights and community development and working directly with Indigenous communities. ----------------------