Podcasts about Myanmar

Episode #616: Joseph, a community leader among Myanmar refugees in Malaysia, and Patrick, an advocacy specialist working on refugee and migrant issues there, speak about their work and the very challenging situation faced by Myanmar refugees. Refugees themselves, while they have adapted to daily life in Malaysia, that adaptation never became security. Even after many years, they still live with constraints imposed by their legal status. Because Malaysia was not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, those fleeing conflict are permitted to remain in the country but are not legally recognized as refugees and have no pathway to citizenship or permanent residency. There is also a large and growing group of stateless children born to refugee parents, who can neither obtain citizenship from Myanmar nor legal status in Malaysia. Joseph and Patrick connect the cumulative effects of violence in Myanmar, dangerous flight, detention risk, economic exploitation, and prolonged legal uncertainty to a widening mental health crisis. They hear from individuals experiencing severe psychological distress, including suicidal thoughts and paranoia. At the same time, mental health services for refugees have largely collapsed there. As a result, refugees with serious psychological conditions have nowhere else to turn. In response to all these challenges, Joseph and Patrick run community-based training programs that teach culture, language and survival skills. Many newcomers have never before lived outside Myanmar and so are unfamiliar with the exigencies of cross-cultural awareness and understanding. These programs also address the importance of dignity and restoring hope. Both men reflect on the psychological toll of their own long-term exile and community involvement. Unlike those resettled in Western countries, they continue to imagine their return at some unknown point in the future as the only true endpoint. This prolonged suspension—neither fully rebuilding a life elsewhere, nor fully relinquishing the hope to return home—shapes how Myanmar refugees in Malaysia endure displacement. Patrick and Joseph say the Burmese people are fighting not for leaders but for freedom and dignity, and he asks those who believe in freedom to stay with them. They end with this plea: “Please don't forget about Myanmar!”

The Malaysian government is facing accusations of forcibly deporting Rohingya refugees, a charge the government denies. It says the process is voluntary and coordinated with Myanmar’s government. But human rights groups say this process violates international law by sending refugees to countries where they risk facing persecution or torture. So, will this concern stop the Rohingya being sent back to Myanmar? In this episode: Phar Kim Beng, Director of the Institute of International and ASEAN Studies and Geopolitics Professor at the University of Malaysia Lucky Karim, Democracy and Human Rights Advocate and Founder of Refugee Women for Peace and Justice Maung Zarni, Genocide Scholar and Co-Founder of the scholar-activist network, Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia Host: Imran Khan Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

• UN refugee agency raises concern over Myanmar returns from Malaysia • Lebanon: one in five children goes to bed hungry, says UNICEF • New alcohol policy gives booze the boot in Latvia - WHO

Desde 1962 que Myanmar vive em brutal violência, mas há um movimento democrático que dá luta. Uma crónica de Francisco Sena Santos.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 100 Israeli settlers have attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, preventing the return of a family who'd been forced to flee their home. The Israeli army said settlers, defying a High Court order which allowed the return of the Palestinians, had hurled rocks, blocked roads and set fire to houses and vehicles in Jalud. Also: Spain's government has agreed plans to ban evictions until 2030, as it attempts to deal with a housing crisis. The proposal follows nationwide protests after an 87-year-old woman was forced to leave her home in Madrid because of a massive rent increase. The Malaysian government has started repatriating about 5000 asylum-seekers from Myanmar, including many Rohingyas, under a controversial deal agreed with Myanmar's military ruler; and, a film about social media takes another critical look at Facebook. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.ukPhoto: A destroyed vehicle sits in the estate of Palestinians, Mahmoud al-Tubasi, 60, and his wife Aida, 51, which they say was attacked by Israeli settlers, in Jalud in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Credit: Reuters

Malaysia starts sending thousands of refugees back to war-torn Myanmar. Human rights groups say it risks returning Rohingya muslims to danger. We hear from a fearful refugee. Also in the programme: Israel's military says more than a hundred settlers have attacked a village in the occupied West Bank; we hear from Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich who was held in a Russian prison for more than 400 days; and how the youngest ever female chess grandmaster learnt to play.(IMAGE: Myanmar nationals due to be repatriated from Malaysia sit inside a bus at Lumut, Malaysia September 29, 2026 / REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain)

Episode #615: “My passion for journalism and for telling stories to others still remain,” says Min Mitchell, former executive editor at Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-funded news organization that provides independent reporting to countries with restricted media. Min is also the wife of former US Ambassador Derek Mitchell, who represented the American mission during the country's brief democratic opening. Drawing on a career spanning Taiwanese journalism, U.S.-funded international media and China reporting, Mitchell argues that independent journalism provides an essential public service by delivering trustworthy information to people living under censorship, while documenting repression, conflict, and humanitarian crises. She explains that RFA reports for audiences living in countries where independent information is unavailable or tightly controlled, requiring journalists to adapt constantly as governments restrict the flow of news. Following Myanmar's 2021 military coup, RFA expanded shortwave broadcasting when internet shutdowns made digital communication unreliable. “Journalism,” she says, “is not just telling news. You also providing people useful information to deal with what is going on the ground.” Mitchell believes U.S.-funded international media demonstrate democratic values by providing independent reporting rather than serving commercial interests or political agendas. During her years at RFA, covering increasingly authoritarian environments strengthened her conviction that journalists must report facts accurately and without bias. Even as social media, artificial intelligence, and state-sponsored influence campaigns reshape the information landscape, she insists that trusted journalism remains indispensable. Although concerned by declining global press freedom, Mitchell remains hopeful that societies can reaffirm the importance of truthful reporting and shared democratic values. The quality she returns to most often is resilience. Remembering a Burmese colleague who reassured her after the coup with a simple smiling message, she concludes, “No matter what happens… people have that resilience to get through it, to endure it, and to eventually come out of it.” For Mitchell, that enduring resilience is Myanmar's greatest lesson.

Malaysia is dealing with two very different groups of foreigners - Chinese and Korean players squeezing local businesses on price, and tens of thousands of stateless Rohingya refugees it never recruited but has hosted for years. Now, as local resentment rises, and talk of repatriations to Myanmar increases, Arnold Gay asks CNA Senior Correspondent Melissa Goh how and where Malaysia is drawing the line.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Headline news for September 29, 2026: Singapore's PSI hits 155 in the central region as haze enters the unhealthy range. Anthropic warns IPO investors that advanced AI could pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity dedicating eighty pages of its prospectus to risk factors. Malaysia begins repatriating fifteen hundred Myanmar nationals in the first phase of a five-thousand-person programme. Synopsis: A round up of global headlines to start your day by The Business Times. Written by: Claressa Monteiro (claremb@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Claressa Monteiro or Nicole Teo Produced by: BT Podcasts, The Business Times, SPH Media Produced with AI text-to-speech capabilities --- Follow Lens On Daily and rate us on: Channel: bt.sg/btlenson Amazon: bt.sg/lensam Apple Podcasts: bt.sg/lensap Spotify: bt.sg/lenssp YouTube Music: bt.sg/lensyt Website: bt.sg/lenson Feedback to: btpodcasts@sph.com.sg Do note: This podcast is meant to provide general information only. SPH Media accepts no liability for loss arising from any reliance on the podcast or use of third party’s products and services. Please consult professional advisors for independent advice. Discover more BT podcast series: BT Mark To Market at: bt.sg/btmark2mkt WealthBT at: bt.sg/btpropertybt PropertyBT at: bt.sg/btmktfocus BT Money Hacks at: bt.sg/btmoneyhacks BT Market Focus at: bt.sg/btmktfocus BT Podcasts at: bt.sg/podcasts BT Lens On: bt.sg/btlensonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matthew Campbell is an editor at Bloomberg Businessweek who spent a decade reporting out of Europe before relocating to Singapore, filing from more than twenty-five countries on crime, corruption, terrorism, economics, public health and the environment along the way. He co-broke the investigation into how Goldman Sachs made hundreds of millions of dollars on bond deals with Muammar Gaddafi's Libya while the country lost over a billion, dug into South Africa's Gupta "state capture" scandal, investigated the still-unsolved murder of Canadian pharmaceutical billionaire Barry Sherman, and exposed massive undisclosed methane emissions leaking out of Central Asia's oil and gas fields. He's a seven-time Loeb finalist with honors from the National Press Club, SOPA and SABEW. His new book, The Man Who Stole the Gods, follows the decades-long, industrial-scale looting of ancient Khmer treasures out of Cambodia, and the British art dealer at the centre of it all, Douglas Latchford, who spent fifty years selling stolen antiquities to the world's biggest museums and private collectors on forged provenance nobody bothered to check. We follow the story from Latchford's arrival in 1950s Bangkok, through the horror of the Khmer Rouge and the thirty-year civil war that followed, into the private homes of American billionaires, the boardroom of the Met and even the Jeffrey Epstein files.Link To 'The Man Who Stole the Gods'Link To 'Curious Worldview Substack'Leave a review on Apple or Spotify (nothing does more to help grow the show)It's an enormous pleasure to have spoken with Matt, we discussed...How the story landed on his radar — a stray 2019 headline about a British art dealer indicted for fraud, the detail that he was also the principal financial sponsor of bodybuilding in Southeast Asia, and the COVID delay before he was confident, from his first day reporting in Phnom Penh, that there was a book in itMeeting Brad Gordon, the American lawyer hired by the US Department of Justice who ended up working for the Cambodian government instead — and why Matt built the book around the people chasing the statues rather than the man who stole themWhether the book might push other nations to take looting more seriously, from the century-long fight over the Elgin Marbles to looting still happening today in Iraq, Syria, Sudan and UkraineThe closest historical analogue to Cambodia's scale of loss — Nazi-looted art — and why the Khmer Rouge were "sui generis," even among history's worst regimesLife under Pol Pot: "to keep you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss" — and a regime so absolute it abolished money itself, something not even Stalin or Mao attemptedWhy the Khmer Rouge's brand of communism was so viciously effective and yet, within four years, collapsed like "a house of cards" — at a cost of two million livesDouglas Latchford's arrival in 1950s Bangkok, the CIA-adjacent expat demimonde built around Cold War espionage, and his mentor Jim Thompson — the "Thai Silk King" who vanished without a trace on a walk in Malaysia in 1967The Khmer Empire itself: Angkor at its 12th–13th century peak housing something like 750,000 people against London's 30,000–40,000 — and how little historical record survives because looters don't take notesToek Tik — "Lion" — the Khmer Rouge child soldier turned reluctant executioner turned escapee turned the most prolific looter in Cambodia, and how Brad Gordon spent over a decade coaxing his memories into evidence that kept matching the groundHow Latchford faked provenance — a forged letter from "Ian Donaldson," a man who conveniently died in 2001 but kept "signing" documents into the 2010s — and why almost nobody who saw the paperwork actually believed itWhy Americans developed a taste for Southeast Asian art in the 1960s (the Beatles and the Maharishi, the Hare Krishna movement founded on the Lower East Side) and how that fed straight into 1980s Wall Street fortunesThomas Hoving, the Met director who invented the blockbuster exhibition and corporate sponsorship as we know them — and the Met's refusal to sit for an interview or meaningfully engage with the bookTracing the loot today — an anonymous Architectural Digest spread, and how Jeffrey Epstein's email archive surfaced financier Leon Black's roughly $30 million in Cambodian purchasesArt as a money-laundering vehicle: Latchford's Jersey trusts, the push to finally bring art dealers under the Bank Secrecy Act, and Oliver Bullough's estimate that up to 70% of the secondhand watch trade may be laundering in disguiseWhether large-scale looting still happens — Cambodia's temples are effectively "cleaned out," but Sudan's National Museum lost more than 60% of its collection when the RSF took Khartoum in 2023Closing questions: which empty ancient civilisation he'd walk through if he could (Cambodia, then Mexico) — and the role serendipity has played in every story he's ever chasedCurious Worldview (catalogue connections to this ep)The blurbs made flesh — Matt name-checks both journalists who blurbed his book in conversation: Oliver Bullough, on his new book Everybody Loves Our Dollars and the eye-watering share of the secondhand watch and handbag trade that's really laundering, and Zeke Faux, whose Number Go Up mapped the same "value is whatever somebody says it is" logic onto crypto.The most important crime in the world — Matt's line that no significant criminal enterprise works without laundering its proceeds sits right alongside Nathan Lynch on why Australia became a laundering haven almost by accident.The exploited periphery — the scam compounds in Cambodia and Myanmar that come up near the end are Matt Friedman's exact territory, and Toek Tik — paid a pittance to dig up gods worth millions abroad — is a museum-world version of the same economy.The lone crusader — Brad Gordon spending over a decade, likely the rest of his life, chasing looted statues with no real system built to do it, echoes Bill Browder turning Sergei Magnitsky's death into a one-man campaign.Timestamps... 00:00 — Intro 02:04 — How the story found him 04:42 — Could this book push other nations to take looting seriously? 07:21 — Nazi-looted art as the closest analogue; why the Khmer Rouge were unique 08:45 — "To keep you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss" 13:29 — Latchford's Bangkok arrival and Jim Thompson's 1967 disappearance 17:45 — The Khmer Empire at its peak 24:58 — Toek Tik's story 29:47 — Faking provenance: the dead man's letter 34:20 — Why Americans fell for Southeast Asian art in the 60s 35:49 — Thomas Hoving's Met, and its refusal to engage 41:37 — Tracing the loot: the magazine spread and the Epstein archive 43:13 — Art as money laundering 47:18 — Does the looting continue? 49:45 — Closing questions

