Podcasts about Indonesia

Episod 210 Keluar Sekejap membincangkan pengumuman Hari Kebangsaan oleh Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, termasuk peningkatan had BUDI95 dan BUDI Diesel, bantuan untuk sekolah daif, penambahbaikan kesihatan awam, pelepasan e-Invois serta akses AI percuma untuk 100,000 belia. Adakah pengumuman sebegini benar-benar memberi kesan kepada sentimen rakyat, atau sudah menjadi “checklist” setiap kali sambutan Hari Kebangsaan? Turut dibincangkan persoalan mengenai timing pengumuman dan apakah bentuk reformasi yang lebih bermakna kepada rakyat.Episod ini turut menyentuh isu Tabung Haji dan polemik berkaitan keadaan kewangan serta laporan RCI, termasuk persoalan mengenai kerugian, kaedah perakaunan dan tadbir urus institusi tersebut. Adakah isu Tabung Haji sekadar soal teknikal perakaunan, atau terdapat persoalan lebih besar mengenai bagaimana institusi penting negara diurus?Dalam perkembangan politik semasa, KJ dan Shahril membincangkan pendirian UMNO menjelang Perhimpunan Agung UMNO, termasuk isu kedaulatan undang-undang, prinsip tidak bersalah sehingga dibuktikan bersalah serta kemungkinan kerjasama dengan PAS dan Perikatan Nasional. Apakah hala tuju UMNO dan sejauh mana perkembangan ini boleh memberi kesan kepada Kerajaan MADANI?Turut dibincangkan ketegangan berkaitan peruntukan dan pembayaran projek kerajaan, termasuk persoalan hubungan antara kepimpinan politik dengan jentera kerajaan.Di peringkat antarabangsa, episod ini meneliti kenyataan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mengenai China dan Taiwan, dasar One China serta kedudukan Malaysia dalam persaingan geopolitik antara China dan Amerika Syarikat. Bagaimana Malaysia boleh mengimbangi prinsip dasar luar dengan kepentingan ekonomi dan strategik negara?Akhir sekali, KJ dan Shahril membincangkan isu jerebu rentas sempadan yang kembali melanda Malaysia, termasuk kebakaran hutan dan tanah gambut di Indonesia serta kelemahan mekanisme ASEAN dalam menangani masalah yang berulang setiap tahun.

Man is dead after 'Everything's Unmissable' sign fell at Christian music festival in England, Florida woman nicknamed 'Crooked Jess' took off with $60 provided by police for her cooperation in a drug sting, Ribbon cutting ceremony at grand opening at new suspension bridge in Indonesia ends with collapse of bridge sending dozens of villagers plunging into river

Man is dead after 'Everything's Unmissable' sign fell at Christian music festival in England, Florida woman nicknamed 'Crooked Jess' took off with $60 provided by police for her cooperation in a drug sting, Ribbon cutting ceremony at grand opening at new suspension bridge in Indonesia ends with collapse of bridge sending dozens of villagers plunging into riverSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CDMX abre registro para apoyos escolares de estudiantes Profepa asegura 252 aves exóticas en un domicilio de MazatlánIntoxicación alimentaria lleva a 512 estudiantes a hospitales en IndonesiaMás información en nuestro podcast#grc

Born in Florida and raised in Puerto Rico, Dylan Graves is widely known as the creator and host of Weird Waves, a web series in which he chases all manner of freak waves, among them the Severn Bore in England, the Eisbach River in Germany, and the Bono Seven Ghosts in Indonesia, where he got a five-minute ride and did something like 46 turns. It wasn't always like this. Graves started out doing contests and dreaming of a more conventional kind of pro surfing. But he followed his bliss and took his career into his own hands. A couple years back, Graves launched his own YouTube channel. His episodes are personal, diaristic, offering a strong sense of who Graves is and from where he came via traveling to locales and waves that most surfers would bypass altogether. Graves does the writing and the editing. The episodes are along the lines of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, but instead of pork dumplings and pastrami sandwiches, we get waves kicked up by ship wakes and calving icebergs. Travel is at the heart. And traveling brought Graves to the Gold Coast of Australia, where he now lives with his wife and their son. In this episode of Soundings, Graves sits down with host Jamie Brisick to talk about the joys of being an outsider, chasing rarity in the water, grief, the editing process, and preparing for the unknown. Presented by Rainbow® Sandals  Produced by Jonathan Shifflett Music by PazKa (Aska Matsumiya & Paz Lenchantin) Become a TSJ member at surfersjournal.com

How do you design a modern Los Angeles noir without simply recreating the past?In this episode of Decorating Pages, I talk with Production Designer Meghan C. Rogers about creating the visual world of Season 2 of Apple TV's Sugar, starring Colin Farrell. Meghan joined the series for its second season and pushed the show's established noir language further, using architecture, texture, lighting and locations to make Los Angeles itself part of John Sugar's story.We get into the massive Indonesia sequence built at the Paramount water tank, including the engineering, water-safety and fire requirements behind a set that had to work both inside and outside. Meghan also takes us through the Hotel Del Corazon and its Casablanca-inspired circular bar, Sugar's mid-century hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, the boxing gym, K-Town locations, homeless encampments created beneath some of LA's incredible concrete architecture, and a vintage trailer the art department found on Facebook Marketplace.We also talk about the less glamorous realities behind what appears on screen: graphics departments, graffiti and artwork clearances, sun studies, multiple company moves in a single day, rebuilding interiors, finding camera-friendly architecture and what happens when production asks you to flip a set…and then suddenly needs the original set back.For Meghan, the opportunity was ultimately about showing Los Angeles in all of its layers—from glamorous hilltop views to the city underneath the freeways—and finding a contemporary version of classic noir that still belongs completely to Sugar.Sugar Season 2 is streaming on Apple TV.

On this episode of Exclusively Van Halen on Johnny Beane TV, we're talking about some incredible news involving legendary VAN HALEN drummer Alex Van Halen! Earlier today, Tuesday, September 1, Alex was awarded the royal decoration “Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw” — Knight in the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands. In a short interview after the ceremony, Alex said: "My cousin organized most of this. But I'm very grateful. I think institutions like this are important in people's lives because it adds a dignity and a gravity to what we do. Whether it's actually deserved or not, that's another question. But we can live up to it. That's the whole thing, is you gotta have something to live up to."

This week the huns are hyperactive and there's some revelations... are they syncing with weird chest pains? Are they being haunted? Did Topshop ever really go away? Big S is off to Malaysia next year, Hannah is fuming that Suzie doesn't want her scrunchie - will their friendship survive? We also delve into Little Lesbian Sue's past in the snow. Story 1) Madame Margaret Marmalade's Brothel - Hannah is taking us to a haunt for paranormal investigators... Story 2) Big S takes us to Indonesia for PART TWO of the Cordyceps mystery... think Lisa Dingle and a delicious penyakit assam. Story 3) Hannah tells us about the urban legend of CLICK CLACK. Horrendous. Lock your doors and windows. Story 4) Big S has a creepy story about a Glitch in the Matrix - and a strange Home Owners Association... where'd those trees come from? CREEP OF THE WEEK this week is PART TWO of the Australian horror... the nasty police officer is hunting her. This is so chilling. We end with a paranormal game of Charlie Charlie. What a chaos episode. TY FOR JOINING US HUNS WE LOVE YAAAAA xoxoxo Got a story? Send it to ghosthunspod@gmail.com  JOIN OUR PATREON! EXTRA bonus episodes AND a monthly ghost hunt for just £4.50!  Or £6 for AD-FREE EPS and weekly AGONY HUNS! We'll solve your problems huns!  Sign up here: www.patreon.com/GhostHuns MERCH IS HERE: https://ghosthuns.co.uk/ HALLOWEEN 2026 TIX HERE: https://podlifeevents.com/event-details/ghost-huns---live-from-cheerful-earful-11-oct-2026-tickets Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Dance of the Trinity Speaker: Dr. Bryan Cutshall Today's message focused on the profound concept of the Trinity, not as a confusing theological puzzle, but as a "round dance" of divine love, unity, and joy—known in early church history as perichoresis. God created humanity to invite us into this ultimate fellowship, which ultimately expands into a great movement of evangelism and a future global revival. Key Takeaways: The Dance of the Trinity (Perichoresis): The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in such absolute harmony and synchronized love that they appear as one entity—much like three distinct colors spinning on a top or the Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) wavelengths that combine to create pure white light. The Divine Signature of Threes: God stamped creation and His redemptive history with patterns of threes (body/soul/spirit, three levels of Noah's ark, three witnesses in heaven and earth, and the three-room structure of the Tabernacle) as a divine watermark. The Three Great Moves of God: Just as the Tabernacle featured the Outer Court (Old Testament/Law), the Inner Court (New Testament/Church Age), and the Holy of Holies (The final outpouring of God's glory), history is tracking toward a final, unprecedented third great awakening before the return of Christ. A Harvest Generation: This final move of God will not rely on human celebrities, tech, or programs, but on a sudden, sovereign invasion of God's glory that will sweep through campuses, streets, and even unexpected regions globally (such as the massive movement among youth and Muslim-majority nations like Indonesia). Highlights & Illustrations The Subatomic Signature: Citing scientific discovery regarding "quarks" at the subatomic level, Dr. Cutshall noted how matter is held together by three strands of light wrapped in a sound wave—echoing God's spoken command, "Let there be light". Live Illustration: Dr. Cutshall brought volunteers onto the platform to physically demonstrate the "round dance" of evangelism—showing how the Trinity opened the circle to include Adam and Eve, and how the church's mission is simply to pull others into the dance of God's abundant life. The Two-Thousand-Year Countdown: Highlighting the timeline of Pentecost and the Church Age, the message pointed to the imminent horizon of 2027 and the surrounding years as a profound marker for the end of the end-times, urging believers to pray bigger and expect a miraculous final harvest. Scripture References Used Genesis 1:3 — "Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." Genesis 8 — The account of Noah releasing the dove three times with the olive branch. Ezekiel 1 — The vision of the sapphire (blue) throne representing the Holy Spirit. Joel 2:28 — "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh..." Psalm 24:7 — "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." 1 John 5:7 — "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." 1 John 5:8 — "And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." Revelation (References to the Throne Room) — Mention of the Sardis (red) throne of the Father and the emerald (green) throne of Jesus. "Thanks for listening! For more information, visit churchoftheharvest.com. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and YouTube @cothcleveland.

CDMX regulará uso de celulares en escuelas Dólar se cotiza en 17.03 pesosRescatan a orangután afectado por humo en IndonesiaMás información en nuestro podcast#grc

Indonesia is facing "super El Nino" conditions, with West Kalimantan on Borneo Island the hardest-hit by wildfires. Michael Neilson, a New Zealand journalist based in Jakarta, spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss about the impact of the fires.

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! En este episodio de Universo de Misterios analizamos la reciente oleada de terremotos ocurridos en distintas partes del mundo durante 2026, incluyendo Colombia, Japón, Indonesia y España. Repasamos un artículo publicado en The Conversation por la catedrática María Belén Benito Oterino, que explica por qué no existe evidencia de una mayor actividad sísmica global, sino que la concentración temporal de seísmos responde a la aleatoriedad y a fenómenos locales. Además, escuchamos el testimonio de Aida, que vivió en primera persona dos terremotos históricos en México, y exploramos la hipótesis de la posible influencia de las fuerzas tidales del Sol y la Luna sobre la actividad sísmica. Gracias por acompañarnos en Universo de Misterios. La ignorancia nunca es deseable. Nos escuchamos en el próximo viaje al universo que viene. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

New data provided insights on smog-producing emissions of nitrous oxides (NOx), which we discuss with the analyst Katherine Hasan of the Centre for Clean Energy and Air (Crea).  Also: Kevin and Erin delve into the nuances surrounding a moderate-sized demonstration, plans for a commodity trading bourse and cross-border haze from forest-and-land fires.Read CREA's report here: https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/EN-CREA_Press-release_First-of-its-kind-satellite-based-analysis-reveals-29-hazardous-NOx-hotspots-across-Indonesia.docx.pdfIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

The Summer of Dan Savings Event comes to an end with 1992's Godzilla vs. Mothra. A stray meteoroid reawakens the King of the Monsters and sets off a series of natural disasters across the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese government forces ex-archeologist Takuya Fujito to investigate one such disaster: a landslide in Indonesia that unearthed something strange. On the remote Infant Island, Takuya's expedition discovers a gigantic egg and tiny twin fairies called the Cosmos. Mothra, the Guardian of Earth we all know and love, is set to hatch from the egg in order to save humanity from their own hubris. However, the Cosmos warn that Mothra has a dark twin named Battra, whose patience for mankind has long since run out. The two Divine Moths are drawn to Japan by Godzilla's latest rampage, igniting a three-way battle to restore the balance of nature. The real estate market trembles, egg prices skyrocket, and a familiar duet starts playing on today's long-prophesied episode of Anime Was (Not) A Mistake!. Rate, Review, Subscribe, and Listen to Us on Podbean/iTunes/Stitcher/Spotify Follow us on Instagram:@animewasnotamistakepodcast Or on Facebook:@animewasnotamistakepod Music Provided: “Attack Godzilla!” (M16) - Godzilla (1954) Soundtrack OST Composed by Akira Ifukube “The Defense Corps Mobilize II” (M20) - Godzilla vs. Gigan Soundtrack OST Composed by Akira Ifukube & Kunio Miyauchi “Mechagodzilla Appears/Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla” (M11 + M11EXT) Composed by Masaru Sato.

