Podcast appearances and mentions of ferdinand marcos jr

In this episode of the Tipsy Friday Podcast, we lightly dive into the shocking directive from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to all his Cabinet secretaries: submit your courtesy resignations! Bakit kaya nagkaroon ng ganitong hakbang pagkatapos ng midterm elections? Ano ang ibig sabihin ng “Renewed Alignment” para sa ating bansa?

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports the Philippines' Senate race on May 12 was a blow to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as he feuds with Vice President Sara Duterte, according to official results from the nation's Election Commission.

For review:1. Senior Hamas Political Official killed during IDF Gaza Strike. Ismail Barhoum, a senior member of Hamas's political bureau, was killed on Sunday evening in a targeted Israeli airstrike on a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in a statement hailed the killing of Barhoum, saying he was “the new Hamas prime minister in Gaza, who replaced Issam Da'alis, the previous prime minister who was eliminated a few days ago.” 2. Iran Deploys Missile Systems on Persian Gulf Islands. The weapons were deployed on Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa near the Strait of Hormuz, a globally vital shipping lane.Naval Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: “We are capable of attacking enemy bases, vessels, and assets in the region. The new systems can completely destroy any target within 600 kilometers (370 miles).”3. US-Russia-Ukraine Talks Begin in Riyadh. The talks — with American representatives mediating — are expected to iron out details of a possible limited cease-fire in what could be a crucial step toward a full cessation of hostilities in the war.4. Turkish Defense Firm (Aselsan), claims successful test of mobile laser weapon system designed to track and kill (hard & soft) First Person View Drones. The firm distributed a video showing the system- composed of a laser system, and camera (Thermal)- mounted on a vehicle and eliminating multiple types of drones.5. Australia procures MK-48 heavy torpedoes in deal worth $125 million. Manufactured by Lockheed Martin and SAIC, the MK-48 is a joint program between the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and United States Navy. The weapons can be used and maintained both by nations' maritime services.6. US Secretary of Defense to Visit Indo-Pacific- first visiting the Philippines. Secretary Hegseth will be in Manila on March 28-29 to meet his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 7. The U.S. Army will not conduct a live-fire operation of its Mid-Range Capability missile system during exercises in the Philippines this spring. The Mid-Range Capability consists of a vertical launch system that uses the Navy's Raytheon-built Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk missiles, and can strike targets in the 500- to 2,000-kilometer range. The complete system has a battery operations center, four launchers, prime movers and modified trailers.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested following an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for crimes against humanity over his deadly drug war. Duterte was taken into custody upon landing in Manila on March 11 after attending a campaign event in Hong Kong. His arrest follows a shift in stance by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose administration agreed to cooperate with the ICC despite initially rejecting its jurisdiction. On The Big Story, Hongbin Jeong speaks to Dennis Coronacion, Chair, Department of Political Science, University of Santo Tomas, to share more about the situation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ngày 28/02/2025 được ghi dấu trong lịch sử thế giới: Trước truyền thông thế giới, tổng thống và phó tổng thống Mỹ “đả kích” trực tiếp nguyên thủ quốc gia của Ukraina, đất nước bị Nga xâm chiếm từ hơn ba năm qua. Để sớm hoàn thành lời hứa “nhanh chóng chấm dứt chiến tranh”, tổng thống Donald Trump đã bỏ mặc quan ngại, lợi ích của Ukraina, cũng như của các đồng minh châu Âu để đàm phán trực tiếp với đồng nhiệm Nga, đổ cho tổng thống Zelensky không muốn “hòa bình”. Cách hành xử của chính quyền Mỹ hiện tại, cũng như chính sách “Nước Mỹ trên hết” khiến các đồng minh, đối tác không khỏi lo sợ. Liệu Mỹ có “rũ áo” với Việt Nam, cũng như với các nước có tranh chấp chủ quyền với Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông và biển Hoa Đông, như đã làm với Ukraina ?Để hiểu thêm tình hình và so sánh hai bối cảnh, RFI Tiếng Việt phỏng vấn nhà nghiên cứu Laurent Gédéon, giảng viên Trường Sư phạm Lyon (École normale supérieure de Lyon), Pháp.RFI : Chính quyền tổng thống Trump đàm phán với Nga về số phận của Ukraina mà không có Kiev tham gia. Thái độ có thể thay đổi 180° như vậy của Mỹ có khiến Việt Nam quan ngại trong tình hình địa-chính trị trong khu vực ?Laurent Gédéon : Chúng ta có thể suy ngẫm về tương lai và thắc mắc về hậu quả cho Việt Nam nếu Mỹ và Trung Quốc có thể có một thỏa thuận riêng rẽ. Nếu nhìn vào kịch bản này, rõ ràng khu vực liên quan sẽ là Biển Đông và giả sử trong trường hợp Washington và Bắc Kinh dàn xếp với nhau. Hiện giờ, giả thuyết như vậy có vẻ không xảy ra, nhưng vẫn có ý nghĩa về mặt địa-chính trị và đáng được phát triển thêm.Cuộc xung đột ở Ukraina đã làm nổi bật mối lo ngại lớn của Matxcơva về an ninh, đặc biệt là việc thiết lập một tuyến phòng thủ ở biên giới phía tây của Nga. Nếu nhìn theo quan điểm của Nga, những chẩn đoán địa-chiến lược của các nhà lãnh đạo chính trị đã đưa họ đi đến kết luận rằng tuyến phòng thủ đó đã thay đổi đáng kể sau những diễn biến từ ba thập niên qua và giải pháp cho vấn đề này nằm ở cuộc đối đầu quân sự trực tiếp với Ukraina. Cuộc chiến bắt đầu ngày 24/02/2022 là kết quả phân tích của Matxcơva. Cuộc chiến này cho phép quân đội Nga, sau những thất bại ban đầu, giành được những thắng lợi đáng kể trên thực địa, bất chấp sự hỗ trợ cho Ukraina của nhiều nước NATO.Hiện giờ, mọi thứ đều cho thấy chính quyền Trump đã thừa nhận sự cân bằng quyền lực mới này và tương quan lực lượng xuất phát từ sự cân bằng mới đó và Washington quyết định mở các đàm phán với Nga trên cơ sở này.Đọc thêmTổng thống Trump tráo bàn cờ thế giới, lập mô hình địa-chính trị mớiRất có thể động thái của Nga đã được Bắc Kinh theo dõi chặt chẽ vì Trung Quốc cảm thấy đang ở trong hoàn cảnh địa-chiến lược tương tự. Trên thực tế, Trung Quốc cũng bận tâm như Nga về tuyến phòng thủ, chỉ khác là tuyến phòng thủ của Trung Quốc nằm ở các vùng biển bao quanh, bao gồm Biển Hoa Đông, Biển Đông cũng như Đài Loan. Theo quan điểm của Bắc Kinh, cần có tuyến phòng thủ như vậy do tính chất nhạy cảm của vùng duyên hải, nơi tập trung một phần đáng kể hoạt động kinh tế của Trung Quốc. Nhưng bờ biển này lại dễ bị tổn thương và cần được bảo vệ đặc biệt, kể cả việc kiểm soát các vùng biển xung quanh và từ đó tạo ra một tuyến bảo vệ.Trong trường hợp Trung Quốc làm theo Nga, họ có thể thử tấn công để kiểm soát hẳn toàn bộ hoặc một phần các khu vực đó và phải làm mọi cách để cán cân quyền lực sẽ chuyển sang thế có lợi cho họ. Nếu đúng như vậy, Bắc Kinh sẽ ở giống thế của Matxcơva hiện nay, tức là ở thế mạnh để đàm phán và đạt được những lợi thế chiến lược đáng kể, ví dụ, có thể là Bắc Kinh sẽ có toàn quyền chi phối ở biển Hoa Đông, Biển Đông, thậm chí là đối với Đài Loan. Ảnh hưởng đó sẽ được các cường quốc khác công nhận, trước tiên là Hoa Kỳ.Vì vậy, để trả lời câu hỏi này, một kịch bản như vậy rõ ràng sẽ là một thất bại nghiêm trọng cho Việt Nam. Giả sử có một thỏa thuận trực tiếp giữa Trung Quốc và Mỹ và được Nga chấp thuận, Hà Nội sẽ bị ép vào một khuôn khổ địa-chiến lược rất bất lợi cho lợi ích của họ trong bối cảnh Việt Nam và Trung Quốc tranh chấp chủ quyền quần đảo Trường Sa và Hoàng Sa.RFI : Liệu chiến lược mà chính quyền Trump đang áp dụng với cuộc chiến ở Ukraina và châu Âu có khiến Việt Nam (cũng như các quốc gia đối tác châu Á khác của Hoa Kỳ) phải suy nghĩ về mối quan hệ của họ với cường quốc hàng đầu này ? Điểm gì khiến Việt Nam lo ngại ?Laurent Gédéon : Điều mà Việt Nam có thể lo sợ là một thỏa thuận riêng rẽ giữa Trung Quốc và Mỹ, một thỏa thuận sẽ đặt Biển Đông dưới độc quyền chi phối của Bắc Kinh. Tuy nhiên, đối với tôi, điều này hiện giờ không hẳn là nguy cơ lớn, bởi vì bối cảnh không giống với những gì đang diễn ra ở Ukraina và nếu nhìn từ Washington, những thách thức địa-chính trị mà Nga và Trung Quốc đặt ra cho Hoa Kỳ cũng không giống nhau.Trên thực tế, Nga không gây ra rủi ro địa-chính trị cho Mỹ như Trung Quốc. Áp lực của Matxcơva chủ yếu tập trung vào châu Âu và nhằm mục đích ngăn chặn vùng ảnh hưởng của NATO, vì đối với Nga, đà tiến của liên minh quân sự này là một mối đe dọa. Trong khuôn khổ đó, sự can dự ngày càng tăng của Washington có lẽ sẽ giúp thúc đẩy các lợi ích của Mỹ trong khu vực, nhưng trong mọi trường hợp, Hoa Kỳ sẽ không mất đi những gì họ đã có về mặt ảnh hưởng ở châu Âu.Tình hình ở châu Á lại không như vậy, trong bối cảnh cạnh tranh Mỹ-Trung. Cần phải nhớ rằng Hoa Kỳ là một cường quốc hàng hải, một đất nước mà quyền lực gắn chặt với quyền kiểm soát của họ với nhiều vùng biển trên thế giới.Đọc thêmNhiều chuyến bay giữa Úc và New Zealand phải đổi đường do Trung Quốc tập trận “bắn đạn thật”Thế nhưng Trung Quốc cũng đặt mục tiêu trở thành một cường quốc hàng hải, thậm chí là đứng đầu thế giới vào năm 2050. Khi ấn định như vậy, Bắc Kinh đã đưa ra một thách thức không thể chấp nhận được đối với Hoa Kỳ, bởi vì Mỹ sẽ phải chịu nhiều tổn thất nếu sự thống trị về hải quân của họ bị suy yếu. Thách thức này không còn giới hạn ở những vùng biển gần đất liền, chúng ta thấy Quân đội Giải phóng Nhân dân Trung Quốc điều tàu chiến ngày càng đi xa hơn và tăng số lượng cơ sở hải quân trong khuôn khổ “chuỗi ngọc trai”.Ví dụ gần đây là cuộc tập trận bắn đạn thật ngày 21/02/2025 của một hạm đội nhỏ của Hải quân Trung Quốc ở biển Tasman, giữa Úc và New Zealand. Theo Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng New Zealand Judith Collins, đây là “những chiến hạm lớn nhất và tối tân nhất mà chúng tôi (New Zealand) thấy ở vùng biển xa xôi phía nam này”. Hành động này, cùng với những hoạt động khác, cho thấy tham vọng ngày càng lớn của Hải Quân Trung Quốc và các biện pháp được Bắc Kinh triển khai cũng ngày càng mạnh mẽ hơn.Với tình hình này, có vẻ ít có khả năng Mỹ lao vào cuộc đàm phán, chia sẻ ảnh hưởng với Trung Quốc và rút khỏi khu vực vì những lợi ích trực tiếp và lâu dài của Washington quá lớn, nếu không muốn nói là quá thiết yếu, và vượt qua cả khuôn khổ thay đổi về chính quyền và tổng thống Mỹ. Do đó, tôi thấy Việt Nam không nên lo ngại nhiều về việc Donald Trump lên nắm quyền.RFI : Với việc Hoa Kỳ đang rút lại cam kết với các đồng minh châu Âu, liệu Việt Nam, giống như các quốc gia khác ở Đông Nam Á, vẫn có thể tin tưởng hoặc trông cậy vào sự hỗ trợ của Mỹ để bảo vệ chủ quyền ở Biển Đông trước Bắc Kinh hay không ? Liệu kịch bản như vậy có lặp lại không, nhưng lần này liên quan đến Biển Đông ?Laurent Gédéon : Với những rủi ro rất lớn như đã nói ở trên, tôi thấy khó có khả năng Hoa Kỳ sẽ từ bỏ ảnh hưởng trong khu vực nếu không bị buộc phải làm vậy, chẳng hạn như sau một cuộc đối đầu và cuộc đối đầu đó có lợi cho cho quân đội Trung Quốc.Nhưng hiện giờ có vẻ như Washington đang ở thế ngược lại. Năm 2024 chẳng hạn, Mỹ đã gia tăng nhiều thỏa thuận với các đồng minh trong khu vực. Mỹ tuyên bố tăng cường quan hệ quân sự với Nhật Bản trong chuyến thăm Tokyo của bộ trưởng Quốc Phòng Lloyd Austin và ngoại trưởng Antony Blinken ngày 28/07/2024. Tương tự, vào ngày 18/11/2024, ông Lloyd Austin đã ký tại Manila với người đồng cấp Philippines Gilberto Teodoro Thỏa thuận an ninh chung và chia sẻ thông tin tình báo quân sự nhằm mục đích chống lại ảnh hưởng của Trung Quốc ở Thái Bình Dương. Ngoài ra, có thể nhắc đến Đài Loan ngày càng thắt chặt quan hệ quân sự với Mỹ từ nhiều năm qua. Ví dụ, chính quyền Biden đã cấp khoản viện trợ quân sự 567 triệu đô la cho Đài Bắc vào tháng 09/2024, sau đó là khoản viện trợ khác 571 triệu đô la vào ngày 21/12/2024.Đọc thêmMỹ khẳng định các cuộc tập trận với Philippines « hoàn toàn mang tính phòng thủ »Do đó, rất có thể chính quyền Trump sẽ tính đến bối cảnh địa chiến lược đặc biệt ở châu Á và sẽ không có những phát biểu với các đồng minh trong khu vực như đã làm với các đồng minh châu Âu. Đối với châu Âu, có vẻ như Washington đang tìm giải pháp cho cuộc khủng hoảng Ukraina và buộc các đối tác châu Âu phải chịu phần lớn gánh nặng tài chính phát sinh từ thế cân bằng mới tại châu Âu, cho dù là nguyên trạng hoặc là một giải pháp lâu dài. Điều này giải thích cho việc Mỹ gây áp lực để các thành viên NATO tăng ngân sách quân sự lên 5% GDP và chịu trách nhiệm tổ chức phòng thủ cho châu Âu do Mỹ rút dần quân.Chiến lược này nhằm cho phép Washington chuyển phần lớn nỗ lực quân sự của họ sang châu Á, không phải theo hướng rút lui mà ngược lại, theo hướng tăng cường can dự. Do đó, nỗi lo sợ về việc Mỹ giảm can dự vào châu Á là ít có khả năng xảy ra, dù là đối với các nước liên minh trực tiếp với Washington hoặc các nước ít liên kết với Mỹ hơn, chẳng hạn như Việt Nam.RFI : Theo nhiều chuyên gia và như giải thích của ông ở trên, việc Mỹ muốn chấm dứt chiến tranh ở châu Âu để tập trung vào Trung Quốc. Vậy Đông Nam Á có thể sẽ trở thành điểm nóng trên thế giới ? Laurent Gédéon : Đúng, đối với tôi, đó là một giả thuyết có thể xảy ra. Tuy nhiên, tôi nghĩ có thể loại trừ ý tưởng cho rằng toàn bộ Đông Nam Á sẽ trở thành điểm nóng trên hành tinh. Trên thực tế, tất cả phụ thuộc vào cách Mỹ dồn sức vào Trung Quốc như thế nào, hoặc cách Trung Quốc dự định dồn sức vào Mỹ ra sao.Để giành được quyền tự chủ về địa chiến lược, nếu có thể, Bắc Kinh phải đẩy lùi hoàn toàn vùng ảnh hưởng của Mỹ ra khỏi khu vực được gọi là “chuỗi đảo đầu tiên”. Ngoài trường hợp Trung-Mỹ đối đầu trực tiếp, động thái này còn liên quan đến sự gia tăng ảnh hưởng của Bắc Kinh đối với các quốc gia gần Trung Quốc, trong đó có nhiều nước ở Đông Nam Á. Tuy nhiên, mục tiêu này không hề dễ dàng, đặc biệt là đối với Philippines, quốc gia Đông Nam Á có mối quan hệ chặt chẽ nhất với Mỹ. Từ năm 2022 và từ khi ông Ferdinand Marcos Jr., nổi tiếng là thân cận với Washington, trở thành tổng thống, Philippines đã thắt chặt mối quan hệ chiến lược với Hoa Kỳ.Tình hình ít bất lợi hơn cho Trung Quốc đối với những nước còn lại ở ASEAN. Ví dụ, nếu xét đến trường hợp của Việt Nam, nước phản đối mạnh mẽ nhất - cùng với Philippines - tham vọng bá quyền của Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông, chúng ta thấy quan hệ đã hòa dịu hơn từ hai năm qua, được đánh dấu bằng các chuyến thăm của các nhà lãnh đạo cấp cao giữa hai nước, như chuyến thăm Việt Nam của chủ tịch Trung Quốc Tập Cận Bình ngày 12-13/12/2023, chuyến thăm Bắc Kinh của thủ tướng Việt Nam Phạm Minh Chính từ ngày 24-27/06/2024 và chuyến công du của ông Tô Lâm tới Bắc Kinh vào ngày 19/08/2024, khi đó là tổng bí thư kiêm chủ tịch nước Việt Nam.Đọc thêmViệt Nam bảo vệ lợi ích trong bối cảnh xung đột nước lớn Nga - Mỹ - Trung ngày càng trầm trọngLiên quan đến Việt Nam, chúng ta thấy rằng nếu vẫn thường xuyên xảy ra các sự cố, đặc biệt là liên quan đến ngư dân Việt Nam, thì chúng ít được đưa tin rộng rãi hơn so với những sự cố giữa Trung Quốc và Philippines kéo dài trong nhiều tháng. Ngoài ra, trái với Philippines bị ràng buộc bởi một thỏa thuận quốc phòng với Hoa Kỳ, Việt Nam vẫn theo đuổi chính sách “ngoại giao cây tre” và chủ trương “Bốn Không” được nêu trong Sách Trắng Quốc Phòng năm 2019 (không tham gia các liên minh quân sự, không đứng về phía nước này chống nước kia, không cho nước khác lập căn cứ quân sự hoặc sử dụng lãnh thổ của mình để tiến hành các hoạt động quân sự chống lại nước khác và không sử dụng vũ lực hoặc đe dọa sử dụng vũ lực trong quan hệ quốc tế). Chủ trương ngoại giao này tách Hà Nội khỏi mọi cơ chế liên minh quân sự trong vùng hoặc can thiệp trực tiếp vào cuộc xung đột giữa các nước thứ ba. Bất chấp những nỗ lực trong gần hai thập niên trong bối cảnh Trung Quốc và Việt Nam tranh chấp chủ quyền đối với quần đảo Trường Sa và Hoàng Sa, Washington vẫn chưa thuyết phục được Hà Nội tham gia một cơ chế đa phương nhằm kiềm chế Bắc Kinh. Nhìn chung tình hình này có lợi cho Trung Quốc.Không giống như trường hợp xung đột ở Ukraina, nơi tất cả các nước châu Âu có chung biên giới với Ukraina đều là thành viên trong cùng một liên minh quân sự NATO, điều này cho phép họ có tiếng nói tương đối thống nhất, còn ở Đông Nam Á, chỉ có ba nước có liên kết với Hoa Kỳ thông qua các thỏa thuận quân sự khác nhau: Philippines, Thái Lan và Singapore. Những nước khác trong khu vực có thái độ thận trọng và nghe ngóng.Vì vậy, để trả lời câu hỏi này, không phải toàn bộ Đông Nam Á đều bị ảnh hưởng giống nhau do căng thẳng gia tăng. Một số nước có thể trở thành bên tham gia xung đột, nhưng một số khác sẽ đứng ngoài. Những gì chúng ta thấy hiện tại là căng thẳng dường như tập trung vào Đài Loan, ở rìa Đông Nam Á và có hai kịch bản trong trường hợp tình hình xấu đi : hoặc là quân đội Trung Quốc tìm cách trực tiếp kiểm soát Đài Loan, hoặc là hải quân Trung Quốc phong tỏa để buộc Đài Bắc phải đàm phán với Bắc Kinh.RFI Tiếng Việt xin chân thành cảm ơn nhà nghiên cứu Laurent Gédéon, Trường Sư phạm Lyon, Pháp.