Episode #613: Mike is a lifelong martial artist who came to Myanmar through martial arts training rather than faith, and yet found himself pulled into a Burmese esoteric world he had not been looking for. The line he returns to as both method and warning is simple: “See things as they are, not as they appear.” He began formal training in the late 1950s, moving through Japanese systems before encountering Burmese martial arts in the United States decades later. What held him was not spectacle but a demanding structure, built around principles, weapons work, conditioning, and long timelines for advancement. That discipline set the conditions for everything that followed. When he first traveled to Mogok in the mid-1990s, it was not as a spiritual seeker. He describes himself as not religious, and skeptical of claims that could not be tested. In Mogok, he watched demonstrations that crossed into trance and invulnerability, where practitioners endured blades, flame, and boiling water while in altered states. The moment that stayed with him was not the performance but the logic offered afterward: when trance breaks, the protection leaves. Soon he was questioned about his conduct and invited into initiation rites that tied martial discipline to mental training and vows. The five precepts were treated as a foundational requirement, with specific restrictions on alcohol, drugs, and even meat on the grounds that “wild minds,” when ingested, carried effects into samathā practice. Back in the United States, the initiation continued working on him, pushing him toward teachers across traditions and into a daily meditation routine he continues to this day, while also deepening a conviction—first raised by teachers in Mogok and later affirmed in other encounters—that he had been Ta'ang in a past life. That same insistence on unsentimental perception shapes his political reading of Myanmar's war. Mike rejects neat models that ignore fragmentation and uneven power, and he argues that durable outcomes depend on leverage and enforcement, not slogans. In both arenas, he is arguing for the same discipline: train the mind to stop seeing what it wants to see, or it will keep repeating the same decisions.

Listen to current week's news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule of around 10 to 15 minutes.This week: Sri Lankan families welcome Easter attack verdicts, South Korean bishops demand an end to capital punishment, and Indonesian farmers celebrate a landmark agrarian reform law backed by the Church. Tune in and subscribe free to listen.Filed by UCA News reporters, presented by Joe Mathews, Cover photo by AFP, background score by Andre Louis, edited and produced by Binu Alex for Union of Catholic Asian News. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn X Follow Or connect through DM at : x.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews For Commentaries about Global Church, visit www.globalcatholic.com

The civil war in Myanmar is Asia's deadliest ongoing conflict – yet despite violence which has killed more than 100,000 people it rarely dominates international headlines. In today's episode Oz Katerji talks to Matthew Campbell, reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek, about the drivers of this complex, factionalised war, the battle for the country's rare natural resources, and the reaction of the international community. Read Matthew Campbell's Bloomberg article  ‘The War the World Forgot' here. • Find out if you're owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/drill • Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/drill • Support us on Patreon to keep This Is Not A Drill producing thought-provoking podcasts like this. Written and presented by Oz Katerji. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode #612: “You do create a dependency. You create a long-term relationship that also you can leverage into political influence as well.” Ian Storey, a principal fellow at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, sees that dependency as the thread connecting Russia's military, energy, diplomatic and nuclear ties with Myanmar. The relationship is economically small, but it gives Moscow influence in precisely the sectors the military government has needed most since the 2021 coup. Myanmar began turning toward Russian weapons in the early 2000s after years of heavy dependence on China. Russian fighter aircraft, helicopters and training later became embedded in the military's capabilities, creating continuing requirements for spare parts, maintenance, munitions and technical expertise. Since the coup, Russia has also supplied oil and refined products, including aviation fuel, while the two governments developed ruble-kyat payment arrangements and other ways to conduct trade under sanctions. The political exchange is equally transactional. Myanmar's military government endorsed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while Moscow has provided diplomatic recognition and continued military support. Yet Russia will not sacrifice its wider ASEAN interests for Myanmar, and Storey stresses that the country remains a relatively minor Russian market. Nuclear cooperation could make the relationship much harder to unwind. After more than two decades of discussions and training, Russia has agreed to provide Myanmar with a small modular reactor, although construction has not begun. If built, the plant would tie Myanmar to Russian financing, operation, fuel and technical services for decades. Storey doubts Moscow would commit major resources to rescue the military if it faced collapse. Russia remains a secondary power in Southeast Asia, pursuing narrow advantages in arms, energy and nuclear technology. For now, however, those narrow advantages align closely with the military regime's needs, leaving Myanmar exposed to a partnership that can be deeply consequential without ever becoming deeply committed.

Welcome back to Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu! In today's episode, Tom and Drew dive into some of the most heated and pressing issues dividing America and the world right now. They unpack a shocking new poll revealing just how deep political divisions have become, with alarmingly high numbers of Democrats openly supporting extreme measures against Trump. Tom dissects the real-world consequences of military coups, using chilling examples from Myanmar, Egypt, and Chile to illustrate what happens when civil discourse collapses.The conversation then shifts to a fiery recap of the recent UN General Assembly, where Trump threatened Iran in a tense speech that left global leaders reeling. Tom breaks down the ongoing power dynamics in the Middle East, the dangers of nuclear proliferation, and the potential outcomes if Iran succeeds in developing nuclear weapons.The episode also explores the explosive growth and controversy surrounding AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, with Tom and Drew analyzing the legal, ethical, and regulatory challenges facing the industry. Plus, we look at fascinating shifts in the gaming industry, heated debates around streamer scandals, and the disturbing rise of euthanasia in Canada, raising critical questions about culture, healthcare, and personal freedom.Strap in—this episode is a whirlwind tour through the world's most polarizing debates, all filtered through Tom's signature lens of historical context, rational analysis, and bold speculation about what's next.What's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here:Want my help starting a business? Join me here inside Zero To FounderSign up for my AI Masterclass: AI MasterclassFollow Me:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=enTwitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeuThank you to our Sponsors: Tailor Brands: Check out Tailor Brands to get started with your business today: https://bit.ly/TailorBrandsSeptQuince: Free shipping and 365-day returns at https://quince.com/impactpodElevenLabs: Book your demo at https://elevenlabs.io/impactpodCash App: Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/v6nymgjl #CashAppPod*Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Cash App Green features, Savings, Direct deposit, Round ups, Overdraft coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosure.Ketone IQ: Visit https://ketone.com/IMPACT for 30% OFF your subscription order.ATT Business: Switch to AT&T Business at https://business.att.comIncogni: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code IMPACT at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/impact Quo: ​​Try for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months at https://quo.com/impactPipedrive: Get more leads and grow your business. Go to https://www.pipedrive.com/impact and get started with a 30-day free trial.Netsuite: For the first time ever you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://NetSuite.ai/Theory.Butcherbox: Go to https://ButcherBox.com/IMPACT to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping alwaysSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In Southeast Asia, hundreds of thousands of people working in fraud centres are scamming people across the world. US authorities suggest the fraudsters are responsible for scams worth almost $10 billion a year against US nationals alone. Victims in Europe, the UK and China have also been targeted. Human rights groups further warn that those working in the centres are often themselves victims of human trafficking – forced to work as slaves.