Ralph speaks with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff for Colin Powell, about the fall of the American Empire and self-proclaimed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. Then we welcome the CEO and co-founder of the Canadian-based organization Corporate Knights, Toby Heap, to break down Trump's unprecedented trade war with our closest ally. Plus, Ralph has some choice words for Hakeem Jeffries and his meeting with Jared Kushner and for Hillary Clinton and her take on the war with Iran.Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army colonel. Over his 31 years of service, Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Colonel Wilkerson also served as Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, and for fifteen years he was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and co-founder of the All-Volunteer Force Forum.Two-thirds of the world now thinks that we are an enemy of their state. Two-thirds of the world. And it happens to be the two-third that has the greatest amount of the GDP in the world.Colonel Lawrence WilkersonI've lived for 81 years, almost 82, and I've watched my country go to hell right in front of my face… And the billionaires who want all of this to happen, they do not want a democracy. A democracy is fallible. A democracy can't beat China. A democracy can't beat Russia. A democracy can't even beat Iran. They want a technocracy that is run by them, armed by them, technical revolution by them. They want all of this, and oh by the way they want to live to 150 while they're doing it too.Colonel Lawrence WilkersonEvery freaking hour they create a series of war crimes in Iran. Every freaking hour they perpetrate war crimes in the Persian Gulf. Every freaking hour they perpetrate war crimes in Lebanon with Israel. “What's new?,” I want to say. We are a criminal state. There is no other way to describe it. We are a criminal state. We pay no attention whatsoever to domestic or international law. Only when it benefits the person who is doing the deed do we pay any attention at all.Colonel Lawrence WilkersonToby Heaps is the CEO and co-founder of Corporate Knights, and Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Knights magazine. He spearheaded the first global ranking of the world's 100 most sustainable corporations in 2005, and in 2007 coined the term “clean capitalism.”What we're seeing is a sort of political physics—for every action is an equal and opposite reaction. Canada has in many ways benefited and rallied around our nationhood. We're often not the most boisterous or loudest type of folks. But this continued disrespect for our statehood and the continued attacks and the unreasonableness and the unfair play, our prime minister said something to the effect of: when the United States signs something, it's in pencil. It's really denigrating the United States' reputation globally and in Canadians' minds.Toby HeapsNews 8/28/26* This week, the left-wing insurgency in the Democratic Party scored several new victories. First, NBC reports that in Oklahoma, N'Kiyla Jasmine Thomas won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Markwayne Mullin, who Trump selected to lead the Department of Homeland Security following the resignation of Secretary Kristi Noem. Thomas will go up against Republican Congressman Kevin Hern in November. Unfortunately, Thomas stands little chance of winning the state, which has not elected a Democratic Senator since 1990. Thomas is a member of the Chickasaw Nation and identifies as a Democratic Socialist, but is “not yet” a member of DSA.* Next, in California, Democracy Now! reports progressive state lawmaker Aisha Wahab has prevailed in the special election to fill the seat vacated by disgraced former Congressman Eric Swalwell. This piece notes that Wahab “overcame a flood of attack ads from pro-Israel groups,” which sought to bolster her Democratic primary rival, Melissa Hernandez. In an interview, Wahab said that she “appreciates” voters in her district for “seeing through” the “lies that were spread by AIPAC.” Wahab will make history as the first Afghan American in Congress and has called for the United States to engage with the Taliban government and attempt to “[steer] them in the right direction” on human rights.* In Georgia, the Hill reports another progressive – Everton Blair – won the special election to fill the seat of Congressman David Scott, who passed away in April during his 12th term in the seat. Blair, the former chair of the Gwinnett County School Board, defeated Scott's daughter Marcye Scott. However, Blair will only represent this seat until the end of the year. Beginning in January, State Rep. Jasmine Clark, who won the May primary, will fill the seat for the 120th Congress.* Meanwhile, in the Cornhusker State, the Nebraska Examiner reports that the “Legal Marijuana NOW U.S. Senate candidate Mike Marvin announced he can't put more ‘energy' into the Senate race because of health issues and endorsed nonpartisan U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn.” Marvin will remain on the ballot, but is “urging all who supported [him] to now support…Osborn.” This piece notes that this announcement comes on heels of reporting by Flatwater Free Press showing that two staffers from Osborn's 2024 independent Senate campaign joined the Legal Marijuana NOW executive board and sought to dissolve the party from the inside. This, combined with the fact that former Democratic Senate nominee Cindy Burbank paid Mike Marvin's $1,740 candidate filing fee and dropped out of the race one day after the secretary of state verified Osborn's signatures to be on the fall ballot has fueled speculation that these were coordinated efforts to clear the field for Osborn. Marvin for his part disputes this and says he never planned to leave the race. Osborn is quoted saying “We hope to earn the support of the LMN voters and hope that we can represent their concerns well in the US Senate.”* In more third party news, Trump has launched new broadsides against the emerging ex-MAGA clique – consisting of Tucker Carlson, Congressman Thomas Massie, and former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. According to the Hill, Trump attacked the group, said to be exploring the possibility of founding a new right-wing party, calling Carlson “a loser,” Greene “a highly neurotic woman” and Massie a “real JERK” on Truth Social. The president added, “What a team this would be, THREE LOSERS, and a pocketful of change!...The only chance they have is to join the Radical Left Dumocrats, and try breaking into the Primary System. To all of them I say, PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!” The proximate cause of this latest flare-up between the camps is Trump's decision to allow in 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported in the next 90 days, a move Massie called “worse than socialism.” Greene, who has been perhaps the most vocal defector from the MAGA camp, said “He attacks us with such vitriol because we actually are everything he claimed to be…he has proven as President that he is nothing more than a neocon puppet for Israel, corporations, big donors with special interests, and his dear friends in the Epstein class…We never changed, Trump did.”* Another story from this side of the aisle comes to us from NOTUS, which reports that an “unknown actor” has stolen over $16,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). This incident, alternatively characterized as a “theft” from a “foreign country” or simply a “fraud,” occurred in early July, when the NRCC “attempted to pay a bill from Ranger Wi-Fi Consulting, a Texas-based firm that specializes in helping clients ‘optimize their wireless networks while ensuring healthy security measures are in place.'” Seeking to assuage the fears of donors, NRCC spokesman Will Kiley told the press that “Protecting donor funds is a top priority for the NRCC,” and vowed that the committee is “working to recover the funds, and…taken steps to ensure it can't happen again.” Listeners might remember that in July, the DNC admitted that they had fallen prey to a scammer, losing almost $30,000 in the process. It would seem that these committees do not have functional safeguards against such schemes.* Our final stories this week all deal with the Middle East. First up, Axios reports that while AIPAC was gearing up for a major ad blitz in Michigan against Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed and on behalf of Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, those plans have apparently been iced at the behest of the Rogers campaign. According to this story, Rogers believes that AIPAC spending in the Democratic primary – over $30 million on behalf of El-Syed's rival Haley Stevens – actually helped boost El-Sayed's candidacy, making his opposition to AIPAC a “centerpiece of his…campaign, using the group's spending against him to portray Democratic opponent Haley Stevens as beholden to the pro-Israel lobby.” Rogers fears the same fate, so he has sought to keep his distance from AIPAC while his allies are urging AIPAC to “get involved without putting the group's name front and center.” However, Rogers' attempts to put some daylight between his campaign and AIPAC has resulted in the latter turning cold towards the Republican candidate. Republicans now worry that AIPAC will “sit out the general election entirely.” As for the perception of AIPAC in Michigan, a recent poll found that “55% of Michigan voters oppose continued U.S. aid to Israel.”* On the other end of the Michigan political spectrum, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding that he “ensure the immediateand permanent release of U.S. citizen Sama Safi, a 20-year-old university student with a severe complex chronic health condition, who the Israeli military has arbitrarily and wrongfully detained since June 2nd.” This letter goes on to describe how “armed Israeli soldiers raided her family's home in the occupied West Bank in the middle of the night and tore her from her family,” and that since then, she has “suffered under appalling conditions in Israeli military detention including “frequent physical assault, shackling, and the throwing of gas and stun grenades into already overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells,” among other horrors. 40 more members of Congress signed this letter, including six senators, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and Chris Van Hollen among them. 85 civic groups also signed onto this demand, ranging from faith-based groups to human rights organizations and beyond.* In the region itself, a broad coalition of Muslim states – including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and, perhaps most notably, the United Arab Emirates – have issued a categorical condemnation of Israel's new “E1” settlement plan. This plan relates to new settlement activities east of occupied East Jerusalem and the signatories decry the plan as constituting “a dangerous escalation that further advances settlement expansion and annexation and undermines the geographical contiguity of the Occupied Palestinian Territory…thereby threatening the viability and realization of an independent, contiguous Palestinian State based on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.” The UAE was the most significant state in the region to sign onto the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020, which sought to normalize relations between Israel and its neighbors at the expense of the Palestinians. Saudi Arabia was said to be on the verge of signing the accords prior to October 7th and Israel's subsequent genocidal military campaign in Gaza. The UAE taking a new stand against Israel on behalf of the Palestinian cause is widely seen as the final death knell of the Abraham Accords and the beginning of a new era of relations in the Middle East.* Finally, the Economist reports that a group of seven top officials within the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is consolidating power in Iran. The man rumored to be leading this junta is Mohsen Rezaei, the new national-security adviser, former presidential candidate and the longest-serving chief of the IRGC, having led the corps though the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Others include the head of the navy, currently overseeing Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the IRGC's commander-in-chief and founder of the Quds Force. Notably absent from this group is Mojtaba Khamenei, the new Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. This piece judiciously avoids making any definite predictions about whether this new clique will rule as hardliners or pragmatists, but emphasizes that the late Ali Khamenei expertly “balanced the competing interests of his realm” while these military men favor action.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

On this week's Defense & Aerospace Report Washington Roundtable, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute think tank, former DoD Europe chief Jim Townsend of the Center for a New American Security, and former Pentagon Comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim of the Center for Strategic and International Studies join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss the impact of rising inflation on the Trump administration's budget request; CIA Director John Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow; NATO's moves to counter Russia's mounting provocations in the Baltic and across Europe; Pentagon policy chief Bridge Colby's meeting with allies as he oversees the review that will reduce US troops from Europe; Washington's new Iran sanctions to collapse the theocratic regime as Beijing vows to retaliate if its banks or businesses are targeted; the trade war with Canada; Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's claim Iran tried to kill one of his son's in Florida; retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter new extreme right-wing party; Iraq's Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's effort to bring militias under control; Washington cancels an amphibious exercise with South Korea, but will press ahead with the trilateral Freedom Edge exercise next month with Korea and Japan; Japan, Australia, and Indonesia launch defense talks; and Beijing's tightening comprehensive encirclement of Taiwan.

The boys are pumped for Wildcard Round... well except for one of us. Damo updates us on the fine Geelong copped for the concussion waiver in Jake Kolodjashnij's contract, and the boys whip through their favourite news headlines. The All-Australian Team got Browny thinking about one of his biggest mistakes, then Chief has two more classic movie monologues. Browny has some good news from around the world, then Collingwood defender Brayden Maynard calls in - unfortunately not playing in tonight's game against the Dogs. Isaac Smith calls in to recap last night's Four N Twenty Legends game - but mostly just to gloat about his incredible torp, then Howie has concerns about the future of test cricket. Browny's Health Hotline looks at Peptides, and Chief has a finals-themed quiz. The boys try to change Damo's mind about Wildcard Round, and look at the future of Scott Pendlebury, and Zak Butters. Browny and Chief have concerns for Howie's cricket calling career after a big Fox Cricket announcement, Western Bulldogs swingman Rory Lobb calls in, Browny looks at what happens to Triple M Footy callers when they call on TV, and we get some predictions for the weekend.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your All-Access Pass to the Marching Arts.Color guard educator, choreographer and adjudicator Wanda Conway joins Whitney Stone, Sadie Wallace and Jeremy Svoboda / Drum Corps Today for a conversation connecting decades of color guard history to the activity today.Wanda shares stories from growing up near George Zingali, Quasar and the 27th Lancers to teaching the Cavaliers as a teenager, working with the Cadets, teaching marching band in Indonesia, judging across the country and her current work with Onyx. The panel also digs into color guard fundamentals, writing choreography to music and drill, women in marching arts leadership, performer safety, physical preparation and the lifelong friendships built through the activity.Marching Arts News: Southern University's Human Jukebox x Gap; BGSU's 600-member Falcon Marching Band; Barberton's Student Opportunity to Participate Fund; Cody Fry feat. The Blue Devils on “Magic in You.”Chapters:00:00 Meet Wanda Conway02:06 Welcome04:13 Human Jukebox x Gap05:04 BGSU Hits 60008:07 Barberton Participation Fund09:33 Cody Fry x Blue Devils13:14 Wanda's 32 Count Life Story17:36 Teaching the Cavaliers19:17 Teaching in Indonesia24:17 Career Highlights26:02 Choreography with Sadie31:54 Fundamentals Still Matter34:23 What Are We Doing?!34:40 Women in Leadership38:26 Writing to Music and Drill40:54 Performer Safety46:11 Physical Preparation50:11 Gush & Go54:40 Banana Ball Meets Marching Band01:04:31 Closing RehearsalPanel: Whitney Stone @dancerwhit | Sadie Wallace @m.sadiewallace | Jeremy Svoboda / Drum Corps Today @drumcorpstodayGuest: Wanda ConwayPresented by Guard Closet. Listen everywhere, explore Marching Arts News, meet the hosts and find more On A Water Break.

Devastating flash floods have killed more than 350 people near Nepal's border with Tibet. But the death toll remains fluid, with some 1,000 people still unaccounted for. Also, wildfires have raged for weeks in Indonesia, with smoke spreading into neighboring countries. And, former Serbian General Ratko Mladic, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," has died at the age of 84 in a prison hospital at The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence. Plus, Paris opens its first shop devoted exclusively to French butter. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

TT's: We talk about a run club in Indonesia that came under fire (07:48) and Alex Eala's first ever WTA 500 title (27:20)Where you bean?!: Rica talks about her amazing live Tour De France experience (42:33), and JC talks about his new Mantra in life (56:52)Follow Rica & JC on IG:@ricaggg@itsmejayseeLeche-Fan Mail:thehalohaloshow@gmail.comRecorded using the ELGATO WAVE 1 Microphones, go get one! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Your daily news in under three minutes.For more on these stories, please head to https://www.aljazeera.com And connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

Market HighlightsTrump Administration Launches Sweeping New Iran Sanctions Campaign Targeting Shipping and Oil TradeIran and Oman Unveil Framework for Future Management of Strait of HormuzCBP Issues Guidance for Section 338 Tariffs on CanadaCanada announces retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of US goods, unveils support measuresCMA CGM | INTERMODAL | Inland Emergency FeeRhine Water Rises Sharply After Rain, Ships Able to Load More CargoPanama Canal new capacity cuts put US ports on notice - FreightWavesNew EU customs rules for low-value imports reshaping traffic flowsBREAKING: States score win in fight over federal access to CDL driver database - FreightWavesGermany roadworks: economic impact to guide repairs | trans.infoDutch truck toll to jump by over 30% in January | trans.infoArticles of InterestNew return: Another container line is back in the Red Sea - FreightWavesMalacca Strait States Will Keep Waters ‘Free, Open and Safe'Brazil puts Hapag-Lloyd–ZIM deal on the clock | trans.infoCommodity Vessel Transits Through Strait of Hormuz Hit Three-Month Low, Data ShowsChina, Indonesia agree to boost military ties, work closer on minerals, energy and techDFDS freight volumes fall 3.2% as Channel market weakens | trans.infoPort of Montreal Contrecoeur expansion project reaches major milestone with the start of in-water construction workTurkey Braces For Potential Gas Squeeze as U.S. Targets Iran TradeEventsSept. 1 – Breaking Down the U.S. Customs Enforcement Executive Order (Asia)Sept. 2 – Breaking Down the U.S. Customs Enforcement Executive Order (Europe)

As Indonesia's export control policies increasingly attract attention, Vietnam is tentatively embracing the Korean Chaebol model.  Max Abbott, a seasoned analyst of both countries, helps compare and contrast their respective policy approaches.  Spoiler: the more market-oriented trajectory happens to be in the Communist country...Watch the YouTube version here: https://youtu.be/JqoB5jbxK18It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Our top news stories: HBO Max orders up 8 episodes of "The People vs. Gorilla Grodd", a real-life Superman becomes a symbol of hope battling wildfires in Indonesia, and we say a fond farewell to the woman who gave voice to Superman's mother for a generation of fans. Superman news for the period August 19-25, 2026. Brought to you by SupermanHomepage.com. Hosted by Steve Younis. Visit our website: https://www.SupermanHomepage.com/ Visit our online store: https://www.SupermanHomepage.com/shop Featured Products and Links: "Supergirl" Blu-rays and DVDs - https://www.supermanhomepage.com/supergirl-is-now-available-to-stream-at-home/ Steve Younis' book "Man of Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow" - https://amzn.to/3Y0KOGc Steve's "Man of Steel" T-Shirt - https://amzlink.to/az0qHDi4sbQH7 MAFEX "Death of Superman" Doomsday and Battle-Damaged Superman Action Figures - https://www.supermanhomepage.com/mafex-death-of-superman-doomsday-and-battle-damaged-superman-action-figures-available-to-pre-order/ Justice League Unlimited Art Print by Felipe Massafera - https://www.supermanhomepage.com/justice-league-unlimited-art-print-by-felipe-massafera/ Superman School Bags - https://www.supermanhomepage.com/superman-school-bags/ This week's Superman comic books - https://www.supermanhomepage.com/superman-comic-books-available-this-week-august-26-2026/ Latest Comic Book Reviews - https://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/2026-comic-reviews/c-review-2026.php

Why is everyone mad at Kolohe Andino? This week on Pinch My Salt, Sterling Spencer and Cousin Ryan break down the Kolohe Andino drama, the backlash inside surf culture, his comments about the modern surf industry, and why some surfers are questioning the former Target and Nike-sponsored pro surfer's new direction. We get into Kolohe Andino's surf film, the criticism that it was heavily inspired by an older Joe G. surf movie, the “core lord” complaints Sterling says started coming in, and the bigger question: can a surfer who benefited from huge mainstream sponsorships now criticize what surfing has become?From Kolohe Andino, Target, Nike and surf industry politics to Tom Curren, Kelly Slater, Jamie O'Brien, John John Florence, Dane Reynolds, surf brands, pro surfer sponsorships, surf films, surf media, vlogging and the loss of mystery in surfing, this episode gets into what “core” even means anymore. Sterling and Ryan debate whether Kolohe is being hypocritical, whether the surf world is being too hard on him, and whether he's actually one of the few surfers trying to bring creativity, style and real surf culture back.The boys also get into Tom Curren's legendary surf aura, why so many modern pro surfers feel overly branded, the rise (and possible death) of the term “core lord,” Gen Z surf culture, social media algorithms, surfing vlog content, and whether pro surfers should control their own careers instead of relying completely on surf brands.Then things go completely off the rails.Sterling discovers he may be becoming the Tony Hawk of surfing, the guys talk Kelly Slater, Jack Johnson, Reddit, John John Florence, Florence, Former, Outerknown, starting their own surf brand, and why the modern surf industry looks completely different from the Billabong-era surf world they grew up in.Later, Sterling gets surprisingly deep about growing up as a traveling pro surfer, spending years chasing waves around the world, the brutal Gulf Coast summer flat spell, and watching surfers constantly chase swell from Hawaii to Indonesia, Tahiti and Fiji. The conversation turns toward Nathan Florence, surf travel, getting older as a surfer, Sterling's brain injury, fatherhood, grief, forgiveness and learning how to actually slow down.Basically: Kolohe Andino drama, surf industry politics, core lords, surf brands, pro surfing, surf culture, questionable life advice and two cousins trying to figure out if surfing has completely lost the plot.Subscribe to Pinch My Salt for weekly surf news, surf culture, surfing stories, pro surfer interviews, comedy and the important conversations nobody else in surfing is brave—or dumb—enough to have.#KoloheAndino #Surfing #SurfCulture #SurfPodcast #PinchMySalt

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports another tanker has been hit in the Strait of Hormuz, as talks wrap up in Oman; a small village in France has been pummeled by a tornado leaving dozens injured; a mass prayer sitting in Indonesia hopes to stop devastating wildfires; and Australia's music industry bans AI-generated tracks from the official charts.

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports South Sumatra province in Indonesia has held a mass Islamic prayer for rain.

In this episode we discuss James Gunn celebrating 85 days of filming "Man of Tomorrow", David Krumholtz "Career on Hold" comments, Honest Trailers – "Supergirl" (2026), HBO Max orders comedy series "The People v. Gorilla Grodd", Shelley Fabares dies at 82, a teenager joins Indonesia's wildfire fight dressed as Superman, a real-life "Superman" robot debuts in China, Gary Larson takes on the Man of Steel, new art print and action figures, your favorite Metropolis designs, and much more.

Margaret Nash Rubin is affectionately referred to as Peggy. Since 1987 she has also been the principal teaching associate of Jean Houston. Working with Jean Houston, Peggy Rubin has presented classes, workshops and trainings throughout the United States, and in Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Sweden, Greece, Egypt, The Netherlands, India, West Africa, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Jamaica, and on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme, in Albania, St. Lucia, Barbados, Kenya, and the Philippines. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on Thursday, August 13, 2026) For a complete, updated list with links to all of our videos, see https://newthinkingallowed.com/Listings.htm. Check out the New Thinking Allowed Foundation website at http://www.newthinkingallowed.org. There you will find our incredible, searchable database as well as opportunities to shop and to support our video productions – plus, this is where people can subscribe to our FREE, weekly Newsletter and can download a FREE .pdf copy of our quarterly magazine. To order high-quality, printed copies of our quarterly magazine: NTA-Magazine.MagCloud.com Check out New Thinking Allowed's AI chatbot. You can create a free account at awakin.ai/open/jeffreymishlove. When you enter the space, you will see that our chatbot is one of several you can interact with. While it is still a work in progress, it has been trained on 1,600 NTA transcripts. It can provide intelligent answers about the contents of our interviews. It's almost like having a conversation with Jeffrey Mishlove. If you would like to join our team of volunteers, helping to promote the New Thinking Allowed YouTube channel on social media, editing and translating videos, creating short video trailers based on our interviews, helping to upgrade our website, or contributing in other ways (we may not even have thought of), please send an email to friends@newthinkingallowed.com. To download and listen to audio versions of the New Thinking Allowed videos, please visit our new podcast at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/new-thinking-allowed-audio-podcast/id1435178031. Download and read Jeffrey Mishlove's Grand Prize essay in the Bigelow Institute competition, Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death, go to https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/docs/1st.pdf. You can help support our video productions while enjoying a good book. To order a copy of New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: Is There Life After Death? click on https://amzn.to/3LzLA7Y (As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.) To order the second book in the New Thinking Allowed Dialogues series, Russell Targ: Ninety Years of ESP, Remote Viewing, and Timeless Awareness, go to https://amzn.to/4aw2iyr To order a copy of New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: UFOs and UAP – Are We Really Alone?, go to https://amzn.to/3Y0VOVh To order a copy of Charles T. Tart: Seventy Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology, go to https://amzn.to/4oOUJLn

MUSLIMS ARE planning enclaves that could put self-contained religious communities near Dallas and Houston. Meanwhile, amplifiers broadcast the call to prayer in American cities like Minneapolis, Dearborn and Hamtramck, Michigan, and Paterson, New Jersey. Imams are growing increasingly bold in their statements that their goal is to turn America into a Muslim nation. What most Americans don't realize is that there is no separation of church and state in Islam. The church IS the state, for all intents and purposes. But more than that, this is a spiritual war that the god of Muhammad—who is not to be confused with the triune God of the Bible—intends to win. Here's the link to the article Derek mentioned, "A Call to Power: Islamic Leaders See Ballot Box as Path to Paradise," by Paul Sperry. That fact is also behind a statement issued by the foreign ministers of Turkey, the UAE, Indonesia, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. In a joint statement, the ministers objected to Israel's plan to build 3,400 new dwellings in an area east of Jerusalem called E1. They complain that this would separate Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem from the rest of the so-called West Bank, blocking the creation of a future Palestinian state with its capital at Jerusalem. From the Israeli standpoint, that is rather the point. After the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Israel will not accept an independent Palestinian state on its borders. Further eroding the situation in the Middle East, Turkey has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Turks are seeking an Interpol red notice for the arrest of Netanyahu as part of a criminal case against him for Israel's interception of an aid flotilla sailing for Gaza back in May. The charges include genocide, crimes against humanity and torture. Well, good luck with that. We also discussed a plan to build data centers around the ring of fire, the volcanically active area around the Pacific Ocean, using geothermal energy to power the centers. Tapping into volcanoes to generate electricity. What can possibly go wrong? Also: Social media is causing an epidemic of mental and spiritual illness, as evidenced by the crowd of women who gathered outside the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts Thursday in support of Lindsay Clancy, who has admitted to killing her three children. Granted, postpartum depression is a real thing. But that doesn't mean Clancy shouldn't be held accountable for what she did. Derek's new book War of the Watchers Book One: From Baal to Balfour is now available at Amazon in paperback and as a Kindle e-book! It's also a part of a special offer at the SkyWatchTV store: Get War of the Watchers, Derek's previous book The Second Coming of Saturn, and a 13-part teaching DVD based on The Second Coming of Saturn for your donation of at least $45! Follow us! • X (formerly Twitter): @pidradio | @sharonkgilbert | @derekgilbert• Telegram: t.me/gilberthouse | t.me/sharonsroom | t.me/viewfromthebunker• Substack: gilberthouse.substack.com | SharonKGilbert.substack.com• YouTube: @GilbertHouse | @UnravelingRevelation• Facebook.com/pidradio Thank you for making our Build Barn Better project a reality! f you are so led, you can help out at www.GilbertHouse.org/donate. Get our free app! It connects you to this podcast, our weekly Bible studies, and our weekly video programs Unraveling Revelation and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at pidradio.com/app. JOIN US IN ISRAEL (NOTE NEW DATES)! We will tour the Holy Land October 25–November 6, 2027 with an optional three-day extension to Jordan. For more information, log on to GilbertHouse.org/travel. Think better, feel better! Our partners at Simply Clean Foods offer freeze-dried, 100% GMO-free food and delicious, vacuum-packed fair trade coffee from Honduras. Find out more at GilbertHouse.org/store/.

Examining the emergence of international public health policy between the 1930s and 80s, The Emergence of International Health Policy in Southeast Asia, India, and Sri Lanka, 1937–1978 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) by Dr. Vivek Neelakantan sheds light on the role that rural community health initiatives in South and Southeast Asia played in the movement towards ‘primary health care' and ‘health for all,' articulated ultimately at the 1978 International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. The author argues that the movement was not directed exclusively from the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, but also by institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Division in rural Southeast Asia, and through local community initiatives including the Bandung Plan for Health in Indonesia. The book illustrates how an exclusive association of global health with the emergence of the WHO in the 1950s fails to account for the local, national, or regional contexts that shaped the evolution of primary health care in South and Southeast Asia. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Examining the emergence of international public health policy between the 1930s and 80s, The Emergence of International Health Policy in Southeast Asia, India, and Sri Lanka, 1937–1978 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) by Dr. Vivek Neelakantan sheds light on the role that rural community health initiatives in South and Southeast Asia played in the movement towards ‘primary health care' and ‘health for all,' articulated ultimately at the 1978 International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. The author argues that the movement was not directed exclusively from the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, but also by institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Division in rural Southeast Asia, and through local community initiatives including the Bandung Plan for Health in Indonesia. The book illustrates how an exclusive association of global health with the emergence of the WHO in the 1950s fails to account for the local, national, or regional contexts that shaped the evolution of primary health care in South and Southeast Asia. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.  Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies

Tamara, Jacob, and Plum investigate what Anna might have put on the hard drive, while Reacher converses with Sampson about his actions in Indonesia. And then shit hits the fan when the body of Jacob's nephew is discovered, and the circumstances of his death are revealed.Support The Alliance On Patreon & Get Ad-Free, Exclusive, Early Episodeshttps://www.patreon.com/guanetworkGeek Ultimate Alliance Network Is Produced By GeekVerse Podcast www.geekverse.caNetwork Schedule Monday: Rangers Alliance Tuesday: A Walk Through The MultiverseWednesday: The Animation Nation Thursday: Star Wars AllianceFriday: Marvel AllianceSaturday: DC AllianceFollow the respective shows on Twitter so when they record live on GeekVerse Podcast Network you can join the chat and add to the conversation!

Examining the emergence of international public health policy between the 1930s and 80s, The Emergence of International Health Policy in Southeast Asia, India, and Sri Lanka, 1937–1978 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) by Dr. Vivek Neelakantan sheds light on the role that rural community health initiatives in South and Southeast Asia played in the movement towards ‘primary health care' and ‘health for all,' articulated ultimately at the 1978 International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. The author argues that the movement was not directed exclusively from the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, but also by institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Division in rural Southeast Asia, and through local community initiatives including the Bandung Plan for Health in Indonesia. The book illustrates how an exclusive association of global health with the emergence of the WHO in the 1950s fails to account for the local, national, or regional contexts that shaped the evolution of primary health care in South and Southeast Asia. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies

Weather experts are warning that a developing El Niño weather system could become the strongest since modern records began. The effects of El Niño on weather patterns are already being felt.Also in the programme: Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan has been returned to prison after being in hospital; and a new book on the violent career of Carlos the Jackal.(Picture: Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in Indonesia. A severe dry season, intensified by El Nino has fueled wildfires. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)

Don’t Get Hung Up On the Ring Junior This week on the podcast, Brian and Darryl examine PlayStation fans' plan to disappear from Sony's servers, see whether AFC Richmond can find its next generation of unlikely heroes, follow Reacher through four episodes of government conspiracies and creatively applied violence, and investigate the gritty, grounded, and extremely grimy, series premiere of HBO's Lanterns. Episode Index Intro: 0:07 Sony PS5 User Sign Out Protest: 4:28 Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 3: 13:14 Reacher Season 4 Episodes 1-4: 23:24 Lanterns Pilot Episode: 33:45 Sony PS5 User Sign-Out Protest PlayStation fans are organizing a seven-day “PS5 Blackout” from August 23–30, asking players to sign out, leave their consoles offline, and avoid PlayStation purchases. The protest targets Sony's reported plan to stop producing new physical PlayStation releases beginning in January 2028, alongside broader frustration over price increases, studio closures, and the industry's continued shift away from physical ownership. A related “Don't Kill the Disc” petition has attracted hundreds of thousands of supporters. Ted Lasso (AppleTV) Season: 4 Episode: 3 Episode Title: “Richmond's Got Talent” Release Date: August 19, 2026 Platform: Apple TV Genre: Sports Comedy-Drama Running Time: 46 minutes Directed By: MJ Delaney Written By: Sasha Garron Developed By: Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, and Joe Kelly Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Tanya Reynolds, Abbie Hern, Faye Marsay, and Jude Mack Episode Synopsis: Ted, Beard, and Alice hold open tryouts to complete AFC Richmond's new women's team. Gemma, Lizzie, Shannon, and the other hopefuls get their chance to earn a place with the Lady Greyhounds before the hastily assembled squad faces its first friendly match. Meanwhile, Rebecca attempts to secure the sponsorship needed to make the new team financially viable. Rating out of 5, Futbol Isn’t Everyone’s Life Brian: 3/5 Darryl: 3.6/5 Reacher (Amazon Prime) Season: 4 Episodes Covered: 1–4 Premiere Date: August 12, 2026 Platform: Prime Video Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller Developed By: Nick Santora Based On: Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child Starring: Alan Ritchson, Sydelle Noel, Christopher Marquette, Agnez Mo, Anggun, Kevin Corrigan, Kevin Weisman, Marc Blucas, and Kathleen Robertson Episode Guide Episode 1 – “City of Brotherly Love” Directed By: Sam Hill Written By: Nick Santora Release Date: August 12, 2026 A late-night encounter on a Philadelphia subway leaves Reacher connected to the death of government employee Anna Merrick—and to a missing USB drive that several heavily armed groups believe she gave him. Episode 2 – “Cage Fight” Directed By: Sam Hill Written By: Scott Sullivan Release Date: August 12, 2026 Reacher, Detective Tamara Green, and Anna's brother Jacob escape detention and follow the conspiracy from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., where Congressman John Sampson becomes the investigation's primary target. Episode 3 – “One Small Step” Directed By: Sam Hill Written By: Seth Cohen and Amy Pocha Release Date: August 12, 2026 The investigation expands into allegations involving Indonesia, military atrocities, investigative journalists, and multiple groups willing to kill for the missing information. Episode 4 – “Karambits and Pieces” Directed By: Gary Fleder Written By: Penny Cox Release Date: August 19, 2026 Reacher interrogates Sampson, Tamara infiltrates a government facility, and evidence surrounding a distinctive Indonesian weapon forces the team to reconsider who can be trusted. Rating out of 10, Why Does Reacher Run Like Thad Castle Now? Brian: 7/10 Darryl: 6.9/10 Lanterns (HBO Max) Season: 1 Episode: 1 Episode Title: “Pilot” Release Date: August 16, 2026 Network/Platform: HBO and HBO Max Genre: Superhero, Science Fiction, Crime Drama Running Time: 57 minutes Directed By: James Hawes Written By: Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King Created By: Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King Starring: Aaron Pierre, Kyle Chandler, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Jason Ritter, Nathan Fillion, Ulrich Thomsen, and Nicole Ari Parker Episode Synopsis: Veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan and new recruit John Stewart investigate a mass shooting at a high-school football game in rural Nebraska. Evidence suggests that the attack may not have been entirely human, launching a mystery that unfolds across events in 2016 and 2026—and ends with a discovery that changes the direction of John's investigation. Rating out of 5, Is the Ring of Power Nerfed? I Think It’s Nerfed. Brian: 3.4/5 Darryl: 3.1/5 Contact Us The Infamous Podcast can be found wherever podcasts are found on the Interwebs, feel free to subscribe and follow along on social media. And don't be shy about helping out the show with a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help us move up in the ratings. @infamouspodcast facebook/infamouspodcast instagram/infamouspodcast stitcher Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Play iHeart Radio contact@infamouspodcast.com Our theme music is ‘Skate Beat’ provided by Michael Henry, with additional music provided by Michael Henry. Find more at MeetMichaelHenry.com. The Infamous Podcast is hosted by Brian Tudor and Darryl Jasper, is recorded in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show is produced and edited by Brian Tudor. Subscribe today!

If China controls maritime East Asia, what would that mean for Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, global trade, and U.S. security?In Episode 163, Ray Powell and Jim Carouso speak with retired U.S. Navy Captain Brent Sadler, a career submariner, former U.S. defense attaché in Malaysia, Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow and author of two books: U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century and Naval Power in Action: Seizing the Initiative in the New Cold War with China.Sadler's answer is blunt: China is exercising growing control over maritime East Asia, as Beijing has spent decades building the military, commercial, and political leverage to do exactly that. He says this is not just a question of aircraft carriers, missiles, and hull counts, but also about China's strategic commercial footprint in ports, shipping and repair infrastructure, distant-water fishing fleets, maritime militia, and the China Coast Guard.Ray and Jim ask what it means that China's coast guard vessels are operating east of Taiwan. Are these deployments preparation for a possible blockade? Why are fishing fleets moving in organized formations? And how could Beijing use gray-zone coercion to change the status quo before anyone agrees that a crisis has begun?The conversation also examines the recent China-Russia naval exercises and potential for submarine technology transfer, Russian pressure on Japan around the Kuril Islands, and Beijing's efforts to turn even limited naval interactions with countries such as Indonesia into political and propaganda victories. Sadler explains why Southeast Asian leaders' rhetoric must be weighed against what matters on the water: maritime rights, military exercises, commercial ties, and freedom of navigation.Finally, Sadler assesses the military balance approaching the much-discussed 2027 window of war concerns, China's Taiwan contingency preparations, gaps in America's carrier presence in the Indo-Pacific, U.S. shipbuilding deficits, the future of unmanned vessels, and what Ukraine's drone war may mean for Taiwan and regional partners.Sadler's larger warning is that maritime control is no longer just a contest of fleets, but a contest of coercion, commerce, access, and political will; one in which Beijing can test regional governments, reshape behavior below the threshold of war, and learn whether America and its allies will respond before temporary pressure becomes a permanent advantage.Follow Brent Sadler at the Heritage Foundation, on LinkedIn or on X, @brentdsadlerFollow us on X, @IndoPacPodcast, LinkedIn or FacebookFollow Ray on X, @GordianKnotRay, or LinkedInFollow Jim on LinkedInSponsored by BowerGroupAsia

"Tourists are now viewed as a source of taxation revenue. It's increasingly hard to raise taxes on your own citizens, but if you have 30+ million tourists each year, that's a lot of potential tax you can raise." This week, Gary and Hannah discuss the multiple challenges Thailand faces in increasing its proposed tourism tax, from THB300 to THB450 - and collecting it. Meanwhile, Vietnam's stellar tourism run continues with a raft of upcoming initiatives and an eye-watering new inbound tourism target. As South East Asian nations have become accustomed to welcoming more Russian tourists, what about travel in the reverse direction? Russia's tourism authorities are targeting tourists from the region to bolster its visitor economy. Plus, we tackle the latest airline route rationalisations and service cutbacks attributed to the Iran War fuel crisis, and a new tourism budget row in the Philippines. Finally, we look at how Vietnam (digital heritage passport) and Indonesia (premium tourism) are introducing new thinking into their domestic travel economy planning. All this and much more.

