Podcasts about Mongolia

Guest: Clarissa CappellettiCompany: WeRoadEpisode Focus: Solo travel, destinations, travel confidence, safety, age, and finding connection on the road In This Episode What happens when someone who has visited 58 countries gives us the real talk on solo travel? We sit down with Clarissa Cappelletti, Regional Manager for English-speaking travel coordinators at WeRoad, to talk about where solo travelers should go, where they might want to wait, and why you shouldn't let fear — or a destination's reputation — decide your next adventure. Clarissa shares how she went from growing up in a tiny Swiss village to living in four countries and traveling the world, why she didn't start solo traveling until her late 20s, and how becoming the only single person in her friend group helped push her into traveling on her own. We Talk About: Growing up in an 87-person Swiss village How Clarissa caught the travel bug during a California road trip with her dad Living in Switzerland, Italy, the United States, and the UK Why London surprised her the most Traveling to 58 countries Why Colombia exceeded her expectations The Lost City Trek Why Nepal is one of her favorite destinations Italy's incredible history The best destinations for active travelers Why South Africa is underrated for adventure travel Switzerland vs. Latin America for travel costs The destination that challenged Clarissa the most: Japan Her favorite countries for food Why she could happily return to Colombia and Nepal Why "hidden gems" don't stay hidden for long How social media is changing tourism Her definition of solo travel: "Discovery" Why solo travel isn't necessarily lonely The importance of human connection while traveling How media can influence perceptions of travel safety Whether you're ever "too old" for solo travel The biggest solo-travel mistake people make Why first-time solo travelers should start small Why the Maldives isn't just for couples How language barriers can affect your first solo trip Why travelers shouldn't automatically write off Latin America Mongolia, Central Asia, Canada and New Zealand on Clarissa's bucket list And, of course… the infamous Jordan canyoning wig story! Clarissa's Travel Picks Unexpected favorites: Colombia & Nepal Best for history: Italy Best for mountain adventures: Nepal & Switzerland Underrated for active travel: South Africa Food favorites: Italy, Mexico, Peru, South Africa & Southeast Asia Places she'd happily revisit: Colombia & Nepal Top wishlist destinations: Central Asia, Mongolia, Canada, New Zealand & Patagonia Solo Travel Takeaways Start small. Your first solo trip doesn't have to be two weeks on another continent. Don't overthink it. There is no single perfect destination. Do your safety research. Know the areas, activities, and situations that require extra awareness. Don't let fear make the decision for you. Language matters. If you're new to solo travel, going somewhere where you can communicate easily may make your first trip less stressful. Don't assume a destination isn't for you. Couples' destination? Family destination? Bachelorette destination? Who cares. Go anyway. And most importantly: JUST TRIP IT. Favorite Quote From Clarissa "Solo travel in one word: discovery." And honestly, we couldn't have said it better. A Question For Our Travel Brats Would you take your first solo trip tomorrow if you knew you couldn't talk yourself out of it? Tell us where you'd go! Connect With The Travel Brats The Travel Brats are here to help you travel the world in a fun, smart, and unforgettable way. Follow along for travel guides, destination inspiration, travel tips, podcast episodes, deals, hot takes, and plenty of no-regrets travel.

He's a wrestler from Mongolia, and he has connections to yokozuna Chiyonofuji. Chiyonofuji had VERY nice things to say about Chiyoshoma, and Chiyoshoma still reads notes from Chiyonofuji on his phone. He's interested in reading and fashion. Yes. Fashion. BINGO! More about Sumo Kaboom and our BINGO game at http://www.sumokaboom.com We play Sumo BINGO every basho, and it's always free. We give away sumo merch to our winners with the help of our sponsors Big Sumo Fan and Cheeky Sumo. • http://Bigsumofan.com is an online sumo merch store based in US, and they ship to over 30 countries. http://www.bigsumofan.com • Cheeky Sumo is an online sumo-inspired apparel and merch company that aims to celebrate, educate, and support the sumo community with cheeky designs and training gear. Laugh at their fun graphics and proudly rep your sumo spirit - because sumo's got more than just power - it's got personality! http://www.cheekysumo.com • Support Sumo Kaboom with a one-time donation or become a monthly member at Ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/sumokaboom. Monthly members are entered into drawings for sumo merch. Twitter and TikTok @SumoKaboom Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sumokaboom/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SumoKaboom/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/SumoKaboomPodcast • Check out our Sumo Kaboom tshirts and sweatshirts at Bonfire.com/sumokaboom • Ever wonder where we get our research? Check out the Show Notes section of our website.

A couple episodes ago during quick news we mentioned the GoFundMe to help lessen the financial impact of Kris Rugloski participating in a endurance horse race in Mongolia! We followed along with her multi-day adventure from her Instagram stories and Mike reached out about potentially having her on the show to talk about the Mongol Derby as well as some other big life changes! We discuss some life changes like earning her degree, ending a long term babysitting job, and getting engaged as well as her background with horses, her adventure in Mongolia, her upcoming move, and much more! Be sure to follow her on social media and consider supporting the GoFundMe because it looks like it is still up! Start – 7:52 – Intro 7:52 – 10:24 – Quick News 10:24 – 11:03 – Content Preface 11:03 – 1:26:49 - Kris Rugloski Interview 1:26:49 – End – Outro Next weekend we will hopefully be something else that interests Katelyn or myself! ____ News Stories: Meme of Week Badass of the Week: Miguel Ferreira- Pinto Leonski Memorial Wave First Double Amputee to Finish Leadville 100 World Obstacle's OCR World Championships 3K Podiums World Obstacle's OCR World Championship Standard Podiums Japanese Car Secret Link Mushroom Festival Secret Link Epic Catch Secret Link Cat Sounds Secret Link Pirate Brita Secret Link ____ Related Episodes: 247. OCR World Championships 3K with Elites! 248. OCR World Championships 15K with Elites! 280. Kris Rugloski on Hyrox World Championships and Spartan Big Bear! 300. OCR World Championships 15K with Elites and Vendors! (with Live Intro/Outro and Shoutout Compilation!) 308. World's Toughest Mudder with Mark Gaudet and First Woman to Hit 100 Miles Kris Rugloski! 342. Spartan Poconos 3K Audio and Interviews with Elites! 345. Kris Rugloski on Winning The Grit Games! 358. World's Toughest Mudder 2023 (Part 1: Community Dinner and Race Day Interviews) ____ The OCR Report Patreon Supporters: Jason Dupree, Kim DeVoss, Samantha Thompson, Matt Puntin, Brad Kiehl, Charlotte Engelman, Erin Grindstaff, Hank Stefano, Arlene Stefano, Laura Ritter, Steven Ritter, Sofia Harnedy, Kenny West, Cheryl Miller, Jessica Johnson, Scott "The Fayne" Knowles, Nick Ryker, Christopher Hoover, Kevin Gregory Jr., Evan Eirich, Ashley Reis, Brent George, Justin Manning, Wendell Lagosh, Logan Nagle, Angela Bowers, Asa Coddington, Thomas Petersen, Seth Rinderknecht, Bonnie Wilson, Steve Bacon from The New England OCR Expo, Robert Landman, Shell Luccketta Jules Estes, and Alan "Muddy Duck" Moore. Sponsored Athletes: Javier Escobar, Kelly Sullivan, Ryan Brizzolara, Joshua Reid, and Kevin Gregory! Support us on Patreon for exclusive content and access to our Facebook group Check out our Threadless Shop Use coupon code "adventure" for 15% off MudGear products Use coupon code "ocrreport20" for 20% off Caterpy products Like us on Facebook: Obstacle Running Adventures Follow our podcast on Instagram: @ObstacleRunningAdventures Write us an email: obstaclerunningadventures@gmail.com Subscribe on Youtube: Obstacle Running Adventures Intro music - "Streaker" by: Straight Up Outro music - "Iron Paw" by: Dubbest

Michael Aldrich joins John Ross to discuss Old Lhasa: A Biography, his richly detailed portrait of Tibet's historic capital. It's the third book in his trilogy on Asian cultural centers. He wrote the first two, on Beijing and Ulaanbaatar, while living in those cities, where he worked as a lawyer. There was no opportunity for this with Lhasa, so he had to rely on multiple trips (from his home in Taiwan) and an incredible amount of reading and research. Rather than writing a conventional history, Aldrich set out to present Lhasa as a living character – a city whose temples, alleyways, legends and surviving traditions can still tell their own stories. Books mentioned M.A. Aldrich The Search for a Vanishing Beijing: A Guide to China's Capital Through the Ages (Hong Kong University Press, 2006) Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass: A Guide to the Capital of Mongolia (Hong Kong University Press, 2018) Old Lhasa: A Biography Originally published by Camphor Press in January 2023 and subsequently reissued in 2025 by Speaking Tiger Books with a new epilogue based on Aldrich's 2024 return to Tibet. The episode touches on the amazing story of Ekai Kawaguchi (河口慧海 1866–1945), a Japanese Buddhist monk who spent time in Lhasa in the early 1900s. He is the subject of Scott Berry's A Stranger in Tibet. The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan. The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many thanks to SRAA contributor Liam Spencer, who shares the following recording and notes:Broadcaster: Voice of Mongolia (Mailbox Program)Date of recording: May 13, 2024Starting time: 14:43 UTCFrequency: 12.015 MHzReception location: KiwiSDR in Khabarovsk, RussiaReceiver and antenna: UnknownNotes: Here is a recording of Voice Of Mongolia Mailbox show which occurs every Monday and was hosted by Bilguun and Robert during this time.This was recorded during the 14:30 to 15:00 UTC slot on 12015, which is a challenging catch, even on WebSDRs, due to Voice of Korea interference on the same channel, along with Voice of Vietnam 12020 and CRI on 12010.The transmission was poor anyway. Voice of Mongolia broadcasts are off frequency by 20 or 30 Hz, there's a hum on broadcasts, and distorted modulation. Although the modulation has improved over the past 2 years.As for the mailbox hosts. Bilguun left in November or December 2024 and was replaced by Bumblebee. Robert announced in January 2025 that he needed to travel to New Zealand to visit family and renew his visa. Bilguun returned in April 2025 and co-hosted a mailbox show with Bumblebee and said he was on vacation in the USA. He took over the Wednesday and Thursday programs. Robert returned in May 2025 for 1 or 2 mailbag shows and hasn't been heard on Voice of Mongolia since then. Bilguun has also not been heard from recently. Bumblebee has continued to host the mailbox program since 2024. Voice of Mongolia (Mailbox Program): May 13, 2024 Liam Spencer Download

How did a federal prosecutor end up suing a 70-million-year-old tyrannosaurus, looted from the Gobi Desert? By teaming up with The Babe Ruth of Forfeiture and a personal injury lawyer representing the president of Mongolia, naturally. What followed was a matter of international diplomacy and Florida men — of a narc at the museum and a conspicuous crate, all leading to Pablo's high school, The Graveyard of the Oviraptor... and, of course, Nicolas Cage.(This episode originally aired April 15, 2025.)• Subscribe to PTFO on YouTube for breaking news, greatest hits and live premieres with Pablo• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and invites Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're thinking about starting your own organic skincare brand but you're scared it won't work out, this episode is for you. In this episode of Green Beauty Conversations, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier talks to Khulan Davaadorj, founder of Lhamour — Mongolia's first organic skincare brand, built from her kitchen after severe eczema sent her searching for products that actually worked. Khulan shares the full story: quitting a prestigious career, surviving a robbery two weeks after opening her first office, making her first sales from her personal social media, and growing the brand over 12 years to three flagship stores, airport duty-free, and revenues heading towards $1.2 million this year. If you've ever wondered whether someone like you could actually build something like this, Khulan's answer is clear. Free Resources Free formulation course | Green Beauty Conversations Podcast | Blog | YouTube Socials: Formula Botanica on Instagram | Lorraine Dallmeier on Instagram

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

It's the first Top 5 of series 7. Charley Top 5 mammals from his recent Mongolia trip.Check out the substack post.https://naturallyadventurouspodcast.substack.com/p/the-wild-side-of-mongolia?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8dlkm8If you wish to support this podcast, please visit our Patreon page: https://patreon.com/naturallyadventurous?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link ​Support the Podcast While You Travel​Planning a trip? If you book your hotels, flights, or rentals through the following links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It's an easy way to help us keep the show running!

Japan has a reputation for being incredibly safe, but what does “safe” actually mean? The Krewe is joined by Jordan Green, aka AfroInJapan from YouTube & Instagram, to explore safety in Japan beyond just crime, including natural disasters, wildlife, xenophobia, & the considerations travelers & foreign residents should keep in mind. Does Japan live up to it's rep? You be the judge! ------ About the Krewe ------ The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy! ------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------ Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode! Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season! Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan!  ------ Links for Jordan Green/AfroInJapan ------ AfroInJapan on YouTube AfroInJapan on Instagram AfroInJapan's "The Myth of Crime in Japan" ------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------ JSNO Event Calendar Join JSNO Today!

fWotD Episode 3386: Yongle Emperor Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Wednesday, 12 August 2026, is Yongle Emperor.The Yongle Emperor (2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1402 to 1424. He was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the dynasty.In 1370, Zhu Di was granted the title of Prince of Yan. By 1380, he had relocated to Beiping (present-day Beijing) and was responsible for protecting the northeastern borderlands. In the 1380s and 1390s, he proved himself to be a skilled military leader, gaining popularity among soldiers and achieving success as a statesman. In 1399, he rebelled against his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor, and launched a civil war known as the Jingnan campaign. After three years of intense fighting, he emerged victorious and declared himself emperor in 1402.After ascending the throne, the Yongle Emperor elevated Beiping to the status of a second capital, diminishing the importance of Nanjing. Construction of the new capital between 1407 and 1420 employed hundreds of thousands of workers. He also supervised the reconstruction of the Grand Canal, essential for supplying Beijing and the northern armies. The Emperor strongly supported both Confucianism and Buddhism and sponsored the compilation of the vast Yongle Encyclopedia, employing around two thousand scholars. He also ordered Neo-Confucian texts to be systematized and used as textbooks for training officials. The civil service examinations, held every three years, produced qualified candidates for government service. Unlike his father, he avoided frequent purges, resulting in longer ministerial tenures and a more professional, stable administration.The Emperor made considerable efforts to reinforce the empire's hegemonic position in East Asia through an active foreign policy. Diplomatic missions and military expeditions were dispatched to regions both near and distant, including Manchuria, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and the Timurid Empire in Central Asia. Maritime expeditions led by the eunuch admiral Zheng He extended even further, reaching the shores of Southeast Asia, India, Persia, and East Africa. The Mongols—including southeastern Uriankhai, eastern Mongols and western Oirats—remained the empire's greatest security threat, prompting the Ming court to alternately support and confront the various groups. The Emperor personally led five campaigns into Mongolia, and his decision to transfer the government from Nanjing to Beijing was driven largely by the need to closely monitor the unstable northern frontier. Although a skilled military leader, his wars were ultimately unsuccessful, as the campaign in Đại Việt lasted until the end of his reign and his Mongolian campaigns failed to secure China's northern border.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:01 UTC on Wednesday, 12 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Yongle Emperor on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Ruth.

Mongolia is a rural country many people know little about. Join me for a fascinating conversation with my friend, who calls Mongolia home, as she shares her love for its people and culture, common misconceptions, and why Mongolia is a place everyone should experience for themselves.

Summer continues on and the anime this season are as hot as the weather itself!This week on the AniTAY podcast, Hybridmink, Requiem, Doctorkev and Marquan (with Reikaze handling the editing duties) talk about the Summer 2026 season as well as how anime is a bad influence.The AniTAY Podcast is a bi-weekly podcast brought to you every other Wednesday. It is available on all your favorite podcast services! If you like us, be sure to subscribe to your favorite service and give us 5 stars! Your support is much appreciated and will help us grow and continue to provide this style of content.ItineraryIntro : 0:00:00–0:01:03Housekeeping : 0:01:03–0:08:55ShowsDraw This, Then Die! : 0:08:55–0:14:53THE GHOST IN THE SHELL: 0:14:53–0:22:48Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games: 0:22:48–0:30:33Goodbye, Lara : 0:30:33–0:38:16Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia : 0:38:16–0:43:46From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman II: 0:43:46–0:45:49Sparks of Tomorrow : 0:45:49–0:51:04The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 3: 0:51:04–0:54:37Misc. : 0:54:37–0:55:54Iron Wok Jan! : 0:55:54–1:00:27More Misc. : 1:00:27–1:02:34News 1:02:34 1:14:58Question of the Week — Has an anime ever gotten you into a hobby or even a bad habit?: 1:14:58 1:32:42Ending: 1:32:42 -EndMissed the previous episode of the AniTAY Podcast? Check it out here:https://medium.com/anitay-official/anitay-podcast-s11-e13-marquan-likes-to-dress-up-as-a-gothic-lolita-a3b44cbafe47You're reading AniTAY, a reader-run blog whose writers love everything anime related.To join in on the fun, please fill in this form and read our FAQ page!Otherwise, check out our website, visit our official subreddit, follow us on Twitter, or give us a like on our Facebook page.

This month, governments from around the world are gathering in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD CoP17). While the meeting focuses on the growing threats of drought and land degradation, it's also an opportunity to draw attention to one of the planet's most important—and often overlooked—ecosystems. Reporting; Nat Moss Guests: Susan Lieberman, Justine Shanti Alexander

El dibujante y co-fundador de la revista Mongolia nos va a contar historias de gente corriente pero que han protagonizado o vivido momentos históricos importantes. Miguel Martínez del Arco nos habla de la historia de su madre Manoli del Arco, la mujer que más tiempo pasó en las cárceles franquistas, y que recoge el libro 'Memoria del frío'.

Last time we spoke about the ending of the Second Battle of Changsha. In late September and early October 1941, Chinese commander Chen Cheng planned an operation to retake Yichang, a strategic Yangtze River city whose control was essential for protecting the approach to Chongqing. Japanese forces were pulling back from Changsha, weakened by supply problems and casualties, which created an opportunity for Chen to intensify his campaign. Yichang had been captured by Japan in 1940, a defeat that Chen carried as a personal and political burden. He therefore moved to encircle the Japanese 13th Division inside Yichang and drive it to collapse. Although the Chinese held a clear manpower advantage—fourteen divisions against the encircled Japanese—progress was slowed by stubborn fighting from prepared, entrenched positions. The battle inside the city produced desperate close-quarters combat and heavy casualties, showing how the fate of Yichang and the wider defense of Chongqing were tightly linked.    #214 War hits the Pacific Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   The guns fell silent on October 9, 1941, as the Ninth War Zone's forces restored their pre-battle positions, marking the end of the Second Battle of Changsha. The balance sheet was grim on both sides, but it was China that bore the heavier cost. The Ninth Military Front suffered 70,672 killed, wounded, or missing. The concurrent Yichang offensive added a further 21,368 casualties to the Sixth Military Front, a force that outnumbered its Japanese opponents ten to one yet still failed to retake the city. By the time the dust settled, the Chinese army had lost nearly 100,000 men across both theatres. The Chinese command was frank, at least in private, about what had gone wrong. The Japanese had moved with a speed that recalled Blitzkrieg, advancing 130 kilometres in eleven days and withdrawing at twelve kilometres a day, catching the defenders perpetually off-balance. The 26th, 37th, 10th, and 74th Corps had been picked apart piecemeal rather than fighting in concert, the original plan to destroy the Japanese south of the Miluo River coming to nothing. Elite formations had paid a disproportionate price: the 74th Corps suffered 14,521 casualties, the 37th Corps 14,015, and the 58th Division alone lost 6,192 of its 11,907 men, nearly its entire fighting strength.   Yet none of this was the story the public would hear. On October 10th, China's National Day, radio stations announced the "Second Great Victory in Northern Hunan", the annihilation of over 40,000 enemy troops. Newspapers rushed out special editions. Congratulatory telegrams flooded in from government ministries and civic organizations. Senior officials seized on the moment: Sun Ke, Premier of the Executive Yuan, declared that the victory "laid the foundation for the counter-offensive and the recapture of Hankou and Guangzhou," while General Bai Chongxi called it "the pivotal moment for us to turn defeat into victory." Chiang Kai-shek, reading through the pages of triumphant commentary produced overnight by his propagandists, was reportedly impressed by their industry, if not convinced by their content. He had not wanted to call it a victory at all, but the political calculus was unavoidable: after four years of war, an exhausted nation needed the psychological sustenance that only "victory" could provide.   The gap between public performance and private reality was nowhere more visible than in the arrival of a twenty-two-member international press delegation on October 13th. Journalists from Britain, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Hong Kong, and major Chinese newspapers were flown to Changsha and carefully guided through selected battlefields, where they inspected mountains of war trophies and heard testimony from soldiers and civilians. They left satisfied, presenting their war souvenirs—swords, binoculars, Japanese military flags—to their audiences back home as proof of Chinese heroism and Japanese defeat. Both China and Japan were claiming victory simultaneously. The only conclusion the foreign press could draw was that one side was lying, and it was not the side that had shown them the evidence.   Chiang Kai-shek's real verdict came at the Third Nanyue Military Conference, held from October 16 to 21. His anger was withering. He condemned his generals for their obsession with defending sprawling outer perimeter lines while leaving city centres barely fortified, a mentality so rigid, he said, that the Japanese could announce the exact time of their advance and withdrawal in advance and still execute it on schedule without interference. "Generals, what a disgrace this is!" On the failure to capture prisoners, only 263 prisoners were claimed across the entire front, of whom only 16 names were actually published, he was almost incredulous: "We can definitely defeat the enemy, capture many enemy prisoners, and seize countless enemy weapons! Even if we cannot capture ten thousand prisoners, we should at least capture a thousand! If not a thousand, then at least a hundred! But now, you don't even have ten!" The conference handed down punishments to match the rhetoric. Liao Lingqi, commander of the shattered 58th Division, was sentenced to death for desertion and shot on October 22nd. His men were so outraged that three regimental commanders resigned in protest; the division was pulled from the order of battle entirely and given three months to rebuild. Li Yutang, commander of the 10th Corps, was dismissed—though the Third Battle of Changsha would begin before his replacement could take post, and he would be reinstated to play a key role in the city's defence.   On the Japanese side, the 11th Army acknowledged 1,670 killed, 5,184 wounded, and 14 missing, far fewer than Chinese claims, though post-war regimental histories suggest the true figure was higher. Lieutenant General Anami, who had championed the operation, found himself stung by the charge that the battle had served mainly as material for Chinese propaganda. On November 23rd, he reportedly reacted with visible displeasure when someone in his headquarters said as much aloud.  Anami's annoyance was easy enough to understand, but the accusation carried a troubling degree of accuracy. The Second Battle of Changsha had yielded no decisive strategic gain and no substantial alteration in the military balance. What it did generate, rather effectively, was a story and by the autumn of 1941, stories were one of the few things China still had in plentiful supply. The most consequential struggles were taking place not along the Miluo River, but in foreign ministries and embassies, in Washington and Moscow, in the messages passing between Chongqing and London, and in the increasingly strained calculations of statesmen trying to determine, amid rapidly changing circumstances, whom to support and for how long.   For Chiang Kai-shek, the challenge was never merely military. It was structural, and had been so from the outset. He had always seen clearly, precisely because he understood China's weakness, that Japan could not be defeated by China alone. The country lacked the industrial base, the logistical reach, and after four years of relentless attrition more and more the manpower needed to force a decisive result on the battlefield. China's survival depended on making its war inseparable from the wars of other powers. Since 1937, Chiang's diplomacy had pursued that single objective: convincing enough great powers that their interests were aligned with China's, and holding that coalition together long enough for Japan to be subdued. That effort turned out to be vastly more difficult than it ought to have been.   The problem started with the international order in which the war emerged. Chiang had hoped to assemble a concert of allies willing to help defend China against Japanese aggression. He was blocked not just by the reluctance of neutral states to aid China, but by the speed with which alliances shifted in the opening years of the Second World War. He had never welcomed the prospect of a general European conflict, correctly fearing that it would push China even further to the margins of world attention. Even so, he recognized that once the lines had hardened between the imperial democracies and fascism, new alignments might become possible. From his perspective, the growing amity between Berlin and Moscow was therefore disastrous. He had been eager to draw the USSR into war against Japan. Instead, the Soviets were now effectively aligned with the Nazis, who were themselves allied with Tokyo.   The world created after Versailles had already enraged many Chinese. After all, the May Fourth demonstrations of 1919 had arisen directly from the settlement reached at the Paris Peace Conference. Yet that older order had at least possessed recognizable anchors, especially the dominance of the two great European empires and the United States. Now those empires were weakening, and no one could say with confidence what the new geopolitical order would be. For all Chiang knew, Germany might emerge as Europe's new dominant power. The early years of the European war produced a bewildering spectacle of diplomatic realignment.   The Nationalist government had previously enjoyed a short-lived flirtation with Nazi Germany. In fact, Hitler's regime continued supplying Chiang with munitions in the first months of China's war against Japan. The Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936 had theoretically joined Germany, Italy, and Japan into the Axis, but mutual distrust prevented them from forming anything like a fully coherent alliance. Chiang found it useful to imply to Western powers that he might be pushed into closer alignment with Germany, a particularly disturbing possibility for the USSR, which faced enemies in both Europe and Asia. But eventually the contradictions in German policy toward East Asia became too severe. In April 1938, Germany yielded to Japanese pressure and ended its support for China.   Britain offered little meaningful help. Neville Chamberlain became prime minister in May 1937 at the head of a Conservative-led National Government, and was quickly overwhelmed by the deteriorating European situation. If Czechoslovakia was for him a "far-off country of which we know nothing," China's fate was even more distant and obscure to many,  perhaps most  policymakers in London. The Nationalists had more success in cultivating the United States. At the Nine-Power Conference in Brussels in November 1937, the Chinese delegation failed to persuade Washington to impose sanctions on Japan and confront it directly. By the middle of 1938, however, American views were beginning to shift. As Japan pushed deeper into southern China, it became increasingly obvious that the occupied territory would be closed to foreign trade. In December 1938, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau arranged a private American loan of $25 million to China, to be repaid through shipments of tung oil, a varnish product whose real importance lay not in itself, but in what the arrangement signified: a quiet American expression of faith that Chongqing would survive. Chiang also held on to the hope of an even less likely partnership. He had become fiercely anti-Communist during the 1920s, yet in the early years of the anti-Japanese war his greatest hope still rested on Soviet entry into the conflict. Soviet advisers and pilots had aided China from 1937 to 1939, but the USSR never formally declared war on Japan. Still, as Japanese aggression in northern Asia intensified, it remained possible that the Soviets would eventually be drawn in.   Then, as so often happened whenever Chiang tried to impose some control over the course of the war, events beyond China's borders altered the struggle in fundamental ways. While Western attention remained fixed on Europe's darkening horizon, a battle with major consequences for East Asia unfolded on the frontiers of Outer Mongolia, Manchukuo, and the eastern Soviet Union. Throughout much of 1938 and early 1939, one faction within the Japanese Imperial Army sought to pressure the Soviets along their eastern frontier. The USSR appeared vulnerable; Stalin's paranoid purges had executed or exiled many of the Red Army's best officers. In May 1939, fighting broke out near Nomonhan between forces from Soviet-backed Mongolia and Japanese troops from Manchukuo. Within days, both sides had reinforced heavily, until nearly 60,000 Soviet troops faced about 40,000 soldiers from the Kwantung Army. Over the next four months, until mid-September, they fought a major battle ending in a decisive Japanese defeat and establishing the reputation of General Georgi Zhukov, who would later become one of Stalin's most celebrated wartime commanders. The much-derided Soviet Army had fought with formidable effectiveness, and the result was not only a ceasefire but also a nonaggression pact between the two sides, extinguishing, in one stroke, Chiang's hopes for a Chinese-Soviet military alliance. The final blow came after developments in northern Europe. In the Winter War of 1939–1940, the Soviet invasion of Finland led Britain and France to back a motion expelling the USSR from the League of Nations. China, then a member of the League Council, declined to use its veto to block the resolution. Stalin was enraged by Chiang's failure to prevent Soviet expulsion, and mutual suspicion thereafter poisoned relations between the two leaders for the rest of the war against Japan. China would now have to continue without further major Soviet backing.   By the spring of 1940, China's position had become deeply precarious. In March, senior Japanese negotiators sought an agreement with Chiang in Chongqing, while Wang Jingwei was trying to formalize his rival Nationalist government in Nanjing. This effort, known in Chinese as the Tong Operation, and in Japanese as Operation Kiri, led to talks in Hong Kong from March 7 to 10, 1940. Militarily, the Nationalists were in grave danger: the United States remained neutral, and Europe was in chaos. Indeed, that same spring, with France seemingly near collapse, the British government also sent out discreet feelers to explore the possibility of a negotiated peace with Germany. For China, Western assistance was nowhere in sight. The Japanese judged the moment favorable for pressing Chiang toward concessions. Faced with serious danger to his regime, Chiang allowed the door to negotiation to open just slightly.   As a consequence, the Japanese delayed full recognition of Wang Jingwei's new government. Through the summer and autumn of 1940, Tokyo remained uncertain about the defector. Prominent Japanese figures such as Count Arima Yoriyasu of the Privy Council said Wang's conduct demonstrated his untrustworthiness, and Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yōsuke continued to express interest in an agreement with Chongqing. Zhou Fohai captured the defectors' frustration, men who believed they had made the highest patriotic sacrifice when he wrote: "Chongqing sees us as collaborators, we see ourselves as heroes. We think only peace can save the country — that's why we think of ourselves as heroes. If we end up classed as heroes, then China and Japan will be at peace. If we end up classed as collaborators, then China and Japan will never be at peace."That formulation conveyed something genuine about the moral dizziness of the period. Most of the defectors were not men devoid of principles; they were men whose principles had carried them to a place that history would find exceptionally hard to pardon.   The "New Fourth Army Incident" brought to a close one of the most consequential years in modern Chinese political history. The battle of ideas unfolding in 1940 was already visible to informed contemporaries. Early in 1941, US Ambassador Nelson Johnson sent Washington a detailed assessment of the Chinese political situation in reply to another report passed along by Major Evans Carlson, an American officer who had made an extensive journey through the Chinese interior. The contrast between the two documents revealed a widening split in American views of China. Carlson, together with his travelling companion, the New Zealander Rewi Alley, had become increasingly sympathetic to the Communists after visiting their territories in 1938 and admiring their discipline. Carlson described the Nationalists as moving toward "fascism," and argued that American aid should be conditioned on Chiang's government being compelled to adopt more "democratic" institutions.   Johnson strongly disagreed. It was "only normal and natural," he wrote, that the Nationalists wanted to retain power, but during the war they had established the National Political Consultative Council, in which multiple parties, including the Communists, were represented. He also noted that the CCP could publish its own newspaper in Chongqing in a way that would have been impossible before the war. One might have expected the Nationalists to use the war as a justification "to extinguish . . . all political opposition," yet instead they had chosen to "muddle along." Johnson further thought that the influence of competing cliques inside the Nationalist Party had been overstated. Chiang Kai-shek, by contrast, had "grown in stature, as he has come to be recognized as the symbol of united resistance to Japanese encroachment"; ultimately, "it is he who makes the final decisions." Johnson did agree with Carlson that Chiang's regime was hesitant to encourage a broad-based popular movement animated by anything beyond anti-Japanese feeling, though he also pointed to Nationalist cooperative programs and county-level reforms. But he rejected the idea that American support should depend on sweeping political transformation. Chiang was committed to continuing the war against Japan, and Washington should back him in that effort. In a notably farsighted passage, Johnson wrote: "It is my view that since the fall of the Manchu dynasty and the collapse of the traditional Chinese concept of government the Chinese people have been feeling their way along toward a new evolving form of government. A definitive form of government has not yet been established and may not be established for decades; it may or may not be in the form of a democracy, but it will be a type of government that will be adapted to the needs of China and its people." The tension between these two American interpretations,  Carlson's idealized belief in the Communists and Johnson's pragmatic support for Chiang was more than a minor bureaucratic dispute. It foreshadowed a debate that would dominate American foreign policy for the next decade, and would still echo when the People's Republic was proclaimed in 1949.   The disastrous experience of 1940 seemed to cast doubt on whether any future for China existed outside the Japanese Empire. As 1941 wore on, another dreadful event shook the exhausted wartime capital. On June 5, Chongqing endured roughly five hours of bombing, driving the population into air-raid shelters. In one tunnel in the Shibati district, the conditions were even worse than usual. The large shelter was supposed to have lights and electric fans, but the generators had never been connected. Inside, the air was dark, hot, and suffocating. Around ten that evening, people began emerging from the tunnel when rumors spread that the Japanese were returning with poison-gas bombs. Air-raid wardens forced people back inside, even as others were still trying to come out. Bodies toppled over one another, and panic spread as people realized they could not breathe. Over the next few hours, hundreds died underground in the darkness. The exact number was never definitively established: the official figure was 461, though a contemporary police report placed it far higher, at 1,527. What rescuers remembered most vividly were the tortured expressions of the dead, people tangled together in each other's arms as they lost consciousness, clothing ripped to shreds by desperate hands clawing at one another, and bodies so drenched in sweat that they looked as though they had been soaked in water. One survivor, Tang Zhengchang, remembered a hand reaching out from a pile of corpses and pleading, "Sir, please help me . . ." The grip on Tang's shorts was so tight that it pulled them off; he escaped the tunnel naked from the waist down. Official descriptions of the disaster were softened. Even so, the tragedy deepened the city's gloom and in a place already saturated with grief, an added layer of darkness mattered a great deal.   Yet events elsewhere would soon offer the National Government a narrow margin of hope. Late in 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt won re-election as president of the United States. "I am not going to send your boys into any foreign wars," he had proclaimed during the campaign against Wendell Willkie. But Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull both understood that Nazi domination of Europe posed a grave challenge to American influence there. And with China's "Open Door" to trade effectively shut by Japanese occupation, it was becoming increasingly clear that strict neutrality might not remain viable. In a 1941 report on China's domestic and foreign situation, Ambassador Johnson noted that during Germany's sweeping victories across Europe in mid-1940, the Chinese had become anxious about whether the Allies would remain committed to their cause. Britain's refusal to surrender, however, together with continuing Soviet goodwill, lifted public morale in China. People now looked toward the United States and Britain for support and felt that "victory" was "virtually theirs."   Then, on June 22, 1941, the world awoke to news that roughly three million German soldiers were advancing into the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's invasion of the USSR, dramatically overturned the nonaggression that had governed relations between the two major European dictatorships for the previous two years. It transformed the war in Europe entirely. Less obviously, it also transformed the war in Asia. Thanks to intelligence leaks, Chiang Kai-shek had already realized that war between Germany and the USSR was likely. After the neutrality treaty between the USSR and Japan was signed on April 13, 1941, Chiang predicted that the United States would be drawn into the Asian war, and even that Japan might eventually reverse course and strike the Soviet Union. If that happened, China would become the critical Asian ally of both Washington and Moscow. Stalin had been caught off guard by the German assault — largely because he ignored increasingly urgent warnings from senior colleagues receiving intelligence from well-placed spies in Germany and the Comintern, eager to preserve its alliances, now pressed the Chinese Communists to cooperate more closely with the Nationalists. On June 23, 1941, the CCP Central Committee responded with a declaration that it would "persevere in the Anti-Japanese United Front, persevere in Nationalist-Communist cooperation," and would align itself with the British, the Americans, and others resisting the "fascist rulers" of the Axis.   In Chongqing and Yan'an, the German attack on the Soviet Union was interpreted as a hopeful sign that Japan's fortunes might be beginning to turn. In Nanjing, the reaction was different. On June 22, Zhou Fohai recorded in his diary that, although the outcome "cannot be predicted," members of the Nanjing regime "all believe Germany will win and will take Moscow within two months." Zhou speculated that Japan could not easily reconcile its neutrality treaty with the USSR and its membership in the Anti-Comintern Pact, which was supposed to unite the Axis against Soviet expansionism. Still, because Germany had struck first, Japan was under no formal obligation to help. Zhou also continued to view events through a lens he had never abandoned: that of Chinese nationalism. "If Chongqing joins the Allies and they win," he wrote, "then this is good for China." If they lost, it would be disastrous for Chiang Kai-shek; but because Wang Jingwei had established a government in Nanjing under Japanese sponsorship, China now had "a foot in both boats." It was a ruthless calculation, but not a wholly dishonorable one. Zhou was not merely advancing Japanese interests. He was hedging, wagering on multiple futures in the name of a China he believed would endure beyond whatever constellation of powers happened to dominate at the moment. Whether posterity would judge that conduct prudent or collaborative was a question he could neither settle nor live to see resolved to his satisfaction.   The summer of 1941 marked a major geopolitical turning point in the war. Until then, the conflicts in China and Europe had remained separate, if desperate, struggles on the Eurasian continent. Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union now forced Japan to decide whether it too would enter war against the USSR. Debate in Tokyo was brief. Although some officials, including Foreign Minister Matsuoka, favored striking north before moving south, both the Kwantung Army and the Navy advised against helping Germany at least until Germany had succeeded in drawing substantial Soviet forces away from Siberia and into Europe. Konoye, once again prime minister, agreed. With the northern option set aside, Japanese leaders turned toward another great power instead: the United States. Japan's failure to gain further decisive momentum in China had fueled demands for broader regional expansion, especially into Southeast Asia, with its abundant oil, rubber, and other strategic resources. From 1940 onward, measures such as the pressure to close the Burma Road made it increasingly obvious that Tokyo had adopted a more aggressive posture in Asia. Unable to subdue China, Japanese policymakers chose instead to escalate the conflict still further.   Japanese political life had become ever more dominated by the unresolved war in China. As early as 1938, military expenditures consumed about 70 percent of the national budget, and that same year a National Mobilization Bill granted the government "total war control" over the zaibatsu, Japan's major industrial conglomerates. By 1940, the New Order was making itself felt throughout everyday life, with campaigns against luxury and extravagant consumption taking on new prominence. In February 1940, a parliamentarian was expelled from the Diet simply for daring to criticize the "holy war" in China. In such an atmosphere, retreat from imperial ambitions became increasingly unthinkable. That figure, 70 percent of the national budget devoted to the military is worth dwelling on, because it reveals something essential about the trap in which Japanese strategists had placed themselves. The war in China had not been won, yet abandoning it would have meant admitting a failure so severe that it would have shaken the ideological and institutional foundations of military supremacy in Japanese politics. The only apparent ways out required pushing further in: more conquest, more extraction, more expansion. The logic was brutally clear, and profoundly destructive.   The Roosevelt administration watched these developments with growing alarm. Though still formally neutral, the United States was already using Lend-Lease to provide major assistance to Britain and the Soviet Union in their struggles against Germany. It now expanded aid to China as well. On February 10, Roosevelt's representative Lauchlin Currie visited Chongqing to inform Chiang Kai-shek that the United States would soon provide $45 million in military equipment. General John Magruder, head of the small AMMISCA mission,  the American Military Mission in China had been sent to Chongqing in September 1941, as part of quiet preparation for possible Chinese entry into an alliance against Japan. The China branch of the OSS, precursor to the CIA, was led by General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, whom Roosevelt had dispatched to China in early 1941.   The Americans repeatedly tried to discourage Japan from moving south into Southeast Asia, but relations only grew more confrontational. Japan occupied the southern part of French Indochina, and in response the United States imposed an oil embargo in July 1941. The consequences were immense. Japan imported around 80 percent of its oil from the United States. Without that supply, its navy, the essential instrument for southern expansion  had reserves for perhaps eighteen months. The real question facing Tokyo, then, was not whether it must act, but how soon. Unable any longer to resist mounting military pressure for war, Konoye resigned on October 16 and was replaced as premier by General Tōjō Hideki. Tokyo accelerated its preparations for conflict with the Western powers. Planned targets included Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaya, the Netherlands East Indies, and the Philippines. I should note, if you want to learn about all of this history in more detail, you can go check out the pacific war channel on youtube. I have a chronological series that is just now talking about events like the Japanese invasion of french indochina and the road to pearl harbor.   Throughout the autumn of 1941, increasingly desperate negotiations took place between Japan and the United States. Washington insisted that Japan withdraw from China; Tokyo was equally firm that it would do no such thing. From the Japanese point of view, the demand to leave China was not a serious negotiating position but a demand for national humiliation a call to repudiate four years of war, vast casualties, and the ideological basis of Japanese militarism in a single diplomatic act. In the end, the gulf between the two positions could not be bridged.   While civilian and military leaders in Tokyo argued over the pace at which they should move toward war, few among Japan's rulers doubted that war was coming. At the imperial conference of November 5, it was formally agreed that if no satisfactory diplomatic solution had been reached by December 1, war would follow soon after. Talks in Washington between Ambassador Nomura Kichisaburō, diplomat Kurusu Saburō, and Secretary of State Cordell Hull led nowhere. On November 26, Hull delivered a note repeating the American position that Japan must withdraw from both China and Indochina. On December 1, the imperial conference resolved to go to war; the following day, the date of attack was fixed as December 8, December 7 by American time. In one sense, this was the culmination toward which the entire previous decade had been moving. The war in China had started as a localized conflict, then expanded into a continental one, and was now about to become something larger still: a truly global war, stretching from the North Atlantic to the western Pacific. China's long, lonely resistance would suddenly gain new dimensions and new allies,  though not the ones Chiang had spent four years trying to cultivate, and not under circumstances he would have chosen.   In the early morning of December 7, 1941, the US Pacific Fleet lay anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, its sailors and officers still largely asleep as dawn crept across the Pacific. The attack did not come without warning signs,  American and Japanese diplomats had been locked in increasingly desperate negotiations throughout the autumn, each side hardening its position until no room remained to maneuver. Washington had demanded that Japan withdraw from China, a condition Tokyo viewed not as a serious opening offer but as a demand for national humiliation: a call to repudiate four years of brutal war, hundreds of thousands of casualties, and the entire ideological foundation upon which Japanese militarism rested. No agreement was possible on those terms, and both sides privately knew it.   The strike force assembled in secret was formidable. Six aircraft carriers,  the Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku had sailed under strict radio silence across the North Pacific, launching their aircraft in two successive waves before the American base had any meaningful chance to respond. The first wave of approximately 183 planes swept in just before 8 a.m., targeting the rows of battleships moored along Battleship Row and the military airfields at Wheeler, Hickam, and Ford Island simultaneously, ensuring that American aircraft could not scramble in time to mount an effective defense. A second wave of roughly 170 planes followed less than an hour later, pressing the attack on damaged ships and harbor installations.   The destruction was staggering. The battleship Arizona suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion after a armor-piercing bomb penetrated her forward decks, killing nearly 1,177 of her crew in minutes, almost half of the total American dead from the entire attack. The Oklahoma capsized after being struck by multiple torpedoes. The West Virginia and California sank at their moorings. In total, seventeen vessels were damaged or destroyed, and the vast majority of military aircraft at the nearby airfields were caught on the ground and obliterated before they could take flight. Around 2,400 Americans were killed and another 1,100 wounded, making it the deadliest single attack on American soil or territory in the nation's history to that point.   Yet the attack was not a complete strategic success for Japan. The US Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers, the vessels that would ultimately decide the naval war in the Pacific happened to be at sea that morning and escaped unharmed. The harbor's fuel storage and repair facilities were also left largely intact, allowing the fleet to reconstitute faster than Japanese planners had anticipated. What Japan achieved in tactical devastation, it partly squandered in strategic miscalculation. The attack ended American neutrality instantly and irrevocably. The following day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress, calling December 7 "a date which will live in infamy," and within hours the United States declared war on Japan. For China, after more than four years of fighting alone, the blow that devastated Pearl Harbor paradoxically carried a thread of desperate hope at last, the great power Chiang Kai-shek had spent years trying to draw into the conflict had arrived, not under circumstances he would have chosen, but arrived nonetheless. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. After years of fighting, China's situation darkened in 1941 with intense bombing of Chongqing and fears of poison-gas attacks. Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June shifted alliances and pressured Japan toward wider war. Japan escalated plans for Southeast Asia, suffered an oil embargo, and negotiations with the United States broke down over withdrawing from China and Indochina. Then the Pearl Harbor attack began the Pacific War.

El dibujante y co-fundador de la revista Mongolia nos va a contar historias de gente corriente pero que han protagonizado o vivido momentos históricos importantes. Sylvia Koniecki nos habla de la apasionante vida de su padre

Solo travel or group travel: is one really better for seeing Japan? The Krewe welcomes Ryotaro Sakurai back to the podcast to break down the pros and cons of both, from flexibility and independence to planning, convenience, and shared experiences. Plus, Ryotaro gives us a look at Umami Travel, the group tour company he's building and why he thinks there's room for a different kind of Japan travel experience. ------ About the Krewe ------ The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy! ------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------ Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode! Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season! Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan!  ------ Links for Ryotaro & Umami Travel ------ Ryotaro's Japan YouTube Channel Ryotaro on IG Umami Travel Website Kessennuma Knitting INEtoAGAVE (Craft Sake) ------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------ JSNO Event Calendar Join JSNO Today!

This week, Tyler is doing a little solo episode talking about the Summer 2026 anime season and everything he's been watching! From new shows and sequels to the series he dropped, even the PTW!What's your favorite anime of the season so far? Am I missing out on any hidden gems? Let me know what you're watching!To join the Discord, follow us on our socials (we're on Threads / Insta, Twitter (X), Bluesky): https://Linktree.com/animedegensThe Degen Videos are on YouTube now! So, Make sure you follow and like the videos over there at https://Linktree.com/animedegensPlease Rate us on your listening platforms and don't forget to tell your anime friends about us! its the best way to support us and we really do appreciate y'all! Thanks for listening!!If you have any Feedback that you'd like to share or have Topics that you'd like for us to discuss on the Degen Episode, Please reach out to us on any of our Socials, Discord or click here!Interested in being a guest? Reach out to Tyler on Discord or Twitter / Threads!Time StampsIntro & Stuff- 0:00Though I am an inept villainess - 07:20Smoking behind the supermarket with you - 20:50Jaadugar - Witch in Mongolia - 25:34Goodbye Lara - 32:35Victoria of many faces - 37:30Draw this then die - 42:30Kaiju girl caramelize - 48:40Love unseen beneath the clear night sky - 53:45Young ladies don't play fighting games - 57:30PTW Summer Shows - 01:02:15Drops - 01:08:25Sequels - 01:15:00 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

¿Existe una moto perfecta para cada aventura? ¿O somos nosotros quienes convertimos cualquier moto en la herramienta adecuada? A raíz de una pregunta de un oyente desde Uruguay, reflexiono sobre la creciente moda de utilizar grandes maxitrail para afrontar recorridos propios del hard enduro. Hablamos de cómo las motos, igual que los coches, han ido creciendo con el paso de los años, del papel de las marcas y los influencers en la construcción de ciertos mitos y, sobre todo, de la tendencia a confundir lo espectacular con lo necesario. Después recuperamos dos entrevistas que, curiosamente, responden por sí solas a esa reflexión. Julio Lescano nos cuenta cómo llegó hasta Mongolia con una Kawasaki Vulcan de 2.000 cc, mientras que Marcus Wolschon relata su increíble vuelta al mundo en Vespa en solo 80 días. Dos motos radicalmente distintas. Dos formas opuestas de entender el viaje. Y una misma conclusión: la aventura depende mucho menos de la máquina de lo que solemos creer. Como siempre, gracias por acompañarme una semana más en Viajo en Moto.

This episode is special in so many ways. From July 6th to 11th, downtown Ulaanbaatar was immersed in jazz music from all around the globe. As someone who loves music and the personal stories behind it, I just had to capture these moments. While there is a bit of background noise from the live atmosphere, these raw, touching stories from the visiting jazz musicians and students make it all worth it.A huge thank you to everyone who shared their stories with me, and I feel incredible gratitude to have been part of the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) 2026 conference.Note: This is Part 1! Stay tuned for Part 2, featuring conversations with Danilo Pérez, Ignasi Terraza, Sunny Kim, Massimo Cavalli, and more. Timestamps:01:00 – Seta Ramaroson (Madagascar)06:29 – Oscar Wisnia (USA)09:30 – Pedro Moreira & Gonçalo Marques (Portugal)15:10 – Alicia Lindberg, Maria João Leite, Irene Lovato, & Reese Pike (Sweden, Portugal, Italy, USA)25:30 – Derek Coombs & Liam Kimball (USA)31:03 – Martin Zenker (Germany)36:32 – Carl Hammond (USA)

Captain Liam Devlin is joined by Oliver Browne, Founder & CEO of True Summit Adventures, to explore frontier travel, rare access and what makes an adventure genuinely unforgettable.From Alaska and Indonesia to Mongolia, Ecuador and the Solomon Islands, Oliver shares how True Summit creates highly personalised journeys built around extraordinary places, expert guides and experiences that cannot simply be booked off the shelf.They also discuss the role superyachts can play as platforms for exploration, opening access to remote coastlines, wildlife, mountains and destinations conventional travel struggles to reach.

Every other Tuesday, we grab a past question from the Facebook group, then Meredith and Scott answer it and read some of the answers given by other listeners. The question for this episode: What was your most memorable vacation? Links for this episode: Disclosure Day trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCYT8vb2siQ Carnival cruise to Cozumel: https://www.carnival.com/cruise-to/mexico-cruises/cozumel-cruises# Disney adults: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_adult Dark tourism: https://www.dark-tourism.com/ Meredith's episode with the lucid dreaming artist:https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Omwx67juTKYWymgTaj3rc?si=r6oHbH02R8CuZtmyWTdLJw Meredith's episodes related to her trip to Mongolia: 257 https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ZaeMBDjokkgRenRJTUOOb?si=hk0FhoOaRsitaZ4d649evg 250 https://open.spotify.com/episode/7HxpwdF51xhTzmHsjvht7Z?si=uIZoe5hlS7akTT4YzejYzA 246 https://open.spotify.com/episode/0WzkwIYAwdqxylzJjjmSsG?si=-9U7W4nPSQ6HcsMI4P_SbA 241 https://open.spotify.com/episode/0H8Inp10YtwQO6aN03y0qz?si=fIhHKPhWT66aSxaDckldEA “Jenny” by Tommy Tutone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WTdTwcmxyo All Day I Dream About Food: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/ Meredith's podcast is The Curious Introvert: https://MeredithForReal.com To check out the new Tuesday Question and get in the discussion, join us at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook. Sponsor deals: Quince - Go to Quince.com/whatwas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns! Boll & Branch - get 15% off your first order AND free shipping: BollandBranch.com/WHATWAS Nutrafol - Get $10 off your first month's subscription, and free shipping: use promo code WHATWAS at Nutrafol.com Try Mint Mobile for 3 months, for just 15 bucks a month - MintMobile.com/WHAT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As if we needed another banger of season of anime, yet here we are with maybe the best season of anime for the year, welcome to the Summer First Impressions episode! Light spoilers ahead for the shows so use the timestamps if you want to avoid those talksSocials/Discord - https://linktr.ee/whatdoyousayanime0:00 - Intro1:15 - Summer 2026 so far5:02 - Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia9:41 - The Ghost in the Shell13:21 - Goodbye, Lara17:22 - Thunder 319:51 - Sparks of Tomorrow25:15 - Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You28:03 - Chainsmoker Cat30:46 - Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games36:49 - The Cat and the Dragon38:41 - Kaiju Girl Caramelise41:21 - Draw This, Then Die!46:10 - You and I are Polar Opposites S248:55 - Trapped in a Dating Sim S249:25 - Skeleton Knight S249:47 - Too Early Awards51:52 - BanG Dream! Yume∞Mita

El dibujante y co-fundador de la revista Mongolia nos va a contar historias de gente corriente pero que han protagonizado o vivido momentos históricos importantes. Hoy conversa con Piluca Baquero, sobrina nieta del pionero del cine en España, José Val del Omar

Juan Pablo's first bike trip was a huge solo journey over 16 months. Then he came home to Chile, met Paula, they got married and six weeks after their wedding they both got on bikes and started bikepacking together.. All up they hope to spend two years on this adventurous version of a honeymoon.We discuss:Bikepacking as a couple: a newlywed honeymoon covering 20,000kmSolo bike touring: 19,000km across Turkey, the Middle East, and AfricaBikepacking Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia: expectations vs. realityRoute planning and gear for long-distance cycle touringRelationship and communication tips for touring as a coupleBike mechanical failures and storm survival on tourJuan Pablo's 104 tips for bike travel Check out Old Man Mountain for the perfect way to carry gear on your bike. Support the showBuy me a coffee!I'm an affiliate for a few brands I genuinely use and recommend including:

In this episode, we'll look at why the Seljuk Turks suddenly appeared in the Middle East in the eleventh century. The name Seljuk and the origins of Seljuk power lie with a man called Seljuk, who rose to prominence in the late tenth century. He was an Oghuz Turk, and at that time the Oghuz Turks were a group of nomads living around the Volga River. Originally from Mongolia, the Turks were ethnically similar to the Huns of the late Roman period and the future Mongols of the thirteenth century. History AnalyzedHistory Analyzed is a podcast which investigates both history's biggest moments and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the showFor a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com

Back and better than ever. Yes, we rate beers and have smiles, but there is plenty of historical facts, geography, and other sense....but of course lots of nonsense. Bimini to Montenegro, World Cup to bad golf, Mongolia to Fact Checks and much more, it's always a blast. Come on along and Salut!

In this episode, we sit down with Michael Altobello, a fashion and advertising photographer whose love of golf has taken him from Bethpage to Shinnecock, St. Andrews, and even Mongolia. Mike shares how he got into golf as a child, how photography opened doors in the golf world, and why the best part of the game is the people you meet along the way.https://www.michaelaltobello.com/**Cover photo by Michael Altobello for Links Magazine BestBall Links:⛳️ Join the BestBall Golf Club! - https://patreon.com/BestBallGolfClubhttps://BestBall.comhttps://linktr.ee/BestBallhttps://bestball.substack.com - Subscribe to Par 3 Thursdays!Friends of BestBall:B. Draddy - https://www.bdraddy.com - Enter "BESTBALL20" for 20% off your orderZero Restriction - https://www.zerorestriction.com - Enter "BESTBALL20" for 20% off your orderFairway & Greene - https://www.fairwayandgreene.com - Enter "BESTBALL20" for 20% off your orderArccos Golf - https://arccosgolf.com - Get 15% off your orderThe Stack System - https://www.thestacksystem.com/discount/BestBall - Get 10% off your orderWestern Birch - https://westernbirch.com - Enter "BESTBALL" in the shipping cart for a free gift with your order*Music by AlexGrohl via Pixabay

With the 2026 summer travel season now at its peak, China's tourism market continues to sizzle, with record-breaking passenger flows and shifting preferences reshaping the holiday landscape, according to travel agencies.各大旅行社表示，2026年暑期旅游正值旺季峰值，国内文旅市场热度持续高涨，出行人次创下新高，游客偏好不断转变，重塑了假日出行格局。Travel booking platforms are reporting strong growth. Tuniu, an online travel agency, said bookings for summer tourism products had risen 17 percent year-on-year as of late July, with domestic travel bookings up more than 20 percent. On online travel platform Qunar, summer car rental bookings have increased by nearly 60 percent year-on-year.旅游预订平台订单量大幅攀升。在线旅游服务商途牛数据显示，截至7月下旬，暑期旅游产品预订量同比上涨17%，其中国内游预订涨幅超20%；去哪儿平台暑期租车订单同比增长近60%。To further stimulate summer consumption, more than 450 million yuan ($66 million) in travel vouchers will be distributed nationwide this summer, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.文化和旅游部称，今年夏季全国将发放总额超4.5亿元（折合6600万美元）文旅消费券，进一步拉动暑期消费。More than 30,000 culture and tourism consumption events will also be held across the country. Local authorities will expand the supply of high-quality tourism and cultural offerings, including summer retreats, coastal vacations, nighttime tourism, cruises and yachting, family trips, study tours, culinary experiences and museum visits, the ministry said.全国各地还将举办三万余场文旅消费活动。文旅部介绍，各地持续丰富优质文旅产品供给，涵盖避暑休闲、滨海度假、夜间文旅、邮轮游艇、亲子家庭游、研学旅行、美食体验、博物馆游览等多种业态。Family travel remains the dominant force in the summer tourism market. Parents and kids account for over 60 percent of summer travelers on Tuniu and 45 percent on Qunar. According to Qunar, the top family travel destinations this summer are Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu in Sichuan province, Kunming in Yunnan province and Guangzhou in Guangdong province.亲子家庭游依旧是暑期旅游市场主力军。途牛平台暑期亲子游客占比超60%，去哪儿平台该比例达45%。去哪儿数据显示，今夏热门亲子目的地依次为上海、北京、四川成都、云南昆明以及广东广州。Family travel itself is also evolving. Gone are the days when parents planned trips entirely around their children's needs. This summer, as more people born after 1995 become parents, an "everyone has a good time" approach to family vacations is becoming increasingly popular, according to Qunar.亲子游模式也在不断迭代。过去父母一切围绕孩子需求规划行程的时代已然过去。去哪儿平台表示，随着大批95后步入父母行列，兼顾全家游玩体验、人人都能收获快乐的度假理念愈发流行。Hotels are adapting to the trend by offering childcare services and children's clubs. On Qunar, searches for hotels with childcare services and children's programs rose 40 percent month-on-month. The five most popular search criteria for family-friendly hotels are swimming pools, children's clubs, washing machines, refrigerators and child safety facilities.各大酒店顺应趋势，纷纷推出托管服务、儿童乐园。去哪儿平台上，带有育儿服务、儿童游乐项目的酒店搜索量环比上涨40%；亲子酒店五大热门筛选条件为：泳池、儿童俱乐部、洗衣机、冰箱、儿童安全设施。Yan Yun, a resident of Wuhan, Hubei province, in her 30s, is traveling with her 5-year-old daughter and her brother's family — five people in all — on a nine-day road trip from Shenyang and Dalian in Liaoning province to Yantai, Shandong province, from July 25 to Aug 2.湖北武汉30多岁市民严芸，带着5岁女儿以及哥哥一家，共计五人，开启了9天自驾之旅：7月25日至8月2日，从辽宁沈阳、大连一路前往山东烟台。Still on the road and renting a car for the entire trip, Yan said the journey has been highly enjoyable.全程租车自驾、旅途仍在继续的严芸坦言，这次出行体验十分美好。She said traveling with children slows the pace and requires more negotiation, making the itinerary less predictable.她说道，带孩子出游行程节奏会放缓，凡事需要互相商量，旅途计划不会一成不变。Despite the slower pace, she described the journey as a unique and rewarding experience for the whole family.虽说行程节奏舒缓，但她认为这场旅行给全家人带来了独一无二、充实美好的收获。The growing demand for richer travel experiences has become another defining feature of this summer's tourism market. Tuniu said users are increasingly seeking in-depth and experiential travel, driven by sustained demand for emotional value and experience-based consumption.游客对沉浸式深度体验的需求攀升，是今夏文旅市场另一大鲜明特点。途牛表示，受情感价值需求与体验式消费热潮带动，游客愈发偏爱深度体验游。Li Pengbo, Communist Party of China secretary of the School of Tourism Sciences at Beijing International Studies University and a professor at the school, said the shift reflects a fundamental change in consumer values.北京第二外国语学院旅游科学学院党委书记、教授李朋波表示，这种出游偏好转变，本质上是大众消费观念的更迭。"In the era of 'check-in tourism', when travel opportunities were relatively scarce, simply having been somewhere was valuable. Photos served as proof, and social media posts announced the experience.“打卡旅游盛行的年代，出游机会有限，只要抵达过某地就极具意义；拍照留存当作凭证，再发到社交平台分享，便是旅行的全部意义。”"Today, as travel becomes more routine, the marginal value of simply having been somewhere has plummeted. How did you travel? What did you feel? Do you have a story to tell? These have become the new value anchors," Li said.李教授讲道：“如今旅行早已常态化，单纯到此一游的边际价值大幅下降。人们更在意出行方式、内心感受、旅途故事，这些才是当下旅行新的价值核心。”That helps explain the rapid rise of experiences such as city walks, intangible cultural heritage workshops and local food tours, which offer stories to tell rather than simply places to show, he said.这也就能解释为何城市漫步、非遗手作体验、本地美食探访等项目迅速走红：这类旅行重在收获可讲述的旅途故事，而非单纯打卡景点。Summer also remains the peak season for both outbound and inbound travel. According to Qunar, the most popular outbound destinations include Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Indonesia and the United States. Thailand tops the list, with skill-learning trips — in which travelers learn activities such as cooking, yoga and Muay Thai — driving a 3.3-fold increase in hotel bookings in Chiang Mai.暑期同样是出入境旅游旺季。去哪儿数据显示，热门出境目的地有泰国、韩国、马来西亚、新加坡、中国香港、印度尼西亚、美国。泰国稳居榜首，厨艺、瑜伽、泰拳等技能研学旅行热度高涨，直接带动清迈酒店预订量暴涨3.3倍。Inbound tourism is also booming, with Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu among the most popular destinations.入境游市场同样蓬勃发展，上海、北京、广州、成都最受外籍游客青睐。By source market, the leading countries for inbound travelers this summer are Thailand, Canada, the US, the United Kingdom and Russia. Greek visitors to China increased 9.5 times year-on-year, the fastest growth among all source markets. Visitor numbers from Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Sweden, Finland and Mexico also more than doubled, according to Qunar.从客源国来看，今夏来华游客主要来自泰国、加拿大、美国、英国、俄罗斯。其中希腊来华游客同比暴涨9.5倍，涨幅位居所有客源市场首位；斯里兰卡、蒙古、瑞典、芬兰、墨西哥来华人数也均实现翻倍增长。surge /sɜːdʒ/激增，热潮sizzle /ˈsɪzl/热度高涨，火爆experiential /ɪkˌspɪəriˈenʃl/体验式的plummet /ˈplʌmɪt/暴跌，大幅下降intangible /ɪnˈtændʒəbl/无形的outbound /ˈaʊtbaʊnd/出境的；外出的

Ionatan and Ravi give their thoughts on every show they're watching this summer! They discuss a stellar third consecutive season of anime, from the return of 'Mushoku Tensei' and 'Saga of Tanya the Evil' to a pair of Science Saru adaptations in 'The Ghost in the Shell' and 'Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia' to a collection of noteworthy productions including 'Goodbye, Lara' and 'The World Is Dancing.'

What if everything you think you know about "learning by doing" is wrong? In this episode, UCLA lecturer/ former LA Times writer and author of "Academy of One" David Preston unpacks the real science of how humans learn, why compulsory schooling isn't the same thing as learning, and what separates leaders who build people from leaders who just manage them. David shares the wild story of how a single classroom moment led him to spend a month with a student's family in Mongolia and Tibet, and how it permanently changed how he sees education. He also breaks down why willpower can be trained like a muscle, why "hate the medicine, take it anyway" beats motivation every time, and why real change is never incremental. It's sea change. A conversation about learning, leadership, servant leadership, and staying human in an AI-driven world.

This Week on In Stride Sinead Halpin-Maynard talks with Rupert Isaacson about how horses helped his nonverbal autistic son find his voice, and how that discovery turned into a therapeutic horsemanship method now used around the world.Meet the Guest: Rupert Isaacson Rupert Isaacson is a horseman, author, and founder of New Trails Learning Systems, home to three therapy programs used with autistic kids, veterans, and trauma survivors, work that began after he discovered that riding a horse helped his nonverbal autistic son, Rowan, find his voice. He's also a classical dressage rider trained in the centuries-old "Old Masters" tradition. Rupert wrote the bestselling book and film The Horse Boy about the family's journey across Mongolia to help Rowan, and before that founded the Indigenous Land Rights Fund, which helped the Kalahari Bushmen of Botswana and South Africa win a landmark case for their ancestral land.In This Episode, Sinead and Rupert Discuss:How he first noticed that a horse's gait directly changed how much his son communicated, and discovering the science behind itThe three therapy programs he built and how each one meets autistic kids, veterans, and trauma survivors where they areWhy classical dressage, not just a calm horse, is what makes a horse capable of this kind of therapeutic workHis ride across Mongolia in search of a shaman, the journey that became the book The Horse Boy, and the land rights advocacy work that came before itWhy he believes healing takes both hard science and a little bit of magicEpisode SponsorConnaway & Associates The friendly and knowledgeable team at Connaway & Associates brings together more than 30 years of experience to offer a wide range of insurance services, including horse insurance, farm insurance, and liability insurance.Visit www.connaway.net or call 501-868-8084 to explore your options.Equine Emergency Vet Care Guide Created by equine veterinarian Dr. Erica Lacher, the Equine Emergency Vet Care Guide app helps horse owners recognize the signs of a true emergency, know when to call the vet, and understand what to do while help is on the way.Download from the App Store or Google Play at EquineEmergencyApp.comIn Stride Is Brought to You by Ride iQRide iQ helps everyday riders ride with more clarity, confidence, and purpose through on-demand audio lessons from world-class coaches.Members also get:Weekly live Q&As with equestrian expertsExclusive podcast episodesDressage test prep resourcesA supportive learning communityStart your free 14-day trial at Ride-iQ.com

Creativity through the lens of a physicist and psychotherapist "Creativity to me is making reality in some sense."Lincoln Stoller is a certified clinical counselor in British Columbia, Canada. He works with people worldwide to help them with the environments they have created, and their sense of self. He's a volunteer counselor with the American Alpine Club's Climbers Grief Fund.Lincoln's experience includes theoretical physics, business software CEO, neurology-based brain training, psychedelics, and hypnotherapy, soar plane pilot, mountaineer, a father, a partner, and a cultural ambassador to communities in the Caribbean, Panama, and Mongolia.His work comes together under the heading of recreating one's state of mind through experience, perception, reflection, relationships, trauma, and spirituality. He questions science and intellect and emphasizes relationships and spirit. He blogs on topics in learning, therapy, and social awareness at https://mindstrengthbalance.substack.com/His latest books, "Dream Fragments" and "Dreaming Yourself into Being," explore the psychology of dreams and were published in February 2026.https://www.mindstrengthbalance.comhttps://www.mindstrengthbooks.comhttps://www.facebook.com/lincolnstoller/https://www.linkedin.com/in/lincolnstoller/Send us Fan Mail

This episode of the Overland Journal Podcast, Scott interviews overlander Kym Bolton about his decades of global travel in a Mitsubishi Fuso camper, covering over 500,000 km across regions including Russia, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Australia. Kym discusses why the Fuso is ideal for international trips, citing its reliability, payload capacity, and worldwide serviceability. He emphasizes keeping vehicles light and simple, recommending key upgrades like super-single tires, upgraded suspension, and suspension seats. Kym shares his recovery philosophy, which focuses on assessing hazards and maintaining equipment. They also discuss his background in winch competitions, strategies for vehicle storage, travel rhythms, and his favorites: Mongolia and South America. Finally, they highlight his current ventures, Australian Adventure Vehicles and GoannaTracks.com.Australian Adventure Vehicles | GoannaTracks | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeThe Overland Journal Podcast is brought to you this week by Nitto Tire, Overland Journal Magazine, Hankook TireNew to Overland Journal and want to grab a subscription! Visit Overland Journal and enter code: overlandpodcast at checkout for 20% off. We thank you for being a subscriber.Tune in Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTubeOur No Compromise Clause: We carefully screen all contributors to make sure they are independent and impartial. We never have and never will accept advertorial, and we do not allow advertising to influence our product or destination reviews.

Chapter 739 - "A Reward In Making A Positive Impact" ...as read by Jaya of The HU Today we welcome Jaya from The HU to the podcast! The HU will release their new album, Hun, This Friday on Better Noise Music! Jaya talks about picking up the family mantle in being a musician, how The HU came together and the band's commitment to their sound, the theme behind Hun, representing Mongolia, and more. Thanks to Solongo Batbold for being the translator for this conversation!https://www.thehuofficial.comDiscordPatreonSubstack Email: asthestorygrows@gmail.com Chapter 739 Music: The HU - "The Real You" The HU - "Lost Soul" The HU - "Grey Hun"  

War, watermelon and waifu outfits on men. Summer is upon us and that means new summer-themed snacks, new outfits, and most importantly, new anime!This week on the AniTAY podcast, Requiem, Doctorkev and Marquan (with Marquan handling the editing duties) talk about the new Summer 2026 season as well as their go-to anime, show, and/or film about war. The AniTAY Podcast is a bi-weekly podcast brought to you every other Wednesday. It is available on all your favorite podcast services! If you like us, be sure to subscribe to your favorite service and give us 5 stars! Your support is much appreciated and will help us grow and continue to provide this style of content.ItineraryIntro: 0:00:00–0:02:32Housekeeping: 0:02:32–0:16:14Jaadugar: A Witch of Mongolia: 0:16:15–0:23:35Kaiju Girl Caramelise: 0:23:36–0:29:05Clevatess S2: 0:29:06–0:33:10Thunder3: 0:33:11–0:39:39Forsaken Saintess Foodie Road Trip: 0:39:40–0:44:01Ghost in the Shell: 0:44:02–0:47:22Saga of Tanya the Evil: 0:47:23–0:52:58All-Works Maid: 0:53:04–0:57:59Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You: 0:58:00–01:04:09News: 01:05:42–01:11:52Go-to War Anime, film, etc: 01:11:53–01:28:34Outro: 01:29:04 — End

China's growing use of economic power for strategic and political purposes has become one of the defining features of international competition. Beijing is no longer simply using trade and investment to promote economic growth—it is increasingly deploying a sophisticated toolkit of laws, regulations, export controls, market access, infrastructure investment, and technological standards to advance its broader geopolitical objectives.   In today's episode, we'll explore how China's approach to economic statecraft has evolved, how effective it has been, its impact on Chinese foreign policy – especially relations with the United States -- and what governments around the world can do in response. I'm delighted to be joined by Dr. Evan Medeiros, one of the leading experts on Chinese foreign policy, including its use of economic statecraft, to help us unpack these important issues.   Dr. Medeiros is the Penner Family Chair in Asia Studies in the School of Foreign Service and the Cling Family Distinguished Fellow in US-China Studies at Georgetown University. He served seven years in President Obama's NSC first as director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, and then as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asia. Timestamps: [00:00] Introduction [01:49] What is Chinese Economic Statecraft? [04:52] How Chinese Leaders Think About Economic Power and Political Influence [06:43] The Evolution of China's Economic Statecraft Toolkit [09:49] Chinese Market Accessibility as Statecraft [14:07] Institutionalizing Economic Statecraft [17:37] How Legal Bodies are Implemented [23:32] Implications for the US-China Relationship [25:36] Strengthening US Economic Statecraft

Episode 254 of the GAHHDcast welcomes back friend of the show Mesa for one of his most revealing interviews yet.As an artist signed to So Raspy, the label founded by Jadakiss, Mesa gives his perspective on the recent tension involving Jadakiss and 38 Spesh. He explains why he decided to release his own diss record, discusses the idea of "punching up" in hip hop, and shares his thoughts on why some artists choose to target established legends in an effort to gain attention.Beyond the headlines, the conversation shifts to Mesa's incredible experiences outside the booth. He talks about his recent trip to Mongolia, collaborating with artists from around the world, and why building genuine relationships has become one of the keys to his success. Mesa also speaks on the importance of putting friends in positions to win, creating opportunities for others, and expanding hip hop beyond geographical boundaries.To close out the episode, Mesa reminds everyone why he's one of New Jersey's most respected lyricists by delivering an exclusive freestyle live on the GAHHDcast.From hip hop politics and industry insight to world travel and elite lyricism, this is an interview you don't want to miss.Mesa interview, GAHHDcast Mesa, Jadakiss 38 Spesh discussion, So Raspy Records, Mesa freestyle, hip hop podcast, New Jersey rapper interview, underground hip hop interview, Mesa diss track, Jadakiss label artist #GAHHDcast #Episode254 #Mesa #Jadakiss #SoRaspy #38Spesh #HipHopPodcast #Freestyle #NewJerseyHipHop #UndergroundHipHop

China's domestically developed large passenger aircraft, the C919, will begin its international service on Aug. 12. The route operated by Air China will connect Beijing and Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, with one round-trip flight per day.

In celebration of 2026 World Falun Dafa Day a practitioner from the pastoral region of Mongolia shares how three generations of her family have blossomed in the grace of Falun Dafa. Mothers, grandmothers, in-laws, nieces and grandchildren have all taken to heart the pure teachings of Dafa and received many blessings. This and other experience-sharing on the Minghui website.Original Articles:1. [Celebrating World Falun Dafa Day] Large Mongolian Family Bathed in the Grace of Dafa2. [Celebrating World Falun Dafa Day] 90-Year-Old Woman's Miraculous Experience: Four Encounters with Master To provide feedback on this podcast, please email us at feedback@minghuiradio.org

Medical missionaries are often called upon to provide care that is beyond the scope of their training and previous experience. This interactive case presentation looks at the realities of clinical decision-making in a critically ill snakebitten patient, and offers suggestions on how to navigate similar challenging situations.