It's Tuesday, September 22nd, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson and Timothy Reed Myanmar military killed third pastor The Myanmar military junta has killed a third pastor, reports International Christian Concern. Pastor Tuang was returning to Lamzang after conducting religious activities in a nearby village. Bullets reportedly struck his chest, abdomen, and thigh. This appears to be the continuation of targeted attacks on Baptist pastors in the Chin State. Since the 2021 coup, the military has damaged or destroyed 340 churches and buildings owned by Christians. Send a polite, 4-sentence note to the Myanmar Ambassador to America, Kyaw Moe Tun, and ask him to urge the military leaders to stop killing and persecuting the Christians.  Send it to 2300 S St NW, Washington, DC 20008. To get the correct spelling of the ambassador's name and the address, visit our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com. Ukraine knocked out 30% of Russia's oil refining industry Ukraine is crippling Russia's oil industry in a more recent series of drone attacks in the ongoing war.  Another oil-refinery was hit over the weekend.  The International Energy Association estimates that 30% of Russia's oil refining industry has been knocked out in recent attacks. America punishes countries who purchase Russian oil President Donald Trump signed the Lindsay Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 which Congress recently passed. The bill authorizes up to 100% tariffs on U.S. imports from countries purchasing Russian oil and gas.  Specifically, China and India are the major buyers of Russian oil.  Oil and gas make up about one-eighth of the Russian economy, and contribute one-quarter of the federal revenues for the country. Not surprisingly, the Russian Gross Domestic Product has been hit badly in 2025 and 2026 — with a 0.5% GDP growth expected this year, down from 4.5% in previous years. Putin's party won election after banning anti-war party The preliminary results of the Russian parliamentary elections held over the weekend are in. No surprise here. Vladimir Putin's party received 57% of the vote. That's up from 50% in 2021. That comes after the anti-war party was banned from the election, and anti-Kremlin figures were imprisoned, exiled, barred, or otherwise disappeared. All the remaining major parties broadly support Putin's government and the war. Condo prices are falling Condo prices have been dropping steadily in U.S. major markets since real estate peaked in 2022.  Adjusted for inflation, Florida and California cities have seen a 30-42% drop in condo prices since 2022. Denver, Colorado condo prices have dipped 28%. U.S. deficit hit $2 trillion The U.S. federal deficit year to date hit $2 trillion at the end of August. The Congressional Budget Office is estimating a $2.1 trillion deficit for the year. That would amount to an 18% bump on the deficit over last fiscal year, and a 34% increase in deficit spending over President Biden's first year. Right now, according to the U.S. Debt Clock, America is burdened with a staggering $40 trillion debt. Meryl Streep will portray Aslan in new Narnia movie Now, Narnia is going woke. Turns out, the latest movie production of C.S. Lewis' Narnia tale, Magician's Nephew, will feature Aslan, the character who portrays Christ, as a female voice. Actress Meryl Streep is Aslan this time around, and Christians are not happy. Commentator Isabel Brown called this “a slap in the face to the genius of Lewis, but also a deliberate mockery of Christianity that is 100% intentional. So deeply disappointing.” Another online comment noted, “Had they actually read Narnia, and The Last Battle specifically, they would know that dressing [a donkey] up in a lion skinsuit does not end well. The director for this latest Narnia film, Greta Gerwig, is best known for directing the Barbie movie — an explicit diatribe on feminism. Let's keep in mind Galatians 6:7. It says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Supreme Court rejected Trump's mail-in ballot accountability The Trump administration continues to battle with the Supreme Court over mail-in ballots, as the high court rejected Trump's executive order that would have added verification codes to ballots received through the mail. The President responded on Truth Social. He wrote, “Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the Court System took forever to give, and then blamed it, in part, on no time left to implement a solution to our totally CORRUPT and out of control Mail-In voting ‘disaster,' which is a laughing stock all over the World.” And now, the FBI  is assigning “election crisis coordinators” for all 56 field offices,” according to FBI Director Kash Patel.   New York Times poll puts Democrats 8 points ahead of Republicans Speaking of the November 3rd election, early voting has already begun in certain states across America.  The midterm elections will determine the balance of the U.S. House and Senate, both of which currently enjoy a Republican majority. A New York Times/Siena poll, conducted between September 8th-13th, puts Democrats eight points ahead of Republicans. Several Senate races have become especially tight and remain in the spotlight, with conservatives seeking to keep Texas red and supporting Republican Ken Paxton over Democrat James Talarico.  Democrats are also looking at flipping a Senate seat in Maine.  Anniversary of Martin Luther's translation of German New Testament And finally, yesterday marked the 504th anniversary of the first printing of Martin Luther's translation of the German New Testament. That's right, back in 1522, Luther finished one of his most precious life works.  Referencing this monumental feat, church historian Philip Schaff wrote, “The most important and useful work of [Luther's] whole life, is the translation of the New Testament, by which he brought the teaching and example of Christ and the Apostles to the mind and heart of the Germans in life-like reproduction. It was a republication of the Gospel. He made the Bible the people's book in church, school, and house.”  In Luke 4:4, Jesus told the Devil, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' ” Close And that's The Worldview on this Tuesday, September 22nd, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Episode #611: “I always want to be free.” Lienchi Tran, a Vietnamese American meditation teacher, first learned what unfreedom meant in postwar Vietnam. After South Vietnam fell in 1975, her father was sent to a reeducation camp, the family was expelled from Saigon, and the children were scattered among relatives. At night, Tran tied a rubber band around her fingers to keep herself awake while reciting the Buddha's name and praying for her father's safety and eventual return. Raised in Mahāyāna Buddhism and shaped by the writings of Thích Nhất Hạnh, she began meditating seriously as a teenager. Yet an image of a Theravāda monk, seen just before her family emigrated in 1990, opened another direction. In California she found Bhante Khippañño, trained in Mahāsi practice, ordained as a nun, and traveled to Myanmar for an intensive forest retreat under Sayadaw U Paṇḍita. Myanmar felt like a second home, but the freedom she sought did not finally lie in austerity or ordination. Under Sayadaw U Tejaniya, Tran found a practice built around awareness and wisdom rather than a fixed formula. Eating, engaging in her householder task as an architect, feeling anger, and caring for family could all become part of the same investigation. The task was neither to suppress difficult states nor to make them disappear, but to know what was present and strengthen a different momentum from greed, aversion, and delusion. She applies the same approach to dāna, which she defines as a kind of letting go, and to sīla, which she notes is an examination of the mind before speech or action. Now a teacher herself, Tran no longer considers robes the measure of seriousness. She remains in the United States to care for her mother, while imagining a return to Myanmar and long practice near Sayadaw U Tejaniya when that responsibility ends. The monastery still attracts her, but not because a nun's clothing can confer freedom. Practice must proceed through the mind and conditions she actually has, including the attachment she can admit without disguise: the bed at home is still more comfortable than the one at the center.

VOV1 - Diễn tập Trident Resolve 2026 diễn ra tại Banten, Indonesia từ ngày 21 đến 25/9, với sự tham gia của 19 quốc gia. Đoàn Việt Nam tham dự không chỉ thể hiện trách nhiệm thành viên trong các cơ chế quốc phòng khu vực, mà còn tạo điều kiện kiểm chứng năng lực triển khai ở môi trường đa quốc gia.Được tổ chức trong khuôn khổ Hội nghị Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng các nước ASEAN mở rộng (ADMM-Plus), cuộc diễn tập là dịp chia sẻ kinh nghiệm và các thực tiễn tốt nhất trong công tác ứng phó, thực hiện hoạt động hỗ trợ nhân đạo và cứu trợ thảm họa (HADR). Đây là lần đầu tiên 3 Nhóm chuyên gia ADMM-Plus về cứu trợ thảm họa, quân y và an ninh mạng được tích hợp trong một cuộc diễn tập thực địa, đánh dấu bước phát triển mới trong hợp tác quốc phòng đa phương nhằm ứng phó các thách thức an ninh phi truyền thống.Phát biểu khai mạc, Tổng Thanh tra Bộ Quốc phòng Indonesia, Trung tướng Rui F.G.P. Duarte nhấn mạnh, thiên tai không dừng ở biên giới mà tác động tới cộng đồng, y tế, thông tin liên lạc và hạ tầng thiết yếu. Việc kết hợp diễn tập chỉ huy với thực binh trong 3 lĩnh vực giúp các nước tăng khả năng phối hợp, xây dựng lòng tin và củng cố tình hữu nghị. Thiếu tướng Darwin Cox, Tư lệnh Bộ chỉ huy Quân y số 18 thuộc Lục quân Hoa Kỳ tại Thái Bình Dương, đánh giá đây là cuộc diễn tập mang tính lịch sử, xây dựng năng lực cho các nước vượt qua bất kỳ cuộc khủng hoảng nào trên khu vực Thái Bình Dương.  “Câu chuyện của thế kỷ 21 đang được viết nên ngay tại Thái Bình Dương này. Đông Nam Á là động lực tăng trưởng toàn cầu, một động lực được tiếp sức bởi tự do hàng hải và sự tôn trọng cơ bản đối với chủ quyền. Hoa Kỳ cam kết vững chắc với những nguyên tắc đó. Và khi chúng ta hướng tới kỷ niệm 50 năm quan hệ đối thoại Mỹ - ASEAN vào năm tới, chúng tôi tái khẳng định sự ủng hộ không lay chuyển đối với vai trò trung tâm của ASEAN”.  Đoàn Quân đội nhân dân Việt Nam gồm 18 thành viên, do Đại tá Đoàn Văn Thận, Cục Cứu hộ - Cứu nạn, làm trưởng đoàn. Đối với Việt Nam, sự tham gia chủ động không chỉ góp phần thực hiện trách nhiệm thành viên trong các cơ chế quốc phòng khu vực, mà còn tạo điều kiện kiểm chứng năng lực triển khai ở môi trường đa quốc gia. Những kinh nghiệm trong tổ chức chỉ huy, chia sẻ dữ liệu, bảo đảm quân y và phối hợp cứu nạn có thể phục vụ trực tiếp cho công tác phòng, chống thiên tai trong nước, đồng thời nâng cao vị thế và khả năng đóng góp của Việt Nam vào các hoạt động nhân đạo quốc tế. Đại tá Đoàn Văn Thận cho biết: "Quân đội nhân dân Việt Nam tham gia đầy đủ 3 nội dung quân y, tìm kiếm cứu nạn và an ninh mạng. Thành viên đoàn được lựa chọn từ lực lượng từng thực hiện nhiệm vụ cứu hộ ở Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ, Myanmar, Venezuela và làm việc tại bệnh viện dã chiến ở Nam Sudan.  Mục tiêu của đoàn là trao đổi kinh nghiệm, học hỏi các nước ASEAN và đối tác, qua đó tiếp tục hoàn thiện phương án, nâng cao khả năng sẵn sàng cho những nhiệm vụ cứu hộ, cứu nạn quốc tế trong tương lai."Diễn tập Trident Resolve 2026 quy tụ các nước ASEAN cùng 8 đối tác đối thoại gồm Mỹ, Australia, Trung Quốc, Nga, Nhật Bản, Hàn Quốc, Ấn Độ và New Zealand. Cuộc diễn tập phản ánh xu hướng chuyển từ đối thoại sang hợp tác thực hành trong khuôn khổ ADMM-Plus. Việc tích hợp cứu trợ thảm họa, quân y và an ninh mạng phù hợp với tính chất liên ngành của các cuộc khủng hoảng hiện nay, đồng thời giúp kiểm nghiệm khả năng tương tác giữa các lực lượng có quy trình, trang thiết bị và kinh nghiệm khác nhau. Cuộc diễn tập cũng tiếp tục khẳng định vai trò trung tâm của ASEAN trong kết nối các đối tác, xây dựng lòng tin và thúc đẩy năng lực ứng phó chung của khu vực./.Phạm Hà- Tuấn Dũng/ VOV IndonexiaKhai mạc Diễn tập Trident Resolve 2026 diễn ra tại Banten, Indonesia (Ảnh - VOV Jakarta)

