Podcasts about European Economic Community

European farmers have been in the news in recent months due to high-profile protests against climate policies, which they argue put a disproportionate burden on their already thin margins, as well as European Union trade deals, which they claim expose farmers to unfair competition from global producers. Combined, the twin pressures have radicalized many in the sector, while putting a spotlight on the EU's climate and trade policies. But less attention has been paid to a quieter but nonetheless significant risk facing European agriculture: the distortions introduced into the sector by the bloc's Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, and their impact on the security of Europe's food supply. The first iteration of the CAP was introduced by the six founding members of what was then the European Economic Community, or EEC, back in 1962. Its principal objective was to increase food production, which had fallen drastically in the immediate postwar years due to labor shortages and damage to agricultural land. The policy also aimed to raise farmers' wages and improve food security by offering farmers a "guaranteed price for their produce and introducing tariffs on external products." In the subsequent half century, the CAP has been pivotal in the transformation of European agriculture, helping to usher in an agri-business model that has increased production but at the cost of driving thousands of farmers from the land, degrading the environment and enriching big landowners at the expense of smaller ones. As a result, it now threatens the long-term security of the bloc's food supplies. A key driver in the transformation of the bloc's agricultural model was the CAP reforms of the early 1990s, which saw a move away from the original price support system toward "direct income support for farmers … based on the area of land cultivated or number of livestock maintained." These changes inevitably favored bigger farmers, leading to "land grabbing" by large producers and a major decline in the European model of family farming, according to ARC, a voluntary rural organization dedicated to preserving family farms across the bloc. The inequitable consequences of the reforms were belatedly acknowledged by the EU itself in 2013, when it pledged a more equal distribution of support by "limiting the budget for big farms." The demographic crisis in farming has been exacerbated by the CAP's drive to create ever-larger units. But the rhetoric on greater equality has not translated into substantive change. A 2021 report for the European Parliament on the biggest beneficiaries of CAP funding found that between 2018 and 2021, a staggering 3.3 billion euros ended up in the coffers of 17 billionaires. Recipients included former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and British vacuum cleaner tycoon James Dyson. At a time when thousands of small farmers are struggling for survival or throwing in the towel, such largesse for the super-rich raises serious questions about the fitness for purpose of the CAP and the effects of multiple rounds of reform over the years. Attempts to root out abusive practices in the bloc's food supply chain through CAP reform have also floundered in the face of both powerful special interests and the complexities of the EU single market rules. Food producers have long complained about the overwhelming power of the massive supermarket chains that maximize profits by relentlessly squeezing producers' profit margins. In response to unfair trading practices in the supply chain, the European Commission set up the much-vaunted Agricultural Markets Task Force back in 2016. Its final report contained a whole host of recommendations to reform how CAP regulates the relationship between food producers and retailers, in order to give farmers a fairer deal. Yet almost a decade on, a major survey conducted by the food charity Sustain found that farmers still typically make a profit of less than one cent on staples like a loaf of bread or a block of ch...

Some say it was the greatest ever feat of European engineering. A few even think that we wouldn't have joined the European Economic Community without it. Others complained it ate up ten times as much as its original budget, and no-one else wanted it.    Why did we decide to build Concorde? Why did we almost abandon it? And how did it become both an object of national pride and an albatross around the neck of British Airways?    Ros Taylor talks to Concorde pilot John Tye and visiting fellow of King's College London Tom Kelsey about the supersonic bird, and what it can teach us about big infrastructure projects.    • “Secrecy was incredibly important in maintaining public support for Concorde.” – Tom Kelsey  • “I remember phoning up one day and saying “How many people are on the BA003 tonight?” There were only three.” – John Tye  • “She was one of mankind's greatest technical achievements and she could have gone on physically a lot longer.” – John Tye    Written and presented by Ros Taylor. Produced by Jade Bailey. Voiceovers by Seth Thévoz. Original music by Dubstar. Artwork by Jim Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Jam Tomorrow is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With our eyes on this June's European elections, we hold the second debate in our series on countries or groups of EU countries. We look at three founding members of the European Economic Community in 1957, which became the European Union in 1993: Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, known as the Benelux states. They see themselves as frontrunners in European integration, having pioneered a customs union 80 years ago, which showed their neighbours the benefits of trading without tariffs. Benelux prime ministers hold yearly summits and there are numerous ministerial and parliamentary contacts. But while the three countries have given impetus to key EU issues, their record on tax and financial matters has been seen as mixed. We discuss this with three MEPs.