Ngày 28/02/2025 được ghi dấu trong lịch sử thế giới: Trước truyền thông thế giới, tổng thống và phó tổng thống Mỹ “đả kích” trực tiếp nguyên thủ quốc gia của Ukraina, đất nước bị Nga xâm chiếm từ hơn ba năm qua. Để sớm hoàn thành lời hứa “nhanh chóng chấm dứt chiến tranh”, tổng thống Donald Trump đã bỏ mặc quan ngại, lợi ích của Ukraina, cũng như của các đồng minh châu Âu để đàm phán trực tiếp với đồng nhiệm Nga, đổ cho tổng thống Zelensky không muốn “hòa bình”. Cách hành xử của chính quyền Mỹ hiện tại, cũng như chính sách “Nước Mỹ trên hết” khiến các đồng minh, đối tác không khỏi lo sợ. Liệu Mỹ có “rũ áo” với Việt Nam, cũng như với các nước có tranh chấp chủ quyền với Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông và biển Hoa Đông, như đã làm với Ukraina ?Để hiểu thêm tình hình và so sánh hai bối cảnh, RFI Tiếng Việt phỏng vấn nhà nghiên cứu Laurent Gédéon, giảng viên Trường Sư phạm Lyon (École normale supérieure de Lyon), Pháp.RFI : Chính quyền tổng thống Trump đàm phán với Nga về số phận của Ukraina mà không có Kiev tham gia. Thái độ có thể thay đổi 180° như vậy của Mỹ có khiến Việt Nam quan ngại trong tình hình địa-chính trị trong khu vực ?Laurent Gédéon : Chúng ta có thể suy ngẫm về tương lai và thắc mắc về hậu quả cho Việt Nam nếu Mỹ và Trung Quốc có thể có một thỏa thuận riêng rẽ. Nếu nhìn vào kịch bản này, rõ ràng khu vực liên quan sẽ là Biển Đông và giả sử trong trường hợp Washington và Bắc Kinh dàn xếp với nhau. Hiện giờ, giả thuyết như vậy có vẻ không xảy ra, nhưng vẫn có ý nghĩa về mặt địa-chính trị và đáng được phát triển thêm.Cuộc xung đột ở Ukraina đã làm nổi bật mối lo ngại lớn của Matxcơva về an ninh, đặc biệt là việc thiết lập một tuyến phòng thủ ở biên giới phía tây của Nga. Nếu nhìn theo quan điểm của Nga, những chẩn đoán địa-chiến lược của các nhà lãnh đạo chính trị đã đưa họ đi đến kết luận rằng tuyến phòng thủ đó đã thay đổi đáng kể sau những diễn biến từ ba thập niên qua và giải pháp cho vấn đề này nằm ở cuộc đối đầu quân sự trực tiếp với Ukraina. Cuộc chiến bắt đầu ngày 24/02/2022 là kết quả phân tích của Matxcơva. Cuộc chiến này cho phép quân đội Nga, sau những thất bại ban đầu, giành được những thắng lợi đáng kể trên thực địa, bất chấp sự hỗ trợ cho Ukraina của nhiều nước NATO.Hiện giờ, mọi thứ đều cho thấy chính quyền Trump đã thừa nhận sự cân bằng quyền lực mới này và tương quan lực lượng xuất phát từ sự cân bằng mới đó và Washington quyết định mở các đàm phán với Nga trên cơ sở này.Đọc thêmTổng thống Trump tráo bàn cờ thế giới, lập mô hình địa-chính trị mớiRất có thể động thái của Nga đã được Bắc Kinh theo dõi chặt chẽ vì Trung Quốc cảm thấy đang ở trong hoàn cảnh địa-chiến lược tương tự. Trên thực tế, Trung Quốc cũng bận tâm như Nga về tuyến phòng thủ, chỉ khác là tuyến phòng thủ của Trung Quốc nằm ở các vùng biển bao quanh, bao gồm Biển Hoa Đông, Biển Đông cũng như Đài Loan. Theo quan điểm của Bắc Kinh, cần có tuyến phòng thủ như vậy do tính chất nhạy cảm của vùng duyên hải, nơi tập trung một phần đáng kể hoạt động kinh tế của Trung Quốc. Nhưng bờ biển này lại dễ bị tổn thương và cần được bảo vệ đặc biệt, kể cả việc kiểm soát các vùng biển xung quanh và từ đó tạo ra một tuyến bảo vệ.Trong trường hợp Trung Quốc làm theo Nga, họ có thể thử tấn công để kiểm soát hẳn toàn bộ hoặc một phần các khu vực đó và phải làm mọi cách để cán cân quyền lực sẽ chuyển sang thế có lợi cho họ. Nếu đúng như vậy, Bắc Kinh sẽ ở giống thế của Matxcơva hiện nay, tức là ở thế mạnh để đàm phán và đạt được những lợi thế chiến lược đáng kể, ví dụ, có thể là Bắc Kinh sẽ có toàn quyền chi phối ở biển Hoa Đông, Biển Đông, thậm chí là đối với Đài Loan. Ảnh hưởng đó sẽ được các cường quốc khác công nhận, trước tiên là Hoa Kỳ.Vì vậy, để trả lời câu hỏi này, một kịch bản như vậy rõ ràng sẽ là một thất bại nghiêm trọng cho Việt Nam. Giả sử có một thỏa thuận trực tiếp giữa Trung Quốc và Mỹ và được Nga chấp thuận, Hà Nội sẽ bị ép vào một khuôn khổ địa-chiến lược rất bất lợi cho lợi ích của họ trong bối cảnh Việt Nam và Trung Quốc tranh chấp chủ quyền quần đảo Trường Sa và Hoàng Sa.RFI : Liệu chiến lược mà chính quyền Trump đang áp dụng với cuộc chiến ở Ukraina và châu Âu có khiến Việt Nam (cũng như các quốc gia đối tác châu Á khác của Hoa Kỳ) phải suy nghĩ về mối quan hệ của họ với cường quốc hàng đầu này ? Điểm gì khiến Việt Nam lo ngại ?Laurent Gédéon : Điều mà Việt Nam có thể lo sợ là một thỏa thuận riêng rẽ giữa Trung Quốc và Mỹ, một thỏa thuận sẽ đặt Biển Đông dưới độc quyền chi phối của Bắc Kinh. Tuy nhiên, đối với tôi, điều này hiện giờ không hẳn là nguy cơ lớn, bởi vì bối cảnh không giống với những gì đang diễn ra ở Ukraina và nếu nhìn từ Washington, những thách thức địa-chính trị mà Nga và Trung Quốc đặt ra cho Hoa Kỳ cũng không giống nhau.Trên thực tế, Nga không gây ra rủi ro địa-chính trị cho Mỹ như Trung Quốc. Áp lực của Matxcơva chủ yếu tập trung vào châu Âu và nhằm mục đích ngăn chặn vùng ảnh hưởng của NATO, vì đối với Nga, đà tiến của liên minh quân sự này là một mối đe dọa. Trong khuôn khổ đó, sự can dự ngày càng tăng của Washington có lẽ sẽ giúp thúc đẩy các lợi ích của Mỹ trong khu vực, nhưng trong mọi trường hợp, Hoa Kỳ sẽ không mất đi những gì họ đã có về mặt ảnh hưởng ở châu Âu.Tình hình ở châu Á lại không như vậy, trong bối cảnh cạnh tranh Mỹ-Trung. Cần phải nhớ rằng Hoa Kỳ là một cường quốc hàng hải, một đất nước mà quyền lực gắn chặt với quyền kiểm soát của họ với nhiều vùng biển trên thế giới.Đọc thêmNhiều chuyến bay giữa Úc và New Zealand phải đổi đường do Trung Quốc tập trận “bắn đạn thật”Thế nhưng Trung Quốc cũng đặt mục tiêu trở thành một cường quốc hàng hải, thậm chí là đứng đầu thế giới vào năm 2050. Khi ấn định như vậy, Bắc Kinh đã đưa ra một thách thức không thể chấp nhận được đối với Hoa Kỳ, bởi vì Mỹ sẽ phải chịu nhiều tổn thất nếu sự thống trị về hải quân của họ bị suy yếu. Thách thức này không còn giới hạn ở những vùng biển gần đất liền, chúng ta thấy Quân đội Giải phóng Nhân dân Trung Quốc điều tàu chiến ngày càng đi xa hơn và tăng số lượng cơ sở hải quân trong khuôn khổ “chuỗi ngọc trai”.Ví dụ gần đây là cuộc tập trận bắn đạn thật ngày 21/02/2025 của một hạm đội nhỏ của Hải quân Trung Quốc ở biển Tasman, giữa Úc và New Zealand. Theo Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng New Zealand Judith Collins, đây là “những chiến hạm lớn nhất và tối tân nhất mà chúng tôi (New Zealand) thấy ở vùng biển xa xôi phía nam này”. Hành động này, cùng với những hoạt động khác, cho thấy tham vọng ngày càng lớn của Hải Quân Trung Quốc và các biện pháp được Bắc Kinh triển khai cũng ngày càng mạnh mẽ hơn.Với tình hình này, có vẻ ít có khả năng Mỹ lao vào cuộc đàm phán, chia sẻ ảnh hưởng với Trung Quốc và rút khỏi khu vực vì những lợi ích trực tiếp và lâu dài của Washington quá lớn, nếu không muốn nói là quá thiết yếu, và vượt qua cả khuôn khổ thay đổi về chính quyền và tổng thống Mỹ. Do đó, tôi thấy Việt Nam không nên lo ngại nhiều về việc Donald Trump lên nắm quyền.RFI : Với việc Hoa Kỳ đang rút lại cam kết với các đồng minh châu Âu, liệu Việt Nam, giống như các quốc gia khác ở Đông Nam Á, vẫn có thể tin tưởng hoặc trông cậy vào sự hỗ trợ của Mỹ để bảo vệ chủ quyền ở Biển Đông trước Bắc Kinh hay không ? Liệu kịch bản như vậy có lặp lại không, nhưng lần này liên quan đến Biển Đông ?Laurent Gédéon : Với những rủi ro rất lớn như đã nói ở trên, tôi thấy khó có khả năng Hoa Kỳ sẽ từ bỏ ảnh hưởng trong khu vực nếu không bị buộc phải làm vậy, chẳng hạn như sau một cuộc đối đầu và cuộc đối đầu đó có lợi cho cho quân đội Trung Quốc.Nhưng hiện giờ có vẻ như Washington đang ở thế ngược lại. Năm 2024 chẳng hạn, Mỹ đã gia tăng nhiều thỏa thuận với các đồng minh trong khu vực. Mỹ tuyên bố tăng cường quan hệ quân sự với Nhật Bản trong chuyến thăm Tokyo của bộ trưởng Quốc Phòng Lloyd Austin và ngoại trưởng Antony Blinken ngày 28/07/2024. Tương tự, vào ngày 18/11/2024, ông Lloyd Austin đã ký tại Manila với người đồng cấp Philippines Gilberto Teodoro Thỏa thuận an ninh chung và chia sẻ thông tin tình báo quân sự nhằm mục đích chống lại ảnh hưởng của Trung Quốc ở Thái Bình Dương. Ngoài ra, có thể nhắc đến Đài Loan ngày càng thắt chặt quan hệ quân sự với Mỹ từ nhiều năm qua. Ví dụ, chính quyền Biden đã cấp khoản viện trợ quân sự 567 triệu đô la cho Đài Bắc vào tháng 09/2024, sau đó là khoản viện trợ khác 571 triệu đô la vào ngày 21/12/2024.Đọc thêmMỹ khẳng định các cuộc tập trận với Philippines « hoàn toàn mang tính phòng thủ »Do đó, rất có thể chính quyền Trump sẽ tính đến bối cảnh địa chiến lược đặc biệt ở châu Á và sẽ không có những phát biểu với các đồng minh trong khu vực như đã làm với các đồng minh châu Âu. Đối với châu Âu, có vẻ như Washington đang tìm giải pháp cho cuộc khủng hoảng Ukraina và buộc các đối tác châu Âu phải chịu phần lớn gánh nặng tài chính phát sinh từ thế cân bằng mới tại châu Âu, cho dù là nguyên trạng hoặc là một giải pháp lâu dài. Điều này giải thích cho việc Mỹ gây áp lực để các thành viên NATO tăng ngân sách quân sự lên 5% GDP và chịu trách nhiệm tổ chức phòng thủ cho châu Âu do Mỹ rút dần quân.Chiến lược này nhằm cho phép Washington chuyển phần lớn nỗ lực quân sự của họ sang châu Á, không phải theo hướng rút lui mà ngược lại, theo hướng tăng cường can dự. Do đó, nỗi lo sợ về việc Mỹ giảm can dự vào châu Á là ít có khả năng xảy ra, dù là đối với các nước liên minh trực tiếp với Washington hoặc các nước ít liên kết với Mỹ hơn, chẳng hạn như Việt Nam.RFI : Theo nhiều chuyên gia và như giải thích của ông ở trên, việc Mỹ muốn chấm dứt chiến tranh ở châu Âu để tập trung vào Trung Quốc. Vậy Đông Nam Á có thể sẽ trở thành điểm nóng trên thế giới ? Laurent Gédéon : Đúng, đối với tôi, đó là một giả thuyết có thể xảy ra. Tuy nhiên, tôi nghĩ có thể loại trừ ý tưởng cho rằng toàn bộ Đông Nam Á sẽ trở thành điểm nóng trên hành tinh. Trên thực tế, tất cả phụ thuộc vào cách Mỹ dồn sức vào Trung Quốc như thế nào, hoặc cách Trung Quốc dự định dồn sức vào Mỹ ra sao.Để giành được quyền tự chủ về địa chiến lược, nếu có thể, Bắc Kinh phải đẩy lùi hoàn toàn vùng ảnh hưởng của Mỹ ra khỏi khu vực được gọi là “chuỗi đảo đầu tiên”. Ngoài trường hợp Trung-Mỹ đối đầu trực tiếp, động thái này còn liên quan đến sự gia tăng ảnh hưởng của Bắc Kinh đối với các quốc gia gần Trung Quốc, trong đó có nhiều nước ở Đông Nam Á. Tuy nhiên, mục tiêu này không hề dễ dàng, đặc biệt là đối với Philippines, quốc gia Đông Nam Á có mối quan hệ chặt chẽ nhất với Mỹ. Từ năm 2022 và từ khi ông Ferdinand Marcos Jr., nổi tiếng là thân cận với Washington, trở thành tổng thống, Philippines đã thắt chặt mối quan hệ chiến lược với Hoa Kỳ.Tình hình ít bất lợi hơn cho Trung Quốc đối với những nước còn lại ở ASEAN. Ví dụ, nếu xét đến trường hợp của Việt Nam, nước phản đối mạnh mẽ nhất - cùng với Philippines - tham vọng bá quyền của Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông, chúng ta thấy quan hệ đã hòa dịu hơn từ hai năm qua, được đánh dấu bằng các chuyến thăm của các nhà lãnh đạo cấp cao giữa hai nước, như chuyến thăm Việt Nam của chủ tịch Trung Quốc Tập Cận Bình ngày 12-13/12/2023, chuyến thăm Bắc Kinh của thủ tướng Việt Nam Phạm Minh Chính từ ngày 24-27/06/2024 và chuyến công du của ông Tô Lâm tới Bắc Kinh vào ngày 19/08/2024, khi đó là tổng bí thư kiêm chủ tịch nước Việt Nam.Đọc thêmViệt Nam bảo vệ lợi ích trong bối cảnh xung đột nước lớn Nga - Mỹ - Trung ngày càng trầm trọngLiên quan đến Việt Nam, chúng ta thấy rằng nếu vẫn thường xuyên xảy ra các sự cố, đặc biệt là liên quan đến ngư dân Việt Nam, thì chúng ít được đưa tin rộng rãi hơn so với những sự cố giữa Trung Quốc và Philippines kéo dài trong nhiều tháng. Ngoài ra, trái với Philippines bị ràng buộc bởi một thỏa thuận quốc phòng với Hoa Kỳ, Việt Nam vẫn theo đuổi chính sách “ngoại giao cây tre” và chủ trương “Bốn Không” được nêu trong Sách Trắng Quốc Phòng năm 2019 (không tham gia các liên minh quân sự, không đứng về phía nước này chống nước kia, không cho nước khác lập căn cứ quân sự hoặc sử dụng lãnh thổ của mình để tiến hành các hoạt động quân sự chống lại nước khác và không sử dụng vũ lực hoặc đe dọa sử dụng vũ lực trong quan hệ quốc tế). Chủ trương ngoại giao này tách Hà Nội khỏi mọi cơ chế liên minh quân sự trong vùng hoặc can thiệp trực tiếp vào cuộc xung đột giữa các nước thứ ba. Bất chấp những nỗ lực trong gần hai thập niên trong bối cảnh Trung Quốc và Việt Nam tranh chấp chủ quyền đối với quần đảo Trường Sa và Hoàng Sa, Washington vẫn chưa thuyết phục được Hà Nội tham gia một cơ chế đa phương nhằm kiềm chế Bắc Kinh. Nhìn chung tình hình này có lợi cho Trung Quốc.Không giống như trường hợp xung đột ở Ukraina, nơi tất cả các nước châu Âu có chung biên giới với Ukraina đều là thành viên trong cùng một liên minh quân sự NATO, điều này cho phép họ có tiếng nói tương đối thống nhất, còn ở Đông Nam Á, chỉ có ba nước có liên kết với Hoa Kỳ thông qua các thỏa thuận quân sự khác nhau: Philippines, Thái Lan và Singapore. Những nước khác trong khu vực có thái độ thận trọng và nghe ngóng.Vì vậy, để trả lời câu hỏi này, không phải toàn bộ Đông Nam Á đều bị ảnh hưởng giống nhau do căng thẳng gia tăng. Một số nước có thể trở thành bên tham gia xung đột, nhưng một số khác sẽ đứng ngoài. Những gì chúng ta thấy hiện tại là căng thẳng dường như tập trung vào Đài Loan, ở rìa Đông Nam Á và có hai kịch bản trong trường hợp tình hình xấu đi : hoặc là quân đội Trung Quốc tìm cách trực tiếp kiểm soát Đài Loan, hoặc là hải quân Trung Quốc phong tỏa để buộc Đài Bắc phải đàm phán với Bắc Kinh.RFI Tiếng Việt xin chân thành cảm ơn nhà nghiên cứu Laurent Gédéon, Trường Sư phạm Lyon, Pháp.

Boldly navigating the choppy waters of Project 2025, could the political landscape of America be on the brink of chaos, or will states like Texas and Florida emerge victorious from the conservative initiative led by Donald Trump? Join me, Norman Chad, as we embark on a satirical journey pondering these questions while humorously predicting California's imminent doom, and Alaska's possible detachment due to their geographical independence. Not to be outdone by domestic affairs, we hop across the Pacific to unravel a dramatic political saga featuring Vice President Sarah Duterte's alleged assassination plot against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Philippines.Gambling Mad with Norman Chad is written by Norman Chad and ghost written by...Norman Chad. Executive Producer Rick Barrio Dill and Jon Sheinberg. Produced by Rick Barrio Dill and Bri Coorey. Editing by Asher Freidberg. Socials and Marketing Nick Wolferman. Engineering and Editing by Bri Coorey. Equipment provided by SLAP Studios LA (SLAPStudiosLA.com) and studios provided by SLAP Studios LA and 360-Pod.If you, or someone you know needs help around gambling related issues, there are more ways than ever to get connected with help. Call the Problem Gambling HelpLine at 888-ADMIT-IT (236-4848) or go to www.gamblinghelp.orgGambling Mad with Norman Chad is written by Norman Chad and ghost written by...Norman Chad. Executive Producer Rick Barrio Dill and Jon Sheinberg. Produced by Rick Barrio Dill and Bri Coorey. Editing by Asher Freidberg. Socials and Marketing Nick Wolferman. Engineering and Editing by Bri Coorey. Equipment provided by SLAP Studios LA (SLAPStudiosLA.com) and studios provided by SLAP Studios LA and 360-Pod. If you, or someone you know needs help around gambling related issues, there are more ways than ever to get connected with help. Call the Problem Gambling HelpLine at 888-ADMIT-IT (236-4848) or go to www.gamblinghelp.org

**NOTICIAS ECONÓMICAS Y FINANCIERAS** ☕️ Los temores de una guerra más amplia en Medio Oriente crecieron tras el mayor ataque con misiles de Irán contra Israel, lo que impulsó el alza del petróleo crudo y provocó una venta masiva de acciones en Estados Unidos. Irán lanzó cerca de 200 misiles contra instalaciones militares israelíes, la mayoría interceptados con apoyo de EE.UU., y aunque los daños fueron mínimos, las tensiones aumentaron. Teherán advirtió que no habrá más ataques si Israel no responde, mientras que Netanyahu prometió represalias. En los mercados, el crudo subió más del 2%, el oro alcanzó su segundo cierre más alto y las acciones estadounidenses cayeron. $NKE - Cayó en el mercado después de anunciar que retiraba su guía para el año fiscal 2025 y posponía su Día del Inversionista debido a la transición de su CEO. Anteriormente, la compañía había pronosticado una disminución de ingresos de un solo dígito medio para el año fiscal 2025, con una caída más pronunciada en la primera mitad, y ahora anticipa una disminución del 8% al 10% en los ingresos del segundo trimestre fiscal. También se espera una reducción de 150 puntos básicos en los márgenes brutos. Aunque hay señales de mejora en la segunda mitad del año, impulsadas por la innovación en nuevos productos, no se proporcionó un cronograma para un crecimiento positivo. El analista Randal Konik advirtió sobre sobrevalorar las estrategias de gestión de gastos de Nike. Los futuros del petróleo crudo subieron el miércoles, mientras que el oro retrocedió ligeramente, aunque se mantuvo cerca de máximos históricos, debido a la preocupación por el aumento de tensiones en Oriente Medio. El crudo Nymex para noviembre subió un 2,50%, mientras que el Brent para diciembre aumentó un 2,38%. Los analistas de ING señalaron que, aunque la reacción del mercado ha sido moderada, cualquier interrupción del suministro por parte de Irán podría cambiar esta tendencia. En contraste, la demanda física de oro ha disminuido a medida que los precios suben, con algunos inversores vendiendo para asegurar ganancias. Por su parte, los metales básicos mostraron subidas tras las medidas de estímulo de China, aunque las previsiones de superávit en los mercados de níquel y cobre se mantienen para los próximos años. Filipinas ha impuesto un IVA del 12% a los proveedores de servicios digitales no residentes, como Netflix, HBO y Disney, según informó un periódico local. La ley, firmada el 2 de octubre de 2024 por el presidente Ferdinand Marcos Jr., busca crear un entorno fiscal más justo entre las empresas digitales locales e internacionales que operan en el país. El impuesto se aplicará a una variedad de productos y servicios digitales, desde motores de búsqueda hasta almacenamiento en la nube. Marcos afirmó que el gobierno espera recaudar alrededor de $1.87 mil millones en los próximos cinco años con esta medida. La junta laboral acusa a Apple ($AAPL) de reglas ilegales en el lugar de trabajo. Las ofertas de empleo se disparan inesperadamente, con una contratación comparable a la de finales de 2013. EE.UU. promociona $2 Billones de dólares en subsidios a los vehículos eléctricos, mientras que los fabricantes de automóviles cambian de estrategia. Es probable que la huelga portuaria afecte al PIB del 4T en casi medio punto porcentual. Las acciones que tenemos hoy con predicción bullish son **Pre-Market Runners:** -$APA (APA Corporation): +2.30% -$FANG (Diamonback Energy, Inc.): +1.40% -$MODV (ModivCare Inc.): +17.68% Las acciones que tenemos hoy con predicción bearish son **Pre–Market Losers:** -$NKE (Nike, Inc.): -4.48% -$META (Meta Platforms, Inc.): -0.38% -$LYRA (Lyra Therapeutics, Inc.): -3.01% Estas son las noticias que tenemos para hoy, antes de que abra el mercado. Les recordamos que pueden encontrarnos en todas nuestras redes sociales como @SpanglishTrades y visitar nuestra página web www.spanglishtrades.com Para que no se pierdan ninguna noticia en la actualización del mundo de la bolsa de valores en Español Gracias por acompañarnos y escucharnos. Los esperamos en el próximo episodio de Wall Street Colada