VOV1 - Công tác tìm kiếm và cứu nạn đang được triển khai khẩn cấp sau khi một tàu cá chở khoảng 22 thuyền viên, chủ yếu là người Myanmar, bị sóng lớn đánh chìm trên vùng biển động ngoài khơi bờ biển phía đông Thái Lan, cách tỉnh Chonburi khoảng 4 giờ di chuyển.Sau khi tàu S. Kanchana Waree 888 bị sóng lớn đánh chìm trong đêm 21/9 do ảnh hưởng của bão tại khu vực eo biển Samae San, huyện Sattahip, tỉnh Chonburi, lực lượng cứu hộ đã đưa được 15 người lên bờ an toàn, xác nhận 3 người thiệt mạng, trong khi 4 người khác hiện vẫn mất tích.Theo thông tin ban đầu, sự cố xảy ra lúc 22:00 ngày 21/9 do ảnh hưởng của bão và biển động dữ dội. Vị trí tàu chìm nằm giữa vịnh Samae San và bờ biển tỉnh Prachuap Khiri Khan, cách bờ khoảng 4–5 giờ đi tàu. Sau khi nhận được tín hiệu báo nạn vào sáng 22/9, lực lượng tuần tra Samae San cùng các tàu cá khác đã khẩn trương tiếp cận hiện trường để phối hợp tìm kiếm.Trong số các nạn nhân, thuyền trưởng được phát hiện mắc kẹt bên trong xác tàu chìm nhưng chưa thể đưa ra ngoài. Các cơ quan chức năng đang tiến hành xác minh danh tính và thống kê chính thức số người sống sót cũng như mất tích.Do khu vực xảy ra tai nạn nằm ở vùng giáp ranh giữa các vùng biển, các đơn vị chức năng đang xác định thẩm quyền xử lý. Hải quân Hoàng gia Thái Lan cùng các cơ quan liên quan đã được đề nghị chi viện tối đa lực lượng cho chiến dịch cứu hộ.Chiến dịch tìm kiếm vẫn đang diễn ra trong điều kiện thời tiết phức tạp, biển động mạnh, gây nhiều khó khăn cho lực lượng cứu hộ. Cục Khí tượng Thái Lan (TMD) cảnh báo điều kiện biển sẽ tiếp tục diễn biến xấu trong những ngày tới. Từ ngày 23 đến 27/9, khu vực phía trên vịnh Thái Lan có gió mạnh hơn, sóng cao khoảng 2–3 mét và có thể vượt 3 mét tại các khu vực có dông. TMD khuyến cáo tàu thuyền nhỏ neo đậu tại bờ trong khi các tàu đang hoạt động trên biển cần đặc biệt thận trọng, tránh những khu vực có dông.Riêng hôm nay (22/9), vùng biển phía Đông Thái Lan dự báo có gió biến đổi với tốc độ 15–35 km/giờ, sóng cao có thể vượt 2 mét trong các cơn dông. Đây là những điều kiện thời tiết bất lợi, tiếp tục gây khó khăn cho công tác tìm kiếm, cứu nạn./.VOV Thái LanTư lệnh Hải quân Vùng 1 Thái Lan đã triển khai tàu tuần tra Tor.112, một trực thăng chống ngầm và lực lượng thợ lặn hải quân tới khu vực xảy ra tai nạn để hỗ trợ tìm kiếm, cứu nạn. Ảnh: Tư lệnh Hải quân Vùng 1 Thái Lan.

Episode #610: “I can't leave anymore, because if I were to leave now, I would like never be able to live the same way, because of the comrades who have fallen and the comrades that are still with me… I would not be able to have that guilt with me.” Dr. Sunshine— a pseudonym that reflects both his warmth and resilience— is a Burmese physician whose life has become deeply intertwined with Myanmar's modern struggle for freedom and survival. After the coup, he learned tactical combat medicine to help protesters under fire. Soon he was teaching others—first small groups, then resistance fighters and medics hiding in the jungle. “I'll shoot him in the hand,” he tells trainees in role-playing sessions. “He will have three minutes until he bleeds out. What are you going to do?” After fleeing to Thailand, Dr. Sunshine continued traveling through border regions, training men and women from every ethnicity and faith. “We have Muslim soldiers,” he says. “Even during Ramadan, [the non-Muslim PDFs] respect the prayer times and fasting.” He beams when describing this unity: “It's incredible how everyone comes together inside, even [towards] women and LGBT—they all treat them equally.” Dr. Sunshine also helps run secret jungle clinics that treat hundreds of displaced people and fighters. “All we're doing is trying to extend the life of a patient that comes in until they get to a hospital or clinic that can help treat them,” he explains. Supplies are scarce—“I was at one PDF base,” he adds, “they have like four or five hundred soldiers there, and only two tourniquets!” He admits the toll is immense. “Every time I go in for a training, when I come back, I'll cry like a baby in my room.” Yet his message remains simple and resolute: “Don't give up on us. Even just words of support mean everything.”

In episode 2128, Jack and Miles are joined by journalist, host of Natural Causes, co-host of It Could Happen Here, and author of Against the State: Anarchists and Comrades at War in Spain, Myanmar, and Rojava, Dr. James Stout, to discuss… Antichrist Continues To Give Lectures Warning People About Himself…, Speaking of Weird Culty Sh*t, Resident Evil Is Officially The Best-Reviewed Video Game Movie Ever, Could Paramount Turn Texas Into The New Hollywood? And more! Why Is a Man Unsure About Humanity’s Worth Helping Design Its Digital Future? Tech billionaire Peter Thiel bringing Antichrist lectures to Nashville Rotten Tomatoes: Resident Evil ‘Resident Evil’ Sets A Huge Rotten Tomatoes Review Score Record Video Game Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer ‘Resident Evil’ Breaks Rotten Tomatoes Record With First Critic Reviews Paramount Sets California Exit Plans Over Antitrust Battle With Blue States & Stymied $111B WBD Merger Texas Courts David Ellison as the Paramount Relocation Race Heats Up Is Dan Patrick trying to make Texas a 'conservative Hollywood'? True To Texas - Let's Bring Productions Home Why are A-list Hollywood stars trying to lure film productions to Texas? Texas Senate approves $500 million infusion for film incentives Texas is poised to become a film haven — but not without a fight EXCLUSIVE: ‘Machete’s’ Danny Trejo Knocks Texas Film Commission Funding Decision Rick Perry despises Machete? Anti-immigration nuts prompted pulling of movie tax credits, lawsuit alleges Texas Wants to Become Hollywood (Without All That Liberal Hollywood Crap) LISTEN: The Wolf by half•aliveSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode #609: Jostein Kobbeltvedt, director of the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights in Bergen, Norway, reflects on how the 1990 Rafto Prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi helped bring Myanmar's democracy struggle to international attention and how the global narrative surrounding her later collided with the realities of governing. The Rafto Foundation was created to recognize human rights defenders while their struggles are still unfolding. Early laureates were dissidents from Eastern Europe, and the committee's decision to recognize Suu Kyi marked an expansion of the prize's focus beyond that region. At the time of the award, Suu Kyi was under house arrest and largely unknown outside Myanmar. Her name came to the committee's attention through a brief newspaper mention, yet the prize helped introduce her story to wider audiences. International recognition soon followed, including the Nobel Peace Prize. The Rafto Foundation maintained long-term contact with Suu Kyi and her family during her detention, and in 2013 she traveled to Bergen to formally receive the prize. But the narrative surrounding Suu Kyi shifted dramatically after she entered government following Myanmar's 2015 elections. As State Counsellor, she confronted political constraints that differed from those she faced as an opposition leader. Violence against Rohingya communities beginning in 2016, and her response to the crisis shocked many international supporters who had viewed her as a democratic icon. The experience highlights the complexities of democratic transitions and the enduring influence of military power within Myanmar's political system. It also illustrates how international advocacy, economic engagement, and diplomacy have shaped Norway's evolving relationship with Myanmar. Despite continuing setbacks, Kobbeltvedt emphasizes that Myanmar's citizens remain committed to pursuing democracy, and their struggle continues to draw international solidarity.

Die Staatssekretärin des Seco, Helene Budliger Artieda, gab am Mittwoch ihren Rücktritt bekannt. Sie wurde durch ihre Zollverhandlungen mit den USA öffentlich wahrgenommen. Mit ihren unkonventionellen Methoden erreichte sie viele Ziele, eckte aber auch an, sagt SRF-Wirtschaftsredaktor Damian Rast. Weitere Themen: · Das Heizöl ist so teuer wie seit 4 Jahren nicht mehr. Obwohl Herbst und Winter näherkommen, warten die Kundinnen und Kunden noch damit, neues Heizöl zu bestellen. Dies obwohl der Ölpreis wegen des Konflikts um den Iran weiter steigt. Die Margen dagegen würden sinken, sagt Andreas Flütsch, Chef von Migrol. · Das Ozonloch über der Antarktis ist zum zweiten Mal in Folge kleiner geworden. Dies ist das Resultat einer einzigartigen internationalen Zusammenarbeit, sagt SRF-Wissenschaftsredaktorin Irène Dietschi. · Die norwegische Telekomfirma Telenor ist in Myanmar weit verbreitet. Nun ermitteln die norwegischen Behörden aber gegen die Firma - wegen Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit. Telenor soll Kundendaten an die Militärmachthaber weitergegeben haben, sagt Nordeuropa-Korrespondent Bruno Kaufmann. · Die nigerianische Raffinerie "Dangote" geht an die Börse und könnte mit 49 Milliarden Dollar bewertet werden. Der Afrika-Korrespondent der NZZ, Samuel Misteli sagt, es dürfte der grösste Börsengang in Afrikas Geschichte werden.

