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Last time we spoke about the Soviet Victory in Asia. After atomic bombings and Japan's surrender, the Soviets launched a rapid Manchurian invasion, driving toward Harbin, Mukden, Changchun, and Beijing. Shenyang was taken, seeing the capture of the last Emperor of China, Pu Yi. The Soviets continued their advances into Korea with port captures at Gensan and Pyongyang, and occupation of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, ahead of anticipated American intervention. Stalin pushed for speed to avoid US naval landings, coordinating with Chinese forces and leveraging the Sino-Soviet pact while balancing relations with Chiang Kai-shek. As fronts closed, tens of thousands of Japanese POWs were taken, while harsh wartime reprisals, looting, and mass sexual violence against Japanese, Korean, and Chinese civilians were reported.  This episode is the Surrender of Japan Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, 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 world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two 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 you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  With the Manchurian Campaign over and Japan's surrender confirmed, we've reached the end of the Pacific War and the ushering of a new era. This journey took us 3 years, 8 months, and 27 days and it's been a rollercoaster. We've gone over numerous stories of heroism and horror, victory and defeat, trying to peel back a part of WW2 that often gets overshadowed by the war in Europe. Certainly the China War is almost completely ignored by the west, but fortunately for you all, as I end this series we have just entered the China war over at the Fall and Rise of China Podcast. Unlike this series where, to be blunt, I am hamstrung by the week by week format, over there I can tackle the subject as I see fit, full of personal accounts. I implore you if you want to revisit some of that action in China, jump over to the other podcast, I will be continuing it until the end of the Chinese civil war. One could say it will soon be a bit of a sequel to this one. Of course if you love this format and want more, you can check out the brand new Eastern Front week by week podcast, which really does match the horror of the Pacific war. Lastly if you just love hearing my dumb voice, come check out my podcast which also is in video format on the Pacific War Channel on Youtube, the Echoes of War podcast. Me and my co-host Gaurav tackle history from Ancient to Modern, often with guests and we blend the dialogue with maps, photos and clips. But stating all of that, lets get into it, the surrender of Japan. As we last saw, while the Soviet invasion of Manchuria raged, Emperor Hirohito announced the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Empire on August 15. Public reaction varied, yet most were stunned and bewildered, unable to grasp that Japan had surrendered for the first time in its history. Many wept openly as they listened to the Emperor's solemn message; others directed swift anger at the nation's leaders and the fighting services for failing to avert defeat; and some blamed themselves for falling short in their war effort. Above all, there was a deep sympathy for the Emperor, who had been forced to make such a tragic and painful decision.  In the wake of the Emperor's broadcast, war factories across the country dismissed their workers and shut their doors. Newspapers that had been ordered to pause their usual morning editions appeared in the afternoon, each carrying the Imperial Rescript, an unabridged translation of the Potsdam Declaration, and the notes exchanged with the Allied Powers. In Tokyo, crowds of weeping citizens gathered all afternoon in the vast plaza before the Imperial Palace and at the Meiji and Yasukuni Shrines to bow in reverence and prayer. The shock and grief of the moment, coupled with the dark uncertainty about the future, prevented any widespread sense of relief that the fighting had ended. Bombings and bloodshed were over, but defeat seemed likely to bring only continued hardship and privation. Starvation already gripped the land, and the nation faced the looming breakdown of public discipline and order, acts of violence and oppression by occupying forces, and a heavy burden of reparations. Yet despite the grim outlook, the Emperor's assurance that he would remain to guide the people through the difficult days ahead offered a measure of solace and courage. His appeal for strict compliance with the Imperial will left a lasting impression, and the refrain “Reverent Obedience to the Rescript” became the rallying cry as the nation prepared to endure the consequences of capitulation. Immediately after the Emperor's broadcast, Prime Minister Suzuki's cabinet tendered its collective resignation, yet Hirohito commanded them to remain in office until a new cabinet could be formed. Accordingly, Suzuki delivered another broadcast that evening, urging the nation to unite in absolute loyalty to the throne in this grave national crisis, and stressing that the Emperor's decision to end the war had been taken out of compassion for his subjects and in careful consideration of the circumstances. Thus, the shocked and grief-stricken population understood that this decision represented the Emperor's actual will rather than a ratified act of the Government, assuring that the nation as a whole would obediently accept the Imperial command. Consequently, most Japanese simply went on with their lives as best they could; yet some military officers, such as General Anami, chose suicide over surrender. Another key figure who committed seppuku between August 15 and 16 was Vice-Admiral Onishi Takijiro, the father of the kamikaze. Onishi's suicide note apologized to the roughly 4,000 pilots he had sent to their deaths and urged all surviving young civilians to work toward rebuilding Japan and fostering peace among nations. Additionally, despite being called “the hero of the August 15 incident” for his peacekeeping role in the attempted coup d'état, General Tanaka felt responsible for the damage done to Tokyo and shot himself on August 24. Following the final Imperial conference on 14 August, the Army's “Big Three”, War Minister Anami, Chief of the Army General Staff Umezu, and Inspectorate-General of Military Training General Kenji Doihara, met at the War Ministry together with Field Marshals Hata and Sugiyama, the senior operational commanders of the homeland's Army forces. These five men affixed their seals to a joint resolution pledging that the Army would “conduct itself in accordance with the Imperial decision to the last.” The resolution was endorsed immediately afterward by General Masakazu Kawabe, the overall commander of the Army air forces in the homeland. In accordance with this decision, General Anami and General Umezu separately convened meetings of their senior subordinates during the afternoon of the 14th, informing them of the outcome of the final Imperial conference and directing strict obedience to the Emperor's command. Shortly thereafter, special instructions to the same effect were radioed to all top operational commanders jointly in the names of the War Minister and Chief of Army General Staff. The Army and Navy authorities acted promptly, and their decisive stance proved, for the most part, highly effective. In the Army, where the threat of upheaval was most acute, the final, unequivocal decision of its top leaders to heed the Emperor's will delivered a crippling blow to the smoldering coup plot by the young officers to block the surrender. The conspirators had based their plans on unified action by the Army as a whole; with that unified stance effectively ruled out, most of the principal plotters reluctantly abandoned the coup d'état scheme on the afternoon of 14 August. At the same time, the weakened Imperial Japanese Navy took steps to ensure disciplined compliance with the surrender decision. Only Admiral Ugaki chose to challenge this with his final actions. After listening to Japan's defeat, Admiral Ugaki Kayō's diary recorded that he had not yet received an official cease-fire order, and that, since he alone was to blame for the failure of Japanese aviators to stop the American advance, he would fly one last mission himself to embody the true spirit of bushido. His subordinates protested, and even after Ugaki had climbed into the back seat of a Yokosuka D4Y4 of the 701st Kokutai dive bomber piloted by Lieutenant Tatsuo Nakatsuru, Warrant Officer Akiyoshi Endo, whose place in the kamikaze roster Ugaki had usurped, also climbed into the same space that the admiral had already occupied. Thus, the aircraft containing Ugaki took off with three men piloted by Nakatsuru, with Endo providing reconnaissance, and Ugaki himself, rather than the two crew members that filled the other ten aircraft. Before boarding his aircraft, Ugaki posed for pictures and removed his rank insignia from his dark green uniform, taking only a ceremonial short sword given to him by Admiral Yamamoto. Elements of this last flight most likely followed the Ryukyu flyway southwest to the many small islands north of Okinawa, where U.S. forces were still on alert at the potential end of hostilities. Endo served as radioman during the mission, sending Ugaki's final messages, the last of which at 19:24 reported that the plane had begun its dive onto an American vessel. However, U.S. Navy records do not indicate any successful kamikaze attack on that day, and it is likely that all aircraft on the mission with the exception of three that returned due to engine problems crashed into the ocean, struck down by American anti-aircraft fire. Although there are no precise accounts of an intercept made by Navy or Marine fighters or Pacific Fleet surface units against enemy aircraft in this vicinity at the time of surrender. it is likely the aircraft crashed into the ocean or was shot down by American anti-aircraft fire. In any event, the crew of LST-926 reported finding the still-smoldering remains of a cockpit with three bodies on the beach of Iheyajima Island, with Ugaki's remains allegedly among them. Meanwhile, we have already covered the Truman–Stalin agreement that Japanese forces north of the 38th parallel would surrender to the Soviets while those to the south would surrender to the Americans, along with the subsequent Soviet occupation of Manchuria, North Korea, South Sakhalin, and the Kurile Islands. Yet even before the first atomic bomb was dropped, and well before the Potsdam Conference, General MacArthur and his staff were planning a peaceful occupation of Japan and the Korean Peninsula. The first edition of this plan, designated “Blacklist,” appeared on July 16 and called for a progressive, orderly occupation in strength of an estimated fourteen major areas in Japan and three to six areas in Korea, so that the Allies could exercise unhampered control over the various phases of administration. These operations would employ 22 divisions and 3 regiments, together with air and naval elements, and would utilize all United States forces immediately available in the Pacific. The plan also provided for the maximum use of existing Japanese political and administrative organizations, since these agencies already exerted effective control over the population and could be employed to good advantage by the Allies. The final edition of “Blacklist,” issued on August 8, was divided into three main phases of occupation. The first phase included the Kanto Plain, the Kobe–Osaka–Kyoto areas, the Nagasaki–Sasebo area in Kyushu, the Keijo district in Korea, and the Aomori–Ominato area of northern Honshu. The second phase covered the Shimonoseki–Fukuoka and Nagoya areas, Sapporo in Hokkaido, and Fusan in Korea. The third phase comprised the Hiroshima–Kure area, Kochi in Shikoku, the Okayama, Tsuruga, and Niigata areas, Sendai in northern Honshu, Otomari in Karafuto, and the Gunzan–Zenshu area in Korea. Although the Joint Chiefs of Staff initially favored Admiral Nimitz's “Campus” Plan, which envisioned entry into Japan by Army forces only after an emergency occupation of Tokyo Bay by advanced naval units and the seizure of key positions ashore near each anchorage, MacArthur argued that naval forces were not designed to perform the preliminary occupation of a hostile country whose ground divisions remained intact, and he contended that occupying large land areas was fundamentally an Army mission. He ultimately convinced them that occupation by a weak Allied force might provoke resistance from dissident Japanese elements among the bomb-shattered population and could therefore lead to grave repercussions. The formal directive for the occupation of Japan, Korea, and the China coast was issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on August 11. The immediate objectives were to secure the early entry of occupying forces into major strategic areas, to control critical ports, port facilities, and airfields, and to demobilize and disarm enemy troops. First priority went to the prompt occupation of Japan, second to the consolidation of Keijo in Korea, and third to operations on the China coast and in Formosa. MacArthur was to assume responsibility for the forces entering Japan and Korea; General Wedemeyer was assigned operational control of the forces landing on the China coast and was instructed to coordinate his plans with the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek; and Japanese forces in Southeast Asia were earmarked for surrender to Admiral Mountbatten. With the agreement of the Soviet, Chinese, and British governments, President Truman designated MacArthur as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers on August 15, thereby granting him final authority for the execution of the terms of surrender and occupation. In this capacity, MacArthur promptly notified the Emperor and the Japanese Government that he was authorized to arrange for the cessation of hostilities at the earliest practicable date and directed that the Japanese forces terminate hostilities immediately and that he be notified at once of the effective date and hour of such termination. He further directed that Japan send to Manila on August 17 “a competent representative empowered to receive in the name of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Imperial Government, and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters certain requirements for carrying into effect the terms of surrender.” General MacArthur's stipulations to the Japanese Government included specific instructions regarding the journey of the Japanese representatives to Manila. The emissaries were to leave Sata Misaki, at the southern tip of Kyushu, on the morning of August 17. They were to travel in a Douglas DC-3-type transport plane, painted white and marked with green crosses on the wings and fuselage, and to fly under Allied escort to an airdrome on Lejima in the Ryukyus. From there, the Japanese would be transported to Manila in a United States plane. The code designation chosen for communication between the Japanese plane and US forces was the symbolic word “Bataan.” Implementation challenges arose almost immediately due to disagreements within Imperial General Headquarters and the Foreign Office over the exact nature of the mission. Some officials interpreted the instructions as requiring the delegates to carry full powers to receive and agree to the actual terms of surrender, effectively making them top representatives of the Government and High Command. Others understood the mission to be strictly preparatory, aimed only at working out technical surrender arrangements and procedures. Late in the afternoon of August 16, a message was sent to MacArthur's headquarters seeking clarification and more time to organize the mission. MacArthur replied that signing the surrender terms would not be among the tasks of the Japanese representatives dispatched to Manila, assured the Japanese that their proposed measures were satisfactory, and pledged that every precaution would be taken to ensure the safety of the Emperor's representatives on their mission. Although preparations were made with all possible speed, on August 16 the Japanese notified that this delegation would be somewhat delayed due to the scarcity of time allowed for its formation. At the same time, MacArthur was notified that Hirohito had issued an order commanding the entire armed forces of his nation to halt their fighting immediately. The wide dispersion and the disrupted communications of the Japanese forces, however, made the rapid and complete implementation of such an order exceedingly difficult, so it was expected that the Imperial order would take approximately two to twelve days to reach forces throughout the Pacific and Asiatic areas. On August 17, the Emperor personally backed up these orders with a special Rescript to the armed services, carefully worded to assuage military aversion to surrender. Suzuki was also replaced on this date, with the former commander of the General Defense Army, General Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko, becoming the new Prime Minister with the initial tasks to hastily form a new cabinet capable of effecting the difficult transition to peace swiftly and without incident. The Government and Imperial General Headquarters moved quickly to hasten the preparations, but the appointment of the mission's head was held up pending the installation of the Higashikuni Cabinet. The premier-designate pressed for a rapid formation of the government, and on the afternoon of the 17th the official ceremony of installation took place in the Emperor's presence. Until General Shimomura could be summoned to Tokyo from the North China Area Army, Prince Higashikuni himself assumed the portfolio of War Minister concurrently with the premiership, Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai remaining in the critical post of Navy Minister, and Prince Ayamaro Konoe, by Marquis Kido's recommendation, entered the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio to act as Higashikuni's closest advisor. The Foreign Minister role went to Mamoru Shigemitsu, who had previously served in the Koiso Cabinet. With the new government installed, Prince Higashikuni broadcast to the nation on the evening of 17 August, declaring that his policies as Premier would conform to the Emperor's wishes as expressed in the Imperial mandate to form a Cabinet. These policies were to control the armed forces, maintain public order, and surmount the national crisis, with scrupulous respect for the Constitution and the Imperial Rescript terminating the war. The cabinet's installation removed one delay, and in the afternoon of the same day a message from General MacArthur's headquarters clarified the mission's nature and purpose. Based on this clarification, it was promptly decided that Lieutenant General Torashiro Kawabe, Deputy Chief of the Army General Staff, should head a delegation of sixteen members, mainly representing the Army and Navy General Staffs. Kawabe was formally appointed by the Emperor on 18 August. By late afternoon that same day, the data required by the Allied Supreme Commander had largely been assembled, and a message was dispatched to Manila informing General MacArthur's headquarters that the mission was prepared to depart the following morning. The itinerary received prompt approval from the Supreme Commander. Indeed, the decision to appoint a member of the Imperial Family who had a respectable career in the armed forces was aimed both at appeasing the population and at reassuring the military. MacArthur appointed General Eichelberger's 8th Army to initiate the occupation unassisted through September 22, at which point General Krueger's 6th Army would join the effort. General Hodge's 24th Corps was assigned to execute Operation Blacklist Forty, the occupation of the Korean Peninsula south of the 38th Parallel. MacArthur's tentative schedule for the occupation outlined an initial advance party of 150 communications experts and engineers under Colonel Charles Tench, which would land at Atsugi Airfield on August 23. Naval forces under Admiral Halsey's 3rd Fleet were to enter Tokyo Bay on August 24, followed by MacArthur's arrival at Atsugi the next day and the start of the main landings of airborne troops and naval and marine forces. The formal surrender instrument was to be signed aboard an American battleship in Tokyo Bay on August 28, with initial troop landings in southern Kyushu planned for August 29–30. By September 4, Hodge's 24th Corps was to land at Inchon and begin the occupation of South Korea. In the meantime, per MacArthur's directions, a sixteen-man Japanese delegation headed by Lieutenant-General Kawabe Torashiro, Vice-Chief of the Army General Staff, left Sata Misaki on the morning of August 19; after landing at Iejima, the delegation transferred to an American transport and arrived at Nichols Field at about 18:00. That night, the representatives held their first conference with MacArthur's staff, led by Lieutenant-General Richard Sutherland. During the two days of conference, American linguists scanned, translated, and photostated the various reports, maps, and charts the Japanese had brought with them. Negotiations also resulted in permission for the Japanese to supervise the disarmament and demobilization of their own armed forces under Allied supervision, and provided for three extra days of preparation before the first occupying unit landed on the Japanese home islands on August 26. At the close of the conference, Kawabe was handed the documents containing the “Requirements of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers,” which concerned the arrival of the first echelons of Allied forces, the formal surrender ceremony, and the reception of the occupation forces. Also given were a draft Imperial Proclamation by which the Emperor would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and command his subjects to cease hostilities, a copy of General Order No. 1 by which Imperial General Headquarters would direct all military and naval commanders to lay down their arms and surrender their units to designated Allied commanders, and the Instrument of Surrender itself, which would later be signed on board an American battleship in Tokyo Bay. After the Manila Conference ended, the Japanese delegation began its return to Japan at 13:00 on August 20; but due to mechanical problems and a forced landing near Hamamatsu, they did not reach Tokyo until August 21. With the scheduled arrival of the advanced party of the Allied occupation forces only five days away, the Japanese immediately began disarming combat units in the initial-occupation areas and evacuating them from those areas. The basic orders stated that Allied forces would begin occupying the homeland on 26 August and reaffirmed the intention ofImperial General Headquarters "to insure absolute obedience to the Imperial Rescript of 14 August, to prevent the occurrence of trouble with the occupying forces, and thus to demonstrate Japan's sincerity to the world." The Japanese government announced that all phases of the occupation by Allied troops would be peaceful and urged the public not to panic or resort to violence against the occupying forces. While they sought to reassure the population, they faced die-hard anti-surrender elements within the IJN, with ominous signs of trouble both from Kyushu, where many sea and air special-attack units were poised to meet an invasion, and from Atsugi, the main entry point for Allied airborne troops into the Tokyo Bay area. At Kanoya, Ugaki's successor, Vice-Admiral Kusaka Ryonosuke, hastened the separation of units from their weapons and the evacuation of naval personnel. At Atsugi, an even more threatening situation developed in the Navy's 302nd Air Group. Immediately after the announcement of the surrender, extremist elements in the group led by Captain Kozono Yasuna flew over Atsugi and the surrounding area, scattering leaflets urging the continuation of the war on the ground and claiming that the surrender edict was not the Emperor's true will but the machination of "traitors around the Throne." The extremists, numbering 83 junior officers and noncommissioned officers, did not commit hostile acts but refused to obey orders from their superior commanders. On August 19, Prince Takamatsu, the Emperor's brother and a navy captain, telephoned Atsugi and personally appealed to Captain Kozono and his followers to obey the Imperial decision. This intervention did not end the incident; on August 21 the extremists seized a number of aircraft and flew them to Army airfields in Saitama Prefecture in hopes of gaining support from Army air units. They failed in this attempt, and it was not until August 25 that all members of the group had surrendered. As a result of the Atsugi incident, on August 22 the Emperor dispatched Captain Prince Takamatsu Nabuhito and Vice-Admiral Prince Kuni Asaakira to various naval commands on Honshu and Kyushu to reiterate the necessity of strict obedience to the surrender decision. Both princes immediately left Tokyo to carry out this mission, but the situation improved over the next two days, and they were recalled before completing their tours. By this point, a typhoon struck the Kanto region on the night of August 22, causing heavy damage and interrupting communications and transport vital for evacuating troops from the occupation zone. This led to further delays in Japanese preparations for the arrival of occupation forces, and the Americans ultimately agreed to a two-day postponement of the preliminary landings. On August 27 at 10:30, elements of the 3rd Fleet entered Sagami Bay as the first step in the delayed occupation schedule. At 09:00 on August 28, Tench's advanced party landed at Atsugi to complete technical arrangements for the arrival of the main forces. Two days later, the main body of the airborne occupation forces began streaming into Atsugi, while naval and marine forces simultaneously landed at Yokosuka on the south shore of Tokyo Bay. There were no signs of resistance, and the initial occupation proceeded successfully.  Shortly after 1400, a famous C-54  the name “Bataan” in large letters on its nose circled the field and glided in for a landing. General MacArthur stepped from the aircraft, accompanied by General Sutherland and his staff officers. The operation proceeded smoothly. MacArthur paused momentarily to inspect the airfield, then climbed into a waiting automobile for the drive to Yokohama. Thousands of Japanese troops were posted along the fifteen miles of road from Atsugi to Yokohama to guard the route of the Allied motor cavalcade as it proceeded to the temporary SCAP Headquarters in Japan's great seaport city. The Supreme Commander established his headquarters provisionally in the Yokohama Customs House. The headquarters of the American Eighth Army and the Far East Air Force were also established in Yokohama, and representatives of the United States Pacific Fleet were attached to the Supreme Commander's headquarters. The intensive preparation and excitement surrounding the first landings on the Japanese mainland did not interfere with the mission of affording relief and rescue to Allied personnel who were internees or prisoners in Japan. Despite bad weather delaying the occupation operation, units of the Far East Air Forces and planes from the Third Fleet continued their surveillance missions. On 25 August they began dropping relief supplies, food, medicine, and clothing, to Allied soldiers and civilians in prisoner-of-war and internment camps across the main islands. While the advance echelon of the occupation forces was still on Okinawa, “mercy teams” were organized to accompany the first elements of the Eighth Army Headquarters. Immediately after the initial landings, these teams established contact with the Swiss and Swedish Legations, the International Red Cross, the United States Navy, and the Japanese Liaison Office, and rushed to expedite the release and evacuation, where necessary, of thousands of Allied internees.  On September 1, the Reconnaissance Troop of the 11th Airborne Division conducted a subsidiary airlift operation, flying from Atsugi to occupy Kisarazu Airfield; and on the morning of September 2, the 1st Cavalry Division began landing at Yokohama to secure most of the strategic areas along the shores of Tokyo Bay, with Tokyo itself remaining unoccupied. Concurrently, the surrender ceremony took place aboard Halsey's flagship, the battleship Missouri, crowded with representatives of the United Nations that had participated in the Pacific War.  General MacArthur presided over the epoch-making ceremony, and with the following words he inaugurated the proceedings which would ring down the curtain of war in the Pacific “We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored. The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate. Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the people of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred. But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone befits the sacred purposes we are about to serve, committing all our peoples unreservedly to faithful compliance with the understandings they are here formally to assume. It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past — a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice. The terms and conditions upon which surrender of the Japanese Imperial Forces is here to be given and accepted are contained in the instrument of surrender now before you…”.  The Supreme Commander then invited the two Japanese plenipotentiaries to sign the duplicate surrender documents : Foreign Minister Shigemitsu, on behalf of the Emperor and the Japanese Government, and General Umezu, for the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. He then called forward two famous former prisoners of the Japanese to stand behind him while he himself affixed his signature to the formal acceptance of the surrender : Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, hero of Bataan and Corregidor and Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur E. Percival, who had been forced to yield the British stronghold at Singapore. General MacArthur was followed in turn by Admiral Nimitz, who signed on behalf of the United States. Alongside the recently liberated Generals Wainwright and Percival, who had been captured during the Japanese conquest of the Philippines and Singapore respectively, MacArthur then signed the surrender documents, followed by Admiral Nimitz and representatives of the other United Nations present. The Instrument of Surrender was completely signed within twenty minutes. Shortly afterwards, MacArthur broadcast the announcement of peace to the world, famously saying, “Today the guns are silent.” Immediately following the signing of the surrender articles, the Imperial Proclamation of capitulation was issued, commanding overseas forces to cease hostilities and lay down their arms; however, it would take many days, and in some cases weeks, for the official word of surrender to be carried along Japan's badly disrupted communications channels. Various devices were employed by American commanders to transmit news of final defeat to dispersed and isolated enemy troops, such as plane-strewn leaflets, loudspeaker broadcasts, strategically placed signboards, and prisoner-of-war volunteers. Already, the bypassed Japanese garrison at Mille Atoll had surrendered on August 22; yet the first large-scale surrender of Japanese forces came on August 27, when Lieutenant-General Ishii Yoshio surrendered Morotai and Halmahera to the 93rd Division. On August 30, a British Pacific Fleet force under Rear-Admiral Cecil Harcourt entered Victoria Harbour to begin the liberation of Hong Kong; and the following day, Rear-Admiral Matsubara Masata surrendered Minami-Torishima. In the Marianas, the Japanese commanders on Rota and Pagan Islands relinquished their commands almost simultaneously with the Tokyo Bay ceremony of September 2. Later that day, the same was done by Lieutenant-General Inoue Sadae in the Palaus and by Lieutenant-General Mugikura Shunzaburo and Vice-Admiral Hara Chuichi at Truk in the Carolines. Additionally, as part of Operation Jurist, a British detachment under Vice-Admiral Harold Walker received the surrender of the Japanese garrison on Penang Island. In the Philippines, local commanders in the central Bukidnon Province, Infanta, the Bataan Peninsula, and the Cagayan Valley had already surrendered by September 2. On September 3, General Yamashita and Vice-Admiral Okawachi Denshichi met with General Wainwright, General Percival, and Lieutenant-General Wilhelm Styer, Commanding General of Army Forces of the Western Pacific, to sign the formal surrender of the Japanese forces in the Philippines. With Yamashita's capitulation, subordinate commanders throughout the islands began surrendering in increasing numbers, though some stragglers remained unaware of the capitulation. Concurrently, while Yamashita was yielding his Philippine forces, Lieutenant-General Tachibana Yoshio's 109th Division surrendered in the Bonins on September 3. On September 4, Rear-Admiral Sakaibara Shigematsu and Colonel Chikamori Shigeharu surrendered their garrison on Wake Island, as did the garrison on Aguigan Island in the Marianas. Also on September 4, an advanced party of the 24th Corps landed at Kimpo Airfield near Keijo to prepare the groundwork for the occupation of South Korea; and under Operation Tiderace, Mountbatten's large British and French naval force arrived off Singapore and accepted the surrender of Japanese forces there. On September 5, Rear-Admiral Masuda Nisuke surrendered his garrison on Jaluit Atoll in the Marshalls, as did the garrison of Yap Island. The overall surrender of Japanese forces in the Solomons and Bismarcks and in the Wewak area of New Guinea was finally signed on September 6 by General Imamura Hitoshi and Vice-Admiral Kusaka Jinichi aboard the aircraft carrier Glory off Rabaul, the former center of Japanese power in the South Pacific. Furthermore, Lieutenant-General Nomi Toshio, representing remaining Japanese naval and army forces in the Ryukyus, officially capitulated on September 7 at the headquarters of General Stilwell's 10th Army on Okinawa. The following day, Tokyo was finally occupied by the Americans, and looking south, General Kanda and Vice-Admiral Baron Samejima Tomoshige agreed to travel to General Savige's headquarters at Torokina to sign the surrender of Bougainville. On September 8, Rear-Admiral Kamada Michiaki's 22nd Naval Special Base Force at Samarinda surrendered to General Milford's 7th Australian Division, as did the Japanese garrison on Kosrae Island in the Carolines. On September 9, a wave of surrenders continued: the official capitulation of all Japanese forces in the China Theater occurred at the Central Military Academy in Nanking, with General Okamura surrendering to General He Yingqin, the commander-in-chief of the Republic of China National Revolutionary Army; subsequently, on October 10, 47 divisions from the former Imperial Japanese Army officially surrendered to Chinese military officials and allied representatives at the Forbidden City in Beijing. The broader context of rehabilitation and reconstruction after the protracted war was daunting, with the Nationalists weakened and Chiang Kai-shek's policies contributing to Mao Zedong's strengthened position, shaping the early dynamics of the resumption of the Chinese Civil War. Meanwhile, on September 9, Hodge landed the 7th Division at Inchon to begin the occupation of South Korea. In the throne room of the Governor's Palace at Keijo, soon to be renamed Seoul, the surrender instrument was signed by General Abe Nobuyuki, the Governor-General of Korea; Lieutenant-General Kozuki Yoshio, commander of the 17th Area Army and of the Korean Army; and Vice-Admiral Yamaguchi Gisaburo, commander of the Japanese Naval Forces in Korea. The sequence continued with the 25th Indian Division landing in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan on Malaya to capture Port Dickson, while Lieutenant-General Teshima Fusataro's 2nd Army officially surrendered to General Blamey at Morotai, enabling Australian occupation of much of the eastern Dutch East Indies. On September 10, the Japanese garrisons on the Wotje and Maloelap Atolls in the Marshalls surrendered, and Lieutenant-General Baba Masao surrendered all Japanese forces in North Borneo to General Wootten's 9th Australian Division. After Imamura's surrender, Major-General Kenneth Eather's 11th Australian Division landed at Rabaul to begin occupation, and the garrison on Muschu and Kairiru Islands also capitulated. On September 11, General Adachi finally surrendered his 18th Army in the Wewak area, concluding the bloody New Guinea Campaign, while Major-General Yamamura Hyoe's 71st Independent Mixed Brigade surrendered at Kuching and Lieutenant-General Watanabe Masao's 52nd Independent Mixed Brigade surrendered on Ponape Island in the Carolines. Additionally, the 20th Indian Division, with French troops, arrived at Saigon as part of Operation Masterdom and accepted the surrender of Lieutenant-General Tsuchihashi Yuitsu, who had already met with Viet Minh envoys and agreed to turn power over to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.  When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies on 15 August 1945, the Viet Minh immediately launched the insurrection they had prepared for a long time. Across the countryside, “People's Revolutionary Committees” took over administrative positions, often acting on their own initiative, and in the cities the Japanese stood by as the Vietnamese took control. By the morning of August 19, the Viet Minh had seized Hanoi, rapidly expanding their control over northern Vietnam in the following days. The Nguyen dynasty, with its puppet government led by Tran Trong Kim, collapsed when Emperor Bao Dai abdicated on August 25. By late August, the Viet Minh controlled most of Vietnam. On 2 September, in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. As the Viet Minh began extending control across the country, the new government's attention turned to the arrival of Allied troops and the French attempt to reassert colonial authority, signaling the onset of a new and contentious phase in Vietnam's struggle.  French Indochina had been left in chaos by the Japanese occupation. On 11 September British and Indian troops of the 20th Indian Division under Major General Douglas Gracey arrived at Saigon as part of Operation Masterdom. After the Japanese surrender, all French prisoners had been gathered on the outskirts of Saigon and Hanoi, and the sentries disappeared on 18 September; six months of captivity cost an additional 1,500 lives. By 22 September 1945, all prisoners were liberated by Gracey's men, armed, and dispatched in combat units toward Saigon to conquer it from the Viet Minh, later joined by the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, established to fight the Japanese arriving a few weeks later. Around the same time, General Lu Han's 200,000 Chinese National Revolutionary Army troops of the 1st Front Army occupied Indochina north of the 16th parallel, with 90,000 arriving by October; the 62nd Army came on 26 September to Nam Dinh and Haiphong, Lang Son and Cao Bang were occupied by the Guangxi 62nd Army Corps, and the Red River region and Lai Cai were occupied by a column from Yunnan. Lu Han occupied the French governor-general's palace after ejecting the French staff under Sainteny. Consequently, while General Lu Han's Chinese troops occupied northern Indochina and allowed the Vietnamese Provisional Government to remain in control there, the British and French forces would have to contest control of Saigon. On September 12, a surrender instrument was signed at the Singapore Municipal Building for all Southern Army forces in Southeast Asia, the Dutch East Indies, and the eastern islands; General Terauchi, then in a hospital in Saigon after a stroke, learned of Burma's fall and had his deputy commander and leader of the 7th Area Army, Lieutenant-General Itagaki Seishiro, surrender on his behalf to Mountbatten, after which a British military administration was formed to govern the island until March 1946. The Japanese Burma Area Army surrendered the same day as Mountbatten's ceremony in Singapore, and Indian forces in Malaya reached Kuala Lumpur to liberate the Malay capital, though the British were slow to reestablish control over all of Malaya, with eastern Pahang remaining beyond reach for three more weeks. On September 13, the Japanese garrisons on Nauru and Ocean Islands surrendered to Brigadier John Stevenson, and three days later Major-General Okada Umekichi and Vice-Admiral Fujita Ruitaro formally signed the instrument of surrender at Hong Kong. In the meantime, following the Allied call for surrender, Japan had decided to grant Indonesian independence to complicate Dutch reoccupation: Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta signed Indonesia's Proclamation of Independence on August 17 and were appointed president and vice-president the next day, with Indonesian youths spreading news across Java via Japanese news and telegraph facilities and Bandung's news broadcast by radio. The Dutch, as the former colonial power, viewed the republicans as collaborators with the Japanese and sought to restore their colonial rule due to lingering political and economic interests in the former Dutch East Indies, a stance that helped trigger a four-year war for Indonesian independence. Fighting also erupted in Sumatra and the Celebes, though the 26th Indian Division managed to land at Padang on October 10. On October 21, Lieutenant-General Tanabe Moritake and Vice-Admiral Hirose Sueto surrendered all Japanese forces on Sumatra, yet British control over the country would dwindle in the ensuing civil conflict. Meanwhile, Formosa (Taiwan) was placed under the control of the Kuomintang-led Republic of China by General Order No. 1 and the Instrument of Surrender; Chiang Kai-shek appointed General Chen Yi as Chief Executive of Taiwan Province and commander of the Taiwan Garrison Command on September 1. After several days of preparation, an advance party moved into Taihoku on October 5, with additional personnel arriving from Shanghai and Chongqing between October 5 and 24, and on October 25 General Ando Rikichi signed the surrender document at Taipei City Hall. But that's the end for this week, and for the Pacific War.  Boy oh boy, its been a long journey hasn't it? Now before letting you orphans go into the wild, I will remind you, while this podcast has come to an end, I still write and narrate Kings and Generals Eastern Front week by week and the Fall and Rise of China Podcasts. Atop all that I have my own video-podcast Echoes of War, that can be found on Youtube or all podcast platforms. I really hope to continue entertaining you guys, so if you venture over to the other podcasts, comment you came from here! I also have some parting gifts to you all, I have decided to release a few Pacific War related exclusive episodes from my Youtuber Membership / patreon at www.patreon.com/pacificwarchannel. At the time I am writing this, over there I have roughly 32 episodes, one is uploaded every month alongside countless other goodies. Thank you all for being part of this long lasting journey. Kings and Generals literally grabbed me out of the blue when I was but a small silly person doing youtube videos using an old camera, I have barely gotten any better at it. I loved making this series, and I look forward to continuing other series going forward! You know where to find me, if you have any requests going forward the best way to reach me is just comment on my Youtube channel or email me, the email address can be found on my youtube channel. This has been Craig of the Pacific War Channel and narrator of the Pacific war week by week podcast, over and out!

The International Red Cross was established on this day in 1864. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

US President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles following clashes over raids on undocumented migrants.Also on the programme: we will hear from the President of the International Red Cross on Gaza; and the potential power of using "poo pills" containing freeze-dried faeces.(Photo: Protesters stand next to a burning shopping cart during a standoff between police and protesters following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, California, U.S., June 7, 2025. Credit: Reuters)

The head of the International Red Cross says the situation in Gaza has become 'worse than hell on Earth'. Also: The search for South Africa's illegal mining boss, and could we see data centres in space one day?

The head of the International Red Cross has told the BBC that what's happening in Gaza has crossed any acceptable legal or moral standard.Mirjana Spoljarić said that the situation "should shock our collective conscience". Her comments come after dozens of Palestinians were killed near new aid distribution centres. A prominent US-Israeli businessman with long experience of humanitarian missions tells us what's gone wrong with the roll-out of aid by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.Also in the programme: Six months after a botched military coup, South Korea has a new president; and we'll hear howpoverty is driving men from Lesotho to the illegal mines of neioghbouring South Africa.(Photo shows people carrying aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip on 3 June 2025. Credit: Reuters TV)

Middle East Correspondent for The Economist, Gregg Carlstrom reports on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The head of the International Red Cross says what is happening in Gaza has become "worse than hell on earth" - and surpasses any acceptable legal, moral and humane standard. Former foreign correspondent and political editor for The Independent, Donald Macintyre spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Robert Bruce Lockhart was at various times in his life a diplomat, a conspirator, an gatherer of intelligence, and a propagandist. He was always a maverick, a charmer, a bit of a cad with a touch of the bounder, and a devotee of the high life when he could afford it, and often when he could not.  In his busy life he ran a Malaya rubber plantation; served as a diplomat in Czarist Russia; and was first an interlocutor with and then a conspirator against the Bolshevik leaders of the early Soviet Union. After imprisonment and expulsion from the Soviet Union, he ricocheted about Europe as a journalist and memoirist, before ending up as head of the shadowy and creative Political Warfare Executive. Throughout his life he seemed to be an escapee from a John Buchan novel like The Thirty-Nine Steps, or Greemantle, albeit one with a much higher sex drive.  With me to talk about Robert Bruce Lockhart is James Crossland, Professor of International History at Liverpool John Moores University, where he is co-director of the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History. His interests are in—among other things—terrorism, propaganda, the International Red Cross and the history of international humanitarian law. He was last on the podcast in Episode 353 to talk about his book The Rise of the Devils: Fear and the Origins of Modern Terrorism. His newest book is Rogue Agent: From Secret Plots to Psychological Warfare, the Untold Story of Robert Bruce Lockhart. Some related podcasts in the archive are Jonathan Schneer on the Lockhart Plot; Anna Reid on the Russian Civil War; and–well, I mentioned it, oddly enough–Ben Jones on the Jedburghs.

In this podcast, Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga shares the extraordinary history of his family-owned winery, Tenuta San Leonardo, which is an estate of historical significance where great wines are created in Trentino. It produces San Leonardo, a Bordeaux-style red wine which was described by the wine journalist, Jancis Robinson as "surely the most successful Bordeaux blend of northern Italy". For our oenology enthusiasts, Anselmo describes the kind of grapes and wines made at San Leonardo and gives a colorful historical background to this winery founded in 1724.  And for our history buffs, Anselmo shares some of the highlights of his great grandmother Gemma de Gresti's war efforts to repatriate Italian soldiers during and after the First World War and to welcome and host the neediest during this tragic conflict. The International Red Cross awarded her the highest honor, the gold medal for humanitarian valor.  Born in Rome in 1978, Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga's passions have always been linked to the countryside and animals.  He spent every summer on his family's estate in Trentino surrounded by the vineyards and then in his grandmother's garden on the outskirts of Rome, La Landriana, where she had created a magical world with help from great landscape architects of the time. It is in these places that he refined his knowledge and love for nature.After graduating in 2000 from John Cabot University in Rome with a degree in Business Administration, Anselmo traveled around trying to find out what his aspirations were. Destiny soon brought him back to San Leonardo family winery to support his father.  In fact, in the summer of 2001, he started working on the estate covering little by little all the roles from the simplest gradually to taking over the management of the company to which much of his attention and time still go. Anselmo considers being a wine producer a privilege, and he continues to pursue his father's vision focusing on quality and people with great passion, never forgetting, as their motto says, that "The Land is the soul of our work". In this podcast, Anselmo Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga shares the extraordinary history of his family owned winery, Tenuta San Leonardo, which is an estate of historical significance and an Italian wine producer in the Lagarina Valley in Trentino. It produces San Leonardo, a Bordeaux-style red wine which was described by the wine journalist, Jancis Robinson as "surely the most successful Bordeaux blend of northern Italy". For our oenology enthusiasts, Anselmo describes the kind of grapes and wines made at San Leonardo and gives a colorful historical background to this winery founded in 1724.  And for our history buffs, Anselmo shares some of the highlights of his grandmother Emma de Gresti's war efforts to repatriate Italian soldiers during and after the First World War and to welcome and host the neediest during this tragic conflict. The International Red Cross awarded her the highest honor, the gold medal for humanitarian valor.  Born in Rome in 1978, Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga's passions have always been linked to the countryside and animals.  He spent every summer on his family's estate in Trentino surrounded by the vineyards and then in his grandmother's garden on the outskirts of Rome, La Landriana, where she had created a magical world with help from great landscape architects of the time. It is in these places that he refined his knowledge and love for nature After graduating from John Cabot University in Rome with a degree in Business Administration in 2000, Anselmo traveled around trying to find out what his aspirations were. Destiny soon brought him back to San Leonardo family winery to support his father. In fact, in the summer of 2001, he started working on the estate covering little

Sam Fenwick is joined by Erin Mc Laughlin, senior economist at the Conference Board in New York and Simon Littlewood, a business consultant based in Singapore.Two years into a civil war, Sudan is home to the world's largest humanitarian crisis. The International Red Cross is urging all sides to stop attacks on civilian infrastructure.We hear about Chinese president Xi Jinping's tour around Southeast Asia and what Malaysia stands to gain from new trade deals with China.Also in the programme, why are Chinese influencers going viral on TikTok over tariffs?

Two years into a civil war, Sudan is home to the world's largest humanitarian crisis. The International Red Cross is urging all sides to stop attacks on civilian infrastructure. Also, President Trump claims China has withdrawn from a contract with the American aircraft manufacturer, Boeing. As Peru's economy grows more slowly than expected, Sam Fenwick asks if it and other emerging economies could gain from a weaker dollar?

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake - which the US Geological Survey says had an epicentre in central Myanmar - has been felt in neighbouring countries, including Thailand where an unfinished high-rise has collapsed. Dozens of construction workers are missing, the Thai deputy prime minister says, and a search and rescue operation is under way. Damage in Myanmar is still being assessed. We speak to the International Red Cross in Yangon and hear first hand testiomny from Thailand's capital Bangkok.Also on the programme: the European Commission -- the EU's executive arm -- has announced a package of measures to help winemakers struggling to sell their product. Wine writer Julia Harding MW tells us why less wine is being drunk; and the visit by the US vice-president, JD Vance, to Greenland has sparked controversy. Greenlandic politician Qupanuk Olsen shares her perspective.(Image: Motorists ride past a damaged building after a strong earthquake struck central Myanmar, in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 28, 2025. Credit: Reuters)

Nick Prince received the prestigious Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Red Cross, recognising his 30 years of exceptional service as a nurse. The award honoured his dedication to providing healthcare in challenging environments, including armed conflicts and natural disasters. Nick became the first Australian male recipient of this esteemed international distinction.

Around the world, civilians in cities at war face immense risks. Urban warfare devastates lives and livelihoods, as people are killed and injured, critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water systems are damaged or destroyed, and entire communities are forced to flee. Disruptions to essential services amplifies the suffering of civilians and poses significant humanitarian challenges. As urbanization grows, the impact of conflicts in cities demands urgent and coordinated action to reduce harm and uphold the protections afforded under international humanitarian law (IHL). At the 34th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in October 2024, this pressing issue was raised through the adoption of a Solemn Appeal on War in Cities. The resolution, adopted by consensus, reflects a shared recognition of the human cost of urban warfare and a commitment to improving the protection of civilians. To mark this moment, the resolution was read aloud during the conference, underscoring its importance and the collective responsibility it calls for. Today, we share both the transcript and video of the reading as a reminder of the need for action to safeguard human lives and preserve dignity in urban conflict settings.

Comprehensive coverage of the day's news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice. A New York judge dismisses manslaughter charge in subway chokehold case, jury considers lesser charges. Federal appeals court upholds law forcing sale of Tiktok to avoid US ban. New York investigators say United Healthcare CEO shooting suspect probably fled city by bus. San Mateo County supervisors take another step in effort to remove embattled County Sheriff. International Red Cross landmine removal chief calls on governments to abide by landmine bans. Mexico's president to ask Trump not to deport non-Mexican nationals to Mexico. The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – December 6, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

“It's a peculiar profession,” Margareta Wahlström says when asked about her life as a humanitarian aid worker. Wahlström has worked in crisis situations from Vietnam to Cambodia to Afghanistan, and she held high-level positions at both the United Nations and the Swedish Red Cross. Along with a stressful work culture that often rewards a certain workaholic “cowboy” mentality, the “peculiarities” of humanitarian work also mean that women are less likely than men to reach decision-making positions. Thanks in part to Wahlström, that is changing. Her consistent advocacy for gender equity is one reason she was recently awarded The Henry Dunant Medal, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's highest honor.

Felice Gaer, esteemed Director of AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, was an internationally respected human rights advocate who dedicated more than four decades to championing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enforcing international commitments to prevent severe human rights violations globally. On November 9, Felice passed away after a prolonged battle with metastatic breast cancer. In honor of her legacy, we revisit her insightful conversation on People of the Pod, recorded last year during Women's History Month and on International Women's Day. As we remember and celebrate Felice's profound contributions, we share this interview once more. May her memory continue to be a blessing. __ Music credits: Drops of Melting Snow (after Holst, Abroad as I was walking) by Axletree is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. Learn more about Felice Gaer: Felice Gaer, Legendary Human Rights Champion Who Inspired Generations of Global Advocates, Dies at 78 Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus: with Hen Mazzig, Einat Admony, and more. People of the Pod:  What the Election Results Mean for Israel and the Jewish People The Jewish Vote in Pennsylvania: What You Need to Know Sinwar Eliminated: What Does This Mean for the 101 Hostages Still Held by Hamas? Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. __ Transcript of Conversation with Felice Gaer: Manya Brachear Pashman:   This past weekend, AJC lost a phenomenal colleague. Felice Gaer, the director of American Jewish Committee's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, was an internationally renowned human rights expert who, for more than four decades, brought life and practical significance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international commitments, to prevent grave human rights abuses around the world.  She died on November 9, following a lengthy battle with metastatic breast cancer. I had the honor of interviewing Felice last year during Women's History Month and on International Women's Day.  We bring you that interview now, as we remember Felice. May her memory be for a blessing.  _ Felice is with us now to discuss today's human rights challenges and the challenges she has faced as a woman in the Human Rights world.  Felice, welcome to People of the Pod.  Felice Gaer:   Thank you, Manya. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So let's start with the beginning. Can you share with our listeners a little about your upbringing, and how Jewish values shaped what you do today? Felice Gaer:   Well, I had a fairly ordinary upbringing in a suburb of New York City that had a fairly high percentage of Jews living in it–Teaneck, New Jersey. I was shaped by all the usual things in a Jewish home. First of all, the holidays. Secondly, the values, Jewish values, and awareness, a profound awareness of Jewish history, the history of annihilation, expulsion, discrimination, violence. But also the Jewish values of universality, respect for all human life, equality before the law, sense of realism, sense that you can change your life by what you do, and the choices that you make. These are all core Jewish values. And I guess I always have found the three part expression by Rabbi Hillel to sum up the approach I've always taken to human rights and most other things in life. He said, If I'm not for myself, who will be, and if I'm only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? So that's a sense of Jewish particularism, Jewish universalism, and realism, as well. Manya Brachear Pashman:   You went to Wellesley, class of 1968, it's an all-women's college. Was there a strong Jewish presence on campus there at a time? And did that part of your identity even play a role in your college experience?  Felice Gaer :  Well, I left, as I said, a town that had a fairly sizable Jewish population. And I went to Wellesley and I felt like I was in another world. And so even as long ago as 1964-65, that era, I actually reached out to Hillel and participated in very minor activities that took place, usually a Friday night dinner, or something like that. But it really didn't play a role except by making me recognize that I was a member of a very small minority. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Here on this podcast, we've talked a lot about the movement to free Soviet Jewry. As you pursued graduate work at Columbia, and also during your undergrad days at Wellesley, were you involved in that movement at all? Felice Gaer:   Well, I had great interest in Russian studies, and in my years at Wellesley, the Soviet Union movement was at a very nascent stage. And I remember arguments with the Soviet Ambassador coming to the campus and our specialist on Russian history, arguing about whether this concern about the treatment of Soviet Jews was a valid concern.  The professor, who happened to have been Jewish, by the way, argued that Jews in the Soviet Union were treated badly, but so was everybody else in the Soviet Union. And it really wasn't something that one needed to focus on especially. As I left Wellesley and went to Columbia, where I studied political science and was at the Russian Institute, now the Harriman Institute, I found that the treatment of Soviet Jews was different in many ways, and the capacity to do something about it was serious.  We knew people who had relatives, we knew people who wanted to leave. The whole Soviet Union movement was focused around the desire to leave the country–not to change it–that was an explicit decision of Jewish leaders around the world, and in the Soviet Union itself. And so the desire to leave was something you could realize, document the cases, bring the names forward, and engage American officials in a way that the Jewish community had never done before with cases and examples demanding that every place you went, every negotiation that took place, was accompanied by lists of names and cases, whose plight will be brought to the attention of the authorities. And that really mobilized people, including people like me.  I also worked to focus on the agenda of internal change in the Soviet Union. And that meant also looking at other human rights issues. Why and how freedom of religion or belief was suppressed in this militantly atheist state, why and how freedom of expression, freedom of association, and just about every other right, was really severely limited. And what the international standards were at that time. After I left Columbia, that was around the time that the famous manifesto from Andrei Sakharov, the world famous physicist, Nobel Prize winner, was made public. It was around the time that other kinds of dissident materials were becoming better known about life inside the Soviet Union post-Khrushchev. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So you left Colombia with a master's degree, the Cold War ends, and you take a job at the Ford Foundation that has you traveling all around Eastern Europe, looking to end human rights abuses, assessing the challenges that face that region. I want to ask you about the treatment of women, and what you witnessed about the mistreatment of women in these regions. And does that tend to be a common denominator around the world when you assess human rights abuses? Felice Gaer:   Well, there's no question that the treatment of women is different than the treatment of men. And it's true all over the world. But when I traveled in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the height of those years, height of the Cold War, and so forth, the issues of women's rights actually weren't one of the top issues on the agenda because the Soviet Union and East European countries appeared to be doing more for women than the Western countries.  They had them in governance. They had them in the parliament. They purported to support equality for women. It took some years for Soviet feminists, dissidents, to find a voice and to begin to point out all the ways in which they were treated in the same condescending, patriarchal style as elsewhere. But in those years, that was not a big issue in the air.  It was unusual for me, a 20-something year old woman from the United States to be traveling around Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, meeting with high officials and others, and on behalf of the Ford Foundation, trying to develop programming that would involve people to people contacts, that would involve developing programs where there was common expertise, like management training, and things of that sort. And I was really an odd, odd duck in that situation, and I felt it. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I mentioned in my introduction, the Beijing World Conference on Women, can you reflect a little on what had a lasting impact there? Felice Gaer:   Well, the Beijing World Conference on Women was the largest, and remains the largest conference that the United Nations has ever organized. There were over 35,000 women there, about 17,000 at the intergovernmental conference. I was on the US delegation there.  The simple statement that women's rights are human rights may seem hackneyed today. But when that was affirmed in the 1995 Beijing Outcome Document, it was a major political and conceptual breakthrough. It was largely focused on getting the UN to accept that the rights of women were actually international human rights and that they weren't something different. They weren't private, or outside the reach of investigators and human rights bodies. It was an inclusive statement, and it was a mind altering statement in the women's rights movement.  It not only reaffirmed that women's rights are human rights, but it went further in addressing the problems facing women in the language of human rights.  The earlier world conferences on women talked about equality, but they didn't identify violations of those rights. They didn't demand accountability of those rights. And they said absolutely nothing about creating mechanisms by which you could monitor, review, and hold people accountable, which is the rights paradigm. Beijing changed all that. It was a violations approach that was quite different from anything that existed before that. Manya Brachear Pashman :  Did anything get forgotten? We talked about what had a lasting impact, but what seems to have been forgotten or have fallen to the wayside? Felice Gaer:   Oh, I think it's just the opposite. I think the things that were in the Beijing conference have become Fuller and addressed in greater detail and are more commonly part of what goes on in the international discourse on women's rights and the status of women in public life. And certainly at the international level that's the case.  I'll give you just one example, the Convention Against Torture. I mean, when I became a member of the committee, the 10 person committee, I was the only woman. The committee really had, in 11 years, it had maybe said, four or five things about the treatment of women. And the way that torture, ill treatment, inhuman, degrading treatment may affect women.  It looked at the world through the eyes of male prisoners in detention. And it didn't look at the world through the eyes of women who suffer private violence, gender based violence, that is that the state looks away from and ignores and therefore sanctions, and to a certain extent endorses.  And it didn't identify the kinds of things that affect women, including women who are imprisoned, and why and where in many parts of the world. What one does in terms of education or dress or behavior may lead you into a situation where you're being abused, either in a prison or outside of prison. These are issues that are now part of the regular review, for example, at the Committee Against Torture, issues of of trafficking, issues of gender based violence, the Sharia law, the hudud punishments of whipping and stoning, are part of the concern of the committee, which they weren't before. Manya Brachear Pashman:   In other words, having that woman's perspective, having your perspective on that committee was really important and really changed and broadened the discussion. Felice Gaer:   Absolutely. When I first joined the committee, the first session I was at, we had a review of China. And so I very politely asked a question about the violence and coercion associated with the population policy in China, as you know, forced abortions and things of that sort. This was a question that had come up before the women's convention, the CEDAW, and I thought it was only appropriate that it also come up in the Committee Against Torture.  In our discussion afterwards, the very stern chairman of the committee, a former constable, said to me, ‘You know, this might be of interest to you, Ms. Gaer, but this has nothing to do with the mandate of this committee.' I explained to him why it did, in some detail. And when I finished pointing out all of those elements–including the fact that the people carried out these practices on the basis of state policy–when I finished, there was a silence.  And the most senior person in the room, who had been involved in these issues for decades, said, ‘I'm quite certain we can accommodate Ms. Gaer's concerns in the conclusions,' and they did.  That's the kind of thing that happens when you look at issues from a different perspective and raise them. Manya Brachear Pashman:   You talked about being an odd duck in your 20s, as a woman traveling around Eastern Europe, trying to address these challenges. I'm curious if that woman in her 20s would have been able to stand up to this committee like that, and give that thorough an explanation? Or did it take some years of experience, of witnessing these issues, perhaps being ignored?  Felice Gaer:  Well, I think as we go through life, you learn new things. And I learned new things along the way. I learned about the universal norms, I learned about how to apply them, how they had been applied, and how they hadn't been applied. And in that process, developed what I would say is a sharper way of looking at these issues.  But the Bosnian conflict in particular, made the issue of gender based violence against women, especially in war, but not only in war, into a mainstream issue, and helped propel these issues, both inside the United Nations and outside, the awareness changed.  I remember asking the International Red Cross representatives in Croatia, just across the border from Bosnia, if they had encountered any victims of gender based violence or rape, and they said, ‘No.' And I said, ‘Did you ask them about these concerns?' And they sort of looked down and looked embarrassed, looked at each other and looked back at me and said, ‘Oh.' There were no words. There were no understandings of looking at the world this way. And that has changed. That has changed dramatically today. I mean, if you look at the situation in Ukraine, the amount of gender based violence that has been documented is horrifying, just horrifying, but it's been documented. Manya Brachear Pashman   So is the world of human rights advocacy male-dominated, female-dominated, is it fairly balanced these days? And has that balance made the difference in what you're talking about? Felice Gaer:   You know, I wrote an article in 1988, the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, about why women's rights weren't being addressed. And one of the points I drew attention to was the fact that the heads of almost all the major organizations at the time were all male. And that it wasn't seen as a concern. A lot of that has changed. There's really a real variety of perspectives now that are brought to bear. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So we've talked a lot about the importance of [a] woman's perspective. Does a Jewish perspective matter as well? Felice Gaer:   Oh, on every issue on every issue and, you know, I worked a great deal on freedom of religion and belief, as an issue. That's a core issue of AJC, and it's a fundamental rights issue. And it struck me as surprising that with all the attention to freedom of religion, the concern about antisemitic acts was not being documented by mainstream human rights organizations. And it wasn't being documented by the UN experts on freedom of religion or belief either. I drew this to the attention of Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, who was recently ending his term as Special Rapporteur on Freedom of religion or belief. And he was really very struck by this. And he went, and he did a little bit of research. And he found out that since computerized records had been prepared at the United Nations, that there had been no attention, no attention at all, to cases of alleged antisemitic incidents. And he began a project to record the kinds of problems that existed and to identify what could be done about it. We helped him in the sense that we organized a couple of colloquia, we brought people from all over the world together to talk about the dimensions of the problem and the documentation that they did, and the proposals that they had for addressing it. And he, as you may recall, wrote a brilliant report in 2019, setting out the problems of global antisemitism. And he followed that up in 2022, before leaving his position with what he called an action plan for combating anti semitism, which has concrete specific suggestions for all countries around the world as to what they can do to help combat antisemitism and antisemitic acts, including and to some extent, starting with adopting the working definition on antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, but also activities in in the area of education, training, training of law enforcement officials, documentation and public action. It's a real contribution to the international discourse and to understanding that freedom of religion or belief belongs to everyone. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And do you believe that Dr. Shaheed's report is being absorbed, comprehended by those that need to hear it that need to understand it? Felice Gaer   I've been delighted to see the way that the European Union has engaged with Dr. Shaheed and his report has developed standards and expectations for all 27 member states, and that other countries and other parts of the world have done the same. So yeah, I do think they're engaging with it. I hope there'll be a lot more because the problem has only grown. Manya Brachear Pashman:   On the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, JBI issued a report that sounded the alarm on the widespread violations committed against Ukrainians, you mentioned the amount of gender based violence Since that has taken place, and the other just catastrophic consequences of this war. Felice, you've been on the front row of Eastern European affairs and human rights advocacy in that region. From your perspective, and I know this is a big question: How did this war happen? Felice Gaer:   I'll just start by saying: it didn't start in 2022. And if you have to look at what happened, the events of 2014, to understand the events of 2022. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, or even during the breakup, there was a period where the 15th constituent Union republics of the Soviet Union developed a greater national awareness, really, and some of them had been independent as some of them hadn't been, but they developed a much greater awareness. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the 15 countries, including Russia, as one of the 15, became independent entities. And aside from having more members in the United Nations and the Council of Europe and places like that, it led to much more robust activity, in terms of respecting human rights and other areas of endeavor in each of those countries.  The situation in Russia, with a head of state who has been there, with one exception, a couple of years, for 20 years, has seen an angry desire to reestablish an empire. That's the only thing you can say really about it.  If they can't dominate by having a pro-Russian group in charge in the country, then there have been invasions, there have been Russian forces, Russia-aligned forces sent to the different countries. So whether it's Georgia, or Moldova, or Ukraine, we've seen this pattern.  And unfortunately, what happened in 2022, is the most egregious and I would say, blatant such example. In 2014, the Russians argued that it was local Russian speaking, little green men who were conducting hostilities in these places, or it was local people who wanted to realign with Russia, who were demanding changes, and so forth. But in the 2022 events, Russia's forces invaded, wearing Russian insignia and making it quite clear that this was a matter of state policy that they were pursuing, and that they weren't going to give up.  And it's led to the tragic developments that we've all seen inside the country, and the horrific violence, the terrible, widespread human rights violations. And in war, we know that human rights violations are usually the worst.  And so the one good spot on the horizon: the degree to which these abuses have been documented, it's unprecedented to have so much documentation so early in a conflict like this, which someday may lead to redress and accountability for those who perpetrated it. But right now, in the middle of these events, it's just a horror. Manya Brachear Pashman:   What other human rights situations do we need to be taking more seriously now? And where has there been significant progress? Felice Gaer:   Well, I'll talk about the problem spots if I may for a minute. Everyone points to North Korea as the situation without parallel, that's what a UN Commission of Inquiry said, without parallel in the world. The situation in Iran? Well, you just need to watch what's happened to the protesters, the women and others who have protested over 500 people in the streets have died because of this. 15,000 people imprisoned, and Iran's prisons are known for ill treatment and torture.  The situation in Afghanistan is atrocious. The activities of the Taliban, which they were known for in the 1990s are being brought back. They are normalizing discrimination, they are engaged in probably the most hardline gender discrimination we've seen anywhere where women can't work outside the home, girls can't be educated, political participation is denied. The constitution has been thrown out. All kinds of things. The latest is women can't go to parks, they can't go to university, and they can't work for NGOs. This continues. It's a major crisis.  Well, there are other countries, from Belarus, to Sudan to Uzbekistan, and China, that we could also talk about at great length, lots of problems in the world, and not enough effort to expose them, address them and try to ameliorate them. Manya Brachear Pashman   So what do we do about that? What can our listeners do about that, when we hear this kind of grim report? Felice Gaer:   Work harder. Pay attention when you hear about rights issues. Support rights organizations. Take up cases. Seek redress. Be concerned about the victims. All these things need to be done. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I don't know how you maintain your composure and your cool, Felice, because you have faced so much in terms of challenges and push back. So thank you so much for all you have done for women, for the Jewish people, and for the world at large. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Felice Gaer:   Thank you, Manya.

The 34th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent will take place 28-31 October 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. At this meeting, states party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement will meet to discuss humanitarian issues under this International Conference's theme “Navigate uncertainty, strengthen humanity”. In the lead-up to this meeting, ICRC Legal Adviser Ellen Policinski looks back at the role of the International Conference in drafting the 1949 Geneva Conventions, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects civilians.

Since 2003, the ICRC has submitted a report on ‘International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflict' to the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, where the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions come together with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to discuss key matters of humanitarian concern and to make joint commitments. In this post and drawing from the 2024 Challenges Report, ICRC Chief Legal Officer Cordula Droege presents the ICRC's analysis of some of the salient legal issues of today's conflicts, animated, first and foremost, by its desire to achieve greater protection of victims of war from the effects of armed conflicts, and informed by its observation of key humanitarian issues on the ground and its dialogue with parties to conflicts in all parts of the world.

00:00 2005年英语专业四级 短文101:27 2005年英语专业四级 短文202:58 2005年英语专业四级 短文32005年英语专业四级 短文1Attention all passengers, platform change, this is a platform change.各位乘客注意，火车停靠站台改变，火车停靠站台改变。The train, now standing at platform 9, is the 10:48 train, calling at all stations to Nanjing.现在停在九号站台的这列火车，是10:48分出发的火车，它会在通往南京的所有站做停留。Please note, the train on platform 9 is not the 10:52 train to Jinan.请注意，停在九号站台的火车并不是10：52分开往济南的火车。It's the 10:48 train calling at all stations to Nanjing.这是10：48分出发，在通往南京所有站做停留的火车。The 10:52 to Jinan will now leave from platform 7.10：52开往济南的火车即将从七站台出发。Train announcement.列车到发通告。The 11:20 train to Zhengzhou from platform 8 will be subject to a 15-minute delay.11：20从八号站台开往郑州的列车晚点15分钟。I repeat, there will be a 15- minute delay for the Zhengzhou train on platform 8 .It will now leave at 11:35, not 11:20.再次重复，八号站台开往郑州的列车晚点15分钟。11：35列车开动，不是11：20。The 11:28 train to Hangzhou has been cancelled.11:28开往杭州的火车已经取消。We apologize to customers, but due to a signal problem, the 11:28 train to Hangzhou from platform 15 has been cancelled.我们向您道歉，由于信号问题，11：28从十五号站台开往杭州的列车已经取消。The 11:32 train to Tianjin is now standing at platform 13.11：32开往天津的火车现在停靠在十三号站台。Please note, there will be no restaurant car on this train. I repeat, there will be no restaurant car on the 11:32 to Tianjin now standing at platform 13.请注意，这列火车上没有餐车。再次重复，现在停靠在13号站台，11：32开往天津的火车上没有餐车。2005年英语专业四级 短文2The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum was opened in Geneva in 1988国际红十字会和红新月博物馆于1988年在日内瓦开幕。It tells the story of men and women who, in the course of the major events of the last 150 years, have given assistance to victims of war and natural disasters.它讲述了在过去150年的重大事件中，为战争和自然灾害受害者提供援助的男男女女的故事。The organization was established in 1863 and was based on an idea by a Swiss businessman called Henri Durant.该组织成立于1863年，由瑞士商人亨利·杜南创建。He had witnessed the heavy casualties at the battle of Sulferino in Italy 4 years earlier, in which 40,000 people were killed, wounded or missing.四年前，他看到了意大利索尔费里诺战役的惨重伤亡，那场战役造成4万人死亡、受伤或失踪。He had seen the lack of medical services and the great suffering of many of the wounded who simply died from lack of care.他看到了医疗服务的缺乏以及因为缺乏医疗而死亡的大量伤员的巨大痛苦。The International Red Cross or Red Crescent exists to help the victims of conflicts and disasters regardless of their nationalities.国际红十字会或红新月博物馆的存在是为了帮助冲突和灾难的受害者，不论他们的国籍是什么。The symbol of the organization was originally just the red cross.该组织的象征最初只是红十字会。It has no religious significance.没有宗教意义。The founders of the movement adopted it as a tribute to Switzerland.该组织的创始人将它作为对瑞士的致敬。However,during the Russo-Turkish War, the Turks felt that the cross could be seen as offensive to Muslim soldiers.然而，在俄土战争期间，土耳其人认为十字架是对穆斯林士兵的冒犯。And a second symbol, the red crescent, was adopted for use by national organizations in the Islamic world. Both are now official symbols.第二个标志红新月，为伊斯兰世界的国家组织所采用。现在两者都是官方标志。2005年英语专业四级 短文3At major college or high school sports events, cheerleaders, both male and female,jump and dance in front of the crowd, and shout the name of their team, running around and yelling "Go, team, Go"在主要的大学或高中体育赛事中，啦啦队队长，无论男女，都要在人群前蹦蹦跳跳，喊出自己球队的名字，到处跑，喊着“加油，球队，加油”。The first cheerleader ever was a man.第一个啦啦队队长是一个男人。In 1898, John Campbell jumped in front of the crowd at the University of Minnesota and shouted for his team.1898年，约翰·坎贝尔在明尼苏达大学的人群前跳下，为他的球队呐喊。He shouted "Hoorah, Minnesota". This was the first organized shout, oryell.他喊道“万岁，明尼苏达大学”。这是第一次有组织的喊叫或呐喊。For the next 32 years cheerleaders were men only.在接下来的32年里，啦啦队员只有男性。Cheerleading is not just about cheering. They practice special shouts, dances, and athletic shows.啦啦队不仅仅是为了欢呼。他们练习特殊的喊叫声、舞蹈和体育表演。The men throw the women high in the air and catch them.男人把女人抛向空中，然后抓住她们。The team members climb on each other's shoulders to make a human pyramid.队员们爬上彼此的肩膀，形成一个金字塔。They yell and dance, too. It is like human fireworks.他们喊啊，叫啊，舞啊，那激情如烟花般四射。Of course, they may often suffer serious knee and wrist injuries, and bloody noses.当然，他们可能经常遭受严重的膝盖和手腕受伤，流鼻血。Cheerleaders have their own contests every year at local, state and national levels.拉拉队长每年在地方、州和国家都有自己的比赛。And the crowd shouts for them.群众为他们呼喊。It is not fair to think cheerleading is just being cheerful and lively and having aloud voice.把啦啦队看作娱乐，维持现场气氛活跃，保持声音响亮的手段是不公平的。Cheerleading is a sport in itself.啦啦队本身就是一项运动。

Warren Berger developed his inquiry skills as a journalist for The New York Times, but he first declared himself a “questionologist” with the publication of his best-selling book, A More Beautiful Question (Bloomsbury, 2014). The book illustrates how questioning has been the starting point for innovations ranging from the cell phone to Netflix to the International Red Cross. In it, Berger introduces an original framework—the “Why/What If/How” cycle of inquiry—that can be applied to all kinds of challenges and problems. A More Beautiful Question has been embraced by organizations such as NASA, the U.S. Army, the National Science Foundation, and companies like Starbucks, Chanel, Pfizer, Oracle, Microsoft, Disney, and Pepsi. The book is also widely used in major universities across the country. Mr. Berger has conducted questioning workshops at NASA and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and he designed and hosted a filmed employee-training program on questioning for PepsiCo. He also regularly visits elementary and high schools, urging teachers to encourage more student questioning and critical thinking in the classroom. In the fall of 2018, Berger released a follow-up book on questioning, The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead. In 2020, he published Beautiful Questions in the Classroom, which offers strategies and exercises to help teachers inspire more curiosity and inquiry among their students. Overall, Berger has authored or co-authored 10 books, including the acclaimed Glimmer, one of the first books on “design thinking.” He has appeared on NPR's All Things Considered, CNN, and NBC's Today Show. He also contributes regularly to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Psychology Today, where he writes the “Questionologist” column. His general website about questioning is www.amorebeautifulquestion.com, and his author/speaker site is www.warrenberger.com.

This Day in Legal History: American Red Cross FoundedOn this day in legal history, May 21, 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. Inspired by her experiences providing care to soldiers during the Civil War and influenced by the International Red Cross in Europe, Barton established the organization to offer emergency assistance, disaster relief, and education in the United States. The American Red Cross received its first Congressional Charter in 1900, which was later updated in 1905 to formalize its responsibilities and relationship with the federal government.The charter defines the organization's mission to provide aid to victims of natural disasters and armed conflict, as well as to maintain a system of national and international relief in times of peace. Under Barton's leadership, the American Red Cross played a critical role in responding to natural disasters such as the Johnstown Flood in 1889 and the Galveston Hurricane in 1900.Today, the American Red Cross continues to be a vital component of the nation's emergency response infrastructure. It provides blood donation services, supports military families, offers health and safety training, and responds to over 60,000 disasters annually. The organization's founding marked a significant moment in the history of humanitarian aid in the United States, embodying a commitment to compassion and service that endures to this day.In recent developments regarding Rudolph Giuliani's bankruptcy, creditors are seeking documents from John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of WABC Radio, which recently canceled Giuliani's show. The creditors' committee has filed a motion in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to subpoena Catsimatidis for communications and documents related to Giuliani's relationship with WABC, his compensation, and details about the shows he hosted.The move comes after Catsimatidis canceled Giuliani's show due to the former mayor's repeated false statements about the 2020 election. The creditors are also interested in information about Giuliani's termination, statements he made regarding the Georgia poll workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him, and other potential assets.Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following the defamation suit loss, and his recent attempt to challenge the judgment failed. The committee has expanded its efforts to subpoena over 20 individuals associated with Giuliani, including his son, to uncover additional assets for distribution among creditors. Giuliani Creditors Target Billionaire Radio Station Owner (1)Martin Gruenberg, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), announced he will step down following a report of a toxic work environment at the agency. The report, conducted by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, detailed allegations of harassment and discrimination, highlighting a problematic culture at the FDIC during Gruenberg's tenure. Despite surviving intense congressional hearings, Gruenberg faced increasing political pressure, notably from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, who called for new leadership to implement fundamental changes.Gruenberg, who has been an FDIC board member since 2005 and served twice as chairman, promised to address the agency's issues but acknowledged his resignation once a successor is confirmed. The White House plans to quickly nominate a replacement to maintain the Democratic majority on the FDIC board, ensuring the continuation of the administration's regulatory agenda.The FDIC is currently collaborating with the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on new capital requirements for big banks, a contentious issue in the financial industry. Gruenberg's departure could impact these regulatory efforts, especially if the board becomes evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. House Majority Whip Thomas Emmer called for Gruenberg's immediate resignation, suggesting other capable leaders could take over.The White House expressed its commitment to appointing a new chair dedicated to consumer protection and financial stability, aiming for swift Senate confirmation. The unfolding situation underscores the ongoing challenges and political dynamics within federal financial regulatory bodies.FDIC Chair Says He'll Leave Job After Toxic Workplace Report (2)The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is developing a new "environmental context" metric to provide law schools with more information about the socioeconomic challenges applicants face. This metric will include data on institutional student spending, graduation rates, and the percentage of undergraduates receiving federal Pell Grants. Unveiled during an American Bar Association meeting, the project aims to offer a fuller picture of applicants beyond grades and test scores.The initiative is a collaboration with The College Board, which already provides similar contextual tools for college admissions. LSAC's research director, Elizabeth Bodamer, highlighted the importance of understanding the hurdles applicants have overcome. This new metric comes after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision limiting the consideration of race in admissions, though LSAC had planned the project years earlier.Law schools are testing the metric on 2023 applications to evaluate its impact on admissions decisions. Initial findings show that applicants from high-challenge colleges are 2.5 times more likely to be first-generation students compared to those from low-challenge colleges. Additionally, nearly all applicants from low-challenge colleges are accepted into law school, while fewer than two-thirds from high-challenge colleges gain admission.Law school applicants' socioeconomic hurdles measured by new metric | ReutersIn my column this week, I discuss the IRS's acknowledgment of racial disparities in taxpayer audit rates, as highlighted by Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research in 2023. The IRS plans to reassess and refine its compliance mechanisms, but mere algorithm adjustments won't suffice. Accountability is crucial for addressing how these algorithms exhibited biases and ensuring taxpayers can trust the system's integrity. Transparency, such as open-sourcing the audit algorithms, is essential for enabling feedback from researchers and watchdog groups.The issue of biased algorithms extends beyond statistics. Racial disparities in audits undermine trust in the tax system, which is vital for voluntary compliance. Although algorithms aren't inherently biased, the people who create them can introduce biases, whether intentionally or not. This is evident in similar cases, such as the Netherlands' tax audit scandal, where policies flagged ethnic minorities for audits on childcare benefits, leading to widespread disallowance of said benefits and massive financial harm to numerous innocent individuals.In the U.S., the IRS's audit algorithms may disproportionately impact Black taxpayers due to the way they predict income misstatements. Stanford researchers found that Black taxpayers were audited at rates 2.9 to 4.7 times higher than non-Black taxpayers. Whether these biases are overt or incidental, the experience of those audited remains unjust.Greater transparency in audit algorithms is necessary to ensure equity across all demographics. While there are concerns about revealing audit selection criteria, the benefits of transparency outweigh the risks. Disclosing audit rates across demographics and open-sourcing the algorithms will allow for independent assessment and help identify and eliminate biases. Open-source algorithms can also expose vulnerabilities, enabling improvements.The column underscores that addressing biases in enforcement processes requires more than algorithm tweaks; it involves engaging with affected communities to rebuild trust through transparency and accountability. This level of openness is crucial for restoring taxpayer confidence in the fairness of the IRS's audit practices.IRS Racial Audit Disparities Need Accountability to Be Resolved Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

As you may have noticed, we like to blow stuff up on this channel. So when the International Red Cross approached us to collaborate on a video about nuclear weapons, we were more than excited. Until we did the research. It turned out we were a bit oblivious off the real impact of nuclear weapons in the real world, on a real city. And especially, how helpless even the most developed nations on earth would be if an attack occurred today. So hopefully this video demonstrates how extremely non fun a real world nuclear attack would be, without being too gruesome. This collaboration was a blast (no pun intended) and we want to say a huge thank you to the International Red Cross! Sources & further reading: https://sites.google.com/view/nuclearweapons/ Follow the show to join us in this audio experience of Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell. A fan-made show out of admiration for the works of Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, highlights the need to focus on the Rule of Law rather than Rule of War. The United Nations, although it is not perfect, is the only international organization that brings together countries of the world to deal with nuclear proliferation, climate change, human trafficking, poverty, hunger, empowering women, and scores of other challenges. Currently, there are about 13,000 nukes controlled by 9-nuclar power states.  Many countries are moving to expend trillions of dollars to modernize their nuclear stockpiles, which will add to the proliferation. Given that the US and Russia have withdrawn from several major international treaties, this creates an even more dangerous world.  The danger is even more severe when the Russian president denies the sovereignty of Ukraine and the former U.S. president basically ignores or violates international laws and treaties.  There is a lack of trust among the nations.

#ISRAEL: International Red Cross abets the PA "pay for slay" scheme   Itamar Marcus is a researcher and the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, which studies Palestinian society by monitoring and analyzing the Palestinian Authority through its media and schoolbooks. Malcolm Hoenlein @Conf_of_pres @mhoenlein1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Authority_Martyrs_Fund 1950 RAMALLAH

PREVIEW: #PA: #ISRAEL: Excerpt from a conversation with colleague Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch re how the International Red Cross enables the PA "pay-for-slay" scheme for terrorists who are rewarded by the PA with a salary for their crimes.  More later. 1950 Ramallah

On June 24, 1894, President of France Sadi Carnot was stabbed by an anarchist; on September 10, 1898, Empress Elisabeth of Austria was stabbed by an anarchist; on July 29, 1900, King Umberto I of Italy was shot by an anarchist; on September 6, 1901, President of the United States William McKinley was shot by an anarchist. If you have ever wondered why people in the 1900s right up to the Great War, and beyond, all seem to have had anarchists on the brain, those are four of the reasons. But these attention-grabbing acts were far from the first anarchist attacks to capture the public imagination, and nowhere near the most violent or destructive, as my guest today makes clear. From the mid 19th century, the combination of technological and cultural developments in mass media and in weaponry made acts of violence resonate around the globe.  “What follows,” writes James Crossland in the preface to his new book, “is the story of how…revolutionaries, thinkers, killers and spies learned a lesson as heinous as it has proved enduring, resonating with menace into our own troubled age – the means by which to  bring terror to the world.” James Crossland is Professor of International History at Liverpool John Moores University, where he is co-director of the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History. His interests are in—among other things—terrorism, propaganda, the International Red Cross and the history of international humanitarian law. His third and most recent book is The Rise of the Devils: Fear and the Origins of Modern Terrorism, and it is the subject of our conversation today.   For Further Investigation The Orsini Bomb The Paris Commune William McKinley: Death of the President Anarchist Incidents

BlackBerry recently got together several of Ireland's emergency services and public sector organisations to a private event in Dublin. They discussed the state of major emergency management in Ireland and across the EU, sharing lessons learned and best practice. Insights drawn from BlackBerry AtHoc's work with aid and emergency services organisations; from the UK's Greater Manchester Police and Civil Nuclear Constabulary, to the United States Senate and International Red Cross. Keiron Holyome, VP UKI & Emerging Markets, BlackBerry Cybersecurity was one of the speakers at the event and Ronan sat down to speak with him after the event. Kieron talks about his background, how Blackberry pivoted, the four pillars of what blackberry does and more  More about Keiron Holyome: In his role as Vice President for the UK, Ireland and Emerging Markets, Keiron applies his depth of knowledge in cybersecurity threats and AI-powered solutions to work with BlackBerry customers and prospects across a broad range of industries including public sector, manufacturing, finance and health. Keiron joined BlackBerry in 2021 from McAfee, prior to which he built his career with global IT organisations including Dell, Lenovo and Computacenter. 

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Today is day 99 of the war. US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for this one-on-one episode. Families of hostages are holding 24 hours of non-stop awareness-raising events to mark 100 days of captivity by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Last night, the Prime Minister's Office announced in a statement that an agreement has been reached that will see vital medications delivered to hostages, via the International Red Cross. What has changed that is allowing this gesture of "semi-good will"? Early today, the US military struck another Houthi-controlled site in Yemen that it had determined was putting commercial vessels in the Red Sea at risk, a day after the US and Britain launched multiple airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels. While at a Pennsylvania bookstore on Friday, President Joe Biden was asked by the traveling press pool whether he thinks the Houthis are a terrorist organization, despite delisting them in his first year in office. “I think they are,” he said. What's happening there? We learned last week that technical conversations between the US and Saudi Arabia about a potential normalization agreement with Israel have continued amid the Israel-Hamas war, according to two senior US officials and a senior Arab diplomat. Magid tells us more. For the latest updates, please look at The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Live blog January 13, 2024 Vital medications to be transferred to Gaza hostages in coming days, PM's office says US hits Houthi radar site in fresh strike after threats to Red Sea shipping Biden calls Houthis a terror group, as administration weighs reapplying designation Biden: I'm quietly working with Israel to ‘significantly' lower IDF presence in Gaza Saudi normalization still possible post-war, but price for Israel is higher — officials THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: File: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) during a Likud party meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 13, 2021; Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) speaks during the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, December 14, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90; Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via AP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, our Christmas Special, State of Tel Aviv brings you a “twofer”; interviews with two of this podcast's favorite voices. IDF Spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus and Ya'akov Katz, former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, security political analyst, share their thoughts on the challenges of urban warfare in the Gaza Strip and the continuing toll that the hostage crisis takes on all of Israel. We also get into the extreme tension and constant hostilities on the northern front with Hizballah. More than 100,000 Israeli civilians have been evacuated from the north and have no idea as to if or when they will be able to return. Since October 7 there has been ongoing fire from Hizballah, which Israel returns. It is a spark away from becoming a raging battle. And Hizballah is much better trained and fighting with a bigger arsenal of significantly more sophisticated and harmful weapons. Katz, in particular, is concerned that the failures of military intelligence and strategy that were so apparent in the south may also be prevalent in the north. We begin with Lt. Col Conricus. The Katz interview starts at 16:28. I wanted to leave you with some brain food for the coming week. We will be slowing down until just after New Year's Day. A print piece or two may drop. But otherwise we'll lie low. Thanks again for supporting State of Tel Aviv. Best wishes for a Merry Christmas (it is Christmas Day, after all) if you celebrate. And Happy New Year to all.State of Tel Aviv is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stateoftelaviv.com/subscribe

Kirsten Elstner is the founder and director of National Geographic Photo Camp, whose mission is to work with youth from diverse communities worldwide, guiding them as they use photography to tell their own stories and develop meaningful connections with others. Since 2003, she has worked in over 35 countries and designed over 145 programs, intending to inspire and encourage young people to see the power of their own voices. Elstner has been a photographer and teacher since completing her master's degree in photography at Ohio University. Her work has appeared in Time, Life, The New York Times, and O Globo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she worked as a staff photographer. She also served as a photographer for The International Red Cross and Red Crescent in Bangladesh. Elstner taught photography at The International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, Goucher College, the Art Institute of Boston, and the Corcoran Museum School in Washington D.C.. Resources National Geographic Photo Camp Websites Sponsors Charcoal Book Club Frames Magazine Education Resources: Momenta Photographic Workshops Candid Frame Resources Download the free Candid Frame app for your favorite smart device. Click here to download it for . Click here to download Support the work at The Candid Frame by contributing to our Patreon effort.  You can do this by visiting or the website and clicking on the Patreon button. You can also provide a one-time donation via . You can follow Ibarionex on and .

Dr Kapila has extensive experience in global and public health,  international development, humanitarian affairs, conflict and security issues, human rights, diplomacy, and social entrepreneurship, with substantive leadership roles in government, United Nations system and multilateral agencies, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, civil society, and academia. His work has taken him to some 120 countries in all continents. Originally schooled in India and England, Dr Kapila graduated in medicine from the University of Oxford and received postgraduate qualifications in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.   Since 2012, Dr Kapila has been the Professor (now Emeritus) of Global Health & Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester, UK, where he also founded and chaired the Manchester Global Foundation.  Since 2020, he is also Senior Adviser to the Parliamentary Assembly for the Mediterranean, the principal forum for 29 national parliaments of the Euro-Mediterranean region, deliberating on the creation of the best political, social, economic and cultural environment for fellow citizens of member states. He also serves as an adviser on several international bodies, including on the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Antimicrobial Resistance for the World Health Organization. After an initial clinical career (1980-1984) in hospitals and general practice in Cambridge,  and then in public health (1984-1990), including initiating and leading the first National UK HIV/AIDS Programme, Dr Kapila joined what is now called the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in 1990 where he oversaw British aid health programmes in Asia and Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by a spell based in Central and Southern Africa.   Dr Kapila was seconded by the UK Government to the United Nations in 2002-03, initially as Special Adviser to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan and then to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.  He then became the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Sudan (2003-04), leading what was, at the time, the UN's biggest operation in the world. In 2004, he arrived at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva as Director of Emergency Response, handling major operations such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami.   In 2006, he joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,  the world's largest humanitarian and development network serving in different roles such as Special Representative of the Secretary General, Director of Policy and Planning, and finally as Undersecretary General where he oversaw several transformations and strategic interventions to scale-up programming.   Dr Kapila has also served in many policy advisory roles, conducted strategic reviews and formulated new programmes with several other international agencies such as the World Bank, UNAIDS, International Labour Organization, UN OCHA and ISDR, as well as served on the Boards of the UN Institute for Training and Research, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, and the International Peace Academy. He was an early member of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination System.    He returned to the United Nations in 2015-2016 to serve as Special Adviser for the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, and then in 2018-2019 to found and direct the innovative Defeat-NCD Partnership at the UN.     Additionally, he has been active in several civil society groups including chairing the Council of Minority Rights Group International, and chairing the Board of Nonviolent Peaceforce that was nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. He has initiated new initiatives on sexual and gender based violence and, as Special Representative of the Aegis Trust,  on the prevention of genocide and other crimes against humanity.  These came out of his personal experiences in witnessing, at first hand, the genocidal atrocities in Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Darfur. Dr Kapila has been a public motivational  and keynote speaker at numerous events including at TedX, and delivered in Nairobi in 2013, the memorial lecture in honour of Nobel Prize winning environmental activist Wangari Maathai.  He has written extensively and served on editorial boards of several publications such as Global Governance and the International Journal of Humanitarian Studies. His memoir “Against a Tide of Evil” was nominated for the 2013 Best Non-Fiction Book award by the Crime Writers Association. His latest book (2019) is entitled “No Stranger to Kindness”.  Some of his other writings can be accessed on his website.   www.mukeshkapila.org Twitter @mukeshkapila

Send us a Text Message.In today's escalating humanitarian crises, the term itself is complex, influenced by various factors. The United Nations reports 235 million people needing humanitarian help, nearly double from a decade ago. These crises and the treatment of them, often rooted in colonialism, affect everything from resources to power structures, and, as discussed in the episode with Patrick Gathara, may perpetuate biased narratives by overlooking systemic issues.Against this context, Pascal Hufschmid reimagines the role of the museum. Merging art with humanitarianism, his work as Director of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum transforms the museum into a platform for critical societal discussions. With a background in ballet, art history, and as a United Nations tour guide, and with his commitment to art's transformative power, Pascal brings a unique perspective on these pressing matters.HW from Pascal: Be kind to yourself. That's all I have to say. I think it's so important and so true, every day. There's big research we're conducting right now in the museum with the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences. When visiting our permanent exhibition, there's a big wall with a simple question stated: "are you kind to yourself?". And we invite people to write a message of kindness to themselves and to put it up on the wall. We've received something like 10,000 messages in six months, messages that are being analyzed by two researchers who in their postdoctoral research are studying if self compassion can be taught, and what impact it has on conflicts. They're specifically studying this in the context of the conflict between Israel and Palestine: can self-compassion actually put an end to the dehumanizing process that has a soldier [choose] to kill someone, to wipe out the specificities of this person. Also, how that that dehumanization process actually helps one live with themself after what they've done. And that is hardcore research being carried out right now. And with them, we're working at the museum to invite our visitors to reflect upon self-kindness. You know, "are you okay with yourself?" ,"How can you be kind to yourself?". And these 9,000, 10,000 messages were collectively with the researchers, and it's going to be published next year: a daily self-practice guide to compassion. So yes: be kind to yourself."Mentioned:- 10 Ideas for a Caring Museum- Henri Cartier-Bresson and his Leica- Dino BuzzatiConnect:- Pascal Hufschmid LinkedIn - International Red Cross & Red Crescent Museum Twitter - International Red Cross & Red Crescent Museum Instagram- The Heart Gallery Instagram- The Heart Gallery websiteCredits:Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song

Today's show opens with two separate items that are highly illustrative of how both politicians and the Legacy/mainstream media manipulate you with half-truths, conflated items, out-of-context narratives and what amounts to nothing by propaganda. Learning how to listen for those conceits and how to debunk the premise upon which they like to build their arguments is key to shooting down their Leftist agenda. In the first item, a Senator from the Green Party in Ireland wants her country to believe that all rights are limited and, for the greater good, that also includes speech. She builds her argument on a false premise, that laws restrict freedom. This is preposterous. To agree with her is to agree that freedom equals anarchy, where there are no guidelines to restrict bad behavior. Lawlessness is not the same thing as freedom and liberty. Her second flaw is in trying to convince people that if you hurt someone's feelings simply because you do not agree with them, is the same as physically harming a person. In her mind, she says it's important not to misgender someone and for the common good, they need laws to punish those who might do such a thing. Here is yet another example of a blithering idiot. The next item we discuss is a breaking news story from over the weekend about Covid cases rising heading into the Christmas season. I break down nearly every line of the story, pointing out their use of click-bait terminology and fear porn to emotionally control you over a nothing story. I then move onto the wealth amassed by many of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and it should make you angry. So much money sent by the West is what is allowing terrorism to continue. It's not getting to the people, but staying with the leaders who only want to see the extinction of all Jews and the eradication of the state of Israel. We then get a historical reminder of how the International Red Cross told us there was no evidence of tunnels around hospitals or hostages being hidden there. It is eerily similar to a report in 1944 stating that there was no trace of installations for exterminating prisoners at Auschwitz! Moving to the economy, I play a short clip from a woman who is married and they both have full-time jobs. They are seeing their dollar stretch less and less and they are starting to worry about their own finances. This leads to a discussion over growing credit card debt and for people to start putting a budget in place for the holidays. There was a massive march against anti-Semitism in London and there was no violence, no genocidal chants and no hatred. Funny how all of that comes from the Left and Leftists who only agree with cultures of death, control and submission. Maybe it's because they want to control everyone themselves. Finally, we get a quote from over the weekend from President Joe Biden. Audaciously, he believes Hamas attacked Israel because he was getting very close to bringing peace to the region. This blithering idiot is trying to take credit for the Abraham Accords initiated and implemented by President Donald Trump. What should we expect from a massive narcissist who has made a career of stealing, cheating, lying and plagiarizing at every step? Take a moment to rate and review the show and then share the episode on social media. You can find me on Facebook, X, Instagram, GETTR and TRUTH Social by searching for The Alan Sanders Show. You can also support the show by visiting my Patreon page!

Israel says 24 hostages released by Hamas in Gaza are all in good health and are having medical tests in Israel, before they're reunited with their families. We hear from the brother of a female hostage still to be released. Also in the programme: the mystery cosmic ray; and Joan Armatrading's new symphony. (Picture: Hostages who were abducted by Hamas gunmen during the October 7 attack on Israel are handed over by Hamas militants to the International Red Cross. Credit: REUTERS)

Jen Psaki sets up the chilling warnings from even Donald Trump himself about what a potential second term for the former President would look like. She is joined by Rep. Jamie Raskin. Plus Neal Katyal and Andrew Weissmann break down the new filing from Trump's legal team pushing to have his federal trial televised. Hisham Mhanna of the International Red Cross joins Jen live from Gaza. And Jen heads to Georgia to catch up with Senator Raphael Warnock for his “Weekend Routine”.Check out our social pages below:https://twitter.com/InsideWithPsakihttps://www.instagram.com/InsideWithPsaki/https://www.tiktok.com/@insidewithpsakihttps://www.msnbc.com/jen-psaki

Today I have got the honor of talking to Dr. Mukesh Kapila about the Israel-Hamas war and the wider situation within the Middle East.  Dr Kapila has extensive experience in global and public health,  international development, humanitarian affairs, conflict and security issues, human rights, diplomacy, and social entrepreneurship, with substantive leadership roles in government, United Nations system and multilateral agencies, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, civil society, and academia. His work has taken him to some 120 countries in all continents. Originally schooled in India and England, Dr Kapila graduated in medicine from the University of Oxford and received postgraduate qualifications  in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.   Since 2012, Dr Kapila has been the Professor (now Emeritus) of Global Health & Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester, UK where he also founded and chaired the Manchester Global Foundation.  Since 2020, he is also Senior Adviser to the Parliamentary Assembly for the Mediterranean, the principal forum for 29 national parliaments of the Euro-Mediterranean region deliberating on the creation of the best political, social, economic and cultural environment for fellow citizens of member states. He also serves as adviser on several international bodies including on the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Antimicrobial Resistance for the World Health Organization. After an initial clinical career (1980-1984) in hospitals and general practice in Cambridge,  and then in public health (1984-1990) including initiating and leading the first National UK HIV/AIDS Programme, Dr Kapila joined what is now called the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in 1990 where he oversaw British aid health programmes in Asia and Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean, followed by a spell based in Central and Southern Africa.   Dr Kapila was seconded by the UK Government to the United Nations in 2002-03 initially as Special Adviser to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General in Afghanistan and then to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.  He then became the United Nations' Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Sudan (2003-04) leading what was at the time, the UN's biggest operation in the world.  in 2004, he arrived at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva as Director for Emergency Response handling major operations such as for the Indian Ocean Tsunami.   In 2006, he joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,  the world's largest humanitarian and development network serving in different roles such as Special Representative of the Secretary General, Director of Policy and Planning, and finally as Undersecretary General where he oversaw several transformations and strategic interventions to scale-up programming.   Dr Kapila has also served in many policy advisory roles, conducted strategic reviews and formulated new programmes with several other international agencies such as the World Bank, UNAIDS, International Labour Organization, UN OCHA and ISDR, as well as served on the Boards of the UN Institute for Training and Research, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, and  the International Peace Academy. He was an early member of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination System.    He returned to the United Nations in 2015-2016 to serve as Special Adviser for the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, and then in 2018-2019 to found and direct the innovative Defeat-NCD Partnership at the UN.     Additionally, he has been active in several civil society groups including chairing the Council of Minority Rights Group International, and chairing the Board of Nonviolent Peaceforce that was nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. He has initiated new initiatives on sexual and gender based violence and, as Special Representative of the Aegis Trust,  on the prevention of genocide and other crimes against humanity.  These came out of his personal experiences in witnessing, at first hand, the genocidal atrocities in Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Darfur. Dr Kapila has been a public motivational  and keynote speaker at numerous events including at TedX, and delivered in Nairobi in 2013, the memorial lecture in honour of Nobel Prize winning environmental activist Wangari Maathai.  He has written extensively and served on editorial boards of several publications such as Global Governance and the International Journal of Humanitarian Studies. His memoir “Against a Tide of Evil” was nominated for the 2013 Best Non-Fiction Book award by the Crime Writers Association. His latest book (2019) is entitled “No Stranger to Kindness”.  Some of his other writings can be accessed on his website.   www.mukeshkapila.org Twitter @mukeshkapila

This week, we have Robert Carolina, General Counsel from Internet Systems Consortium joining Dave and Ben to discuss Quad9 DNS filter court case. Ben and Dave discuss an article from the International Red Cross looking at 8 rules for “civilian hackers” during war, and 4 obligations for states to restrain them. While this show covers legal topics, and Ben is a lawyer, the views expressed do not constitute legal advice. For official legal advice on any of the topics we cover, please contact your attorney.  Links to stories: 8 rules for “civilian hackers” during war, and 4 obligations for states to restrain them Got a question you'd like us to answer on our show? You can send your audio file to caveat@thecyberwire.com. Hope to hear from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*) Türkiye holding negotiations over Israeli civilians in Hamas detention President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has increased Türkiye's diplomatic efforts in securing the release of Israeli civilians from besieged Gaza even as Hamas freed a woman and her two children in the first release of Israelis detained by Palestinian fighters. "They are negotiating to secure the release of the hostages," an official source said, confirming a report by the private TV channel Haberturk. "We are ready to do everything in our power, including mediation and fair arbitration to end the conflict quickly," Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying. Erdogan separately criticised Israel over its disproportionate attacks on Gaza that could bring Tel Aviv into an undesirable place in the eyes of world public opinion. *) Gaza death toll climbs to 1,200, with 5000 others wounded Gaza's Health Ministry has announced that the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks has climbed to around 1,200, with nearly 5,000 wounded. More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in besieged Gaza, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave. The number of displaced in the densely populated territory of 2.3 million people had by late Wednesday "risen by an additional 75,000 people and reached 338,934," the UN added. *) UN agency seeks $104M in urgent Gaza aid as humanitarian crisis deepens The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (or UNRWA) has said it was seeking $104 million for life-saving aid to Gaza, which has been pounded by Israeli reprisal strikes following attacks by Hamas against Israel. "The requested funds will cover the urgent immediate food, non-food, health, shelter and protection needs of up to 250,000 persons seeking safety in UNRWA shelters across the ravaged Gaza and another 250,000 Palestine refugees within the community," according to the UN. UNRWA, which was already facing financial difficulties, said it had enough funding to continue its regular services, including education, healthcare and social protection, across the region until the end of October. *) Several UN, aid group workers killed in ruthless Israeli strikes on Gaza Eleven workers with the UN Palestinian refugee agency have been killed in Israeli air strikes on besieged Gaza since Saturday, and five members of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent have also been killed in the conflict, the organisations said. "We are very saddened to confirm that 11 UNRWA colleagues have been killed since 7 October in the Gaza Strip," UNRWA said in a statement on Wednesday. It did not specify if they were Palestinian or foreign personnel but said they included five teachers at UNRWA schools, one gynaecologist, one engineer, one psychological counsellor and three support staff. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a separate statement that five of its members - four in Gaza and one in Israel - had been killed. *) Putin in Kyrgyzstan on first trip since ICC arrest warrant Vladimir Putin has arrived in Kyrgyzstan, visiting abroad for the first time since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March. President Putin is wanted by the court over the deportation of Ukrainian children. Its ruling requires members of the ICC, which does not include Kyrgyzstan, to make the arrest if he sets foot on their territory. This year, he has travelled only to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, with his last foreign trips to Belarus and Kyrgyzstan last December — a far cry from the busy international schedule he had earlier in his rule.

Why do toxic behaviors persist in workplaces despite efforts for a healthier work culture? Find out how to discern healthy behaviors from toxic ones and learn what you can do to cope successfully with toxic relationships and environments. Anna Eliatamby is a clinical psychologist and workplace well-being expert who has played a pivotal role in developing mental health, responsible leadership and well-being strategies for global organizations, including the UN, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, and PwC. She is the Director of HealthyLeadership CIC, a collective that encourages individuals and organizations to foster decency and make positive changes. Anna is also the author of the Decency Journey Series, a collection of compact and practical pocketbooks designed to help individuals flourish in their careers and workplaces.   Originally aired as episode 96. If you enjoy the show, please rate it on Spotify or iTunes. Your ratings help more people like you discover the podcast!   Episode Highlights 2:56 Why do people engage in toxic behavior? 6:22 The combination of toxic behavior and positive intent 9:37 Impacts of toxic behavior 12:32 Toxic behaviors can cause inadvertent self-sabotage 14:44 The difference between holding someone accountable and blaming 17:31 The mindset behind toxic behaviors 19:55 Assessing our own toxic tendencies 26:08 Critical skills and expectations for confronting toxic behaviors 30:14 More techniques for coping with toxic behaviors 33:10 The importance of self-care when coping with toxic behavior 34:28 Practical considerations, and pitfalls, for deciding on a coping strategy 39:14 Key ingredient for outgrowing our own toxic attendances   Anna's view on the greatest unmet wellbeing need at work today "I think the greatest unmet need is that we must address the negative the toxicity at the same time as we're adding to the positive and teaching people about things like compassion, both are necessary." What “working with humans” means to Anna “It's a lovely phrase, and I think it is just that to remember that we are human beings, we all are. And that should be the center from which we work. So if we're human we work with compassion, with respect, with decency -- with ourselves and with other people.”   Resources Follow: Anna on LinkedIn Visit: Healthy Leadership CIC Read: the Decency Journey series of books   ©Michael Glazer   ©Michael Glazer

The International Red Cross steps up efforts to cope with the exodus of ethnic-Armenians. Also: Kyiv claims the Admiral in charge of Russia's Black Sea Fleet died following Ukraine's recent attacks in occupied Crimea, and could scientists have cracked one of mankind's embarrassing problems -- how do you get rid of smelly garlic breath?

The International Red Cross was born on this day in 1864. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Saving lives isn't something most of us do all the time, but today's guest makes a habit of it! She's a Christian Arab who grew up in Nazareth surrounded by people of many faiths. She found her passion when she joined Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national emergency medical service and representative to the International Red Cross. Yasmeen Mazzawi joined MDA in her teenage years and was immediately impacted by the important work this organisation does across the community. Even though she's now living a European country while studying, she still volunteers with MDA every time she returns home. Yasmeen quickly learned that comforting compassion is a dialect that speaks across language barriers, and she's seen the power of Christ's love reaching others regardless of their faith or mother tongue. Yasmeen knows her very actions can speak gospel truth as she literally binds up the brokenhearted in their moments of greatest need. She helps us understand how we can reach others who don't share our Christian faith and helps us see how God can turn even the most difficult of situations into His opportunities. When we meet people with different cultures, languages, and beliefs we can find ways to reveal God to them. Yasmeen helps us understand why and how we can do that through love and compassion. Presented by Sharon Tedford. Produced by Gary Dell. Find out more about us at www.anchor.fm/god-in-the-ordinary and www.61-things.com/gito

Why do toxic behaviors persist in workplaces despite efforts for a healthier work culture? Find out how to discern healthy behaviors from toxic ones and learn what you can do to cope successfully with toxic relationships and environments. Anna Eliatamby is a clinical psychologist and workplace well-being expert who has played a pivotal role in developing mental health, responsible leadership and well-being strategies for global organizations, including the UN, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, and PwC. She is the Director of HealthyLeadership CIC, a collective that encourages individuals and organizations to foster decency and make positive changes. Anna is also the author of the Decency Journey Series, a collection of compact and practical pocketbooks designed to help individuals flourish in their careers and workplaces. ©Michael Glazer

A CEO of Marketing steps down, an anti-woke beer and Miller High Life is destroyed. There is a new dating trend amongst Gen Z. Phil Jackson is not watching basketball anymore since they are too "woke." New guidelines have been put out by the International Red Cross for playing video games. Youtuber, Trevor Sellers, made a controversial video about feeding the homeless. A bus driver loses his job for intentionally slamming on the brakes. Dr. Ian Smith has a new book out called, The Met Flex Diet.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday. Zman Yisrael editor Biranit Goren and health reporter Renee Ghert-Zand join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on this episode marking Yom Hashoah, Israel's National Holocaust Remembrance Day. Even as President Isaac Herzog called for the Israeli people to put aside their differences over the judicial overhaul last night during the official ceremony marking Yom Hashoah at Yad Vashem, in Tel Aviv MK Boaz Bismuth of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party was forced to leave a ceremony at a synagogue after participants heckled him and threatened violence. Why does this worry Goren ahead of next weeks Memorial Day ceremonies? In the year since 2022's Yom Hashoah, the Tracing Services at Magen David Adom — the Israeli branch of the International Red Cross — has received 150 requests for help in locating relatives and renewing family ties. Over the years, it has aided in the reunion of hundreds of relatives, including six siblings. How does it go about this work eight decades following World War II? Israel's Labor party suffered a crushing blow in the November elections and now the four-seat party seems to be in disarray. This week we heard that it's dropped out of the judicial overhaul negotiation talks at the President's Residence and yesterday we learned that its few MKs are forcing leader Merav Michaeli to get their approval for her decisions. What's happening here? Finally, we hear about a European grassroots effort in which several young leaders are taking the initiative and organizing coexistence clean-up projects for the thousands of Stolpersteine or stumbling blocks that are embedded in sidewalks in European towns and cities. Discussed articles include: Israel grinds to a halt as siren wails to commemorate 6 million Holocaust victims As Israel remembers Holocaust, Herzog says commemoration must be ‘above all dispute' Likud MK shouted down by anti-coalition hecklers at Holocaust Remembrance Day event Magen David Adom aids Shoah survivors seeking lost relatives Labor MKs seek to replace leader Michaeli, claim party's future depends on it Citing ‘deals in the dark,' Labor party quits judicial overhaul talks with president In grassroots effort, young Europeans clean ‘stumbling stones' to gleam like beacons Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: Visitors at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem light memorial candles dedicated to individuals killed in the Holocaust, April 17, 2023. (Yad Vashem)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this deeply moving episode from 2020 the New York Times bestselling author Ariana Neuman told her father's extraordinary story for the very first time. Hans Neumann was a young Jewish man from Prague who managed to outwit the Nazis and survive the Holocaust. Ariana Neumann grew up in the Venezuela of the 1970s and 1980s. This was a land of possibility and progress. Her father Hans Neumann - a hugely successful industrialist and patron of the arts – epitomised both these characteristics. But while Hans was outwardly a paragon of success and strength, there were parts of his private self that were unsettling to his close family. He would wake at night screaming in a language his daughter did not understand. He hardly ever mentioned his childhood in central Europe. He never said that he was Jewish. ‘Life,' he would tell his daughter, ‘was to be lived in the present.' On his death in September 2001, Ariana discovered a box of papers and photographs that her father had left her. They became the starting point for a personal investigation into her father's European family and an unspoken history of horrific persecution and enthralling survival during the Holocaust. This episode of Travels Through Time was recorded on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. During the course of this conversation Ariana guides us back to the drama and tragedy of the year 1944: a defining year for the Neumann family of Prague. To see Hans's doll, Zdenka ring and the Jan's identity card – some of the objects discussed during the course of this conversation – please visit our website. When Time Stopped was published internationally in February 2020. It was an instant New York Times Bestseller. Show notes: Scene One: June 23 1944, Red Cross Visit to the Camp of Terezín, CZ. The place is beautified. Thousands are sent to Auschwitz to ease overcrowding and a charade is enacted to fool the International Red Cross inspectors. Scene Two: September 29/30 1944, The arrival of transport EI in Auschwitz, Poland. Scene Three: October 9 1944, Berlin Germany. Hans Neumann has been hiding in plain sight and using a fictitious identity. He receives a summons (issued October 5th) to appear in the Nazi District Court in Prague. Going back to Prague and appearing in court would, almost certainly, mean death. Memento: The sound of Otto Neumann humming the folk song Golem. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Ariana Neumann Producer: Maria Nolan

She's one of the world's most effective champions of women's rights, human rights, and democratic values. For Women's History Month, we speak with Felice Gaer, director of American Jewish Committee's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. Gaer, who fights for religious freedom, the rights of women, and against antisemitism, highlights the importance of women's voices in an often-male dominated field. She has been appointed to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, serving five terms (three as chair and two as vice chair), and was the first American elected to serve on the UN's Committee Against Torture.  *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC. _____ Episode Lineup:  (0:40) Felice Gaer _____ Show Notes:   Read: JBI Appeal on the One-Year Anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine   Listen: 10 Trailblazing Jewish Women on AJC's People of the Pod Dr. Ahmed Shaheed on first UN human rights report wholly dedicated to antisemitism    Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod   You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org   If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, tag us on social media with #PeopleofthePod, and hop onto Apple Podcasts to rate us and write a review, to help more listeners find us. _____   Transcript of Interview with Felice Gaer   Manya Brachear Pashman:   Felice Gaer has served as the director of AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of human rights, affectionately known here as JBI since 1993. During that time, she has specifically focused on the rights of religious freedom, the rights of women, the prohibition of torture and the struggle against antisemitism globally. She has been appointed a public member of at least nine US delegations to United Nations Human Rights negotiations, including the Vienna World Conference on human rights in 1993. And the Beijing World Conference on Women in 1995. She was the first American elected to serve on the UN's Committee Against Torture. In fact, she served five terms, and she was appointed to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, where she served as chair and advised the President and Congress on US human rights policy.    And even though she's not a lawyer or a court justice, on March 30, she receives the Honorary Member award of the American Society of International Law, the preeminent international society in this field, as we mark International Women's Day this week and women's history this month, Felice is with us now to discuss today's human rights challenges and the challenges she has faced as a woman in the Human Rights world.    Felice, welcome to People of the Pod.    Felice Gaer:   Thank you, Manya.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   So let's start with the beginning. Can you share with our listeners a little about your upbringing, and how Jewish values shaped what you do today?   Felice Gaer:   Well, I had a fairly ordinary upbringing in a suburb of New York City that had a fairly high percentage of Jews living in it–Teaneck, New Jersey. I was shaped by all the usual things in a Jewish home. First of all, the holidays. Secondly, the values, Jewish values, and awareness, a profound awareness of Jewish history, the history of annihilation, expulsion, discrimination, violence. But also the Jewish values of universality, respect for all human life, equality before the law, sense of realism, sense that you can change your life by what you do, and the choices that you make. These are all core Jewish values. And I guess I always have found the three part expression by Rabbi Hillel to sum up the approach I've always taken to human rights and most other things in life. He said, If I'm not for myself, who will be, and if I'm only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? So that's a sense of Jewish particularism, Jewish universalism, and realism, as well.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   You went to Wellesley, class of 1968, it's an all-women's college. Was there a strong Jewish presence on campus there at a time? And did that part of your identity even play a role in your college experience?    Felice Gaer :  Well, I left, as I said, a town that had a fairly sizable Jewish population. And I went to Wellesley and I felt like I was in another world. And so even as long ago as 1964-65, that era, I actually reached out to Hillel and participated in very minor activities that took place, usually a Friday night dinner, or something like that. But it really didn't play a role except by making me recognize that I was a member of a very small minority.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   Here on this podcast, we've talked a lot about the movement to free Soviet Jewry. As you pursued graduate work at Columbia, and also during your undergrad days at Wellesley, were you involved in that movement at all?   Felice Gaer:   Well, I had great interest in Russian studies, and in my years at Wellesley, the Soviet Union movement was at a very nascent stage. And I remember arguments with the Soviet Ambassador coming to the campus and our specialist on Russian history, arguing about whether this concern about the treatment of Soviet Jews was a valid concern.  The professor, who happened to have been Jewish, by the way, argued that Jews in the Soviet Union were treated badly, but so was everybody else in the Soviet Union. And it really wasn't something that one needed to focus on especially. As I left Wellesley and went to Columbia, where I studied political science and was at the Russian Institute, now the Harriman Institute, I found that the treatment of Soviet Jews was different in many ways, and the capacity to do something about it was serious.  We knew people who had relatives, we knew people who wanted to leave. The whole Soviet Union movement was focused around the desire to leave the country–not to change it–that was an explicit decision of Jewish leaders around the world, and in the Soviet Union itself. And so the desire to leave was something you could realize, document the cases, bring the names forward, and engage American officials in a way that the Jewish community had never done before with cases and examples demanding that every place you went, every negotiation that took place, was accompanied by lists of names and cases, whose plight will be brought to the attention of the authorities. And that really mobilized people, including people like me.  I also worked to focus on the agenda of internal change in the Soviet Union. And that meant also looking at other human rights issues. Why and how freedom of religion or belief was suppressed in this militantly atheist state, why and how freedom of expression, freedom of association, and just about every other right, was really severely limited. And what the international standards were at that time. After I left Columbia, that was around the time that the famous manifesto from Andrei Sakharov, the world famous physicist, Nobel Prize winner, was made public. It was around the time that other kinds of dissident materials were becoming better known about life inside the Soviet Union post-Khrushchev.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   So you left Colombia with a master's degree, the Cold War ends, and you take a job at the Ford Foundation that has you traveling all around Eastern Europe, looking to end human rights abuses, assessing the challenges that face that region. I want to ask you about the treatment of women, and what you witnessed about the mistreatment of women in these regions. And does that tend to be a common denominator around the world when you assess human rights abuses?   Felice Gaer:   Well, there's no question that the treatment of women is different than the treatment of men. And it's true all over the world. But when I traveled in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the height of those years, height of the Cold War, and so forth, the issues of women's rights actually weren't one of the top issues on the agenda because the Soviet Union and East European countries appeared to be doing more for women than the Western countries.  They had them in governance. They had them in the parliament. They purported to support equality for women. It took some years for Soviet feminists, dissidents, to find a voice and to begin to point out all the ways in which they were treated in the same condescending, patriarchal style as elsewhere. But in those years, that was not a big issue in the air.  It was unusual for me, a 20-something year old woman from the United States to be traveling around Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, meeting with high officials and others, and on behalf of the Ford Foundation, trying to develop programming that would involve people to people contacts, that would involve developing programs where there was common expertise, like management training, and things of that sort. And I was really an odd, odd duck in that situation, and I felt it.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   I mentioned in my introduction, the Beijing World Conference on Women, can you reflect a little on what had a lasting impact there?   Felice Gaer:   Well, the Beijing World Conference on Women was the largest, and remains the largest conference that the United Nations has ever organized. There were over 35,000 women there, about 17,000 at the intergovernmental conference. I was on the US delegation there.  The simple statement that women's rights are human rights may seem hackneyed today. But when that was affirmed in the 1995 Beijing Outcome Document, it was a major political and conceptual breakthrough. It was largely focused on getting the UN to accept that the rights of women were actually international human rights and that they weren't something different. They weren't private, or outside the reach of investigators and human rights bodies. It was an inclusive statement, and it was a mind altering statement in the women's rights movement.  It not only reaffirmed that women's rights are human rights, but it went further in addressing the problems facing women in the language of human rights.  The earlier world conferences on women talked about equality, but they didn't identify violations of those rights. They didn't demand accountability of those rights. And they said absolutely nothing about creating mechanisms by which you could monitor, review, and hold people accountable, which is the rights paradigm. Beijing changed all that. It was a violations approach that was quite different from anything that existed before that.   Manya Brachear Pashman :  Did anything get forgotten? We talked about what had a lasting impact, but what seems to have been forgotten or have fallen to the wayside?   Felice Gaer:   Oh, I think it's just the opposite. I think the things that were in the Beijing conference have become Fuller and addressed in greater detail and are more commonly part of what goes on in the international discourse on women's rights and the status of women in public life. And certainly at the international level that's the case.  I'll give you just one example, the Convention Against Torture. I mean, when I became a member of the committee, the 10 person committee, I was the only woman. The committee really had, in 11 years, it had maybe said, four or five things about the treatment of women. And the way that torture, ill treatment, inhuman, degrading treatment may affect women.  It looked at the world through the eyes of male prisoners in detention. And it didn't look at the world through the eyes of women who suffer private violence, gender based violence, that is that the state looks away from and ignores and therefore sanctions, and to a certain extent endorses.  And it didn't identify the kinds of things that affect women, including women who are imprisoned, and why and where in many parts of the world. What one does in terms of education or dress or behavior may lead you into a situation where you're being abused, either in a prison or outside of prison. These are issues that are now part of the regular review, for example, at the Committee Against Torture, issues of of trafficking, issues of gender based violence, the Sharia law, the hudud punishments of whipping and stoning, are part of the concern of the committee, which they weren't before.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   In other words, having that woman's perspective, having your perspective on that committee was really important and really changed and broadened the discussion.   Felice Gaer:   Absolutely. When I first joined the committee, the first session I was at, we had a review of China. And so I very politely asked a question about the violence and coercion associated with the population policy in China, as you know, forced abortions and things of that sort. This was a question that had come up before the women's convention, the CEDAW, and I thought it was only appropriate that it also come up in the Committee Against Torture.  In our discussion afterwards, the very stern chairman of the committee, a former constable, said to me, ‘You know, this might be of interest to you, Ms. Gaer, but this has nothing to do with the mandate of this committee.' I explained to him why it did, in some detail. And when I finished pointing out all of those elements–including the fact that the people carried out these practices on the basis of state policy–when I finished, there was a silence.  And the most senior person in the room, who had been involved in these issues for decades, said, ‘I'm quite certain we can accommodate Ms. Gaer's concerns in the conclusions,' and they did.  That's the kind of thing that happens when you look at issues from a different perspective and raise them.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   You talked about being an odd duck in your 20s, as a woman traveling around Eastern Europe, trying to address these challenges. I'm curious if that woman in her 20s would have been able to stand up to this committee like that, and give that thorough an explanation? Or did it take some years of experience, of witnessing these issues, perhaps being ignored?    Felice Gaer:  Well, I think as we go through life, you learn new things. And I learned new things along the way. I learned about the universal norms, I learned about how to apply them, how they had been applied, and how they hadn't been applied. And in that process, developed what I would say is a sharper way of looking at these issues.  But the Bosnian conflict in particular, made the issue of gender based violence against women, especially in war, but not only in war, into a mainstream issue, and helped propel these issues, both inside the United Nations and outside, the awareness changed.  I remember asking the International Red Cross representatives in Croatia, just across the border from Bosnia, if they had encountered any victims of gender based violence or rape, and they said, ‘No.' And I said, ‘Did you ask them about these concerns?' And they sort of looked down and looked embarrassed, looked at each other and looked back at me and said, ‘Oh.' There were no words. There were no understandings of looking at the world this way. And that has changed. That has changed dramatically today. I mean, if you look at the situation in Ukraine, the amount of gender based violence that has been documented is horrifying, just horrifying, but it's been documented.   Manya Brachear Pashman   So is the world of human rights advocacy male-dominated, female-dominated, is it fairly balanced these days? And has that balance made the difference in what you're talking about?   Felice Gaer:   You know, I wrote an article in 1988, the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, about why women's rights weren't being addressed. And one of the points I drew attention to was the fact that the heads of almost all the major organizations at the time were all male. And that it wasn't seen as a concern. A lot of that has changed. There's really a real variety of perspectives now that are brought to bear.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   So we've talked a lot about the importance of [a] woman's perspective. Does a Jewish perspective matter as well?   Felice Gaer:   Oh, on every issue on every issue and, you know, I worked a great deal on freedom of religion and belief, as an issue. That's a core issue of AJC, and it's a fundamental rights issue. And it struck me as surprising that with all the attention to freedom of religion, the concern about antisemitic acts was not being documented by mainstream human rights organizations. And it wasn't being documented by the UN experts on freedom of religion or belief either. I drew this to the attention of Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, who was recently ending his term as Special Rapporteur on Freedom of religion or belief. And he was really very struck by this. And he went, and he did a little bit of research. And he found out that since computerized records had been prepared at the United Nations, that there had been no attention, no attention at all, to cases of alleged antisemitic incidents. And he began a project to record the kinds of problems that existed and to identify what could be done about it. We helped him in the sense that we organized a couple of colloquia, we brought people from all over the world together to talk about the dimensions of the problem and the documentation that they did, and the proposals that they had for addressing it. And he, as you may recall, wrote a brilliant report in 2019, setting out the problems of global antisemitism. And he followed that up in 2022, before leaving his position with what he called an action plan for combating antisemitism, which has concrete specific suggestions for all countries around the world as to what they can do to help combat antisemitism and antisemitic acts, including and to some extent, starting with adopting the working definition on antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, but also activities in in the area of education, training, training of law enforcement officials, documentation and public action. It's a real contribution to the international discourse and to understanding that freedom of religion or belief belongs to everyone.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   And do you believe that Dr. Shaheed's report is being absorbed, comprehended by those that need to hear it that need to understand it?   Felice Gaer   I've been delighted to see the way that the European Union has engaged with Dr. Shaheed and his report has developed standards and expectations for all 27 member states, and that other countries and other parts of the world have done the same. So yeah, I do think they're engaging with it. I hope there'll be a lot more because the problem has only grown.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   On the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, JBI issued a report that sounded the alarm on the widespread violations committed against Ukrainians, you mentioned the amount of gender based violence Since that has taken place, and the other just catastrophic consequences of this war. Felice, you've been on the front row of Eastern European affairs and human rights advocacy in that region. From your perspective, and I know this is a big question: How did this war happen?   Felice Gaer:   I'll just start by saying: it didn't start in 2022. And if you have to look at what happened, the events of 2014, to understand the events of 2022. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, or even during the breakup, there was a period where the 15th constituent Union republics of the Soviet Union developed a greater national awareness, really, and some of them had been independent as some of them hadn't been, but they developed a much greater awareness. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the 15 countries, including Russia, as one of the 15, became independent entities. And aside from having more members in the United Nations and the Council of Europe and places like that, it led to much more robust activity, in terms of respecting human rights and other areas of endeavor in each of those countries.  The situation in Russia, with a head of state who has been there, with one exception, a couple of years, for 20 years, has seen an angry desire to reestablish an empire. That's the only thing you can say really about it.  If they can't dominate by having a pro-Russian group in charge in the country, then there have been invasions, there have been Russian forces, Russia-aligned forces sent to the different countries. So whether it's Georgia, or Moldova, or Ukraine, we've seen this pattern.  And unfortunately, what happened in 2022, is the most egregious and I would say, blatant such example. In 2014, the Russians argued that it was local Russian speaking, little green men who were conducting hostilities in these places, or it was local people who wanted to realign with Russia, who were demanding changes, and so forth. But in the 2022 events, Russia's forces invaded, wearing Russian insignia and making it quite clear that this was a matter of state policy that they were pursuing, and that they weren't going to give up.  And it's led to the tragic developments that we've all seen inside the country, and the horrific violence, the terrible, widespread human rights violations. And in war, we know that human rights violations are usually the worst.  And so the one good spot on the horizon: the degree to which these abuses have been documented, it's unprecedented to have so much documentation so early in a conflict like this, which someday may lead to redress and accountability for those who perpetrated it. But right now, in the middle of these events, it's just a horror.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   What other human rights situations do we need to be taking more seriously now? And where has there been significant progress?   Felice Gaer:   Well, I'll talk about the problem spots if I may for a minute. Everyone points to North Korea as the situation without parallel, that's what a UN Commission of Inquiry said, without parallel in the world. The situation in Iran? Well, you just need to watch what's happened to the protesters, the women and others who have protested over 500 people in the streets have died because of this. 15,000 people imprisoned, and Iran's prisons are known for ill treatment and torture.  The situation in Afghanistan is atrocious. The activities of the Taliban, which they were known for in the 1990s are being brought back. They are normalizing discrimination, they are engaged in probably the most hardline gender discrimination we've seen anywhere where women can't work outside the home, girls can't be educated, political participation is denied. The constitution has been thrown out. All kinds of things. The latest is women can't go to parks, they can't go to university, and they can't work for NGOs. This continues. It's a major crisis.  Well, there are other countries, from Belarus, to Sudan to Uzbekistan, and China, that we could also talk about at great length, lots of problems in the world, and not enough effort to expose them, address them and try to ameliorate them.   Manya Brachear Pashman   So what do we do about that? What can our listeners do about that, when we hear this kind of grim report?   Felice Gaer:   Work harder. Pay attention when you hear about rights issues. Support rights organizations. Take up cases. Seek redress. Be concerned about the victims. All these things need to be done.   Manya Brachear Pashman:   I don't know how you maintain your composure and your cool, Felice, because you have faced so much in terms of challenges and push back. So thank you so much for all you have done for women, for the Jewish people, and for the world at large. Thank you, thank you, thank you.   Felice Gaer:   Thank you, Manya.

The Syrian government says it will allow aid agencies to deliver humanitarian aid across government lines to earthquake victims in rebel-controlled territory. We speak to the International Red Cross and hear of the continuing search for survivors under the rubble in Turkey as well as an opposition Turkish MP. Also in the programme: The collapse of the government in Moldova and has a campaign to boycott a new Harry Potter video game failed? (Photo shows an armed man standing near a convoy carrying humanitarian aid to be taken to Syria's quake-hit northwest in the Aleppo Governorate, Syria. Credit: Orhan Qereman/Reuters)

In a speech to the UN Security Council he called for Russia to be held to account. Also: the International Red Cross says a major hunger crisis in Africa is going unnoticed as the world focuses on Ukraine, Elon Musk becomes a member of the board at Twitter, and Tiger Woods announces he intends to play in the US Masters this week.