Athaya was born in Bali and raised across different parts of Indonesia. She currently lives in Jakarta and curates trips throughout Indonesia to help travelers meaningfully connect with the country. You NEED to listen to this episode if you're interested in ✨ traveling to Indonesia for the first time and want to know where to go, how to plan, and how to do so responsibly

On Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg, Dani speaks with Kat Taylor, Founder of TomKat Ranch and TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation. They discuss how we scale regenerative agriculture and mitigate risk for food producers, why school meals are such an incredible lever for change, and the power of listening deeply and empathizing completely to advance shared goals for food systems transformation. Plus, high-level talks on drought and desertification kick off this week, organizations mobilize to help communities impacted by recent earthquakes in Colombia and Indonesia, innovations help women fishers reduce post-harvest waste, a new resource helps decision-makers identify crops worth investing in, and California begins phasing out a toxic weedkiller.  While you're listening, subscribe, rate, and review the show; it would mean the world to us to have your feedback. You can listen to "Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg" wherever you consume your podcasts.

Chef Dean Harrison has spent 14 of his 22 years as a chef cooking on superyachts — from a 100-footer that rode out a cyclone in the South Pacific to a 280-footer spending $50,000 a week on provisions. This episode is for anyone who's ever wondered what's actually on the other side of the "yacht life" fantasy, and for any chef weighing whether a different version of this career exists.Register for the free monthly Culinary Leadership Lab @ https://thecheflifebrigade.com/thelab"You need to leave that ego in the restaurant. But honestly, if you can do that, you're going to be a successful yacht chef."The Job Nobody Warns You AboutDean's first yacht job was a six-day crossing from Brisbane to Fiji — and it put him inside the eye of a cyclone for the entire trip. Two sailors racing in the same storm system died and fell overboard. The boat's stabilizers failed, the hydraulics overheated, and the captain hand-steered for 48 hours while the hull rolled hard enough that Dean kept a mask and snorkel by his bed, working out which doors he'd swim through if the boat flipped.That's not the version of yacht life that makes it into the brochure, or the reality show. And it's the story Dean leads with now — not the biggest boat he's worked on, not the fanciest guest — because it's the truest one.Why YachtsTwenty-two years ago, Dean started his apprenticeship at 15 in what he calls "the Gordon Ramsay era" — yelling, getting burned, abusive kitchen culture treated as normal. He wasn't chasing Michelin stars. He was looking for a version of this career that let him travel, get paid what he was worth, and keep his sanity intact. Yachting checked every box he didn't know he was allowed to want.What "Below Deck" Doesn't Show YouOn a superyacht, roughly 70% of the boat belongs to guests — the flowers, the leather, the finishes. The other 30% is crew country: bunk beds, shared cabins, thinner carpet, harsher lighting. You can feel exactly where you cross that threshold. It's not exploitation, Dean is clear — it's just the part nobody photographs.The economics on the guest side are almost absurd by comparison. A week charter on his last boat ran $1.2 million. The chef's food budget alone was $50,000 a week — not because guests eat that much, but because you're provisioning for anything they might ask for, at any hour, with no grocery store to run to mid-ocean. Tips ran $4,000–$8,000 a week per crew member. Which is how you end up getting woken at 3am to make chicken fingers, and being genuinely fine with it.The Village That Gave Him a FreezerThe two places Dean says actually changed him weren't the biggest boats — they were Alaska and Raja Ampat, Indonesia. In Vanuatu, his yacht stopped at a remote village the owners had given solar panels the year before. Dean asked the chief's son the reflexive question — "what do you do for a living?" — and got looked at like it didn't compute."I fish, I grow my vegetables, and I live," the man told him. "I smoke a bit of weed." In the year since the solar panels arrived, the village had built a small economy around freezing fish to sell in town. Dean's takeaway wasn't a lesson about simplicity — it was a correction to the assumption that wealthy people are careless with what they have. He's met, in his words, some of the most generous people he'll ever know, on boats most people will never set foot on.What It Actually CostsThe entry price is almost nothing — an STCW safety course and a basic medical exam run about $1,300 total. The real cost shows up later: missed weddings, relationships that don't survive the distance, and years living in shared cabins with people you didn't choose. Dean calls himself lucky — he started young, with no baggage — but he's honest that the mental toll compounds, especially for anyone who isn't naturally good with people in tight quarters.His one non-negotiable: coffee on deck every morning, watching the sunrise, before the day starts. And a rule he wishes he'd learned faster — know when to leave. "This is bullshit. I don't feel happy waking up every day. I leave," is how he puts it now, after staying on boats longer than he should have more than once in 14 years.Eight Years to Feel Like a Real ChefDespite steady work on increasingly high-end boats, it took Dean about eight years to fully trust that he belonged — that he could walk onto any yacht, read what the guests actually wanted, and deliver it. Now running a coaching program and recruitment agency for yacht chefs, he says the imposter syndrome is gone, not because he became perfect, but because he can see exactly where he went wrong and hand newer chefs a shortcut around it.The One Thing That Still Worries HimNot the storms. Not the isolation. The mental toll of chefs sacrificing themselves for people who, in his words, "couldn't care less if you stay or leave" and "forget about you within a year." Three or four burnouts into his own career, it's the part of the industry he's most focused on changing — both through his coaching and by pushing owners and agencies to actually pay chefs what they're worth.Big appreciation to everyone building something real out of an industry that doesn't always make it easy — this conversation is for anyone quietly wondering if there's a different way to build this career.Chapters00:00 — Cold Open — The Hallway Where the Yacht Changes02:04 — Almost Dying in a Cyclone Crossing the South Pacific06:13 — Welcome, Chef Dean Harrison06:35 — Why Yachts? Leaving the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant Era10:31 — What "Below Deck" Doesn't Show You13:36 — Provisioning $50K a Week for One Charter16:01 — The 365-Day Operation: Where the Extra Food Goes17:17 — Temp, Full-Time, and Rotational Contracts18:43 — Recession-Proof: Why the Rich Keep Chartering20:39 — The MLC: The Law That Protects Crew at Sea21:40 — The Creative Freedom of Not Costing a Plate24:15 — Alaska, Raja Ampat, and the Village That Changed Him26:56 — What It Actually Costs to Get In27:55 — What It Costs You Emotionally, Physically, Romantically29:26 — Coffee, Sunrise, and Knowing When to Leave a Boat31:50 — Safety, Predators, and What the MLC Actually Protects34:31 — The Thorns: 24-Hour Service and Leaving Your Ego Behind35:46 — How to Actually Prepare for This Industry37:41 — Why Chefs Leave: Camaraderie, Burnout, and the Clock39:36 — Eight Years to Feel Like a Real Chef40:50 — Imposter Syndrome on the Other Side of the Table42:29 — Building an Agency and Fighting for Better Pay43:00 — What He'd Tell His 22-Year-Old Self44:28 — Play: Snowboarding, Free Diving, Staying Human45:00 — The Next 12 Months46:14 — The One Thing That Still Worries HimBecome a Yacht Chef | Get Hired, Get Paid, See the WorldAbout Dean Harrison — Yacht Chef & FounderThe Yacht ChefDean Harrison | The Yacht ChefAB Techniccal College | Culinary ProgramCarolina Health & WellnessRegister for The Leadership LabAdam M LambChef Life Media LLC

What if the light God placed in you only shines as the vessel breaks? Ken Fish and Kady Taylor welcome back Jeffrey Fazl—longtime friend, church planter, and deliverance minister from Australia—for an honest, tender conversation ahead of the Luminosity conference (Nashville, Oct 1–3, 2026). Register: https://kingdomluminosity.org/Jeffrey shares openly about seasons of "eclipse"—years in Indonesia, deep grief, and recent dark nights of the soul—and how the Lord kept drawing him back out with fresh purpose. From that comes the thread running through the whole conversation: brokenness feeds the carnal man, and healing it—through inner healing, deliverance, and confession together—sets us free to shine. Tying it to the conference theme, he unpacks luminosity as the light within, emerging not by striving but as the fear and performance that keep us hidden are healed.In this conversation:Jeffrey's seasons of "eclipse"—and how the Lord drew him back outWhy "brokenness feeds the carnal man"How inner healing, deliverance, and confession work togetherLuminosity as the light within, emerging as the vessel breaksThe difference between damaging brokenness and being broken before the LordKeeping a soft heart instead of hardening itThe war against a "performance" mindsetReaching the next generation with heroes, encounter, and real powerRegister for Luminosity

 EPISODE DESCRIPTION I sat down with Rick Thomas, co-CEO of OnRamper, to dig into a problem most crypto projects hit eventually: on-ramping is way more complicated than it looks. OnRamper aggregates over 30 on-ramping services into a single API and widget, giving wallets, exchanges, neo banks, and trading apps full global coverage without the headache of managing dozens of integrations. Rick breaks down why the on-ramp market is so fragmented, how their AI-powered routing algorithm maximises success rates across countries and payment methods, why KYC is still the biggest bottleneck in the space, and where the whole fiat-to-crypto journey is heading as TradFi and on-chain finance continue to merge. We also get into their identity layer product, the no-KYC card world and its risks, where we are in the current market cycle, and what OnRamper is building next. DISCLAIMERNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/ CONNECT OnRamper Website: https://onramper.com/OnRamper LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onramper/Rick Thomas LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-thomas/OnRamper Twitter/X: https://x.com/getonramper?s=21&t=GgYr5F_q7Jm-R2MfE-A6xAOnRamper Telegram: https://t.me/onramperstandardRick Thomas Twitter/X: https://x.com/RickTho16000125Web3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS • [00:00] Introduction to Rick Thomas and OnRamper , aggregating 30+ on-ramps into one API and widget• [01:33] How Rick got into crypto in 2015 via a Moscow office full of Bitcoin mining rigs strapped to the ceiling• [04:19] The origin story of OnRamper , founder Thijs Maas was building a wallet, kept hitting on-ramp dead ends, and decided to build the aggregator instead• [06:24] Why the on-ramp market is so fragmented , licensing, regional requirements, fraud engines, KYC layers, and low barriers to entry• [08:09] OnRamper's B2B2C model , clients include TrustWallet, Exodus, Coinbase Wallet, Axiom, Pump.fun, gate.io, and more• [09:18] The rise of neo banks and card programs, and why aggregating card issuers is OnRamper's next big move• [13:44] KYC as the biggest unsolved bottleneck , and OnRamper's identity layer built in partnership with Sumsub• [15:10] The biggest mistake projects make when adding on-ramps , assuming one or two providers will be enough• [17:19] Customer success story: closing Solflare at a pizza-and-ping-pong side event at Breakpoint 2023• [19:18] How OnRamper's dual AI routing algorithm works , real-time routing across payment methods, countries, pricing, and historical success rates• [22:05] Why end-to-end success rates are the North Star metric , and how rates can plummet in markets like Indonesia without local payment methods• [24:21] Where fiat on-ramps are heading , consolidation, bank crypto integrations, virtual accounts, stablecoin rails, and card programs• [28:29] The no-KYC card world explained , how they work, the risks involved, and why compliance exposure falls entirely on the user• [32:49] OnRamper is still breaking volume and revenue records despite a broader bear market• [35:02] Biggest current challenge: an aggressive product roadmap and a need for more engineers• [37:27] Key asks , engineers near or open to Amsterdam, and projects still running single on-ramp integrations looking to upgrade

From chocolate and sugar prices to energy markets and inflation, El Niño's impacts may soon reach far beyond the weather forecast. Our Latin America Agribusiness Analyst Julia Rizzo maps out where the pressure could emerge first.Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Julia Rizzo, Latin America Agribusiness Analyst at Morgan Stanley. Today: how El Niño could move from the Pacific into commodity markets, grocery prices, and investor portfolios. It's Wednesday, August 19th, at 10am in Sao Paulo.You may not follow rainfall patterns in Brazil or cocoa-growing conditions in West Africa. But you immediately notice when chocolate, groceries, or electricity cost more. And you can connect the dots to El Niño -- a warming cycle in the Pacific Ocean that disrupts weather globally. It changes where rain falls and shapes the outlook for crops, power markets, transportation, and inflation. There is now a 95 percent chance of a very strong El Niño in the fourth quarter of 2026. It could end up being among the most powerful events in more than 75 years of recorded history. Timing and location matter greatly. Crop damage often depends on whether heat or heavy rain arrives during a narrow planting, flowering, or harvest window. The most direct effects are likely to appear first in commodities. Sugar is on the list of commodities most exposed to favorable price dynamics from weather conditions. Cocoa also looks tight. Grains are more complicated. Soybeans need evidence of a net South American production loss. Problems in northern Brazil may be offset by stronger crops in Argentina or Brazil south. Corn is even more dependent on timing. The key near-term catalyst remains U.S. weather and crops. What happens next matters well beyond agricultural markets. Food is the main channel through which El Niño reaches the broader economy, and the effect usually appears after a one-year lag. That makes inflation primarily a 2027 story. In Latin America, the largest incremental inflation risks are concentrated in Peru, Brazil, and Colombia, with most of the pressure arriving in 2027. That matters for central banks. Weather shocks can fade. So, policymakers often look through an initial rise in food prices. The greater concern is that higher food costs may begin to influence inflation expectations, wages, rents, or other prices across the economy. Colombia stands out as the clearest case where those second-round effects could complicate monetary policy. India and Indonesia also face meaningful economic exposure. Agriculture accounts for a large share of output and employment in these countries. India is especially sensitive. Agriculture represents about 18 percent of the GDP, 43 to 45 [percent] of jobs, while food makes up roughly 36 percent of the consumer price basket. Record food reserves may provide some protection, though a poor growing season could still weigh on rural incomes and keep food inflation elevated. The economic consequences will vary widely. Higher agricultural prices can support farmer income and benefit some parts of the food and agricultural supply chain. They can also raise costs for households, food producers, and businesses that depend on grains and sugar. Utilities may benefit in markets where hotter or drier conditions lift electricity prices, while heavy rainfall could disrupt transport routes and airports in those exposed regions. Historical asset-price signals are limited, so this is less of a broad macro trade than a detailed assessment of local exposure. Rainfall, crop timing, inventories, and the ability to pass higher costs on to consumers will determine where the pressure lands. El Niño may begin in the Pacific, but its market footprint can travel from cocoa farms in West Africa to a grocery aisle, a power grid, or a central bank meeting. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a review and share Thoughts on the Market with a friend or colleague today.

La guerra de Irán comenzó a finales de febrero con el objetivo declarado de derrocar a los ayatolás y reordenar Oriente Medio, y desde entonces sus objetivos no han dejado de encoger. Del cambio de régimen se pasó a contener el programa nuclear, luego a frenar el programa de drones y misiles drones iraníes, después a desactivar a las milicias aliadas de Irán y, por último, a reabrir un estrecho de Ormuz que estaba abierto antes de que Trump ordenara el ataque. Ahora, tal y como declaró hace unos días el vicepresidente JD Vance, la prioridad es bajar el precio de la gasolina para el consumidor estadounidense, que se verá con las urnas dentro de poco más de dos meses. Trump tuvo que corregirle y colocar de nuevo el programa nuclear como primer objetivo, pero lo cierto es que Estados Unidos e Irán llevan meses sin hablar sobre ese asunto. El problema es que abaratar la gasolina se ha vuelto imposible por culpa de la propia guerra. Ormuz sigue prácticamente cerrado, hay unos diez o quince cruces diarios frente al centenar que había antes de la guerra, la mayor parte con los transpondedores apagados o pagando el peaje que impone Irán en la ruta septentrional. El estrecho, por lo demás, se ha convertido en una galería de tiro. Los rastreadores marítimos contabilizan 70 ataques a mercantes, 24 muertos y 45 heridos. En lugar de ir a menos, va a más. Lo que llevamos del mes de agosto concentra ya el 20% de todos los ataques. Estados Unidos ha dejado de responder con ataques selectivos desde finales de julio, en su lugar está apostando por la asfixia económica mediante un bloqueo naval con el que pretende que Irán toque fondo y suplique un acuerdo. El cálculo tiene un fallo. El garrote está golpeando también a quien lo empuña. El Brent ronda los 91 dólares, la gasolina se paga a más de 4 dólares el galón frente a los poco más de 3 de hace un año. La capacidad mundial de refino no da abasto ya que la otra guerra, la de Ucrania, está cebándose con las refinerías rusas. Que entre más crudo en el mercado no sirve de nada si no hay dónde refinarlo. En medio de este naufragio algunos se han empeñado en nadar. Los Emiratos han montado un sistema de transbordos para sacar su crudo del golfo y hasta han aumentado su producción. Omán, siempre discreto y con salida directa al Índico, negocia con el gobierno iraní una gestión compartida del estrecho de Ormuz inspirada en lo que se hace en el de Malaca, donde Indonesia, Malasia y Singapur cobran por una serie de servicios de navegación. Para los omaníes algo así sería como un maná, de ahí que estén desplegando una ofensiva diplomática por medio mundo para buscar apoyos para esa salida. A Trump el plan le parece un robo y una humillación, por eso ha vuelto a amenazar con bombardear Omán. Entretanto, la diplomacia sigue muerta, el memorando de Islamabad es papel mojado y los halcones iraníes se han crecido. Todo muy poco épico a pesar de que esto empezó con una operación que llevaba ese nombre, una operación que prometía acabar con una teocracia ha terminado en una discusión sobre peajes marítimos y precios del combustible. En La ContraRéplica: 0:00 Introducción 3:36 El laberinto del Golfo 31:54 La izquierda y Jason Arday 42:36 Gas ruso en la UE 48:37 ¿Por qué los europeos invierten poco en renta variable? · Canal de Telegram: https://t.me/lacontracronica · “Contra el pesimismo”… https://amzn.to/4m1RX2R · “Hispanos. Breve historia de los pueblos de habla hispana”… https://amzn.to/428js1G · “La ContraHistoria del comunismo”… https://amzn.to/39QP2KE · “La ContraHistoria de España. Auge, caída y vuelta a empezar de un país en 28 episodios”… https://amzn.to/3kXcZ6i · “Contra la Revolución Francesa”… https://amzn.to/4aF0LpZ · “Lutero, Calvino y Trento, la Reforma que no fue”… https://amzn.to/3shKOlK Apoya La Contra en: · Patreon... https://www.patreon.com/diazvillanueva · iVoox... https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-contracronica_sq_f1267769_1.html · Paypal... https://www.paypal.me/diazvillanueva Sígueme en: · Web... https://diazvillanueva.com · Twitter... https://twitter.com/diazvillanueva · Facebook... https://www.facebook.com/fernandodiazvillanueva1/ · Instagram... https://www.instagram.com/diazvillanueva · Linkedin… https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-d%C3%ADaz-villanueva-7303865/ · Flickr... https://www.flickr.com/photos/147276463@N05/?/ · Pinterest... https://www.pinterest.com/fernandodiazvillanueva Encuentra mis libros en: · Amazon... https://www.amazon.es/Fernando-Diaz-Villanueva/e/B00J2ASBXM #FernandoDiazVillanueva #iran #golfopersico Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Pacific War. In late 1941, the Second Battle of Changsha ended with Chinese forces claiming victory despite suffering nearly 100,000 casualties against roughly 1,670 Japanese losses. Chiang Kai-shek's government launched an aggressive propaganda campaign, flooding international press with fabricated triumph narratives to sustain national morale. Behind closed doors, Chiang was furious at his generals' tactical failures, executing commanders and dismantling units. Meanwhile, geopolitical forces threatened China's survival. Japan's 1939 defeat at Nomonhan crushed hopes for a Soviet alliance against Tokyo. Germany's pact with the Soviet Union left China isolated, while Western powers remained reluctant to commit meaningful support. Britain offered little; the US provided only modest loans. By 1941, facing potential collapse, Chiang desperately searched for allies while Wang Jingwei's Japanese-backed rival government beckoned as an alternative. China's exhausted people endured horror—including a 1941 bombing massacre in Chongqing that killed over 400 trapped civilians. Then Japan unleashed a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.   #215 An Implosion in the East Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   In the early morning of December 7, 1941, the US Pacific Fleet was anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Two waves of Japanese bomber aircraft, launched from six aircraft carriers, attacked the vessels and their sleeping crews, destroying the battleship Arizona outright and damaging seventeen others, as well as most of the military aircraft parked nearby. Some 2,400 Americans died, and another 1,100 were wounded. Within a day Japanese invasion forces had attacked Siam, Malaya, and the Philippines. Chiang Kai-shek heard the news at one o'clock in the morning and immediately dictated a letter of support to President Roosevelt, pledging commitment to a new "common battle." The news reached Zhou Fohai in Shanghai as well. On December 8 across the international date line from Hawaii he had heard the sounds of firing as the Japanese took over the rest of the city, and then received reports that Japan had declared war on the Western powers. "I heard they'd bombed Honolulu, Manila, Singapore, and Hong Kong. From now on, the Pacific becomes a killing ground."   When Japanese carrier planes descended on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, they were executing far more than a tactical strike. They were unleashing the culmination of a strategic vision that had shaped Japanese military planning since the 1920s: the Nanshin-ron, or "Southern Advance" doctrine.    The Nanshin-ron represented a critical strategic choice that emerged from internal Japanese debates during the 1920s and 1930s. Japan faced an inescapable vulnerability: it was an island nation with virtually no natural resources of its own. The nation's population had doubled since the Meiji Restoration, growing to over 70 million by 1941. An industrial economy of tremendous sophistication, capable of producing world-class warships, aircraft, and military equipment, depended entirely on imported raw materials. Oil, rubber, tin, iron ore, bauxite, copper, and manganese all had to be acquired through foreign trade or conquest. This resource dependency was not a luxury problem; it was an existential one. A nation that could not feed itself or fuel its economy was a nation vulnerable to strangulation by enemies who controlled the resources it needed. Japanese strategic thinkers divided into two camps on how to resolve this vulnerability. The Hokushin-ron advocates, primarily within the Army, pushed for expansion northward into Siberia and Mongolia, seeking to conquer Soviet territory and resources. The Soviet Union possessed vast tracts of land, mineral wealth, timber, and agricultural output. From a purely materialist perspective, the Northern Advance made geographic sense—it was contiguous with Manchuria, which Japan had already secured in 1931. Yet by the late 1930s, the Hokushin-ron strategy had suffered a catastrophic blow. In 1938 and 1939, Japanese and Soviet forces clashed at Khalkhin Gol in Mongolia in what the Japanese called the Nomonhan Incident. The battles revealed a terrifying truth: the Soviet Red Army, under General Georgy Zhukov, was far more formidable than Japanese military planners had anticipated. Soviet armor, air power, and coordinated tactics annihilated Japanese forces. Japan suffered over 60,000 casualties while inflicting perhaps 10,000 on the Soviets. The defeat was concealed from the Japanese public, but it was unmistakable to military planners. A direct clash with Soviet power could end catastrophically. The Northern Advance, it became clear, would almost certainly provoke war with a nation capable of destroying the Japanese Army. This strategic defeat tilted the balance decisively toward the Nanshin-ron. If Japan could not safely expand northward, it must expand southward, toward Southeast Asia, the Dutch East Indies, Indochina, and the western Pacific. The appeal of the Nanshin-ron was immediately apparent to the Navy, which had always been more oriented toward maritime commerce and expansion across the ocean. The territories to the south were not militarily formidable. The colonial powers, Britain, the Netherlands, France, were either already defeated in 1940 or distracted by their own desperate struggles leaving Britain fighting alone against Germany. The United States, though potentially a formidable adversary, was not yet at war, and there was a chance, however slender, that a decisive blow against American naval power might convince America to negotiate rather than fight. But beyond strategic opportunity, the Nanshin-ron offered something that the Hokushin-ron did not: it offered resources of staggering abundance. The Dutch East Indies possessed oil reserves that could dwarf Japan's consumption for years. Malaya produced the world's rubber. Thailand offered agricultural bounty and geographic position. Burma's timber and agricultural products could feed Japan's growing empire. The Philippines possessed harbors, airfields, and economic output. These were not marginal additions to Japan's economy—they were transformative. Together, they would convert Japan from a resource-hungry island nation into the master of an imperial domain encompassing hundreds of millions of people and containing most of the strategic materials necessary for sustained industrial warfare. In the last episode I explained the western sanctions and embargoes that drained Japan's military of the resources they required to continue the China War. By 1941, Japan faced a civilization crisis. Japan imported roughly 90 percent of its petroleum, and the bulk of that came from the Dutch East Indies and the United States. Suddenly, the American supply was cut off entirely. Reserves would last perhaps 18 months if Japan's military and industrial consumption continued at existing rates. After that, the military machine would sputter and die. The industrial economy would collapse. Even civilian life would become impossible to sustain. Japan was facing not merely economic inconvenience but literal strangulation by the Western powers.   Yet it would be a mistake to reduce Japanese motivation to just materialism. Japanese military leaders wrapped their conquests in an ideological framework, one that many of them genuinely believed, or wanted to believe, served a higher historical purpose. The concept of the Daitoa Kyoeiken, the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," posited a new regional order in which Japan would play the leading role in liberating Asian peoples from Western colonial domination and creating an Asian-centered political and economic system. This ideology drew on genuine anti-colonial sentiment. For a century, Western powers had dominated Asia, treating Asian peoples and nations as subordinate, colonized territories existing to serve Western economic interests. Japan, which had modernized and Westernized enough to avoid colonization, saw itself as the natural leader of an Asian renaissance—a civilizing force that would restore Asian dignity and independence even as it established Japanese hegemony. Of course, this was propagandistic. Japanese conquest represented a substitution of one imperial master for another, and often a harsher and more brutal one at that. But for understanding Japanese decision-making, the ideology mattered profoundly. It provided Japanese leaders with a moral narrative for conquest. It allowed them to understand themselves as liberators rather than mere conquerors. It provided a rationale for extracting resources from occupied territories and for mobilizing subject populations to support the Japanese war effort. And it resonated with anti-Western sentiment throughout Asia, making Japanese occupation seem, in some quarters, preferable to continued Western colonial rule. The slogan Hakko ichiu—"eight corners under one roof", captured this ideological vision: a unified Asia and eventually world under Japanese guidance. Whether Japanese leaders truly believed this vision or cynically deployed it as propaganda, it shaped how they understood their actions and justified them to their subjects. Now I know this is a podcast dedicated to the century of humiliation, ie: China's experience. But I thought it was necessary just to have one episode explain what Dan Carlin titled "a supernova in the east" and I have titled an implosion in the east. I won't go into depth into the campaigns as some of them have a lot of Chinese involvement and we will be covering them in depth, but rather I will explain the rationale for Japan's numerous invasions following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.   Japan's assault on Malaya began within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, indeed, Japanese troops were already landing on the Kota Bharu beachhead on the Malaysian peninsula before dawn on December 8, 1941 local time. Malaya was one of the world's largest rubber producers, and Singapore, at the tip of the peninsula, was the linchpin of British naval power in the Far East.The Japanese interest in Malaya was straightforward but crucial: rubber. The Japanese military consumed vast quantities of rubber for tires, gaskets, hoses, and countless other applications. American and Dutch rubber supplies were now cut off by embargo. Malaya's rubber plantations represented perhaps the world's richest reservoir of this strategic material. Beyond rubber, Malaya and the surrounding region were major tin producers—essential for alloys and manufacturing. For Japan to conduct prolonged warfare, Malaya was not a luxury target; it was a necessity. Singapore represented something different: a symbol of Western power in Asia and a strategic chokepoint. As the major British naval base in the region, Singapore served as the anchor of British imperial authority across the South China Sea. By seizing Singapore, Japan would not only capture crucial resources and port facilities but would also deliver a psychological blow to the entire edifice of Western dominance in Asia. The fortress city that the British considered nearly impregnable fell within seventy days, a stunning demonstration of Japanese military capability and the vulnerability of overextended Western empires. If Malaya was critical for rubber, the Dutch East Indies was essential for oil. The region, comprising present-day Indonesia, was the world's third-largest oil producer and had reserves that could sustain Japanese military operations for years. This was the jewel of the resource-conquest strategy. Japanese planners had long eyed the East Indies, but direct conquest had seemed risky while Britain and America remained neutral or opposed. With both now at war, the window of opportunity had opened. Japan needed the oil so desperately that when the Dutch East Indies Petroleum Company initially agreed to some Japanese oil purchases before the war, Tokyo was already planning its takeover. The conquest of the Dutch East Indies would provide not just oil but also tin, nickel, bauxite, and other materials essential to an industrial war machine. The islands would also provide air and naval bases from which Japan could defend its new empire and potentially threaten Australia. The Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, which began in late December 1941 and accelerated through January and February 1942, was methodical and comprehensive. Various island groups were targeted systematically: Java, Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas. Dutch military forces, though brave, were overwhelmed. By March 1942, Japan had secured the entire archipelago,a stunning logistical and military achievement that delivered vast resources into Japanese hands. Thailand presented a fundamentally different case from Japan's other targets. Rather than conquest, Japan pursued alliance with military strongman Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who had seized power in a 1938 coup as a nationalist ideologue determined to reassert Thai sovereignty and recover territory lost to French colonialism in the nineteenth century. Thailand was the last independent state in mainland Southeast Asia, hemmed in by British-controlled Burma and Malaya to the west, and French Indochina to the east. For a century, Thailand had survived by playing European imperial powers against each other. But by the late 1930s, this strategy was becoming obsolete. Europe was distracted by Hitler's Germany. Colonial powers were weakening. Japanese power was visibly ascending. Phibunsongkhram recognized both danger and opportunity. He could resist Japan and invite invasion, or he could ally with Japan and profit from rising Asian power. Japanese diplomats approached Thailand with sophistication: they offered military alliance and support for Thai territorial expansion at French expense. This addressed Thailand's deepest national wound, the humiliation of nineteenth-century territorial losses to France. The Franco-Thai War of 1940-1941 became transformative. With Japan providing military support, advisors, tanks, aircraft, Thai forces defeated the French for the first time in history. By May 1941, Thailand had recovered 54,000 square kilometers of Cambodian territory and portions of Laos. For Phibunsongkhram, this was extraordinary: he had achieved what Thai leaders could not in a century, reclaiming territory from a Western imperial power. Domestically, his position was dramatically strengthened. The parallel to China's century of humiliation—the foundation of your podcast is striking: Thailand too was reversing colonial diminishment through association with rising Asian power. The Thai-Japanese relationship was unique. Unlike the Philippines, Malaya, or the Dutch East Indies, Thailand would retain nominal independence. Phibunsongkhram remained in power. Japanese occupation was light. Thai forces maintained their own command structure. Most importantly, Thailand's territorial gains from the Franco-Thai War were recognized and secured. Japan valued Thai cooperation more than conquest. Burma, controlled by the British, was the next target in Japan's southwestward advance. Japanese planners had multiple motivations for invading Burma. First, it was strategically positioned on India's eastern frontier, and Japan harbored ambitions of eventually striking toward India and linking up with Germany in the Middle East or at least destabilizing the British position in South Asia. Second, Burma was a significant producer of timber and agricultural products. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the invasion of Burma was meant to cut the Burma Road, the crucial supply line that allowed American aid to reach Nationalist China. The invasion of Burma began in late 1941 and accelerated through early 1942.  The invasion of the Philippines, which began on December 10, 1941, just days after Pearl Harbor, served multiple strategic purposes. Like the assault on Pearl Harbor itself, it was meant to neutralize American military power in the region, in this case, the American garrison under General Douglas MacArthur and the American colonial administration. But the Philippines were also valuable in their own right. The islands sat directly in the path of what Japan envisioned as its defensive perimeter. By controlling the Philippines, Japan would make it extraordinarily difficult for American forces to project power westward into Southeast Asia. The territory would provide naval and air bases critical to defending Japan's new empire. Additionally, the Philippines possessed some agricultural and industrial resources valuable to the war effort, and their conquest delivered a psychological victory, defeating American forces and ending American colonial rule in Asia, which appealed to anti-Western sentiment that Japan tried to cultivate. Beyond Southeast Asia and the Philippines, Japan rapidly invaded Guam and Wake island to extend Japan's defensive perimeter further into the Pacific and eliminate American air and naval bases that could threaten Japanese operations. Guam, seized on December 10, 1941, fell within two days, the American garrison was small and the island's strategic value lay primarily in denying the United States a forward staging ground for any counteroffensive. Wake Island, attacked the same day and finally captured on December 23 after a brief but heroic American defense, served similar purposes: cutting off American reconnaissance and interdicting potential supply lines to the Philippines.  Now I believe that's enough of the implosion in the east, let's get back to the situation in China. After Chiang Kai-shek sent his letter of support to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pledging Chinese commitment to what he termed a new "common battle." he did something most revealing about his mood towards the global war. He played "Ave Maria" on his gramophone, celebrating with an almost spiritual gratitude the implications of what had just transpired in the American Pacific. This moment crystallized the profound difference Pearl Harbor would mean to different members of the emerging Allied coalition. For the United States, the attack was pure shock, a violation of the sanctity of American soil and the complacency of American isolationism. For Britain, it was like the pricking of a large, painful blister—painful but perhaps not entirely unexpected given Japan's regional ambitions. But for China, the relief that surged through the government and the consciousness of the Chinese people surpassed even Britain's response. For four long years, China had fought Japan almost alone, watching as Western nations remained neutral or limited their commitment to rhetorical support and modest material assistance. Now, suddenly, the trajectory of the entire conflict had shifted with breathtaking speed. Chiang's emotional state at this moment could scarcely be contained, and those close to him understood that beneath his carefully maintained Confucian composure burned an intoxicating sensation of vindication. These Western powers who had been so impatient with Chinese strategy, who had mocked the retreats of the Nationalist Army and spoken scornfully of Japanese capabilities, were now themselves in headlong retreat from those very islanders. In Hong Kong, Singapore, and Manila, British and American forces would be fighting desperately for their lives against the Japanese military that China had been contending with for years. Chiang could not have failed to perceive the irony: the Japanese had conquered vast stretches of China through relentless campaigns, yet Westerners had dismissed Chinese resistance as inadequate. Now the Japanese were proving that they posed a formidable challenge to Western military power as well. There was a bitter satisfaction in this vindication, even as Chiang understood that the strategic implications of American entry far outweighed any emotional satisfaction. What was pragmatic and strategically clear to Chiang, however, was far more important than any emotional satisfaction. The United States was now at war, and it was on China's side. This represented the transformation for which Chiang had labored for years, bringing the full weight of American industrial capacity and military might to bear against the Japanese enemy. The diplomatic foundations for this alliance had already been laid in the months preceding Pearl Harbor. Beginning in the spring of 1941, the United States had begun to commit significant resources to supporting China. In April 1941, following the conclusion of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality agreement, which had devastated Chinese morale by suggesting that Japan might attack the Soviet Union rather than move southward, the Roosevelt administration had determined to provide $45 million worth of militarily useful commodities to China as an immediate gesture of support. Then, on May 6, 1941, President Roosevelt had made a more formal commitment by announcing that the munitions provisions of the Lend-Lease Act applied to China, declaring a phrase that captured the strategic logic of American assistance: "defending China is the key to defending America." This declaration represented a significant shift in American policy, elevating China from a regional concern to a central element of American grand strategy in Asia. Subsequently, in July 1941, Roosevelt had sent Owen Lattimore to China to serve as political adviser to the Chinese government, a position that signaled deepening American engagement with Chinese affairs. In August, the administration appointed John Magruder as military attaché and head of the American Military Mission to China (AMMISCA), with the primary responsibility of overseeing the delivery of Lend-Lease material to the Chinese armed forces. On the diplomatic front, Chiang moved with remarkable alacrity. He had already severed relations with Germany on July 2, 1941, the very day after Hitler had formally recognized the Wang Jingwei puppet government in an attempt to appease Japan and encourage it to finally implement the Southern Advance. Now, on December 8, 1941, just one day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Chiang took the decisive step of formally declaring war against the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan. This declaration transformed China's position from a beleaguered nation fighting a war of survival into a formal member of the Allied coalition. Chiang had seized the opportunity that Pearl Harbor presented to ally China with a genuinely strong power against Japan, a gambit that fundamentally altered the diplomatic weight and international legitimacy of both the Chinese government and the Chinese cause. From a strategic perspective, the Japanese had committed what Chiang and others immediately recognized as a catastrophic blunder. On the operational level, Pearl Harbor was indeed a devastating tactical success, the American Pacific Fleet was crippled, and Japanese forces now enjoyed temporary naval superiority throughout much of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Yet strategically, Pearl Harbor represented a failure of epic proportions, a miscalculation rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the intangibles of warfare: what motivated the Chinese people and what motivated the Americans. The Chinese had understood, through four years of brutal conflict, that warfare was about more than territorial conquest and resource acquisition. It was about will, about endurance, about the capacity to absorb punishment and continue fighting. The Japanese had learned this lesson imperfectly in China, where despite overwhelming military advantages they had been unable to force a decisive conclusion or compel Chinese surrender. The Americans would teach the Japanese this lesson even more emphatically. The attack on American sailors in Hawaii instantly galvanized the American population to prosecute an unlimited war, with Tokyo itself as the ultimate destination of American counterattack. While Americans would remember the "date that will live in infamy" primarily because of the assault on Pearl Harbor itself, the strategic consequence was that Japanese actions in Hawaii had introduced numerous new adversaries into the Pacific conflict: not only the United States, but also Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. These additions transformed what had been, from the Japanese perspective, a regional conflict with manageable parameters into a global war that Japan could not possibly win through any conceivable means. What made this particularly disastrous for Japan was the context in which the new theater had been opened. Japan was already deeply mired in a quagmire in China—a "malignant quagmire," as one observer would later characterize it, that had consumed vast resources, inflicted enormous casualties, and failed to produce decisive victory. In military strategy, it is sometimes wise to open a new theater in order to attack an enemy from an additional and unexpected direction, thereby dispersing their forces and creating new challenges for them to manage. But opening a new theater that introduces an entirely new, powerful adversary, and doing so when one is already overextended in an existing theater is a prescription for strategic catastrophe. This was precisely what Japan had done at Pearl Harbor. Chiang Kai-shek understood the magnitude of Japan's miscalculation with crystalline clarity. He understood that whatever the military complexities that lay ahead, whatever the challenges of coordinating with Western allies, and whatever the limitations of Western military assistance to China might be, the fundamental equation had changed. The United States would ultimately defeat Japan. The Chinese did not need to defeat Japan by themselves; they merely needed to survive long enough for American industrial and military capacity to grind the Japanese military into defeat. In the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Chinese and American officials moved swiftly to formalize the alliance and establish the mechanisms of wartime cooperation. Roosevelt asked Chiang Kai-shek to serve as commander in chief of the Allied forces in the China theater, a designation that recognized China's central role in the Pacific War and elevated Chiang's international standing to something he had long sought: a position as an equal partner in the Allied coalition, a seat at the "top table of global decision-making" alongside Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. To support this expanded role and to ensure effective coordination of the military effort, Roosevelt dispatched Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell to China. Stilwell was not chosen randomly; he brought fifteen years of experience in China, a deep familiarity with the country, its military, and its complexities that few American officers possessed. Stilwell was appointed to serve simultaneously as the U.S. government's military representative in China, as chief of staff of the China Theater, and as commander in chief of the American forces in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater. This appointment established the framework for joint Chinese-American military cooperation and represented an American commitment to the Asian theater that, while never receiving the resources devoted to the European theater, nonetheless signified recognition of China's strategic importance. Trust me, going forward we will be having a lot of time dedicated to the hilarious bromance / bro hatred of Vinegar Joe and Peanut.  Yet the formation of an alliance and the establishment of command structures was easier than the practical implementation of military cooperation. The fundamental challenge that would plague Chinese-American relations throughout the war emerged almost immediately: the problem of delivering military assistance to China. Before Pearl Harbor, the United States and China had reached agreement on three major points regarding military assistance. First, the United States would provide training and technical support to assist China in establishing a modern air force. Second, the United States would provide training and equipment for a ground army consisting of thirty divisions. Third, the United States would assist China in constructing railways and highways from Yunnan to Burma, along with the provision of rolling stock and vehicles to support these new transportation routes. These were ambitious plans, reflecting the extent of Chinese need and American willingness to support the Chinese war effort. However, the outbreak of the Pacific War threw American plans into disarray. The fundamental strategic doctrine guiding American policy was the "Europe first" strategy, which meant that the European theater and the defeat of Nazi Germany received priority over the Pacific theater. Additionally, China's geography made it extraordinarily difficult to supply. China could only be reached through supply lines of extraordinary length and complexity, either through the port of Rangoon in Burma and then overland via the treacherous Yunnan-Burma Road, or through the port of Hong Kong, which immediately fell into Japanese hands after Pearl Harbor. The first Sino-American loan agreement had specified that the United States would deliver commodities worth $45 million to China in 1941. However, shipping shortages meant that only $26 million worth of commodities actually left the United States. These commodities were shipped to the transit port of Rangoon, where a massive traffic jam developed as supplies accumulated faster than they could be distributed onward to China. Along the Yunnan-Burma Road, that "much-contested life line" as it came to be known, conditions were chaotic. The road had always been a source of trouble: it was long, extraordinarily difficult to keep in repair, fantastically dangerous to travel, and too narrow to permit much volume of traffic at any one time. Due to mismanagement and pilfering, the commodities that were shipped out of Burma suffered heavy losses in transit, and only one-third of them eventually arrived in Chongqing. Yet the United States had already established one valuable asset in China that could be deployed relatively quickly: an air force nucleus. Just before Pearl Harbor, a group of American aviators had been formally organized in Chongqing who worked on volunteer status for China under the command of Colonel Claire Chennault, an American aviation officer who served as instructor at the Chinese Air Force Cadet School. Some of these men had been flying in China since the Kuomintang first began purchasing American aircraft, having come to demonstrate the aircraft and remaining to pilot and teach. Others had hurried to China after being released from their volunteer service in Spain, where they had gained combat experience during the Spanish Civil War. It was a familiar joke that pilots from both sides of the Spanish conflict were likely to meet and work side by side in China, but political convictions proved immaterial to these professional aviators, they got on well enough with each other, mercenaries of the twentieth century united by their expertise and their willingness to fight. When American traffic on the Burma Road swelled in volume and became chaotic, with cargo lost to pilfering and trucks breaking down from mishandling, the air freight service into Chongqing became increasingly vital to maintaining Chinese military capabilities. The backbone of this organization was American, and it had been in operation for months before the Japanese attack. Halfway down the Burma Road, over the border in Burma, was a plane factory backed by American and Chinese capital, providing some degree of repair and maintenance capacity for the aircraft operating out of China. Recognizing the strategic value of these experienced aviators and the need to formalize and expand their operations, American and Chinese officials moved quickly to incorporate this volunteer group, formally known as the American Volunteer Group or "Flying Tigers," into the U.S. Army Air Force. This transformation of volunteer aviators into official American military personnel represented a commitment to providing air support to Chinese operations, recognizing that air power could compensate to some degree for Chinese numerical disadvantages in ground combat. In Chongqing, it was clear that among the United Nations fighting Japan, America was the only one taking China seriously, the only one prepared to invest significant resources in Chinese military capabilities and the Chinese war effort. Yet Pearl Harbor brought consequences that extended far beyond the strategic and diplomatic spheres. For Western civilians living in China,missionaries, teachers, doctors, businessmen, and journalists, the attack represented a catastrophic change in their status and their fate. Until December 8, 1941, Westerners residing in China had maintained a curious protected status as foreign neutrals, even in areas nominally controlled by the Japanese. This status had provided them with a measure of distance from, and protection against, the grinding reality of the war that had devastated Chinese populations. For a century, Americans had been part of an imperial presence in China, sometimes benevolent, sometimes violent, but always ultimately under Western control. That world came to an abrupt end on December 8, 1941. All across eastern China, Americans and Britons were rounded up and interned. The International Settlement of Shanghai—that remarkable oasis of neutrality that had persisted in the midst of a war-torn city—was now reunified under Japanese control. Thousands of foreigners with Allied nationality were sent to holding camps scattered throughout occupied China. Some, like the eleven-year-old British boy Jim Ballard, would remain imprisoned for the remainder of the war, enduring hunger, cold, and disease in camps like Longhua, which housed approximately 2,000 detainees. Forty years later, as the novelist J. G. Ballard, he would memorialized this experience in his semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun. For missionaries like Velva Brown, the evacuation process was degrading and final. The missionary staff were permitted to pack no more than three suitcases with their belongings. As they prepared to leave, Japanese and Taiwanese "sightseeing" parties arrived to decide which houses they might want to occupy. The journey home aboard crowded Japanese ships offered no concessions to status or dignity; ambassadors, consuls, merchants, and missionaries alike were given "bed-sized strips of Chinese matting which we spread side by side on the iron floor of the hold," as Brown recorded. The humiliation was compounded by the finality of it all. For many, their decades-long presence in China was ending not in orderly retreat but in hasty evacuation, leaving behind "servants, many of whom had been with us for fifteen or twenty years." Despite these immediate human tragedies, the strategic transformation that Pearl Harbor wrought for China was undeniable. Chiang Kai-shek now embarked on an entirely new sort of life, heavily involved with the leaders and generals of the Western powers. He held diplomatic discussions with the leaders of the United Nations and military planning sessions with Western generals. In these unfamiliar circumstances, he did his best to live up to the Confucian ideal of the gentleman, seldom permitting the mask to slip—though the pressure of these new responsibilities and the intoxicating combination of vindication and anxiety would occasionally prove too much even for his considerable self-control. Within weeks of Pearl Harbor, Chiang demonstrated the value he could bring to the new alliance. He visited India and spoke with the leaders of the Indian independence struggle as an ally and friend, as a fellow non-European speaking to others seeking to escape from colonialism and imperial domination. He joined the Allies in their first joint campaign, not in China but in the jungles of neighboring Burma, committing Chinese forces to operations outside China's borders in support of the broader Allied military strategy. Yet the price that Chiang would pay for China's belated entry into the global alliance against the Axis powers would prove to be a heavy one. Chiang desperately needed his new American and British partners, but accepting this alliance would unleash forces within Chinese society that would threaten the very basis of his political control. The complexities of this bargain would become most visible in the four-year struggle between Chiang and General Joseph Warren Stilwell, the American officer who would become simultaneously his chief of staff and the administrator of American military assistance to China. This relationship, shaped by mutual suspicion, different strategic visions, and incompatible political agendas, would define Chinese-American military cooperation during the Pacific War and would have profound implications extending far beyond the battlefields of Asia. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Pearl Harbor's shock reverberated through Asia. Japan's assault on Hawaii, combined with invasions of Burma, the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island, inadvertently transformed regional conflict into global war. Chiang Kai-shek, vindicated after four years of isolation fighting Japan, embraced American alliance with profound relief. The U.S. committed military aid, appointed General Stilwell as chief of staff, and recognized China as a co-belligerent. For Chiang, this partnership brought diplomatic status but also internal tensions that would define the Pacific War's final chapter.

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Rescue workers have been attempting to reach suvivors of a powerful earthquake that hit the Indonesian island of Flores in the early hours of Saturday morning. Around fifty people have died and some five thousand have been evacuated from their homes.Also: Israel has carried out its deadliest strikes in Lebanon for months killing eleven people. Moroccan police stopped hundreds of people from illegally crossing into Spain's North African territory of Ceuta, two weeks after tens of thousands entered the exclave. International observers of Zambia's election have told political parties to tone down inflammatory statements, saying the poll was marred by intimidation, abductions and an hours-long pause in the vote count. The Spanish government has ordered an investigation into the likely shooting of an endangered killer whale that was captured on video with wounds to its dorsal fin. The nineteen year old British cyclist Fin Tarling has died in a crash during the Tour of Portugal race. The Miss Universe Canada pageant is introducing a ''comprehensive costume guide'' after a row triggered by two contestants wearing Indigenous-style costumes.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 man cries outside his family house that was damaged by the earthquake in Indonesia Credit: EPA/Shutterstock

Hawaii braces for impact from Lala; Hundreds evacuated as Indiana flood threat expands; Dozens killed after powerful Indonesia earthquake; and more on tonight's broadcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

About 5000 people have been displaced on Indonesia's Flores island, after an earthquake hit the region, followed by hundreds of aftershocks. Many families spent the night in makeshift shelters outside their collapsed homes. They say they are not receiving enough help from Jakarta.Also in the programme: New South Wales is launching a gun buyback scheme; and President Lula da Silva launches his re-election campaign in Brazil.(Photo: Evacuees affected by an earthquake stay in temporary shelters in Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, 16 August 2026. CREDIT: EPA/Shutterstock)