This week I sat down with Gloria Xiong, Assistant Professor of Government at Colby College, and Jessica Chen Weiss, the David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS, to discuss their new Foreign Affairs essay, "How China Found Its Most Potent Weapon: The Real History of Beijing's Rare Earth Dominance." The story everyone tells is one of foresight — a master plan hatched by Deng Xiaoping and now coming to fruition. Gloria and Jessica argue the reality was far messier: reform-era export mania, environmental catastrophe, defiant local governments, scarcity anxiety, and a lesson in chokepoint weaponization that Beijing learned from Washington. Getting the story wrong, they argue, feeds an action-reaction spiral that neither side started and neither fully controls — and with the Busan truce expiring in November, the stakes could hardly be higher.09:31 — "The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths": what Deng Xiaoping actually said, and how a quote got recruited for a story he wasn't telling12:33 — Why the master plan narrative is so irresistible across the partisan spectrum in Washington15:40 — The cheap and dirty origins: reform-era export mania, thousands of small mines, and rare earths sold "at the price of cabbage and dirt"19:06 — The West as co-author of the chokepoint: offshoring the pollution, and the stockpile that was never built21:53 — Beijing's struggle to control its own industry: quotas, "crime rings," and the partially failed 2002 consolidation25:13 — September 2010: what really happened with the "embargo" against Japan, and why Beijing may have learned about it from Japanese customs28:47 — Fans and fire hoses: how bottom-up nationalism can commit Beijing to coercive postures it didn't choose32:13 — The debate inside China after 2010: protectionists versus Hong Feng's warning against using rare earths as "political chips"35:44 — The 2015 WTO ruling: China complied — was it a rule-taker, or did it simply lack the tools to do anything else?38:06 — Learning from Washington: Huawei, the Export Control Law, the China Rare Earth Group, and what distinguishes learning from planning40:24 — The 2022–2024 ledger: what's the evidence for an action-reaction spiral beyond the timeline?44:25 — April 2025: coercion or bureaucratic pileup? Thirty licensing officials and a 74% collapse in magnet exports47:46 — October 2025: the extraterritorial rule that mirrored the Foreign Direct Product Rule, and the Busan truce52:32 — The countdown to November: hawks in both capitals, "mutually assured disruption," and Xi's coming state visit55:29 — The limits of leverage on both sides: yttrium, Japan's diversification, and China's own resource insecurity58:32 — From crime rings to two national champions: has the Wild West been tamed, and are central-local relations "fractured"?01:02:21 — Prescriptions: positive reciprocity, licensing Chinese technology, and managing interdependence rather than escaping it01:05:51 — Everyone else: Myanmar, Congo, Australia, and how Beijing thinks about third countries that don't want to choosePaying It ForwardGloria name-checked Wendy Leutert of Indiana University, who works on the reform and global expansion of China's state-owned enterprises and, with Isaac Kardon, on Chinese investment in global ports; Ning Leng of Georgetown University, author of the award-winning Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party State in China; and Ketian Zhang, who has written extensively on Chinese coercion and maritime disputes.Jessica first acknowledged the scholars whose research the essay drew on but couldn't cite in Foreign Affairs: Cory Combs of Trivium China, Arthur Kroeber, Henry Farrell, Duleep Singh, and Julie Klinger. She also flagged Jack Zhang, who runs the Trade War Lab at the University of Kansas, and Kyle Jaros and Sara Newland, who are writing a book on subnational economic statecraft — work that has shaped her thinking on disaggregating what the United States wants, not just what China wants.RecommendationsGloria: Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker Palmer — a book she first read in a college writing seminar and returned to as she heads back into the classroom.Jessica: The Scientist and the Spy by Mara Hvistendahl, which she uses to close her SAIS seminar on Chinese foreign policy as a reminder about proportionality; and Ann Patchett's new novel Whistler.Kaiser: Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose, the 1972 Pulitzer winner — a novel about mining camps in the American West and one of the most fully realized characters in American fiction.Also mentioned: Jessica's recent interview with Daniel Kurtz-Phelan on The Foreign Affairs Interview podcast, and her interview in The Monitor, the newsletter of the Carter Center's U.S.-China Perception Monitor.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week's episode features Critical Risk Team partner George McLeod in conversation with host Adrian Pocobelli on recent developments in Africa's Sahel region and in Myanmar. McLeod discusses the unexpected players he sees operating in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, and how shifting geopolitical dynamics are affecting mining companies across the region. He also examines the complex situation in Myanmar, a major producer of heavy rare earths, as well as questions surrounding the evolving relationship between India and China in the rare earths sector. All this and more with host Adrian Pocobelli. This week's Spotlight features Kai Hoffmann, CEO of Soar Financial Group and organizer of the Deutsche Goldmesse conference, taking place Nov. 13–14 in Frankfurt, Germany. To learn more about the conference, visit: https://deutschegoldmesse.online/ “Rattlesnake Railroad”, “Big Western Sky”, “Western Adventure” and “Battle on the Western Frontier” by Brett Van Donsel (⁠www.incompetech.com⁠). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License ⁠creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0⁠ Apple Podcasts:⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-northern-miner-podcast/id1099281201⁠ Spotify:⁠ https://open.spotify.com/show/78lyjMTRlRwZxQwz2fwQ4K⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernMiner⁠ Soundcloud:⁠ https://soundcloud.com/northern-miner

Episode #607: “I could not stay under a military rule that's been killing thousands of people,” Maple says. “I cannot just sit and watch.” When Myanmar's military seized power in February 2021, Maple was a scholarship student in South Korea studying Business Management and Entrepreneurship, already thinking about how she might one day redirect her education toward reforming the system she had grown up in. School, as she experienced it, had been shaped by hierarchy and competition rather than curiosity. Students were ranked into sections, with privileges reserved for the highest group. “The top students were in section A,” she recalls, describing how access to resources like the computer room followed those divisions. By fifth grade, monthly “talent” badges were awarded to the top ten students and publicly removed from anyone who fell behind. “It's not about learning,” she says. “It's all about memorizing everything and just taking the exams in the best way possible.” Maple's political awareness formed early. At eight years old, during the 2007 monk-led protests, she marched with her family and later watched video footage of crackdowns at home. “I saw the bodies and everything,” she remembers. By the time the coup trapped her in Myanmar during a visit from her Korean university during the pandemic, she initially believed international pressure might reverse it, studying United Nations statements closely before realizing those words offered no protection. Maple began fundraising for the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, offering scholarship consultations to students who could show donation receipts. The post spread; her bank account was frozen; soldiers arrived with a warrant under Section 505A. She spent eleven months in hiding while continuing her Korean coursework online, the isolation eroding her health and pushing her toward suicide until a drawing from her younger sister interrupted that spiral. After a failed attempt to cross into Thailand and a deportation, Maple eventually made it back across the border. In Mae Sot, she now works with displaced students navigating the legal and financial barriers that stand between them and formal education. Here she is continuing her life's work that started many years ago, yet under very different conditions. Myanmar students, she insists, are “smart, outstanding, and hardworking,” and resilient beyond their years. What they lack is not determination but access. “If you just give them a chance,” she promises, “they would do whatever it takes.”

Chín năm sau khi hơn 700.000 người Rohingya chạy khỏi Myanmar, nhiều người vẫn sống trong các trại tị nạn hoặc tình trạng pháp lý bấp bênh tại các quốc gia láng giềng. Trong lúc Malaysia dự trù đưa hơn 1.000 người trở về Myanmar, các nhà vận động nhân quyền cảnh báo rằng chiến tranh, đàn áp và nguy cơ cưỡng bách nhập ngũ khiến việc trở về vẫn chưa an toàn.#sbsaudiopodcastCảnh báo nội dung: Bài viết sau đây đề cập đến bạo lực và xâm hại tình dục, bao gồm các hành vi nhắm vào trẻ em.

Episode #606: Anusorn Tamajai's attempted intervention during Min Aung Hlaing's visit to Thailand began with an undelivered letter. Prevented from placing his proposals directly before Myanmar's military leader, the Thai member of parliament raised his voice instead. The act was spontaneous, but the reasoning behind it was not. “My intention was to demand for peace in Myanmar, and I would like to fight for humanity.” Anusorn favors a democratic federal future for Myanmar rooted in popular participation. Political activity and free expression must be restored, he argues, followed by a genuinely free election; if the military authorities cannot conduct one credibly, he believes an international body such as the United Nations should do so. His support for the Panglong tradition sits inside a wider principle: Myanmar's political order should be determined by its people rather than imposed by an authoritarian government. That principle also governs his view of Thailand. Thai investment that benefits the junta should carry conditions supporting greater freedom and openness, and economic relations should serve ordinary people in both countries rather than privileged corporate or political interests. Thailand should engage political forces beyond the military regime, while people arriving from Myanmar should be treated according to humanitarian obligations. Anusorn wants ASEAN to exert similar pressure, but he recognizes how slowly such mechanisms work. He does not answer that frustration by embracing political shortcuts, but instead advisesthat movements must be built over time, even when success may lie beyond a single lifetime. “You need to build up the movement. It's a long march.” His planned response is to keep organizing, including an ASEAN network supporting democracy, human rights, and peace in Myanmar. The urgency has not disappeared simply because the route is long: Myanmar's people, as he repeatedly insists, have already suffered for too long.

Nine years after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people fled Myanmar, the crisis has entered a dangerous new phase. As neighbouring countries push for their repatriation, UN experts are warning it isn't safe and their home country is in a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Female political prisoners in Myanmar suffer many difficulties while incarcerated, but being released also means facing new challenges, including readjusting to society, finding employment, and dealing with feelings of insecurity.

Episode #605: Note: this podcast episode, as well as the following text describing it, includes frank language about sexuality, male sex work, and self-harm. Reader and listener discretion is advised. The AAS Conference in Vancouver brought together thousands of scholars and practitioners working across Asia, creating a wide-ranging space for exchange, debate, and reflection. Within that broader setting, Burma emerged as one of several urgent areas of focus amid its ongoing crisis. Insight Myanmar Podcast was invited to record on site, setting up a small space to capture a series of short, real-time conversations with participants moving through the conference. These interviews were shaped by immediacy—thoughts shared in the moment, rather than after the fact—and are now being extended to a wider global audience. This episode is the final in a four-part series. Amnuaypond Kidpromma, a lecturer at Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Humanities, studies a rarely discussed dimension of Myanmar's post-coup displacement into Thailand — the rise of Myanmar male sex workers who enter the trade not as a planned profession but as an extension of migrant labor that no longer pays enough to survive. In her research, these men usually arrive from rural Myanmar as they flee conflict and conscription, and take whatever work they can find, often in construction or restaurants. When wages fail to cover daily life, visa costs, work permits, and remittances back home, sex work becomes another shift. What interests Kidpromma is not only the economic pressure but the language the men use to absorb it. “They just say, ‘I am a man who takes the job,'” she explains. The phrase turns sex work into temporary labor rather than a fixed identity, and links it to a masculine obligation to provide. That Burmese masculine frame shapes everything. Most of the men she interviewed entered the work still understanding themselves as straight, still calling themselves “real men,” and not speaking of the job in the same moral register that female sex workers often do. Where women in her earlier research described guilt, bad karma, religious striving, and the need to make merit, the men more often treated the work as harsh necessity. Many had once been ordained as novices or monks, and Kidpromma argues that they seem to feel they retain a kind of religious legitimacy even after entering the trade, while women work much harder to repair spiritual damage. The movement into sex work is often gradual. Friends introduce them. They begin by drinking with clients, then allowing touch, then accepting money that far exceeds anything available in ordinary migrant labor. One man told her that after being kissed and touched, he received 5,000 baht — “this is like the whole month I earned.” From there, the line moved quickly to sexual relations. Kidpromma does not present these men as symbols or moral lessons. She presents them as people cornered by a border economy that keeps widening after the coup. What she hears most often is not self-expression but sacrifice — the insistence that whatever is happening to them is being endured so that someone else might eat, study, or survive a little more safely.

**What if good design isn't just about what we create, but what we're willing to stand for?** George Aye, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Greater Good Studio, has built his career around that question. Born in Myanmar and raised in England, George grew up with a family story shaped by courage, injustice, and sacrifice. His father spent years in a Burmese prison after being identified as an agitator against the country's military regime. That experience became part of the moral compass George carried into his own life and, eventually, into his work as a designer. His path was anything but planned. George nearly missed college, discovered design through engineering and 3D modeling, and eventually made his way to Chicago and IDEO, where he spent seven formative years. But success brought bigger questions. Who does design really serve? Who holds the power? And what responsibility do designers have to the people who ultimately live with the consequences of what they create? Those questions led George and his wife, Sara Cantor, to found Greater Good Studio in 2011, built around a defining decision: they would work exclusively with organizations in the social sector. In this episode of *Design Of*, George and Justin Ahrens talk about design, ethics, power, purpose, and the courage to say no. George shares how his father shaped his worldview, what he learned at IDEO, why he and Sara chose a different model for their studio, and why meaningful work sometimes begins with deciding what you will no longer do. We also explore **Pissed-Off Optimism**, the idea behind Angry Hour and the Livid Conference. It's a belief that we can see what's broken, be angry about it, and still refuse to give up hope that things can be better. And George shares the thinking behind his newest keynote, *Designing a New Social Contract*, built around one powerful question: **“What do we expect of each other when we're in need?”** It opens a conversation about aging, dignity, responsibility, community, and the systems we've inherited. This is a conversation about the lens we bring to our work, and how that lens shapes what we choose to build. **In this episode:** * George's unlikely path into design * The influence of his father and family story * Seven formative years at IDEO * Building Greater Good Studio with Sara Cantor * Designing for people, not just clients * Why saying no matters * Pissed-Off Optimism, Angry Hour, and the Livid Conference * Design ethics, power, dignity, and social impact * *Designing a New Social Contract* George Aye is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Greater Good Studio, a Chicago-based design practice dedicated exclusively to the social sector. His work explores design, ethics, power, social impact, and the responsibility designers have to the people affected by what they create.

Episode #604: “I chose hip hop.” Born in Yangon in 1979 to parents who were nationally known singers, Anegga grew up in a household where art was both celebrated and watched. His father had helped introduce rock music to Myanmar during an earlier era of military control, and supporting opposition politics carried real risk. He remembers military visits to the family home at night and his mother having to hide because of her involvement with the NLD. Music, in other words, was never insulated from power. Hip hop entered his life through scarcity. Myanmar at the time was largely cut off from international media, English-language books, and commercial music distribution. He encountered rap through English-language radio broadcasts, especially VOA, and was drawn first to sound rather than meaning. He did not initially understand most of the lyrics he heard from artists like LL Cool J, Nas, or Biggie, but he studied cadence, breath control, rhyme structure, and delivery. Hip hop became a way of accessing a vocabulary of frustration that felt familiar even if the geography was different. He often explains that while Myanmar did not have American-style ghettos, it lived under a different form of systemic deprivation, one that shaped the whole country rather than particular neighborhoods. In 2000, he co-founded ACID and released what is considered to be Myanmar's first hip hop album. The impact was immediate among young people; at the same time, every release required navigating censorship committees, submitting written lyrics in advance, altering phrasing to avoid rejection, and sometimes facing arbitrary refusals from broadcast authorities even after formal approval. The system did not operate transparently; it operated through unpredictability. Although he has consistently argued that ACID did not begin as an explicitly political group, interpretation often exceeded intention. Songs meant as expressions of loyalty or social observation were read by audiences as indirect political commentary. That ambiguity narrowed after 2007, when the Saffron Revolution led to arrests of band members, including Zayar Thaw. Over time, Anegga moved from coded expression to open political engagement, releasing explicitly political songs, supporting the NLD, and distributing banned political literature discreetly among students. His political involvement was also shaped by family history and long-standing loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi. After the 2021 coup, the separation between music and politics disappeared entirely. Zayar Thaw, who had moved from hip hop into parliament, joined the resistance and was executed by the military in 2022, an act that underscored how thoroughly the country had reversed course. Anegga left Myanmar soon after and now lives in Thailand as an urban refugee, separated from his family and uncertain about permanent resettlement.

Travel journalist Kathryn Romeyn shares how to find Thailand off the beaten path—from Nan Province night markets to Khao Sok's rainforest—plus the best time to visit Thailand if you want fewer crowds and lower prices. This week on Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene explores Thailand off the beaten path with journalist Kathryn Romeyn, who's covered Southeast Asia since 2014 and calls Bali, Indonesia home. Kathryn returned to Thailand again and again since her first real trip in 2018, and wrote Afar's guide to seeing the country differently. In this episode, part of Unpacked's Off the Tourist Trail series, she and Aislyn dig into Bangkok's overlooked neighborhoods, the north's least-visited provinces, and—critically—the best time to visit Thailand if you want to skip both the crowds and the price surge of high season. THIS WEEK'S GUEST Kathryn Romeyn is a Bali-based travel journalist who has covered Southeast Asia since 2014. After spending years visiting nearly every other country in the region—Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam—she finally gave Thailand a real chance starting in 2018, and has been chasing its lesser-known corners ever since. IN THIS EPISODE Why finding Thailand off the beaten path means letting go of five-star expectations—and how a $50-a-night, family-run guesthouse can outshine a luxury resort The best time to visit Thailand: why the shoulder seasons (roughly March–July and October–November) beat the crowded, expensive December–January peak, and why to avoid the hot, rainy August–September stretch Inside Nan Province, in Thailand's mountainous north near Laos—road-tripping through opium-turned-coffee country, staying in teak bungalows, and meeting a local guide from the Karen community Local flavors worth seeking out: sai oua northern-style sausage, chicken wings crusted in makhwaen (a wild jungle pepper related to Sichuan pepper), and the tamarind crunchy shrimp at Thanyamundra that Kathryn can't stop thinking about  A nightly ritual in Nan: communal floor dinners at bamboo khantoke tables between two illuminated temples, complete with live folk music and unmatched trash-sorting discipline Why Koh Yao Noi—a small island with one gas station and one doctor—offers an escape from the group-boat crowds hitting Phuket's more famous islands Skipping the standard Phuket–Krabi–Chiang Mai loop for Khaosok National Park where limestone karsts rise out of Cheow Lan Lake and langurs swing through the jungle canopy Why hiring a private guide or outfitter (like Smiling Albino or Red Savannah)—rather than a big-group tour—unlocks the kind of moments you can't find with an internet search CHAPTERS 00:00:00 Rethinking Thailand's Reputation 00:02:00 A Freelancer's First Real Trip 00:07:00 Getting Lost in Bangkok on Purpose 00:11:00 Island Escapes and the Road to Nan 00:16:00 Guesthouses Over Five-Star Hotels 00:21:00 Night Markets and Local Food Secrets LINKS & RESOURCES Kathryn Romeyn's AFAR story: How to See Thailand's Wonders Without Feeling Like a Tourist Thanyamundra Organic Resort Nan Seasons Boutique Resort Cape Kudu Hotel Koh Yao Noi Smiling Albino Red Savannah Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An unending conflict and shrinking aid leave Myanmar’s refugees and displaced in increasingly dire circumstances. Synopsis: Every second Friday of the month, The Straits Times’ senior columnist Ravi Velloor distils 45 years of experience covering the Asian continent, with expert guests. In this episode, he speaks with the British psychotherapist and aid worker Edward Blakeney on the travails of Myanmar’s 1.6 million exiles and 4 million internally displaced people. What emerges is a story of food shortages, medical issues including mental trauma, and lack of educational opportunities among an exile diaspora that now stretches from Thailand to Bangladesh, Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka. Highlights (click/tap above) 2:30 Brutal war and a worsening refugee situation 5:20 A 9-year-old drug addict 8:40 Wasting, malnourished children 14:10 Ukraine distraction, journalists under the gun 24:00 Has Blakeney seen a shrink himself, given what he has seen and experienced? Read Ravi's columns: https://str.sg/3xRP Follow Ravi on X: https://twitter.com/RaviVelloor Sign up for ST’s weekly Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/sfpz Host: Ravi Velloor (velloor@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Fa’izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider Podcast on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX YouTube: https://str.sg/rF3qR Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 Get more updates: http://str.sg/stpodcasts --- Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An unending conflict and shrinking aid leave Myanmar’s refugees and displaced in increasingly dire circumstances. Synopsis: Every second Friday of the month, The Straits Times’ senior columnist Ravi Velloor distils 45 years of experience covering the Asian continent, with expert guests. In this episode, he speaks with the British psychotherapist and aid worker Edward Blakeney on the travails of Myanmar’s 1.6 million exiles and 4 million internally displaced people. What emerges is a story of food shortages, medical issues including mental trauma, and lack of educational opportunities among an exile diaspora that now stretches from Thailand to Bangladesh, Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka. Highlights (click/tap above) 2:30 Brutal war and a worsening refugee situation 5:20 A 9-year-old drug addict 8:40 Wasting, malnourished children 14:10 Ukraine distraction, journalists under the gun 24:00 Has Blakeney seen a shrink himself, given what he has seen and experienced? Read Ravi's columns: https://str.sg/3xRP Follow Ravi on X: https://twitter.com/RaviVelloor Sign up for ST’s weekly Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/sfpz Host: Ravi Velloor (velloor@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Fa’izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider Podcast on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX YouTube: https://str.sg/rF3qR Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 Get more updates: http://str.sg/stpodcasts --- Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Rohingya poet Mayyu Ali saw his name in print for the first time, he thought: "I exist." "Even though my government doesn't recognize [me] I exist in my writing," he told IDEAS. The Myanmar government has targeted the Rohingyas for decades, and Ali grew up with no birth certificate, no citizenship, and no human rights. He fled genocide in 2017 to live in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, until he resettled to Canada in 2021. Ali speaks with Nahlah Ayed about survival, the power of poetry, and his long journey to become a citizen for the first time in his life.

Episode #603: Saw Poe Wah assists the Karen Refugee Committee (KRC) and speaks from a life shaped by the Thai–Myanmar border camps where he studied, lived, and later worked with community-based organizations. He describes the KRC as a Karen-led body that helps coordinate care for refugees across nine camps in Thailand's Tak and Mae Hong Son provinces, a system he places at roughly fifty years of continuous operation. Its responsibilities are basic and ongoing: keeping people fed, connecting them to health services, and sustaining a community that has been treated as temporary for decades. Saw Poe Wah's central argument is about strain, not ideology. Since the coup, more people have arrived from ever before to seek out safety, while the funding base that supports rations and healthcare has become more uncertain. He describes reorganizing limited support by vulnerability and pushing what self-reliance is possible through work access outside the camps, a route that depends on Thai permissions and never covers everyone. “We've seen so many people from inside Burma coming, seeking temporary shelter and care,” he says, and the problem is that short-term arrangements quickly harden into long-term displacement. Saw Poe Wah also speaks about the conditions inside Myanmar that keep driving movement: landmines that shape where teams can travel, and airstrikes that make fixed clinics and schools dangerous to operate. In areas where shelter itself can attract attack, he describes care delivered in the open. “We have to treat the patients under the trees.” The camps can ration, reorganize, and coordinate with larger agencies, but they cannot control the forces that keep producing displacement or the political decisions that determine how long support can be sustained.

ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ စနေည စက်တင်ဘာလ ရက်တုန်းက မဲလ်ဘုန်းမြို့မှာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ စစ်ဘေးရှောင်နဲ့ ရေဘေးသင့်ပြည်သူတွေအတွက် Together for Tomorrow ရံပုံငွေရှာဖွေပွဲ ကျင်းပပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြပါတယ်။ ဒီပွဲကို Support for Myanmar from Australia and Singapore နဲ့ မနက်ခင်းတို့ ဦးစီးကျင်းပတာဖြစ်ပြီး ဖျော်ဖြေရေး ရံပုံငွေပွဲအနေနဲ့ အဆိုတော် ယုဇနနဲ့ တေးရေးတေးဆို မောင်မောင်ဇော်လတ်အပြင် အထူးဧည့်သည်အနေနဲ့ မင်းမော်ကွန်းနဲ့ အဆိုတော် နောင်ရိုးတို့လည်း ပါဝင်ဖျော်ဖြေခဲ့ကြပါတယ်။

Episode #601: Chalida Tajaroensuk, chairperson and founder of the Thailand-based People Empowerment Foundation, argues that responses to Myanmar's post-coup crisis must be grounded in the experiences of refugees, migrant workers, and border communities rather than shaped primarily through elite diplomacy and state-centered policymaking. Her organization conducts fact-finding missions, works with refugee communities and ethnic organizations, and brings information from camps and border regions into discussions with Thai authorities because she believes policymakers often lack direct understanding of conditions on the ground. She describes Thailand's Myanmar policy as shaped by competing political, security, humanitarian and economic pressures. Different governments therefore shift between diplomatic caution, economic engagement, and security-focused approaches. Although many critics see Thailand's continued dialogue with Myanmar's military regime as indirect support for the junta, Chalida argues that maintaining communication preserves channels through which humanitarian concerns and border realities can still be raised. She also believes the weakness of ASEAN and divisions among Myanmar's opposition groups encourage regional governments to rely on cautious diplomacy rather than more direct intervention. Much of her organization's work focuses on refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. She supports Thailand's recent decision to allow some refugees to work outside the camps, butargues that the policy remains unevenly implemented. Her organization found that many refugees were excluded from official registration lists, preventing them from accessing work opportunities. Many camp residents also lack language skills, job training, and familiarity with the outside economy after decades of confinement. At the same time, humanitarian aid continues to decline while resettlement opportunities abroad have narrowed sharply. Chalida argues that Thailand must move beyond emergency management and create long-term systems that allow refugees to work and support themselves economically. Despite political obstacles and regional instability, she maintains that gradual policy change, long-term cooperation, and grassroots advocacy can eventually help displaced Myanmar communities rebuild their lives with dignity.

In this episode, Casey Fatchett sits down with award-winning photographer Ari Espay, who splits his time between New York City and Santiago, Chile. Ari discusses his decade producing and teaching at National Geographic's photography workshops alongside legends like David Alan Harvey, Ed Kashi, Bob Sacha, Ira Block, and Maggie Steber; his approach to street photography and portraiture with subjects ranging from presidents to Broadway performers; his long-term humanitarian project documenting the EB (Epidermolysis Bullosa) community; and his nonprofit Statement Arts, which has run photography workshops and donated more than 100 cameras to young and at-risk photographers in Myanmar and Laos, including activists documenting human rights abuses in their own communities. Topics Covered: Lessons from a decade at National Geographic's photography workshops Why "serendipity" changed how Ari approaches every shoot Reading a scene: light, subject, and background as visual problem-solving Building trust with strangers on the street Studio portraiture with presidents and public figures vs. street portraiture Photographing vulnerability: the Faces of EB project Where to draw the line between bearing witness and intruding Statement Arts: teaching photography and donating cameras in Myanmar and Laos Why the people living a crisis should be the ones documenting it The throughline across Ari's career: humanity Episode Promos On1 Photo RAW - https://nerdyphotographer.com/recommends/on1 Nerdy Photographer Contract Templates - https://nerdyphotographer.com/product-category/contracts/ Siteground Web Hosting - https://siteground.com/go/nerdy Survey Monkey - https://get.surveymonkey.com/nerdy ABOUT MY GUEST Award-winning photographer, Ari Espay, splits his time between New York City and Santiago, Chile. Ari has shot documentary pieces, campaigns and editorial essays for magazines in the US and all over South America including; Architectural Digest, Vogue Latin America, Que Pasa, and ED. He has worked for Maybelline, Gillette, Corpbanca, Ferouch, New Man, Kohana Rum, Amazon/AWS, Australis Cruise to name a few and has shot portraits for Presidents, internationally known actors, Emmy Award winning directors, Broadway performers, politicians and high profile business people. With numerous gallery exhibitions, Ari's recent show, "A Glimpse of Southeast Asia" was featured at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, a museum in Cento, Italy (2018 – 2019). Other exhibitions include; 2026 "Rostros, El Mar De Cultura" Valencia Photo Festival, Spain. 2025 "FACES / VISAGES" , Art-Icon Collective Exhibition Arles, France. 2024 "Corporeality" Art-Icon Collective Exhibition - Paris, 2024 "Moments in Time" Art on the Avenue - New York City, New York, 2021 Art on the Avenue - New York City, New York "Art on the Avenue" (New York City 2021), "Mingalabar Myanmar"(Rome and Bologna, Italy - 2016) and "The Faces of EB" in New York City (2015). In 2012, he was named as Artistic Director of International Projects for Galeria64, the only gallery in Chile exhibiting photography exclusively. Ari has won Chile's prestigious Fondart Grant, was a 2026 Finalist Lucie Foundation On The Block Street Photography, a 2026 Selected Winner American Photography AI-AP 42, a 2024 Portraiture Bronze Winner Prix de la Photographie Paris PX3, Short Listed "EB" State of the World Project Prix de la Photographie Paris PX3, Street Photography Honorable Mention Prix de la Photographie Paris PX3 and 4 Portraiture Honorable Mention Prix de la Photographie Paris PX3, a 2024, 2022 BIFA Budapest International Foto Award Silver winner in Book / Documentary, 2022 MIFA Moscow International Photo Award Winner for our book, 2020Unmasked, in the Documentary Book category. He was the photo editor for "2020 Unmasked" book which won 2 Honorable Mentions at the IPA/International Photography Awards for Documentary and Self-published book.  For 10 years, he taught photography workshops for National Geographic and their legendary photographers including, Joe McNally, Bob Sacha, Ira Block, VII's agency Ed Kashi and Magnum's David Alan Harvey. He has worked and traveled in more than 40 countries. Ari speaks 3 languages and enjoys spending time in the mountains. Find Ari Espay: Website: https://ariespayphotography.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/ari_espay Photography Workshops: https://fancygirlstreetboy.com Nonprofit: https://StatementArts.org Follow the Nerdy Photographer Podcast: Instagram - https://instagram.com/thenerdyphoto Reddit - https://reddit.com/u/thenerdyphoto Threads - https://threads.com/thenerdyphoto Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/thenerdyphoto.bsky.social TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@thenerdyphoto About The Podcast The Nerdy Photographer Podcast is written and produced by Casey Fatchett. Casey is a professional photographer in the New York City / Northern New Jersey with more than 20 years of experience. He just wants to help people and make them laugh. You can view Casey's wedding work at https://fatchett.com or his non-wedding work at https://caseyfatchettphotography.com    If you have any questions or comments about this episode or any other episodes, OR if you would like to ask a photography related question or have ideas for a topic for a future episode, please reach out to us at https://nerdyphotographer.com/contact

Send me a Text Message!In this episode we are going to look at one of my favorite visions from the book of Revelation. It's a vision of the bowls of heaven being filled with our prayers and then emptied out before God. It's a vision that shows us how much prayer matters to God, as it describes a silence in heaven, the hush of heaven as our prayer are heard. Prayer matters. Prayer matters more than we think. Last week we had a week of 24/7 prayer. 300+ people prayed for about 1200 hours. In fact 80+ of our Myanmar family prayed for close to 500 hours! Kids fasted and prayed for us. You talk about the bowls of heaven being filled up.  During the week I had some opportunities to see God answer prayers in pretty incredible ways, so incredible that it makes me want to do it again soon. But even more shaping for me during that time was just this occasional sense that God was there. Listening. With a smile on his face or a tear in his eye. Those times gripped my heart. Prayer matters to God. It should probably matter more to us.

Nasty Neal interviews writer-director Arkar Soe Oo and star Li Li Kyaw Khaing about THE LAST FOOTAGE, Myanmar's first found-footage horror film, following its premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival!Shot entirely from a first-person perspective, THE LAST FOOTAGE follows a group whose getaway to a remote forest cabin becomes a nightmare when a young boy disappears. A desperate blood ritual resurrects a witch's dead son, while a reckless dark-web summoning awakens an ancient predator lurking in the wilderness.Arkar Soe Oo and Li Li Kyaw Khaing discuss bringing this groundbreaking Burmese horror film to life, creating its immersive POV style and introducing Myanmar genre cinema to international audiences.Subscribe for more horror movie interviews, independent film coverage and festival exclusives from Without Your Head with Nasty Neal.Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOmwH7xVAhD-OOAqFWyTYTA/join#TheLastFootage #FantasiaFilmFestival #FoundFootage #HorrorMovies #MyanmarCinema #BurmeseCinema #HorrorInterview #IndependentHorror #WithoutYourHead #NastyNeal

It's Monday, August 31st, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Burmese military killed pastor and another believer The Burma Research Institute has confirmed that Rev. William, who used no last name, and another Chin Christian, Nam Ceu, were extrajudicially murdered on June 4th by the Burmese military dictatorship in Myanmar, reports International Christian Concern.  Rev. William had pastored the Chungcung Baptist Church in Chin State for more than 25 years. He was arrested with Ceu in May and had been detained by the military since then. Sources told the Burma Research Institute that Rev. William and Nam Ceu were killed for allegedly supporting the Hakha Chinland Defense Force, which is fighting against the Burmese military dictatorship. Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Zo Tum Hmung, President of the Burma Research Institute, said, “We call the Trump administration to protect the persecuted Christians in Burma.” Send a polite, 4-sentence note to Kyaw Moe Tun, the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations.  Address it to the Myanmar Delegation, 10 East 77th Street, New York, NY 10075. Democrat James Talarico: Muslims and Christians worship same God James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator in Texas who is running against Republican Ken Paxton, the current Texas Attorney General, falsely claimed that Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians. Listen. TALARICO: “Christians and Muslims and Jews all worship the same God. Muslims love Jesus. They love Moses and Abraham. We are all branches on the same tree as the Abrahamic faiths.  “So. it's heartbreaking to watch extremists, whether they are Christian nationalists or whether they're the Taliban or al-Qaeda, perverting these beautiful traditions, that have so much in common, to attack others and consolidate their own power.” There are three primary differences between Christianity and Islam. First, regarding the nature of God, Christians teach that God is the Trinity—one God existing in three co-equal, co-eternal persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19) By contrast, Islam completely rejects the Trinity. Second, Christians believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God and God incarnate who physically died on the cross for the atonement of the sins of the elect and rose from the dead. (John 1:1,14) By contrast, while Islam reveres Jesus as a major, virgin-born prophet and messenger of God, it explicitly denies His divinity, crucifixion, and resurrection. And third, Christianity teaches that salvation is a free gift of grace received through personal faith in the finished sacrificial work of Jesus Christ, rather than by human effort. (Ephesians 2:8-9) By contrast, Islam teaches that salvation depends on total submission to Allah's will, adherence to the Five Pillars of Islam, and the final judgment of one's deeds. Therefore, Muslims and Christians clearly do not worship the same God. Georgia Democrat distanced himself from antisemitic leftist Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff has offered sharp criticism of President Donald Trump which generated buzz about Ossoff potentially running for president in 2028.   That, in turn, has attracted some left-wing figures who have lauded his messaging like left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in April that he was “intrigued” by Ossoff. There are two developments of note.  First, Ossoff, whose father is Jewish, is facing criticism from some of Georgia's local Jewish community over his votes to block certain arms sales to Israel. Second, Senator Ossoff has distanced himself from Hasan Piker over recent comments that many interpreted as justifying threats to American Jews,  reports the Jewish Telegraph Agency.   Speaking on a Twitch livestream on August 20th, Piker said this. PIKER: “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone's going to come around and take action. Not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.” Last Thursday, according to Fox News, an Ossoff spokesman said that the senator “unreservedly rejects reckless and dangerous rhetoric suggesting that policy advocacy invites violence against the Jewish community or any community.” In Genesis 12:3, God said, “I will make [Israel] into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on Earth will be blessed through you.” Undercover video exposes GOP Sen. Murkowski on SAVE Act And finally, liberal Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska stood on the Senate floor and painted a grim picture of the supposed damage the SAVE America Act, or the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would do in her home state.  This is the bill that would ensure that American citizens — and only American citizens — should decide American elections. It would simply require: A valid ID before registering to vote in a federal election. Proof of citizenship. No Mail-in Ballots (except for illness, disability, military, or travel). Listen to Senator Murkowski's claim. MURKOWSKI: “What we're talking about right now is just the registration to vote. So, you're in Unalaska -- say you're a fisherman or a teacher -- the flight to Anchorage, because this is where you're going to have to go -- you're going to have to go into Anchorage: 800 air miles, $1,100 per seat, if you can maybe get on a charter.” James O'Keefe, an undercover journalist with the O'Keefe Media Group and the Justice League, flew to Unalaska to find out firsthand if Senator Murkowski's claim was true. Listen to his analysis. O'KEEFE: “I'm James O'Keefe, and I'm in the middle of absolutely nowhere, about 800 miles off the coast of Alaska, on a remote island in the Aleutian Islands. “Now, Senator Lisa Murkowski says that one of the reasons she's not going to pass the SAVE Act is because of people that live here on this island of Unalaska.  “Senator Murkowski saying if the SAVE Act passes, online registration goes away, and the residents here, the few thousand people that live here, are going to have to fly 800 miles and spend thousands of dollars to go to Anchorage to take care of their business.  “But all the people we spoke with here, they all said that that's wrong, including the post office, the library, the city clerk, the DMV. We didn't know there was a DMV here. Everyone we spoke to here said they're able to register to vote here. They're able to prove citizenship by going to the library.  “So, Senator Murkowski says, ‘If you're a fisherman in Unalaska, the closest election office is 800 miles away; it would cost $1,500. You would also need a hotel, cabs, and food while in Anchorage. But the librarian just told us differently.” Here is the portion of the undercover investigation with a female undercover agent, who accompanied O'Keefe, to the library in Unalaska. UNDERCOVER FEMALE AGENT: “Just wanted to learn a little bit more about the process to get an ID. “ LIBRARIAN: “We do passports here.” UNDERCOVER AGENT: “Oh, you do passports here.” UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “Mmm.” UNDERCOVER FEMALE AGENT:  “That's good to know, though, that if somebody wants to confirm their citizenship, they can do it here.” UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “To get the Alaska ID, do you get it here or back in Anchorage?” LIBRARIAN: “Oh no, here. The DMV should be the near the police station.” UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “So, we don't have to go to Anchorage to get it.”  LIBRARIAN: “No, no, no. As long as you have all the paperwork you need.”  UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “But I read in the newspaper that the senator [Lisa Murkowski], said, ‘Oh, they're going to pass this SAVE Act, and everyone's got to go to Anchorage to get it.'” LIBRARIAN: “I don't think so.” UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “Oh no. Okay.” Proverbs 12:19 says, “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.” Call liberal Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski's office in DC, 24 hours a day/7 days a week, and ask the live operator to connect you to her voicemail, urging her to support the SAVE America Act. Her number is (202) 224-6665. Tell her that you reject her false claim that people in the Aleutian Islands have to travel 800 miles by air to register to vote in Anchorage. Plus, call your two Senators at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vote for the SAVE America Act as well. Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, August 31st, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ

Scientists warn the El Niño event developing in the Pacific could be the strongest in living memory, pushing up global temperatures and increasing the risk of extreme weather. Effects are already being felt around the world - the Indian government is having to import sugar to bolster local supplies. We visit the West Bank town of Kadim to see how the Israeli government is expanding settlements ahead of October elections. The former Pakistani President Imran Khan is taken to hospital and then returned to prison, confusing his family and followers. And what is Meghan going to do in the UK when she returns with Prince Harry in a couple of weeks' time? The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk Photo: A woman walks during heavy rainfall in Yangon, Myanmar, 12th August. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock

Trump evades Iran via catering truck, Pete Hegseth's Pentagon is a disaster, and Jared pays off a gangster and drug trafficker as part of his Albanian island takeover.This week Tommy and Ben cover shocking new info on how Trump hid from Iran on his way back from the NATO summit in Turkey, leaving his staff and the press behind as decoys. They shake off their déjà vu to dig into the latest developments in Iran and Israel before touching down in Yemen as the conflict between the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Houthis heats up. In London, a brave Sudanese protester calls out the UAE's prime minister for underwriting the war in Sudan. Over at the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth continues to try to remake the military in MAGA's image, but still finds time to blame an underling for our dire munitions shortage and cozy up to defense contractors. They dig into the strategy behind Ukraine's attacks on Wildberries (the Amazon.com of Russia), Jared Kushner's payout to a gangster in his quest to steal an island from Albania, the grim news on Ebola and Trump's inaction on the crisis, and why Claude is coming for political speechwriters. Then, Ben speaks to Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group about the state of play in Myanmar, how coup leader and now-president Min Aung Hlaing is making diplomatic inroads with his neighbors, and the recent—and rare—glimpse of Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi.Hate listening to ads? Become a Friends of the Pod subscriber for ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, Runaway Country, Offline with Jon Favreau, and more—plus exclusive content, including bonus episodes of Pod Save America. Subscribe now at crooked.com/friends, on Apple Podcasts, or through the Pod Save America YouTube channel.To watch this episode with subtitles, click here and turn on closed captions (CC).You can request a transcript by emailing transcripts@crooked.com. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.

The political world gasped once again as news broke from the New York Times' Maggie Haberman that Trump has been telling anyone who will listen that he's getting reinstated as President and has become obsessed to the point of insanity on these voter audits in Arizona and Georgia which he believes will show that he won the election. Elsewhere, QAnon threw a Memorial Day bash in Dallas that saw former trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn advocating for a Myanmar style coup in the United States while Sidney Powell unleashed a torrent of bullshit around Trump's presidential reinstatement. Finally, Michael sits down with Phil Arballo who came with in a few percentage points of unseating Devin Nunes in the 2020 election. He joins Mea Culpa to discuss how he'll win the midterm election, what's at stake for this country if the democrats lose the House and where the GOP is most vulnerable. This is a wild, wild episode you won't want to miss.To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policyLearn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices