Podcast appearances and mentions of Justice Party

In today's episode of iGaming Daily, Ted Orme-Clay is joined by journalist Viktor Kayed and SBC's Editor-at-Large Ted Menmuir to unpack major political developments in the Netherlands and Poland, and what they could mean for their respective gambling industries.Viktor shares insights from his recent trip to the Gaming in Holland conference, which coincided with the collapse of the Dutch coalition government. While political uncertainty looms, Dutch stakeholders are taking a proactive stance, focusing on tackling the black market and lobbying to delay a planned gambling tax hike. The industry is also closely watching which party will come to power, as that could shape future regulatory attitudes.Later, Ted Menmuir discusses Poland's rapidly growing economy and the challenges posed by its conservative Justice Party government. Despite ambitions to align with EU standards, Poland struggles with structural issues, such as a state monopoly on online casino and a 12% turnover tax that's driving operators away. With a new president now in place, the future of gambling reform in Poland remains uncertain—but full of potential.Host: Ted Orme-ClayeGuest: Viktor Kayed, Ted MenmuirProducer: Anaya McDonaldEditor: James RossiGaming Daily is the official podcast of SBC Summit Malta. Taking place from 10-12 June at the Intercontinental in Malta, SBC Summit Malta is the definitive casino and betting event where European companies and professionals converge to explore cutting-edge insights, gain transformative skills, and forge impactful connections with senior decision-makers. Get your tickets now at sbcevents.comiGaming Daily is also now on TikTok. Make sure to follow us for bite-size clips from your favourite podcast.https://www.tiktok.com/@igaming_daily_podcast?_t=ZN-8uGpYLPuikI&_r=1

Two weeks ago, the centre held in Europe after a Super Sunday of elections in Romania, Portugal and Poland. And that was in part because of Poland where the centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski narrowly beat the nationalist Karol Nawrocki in the first round of the Presidential elections. That is no longer the case. In last Sunday's run-off, Trzaskowski failed to materialize a victory and lost against Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the right-wing Law and Justice Party. Today's guests attribute Trzaskowski's failure to the fact that Prime Minister Tusk hasn't been able to pass the significant reforms he promised before being elected almost two years ago. Even though the main reason why he hasn't been able to do so is because of President Duda from the Law and Justice Party. And yet, Poles elected a President that is only going to make Tusk's life even harder if not impossible. To discuss the fallout from the Polish elections, host Catarina Vila Nova sits down with Leszek Konrad Jażdżewski, Editor-in-Chief of Liberté! and 2022 European Young Leader (EYL40), and Michał Olszewski, former deputy mayor of Warsaw who served under Rafal Trzaskowski for six years and 2015-2016 European Young Leader (EYL40) who currently serves as Board Member of PGNiG TERMIKA, Poland's leading natural gas company. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

Melbourne artist chloe: the brand joined Homebrewed for a thoroughly enjoyable chat about all things that is life and art.Chloe talks about their new single SPILL, and the relationship that inspired it.Eamonn raises his concerns around people who eat with their mouth open, and Cam surprises everyone when he says he has never met anyone before Chloe who owned a Chihuahua.Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe for more content.Check out chloe: the brand hereSupport us on Patreon ⁠here⁠Follow Homebrewed on ⁠Instagram⁠Like Homebrewed on ⁠Facebook⁠Watch our content on ⁠YouTube⁠Check out our Spotify Playlists ⁠here⁠Catch up on everything ⁠Homebrewed⁠This podcast was recorded on Darkinjung land.Homebrewed is a podcast dedicated to supporting the Australian Music Industry. Cameron Smith and Eamonn Snow have been presenting Homebrewed since November 2017 and have received excellence awards and the admiration of local bands for their presentation of Homebrewed and their continued support of the Australian music scene. This podcast is designed so you can enjoy conversations with musicians, industry representatives and music media personalities.

Read Alex's article here: https://www.compactmag.com/.../the-techno-populist.../   For more than a decade, we have been told that insurgent populists are challenging a complacent post-political technocratic establishment. Combatants on both sides testify to this polarization. Poland's Donald Tusk, former President of the European Council and the country's current prime minister, stated back in 2017 that “we must challenge the populists”—and he did so, defeating the right-wing Law and Justice Party in 2023. French President Emmanuel Macron warned last year that “populists” risk undermining the European bloc from within. On the other side, Britain's Nigel Farage declared the same year that “nation-state democracy” was “making a comeback against the globalists.” More recently, Italy's Giorgia Meloni railed against “the global leftist liberal network” created in the 1990s by Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.   Check out our new bi-weekly series, "The Crisis Papers" here: https://www.patreon.com/bitterlakepresents/shop   Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!   Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents?   Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)   THANKS Y'ALL   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland   Read Jason Myles in Sublation Magazine https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-myles   Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/   Read Jason in Unaligned Here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-161586946...

In this week's episode, Jeongmin and Joon Ha dive into the fissure within the ruling People Power Party as presidential nominee Kim Moon-soo files a court injunction to block party efforts to replace him, accusing leaders of coercion to merge his candidacy with former Acting President Han Duck-soo. Kim has threatened to form a surprise “big tent” alliance with unexpected political figures, reportedly including former Justice Party leader Sim Sang-jeung, if dropped. The duo also unpacks the Seoul High Court's decision to delay Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae-myung's retrial, giving him a clear pathway to the presidency. They break down the Czech court's injunction against Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power's $18 billion nuclear deal, and the duo look ahead to the Taeguk military exercise, campaign rallies and possible TV debates. About the podcast: The Korea Pro Podcast is a weekly 15-minute conversation hosted by Korea Risk Group Executive Director Jeongmin Kim (@jeongminnkim), Editor John Lee (@koreanforeigner) and correspondent Joon Ha Park (@joonhawrites), diving deep into the most pressing stories shaping South Korea — and dissecting the most complicated ones for professionals monitoring ROK politics, diplomacy, culture, society and technology. Uploaded every Friday. This episode was recorded on Thursday, May 8, 2025. Audio edited by Gaby Magnuson

Derryn Nigel Hinch (born 9 February 1944) is a New Zealand-born media personality, politician, actor, journalist and published author. He is best known for his career in Australia, on Melbourne radio and television. He served as a Senator for Victoria from 2016 to 2019. Hinch was elected to the Senate representing Victoria as the head of Derryn Hinch's Justice Party, at the 2016 federal election. Aged 72 at the time, Hinch was, when elected, the oldest federal parliamentarian ever to be elected for the first time. He lost his senate seat in the 2019 election. He remained host of his weekly program Hinch Live until the election campaign period officially commenced, in a decision supported by Sky News Live. He has been the host of 3AW's Drive radio show, and a National Public Affairs commentator for the Seven Network on Sunday Night, Today Tonight and Sunrise.  Hinch has been convicted of contempt of court three times, serving two prison sentences and one sentence of house detention.

Patryk Jaki of Poland's Law and Justice Party and Member of the European Parliament joins Ed to discuss the reaction to Trump in Europe. He also discusses the current state of politics and the fight for justice in Poland and the EU. Todd Bensman, Senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies and author of Overrun, joins Ed to discuss what border policy will look like over the next 4 years under Trump's administration. AJ Rice, President & CEO of Publius PR and author of  The White Privilege Album: Bringing Racial Harmony to Very Fine People…on Both Sides, joins Ed to discuss his book. AJ tells about his writing process and career, and how he is always working on the next thing, “like Pac Man.” He also talks about how he uses irreverent humor and satire to bring of salient and critical political points. John Schlafly, co-author of the weekly Schlafly Report, discusses with Ed the tenuous situation with Russia. Trump wants to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to a speedy resolution, but Biden's authorization for Ukraine to use U.S.-made missiles is putting a wrench in those works.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this electrifying episode, Michael Jaco sits down with Vermont gubernatorial candidate Kevin Hoyt to expose what they believe to be the dark underbelly of Vermont politics. Hoyt, challenging the state's sitting governor, unveils allegations of corruption, human trafficking networks, and the untimely deaths of high-ranking officials. Hoyt doesn't just aim to unseat an incumbent; he's on a mission to reveal the state's shadowy dealings, which he sees as a microcosm of a broader, national reckoning against corrupt systems. Together, Jaco and Hoyt dig deep into the impact of media manipulation and the suppression of alternative voices, highlighting the disturbing trend of censorship across social platforms. They reveal how popular voices are being muted, analytics are skewed, and influential creators are prevented from reaching their full audience. Shining a light on the rigging of narratives and elections, the conversation takes on the tone of a battle cry, urging listeners to join the fight against a common enemy in the struggle for truth. But the episode isn't just about exposure—it's about action. Hoyt and Jaco shine a spotlight on the inspiring work of Micah Clark and Camp Patriot, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering veterans through outdoor experiences, meaningful work, and community support. In a powerful segment, the speakers underscore the critical importance of supporting veterans, celebrating organizations like Vermont Veterans Place that provide temporary housing and resources for those who served. Amid stories of grassroots heroism and humanitarian efforts, the conversation also pivots to Jaco's passion project, the WaveWatch—a revolutionary frequency-based device aimed at promoting healing. Through moving anecdotes of people transformed by this "med-bed on your wrist," Jaco and Hoyt make an impassioned call for listeners to consider the power of frequency healing in addressing pain and chronic issues. They offer a special discount to listeners and invite them to pay it forward by nominating others in need. Whether it's fighting corruption, supporting veterans, or exploring new healing modalities, this episode is a call to action—a rallying point for anyone committed to truth, compassion, and positive change. Join host Michael Jaco, Ex-Navy Seal, who teaches you how to tap into your Intuition and Unleash the Power within, so you can become the Master of your Reality. Connect with Michael Jaco at his website - michaelkjaco.com   Grab this amazing watch while it's on special - use the discount code JACO100 to save $100 off your purchase TODAY!

We talk with the three candidates for Vermont attorney general on Monday as part of the station's series of debates and candidate interviews ahead of the general election on Nov. 5.Incumbent Attorney General Charity Clark, a Democrat, is running for her second term. She previously served as assistant attorney general and chief of staff in past Vermont administrations. The Republican candidate, Ture Nelson, is a longtime Berlin selectman, town administrator, and former federal investigator. The Green Mountain Peace and Justice Party nominee, Kevin Gustafson, is the founder and member-owner of Mountain View Law.This episode also included a conversation about Canadian politics with a CBC correspondent Cathy Senay. She covers the Quebec government and politics at the National Assembly.Broadcast live on Monday, October 21, 2024, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Aro Velmet is an associate professor of history at the University of Southern California, where he is a historian of modern Europe, colonialism, science, technology, and medicine with an overarching interest in gender studies. For Baltic Ways, he shares insights into the progression of LGBTQ+ rights in Estonia and the broader region and the path that has led to legislative change over the past decade. Mentioned in this episode:Velmet, A. (2019). Sovereignty after Gender Trouble: Language, Reproduction, and Supranationalism in Estonia, 1980–2017. Journal of the History of Ideas 80(3), 455-478. Põldsam, Rebeka, et al. Kalevi Alt Välja: LGBT+ Inimeste Lugusid 19. Ja 20. Sajandi Eestist. Eesti LGBT Ühing : Rahva Raamat, 2023.Elisarion: Elisàr von Kupffer and Jaanus Samma at the Kumu Art Museum in TallinnIrina Roldugina, UCIS Postdoctoral Fellow, History, Slavic Languages and LiteratureTranscriptIndra Ekmanis: Hello, and welcome to Baltic Ways, a podcast bringing you interviews and insights from the world of Baltic studies. I'm your host Indra Ekmanis. Aro Velmet is an associate professor of history at the University of Southern California where he is a historian of modern Europe, colonialism, science, technology, and medicine, with an overarching interest in gender studies. Today in our conversation, we speak about recent changes to LGBTQ-plus issues in Estonia and the broader region and the path that has led to where we are today. Stay tuned. Dr. Aro Velmet, thank you so much for joining us on Baltic Ways. Your research interests are pretty varied, right? They stretch across the globe to look at how microbiology became a tool of French colonial governance, all the way to the history of digital statecraft in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Estonia and in the global south. But today our conversation is going to focus a little bit on your work on gender and the current state of LGBTQ rights in the Baltic states. But before we get there, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your academic interests?Aro Velmet: Well, thank you, Indra, for inviting me to the show. I am, as you said, primarily a historian of science and technology, and I'm interested in the ways that various kinds of experts make claims on politics and power: how they reformulate questions that we think of as essentially questions of politics—who gets to cross borders, who gets to have various kinds of rights—as questions of technological expertise.So this may mean formulating public health policy, right? If the pandemic breaks out, then who needs to be vaccinated? What kinds of populations need to be surveilled, monitored, and regulated? This is what the first decade of my academic career was dedicated to in the context of the French Empire. Or it may mean questions around gender and reproduction. It may mean questions around how democracy is conducted, which is sort of what I'm researching right now. But I guess at the heart of it really is this question, and really this kind of utopian vision, of using technological expertise to solve these political quagmires, these debates that Western societies have been wrestling with for well over a century, that lots of different scientists have had the idea that maybe the way to break these problems open is through the application of this or that novel technology. So that's kind of what I'm broadly interested in academically. IE: Thank you for sharing that is really interesting. I'm sure that there are many, many different ways you can take that too—a lot of those questions resonate in today's world. Well, returning to the subject at hand today: In the past year or so, we've had some significant legislative steps happen in the Baltic states around LGBTQ-plus rights, particularly in Estonia and Latvia. Estonia adopted a marriage equality bill. In Latvia, civil unions are legal as of July 1st this year. Efforts in Lithuania to recognize same-sex partnerships, however, were also kind of in the legislative mix, but ended up stalling. I wonder if you can give us some insights into where the Baltic states currently stand with regard to LGBTQ rights and, more of some of the historical context of those rights in the region.AV: So I should preface this by saying that I really am not an expert on the histories of Latvia and Lithuania, even though the three Baltic states get lumped into one category very often. They are quite different, particularly in this question of LGBTQ rights.IE: That's fair.AV: To start off, I think the one bit of historical context that is really important is just how rapid and dramatic the shift in public attitudes and the legal situation towards LGBTQ people has been all over the Baltics, and I can speak for Estonia, specifically. And just to give you some idea of that, in 2012—this is a couple of years before same-sex civil unions were legalized—popular support for marriage equality in Estonia stood at roughly about a third of the population. So it was a sort of minority position. And we've now, over the course of twelve years, come to a point where not just marriage equality is now legal, has been legal for just about a year, and it also enjoys growing popular support. It now has majority support and had majority support in 2023 when it was legalized in parliament. So the shift really has been quite dramatic; that's kind of one thing to keep in mind. And I sort of remember when I first started getting involved with this question in 2011, it really was the kind of topic that no mainstream publication, no mainstream politician wanted to touch with a ten-foot pole. We tried to poll legislators, at the time, on their opinion about same-sex marriage or same-sex civil partnerships. And the vast majority of legislators declined to answer the question; they just didn't want themselves to be associated with this. So this situation is now quite dramatically different. The other thing that I already alluded to is that the situation is quite different in different Baltic countries. So while Estonia now has broad majority support to same-sex marriage and overwhelming support, over 70 percent, to same-sex civil partnerships and kind of broad question of do you think homosexuality is acceptable, these numbers are quite different in the Baltic states.So the kind of contrast to this is Lithuania, where a recent survey showed that only barely a quarter of the population supports same-sex marriage: so dramatically different contexts. And to a degree, these are contexts that are explained by history, culture, and politics, right? Lithuania is a strongly Catholic country, and the kind of Catholic discourse that is global and particularly prominent in Poland, but also in other Catholic countries such as France, that really sees homosexuality as a sin and same-sex marriage as an affront to church doctrine, is really something that dominates in Lithuania.I think the situation in Latvia is a bit more complicated, and you probably can tell me more about this than I can tell you. But it seems to me that a lot of that discourse has to do with Russian-oriented political parties and the discourse that is connected to the Kremlin's official position on gay rights and the preservation of so-called traditional marriage.So there's lots of context here that makes these three countries in some ways quite different, but I think they are also similar in that the broad sort of direction of travel over the past two decades has been towards increasing acceptance of the LGBTQ community and increasing moves towards legislation that protects the rights of gay and queer people around the three Baltics states.IE: Thank you for sharing that background. I'm no expert on the situation in Latvia, but it's quite interesting. Edgars Rinkēvičs, the current president, is the first gay head of state in Europe. At the same time, you're right that the discourse is quite difficult and legislatures have taken quite a long time to implement some rulings from the Supreme Court, which has urged them to take steps towards approving civil unions and same-sex partnerships for a while. It's quite a mixed bag. You mentioned the situation in Lithuania and the kind of deep ties to Catholicism and faith. That's something that, I think often, is thought of when we think of resistance to LGBT rights. But you also wrote an article in 2019, called “Sovereignty After Gender Trouble,” where you look at, more specifically, Estonia, which is not really a particularly religious society in the same sort of way. And you look at how the opposition to LGBT rights drew arguments more broadly linking them to demography, state sovereignty, language, resistance to that kind of supranational authority: in this case, it was the European Union. And certainly, demography and language in the Baltic states are quite existential hot topics.So I would love it if you could tell us a little bit more about that research. I found that article really interesting.AV: I think the research was basically spurred by this question of why is this attack on what certain conservative groups called gender ideology—and we can characterize this as a sort of broadly homophobic sentiment—so popular? Not just in Estonia, but in a variety of different places where it seems that just saying that this is a movement that's grounded in religious sentiment doesn't quite explain its broad popularity among many different social groups. And it is true, it is true also in the Estonian case, that a lot of the leading activists of the so-called anti-gender movement, come from religious backgrounds. So in the case of Estonia, they are fundamentalist Catholics. This is particularly puzzling because Catholicism in Estonia is sort of small—there are very few people who are Catholics. Estonia in general is one of the least religious countries in the world. And yet at the same time, this movement gained a lot of traction in the 2010s during this debate over same-sex civil unions.Now, basically what I found in my research when I looked at the kinds of arguments that these anti-gender activists and conservative politicians were making, their arguments weren't really about religion. They weren't really about something like natural law—something that's often invoked in Catholic discussions.But they were really about a question of sovereignty. And the way this argument was made was roughly, like this: The symbol of health for the Estonian state is population growth, right? When the population is growing, then the state is healthy. When the population is declining, then this means that Estonian sovereignty is under attack.And we see this in the Soviet period when mass migration of Russophone citizens threatened the Estonian demographic situation in the 1980s. This is how this argument is made. AV: And we're seeing this in the 2000s where the Estonian population, the kind of natural birth rate is declining. And what this must mean is that Estonian sovereignty is under threat by this different supranational organization, the European Union. The links that these groups draw between the European Union and the Soviet Union are in some cases, very direct. There are cartoons where you have a kind of fat cat Estonian politician bowing toward Moscow in 1988 and then toward Brussels in 2014. And the problem with these kinds of supranational organizations is that they are out of touch with the will of the people. They're out of touch with what people consider to be a healthy way of living, and this is expressed through these programs supporting LGBT rights.So really I think that this tells us quite a bit about what draws the sort of broader population to this kind of rhetoric. It's not really Christian rhetoric, which is quite downplayed, about sinfulness and natural law and righteous living and things like that. It's really a language about giving away power to supranational entities. And in this telling, the support of the political class, of Estonian liberals and social democrats, towards LGBT rights then becomes a kind of proxy for saying, “Look, these are people whose interests lie with Brussels and not with the people in Tallinn or in Paide or in Kohtla Järve or in these small towns that are being forgotten.”And I think actually that move—where gay rights become a stand-in for a kind of liberal alienation and a representation of a loss of sovereignty to supranational institutions—is actually quite revealing because I think that is broadly the same kind of argumentation that is being put forth in Poland by the Law and Justice Party, by Viktor Orban's Fidesz, with a sort of heavy dollop of anti-Semitism thrown in for good measure, and by the Rassemblement National in France as well. And by peeling away the religious layers of this rhetoric, we really get to what is at the heart of the matter.IE: Yeah. Maybe the supranational part is also perhaps not as intensive in the United States, but the idea of the kind of alienation, especially of the rural population and the areas that are underserved, and homosexuality as a kind of stand-in there for politicians is—I think it's instructive also there. As you noted, this article focuses on the backlash to the European Union's more progressive stance. You know, you mentioned Poland and Hungary—these are also the close neighbors of the Baltic states in some ways. But on the other side, you have Finland, Sweden, and Northern Europe—decidedly more progressive in their stances. So I wonder if you could perhaps tell us a little bit about how the international community—be it organizations or be it close neighbors or even further neighbors—have influenced the trajectory for the Baltic states on these questions.AV: Yeah, of course. It's interesting that you bring up the Nordics because I think something that has made a very substantial difference in Estonia's trajectory compared to Latvia and Lithuania is the very close economic and cultural ties to Sweden and Finland and Norway as well. And therefore they were able to benefit from many of the resources of these countries and in ways that are quite material. So Norway's gender equality fund, for instance, has financed a lot of Estonian NGOs, and had for a long time financed the office of gender equality at the Ministry of Social Affairs. Lots of activists, who've been working at this in Estonia for a long time, have either family in Finland or Sweden or hail from there, or sort of Estonian Swedes or something like that, and generally the sort of links and networks with Nordic organizations have been very tight. And so there's always been a lot of people who are willing to do advocacy work in Estonia when in moments where local politicians have not been willing to speak up for gay rights it has been quite easy to get someone like Alexander Stubb, the current Finnish president, to give an interview on the issue, you know, way back in 2011. So I think that has made quite a big difference. I mean, this, in some ways, also opens up the local community to the criticism that they're astroturfing, right: that these organizations are EU-funded organizations that, again, are somehow alienated from the rest of the population. I just want to make very, very clear that this is a very misleading argument. Because it hasn't been for a lack of wanting or a lack of initiative that these organizations have evolved over the time that they have. It's been primarily due to a lack of funding. It's been due to the fact that there simply haven't been funding sources for people to build these organizations within Estonia. So they've gone to supranational organizations like the EU, like the Soros Foundation or various Nordic sources of funding to do it. IE: Maybe we can continue on—because I think we're already on this path—that you can tell us a little bit more about local activism, local organizations, and how that's impacting both the political side legislation but also the social side. That's quite a dramatic statistic that you cited for Estonia, right? In just a handful of years moving general acceptance of same-sex marriage.AV: So the support for same-sex marriage right now is just over half of the population. And you can break this down demographically and see some interesting things there. The below-25-year-olds overwhelmingly support it. Russian-language speakers tend to be more skeptical, but they are, the growth has been, perhaps the fastest over the past couple of years. So yeah, the changes have been quite dramatic. And thinking about the organization and the kind of activists seen in Estonia, some things appear quite different if you look at it, particularly from an Anglophone or an American's perspective, which is that, by and large, organizations in Estonia tend to be more oriented towards either internal community building or kind of professional policy work. Really sort of working together with the Minister of Social Affairs with legislators in the parties who are broadly favorable to LGBT rights, with various ministries and state organizations, rather than having a kind of strong on the streets presence, right? This putting bodies on the streets and really pushing in that form hasn't been a particularly big part of political activism and certainly not in Estonia. I know less about Latvia and Lithuania. And in some sense this has been, I think, both a positive and a negative aspect. Certainly, we've seen how quickly and well conservative organizations have organized, precisely around big public meetings and building a kind of mass base of support for their agenda. And this certainly made the fights in 2014, and to a lesser extent last year, quite complicated. The other thing I think that's worth mentioning, that some researchers like Pauliina Lukinmaa have pointed out, is that the LGBTQ community and the organizations in particular tend to be quite divided along ethnic lines, right? There are many different communities that for a long time didn't really talk to one another and have had very different experiences. In Estonia this has been compounded by the arrival of folks who are fleeing persecution in Russia and also Ukrainian LGBTQ people who have arrived in Estonia with the ongoing war in the past two years. So thinking about how to bring these communities together has generally been one of the challenging aspects. Again, I'm relying here on research that I've read, more than direct experience. IE: Yeah, that is interesting to see how those cleavages also carry over into this type of work and activism. I wonder, what do you see as the future for LGBT rights in the Baltic states? Do you see this growing convergence, this very rapid kind of shift that you've already pointed to continuing and will convergence with Northern Europe may be on the horizon? Is it tangible?AV: Yeah, I think it depends a lot on political contingency. One thing to keep in mind is that, for instance, both the same-sex civil partnership law that was passed in Estonia in 2014, and the marriage equality law that was passed in 2023—these were not foregone conclusions. These were narrow votes, products of a lot of lobbying that could have gone in a different direction had a few things here and there been different. So they were really kind of utilizing the opportunity handed in a moment. And we need to keep this in mind, right? I think the Baltics are broadly in a similar situation all around where small shifts in the political makeup of the country can dramatically change the situation on rights. I think one of the challenges that all three countries will face, and certainly Estonia is seeing this unfold right now, is that generally, the parties that have most steadfastly supported queer rights have been liberal parties in the sense of being sort of broadly on the right, economically speaking. So the Reform Party in Estonia—that's the current prime minister's party—at a certain point, can only go so far in that direction, right? And already after the last elections, we saw quite a bit of debate over whether the winning of marriage equality was really—well, let me think of how to sort of put this, in the best way. That there's a trade-off if you sacrifice, for instance, progressive healthcare policy or progressive taxation policy for something like marriage equality. Because, of course, queer people also need healthcare. In fact, they are more likely to require healthcare. They are more likely to be vulnerable to social dislocation. They are more likely to need government services. They are more likely to experience workplace discrimination. So, they also need stronger labor protections. So, this question of how much do you want to hitch your ride to the liberal bandwagon is one that I think is going to become increasingly acute now that these basic questions of civil rights have been more or less settled. I don't think these are going to be turned back.But now we're starting to see that actually the experience of middle-class queer people in Tallinn can be quite different from poor queer people in the countryside. We are starting to think more about what is the difference between the experience of queer people who speak Estonian versus those who speak Russian. And I think figuring this out is going to be quite the challenge because there is not nearly as much consensus on issues of social policy than there is emerging on this sort of broader question of civil rights. IE: Yeah, that's a really good point to make. Thank you for highlighting it. Well, we're nearing the end of our time, but I want to ask you to tell us a little bit about what you are currently working on and if you have any recommended reading for listeners.AV: Sure, the answer to the first question is going to take us quite far from this conversation since gender and gender studies are a part of all of my research. You know, it's a fundamental part of the human condition, so anything one studies, I think, should have a gender component to it, but it's not the primary topic of my research right now. I'm interested in the history of information processing and governance and the idea of solving politics through computers. I'm following the story from the 1960s and the foundation of various institutes of cybernetics in places like Tallinn, Kyiv, Vilnius, and elsewhere, to the story of the Estonian digital state that emerged in the 1990s and is still kind of the main branding exercise. IE: E-stonia.AV: Yeah, E-stonia, exactly. The digital republic. And, you know, it's still asking questions about the relationship of expertise to power. The way people imagine political communities and the way people imagine bodies. So it carries many of the themes of the stuff that I've researched before, but taking it a little bit closer to the Baltic states.And then as for reading recommendations, I really would love for people to engage with the work of Irina Roldugina, who is, I think, currently at the University of Pittsburgh. She's a fantastic scholar of Soviet social queer history, really a kind of queer history written from the bottom up. And it's this really phenomenal reading. She's found archives that are just astounding in what they reveal, but also in how difficult it is to really discover queer voices in the archive, which have tended to marginalize them throughout the 20th century. Folks who read Estonian, I really would like to recommend the collected volume titled Kalevi Alt Välja, which is edited by my friend and colleague Uku Lember and Rebeka Põldsam and Andreas Kalkun, which chronicles again, sort of, bottom-up queer histories in Estonia from the 19th century to the present. And I think it'd be a very nice companion to this exhibit on queer Balto-German art that's right now running at the National Art Museum in Tallinn. So, also really, really interesting stuff—again, uncovering a part of Baltic queer history that I had no idea about, personally. And it's great art to boot. So yes, lots of good stuff out there. IE: Those are excellent recommendations. We'll be sure to link them in the bottom of our podcast notes. And I want to thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us, for sharing your perspective on your vast array of research topics, and for honing in on this subject with us this time. But perhaps we'll have to speak again on some of your other work. So I just want to thank you. Thank you so much.AV: I would be happy to talk more. Thank you for inviting me. IE: Thank you for tuning into Baltic Ways, a podcast from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, produced in partnership with the Baltic Initiative at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. A note that the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of AABS or FPRI. I'm your host Indra Ekmanis. Subscribe to our newsletters at aabs-balticstudies.org and FPRI.org/baltic-initiative for more from the world of Baltic studies. Thanks for listening and see you next time. Image: Facebook | Baltic Pride This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpribalticinitiative.substack.com

First, historian, journalist, dissident, and human rights activist Craig Murray talks about running as Member of Parliament for the Workers Party and his activism around Gaza and Assange. Then Jody McIntyre joins to talk about why he's running for MP for Birmingham Yardley. Then Palestine Youth Movement organizer Remo Ibrahim reveals what REALLY happened at the synagogue protest and Jewish anti-zionist Rich Siegel talks about why he condemned the sale of occupied land. Craig Murray is an historian, ex British ambassador to Uzbekistan, whistleblower, friend and campaigner for Assange's freedom and Workers Party candidate for Parliament under George Galloway's Workers Party in Blackburn. Jody McIntyre is a candidate for Parliament under George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain. He is the sole independent candidate running in the Birmingham-Yardley constituency, located in the city of Birmingham, England, against the Labour Party's Jess Phillips, who is a member of Labour Friends of Israel and is likely to become a minister in the new government, if she wins re-election Birmingham-Yardley. Jody has cerebral palsy and is a lifelong activist, focused on Palestine, disability-rights, and education. He converted to Islam as a young adult and has lived in Palestine multiple times, including being there on the day of the October 7th attacks. In 2010, he was the subject of national-news coverage when he was dragged out of his wheelchair by police multiple times while participating in mass protests against budget cuts and tuition hikes. Remo Ibrahim is an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, LAOCIE chapter (@palestinianyouthmovement, @pymlaocie). He is committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation, and to confronting Zionism and white supremacy wherever it appears. Rich Siegel is a musician and activist. Raised in what he calls “the cult of atheistic Zionism posing as Judaism”, in his youth Rich was very involved as a supporter of Israel, notably as a teenage Zionist youth group president. He then lived in Israel in his 20's working as a pianist in a luxury hotel. Rich's change of heart began as a spiritual awakening, by which he came to see that Jewish tribal identity and the state of Israel were worshipped as idols. Then he became acquainted with Zionism's crimes against humanity, which contradicted the Zionist narrative he grew up with. Organizing demonstrations against Zionist activity in the northern New Jersey suburbs where he lives, Rich's activism hit a high note when a talk he gave in front of the Teaneck town council went viral. Recently Rich was fired from a teaching job at a local music school due to a pro-Palestine Facebook post. He is director of Deir Yassin Remembered, a pro-Palestine charity and activist organization. He is currently running for Congress in New Jersey, with the Ceasefire and Justice Party. **Please support The Katie Halper Show ** For bonus content, exclusive interviews, to support independent media & to help make this program possible, please join us on Patreon / thekatiehalpershow Get your Katie Halper Show Merch here! https://katiehalper.myspreadshop.com/all Follow Katie on Twitter: @kthalps

Poland's new center-left government has launched a series of reforms since the far-right Law and Justice Party was ousted in 2023. Justice Minister Adam Bodnar tells DW Warsaw will need more time to complete the process.

Show Notes and Transcript Rob Roos, a Dutch politician and member of the European Parliament joins Hearts of Oak to discuss his non-traditional journey into politics and his focus of representing the people over personal gain.  He advocates for free speech, energy security, and national sovereignty while addressing issues like immigration and digital identity.  Rob highlights the complexity of politics, emphasizing compromise and unity among diverse political groups.  He stresses the importance of collaboration to tackle challenges like immigration and the changing European political landscape.  Rob also shares his views on international relations, promoting peaceful resolutions and maintaining dialogue.  As we look ahead, Rob remains dedicated to serving his country and advocating for critical issues, cementing his position as a notable voice in European politics. Rob Roos (1966) has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2 July 2019, until December 2020 this was on behalf of the Forum for Democracy (FVD) and then until August 2023 on behalf of JA21. Mr Roos was a member of the Provincial Council of South Holland for several months in 2019 and chairman of the political group until July 2019. He is an entrepreneur in the ICT sector and worked in business and is the Vice President of the group of European Conservatives and Reformists. Connect with Rob... X/TWITTER         x.com/Rob_Roos WEBSITE             ecrgroup.eu/ecr/mep/rob_roos INSTAGRAM        www.instagram.com/robroos.mep Interview recorded  14.6.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... X/TWITTER        x.com/HeartsofOakUK WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/ SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/ Transcript (Hearts of Oak) I'm delighted to be joined by Rob Roos today, a Dutch politician, was a member of the European Parliament for five years. Rob, it's wonderful to have you with us. Thank you for giving us your time today. (Rob Roos MEP) Yeah, it's wonderful to be here and I try to explain the things that are happening in the European Parliament and in the Netherlands. And I'm honoured to have me in the show. Thank you. Great to have an eye of, as have many, I think, English speakers certainly enjoyed your fantastic short videos on a range of issues and it is, I guess, to see a member of the European Parliament speak sense and speak specifically, I just say what they think, love it. But you obviously were a member of the European Parliament for five years. I'm still am. Still am, yeah. Yes, yes, till July 16. Okay, till July 16 and you were vice chairman of the the ECR group, and we'll get into the groupings, the European Conservatives and Reformist Party. But your background, you were in telecoms, and it made me smile because I know I worked with Gerard Batten, who was MEP for UKIP, UKIP leader, and his background was telecoms as well before he got into politics. Maybe I can ask you just how you ended up being involved in politics. It was an accident. It always is. No, I was never a member of a political party. My background is I'm actually an electrical engineer. But I'm an entrepreneur. I have my own businesses. I had an engineering company in energy. That's what I'm doing for 32 years now. But after a while I started to invest in my own fibre optic networks across the country so, I founded my own telecom company. It started with the infrastructure but after a while I also had I had my own ISP and we did everything, but in 2016 I sold my engineering company. And because I wanted to move on with my telecom company, it was a huge success. But then there was a private equity from London who wanted to buy my shares. And so I did the negotiations for two years in 2018. They bought my shares also of that company. I still have one telecom company. I still own a fantastic gym. I'm also a boxing trainer. But then in 2016, we had a new movement in the Netherlands. It was called Forum for Democracy. Thierry Baudet was very good at that time. And, well, I funded his political movement so he can run for our national parliament. But I didn't become a member at the time. But after a while, they called me. Rob, can you please help us? You live close to Rotterdam. Can you do the campaign over there? I was never involved in politics. I was always interested in politics since I was a child. So I said, okay, let's do it. I'm an entrepreneur. Let's roll up the sleeves and just do it. But it was a success. And from one thing came another. And, well, before I knew it, I was in the office in Amsterdam. To them and yeah, building this organization because that is my background I founded nine companies, our board companies, our merged companies, and so I know how to build organizations. Yeah, from there they said well can you record a video about entrepreneurship and it was so difficult because I was never in front of the cameras really it was maybe 50 takes or something like that it was terrible, but okay, I didn't have that experience, but finally this video was successful and then Rob you should also be on the list and I said absolutely not. I want to help but I'm not going to be on this, but in the end to make a long story short, in the end I was on the list and I was elected as a member of of the European Parliament. And, well, yeah, I did it with love and passion, and I loved what I did. I'm not really a politician. I'm a representative of the people. I think that's a big difference. Most people who go into politics have very good intentions, but once chosen, they make a career of it. And, yeah, I didn't do that. I'm really there for the people. It's sometimes tough, you know. They call you names. But I don't care, you know, it's the right for people to call me names. That's freedom of speech. I don't block anyone on social media. But yeah, I did it with love and passion. And to be honest, I think I'm going to miss it. But there will probably be something else in the future. I keep on fighting for my country, absolutely. And also for Europe. Well I want to get on to what kind of your passions and what you wanted to to bring to that role but let me for our UK and half of our viewers are American and I don't know if we'll be able to explain all of the intricacies and little details in in the politics but obviously I watched Thierry Baudet start his movement and you've got all different letters in Dutch politics. So, that's the Forum for Democratie, the FVD. And then there was, I think, a disagreement. So things were said, as happens, and then you had broken away with some others and started a new group, the J21. And then you had represented that and then as an independent. And I guess there are always difficulties with a new movement or a new group or new party that starts, because it doesn't have the history of what it actually believes and it's evolving and that can lead to clashes I guess. Yeah, that's true you know, but it's always in politics. I was in Bangkok two weeks ago. I was speaking there about food security. I spoke with the the audience that were all kinds of ministers and and members of parliament of all kinds of Asian countries from Kazakhstan to South Korea, Japan, China, everywhere. And it's everywhere the same. You know, politics is just a dirty game. But the point is for new political parties, if someone is, let's say, difficult to handle, there is no job somewhere else. The establishment, if someone is not very favourable anymore in the party, they give them a decent job as a mayor or something else. And this is not possible with a new political party. So, yeah, that is the problem. But there are more problems. Politics also attracts strange people. I agree. It's incredible. And I'm just a simple human being. The only thing that counts for me, I want results. I'm a businessman. man you know and I my my job is to solve problems and to to go straight to the result and I don't want to play all these games, and I don't do it, so it's, I stay, I stick to my principles and then that's why I fight for and if people said you should not speak about this, you shouldn't speak about that, and I said sorry I'm here to represent the people that's why they have chosen me and I will fight for them. For me the party, a political party is just a tool. It cannot be the goal and that is often the thing that they make the political party more important than our country and the people and yeah for me the people and the country is that that's the most important thing that's the highest goal there is. Tell us about you as an MEP you as vice chair of the ECR one of the kind of three groupings on the right and people obviously will know Georgia Maloney her party part of that I think the Law and Justice Party and also I think the Czech Civic Democratic Party are part of that. Tell us what that was, because obviously you were there for five years. So you don't have a track record of being in the European Parliament. That's not your life. Your life, as you say, is service and serving the people. Vice-Chairman of the ECR, that is a key position. How did that come about? And how did you find your time, I guess, working with the groupings in the European Parliament? Oh, I love that. I love to do that. I can be tough on subjects, but I think I'm a very reasonable person and I can bring people together. Even I cooperate a lot of times with, for example, the Greens. I disagree. On 100% on their climate policy, but I was a member of the industry and energy committee and we were responsible, for example, for the digital identity, etc. And in the greens you have these pirates, you know, they are very hard on privacy. So, I made my coalitions with them to create a majority on things. So, there was also a very left liberal lady in the Renew, and she said, Rob, you are such a nice person, but you have such strange people around you. And then I said, you have exactly the same. So you can disagree on subjects, but you can respect each other as human beings. And this is how I work. And that is also that I did it in the ECR. I think, yeah, it's so strange because in my political party, they said, they told me, you should not speak about this and you should not speak about that. And they really disagree with me on the things. And they made my life very tough to survive in that party. But the strange thing is that I can go along with all the people in the group. Even we have, of course, you have a bandwidth and you have the people. We are the conservative, but you have people who are on the left side of this conservative movement and also the hardliners. But I can get along with them very well. And I try to bring people together, because in the end, we have to do it together. Together, you are strong. And of course, you can disagree with each other, but you have to find a compromise on things so that you can show your strength. And being united is very important to achieve the goals. I was in Bucharest, I think it's now four or five weeks ago, I was the keynote speaker there at Make Europe Great Again. Oh, yes. And that was exactly the speech that I gave. We have the elections coming up and we should be united on the right. And I hope there are now negotiations going on to create this. Conservative supergroup. They try it every time we have new elections. But this time I really hope it will work because. We are bigger, if we are united, we are bigger than the socialists in the European Parliament. And then we are the second largest group right after the European People's Party. And then we are strong. We have the best positions. You have the best, yeah, as a rapporteur, you can change things. You have the chairman of all the committees, et cetera. And so, yeah, I think we should respect each other as a human being and be tough on the subject, but we should find compromises and work together. The elections have thrown up some interesting and exciting results. Obviously, Marine Le Pen doing well. I remember meeting Marine 12 years ago in London, the only time I've met her. But Gerrit Fielder is obviously doing very well in Holland, and I've met him a number of times. And you've got two high-profile individuals that really make the left extremely angry. And to me, that's kind of the part that I like, but also you need to come together. But then you've got all these, obviously, where Giorgio Maloney fits in. And then you've got all the conversation about the AFD and the FPO. And it's an interesting mix. And you said politics brings together estranged people. It also brings together people who are extremely ambitious. And sometimes that doesn't work with groupings. But what are your thoughts looking across the landscape at what this election has produced? And how do you see it moving forward with some of those conversations? If we look at the numbers, then EPP is still the biggest group in the European Parliament. But let's say the conservatives, if you count the numbers, then we almost have the same numbers. If I count the numbers, EPP can be around 190. But also the conservatives, the right-wing conservatives, they have also 190 seats if we can merge. And Renew lost a lot, especially in France. It's a chaos over there. But also the Greens in Germany, the Socialists in Germany, they did a terrible job. It was the worst elections for them ever on the European Parliament level. So, this is a very strong signal from the people in Europe that they are fed up with all this climate communist nonsense. All this gender nonsense, because this is what it is. It was so horrible the last five years. Every legislation that we passed was full of gender ideology, climate ideology, and it was absurd, you know. I was in energy for 32 years. I really know what energy is about and how to do it. You cannot do this energy transition with wind turbines and solar panels. So, there is an alternative, and that is nuclear energy. And I was advocating for that for a very long time. I'm not against phasing out Fossil. Partly, you cannot do it completely, but partly you can phase out fossil fuel. But then you need something stable. And nuclear energy is such a wonderful form of energy. It's really a gift from the stars. If you have this uranium, but also the new... New reactors. New reactors, the fourth generation reactors with thorium and other things. There is so much energy in this tiny particle form. And this is really a solution. But this is the problem. They don't want that. So, to come back to the question, the Greens they lost, the Liberals they lost. And, well, it's time to have a real democracy. These people are upset. It was also in the Netherlands, exactly the same when Wilders won the election. These people are upset, but it's their democracy, it's not the democracy, it's their democracy. They have a view of how the world should look like, and this is how everyone should behave. But if it's real democracy, they should start listening to the people. The people gave a very clear signal. We don't want this anymore. We want change. We want a normal life. Of course, we want to take care of the planet, but we don't want to have this absurd laws where we are losing our freedom, where we are paying so much for just normal energy while it's not necessary. Our food security is in danger because of the policy on the farmers. And people start seeing it. And now they want to go back to normal. Well, of course, the farm demonstration, they started in your part of the world, in the Netherlands, and then really, really spread out. But this idea of wanting your own industries, not necessarily relying on the global, of not wanting to, not seeing renewables as the full-on solution may be a part of it, but it can't be. This is where we put everything into. And the gender ideology debate, the mass immigration that Europe has faced. I mean, but which one has it just been those coming together to give the push to to Gerd Willers, to Marine Le Pen, to Maloney, the Swedish Democrats, the FPO coming top and then even the Vox and Chega doing well in Portugal and Spain. I mean, it's across the board where all these parties have come first or second or one or two end up third. But it does seem a change of the guard. I'm wondering which issue is it that actually is concerning Europeans the most? I think it's immigration. You know, we are flooded with people from the Middle East and Africa. And even in my small village here, very close to Rotterdam, it's changing. Our children don't have houses anymore the culture is changing. Well I've seen the videos from London this is not Europe anymore and if these people want the Sharia, if they like to live by the Sharia there are lots of places in the world where you can do that. We should not allow that they are changing our society. I didn't ask for it. Most of the people didn't ask for it. So why is this happening? You know, it's not the will of the people. So, I think immigration is something that is the most important issue at the moment. But the rest, the Green Deal, all this climate policy, the gender policy, changing our identities, taking away our freedom, Yeah, I think we are heading, when I was in Warsaw, I said we are heading to a new kind of communism. And I really think that is the case. You know, if you look at communism, it's all central plant economy. Now, that is exactly what the Green Deal is. As an entrepreneur, I want to make my own decisions. And if we have new legislation and say, OK, we have to improve the environment, etc. Etc. Okay, make your goals. And let me, let the market find out what the best solution is. But they are not only telling you what to do, they are also telling you how to do it. Like the civil servants in Brussels, sitting on the chair of the entrepreneurs and of the chair of the businesses, if they really think they can do a better job, it's so stupid, you know, that's not the case. So, immigration is the most important thing. We feel that everywhere. We see the bomb attacks, we see the violence. You should not speak about it, then you are a racist, of course, they call your names again, but also the women in our cities are not safe anymore. It's just happening. It started, this started in Sweden, but now we have the same problem here in Rotterdam. And that doesn't mean that all the people who coming in are are evil, but it is changing our society and if you have too much of it and you cannot integrate in the society there are people here that live really 30 years in the Netherlands and they don't speak our language that is absurd, you know, that you then you are not a part of the society. I don't believe in a multicultural cultural society, we should have a monocultural society with maybe multicultural people from other countries but multicultural society really means a parallel society you have so but yeah, I think this is this is something that we have to solve and I think the key is now, With Giorgio Maloney. Fratelli d'Italia. I really understand their position. They are my colleagues. They are very good colleagues. I love them very much. But Italy has problems, you know, with their debt. So, they depend on what is happening in the financial market. The financial market can break or they can break the government within months, I think. But also the Commission, because they have this money where they can bribe the member states. They did it with Poland, they do it with Hungary, but they can also bribe Italy, because Italy, I think they still have to receive 85 billion Euros from this next generation EU. EU, so that is serious money. But it should not be the case that the government of Italy, of Giorgio Meloni, that they can hostage our whole group. We in Europe, we have to move on. So, I understand their position, but still I hope there will be a solution also for this big group, including... Fratelli d'Italia. I really hope that. We're talking about Giorgio Maloni and you've seen, I guess, Orban with Fidets in Hungary and the Law and Justice Party in Poland really taking a very hard line against the EU and you posted, I think, on Twitter a day ago or so, Hungary getting fined every day. Giorgio Maloney has taken a softer approach. I think people have seen that as weakness but maybe she just realizes this is a game you need to play and you don't win everything on day one is that a fair assessment because, I would be talking to some people about my frustration with Giorgio Meloni not going all the way and they said patience this this takes time. Is that a kind of a fair assessment that she knows how the game has to be played and to get to your goal It takes a number of steps. Yes, absolutely. If you are in government, you have to take responsibility. You have to make compromises. As long as you have no 51% of the seats, then you have to make compromises. But also, she has to deal with the European Commission. She has to deal with the financial markets. So that is the case. And even we have these elections in France at the end of the month. And I really hope there will be, let's say, a common sense politics, because that is what it is, with conservatives, political parties. But even then, they will lower down the vote. It's always easier to be in the opposition and to raise your voice. But if you have the responsibility and you have to solve the problems, yeah, you have to deal with many problems at the same time. And of course, you have to make compromises, but it is possible. Yeah, but I hope it's not too much and that there will be a solution to create this supergroup. It is really necessary to change things. I'm so happy that we have more and more prime ministers with a conservative background in the European Council, because that's probably the most important thing. To have this blocking minority over there, maybe even if we look further in time, there will be a majority and we can really change things. But I hope Maloney and Orban and Le Pen, they can find a solution because they are the most important, yeah, these are the biggest countries, you know, Italy, France, and Hungary. So, you know, well, I think Orban is at this moment the only Western prime minister with a long-term strategy of the West. No matter what people are saying of him, I agree on a lot of things with him. And I hope he can achieve this super group. Because Orban's sitting, I think, as an independent with Fidets at the moment in the European Parliament. So to me, if he moved one way, if he said, no, I'm going to join Giorgio Maloney and encourage Marine to do the same, him or I'm going to join ID and encourage or if there's coming together he seems to be the figure that is so well respected and because he has led Hungary forever it seems like for me but you've kind of got individuals like that and is he kind of the the kingmaker the one that can bring them together or does it depend on Marine whether she wins the French elections end of this month. And is there enough commonality, because obviously the issue with Russian Ukraine is a split with some people there, but there does seem to be enough commonality between everything else that is happening to actually come together. Yeah, I think if you read the media let's say the mainstream media they blame Orban like Kiefer Hofstad is every day doing of supporting Russia, but that's absolutely not the case. Orban, he wants peace, and I also agree with him on that, because Ukraine cannot win this war. It's just as simple as that. If you look at the numbers, Russia has all the resources to go on with this war, and they have also much more people than Ukraine. That's just facts. Should we reward Russia for the invasion in a sovereign country? Of course not. There are ways to punish him. And I think that's right. So, I'm not saying that we should reward Putin. Absolutely not. It's disgustful what happened. But we have to find a solution. You know, we cannot escalating more and more and more weapons fighting yet. OK, you can use them across the border. It's going on and on and on. And last week I spoke someone from NATO. Then I stay a little bit at this one and I come back to your question. I spoke someone from NATO and they are also becoming very nervous of some politicians who are, for example, Macron. Let me put it this way. Macron, of course, he knows he is, before the election, he knew he was very unpopular. And then he tried to make himself bigger as he was at that moment by saying all these crazy things about the war. We should bring boots on the ground over there. Really incredible, you know. This guy is, he has no roots, you know. He has no children. And then I think my son is 22. He is not going to fight, because Macron wants to set himself in a position as a big leader. Let Macron put on his own boots and go there and fight. Pick up a gun and do your job, you know. But this is, we should, well, this is Ukraine and people are divided. But I think Orban is right. The rest is, of course, supporting Ukraine. I'm also supporting Ukraine. Let there be no misunderstandings about that. But I think also the people in Ukraine want peace. You're never going to get back to Donbass. You're never going to get back to the Crimea. That is now what it is. And I hope that the rest of Ukraine can be part of NATO and that we put sanctions on Russia as long as these parts of the Ukraine is in Russian hands. But let's let's work on peace let's get people to the negotiation table because a war never ended on the battlefield it always ended on the negotiation table and I think the other conservatives also in it like this and they support Ukraine, but I think there can be a solution for that. I think the kingmaker, that's your question, is Orbán the kingmaker. I think Giorgia Maloni is the kingmaker in this. It's her decision and I really know that she has a difficult position because of the financial problems and the market with Italy, but she She has to make the decision. I think the rest will this. Orban, Le Pen, Moranjewski, Kaczynski. They are really ready to create a supergroup. Because it's, I mean, Europe seems to be marching towards greater and greater confrontation with Russia. And I think part of that's Boris Johnson's fault, because he was involved in rejecting the original peace deal. But Europe seemed to have no money left, and yet they're sending it all to Ukraine. And then the talk about conscription, which you mentioned. In Britain, we're talking about conscription. In Britain, it's rumoured that we will be at war with Russia by the end of the year, and that's why the election was called, and Macron calling for conscription. And it is a very frightening situation for Europe. Whenever the battle is not ours, it is to other countries that are neighboring countries. But Europe and partly the US, actually Biden pushing us, we seem to be being sucked further and further into this, which could be a war. Is these elections, are they enough to kind of break away and change that conversation? Because the outcome could be extremely destructive for Europe, for all of us. Yes, I think this is also what the leaders of this country should realize now, that we should unite. We have the problems we discussed already with the migration, with the Green Deal, with the gender policy, etc. But the war in Ukraine is also a big issue. And that's why I hope President Trump will win the election. I think he will choose a different approach than Biden. Of course, we should help Ukraine, but we should not make the weapon industry that should not. Booming weapon industry should not be the goal. And I think this is what's going on right now. It's all about money. And there are people making a lot of money. No, yeah, it can make a difference. And even if we have this big group, and it's so strange, the left, and they were always the one who wanted peace, you know, the symbol, and they wanted to make peace, not war, make love, not war. And now those are the ones who are the warmongers. And the world has changed so much. I really, I really, that's maybe also they try to, yeah, how do I say that? No, let's hope Trump will win the election. I think they make people very afraid of Trump winning the election because they tell the people he's crazy. He is maybe a little bit rude in his conversation, but I think he's done a wonderful job in the time he was the president. He was the only one who didn't start a war. I even recommended him for the Nobel Peace Prize in the European Parliament. Of course, it was rejected. I made a resolution to give him, because of this Abraham Accords. It was a wonderful job and what did the media said? Oh, this is a very bad thing for the Palestinians. No, it was peace. It was peace. It was very good. But yeah, let's hope that How does that, because I've had the privilege of seeing him speak it at three different rallies actually over in the states and there's nothing like a trump rally and for my all my years in UKIP. I've never seen anything like that, but how does it change because in most of your time in the European parliament it's been Biden in charge and with the rise of common sense parties more in the right it could be a different relationship with Europe and Trump. I'm wondering how you see that because you want bloc countries to actually have commonality and work together and not have disagreements. And the Trump derangement syndrome, the hatred of Trump, we've seen in many European governments. That could change now with these elections. How do you see that kind of, is there a better relationship that can be had with the Trump administration and with European Union groupings more on the right? Yeah, I think that relation is very good. Of course, Trump is always saying America first, and that is his job. You know, if he is the president of that country, he should put his country on the first place. That is also what every leader of a country should do. But for example, Orban and Trump, they can work very close. Trump Jr. was yesterday in Hungary also. But Trump was also speaking on the rally of Fratelli d'Italia. So, this relationship is also good. I think, let's say the Republicans and the conservatives here in Europe, they have a very good relation. I have very good relations also in the United States, we can get along very well and it should be something that it is a global fight. You know, this this this globalism is a left wing socialist agenda and we should fight it together. Not we see the problems everywhere in the UK, in Australia, New Zealand. South America and Europe, Canada. We have all this woke ism and there's more warmongers. And so we should unite and and also fight back together and I think this is something, that is happened that happened in the last uh years with for example CPAC and it started in the United States we have CPAC Hungary, we have CPAC in Mexico, in Brazil, in Israel, so yeah. We have a movement and we know how to find each other. And if Trump will be elected, I think there will be a very good relationship with Europe and the United States. Can I just end with you personally, because you will not be an MP soon, but you've used your position as a member of the European Parliament to speak truth and connect with the public. And you touched on energy as being something that you were intrigued about. And I always was confused why Germany would rely through the Nord Stream pipeline on one country. It doesn't matter who the country is to rely on one country. But what are the other issues that you've tried to champion? We've touched a number of them, but your kind of areas of passion and what issues did you want to bring during your five years in the European Parliament? Well, I think most of all is defending free speech. I think this is the most important thing and it's also, I was, I did the negotiations on the digital services act to. To bring some common sense over there also the digital services act is something to control, the the big big tech companies but but actually now the European commission has so much power, because they can fight disinformation and misinformation and then I try to have a definition of that. I try to also have a definition of hate speech and harmful speech. But of course, they didn't make it because you cannot, it's impossible to say this is harmful speech, so this is disinformation. These people who are advocating for this, they say to us that men can have babies and for me that is disinformation, for them, it's the truth. So it's a very dangerous development. We've seen the law in Scotland when you cannot discuss anymore the gender thing about the difference between men and women it's a hate crime. In Canada, we have the same and Europe, the European Union is moving in that same direction. Von der Leyen, two weeks ago, said we have to not debunk misinformation, we have to pre-bank this information. This is really the synonym of censorship and that is what's going on. So free Free speech is also a main topic for me. I think it's the cornerstone of having a healthy democracy, that we can disagree with each other in a decent way. And, yeah, of course, people have different opinions, but that is what politics is about. And this is also the beautiful thing that we have, and it's very precious. It's not in most parts of the world. We don't have this luxury to speak out. But they are taking it away, and that's why I called it also a new kind of communism. Because... Yeah, if you cannot speak out anymore, then we have a real problem. We have seen that during COVID, it was real censorship. It was a horrible time. People were locked up. If you disagreed, then you... So this should never happen again. Digital identity is also a very difficult thing for me. I did the negotiations on that too. I was able to delay that for two years, but finally it was adopted. It's not as bad as it was at the beginning, but still it is there. Central bank, digital currency, all kinds of tools to control people. You know, no one asked for this. No one. It's a top-down approach and it has nothing to do with democracy. There is no problem. Everyone can pay with their debit card or their credit card. It's not an added value. It's a dangerous development because you can control people. These are also very important topics to me. Freedom, freedom of speech, having reliable and affordable energy. Our food security, and, of course, stopping this illegal immigration and the sovereignty of our nations. This is very important. And just to end off, the future for you, when you finish as an MEP, I hope you're not going to disappear and become quiet. What does the future hold for you? I have no idea. Not yet. Not yet. But, you know, when I was an entrepreneur, I started to sell my first cluster of companies in 2016, and I sold a cluster of companies in 2018. It sounds strange, but I really had the idea. I've played that game. I've seen it all and I've done it all. That game is over. I thought I have enough money. That's also very strange if I see Bezos, you know, buying another super yacht. Does that make you happy? I don't think so. I have enough money, so I don't need to do, I don't need to work anymore, so I can use my time to, service my country, to fight for the future of my children, and they're the generation. So, this is what I wanted to do, but I don't have any idea what I'm going to do. But I keep on fighting. My wife, she hates politics. So, I have to convince her. But still, she also recognized that it's very necessary. There are not many voices like me who really speak the truth. Because politicians make a career of it. And yeah, let's see what's going to happen, what the universe wants to do with me. Not many speak to it, but also not many who can do it in English. And I often have struggles talking to the French groupings and saying, could I have someone not speak English? And it's like, no. Rob, I really appreciate you coming on. John, I thoroughly enjoyed your many videos going out and speaking truth in the European Parliament and looking forward to seeing what is the next step for you. But thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, it was a pleasure. And if I have news, when I know what I'm going to do, Id love to come back. You're welcome anytime. I keep on speaking, I promise. Thank you, Rob. Thank you.

With EU election results in, it looks like the forces of extreme nationalism will pull the continent's politics rightward. But in Poland, the center has held after voters booted the far-right Law and Justice Party from power last fall. This week, we revisit our take on that election in Poland and its place on the European landscape, with the feminist scholar and activist Agnieszka Graff. She discusses that remarkable turn of events and what still lies ahead for her country.

Krzysztof Bozak, a Polish Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the Sejm joins Hearts of Oak to outline his political journey, beginning with his participation in a youth movement and the founding of the Confederation of Freedom and Independence Party.  Krzysztof lifts the veil on the Law and Justice Party's EU stance, economic policies, and immigration management.  He tells us of the significance of upholding conservative and nationalist values amidst mainstream narratives.  Krzysztof highlights his role in the Polish Parliament and his openness to collaborating with like-minded international entities. This interview offers deep insights into Polish politics, party distinctions, and the importance of ideological integrity in a changing political landscape. Krzysztof Bosak began his political career as an activist and spokesman for the organisation All-Polish Youth. In 2005, he became one of the youngest Polish MPs in history, elected as a candidate of the League of Polish Families, a conservative party, at the age of 23.  Krzysztof is now the leader of Confederation of Freedom and Independence Party, Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the Sejm. Connect with Krzysztof... X/TWITTER               twitter.com/BosakKrzysztof    (English account)                                    twitter.com/krzysztofbosak Confederation of Freedom and Independence Party         WEBSITE                    konfederacja.pl X/TWITTER                https://konfederacja.pl/ Interview recorded  30.4.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... X/TWITTER                twitter.com/HeartsofOakUK WEBSITE                    heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS                heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA          heartsofoak.org/connect/ SHOP                          heartsofoak.org/shop/ TRANSCRIPT (Hearts of Oak) And I'm delighted to be joined by a member of the Polish Parliament, that is Krzysztof Bozak. Krzysztof, thank you for your time today. (Krzysztof Bosak) Thank you for the invitation and welcome everybody. Great to speak with you. I had the privilege of meeting you back, goodness, 18 months ago, I think, with Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff , a good friend of both of ours. And you are a member of the Polish parliament and I'm looking forward to understanding a little bit about the Polish parliament setup. Each country is different but you are the president of the national movement and you're the leader of the confederation or confederation of Freedom and Independence Party, and you're the Deputy Speaker of the House, which is called the Sejm. And your a husband, father, you're a Christian, and I want to delve into all of those. But Krzysztof, you became a member of the Parliament back in 2005. You were very young back then. Tell me why you got involved in politics. How did that happen and how did you end up standing as a member of parliament and being elected? It's a long story. In fact, this time I was the youngest MP in this term and I started being involved in politics by a youth movement, a Catholic Eurosceptic and Catholic Nationalist youth movement. Since I was in high school. I was 17 or 18 years old when I joined. It was the time of the debate about joining the EU. All mainstream parties, mainstream medias, mainstream bishops, mainstream everything was in favour of joining EU. And a small minority of speakers and social leaders were against defending principles of independence, sovereignty, traditional values, and so on. And I was sure that they are right and I joined this movement, being against joining European Union at that time. I joined a youth movement, then in 2001 a conservative pro-family, pro-life Eurosceptic party was created. It was League of Polish Families. It was kind of coalition of very different right-wing conservative or Eurosceptic or nationalist groups. And four years later I became the youngest MP being elected from my home town and constituency. From the 10th place on the list. So I was not a leader of the list, I was on the 10th place and people elected me from this list as the only MP in this constituency. So it was a very big success and a very big surprise for many people. And it was short term, only two years, because this was a time of big political instability. We had two government changes. It was, let's say, right-wing government, many scandals, and after two years, earlier elections, and my political party didn't succeed. League of Polish Families disappeared from Polish politics. Law and Justice political party took everything, every right-wing voters. We were against, we were competitors of law and justice, competitors from the right. They were centre-right from our perspective. and after that for 12 years I was outside the Parliament involved in social movement and working in right-wing NGOs, in think tanks like Republican Foundation, defending the same values on the social level with my colleagues and people who didn't lose faith in being active and trying to create truly right-wing political movement. We tried many times different attempts to get into the Parliament we have 5% threshold and proportional system so it's quite hard if you do not have support from big business big media or big money and we succeed in 2019 I went back to Parliament this time as a co-leader of of Confederation, Freedom and Independence. It is a coalition now, coalition of three political parties, three political movements. My movement, national movement, still the same values, still the same political tradition. So national conservative Catholic tradition, national democratic tradition of Polish political independence movement, and we created this national movement as a new political party ten years before, in 2013. So for six years we were outside the parliament, and after that we made a coalition with conservative libertarians and traditionalists. So conservative libertarians were created by long-term defender of economic freedom and civil liberties. Janusz Korwin-Mikke, now he's not in his political party, he's pleaded, but he created this political party and now they have a younger leader, Sławomir Manczan from Next Generation, very popular young businessman and tax advisor and also a big defender of economic freedom and conservative values. So this is the second pillar first is national conservative Catholic second is let's say conservative libertarian and the third is citizens movement traditionalist movement of Jagger Brown is a quite popular right-wing movie a documentary movies director an artist and intellectual who who were involved in politics also a few years before, first being on anti-communist and right-wing position, and then shifting more to the right and building the coalition with us. So now we have Confederation as a coalition, or let's say umbrella party, coalition party, for these three different movements and many smaller groups who joined us. And we work collectively, we have collective leadership and we challenge law and justice from the right. We were in opposition during eight years of law and justice government. From our perspective they are not very conservative and they are, I know that sometimes media call them nationalists, but from our perspective they were a typical centre-right political party. And we made an alternative right party for Polish voters and now we even extended the number of voters who support us. So now we have 18 MPs and more than 7% in polls and now we fight to get into the European Parliament. Because for now there are only people from Law and Justice and their allies parties. And we believe that Polish voters deserve to have better representation in European Parliament. Built by truly critical to European Union politicians, not supporters of EU who change only some narrative, but they always vote in favour of you. Well, tell us about the... Because when I, as a Brit, maybe read the newspapers here in the UK, it would have talked to the Law and Justice Party as being an extreme right party. In a similar way, they mock Orbán in Hungary. But I'm curious to see where you fit in, Because when I went over and met with you, I begun to understand the Law and Justice Party were maybe not as wonderful as the West may think. So what makes the Confederation different than the Law and Justice Party? Yeah. It's a very complicated topic, but I think that it's easier to propose some metaphor or some example. So it's quite similar in my opinion like in the United States where you have mainstream Republicans and you have Trump supporters and for example Rand Paul or some people who are more nationalist-oriented. So, in Polish politics, law and justice is like mainstream republicans. They use some words, some phrases, some ideas of conservative or even pro-national right, but they use it intentionally rather for propaganda and they act like centre-right politicians. When they were in government in Poland, they even introduced many policies. We can say that these policies that they developed on social level or in economic policy, these are rather social democratic policy, not conservative or right-wing or not nationalist in any way. So, to go into the details, we criticise them because they supported European integration on the new level. First, many years ago, they supported Lisbon Treaty. They negotiated Lisbon Treaty being in government. Then their president signed the Lisbon Treaty. They made a propaganda with mainstream and center-left and leftists that the Lisbon Treaty is good for Poland. And we believe the opposite, that it was a disaster. Our situation is much worse in the EU under the Lisbon Treaty than before. Then, during the last eight years, they supported the European Green Deal and their Prime Minister accepted the European Green Deal in the European Council. Now farmers oppose, they even criticise in the current electoral campaign. They made a pledge that they will stop the European Green Deal, but they do not say that their prime minister accepted it on the European Council in 2019 then in 2020 their prime minister Morawiecki accepted fit for 55. So they increased the goal of reducing these emissions 15 percent percent more and they introduced many new policies in European union and it is all possible because they are accepted in European council on a 2020 meeting in fact prime minister Morawiecki also proposed us as a polish prime minister in Brazos creating new pan-European taxes it's completely It's completely against our Constitution, it's completely against our values. We believe that our phrase is that we need small taxes and only paid in Poland and they three or five new pan-European taxes and they accepted it and we paid this to Brussels, not to Warsaw and we have no influence on how this will be used, this money. Then they accepted European debt, we strongly opposed any idea of giving this right to Eurocrats in Brussels to introducing their own debt and building their own sources of income by that. And they, of course, accepted. Then they accepted also in 2020 a special pan-European COVID fund called Next Generation EU, even this phrase, next generation EU is evil and of course they accepted it and they made a campaign in Poland that it's a big success of Poland and that we will have billions of euros because of this success of Prime Minister Morawiecki and law and justice. And there was a small minority of their MPs who criticised this but they were silenced in the party and in the media and in fact from the perspective of Polish voters we were the only one independent voice in Parliament. I took part in this debate in Parliament and criticised this next, please check this by some search engines, what is this, next generation EU. This is not only a European debt program. It is paid by European taxes and by European debt for many years, but it's also a new attitude towards European funds. They accepted that we will have funds only under many new political conditions. So now we got some milestones, they call these milestones, and this is the list of tasks, of political tasks, and they program Polish policy by Polish so-called democratic government from Brussels without any base in constitution. We have more than 100 milestones and these are the conditions to get this money. So, we made a new debt. This is not our debt, this is the European debt. And to use this debt, we have conflict with EU for almost 3 or 4 years. And they now lecture us on every issue from this list of 100 milestones. And Prime Minister Morawiecki from the Law and Justice Party in the Polish parliament said that he is not ashamed of this deal because, for example, Italians have more than 400 milestones, tasks. So it's a nightmare from the perspective of somebody who is in favour of Polish independence and sovereign policy and democracy and even democracy in Poland. They made a secret agreement in Polish parliament with leftists to support this, because even in their own political camp, they call it United Right, which is false, because the right in Poland is not united. But they use this phrase united right and theywere afraid that not every MP will support this but because it was so controversial so they made a secret agreement with leftists. They took some leftist agenda in this deal and they made majority with leftists to push it through the parliament. Then they never discussed all this deal and this 100 milestones in parliament. We had never any debate on this issue. In fact, this negotiations were secret also against people in government. Not every member of government knew what they discussed in Brussels. Now we know this only from media. They never introduced this deal in parliament and explained what's going on. Then they accepted very, in my opinion, bad new rule called rule of law conditionality. So now without base in European treaties, Eurocrats in Brussels can lecture us what is rule of law. They can stop money for us. So these were some examples of their EU policy. There are many more, for example, their member of European Committee was in favour of European Green Deal. He even said that it's in line with political agenda on agriculture of law and justice. So they had a big conflict, of course, with EU on this rule of law. And in this conflict they it was completely complete disaster for Polish state because they started this conflict and then they missed everything because they never finished any reform of courts in Poland and they made even leftists stronger in Poland because they tried to make some compromise with Brussels. This compromise was never accepted by Brussels because it was not, let's say, 100% what Brussels wanted. But in fact we have a very big mess in courts and in law about courts and about independence of judiciary. And now after this conflict and these reforms never finished as I said the situation is worse than when it started worse on the sovereignty worse on the justice and the time that you need to wait in the court for the justice. And worse, from the perspective of the power of liberal lobby in judiciary and right-wing people who, trusted law and justice government are in a very bad situation now because they took some positions or some propositions, and now they are nowhere, in the middle of nowhere. It's a very sad story. Then we have economic policy. Their economic policy was, in fact, social democratic. So they raised taxes, they raised debts, they extended public spending. They tried to centralize every policy. They took money from local governments. they put this money to their national budget and they try to influence every policy by their political nominees and they work like, let's say, Maybe not autocratic, but it was a typical one-party government which tried to centralize and control everything. It's the opposite that I understand the pro-national policy or conservative policy. It was, in my opinion, it was elitist and even social democratic when you analyse. For example, they were strongly against home-schooling and against independent schools. They proposed some legislation to ban homes chooling. After some protests of conservatives and leftists united, they stepped back. But after protests in their party and outside and from many directions. But their first goal was to centralize everything under the government rule. And we said that it's stupid because they will not rule for forever and after them the left will come to the government and exactly this is what we have in Poland. Now we have center-left government, liberal and leftists, and the left took Ministry of Education, everything was centralized. And now they try to switch, oppose every institution and every policy that law and justice created. And we said that it will be so. And now we see the consequences of their stupid policy, which was not conservative, not Christian, not supporting any citizens' movement. They believed only in their political party and that's all. This is their philosophy. Then we have a very important issue for us in Poland, let's say, immigration. Law and Justice government was introduced in Poland, open borders policy. They were against illegal immigration and at the same time they opened borders. For biggest immigration, legal immigration in Poland since maybe 300 years. Last time that we have so big immigration was maybe in 16th or 17th century. Now we have millions of legal immigrants in Poland, the majority of them are Ukrainians, but there are also people from different Asian and especially Asian countries. They didn't want immigrants from Africa, but they invited people from Asia. They made, being anti-Russian party, they made a special easier way for Russian citizens to come to Poland, to be a part of our labor market. They opened our market for people from Belarus, from Central Asia, from Caucasus. Now Georgian immigrants are the biggest group when you analyze crimes in Poland, they are in the first place. When you analyse people who smuggle illegal immigrants, Ukrainians are in the first place. We have, it's strange, but there is no official statistics how many immigrants do we have in Poland. Nobody can count them, because these are millions and they opened borders for legal immigration, but they didn't build any administration to control the immigration. So, in fact, the best data that we have is not from the government, but from telecom operators, from big telecom business who can say how many people use different languages on their phones. So this is how we know. Or from banks, because these people from abroad open bank accounts. But it's not all. It's not started with the war in Ukraine. This is what I would like to underline. We had much more than a million Ukrainian people in Poland before the war. They were intentionally invited and government worked also on some agreements with some Asian countries to increase legal immigration to Poland. These were also Muslim countries. During the law and justice government, Muslim population in Poland increased, in my opinion, more than ten times. In fact, to be honest, it is still small, but they started this. So now we have information that a third mosque will be built in Warsaw, and the biggest one, of course, with the money from abroad, because they never, they always criticized any foreign influence, and they never proposed any legislation to stop the influence by money from abroad, for the politics, or for example, to found Islam, or Muslim movement in Poland. Then, when the war in Ukraine started, they opened borders for refugees and in fact not only for refugees but for everybody with Ukrainian passport because they made some legislation. Giving every privilege that Polish citizens have for everybody with Ukrainian passport, even for people who came here from Western Europe. It's strange, but it's true. They made a special amendment, because their first goal was always to encourage as many foreigners to live and work in Poland as it is possible. It has two reasons. First is that they believe in multicultural society. It is a part of, this is some branch of Polish pre-modern tradition, that we had a commonwealth with different nations and some of them are from this tradition and they believe that they can rebuild this commonwealth with different nations in encouraging these nations to build some community, not let's say Polish community, but they call it a Republican community, a new commonwealth of nations. From our perspective, it sounds very similar to globalist agenda, but they say, no, no, no, it's not a multiculturalism by globalists, This is our tradition of Polish multiculturalism. We as a national movement completely do not believe in this concept. We believe it's anachronic, pre-modern, and it didn't work. In fact, we had a commonwealth with different nations, but these nations don't want commonwealth with us. These nations like Belarusians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, all of them wanted independent states. And it's normal, it's normal that every nation want to have their own independent states. So, some of law and justice politicians are people older age with their heads in the clouds, reading historical books and believing in some ideas, for example, from 17th, 16th or 18th century. And in my opinion they don't understand nothing from our times and especially they don't understand that mass immigration is a big threat for the society. In Poland this process started, especially in bigger cities. Warsaw under the Law and Justice government became much closer to London when we analysed the population. There are not many African people, but many people from Asia, as I said, and especially from Russia and Ukraine. The situation is changing very fast. They made a legislation and as I said, they gave every privilege, every policy for Polish citizens. They gave it also to the people with Ukrainian passports. And these are many millions of people who would like to live abroad. We are the only European nation that pays for everything. And, of course, we have nothing in exchange. We have some agenda towards Ukraine, but they did nothing from our agenda, and we gave everything. And this is what we're against because we believe that it's impossible for one country to have two nations on the payroll, and this is how it works now. Then you have also Ukraine and supporting Ukraine agenda. At the beginning of the war we were not against, because we believed that this horrible Russian attack, is a crime and is a threat, but after two years we see that their government gave all that we have to Ukraine and the result is still not clear and other European nations do not act this way. They negotiate some things for them. Americans are also not very fast to give everything what they have. And now, for example, our army do not have enough weapons because they gave new weapons from Polish army to Ukraine. And at the beginning they said that Americans or Germans will give us in change new equipment, all the equipment and the thing, but they didn't. So it's very hard being a Pole and seeing all of that. It's very hard not to be critical to law and justice and their government. In fact, we are not surprised. We know these people for many years. We know that during the debate about joining EU they were in the same camp as leftists, as centrists, progressives and all of them. In fact, they were never national or truly traditionalist or truly conservative right. They are a mix of people of different ideas and their leader of law and justice. It's not easy to understand this, being a foreigner, but to understand the situation you should know that the leader of law and justice Jaroslaw Kaczynski. He always were against Polish nationalist tradition. He is rather from the tradition of Polish patriotic socialism. We had some pre-war tradition from interwar period of Polish, let's say, Polish patriotic socialists and this is their first choice. They do not talk about this last decades because they know that people would like to vote right-wing party, not patriotic left-wing party. But the leader is rather from, let's say, centrist or centre-left patriotic republican tradition, the leader of law and justice. The members of the party are very mixed and very different. I would not say that every MP is bad. There are many probably MPs with good views but they vote bad or act bad being in government. I will give you one more or two more examples. For example, we had a very big debate in Poland about pro-life. Law and justice was always pro-life in declaration but when they got majority they did everything thing not to vote on pro-life bill so two times polish pro-life movement collected more than hundreds of thousands of signatures having majority so-called pro-life majority people had to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures to put citizens bill to parliament and they voted against. They voted against for two times, then we as right-wing MPs, some of their MPs and every MP from Confederation made written request to Constitutional Court and Constitutional Court with some nominees, right-wing nominees from Law and Justice waited few years to analyse this request, but after they analysed this, they made a judgement that it is against Polish constitution to kill unborn babies with some disabilities or health problems. And this is how the situation changed, not by the voting in parliament, And of course, people who are in favour of law and justice say that this was their secret plan to organise this this way. But I do not believe. In my opinion, it was rather by accident. They never wanted. And now their former prime minister Morawiecki said that he is against this sentence of the court, of constitutional court. That they should defend this. Yes. But they said that they are against because they are afraid of public opinion, people who like abortion, they want centrist voters and so on. So they do not defend, they controlled every media in Poland and they didn't defend this issue. Another example, their prime minister supported long-term EU LGBT strategy. Being prime minister voted in favour. Another example, their minister who was responsible for European funds sent a secret letter to local governments that if they want European funds they should cancel Anti-LGBT and pro-family statements. Many local councils made some statements that they are against LGBT propaganda in schools and they support normal family policy. It was then criticized by, of course, progressive media and some LGBT organizations, but there was nothing against citizens' rights. It was nothing against civil liberties or something. It was a declaration that we don't want propaganda in schools or something like that. And we know that they made this letter to local governments. We know that only from LGBT organizations because they published this, being proud that the so-called right-wing government is pushing the pressure with the EU to local governments to be not too much conservative. Yes, so it shows how they work and they say one thing and they do the opposite and it was always like that. We know we know these people for four decades So we are not surprised about normal polish voter don't know all of these facts because you need, hundreds of hours to follow every information and analyse everything to to gather these details and to understand what's going on and if you follow only mainstream media, even mainstream Catholic media in Poland. In progressive mainstream media, you had an attack on law and justice, that these are nationalists, they are xenophobic, they are anti-European, they want to go back to the Middle Ages or something like that. So people said, okay, these are good people, yes, they are very conservative. And if you listen to some right-wing media or Catholic media, They are true conservatives. They fight very hard, tough fights in the EU and so on. And you had nowhere to have the truth about how they rule, how they govern the country. Everybody analyzed only what they said. And their speeches were quite good. I can agree. For example, two days ago, I listened to the speech of their leader and to their convention about EU policy and I could take this and it could be my speech, yes, but it has nothing to do with their government, what they did in Brussels. This is the problem and I think it's a problem in many countries. It's a problem also in Hungary. Orban is also very pragmatic, yes, he's not a nationalist. And there's a problem in Italy with the Meloni government. It's not an independent agenda of independence. And in many other countries. So this is how it works. And this is why we believe that Polish politics deserve a truly right-wing party with truly conservative and truly pro-national and sovereign agenda and people who are against political correctness. This is what gathers us in Confederation. We are against political correctness. We don't want to be influenced in any way by anybody from mainstream. And we are proud that we are anti-mainstream. Of course, I had many debates in mainstream media, so I always go when they ask me and I always discuss. And I believe that my views are not radical or far-right or anything like that. But I don't want to give up my principles and my beliefs. I don't want, I would rather, I would like to be rather outside politics, like being 12 years outside the parliament, than joining this, let's say, fake right political parties and saying good speeches and voting bad things. I don't want that. Well, Krzysztof, thank you for giving us such an overview of Polish politics. And I wish that we had politicians like yourself in the UK with conviction, with beliefs that actually stood on a biblical principle on a lot of these issues. And I just the final thought is as deputy speaker, I mean, that is a that is a prestigious, important position. You must be Donald Tusk's kind of worst nightmare, that you stand for everything he is against. I'm sure it was difficult to actually get in that position, was it? I'm sure there was opposition. I know we only have a few minutes, but I'm just curious to know the opposition from people like Tusk to actually having you, a nationalist, a Christian, in that position. It's a little bit different, in my opinion. To understand the situation, you should know that the main line of political difference, is in Poland between Civic Platform and Donald Tusk as a leader, and Law and Justice and Jarosław Kaczyński as a leader. It's not, on some level of course it's a, let's say, ideological and political different, but they have many things in common. This is our, let's say, talking point, yes, that they are not so different on the level of agenda of political program. When you analyze their EU policy, they could exchange their ministers, and in fact, they're exchanged in these two political parties many members of cabinets. In fact, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki before was an advisor to Donald Tusk. And there are many examples, I will not go into the detail because it's not so important. It is important to understand that it's a, let's say, ambition conflict between Kaczynski and Tusk. It's obvious that they hate each other. It started in 80s in the opposition movement. They have very bad opinion about each other, very bad. This is a true conflict, a true personal conflict. Both of them try to be pragmatic and in fact they are very pragmatic, very. But not on this one issue, not all about them themselves. This is their weak point that they become very emotional. So going back to the situation in the chamber and me as a deputy speaker Donald Tusk and don't care he don't care he hate yaroslav kaczynski and me I'm the guy from the different generation, in my opinion he do not believe in anything he is a pragmatic politician after so many years in politics. He was a liberal, he was a classic liberal in 80s, maybe early 90s. So on the level of defending economic freedom, I think he understands everything what we say. And he's a former classic liberal. Maybe he started on the same positions as Viktor Orban, but during years in politics, he lost belief probably in any principle. And now probably the only thing that he believes is pragmatism and power. Being in power and being pragmatic. This is how I understand him. So, in my opinion, he used left-wing politicians as tools. He gave them the platform, as you say in English, he gave them the platform, he gave them the space, even in government, he gave them a very important part of administration because he doesn't care. Not because he supports these ideas, he doesn't care. In my opinion, he personally believes that these are stupid people with stupid program but he didn't care. So he also didn't care about my views, in my opinion. Of course, some of his members in his political party care a lot and hate very conservative people. This is, let's say, a pro-abortion lobby in his party, very strong now, because his party started as centre-right party. It is interesting that Civic Platform, the party of Donald Tusk, started in 2001, all these three parties that I talked about, so League of Polish Families, Law and Justice and Civic Platform, all these political parties started in 2001 and entered the parliament. League of Polish Families after seven years was kicked out from parliament by voters unfortunately, but Law and Justice and Civic Platform stayed there and both Law and Justice Party and Civic Platform started as centre-right political parties very similar to each other, so similar that some politicians in 2001 didn't know which one to join so it was like a lottery or you had colleagues here so you go there you have colleagues here you go there it was a time of big changes in Polish politics so a civic platform the party of Donald Tusk started as a platform with principles of defending western civilization defending Christian values defending economic freedom defending some some conservative values maybe not everything but some and being pro-EU this was the starting point and after 20 years, they are centre-left political parties with very big pro-abortion, progressive lobby inside, former post-communist politicians, former leftist politicians inside, Green Party inside, because they built a civic coalition, they extended civic platform into civic coalition. And in this coalition, you have people who split it from the post-communist left, you have Green Party, you have some citizens' movement, and It's a central left spectrum. And Donald Tusk is a leader for everybody because now he tried to be pragmatic, not to be too close to any special views, yes? So for me it's completely not a problem. It's a problem with some MPs who are trying to be a little bit offensive or sometimes aggressive but I have my attitude which is always being very calm and polite to everybody no matter what are his views. I try to be polite and with respect to everybody this is I believe that how we should act in democratic politics and in Parliament and it works, because in fact even left-wing MPs or pro-abortion MPs have a good opinion about me as a deputy speaker, because I do not interrupt their speeches, I'm not nasty, counting their time. They could cooperate on this normal level with me, in my opinion, much better than, for example, with deputy speakers from law and justice, they were horrible, they were nasty, they were aggressive. They used their seat to, not to push their agenda, but to push their emotions against other people. So they were, there were attempts to push me from the seat, to kick me from the seat, the left put this request, but nobody voted in favor of this request, because nobody believed that it's a good decision to take this position from me and give it to anybody else. I think it's a result of maybe 20 years of my work in public debate and people know who I am, people know that I have my views, but people even who do not believe in my views, they respect that I didn't change them for many years, that I, in fact, in my opinion, many people from centre-left also respect me, that I didn't join law and justice. Because they have very bad opinion about law and justice, also about how they ruled when you analyse what they did with public money. Yes, this is another story, what they did with public money, how they used this for themselves. Their interests. Not very many bad stories. And we were not involved in all of that. So in my opinion, I have, I am lucky because I have a big respect. Of course, not everybody like me and especially not everybody like my views. But I have no reasons, I have no reason to say that I'm in a bad situation. Well, Krzysztof, I do appreciate your time. I'm so thankful to have you on. I know you've got great demands on your time being in that high profile position and being a high profile figure in the country. So thank you so much for giving us your time to explain to our UK and US audience a little bit about Polish politics. So thank you. Thank you very much for this invitation and this conversation and to finish this conversation with some good accent I would like to invite everybody who are true conservative people to come to Poland to meet us. We are very open to extend our international contacts. What I would like to say is that on the level of personal contacts. If some of you have some contacts with people from law and justice, it's not bad for us. As a normal people, we talk with each other normally in Parliament and outside Parliament. So we are critical to their leadership and to their prime minister, but taking normal MPs, we talk like normal people. And it is possible to have contacts with law and justice, for example, in European Parliament and with us in Poland or when we enter the European Parliament. So I would like to encourage everybody from truly right-wing movement to build contacts with Polish people, with Polish conservative organisations, political parties, editorial houses, NGOs, social movements. We have a big social movement, very many organizations and many good people. And please, come to Poland, have this contact, maybe also some people from the States. I believe that we should support each other. I always put some time and my energy to build this contact, so maybe some of my colleagues from abroad will watch this interview. I hope so. And me personally and our colleagues from Confederation, we are always very open to support every good people with good ideas to defend the principles that we believe, also conservative, traditional, Christian, Pro-freedom, pro-independence, and other good principles. So, this is my word and I believe that despite all these bad tendencies that we see in Western world, in Europe, we should have hope and we should defend good principles and good values, because this is our duty and this is how I believe, this is what we should do. So I have very big respect for every people who work in politics and on social level in countries that are less conservative than Poland, because I know how it feels when your country is going in the wrong direction. I talked with people from different countries and I know how it feels and I have big respect if you do a good job and give hope to your people, to your nations. Exactly. Well, thank you, Krzysztof, for your time. Greatly appreciate it. And I'm sure we will speak soon. Thank you very much.

Twenty years ago, Gov. Howard Dean ended his run for president. His campaign concluded with a scream – the fabled Dean Scream – but not before it changed the face of modern campaigning. The Deaniacs, as his legions of young followers came to be known, proved that small dollar internet fundraising and organizing could help vault the governor of a small state who was little known outside of New England into a powerful insurgent candidate. When Dean split from his fellow Democratic candidates and denounced the Iraq War in the fall of 2003, he became a populist hero and frontrunner in many polls for the Democratic nomination. He poured everything into winning the Iowa caucus, only to come in third behind John Kerry and John Edwards, who would end up as the Democrat's 2004 presidential ticket that would lose to incumbent President George W. Bush.The Dean Scream was a viral clip of Dean shouting hoarsely to thousands of followers to rally them to keep fighting as they left Iowa and traveled to New Hampshire. The clip was used by his opponents to portray him as hot headed and angry. It has been described as the first viral political meme.Dean, a physician and Vermont's longest serving governor, would go on to be elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2005 where he championed the 50 State Strategy. Rather than focusing only on swing states, Dean insisted that Democrats contest every single district in the country. The strategy proved itself in 2006 when Democrats won control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Dean also launched Democracy for America, a progressive political action committee, which folded in 2022.Dean has been a consultant focusing on health care and grassroots organizing and teaches foreign policy and public affairs at Yale, his alma mater. He is a frequent political commentator on MSNBC and other networks. On The Vermont Conversation, Gov. Dean had plenty to say about every issue (edited for length):On lessons learned from his 2004 presidential run: I wish I had put together a campaign operation that was better organized (and) that I wasn't so outspoken. But actually, that's what made the campaign. I'm incredibly glad I did it. It was an unbelievable experience.On the Israel-Hamas War: Israel has a right to exist. There needs to be a Jewish state. But the leadership in Israel has been a disaster. I've met Netanyahu. And I can assure you that he is just Trump with brains. All he cares about is Netanyahu, and he doesn't give a damn about anything else or anybody else. I think that includes the State of Israel.How President Biden should deal with Israel and Hamas: What Hamas did was a horror show. They had no right to do that. I mean, they tortured people. But what's going on in Gaza now is also a horror show. And nobody has the right to do that and murder 30,000 individuals or civilians, mostly women and children. So there's no right on either side. Both sides need to be pushed. We need to be even handed: we need to be tough on Hamas, but we need to be tough on Netanyahu as well. …And I'd cut off arms sales to Israel if we have to.On conservatives: The conservatives have lost their mind. They're really not conservatives at all anymore. They're just lunatics.Why Republicans win: Clausewitz said that politics is war by another means. Republicans understand that. They're ruthless. They govern from the top down, they're incredibly well organized. They can't govern as a result, because this is a democracy, which is no doubt why they want to get rid of democracy. Democrats are intellectuals. We think that the argument is going to win the day. We don't pack the Supreme Court, we don't have corrupt justices in the Supreme Court. We play nice because we believe in democracy, which the Republicans basically don't, unless they can get votes from it. We are lousy at winning elections because we want to play nice. So we don't want to do anything that's going to offend anybody. I don't want to be as offensive as the Republicans are, but I think we've got to be a lot tougher and a lot better organized.On reproductive rights: The right wing basically hates the idea that women are equal to men. (Aborition) is one right you can take away from women and have them less equal. That's what this is about. All these men, these Secretaries of State and these Supreme Court (justices) in Alabama, they would like to go back to the old days where women are in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant. Not anymore, it's too late. You let them out. And we ain't going back in.On the future of the Republican Party in Vermont: I do think there's a future of the Republican Party. It'll be the Phil Scott Republican Party. It certainly isn't going to be the Donald Trump (party). Donald Trump is just mean. And there are not a lot of mean people in this state.What concerns you most right now: I think what Trump's legacy will be is the same as Orban's legacy in Hungary, or the PIS (Law and Justice Party) legacy in Poland. It'll be very hard to reverse. The damage to higher education (and) to the economy will be huge. Trump talks all about these people who are aggrieved — they're going to be the first ones that get screwed if he wins, because all he cares about is rich people and his own balance sheet. So I think the country's in deep, serious trouble. It'll be the end of America as the major world power. We may not be perfect about human rights, but we do the best job of any of the major countries and the major powers.

During its eight years in power, the far-right Law and Justice Party dismantled democratic institutions in Poland. Now the new government is working to restore those institutions and they're starting with the judiciary.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Polish Justice Minister Adam Bodnar talks about his country's steps to reverse eight years of policies by the previous government. Bodnar, a former human rights commissioner, wants to show European Union officials that Poland has turned the page from the Law and Justice Party. Restoring ties with the EU — and unblocking EU funds that were suspended over a rule-of-law dispute — are top priorities.

We're back.  It's cool.  What isn't cool is the National Justice Party.  Because it doesn't exist any more.  And it wasn't cool when it did.  It was shit.  And that's why... well, listen to the episode. Content Warnings. Show Notes: Please consider donating to help us make the show and stay ad-free and independent.  Patrons get exclusive access to at least one full extra episode a month plus all backer-only back-episodes. Daniel's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/danielharper/posts Jack's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4196618&fan_landing=true IDSG Twitter: https://twitter.com/idsgpod Daniel's Twitter: @danieleharper Jack's (Locked) Twitter: @_Jack_Graham_ Jack's Bluesky: @timescarcass.bsky.social Daniel's Bluesky: @danielharper.bsky.social IDSG on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-dont-speak-german/id1449848509?ls=1   Episode Notes to follow. Links to previous episodes on the NJP: https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/70-national-justice-party https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/73-the-njp-program-part-1 https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/74-national-justice-party-program-part-2-ecofascism https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/117-terror-in-waukesha-and-the-njp  

Poland PM, Donald Tusk targets opposition Law and Justice party The Duran: Episode 1801

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI's Director John Torpey interviews Grzegorz Ekiert, Chair of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, a propós of the recent election in Poland that installed a centrist government led by former prime minister and president of the European Council Donald Tusk. Ekiert starts by discussing the paradoxes behind the support of Putin and the antiliberalism in Eastern Europe given the imperialism these countries faced from the Russians historically.  In addition, Ekiert addressed Poland's leading role in the democratization and economic development in the region after the end of the Soviet Union and how many of these initiatives were reversed by an authoritarian regime associated with the Catholic church. The interview concludes with a discussion of the challenges that the new government is going to face after the PiS (Law and Justice Party) seriously eroded the institutions of the state; the challenges are illuminated by a comparison of the institutional constraints extremism will face in Europe with those that exist in the US. International Horizons is a podcast of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies that brings scholarly expertise to bear on our understanding of international issues. John Torpey, the host of the podcast and director of the Ralph Bunche Institute, holds conversations with prominent scholars and figures in state-of-the-art international issues in our weekly episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI's Director John Torpey interviews Grzegorz Ekiert, Chair of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, a propós of the recent election in Poland that installed a centrist government led by former prime minister and president of the European Council Donald Tusk. Ekiert starts by discussing the paradoxes behind the support of Putin and the antiliberalism in Eastern Europe given the imperialism these countries faced from the Russians historically.  In addition, Ekiert addressed Poland's leading role in the democratization and economic development in the region after the end of the Soviet Union and how many of these initiatives were reversed by an authoritarian regime associated with the Catholic church. The interview concludes with a discussion of the challenges that the new government is going to face after the PiS (Law and Justice Party) seriously eroded the institutions of the state; the challenges are illuminated by a comparison of the institutional constraints extremism will face in Europe with those that exist in the US. International Horizons is a podcast of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies that brings scholarly expertise to bear on our understanding of international issues. John Torpey, the host of the podcast and director of the Ralph Bunche Institute, holds conversations with prominent scholars and figures in state-of-the-art international issues in our weekly episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI's Director John Torpey interviews Grzegorz Ekiert, Chair of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, a propós of the recent election in Poland that installed a centrist government led by former prime minister and president of the European Council Donald Tusk. Ekiert starts by discussing the paradoxes behind the support of Putin and the antiliberalism in Eastern Europe given the imperialism these countries faced from the Russians historically.  In addition, Ekiert addressed Poland's leading role in the democratization and economic development in the region after the end of the Soviet Union and how many of these initiatives were reversed by an authoritarian regime associated with the Catholic church. The interview concludes with a discussion of the challenges that the new government is going to face after the PiS (Law and Justice Party) seriously eroded the institutions of the state; the challenges are illuminated by a comparison of the institutional constraints extremism will face in Europe with those that exist in the US. International Horizons is a podcast of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies that brings scholarly expertise to bear on our understanding of international issues. John Torpey, the host of the podcast and director of the Ralph Bunche Institute, holds conversations with prominent scholars and figures in state-of-the-art international issues in our weekly episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI's Director John Torpey interviews Grzegorz Ekiert, Chair of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, a propós of the recent election in Poland that installed a centrist government led by former prime minister and president of the European Council Donald Tusk. Ekiert starts by discussing the paradoxes behind the support of Putin and the antiliberalism in Eastern Europe given the imperialism these countries faced from the Russians historically.  In addition, Ekiert addressed Poland's leading role in the democratization and economic development in the region after the end of the Soviet Union and how many of these initiatives were reversed by an authoritarian regime associated with the Catholic church. The interview concludes with a discussion of the challenges that the new government is going to face after the PiS (Law and Justice Party) seriously eroded the institutions of the state; the challenges are illuminated by a comparison of the institutional constraints extremism will face in Europe with those that exist in the US. International Horizons is a podcast of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies that brings scholarly expertise to bear on our understanding of international issues. John Torpey, the host of the podcast and director of the Ralph Bunche Institute, holds conversations with prominent scholars and figures in state-of-the-art international issues in our weekly episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the second coming of Donald Tusk, with implications well beyond Poland's borders. Two months after a general election win marked by huge turnout comes a comeback for the centre-right leader. Tusk's first stint as prime minister was followed up by a move to Brussels where as president of the European Council, he found himself clashing with the leadership of his own country.  Now, after eight years of the right-wing nationalist Law and Justice Party, we ask how different Tusk II will be from Tusk I.With a sitting president who wields veto powers, with PiS appointments in the courts and at the central bank, will it be change or political gridlock?Speaking of gridlock, the vote in Poland's parliament coincides with the lifting of the month-long border blockade of Ukraine's biggest road crossing by Polish truckers and farmers. Will the change of leadership in Warsaw quell wavering support for Kyiv's war effort and the EU entry permit exemptions that go with it?More broadly, which way for a one-time Soviet bloc nation whose economy has soared since joining the EU in 2004, but whose mostly Catholic electorate remains bitterly divided over culture wars? Was the tightening of one of the EU's strictest abortion laws the issue that swung the pendulum away from conservatives? Produced by Charles Wente, Louise Guibert and Lila Paulou.

Ben and Aaron get into a particularly important, but historically difficult and tense relationship – the one that Germany has with its largest eastern neighbour in Poland. Recent elections have seen a new Polish coalition gain the numbers to oust the populist Law & Justice Party from power in Warsaw, leaving Berlin with an opportunity to recalibrate its relationship with Poland – if it decides to seize the moment.

Despite the Polish opposition election victory in the 15 October elections on 27 November President Duda swore in the Law and Justice Party ahead of a confidence vote that the incumbents seem set inevitably to lose. In this latest Rule of Law podcast, Oliver Garner and Daniel Hegedüs discuss the implications of the election for Central and Eastern Europe. Daniel is a German Marshall Fund fellow with expertise in populism and democratic backsliding and the foreign affairs of the Visegrad countries.

This episode is brought to you as part of Amnesty International's Write for Rights campaign – get involved: https://tinyurl.com/3usebvje As almost every country in the world moves to steadily liberalise abortion access and women's reproductive rights, four male presidents have done the opposite, making radical antidemocratic maneuvers to clamp down on women's bodily autonomy.Among them, the USA, where the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and deprived a generation of women of a constitutional right that they had grown up with.And Poland, where the Law and Justice Party has infiltrated the courts and virtually eradicated legal access to abortion. But October's historic election overturned their majority, as women and young people flocked to the polls in record numbers. Abortion was centre stage in the campaigns and one woman's case was at the heart of it all.Justyna Wydrzyñska is appealing a criminal conviction for sending abortion pills to a desperate woman in an abusive relationship. She joins us in an exclusive interview about feminist solidarity, hope in hard times, and the empty promises of political campaigns.We also hear from Amnesty International UK's lead for Women's Human Rights, Chiara Capraro, and US abortion rights activist Renee Bracey Sherman, about worldwide trends and mainstream media misinformation about abortion.The episode was created by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia). The music is by Samfire (@soundofsamfire). Subscribe to their Patreon to support more investigations and access behind-the-scenes material: https://www.patreon.com/MediaStormPodcast You can also get an ad-free version of the podcast via Apple Podcasts or Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/guiltyfeminist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today:TODAY IN HISTORYNovember 28, 1814: The Times of London is published via a new steam-powered printing press, making it the first major newspaper so produced. The use of the faster steam press took newspapers from a niche business to a mass market one, in the process boosting efforts to increase literacy.November 28, 1943: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin begin the Tehran Conference, the first of three major World War II meetings between the leaders of the UK, US, and USSR. The main outcome of Tehran was that Roosevelt and Stalin managed to get Churchill to commit to an invasion of France, in part to force Germany to pull forces away from their eastern front with the Soviets. They also discussed the eventual partition of Germany and creation of the United Nations.MIDDLE EASTISRAEL-PALESTINEHamas and the Israeli government, thanks primarily to Qatari mediation, finally agreed on the terms of a detainee exchange and temporary ceasefire deal last week. The accord, which went into effect on Friday morning, was originally intended to involve the release of some 50 hostages being held by Hamas and other Gazan militant groups and some 150 Palestinians in Israeli custody. Hamas has also been releasing a number of Thai and Filipino nationals under a separate arrangement negotiated by the Qataris. The arrangement was to have been implemented in stages over four days, ending Tuesday morning local time. The process appeared to be faltering on Saturday, as Hamas delayed its hostage release while accusing the Israelis of violating the terms of the agreement, before some additional Qatari diplomacy apparently salvaged things.The reason I referred above to what the deal “originally” involved is because it's since been extended. The Israelis and Hamas have agreed to continue the ceasefire and daily detainee releases for at least two more days, though Thursday morning, albeit amid new accusations from both sides about ceasefire violations. I'm not entirely certain about the details but Israeli officials have said they're expecting Hamas to release at least 10 hostages per day, which at current exchange rates suggests around 30 Palestinians released per day. Efforts are underway to extend this arrangement beyond Thursday morning, though it goes without saying that at some point all the hostages will be released and it's unclear what will happen then. It's true that conflicts at rest have a tendency to stay at rest, but Israeli rhetoric has indicated a clear intention to resume pulverizing Gaza once the detainee exchanges are no longer part of the equation.In other items:* Some of the freed Israeli hostages have talked to media and describe being treated poorly, which is not surprising. There have been claims of treatment that seems outright cruel though I'm unaware (which to be clear does not mean they haven't been made) of any claims of physical cruelty (apart from the cruelty of their initial abductions, of course). Several of the hostages seem to indicate that their access to food and water diminished over time but that may be related to deprivations across Gaza caused by the Israeli blockade and the minimal amount of aid that has entered the territory. Palestinians released from Israeli custody, who have been described as “prisoners” though many of them have never been charged with anything under the West Bank's rigged military justice system, have described harrowing treatment including torture. This is consistent with claims made by Palestinians swept up in Israeli mass arrest operations since the October 7 attacks and subsequently released.* On the subject of aid, the ceasefire is/was intended in part to facilitate a surge of aid into Gaza and its distribution throughout the territory—including across the heavily battered northern area. That effort does appear to have been successful, though as United Nations officials have said even this temporary surge isn't enough to meet the need. The Biden administration is sending three military planeloads of humanitarian aid to Egypt this week for distribution into Gaza.* Over the four days of the initial detainee exchange, under which Israeli authorities released somewhere around 150 Palestinians, they detained 133 Palestinians in the West Bank. Make of that what you will. As Spencer Ackerman noted yesterday, with events in Gaza getting most of the attention the Israeli government and its settler proxies are continuing to kill (including at least two more on Tuesday), arrest, and displace Palestinians in the West Bank at unprecedented rates. Unlike Gaza, where Israeli leaders have at least articulated the barest inkling of a goal (the “destruction of Hamas,” ostensibly), there's no indication what, if anything, might stop the violence in the West Bank.* The Biden administration has dispatched CIA Director and de facto Secretary of State William Burns to Qatar to participate, along with Egyptian, Israeli, and Qatari officials, in talks on extending the current “pause” (the administration is still refusing to call it a “ceasefire”). Burns is there mostly so that the administration can claim credit for the ceasefire/exchange deal even though its embrace of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza has left it unable to contribute all that much to this diplomatic process. Actual Secretary of State Antony Blinken is undertaking another European-Middle Eastern tour this week, mostly (from what I can tell) in order to look busy.* One message the administration is now ostensibly delivering to the Israeli government is that any eventual Israeli military (IDF) incursion into southern Gaza has to be more circumspect than its obliteration of northern Gaza. In particular the administration says it's insisting that a southern operation must not cause “significant further displacement of persons.” With most of the territory's population already displaced into the south (where the IDF has continued bombing them), it's unclear where they would go anyway. And with the IDF already having killed over 15,000 people (probably well over, given that it's been at least a couple of weeks since Gazan authorities could issue a reliable casualty update), the optics of this situation may finally be testing the administration's capacity for indulging Israeli war aims.* Israeli media outlets have gotten hold of leaked emails demonstrating that “a highly respected career military intelligence NCO” in the IDF had warned her superiors over the summer that Hamas fighters were training for what looked like an attack on an Israeli kibbutz. Those warnings were, according to the emails, subsequently corroborated but then dismissed further up the chain of command with arguments that the training was nothing more than a staged demonstration. The emails may increase public anger toward the IDF but seemingly give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu evidence to bolster his claim that any failure to prevent the October 7 attacks rests with Israeli security forces rather than with his government. Perhaps that's why they were leaked.YEMENYemen's Houthi rebels escalated their attacks on Israeli interests when they hijacked the cargo vessel Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea on November 19. That ship is apparently part-owned by an Israeli businessman, though there was no other immediately apparent connection to Israel and none of the 25 people who were on board—and who are now in Houthi custody—are thought to have been Israeli. The USS Mason, a naval destroyer, reportedly prevented the hijacking of another cargo ship in the Red Sea on Sunday, but US officials now believe the would-be hijackers were Somali pirates rather than Houthi fighters. They have not ruled out the possibility of some sort of Houthi connection. Some Israeli shipping now appears to be diverting around Africa to avoid the Red Sea, which needless to say makes for a significantly longer journey.TURKEYTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had told reporters earlier this month that his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, would visit Ankara on Tuesday. Turkish media reported on the planned summit for more than two weeks, even as late as Monday evening, but Tuesday came and Raisi was, uh, not there. It's unclear whether this was an intentional snub or a miscommunication, particularly since the Iranian government never mentioned any planned summit. Either way it's somewhat bizarre.UNITED ARAB EMIRATESThe BBC is reporting, based on “leaked briefing documents,” that UAE officials are hoping to use the COP28 climate change summit, which they're hosting later this week, as a forum for concluding some new oil and natural gas deals. UAE officials haven't denied the report but they have said their focus is on achieving “meaningful climate action” at the summit—efforts to undermine that action notwithstanding.SAUDI ARABIAAnother investigative report suggests that the Saudi government is pursuing its own oil-forward agenda, something called the “oil demand sustainability program.” This effort aims to use the kingdom's massive public investment fund and some of its largest companies to sell developing nations on an array of fossil fuel-heavy technologies, including supersonic aircraft, gas-fueled cars, and oil and natural gas fueled power plants. The initiative is primarily aimed at emerging African economies and, as the name suggests, is intended to sustain oil demand even as developed countries move increasingly toward renewable energy. This is completely incompatible with the kingdom's stated adherence to the international climate agenda, though if you think the Saudis actually mean what they say when they talk about reducing carbon emissions you're a far more trusting person than I.ASIAMYANMARThe rebel “Brotherhood Alliance” claimed on Monday that its fighters had seized control of another significant commercial outpost close to the Chinese border in northern Myanmar's Shan state. In that sense the rebels seem to have picked up right where we left them prior to Thanksgiving, on the advance in Shan and several other provinces across the country. With Myanmar's ruling junta promising to stem those advances without actually demonstrating any ability to do so, the Chinese military conducted multi-day exercises near the border over the weekend. There's no indication that Beijing is planning to intervene here but it would need to respond to any instability along the border itself. PHILIPPINESThe Philippine government and communist New People's Army rebels announced on Tuesday that they will reopen peace talks, under Norwegian mediation. Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte broke off the last round of talks in 2017 but the basic outlines are still in place for a deal that would see the NPA transition from militant to political movement in return for amnesty for its fighters.NORTH KOREAThe North Korean military finally succeeded in putting a spy satellite in orbit last week, sparking an immediate security crisis along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The South Korean government announced shortly after the launch that it was suspending part of the intra-Korean Comprehensive Military Agreement in order to increase its surveillance capabilities along the border, which Pyongyang took as an invitation to scrap the rest of the deal and begin restoring border guard posts and moving heavy armaments into the border region. The CMA bans “aerial surveillance,” a category that the South Korean government has decided includes satellites as well as sub-orbital aircraft so they're accusing North Korea of having violated the accord first. North Korean state media reported on Tuesday that the satellite had taken photographs of the White House and the Pentagon, which puts Pyongyang roughly on par with Wikipedia in terms of its new surveillance capabilities.JAPANJapanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio hosted Vietnamese President Võ Văn Thưởng on Monday, at which time the two agreed to upgrade their bilateral relationship to the level of “comprehensive strategic partnership.” That means strengthening economic as well as military ties, which could pull Vietnam further toward the US axis despite its still-strong relationship with China. Tokyo has in the past helped to support Vietnamese activity in the South China Sea, in waters whose ownership Hanoi disputes with China. The upgrade puts Japan's relationship with Vietnam on an equal footing with China, India, and the US.AFRICASUDANThe deputy commander of the Sudanese military, Yassir al-Atta, delivered a speech to the Sudanese General Intelligence Service in Omdurman on Tuesday in which he openly accused the UAE government of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group. This is the first time a senior member of the Sudanese military/de facto government has leveled that accusation directly and it charges the UAE with complicity in a growing list of (alleged) RSF atrocities, particularly in the Darfur region. Atta further accused the governments of the Central African Republic, Chad, and Uganda of acting as conduits for UAE-supplied arms.In response, Emirati officials denied supporting the RSF and insisted that they have “consistently called for de-escalation, a ceasefire, and the initiation of diplomatic dialogue” since the military and RSF went to war with one another back in April. Observers have noted that the RSF is using more sophisticated weaponry, especially drones, than it had at the start of the conflict, but the paramilitaries insist they've seized those arms from Sudanese military bases rather than obtaining them from abroad. The Ugandan government also responded to Atta's charges, similarly rejecting them.SIERRA LEONESierra Leonean authorities say that unrest in Freetown early Sunday morning was the result of a “failed attempted coup” involving a number of active duty and retired members of the country's military and police forces. According to Al Jazeera, they've arrested “13 military officers and one civilian” and “have published photographs of 32 men and two women…being sought in connection with the unrest.” The alleged coup plotters attacked a military barracks and two prisons in the capital, killing at least 20 people and releasing some 2200 detainees, an unknown number of whom have been recaptured. Authorities imposed a curfew in the city that they've since relaxed. Like most failed coups the rationale behind this one remains unclear, though it presumably involved some combination of political and economic resentment. President Julius Maada Bio's narrow and heavily disputed victory in June's presidential election may have ratcheted up some of those resentments.LIBERIAThe official results came out while I was on break, but challenger Joseph Boakai did in fact defeat incumbent George Weah in Liberia's presidential runoff earlier this month. Weah, to his credit, conceded without incident even before the release of those official numbers.BURKINA FASOSome 3000 jihadist fighters attacked the town of Djibo in northern Burkina Faso on Sunday, according to Burkinabé state media. Details are very spotty but authorities are claiming that security forces killed at least 400 attackers from the al-Qaeda aligned Jamaʿat Nusrat al-Islam wa'l-Muslimin group, which has kept Djibo blockaded and largely cut off from the rest of the country for more than a year. There's no definitive word on casualties among security forces or civilians, though the UN says it's confirmed at least 40 civilians killed and more than 42 wounded.EUROPERUSSIAA Russian court on Tuesday extended the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich through at least January 30. Russian authorities arrested Gershkovich in March on spying charges that they've never fully explained, contending that the details are classified. He will presumably be traded back to the US at some point, but Russian officials have said they won't discuss a prisoner swap until after Gershkovich stands trial, and they continue to delay that process.A new report from the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and the Levada Center shows that domestic support for Russia's war in Ukraine has not diminished, even as Russians show increasing weariness for the conflict and for the economic hardships caused by Western sanctions. Indeed, the hardship appears to be hardening attitudes toward negotiations, with a number of focus group subjects expressing the view that Russia has sacrificed too much to give up any of the Ukrainian territory it has seized. I bet more sanctions will solve that problem.UKRAINEThe Ukrainian military's commander in Avdiivka, Vitaliy Barabash, told a media outlet on Tuesday that the Russian military has intensified its assault there and is now “attempting to storm the city from all directions.” It's unclear whether the Russians would be able to use Avdiivka as a staging ground for further offensives, particularly in the short term giving the impending onset of winter, but taking the city would at the very least further secure Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk oblast. Elsewhere, Marianna Budanova, the wife of Ukrainian military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov, has reportedly been hospitalized for heavy metal poisoning and there are indications that a number of officials in the military intelligence service (GUR) have also been poisoned. I'll leave it to the reader to speculate as to potential suspects.The Ukrainian government will later this week reportedly unveil a number of changes to its military mobilization system in an effort to reduce the incidence of both draft dodging and of forced conscription. Full details aren't yet known, but one part of the reform will involve the use of “commercial recruitment companies” to identify potential conscripts who have needed skills (mechanics, for example). These individuals will then somehow be given assurances that they won't be deployed to the front but will instead be put to work in support roles. Given Ukraine's need for more front-line soldiers, however, there must be more to it than that.POLANDPolish President Andrzej Duda on Monday swore in a new government led by incumbent Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in a move that has opposition leaders crying foul. Morawiecki has two weeks to form a government that can pass a parliamentary confirmation vote, a task even he acknowledges he's almost certain to fail given the results of last month's election. So Duda, who favors Morawiecki's right wing Law and Justice Party, is simply delaying the opposition's inevitable takeover for another two weeks. Why, you ask? Well, it seems fairly clear at this point that he's delaying in order to give Law and Justice more time to appoint party loyalists to important state positions, which could create problems for the government that will presumably take office after this two week period is up.FINLANDThe Finnish government, which had already closed all but one of its checkpoints along the Russian border, is planning to close the entire border for the next two weeks in hopes of stemming the flow of asylum seekers attempting to enter Finland. Authorities say that 900 such people have tried to cross the border from Russia this month, a hefty increase that they say is the product of a deliberate effort by the Russian government to funnel people to the border.NETHERLANDSConfounding polling that suggested a narrow race, the far right Party for Freedom (PVV) handily won last week's Dutch parliamentary election. PVV came away with 37 seats in the 150 seat House of Representatives, 12 ahead of the second place GreenLeft-Labour alliance. The victory may put party boss Geert Wilders in line to become the next Dutch prime minister, assuming he can moderate his extremist agenda enough to attract coalition partners. That may be easier said than done.AMERICASARGENTINASpeaking of far right election victories, libertarian extremist Javier Milei won Argentina's presidential runoff on November 19. Polling, which had been wrong at every stage of this election, was wrong again, having predicted a tight race only to see Milei win an 11 point victory over Finance Minister Sergio Massa. Milei, whose agenda includes dissolving Argentina's central bank and ditching the peso in favor of the US dollar, may find himself struggling against a relatively unfavorable Congress once he takes office next month.UNITED STATESFinally, The Nation's Mohammad Alsaafin finds both US and Israeli plans for the future of Gaza to fall short, for one seemingly basic reason:Speaking to reporters last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that the territory's governance should be unified with the West Bank, and laid out a series of edits for the future of Palestine.“Gaza cannot continue to be run by Hamas,” Blinken said. “It's also clear that Israel cannot occupy Gaza…. it is imperative that the Palestinian people be central to the governance of Gaza and the West Bank.Blinken's parameters were defied days later by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared, “IDF forces will remain in control of the Strip,” and made clear that he will not allow the Palestinian Authority to play a role there. (Netanyahu then told Fox News that Israel “does not seek to occupy” Gaza, though, given the facts on the ground, it is hard to know how Israel defines “occupation.”)The back-and-forth over what comes next in Gaza has prompted headlines like this one from NBC News: “The gap between the Biden administration and Netanyahu government over Gaza's future is widening.”But there is a glaringly absent party in these conversations: the Palestinian people themselves. Nobody seems particularly interested in what they might have to say about the future of their land.Thanks for reading! Foreign Exchanges 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.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

Access the episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/4vphsypsWarning: This episode contains mentions of suicideJustyna Wydrzyñska is appealing a criminal conviction in Poland for sending abortion pills to a desperate woman in an abusive relationship. She joins us in an exclusive interview about feminist solidarity, hope in hard times, and the empty promises of political campaigns. As almost every country in the world moves to steadily liberalise abortion access and women's reproductive rights, four male presidents have done the opposite, making radical antidemocratic maneuvers to clamp down on women's bodily autonomy. Among them, the USA, where the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and deprived a generation of women of a constitutional right they had always known. And Poland, where the Law and Justice Party has infiltrated the courts and virtually eradicated legal access to abortion. But October's historic election overturned their majority, as women and young people flocked to the polls in record numbers. Abortion was centre stage in the campaigns and one woman's case was at the heart of it all. As well as Justyna, we hear from Amnesty International UK's lead for Women's Human Rights, Chiara Capraro, and US abortion rights activist Renee Bracey Sherman, about worldwide trends and mainstream media misinformation.This episode is brought to you as part of Amnesty International's Write for Rights campaign – get involved: https://tinyurl.com/3usebvje The episode was created by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia). The music is by Samfire (@soundofsamfire).Subscribe to our Patreon for access to FOI data, extended video interviews and more: https://www.patreon.com/MediaStormPodcast SourcesImpact of Poland's 2020 abortion restriction: https://tinyurl.com/2whhc5tfUniversal Declaration of Human Rights: https://tinyurl.com/yeykpstx Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/media-storm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Europe Talks Back, Gail Rego tells the story of Elmi, a 60-year-old man who emigrated to Poland twenty-seven years ago from Somalia. Elmi started a new life in Poland's capital Warsaw and in 2007 established the Foundation “Good Start” in order to help newly arrived migrants with navigating the complex asylum process, translating official documents, arranging hospital visits, and organising Polish language courses. Almost three decades after arriving in Warsaw, he had to deal with the ruling Law and Justice Party's hardline on immigration. Still, the opposition's victory in the October elections is giving him fresh hope for the future. Reporting on the ground by Maria Dybcio. “Most of the people are like me, running from wars. First of all, you have to listen to them, and then you can decide what to do with them. Give them a chance” - ElmiAbout our reporter: Maria Dybcio. Key moments 00:00:03 - Intro00:02:34 - Elmi's story00:04:45 - The journey to Europe00:06:04- A “Good Start” in Poland00:09:17 - A new refugees' crisis00:11:57 - Anti-immigrants' narration00:14:25 - Today, before and after the elections00:18:38 - Outro and credits Credits and staffThe second season of Europe Talks Back is produced in partnership with Sphera Network, the first network of independent media in Europe to reinvent the media space and paint a new picture of the continent through impactful, unbiased, raw, and authentic stories. The producer and executive producer of Europe Talks Back is Alexander Damiano Ricci.The editor of this episode is Andrew Connelly.The host and narrator of this episode is Gail Rego.Sound editing and mixing is by Jeremy Bocquet.Reporting for this story by Maria Dybcio. Social Mediahttps://www.linkedin.com/linkedin.com/company/bulle-media/https://www.twitter.com/twitter.com/europodpodcastshttps://www.europod.eu/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since 2015, Poland has been governed by the Law and Justice Party, which has been sceptical about EU climate policy and been at loggerheads with Brussels over rule of law, leading to the suspension of EU funds, including those earmarked for the green transition. This could all be about to change following October's national election, where the opposition parties together won more support than the Law and Justice Party. With the groups now expected to form a coalition, this could mean a more pro-EU, climate-friendly government. To discuss what changes the new Polish government might bring about, founder and president of the Polish think tank Forum Energii, Dr Joanna Maćkowiak-Pandera, joins David Weston and Kira Taylor. Enjoy the show! If you have any thoughts or questions about anything that has been discussed in this week's episode, you can reach us at our Twitter accounts: David Weston Kira Taylor @WattMattersPod FORESIGHT Climate & Energy Joanna Maćkowiak-Pandera: https://twitter.com/jmpandera David Weston: https://twitter.com/DaveW_FORESIGHT Kira Taylor: https://twitter.com/KiraTaylor15 @WattMattersPod: https://twitter.com/WattMattersPod FORESIGHT Climate & Energy: https://twitter.com/FORESIGHTdk Listen and subscribe to Watt Matters wherever you get podcasts. Follow us on Twitter at @WattMattersPod or email us at show@wattmatterspodcast.com. You can also find FORESIGHT Climate & Energy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/foresight-climate-energy/. Illustration: Masha Krasnova-Shabaeva. Show notes via this link: https://foresightdk.com/wm-ep44/. TRY FULL ACCESS TO FORESIGHT CLIMATE & ENERGY FOR €1 A DAY Join over 100,000 policymakers, energy experts in business, finance, and academia, city leaders, and leading NGOs in having access to FORESIGHT Climate & Energy GET YOUR 30 DAY TRIAL: www.foresightdk.com/subscribe/.

The 15 October Polish elections showed that the opposition leader Donald Tusk, former European Council president and a former Polish prime minister, has a decent chance of forming a new coalition government to take over from the right-wing Law and Justice Party that has been in power since 2015.  In this episode of The Sound of Economics, recorded 20 Oct., our podcast host Rebecca Christie sits down with Non-resident fellow Marek Dabrowski, a former deputy finance minister during Poland's transition away from communism, and visiting fellow Paweł Karbownik, who has been an adviser to Tusk in Brussels and during the campaign.  Together they unpack how the elections turned out and what might happen next: what political and economic challenges the new government will be facing, the progress it might have in the standoff over the EU budget. They also discuss how Poland will play a more important role in policymaking as the EU looks toward new rounds of enlargement in coming years.

  A look at South Korean political parties Libsyn page: whydocountriesexist.libsyn.com Email: whydocountriesexist@gmail.com Feedback and request forum: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5m6cVniic8zkY13UZmUAxwLTNuVdBEkYqHmQCvvyAkGcUSg/viewform?usp=sf_link Patreon: patreon.com/Whydocountriesexist797 Paypal: paypal.me/whydocountriesexist     Intro 0:00 Background and political structure 0:44 Democratic Party of Korea (Liberals) 3:48 People Power Party (conservatives) 7:46 Justice Party 11:37 Basic Income party 14:51 Transition Korea 15:24 Progressive Party 16:04 Hope of Korea 16:55 Patron pitch 17:30 Outro 23:28

In this episode, Alex starts by recommending a great documentary on the January 6th defendants and plays an atrocious clip of Jesse Waters unable to differentiate Hamas from Palestinians. Alex then delivers good news about a recent election in Poland in which the illiberal Law and Justice Party won the most votes but lost its majority government. The Law and Justice Party wanted to turn the Polish system into a Viktor Orban-esque system so this is good news. Later, Alex talks about the Qatar conundrum — the United States has a flawed but necessary relationship with Qatar but it is becoming more difficult due to Qatari links and funding to numerous terror groups including Hamas. Finally, Alex looks in the rise in global espionage against the United States and how many threats are coming from smaller powers like Egypt. There seems to be a resurgence of smaller countries that are relying on spycraft regimes. 

In this episode, I'm joined by Polish political organizing strategist and co-founder of Akcja Demokracja Weronika Paszewska to discuss the political earthquake that just took place in Eastern Europe. Poland just to oust the far-right authoritarian Law and Justice Party, which has spent nearly the last decade undermining democracy in one of the most important countries in the EU. Views our own.

Still no Speaker of the House after two weeks, President Biden makes a wartime trek to Israel, and Poland's “Law and Justice Party” fails to remain in power. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. USAFacts: Seek clarity and ground your debates in undeniable facts with http://www.usafacts.org Shopify: "Get a $1 per month trial at https://www.shopify.com/morningwire"

TONIGHT: The show begins in the mysteries of the American economy and then travels to the hostage crisis of 1980 and the stumble of President Jimmy Carter.  From Berlin to Moscow to Kyiv to Warsaw and the surprise of a Tusk victory over the troubled Law and Justice Party.  From Gaza to Tehran with John Bolton, from London to the EU with Joseph Sternberg.  A conversation with Moscow with a hint of talks between the US and the RU. And happy conversation with Reuben Steff in New Zealand of the geopolitical challenges for the new government.   Last a moment to dream of moon bases -- and how to build out of the regolith. 1872 Jules Verne "Around the Moon."

For eight years, the nationalist Law and Justice Party has ruled Poland. It set about taking over public media, the courts and cultural institutions, while tightening restrictions on abortion and immigration. But this month Poles said, “Stop.” Voters turned out in record numbers and delivered a rebuke to extremism, electing a centrist coalition to run the government. We welcome feminist scholar and activist Agnieszka Graff to discuss this remarkable turn of events and what lies ahead for her riven country.

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Polish opposition leader Tusk declares win after exit poll shows ruling conservatives lose majoritySummary: The incumbent Law and Justice Party has seemingly, once again, pulled in the highest overall number of votes in last weekend's Polish parliamentary election, but the 200-or-so seats it won, even when paired with the far-right Confederation party's 12-or-so seats, wouldn't be enough to form a government, which is likely to allow the country's opposition—led by Donald Tusk—to form a more centrist government.Context: If these results stand, this would mark a huge turning point for Poland, which has seen a significant turn away from the democratic rule of law toward a more authoritarian setup, which has eroded checks-and-balances at a pace that has alarmed human rights organizations and fractured relationships with other European Union nations, resulting in a hold-up of billions of euros in funding from the EU; the Confederation party was also campaigning on ending support for Ukraine, so this outcome—the result of a vote that saw the largest participation-rate in the country's history, with nearly 73% of voters casting a ballot—could mean more funding for Kyiv, and the potential release of those funds from the EU for the Polish government.—The Associated PressOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.New Zealand National Party's Luxon to lead new governmentSummary: New Zealand's center-right National Party will form a government with the further-right ACT Party, replacing the government of the Labour Party that no longer holds enough seats in parliament following last weekend's general election.Context: The Labour Party led New Zealand through the COVID-19 pandemic, with some widely celebrated successes that eventually segued into broad discontent with a long period of lockdowns and persistent economic issues; the new government's majority—which seems to be locked-in, but final results won't be reported until November 3—is slim, and they may need to include the populist First Party in their coalition if they want to actually govern.—ReutersZimbabwe bans large gatherings as threat of cholera outbreak growsSummary: Large gatherings of 50 or more people have been banned by the Zimbabwean government, and food can no longer be served at public events as a wave of cholera cases have caused at least 100 deaths, and there are currently nearly 5,000 suspected cases spread across more than 40 districts.Context: These cases and deaths have raised concerns that the country could see an epidemic similar to one that killed about 4,000 people across the country in 2008; the government has also increased surveillance at ports of entry, and they've advised that folks shouldn't shake hands, as the cholera bacteria is most commonly spread via contaminated food or water, but can also be transmitted through human contact.—The GuardianWhile northern, more urban US cities get the majority of the crime-related press, a preponderance of gun-deaths in the country occur in relatively more rural, southern cities and towns (which makes sense, as cities tend to have sterner gun-safety laws, while southern, rural areas tend to be more gun-friendly).—Axios1,269Number of documented attempts made to censor 2,571 different books in the United States in 2022—the higher number ever recorded.Texas topped the list of states, in terms of the number of book-ban efforts, with 93 attempts made to ban more than 2,300 books.Efforts to ban books in the US have been especially popular with conservatives in Republican-led states, of late, especially targeting those that feature queer characters or anti-racism themes.—The GuardianTrust Click Get full access to One Sentence News at onesentencenews.substack.com/subscribe

The queen of pop returned to London's O2 this weekend for her Celebration Tour, performing more than 40 songs from her four-decade career. During her opening performance on Saturday, 65-year-old Madonna thanked her children for supporting her while she was ill earlier this year with a 'serious bacterial infection' which saw her admitted to intensive care for several days and forced her to postpone the tour. Some of her children then joined her on stage. Emma Barnett speaks to two women who were there - Sabrina Barr from Metro online and Helen Brown, Chief Album Critic for The Independent. Exit polls from yesterday's general election in Poland suggest the governing right-wing Law and Justice Party has lost its majority in parliament. Three opposition groups are predicted to get enough seats to form a government if they can agree a coalition. The biggest of the three is the Civic Coalition, led by the former head of the European Council, Donald Tusk - who has already claimed victory. Women have played an important role in these elections with the issue of abortion taking centre stage since a near total ban was announced by the government in 2021, sparking protests across the country. The BBC's Eastern Europe Correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, is in Warsaw and joins Emma. Diana Parkes, Joanna Simpson's mother, has campaigned for months to stop the man who killed her daughter, Robert Brown, being allowed out of prison. Halfway through his 26-year sentence for her manslaughter, he was due for automatic release from prison next month. However, it has been announced that the Justice Secretary has blocked this and referred the case to the Parole Board. Diana joins Emma to share her response to the decision. As climate ministers meet in Luxembourg today ahead of the COP28 summit next month in the United Arab Emirates, an exhibition looking at the relationship between women and ecology around the world is running at the Barbican in London. Emma talks to Alona Pardo, the lead curator of RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology. Do you have an unconventional living arrangement with your partner? Last week we spoke to Caroline and Niel, who remained in the same house after they split up but now Caroline's new partner is living with her ex. It got very complicated! We wanted to see how many of you are in similar situations, and how that has worked. Listener Amy got in touch to say she has been together with her partner Richie for 19 years but they have never lived together, even after they got married. She joins Emma in studio.

#Poland #Ukraine: The Polish elections and the polarizing Law and Justice Party. Judy Dempsey, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Editor-in-Chief: Strategic Europe, in Berlin. https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/90707 1920 Poland

With a week to go until elections in Poland, the ruling Law and Justice Party has used its control of the public broadcaster to drown out opposition voices and push its anti-European Union, anti-migrant messaging.Contributors:Jan Cienski - Senior Policy Editor, Politico EuropePaulina Lenik - Assistant Professor, Kozminski UniversityAnita Prazmowska - Professor in International History, LSEWojciech Przybylski - Editor-in-Chief, Visegrad InsightOn our radar:Police in Delhi raided the offices of news website NewsClick, detaining journalists over accusations of spreading Chinese propaganda. Johanna Hoes reports on the climate of tense Sino-Indian relations behind the arrests, and the unlikely source of the tip-off.Why Russia is looting Ukraine's art:From the moment the Russian invasion began, museum workers in Ukraine knew they were coming for their collections. Tariq Nafi looks into the war being waged against Ukraine's heritage and history.Contributors:Milena Chorna  - Head of the International Exhibitions Department, National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World WarAlina Dotsenko - Director, Kherson Regional Art MuseumIhor Poshyvailo - General Director, Maidan MuseumSubscribe to our channel http://bit.ly/AJSubscribeFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/AJEnglishFind us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aljazeeraCheck our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile@AljazeeraEnglish#Aljazeeraenglish#News

Olivia Nicholls is a former Parliamentary Adviser for Derryn Hinch's Justice Party in the Victorian Parliament.Some of the areas of reform Liv worked on included family violence, stalking, sexual offending including childhood sexual abuse, liquor control, policing and voluntary assisted dying, just for starters.Since leaving politics before the 2022 election, she has returned to university and is now studying law. She also volunteers with the Power in You Project in Geelong, she's a Board Member of Barwon Community Legal Service in Geelong, she is a Dying With Dignity Young Ambassador and co-ordinates a schools debating competition in Geelong for the Debaters' Association of Victoria. In short – Liv is a remarkable young woman! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0. Lee Jaemyung's former aide was found dead 1. Controversy surrounding Jeong Soon-shin's son still continues - the Education Committee of the National Assembly questioned officers from Seoul National University and Banpo High School 2. Both the DP and Justice Party are pushing for a special counsel probe into allegations surrounding first lady Kim Kun-hee, but the two parties have failed to narrow their differences. 3. Yesterday, labor and civic groups held up a red card to criticize the Yoon Seok-yeol government for its poor policy performance in social and economic areas. 4. In just one year since the Yoon administration launched, prosecutors are now dominating public offices 5. The Presidential Office is collecting public opinions about abolishing mandatory payment of the TV license fee 0. 이재명 r경기지사 시절 초대 비서실장 숨진 채 발견 1. 서울대, 정순신 아들 논란에 "할 수 있는 최대한 감점 2. 민주·정의, '김건희 특검법' 뜻 모았지만…후보 추천 등 입장차 여전 3. 시민사회, 출범 1년차 尹 정부에 '레드카드'…"국정 운영 퇴행" 4. 윤 ‘검찰 멤버' 임명 1년새 70여명…밥 총무에 카풀 인연까지 5. KBS 수신료 강제징수 폐지 나서나…대통령실, 국민 의견 듣는다

Guest: Dahye Jung, Reporter 1. The Foreign Ministry is expected to announce plans to settle the issue of compensating Korean victims of forced labor during World War ll 2. The Health Ministry said that a prosecutor-turned-lawyer had been appointed as full-time professional member of the National Pension Fund Management Committee 3. Both the DP and Justice Party have submitted bills to launch a special counsel probe into the “5 billion club” allegations 4. The DP seems to be quite concerned about the falling approval rating, which has recently dropped to the 20% range 1. 내일 '제3자 변제' 징용해법 발표…日기업 '미래기금' 참여할듯 2. 국민연금 전문위원도 '檢 출신' 논란…복지부 "자격조건 갖춰" 3. 민주 ‘50억 클럽 특검법' 발의…김만배 누나 부동산 거래도 수사 대상 4. 민주, 지지율 추락에 '뒤숭숭'…"이재명 출당·제명" 청원도

정의당의 김건희여사 특검 신중론 Guest: Professor Joung Hwang, Independent legal researcher, LawQuant

Guest: Kim Saebyeok, Reporter 1. The presidential office has reportedly decided to expand and strengthen consultations between the party and the government after the convention. 2. The president's office expressed strong regret that the DP is raising suspicions of Kim Gun-hee's involvement by arbitrarily interpreting the first trial of the "Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation case. 3. The Justice Party, which took a somewhat cautious stance on the Democratic Party's demand to appoint a special prosecutor about the first lady Kim Kun-hee's alleged manipulation of Deutsche Motors stock price is being called "second company. 4. Gas and electricity bills for January are starting to be charged 5. The public sentiment in Turkiye, where more than 30,000 people were killed in the worst-ever earthquake, was shaking greatly 1. 친윤이 띄운 '당정일체론'…힘 실어준 대통령실 2. 대통령실 "野, 판결문 왜곡"...민주당 "거짓말로 해명 바꾸기" 3. 이러면 ‘국민의힘 2중대', 저러면 ‘민주당 2중대'…정의당, 이번엔 꼬리표 뗄까 4. 아끼고 아꼈지만"…1월치 난방비 '폭탄 고지서' 속속 도착 5. 정부 때문에 사람 죽어” 튀르키예의 분노…‘대통령 심판론' 확산

Guess who has Covid - again? One half of our intrepid duo, that's who. After that personal update its off to the Madness Down Under and Men's Tennis #1 Novak Djockovic's battle with the immigration authorities over his vaccine status and his spot in the Australian Open. On the UK domestic front there's the prospect of two new political parties (Jeremy Corbyn's "Peace and Justice Party" and Gina Miller's "True and Fair Party"), the acquittal of the Colston 4, reaction to the latest Emily Sheffield column, and, of course, the unvaxed doctor who confronted Heath Secretary Sajid Javid in front of the cameras. In Culture Corner we have a pair of sci-fi films, one new and one old: Don't Look Up (Netflix) and District 9 (Sony Pictures, 2009).  

Photo: #Ukraine:  Halifax of the Peace Party, Churchill of the Justice Party, 1937-1940 & What is to be done/.  Professor H.J. Mackinder, International Relations. #FriendsofHistoryDebatingSociety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wood,_1st_Earl_of_Halifax