Show Notes and Transcript New York Times bestselling author and award winning journalist Richard Poe always gives great context and depth to news stories so he returns to Hearts of Oak for a leftfield conversation concerning Britain and Africa.  Last year, Italy's Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni suddenly started denouncing French neo-colonialism, blaming them for keeping Africa poor and forcing the inhabitants to flee to Europe.  Richard asks if she is focussing in the right direction, is it not the British who are destabilising Africa through economic levers and intelligence operations?  We have seen African governments falling like dominoes with 7 coups in just three years.  What lies behind these and are they connected or just purely random? Richard Poe is a New York Times-bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He has written widely on business, science, history and politics. His books include The Shadow Party, co-written with David Horowitz; The Einstein Factor, co-written with Win Wenger; Perfect Fear: Four Tales of Terror; Black Spark, White Fire; the WAVE series of network marketing books; and many more. Richard was formerly editor of David Horowitz's FrontPageMag, contributing editor of NewsMax, senior editor of SUCCESS magazine, reporter for the New York Post, and managing editor of the East Village Eye. Connect with Richard... WEBSITE: https://www.richardpoe.com/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/RealRichardPoe?s=20 SUBSTACK: https://richardpoe.substack.com/ BOOKS: https://amzn.eu/d/18lNMtp Interview recorded 8.9.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more...https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Please subscribe, like and share!   Subscribe now Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Hello, Hearts of Oak, and welcome to another interview coming up in a moment with Richard Poe, who re-joined us. He was last with us when we looked at his book, The Shadow Party, looking at George Soros and his control, power, and influence. And today we look at something completely different, and that is a thread that he put up on Twitter titled, Are the British Destabilizing Africa? And this is from a video that Giorgia Meloni, the Italian PM, put up denouncing French neo-colonialism and I often think well the Brits did good in Africa but maybe the French and the Belgians and the Germans and they were a bit naughty. But Richard brings his deep understanding, his delves deep into this subject and, exposes maybe why that thinking is not necessarily correct, how the British have been closely involved, look an economic side of it but also the intelligence services and how they operate and look in some of the recent coups, maybe what lies behind that a little bit. So much to pack into this huge subject. Richard Poe, it is wonderful to have you back with us again. Thank you so much for joining us again today. (Richard Poe) Thanks, Peter, it's great to be here.  Great, and we're going to go through quite a bit. Just before we jump in, I'll just say to the viewers, that Richard is well worth following because his tweets actually bring something quite different. Bring the historical side to a lot of what happens and I think the conservatives movement can often be guilty of kind of in your face what's happened that morning and by the afternoon it's old news and just for our viewers and listeners I think Richard brings context often to stories that are happening but whenever Richard is last on we look through his book The Shadow Party. How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and the 60s radicals seize control of the Democratic Party. That is in the description for you to go back and have a look at and delve deeper into that topic. But he is a bestseller on many other books but that's what we stuck on and of course former editor of Front Page Magazine and we've had David Horowitz on with us before. But Richard there, people can obviously find you @RealRichardPoe, richardpoe.com, the website, and Richard Poe on Substack. Everything is in there for the viewer and listeners to take advantage of. Richard, one tweet that caught my eye, and we will delve a little bit into that, is on Africa and the Brits. And as much as I like blaming the French for everything as a Brit, that is our national pastime, sometimes the British have been at fault over history for a few things. If it hasn't been the French, it's probably been the Brits or the Belgians maybe. But there was a statement I think by Georgia Meloni, the Premier of Italy, and she had started denouncing French neo-colonialism and you had put up about the British destabilizing Africa. Do you want to maybe just begin with that and set out why we can't point the fingers solely at the French? Right. Well, basically, I knew something about, let's call it the neo-colonial infrastructure of Africa, because I was actually hired by a think tank, oh, more than 10 years ago to do a paper on that subject. And for various reasons, it was never published, but it was extremely eye-opening. What I basically discovered, to my astonishment, was that the EU, and in particular Great Britain, France as well, but really Great Britain more than anyone else, had essentially continued their colonial relationship beyond the date when these various African countries supposedly became independent, that what they actually did, they being the various European colonial powers, is they simply set up alternate structures through various kinds of diplomatic channels and the UN system as it was being set up. So that the UN today. Really is a neo-colonial structure. And that's really what I discovered in this research, which again, never saw the light of day. A topic I may write about someday in my memoirs. But so I had studied this in some detail, these NGOs and international treaties and such that had been set up for the very purpose of making sure that those European countries which had formerly owned colonies in Africa continued to maintain that relationship. So specifically the Anglophone colonies that were English speaking, maintained their relationship with Great Britain. The Francophone colonies maintained their relationship with France and so on. And in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Economic Commission, or community. This relationship was actually formalized, whereas the countries which had been former colonies, and I think the way they put it in the treaty, they didn't call them colonies, but they said countries in Africa having a special relationship to members of the EEC, would have a certain kind of membership in the EEC. I think they were called associated members. And they would have a special diplomatic and economic relationship with the EEC, trade privileges and so forth. So maybe because I researched this so deeply, I don't want to bore your viewers with so many details, but the bottom line is, so in the last few weeks on Twitter, we've suddenly seen an uproar from, especially from certain influencers with these coups that have been happening in Africa. In particular, there have been six coups in three years. In a number of countries, most of which are former French colonies. In fact, all of which are former French colonies except Sudan, and the cry has gone out that at last the freedom-loving people of Africa are getting on their feet and overthrowing the yoke of French colonialism. This map has been getting wide circulation and all this enthusiasm from people on Twitter about overthrowing French colonialism. So I thought this was remarkable for a couple of different reasons. First of all, I thought French colonialism was overthrown a long time ago, or at least that's the official story. I remember as a kid, you know, in the 1960s, that was the big thing. The end of colonialism. It's all over. And, you know, these nationalist leaders in Africa who had become, you know, the first presidents of the newly independent countries. These were big pop culture heroes in the 60s. And so now so many decades later to say, finally at last French colonialism is being overthrown. So on the one hand I thought that was interesting because it broke with the pop culture narrative that we were all brought up with that colonialism ended decades ago. All of a sudden it's here, it's now, and it's being overthrown in the year 2023. But the other thing that caught my attention is that they were specifically referring to French colonialism, when in fact there were several colonial powers, in Africa. There was Great Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, the list goes on. And in the case of Italy and Germany, their colonies were taken away because of world wars. But still, there were several colonial powers that remained, which still considered themselves officially, quote unquote, responsible for their former colonies, which meant, especially in the case of France, that they would intervene militarily in those countries when they felt there was some need to do so. And the French in particular have done this probably more than any other quote unquote former colonial power, but the British do it too. They just have a more subtle way of doing it. And so this is what I discovered that think tank research had done more than 10 years ago. So that was the second reason that I was, or the third reason that I was surprised by this sudden enthusiasm for throwing off the yoke of French colonialism, because I knew that in fact there was such a thing as French colonialism, and there was in fact such a thing as EU colonialism. The EU itself as a bureaucratic entity has directly involved itself in the management and admin of the African continent. And so I knew all these things, but most people don't. And it just was surprising to me to suddenly see this acknowledgment of that colonial relationship which in the past had been very controversial and hushed up and denied. Can I ask, because I've been reading a book on tax havens and delving into that world, understanding about money flows, and the book basically starts with the French, takes Gabon as an example of how the French set up the president there, and the coup has supposedly removed his son Ali Bongo and they use this as an example of how the French control large parts of Africa and I read that as a Brit thinking you see France have been really bad we're actually Africa should be thanking the Brits for what we've done for education roads and is is that a very simplistic view of Africa.  Well, when you say simplistic you mean the view that Africa was actually better off under colonialism?  Yes, because I know I've seen stuff and I've seen even you retweeted the thought that actually what Africa needs is for those colonial powers to go back and to fix it once again. That obviously would not be a popular view in many parts of Africa with the whole conversation about payments, colonial payments, repatriations, all of that. But my simplistic view is, well, Britain could actually fix that, build a few more roads, a few more hospitals, a few more schools, and life would be good again. Is that view extremely simplistic? Well, I would simply have to confess that I don't know, in answer to that question. The fact is, what I'm learning now, excuse me, the research that I'm doing now about the American Revolution and the economic and financial reasons for, the reasons why our founding fathers wanted independence from England in the first place, I'm really learning a lot about the colonial system and how it works. And you know, there are people in America who say essentially the same thing. We're not quite in as bad of a fix as Africa yet, although we seem to be headed that direction pretty quickly. There are people in America who are monarchists and who are questioning whether we were better off under the British, as strange as that might seem to you. And you're seeing that more and more. I think it's being pushed a little bit on social media in some quarters as a kind of PSYOP, and the fact is, you really have to dig to some extent to try to figure out, you know, why did the founding fathers feel so strongly that they needed to get away from England? And there actually were some really compelling reasons, most of which had to do with an extremely oppressive economic system that was enforced by law, in particular by the so-called Navigation Act, whose effect was basically to keep the colonies by force of law in a situation where we had to produce raw materials, food, crops, tobacco, cotton, things like that, and to sell them very cheaply in England and then to get all of our manufacturers from England, where they were beginning to have their industrial revolution and we had to buy them more expensively. And this is the heart and soul of the colonial relationship. The colony produces raw materials and food and sells them to the, very cheaply. The mother country then sells us, the colony, everything that we need in terms of manufactured goods, but they sell them quite expensively. And so there is a permanently enforced balance of trade, which is wildly disadvantageous to the colonized state. And this system is enforced by local corruption, because in order to make such a system work, you have to get local people to support the colonial relationship, and you make them very, very rich, but at the expense of the majority of people. And the best illustration for that in the United States is the pre-Civil War South, the Antebellum South, where you had a cotton-producing economy, which was almost entirely run for Britain. Almost all the cotton was sold, I think more than 80 percent, was sold to Great Britain, which was, of course, at that time the leading producer of cotton textiles in the world. And so some people, like our little Harris family in Gone with the Wind, got very, very rich selling cotton to England. But the way they did it was by enslaving people and making them work for free as slaves. And it was argued at the time of the American Civil War and in the years leading up to it that this colonial system, that essentially the American South had been recolonized by England and that slavery was the result of that. This was argued by certain economists at the time who were sympathetic to the Northern position. They were saying that the institution of slavery in the South was a direct result of the elite southern planters whose livelihood depended on Great Britain, on trading with them. Always having to try to please their British buyers by keeping the price low because the British did have other places where they could go. They were constantly trying to develop other sources of high-quality cotton in Brazil, in India, in Egypt, in other places. And so the southern planters who were what modern scholars would call a colonial elite, they were a small portion of the population who enforced essentially a British colonial system because it made them rich personally, but it was at the cost of everyone else, where the black slaves and the poor whites as well, essentially there wasn't much left for them at the end. And they weren't allowed to develop an industrial economy because that's not what the British wanted. They wanted the South to remain an agrarian society that devoted itself to selling cotton. So this situation actually led directly to the American Civil War, which was the most terrible episode in our history. And I wrote an article about this called How the British caused the American Civil War. What happened is the North started to, trying to impose tariffs on overseas trade for the specific purpose of discouraging the southern planters from selling to England and the British did what they do when their colonial interests are threatened. They sent in their secret agents and their provocateurs and one in particular named Thomas Cooper, who was a British, apparently, intelligence agent. He had first gotten his start going to France and helping to stir up the French Revolution. Then he moved to South Carolina. He became a very prominent, respected person. He was a judge. And in 1828, he delivered a speech calling for secession of the South. And this speech is widely recognized by historians as having been the beginning of the Southern secession movement. So because of that and various other manoeuvres, including material assistance, which Great Britain gave to the South during the Civil War. It is very clear and in fact undeniable, although it's been scrubbed pretty much from our history books. It is undeniable that Great Britain caused and instigated the American Civil War and did everything in their power to help the South win. And you can see British newspapers and political speeches by British statesmen. There was no question that they were on the side of the South and they wanted the South to win and they tried very hard to intervene, including having the French put a very large army into Mexico, putting a lot of British troops into Canada. So, what I'm saying by this, Peter, is that when you look behind the scenes, when you look at the surface, you might think that colonialism, or British colonialism, is seemingly benign, and that it actually helps people who are in a lower phase of development to develop infrastructure and trade and education and health and all these things, that it brings in money, it brings in expertise, and all of that. But when you look a a little deeper, you realize that the intention of the colonializers or the colonizers, whatever. Is not fundamentally a good intention. That what they want is to set up economic relationships that are actually disadvantageous to the colonized country in the long run. And to maintain those relationships, even if it means tearing apart a country in civil war, and in our case a country of people of European and British and Irish stock, especially at that time. It wasn't even a matter of race, you know. It's just when those economic interests are threatened, the colonizing power becomes very ruthless and the colonial elites become loyal to a foreign country instead of to their own country, which is what happened in our South. So, on the one hand, yes, I would agree that this question of were certain parts of the world under colonialism, I don't want to answer with a knee-jerk response to say, oh, out with the colonizers, it's racist, it's sexist, it's homophobic, it's whatever. Yeah, I just threw in homophobic just for the heck of it. Actually, I don't even say that. But I mean, what I'm saying is I hear what you're saying, I hear your question and I absolutely don't go with the knee jerk. Woke or politically correct, autumn idea that colonialism was totally bad. I don't go with it. I think it's a complicated question. But I also think that my research into the colonial past of my own country, the United States shows that our relationship with England was in fact terribly damaging to our country. Even though there were good aspects to it as well, because our own industrialization of the building of the Great American Railroads, all of that was funded by British capital. So it's two sides of the same coin. But if you have a foreign country meddling in your affairs and doing things like causing secessions and civil wars, that's a very serious matter. So what would, what would Africa really be like? The narrative now is, well, look, it's in a hopeless condition. The dictators, genocides, wars, constant military coups, and so forth. And if the colonizing powers came back, maybe everything would be better and nicer. But it's not always in the interests of the colonizing powers to make everything nicer and better. And I guess that's what I'm saying. And I also would raise the question as to what extent, these troubles that we're having today are actually caused by covert interference, by the West and by the former colonial powers. And, I think in this case that we're talking about now with these former French colonies, there's some kind of psy-op going on where, for reasons, let's say reasons unknown. Whoever controls the political discourse on Twitter is pretending to be all excited about these military coups and pretending that it all has to do with some mass movement from the ground level of people who want to throw off the yoke of French colonialism. But the fact is, first of all, these countries, most of them have had many, many coups. It's not at all unusual. They're showing this map, they're saying, oh my gosh, six coups in three years. That's actually not so unusual, for those countries or others in Africa. And the other thing that's kind of weird about it is, are these really French colonies or former French colonies, or are they just nominally French colonies and actually some other countries among whom is Great Britain are actually calling the shots there. And so it gets into this, and so I guess on one level I'm saying yes it is it is simplistic if we assume that whatever the news tells us is correct that once upon a time there was colonial Africa then the colonial powers all left for some unstated reason, which is never really adequately explained. And then supposedly these African countries were on their own and then supposedly all hell broke loose and they all started killing and massacring each other. I think it probably is a little naïve to accept that narrative at face value. I am not at all convinced that that's exactly what happened. And what instead appears to have happened is that the old colonial system was replaced by a new colonial system, basically run by the United Nations system, and that these disorders were allowed to go on. And in fact, in some cases, encouraged to go on for all kinds of reasons. I'll give you one example.  Yeah, give me an example and then I'll bring up another piece you had up, so go with your example. One famous example, of course, was the Rwandan genocide in 1994, where now Rwanda was a French colony and, in fact, while the genocide was happening, there were French troops there who were supposedly trying to stop it, and they were very sharply criticized for being strangely ineffective in not being able to stop it, especially since they were modern troops with modern weaponry and these people who were committing the genocide were supposedly armed with only machetes. So there were questions about the French handling of it. But even beyond that, the result of this genocide was that Rwanda, was subsequently taken into the British Commonwealth. Whereas before it had been in the French sphere of influence. And the normal traditional rule of the Commonwealth is that countries who are admitted to it are supposed to be former British colonies, but Rwanda wasn't. It was taken as a special case because the French had supposedly done such a terrible job of not protecting their people that it passed into the proprietorship of Great Britain. And so, I'm not the only person who has to raise an eyebrow and ask the question, qui bono? I mean, if Rwanda passed from French control to British control, and if the pretext for that passage, was the Rwanda genocide, would it be out of line to ask, what caused the genocide in the first place? And to what extent was it possibly even instigated by some foreign power, as was the American Civil War, as we're now learning more than 150 years after the fact. So that's one example. I could give others, but you said you had a point you wanted to make. Well, because you obviously, in a lot of the information you put out, you're talking about the intelligence services of the West and how they work behind the scenes. But then also there's the economic side. And this was, this is kind of the article I was touching on, let me bring up, this was a Daily Mail article, Recolonize Africa. And you said that it seems to be saying, and this is an old article, 2005, but it gives historical context once again, says it appears to say that Africa's become so violent and lawless that most African countries will welcome, kind of the West, colonial powers coming back in again. But then you mentioned the kind of colonial economic side, I think, when you look at the EU and how the EU keeps a lot of the countries poor through their tax and tariff systems is, yeah. I'm wondering where does, again, the fault lies at the economic side? Is it still the intelligence services working very much within those countries? Is it a mixture of those two? Yeah, what are your thoughts on that?  Well, I would go so far as to say that I don't believe that the colonial powers of Europe specifically, ever let go of their colonies, especially France and Britain. I think they simply found a different way to administer them and actually a cheaper and more efficient way where they didn't have to physically occupy these countries anymore and they didn't have to be held responsible for things like mass murders and genocides and coups and so forth, that they could have a more rough and ready kind of environment and they didn't have to worry about looking good in the face of world opinion. So in some ways it's actually a better situation for them than the situation they had before where they really had to make everything look good because their flag was flying over these various countries and if they committed terrible atrocities or allowed atrocities to be committed there would be consequences. Other European countries would criticize them and would take advantage. And we see that, for example, in the ruckus that the British propagandists made at the turn of the century over the Belgian Congo, where terrible atrocities were committed by King Leopold II in the push to harvest rubber, and he basically enslaved the whole people of the Congo and subjected them to terrible, inhumane practices. And the British, for their own reasons, made a huge, big deal about that. This was back in the turn of the century, of the 20th century, in the 1900s. And they made a huge ruckus about it and said, oh, how terrible, look how badly he's treating these people. The part of that story you never hear about is that the British themselves, British interests were heavily involved in the rubber trade in the Belgian Congo and were taking part in all of it. That part is never mentioned. Likewise, there was a similar ruckus in Peru, again over rubber harvesting. Now Peru was officially never anyone's colony since its independence from Spain, but in fact a lot of people don't know that the British basically exercised an informal control of Peru and some say that they still do to this day. And there was another big public relations ruckus over cruelties related to the rubber trade in Peru, which again British missionaries and human rights activists were leading. And it was somehow effectively concealed that the British themselves were deeply involved in committing these atrocities. So it's really a world of smoke and mirrors, where propaganda and psychological operations have really been part of the whole toolkit of colonialism really since the very beginning, and I believe that the reason the British became the greatest and most successful colonizers in the world is specifically because they are the best propagandists and the best at psychological operations. They basically invented modern psyops, and they're the very best in that field to this day, and that's really what it's all about. It's all about how to do things in foreign countries without seeming to be doing them, or to blame other people for doing them, such as blaming King Leopold II of Belgium for all these atrocities, and he certainly was guilty of them, but leaving out the part that British financial interests were in there very heavily, helping him to commit them. So this continues to go on today, where we have now a very fluid situation, a neo-colonial situation, as the left, as the Marxists named it decades ago, where the colonial colonizing countries are still there, and they're still probably just as much in control as ever were, but no longer held responsible to keep order in the same way they used to be. So it's really kind of a better situation for them. They can get away with a lot more. Now in these, the interesting thing in that article by Andrew Roberts, the British historian, he wrote that article in 2005. A lot of people in our, as you pointed out, in our social media culture think 2005 was, you know, like the last millennium or something. But actually, it's very important to understand what was happening then because, what actually happened is that the EU was in the process then of setting up an elaborate neo-colonial structure which basically controls Africa to this day. And now I mentioned that in the original treaty of Rome setting up the EEC back in 1957, they already had a formal relationship with past and present colonies in Africa which they recognized in that treaty. They call it a special relationship. And in the 1990s, some strange things started to happen. Which is that as the EU became activated and the Maastricht Treaty and the Eurozone, and it started becoming a reality, this thing that people have been talking about since the 1890s and before, It started becoming a reality in the 90s and immediately the cry went up to form an African union. And there was a strategy developed called the Joint EU Africa Strategy. And the motto of this EU Africa group was one Europe, one Africa. And what they wanted was a United Europe dealing one-on-one with the United Africa. So they wouldn't, that is so the European countries would not have to negotiate separately with each little country in Africa. They would have one authority controlling the entire continent with whom they could make their deals and their treaties, whatever those were. So interestingly, Muammar Gaddafi, the late dictator or president of Libya. He came out in, I forget what year it was. It could have been, it was around 19, in the late 1990s, I think. He made a very controversial speech in Libya where he said that the Arab Maghreb Union was a farce. That now the Maghreb is basically all of North Africa except Egypt. And in 1989, I think they had come together to form a regional economic structure called the Arab Maghreb Union. And Gaddafi had been one of the leading people pushing that. It was actually his brainchild, supposedly. But then, I think it was 15 years later, he gave this speech saying, let me tell you the truth. The reason we formed this Maghreb Union was because the EU forced us to do it. They said, we're not going to do business with you anymore because it's too burdensome dealing with each country unless you, unless all the Maghreb countries of North Africa come together in a union, we're not going to even talk to you. So on that basis, Gaddafi got up in circa 1989, and using the language of third world-ism and the non-aligned movement and Arab nationalism. Said that what we need to do is form this union so we can all be strong, all us Arab-speaking countries in Africa together. But then 15 years later, he openly and publicly confessed actually the EU is the one who wanted us to get together, had nothing to do with Arab nationalism, and they basically forced us to do it. And so then he said, let's dissolve this union, let's get out of it. Oh, it was in 2003, I just remembered. It was in 2003, so this was post 9-1-1, it was after Afghanistan and Iraq had been invaded, so things weren't looking too good for Arab nationalism at that moment. And so Gaddafi, getting with the spirit of the time, said the Arabs are finished, they're a laughingstock, and we want nothing to do with Arabs anymore, even though we're Arab speaking. We are now African. And then he came up with a new idea. Let's have an African union, he said. Now, actually, he had already proposed the African Union. It came into being in the year 2000, and supposedly Gaddafi was the one who thought of it and was the founding father of this African Union. But, you know, in 2003, he confessed that the last time he pulled that manoeuvre with the Arab Maghreb Union, it was the EU forcing him to do it. Should we imagine that on the second go-round with the African, that he suddenly became the third world Nationalist that he always claimed to be or was he simply like Scarlett O'Hara and all those southern planters in the United States in the antebellum South, was he simply, lining his own pockets by doing business with the colonizers and going where he thought the power was. Well, it looks like the latter. And that's how colonial elites work. You know, people are not that idealistic, unfortunately. I wish they were, but let's face it, they're not. You know, people will go where the money is, and that's just how it is. And so they formed this African Union to the cries from the EU of one Europe, one Africa, And they started signing all kinds of treaties and putting forth all kinds of policies that were completely mysterious and unknown to the African people who have enough of a struggle trying to get democratic government as it is. But now all of a sudden, whatever democratic structures had been set up at a national level in the individual countries had suddenly become obsolete because now the EU was talking directly to these officials in charge of this thing called the African Union. And the African Union was empowered to make treaties that could be enforced on all African countries. Imagine that. So, now that we've had the African Union since the year 2000. And one of its rules, supposedly, is that you're supposed to have free elections which are monitored by international authorities and absolutely no military coups. Military coups are strictly not allowed. And yet, since then, we've had the Arab Spring. These colour revolutions and civil wars in the Western powers, and now we're having these, continuing to have these coups, which everybody is cheering about on Twitter. All of this is supposedly, supposed to be impossible and illegal under the African Union and should trigger military interventions by the African Union. I think they call it the African Union Peace and Security, something or other, which basically mobilizes peacekeeping troops and also arranges to have European troops to come in, in order to fix problems, whatever they are. And so the mechanism actually exists in Africa probably better than anywhere else in the world where you have a transnational authority, the African Union, which actually has the real power and the real willingness to bring in heavy military force whenever they like, to stop things like military coups from happening, and yet they're still happening. Why is that? Why is that? I'll pick up on one thing as we finish. Realizing the Gaddafi started African Union changes my whole concept of it. That blows me away. But the fact that when you look at the EU, the EU, European Union, has been hugely successful at control within Europe economically. There are lots of questions that the EU has never been able to rise above and be a economic bloc, I guess, to rival the US, which was always the dream, probably, of the EU and the European Economic Community before that. But it's full control of EU members and if the EU can punish and has done with those in Eastern Europe for many violations on tax, on faith, on immigration. But the African Union, you don't hear of it as having that much say or power. It hasn't brought together those countries. Can we just finish just maybe touching on that, that kind of comparison between one bloc in Europe that has worked certainly for control, the African Union, is that by design or are there other reasons behind that? Well, I think it's by design that the African Union is weak. Is that what you're saying? That it really doesn't exercise the authority it's supposed to. I think it's by design. I think it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do, which is to create a central authority for European powers, especially Great Britain, which really masterminded the whole thing, in my opinion. And if you, I would just like to leave your audience with one point, which, is that article you showed by Andrew Roberts, where he said it's time to to recolonize Africa. That was in 2005. That was right after Tony Blair had done his African, Africa commission and they had mapped out this whole plan for basically re-colonizing Africa through the African Union and through other regional structures. Now in that article, Andrews actually says, he actually states that the French and the Germans will not be allowed to re-colonize Africa, that only English speaking countries. He actually says the United States and Great Britain, and with the support of New Zealand, Canada, and Australia, will be the ones to make this happen. The French, because of their cruelty in the past and their mishandling of all kinds of colonial situations, will not be allowed to have anything to do with it, nor will the Germans, because look what they did when they were colonialists back before World War I. You think 2005 was a long, long time ago, but he, Roberts actually evoked what the Germans did before World War I as a reason why they will not be allowed to take part in this great project of colonizing Africa. So now all of a sudden we're getting all this propaganda from Giorgia Meloni of Italy and from big influencers like Ian Miles Cheong. I don't mean to single him out, but he wrote this extraordinary tweet saying, yes, the people of West Africa are rising up against French colonialism. We're going towards a multipolar world. Hooray. Some words to that effect. He linked it to the whole idea of multi-polarism. And what is that all about? That's about overthrowing the global hegemon, the USA, which is supposedly the cause of all evil in the world. Overthrowing the USA, stripping us of our power, so then power can be decentralized among various countries. And so certain influencers such as Ian Miles Cheong is out there celebrating and saying, yes, out with the French, out with the French. Is it just a coincidence that Andrew Roberts, when he first publicized this recolonization plan, he expressly said the French are out. We will not allow the French to take part in this now, all of a sudden, so many years later we're hearing that cry again that the French are out. And some of these French countries, French colonies, so-called, one of them Guinea, maybe on another, we don't have time to talk about it now, but I have massive evidence that the British are really effectively in control in that country, Guinea, and running things in an extraordinary way, quite openly, including Rio Tinto, the mining company, the Anglo-Australian mining company, and Guinea has more than one half of the world's bauxite deposits, aluminium ore. And Rio Tinto has been trying to get in control of that, working with the Chinese. And it's interesting that, you know, the cry goes out, you know, from all the usual sources, the US State Department and what have you, oh the Chinese are taking over in Africa, that's one of the reasons why we have to go back in there and otherwise the Chinese are going to take over everything. But I notice whenever the British get involved with something, they somehow bring the Chinese with them. I'm not sure why they do that, but it's a little strange, what can I say? Well, we'll leave it on a cliff-hanger, that, about the British involvement there, and we'll pick up on that. Richard, I really do appreciate coming on. As I said at the beginning, I love reading your tweets and how you expand on so much. So thank you for joining us today and going through that Africa tweet, which is one of your latest ones. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Peter. Always a pleasure.

The Common Market Law Review was founded 60 years ago. It was the first journal dedicated to the Law of the European Economic Community, later the law of the European Union. Alison McDonnell interviews Laurens Jan Brinkhorst for this podcast episode of International Law Talk. For 30 years, Alison McDonnell has run the Editorial Office of the Common Market Law Review - world's leading academic legal journal. Laurens Jan Brinkhorst was the very first secretary to the editors of the journal, in 1963. Together they reflect on 60 years of the law of European integration. Learn more about the Common Market Law Review. This podcast episode is part of International Law Talk. Wolters Kluwer will bring you insightful analysis, commentary, and discussion from thought leaders and experts on current topics in the field of International Arbitration, IP Law, International Tax Law, Competition Law and other international legal fields. Music tune: Scuba, Metre. #internationallawtalk

Fifty years ago, in January 1973, Ireland formally joined the European Economic Community, which today is the European Union. But what is our legacy in the EU, and should we remain there for another half-century? Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast Former Senior Irish Diplomat Ray Bassett.

Fifty years ago, in January 1973, Ireland formally joined the European Economic Community, which today is the European Union. But what is our legacy in the EU, and should we remain there for another half-century? Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast Former Senior Irish Diplomat Ray Bassett.

The fourth episode of the Global Europe podcast series, Back to the Future – Ireland and the EU at 50, was moderated by IIEA Global Europe Researcher, Emily Binchy, on the future of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the journey of the CAP from Ireland's accession to the European Economic Community in 1972 to the new CAP 2023-2027. This discussion featured Tom Arnold, former Chief Economist of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Chair of the Irish Governmental initiative Food Vision 2030, and Tom Moran, Chair of the Board of Kerry Group and former Secretary General in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

It's 50 years since Ireland joined what was then the European Economic Community or EEC. We joined as the poorest member of that block in 1973 and now we're one of the richest on paper at least. This week Breakfast Business will be broadcasting live from the European parliament here in Strasbourg and examining what Ireland has lost and gained over the past half century and what more needs to be done at an EU level for companies and consumers in Ireland. Speaking to Joe this morning was Patricia Callan who is the Director of Financials Services Ireland which represents the banks and fintech companies that are based in Ireland.

In the week of the Labour Party when polls indicate that the party is likely to form the next government, it seems an opportune moment to examine what lessons they might be able to draw from their own history. But why Harold Wilson?Harold Wilson won four general elections. More than Clement Atlee or Tony Blair. Wilson was a wily, strategic political operator who made some radical changes to the UK including the decriminalisation of homosexuality, legalising abortion, abolishment of the death penalty and confirming the UK's membership of the European Economic Community. He led the country through a number of crises that would be very familiar to us today including industrial action an energy crisis and the pound sterling being under threat. He was also, allegedly, the Queen's favourite Prime Minister.To discuss Wilson's life and leadership Dan is joined by Nick Thomas-Symonds. Nick is a Labour MP and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade. He is also a writer, barrister and politician and has recently published a biography of Harold Wilson.This episode was produced by Mariana Des Forges, the audio editor was Dougal Patmore.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.Complete the survey and you'll be entered into a prize draw to win 5 Historical Non-Fiction Books- including a signed copy of Dan Snow's 'On This Day in History'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Become a Patreon supporter at www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com   This week we're taking the train across the pond for another creepy adventure. That's right, we are doing one of our creepy episodes! It's been a while so we figured it was time. This week we are headed to what some people say is one of the top scariest countries in the world! Not only that…we know we have some awesome listeners here. This week we are headed to creepy Portugal! We are gonna try our best to find the coolest, creepiest places for you guys. I'm just going to assume there's going to be a bridge in here someplace.  So without further Ado.. Let's fucking rock and roll!!!   So first up we're gonna do a little history lesson. Will keep it somewhat sorry and sweet since if we got into the complete history of a country of the age of Portugal, it would be an entire episode on its own. To get there history of this country we went to the source, portugal.com and an article written by Goncarlo Costa.    The history of Portugal starts many ages ago, when the so-called Iberian tribes inhabited the territory of today's Portugal. Then, in the beginning of the first millennium BC, Celtic tribes invaded and intermarried with the local Iberians, creating what is now known as the Celtiberians.   The Lusitanians, who inhabited the interior region of Portugal since the Iron Age, are considered the forefathers of the Portuguese nation. This is why today we have names like Lusophone, someone who speaks Portuguese, or Luso-American, a Portuguese American person. They were known for successfully fending off the Roman armies until the death of their leader, Viriathus, known as a hero in Portugal.   The tribe was considered a worthy adversary by the Romans, so much that they named the province of the whole territory of modern Portugal (south of the Douro River) and part of western Spain after them.   The Romans left various works, such as baths, temples, bridges, roads, theaters and statues; some of them are still found in different parts of the country.   This lasted until the Barbarian invasions, when Germanic tribes migrated to various parts of the Roman Empire. In Portugal, the territory became controlled by the Germanic in the 5th century. The Kingdom of the Suebi controlled Galicia and the North and Center of Portugal, while the Visigothic Kingdom controlled the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, including the rest of Portugal, until eventually conquering the Suebi and, consequently, the whole of Iberia. This is when the rigid class structure appeared in the country, with a Nobility and Clergy getting more and more political and social power.   In the 8th century, the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate invaded the Iberian Peninsula from the North of Africa. Al-Andalus, the Islamic name for the Peninsula, became a part of the Caliphate, and Portugal with it. The Portuguese kept lots of things from their Muslim past, like many of their words, architecture and the famous ‘azulejos'.   The Christians held on in the North of the Peninsula, creating the Kingdom of the Asturias. This was until the Reconquista, when they reconquered the lands from the Moors, the Muslims.   In this Kingdom, at the end of the 9th century, a county based in the now north of Portugal was established, the County of Portugal. The county grew in power and, at the end of the 11th century, a Burgundian knight named Henry, who was fighting in the Reconquista, was crowned as ‘Count of Portugal' and merged it with the County of Coimbra.   Henry's son, Afonso Henriques, proclaimed himself King of Portugal in 1139 with Guimarães as its capital. This city remains known until this day as the “Cradle of the Nation' by the Portuguese.   However, it was only in 1179 that a papal bull officially recognized Afonso I as king. The Reconquista continued with the Algarve, the south of the country, finally being conquered in 1249, and Lisbon becoming the capital in 1255. Since then, Portugal's land borders have remained almost unchanged, being considered one of the longest standing borders in Europe.   The Kingdom of Portugal remained very important in Europe's (and especially Iberian) politics, waging several wars against Spain, creating an alliance with England (the longest standing alliance in the world, lasting until today) and starting the “Age of Discovery”.   In this Age, the country built a vast empire, having territory all over the world, from South America to Oceania. They started by exploring their coast and adventuring into the Moroccan coast, hoping to continue the Reconquista to the North of Africa. Then, the Portuguese sailors started to adventure into the open sea, when they discovered the islands of the Canaries, Madeira, Azores and Cape Verde. Subsequently, the Portuguese explored the coast of Africa, setting trading ports, and tried to discover the maritime route to India, which they did in 1498, under the explorer Vasco da Gama.   They continued to explore and look for trade around the world, from Africa, passing through Arabia, and reaching Japan, setting several outposts, many of them having developed into colonies later on. In 1500, they reached South America and started the colonization of Brazil.   The Empire started to decline, however, when the Dutch, English, and French got in the game. They started to surround or conquer the scattered Portuguese trading posts and territories, diminishing their power. On the Battle of Alcácer-Quibir, in 1578, Portugal lost its king, becoming part of a dynastic union with Spain that lasted until 1640, when it finally gained its independence again.   After that, the country never became the great power it once was. It lost several colonies (including its largest one, Brazil) and trade routes, it saw its capital being destroyed by an earthquake in 1755 and it was occupied during the Napoleonic Wars.   From then on, Portugal was a minor power in Europe, having just some colonies in Africa and Asia and never becoming an economic powerhouse.   Then, in 1910, due to corruption, dissatisfaction with the several Kings and the loss of claimed African lands to the English, the monarchy ended and a Republic was created. Fiercely secular, to the point where it was antichurch, filed with corruption, government instability and near to bankruptcy, the regime came to an end with a military coup in 1926.   A military dictatorship was installed and then, a fascist-like regime, the ‘Estado Novo' (‘New State'), headed by António de Oliveira Salazar. This period was marked by authoritarianism, lack of freedom and, from 1961, by the Portuguese Colonial War.   All of this ended when, in April 25th 1974, the Carnation Revolution happened, carried out by the Armed Forces Movement (Movimento das Forças Armadas – MFA), a movement of young left-leaning captains of the Portuguese Armed Forces. With the Revolution, democratic reforms were made and the first free elections with multiple parties happened, as well as the independence of all of Portugal's colonies.   It also started the PREC (Processo Revolucionário Em Curso – Ongoing Revolutionary Process), a period when conservative and left-leaning forces inside the MFA confronted each other, marked by political turmoil, violence, instability, and the nationalization and expropriation of private lands. It came to an end on the 25 November 1975, when the MFA moderates appeared as the main force.   Nevertheless, revolutionary achievements were not forgotten, with the Constitution pledging until this day to realize socialism, as well as declaring extensive nationalizations and land seizures as irreversible, many, however, now overturned.   Nowadays, Portugal is one of 15 most sustainable states in the world and considered the third most peaceful. It has high living standards and a good economy. It was a founding member of NATO, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. It entered the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1986 and is one of its fiercest supporters, even having produced a European Commission President.   Ok so that's a brief…incredibly brief mini history of Portugal. Really the take aways are…super old, plenty of things happened to make the place creepy over that many years. So let's see what creepy stuff Portugal has to offer!   What better way to start than with a sanatorium! Valongo Sanatorium to be exact. The construction of the Mont'Alto Sanatorium began in 1932. Due to the appearance of a large number of people who had contracted tuberculosis, there was a need to expand the facilities, and these expansion works were completed in 1958. construction of these hospital units were carried out in high altitude places, due to the purity of the air, and also because they were away from the populations to avoid the effects of contagion. The sanatorium only operated for a short period, having been inaugurated in 1958 and closed in 1975, after which it entered a profound state of disrepair. Due to its dimensions, it is considered one of the most imposing buildings of its type in Portugal.Its building is large, with an area of ​​approximately 88,000 m², having been built with a view to housing about 300 patients. The building was designed by the architect José Júlio de Brito , who was also responsible for other prominent structures in the city of Porto, such as the Coliseu or Teatro Rivoli . The sanatorium complex, which occupied nine hectares, also included a school, a laundry room, a water reservoir, and a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Sick.    The installation of the Sanatorium in Valongo was part of a phase in the history of health in Portugal, during which the government undertook the construction of several specialized establishments to combat tuberculosis, a disease that was ravaging the country at the time. This period began in 1899, with the foundation of the National Institute of Assistance to Tuberculosis, which began the construction of several sanatoriums in different parts of the national territory. In 1930, efforts against tuberculosis were renewed in the north of the country, with the creation of the Assistance to Tuberculosis of Northern Portugal by António Elísio Lopes Rodrigues, and at that time, planning began to build a sanatorium that would house the sick in that region, who had lower economic resources.  Serra de Santa Justa was chosen, where the air was healthier, in addition to being isolated from urban centers, in order to reduce the risk of contagion.   Shortly after, the Sá family donated a plot of land in Serra de Santa Justa, allowing the construction of the building, whose works began in 1932.  However, the works were suspended due to lack of funding, having been resumed due to the support of the local populations.  On July 5, 1940, ATNP began building the Casa de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, to support the children of the sanatorium's patients. According to the Diário Popular of 3 January 1956, the finishing works and equipping of the sanatorium were already under way, and it was expected to be completed during the following year, and that it would have a capacity for 350 beds.  However, the works were only completed in 1958.  Another reason for the delay in the work may have been the opposition by the Companhia das Minas de São Pedro da Cova to the construction of the building, because it was being installed inside an area destined for coal mining, a few kilometers away from the mines.  However, at the time of the sanatorium's inauguration, mining was already entering its final phase, ending up closing in 1970.  Some of the users of the hospital were the mine workers themselves, who suffered from occupational diseases such as tuberculosis and silicosis . The Sanatorium of Monte Alto was inaugurated on 1 November 1958,  being the last one to be opened in Portugal. The inauguration ceremony included a religious service at the Chapel of Nossa Senhora dos Enfermos, the unveiling of a commemorative tombstone, a tribute to the League of Combatants of theFirst World War, and concluded with a port of honor offered by the board of directors. of the sanatorium.  During the ceremony, the admission and accommodation process of the first clients, all veterans of the First World War, was also carried out. Although it was planned for three hundred patients,  its initial capacity was only fifty beds, and during its operation it accommodated 350 people.    In the early 1970s, there began to be greater control over the tuberculosis disease, which began to be fought in a different way, through the outpatient system.  In this way, the sanatoriums ceased to be useful, and were progressively abandoned or underwent a process of readaptation for other purposes.  In the case of the Montalto Sanatorium, the closure process began in 1972,  due to the low number of tuberculosis patients in the Porto District.  At that time, the building already had only a few patients, having been thought of its adaptation as a psychiatric hospital or for the returnees from overseas, which did not advance.  Due to the process of closing the Sanatorium, Casa Nossa Senhora da Conceição ceased to function as a boarding school, starting to support only external students. The building was abandoned after the April 25 Revolution , when the last employee left, although it was only officially closed in 1975.  Following its closure, it was completely looted, being a of the main reasons its connection to the Estado Novo, as it was mostly built and used during that regime.  This connection to the Estado Novo also had a negative impact on the collection of funds, making it impossible to carry out works on the building. It was also used as a training ground by firefighters and civil protection, who performed drills there and destroyed some walls.  Later, the sanatorium was used for paintball games and photo shoots, and various ceremonies related to the supernatural, such as rituals, were also performed there. The building was also hit by several fires, accentuating its degradation. History is awesome and fun and you know we love it but…. The reason we're here is for creepiness! There are stories abound of how haunted this place is. Given the numerous people who died there it makes sense to us! So what kind of stuff are we talking about here ? Well, let's look.    Well paranormal investigators have been spending time here for years, when there's no paintball matches going on, to try and find crazy shit! There have been numerous reports of strange noises and things moving around. There have been entities seen and apparitions spotted. It's hard to find much in English so finding pages from Portuguese websites and trying to find studies was tough but we managed to find one study where a group of friends were exploring the abandoned hospital and had some interesting things happen. They talked about how they started hearing strange noises while they were exploring. The noises seemed to be following them around the building. They talked about how they had a heavy feeling around them as they explored. The sounds seemed to keep getting closer to them. They claim that things started getting knocked over and moved on their own. At one point, one of the group claimed they saw a shadowy figure seemingly watching them. At that point they all decided it was time to go! Sounds like a pretty crazy experience!  True or not? We like to think so!   Can't go and episode without fucking tuberculosis… Teatro Lethes:   The building that today is called Teatro Lethes, began as a Jesuit College – Colégio de Santiago Maior, founded by the then Bishop of the Algarve, D. Fernando Martins Mascarenhas -, whose license was granted to them on 8 February 1599. of learning, above all of a religious nature – the “first university in the Algarve”, as someone has called it. In 1759, the Society of Jesus was banned from the country and its goods were confiscated. The College of Santiago Maior closed its doors. With the occupation of Napoleonic troops commanded by General Junot, the premises of the former College were raided and desecrated in order to enlist the soldiers there. Years later, in 1843, the College was auctioned off by Dr. Lazaro Doglioni, who had publicly expressed his intention to build a theater in Faro similar to S.   The Latin inscription on the facade of the building, monet oblectando , can be translated as “instructing, playing”, thus emphasizing the cultural concerns of the promoter of the construction of this concert hall.   The inauguration of Teatro Lethes took place on 4 April 1845, as part of the celebrations for the birthday of Queen Maria II. Later, in 1860, it was expanded by Dr. Justino Cumano, nephew of Lázaro Doglioni. On September 11, 1898, the so-called animatograph was exhibited for the first time in Faro., installed in the Lethes Theater as it is the largest and most distinguished cultural space in the city. It was restored between 1906 and 1908 to improve acoustics and comfort. The decline of the shows and, consequently, of the hall, begins in 1920, with the Theater closing in 1925, having sold the property to the Portuguese Red Cross, in whose possession it still remains. The Lethes Theater room was later ceded, by protocol, to the Algarve Regional Delegation of the Ministry of Culture. In the North wing, restored and adapted in 1991, the regional services of the Ministry of Culture operated. On October 5, 2012, by protocol between the Municipality of Faro and the Portuguese Red Cross, Teatro Lethes recovered its initial design. The Algarve Theater Company – ACTA was installed as a resident structure. ACTA, in addition to presenting shows of its own creation, also promotes hospitality at the Lethes Theater, and is also responsible for managing the equipment. this history was taken directly from the theatre website!   There are a couple stories about this place that prettier day lead to its hauntings. The first is the story of a ballerina who was in love but was not loved back. She was so distraught that she hung herself in the middle of the stage. Some versions say that she was driven to the brink by the demands of theater life. The second is that of a soldier's body that was found inside one of the walls. There isn't as much info on that story as the ballerina. Staff and visitors claim you can hear the ballerinas footsteps in the theater to this day. There are also reports of a shadowy figure moving about as well. Could this be the ballerina still performing for the people? Or the soldier patrolling the theater? Who knows but it sounds like a cool place to visit!! The Castelinho of Sao Joao, Estoril   The area between Estoril and Cascais, out on Lisbon's Atlantic coast, is rife with buildings of character. Many of them are designed to give the impression of miniature castles, indeed some of them were fortified because they were built during times of instability within the Iberian peninsula.   In the 1980s, a wealthy socialite, José Castelo Branco, was looking for just such a property and found one that seemed ideal in Sao Joao, a district on the edge of Estoril. The day he went to view the property was a beautiful sunny one and so he decided to walk along the cliff path which adjoined the property. As he was walking back to the building, he saw a young girl. She didn't speak, but simply stared at him. In his own account of the events of that day, Mr Castelo Branco said that he felt a compulsion to jump from the edge. This feeling was, he believed, coming from the young girl. He immediately elected to leave the property and ruled out buying it.   On hearing what had happened, someone from the local town hall did some research into the building and discovered that a young blind girl had fallen from the cliffs to her death in the eighteenth century and that several people had reported seeing her at the castelinho since, each claiming that they felt a strong will to jump while she looked at them.   Let's check out a cemetery now…cus those are always fun!    This one is called the cemetery of pleasures. After the city of Lisbon was hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1833, causing thousands of deaths,  it was urgent to create a large cemetery for both rich and poorer victims. It has the weird name of  Cemetery of ‘Pleasures', called after the nearby neighborhood (Prazeres) with the same name. Many of its tombs are big mausoleums, some with the size of small chapels.    Most of the Prazeres mausoleums belong to rich, old or ‘important' families, like  the Palmela family. Many of the mausoleums are richly elaborate, have fine sculptures and decorations. There are also statues of the deceased. It's like a ‘city in a city' for the dead, with well-defined lanes (70! ) and funerary chapels that were built to look like little houses.   The unusual thing about a lot of these graves is that they have little “front doors” with glass windows through which you can see the caskets and remnants of the dead and their visitors. Most of the trees are a species of cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), much used in Portuguese cemeteries.   The cemetery is one of the largest in Lisbon.    The Autopsy Room , which was in the chapel until the Morgues were created in 1899, is one of the curiosities that can be seen, as well as the Sala do Acervo , where some of the oldest funeral records can be consulted. This is another way of helping the visitor to interpret the different ways that human beings have had to culturally, socially and psychologically approach Death, throughout different times.   As with the many famous families and celebrities, another thing that adds to some people thinking there's more going on at this place is the presence of many freemason symbols and you know how that gets people talking!    At any rate, being a cemetery you can imagine the tales of hauntings surrounding this place! Everything from apparitions being seen wandering the grounds, to Disembodied voices. People have seen orbs in person and in pictures. I mean being able to see into these little houses and see the caskets and remains is creepy enough…add haunting to that…and it's definitely a place we want to go!   Next up, Quinta Das Conchas   The Quinta das Conchas (or the garden of shells) in Lisbon is best known for its expansive parkland, just to the north of the city centre. Families can be found playing here during the warmer months and countless dog walkers can be seen at any time of the year. The house at the heart of the estate though has a darker past which is lesser known. In the early part of the twentieth century, when Portugal was still a colonial power, the owner of the estate was a wealthy man called Francisco Mantero Belard. Like many of his countrymen, he was accustomed to having servants who took care of the running of his home. So, when he moved into the quinta, he acquired the services of a slave from Sao Tomé and Principe. There was nothing unusual about this at the time, other than that he elected to keep this slave woman in a small cage. She was made to live like an animal and, according to local myth, subjected to a variety of cruel treatment for several years. People working in the manor house in modern times have reported hearing wailing coming from empty rooms, as well as dramatic changes in temperature.   Let's switch it up and talk a little about Portuguese folklore! We're gonna talk about the coco or coca. There are also many other names for this guy or gal including Cucuy, Cuco, Cuca, Cucu or Cucuí. It is a mythical ghost-monster, equivalent to the bogeyman, found in many Hispanophone and Lusophone countries. It can also be considered an Iberian version of a bugbear as it is a commonly used figure of speech representing an irrational or exaggerated fear. A bugbear is described as  a legendary creature or type of hobgoblin comparable to the boogeyman and other creatures of folklore, all of which were historically used in some cultures to frighten disobedient children. The Cucuy is a male being while Cuca is a female version of the mythical monster. In Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, parents sometimes invoke the Coco or Cuca as a way of discouraging their children from misbehaving; they sing lullabies or tell rhymes warning their children that if they don't obey their parents, el Coco will come and get them and then eat them.    Continuing with the mystery surrounding this child scarer, the Coco also does not take on a specific physical form. For the Portuguese it is a dragon that is represented every year in the celebration of Corpus Christi…at least that is what I've source says.. another says: "In Portuguese côco, refers to a ghost with a pumpkin head. The male form is known as Coco, and the female form as Coca. It is said it's hard to tell the difference between the two. It seems that parents are to blame for the invocation of the Coco as a way of punishment for their wayward children. They would sing rhymes warning their children if they did not obey their parents the Coco would come and eat them.".... So a pumpkin headed goblin… Although the Coco was ghostly monster like in appearance, that wasn't the most frightening thing about them. Children would be scared out of their wits at the idea of a monster that could eat them and not leave a trace. So imagine being a child forced to sleep with a lullaby of a monster that was coming to devour them.    Duermete niño, duermete ya…que viene el cuco y te comerá (sleep child, sleep now…or else comes the coco to eat you).   Creepy, so this folk tale seems to have many different versions depending on where you look. We think that due to the fact that many Latin American countries also use this in folklore as well as there being a certain in Brazil, it's hard to actually put the facts together. Every place we looked about this tale had a little bit of a different take, hopefully we got it close as we mean no disrespect to the tales!   You know what else Portugal has…aliens, at least a few. He's a couple stories!    On September 4, 1957, four Portugal Air Force pilots claimed to have seen and chased some UFOs. They took off with their bomber aircraft from the Ota Air Base in Portugal under Captain José Lemos Ferreira leadership (the others pilots were sergeants Alberto Gomes Covas, Salvador Alberto Oliveira e Manuel Neves Marcelino). When they were heading towards the city of Portalegre, Captain Ferreira noticed a light above the horizon and warned the others. The light changed its own sizes a couple of times, first increasing, then shrinking. After several minutes the pilots noticed a small yellow circle getting out of the craft, and 3 more circles appeared later. When the UFOs were near Coruche, the bigger aircraft climbed out of the Earth as the smaller ones disappeared. The bombers landed without any problems and Captain Ferreira declared: "after this, do not come to us with that Venus, weather balloons, aircraft and similar stuff which have been being used as general explanations for almost every case of UFOs".   On September 10, 1990, around 9:30AM and for about 50 minutes, a small "balloon" was seen hovering towards a small football field, on a small village called Alfena in the outskirts of Porto. The object was described as "a small turtle with long legs" with a metallic shine. The people present got scared and a group of construction workers started throwing stones at it, and the object hovered backed away, leaving the site. An amateur photographer took several pictures of the shapeshifting object; the pictures were considered by several experts as real and the witness accounts by the simple folks were not considered hoax.    We also found this first hand account.. "My name is Cristina Marto de Pimental. I am a reporter. On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1997, my husband and I were at a seaside party in Funchal, which is on the South shore of Madeira Island, in the Atlantic Ocean, 912 kilometres East of Morocco. We were watching the New Year's festivities, all the fireworks in the sky. Then several people at the party called my attention to a red and motionless light above Funchal. The OVNI suddenly made a very tight circle, returned to its initial position, and, a few seconds later, it accelerated at great speed in a vertical direction. We were all quite amazed at the sight. A British couple at the festival videotaped the UFO as it hovered. The next day I telephoned the Fuerzas Aereas Portugeses (FAP) headquarters in Lisboa. The Portuguese air force told me that they'd had no flights, neither planes nor helicopters, and no satellites were over Madeira at that time."   Whoooooo aliens!!!   Time for some quick hitters, you beautiful bastards!   Quinta da Paulicea, Agueda:   Not far from the city center of Águeda, Quinta da Paulicea sits in the middle of large unkept plot of land surrounded by a wrought iron fence. It is the classic image of what a Hollywood haunted house should look like. It was inhabited by an Águedense family, who had moved to Brazil in the late 1800s, but returned in the early 1900s, naming the home after the city of São Paulo. Much of the family succumbed to the influenza pandemic in 1918, with the exception of Neca Carneiro. He was a patron of the community's sports and cultural programs but died childless at the young age of 37. The home has sat vacant ever since, due to legal constraints with the family back in Brazil. Although not certified as haunted, there are many reports of supernatural encounters at Quinta da Paulicea. Some have heard the neighing of horses where the stables once stood. Others have been frightened by the sound of a shotgun blast or a gentle pulling on hair. A worker in the garden suddenly experienced such an intense headache that he fled and never returned. Whether haunted or not, this beautiful home has many stories to tell.   Mines of São Pedro de Cova – Gondomar:   The village of São Pedro da Cova was largely an agricultural community until the discovery of coal in the 1802. The exhausting and dangerous industry of mining soon took over. Several generations of miners worked here until low oil prices forced the mines to shut down in the 1970's. All that's left of the mines are these ruins. Neighbors say spirits of the miners protect the ruins and the mine shafts. Others claim to hear screaming from the deep holes.   Termas de Água Radium, Sortelha:    Legend has it that this beautiful structure, in the Guarda District, was built by Spanish Count Don Rodrigo after learning that the natural “healing waters” might cure his daughter's skin disease. News of the waters quickly spread. In the 1920s, the site became a restorative spa known as the Hotel Serra da Pena. In actuality, the waters were radioactive, seeping from a uranium mine not far away. Radioactivity was all the rage in the 20's and 30's, so the site bottled the spring water and sold it under the name “Radium Water.” Of course, after radioactivity was studied further in the 40's, it became apparent that the healing qualities of radium water actually carried the opposite effect. The hotel went out of business in the 50's and has been abandoned ever since. It is said the site is haunted by the many people who drank from the contaminated spring.   Sanatório da Serra da Estrela – near Covilhã:   This massive structure was built in 1936 by Portugal's railway department as a treatment facility for its employees suffering from Tuberculosis. The building was later leased to the Portuguese Society of Sanatoriums on condition of receiving all patients needing treatment.  However it was closed in the 1980's and left to deteriorate for decades to come.  Rumors circulate that it is haunted by its many former patients.  The Sanatório has now been refurbished and transformed into the luxurious new Pousada Serra da Estrella.   Quinta da Juncosa – Penafiel, Rios de Monihos:    This old farmhouse was home to the Baron of Lages and his family.  The Baron was very jealous, and suspected his wife of infidelities.  Legends have it, the Baron tied his wife to a horse and dragged her around the farm until she died.  After discovering his wife was innocent, the Baron killed his children and committed suicide.  They say the Baron's guilt keeps him from resting in peace.  Ghosts of the Baron and his wife are said to be seen around the property.   So we did this episode in honor of our Portuguese listeners who have keep us in the top 10 in Portugal for quite some time. We thank you guys so much for that. But we have one request for you…in every creepy episodes so far until this one…we've found a haunted bridge, Texas had like 50. In all of my searching the recesses of the Internet, I could not find a single reference to a haunted bridge in Portugal, we need our Portuguese listeners to hit us up and let us know any stories about haunted bridges. It was tough to find a ton of information on a lot of these places so hopefully we did them right! If we made any mistakes or got anything wrong, you know what we say…blame the Internet!! Movie list   https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/best-body-horror-movies/

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But French diplomats had other motives, too. From Africa to Southeast Asia, France's empire was unraveling. France insisted that Algeria—the crown jewel of the empire and home to a nationalist movement then pleading its case to the United Nations—be included in the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The French hoped that Algeria's involvement in the EEC would quell colonial unrest and confirm international agreement that Algeria was indeed French. French authorities harnessed Algeria's legal status as an official département within the empire to claim that European trade regulations and labor rights should traverse the Mediterranean. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany conceded in order to move forward with the treaty, and Algeria entered a rights regime that allowed free movement of labor and guaranteed security for the families of migrant workers. Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria's membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community. In this book, Dr. Brown combats understandings of Europe's “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. The unification vision was never spatially limited, suggesting that contemporary arguments for geographic boundaries excluding Turkey and areas of Eastern Europe from the European Union must be seen as ahistorical. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But French diplomats had other motives, too. From Africa to Southeast Asia, France's empire was unraveling. France insisted that Algeria—the crown jewel of the empire and home to a nationalist movement then pleading its case to the United Nations—be included in the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The French hoped that Algeria's involvement in the EEC would quell colonial unrest and confirm international agreement that Algeria was indeed French. French authorities harnessed Algeria's legal status as an official département within the empire to claim that European trade regulations and labor rights should traverse the Mediterranean. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany conceded in order to move forward with the treaty, and Algeria entered a rights regime that allowed free movement of labor and guaranteed security for the families of migrant workers. Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria's membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community. In this book, Dr. Brown combats understandings of Europe's “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. The unification vision was never spatially limited, suggesting that contemporary arguments for geographic boundaries excluding Turkey and areas of Eastern Europe from the European Union must be seen as ahistorical. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But French diplomats had other motives, too. From Africa to Southeast Asia, France's empire was unraveling. France insisted that Algeria—the crown jewel of the empire and home to a nationalist movement then pleading its case to the United Nations—be included in the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The French hoped that Algeria's involvement in the EEC would quell colonial unrest and confirm international agreement that Algeria was indeed French. French authorities harnessed Algeria's legal status as an official département within the empire to claim that European trade regulations and labor rights should traverse the Mediterranean. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany conceded in order to move forward with the treaty, and Algeria entered a rights regime that allowed free movement of labor and guaranteed security for the families of migrant workers. Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria's membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community. In this book, Dr. Brown combats understandings of Europe's “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. The unification vision was never spatially limited, suggesting that contemporary arguments for geographic boundaries excluding Turkey and areas of Eastern Europe from the European Union must be seen as ahistorical. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-studies

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But French diplomats had other motives, too. From Africa to Southeast Asia, France's empire was unraveling. France insisted that Algeria—the crown jewel of the empire and home to a nationalist movement then pleading its case to the United Nations—be included in the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The French hoped that Algeria's involvement in the EEC would quell colonial unrest and confirm international agreement that Algeria was indeed French. French authorities harnessed Algeria's legal status as an official département within the empire to claim that European trade regulations and labor rights should traverse the Mediterranean. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany conceded in order to move forward with the treaty, and Algeria entered a rights regime that allowed free movement of labor and guaranteed security for the families of migrant workers. Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria's membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community. In this book, Dr. Brown combats understandings of Europe's “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. The unification vision was never spatially limited, suggesting that contemporary arguments for geographic boundaries excluding Turkey and areas of Eastern Europe from the European Union must be seen as ahistorical. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But French diplomats had other motives, too. From Africa to Southeast Asia, France's empire was unraveling. France insisted that Algeria—the crown jewel of the empire and home to a nationalist movement then pleading its case to the United Nations—be included in the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The French hoped that Algeria's involvement in the EEC would quell colonial unrest and confirm international agreement that Algeria was indeed French. French authorities harnessed Algeria's legal status as an official département within the empire to claim that European trade regulations and labor rights should traverse the Mediterranean. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany conceded in order to move forward with the treaty, and Algeria entered a rights regime that allowed free movement of labor and guaranteed security for the families of migrant workers. Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria's membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community. In this book, Dr. Brown combats understandings of Europe's “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. The unification vision was never spatially limited, suggesting that contemporary arguments for geographic boundaries excluding Turkey and areas of Eastern Europe from the European Union must be seen as ahistorical. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/french-studies

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But French diplomats had other motives, too. From Africa to Southeast Asia, France's empire was unraveling. France insisted that Algeria—the crown jewel of the empire and home to a nationalist movement then pleading its case to the United Nations—be included in the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The French hoped that Algeria's involvement in the EEC would quell colonial unrest and confirm international agreement that Algeria was indeed French. French authorities harnessed Algeria's legal status as an official département within the empire to claim that European trade regulations and labor rights should traverse the Mediterranean. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany conceded in order to move forward with the treaty, and Algeria entered a rights regime that allowed free movement of labor and guaranteed security for the families of migrant workers. Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria's membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community. In this book, Dr. Brown combats understandings of Europe's “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. The unification vision was never spatially limited, suggesting that contemporary arguments for geographic boundaries excluding Turkey and areas of Eastern Europe from the European Union must be seen as ahistorical. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But French diplomats had other motives, too. From Africa to Southeast Asia, France's empire was unraveling. France insisted that Algeria—the crown jewel of the empire and home to a nationalist movement then pleading its case to the United Nations—be included in the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The French hoped that Algeria's involvement in the EEC would quell colonial unrest and confirm international agreement that Algeria was indeed French. French authorities harnessed Algeria's legal status as an official département within the empire to claim that European trade regulations and labor rights should traverse the Mediterranean. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany conceded in order to move forward with the treaty, and Algeria entered a rights regime that allowed free movement of labor and guaranteed security for the families of migrant workers. Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria's membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community. In this book, Dr. Brown combats understandings of Europe's “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. The unification vision was never spatially limited, suggesting that contemporary arguments for geographic boundaries excluding Turkey and areas of Eastern Europe from the European Union must be seen as ahistorical. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today's European Union. On their face, the mid-1950s negotiations over European integration were aimed at securing unity in order to prevent violent conflict and boost economies emerging from the disaster of World War II. But French diplomats had other motives, too. From Africa to Southeast Asia, France's empire was unraveling. France insisted that Algeria—the crown jewel of the empire and home to a nationalist movement then pleading its case to the United Nations—be included in the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The French hoped that Algeria's involvement in the EEC would quell colonial unrest and confirm international agreement that Algeria was indeed French. French authorities harnessed Algeria's legal status as an official département within the empire to claim that European trade regulations and labor rights should traverse the Mediterranean. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany conceded in order to move forward with the treaty, and Algeria entered a rights regime that allowed free movement of labor and guaranteed security for the families of migrant workers. Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria's membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community. In this book, Dr. Brown combats understandings of Europe's “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. The unification vision was never spatially limited, suggesting that contemporary arguments for geographic boundaries excluding Turkey and areas of Eastern Europe from the European Union must be seen as ahistorical. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 433, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: It Happened In Texas 1: Uh-oh! In 1878 outlaw Sam Bass was betrayed by one of his own men to this group. the Texas Rangers. 2: Founded as a Franciscan mission in 1718, Mission San Antonio de Valero became better-known in history under this name. the Alamo. 3: On Nov. 25, 1981, she gave birth to twins in Dallas. Laura Bush. 4: He was deposed as Governor of Texas in 1861 because he wouldn't swear allegiance to the Confederacy. (Sam) Houston. 5: In March 1929 this pilot inaugurated the airmail service between Brownsville, Texas and Mexico. Charles Lindbergh. Round 2. Category: Rock And Roll Jeopardy! 1: David Keith, Kurt Russell and Don Johnson have all portrayed this singer on film. Elvis Presley. 2: The 1976 concert film "The Song Remains the Same" starred this "Stairway to Heaven" group. Led Zeppelin. 3: This 1982 Michael Jackson album has sold 25 million copies. Thriller. 4: This Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist plays on Mick Jagger's "Wandering Spirit". Flea. 5: Acclaimed playwright Israel Horovitz is the father of Adam Horovitz, AKA this group's King Ad-Rock. The Beastie Boys. Round 3. Category: Planets On Earth 1: Drive through the village of Mercury in the Rhone-Alpes region of this country. France. 2: There is life in Mars, 30 miles from the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers in this state. Pennsylvania. 3: If you're driving through Jupiter, catch a show at the maltz Jupiter theatre in this state. Florida. 4: The seas of Neptune are long gone, replaced by the prairies near its captital, Regina, in this Canadian province. Saskatchewan. 5: Though not large enough to be an official planet, Pluto resides on this largest Philippine Island. Luzon. Round 4. Category: March Of Time 1: Once home to Al Capone and a birdman, it closed its cell doors March 21, 1963. Alcatraz. 2: On March 25, 1957 6 countries signed the Treaty of Rome to form this, the EEC. European Economic Community. 3: This city's Bakerloo subway line opened March 10, 1906. London. 4: The U.S. voted against joining this organization March 19, 1920; today we're here and it isn't. League of Nations. 5: On March 1, 1954 the U.S. conducted the first of a series of hydrogen bomb tests on this Pacific atoll. Bikini Atoll. Round 5. Category: "Oo" 7-Letter Words 1: Head and ShouldersorPrell. shampoo. 2: Frank Sinatra was often described as this type of smooth-singing balladeer. a crooner. 3: In this billiards game, players have 15 red balls to shoot as well as 6 balls of other colors. snooker. 4: It's the scientific study of animals. zoology. 5: This slang word meaning "scat!" or "leave quickly" comes from the Spanish for "let us go". vamoose. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

The EEC, sometimes referred to as the Common Market, survived until 2009 when it was absorbed into the European ...

Strategic reserves -- everything from Canadian maple syrup to seeds -- are intended to stabilize prices or to help us survive, in both the short and long term.  So what are we keeping and why?  (and what happens if someone steals it?!) Like what you hear?  Become a patron of the arts for as little as $2 a month!   Or buy the book or some merch.  Hang out with your fellow Brainiacs.  Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter,  or Instagram. Music: Kevin MacLeod, David Fesliyan.   Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Links to all the research resources are on the website.   In the latter half of the 20th century, American wines finally began to come into their own on the global scene.  It was no longer a social faux pas to be seen drinking California chardonnay.  Hastened by a global recession, consumption of European wines by Europeans dropped precipitously, by nearly 1/2 in France and by almost ⅔ in Italy.  What's a vineyard to do if they've produced more wine than the public is buying?  Put it in the wine lake, of course.  My name's…   A strategic reserve is the reserve of a commodity or items that is held back from normal use by governments, organisations, or businesses in pursuance of a particular strategy or to cope with unexpected events.  Your mind may go immediately to the 35 million barrels or so of crude oil that the US has in storage, but there are all kinds of strategic reserves, sometimes called stockpiles, throughout the world.  Most of those stockpiles are intended to guard against price fluctuations.  Today will trend more toward survival necessities, but if you've ever done any kind of research, you know that start off thinking you're going down one road and wind up goodness knows where.    The rationing, deprivation, and economic collapse that were part and parcel to WWII affected the lives of Europeans so profoundly that the European Economic Community, a precursor to the European Union, began subsidizing farmers.  Farmers have never been raking in the big bucks, even when the are outstanding in their field [rimshot], but they were no longer able to rely on it to support their families, especially on land pock-marked with those pesky bomb craters.  Under-production was endemic to the 1950's.  The Common Agricultural Policy was created in 1962 to pay guaranteed, artificially high prices to dairy farmers for surplus products.  These products were then sold the European public for higher prices, causing a drop in sales.  Attempts by non-EU dairies to get in on these high sale prices were kiboshed by heavy taxes.  A certain portion of products were stockpiled, to guard against crop failures, natural disasters, or in case someone got a wild hair and started WWIII.  In 1986 alone, the EU bought 1.23 million tons of leftover butter.  That's 9,840,000,000 sticks of creamy saturated fat goodness.  While this may sound like a dairy-lover's dream, the general public was not so enthusiastic when word got out of what was termed the “butter mountain,” nor were they keen to learn they were paying inflated prices for their dairy goods.  This program actually cost a lot of taxpayer money, almost 90% of the European Economic Communities entire budget.  Even as recently as 2003, these payments are approximately half of the EU budget, even though farming is only 3% of the overall economy.   It still took until the ‘90s for something to be done about it, however. Instead of paying farmers for their unwanted butter, the EEC switched to paying them to not produce it.  To move away from paying farmers guaranteed minimum prices for surplus goods, the government has shifted to paying to farmers so they won't produce as much.  While it seems counter-intuitive, it's not uncommon for governments to pay farmers not farm.  It's been done here in the US since the 1930's.  Some of the prohibitively high import taxes were rescinded as well.  In 2007, the butter surplus was liquidated, figuratively speaking.  In 2009, however, the global recession did require some of the old policies to be reinstated.  The EU claimed it was only a temporary measure that would result in a smaller butter reserve than before, a butter hill rather than a mountain.  A grass-fed knoll, if you will.  This was no magic butter, of course.  Critics argue that farming subsidies in first-world nations hurt developing countries whose farmers can't compete with the artificial prices.   The 300,000 tons of butter the government bought cost taxpayers a whopping €280,000,000, or about a third of a billion dollars, and public pressure quickly rose to get rid of it again.  As of 2011, a portion of the butter had been donated to the worldwide Food Aid for the Needy program.  They don't have this down pat, though.  Changing medical views about fat are leading people to return to butter rather than vegetable oils or margarine, at a rate that's outpacing production.   Oh, Canada, the great white north, full of polite people, ice hockey, geese, and maple syrup.  There are worse reputations for a country to have.  What a pleasant and wholesome thing maple syrup is, drizzled on pancakes on a sunny Sunday morning.  It lands strangely on the brain to learn that there is a Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve.   The Canadian maple syrup industry produces approximately 80% of the world's pure maple syrup and is the leading global producer of maple products.  The province of Quebec alone has almost 8,000 farms, fulfilling 72% of the worlds sticky sweet needs.   Maple syrup is harvested from the sap of maple trees, shockingly, but the process is even more fickle than your average crop.  Maple trees require nights below freezing and days that are in the low thirties but above freezing to  relinquish their sap in useful quantities.  If the nights are too warm or the days are too cold, production levels can vary wildly based on the weather.  That isn't good news if you're trying to maintain a large-scale industry.  It takes 40 units of sap to get one unit of syrup, though a long boiling process called sugaring off.  Corporate buyers depend on a consist supply.  Since 2000, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers has been squirreling away barrels of surplus syrup in rich times, in preparation for poor harvests.  The Federation's warehouses have a capacity of 10 million kilos / 22.2 million pounds of syrup, or about two million gallons.  Each barrel weighs about 620 pounds and commands a price of $1,650, almost 20 times the cost of crude oil.     Speaking of oil, some producers claim the Federation runs their operation like OPEC.  Those producers who don't cooperate with the quota system, those with the temerity to find their own buyers, are dealt with harshly.  Small producer Angèle Grenier told reporter Leyland Cecco she will face criminal charges if she doesn't stop selling to a private broker after the courts ordered her to hand her syrup over.  She has three choices: give the Federation her syrup crop, face jail time, or shut down.  “The federation's goal by taking our maple syrup is that by taking our income, we cannot pay our lawyers,” says Grenier.  “If one year we make 45 barrels, and the next year is a very good year and we make 60, we want to get paid for the 60,” she says. Once a producer fills the quota, the surplus, no matter how large, is retained until it is sold.  That lag-time can run into years.  According to Grenier, a neighboring producer is owed almost 100,000 Canadian dollars in unsold syrup.  According to Al Jazeera America, a small Quebec producer described what happened to his family's business: “The agent who came here to seize our syrup said, ‘If you were growing pot, we wouldn't be giving you as much trouble.'    When an accountant went to inventory the barrels in the warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blanford, he was alarms to find a number of the barrels filled with water, while others were plain empty. Because of the sheer volume of syrup, it would take two months to even determine how much was missing.  About 60 percent of the reserve, worth about $18 million at that time, had been stolen.  The thieves had rented space in the same warehouse and when the security guards were out of sight, siphoned the syrup from the barrels over the course of 11 months.  A multi-agency search began.  Hundreds of people were questioned and dozens of search warrants were issued.  It took a year for the 26 people believed to be involved in the robbery to be arrested.  About ⅓ of the syrup would never be recovered.  The mastermind, Richard Vallieres, received an eight-year prison sentence, which will be increased to 14 years if he doesn't pay $9.4 million in fines, the CBC reports.  Vallières was found guilty of theft, fraud and trafficking stolen goods.  His father, Raymond, and syrup reseller Etienne St-Pierre, have also been found guilty.  Speaking of Canada, I'm 100% serious about a virtual watch-party for the Letterkenny season 10 premier, soc med.   To quote the show to make a clunky segue, what's a Mennonite's favorite kind of raisin?  Barn-raisin'.  Yes, Virginia, there is a national raisin reserve.  That's right, raisins, those polarizing wrinkly former grapes.  While most stockpiles are created to protect against shortage, the National Raisin Reserve came to be for the opposite reason.  We were up to our epaulets in raisins, apparently.   During World War II, both the government and civilians bought raisins en masse to send to soldiers overseas, as a sweet, shelf stable taste of home.  Increased demand led to increased production, but when the war ended and the care packages stopped, the raisin market was flooded.   In 1949, Marketing Order 989 was passed which created the reserve and the Raisin Administrative Committee to oversee it, under the supervision of the USDA.  The Committee was empowered to take a varying percentage of American raisin farmers' produce, sometimes almost half, in an effort to create a raisin shortage and artificially drive up the market price. The reserved raisins didn't go to waste.  Much of it was used in school lunches, fed to livestock, or sold to other countries.  If the raisins were sold, the profit was supposed to be shared with the farmers, but those monies could easily be eaten up by operating expenses, leaving nothing for the people who actually grew the grapes.   This program stayed in place, business as usual, for 53 years, until 2002.  That's when farmer Marvin Horne decided that he would rather sell the product he had grown and processed instead of giving it away to the government. The government took exception to this idea.  Private detectives were dispatched to put his farm under surveillance, then trucks were sent to collect the raisins. When Horne refused to let the trucks on his property, he was slapped with a bill for about $680,000, the value of the raisins plus a penalty.  Not one to roll over that easily, Horne sued the government, claiming the forced forfeiture of his crop was unconstitutional.  For years, the case was volleyed from one court to another.  Eventually, it appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, not once but twice.  The first time was to settle the issue of jurisdiction.  Justice Elena Kagan suggested that the question was “whether the marketing order is a Taking or it's just the world's most outdated law.”  The second time was the core issue - was the seizure of raisins a violation of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the government taking personal property without just compensation?  In 2015, thirteen years after the farce began, the court ruled 8:1 in favor of Horne: For seizures to continue, compensation would have to be paid, that the confiscation of a portion of a farmer's crops without market price compensation was unconstitutional.    While many growers supports Horne in his efforts, even contributing to his legal fees, not everyone thinks of him as a champion of the little guy.  Some who followed the government's orders while Horne defied them resent him for it.  “I lost a lot of my land, following the rules,” said Eddie Wayne Albrecht, a raisin grower in nearby Del Rey, Calif.   He lost so much money in turning in as much as 47% of his crop that his farm, once 1,700 acres strong, is now only 100 acres.  “He got 100 percent, while I was getting 53 percent,” Albrecht said. “The criminal is winning right now.”   What's happening with the raisin reserve now?  The Agriculture Department could abolish it, but they have only hit pause on it, saying “Due to a recent United States Supreme Court decision, [the Volume Control] provisions are currently suspended, being reviewed, and will be amended.” At least that means that in the meantime, no more raisins should be put into the reserve and farmers are free to sell what's theirs.   Bonus fact the first: Golden raisins aren't dried white grapes.  Both regular and golden raisins are made from the same kind of grapes, but with slightly different processes.     MIDROLL   Do you remember how, after like the third time Futurama got cancelled, they did a quartet of movies, which went back and forth in quality like the Star Trek films.  The one, Into the Wild Green Yonder, featured a creature called the Encyclopod, who preserved the DNA of all endangered species.  It's not news that animal species are disappearing at an increasing rate, with a quarter of all known mammals and a tenth of all birds facing possible extinction within the next generation.  Global biodiversity is declining at an overwhelming speed. With each species that disappears, vast amounts of information about their biology, ecology and evolutionary history is irreplaceably lost.  In 2004, three British organizations decided to join forces and combat the issue.  The Natural History Museum, the Zoological Society of London, and Nottingham University joined forces, like highly-educated Planeteers, to create the Frozen Ark Project.     To do this, they gathered and preserved DNA and living tissue samples from all the endangered species they could get their hands on (literally), so that future generations can study the genetic material far into the future.  No, not like Jurassic Park.  I think it's been established that that's a bad idea.  So far, the Frozen Ark has over 700 samples stored at the University of Nottingham in England and participating consortium members in the U.S., Germany, Australia,India, South Africa, Norway, and others.  DNA donations come from museums, university laboratories, and zoos.  Their mission has four component: to coordinating global efforts in animal biobanking; to share expertise; to help to organisations and governments set up biobanks in their own countries; and to provide the physical and informatics infrastructure that will allow conservationists and researchers to search for, locate, and use this material wherever possible without having to resample from wild populations.   The Frozen Ark Project was founded in 2004 by Professor Bryan Clarke, a geneticist at the University of Nottingham, his wife Dr Ann Clarke, an immunologist with experience in reproductive biology, and their friend Dame Anne McLaren, a leading figure in developmental biology.  Starting in the 1960's, Clarke carried out comprehensive studies on land snails of the genus Partula, which are endemic to the volcanic islands of French Polynesia.  Almost all Partula species disappeared within just 15 years, because of a governmental biological control plan that went horribly wrong.  In the late '60s, the giant African land snail, a mollusk the size of a puppy, was introduced to the islands as a delicacy, but soon turned into a serious agricultural pest, because, as seems to happen 100% of the time humans think they know better, the giant snail had no natural predators.  To control the African land snails, the carnivorous Florida rosy wolfsnail was introduced in the '70s, but it annihilated the native snails instead.  As a last resort, Clarke's team managed to collect live specimens of the remaining 12 Partula species and bring them back to Britain.  Tissue samples were frozen to preserve their DNA and an international captive breeding program was established.  Currently, there are Partula species, including some that later became extinct in the wild, in a dozen zoos and a there few been a few promising reintroductions.   The extinction story of the Partula snails resonated with the Clarkes, who realised that systematic collection and preservation of tissue, DNA, and viable cells of endangered species should become standard practice, ultimately inspiring the birth of Frozen Ark.  The Frozen Ark Project operates as a federated model, building partnerships with organisations worldwide that share the same vision and goals.  The Frozen Ark consortium has grown steadily since the project's launch, with new national and international organisations joining every year.  There are now 27 partners, distributed across five continents.  Biological samples like tissue or blood from animals in zoos and aquariums can be taken from live animals during routine veterinary work or from dead animals.  Bonus fact: more of a nitpick, the post-mortem examination of an animal is a necropsy.  Autopsy means examining the self.  The biobanks can provide a safe storage for many types of biological material, particularly the highly valuable germ cells (sperm and eggs).     Their work isn't merely theoretical for some distant day in the future.  One success story of the Frozen Ark, which illustrates the benefits of combining cryobanked material, effective management, and a captive breeding program, is the alarmingly adorable black-footed ferret. The species was listed as “extinct in the wild” in 1996, but has since been reintroduced back to its habitat and is now gradually recovering.  More recently, researchers were able to improve the  genetic diversity to the wild population by using 20-year-old cryopreserved sperm and artificial insemination.     There are many organizations around the world who have taken up the banner of seed preservation, nearly 2,000 in fact.  Most of us have heard of the seed vault at Svalbard, the cool-looking tower sticking out of a Norwegian mountain, where the permafrost ensures the seeds are preserved without need for electricity.  But that's not the seed vault I want to talk about today and fair warning, this one's gonna get heavy, but it's one of those stories I find endlessly fascinating and in a strange way, uplifting.   In September 1941, German forces began to push into Leningrad, before and since called St Petersburg.  They laid siege to the city, choking off the supply of food and other necessities to the city's two million residents.  The siege of Leningrad didn't last a month, or two, or even six.  The siege lasted nearly 900 days.  Among the two million Soviet citizens struggling to survive were a group of scientists ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of mankind.  While they did, their leader, Nikolay Vavilov, Russian geneticist and plant geographer, lay dying in a Soviet prison a thousand miles away.    Vavilov had travelled the world on what he called “a mission for all humanity.”   Vavilov led 115 expeditions to 64 countries, to collect seeds of crop varieties and their wild ancestors. Based on his notes, modern biologists following in Vavilov's footsteps are able to document changes in the cultural and physical landscapes and the crop patterns in these places.  To study the global food ecosystem, he conducted experiments in genetics to improve productivity for farmers.  “He was one of the first scientists to really listen to farmers – traditional farmers, peasant farmers around the world – and why they felt seed diversity was important in their fields,” says Gary Paul Nabhan, ethnobiologist and author of ‘Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine', continues: “All of our notions about biological diversity and needing diversity of foods on our plates to keep us healthy sprung from his work 80 years ago.”  His hope was that one day science could work with agriculture to increase each farm's productivity and to create plants that would grow in any environment and bring an end to hunger.  As Russia fought to find its way through undergoing revolutions, anarchy, and, most importantly to Vavilov, famines, he went about storing seeds at the Institute of Plant Industry, also known as the Pavlovsk Experimental Station.  The scientists there collected thousands of varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, and tubers.  Unlike Svalbard and Kew Garden, the seeds a Pavlovsk weren't just stored as seeds, but some were perpetuated as plants in the field.  This is because some varieties do not breed true from seeds, so can't be stored as seeds to get those plants in the future.   There was one obstacle in Vavilo's way.  Two, really, but one was much greater a threat, that being Joseph Stalin.  The other threat was Stalin's favorite scientist, Trofim Lysenkoly.  Lysenko was a dangerously mis-informed scientist.  Rather than survival of the fittest, where the genes that help an organism survive long enough to reproduce are the ones that are passed on, Lysenko believed that organisms could inherit traits the parent acquired during its lifespan.  Instead of believing that the giraffe with the longest neck was able to reach the food and live to have babies, he believed that the giraffe stretched its neck up and its baby would have a longer neck because of that.  He also believed that if you grafted a branch from a desirable tree onto a less desirable tree, the base tree would improve.  His theories about seeds and flowers were equally backwards.  It was garbage science at best.  At worst, well, we don't need to speculate on that.  We saw it happen.  Crops failed under his now-mandatory systems on the new collectivized farms, which themselves reduced productivity.  Lysenko's policies brought on a famine.  But he was in Stalin's favor and in the Soviet Union, that was all that mattered.  In August 1948 when the Politburo outlawed the teaching of and research into classical Mendelian genetics, the pea plant-based genetics we learn about in middle school.  This disastrous government interference in the face of widely-accepted science and its outcomes are called the Lysenko Effect.     There was no way Stalin's favorite scientist was going to take the fall, so Stalin singled out Vavilov, who had been openly critical of Lysenko.  He claimed Vavilov was responsible for the famines because his process of carefully selecting the best specimens of plants took too long to produce results.  Vavilov was collecting seeds near Russia's border when he was arrested and subjected to 1700 hours of savage interrogation.  World War II was in full swing and it was impossible for his family to find out what had happened to him.  Vavilov, who spent his life trying to end famine, starved to death in the gulag.   Back in Leningrad, some scientists from the Institute of Plant Industry were able to get the bulk of the tuber collection, and themselves, to another location within the city.  A dozen of Vavilov's scientists stayed behind to safeguard the seed collection.  At first, it seemed as though they'd only have to contend with marauding enemy troops breeching the city, seeking to steal the seeds or simply destroy the building.  The red army pushed the Germans back as long as they could.  Nothing moved in or out of the city.  “Leningrad must die of starvation”, Hitler declared in a speech at Munich on November 8, 1941.  As the siege dragged on, the scientists then had to contend with protecting the seeds from their own countrymen.  Food was rationed, but once it ran out, people ate anything they could to survive--vermin, dogs, leather, sawdust, and as so often happens in such dark hours, some at the dead.  The scientists barricaded themselves inside with hundreds of thousands of seeds, a quarter of which were edible just as they were, along with rice and grains.   But they did not eat them.  They took turns guarding the store room in shifts, even as they grew weaker, even as they heard the Germans looting and destroying out in the streets.  The only thing that mattered was guarding the collection, safeguarding both the botanical past and future for mankind, and the work of their fallen Vavilov.  One by one, the scientist began to die of starvation.  One man died at his desk; another died surrounded by bags of rice.  In the end, nine of the twelve scientists did not live to see the end of the siege.  But not a single grain, seed, or tuber was eaten.  According to Nabhan, “One of them said it was hard to wake up, it was hard to get on your feet and put on your clothes in the morning, but no, it was not hard to protect the seeds once you had your wits about you.  Saving those seeds for future generations and helping the world recover after war was more important than a single person's comfort.”   Unlike many of the 85 million deaths in WWII, those nine scientists' lives were not wasted.  Today, many of the crops that we eat came from cross-breeding with varieties the scientists saved from destruction.  As much as 80% of all the pre-collapse Soviet Union's fields were sown with varieties that originated in Vavilov's collection.  It's a sad tale, I know, but also an amazing one that so few of us hear.  Which is odd when you consider the thousands of hours of WWII documentaries out there.  The world nearly lost Vavilov's collection a second time, though.  In 2010, the land it sits on was being sold to a developer who planned to build private homes on the site.  The collection can't just be moved; there are all sorts of complex legal and technical issues, including quarantines.  The public called for the site to be preserved and in 2012, the Russian government took formal action to prevent the land from being conveyed to private buyers.  As far as I can find, it stands safely still.    Much to my lasting disappointment, the wine lake was not a physical lake of wine, like Willy Wonka's chocolate river for women with Live, Laugh, Love decor.  In addition to subsidies equivalent to $1.7 billion per year, the EU purchased the vineyards' lower-quality grapes for what it called “crisis distillation,” turning the grapes into industrial alcohol and biofuels, rather than for drinking.  This unfortunately encouraged some growers to produce more inferior grapes, so in 2008, the government just paid growers to dig up vines and abandon fields of surplus grapes.  In 2015, all of the previously enacted programs were phased out, meaning wineries would once again be responsible for their own excesses.  Remember…Thanks…    https://listverse.com/2015/12/14/10-of-the-strangest-items-governments-are-stockpiling/ http://theweek.com/articles/454970/logic-behind-worlds-4-weirdest-strategic-reserves https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/20/why-maple-syrup-is-controlled-by-a-quebec-cartel/?utm_term=.8628802d4fe2 http://mentalfloss.com/article/87144/15-strategic-reserves-unusual-products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_mountain https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-27/europeans-eat-into-butter-mountain-in-sign-high-prices-to-linger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omBxXzdBR2Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiZ75XbG7YA https://verdict.justia.com/2015/07/15/raisins-regulations-and-politics-in-the-supreme-court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Raisin_Reserve https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/one-growers-grapes-of-wrath/2013/07/07/ebebcfd8-e380-11e2-80eb-3145e2994a55_story.html?utm_term=.74d6dccd2110 http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/market-information-by-sector/horticulture/horticulture-sector-reports/statistical-overview-of-the-canadian-maple-industry-2015/?id=1475692913659 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-01-02/the-great-canadian-maple-syrup-heist https://explorepartsunknown.com/quebec/canadas-maple-syrup-cartel-puts-the-squeeze-on-small-producers/ https://modernfarmer.com/2014/01/illustrated-account-great-maple-syrup-heist/ http://time.com/4760432/maple-syrup-heist-prison-fine/ http://www.ediblegeography.com/syrup-stockpiles-wine-lakes-butter-mountains-and-other-strategic-food-reserves/ http://www.ediblegeography.com/syrup-stockpiles-wine-lakes-butter-mountains-and-other-strategic-food-reserves/ https://www.ft.com/content/982ed0e4-8a1d-11e4-9b5f-00144feabdc0 https://www.guildsomm.com/public_content/features/articles/b/guest_blog/posts/confeusion-a-quick-summary-of-the-eu-wine-reforms http://mentalfloss.com/article/87144/15-strategic-reserves-unusual-products https://listverse.com/2015/12/14/10-of-the-strangest-items-governments-are-stockpiling/ http://www.nww2m.com/2015/06/scitech-tuesday-when-the-rubber-meets-the-road/ https://insideecology.com/2018/01/12/the-frozen-ark-project-biobanking-endangered-animal-samples-for-conservation-and-research/ https://www.researchitaly.it/en/news/the-ice-memory-project-is-underway/#null https://www.arctictoday.com/ice-cores-best-link-ancient-climates-scientists-racing-preserve-still-can/ https://www.rbth.com/blogs/2014/05/12/the_men_who_starved_to_death_to_save_the_worlds_seeds_35135 https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-scientists-who-starved-to-death.html

Bishop Sheen regularly on prime time TV. John Kennedy elected in spite of his Catholicism. And the European Economic Community begins by a treaty signed in Rome, 1957. My how things can change...

With the fall of Privacy Shield and the Safe Harbor program, what can we expect for the future of transatlantic data transfers? Can the EU and US work out a trade deal? More on Lothar Determann. SPEAKERS Wayne Stacy, Lothar Determann Wayne Stacy 00:00 Welcome, everyone to the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's Experts Series podcast. This is Wayne Stacy, the Executive Director for BCLT. And today we're going to talk about the future of transatlantic data transfers. And we have with is one of the great experts in the field, Dr. Lothar Determann. Doctor Determann or I'm gonna go with Lothar for now was or is a professor, I guess lecturer is the right title. But he's a lecturer since 2004 of computer law and data privacy at Berkeley Law. And since 1995, he's been a tenured professor in Germany. So he brings expertise on the academic side from both sides of the Atlantic, if you look at his publications, Determann's Field Guide to data privacy law in California privacy law, practical guide and commentary. He's actually teaching out of that this semester. And this semester, or next semester, he's got the California privacy law course that he'll be teaching at Berkeley Law. So actually, if you go through the whole list, we can spend the 15 minutes talking about the scope of all of his work, but I'll just leave it at this: he knows a lot about transatlantic data transfers. So thank you for coming today. Lothar Determann 01:29 Thanks for inviting me, Wayne. Wayne Stacy 01:31 So what I want to turn to first is the fact that there seem to be some large finds coming out of out of Europe these days, and a slow eroding, or maybe a fast eroding of some of the shields that we used to have. So the Privacy Shield went down, you saw the Safe Harbor program go down in 2015. And now you're starting to see these new standard contract contractual clauses coming out. The real question about all of this is people get nervous is what does this mean for transatlantic data transfers, and in what's the big picture going to look like over the next few years for for US companies. Lothar Determann 02:14 For US companies, the biggest challenge has been that the general data protection regulation has extended and clarified the realm of applicability to some US companies, but also that European companies are under evermore pressure and transferring personal data to the US. European Union is a trade zone Originally, it was called the European Economic Community when they started looking at harmonizing data protection law. And the main goal was to make it easy for companies to cooperate within the bloc and transfer data across borders. So the official title of what is now often referred to as the Data Protection Directive was really about the free flow of data in Europe. And it was kind of a compromise to say, if we're all trusting each other with data, the Germans and the Spaniards and the French and the Brits at the time before Brexit, then we do need to have a prohibition from just transferring it onward somewhere else. And that was in the directive of 1995. That was there to allow more Corporation more sharing more flow within Europe. And this prohibition of transferring to the US wasn't a real big deal in the first years, because there was a general understanding that the US has privacy laws, too. And the commission worked out a compromise where US companies could sign up for a voluntary program, the Safe Harbor program, and commit to basically complying with the European rules. And then European companies could share data with them, just as if they were in Europe. But after the Snowd

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 128, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: The Wok Of Fame 1: To eat Chinese food like a native, use 2 of these 10 1/2-inch wooden implements. Chopsticks. 2: The 4 main Chinese types of these strips of dried dough are soup, sauce, stir-fried and shallow-fried. Noodles. 3: Some people may have adverse reactions to this Chinese food flavor enhancer that's also called "Mei-Jing". MSG (Monosodium glutamate). 4: Predigested seaweed formed into these avian homes is a treasured Chinese soup ingredient. bird nests. 5: Meaning "heart's delight", it's a variety of snacks like fried dumplings and steamed buns. Dim sum. Round 2. Category: March Of Time 1: Once home to Al Capone and a birdman, it closed its cell doors March 21, 1963. Alcatraz. 2: On March 25, 1957 6 countries signed the Treaty of Rome to form this, the EEC. European Economic Community. 3: This city's Bakerloo subway line opened March 10, 1906. London. 4: The U.S. voted against joining this organization March 19, 1920; today we're here and it isn't. League of Nations. 5: On March 1, 1954 the U.S. conducted the first of a series of hydrogen bomb tests on this Pacific atoll. Bikini Atoll. Round 3. Category: "In" Places 1: In February 1994 an earthquake struck the island of Sumatra in this nation, killing 215 people. Indonesia. 2: Civilization in the valley of this Pakistani river dates back about 4500 years. the Indus River. 3: Technically, it comprises the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. the West Indies. 4: This capital of Tyrol has hosted 2 Winter Olympic games. Innsbruck. 5: This Missouri city is headquarters to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Independence. Round 4. Category: Mel Blank 1: His voice brought Daffy Duck to life. Mel Blanc. 2: In 1990 he was Hamlet and in 1994 he was Maverick. Mel Gibson. 3: He wrote and directed but did not produce "The Producers". Mel Brooks. 4: He took "Coca Cola Cowboy" to No. 1 on the country charts in 1979. Mel Tillis. 5: This attractive brunette played thirtysomething Hope Steadman on "thirtysomething". Mel Harris. Round 5. Category: Tv Shows On Tv Shows 1: (Hi. I'm Debbe Dunning.) It's the name of the home improvement show that's featured on "Home Improvement". Tool Time. 2: Like "Meet the Press", Murphy Brown's fictional news show "F.Y.I." tapes in this city. Washington, D.C.. 3: This "Simpsons" TV clown has worked with Sideshow Bob, Sideshow Mel and Sideshow Luke Perry. Krusty the Klown. 4: He plays talk show host Larry Sanders on HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show". Garry Shandling. 5: The TV producer he plays on "The Tom Show" was dumped by Shannon Tweed, not Roseanne. Tom Arnold. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

 Surely there is no reasonable person who would object to the government apologising for the way Pacifica people were treated during the 1970s when they were subjected to the dawn raids.   It was a time when the New Zealand Police was instructed by the government to enter homes and/or stop people on the street and ask for permits, visas, passports – anything that proved a person's right to be in the country. Even though, technically, everyone in the country was covered by this stop and search, it was applied almost exclusively to Pacific Islanders, even though during the 1970s and into the 1980s the bulk of overstayers (individuals who remained in New Zealand after the expiry of their visas) were from Europe or North America. The islands had always provided New Zealand with a source of cheap labour, immigrants who were willing to do the jobs New Zealanders didn't want to do. For the people of the Pacific, they came to New Zealand for job opportunities, money, and most importantly their children's education, which was viewed as the key to success in life. A proportion of wages earned in New Zealand were sent back to the Pacific, allowing some families to build new homes. For a time, it was win win. But then in the 70s New Zealand's economy suffered a couple of devastating body blows -  In 1973 New Zealand's major trading partner, the United Kingdom, joined the European Economic Community, severely impacting New Zealand's export economy.That same year, Middle Eastern oil producers slashed production and crude oil prices soared from US$3 a barrel to nearly US$20 virtually overnight. Like most industrialised economies, New Zealand relied heavily on oil imports and suffered severe consequences.Higher petrol prices meant higher freight costs, higher costs for goods and inevitably, higher retail prices. Unemployment was also rising, at the same time as increasing numbers of Pacific Islanders were arriving in New Zealand on visitors' permits. Many remained in the country to work.As unemployment levels grew, these ‘overstayers' became scapegoats for those looking for someone or something to blame for the social and economic problems facing the country. Pacific Islanders were often falsely portrayed in the media as taking New Zealanders' jobs away from them.  And thus it began. I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been to have been subjected to a dawn raid.  But you could see the pain was still very real for those who had been raided.  Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, who stood alongside the PM when she announced there would be an apology, wiped away tears as he talked about the raid on his family home when he was a teenager and how seeing his father, a leader at the Samoan Catholic Church in Otara being reduced to a helpless victim in the face of the police invasion. The dawn raids were a stain on New Zealand's history and an apology is long overdue.

EU leaders travelled to Athens on Thursday to celebrate the 40th anniversary since Greece joined what was then the European Economic Community. The anniversary offered an opportunity to reflect on the benefits of Greece's membership. Leaders highlighted that over the last 40 years, projects large and small have changed the country's image and improved the daily lives of Greek citizens. Tom Ellis, the editor in chief of Kathimerini's English Edition, joins The Greek Current to discuss the impact the EU has had on Greece - economically, politically, and socially. We also explore his latest op-ed in Kathimerini, where he highlights how Greece's membership also means that it has emerged stronger and more secure over the last 40 years. Read Tom Ellis' latest op-ed in Kathimerini: A more secure Greece, 40 years after its accession to the EUYou can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here: Greece ready to use COVID-19 pass before July to save summer, PM saysGreece ready to go with EU Digital Covid Certificate, PM says at presentationGreek PM calls for improved ties with TurkeyEU's Michel: All the tools on the table for Turkey

CANZUK is an acronym for a theoretical cultural, diplomatic and economic community comprising Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as part of an international organisation or confederation similar in scope to the former European Economic Community.

This week we take a look at the past, present and future of the European Union. Formed in the aftermath of the most violent wars in world history (the two World Wars) the European Economic Community sought to bind the nations of European in an economic and political union that would never again permit a World War to destroy the continent. 70 Years later bureaucracy, neo-liberalism and inertia have stalled the European project to such an extent that many hold the EU will not survive into the mid-21st century. We discuss the existential problems facing the Union: nationalism, migration, an aging population and austerity economics. Please find below links to several documentaries about the EU and it's issues: https://www.euractiv.com/section/future-eu/opinion/we-need-to-talk-about-the-future-of-europe/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/06/europes-post-brexit-future-is-looking-scary/ https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/pandemic-border/what-future-eu-after-covid-19/ https://youtu.be/vJWWPRh9r_g https://www.dw.com/en/poland-and-hungary-gamble-on-funding-with-eu-budget-veto/a-55795455 https://youtu.be/uo0dFWOMaDM https://youtu.be/Z86h-sCobsQ https://youtu.be/XgnXwrsMBUs

In the first of a new series of podcasts featuring those who shaped politics over the last fifty years, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Lord Taverne of Pimlico. As Dick Taverne, he was a minister in Harold Wilson's government, working with Roy Jenkins on many of the economic and social reforms of the 1960s, before being forced out of the Labour Party in 1973 because of his support for membership of the European Economic Community. How does the calibre of politicians compare between now and the 1960s? Were we better governed? And how close was Roy Jenkins to splitting the Labour Party by creating a Social Democrat Party in 1973, rather than 1981? Dick Taverne recalls politics, past and present. -- Right now we're offering 3 months for just £5. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. -- Image: Dick Taverne is lifted aloft by supporters as he arrives at the House of Commons, London, March 7th 1973. (Photo by Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Getty Images) Music: "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In the first of a new series of podcasts featuring those who shaped politics over the last fifty years, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Lord Taverne of Pimlico. As Dick Taverne, he was a minister in Harold Wilson's government, working with Roy Jenkins on many of the economic and social reforms of the 1960s, before being forced out of the Labour Party in 1973 because of his support for membership of the European Economic Community. How does the calibre of politicians compare between now and the 1960s? Were we better governed? And how close was Roy Jenkins to splitting the Labour Party by creating a Social Democrat Party in 1973, rather than 1981? Dick Taverne recalls politics, past and present. -- Right now we're offering 3 months for just £5. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. -- Image: Dick Taverne is lifted aloft by supporters as he arrives at the House of Commons, London, March 7th 1973. (Photo by Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Getty Images) Music: "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1973 the Conservative Party and the right of the Labour Party voted to join the European Economic Community or 'Common Market' as it was known. Despite opposition on the right and left, the decision to join was ratified by a referendum in 1975, but the political divisions foreshadowed endless political conflict over the issue of European integration in later decades. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the 25th March 1957 the Treaty of Rome, which laid the foundations for the European Economic Community, was signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West ...

The treaty which established the European Economic Community was signed by six countries in 1957 - France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It was hoped that European countries would never go to war again, if they were tied together by economic interests. The treaty formed the basis for what is now the European Union. Photo: European leaders at the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images

In this one-off special episode of Brexit: A Love Story?, Mark Mardell recaps the journey Britain has taken from joining the European Economic Community in 1973 to voting to leave the European Union in 2016. Email: WATO@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCWorldatOne

John Palmer was the Guardian’s correspondent in Brussels in 1973 when the UK entered the European Economic Community. Now, 46 years later, Jennifer Rankin is in Brussels for the Guardian as British MEPs are packing up and leaving. They tell Anushka Asthana how membership has changed Britain. Plus: Dan Sabbagh on Huawei’s role in British infrastructure. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

With Brexit just days away, Britons are fighting over the chimes of Big Ben. And the White Cliffs of Dover are a battleground.As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union on Friday, people are divided over how to mark a historic moment that some are relishing but others are dreading.Britain's 2016 referendum on EU membership split the country: 52% opted to leave the 28-nation bloc, 48% voted to remain. The intervening years of political wrangling over the departure terms have not healed the divide.For pro-Europeans, departure at 11 p.m. (2300 GMT) Jan. 31 will be the melancholy moment that Britain abandons a project that brought once-warring nations together, created a vast free-trading zone of half a billion people and let Europeans study, work and live across the continent.For Brexit supporters, it will be the instant the U.K. once again becomes a sovereign nation after 47 years of membership in the bloated, bureaucratic EU club."It's a momentous occasion," said Brexit Party chairman Richard Tice, who plans to join party leader Nigel Farage and thousands of supporters for a party outside Parliament on Friday night. "It's a great celebration of the democratic will. And it's right to celebrate it."Organizers are promising music, songs, speeches, a light show and a New Year's Eve-style countdown in the shadow of Parliament's clock tower. But, to their chagrin, Brexit probably won't be marked by the sound of the giant Big Ben bell, whose hourly bongs are a world-famous symbol of British democracy.Big Ben has been largely silent since 2017 while the clock tower is being repaired, and House of Commons authorities said bringing it back for one night could cost as much as 500,000 pounds ($654,000).Undaunted, Brexiteers launched a crowdfunding campaign, encouraged by Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said "we're looking at whether the public can fund it." But Johnson's Downing Street office quickly distanced itself from the idea, and Commons authorities made it clear they considered it impractical to have Big Ben bong for Brexit.Tice chided "the bureaucratic blob" for hobbling the plan. But never fear: "We have a Plan B.""We will play the sound of Big Ben chiming, that wonderful sound, loudly through our excellent speaker system," he said. "And in 50 years' time ... this will be the image of the U.K. leaving the European Union (on) 31st January 2020."It'll be a sense of coming together, of pride, of patriotism, of belief in our country."Many Britons don't share his excitement."Spending half a million pounds to ring a few bells is just silly. People who want to do it are off their trolley, frankly," said Tony Greaves, a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.Greaves warned colleagues this week that many people — especially the more than 3 million citizens of other EU countries who live in Britain — feel a sense of loss "akin to bereavement" about Brexit."A lot of people will not be celebrating. They'll be feeling very sad and very glum," he said. "People are saying we want to bring the country together now after the division. This is the last possible way to do it."A suggestion that church bells should ring, as they did to mark the end of two world wars, also struck a discordant note. The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers stressed that it "does not endorse bell ringing for political reasons."Debate also is raging in the English Channel port of Dover, where a pro-EU politician, Liberal Democrat Antony Hook, has raised more than 13,000 pounds ($17,000) to plaster a huge "We still love EU" banner on the famous White Cliffs on Brexit day.Dover's pro-Brexit Conservative lawmaker, Natalie Elphicke, has suggested instead a banner proclaiming, "We love the U.K.," accompanied by a fireworks display that could be seen from France, 32 kilometers (20 miles) away.Britain's entry into  what was then the European Economic Community at the start of 1973 was marked by similar ambivalenc...

Episode 4 of my reading of the document entitled The Europaische WirtschaftsGemeinschaft in English: The European Economic Community, which was written in 1942. Developments towards the European Economic Community by Dr. Horst Jecht, Professor at the Berlin School of Economics Pamphlet #02

This is part 2 of my reading of the Nazi document of 1942 titled, the 'Europaische WirtschaftsGemeinschaft' the translation is: the European Economic Community or EEC for short. This part is titled: 'The Economic Face of the New Europe' by Walther Funk, Reich’s Economic Minister and President of the German Reichsbank. Funk speaks of the domination of England economically and how he sees the potential for the countries on the European mainland to work together and become a unit.

John Gray reflects on where British politics goes from here. "Whether Brexit is a good or bad idea," he writes, "is no longer the central issue that Britain is facing." "Instead, the question is whether our political system can survive the damage a mishandled Brexit has inflicted on it." Producer: Adele Armstrong Correction: The 1975 referendum took place on the 5th June that year on the UK's continued membership of the European Economic Community which it had joined two years earlier.

Neoliberalism: we all hate it, but what does it mean? Dan talks to intellectual historian Quinn Slobodian about his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, which tells the story of neoliberalism's Geneva School—including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke—and their vision for a new imperial order establishing rules to protect the market from political interference. It's a movement that begins with nostalgia for the bygone Habsburg Empire, moves on to fights against the decolonized world's efforts to create a New International Economic Order, and that plays a key role in forming the European Economic Community and the WTO. Live Dig interview in NYC with Yanis Varoufakis on Challenging the New Right-Populism. Saturday December 1, 6pm. The New School's Arnhold Hall at the Theresa Lang Student Center. Thanks to Verso Books and University of California Press. Check out their titles at www.versobooks.com and ucpress.edu Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Neoliberalism: we all hate it, but what does it mean? Dan talks to intellectual historian Quinn Slobodian about his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, which tells the story of neoliberalism's Geneva School — including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke — and their vision for a new imperial order establishing rules to protect the market from political interference. It's a movement that begins with nostalgia for the bygone Habsburg Empire, moves on to fights against the decolonized world's efforts to create a New International Economic Order, and plays a key role in forming the European Economic Community and the WTO. Live Dig interview in NYC with Yanis Varoufakis on Challenging the New Right-Populism. Saturday December 1, 6pm at the New School's Arnhold Hall at the Theresa Lang Student Center. Thanks to Verso Books and University of California Press. Check out their titles at www.versobooks.com and ucpress.edu. Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig!

It's 1979, Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative government have been voted into power in Britain, and one of her first tasks is to reduce the contribution the UK pays to the European Economic Community. Mark Mardell follows the new Prime Minsiter through negotiations with the other EEC member states - from the 1979 Dublin summit to Fontainbleau 5 years later - discovering how difficult relationships were formed, tears were shed and the controversial rebate was agreed. Email: worldatone@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCWorldatOne

The 1975 referendum to remain in the European Economic Community was a historic first for Britain. As well as dividing the country, the argument split the Labour Party, who were then in Government. Mark Mardell explores the UK's 45 year love affair with Europe, looking at Anthony Wedgewood Benn's call for a referendum and Prime Minister Harold Wilson's fight to keep the party together. Email: WATO@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCWorldatOne

It's 1973 and Britain is joining the European Economic Community. For some it's the culmination of years of hard work and a political necessity for the country. But for others, concerns about food prices, sovereignty and the English language remain unresolved. Mark Mardell explores the UK's 45 year love affair with Europe, starting with the role that Edward Heath - the Prime Minister at the time - had in negotiating entry into the common market. Email: WATO@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCWorldatOne

When France stopped Britain joining Europe in the 1960s, the boy who set a record for continuously staying awake, the launch of the first iPhone, hands reaching out in friendship between Britain and Germany after the Second World War, and a notorious massacre during Algeria's bitter internal conflict of the 1990s. Photo: Charles de Gaulle, President of France, at a press conference on 14th January 1963 at which he said Britain was not ready to join the European Economic Community, now the EU (Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

In 1963, France stopped Britain from joining the European Economic Community, now the EU. The news shocked Britain, which had been in talks to join the EEC for more than a year. Claire Bowes has been speaking to Juliet Campbell, a diplomat who was at the talks in Brussels, about the moment when Britain was shut out of the club which was making Europe prosperous.Photo: 14th January 1963 Charles de Gaulle, President of France, at a press conference during which he stated that Britain was not ready to join the Common Market except on special terms. (Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

Last Saturday a special EU summit in Rome, on one of the seven hills, commemorated 60 years since the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community that led to the European Union. The European Union’s remaining 27 leaders — without Britain — declared in a joint statement the EU to be “undivided and indivisible”. The prime minister of Great Britain, Theresa May, was absent from the gathered European leaders.

Last Saturday a special EU summit in Rome, on one of the seven hills, commemorated 60 years since the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community that led to the European Union. The European Union’s remaining 27 leaders — without Britain — declared in a joint statement the EU to be “undivided and indivisible”. The prime minister of Great Britain, Theresa May, was absent from the gathered European leaders.

60 years ago, on March 25 1957, the leaders of six countries sat down in Rome to sign the treaty which established the European Economic Community, the basis of the EU today. Six decades on, while the bloc has grown, one member, the UK, has decided to leave and anti-EU political parties are on the rise. So is this the beginning of the end for the EU, or is there something to celebrate?

Scottish Liberty Podcast episode 13 brought to you by Antony Sammeroff and Tom Laird and Caz Paul. Three Scottish Libertarians discuss The Green Party, Climate Change, Global Warming, Fossil Fuels, Recycling, The Free Market, Agriculture, Environment, Environmentalism, Scientific Management of Resources, Rainforest, Deforestation, 3rd World Development, Energy Crisis, Biofuel, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Fracking, GMO, European Economic Community, Monsanto, Meat Industry, Vegetarianism, Veganism, Stevia.

Now the EU referendum has been announced, there is one question which I am starting to hear over and over again: How will Brexit affect my investments? Today I'm speaking to friend of the show, Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven Investment Management, he of the red braces fame, and ask his opinion. He also tells us how he is going to vote and why… Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Sponsor Message This podcast is brought to you with the help of Seven Investment Management, a firm of investment managers based in London. They specialise in multi-asset investing, bringing institutional investing techniques to ordinary people like you and me. 7IM put their name to my show and to my site because they believe in what I'm doing, trying to get decent, easy-to-understand financial information out to the world. I'm very grateful to them for their support. You can see what they're up to at 7im.co.uk How will Brexit affect my investments? Since 1973 the UK has been a member of the European Economic Community, and we voted in a referendum to stay within it in 1975. Well, I didn't, as I was born that year! Since then, the EEC has changed beyond all recognition and now, on June 23rd we're going to be given the chance to vote again on whether we should stay or leave what is now called the EU. As you can imagine, my clients have been asking the question - what will the British Exit, or Brexit mean for investments? So I have been reading, listening and watching what I can to try and get on top of the pros and cons of each camp. The first person I called was Justin Urquhart Stewart, who returns to the MeaningfulMoney podcast for the fifth time! In this session, you'll discover: What affect the announcement of the EU referendum has already had on investments Justin's view on the pros and cons of a British exit from the EU Some clear parallels between the pressures currently being faced by the EU and those faced in ancient Rome Some of the key drivers of the current market volatility, apart from the EU referendum How Justin Urquhart Stewart is planning to vote in the referendum The best plan for riding out market volatility, whatever the result I think there are so many facets to this debate and it will depend very much on your point of view. And it was ever thus, right? We'll make the decision based on what it means for us, perhaps at the expense of the greater good. Ah well, we'll see, sometime on June 24th probably, what the outcome will be Resources mentioned in this show Transcript: As always, there is a full transcript of this show available by clicking the big blue button below: Join the conversation I love to read and respond to your comments, so please do join in and share. Question: How are you planning to vote, and why? Please keep any comments respectful, or I'll just delete them and block you ;-) Share the love Hugs and kisses to Sparky Lu, and O-J P for their reviews this week - much appreciated folks! If this show is of any use to you, it would help me massively if you would take the time to leave me a review on iTunes. This has a huge impact on keeping me near the top of the rankings, which in turns helps more people to find the show and to subscribe. Just click the button below:

Kimberly Guilfoyle joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in January 2006 as the host of the one-hour crime-based program, “The Lineup,” which covers major breaking news including politics and entertainment with an emphasis on legal affairs.  She currently co-hosts The Five, a one hour talk/debate show that airs at 5 PM EST on FNC.  Guilfoyle serves as a legal analyst for the channel, appearing regularly on O'Reilly, Hannity, and other shows.  She is also a host for FoxNews.com Live. Prior to her broadcasting career, Kimberly served as an assistant district attorney at the San Francisco and Los Angeles District Attorney's Offices. As managing attorney of the trial division in San Francisco, she was co-prosecutor in the case “People v. Noel and Knoller,” a second-degree murder trial involving a dog mauling, which received national and international attention and was chronicled on NBC's “Dateline,” A&E's “American Justice,” and, most recently, on Animal Planet's “Animal Witness.” Guilfoyle also received an award for being “Outstanding Woman of the Year” from the City of San Francisco. During her legal career, Guilfoyle spent four years as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles where she received several awards, including “Prosecutor of the Month.” In 2005, Guilfoyle was named USO Entertainer of the Year. New York City has also awarded her with a “Special Civil Rights Award” in 2004. Guilfoyle is a magna cum laude graduate of University of California, Davis and attended the University of San Francisco School of Law and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where she studied and was published for her research in international children's rights and European Economic Community law. Guilfoyle presently serves as an active board member of The Gastro Esophageal Cancer Foundation and on the advisory panel for the American Bar Association. Key Takeaways: [5:10] How to assess career success and monotizing what you want to do [8:32] What attracts her to real estate investing [14:23] Surviving family drama and thriving [16:33] What her dad did that made her self confident and a fantastic advocate for herself Websites Mentioned: www.kimberlyguilfoyle.com

Kimberly Guilfoyle joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in January 2006 as the host of the one-hour crime-based program, “The Lineup,” which covers major breaking news including politics and entertainment with an emphasis on legal affairs.  She currently co-hosts The Five, a one hour talk/debate show that airs at 5 PM EST on FNC.  Guilfoyle serves as a legal analyst for the channel, appearing regularly on O’Reilly, Hannity, and other shows.  She is also a host for FoxNews.com Live. Prior to her broadcasting career, Kimberly served as an assistant district attorney at the San Francisco and Los Angeles District Attorney’s Offices. As managing attorney of the trial division in San Francisco, she was co-prosecutor in the case “People v. Noel and Knoller,” a second-degree murder trial involving a dog mauling, which received national and international attention and was chronicled on NBC’s “Dateline,” A&E’s “American Justice,” and, most recently, on Animal Planet’s “Animal Witness.” Guilfoyle also received an award for being “Outstanding Woman of the Year” from the City of San Francisco. During her legal career, Guilfoyle spent four years as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles where she received several awards, including “Prosecutor of the Month.” In 2005, Guilfoyle was named USO Entertainer of the Year. New York City has also awarded her with a “Special Civil Rights Award” in 2004. Guilfoyle is a magna cum laude graduate of University of California, Davis and attended the University of San Francisco School of Law and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where she studied and was published for her research in international children’s rights and European Economic Community law. Guilfoyle presently serves as an active board member of The Gastro Esophageal Cancer Foundation and on the advisory panel for the American Bar Association. Key Takeaways:[5:10] How to assess career success and monotizing what you want to do[8:32] What attracts her to real estate investing[14:23] Surviving family drama and thriving[16:33] What her dad did that made her self confident and a fantastic advocate for herselfWebsites Mentioned:www.kimberlyguilfoyle.com

On 5th June 1975, Britain held its first referendum on whether it should remain a member of the European Economic Community, or Common Market.

James Cronan, Diplomatic and Colonial Records Specialist at The National Archives, outlines the events around the United Kingdom's entry to the European Economic Community.

We take you back to the early days of the European project when six countries established the European Economic Community. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images

Bill Emmott's lecture was presented on September 27, 2006. From 1993 until March 2006, Bill Emmott was the editor of The Economist, the world's leading weekly magazine on current affairs and business. During his tenure at The Economist, the magazine's circulation more than doubled to over 1.1 million. He joined The Economist's Brussels office in 1980, writing about European Economic Community affairs and the Benelux countries. In 1982 he became the magazine's economics correspondent in London and the following year moved to Tokyo to cover Japan and South Korea. In 1986, he returned to London as the finance and economics editor and in 1989, became business affairs editor, responsible for all the magazine's coverage of business, finance, and science. Emmott was appointed editor of The Economist in March 1993. He has written four books on Japan: The Sun Also Sets: The Limits to Japan's Economic power, Japan's Global Reach: The Influence, Strategies and Weaknesses of Japan's Multinational Corporations, Kanryo no Taizai (The Bureaucrats' Deadly Sins), and, most recently, The Sun Also Rises. Emmott is now an independent writer, speaker, and consultant based in London and Somerset, England. He writes a column on international affairs for a Japanese monthly magazine, Ushio, and is a contributor to The Guardian's "comment is free" blog, and PostGlobal, a discussion forum run by The Washington Post. In 2006, Emmott received three journalism awards in Britain: a special award from the Wincott Foundation, the business journalist of the year award from the London Press Club, and the decade of excellence award from the World Leadership Forum's business journalism awards program.

1957 was defined by the Cold War and defined by the Eisenhower Presidency.  1957 was when Eisenhower was inaugurated for a second term in office, and during this term, the Eisenhower Doctrine (US defense against all Soviet aggression), NASA, the European Economic Community, and the United States were all created.  Around this time, Eisenhower was also responsible for the ending of the Little Rock Nine Crisis, the end of Joseph McCarthy's Red Scare, the closing of the Science Gap between the US and the USSR (who was already a space power via Sputnik), the nomination of Earl Warren (14th Chief Justice), and so on. 1957 was also the birth of my mom.  Happy Birthday, Mom. For more information, read: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwightdeisenhowerfarewell.html The Timetables of History The World Almanac 2007 The Cold War by Mike Sewell Military History Podcast is sponsored by International Research and Publishing Corporation and Armchair General Magazine

Fri, 1 Jan 1993 12:00:00 +0100 http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10367/ http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10367/1/10367.pdf Rudolph, Bernd Rudolph, Bernd (1993): Capital Requirements of German Banks and the European Economic Community Proposals on Banking Supervision. In: Dermine, Jean (Hrsg.), European banking in the 1990s. Blackwell: Oxford u.a., pp. 373-385.

Mon, 1 Jan 1990 12:00:00 +0100 http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10371/ http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10371/1/10371.pdf Rudolph, Bernd Rudolph, Bernd (1990): Capital Requirements of German Banks and the European Economic Community Proposals on Banking Supervision. In: Dermine, Jean (Hrsg.), European banking in the 1990s. Blackwell: Oxford u.a., pp. 357-368.