Get ready to rethink everything you know about the Democratic Party! In this explosive episode of Connecting the Dots, I sit down with historian and author Jeremy Kuzmarov to reveal how the party's messaging has quietly embraced militarism—and what it means for America's future. This isn't just another political chat; we're diving deep into the hidden history behind today's headlines, exposing the bipartisan grip of the military-industrial complex on both parties. Jeremy and I break down how Democrats have shaped U.S. foreign policy, fueling wars and global interventions that have real-world impacts on immigration and international relations. If you're ready for a raw, eye-opening conversation on how our political system prioritizes power over peace, you won't want to miss this! Tune in for insights that challenge the status quo and uncover the urgent need for a more balanced, humane approach to politics, both at home and abroad. Watch or Listen now to join the conversation! Find me and the show on social media. Click the following links or search @DrWilmerLeon on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Patreon and YouTube!   Hey everyone, Dr. Wilmer here! If you've been enjoying my deep dives into the real stories behind the headlines and appreciate the balanced perspective I bring, I'd love your support on my Patreon channel. Your contribution helps me keep "Connecting the Dots" alive, revealing the truth behind the news. Join our community, and together, let's keep uncovering the hidden truths and making sense of the world. Thank you for being a part of this journey! Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:00:00): Hey, here are a couple questions. Has the messaging from the Democrats changed over the past few years? Is the messaging more jingoistic, more saber rattling, have they become the party of militarism? Let's find out Announcer (00:00:22): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:00:30): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I am Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they happen in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which they take place. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between these events and the broader historic context in which they occur, thus enabling you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode. The issue before is militarism and messaging. My guest is a man who holds a PhD in American history from Brandeis University. He's the managing editor of Covert Action Magazine. He's the author of five books on US Foreign Policy. He's the author of a piece at Covert Action entitled DNC Convention Features former CIA director who was in charge of drone programs that killed thousands. He is Dr. Jeremy Komaroff. Jeremy, welcome to the show. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:01:39): Thanks so much for having me. Great to be with you. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:01:41): You open your peace in covert action as follows, Leon Panetta was drowned out by anti-war activists when he spoke at the 2016 convention, but not this time. Former CIA director, Leon Panetta, who was the director from 2009 to 2011, was among the featured speakers on the final day of the DNC in Chicago on August 22nd when Kamala Harris accepted the party's nomination as its presidential candidate. Jeremy, does this represent just a shift in rhetoric, or is this a shift in policy and a shift in direction? Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:02:25): Well, I think we see a lot of continuity. I mean, Panetta was there in 2016. He's giving the same kind of speech eight years later. In 2016, he was really promoting these anti-Russia themes, anti Putin. This was the forerunner of the Russia gate. They were already attacking Donald Trump as a Russian agents. And his speech in 2024 was the same kind of thing. It was really very jingoistic militaristic in that speech. He was invoking the glory of the Obama administration assassination of Osama Bin Laden or alleged assassination because there are a lot of different theories about what really might've gone on there. And the official story was shown to be a lie. Seymour Hirsch had a piece that was very good, and he compared it to Alice Wonderland, and their rhetoric was so far out there as to what really is known to have happened. And yeah, there are a lot of question mark or they dumped the body at sea, so there are no autopsy and some question if that was even Bin Laden. (00:03:31): Some people believe he died years earlier from renal failure. But in any event, that's the kind of thing they were doing just touting the War on terror. The US military Panetta said something that America made mistake of trying to be isolationist in the 1930s. And there's this kind of insinuation, you can't appease Putin as if he the new Hitler and America was not really isolationist. It was a global empire starting the late 19th century when it acquired the Philippines and Puerto Rico and Cuba and function as a global empire from that time period. So it never really isolationist. And FDR had this major naval buildup in the Asia Pacific that essentially provoked the Pacific War. It was a horrific war. So I mean, he obviously doesn't know his history that well, but this is just theater. Yeah, it's a very hawkish theme. He's a dancing and his speech echoed Kamala Harris' speech, anti-Russia themes, pro-military themes. (00:04:36): So that's what you get nowadays out of the Democratic party. And yeah, I mean there were booze of Panetta in 2016, but it was quiet this time around. It seems that people are just trying to mobilize around Harris and the EM of the anti-war movement. I mean, there were protestors outside of the convention. A lot of that centered exclusively on Israel Palestine. So I don't know. I mean, I think the protestors in 2016 were part of the Bernie Sanders faction. Maybe they had some hope in the party then, but now I think anti-war people have no hope in the Democratic Party. So they left or somewhere outside protesting. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:05:21): Well, in fact, that was really the crux of my question, Panda's rhetoric versus the convention's response. And does the convention's response, or some might say lack of response, indicate that there's a serious shift in the party, particularly as we look at how easily war mongering legislation gets passed through Congress, through the democratic elements of Congress as it relates to funding for Ukraine and funding for Gaza and more jingoistic rhetoric as it relates towards China? Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:06:01): Absolutely, and I think it's telling that Robert Kennedy and Tulsa Gabbard are considered more peace candidates and they've made a lot of statements critical of US foreign policy, especially regarding Ukraine. Less so for Kennedy, and I think also Gabbard, Israel, Gaza, but definitely Ukraine. They've both been very critical and called for easing of relation with Russia. And they've warned about the threat of nuclear war and that we're in an era and new Cuban missile crisis, they've compared it to, and they were booted out of the party. I mean, Tulsa, they were treated horribly beyond just debate. I mean, Gabbard, she was in one of the CNN debates or televised debates in 2020 as she was running in the primary. And she was viciously attacked by Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris and others who dominate the party in kind of Neo McCarthy I term, and they called her a Putin stooge. (00:07:01): And a Bashir saw theologist because she wanted to, she was against the covert operations in Syria and the escalation of conflict. And somehow they called her all these kind of names and really treated her in the way that Joseph McCarthy would recognize or victim of McCarthyism with reminiscence of that. So she was totally driven out of the party. Now you find they're more on Fox News. I mean, I think the Republican, they're trying to capitalize on the disinfection of many pacifists and peace oriented people with the Democrats, and they're trying to recruit them and draw them into the fold. And that's why they brought in Kennedy and gather. But personally, I think that they're just, they're very cynical operative and their Republican party are just trying to get that vote. But they're not really peace oriented party either. And Trump's foreign policy was very bellicose and aggressive in many ways, certainly toward Latin America. (00:08:00): The drone war, Trump escalated the drone war, escalated war in Somalia, and he's very aggressive and very xenophobic and threatens a major escalation, I think with China. So I think it's just a cynical ploy by the GOP to try and get these disaffected people are disaffected with the Democrats and by recruiting Kennedy and Gabbard to create this persona as a new peace party. But I don't think they really are a peace party. And so those of us who are really committed to pacifism, anti imperialistic politics really have nowhere in the mainstream American politics, and I think we should work on developing our own independent parties. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:08:47): Before I get back to your piece, you mentioned in your earlier answer a reference to people trying to compare former President Trump to Hitler. And I was at the RNC when JD Vance was, his name was placed in nomination and he accepted the nomination. And I was doing my standup after the nomination. And I was saying as I was closing my analysis, I said, I find it very interesting, if not ironic, that a guy who just a couple of years ago was comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler is now his vice presidential nominee, and we'll be standing next to him on stage. I said, how does that happen? And when I said that, there was a guy standing next to me who turned to my cameraman and said, you guys have to leave. You have to leave right now. He was allowing us to use his space, so he was able to tell us that. But my point is, as soon as I said that, you guys got to go, you got to go right now. Explain that because I find it amazing. And only now would something like that happen in our politics. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:10:11): Yeah, well, I think it is increasingly out of the Twilight Zone. I mean, well, firstly, I think a lot of the rather is a bit overblown. I mean, I think Trump, there are a certain fascist theme in the GOP and there are concern about ascendant fascism and authoritarianism both among both parties. I mean the scapegoating of immigrants in the GOP, the extreme nationalism, ultra militarism like veneration of the military, that bears fear that the GOP leaning the fascist direction. I mean, I think some of the rhetoric about Hitler may be overblown, but yeah, it's totally ironic that he was calling him Hitler, as you say, and then he's the nominee. So that's just insane. But why did they kick you out? I mean, you were just repeating a fact that is known to be a fact, and that goes to the growing authoritarianism we see that can't, the kind of conversations we're having are not tolerated in the mainstream. And just a journalist doing his job and just reporting on something is being removed that Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:11:22): And can get you arrested and detained in airports and have your home raided by the FBI, as with Scott Ritter and O'Malley Yella and the three, Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:11:37): Yes, this is, yeah, I think what we're seeing is, yeah, more overt form of authoritarianism. And I think it's showing the flaw of American democracy. I mean, on paper there has been a democracy, but in reality for years and generation dissidents have been ostracized and marginalized and faced a lot of persecution, maybe not physical violence, although I mean under FBI Cual Pro, there were a lot of victims of state repression, people who were unjustly incarcerated sometime for decades, there were people killed. I mean the FBI infiltrated leftists in radical groups with the goal of destroying them and creating divisions. And in the Black Panther, they orchestrated murders. So I mean, there very violent, undersized underbelly of American politics. And that's coming more to the surface more and more. And I mean, you see, look, mark Zuckerberg said that Biden administration told him to censor Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:12:45): The Hunter Biden laptop story. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:12:47): Yeah, well, the hunter bought laptop and relate to COVID-19. And without your view on that, people should have a right to express it, but Zuckerman was told to censor viewed that criticized the government position. And then yeah, you have these raids going on Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:13:04): A minute, a minute, a minute because it's important. I think that people really clearly understand that the point that you just made about Zuckerberg, that's not your opinion. He stated that in a letter that he wrote to Congressman Jim Jordan. And so those who want to wait a minute, what is Jeremy talking about? Right? Google it. You can read the letter for yourselves. It was sent last week and Zuckerberg made those very clear statements and was apologetic for having done what he did in censoring those stories on Facebook because he has since come to understand that contrary to, as he was told, those were not Russian propagandist talking points. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:13:56): Exactly. Yeah, you're absolutely right about that. And another fact is that Tim Waltz made statements supporting censorship if it was related to misinformation, and that seems to be the line in the Democratic Party, but they use misinformation. Could be anybody who's simply critical of the government. They call it somebody who criticizes government policy in Ukraine or vis-a-vis Russia. They say he's promoting misinformation or Russian propaganda, or the same for the Covid narrative. They question the dominant narrative. And I found the review of waltz's statements. He promoted misinformation. So for instance, he claimed that carried out chemical attacks on his own people, and that was refuted by scientists like Theor Postal did a very detailed scientific study, and I did an article and I interviewed postal and he showed me his data and this guy, the top flight MIT scientist, and he repu these claims, his analysis, and he was very neutral. (00:15:02): He wasn't really on any side of the war, and he wasn't even particularly political. It was a very objective scientific study that based on the angles, those attacks had to have occurred from certain areas that were controlled by the rebels, not the Assad government. And that other attacks didn't think that there were chemical attacks, one of those bombing of a fertilizer plant. In other case, some stuff may have been planted like dead animals to make it look like an attack because people would've been dead. He said, he showed me photos and he had images of photos where people who were on the scene would've immediately been killed if there was actually a chemical weapon attack the way they described it, and they weren't affected or sick in any way. So in any event, that's just an example of waltz can be seen to have promoted misinformation. (00:15:57): So based on his own statements, he should censor himself. But the broader point is the American constitution and the American Republic was founded on the deal to free speech, and that's what we should have. And this cancel culture. I think too often on the left, people support censorship under the GU of a cancel culture. And I think that's very dangerous, and I think people are smart enough to see which ideas are good or bad for themselves. They don't need to have this censorship. It serves no purpose, even for somebody who is promoting bad things or false information, you don't have to censor because people are smart enough to see there's no evidence behind what he's saying, which is often true, sadly, of the US government, and that's why they lose credibility. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:16:45): I've asked this question of a number of guests, Caleb Moin and I think Dr. Gerald Horn and a few others that talking about censorship in the United States, engagement in censorship, that if you look over history, particularly since World War I, this whole idea of censorship really comes to a height when the United States feels threatened. And then once the perceived enemy is vanquished, then the whole focus on censorship tends to wane if not go away. And so I'm wondering if now because we're seeing heightened censorship, if that's an indication to you how threatened the United States empire feels? Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:17:34): I think so. Yeah. Censorship goes hand in hand with war. War is the enemy really of democracy. And we've been in a state of permanent war since nine 11, and I think they've manufactured this new Cold War for sustaining the military complex police state, which has to go hand in hand with censorship. And we've seen more authoritarian forms of government, even toward the domestic population, heightened militarized policing in inner cities. We've seen the government stripping funding from vital social programs, and that's automatically going to generate more and more dissent and dissatisfaction with the government and living conditions. So they have to ratchet up censorship and more authoritarian, greater authoritarianism, and that's the only way they could sustain their power, and they've really lost their governing legitimacy. People, if you talk to people from all walks of life, whether in liberal areas, conservative, you find almost universally people distrust the government and they're not happy with the direction of the country, and more and more are speaking out. So they have to censor them and try and control the media and channel any descent they want to channel it and co-opt it. And that's why a lot of the media has been co-opted their CIA or FBI, infiltrators and media, even alternative media. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:19:06): In fact, to your point about people being dissatisfied with the direction of the country, if you go to real clear politics, those polled 26.9% believe the country's heading in the right direction. 63.4 believe that the country's on the wrong track. So again, I try my best to give as much data as I can to support the positions that are being stated so the people can understand that this is substantive analysis that we're providing because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter here. Let's go back to your piece you write, Panetta said that Harris would fit the bill as a tough commander in chief to defend the USA against tyrants and terrorists, according to Panetta. Harris knows a tyrant when she sees one and will stand up to them, unlike Donald Trump, who Panetta suggested had coddled dictators such as Putin and effectively told them they could do whatever they want. Why is that exchange or that recounting by Panetta troublesome to you? Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:20:18): Well, firstly, yeah, and the statistics you're citing indicate that many Americans are increasingly seeing their own government as tyrannical. And this is the kind of tired rhetoric we've seen over and over to justify these foreign adventures and unjust and unnecessary wars that further divert our treasury away from actually solving the problem in our society. And yeah, we see, Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:20:45): Wait a minute, and many will tell you, because I've been having this conversation for at least eight years, that that's the intent, that the objective has always been to heighten the sense of insecurity within the country so that social program funding social safety net funding could be shifted away from the public to the private military industrial complex. And they talked about this when Obama came into office, they talked about this, I know I have it backwards. When Clinton came into office, they talked about this when Biden came into office, they said the narrative is more subtle with the Democrats, but the objective is still the same. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:21:32): And the rhetoric, as you see, they're really attacking Trump from the right and they're positioning themselves as more hawkish. And that's why a lot of the neoconservatives have moved into the Democratic party. And William Christol, who this neo-conservative, intellectual, and a great cheerleader for the Iraq war, he sent out a tweet, Leon Panetta quoting Ronald Reagan at the Democratic Convention. This is my Democratic convention or a CIA director quoting Ronald Reagan. And yeah, you see from that statement you read, Trump is somehow soft on the Russian, but if you actually look at Trump's policy toward Russia, he pulled out of the INF treaty, which is a very good arms limitation treaty. He ratcheted up these sanctions from hell on Russia. He ratcheted up arm sales to Ukraine, for instance. He sold javelin anti-tank missiles, which Obama had up to that point hadn't sold. So he would not soft at all. (00:22:31): And he was plotting regime change. I mean, there's a lot of continuity in foreign policy. You see a lot of continuity among administration. So Trump's approach really was not very different from Obama. He's just kind of expanding on things Obama was doing. And then Biden takes it to a further level of provoking all out war and attacking Russia directly. So the rhetoric is meaningless, but yeah, it's designed to inculcate fear. I agree with your analysis that they just try and make us fearful and on edge whether it's of the next disease pandemic or the next threat. I mean, they're always playing up the threat of North Korea or Iran. I mean, look at North Korea. I mean North Korea was bombed back to the Stone Aid by the United States during the Korean War and the US pumps South Korea with weaponry and stores nuclear weapons there. I mean, obviously North Korea is going to respond. (00:23:27): I mean, developing a nuclear weapon is their only way to save their country and survive as a nation. I mean, they see what happened to Libya, but our media doesn't present it in that way, or our political elites, they present it like North Korea as some major threat to us led by this crazy dictator. But they give no context for why North Korea would invest in nuclear weapons or missiles and how a lot of their weapon development is just designed to protect themselves from the threat of renewed invasion and being destroyed again, that they were in the Korean War, but they never give the history of the context. So the public who believes that rhetoric as in fear of North Korea one day, Iran, another day, Putin is presented in the most demonized way, conceivable a totally kind of cartoonish way as this evil Hitler type figure. So we're supposed to fear him one day, and that's how they do it, and that's how they justify this huge military budget that's approaching a trillion dollars now. And yeah, I mean the government spends a pittance on social welfare programs and education and healthcare infrastructure. I mean, that's what the government should be doing, should be helping to create a better society, better living conditions here at home. But instead, they spend a trillion on weapons. And that comes back. And now you have the law like the USA Patriot Act and 1290 D program where all that Pentagon weaponry gets put into our police forces who become more like occupying armies in inner cities and their mistreatment minority groups. So it's an ugly picture. Yeah. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:25:13): You mentioned Libya, and I think we can tie this to your piece. You mentioned Libya, and people need to remember that the execution of Libby and leader Muammar Kadafi took place under the Obama administration. Hillary Clinton was his Secretary of state, and it was Hillary Clinton, and I believe Samantha Power that convinced then President Obama to execute Kadafi. And so if we understand a lineage of thought from Hillary Clinton, her predecessor Madeline Albright, she was a student of Brzezinski who was a Russia phobe. And so there's a lineage of thought within the State Department, and now we have to understand that Vice President Harris is an acolyte of Hillary Clinton. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:26:18): And Hillary Clinton is a very dangerous figure. And I wrote a book on Bill Clinton and I did a lot of research on their career bill's career as the governor of Arkansas. So I learned a lot about Hillary, and even from that time, she's very corrupt individual. Clinton was tied with the national security establishment. He oversaw a major covert operation in Arkansas to the Nicaragua and Counter-revolutionaries, and they laundered a lot of money through illicit Proceed, and they were bringing back drugs as part of these arm smuggling operations. And Hillary worked for the Rose law firm and was representing clients who were involved in money laundering in Arkansas banks. And she was always known as a hawk. So she very unprincipled corrupt person who was involved in also all kinds of shems to raise money for Clinton's campaigns that should have put her in prison. (00:27:16): And then she was always known as a warhawk. She evolved into a major warhawk. There was a very good article in the New York Times, the Rare Good article, New York Times magazine called Hillary the Hawk, and it surveyed her career going back to the Kosovo War. She was a big proponent of the bombing there. She supported the Iraq war, every war she supported, and her hawkishness came out on Libya where she was gloating after Kadafi was lynched. She gloated, we saw he died and she was so happy about it and giggling. And I mean that was a disgrace comparable to Iraq. I mean, Libya was a well-functioning country under CA's rule. I mean, he may have had certain authoritarian features, but he used Libya's oil resources to develop their economy to invest in education. I met a number of Libyans who were able to get free education abroad that Libyan government paid for their education abroad, and they came back to work to develop their country. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:28:20): Wait a minute, wait a minute. To that point, I was teaching at Howard University at the time, and I came across some Libyan students and I asked them who was paying their tuition and they didn't understand the concept of tuition. They were saying, well, wait a minute. Why would you pay to go to college? Help us understand. They could not put their head around Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:28:50): Paying Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:28:51): For tuition. And I believe, I don't think it's a stretch for me to say that at the time that Kadafi was the leader of Libya, that Libya was the most one of, if not the most stable country on the continent. It had one of the strongest economies on the continent. And Kadafi was developing his country, developing his agriculture. He was, as they called it, greening the desert. Libya had some of the purest water in the world, some of the deepest water, the water table. And one of the big issues was he saw himself as an African, not an Arab. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:29:36): And I visited Zambia, my ex-wife was from Zambia, and I visited there in 2007 and Kadafi came during my visit and he was greeted as a hero because he was using Libby as well, resources to promote development projects across the African continent. And he was seen as somebody who stood up for African and was carrying on the tradition of Pan-Africanism figures who revered in Africa like Kwame Nama and Nelson Mandela. And he was seen an heir to that tradition. And then he was overthrown and treated worse than a dog. And Libya has now seen the return of slavery, violent extremism has come into the country, just pure chaos. And a lot of Libyan have had to flee to Europe and then the European under perilous conditions in these boats. And then Europeans complain about immigration. I mean, they turn Libyan to a hellhole and the cost in lives, and it's just sickening. (00:30:38): And Clinton was just laughing all about it and thought it was funny. And I think Kamala Harris seems to be on that intellectual level. She laughs at inappropriate moments. I've seen her. She doesn't seem to have a good grasp of world affairs, and she's close with some terrible leaders around the world, like the Washington Post report that she has developed as vice president, an unusually close relationship with Ferdinand Marcos Jr. And he's the son of one of the worst dictator of the US support in the Cold War Fernan Marco Sr. Who looted the Filipino treasury and killed who knows how many dissidents. And his son seems to be picking up where the father left off. He jailed Walden Bellow, who's a great intellectual in the Philippines, who is running for an opposition party, and they're building up US military bases in Philippines to confront China. And Harris went to ink some base deal a couple of years ago, and there were a lot of protesters for her visit. But yeah, this is one of the dictators she's very close with. So she's following this imperialistic tradition, and yeah, there should be, well, again, a lot of people have left the Democratic party. They see no hope in it, but it's troubling when this is supposedly the more liberal and humane party and this is what they're doing. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:32:07): And folks, we're connecting the dots here. That's the purpose of this podcast, is connecting, linking dots, linking historic events so that you can see the trend, you can see the pattern, you can understand what's really going on behind the scenes. Let's go to Vice President Harris's speech at the convention. She says, as commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world, and I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families. She'll always honor their sacrifice as she should, but the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world that now Jeremy seems to be really throwing good money after bad because the issue now, at least in terms of the geopolitical landscape, is economic. It's not militarism. It's the United States that seems to be using militarism as its only weapon. And I use that euphemistically against this unipolar to multipolar shift with the rise of bricks and the Chinese cooperation organization, their fighting an economic war with militarism. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:33:40): Yeah, and actually it was ironic that she made those statements and that week the New Yorker published these photos from 2006 Haditha Massacre where the US military massacre, all these Iraqi civilian, and there were these horrible photos you may have seen of children who had been shot by us Marines or soldiers. So having the most lethal military force in the world, what does that mean? You go into a country like Iraq and shoot up women and children. I mean, is this something to strive for? And then as you say, this military force is getting us nowhere. I mean, it's just causing backlash against the United States. I mean, yeah, look, in Africa, all these new governments have come in and they're kicking out the US military. They don't want the bases in their country. Like in Niger, for example, a huge drone base that was removed. And I mean Ukraine Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:34:40): Just recently, a couple of soldiers within the last couple of days were harassed Incaa. And Dr. Horn was saying that this is not an isolated incident, that when you see something like this happening on the streets of tur or as many still know it as Turkey, that this is an indication that the people are rising up, not the leadership, the people. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:35:08): Absolutely. And we see, yeah, the United States is a paper tiger. I mean, look at Ukraine, billion and billion, the weaponry and Russians are gaining more and more territory every day. It's reported that even as Ukraine is taking the war into Russia, Russia's taking more territory in Eastern Ukraine every day than they were before. Israel is doing nothing in Gaza. They just leveled the place killed. According to the Lancet report, now it's about a month ago, 186,000 civilians. Now they're attacking people in the West Bank, but they've achieved nothing militarily and the United States wars were all failure in the last generation. You have Libya. I mean, they turn countries into chaos, but it's ultimately they don't achieve the broader goal they set out. I mean, look at Afghanistan 20 years and they achieved nothing, and the Taliban came back in and it's just Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:36:04): Money. Well, Lockheed Martin and McDonald Douglas made a hell of a lot of money in Afghanistan. They achieved something. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:36:10): Yeah, that's all they Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:36:11): Achieved. Stock value went pretty high. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:36:15): And I think the public needs to channel their revolt against those company in the military industrial complex. Their hard-earned taxpayer dollar. They're getting absolutely nothing for it. People are getting killed around the world that weaponry has coming, being sent to us police forces after the military used equipment. It's creating a more authoritarian environment here. And a few fat cats, what they used to call merchants of death are getting rich. And there should be a revolt against those people because they've grown rich off the misery and death of other humans. And it's not a way to run an economy or society rooted in violence and just the wealth of tiny number off the misery of everybody else. And horrific weapon we've never seen in human history, the kind of horrific weapon they're developing now. It's unfit for humanity, and there is movements to try and get universal bans on certain kinds of weapons, and that should certainly be supported as well Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:37:17): In her speech. She also said, let me say, I know there are people of various political views watching tonight, and I know you know, I promise. Oh no. And I want you to know, I promise to be president for all Americans. You can always trust me to put country above party and self to hold sacred America's fundamental principles from the rule of law to free and fair elections to the peaceful of power. Well, when you look at the data and you look at the polling, an overwhelming majority of Americans, even Jewish Americans, want an end to the United States involvement in the genocide in Gaza. Now, she's saying that she promises to be the president of all Americans, but she and I put this on her because this was her convention, would not allow a Palestinian spokesperson, a representative of that position on the stage. Is that tone deaf or is it evidence that she's a Zionist and she's down with the, Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:38:37): Or both? Well, I think it's an illusion. They were trying to claim at the convention that she was working tirelessly for a ceasefire and for peace in the Middle East. And that's simply a lie the Biden administration has. It's been a joint US Israeli operation in Gaza. And we should recognize that Israel is basically a proxy of the United States empire in the Middle East that the US has used Israel. The reason they've given all those weapons to the Israelis over years now is that Israel has served the key function for the US Empire in the Middle East and accessing Middle East oil. Israel provides US military bases, and it does a lot of the dirty work for the US Empire going back years. For instance, in the six day war, the Israelis humiliated the US nemesis, Kamala del Nassar, who was like Kadafi, started as a pan arabist, and he was in the mold of Nassar who had moved to nationalize the Suez Canal and nationalize the oil resources and was forged alliances with Syria and forged the United Arab Republic with Syria and was promoting Arab unity so the Arab states could go strong in the face of Western imperialism and reclaim control of their chief natural resource oil. (00:39:58): And obviously the CIA tried to overthrow Nassar. They even sent in Kermit Roosevelt, a coup master who had been in Iran, but he failed. But Israel did the job in the sixth day war. They humiliated Nassar. And by that point, Israel was getting a lot of the US weapons already starred in the Kennedy administration where he basically opened the spigots. And Johnson was a huge supporter militarily of Israel. And Israel also carried a lot of covert operations in Africa that have served US interests, including countries like in Congo where they help access the mineral wealth of the Congo. So Israel has gone after the Assad dynasty was an enemy of the United States and West because they were more alive with Nassar in whose day and the Soviet Union, and they're more nationalistic so that the regime the US doesn't like and they've used Israel to Israel has been bombing Syria for a long time now and has tried to gone after Asad. (00:40:57): So these are just examples of how Israel does some of the dirty work of the United States and functions as a proxy of the United States. So the country basically are arm in arm together, and they may pay for public relations purposes. If Netanya has seen a bit extreme among some of their base or among some of the electorate, they may try and take a public distance or say they're trying to moderate his behavior, but I think that's more for public relations. They continue to provide him the weapons he needs, and they're not going to do anything. The last president who had a kind of even handed approach in the Middle East was to some extent with Dwight Eisenhower, who when Israel and Britain and France invaded Egypt, and after Nassar nationalized the Suez Canal, Eisenhower imposed sanctions on Israel and threatened why their embargo and even to punish Israel and the United Nations, but they would never do that today. (00:41:55): They're just giving cover and the weapons and diplomatic support in the UN for Israel's conduct and ethnic cleansing or genocide, whatever you want to call it. And I think they support the US imperialists support the project of a greater Israel, the Israeli far right that their goal is to expand the Israeli polity to basically remove the Palestinian and to use their land for broader projects, canal building to increase the water resource in Israel, access offshore oil. And the US supports that. Could they want a stronger Israel because that's their proxy in the Middle East and the US wants to dominate the Middle East and its oil resources for the next several generations, and they need Israel for that. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:42:46): We could spend a whole nother hour on this next question, but if you could just clarify a point that you made that you just made. You mentioned Kermit Roosevelt, you mentioned the United States going in and overthrowing Nassar, and you said they failed in, oh, you said they failed in Iran. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:43:09): Sorry. They failed in Egypt. They succeeded in Iran. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:43:12): See, okay, see that. Okay. Kermit Roosevelt and Norman Schwartzkoff Sr went in and overthrew Muhammad Ek and installed the S Shah. That's why I wanted clarification. I thought you said, and I could have misunderstood you. I thought you said they failed in Iran. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:43:32): No, and my point was they succeed in Iran, Kermit Roosevelt with a coup master. Then they sent him to Egypt to get rid of that thorn in their side, Albu master, because his pan-Arabism. But there he failed. Nassar was very popular, and he couldn't work the same magic, or they didn't have the right people to get rid of him. So that's when Israel stepped in and it was beefed up by us armed supplies. And in six days, they humiliated him and they provoked that war. It's been admitted by top Israeli leader than generals that they provoked that war. They humiliated Nassar, and three years later he died. And he was replaced by Anmar Sadat, who was much more west and abandoned his Pan Arab ideology. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:44:16): And also, again, this could be a whole nother show, but just quickly, you were talking about Israel being a US proxy, and you've mentioned this before, but I think it's folks, we're connecting the dots here, pay attention. We're connecting the dots. Ukraine is operating in a similar fashion as a US proxy in that part of the world as Israel is acting in the Middle East. And so because look, folks, the Ukraine war is lost. It's lost. And people say to me, Wilmer, you said that the war would be over in two years. And I was right as Putin wound up negotiating with, I'm drawing a blank on the Ukrainian president's name, Zelensky, vmi Zelensky. And he holds up the paper and says, we negotiated a settlement. The US sends in Boris Johnson to say, we're not going to accept this. The West will not. Hence the war is ongoing. Ukraine has no tanks of its own. They're now having to go into their prisons and empty their prisons to send convicted murderers to the frontline. They don't have an army of their own anymore. They don't have artillery of their own anymore. They don't have jets of their own anymore. Everything they're using comes from NATO and comes from the West. And it's a very same situation in Israel. Again, that could be a whole show of itself, but I just wanted to quickly connect the dots between the proxies in Israel and the proxies in Ukraine. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:46:05): And I would add the point that the United States and the people of those countries should understand, and I think this is American Jews should understand that the United States doesn't care about the people. They're using them for their own agenda. And look, Ukrainian has suffered terribly through their lines with the United States. They never would've gone to war with Russia, Ukraine and Russia got along. They had some issues, but they resolved it. And maybe the Ukrainian felt slight in some way toward the Russians, but they weren't stupid enough to take up arms against the Russians and annihilate themselves. But they thought because they had the United States and all these weapons that they could take on the Russians, and they made the same mistake as Napoleon or Hitler. I mean, the Russians are, I spent time in Russia. They're very patriotic people, and they will defend their country. (00:46:58): And this was a war provoked by the United States that basically used, and the Russians know this, that the US was using Ukraine, a battering ram against Russia, and they're going to defend themselves. And the Israeli case, look, the Israelis Israeli security has suffered tremendously. Now they're inviting attacks from all their enemies and they've shed so much blood, they're going to invite vengeance and retaliation against them, the security situation, very poor in Israel. I would not want to live in Israel, and they could invite one day their own destruction. Already, they've compromised the moral of their society. Israel was founded as a haven for Jewish people, and a lot of the very idealistic people were part of the original Zionist movement. I mean, the kibbutz was a concept of a cooperative model of an economy. But look at Israel today. It's this armed military state that is pariah around the world because of the atrocity that's carried out with support by the United States doing the United States dirty work. (00:48:05): And it's eviscerated its own democracy. I mean, it's become very repressive there. Journalists who are trying to report on what's going on in Gaza have been, I don't know. I think they've been certainly blacklist, if not jailed or shot. I mean, it's just a evolved, a violent authoritarian state. That's king of assassination. Mossad carries out assassinations around the world. It's hate and fear. It has an extreme right-wing government, this is not the ideal of a lot of the original Zionists. And a lot of American Jews are very uncomfortable the direction of that society they should be, and it could invite their own destruction one day. So I mean, that's a lesson you can take. If you lie with the empire, they'll use you for their own purpose and ultimately they'll spit you out. I mean, ask the Kurds, ask the Hmong and Lao, they've used proxies in other countries, and those proxies got totally destroyed like the Hmong and Laos or the Kurd, and they'll abandon them when it doesn't suit their agenda. They may find somebody else. And Ukrainian society has been destroyed. 500,000 youth have been killed. They don't even have enough people. How are they going to run their economy when all the youth of the country have been killed? Others had to flee. They don't want to fight the front lines. Yeah, they've sacrificed them as ponds in this war. It's sad. And Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:49:29): Lindsey Graham, Senator Lindsey Graham goes to Ukraine and encourages the Ukrainians to fight and to continue to fight. And let me just give you a quick analogy. Imagine a boxing match, and one of the cornermen is getting paid not for the win, but for the number of rounds his fighter engages in. And so that's Lindsey Graham, he's the corner man, his guy. Both of his eyes are damn near shut. He can't breathe. His lips are swollen. His head has all kinds of knots on it, and he keeps sending his guy out there to get slaughtered because he gets paid by the round instead of the knockout. Is that a fair analogy? Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:50:20): Absolutely. Yeah. And I studied the history of the Vietnam War, and one thing I remember and I used to show students the TV history of the Vietnam War, and they had one, it was made in the eighties. They had one segment on the Secret War in Laos, like what I was saying with the Hmong who they used to fight the left-wing, Beth Lao and William Colby came on, was interviewed some years later. He was the CIA director. And he said, oh, well, that was a great project for us. The Hmong lasted 10 years is exactly what you're saying. Yeah, they lasted 10 round, but then they got killed. All of them. The Hmong were decimated, and they had to send, that's what the Ukrainians are doing, the hm. Had to send 14 year olds to the front lines. And a sea operative said, started to feel bad. (00:51:06): He is like, we're sending these 14 year olds on these planes to be killed, and I know they'll be killed. And I'm telling their parents, I'm patting them on the back and they'll be killed next week. And that's what's happening with Ukraine. And Graham won't send his own kids. I mean, if they're the real reading the fight, fight a war, you have to fight. If you're a real man, you'll fight it because there's a real reason your community's under attack or there's a real threat of Hitler. But instead they manufacture these wars and cowardly send and manipulate other people to fight and die. And that's the worst form of cowardice and manipulation I could think of in human society Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:51:45): As we wrap this up and folks we're connecting dots. And if you don't like what we're saying, if what we're saying makes you angry, as Malcolm said, if my telling you the truth makes you angry, don't get angry at me. Get angry at the truth. And you can look all of this up. I want to get back to your piece you quoted, and you mentioned this earlier, but Panetta quotes Ronald Reagan at a speech at the DNC, and he emphasized the isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to government. You write, Panetta ended his speech by highlighting that Harris was a good choice to reinvigorate American world leadership as she worked with 150 foreign leaders as vice president served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, worked closely with VMI Zelensky of Ukraine to fight against Russia. And you go on a number of things. You say that Panetta provided a litany, my word, not yours, of misinformation and disinformation in that part of his speech. How so? Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:53:00): Well, I mean, the whole speech is disinformation because he has this mythical, romantic view of the killing of bin Laden that's not rooted in the reality. And then, yeah, he's claiming the US was an isolationist in the thirties, but the US was a global empire starting the late 19th century. And in the 30, the FDR had been the head of the secretary. I forget his position, but it was with the Navy, and he headed the Navy and he was a big naval enthusiast, and he initiated a massive naval buildup in the Asia Pacific. And then he historian believed that the key factor that provoked a Japanese counter response and led to the Pacific War. So where's the isolationism? I mean, it's not the accurate history, but I mean these conventions just about political theater. But I mean, yeah, quoting Reagan. I mean, Reagan is the icon of the Republican. That's not even your party. So what is he doing quoting Reagan? Reagan? Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:54:04): Well, he's Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:54:05): The thing that bar a right wing extremist. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:54:07): Barack Obama said that Reagan was his favorite Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:54:09): President. I know. And it shows how far to the right the whole American spectrum has been because Reagan, when he came up in the sixties, was viewed as a right wing extremist, certainly by people in the anti-war and countercultural movement. And his whole theme was to attack the mess at Berkeley. And the student, how dare they question the Vietnam War. And then when he came in, he veered American politics sharply to the right. He cut the corporate tax rate and he ramped up us militarism in Central America, and he wanted to avenge the Vietnam War. They call them Rambo Reagan. And you can't get, this is like an icon of militarism and fascism, and they're quoting him. So I mean, what kind of party is this? And we have two right-wing parties in our country. The political spectrum has shifted so far to the right, and it's created dystopia. (00:55:04): We're discussing here where we invest trillion dollars on warfare, these morally bankrupt wars. And our own societies is filled with pathologies and majors, social ills, and we never address them. So they grow worse and worse. And we're not investing in our youth and education. I mean, where I live, the teachers are so poorly paid, it is just a disgrace. And you have third world conditions like the schools. They were protests in my state a few years ago, and I covered those protests for local newspaper. And there were people showing me on their phone who taught in schools in rural areas. I traveled in Africa and third world country. Then what they're showing me is from a third world country. There were no proper sanitation in their school. There were not enough seats for the students. And these are high school teachers trying to keep them in school. So I mean, the government is failing its citizens, and this is Reaganomics 1 0 1, so we've got to get beyond that. But they're touting this guy as a hero. That's terrible. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:56:06): And again, I think this will be the final question, but the longer we talk, the more questions because of your insight, you mentioned that we're dealing with two right wing parties. Are we dealing with two right wing parties that are representing different interests of the right winging elite? Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:56:30): Yes, absolutely. The GOP has always been rooted in the oil industry, the extractive industry, because their environmental policy is very favorable to big business and extractive industries and big oil. I think the military industry that hedged their bets now with both parties traditionally, like in the Reagan era, the Republican and the Reagan Republican got a lot of support in states that had big military industry. Like California used to be a center of the Republican domination and states like Arizona and the Southwest. But I think the Democrats under Clinton started courting the military contractors, and now they hedge their bets on both parties. I mean, there are a certain cultural issue, the right wing, the evangelical churches who were very gung-ho about things like against abortion. That's a certain spectrum that supports the Republican party. The Democrats go for this diversity, and they court the African-American vote, but they do so really based more on symbolism than actually delivering for the black population. (00:57:45): I think something that the black population, I think we'll see more and more than maybe leaving the Democrat. They're not getting anything. They're just getting the symbolism of some black elected officials, but they're not getting benefits to their communities. And there have been studies about this, and I heard Michael Eric Dyson, who was it? Yeah, it was Michael Eric Dyson came to where I live, and he gave a talk. He had done a study, it was him, it was, sorry, TVIs Smiley who used to work for PBS. He did a big study on black America in the state of black America, and he found it got worse under Obama, a certain core thing like income and business ownership and education because the Democrat weren't delivering on concrete social program that would benefit their community. So it's more of the symbolism and that's how they get votes. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:58:38): And as we get out, I want to read this quickly because again, folks here on connecting the dots, we connect the dots, we provide data to support statements made. You talked about the defense industry funding both parties and Dave Calhoun, who was the CEO of Boeing. When asked in July of 2020 who Boeing would prefer Trump or Biden Boeing, and this is from CNBC, Boeing CEO. Dave Calhoun said that he was confident that whoever wins the White House in November, whether it's Donald Trump or Vice President Biden will continue supporting the defense industry. I think both candidates, at least in my view, appear globally oriented and interested in the defense of our country. And I believe they will support the industries. They'll do it in different ways and they'll have different terms, different teams for sure. But I don't think we're going to take a position on one being better than the other. And Dr. Jeremy Komarov, that I think is clear evidence of the points you made that we're dealing with two wings on the same bird. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (00:59:56): Absolutely. And viewers can go to open secrets.com and look at, well-known politician where they get their money. I mean, look up Joe Biden because I've done it. You'll see he gets a ton of money from Lockheed Martin. And yeah, the Democrats in some, I think they're getting more, Democrats now are getting more from the military contractor because they're even more hawkish, especially on Ukraine. That's been a big boon for a company like Boeing and Lockheed and surveillance industry. So I think they like Democrats even more now. And Democrats are positioning themselves to the right and more hawkish on foreign policy and even the border. I have an article next week on the border issue. Democrats are more to the right than Republican as far as spending on border surveillance. And that's a big, big industry, border surveillance drones, and that's part of the military industrial complex. Dr. Wilmer Leon (01:00:53): So I said, this was the last question. This is the last question, and you can just answer this, yes or no, all this conflation of the border, whether you're Donald Trump or whether you're Kamala Harris, whether you're Joe Biden or whoever, all of this talk about the border building, the wall security systems, drones a lot of money on the border. They don't talk about the US foreign policy that is driving people from Columbia, from Guatemala, from Mexico to the border because the United States policy is decimating their economies. And quick point people, you can look this up. About three weeks ago, Chiquita Brands was convicted in federal court in Florida of sponsoring death squads in Columbia. And now Chiquita Brands has to pay millions of dollars in reparations and damages to these victimized families in Columbia. Kamala Harris isn't talking about that. Donald Trump is, you want to deal with the border, deal with the decimation of these. Why are, ask the question, why are Haitians coming here? Because the United States is trying to rein, invade Haiti again, Jeremy, that in and of itself is another show. 30 seconds, am I right? Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (01:02:16): Yeah, absolutely. And there's no debate about that, and it's been a bipartisan in foreign policy that caused that vast immigration. And also you have to look, that caused the wreckage in those economies and societies, and you have to look at the free trade agreement. The Clinton administration promoted the nafta, and that helped decimate Mexican agriculture and forced a lot of the Mexicans to come to the United States. So nobody questioned the free trade laws. That's a big factor inducing immigration, including, especially from Mexico. So they ought to address revising those laws and creating a fairer world economy, but that might erode us primacy and the primacy of dollar, and they don't want that. So it's better to beef up the border, boost the coffer, the Lockheed Martin, instead of doing that, Dr. Wilmer Leon (01:03:10): Dr. Jeremy Komarov. In fact, here's one of the books. War Monger. I got it. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (01:03:17): Oh, great. Thank Dr. Wilmer Leon (01:03:17): You. Oh, hey, man. Great. Great work. Great, great work. Dr. Jeremy Kumar, thank you so much for joining me today. Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov (01:03:25): Thank you. Great conversation. Dr. Wilmer Leon (01:03:28): Hey folks. Thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wimer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, follow us on social media. You can find all the links below in the show description. Remember, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge, talks without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter here on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wimer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. We're out Announcer (01:04:11): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

Good afternoon, I'm _____ with today's episode of EZ News. Tai-Ex opening The Tai-Ex opened up 74-points this morning from yesterday's close, at 22,342 on turnover of $3.5-billion N-T. Shares in Taiwan closed higher Friday but gains were limited by looming downgrades to the country's weighting in two of MSCI Inc.'s major indices. The bellwether electronics sector saw most of its upturn eroded, while select nontech stocks in the transportation and construction industries attracted rotational buying to lend support to the broader market. CWA: Sunny to Cloudy Skies with Afternoon Thundershowers The Central Weather Administration says skies across Taiwan will be mostly sunny or cloudy with occasional thundershowers in some areas. Forecasters say the short thunderstorms will be in central and southern regions or mountainous areas during the afternoon. For daytime temperatures, the CWA says most areas will see highs of 33 to 36 degrees Celsius, with a possibility of temperatures exceeding 37 degrees in regions north of Hsinchu. Meanwhile…. Tropical Storm Yagi is located about 890 kilometers southeast of Eluanbi, and is expected to move northwest toward the northern part of Luzon Island and the Bashi Channel. Officials say starting Tuesday evening, moisture (濕氣、水分) levels along Taiwan's eastern half and southern regions are expected to increase due to the influence of the storm's outer bands. (NS) US Biden Speaks with Family of Hostage Killed in Gaza Joe Biden has spoken with the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli-American, whose body was among the six discovered by the IDF in southern Gaza. The US President and Vice-President Kamala Harris also issued statements reaffirming (重申) their commitment to secure the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Jagruti Dave has more from Washington. < [CLIP] Slug: > Philippines Raid CyberGambling Complex Philippine authorities have raided a suspected illegal online gaming and cyberscam complex and taken into custody more than 160 people who were committing (犯) internet-based crimes. Philippine officials say the raid were carried out by more than 100 government agents, backed by military intelligence, on Saturday on a resort compound in Lapu-Lapu city. The move is part of an ongoing crackdown after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a ban in July on widespread online gaming operations that cater mostly to clients in China, where illegal gambling is banned. Marcos said then that the massive gambling operations have ignored Philippine laws and also committed other crimes, including financial scams, human trafficking, torture, kidnappings and murder. Paris Paralympics Postponed Events in Seine to Go Ahead Today Paralympics organizers say triathlon competitions in Paris scheduled for Sunday have been postponed for a day because of concerns about water quality in the Seine River after heavy rainfall. Late Sunday night, organizers confirmed the 11 para triathlon events would go ahead today, saying in a statement that new water testing results and monitoring "indicate that water quality continues to improve and will be within the World Triathlon thresholds on race day." Rainstorms hit the French capital Friday and Saturday. Heavy rains cause wastewater and runoff to flow into the river, leading to a rise in bacteria levels including E. Coli. The disruption is another hiccup (造成短暫延誤或中斷的小問題) for the city's efforts to clean up the river for future public swimming. That was the I.C.R.T. news, Check in again tomorrow for our simplified version of the news, uploaded every day in the afternoon. Enjoy the rest of your day, I'm _____.

Truyền thông Philippines cho biết Tổng thống Ferdinand Marcos Jr. hôm 30/8 nói rằng quan hệ giữa Philippines và Việt Nam sẽ sâu sắc hơn nữa sau những phát triển “đáng kể” trong hợp tác giữa hai nước khi tiếp đón Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng Phan Văn Giang tại Manila.

The US sends reinforcements to the Middle East as Israel prepares for a possible retaliation by Iran. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of Palestine, is in Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin as Russia fends off a Ukrainian incursion and Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the Philippines' president, warns China against aggression in the South China Sea. Plus: An Olympic roundup from our Paris team.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China's effort to control the South China Sea and push back against the Philippines is at the top of Confluence's list of potentially game-changing geopolitical events for the rest of the year. Associate Market Strategist Daniel Ortwerth joins Phil Adler to make the case that understanding the motivations of Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. may help investors prepare for a range of outcomes.

Dans le supplément de ce samedi, Grand reportage week-end vous emmène aux Philippines à propos de la répression violente du trafic de stupéfiants qui a été menée par l'ex-président Rodrigo Duterte. Un bilan de dizaines de milliers de morts, dont les familles réclament justice. Deuxième partie : Chypre est divisée en deux depuis 1974, écartelée entre la Grèce et la Turquie, une situation qui soulève des traumatismes au sein des minorités. Philippines : la quête de justice des victimes de la guerre contre la drogueEntre 20.000 et 30.000 morts. C'est le bilan estimé par les organisations des droits de l'homme de la guerre contre la drogue aux Philippines. Menée par l'ex-président Rodrigo Duterte, cette répression violente du trafic de stupéfiants a profondément traumatisé l'archipel. D'abord dans la ville de Davao, puis sur tout le territoire, à partir de juin 2016, des groupes armés abattent dans les rues des trafiquants ou consommateurs présumés hors de tout cadre légal.L'actuel chef de l'État Ferdinand Marcos Jr n'a pas totalement mis fin aux exactions extrajudiciaires et protège encore son prédécesseur malgré des désaccords politiques. Les familles des victimes placent leur espoir dans la Cour Pénale Internationale qui a ouvert un dossier pour crimes contre l'humanité contre l'ancien président.Un Grand reportage de Nicolas Rocca qui s'entretient avec François Ballarin.Chypre coupée en deux, les 50 ans d'un écartèlement1960 : les colons britanniques plient bagage et l'île de Chypre devient officiellement indépendante. Vite, la situation devient instable, des heurts communautaires opposent alors les habitants d'origine grecque, majoritaires, à la minorité d'origine turque. En juillet 1974, un coup d'État téléguidé par Athènes -pour réunir Chypre à la Grèce- entraîne l'invasion des troupes turques, au motif officiel de protéger la minorité turcophone. Depuis lors, l'île est divisée en deux. Une plaie qui, du côté des Chypriotes grecs, ne s'est jamais refermée.Un Grand reportage de Joël Bronner qui s'entretient avec François Ballarin.

Entre 20.000 et 30.000 morts. C'est le bilan estimé par les organisations des droits de l'homme de la guerre contre la drogue aux Philippines. Menée par l'ex-président Rodrigo Duterte, cette répression violente du trafic de stupéfiants a profondément traumatisé l'archipel. D'abord dans la ville de Davao, puis sur tout le territoire, à partir de juin 2016, des groupes armés abattent dans les rues des trafiquants ou consommateurs présumés hors de tout cadre légal. L'actuel chef de l'État Ferdinand Marcos Jr n'a pas totalement mis fin aux exactions extrajudiciaires et protège encore son prédécesseur malgré des désaccords politiques. Les familles des victimes placent leur espoir dans la Cour Pénale Internationale qui a ouvert un dossier pour crime contre l'humanité contre l'ancien président.«Aux Philippines, la quête de justice des victimes de la guerre contre la drogue», un Grand reportage de Nicolas Rocca.

When he was elected president of the Philippines in 2022, Ferdinand Marcos Jr vowed to legalise divorce. The Catholic nation is the only country in the world, along with the Vatican, to ban it. Yet two years on, legislation has still not been passed. That could happen by the end of next year, now that a bill has been tabled in parliament. The move would be a dramatic one in this conservative country where the Catholic Church remains a powerful presence. It could bring freedom to tens of thousands of couples who want to end their marriage. Currently, they can only obtain an annulment – a process that takes several years and can sometimes cost more than $10,000. Legalising divorce could also bring an end to the ordeal faced by women who have suffered physical and psychological abuse from their husbands. Our team on the ground reports.

Stalin micromanaged his daughter and she ended up defecting to the US. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. though won the Presidential Office his dictatorial father held, via a democratic election. Mao's children mostly died young. 

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr warns China against acts of war What Trumps guilty verdict means for the 2024 election Ukraine war We have no Plan B if Ukraine falls, Estonian PM says UK ambassador left post after pointing gun at staff Jennifer Lopez Heartsick singer cancels US tour to spend time with family Hyperia How the UKs fastest rollercoaster came to a halt Venice bans large tourist groups and loudspeakers Attack Trump verdict or be exiled a new test for Republicans Eminem With new album and Houdini single, what is Slim Shadys legacy Michelle Obamas mother, Marian Robinson, dies at 86

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv No Gaza ceasefire until Israel war aims achieved, Netanyahu says This is a bad day for America voters split on Trump verdict Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC under pressure after South Africa election result Trump and x27 s White House bid goes on, lawyer tells BBC Jennifer Lopez Heartsick singer cancels US tour to spend time with family Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr warns China against acts of war Attack Trump verdict or be exiled a new test for Republicans What worlds media made of Trumps guilty verdict Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitts daughter Shiloh files for name change Ukraine war Can using Western weapons on Russia change the war

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Attack Trump verdict or be exiled a new test for Republicans Ukraine war We have no Plan B if Ukraine falls, Estonian PM says Michelle Obamas mother, Marian Robinson, dies at 86 Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr warns China against acts of war Venice bans large tourist groups and loudspeakers Eminem With new album and Houdini single, what is Slim Shadys legacy UK ambassador left post after pointing gun at staff Jennifer Lopez Heartsick singer cancels US tour to spend time with family Hyperia How the UKs fastest rollercoaster came to a halt What Trumps guilty verdict means for the 2024 election

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Attack Trump verdict or be exiled a new test for Republicans Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr warns China against acts of war Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitts daughter Shiloh files for name change Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC under pressure after South Africa election result This is a bad day for America voters split on Trump verdict Ukraine war Can using Western weapons on Russia change the war No Gaza ceasefire until Israel war aims achieved, Netanyahu says What worlds media made of Trumps guilty verdict Jennifer Lopez Heartsick singer cancels US tour to spend time with family Trump and x27 s White House bid goes on, lawyer tells BBC

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Attack Trump verdict or be exiled a new test for Republicans Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitts daughter Shiloh files for name change No Gaza ceasefire until Israel war aims achieved, Netanyahu says What worlds media made of Trumps guilty verdict This is a bad day for America voters split on Trump verdict Jennifer Lopez Heartsick singer cancels US tour to spend time with family Trump and x27 s White House bid goes on, lawyer tells BBC Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC under pressure after South Africa election result Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr warns China against acts of war Ukraine war Can using Western weapons on Russia change the war

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv UK ambassador left post after pointing gun at staff Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr warns China against acts of war What Trumps guilty verdict means for the 2024 election Venice bans large tourist groups and loudspeakers Attack Trump verdict or be exiled a new test for Republicans Hyperia How the UKs fastest rollercoaster came to a halt Eminem With new album and Houdini single, what is Slim Shadys legacy Jennifer Lopez Heartsick singer cancels US tour to spend time with family Michelle Obamas mother, Marian Robinson, dies at 86 Ukraine war We have no Plan B if Ukraine falls, Estonian PM says

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Michelle Obamas mother, Marian Robinson, dies at 86 Eminem With new album and Houdini single, what is Slim Shadys legacy What Trumps guilty verdict means for the 2024 election Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr warns China against acts of war Hyperia How the UKs fastest rollercoaster came to a halt UK ambassador left post after pointing gun at staff Jennifer Lopez Heartsick singer cancels US tour to spend time with family Attack Trump verdict or be exiled a new test for Republicans Venice bans large tourist groups and loudspeakers Ukraine war We have no Plan B if Ukraine falls, Estonian PM says

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Trump and x27 s White House bid goes on, lawyer tells BBC This is a bad day for America voters split on Trump verdict Ukraine war Can using Western weapons on Russia change the war Jennifer Lopez Heartsick singer cancels US tour to spend time with family Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr warns China against acts of war Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitts daughter Shiloh files for name change No Gaza ceasefire until Israel war aims achieved, Netanyahu says Attack Trump verdict or be exiled a new test for Republicans Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC under pressure after South Africa election result What worlds media made of Trumps guilty verdict

"They can just kill anyone."Since 2016, thousands have been killed in the Philippines' war on drugs. The bloody campaign began under the Philippines' last president, Rodrigo Duterte, who said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts in the country. When current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022, he promised to end this spree of state-sanctioned killings of alleged drug users and sellers, and focus on rehabilitation instead.In today's episode of The Sunday Story, NPR's Emily Feng travels to the Philippines to see what has come of Marcos' attempt to burnish the country's international reputation and to put an end to what most people in the Philippines now refer to as EJKs, or "extrajudicial killings." She found that the killings have continued. And she spoke to researchers, doctors, advocates, and victims' families to try to understand why.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Philippines' oldest ally is the United States. Bound by a mutual defense treaty more than 70 years old, the two nations are aligning against China's aggressive behavior in the vitally important South China Sea. If the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte marked a low point in relations, new president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is renewing the alliance with the U.S. while also courting other nations in the Indo-Pacific and Europe in an anti-China coalition. In this episode, The Washington Times Asia bureau chief Andrew Salmon and U.S. Institute of Peace senior expert Brian Harding discuss the up and down history of the alliance and the importance of keeping the South China Sea from becoming a Chinese lake.

Mer de Chine : comment les Philippines organisent la réponse à PékinLes affrontements s'intensifient en mer de Chine méridionale. Alors que Pékin revendique 90% de cette zone riche en gaz naturel et en poisson. Pour faire valoir ce qu'elle considère être son droit territorial, la Chine occupe le terrain grâce à ses garde-côtes et à la présence de navires martiaux et commerciaux. Mais depuis l'arrivée au pouvoir du Président Ferdinand Marcos Jr les Philippines organisent la réplique. En se rapprochant des États-Unis et en cherchant l'aide d'autres démocraties, l'archipel cherche à attirer l'attention du monde sur la domination chinoise jugée illégitime par un tribunal d'arbitrage en 2016.Un Grand reportage de Nicolas Rocca qui s'entretient avec Patrick Adam. États-Unis-Mexique: la frontière, éternel enjeu électoralAux États-Unis, la campagne pour les élections générales de novembre prochain a commencé. Le camp républicain et le camp démocrate échangent coup pour coup. Comme à chaque scrutin, le bilan économique du président sortant est critiqué par ses adversaires. Mais rien n'occupe autant de place que la question de la gestion de l'immigration. La gestion de la frontière avec le Mexique est jugée calamiteuse par Donald Trump et son parti qui en ont fait un thème central de la campagne. Comment cela est-il vécu par ceux qui côtoient au quotidien cette frontière ?Un Grand reportage d'Aabla Jounaïdi qui s'entretient avec Patrick Adam.

Joe Biden hosts the first trilateral White House summit with Japan's prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and president Ferdinand Marcos Jr of the Philippines. Then: outnumbered on the battlefield, Ukraine scraps demobilisation plans for long-serving soldiers. Plus: we sit down with Stefan Löfven, former prime minister of Sweden, to talk about Nato and more.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Les affrontements s'intensifient en mer de Chine méridionale. Alors que Pékin revendique 90% de cette zone riche en gaz naturel et en poisson. Pour faire valoir ce qu'elle considère être son droit territorial, la Chine occupe le terrain grâce à ses garde-côtes et à la présence de navires martiaux et commerciaux. Mais depuis l'arrivée au pouvoir du Président Ferdinand Marcos Jr les Philippines organisent la réplique. En se rapprochant des États-Unis et en cherchant l'aide d'autres démocraties, l'archipel cherche à attirer l'attention du monde sur la domination chinoise jugée illégitime par un tribunal d'arbitrage en 2016. « Mer de Chine : comment les Philippines organisent la réponse à Pékin », un Grand reportage de Nicolas Rocca.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has just concluded a 2-day trip to the Philippines just as its President Ferdinand Marcos Jr admitted that Beijing's sweeping claims in the South China Sea continue to be a point of contention. Andrea Chloe Wong, a Philippines' political analyst helps us contextualise all this along with a perceived rift between Marcos Jr and his VP Sara Duterte-Carpio, the daughter of the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte.Image Credit: Office of the President Marcos

This is our final Sundance Film Festival episode and we're ending it with two documentaries about and made by some badass women!Frida (now available on prime video!) is a deep dive into the iconic artist Frida Kahlo, told through her own words from diaries, essays, letters, and interviews. Director Carla Guiterrez explains what she learned about Frida through making this film, the significance of Mexico in the 1920s, and how she took creative risks to make Frida's art come to life.And So It Begins follows the 2022 Philippine election as Vice President Leni Robredo battles against Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the former Filipino dictator. Our incredible list of guests included director Ramona Diaz, journalist (and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) Maria Ressa, and former Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo. We dive into revisionist history in Filipino politics, how Filipinos like to have a good time, and the power of disinformation in the age of social media.Follow director Carla Gutierrez on IGFollow director Ramona Diaz on IGFollow journalist Maria Ressa on IGFollow former Vice President of the Philippines  Leni Robredo on IGSupport the showThanks for listening and for your support! We couldn't have reached 10 years, recorded 700+ episodes, and won Best of the Bay Best Podcast in 2022 and 2023 without your help! -- Be well, stay safe, Black Lives Matter, AAPI Lives Matter, and abortion is normal. -- Subscribe to our channel on YouTube for behind the scenes footage! Rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts! Visit our website! www.bitchtalkpodcast.com Follow us on Instagram & Facebook Listen every Tuesday at 9 - 10 am on BFF.FM

 His Week That Was – Kevin Healy Sister Patricia Fox on why Ferdinand Marcos Jr. shouldn't have been invited to Australia Tribute to Norwegian Professor Johan Galtung by Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees Former diplomat, public servant, author (and much more) Richard Broinowski AO on the consequences of the secretive ADF deployments in the Middle East US anti-war activist Brian Terrell talks about his arrest and jailing in Israel in 1992 for participating in a peace march and his preparations for the 60k Nevada peace walk Head to www.3cr.org.au/hometime-tuesday for full access to links and previous podcasts 

This week's show features stories from NHK Japan, France 24, Radio Deutsche-Welle, and Radio Havana Cuba. http://youthspeaksout.net/swr240301.mp3 (29:00) From JAPAN- Japan, the former Soviet Union, China, India, and the US have now successfully landed craft on the moon. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr wants to rewrite parts of the Philippine constitution, to ease restrictions on foreign investors and extend his rule. Russian president Putin warned the West that further involvement in Ukraine, as suggested by French President Macron, could trigger a global nuclear war. From FRANCE- Press reviews on President Macron's suggestion that the western troops might enter Ukraine to battle with Russia. Press reviews on Sweden ending two centuries of military neutrality by joining NATO. 100 schools in southern France are experimentally requiring school uniforms. The French Senate voted to enshrine the freedom to abortion into their constitution. There are 3000 wildfires raging in northern Brazil, a fourfold increase from last year. From GERMANY- The European Parliament has passed a bill requiring each country to restore 20% of land and seas to natural conditions by 2030. Macron's threat of possible ground troop placement in Ukraine resulted in most European and NATO leaders strongly disapproving the notion. The death toll in Palestine has now topped 30,000 people, and more than 100 people were killed and 700 injured Thursday while waiting for humanitarian aid to be delivered in Gaza City after Israeli soldiers opened gunfire on the crowds. From CUBA- Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh and his government submitted their resignations on Monday, amid pressure to reform due to the escalation of violence and new settler development. Israel targeted eastern Lebanon for the first time since October. Human Rights Monitor says Israel has been killing Palestinian civilians who were following Israeli evacuation plans. Available in 3 forms- (new) HIGHEST QUALITY (160kb)(33MB), broadcast quality (13MB), and quickdownload or streaming form (6MB) (28:59) Links at outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml PODCAST!!!- https://feed.podbean.com/outFarpress/feed.xml (160kb Highest Quality) Website Page- < http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml ¡FurthuR! Dan Roberts "The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage and whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy, then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel a piece." -Hunter S Thompson Dan Roberts Shortwave Report- www.outfarpress.com YouthSpeaksOut!- www.youthspeaksout.net

Danny and Derek are just the messengers. This week: the U.S. hits targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the American troops killed in Jordan (0:30); Israel refuses Hamas' terms for a ceasefire as IDF troops enter Rafah (6:06); in the Philippines, a feud between Sebastian Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. escalates (11:46); in Sudan, humanitarian assistance is cut off and telecom services are down as the catastrophe intensifies (15:04); President Macky Sall postpones elections in Senegal (17:47); Ukrainian president Zelensky fires top general Valerii Zaluzhnyi while a U.S. aid bill is stuck in Congress (22:23); in the Netherlands, coalition talks for the Geert Wilders-led government falter (26:38); the Colombian government extends its ceasefire with the ELN, while the latter swears off kidnapping (29:41); protests in Haiti demand the resignation of president Ariel Henry (31:22); Joe Biden's top Asia aide Kurt Campbell is confirmed as the new Deputy Secretary of State (33:21); and a new climate report says the opportunity for limiting warming to 1.5°C might be gone (34:26).Note: Zelensky's firing of Zaluzhnyi was officially announced after the time of recording This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

On this week's News episode of American Prestige: the U.S. hits targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the American troops killed in Jordan (0:30); Israel refuses Hamas' terms for a ceasefire as IDF troops enter Rafah (6:06); in the Philippines, a feud between Sebastian Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. escalates (11:46); in Sudan, humanitarian assistance is cut off and telecom services are down as the catastrophe intensifies (15:04); President Macky Sall postpones elections in Senegal (17:47); Ukrainian president Zelensky fires top general Valerii Zaluzhnyi while a U.S. aid bill is stuck in Congress (22:23); in the Netherlands, coalition talks for the Geert Wilders-led government falter (26:38); the Colombian government extends its ceasefire with the ELN, while the latter swears off kidnapping (29:41); protests in Haiti demand the resignation of president Ariel Henry (31:22); Joe Biden's top Asia aide Kurt Campbell is confirmed as the new Deputy Secretary of State (33:21); and a new climate report says the opportunity for limiting warming to 1.5°C might be gone (34:26).Note: Zelensky's firing of Zaluzhnyi was officially announced after the time of recordingAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In 2016, the Philippines' newly elected president, Rodrigo Duterte declared there was one, common enemy: the drugs trade. What followed was a bloodbath. Addicts, alleged traffickers – and so many who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – were gunned down in the streets by the security services. Often, the police claimed there had been a shoot-out and they had shot back in self-defence. The government put the number of people killed in the ‘war on drugs' at 6,252 – that figure doesn't include the thousands killed by unknown assailants. Now some of those victims are speaking from beyond the grave. Many were poor, and their families couldn't afford a permanent resting place in a cemetery. Instead, they rented a burial spot. And, as those short leases have come up for eviction, a Catholic priest, Father Flavie Villanueva, offers families help to exhume and cremate the bodies. But before cremation, the remains are examined by one of only two forensic pathologists in the Philippines, Dr Raquel Fortun. Dr Fortun has assessed the skeletal remains of dozens of victims of the ‘war on drugs'. Her findings often contradict police narratives. For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly reports on these efforts to uncover the truth of what happened under President Duterte. But she also hears how, under a new president since 2022 - Ferdinand Marcos Jr - the killings on the streets have continued. Producer: Tim Mansel Presenter: Linda Pressly Studio mix by James Beard Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Penny Murphy

Why is Rodrigo Duterte now complaining that there's no opposition under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.?

Ferdinand Marcos Jr, better known as “Bongbong”, is the president of the Philippines. His popularity skyrocketed in recent years, particularly among Gen Z, thanks to his stardom on tiktok. But it was almost 40 years ago that he fled the country as a young governor when his father's authoritarian and corrupt government was overturned in a dramatic coup. 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 24, 2023, where he spoke of his administration's accomplishments in the past year. In this episode, we spoke with ordinary Filipinos to give us another view on what it's really like to live in the Philippines. From the "Teka Teka News" podcast.For more stories like this, subscribe to Teka Teka News. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Town Square with Ernie Manouse airs at 3 p.m. CT. Tune in on 88.7FM, listen online or subscribe to the podcast. Join the discussion at 888-486-9677, questions@townsquaretalk.org or @townsquaretalk. First, we speak with University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs Associate Professor Dr. Chris Bronk about the technology war between the U.S. and China, with the Biden administration attempting to restrict China's access to semiconductors. Then, we are joined by Rice University Political Science professor Dr. Richard Stoll and Ronan O'Malley, Chief Programs Officer for the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston, to discuss recent and current international affairs. Both guests share insight on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's recent trip to China, the latest on Russia-Ukraine amidst the destruction of a bridge linking Crimea to Russia, and Sweden becoming an official member of NATO. Plus, Dr. Stoll and O'Malley share their thoughts on recent world news headlines such as the continuing protests occurring in France, whether the European economy is in trouble, and understanding the Philippines and the new leadership of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Guests: Dr. Chris Bronk Associate Professor, Hobby School of Public Affairs, University of Houston Dr. Richard Stoll Albert Thomas Professor of Political Science, Rice University Ronan O'Malley Chief Programs Officer and Director of the Global Affairs & U.S. Foreign Policy Institute, World Affairs Council of Greater Houston Town Square with Ernie Manouse is a gathering space for the community to come together and discuss the day's most important and pressing issues. We also offer a free podcast here, on iTunes, and other apps

What will happen to DZMM Teleradyo with ABS-CBN's joint venture with a firm connected with Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.?

The World Economic Forum, a meeting of the world's elite movers and shakers, just convened in Davos, Switzerland, to talk about how to shape the future of humanity. We pull back the curtain on the origins of this shockingly radical and dangerously influential organization. A terribly disturbing story comes out of Atlanta, Georgia, where two homosexual men adopted two young boys and presented themselves as a picture of family bliss. They were just charged with unspeakable crimes against these children and have become a cautionary tale about the evils of the LGBT movement that society wants to ignore. The Philippines' new president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., traveled to Beijing this month, demonstrating his nation's deliberate turn toward China and away from the United States. We conclude by talking about what it means to have a strong spine. Links [02:02] World Economic Forum (14 minutes) “What Is the Great Reset?” Germany's Conquest of the Balkans [16:27] Evils of the LGBT Movement (17 minutes) [33:10] Philippines Turns to China (15 minutes) “Philippine President Visits China, Shifts Relations Into High Gear” [48:26] LAST WORD: Spine! (7 minutes) “Spine!”

Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa joins Margaret Hoover to talk about her reporting, her concerns about social media, and her new book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator.” Ressa, who could face life in prison in the Philippines for speaking out against authoritarianism and corruption, explains why a free press is vital to democracy and why she is willing to risk her freedom to return to the country. She recounts delivering warnings to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook executives years ago about the dangers the platform created and details the role of social media in the rise of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Ressa discusses her hopes for the country under new leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr., her thoughts on TikTok and Twitter, and what it may take for the world to overcome the “original sin” of social media. Support for “Firing Line for Margaret Hoover” is provided by Robert Granieri, Charles R. Schwab, The Fairweather Foundation, The Asness Family Foundation, The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, The Center for the Study of the International Economy Inc., Damon Button, The Pritzker Military Foundation on behalf of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library, The Marc Haas Foundation, and Stephens Inc.

Having children isn't only expensive, but it also puts a serious dent in your social calendar. Data show many single, childless women in the US are traveling freely and earning more money, including more than their single, childless male counterparts. But when too many people forgo kids, it raises questions about the future workforce and whether it will be able to adequately fund benefits for the elderly. Increasingly, nations are grappling with how to encourage people to have children while enabling them to live their lives as they wish. In this episode, we explore the subject of birth rates from two very different angles, and from opposite ends of the globe. In the US, editor Molly Smith shares the story of Anna Dickson, a 42-year-old from New York who's traveled to Alaska, Switzerland and Anguilla in the past year. It's something she probably couldn't have done if she had kids, she says. Likewise, a growing number of American women are making the same choice to forgo children, and they're reaping economic benefits. As of 2019, single women with no children had an average of $65,000 in wealth, or $8,000 more than similarly situated men, Smith finds. Stephanie later chats about birth rates and government policy with Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. The total cost of raising a child in the US now exceeds $300,000, and that doesn't even include soaring college costs, Sawhill says. Despite those expenses, Congress has been lax in passing legislation to support families, she says. What's more, states with the most restrictive abortion laws also tend to be ones with the weakest social safety nets. In the Philippines, reporter Siegfrid Alegado says there's a different dilemma, given that it has one of the highest birth rates in Southeast Asia. Women there have 2.5 children on average, which is far higher than in many advanced nations. This threatens to exacerbate poverty among the urban poor and in the countryside, Alegado says. And any effort by new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to encourage women to use family planning faces a distinct challenge, namely that the largely Catholic country has historically frowned on contraception. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On June 30, 2022, the Philippines inaugurates a new president: — Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who ruled for a time under martial law and was overthrown in 1986. Marcos Jr., also known as Bongbong Marcos, was voted into office in a May 2022 landslide victory alongside vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte, daughter of the outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte. In 2021, as the race was heating up, FRONTLINE executive producer and host of The FRONTLINE Dispatch Raney Aronson-Rath sat down with Maria Ressa: a winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, founder of the independent Philippine news site Rappler and the subject of FRONTLINE's January 2021 documentary "A Thousand Cuts." Along with the documentary's director, Ramona S. Diaz, Ressa talked about disinformation, the importance of press freedom, and what she and Diaz were seeing on the ground in the Philippines during the historic campaign season. "A Thousand Cuts" is streaming on FRONTLINE's website, the PBS Video app and FRONTLINE's YouTube channel. Explore more reporting related to the documentary on FRONTLINE's website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/a-thousand-cuts/ Want to be notified every time a new podcast episode drops? Sign up for The FRONTLINE Dispatch newsletter: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/dispatch-newsletter-subscription/

This week's episode looks at “All You Need is Love”, the Our World TV special, and the career of the Beatles from April 1966 through August 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a thirteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Rain" by the Beatles. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ NB for the first few hours this was up, there was a slight editing glitch. If you downloaded the old version and don't want to redownload the whole thing, just look in the transcript for "Other than fixing John's two flubbed" for the text of the two missing paragraphs. Errata I say "Come Together" was a B-side, but the single was actually a double A-side. Also, I say the Lennon interview by Maureen Cleave appeared in Detroit magazine. That's what my source (Steve Turner's book) says, but someone on Twitter says that rather than Detroit magazine it was the Detroit Free Press. Also at one point I say "the videos for 'Paperback Writer' and 'Penny Lane'". I meant to say "Rain" rather than "Penny Lane" there. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. Particularly useful this time was Steve Turner's book Beatles '66. I also used Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. Johnny Rogan's Starmakers and Svengalis had some information on Epstein I hadn't seen anywhere else. Some information about the "Bigger than Jesus" scandal comes from Ward, B. (2012). “The ‘C' is for Christ”: Arthur Unger, Datebook Magazine and the Beatles. Popular Music and Society, 35(4), 541-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2011.608978 Information on Robert Stigwood comes from Mr Showbiz by Stephen Dando-Collins. And the quote at the end from Simon Napier-Bell is from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, which is more entertaining than it is accurate, but is very entertaining. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of "All You Need is Love" is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but the stereo mix is easily available on Magical Mystery Tour. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick note before I start the episode -- this episode deals, in part, with the deaths of three gay men -- one by murder, one by suicide, and one by an accidental overdose, all linked at least in part to societal homophobia. I will try to deal with this as tactfully as I can, but anyone who's upset by those things might want to read the transcript instead of listening to the episode. This is also a very, very, *very* long episode -- this is likely to be the longest episode I *ever* do of this podcast, so settle in. We're going to be here a while. I obviously don't know how long it's going to be while I'm still recording, but based on the word count of my script, probably in the region of three hours. You have been warned. In 1967 the actor Patrick McGoohan was tired. He had been working on the hit series Danger Man for many years -- Danger Man had originally run from 1960 through 1962, then had taken a break, and had come back, retooled, with longer episodes in 1964. That longer series was a big hit, both in the UK and in the US, where it was retitled Secret Agent and had a new theme tune written by PF Sloan and Steve Barri and recorded by Johnny Rivers: [Excerpt: Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man"] But McGoohan was tired of playing John Drake, the agent, and announced he was going to quit the series. Instead, with the help of George Markstein, Danger Man's script editor, he created a totally new series, in which McGoohan would star, and which McGoohan would also write and direct key episodes of. This new series, The Prisoner, featured a spy who is only ever given the name Number Six, and who many fans -- though not McGoohan himself -- took to be the same character as John Drake. Number Six resigns from his job as a secret agent, and is kidnapped and taken to a place known only as The Village -- the series was filmed in Portmeirion, an unusual-looking town in Gwynnedd, in North Wales -- which is full of other ex-agents. There he is interrogated to try to find out why he has quit his job. It's never made clear whether the interrogators are his old employers or their enemies, and there's a certain suggestion that maybe there is no real distinction between the two sides, that they're both running the Village together. He spends the entire series trying to escape, but refuses to explain himself -- and there's some debate among viewers as to whether it's implied or not that part of the reason he doesn't explain himself is that he knows his interrogators wouldn't understand why he quit: [Excerpt: The Prisoner intro, from episode Once Upon a Time, ] Certainly that explanation would fit in with McGoohan's own personality. According to McGoohan, the final episode of The Prisoner was, at the time, the most watched TV show ever broadcast in the UK, as people tuned in to find out the identity of Number One, the person behind the Village, and to see if Number Six would break free. I don't think that's actually the case, but it's what McGoohan always claimed, and it was certainly a very popular series. I won't spoil the ending for those of you who haven't watched it -- it's a remarkable series -- but ultimately the series seems to decide that such questions don't matter and that even asking them is missing the point. It's a work that's open to multiple interpretations, and is left deliberately ambiguous, but one of the messages many people have taken away from it is that not only are we trapped by a society that oppresses us, we're also trapped by our own identities. You can run from the trap that society has placed you in, from other people's interpretations of your life, your work, and your motives, but you ultimately can't run from yourself, and any time you try to break out of a prison, you'll find yourself trapped in another prison of your own making. The most horrifying implication of the episode is that possibly even death itself won't be a release, and you will spend all eternity trying to escape from an identity you're trapped in. Viewers became so outraged, according to McGoohan, that he had to go into hiding for an extended period, and while his later claims that he never worked in Britain again are an exaggeration, it is true that for the remainder of his life he concentrated on doing work in the US instead, where he hadn't created such anger. That final episode of The Prisoner was also the only one to use a piece of contemporary pop music, in two crucial scenes: [Excerpt: The Prisoner, "Fall Out", "All You Need is Love"] Back in October 2020, we started what I thought would be a year-long look at the period from late 1962 through early 1967, but which has turned out for reasons beyond my control to take more like twenty months, with a song which was one of the last of the big pre-Beatles pop hits, though we looked at it after their first single, "Telstar" by the Tornadoes: [Excerpt: The Tornadoes, "Telstar"] There were many reasons for choosing that as one of the bookends for this fifty-episode chunk of the podcast -- you'll see many connections between that episode and this one if you listen to them back-to-back -- but among them was that it's a song inspired by the launch of the first ever communications satellite, and a sign of how the world was going to become smaller as the sixties went on. Of course, to start with communications satellites didn't do much in that regard -- they were expensive to use, and had limited bandwidth, and were only available during limited time windows, but symbolically they meant that for the first time ever, people could see and hear events thousands of miles away as they were happening. It's not a coincidence that Britain and France signed the agreement to develop Concorde, the first supersonic airliner, a month after the first Beatles single and four months after the Telstar satellite was launched. The world was becoming ever more interconnected -- people were travelling faster and further, getting news from other countries quicker, and there was more cultural conversation – and misunderstanding – between countries thousands of miles apart. The Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, the man who also coined the phrase “the medium is the message”, thought that this ever-faster connection would fundamentally change basic modes of thought in the Western world. McLuhan thought that technology made possible whole new modes of thought, and that just as the printing press had, in his view, caused Western liberalism and individualism, so these new electronic media would cause the rise of a new collective mode of thought. In 1962, the year of Concorde, Telstar, and “Love Me Do”, McLuhan wrote a book called The Gutenberg Galaxy, in which he said: “Instead of tending towards a vast Alexandrian library the world has become a computer, an electronic brain, exactly as an infantile piece of science fiction. And as our senses have gone outside us, Big Brother goes inside. So, unless aware of this dynamic, we shall at once move into a phase of panic terrors, exactly befitting a small world of tribal drums, total interdependence, and superimposed co-existence.… Terror is the normal state of any oral society, for in it everything affects everything all the time.…” He coined the term “the Global Village” to describe this new collectivism. The story we've seen over the last fifty episodes is one of a sort of cultural ping-pong between the USA and the UK, with innovations in American music inspiring British musicians, who in turn inspired American ones, whether that being the Beatles covering the Isley Brothers or the Rolling Stones doing a Bobby Womack song, or Paul Simon and Bob Dylan coming over to the UK and learning folk songs and guitar techniques from Martin Carthy. And increasingly we're going to see those influences spread to other countries, and influences coming *from* other countries. We've already seen one Jamaican artist, and the influence of Indian music has become very apparent. While the focus of this series is going to remain principally in the British Isles and North America, rock music was and is a worldwide phenomenon, and that's going to become increasingly a part of the story. And so in this episode we're going to look at a live performance -- well, mostly live -- that was seen by hundreds of millions of people all over the world as it happened, thanks to the magic of satellites: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "All You Need is Love"] When we left the Beatles, they had just finished recording "Tomorrow Never Knows", the most experimental track they had recorded up to that date, and if not the most experimental thing they *ever* recorded certainly in the top handful. But "Tomorrow Never Knows" was only the first track they recorded in the sessions for what would become arguably their greatest album, and certainly the one that currently has the most respect from critics. It's interesting to note that that album could have been very, very, different. When we think of Revolver now, we think of the innovative production of George Martin, and of Geoff Emerick and Ken Townshend's inventive ideas for pushing the sound of the equipment in Abbey Road studios, but until very late in the day the album was going to be recorded in the Stax studios in Memphis, with Steve Cropper producing -- whether George Martin would have been involved or not is something we don't even know. In 1965, the Rolling Stones had, as we've seen, started making records in the US, recording in LA and at the Chess studios in Chicago, and the Yardbirds had also been doing the same thing. Mick Jagger had become a convert to the idea of using American studios and working with American musicians, and he had constantly been telling Paul McCartney that the Beatles should do the same. Indeed, they'd put some feelers out in 1965 about the possibility of the group making an album with Holland, Dozier, and Holland in Detroit. Quite how this would have worked is hard to figure out -- Holland, Dozier, and Holland's skills were as songwriters, and in their work with a particular set of musicians -- so it's unsurprising that came to nothing. But recording at Stax was a different matter.  While Steve Cropper was a great songwriter in his own right, he was also adept at getting great sounds on covers of other people's material -- like on Otis Blue, the album he produced for Otis Redding in late 1965, which doesn't include a single Cropper original: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Satisfaction"] And the Beatles were very influenced by the records Stax were putting out, often namechecking Wilson Pickett in particular, and during the Rubber Soul sessions they had recorded a "Green Onions" soundalike track, imaginatively titled "12-Bar Original": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "12-Bar Original"] The idea of the group recording at Stax got far enough that they were actually booked in for two weeks starting the ninth of April, and there was even an offer from Elvis to let them stay at Graceland while they recorded, but then a couple of weeks earlier, the news leaked to the press, and Brian Epstein cancelled the booking. According to Cropper, Epstein talked about recording at the Atlantic studios in New York with him instead, but nothing went any further. It's hard to imagine what a Stax-based Beatles album would have been like, but even though it might have been a great album, it certainly wouldn't have been the Revolver we've come to know. Revolver is an unusual album in many ways, and one of the ways it's most distinct from the earlier Beatles albums is the dominance of keyboards. Both Lennon and McCartney had often written at the piano as well as the guitar -- McCartney more so than Lennon, but both had done so regularly -- but up to this point it had been normal for them to arrange the songs for guitars rather than keyboards, no matter how they'd started out. There had been the odd track where one of them, usually Lennon, would play a simple keyboard part, songs like "I'm Down" or "We Can Work it Out", but even those had been guitar records first and foremost. But on Revolver, that changed dramatically. There seems to have been a complex web of cause and effect here. Paul was becoming increasingly interested in moving his basslines away from simple walking basslines and root notes and the other staples of rock and roll basslines up to this point. As the sixties progressed, rock basslines were becoming ever more complex, and Tyler Mahan Coe has made a good case that this is largely down to innovations in production pioneered by Owen Bradley, and McCartney was certainly aware of Bradley's work -- he was a fan of Brenda Lee, who Bradley produced, for example. But the two influences that McCartney has mentioned most often in this regard are the busy, jazz-influenced, basslines that James Jamerson was playing at Motown: [Excerpt: The Four Tops, "It's the Same Old Song"] And the basslines that Brian Wilson was writing for various Wrecking Crew bassists to play for the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"] Just to be clear, McCartney didn't hear that particular track until partway through the recording of Revolver, when Bruce Johnston visited the UK and brought with him an advance copy of Pet Sounds, but Pet Sounds influenced the later part of Revolver's recording, and Wilson had already started his experiments in that direction with the group's 1965 work. It's much easier to write a song with this kind of bassline, one that's integral to the composition, on the piano than it is to write it on a guitar, as you can work out the bassline with your left hand while working out the chords and melody with your right, so the habit that McCartney had already developed of writing on the piano made this easier. But also, starting with the recording of "Paperback Writer", McCartney switched his style of working in the studio. Where up to this point it had been normal for him to play bass as part of the recording of the basic track, playing with the other Beatles, he now started to take advantage of multitracking to overdub his bass later, so he could spend extra time getting the bassline exactly right. McCartney lived closer to Abbey Road than the other three Beatles, and so could more easily get there early or stay late and tweak his parts. But if McCartney wasn't playing bass while the guitars and drums were being recorded, that meant he could play something else, and so increasingly he would play piano during the recording of the basic track. And that in turn would mean that there wouldn't always *be* a need for guitars on the track, because the harmonic support they would provide would be provided by the piano instead. This, as much as anything else, is the reason that Revolver sounds so radically different to any other Beatles album. Up to this point, with *very* rare exceptions like "Yesterday", every Beatles record, more or less, featured all four of the Beatles playing instruments. Now John and George weren't playing on "Good Day Sunshine" or "For No One", John wasn't playing on "Here, There, and Everywhere", "Eleanor Rigby" features no guitars or drums at all, and George's "Love You To" only features himself, plus a little tambourine from Ringo (Paul recorded a part for that one, but it doesn't seem to appear on the finished track). Of the three songwriting Beatles, the only one who at this point was consistently requiring the instrumental contributions of all the other band members was John, and even he did without Paul on "She Said, She Said", which by all accounts features either John or George on bass, after Paul had a rare bout of unprofessionalism and left the studio. Revolver is still an album made by a group -- and most of those tracks that don't feature John or George instrumentally still feature them vocally -- it's still a collaborative work in all the best ways. But it's no longer an album made by four people playing together in the same room at the same time. After starting work on "Tomorrow Never Knows", the next track they started work on was Paul's "Got to Get You Into My Life", but as it would turn out they would work on that song throughout most of the sessions for the album -- in a sign of how the group would increasingly work from this point on, Paul's song was subject to multiple re-recordings and tweakings in the studio, as he tinkered to try to make it perfect. The first recording to be completed for the album, though, was almost as much of a departure in its own way as "Tomorrow Never Knows" had been. George's song "Love You To" shows just how inspired he was by the music of Ravi Shankar, and how devoted he was to Indian music. While a few months earlier he had just about managed to pick out a simple melody on the sitar for "Norwegian Wood", by this point he was comfortable enough with Indian classical music that I've seen many, many sources claim that an outside session player is playing sitar on the track, though Anil Bhagwat, the tabla player on the track, always insisted that it was entirely Harrison's playing: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] There is a *lot* of debate as to whether it's George playing on the track, and I feel a little uncomfortable making a definitive statement in either direction. On the one hand I find it hard to believe that Harrison got that good that quickly on an unfamiliar instrument, when we know he wasn't a naturally facile musician. All the stories we have about his work in the studio suggest that he had to work very hard on his guitar solos, and that he would frequently fluff them. As a technical guitarist, Harrison was only mediocre -- his value lay in his inventiveness, not in technical ability -- and he had been playing guitar for over a decade, but sitar only a few months. There's also some session documentation suggesting that an unknown sitar player was hired. On the other hand there's the testimony of Anil Bhagwat that Harrison played the part himself, and he has been very firm on the subject, saying "If you go on the Internet there are a lot of questions asked about "Love You To". They say 'It's not George playing the sitar'. I can tell you here and now -- 100 percent it was George on sitar throughout. There were no other musicians involved. It was just me and him." And several people who are more knowledgeable than myself about the instrument have suggested that the sitar part on the track is played the way that a rock guitarist would play rather than the way someone with more knowledge of Indian classical music would play -- there's a blues feeling to some of the bends that apparently no genuine Indian classical musician would naturally do. I would suggest that the best explanation is that there's a professional sitar player trying to replicate a part that Harrison had previously demonstrated, while Harrison was in turn trying his best to replicate the sound of Ravi Shankar's work. Certainly the instrumental section sounds far more fluent, and far more stylistically correct, than one would expect: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] Where previous attempts at what got called "raga-rock" had taken a couple of surface features of Indian music -- some form of a drone, perhaps a modal scale -- and had generally used a guitar made to sound a little bit like a sitar, or had a sitar playing normal rock riffs, Harrison's song seems to be a genuine attempt to hybridise Indian ragas and rock music, combining the instrumentation, modes, and rhythmic complexity of someone like Ravi Shankar with lyrics that are seemingly inspired by Bob Dylan and a fairly conventional pop song structure (and a tiny bit of fuzz guitar). It's a record that could only be made by someone who properly understood both the Indian music he's emulating and the conventions of the Western pop song, and understood how those conventions could work together. Indeed, one thing I've rarely seen pointed out is how cleverly the album is sequenced, so that "Love You To" is followed by possibly the most conventional song on Revolver, "Here, There, and Everywhere", which was recorded towards the end of the sessions. Both songs share a distinctive feature not shared by the rest of the album, so the two songs can sound more of a pair than they otherwise would, retrospectively making "Love You To" seem more conventional than it is and "Here, There, and Everywhere" more unconventional -- both have as an introduction a separate piece of music that states some of the melodic themes of the rest of the song but isn't repeated later. In the case of "Love You To" it's the free-tempo bit at the beginning, characteristic of a lot of Indian music: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] While in the case of "Here, There, and Everywhere" it's the part that mimics an older style of songwriting, a separate intro of the type that would have been called a verse when written by the Gershwins or Cole Porter, but of course in the intervening decades "verse" had come to mean something else, so we now no longer have a specific term for this kind of intro -- but as you can hear, it's doing very much the same thing as that "Love You To" intro: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Here, There, and Everywhere"] In the same day as the group completed "Love You To", overdubbing George's vocal and Ringo's tambourine, they also started work on a song that would show off a lot of the new techniques they had been working on in very different ways. Paul's "Paperback Writer" could indeed be seen as part of a loose trilogy with "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", one song by each of the group's three songwriters exploring the idea of a song that's almost all on one chord. Both "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Love You To" are based on a drone with occasional hints towards moving to one other chord. In the case of "Paperback Writer", the entire song stays on a single chord until the title -- it's on a G7 throughout until the first use of the word "writer", when it quickly goes to a C for two bars. I'm afraid I'm going to have to sing to show you how little the chords actually change, because the riff disguises this lack of movement somewhat, but the melody is also far more horizontal than most of McCartney's, so this shouldn't sound too painful, I hope: [demonstrates] This is essentially the exact same thing that both "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" do, and all three have very similarly structured rising and falling modal melodies. There's also a bit of "Paperback Writer" that seems to tie directly into "Love You To", but also points to a possible very non-Indian inspiration for part of "Love You To". The Beach Boys' single "Sloop John B" was released in the UK a couple of days after the sessions for "Paperback Writer" and "Love You To", but it had been released in the US a month before, and the Beatles all got copies of every record in the American top thirty shipped to them. McCartney and Harrison have specifically pointed to it as an influence on "Paperback Writer". "Sloop John B" has a section where all the instruments drop out and we're left with just the group's vocal harmonies: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Sloop John B"] And that seems to have been the inspiration behind the similar moment at a similar point in "Paperback Writer", which is used in place of a middle eight and also used for the song's intro: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Which is very close to what Harrison does at the end of each verse of "Love You To", where the instruments drop out for him to sing a long melismatic syllable before coming back in: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] Essentially, other than "Got to Get You Into My Life", which is an outlier and should not be counted, the first three songs attempted during the Revolver sessions are variations on a common theme, and it's a sign that no matter how different the results might  sound, the Beatles really were very much a group at this point, and were sharing ideas among themselves and developing those ideas in similar ways. "Paperback Writer" disguises what it's doing somewhat by having such a strong riff. Lennon referred to "Paperback Writer" as "son of 'Day Tripper'", and in terms of the Beatles' singles it's actually their third iteration of this riff idea, which they originally got from Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step": [Excerpt: Bobby Parker, "Watch Your Step"] Which became the inspiration for "I Feel Fine": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Feel Fine"] Which they varied for "Day Tripper": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Day Tripper"] And which then in turn got varied for "Paperback Writer": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] As well as compositional ideas, there are sonic ideas shared between "Paperback Writer", "Tomorrow Never Knows", and "Love You To", and which would be shared by the rest of the tracks the Beatles recorded in the first half of 1966. Since Geoff Emerick had become the group's principal engineer, they'd started paying more attention to how to get a fuller sound, and so Emerick had miced the tabla on "Love You To" much more closely than anyone would normally mic an instrument from classical music, creating a deep, thudding sound, and similarly he had changed the way they recorded the drums on "Tomorrow Never Knows", again giving a much fuller sound. But the group also wanted the kind of big bass sounds they'd loved on records coming out of America -- sounds that no British studio was getting, largely because it was believed that if you cut too loud a bass sound into a record it would make the needle jump out of the groove. The new engineering team of Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott, though, thought that it was likely you could keep the needle in the groove if you had a smoother frequency response. You could do that if you used a microphone with a larger diaphragm to record the bass, but how could you do that? Inspiration finally struck -- loudspeakers are actually the same thing as microphones wired the other way round, so if you wired up a loudspeaker as if it were a microphone you could get a *really big* speaker, place it in front of the bass amp, and get a much stronger bass sound. The experiment wasn't a total success -- the sound they got had to be processed quite extensively to get rid of room noise, and then compressed in order to further prevent the needle-jumping issue, and so it's a muddier, less defined, tone than they would have liked, but one thing that can't be denied is that "Paperback Writer"'s bass sound is much, much, louder than on any previous Beatles record: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Almost every track the group recorded during the Revolver sessions involved all sorts of studio innovations, though rarely anything as truly revolutionary as the artificial double-tracking they'd used on "Tomorrow Never Knows", and which also appeared on "Paperback Writer" -- indeed, as "Paperback Writer" was released several months before Revolver, it became the first record released to use the technique. I could easily devote a good ten minutes to every track on Revolver, and to "Paperback Writer"s B-side, "Rain", but this is already shaping up to be an extraordinarily long episode and there's a lot of material to get through, so I'll break my usual pattern of devoting a Patreon bonus episode to something relatively obscure, and this week's bonus will be on "Rain" itself. "Paperback Writer", though, deserved the attention here even though it was not one of the group's more successful singles -- it did go to number one, but it didn't hit number one in the UK charts straight away, being kept off the top by "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra for the first week: [Excerpt: Frank Sinatra, "Strangers in the Night"] Coincidentally, "Strangers in the Night" was co-written by Bert Kaempfert, the German musician who had produced the group's very first recording sessions with Tony Sheridan back in 1961. On the group's German tour in 1966 they met up with Kaempfert again, and John greeted him by singing the first couple of lines of the Sinatra record. The single was the lowest-selling Beatles single in the UK since "Love Me Do". In the US it only made number one for two non-consecutive weeks, with "Strangers in the Night" knocking it off for a week in between. Now, by literally any other band's standards, that's still a massive hit, and it was the Beatles' tenth UK number one in a row (or ninth, depending on which chart you use for "Please Please Me"), but it's a sign that the group were moving out of the first phase of total unequivocal dominance of the charts. It was a turning point in a lot of other ways as well. Up to this point, while the group had been experimenting with different lyrical subjects on album tracks, every single had lyrics about romantic relationships -- with the possible exception of "Help!", which was about Lennon's emotional state but written in such a way that it could be heard as a plea to a lover. But in the case of "Paperback Writer", McCartney was inspired by his Aunt Mill asking him "Why do you write songs about love all the time? Can you ever write about a horse or the summit conference or something interesting?" His response was to think "All right, Aunt Mill, I'll show you", and to come up with a lyric that was very much in the style of the social satires that bands like the Kinks were releasing at the time. People often miss the humour in the lyric for "Paperback Writer", but there's a huge amount of comedy in lyrics about someone writing to a publisher saying they'd written a book based on someone else's book, and one can only imagine the feeling of weary recognition in slush-pile readers throughout the world as they heard the enthusiastic "It's a thousand pages, give or take a few, I'll be writing more in a week or two. I can make it longer..." From this point on, the group wouldn't release a single that was unambiguously about a romantic relationship until "The Ballad of John and Yoko",  the last single released while the band were still together. "Paperback Writer" also saw the Beatles for the first time making a promotional film -- what we would now call a rock video -- rather than make personal appearances on TV shows. The film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who the group would work with again in 1969, and shows Paul with a chipped front tooth -- he'd been in an accident while riding mopeds with his friend Tara Browne a few months earlier, and hadn't yet got round to having the tooth capped. When he did, the change in his teeth was one of the many bits of evidence used by conspiracy theorists to prove that the real Paul McCartney was dead and replaced by a lookalike. It also marks a change in who the most prominent Beatle on the group's A-sides was. Up to this point, Paul had had one solo lead on an A-side -- "Can't Buy Me Love" -- and everything else had been either a song with multiple vocalists like "Day Tripper" or "Love Me Do", or a song with a clear John lead like "Ticket to Ride" or "I Feel Fine". In the rest of their career, counting "Paperback Writer", the group would release nine new singles that hadn't already been included on an album. Of those nine singles, one was a double A-side with one John song and one Paul song, two had John songs on the A-side, and the other six were Paul. Where up to this point John had been "lead Beatle", for the rest of the sixties, Paul would be the group's driving force. Oddly, Paul got rather defensive about the record when asked about it in interviews after it failed to go straight to the top, saying "It's not our best single by any means, but we're very satisfied with it". But especially in its original mono mix it actually packs a powerful punch: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] When the "Paperback Writer" single was released, an unusual image was used in the advertising -- a photo of the Beatles dressed in butchers' smocks, covered in blood, with chunks of meat and the dismembered body parts of baby dolls lying around on them. The image was meant as part of a triptych parodying religious art -- the photo on the left was to be an image showing the four Beatles connected to a woman by an umbilical cord made of sausages, the middle panel was meant to be this image, but with halos added over the Beatles' heads, and the panel on the right was George hammering a nail into John's head, symbolising both crucifixion and that the group were real, physical, people, not just images to be worshipped -- these weren't imaginary nails, and they weren't imaginary people. The photographer Robert Whittaker later said: “I did a photograph of the Beatles covered in raw meat, dolls and false teeth. Putting meat, dolls and false teeth with The Beatles is essentially part of the same thing, the breakdown of what is regarded as normal. The actual conception for what I still call “Somnambulant Adventure” was Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. He comes across people worshipping a golden calf. All over the world I'd watched people worshiping like idols, like gods, four Beatles. To me they were just stock standard normal people. But this emotion that fans poured on them made me wonder where Christianity was heading.” The image wasn't that controversial in the UK, when it was used to advertise "Paperback Writer", but in the US it was initially used for the cover of an album, Yesterday... And Today, which was made up of a few tracks that had been left off the US versions of the Rubber Soul and Help! albums, plus both sides of the "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper" single, and three rough mixes of songs that had been recorded for Revolver -- "Doctor Robert", "And Your Bird Can Sing", and "I'm Only Sleeping", which was the song that sounded most different from the mixes that were finally released: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping (Yesterday... and Today mix)"] Those three songs were all Lennon songs, which had the unfortunate effect that when the US version of Revolver was brought out later in the year, only two of the songs on the album were by Lennon, with six by McCartney and three by Harrison. Some have suggested that this was the motivation for the use of the butcher image on the cover of Yesterday... And Today -- saying it was the Beatles' protest against Capitol "butchering" their albums -- but in truth it was just that Capitol's art director chose the cover because he liked the image. Alan Livingston, the president of Capitol was not so sure, and called Brian Epstein to ask if the group would be OK with them using a different image. Epstein checked with John Lennon, but Lennon liked the image and so Epstein told Livingston the group insisted on them using that cover. Even though for the album cover the bloodstains on the butchers' smocks were airbrushed out, after Capitol had pressed up a million copies of the mono version of the album and two hundred thousand copies of the stereo version, and they'd sent out sixty thousand promo copies, they discovered that no record shops would stock the album with that cover. It cost Capitol more than two hundred thousand dollars to recall the album and replace the cover with a new one -- though while many of the covers were destroyed, others had the new cover, with a more acceptable photo of the group, pasted over them, and people have later carefully steamed off the sticker to reveal the original. This would not be the last time in 1966 that something that was intended as a statement on religion and the way people viewed the Beatles would cause the group trouble in America. In the middle of the recording sessions for Revolver, the group also made what turned out to be their last ever UK live performance in front of a paying audience. The group had played the NME Poll-Winners' Party every year since 1963, and they were always shows that featured all the biggest acts in the country at the time -- the 1966 show featured, as well as the Beatles and a bunch of smaller acts, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Seekers, the Small Faces, the Walker Brothers, and Dusty Springfield. Unfortunately, while these events were always filmed for TV broadcast, the Beatles' performance on the first of May wasn't filmed. There are various stories about what happened, but the crux appears to be a disagreement between Andrew Oldham and Brian Epstein, sparked by John Lennon. When the Beatles got to the show, they were upset to discover that they had to wait around before going on stage -- normally, the awards would all be presented at the end, after all the performances, but the Rolling Stones had asked that the Beatles not follow them directly, so after the Stones finished their set, there would be a break for the awards to be given out, and then the Beatles would play their set, in front of an audience that had been bored by twenty-five minutes of awards ceremony, rather than one that had been excited by all the bands that came before them. John Lennon was annoyed, and insisted that the Beatles were going to go on straight after the Rolling Stones -- he seems to have taken this as some sort of power play by the Stones and to have got his hackles up about it. He told Epstein to deal with the people from the NME. But the NME people said that they had a contract with Andrew Oldham, and they weren't going to break it. Oldham refused to change the terms of the contract. Lennon said that he wasn't going to go on stage if they didn't directly follow the Stones. Maurice Kinn, the publisher of the NME, told Epstein that he wasn't going to break the contract with Oldham, and that if the Beatles didn't appear on stage, he would get Jimmy Savile, who was compering the show, to go out on stage and tell the ten thousand fans in the audience that the Beatles were backstage refusing to appear. He would then sue NEMS for breach of contract *and* NEMS would be liable for any damage caused by the rioting that was sure to happen. Lennon screamed a lot of abuse at Kinn, and told him the group would never play one of their events again, but the group did go on stage -- but because they hadn't yet signed the agreement to allow their performance to be filmed, they refused to allow it to be recorded. Apparently Andrew Oldham took all this as a sign that Epstein was starting to lose control of the group. Also during May 1966 there were visits from musicians from other countries, continuing the cultural exchange that was increasingly influencing the Beatles' art. Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys came over to promote the group's new LP, Pet Sounds, which had been largely the work of Brian Wilson, who had retired from touring to concentrate on working in the studio. Johnston played the record for John and Paul, who listened to it twice, all the way through, in silence, in Johnston's hotel room: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "God Only Knows"] According to Johnston, after they'd listened through the album twice, they went over to a piano and started whispering to each other, picking out chords. Certainly the influence of Pet Sounds is very noticeable on songs like "Here, There, and Everywhere", written and recorded a few weeks after this meeting: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Here, There, and Everywhere"] That track, and the last track recorded for the album, "She Said She Said" were unusual in one very important respect -- they were recorded while the Beatles were no longer under contract to EMI Records. Their contract expired on the fifth of June, 1966, and they finished Revolver without it having been renewed -- it would be several months before their new contract was signed, and it's rather lucky for music lovers that Brian Epstein was the kind of manager who considered personal relationships and basic honour and decency more important than the legal niceties, unlike any other managers of the era, otherwise we would not have Revolver in the form we know it today. After the meeting with Johnston, but before the recording of those last couple of Revolver tracks, the Beatles also met up again with Bob Dylan, who was on a UK tour with a new, loud, band he was working with called The Hawks. While the Beatles and Dylan all admired each other, there was by this point a lot of wariness on both sides, especially between Lennon and Dylan, both of them very similar personality types and neither wanting to let their guard down around the other or appear unhip. There's a famous half-hour-long film sequence of Lennon and Dylan sharing a taxi, which is a fascinating, excruciating, example of two insecure but arrogant men both trying desperately to impress the other but also equally desperate not to let the other know that they want to impress them: [Excerpt: Dylan and Lennon taxi ride] The day that was filmed, Lennon and Harrison also went to see Dylan play at the Royal Albert Hall. This tour had been controversial, because Dylan's band were loud and raucous, and Dylan's fans in the UK still thought of him as a folk musician. At one gig, earlier on the tour, an audience member had famously yelled out "Judas!" -- (just on the tiny chance that any of my listeners don't know that, Judas was the disciple who betrayed Jesus to the authorities, leading to his crucifixion) -- and that show was for many years bootlegged as the "Royal Albert Hall" show, though in fact it was recorded at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. One of the *actual* Royal Albert Hall shows was released a few years ago -- the one the night before Lennon and Harrison saw Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone", Royal Albert Hall 1966] The show Lennon and Harrison saw would be Dylan's last for many years. Shortly after returning to the US, Dylan was in a motorbike accident, the details of which are still mysterious, and which some fans claim was faked altogether. The accident caused him to cancel all the concert dates he had booked, and devote himself to working in the studio for several years just like Brian Wilson. And from even further afield than America, Ravi Shankar came over to Britain, to work with his friend the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, on a duet album, West Meets East, that was an example in the classical world of the same kind of international cross-fertilisation that was happening in the pop world: [Excerpt: Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar, "Prabhati (based on Raga Gunkali)"] While he was in the UK, Shankar also performed at the Royal Festival Hall, and George Harrison went to the show. He'd seen Shankar live the year before, but this time he met up with him afterwards, and later said "He was the first person that impressed me in a way that was beyond just being a famous celebrity. Ravi was my link to the Vedic world. Ravi plugged me into the whole of reality. Elvis impressed me when I was a kid, and impressed me when I met him, but you couldn't later on go round to him and say 'Elvis, what's happening with the universe?'" After completing recording and mixing the as-yet-unnamed album, which had been by far the longest recording process of their career, and which still nearly sixty years later regularly tops polls of the best album of all time, the Beatles took a well-earned break. For a whole two days, at which point they flew off to Germany to do a three-day tour, on their way to Japan, where they were booked to play five shows at the Budokan. Unfortunately for the group, while they had no idea of this when they were booked to do the shows, many in Japan saw the Budokan as sacred ground, and they were the first ever Western group to play there. This led to numerous death threats and loud protests from far-right activists offended at the Beatles defiling their religious and nationalistic sensibilities. As a result, the police were on high alert -- so high that there were three thousand police in the audience for the shows, in a venue which only held ten thousand audience members. That's according to Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Chronicle, though I have to say that the rather blurry footage of the audience in the video of those shows doesn't seem to show anything like those numbers. But frankly I'll take Lewisohn's word over that footage, as he's not someone to put out incorrect information. The threats to the group also meant that they had to be kept in their hotel rooms at all times except when actually performing, though they did make attempts to get out. At the press conference for the Tokyo shows, the group were also asked publicly for the first time their views on the war in Vietnam, and John replied "Well, we think about it every day, and we don't agree with it and we think that it's wrong. That's how much interest we take. That's all we can do about it... and say that we don't like it". I say they were asked publicly for the first time, because George had been asked about it for a series of interviews Maureen Cleave had done with the group a couple of months earlier, as we'll see in a bit, but nobody was paying attention to those interviews. Brian Epstein was upset that the question had gone to John. He had hoped that the inevitable Vietnam question would go to Paul, who he thought might be a bit more tactful. The last thing he needed was John Lennon saying something that would upset the Americans before their tour there a few weeks later. Luckily, people in America seemed to have better things to do than pay attention to John Lennon's opinions. The support acts for the Japanese shows included  several of the biggest names in Japanese rock music -- or "group sounds" as the genre was called there, Japanese people having realised that trying to say the phrase "rock and roll" would open them up to ridicule given that it had both "r" and "l" sounds in the phrase. The man who had coined the term "group sounds", Jackey Yoshikawa, was there with his group the Blue Comets, as was Isao Bito, who did a rather good cover version of Cliff Richard's "Dynamite": [Excerpt: Isao Bito, "Dynamite"] Bito, the Blue Comets, and the other two support acts, Yuya Uchida and the Blue Jeans, all got together to perform a specially written song, "Welcome Beatles": [Excerpt: "Welcome Beatles" ] But while the Japanese audience were enthusiastic, they were much less vocal about their enthusiasm than the audiences the Beatles were used to playing for. The group were used, of course, to playing in front of hordes of screaming teenagers who could not hear a single note, but because of the fear that a far-right terrorist would assassinate one of the group members, the police had imposed very, very, strict rules on the audience. Nobody in the audience was allowed to get out of their seat for any reason, and the police would clamp down very firmly on anyone who was too demonstrative. Because of that, the group could actually hear themselves, and they sounded sloppy as hell, especially on the newer material. Not that there was much of that. The only song they did from the Revolver sessions was "Paperback Writer", the new single, and while they did do a couple of tracks from Rubber Soul, those were under-rehearsed. As John said at the start of this tour, "I can't play any of Rubber Soul, it's so unrehearsed. The only time I played any of the numbers on it was when I recorded it. I forget about songs. They're only valid for a certain time." That's certainly borne out by the sound of their performances of Rubber Soul material at the Budokan: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "If I Needed Someone (live at the Budokan)"] It was while they were in Japan as well that they finally came up with the title for their new album. They'd been thinking of all sorts of ideas, like Abracadabra and Magic Circle, and tossing names around with increasing desperation for several days -- at one point they seem to have just started riffing on other groups' albums, and seem to have apparently seriously thought about naming the record in parodic tribute to their favourite artists -- suggestions included The Beatles On Safari, after the Beach Boys' Surfin' Safari (and possibly with a nod to their recent Pet Sounds album cover with animals, too), The Freewheelin' Beatles, after Dylan's second album, and my favourite, Ringo's suggestion After Geography, for the Rolling Stones' Aftermath. But eventually Paul came up with Revolver -- like Rubber Soul, a pun, in this case because the record itself revolves when on a turntable. Then it was off to the Philippines, and if the group thought Japan had been stressful, they had no idea what was coming. The trouble started in the Philippines from the moment they stepped off the plane, when they were bundled into a car without Neil Aspinall or Brian Epstein, and without their luggage, which was sent to customs. This was a problem in itself -- the group had got used to essentially being treated like diplomats, and to having their baggage let through customs without being searched, and so they'd started freely carrying various illicit substances with them. This would obviously be a problem -- but as it turned out, this was just to get a "customs charge" paid by Brian Epstein. But during their initial press conference the group were worried, given the hostility they'd faced from officialdom, that they were going to be arrested during the conference itself. They were asked what they would tell the Rolling Stones, who were going to be visiting the Philippines shortly after, and Lennon just said "We'll warn them". They also asked "is there a war on in the Philippines? Why is everybody armed?" At this time, the Philippines had a new leader, Ferdinand Marcos -- who is not to be confused with his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, also known as Bongbong Marcos, who just became President-Elect there last month. Marcos Sr was a dictatorial kleptocrat, one of the worst leaders of the latter half of the twentieth century, but that wasn't evident yet. He'd been elected only a few months earlier, and had presented himself as a Kennedy-like figure -- a young man who was also a war hero. He'd recently switched parties from the Liberal party to the right-wing Nacionalista Party, but wasn't yet being thought of as the monstrous dictator he later became. The person organising the Philippines shows had been ordered to get the Beatles to visit Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos at 11AM on the day of the show, but for some reason had instead put on their itinerary just the *suggestion* that the group should meet the Marcoses, and had put the time down as 3PM, and the Beatles chose to ignore that suggestion -- they'd refused to do that kind of government-official meet-and-greet ever since an incident in 1964 at the British Embassy in Washington where someone had cut off a bit of Ringo's hair. A military escort turned up at the group's hotel in the morning, to take them for their meeting. The group were all still in their rooms, and Brian Epstein was still eating breakfast and refused to disturb them, saying "Go back and tell the generals we're not coming." The group gave their performances as scheduled, but meanwhile there was outrage at the way the Beatles had refused to meet the Marcos family, who had brought hundreds of children -- friends of their own children, and relatives of top officials -- to a party to meet the group. Brian Epstein went on TV and tried to smooth things over, but the broadcast was interrupted by static and his message didn't get through to anyone. The next day, the group's security was taken away, as were the cars to take them to the airport. When they got to the airport, the escalators were turned off and the group were beaten up at the arrangement of the airport manager, who said in 1984 "I beat up the Beatles. I really thumped them. First I socked Epstein and he went down... then I socked Lennon and Ringo in the face. I was kicking them. They were pleading like frightened chickens. That's what happens when you insult the First Lady." Even on the plane there were further problems -- Brian Epstein and the group's road manager Mal Evans were both made to get off the plane to sort out supposed financial discrepancies, which led to them worrying that they were going to be arrested or worse -- Evans told the group to tell his wife he loved her as he left the plane. But eventually, they were able to leave, and after a brief layover in India -- which Ringo later said was the first time he felt he'd been somewhere truly foreign, as opposed to places like Germany or the USA which felt basically like home -- they got back to England: [Excerpt: "Ordinary passenger!"] When asked what they were going to do next, George replied “We're going to have a couple of weeks to recuperate before we go and get beaten up by the Americans,” The story of the "we're bigger than Jesus" controversy is one of the most widely misreported events in the lives of the Beatles, which is saying a great deal. One book that I've encountered, and one book only, Steve Turner's Beatles '66, tells the story of what actually happened, and even that book seems to miss some emphases. I've pieced what follows together from Turner's book and from an academic journal article I found which has some more detail. As far as I can tell, every single other book on the Beatles released up to this point bases their account of the story on an inaccurate press statement put out by Brian Epstein, not on the truth. Here's the story as it's generally told. John Lennon gave an interview to his friend, Maureen Cleave of the Evening Standard, during which he made some comments about how it was depressing that Christianity was losing relevance in the eyes of the public, and that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus, speaking casually because he was talking to a friend. That story was run in the Evening Standard more-or-less unnoticed, but then an American teen magazine picked up on the line about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus, reprinted chunks of the interview out of context and without the Beatles' knowledge or permission, as a way to stir up controversy, and there was an outcry, with people burning Beatles records and death threats from the Ku Klux Klan. That's... not exactly what happened. The first thing that you need to understand to know what happened is that Datebook wasn't a typical teen magazine. It *looked* just like a typical teen magazine, certainly, and much of its content was the kind of thing that you would get in Tiger Beat or any of the other magazines aimed at teenage girls -- the September 1966 issue was full of articles like "Life with the Walker Brothers... by their Road Manager", and interviews with the Dave Clark Five -- but it also had a long history of publishing material that was intended to make its readers think about social issues of the time, particularly Civil Rights. Arthur Unger, the magazine's editor and publisher, was a gay man in an interracial relationship, and while the subject of homosexuality was too taboo in the late fifties and sixties for him to have his magazine cover that, he did regularly include articles decrying segregation and calling for the girls reading the magazine to do their part on a personal level to stamp out racism. Datebook had regularly contained articles like one from 1963 talking about how segregation wasn't just a problem in the South, saying "If we are so ‘integrated' why must men in my own city of Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love, picket city hall because they are discriminated against when it comes to getting a job? And how come I am still unable to take my dark- complexioned friends to the same roller skating rink or swimming pool that I attend?” One of the writers for the magazine later said “We were much more than an entertainment magazine . . . . We tried to get kids involved in social issues . . . . It was a well-received magazine, recommended by libraries and schools, but during the Civil Rights period we did get pulled off a lot of stands in the South because of our views on integration” Art Unger, the editor and publisher, wasn't the only one pushing this liberal, integrationist, agenda. The managing editor at the time, Danny Fields, was another gay man who wanted to push the magazine even further than Unger, and who would later go on to manage the Stooges and the Ramones, being credited by some as being the single most important figure in punk rock's development, and being immortalised by the Ramones in their song "Danny Says": [Excerpt: The Ramones, "Danny Says"] So this was not a normal teen magazine, and that's certainly shown by the cover of the September 1966 issue, which as well as talking about the interviews with John Lennon and Paul McCartney inside, also advertised articles on Timothy Leary advising people to turn on, tune in, and drop out; an editorial about how interracial dating must be the next step after desegregation of schools, and a piece on "the ten adults you dig/hate the most" -- apparently the adult most teens dug in 1966 was Jackie Kennedy, the most hated was Barry Goldwater, and President Johnson, Billy Graham, and Martin Luther King appeared in the top ten on both lists. Now, in the early part of the year Maureen Cleave had done a whole series of articles on the Beatles -- double-page spreads on each band member, plus Brian Epstein, visiting them in their own homes (apart from Paul, who she met at a restaurant) and discussing their daily lives, their thoughts, and portraying them as rounded individuals. These articles are actually fascinating, because of something that everyone who met the Beatles in this period pointed out. When interviewed separately, all of them came across as thoughtful individuals, with their own opinions about all sorts of subjects, and their own tastes and senses of humour. But when two or more of them were together -- especially when John and Paul were interviewed together, but even in social situations, they would immediately revert to flip in-jokes and riffing on each other's statements, never revealing anything about themselves as individuals, but just going into Beatle mode -- simultaneously preserving the band's image, closing off outsiders, *and* making sure they didn't do or say anything that would get them mocked by the others. Cleave, as someone who actually took them all seriously, managed to get some very revealing information about all of them. In the article on Ringo, which is the most superficial -- one gets the impression that Cleave found him rather difficult to talk to when compared to the other, more verbally facile, band members -- she talked about how he had a lot of Wild West and military memorabilia, how he was a devoted family man and also devoted to his friends -- he had moved to the suburbs to be close to John and George, who already lived there. The most revealing quote about Ringo's personality was him saying "Of course that's the great thing about being married -- you have a house to sit in and company all the time. And you can still go to clubs, a bonus for being married. I love being a family man." While she looked at the other Beatles' tastes in literature in detail, she'd noted that the only books Ringo owned that weren't just for show were a few science fiction paperbacks, but that as he said "I'm not thick, it's just that I'm not educated. People can use words and I won't know what they mean. I say 'me' instead of 'my'." Ringo also didn't have a drum kit at home, saying he only played when he was on stage or in the studio, and that you couldn't practice on your own, you needed to play with other people. In the article on George, she talked about how he was learning the sitar,  and how he was thinking that it might be a good idea to go to India to study the sitar with Ravi Shankar for six months. She also talks about how during the interview, he played the guitar pretty much constantly, playing everything from songs from "Hello Dolly" to pieces by Bach to "the Trumpet Voluntary", by which she presumably means Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March": [Excerpt: Jeremiah Clarke, "Prince of Denmark's March"] George was also the most outspoken on the subjects of politics, religion, and society, linking the ongoing war in Vietnam with the UK's reverence for the Second World War, saying "I think about it every day and it's wrong. Anything to do with war is wrong. They're all wrapped up in their Nelsons and their Churchills and their Montys -- always talking about war heroes. Look at All Our Yesterdays [a show on ITV that showed twenty-five-year-old newsreels] -- how we killed a few more Huns here and there. Makes me sick. They're the sort who are leaning on their walking sticks and telling us a few years in the army would do us good." He also had very strong words to say about religion, saying "I think religion falls flat on its face. All this 'love thy neighbour' but none of them are doing it. How can anybody get into the position of being Pope and accept all the glory and the money and the Mercedes-Benz and that? I could never be Pope until I'd sold my rich gates and my posh hat. I couldn't sit there with all that money on me and believe I was religious. Why can't we bring all this out in the open? Why is there all this stuff about blasphemy? If Christianity's as good as they say it is, it should stand up to a bit of discussion." Harrison also comes across as a very private person, saying "People keep saying, ‘We made you what you are,' well, I made Mr. Hovis what he is and I don't go round crawling over his gates and smashing up the wall round his house." (Hovis is a British company that makes bread and wholegrain flour). But more than anything else he comes across as an instinctive anti-authoritarian, being angry at bullying teachers, Popes, and Prime Ministers. McCartney's profile has him as the most self-consciously arty -- he talks about the plays of Alfred Jarry and the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio: [Excerpt: Luciano Berio, "Momenti (for magnetic tape)"] Though he was very worried that he might be sounding a little too pretentious, saying “I don't want to sound like Jonathan Miller going on" --

Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of an ousted dictator and whose mother Imelda was known for her legendary collection of footwear, is poised to become the next president of the Philippines. To help us parse what this could mean for the rest of the world and how the Philippines got to this point, we spoke with the BBC’s Howard Johnson. Additionally, we have the latest on breaking news this morning that the U.S. Soccer Federation and its players have a landmark deal to guarantee equal pay for the men’s and women’s teams. Also, the latest on the effects of sanctions on Russia. Plus, we dig into the changing dynamics of the housing market. And, Susan Schmidt joins us for our discussion about market activity. Your donation powers the journalism you rely on. Give today to support Marketplace Morning Report.

Joe Biden thinks that inflation is our strength? Jen Psaki responds to the new term going around, the "Ultra-MAGA" group. Mitch McConnell makes an appearance and announces the most important issue right now is the Ukraine-Russia war. Dr. Oz comes out with a political ad that shows him strongly supporting the Second Amendment. Janet Yellen said that abortion is now also an economic issue. Justice Alito's neighbor played “'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” on the piano to try to counter all the protesting happening outside. Tom Brady will be making $37.5 million a year for a job he's never done before. Biologist Laurie Garrett has changed her tune on the effectiveness of masks. Apple is ending production of the iPod. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has won the presidential election in the Philippines in a landslide. Keith Olbermann attacks a homeschooling mother. There are a few upcoming movies that we are keeping our eyes on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michigan has a 1931 law on the books that criminalizes abortion. That law has not been enforced since 1973 when Roe v Wade was decided, but it hasn't been repealed either. And so it would take effect again should Roe be overturned because the state's GOP-controlled legislature said they don't plan to revoke it. We talk with Kelly Hall of The Fairness Project, which is gathering signatures to put a referendum on the ballot this fall to bypass the legislature and take the matter directly to voters. If they approve it, the measure would amend the state's constitution to make reproductive freedom a right.And in headlines: Vladimir Putin doesn't declare victory on Russia's Victory Day, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is projected to be the next president of the Philippines, and President Biden announced a plan to subsidize broadband Internet for low-income homes.Show Notes:Michigan Reproductive Freedom For All – https://mireproductivefreedom.org/Ban Off Our Bodies Rally on May 14th – https://bit.ly/3P1KxgNDonate to abortion funds, take action and more via Vote Save America – votesaveamerica.com/roeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday