Podcasts about Moscow

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: First up—a major shakeup inside Beijing, as Xi Jinping purges China's top general amid allegations he leaked nuclear weapons secrets to the United States. We'll break down what this stunning move reveals about growing paranoia, internal power struggles, and instability at the very top of the Chinese Communist Party. Later in the show—even as Ukrainian and Russian officials met to discuss peace, Moscow pressed its campaign against civilians, launching air attacks that knocked out power for more than one million Ukrainians. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief DeleteMe: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://joindeleteme.com/PDB and use promocode PDB at checkout. American Financing: Call American Financing today to find out how customers are saving an avg of $800/mo. NMLS 182334, https://nmlsconsumeraccess.orgAPR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-885-1881 for details about credit costs and terms. Visit http://www.AmericanFinancing.net/PDB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The corpse of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, was placed on display in Moscow's Red Square on 27th January, 1924 - where, astonishingly, he remains viewable to this day.  He'd wanted to be buried next to his mother in Saint Petersburg, but after he suffered a series of strokes, the Soviet government instead secretly planned to build a mausoleum for his body, in part to deify him as a quasi-religious figure. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how pioneering embalming techniques were created by ‘The Lenin Lab' to look after the cadaver; ponder how mausoleum architect Alexey Shchusev contented with the January freeze; and consider whether an embalmed Queen Victoria would be just as popular a tourist attraction… Further Reading: • ‘Death of Lenin' (The Guardian, 1924): ⁠https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/death-of-lenin-archive-1924⁠ • ‘Lenin's Body Improves with Age' (Scientific American, 2015): ⁠https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lenin-s-body-improves-with-age1/⁠ • ‘Russia: 100 Years on from Revolution' (BBC News, 2017): ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPmlX4kWgjs⁠ Love the show? Support us!  Join 

Today, we welcome Greig Watts, a powerhouse in songwriting, publishing, and music development. Greig is one-third of the internationally successful songwriting and publishing team DWB, known for selling millions of units worldwide and for pioneering early breakthroughs in markets like Japan and South Korea long before the global rise of J-Pop and K-Pop.Greig's Website @greigwatts on Instagram Greig's Facebook page Greig's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greigwatts/For songwriters who feel stuck, discouraged, or tired of rejection, his mission: help creators overcome setbacks, rediscover joy, and keep fighting for the dream that first sparked their love of music. Greig has captured decades of experience—and the heart of his creative philosophy—in his bestselling book, Keeping the Dream Alive. It's part memoir, part guide, and part rallying cry.He's overseen 16 Eurovision entries in 10 consecutive years, coached dozens of successful writers, spoken at industry conferences from Moscow to Taiwan to Amsterdam, served as a BBC Music Consultant, and mentored songwriters around the world.From Almost Quitting to International SuccessGreig, your book opens with a vulnerable story—by 2003 you almost walked away from music entirely. What helped you turn rejection into fuel instead of failure, and how did that turning point shape the book Keeping the Dream Alive?The Mindset of PersistenceYou say showing up matters more than talent. What does “showing up” actually look like for songwriters—and how can creatives overcome procrastination, self-doubt, and the belief that they're not good enough? What's the secret to finishing songs instead of endlessly rewriting them?Protecting Creativity While Treating Music as a BusinessYou're very honest that loving music isn't enough—you also have to monetize it to keep going. How can songwriters protect their creativity from burnout while still building a viable career in an intensely competitive industry?Finding Success in Unexpected PlacesYou and DWB broke into Japan and Korea long before most UK or US writers even knew those markets existed. You also helped make Eurovision songwriting camps what they are today. How has seeking out “the niche” shaped your creative and business success?Mentorship, Neurodiversity & Keeping the Dream AliveYou've launched courses supporting songwriters—including neurodiverse creatives—and you speak often about defending the underdog. How do you help writers identify their strengths, build a supportive team, and keep the dream alive even when people around them doubt them? Greig, for any songwriter listening who feels like their dream is slipping away—what's the one thing you want them to hear today?”Book link for listeners:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Keeping-Dream-Alive-Songwriters-Overcoming/dp/195725551XThanks to our sponsor, White Cloud Coffee—fueling creative conversations everywhere. Listeners, enjoy 10% off your first order at

Brett Forrest introduces Billy Riley, a Michigan youth recruited as an FBI Confidential Human Source after 9/11 due to his online skills. Forrest details Billy's cancelled mission to the Philippines and his parents' concerns regarding his mysterious 2015 departure for Russia to join a humanitarian effort near the Ukraine war.1917 MOSCOW

Day 1,432.Today, as Kyiv endures sub-zero temperatures, we report on Russia's latest mass aerial attack on the city, carried out even as trilateral so-called peace talks were taking place in Abu Dhabi over the weekend. We examine Steve Witkoff's latest visit to Moscow – he has still yet to travel to Ukraine – and ask why Russia is now pushing the opaque “Alaska formula” in a bid to secure territory it has failed to seize by force. And later, Francis Dearnley and Hamish de Bretton-Gordon visit the British Army's Land Warfare Centre, where the next generation of soldiers is learning the lessons of the war in Ukraine.ContributorsDominic Nicholls (Associate Editor of Defence). @DomNicholls on X.Francis Dearnley (Executive Editor for Audio). @FrancisDearnley on X.Hamish De Bretton-Gordon (Former British Army Tank Commander). @HamishDBGon on X.With thanks to Colonel Thurston from the Land Warfare Centre. SIGN UP TO THE ‘UKRAINE: THE LATEST' WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:http://telegraph.co.uk/ukrainenewsletter Each week, Dom Nicholls and Francis Dearnley answer your questions, provide recommended reading, and give exclusive analysis and behind-the-scenes insights – plus maps of the frontlines and diagrams of weapons to complement our daily reporting. It's free for everyone, including non-subscribers.CONTENT REFERENCED:Learn more about the Land Warfare Centre:https://www.army.mod.uk/learn-and-explore/about-the-army/formations-divisions-and-brigades/field-army-troops/land-warfare-centre/ LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST IN NEW LANGUAGES:The Telegraph has launched translated versions of Ukraine: The Latest in Ukrainian and Russian, making its reporting accessible to audiences on both sides of the battle lines and across the wider region, including Central Asia and the Caucasus. Just search Україна: Останні Новини (Ukr) and Украина: Последние Новости (Ru) on your on your preferred podcast app to find them. Listen here: https://linktr.ee/ukrainethelatestSubscribe: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trevor Loudon Reports – Nyquist argued that American leadership, including Trump, operates through stratagem rather than genuine strategy. Drawing from Clausewitz, he defined stratagem as deception through action. Trump exemplifies this pattern, presenting bold actions that ultimately preserve the bipolar world order dominated by the socialist camp led by Moscow and Beijing...

Breaking down the new wrongful death lawsuit against Washington State University. The families of the four Idaho murder victims — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin — have filed a 126-page suit alleging WSU knew Bryan Kohberger was a threat and failed to act. The allegations are staggering: thirteen formal complaints in three months, female students needing security escorts, staff creating secret warning systems, and a professor who allegedly predicted Kohberger would become a predator. According to the lawsuit, WSU's response was internal hand-wringing and fear of getting sued by Kohberger himself. We break down the key allegations, the Title IX implications, and whether this case settles or goes to discovery. The victims weren't even WSU students — they attended University of Idaho and were killed in Moscow. Does WSU argue they had no duty to students at another school? What happens when those internal emails see daylight? And what does accountability actually look like when four kids are dead because an institution allegedly chose self-protection over student safety? This is institutional failure laid bare.#BryanKohberger #WSULawsuit #IdahoMurders #KayleeGoncalves #MadisonMogen #XanaKernodle #EthanChapin #TrueCrimeToday #TitleIX #BreakingNewsJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

Greenland on the table, NATO on edge, and an algorithm deciding who gets a knock at the door. We dive into President Trump's Davos remarks claiming the U.S. will pursue Greenland, then trace the fallout across European capitals as Denmark draws a hard line on sovereignty and lawmakers move to unwind trade ties. If Greenland is already protected by NATO, what problem is “acquisition” solving—and at what cost to U.S. credibility, markets, and the transatlantic alliance? From there, we cut through fuzzy NATO math. The much‑touted jump to 5 percent defense spending looks more like creative accounting than real muscle, with roads and rail counted as deterrence and deadlines pushed years out. Theater might buy applause, but it doesn't buy readiness. On Ukraine, the rhetoric of nearing peace collides with a harsher map: mass drone and missile strikes, a frayed grid, rare hypersonic shots, and manpower strains that no press conference can paper over. Signing a bilateral pact that Moscow rejects as a red line isn't a glide path to de‑escalation; it's a fresh wedge that could harden the war. The most chilling turn lands at home. We reveal how a Palantir‑powered tool helps ICE score neighborhoods and surface targets, while agencies purchase sensitive data from tech brokers to sidestep warrants. When a confidence number can trigger a raid, due process becomes optional and your phone becomes a surveillance beacon. Security doesn't require pretending algorithms are oracles; it demands laws that protect rights and a strategy that separates signal from noise. If you value clear analysis over spin, tap follow, share this episode with someone who tracks foreign policy and tech, and leave a quick review telling us which topic you want us to dig into next. Your support helps this show reach the people who need it most.

FILE 1. HARRY HOPKINS AND UNCONDITIONAL AID. GUEST AUTHOR SEAN MCMEEKIN. Professor Sean McMeekin discusses his book Stalin's War, highlighting Harry Hopkins's pivotal 1941 mission to Moscow to establish direct communication with Stalin,. Despite significant American political opposition viewing Stalin as a "monster" comparable to Hitler, Hopkins and FDR provided unconditional Lend-Lease aid—including aluminum and tanks—without demanding reciprocal concessions regarding Japan or transparency,.1921

FILE 2. THE PURGE OF LITVINOV AND THE MOSCOW PACT. GUEST AUTHOR SEAN MCMEEKIN. On May 3, 1939, Stalin ordered the arrest of Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov and his Jewish staff, replacing him with Molotov to signal a diplomatic shift toward Nazi Germany,. This maneuver paved the way for the Moscow Pact, allowing Stalin to opportunistically seize territory in Poland, Finland, and the Baltics while Western powers remained passive,.1928

FILE 3. THE MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP PACT AND TERRITORIAL AMBITION. GUEST AUTHOR SEAN MCMEEKIN. McMeekin explains that the 1939 appointment of Molotov signaled Stalin's shift toward collaboration with Hitler, leading to the Moscow Pact. Stalin used this alliance opportunistically to reclaim imperial Russian territories in Poland, Finland, and the Baltics, while British leadership, including Churchill, largely accepted these aggressive moves as a necessary buffer against Germany,.1943 TEHRAN

FILE 5. OPERATION BARBAROSSA AND THE DEFENSE OF MOSCOW. GUEST AUTHOR SEAN MCMEEKIN. McMeekin challenges the narrative that Stalin suffered a nervous breakdown during the 1941 German invasion, noting the dictator remained active despite the shock. The segment details how Stalin's decision to stay in Moscow stiffened morale and reveals that Stalin possessed, but did not share, intelligence regarding Japan's impending attacks on Western powers,.

First, a look at some of the news as this year starts hard and bizarre: trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi (with military intelligence chiefs to the fore), the Greenland crisis and the perils of Trump's Board of Peace for a Russia that we might consider a 'middle power.' Then, once-in-a-generation blizzards in Kamchatka as a test of state capacity and Putin's engagement.With Kadyrov reportedly seriously ill (really, this time, we think), what prospects for this satrapy? His sons are too young, too raw, and too notorious. The likely pathways run through the Benoi clan: a feared enforcer, a well-connected dealmaker, or a polished general viewed as Moscow's man. Expect bargaining, intrigue and selective violence rather than open war, but even a managed transition could consume attention and security assets at a time when bandwidth is already stretched by the war. The nightmare—a wider North Caucasus flare-up that drags troops from Ukraine—remains unlikely, yet no longer unthinkable.The podcast's corporate partner and sponsor is Conducttr, which provides software for innovative and immersive crisis exercises in hybrid warfare, counter-terrorism, civil affairs and similar situations.You can also follow my blog, In Moscow's Shadows, and become one of the podcast's supporting Patrons and gain question-asking rights and access to exclusive extra materials including the (almost-) weekly Govorit Moskva news briefing right here. Support the show

Why did a German immigration officer deny asylum to a Russian torture victim by citing a press release from Sergei Shoigu? Why is the Russian Orthodox Church building an Artificial Intelligence to automate the writing of police denunciations? And why is Vladimir Putin personally designing a business plan for a single pie shop while the national gold reserves vanish?In this episode of The Eastern Border, we smash the glass of the "Republic of Fake." We travel from the heated offices of Berlin bureaucrats who have accepted the Kremlin's lies as legal truth, to the frontlines where "Turbo-Patriots" are realizing that their holy war has become nothing more than an unfashionable subculture.We dig into the "Kickback Empire" where 50% of the imperial budget is stolen by handlers in Moscow, meet "Yura Unitaz"—the alleged toilet salesman in charge of Russia's drone war—and analyze the forensic data proving the Kadyrov regime is running on autopilot.The cake is rotting, friends. Don't eat it.IN THIS EPISODE:The Shoigu Precedent: How German bureaucracy was hacked by Russian apathy.The Mashenka Economy: The President, the Pie Shop, and the 1998 oil prices.Orthodox GPT: Outsourcing Judas to a server farm.The Kadyrov Glitch: Waze data, deleted Instagram posts, and the panic in Grozny.The Dead End: Why Russian nationalists admit "The SMO is out of fashion."SUPPORT THE FRONT LINE: Help our friends at Car4Ukraine turn civilian trucks into life-saving "Christmas Tree Trucks" for the defenders on the zero line:

Kate Adie introduces stories from Ukraine, Russia, France, Uganda and Morocco.As temperatures plummet in Ukraine, Russia is aggressively attacking the country's energy grid. Ukraine is heavily reliant on its nuclear power plants, which are also being targeted. There are concerns that without proper maintenance, it could trigger another nuclear disaster. Wyre Davies spoke to the head of Ukraine's nuclear authority.President Trump has claimed the threat posed by Russia and China is one of the reasons the US must acquire Greenland - but rather than antagonise the Kremlin, the pro-Kremlin Russian news service has been full of praise for the US president. Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.From South Korea to Western Europe, there's deep concern over falling birth rates – and it was one of the reasons behind France's decision a few years ago to amend its policy regarding egg-freezing for non-medical purposes, bringing it in line with other European countries. Carolyn Lamboley recounts her personal experience.1986 was the year Diego Maradona lifted the World Cup - and when Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni first came to power. Last week, the 81-year-old won his seventh consecutive term in office, Sammy Awami was in Kampala where he heard from young people about how they voted.The 2026 Africa Cup of Nations came to a close in Morocco last weekend and aside from missing the chance to lift the trophy for the first time in fifty years, the tournament proved controversial in Morocco due to the vast sums spent on it. Tim Hartley reflects on the discontent over prioritising sporting prestige over public services.Producer: Serena Tarling Production coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

The $15M bounty beast has finally been busted: Ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding is captured after a 10-year Narco nightmare...that left several people dead & dumped billions in 'snow' on the streets! The takedown went down South of the Border. Grisly leaked crime scene photos reveal Bryan Kohberger's quadruple carnage in Moscow, Idaho as it's never been seen before; The families are blasting the cops for the photo dump. Plus, police encounter some big bucks at a bank. Jennifer Gould reports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this next instalment of the Evolve series on the evolution of culture and society, Beth is joined by historian, journalist, author, speaker, editor, and co-founder of the Rising Tide Foundation, Matt Ehret, for a wide-angle conversation on geopolitics.This episode asks deeper questions than the usual headlines allow.Rather than focusing solely on villains, conspiracies, or surface-level power struggles, this conversation explores how power itself has evolved over time — and how culture, creativity, and human intention have shaped (and reshaped) the geopolitical landscape.Together, we explore:How power structures have historically formed, fractured, and transformedWhat arose organically from culture versus what was engineered by shifting centers of powerHow empires, ideologies, and institutions evolve in response to human consciousnessWhy understanding history matters if we want a different futureHow to stay oriented toward optimism and agency without denying real harm or corruptionMatt brings a rare blend of historical depth and future-oriented vision, offering a perspective that doesn't collapse into despair — but instead points toward human creativity as an active force in history.This episode of Beth of Fresh Air is an invitation to look at geopolitics not as a fixed chessboard controlled by unseen hands, but as a living process — one that is still unfolding, and still open to influence.Learn More About Matt Ehret

In this episode, Alex delves into the deadly high‑speed train collision in southern Spain, which has prompted national mourning and renewed scrutiny of rail safety after dozens were killed and dozens more injured in what officials are calling a highly unusual crash. He also examines the growing winter humanitarian crisis in Kyiv, where Russian attacks on energy infrastructure have left large parts of the city without heat, power, or water amid sub‑zero temperatures, pushing civilians toward catastrophe. Finally, the discussion explores shifts in global power dynamics, considering analyses that suggest Vladimir Putin's international standing has weakened as Russia's allies falter and global reactions mount in the wake of the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro — an unprecedented event with implications for Moscow's influence.

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:  First—In his latest warning to the mullahs, President Trump says the U.S. has an “armada” heading toward Iran — as the death toll from the regime's crackdown tops 5,000. So, what exactly is being deployed, and how close is Washington to military action? Later in the show—The first trilateral peace talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. are now underway — and everything hinges on territory. We'll break down Moscow's demands, Kyiv's red lines, and why expectations for a breakthrough are already sinking. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief BRUNT Workwear: Get $10 Off at BRUNT with code PDB at https://www.bruntworkwear.com/PDB #Bruntpod  CBDistillery: Visit https://CBDistillery.com and use promo code PDB for 25% off your entire order! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: First up—a new report offers an inside look at the White House's efforts to engineer regime change in Cuba, as U.S. officials—emboldened by events in Venezuela—search for Cuban power brokers willing to cut a deal and bring an end to Communist rule. Later in the show—President Trump meets with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy in Davos, with Kyiv saying security guarantees are settled, but the most critical issue of all—territory—remains unresolved. Plus—the war against Russia's shadow fleet is expanding, as France's navy intercepts an oil tanker in the Mediterranean linked to Moscow's covert sanctions-busting network. And in today's Back of the Brief—a sobering case out of Iran, where a young soldier has been sentenced to death for refusing orders to fire on protesters during nationwide unrest. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief BRUNT Workwear: Get $10 Off at BRUNT with code PDB at https://www.bruntworkwear.com/PDB#Bruntpod CBDistillery: Visit https://CBDistillery.comand use promo code PDB for 25% off your entire order! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first three-way talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine are due to be held later today. It's a new development - but will it bring peace closer? Senior officials from all three nations are involved, but it is unclear whether they will be in the same room together at any point. Also in the programme: A deal has been done to keep Tiktok in the US; we go inside the secret prisons of southern Yemen; and we find out how to eavesdrop on villains in 17th century London.(Photo shows Russia's top economic negotiator Kirill Dmitriev and US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff attend a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on 22 January 2026. Alexander Kazakov/Sputnikl/EPA)

Bryan Kohberger was a teaching assistant at Washington State University when he allegedly stalked, harassed, and terrorized women on campus. At least 13 formal complaints were filed against him. Staff created informal "911" alerts to warn each other when he was around. Women requested security escorts just to avoid interactions with him. One professor allegedly predicted that if WSU gave Kohberger a PhD, they'd hear about him harassing and sexually abusing students down the road. None of it stopped him. On November 13, 2022, Kohberger drove eight miles to Moscow, Idaho, and murdered Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. Now the families of all four victims have filed a 126-page wrongful death lawsuit against WSU, alleging gross negligence, Title IX violations, and deliberate indifference to the danger Kohberger posed. They're arguing the murders were "foreseeable and preventable." Today on True Crime Today, former prosecutor turned criminal defense attorney Eric Faddis breaks down the legal claims. What does the university have to prove in its defense? What will discovery expose? And could this lawsuit set a nationwide precedent for institutional liability when warning signs are ignored?#BryanKohberger #KayleeGoncalves #MadisonMogen #XanaKernodle #EthanChapin #WSULawsuit #TrueCrimeToday #TitleIX #EricFaddis #Idaho4Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

Washington State University knew Bryan Kohberger was dangerous. That's what the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin are alleging in a devastating new lawsuit filed January 7th, 2026. The 126-page complaint details at least 13 formal complaints filed against Kohberger during his single semester as a graduate teaching assistant at WSU. Women were requesting security escorts to avoid him. Staff created informal "911" email alerts to warn each other when he was nearby. One supervising instructor allegedly expressed concern that removing Kohberger could expose the university to a lawsuit—choosing legal liability over campus safety. A professor reportedly told colleagues that if WSU gave Kohberger a PhD, they'd eventually hear about him harassing and sexually abusing students. The murders happened eight miles away in Moscow, Idaho. The families argue those murders were foreseeable and preventable. Former prosecutor turned criminal defense attorney Eric Faddis joins Hidden Killers to break down the legal claims: Title IX violations, gross negligence, wrongful death. What does "deliberate indifference" mean in court? How do families prove it? And what's WSU most afraid of having exposed during discovery? This lawsuit could set precedent for institutional liability nationwide.#BryanKohberger #WSULawsuit #KayleeGoncalves #MadisonMogen #XanaKernodle #EthanChapin #HiddenKillers #TitleIX #EricFaddis #Idaho4Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

Renue Healthcare https://Renue.Healthcare/ToddYour journey to a better life starts at Renue Healthcare. Visit https://Renue.Healthcare/Todd Bulwark Capital https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.comFind out how the future of AI could impact your retirement during Zach Abraham's free “New Year Reset” live webinar January 29th 3:30pm Pacific. Register at KnowYourRiskPodcast.com.Alan's Soaps https://www.AlansArtisanSoaps.comUse coupon code TODD to save an additional 10% off the bundle price.Bonefrog https://BonefrogCoffee.com/ToddThe new GOLDEN AGE is here!  Use code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase and 15% on subscriptions.LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE at:The Todd Herman Show - Podcast - Apple PodcastsThe Todd Herman Show | Podcast on SpotifyWATCH and SUBSCRIBE at: Todd Herman - The Todd Herman Show - YouTubePeople should spend more time understanding what the Devil wants… Because if you understand what the Devil wants, you can do the opposite.Episode Links:Beyond Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) Psychology: Measuring and Mapping Scales of Cultural and Psychological DistanceMichelle Obama says she is mindful to try to avoid white-owned brands and others also should beLeftist agitator William Kelly says he does not regret taking over a Christian church in Minneapolis or calling worshipers, including children, Nazis, and is now calling on Pam Bondi to do something about -“Come and get me, Pam Bondi.”BREAKING: Unhinged leftist who attacked an independent journalist on a Philly bus, punching and pepper spraying @FrankJScales, has been identified as Paulina Reyes, an intern at @WHYYNews.Iranian MMA fighter Ali Heibati kicked a ring girl before a bout in Moscow. He forgot Russia was not an Islamic Republic where you humiliate women at will. Spectators dealt with him MMA-style after the match. He has been banned from all competitions.The Miami Beach police showed up to a resident's house to intimidate and harass her over her “antisemitic” post about the Jewish mayor. INSANE.  This looks like a video coming out of the UK. These people need to be sued!The Democrat playbook is to arrest every single person who disagrees with them and stack the Supreme Court to make sure those people have ZERO rights. This dem consultant lays it out in plain English. Believe them when they show you who they are.

Today's Headlines: President Donald Trump remains in Davos, where he delivered an 80-minute speech packed with familiar grievances, questionable claims — including that “Canada lives because of the United States” — and repeatedly mixed up Iceland and Greenland. For now, he's pulled back threats of military action and additional tariffs on Europe, claiming instead that he's reached a vague “framework” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte over Greenland, which he described as an “infinite deal,” without offering details. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet with Trump to discuss U.S. security guarantees and post-ceasefire reconstruction, while Trump's unofficial envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met with a Putin-linked negotiator in Davos and are headed to Moscow for more talks. Back in the U.S., tensions are escalating in Minnesota. Alongside 1,500 troops already on standby, the Pentagon has placed roughly 300 additional soldiers at Fort Bragg on notice in case Trump invokes the Insurrection Act amid ongoing Minneapolis protests. In Congress, the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt over their refusal to testify about Jeffrey Epstein, while declining to hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt for failing to release the Epstein files. Ghislaine Maxwell is scheduled to give a virtual deposition on February 9. Meanwhile, the administration admitted in court that Elon Musk's DOGE-linked team improperly accessed and shared Americans' Social Security data, and a federal judge ordered the FBI to temporarily stop searching devices seized from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson and return them pending further review. Resources/Articles mentioned in this episode: Reuters: Trump backs down on Greenland tariffs, says deal framework reached Politico: Trump and Zelenskyy to meet Thursday at Davos MSNOW: Pentagon orders more active-duty soldiers to ready for possible Minneapolis deployment PBS News: WATCH: House Oversight advances resolution on holding Clintons in contempt The Guardian: Doge improperly shared sensitive social security data, DoJ court filing reveals | Trump administration WaPo: Judge blocks government from searching data seized from Post reporter Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump says his Board of Peace will help forge 'everlasting' peace in the Middle East and the wider world, but a number of European countries have refused to join the body. We hear from the president's former Deputy National Security Adviser. Also on the programme: US envoys head to Moscow to meet with President Putin in latest round of Ukraine peace talks; and the nominations for this year's Oscars are out, with vampire horror Sinners receiving a record-breaking sixteen nods.(Photo: US President Donald Trump holding charter for his Board of Peace initiative in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January 2026; Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

A faculty member at Washington State University allegedly looked at Bryan Kohberger and told colleagues: Mark my words—if we give this guy a PhD, we'll hear about him harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing students. That wasn't hindsight. That was foresight. And according to a new lawsuit filed by the families of the four murdered Idaho students, it was one of at least 13 formal complaints WSU allegedly ignored before Kohberger drove seven miles to Moscow and killed four people in their beds. Former FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke joins Hidden Killers to analyze what this level of institutional awareness—and alleged inaction—means from a behavioral threat assessment perspective. Robin spent 21 years with the Bureau, including time as Chief of the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, and he's seen what happens when warning signs get buried by bureaucracy. The lawsuit details staff developing their own informal "911" alert system to warn each other when Kohberger was nearby. Women needing security escorts to their cars. Students fleeing classrooms mid-lecture. A professor keeping a tally board of his discriminatory comments. Robin breaks down what these behaviors signal, how threat assessments are supposed to function, and why institutions so often choose perceived legal protection over actual safety. We'll discuss whether these murders were truly "foreseeable and preventable"—the exact language from the lawsuit—and what it takes to intervene before someone like Kohberger acts on what everyone around him allegedly saw coming. This is an essential conversation about accountability, institutional failure, and the cost of inaction.#BryanKohberger #HiddenKillers #WSULawsuit #IdahoStudentMurders #KayleeGoncalves #ThreatAssessment #RobinDreeke #FBI #TitleIX #TrueCrimePodcastJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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U.S. President Donald Trump rules out the use of force in Greenland and backtracks on European tariffs. U.S. envoys are set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for peace talks in Moscow as Ukrainians endure their bitterest winter since the war began. The U.S. Supreme Court sees a risk in letting Trump run roughshod over the Fed. And ICE targets Somali communities in Maine in Trump's latest immigration crackdown.   Listen to The Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Find the Recommended Read here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

35 years ago, Julia Ioffe and her family arrived in the U.S. as refugees from the former Soviet Union, having fled their homeland upon rumors of a planned pogrom against the Jews of Moscow. Julia was only seven. Today, Julia Ioffe — a happy American accident, as she has called her life — has become a go-to journalist for her singular insights on Vladimir Putin and Russia and her reporting on the war in Ukraine and U.S. national security policy.In this conversation with Puck News correspondent Julia Ioffe, recorded August 9, 2024 live at Nantucket's Dreamland Theatre, we discuss: Ukraine's surprise offensive inside Russia; Putin's grip on power — and what it would take to loosen it; Ioffe's deep dive into Putin's childhood; the enduring impact of Stalin's Great Terror on the Russian psyche; Ioffe's reflections on Alexey Navalny; a show & tell analysis of Putin, on camera, demanding obedience from his top aides; how to curse like a Russian; and, two months before she gave birth to her first child, what Julia Ioffe will tell her son about the world he is entering.

Ponies is a delightful series about two women who become CIA spies during the Cold War. In our very generous conversation, creator Susanna Fogel explores the development of her characters and the show's unique take on designing Moscow, as well as some of the honest trade-offs required to get a streaming series over the line these days. Subscribe to Top Of The Line - IndieWire's new newsletter about the craft of film and TV - https://cloud.email.indiewire.com/signup/ Listen to the Screen Talk Podcast. Every Friday IndieWire editors Anne Thompson & Ryan Lattanzio break down insider news from Hollywood and debate the latest films and series. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/indiewire-screen-talk/id893977298 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's podcast:1) President Trump said he would refrain from imposing tariffs on goods from European nations opposing his effort to take possession of Greenland, citing a “framework of a future deal” he said was reached regarding the island. The decision, which Trump announced Wednesday on social media, marks a stark reversal for a president who has repeatedly attempted to coerce Europe over Greenland. It came after a meeting with North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Still, Trump did not detail the parameters of the so-called “framework” and it was unclear what the agreement entails, especially since Denmark earlier Wednesday ruled out negotiations over ceding the semi-autonomous island to the US.2) Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he is ready to commit Russian assets that remain frozen in the US to rebuild Ukrainian regions damaged during the war after a peace treaty is concluded. Putin also said he could give $1 billion from the US-based assets - frozen to punish Putin for his 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine - to President Trump’s proposed Board of Peace. The offer has been discussed with the US, Putin said, and he plans to talk about it more Thursday during a meeting with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow.3) US Supreme Court justices suggested they are wary of President Trump’s effort to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over unproven mortgage-fraud allegations, saying the move could upend the Fed’s independence and rattle markets. Hearing arguments in Washington Wednesday, conservative and liberal justices alike sharply questioned US Solicitor General D. John Sauer, who urged the court to let Trump oust Cook for the time being while her lawsuit goes forward. Trump’s own appointees were among the skeptics. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the president’s position would “weaken if not shatter the independence of the Federal Reserve.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked whether the risk to financial markets was reason for “caution on our part,” though she also suggested she wasn’t ready to fully embrace Cook’s position.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 1,427.Today, as Donald Trump heads to Davos with what he calls “good news” about Greenland, we examine prime minister of Canada Mark Carney's extraordinary speech at Davos where he warned that we cannot “live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination”. We also report on Moscow's representative to the IAEA dismissing global concern over Russia's strikes on Ukraine's nuclear power plants as overblown. And later, we speak to our Kremlin watcher about what may come from Steve Witkoff's meeting tomorrow in Moscow with Vladimir Putin.ContributorsDominic Nicholls (Associate Editor of Defence). @DomNicholls on X.Lily Shanagher (Foreign Reporter). @LilyShanagher on X.James Kilner (Foreign Analyst). @jkjourno on X.SIGN UP TO THE ‘UKRAINE: THE LATEST' WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:http://telegraph.co.uk/ukrainenewsletter Each week, Dom Nicholls and Francis Dearnley answer your questions, provide recommended reading, and give exclusive analysis and behind-the-scenes insights – plus maps of the frontlines and diagrams of weapons to complement our daily reporting. It's free for everyone, including non-subscribers.CONTENT REFERENCED:Telegraph Live Blog of Davos:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/21/politics-latest-news-pmqs-chagos-china-embassy-keir-starmer/ Trump's $1bn-a-ticket plan to replace the UN (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/21/trump-1bn-a-ticket-replace-un/ The limits of Trump's Bazball diplomacy (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/20/donald-trump-bazball-diplomacy-analysis/ Save Ukraine Website:https://www.saveukraineua.org/LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST IN NEW LANGUAGES:The Telegraph has launched translated versions of Ukraine: The Latest in Ukrainian and Russian, making its reporting accessible to audiences on both sides of the battle lines and across the wider region, including Central Asia and the Caucasus. Just search Україна: Останні Новини (Ukr) and Украина: Последние Новости (Ru) on your on your preferred podcast app to find them. Listen here: https://linktr.ee/ukrainethelatestSubscribe: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He was born Michael Tivolis in 1470. In his early youth he traveled to Italy, where many scholars had fled to preserve Hellenic culture despite the fall of Constantinople. After completing his studies in Florence, he went to the Holy Mountain in 1507 and entered Vatopedi Monastery, where he received the name of Maximos. Ten years later he was sent to Russia in answer to a request of Grand Prince Basil Ivanovich, who sought someone to translate works of the Holy Fathers on the Psalter, as well as other Church books, into Slavonic. Maximos completed this work with such success that he was made to stay in Russia to correct the existing translations (from Greek to Slavonic) of the Scriptures and liturgical books, and to preach. His work aroused the jealousy of some native monks, and Maximos was falsely accused of plotting against the Prince. In 1525 he was condemned as a heretic by a church court and banished to the Monastery of Volokolamsk, where he lived as a prisoner, not only suffering cold and extreme physical privation but being denied Holy Communion and the use of books.   One day an angel appeared to him and said 'Have patience: You will be delivered from eternal torment by sufferings here below.' In thanks for this divine comfort, St Maximus wrote a canon to the Holy Spirit on the walls of his cell in charcoal, since he was denied the use of paper and pen. (This canon is sung on Pentecost Monday in some Russian and Serbian Monasteries). Six years later he was tried again and condemned to indefinite imprisonment in chains at a monastery in Tver. Happily, the Bishop of Tver supported him, and he was able to continue his theological work and carry on a large correspondence despite his confinement. He endured these grim conditions for twenty years. Toward the end of his life, he was finally freed by the Tsar in response to pleas on his behalf by the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria and the intervention of pious Russian nobles. He was received with honor in Moscow, and allowed to carry on his theological work at the Lavra. The Tsar Ivan IV came to honor him highly, partly because the Saint had foretold the death of the Tsar's son. When the Tsar called a Church Council to fight the doctrines of some who had brought the Calvinist heresy into Russia, he asked St Maximos to attend. Too old and weak to travel, the Saint sent a brilliant refutation of the heresy to the Council; this was his last written work. He reposed in peace in 1556, aged eighty-six. Not long after his death, he was glorified by the Church in Greece as a Holy Confessor and 'Enlightener of Russia.' In 1988 (!) he was added to the calendar of Saints by the Moscow Patriarchate.

Listen to Daily Global #News from Grecian Echoes WNTN 1550 AM - Trump in Davos where tensions over Greenland continue to dominate discussions - Canada PM warns the West old order is not coming back - Moscow is quietly supporting Greenland annexation from the sideline - Another train crash in Spain

HE BEAT HIS A** WITH A MAGAZINE!! The Bourne Supremacy Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Visit https://huel.com/rejects to get 15% off your order The Bourne Identity (2002) Reaction:    • THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) REACTION– THIS ...   THE RIP (2025) Movie Reaction:    • THE RIP (2025) MOVIE REACTION – AFFLECK VS...   Gift Someone (Or Yourself) An RR Tee! https://shorturl.at/hekk2 With Matt Damon back in Netflix's The Rip, Greg, Aaron, & Jon CONTINUE their Bourne Marathon giving their Bourne Supremacy Reaction, Recap, Breakdown, Commentary, Analysis & Spoiler Review! Greg Alba, Aaron Alexander, & Jon Maturan react to The Bourne Supremacy (2004), the intense, propulsive sequel that redefined modern action thrillers under the direction of Paul Greengrass (United 93, Captain Phillips). Building on the grounded realism of The Bourne Identity, this chapter pushes Jason Bourne deeper into paranoia, grief, and relentless pursuit as his past refuses to stay buried. The film follows Jason Bourne (Matt Damon – The Martian, Good Will Hunting) as he's pulled back into the world of covert assassinations after being framed for a CIA operation gone wrong. Haunted by guilt and determined to uncover the truth, Bourne becomes both hunter and hunted across Europe. Key figures in the conspiracy include Pamela Landy (Joan Allen – The Contender, Pleasantville), a sharp CIA deputy director trying to untangle Bourne from the agency's darkest secrets, and Kirill (Karl Urban – The Boys, Dredd), a ruthless assassin whose pursuit leads to some of the franchise's most visceral confrontations. Iconic moments from the film include the explosive Moscow car chase, often cited as one of the greatest chase sequences ever filmed; Bourne's brutal apartment fight with Kirill; the tense Berlin sequences; and the emotionally devastating revelation involving Marie (Franka Potente – Run Lola Run, The Conjuring 2). With its handheld cinematography, pounding urgency, and morally complex storytelling, The Bourne Supremacy elevated the franchise into a defining force of 2000s action cinema. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Jon Maturan: https://www.instagram.com/jonmaturan/?hl=en Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Day 1,426.Today, as Moscow reportedly tests thermobaric munitions on ground-based drones, and strikes on substations connected to Ukrainian nuclear power plants continue, we turn to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where world leaders have gathered for what was meant to be a week of diplomatic breakthroughs for Kyiv. Instead, the agenda has been seized by President Trump and his threats over Greenland; we hear the latest from the island, before speaking to the author of a new report on Russian cyber warfare.ContributorsFrancis Dearnley (Executive Editor for Audio). @FrancisDearnley on X.Dominic Nicholls (Associate Editor of Defence). @DomNicholls on X.James Rothwell (Berlin Correspondent). @JamesERothwell on X.With thanks to Michael McManus (Henry Jackson Society). @HJS_Org on X.SIGN UP TO THE ‘UKRAINE: THE LATEST' WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:http://telegraph.co.uk/ukrainenewsletter Each week, Dom Nicholls and Francis Dearnley answer your questions, provide recommended reading, and give exclusive analysis and behind-the-scenes insights – plus maps of the frontlines and diagrams of weapons to complement our daily reporting. It's free for everyone, including non-subscribers.CONTENT REFERENCED:Trump leaks texts, threatens Macron and trashes Starmer (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/20/trump-publishes-private-text-messages-european-leaders/ Denmark sends more troops to Greenland (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/20/donald-trump-chagos-deal-greenland-takeover-macron-nato0/ The Henry Jackson Society's cyber report will be published here later today:https://henryjacksonsociety.org/centre-for-russia-and-eurasia-studies/ Russians Made a Simplified Solntsepyok Using a Drone (Militarnyi):https://militarnyi.com/en/news/russians-made-a-simplified-solntsepyok-using-a-drone/The History Bureau: Putin and the Apartment Bombs (BBC):https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002q5dkTrump's Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw (Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic):https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/trump-letter-to-norway/685676/?gift=SCYx-5scVta3-cr_IlgTych2xLOYB0BDKFOlaP7EsG0LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST IN NEW LANGUAGES:The Telegraph has launched translated versions of Ukraine: The Latest in Ukrainian and Russian, making its reporting accessible to audiences on both sides of the battle lines and across the wider region, including Central Asia and the Caucasus. Just search Україна: Останні Новини (Ukr) and Украина: Последние Новости (Ru) on your on your preferred podcast app to find them. Listen here: https://linktr.ee/ukrainethelatestSubscribe: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last time we spoke about the climax of the battle of Lake Khasan. In August, the Lake Khasan region became a tense theater of combat as Soviet and Japanese forces clashed around Changkufeng and Hill 52. The Soviets pushed a multi-front offensive, bolstered by artillery, tanks, and air power, yet the Japanese defenders held firm, aided by engineers, machine guns, and heavy guns. By the ninth and tenth, a stubborn Japanese resilience kept Hill 52 and Changkufeng in Japanese hands, though the price was steep and the field was littered with the costs of battle. Diplomatically, both sides aimed to confine the fighting and avoid a larger war. Negotiations trudged on, culminating in a tentative cease-fire draft for August eleventh: a halt to hostilities, positions to be held as of midnight on the tenth, and the creation of a border-demarcation commission. Moscow pressed for a neutral umpire; Tokyo resisted, accepting a Japanese participant but rejecting a neutral referee. The cease-fire was imperfect, with miscommunications and differing interpretations persisting.    #185 Operation Hainan 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. After what seemed like a lifetime over in the northern border between the USSR and Japan, today we are returning to the Second Sino-Japanese War. Now I thought it might be a bit jarring to dive into it, so let me do a brief summary of where we are at, in the year of 1939. As the calendar turned to 1939, the Second Sino-Japanese War, which had erupted in July 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and escalated into full-scale conflict, had evolved into a protracted quagmire for the Empire of Japan. What began as a swift campaign to subjugate the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek had, by the close of 1938, transformed into a war of attrition. Japanese forces, under the command of generals like Shunroku Hata and Yasuji Okamura, had achieved stunning territorial gains: the fall of Shanghai in November 1937 after a brutal three-month battle that cost over 200,000 Chinese lives; the infamous capture of Nanjing in December 1937, marked by the Nanjing Massacre where an estimated 300,000 civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed in a six-week orgy of violence; and the sequential occupations of Xuzhou in May 1938, Wuhan in October 1938, and Guangzhou that same month.  These victories secured Japan's control over China's eastern seaboard, major riverine arteries like the Yangtze, and key industrial centers, effectively stripping the Nationalists of much of their economic base. Yet, despite these advances, China refused to capitulate. Chiang's government had retreated inland to the mountainous stronghold of Chongqing in Sichuan province, where it regrouped amid the fog-laden gorges, drawing on the vast human reserves of China's interior and the resilient spirit of its people. By late 1938, Japanese casualties had mounted to approximately 50,000 killed and 200,000 wounded annually, straining the Imperial Japanese Army's resources and exposing the vulnerabilities of overextended supply lines deep into hostile territory. In Tokyo, the corridors of the Imperial General Headquarters and the Army Ministry buzzed with urgent deliberations during the winter of 1938-1939. The initial doctrine of "quick victory" through decisive battles, epitomized by the massive offensives of 1937 and 1938, had proven illusory. Japan's military planners, influenced by the Kwantung Army's experiences in Manchuria and the ongoing stalemate, recognized that China's sheer size, with its 4 million square miles and over 400 million inhabitants, rendered total conquest unfeasible without unacceptable costs. Intelligence reports highlighted the persistence of Chinese guerrilla warfare, particularly in the north where Communist forces under Mao Zedong's Eighth Route Army conducted hit-and-run operations from bases in Shanxi and Shaanxi, sabotaging railways and ambushing convoys. The Japanese response included brutal pacification campaigns, such as the early iterations of what would later formalize as the "Three Alls Policy" (kill all, burn all, loot all), aimed at devastating rural economies and isolating resistance pockets. But these measures only fueled further defiance. By early 1939, a strategic pivot was formalized: away from direct annihilation of Chinese armies toward a policy of economic strangulation. This "blockade and interdiction" approach sought to sever China's lifelines to external aid, choking off the flow of weapons, fuel, and materiel that sustained the Nationalist war effort. As one Japanese staff officer noted in internal memos, the goal was to "starve the dragon in its lair," acknowledging the limits of Japanese manpower, total forces in China numbered around 1 million by 1939, against China's inexhaustible reserves. Central to this new strategy were the three primary overland supply corridors that had emerged as China's backdoors to the world, compensating for the Japanese naval blockade that had sealed off most coastal ports since late 1937. The first and most iconic was the Burma Road, a 717-mile engineering marvel hastily constructed between 1937 and 1938 by over 200,000 Chinese and Burmese laborers under the direction of engineers like Chih-Ping Chen. Stretching from the railhead at Lashio in British Burma (modern Myanmar) through treacherous mountain passes and dense jungles to Kunming in Yunnan province, the road navigated elevations up to 7,000 feet with hundreds of hairpin turns and precarious bridges. By early 1939, it was operational, albeit plagued by monsoonal mudslides, banditry, and mechanical breakdowns of the imported trucks, many Ford and Chevrolet models supplied via British Rangoon. Despite these challenges, it funneled an increasing volume of aid: in 1939 alone, estimates suggest up to 10,000 tons per month of munitions, gasoline, and aircraft parts from Allied sources, including early Lend-Lease precursors from the United States. The road's completion in 1938 had been a direct response to the loss of southern ports, and its vulnerability to aerial interdiction made it a prime target in Japanese planning documents. The second lifeline was the Indochina route, centered on the French-built Yunnan-Vietnam Railway (also known as the Hanoi-Kunming Railway), a 465-mile narrow-gauge line completed in 1910 that linked the port of Haiphong in French Indochina to Kunming via Hanoi and Lao Cai. This colonial artery, supplemented by parallel roads and river transport along the Red River, became China's most efficient supply conduit in 1938-1939, exploiting France's uneasy neutrality. French authorities, under Governor-General Pierre Pasquier and later Georges Catroux, turned a blind eye to transshipments, allowing an average of 15,000 to 20,000 tons monthly in early 1939, far surpassing the Burma Road's initial capacity. Cargoes included Soviet arms rerouted via Vladivostok and American oil, with French complicity driven by anti-Japanese sentiment and profitable tolls. However, Japanese reconnaissance flights from bases in Guangdong noted the vulnerability of bridges and rail yards, leading to initial bombing raids by mid-1939. Diplomatic pressure mounted, with Tokyo issuing protests to Paris, foreshadowing the 1940 closure under Vichy France after the fall of France in Europe. The route's proximity to the South China Sea made it a focal point for Japanese naval strategists, who viewed it as a "leak in the blockade." The third corridor, often overlooked but critical, was the Northwest Highway through Soviet Central Asia and Xinjiang province. This overland network, upgraded between 1937 and 1941 with Soviet assistance, connected the Turkestan-Siberian Railway at Almaty (then Alma-Ata) to Lanzhou in Gansu via Urumqi, utilizing a mix of trucks, camel caravans, and rudimentary roads across the Gobi Desert and Tian Shan mountains. Under the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of August 1937 and subsequent aid agreements, Moscow supplied China with over 900 aircraft, 82 tanks, 1,300 artillery pieces, and vast quantities of ammunition and fuel between 1937 and 1941—much of it traversing this route. In 1938-1939, volumes peaked, with Soviet pilots and advisors even establishing air bases in Lanzhou. The highway's construction involved tens of thousands of Chinese laborers, facing harsh winters and logistical hurdles, but it delivered up to 2,000 tons monthly, including entire fighter squadrons like the Polikarpov I-16. Japanese intelligence, aware of this "Red lifeline," planned disruptions but were constrained by the ongoing Nomonhan Incident on the Manchurian-Soviet border in 1939, which diverted resources and highlighted the risks of provoking Moscow. These routes collectively sustained China's resistance, prompting Japan's high command to prioritize their severance. In March 1939, the South China Area Army was established under General Rikichi Andō (later succeeded by Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi), headquartered in Guangzhou, with explicit orders to disrupt southern communications. Aerial campaigns intensified, with Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" bombers from Wuhan and Guangzhou targeting Kunming's airfields and the Red River bridges, while diplomatic maneuvers pressured colonial powers: Britain faced demands during the June 1939 Tientsin Crisis to close the Burma Road, and France received ultimatums that culminated in the 1940 occupation of northern Indochina. Yet, direct assaults on Yunnan or Guangxi were deemed too arduous due to rugged terrain and disease risks. Instead, planners eyed peripheral objectives to encircle these arteries. This strategic calculus set the stage for the invasion of Hainan Island, a 13,000-square-mile landmass off Guangdong's southern coast, rich in iron and copper but strategically priceless for its position astride the Indochina route and proximity to Hong Kong. By February 1939, Japanese admirals like Nobutake Kondō of the 5th Fleet advocated seizure to establish air and naval bases, plugging blockade gaps and enabling raids on Haiphong and Kunming, a prelude to broader southern expansion that would echo into the Pacific War. Now after the fall campaign around Canton in autumn 1938, the Japanese 21st Army found itself embedded in a relentless effort to sever the enemy's lifelines. Its primary objective shifted from mere battlefield engagements to tightening the choke points of enemy supply, especially along the Canton–Hankou railway. Recognizing that war materiel continued to flow into the enemy's hands, the Imperial General Headquarters ordered the 21st Army to strike at every other supply route, one by one, until the arteries of logistics were stifled. The 21st Army undertook a series of decisive occupations to disrupt transport and provisioning from multiple directions. To sustain these difficult campaigns, Imperial General Headquarters reinforced the south China command, enabling greater operational depth and endurance. The 21st Army benefited from a series of reinforcements during 1939, which allowed a reorganization of assignments and missions: In late January, the Iida Detachment was reorganized into the Formosa Mixed Brigade and took part in the invasion of Hainan Island.  Hainan, just 15 miles across the Qiongzhou Strait from the mainland, represented a critical "loophole": it lay astride the Gulf of Tonkin, enabling smuggling of arms and materiel from Haiphong to Kunming, and offered potential airfields for bombing raids deep into Yunnan. Japanese interest in Hainan dated to the 1920s, driven by the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, which eyed the island's tropical resources (rubber, iron, copper) and naval potential at ports like Sanya (Samah). Prewar surveys by Japanese firms, such as those documented in Ide Kiwata's Minami Shina no Sangyō to Keizai (1939), highlighted mineral wealth and strategic harbors. The fall of Guangzhou in October 1938 provided the perfect launchpad, but direct invasion was delayed until early 1939 amid debates between the IJA (favoring mainland advances) and IJN (prioritizing naval encirclement). The operation would also heavily align with broader "southward advance" (Nanshin-ron) doctrine foreshadowing invasions of French Indochina (1940) and the Pacific War. On the Chinese side, Hainan was lightly defended as part of Guangdong's "peace preservation" under General Yu Hanmou. Two security regiments, six guard battalions, and a self-defense corps, totaling around 7,000–10,000 poorly equipped troops guarded the island, supplemented by roughly 300 Communist guerrillas under Feng Baiju, who operated independently in the interior. The indigenous Li (Hlai) people in the mountainous south, alienated by Nationalist taxes, provided uneven support but later allied with Communists. The Imperial General Headquarters ordered the 21st Army, in cooperation with the Navy, to occupy and hold strategic points on the island near Haikou-Shih. The 21st Army commander assigned the Formosa Mixed Brigade to carry out this mission. Planning began in late 1938 under the IJN's Fifth Fleet, with IJA support from the 21st Army. The objective: secure northern and southern landing sites to bisect the island, establish air/naval bases, and exploit resources. Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondō, commanding the fleet, emphasized surprise and air superiority. The invasion began under the cover of darkness on February 9, 1939, when Kondō's convoy entered Tsinghai Bay on the northern shore of Hainan and anchored at midnight. Japanese troops swiftly disembarked, encountering minimal initial resistance from the surprised Chinese defenders, and secured a beachhead in the northern zone. At 0300 hours on 10 February, the Formosa Mixed Brigade, operating in close cooperation with naval units, executed a surprise landing at the northeastern point of Tengmai Bay in north Hainan. By 04:30, the right flank reached the main road leading to Fengyingshih, while the left flank reached a position two kilometers south of Tienwei. By 07:00, the right flank unit had overcome light enemy resistance near Yehli and occupied Chiungshan. At that moment there were approximately 1,000 elements of the enemy's 5th Infantry Brigade (militia) at Chiungshan; about half of these troops were destroyed, and the remainder fled into the hills south of Tengmai in a state of disarray. Around 08:30 that same day, the left flank unit advanced to the vicinity of Shuchang and seized Hsiuying Heights. By 12:00, it occupied Haikou, the island's northern port city and administrative center, beginning around noon. Army and navy forces coordinated to mop up remaining pockets of resistance in the northern areas, overwhelming the scattered Chinese security units through superior firepower and organization. No large-scale battles are recorded in primary accounts; instead, the engagements were characterized by rapid advances and localized skirmishes, as the Chinese forces, lacking heavy artillery or air support, could not mount a sustained defense. By the end of the day, Japanese control over the north was consolidating, with Haikou falling under their occupation.Also on 10 February, the Brigade pushed forward to seize Cingang. Wenchang would be taken on the 22nd, followed by Chinglan Port on the 23rd. On February 11, the operation expanded southward when land combat units amphibiously assaulted Samah (now Sanya) at the island's southern tip. This landing allowed them to quickly seize key positions, including the port of Yulin (Yulinkang) and the town of Yai-Hsien (Yaxian, now part of Sanya). With these southern footholds secured, Japanese forces fanned out to subjugate the rest of the island, capturing inland areas and infrastructure with little organized opposition. Meanwhile, the landing party of the South China Navy Expeditionary Force, which had joined with the Army to secure Haikou, began landing on the island's southern shore at dawn on 14 February. They operated under the protection of naval and air units. By the same morning, the landing force had advanced to Sa-Riya and, by 12:00 hours, had captured Yulin Port. Chinese casualties were significant in the brief fighting; from January to May 1939, reports indicate the 11th security regiment alone suffered 8 officers and 162 soldiers killed, 3 officers and 16 wounded, and 5 officers and 68 missing, though figures for other units are unclear. Japanese losses were not publicly detailed but appear to have been light.  When crisis pressed upon them, Nationalist forces withdrew from coastal Haikou, shepherding the last civilians toward the sheltering embrace of the Wuzhi mountain range that bands the central spine of Hainan. From that high ground they sought to endure the storm, praying that the rugged hills might shield their families from the reach of war. Yet the Li country's mountains did not deliver a sanctuary free of conflict. Later in August of 1943, an uprising erupted among the Li,Wang Guoxing, a figure of local authority and stubborn resolve. His rebellion was swiftly crushed; in reprisal, the Nationalists executed a seizure of vengeance that extended far beyond the moment of defeat, claiming seven thousand members of Wang Guoxing's kin in his village. The episode was grim testimony to the brutal calculus of war, where retaliation and fear indelibly etched the landscape of family histories. Against this backdrop, the Communists under Feng Baiju and the native Li communities forged a vigorous guerrilla war against the occupiers. The struggle was not confined to partisan skirmishes alone; it unfolded as a broader contest of survival and resistance. The Japanese response was relentless and punitive, and it fell upon Li communities in western Hainan with particular ferocity, Sanya and Danzhou bore the brunt of violence, as did the many foreign laborers conscripted into service by the occupying power. The toll of these reprisals was stark: among hundreds of thousands of slave laborers pressed into service, tens of thousands perished. Of the 100,000 laborers drawn from Hong Kong, only about 20,000 survived the war's trials, a haunting reminder of the human cost embedded in the occupation. Strategically, the island of Hainan took on a new if coercive purpose. Portions of the island were designated as a naval administrative district, with the Hainan Guard District Headquarters established at Samah, signaling its role as a forward air base and as an operational flank for broader anti-Chiang Kai-shek efforts. In parallel, the island's rich iron and copper resources were exploited to sustain the war economy of the occupiers. The control of certain areas on Hainan provided a base of operations for incursions into Guangdong and French Indochina, while the airbases that dotted the island enabled long-range air raids that threaded routes from French Indochina and Burma into the heart of China. The island thus assumed a grim dual character: a frontier fortress for the occupiers and a ground for the prolonged suffering of its inhabitants. Hainan then served as a launchpad for later incursions into Guangdong and Indochina. Meanwhile after Wuhan's collapse, the Nationalist government's frontline strength remained formidable, even as attrition gnawed at its edges. By the winter of 1938–1939, the front line had swelled to 261 divisions of infantry and cavalry, complemented by 50 independent brigades. Yet the political and military fissures within the Kuomintang suggested fragility beneath the apparent depth of manpower. The most conspicuous rupture came with Wang Jingwei's defection, the vice president and chairman of the National Political Council, who fled to Hanoi on December 18, 1938, leading a procession of more than ten other KMT officials, including Chen Gongbo, Zhou Fohai, Chu Minqi, and Zeng Zhongming. In the harsh arithmetic of war, defections could not erase the country's common resolve to resist Japanese aggression, and the anti-Japanese national united front still served as a powerful instrument, rallying the Chinese populace to "face the national crisis together." Amid this political drama, Japan's strategy moved into a phase that sought to convert battlefield endurance into political consolidation. As early as January 11, 1938, Tokyo had convened an Imperial Conference and issued a framework for handling the China Incident that would shape the theater for years. The "Outline of Army Operations Guidance" and "Continental Order No. 241" designated the occupied territories as strategic assets to be held with minimal expansion beyond essential needs. The instruction mapped an operational zone that compressed action to a corridor between Anqing, Xinyang, Yuezhou, and Nanchang, while the broader line of occupation east of a line tracing West Sunit, Baotou, and the major river basins would be treated as pacified space. This was a doctrine of attrition, patience, and selective pressure—enough to hold ground, deny resources to the Chinese, and await a more opportune political rupture. Yet even as Japan sought political attrition, the war's tactical center of gravity drifted toward consolidation around Wuhan and the pathways that fed the Yangtze. In October 1938, after reducing Wuhan to a fortressed crescent of contested ground, the Japanese General Headquarters acknowledged the imperative to adapt to a protracted war. The new calculus prioritized political strategy alongside military operations: "We should attach importance to the offensive of political strategy, cultivate and strengthen the new regime, and make the National Government decline, which will be effective." If the National Government trembled under coercive pressure, it risked collapse, and if not immediately, then gradually through a staged series of operations. In practice, this meant reinforcing a centralized center while allowing peripheral fronts to be leveraged against Chongqing's grip on the war's moral economy. In the immediate post-Wuhan period, Japan divided its responsibilities and aimed at a standoff that would enable future offensives. The 11th Army Group, stationed in the Wuhan theater, became the spearhead of field attacks on China's interior, occupying a strategic triangle that included Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guangxi, and protecting the rear of southwest China's line of defense. The central objective was not merely to seize territory, but to deny Chinese forces the capacity to maneuver along the critical rail and river corridors that fed the Nanjing–Jiujiang line and the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway. Central to this plan was Wuhan's security and the ability to constrain Jiujiang's access to the Yangtze, preserving a corridor for air power and logistics. The pre-war arrangement in early 1939 was a tableau of layered defenses and multiple war zones, designed to anticipate and blunt Japanese maneuver. By February 1939, the Ninth War Zone under Xue Yue stood in a tense standoff with the Japanese 11th Army along the Jiangxi and Hubei front south of the Yangtze. The Ninth War Zone's order of battle, Luo Zhuoying's 19th Army Group defending the northern Nanchang front, Wang Lingji's 30th Army Group near Wuning, Fan Songfu's 8th and 73rd Armies along Henglu, Tang Enbo's 31st Army Group guarding southern Hubei and northern Hunan, and Lu Han's 1st Army Group in reserve near Changsha and Liuyang, was a carefully calibrated attempt to absorb, delay, and disrupt any Xiushui major Japanese thrust toward Nanchang, a city whose strategic significance stretched beyond its own bounds. In the spring of 1939, Nanchang was the one city in southern China that Tokyo could not leave in Chinese hands. It was not simply another provincial capital; it was the beating heart of whatever remained of China's war effort south of the Yangtze, and the Japanese knew it. High above the Gan River, on the flat plains west of Poyang Lake, lay three of the finest airfields China had ever built: Qingyunpu, Daxiaochang, and Xiangtang. Constructed only a few years earlier with Soviet engineers and American loans, they were long, hard-surfaced, and ringed with hangars and fuel dumps. Here the Chinese Air Force had pulled back after the fall of Wuhan, and here the red-starred fighters and bombers of the Soviet volunteer groups still flew. From Nanchang's runways a determined pilot could reach Japanese-held Wuhan in twenty minutes, Guangzhou in less than an hour, and even strike the docks at Hong Kong if he pushed his range. Every week Japanese reconnaissance planes returned with photographs of fresh craters patched, new aircraft parked wing-to-wing, and Soviet pilots sunning themselves beside their I-16s. As long as those fields remained Chinese, Japan could never claim the sky. The city was more than airfields. It sat exactly where the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway met the line running north to Jiujiang and the Yangtze, a knot that tied together three provinces. Barges crowded Poyang Lake's western shore, unloading crates of Soviet ammunition and aviation fuel that had come up the river from the Indochina railway. Warehouses along the tracks bulged with shells and rice. To the Japanese staff officers plotting in Wuhan and Guangzhou, Nanchang looked less like a city and more like a loaded spring: if Chiang Kai-shek ever found the strength for a counteroffensive to retake the middle Yangtze, this would be the place from which it would leap. And so, in the cold March of 1939, the Imperial General Headquarters marked Nanchang in red on every map and gave General Okamura the order he had been waiting for: take it, whatever the cost. Capturing the city would do three things at once. It would blind the Chinese Air Force in the south by seizing or destroying the only bases from which it could still seriously operate. It would tear a hole in the last east–west rail line still feeding Free China. And it would shove the Nationalist armies another two hundred kilometers farther into the interior, buying Japan precious time to digest its earlier conquests and tighten the blockade. Above all, Nanchang was the final piece in a great aerial ring Japan was closing around southern China. Hainan had fallen in February, giving the navy its southern airfields. Wuhan and Guangzhou already belonged to the army. Once Nanchang was taken, Japanese aircraft would sit on a continuous arc of bases from the tropical beaches of the South China Sea to the banks of the Yangtze, and nothing (neither the Burma Road convoys nor the French railway from Hanoi) would move without their permission. Chiang Kai-shek's decision to strike first in the Nanchang region in March 1939 reflected both urgency and a desire to seize initiative before Japanese modernization of the battlefield could fully consolidate. On March 8, Chiang directed Xue Yue to prepare a preemptive attack intended to seize the offensive by March 15, focusing the Ninth War Zone's efforts on preventing a river-crossing assault and pinning Japanese forces in place. The plan called for a sequence of coordinated actions: the 19th Army Group to hold the northern front of Nanchang; the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Advance Army (the 8th and 73rd Armies) to strike the enemy's left flank from Wuning toward De'an and Ruichang; the 30th and 27th Army Groups to consolidate near Wuning; and the 1st Army Group to push toward Xiushui and Sandu, opening routes for subsequent operations. Yet even as Xue Yue pressed for action, the weather of logistics and training reminded observers that no victory could be taken for granted. By March 9–10, Xue Yue warned Chiang that troops were not adequately trained, supplies were scarce, and preparations were insufficient, requesting a postponement to March 24. Chiang's reply was resolute: the attack must commence no later than the 24th, for the aim was preemption and the desire to tether the enemy's forces before they could consolidate. When the moment of decision arrived, the Chinese army began to tense, and the Japanese, no strangers to rapid shifts in tempo—moved to exploit any hesitation or fog of mobilization. The Ninth War Zone's response crystallized into a defensive posture as the Japanese pressed forward, marking a transition from preemption to standoff as both sides tested the limits of resilience. The Japanese plan for what would become known as Operation Ren, aimed at severing the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway, breaking the enemy's line of communication, and isolating Nanchang, reflected a calculated synthesis of air power, armored mobility, and canalized ground offensives. On February 6, 1939, the Central China Expeditionary Army issued a set of precise directives: capture Nanchang to cut the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway and disrupt the southern reach of Anhui and Zhejiang provinces; seize Nanchang along the Nanchang–Xunyi axis to split enemy lines and "crush" Chinese resistance south of that zone; secure rear lines immediately after the city's fall; coordinate with naval air support to threaten Chinese logistics and airfields beyond the rear lines. The plan anticipated contingencies by pre-positioning heavy artillery and tanks in formations that could strike with speed and depth, a tactical evolution from previous frontal assaults. Okamura Yasuji, commander of the 11th Army, undertook a comprehensive program of reconnaissance, refining the assault plan with a renewed emphasis on speed and surprise. Aerial reconnaissance underlined the terrain, fortifications, and the disposition of Chinese forces, informing the selection of the Xiushui River crossing and the route of the main axis of attack. Okamura's decision to reorganize artillery and armor into concentrated tank groups, flanked by air support and advanced by long-range maneuver, marked a departure from the earlier method of distributing heavy weapons along the infantry front. Sumita Laishiro commanded the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, with more than 300 artillery pieces, while Hirokichi Ishii directed a force of 135 tanks and armored vehicles. This blended arms approach promised a breakthrough that would outpace the Chinese defenders and open routes for the main force. By mid-February 1939, Japanese preparations had taken on a high tempo. The 101st and 106th Divisions, along with attached artillery, assembled south of De'an, while tank contingents gathered north of De'an. The 6th Division began moving toward Ruoxi and Wuning, the Inoue Detachment took aim at the waterways of Poyang Lake, and the 16th and 9th Divisions conducted feints on the Han River's left bank. The orchestration of these movements—feints, riverine actions, and armored flanking, was designed to reduce the Chinese capacity to concentrate forces around Nanchang and to force the defenders into a less secure posture along the Nanchang–Jiujiang axis. Japan's southward strategy reframed the war: no longer a sprint to reduce Chinese forces in open fields, but a patient siege of lifelines, railways, and airbases. Hainan's seizure, the control of Nanchang's airfields, and the disruption of the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway exemplified a shift from large-scale battles to coercive pressure that sought to cripple Nationalist mobilization and erode Chongqing's capacity to sustain resistance. For China, the spring of 1939 underscored resilience amid mounting attrition. Chiang Kai-shek's insistence on offensive means to seize the initiative demonstrated strategic audacity, even as shortages and uneven training slowed tempo. The Ninth War Zone's defense, bolstered by makeshift airpower from Soviet and Allied lendings, kept open critical corridors and delayed Japan's consolidation. The war's human cost—massive casualties, forced labor, and the Li uprising on Hainan—illuminates the brutality that fueled both sides' resolve. In retrospect, the period around Canton, Wuhan, and Nanchang crystallizes a grim truth: the Sino-Japanese war was less a single crescendo of battles than a protracted contest of endurance, logistics, and political stamina. The early 1940s would widen these fault lines, but the groundwork laid in 1939, competition over supply routes, air control, and strategic rail nodes, would shape the war's pace and, ultimately, its outcome. The conflict's memory lies not only in the clashes' flash but in the stubborn persistence of a nation fighting to outlast a formidable adversary. 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. The Japanese invasion of Hainan and proceeding operations to stop logistical leaks into Nationalist China, showcased the complexity and scale of the growing Second Sino-Japanese War. It would not merely be a war of territorial conquest, Japan would have to strangle the colossus using every means necessary.  

Day 1,425.Today, amid the gravest crisis for the transatlantic alliance in decades over the fate of Greenland, we examine the implications of Russia considering strikes on substations supplying Ukraine's nuclear power plants. Then we assess the options available to NATO allies seeking to placate President Donald Trump, before hearing about a Ukrainian robot that supposedly held the line against Russian troops for 45 days, and offering an update on how Moscow is deploying Orthodox nuns as an instrument of hybrid warfare.ContributorsFrancis Dearnley (Executive Editor for Audio). @FrancisDearnley on X.Dominic Nicholls (Associate Editor of Defence). @DomNicholls on X.James Rothwell (Berlin Correspondent). @JamesERothwell on X.Verity Bowman (Foreign Correspondent). @VerityBowman on X.SIGN UP TO THE ‘UKRAINE: THE LATEST' WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:http://telegraph.co.uk/ukrainenewsletter Each week, Dom Nicholls and Francis Dearnley answer your questions, provide recommended reading, and give exclusive analysis and behind-the-scenes insights – plus maps of the frontlines and diagrams of weapons to complement our daily reporting. It's free for everyone, including non-subscribers.CONTENT REFERENCED:Trump: Taking Greenland is revenge for losing Nobel Peace Prize (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/19/trump-taking-greenland-is-revenge-for-no-nobel-peace-prize/ Pro-Putin spy nuns infiltrating Sweden (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/18/pro-putin-spy-nuns-infiltrating-sweden/James Rothwell's Sweden Dispatch (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/15/sweden-trump-exaggerating-putin-threat-greenland-denmark/ Denmark ‘will shoot first and ask questions later' over Greenland (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/07/denmark-usa-trump-shoot-first-ask-questions-later-greenland/ Ukraine's robot machine gunner held off Russia for six weeks (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/16/ukraines-robot-machine-gunner-that-held-off-russia-weeks/ The Ukrainian billionaire whose battalion delivered a blow to Putin (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/17/ukrainian-billionaire-battalion-blow-putin/ ‘America vs. the World' (The Atlantic):https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/03/trump-national-security-greenland-spheres-of-interest/685673/ LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST IN NEW LANGUAGES:The Telegraph has launched translated versions of Ukraine: The Latest in Ukrainian and Russian, making its reporting accessible to audiences on both sides of the battle lines and across the wider region, including Central Asia and the Caucasus. Just search Україна: Останні Новини (Ukr) and Украина: Последние Новости (Ru) on your on your preferred podcast app to find them. Listen here: https://linktr.ee/ukrainethelatestSubscribe: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Summary:In this episode of Explaining History, Nick turns his attention to the escalating diplomatic crisis over Greenland and what it reveals about the frailty of the post-Brexit United Kingdom.As Donald Trump eyes the annexation of Danish sovereign territory, Europe is drawing a line in the sand. But where is Britain? Nick argues that the UK's muted response exposes the utter failure of its "Global Britain" strategy. Having severed ties with the EU, London finds itself trapped in a subservient relationship with an American president who views allies not as partners, but as vassals.We explore the potential for a new geopolitical alignment: a "Continental Bloc" stretching from Brussels to Beijing via Moscow, united by shared hostility to American unilateralism. Could Europe really pivot away from the US? And what does the weaponization of the dollar mean for the future of Western power?Plus: A final reminder for students! Tickets for our Russian Revolution Masterclass on Sunday, January 25th are selling fast. Book now to secure your place.Key Topics:The Greenland Ultimatum: Trump's imperial vanity project and the European pushback.British Impotence: Why Keir Starmer cannot afford to challenge Washington.The Continental Pivot: Could the EU ally with China and Russia to survive Trump?De-Dollarization: The existential threat to American hegemony.Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode with Dr Bobo Lo explores the breakdown of the post-Cold War rules-based international order and what is emerging in its place. We examine why today's global system is better understood as a condition of disorder rather than a coherent new order, shaped by diffuse power, weakening institutions, and growing mistrust of Western norms, and how the erosion of democratic practice within Western societies has undermined their global credibility, and how Russia and China have exploited, rather than created, these weaknesses. We also unpack the limits of concepts such as multipolarity, the strategic differences between Moscow and Beijing, and why global challenges like climate change, pandemics, inequality, and technological disruption cannot be addressed without revitalised forms of international cooperation.Dr Lo is one of the most respected analysts of global order and great power politics and is widely known for his analysis of global governance, strategic competition, and the structural forces driving international instability. A former deputy head of mission at the Australian Embassy in Moscow, he previously led the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House and is now a Non-Resident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. He is the author of several influential books, including Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing, and the New Geopolitics (2008) and his latest book The Disorderly Society: Rethinking Global Governance in an Age of Anarchy (2026), which covers the topics discussed in this episode extensively.The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical volatility and organised crime, to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you're a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.The International Risk Podcast is sponsored by Conducttr, a realistic crisis exercise platform. Conducttr offers crisis exercising software for corporates, consultants, humanitarian, and defence & security clients. Visit Conducttr to learn more.Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe's leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe's leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe's business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today's business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.Follow us on LinkedIn and Tell us what you liked!

Trump & Putin - the despots at war with our worldIn this week's Lowdown, Nick Cohen talks to Professor Sam Greene - the Director of the Russia Institute at King's College London about Vladamir Putin and Donald Trump, and how about how much longer Russia can endure the continuing carnage and humiliation of its seemingly never ending aggression against Ukraine.What Putin intended to be a few days of Blitzkrieg in February 2022 will soon enter its fifth gruesome year and has already lasted longer than the so-called "Great Patriotic War" - which is how the Russians describe World War 2. That war led to more than 20 million Soviet Union deaths. The current slaughter is sending 1,000 Russian soldiers a week to the cemetery or the casualty ward.How much longer can Putin last? Sam Greene and Nick Cohen examine the resilience of Putin's corrupt authoritarian regime despite current challenges, analysing how the system maintains stability through widespread compliance and fear among citizens while retaining imperial assumptions about Russian dominance. They also discuss Russia's political future after Putin, considering the potential for authoritarian systems to evolve while maintaining control, and compare this to similar dynamics in the United States. Sam reveals that Putin has now equalled the number of political prisoners incarcerated by Cold War era Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.Putin and Trump - Parallels in Russia and USSam and Nick discuss the parallels between authoritarianism in Russia and the United States, focusing on how both regimes exert control through fear and compliance rather than direct force. Sam highlights the complacency of elites and institutions in the US noting how they accommodate the current administration's demands, similar to the Russian system where power is concentrated and opposition is silenced. They also touch on the effectiveness of Western sanctions against Russian oligarchs, which initially aimed to encourage a shift towards rule of law but ultimately failed as the oligarchs prioritised profit over safety. Their chat concludes with a reflection on the potential for political change, emphasising that authoritarian systems often change only after they have already begun to unravel.Read all about it!Professor Sam Greene @samagreene is Director of the Russia Institute @KingsRussia of King's College London. Sam has authored or co-authored two main books: "Moscow in Movement: Power & Opposition in Putin's Russia" (2014) and "Putin v. the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia" (2019, co-authored with Graeme Robertson). Sam's Substack - TL;DRussia - is a must read for anyone wanting to keep up with events in Putin's Russia.Nick Cohen's @NichCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A tabloid brands Zelensky's Christmas address a “black mass,” complete with glassy eyes, hidden codes, and a trance to “hack the noosphere” to cast a death curse on Putin. Huh? What? Why are occult narratives creeping from the fringe into Russia's mainstream? And, for that matter, why are notions such that Russia is now in the grip of a "nihilistic death cult" also warping Western thinking? A trip deep down into a bizarre rabbit-hole.The Moskovsky Komsomolets article I discuss is here.Earlier episodes of this podcast touching on some of these issues are In Moscow's Shadows 41: The Communist Party Embattled...And Occultism and Russian Politics (4 Aug. 2021) and In Moscow's Shadows 186: Why is Putin's Russia so Prone to Conspiracy Theories? (2 Feb. 2025).The podcast's corporate partner and sponsor is Conducttr, which provides software for innovative and immersive crisis exercises in hybrid warfare, counter-terrorism, civil affairs and similar situations.You can also follow my blog, In Moscow's Shadows, and become one of the podcast's supporting Patrons and gain question-asking rights and access to exclusive extra materials including the (almost-) weekly Govorit Moskva news briefing right here. Support the show

The end of a twenty-year dictatorship didn't come with a revolution. It came with the screech of tires at 5:00 PM on a Friday.While mainstream outlets are waiting for Kremlin press releases, we spent the night tracking the digital fallout of a catastrophic event in Chechnya. We know Ramzan Kadyrov is suffering from organ failure. We know his plan was to force his violent, 18-year-old son, Adam, onto the throne.Last night, that plan was smashed on the asphalt of Kishiev Avenue.In this expansive investigative report, we lay out the forensic evidence of the regime's collapse:The Flight Logs: The midnight scramble of an elite “Flying ICU” (An-148) and Kadyrov's private jet fleeing Grozny.The Fortress: How Strava heatmaps reveal the “digital cage” Kadyrov built around his palace long before the crash.The Cover-Up: The definitive proof. We caught the Russian authorities scrubbing their official maps (2GIS) at 4:00 AM, making the city look green and clear. But a simultaneous check of Waze revealed the truth: a massive, desperate blockade at the crash site that the censors couldn't delete.The King is dying in Moscow. The Prince is broken. The throne in Grozny is vacant. This is the autopsy of a regime change.I really thing that you should be watching this in video format, but for those of you who prefer audio - well, who am I to stop you. But here's a YouTube link anyways: https://youtu.be/pKnOjkLu4a8#TheEasternBorder #Kadyrov #Chechnya #Russia #OSINT #BreakingNews #InvestigativeJournalismLinks:Help Ukraine win: car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-border

Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he dives into today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Friday Radar Brief of The Wright Report, Bryan delivers quick but critical headlines to watch heading into the weekend, from violent unrest in Minnesota to improving economic signals and new risks tied to artificial intelligence. Minnesota Riots and the Insurrection Act: President Trump warns he may invoke the Insurrection Act after left-wing riots erupt in Minneapolis, fueled by rhetoric from Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey targeting ICE officers. Protesters stole firearms from an FBI vehicle, raising alarms about escalating violence and state-level defiance of federal authority. Democrats Push to Abolish ICE: Michigan Representative Shri Thanedar introduces new legislation to abolish ICE, joining a growing majority of Democrats openly calling for the end of deportations. Bryan argues the bill signals a revolutionary shift in immigration policy, even if it fails in the current Congress. U.S. Seizes More Oil Tankers: U.S. forces capture a sixth ghost-fleet tanker carrying Venezuelan, Russian, and Iranian oil. Bryan explains how the strategy squeezes Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing while potentially impacting global oil prices and American consumers. Economic Updates Worth Watching: Mortgage rates hit a three-year low near 6 percent, inflation continues to cool, and consumer sentiment improves. Hiring remains weak, but falling rents, rising wages, and lower prices offer signs of relief heading into 2026. AI Risks Expand: Workers are increasingly being paid to train AI systems that may ultimately replace them. Bryan also warns of a surge in AI-driven scams, including fake videos and emails impersonating pastors and religious leaders. Unexpected Medical and Market News: GLP-1 weight-loss drugs may lower airline fuel costs as passengers weigh less, offering a surprising boost to airline profits.   "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32     Keywords: January 16 2026 Wright Report, Minnesota riots Insurrection Act, Tim Walz ICE rhetoric, abolish ICE bill Thanedar, ghost fleet oil tanker seizure, mortgage rates three-year low, inflation cooling economy, AI job displacement training, AI scams fake pastors, GLP-1 drugs airline fuel savings

Explaining Posse Comitatus and Martial Law. Will He Do it on MLK Day? Trump's New Nobel Prize: Yuck. Friday Football Playoffs. Kyle Tucker, Kyrsten Sinema and Why The Dodgers Are Like Trump.  Independent Americans host Paul Rieckhoff breaks down the most urgent threats to our democracy with returning champion Asha Rangappa, former FBI Special Agent and Yale national security law expert, in an all–new Football Friday episode recorded January 16, 2026. From Venezuela to Venezuela-style tactics at home, they connect the dots on how Trump's use of military force, deportation crackdowns, and legal maneuvers feed a larger project of power and conquest across the Western Hemisphere, and why the Insurrection Act is now a “circuit breaker moment” for American democracy.​ Because every episode of Independent Americans breaks down the most important news—and offers light to contrast the heat of other politics and news shows—this conversation delivers sharp, accessible explanations of the Insurrection Act, the Posse Comitatus Act, and why using active-duty troops as “bodyguards for ICE” could turn American cities into occupied zones. Paul and Asha lay out how Trump telegraphs his punches, how he could flip the language of “insurrection” and “domestic terrorism” onto his political enemies, and what happens when illegal orders collide with the oaths of military leaders and service members.​ They also go beyond the headlines to track a Western-hemisphere “sphere of influence” strategy that looks imported from Moscow and Beijing, the Supreme Court's looming tariff decision, and the chilling symbolism of Venezuelan opposition leader María Machado handing her Nobel Prize to Trump—while tying in Ukraine's brutal winter, the assault on Stars and Stripes, and the erosion of U.S. credibility as France steps in to provide two-thirds of Ukraine's intelligence. And because it's Football Friday, Paul closes a heavy episode with playoff picks, wine, the new “Independent is an Attitude” anthem from producer Chris Rosenthal, and Asha's shout-out to indie band Mates of State—reminding listeners that staying vigilant also means protecting joy, culture and community. Because every episode of Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff breaks down the most important news stories--and offers light to contrast the heat of other politics and news shows. It's independent content for independent Americans. In these trying times especially, Independent Americans is your trusted place for independent news, politics, inspiration and hope. The podcast that helps you stay ahead of the curve--and stay vigilant. -WATCH video of this episode on YouTube now. -Listen/watch Asha's podcast It's Complicated and check out her Freedom Academy on Substack and follow her on social media. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -Check the hashtag #LookForTheHelpers. And share yours.  -Find us on social media or www.IndependentAmericans.us.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  -Check out other Righteous podcasts like The Firefighters Podcast with Rob Serra, Uncle Montel - The OG of Weed and B Dorm.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Ways to listen: Spotify • Apple Podcasts • Amazon Podcasts  Ways to watch: YouTube • Instagram  Social channels: X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Desperate to enforce his Continental System, Napoleon invades Russia. But Tsar Alexander will not fight and, instead, Napoleon finds himself cornered and finally beaten.Western Civ 2.0 

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger Picture[WEF]/[CB] agenda is now coming true, it is no longer a conspiracy, they are controlling the cars in Germany remotely. Kamal Harris climate warrior buys house on the ocean.Remove the illegals and the cost for everything goes down. People are now seeing the truth about sound money compared to fiat. Trump tariffs system is taking off. The [DS] is now pushing their war to the next level. They know that soon the people of this country will see the crimes they have committed against the people and to this country. They are fighting back and they are testing Trump to see what he will do. At the same time Trump is testing them, watch and observing their movements. When the time is right the Insurrection Act will be invoked nationwide, but now he might test it in a local area. Trump has given the warning to the insurrectionists.   Economy https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/2011712915963859403?s=20  Toyota used remote access to turn off the pre heating, which is used to heat up the cars before driving. You would turn it on, 10 minutes before driving somewhere, so your car is warm and de-iced already.   Toyota spokesman Ralph Müller: “The pre-air conditioning is a free function of the MyToyota app or Lexus Link Plus App. This function is still available for all pure electric vehicles and plug-in vehicles. For vehicles with conventional drive, this only works when the combustion engine is running. The legislator considers this an unnecessary running of the engine or an avoidable exhaust gas pollution, which is prohibited. This is not known to many users. In Europe, there is no uniform legal situation, about which we have informed with a corresponding note in the app. In order to protect the vehicle user from fines, we have deactivated the function on these vehicles.” Climate Change Warrior Kamala Harris Buys New Mansion Near The Ocean in Malibu  Kamala Harris just bought a new $8 million mansion in Malibu near the beach. She must be deeply concerned about climate change. Have you noticed this pattern? Democrat elites, the people most likely to lecture others about climate change and to claim that it's an existential threat to humanity and the planet, sure do love to buy homes on the coast. Just look at Obama. Where are his homes? Martha's Vineyard and Hawaii. Does that sound like a man who is worried about climate change? The New York Post reports: Kamala Harris upgrades LA real estate portfolio with $8M mega mansion in Malibu's celeb-packed Pt. Dume Source: thegatewaypundit.com (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); https://twitter.com/ElectionWiz/status/2011568614898614645?s=20 https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2011548021511897343?s=20 https://twitter.com/thencamekevin/status/2011562742029959291?s=20  face value. Four of these quarters might have the face value of $1.00 but, THEIR ACTUAL VALUE IS $64! The stackers were right. . . Political/Rights https://twitter.com/VinceDaoTV/status/2011540393947775098?s=20 DOGE Geopolitical    https://twitter.com/ElectionWiz/status/2011598672929440042?s=20 Vice President Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote To Kill Venezuela War Powers Resolution in the Senate Two Republicans who previously voted to advance the bill flipped after pressure from Trump Vice President JD Vance had to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate on Wednesday night to kill a Venezuela War Powers Resolution that sought to prevent another US attack on the country without congressional authorization. The Senate was deadlocked at 50-50 on a point of order vote to strip the War Powers Resolution of its privileged status to block a final vote. President Trump and his top officials put significant pressure on five Republicans who voted to advance the legislation last week, and two of the GOP senators — Josh Hawley (MO) and Todd Young (IN) — flipped and voted against the bill. Source: news.antiwar.com https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem/status/2011803374807547909?s=20   President Trump's established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. Through close coordination with our colleagues in the Departments of War, State, and Justice, our heroic Coast Guard men and women once again ensured a flawlessly executed operation, in accordance with international law. As we've now demonstrated through multiple boardings, there is no outrunning or escaping American justice — period. Our resolve is unshakeable and our mission coordination has never been better. America’s Coast Guard remains Always Ready to apply the full force of its unique authorities and specialized capabilities against this threat anywhere, anytime.    War/Peace https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2011817852290895915?s=20  https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2011576169918054597?s=20 https://twitter.com/ABC/status/2011788458042540303?s=20 Zelensky to declare state of emergency after strikes cripple power grid    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced plans to declare a state of emergency in the energy sector. This measure aims to address disrupted power supplies following sustained Russian attacks on the country’s infrastructure. Source: .independent.co.uk  https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2011757910041452892?s=20 President Trump Identifies the Roadblock to a Ceasefire Between Ukraine and Russia In an interview with Reuters, President Trump was asked why the Russia/Ukraine negotiations appear to have stalled.  President Trump responded with one word, “Zelenskyy.” WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters that Ukraine – not Russia – is holding up a potential peace deal, rhetoric that stands in marked contrast to that of European allies, who have consistently argued Moscow has little interest in ending its war in Ukraine. In an exclusive interview in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to wrap up his nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskiy, the U.S. president said, was more reticent. “I think he's ready to make a deal,” Trump said of the Russian president. “I think Ukraine is less ready to make a deal.” Asked why U.S.-led negotiations had not yet resolved Europe's largest land conflict since World War Two, Trump responded: “Zelenskiy.”   Source: theconservativetreehouse.com  https://twitter.com/zeroDEIUSA/status/2011211989847326747?s=20  this point, dictated that Canada, Denmark, and NATO generally are allowed to sit on their collective asses vis a'vis Defense. Poland and Hungary are the exceptions since they rarely conform to WEF dictums. But we also know something else: This administration doesn't see the world and this hemisphere through a WEF lens. Those differences in world view, opinion, policy, and sense of urgency between America and our allies are bubbling up publicly. I don't think the friction is or will be inconsequential. In fact, I would posit that the hairline cracks we hear about, in terms of NATO cooperation and membership, will inevitably become full fledged fissures. There are any number of pressure points between this administration and our ANO's (allies in name only) most notably the UK. Saber rattling has become the norm in communiques from Germany, the UK, and the EU. Calls for a “European only” Army and Navy have come from the upper and middle echelons of the military in several NATO member nations in Europe. The Europeans are shocked and outraged by our statements and concerns about Greenland. Now I could be wrong; but it seems that NATO's members are viewing our actions in Venezuela as well as Trump's position that Ukraine is largely a Euro problem, and his vision that the “Donroe” doctrine should be a precursor to a solid military defense strategy as well as a strategic trading block composed by countries in the Western Hemisphere as an emerging existential threat. And indeed it is. We have all seen examples that, by now prove conclusively, that Trump and his advisers are some of the best “tea leaf” readers ever. I honestly think this administration sees the rapid cultural, political, and social deterioration in Europe (Germany, Austria, France, the UK) and other Western nations (Australia and NZ) as harbingers and not one off's. And as such, I believe Trump and his team have concluded that these EU countries have reached a point of no return in every measure that matters. I believe the head butting will, by the end of Trump's term, deteriorate or accelerate to locking horns with former allies and our eventual departure from them as a bloc in favor of the Western Hemisphere as a replacement block. The “Donroe” doctrine says as much. I believe Trump would prefer to capitalize on Geography. That is to say a land mass that stretches from the Arctic circle to the Antarctic circle with North America and South America in between. I believe he sees that as something America can control, protect, and develop. How this will play out, I'm not sure. But I believe he is quietly preparing an exit ramp for our departure from NATO per se. It will be interesting. He will leave office and hand this massive initiative to Vance and Rubio; confident in their judgment and ability to execute. Medical/False Flags President Trump Announces “The Great Healthcare Plan” President Donald J. Trump's Great Healthcare Plan is a broad healthcare initiative that will slash prescription drug prices, reduce insurance premiums, hold big insurance companies accountable, and maximize price transparency in the American healthcare system. This plan will deliver money directly to the American people, not insurance companies, big pharma and special interest groups—putting patients over industry leaders' profits, just as he promised. The Great Healthcare Plan also builds on the successes of his first term by promoting competition, eliminating wasteful spending, and putting consumers back in control. [The Great Healthcare Plan] Source: theconservativetreehouse.com [DS] Agenda https://twitter.com/Patri0tContr0l/status/2011502712819761455?s=20 https://twitter.com/gatewaypundit/status/2011821087911231924?s=20 https://twitter.com/philthatremains/status/2011763419293368576?s=20 https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2011705622249816580?s=20 https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2011695320112251315?s=20     https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2011634818375958782?s=20     https://twitter.com/BillMelugin_/status/2011644187708371237?s=20 https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/2011632198000976086?s=20    into a parked car. The subject then fled on foot. The law enforcement officer caught up to the subject on foot and attempted to apprehend him when the subject began to resist and violently assault the officer. While the subject and law enforcement were in a struggle on the ground, two subjects came out of a nearby apartment and also attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle. As the officer was being ambushed and attacked by the two individuals, the original subject got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick. Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life. The initial subject was hit in the leg. All three subjects ran back into the apartment and barricaded themselves inside. The attacked officer and subject are both in the hospital. Both attackers are in custody. This attack on another brave member of law enforcement took place while Minnesota's top leaders, Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, are actively encouraging an organized resistance to ICE and federal law enforcement officers. Their hateful rhetoric and resistance against men and women who are simply trying to do their jobs must end. Federal law enforcement officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest criminals and lawbreakers. https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/2011711533014036932?s=20 Antifa are teaching illegals that they can attack federal law enforcement.    https://twitter.com/DAGToddBlanche/status/2011620198751597028?s=20  and Frey – I'm focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It's a promise. https://twitter.com/StandUpForElonn/status/2011591809114210333?s=20   TORCHED. For once, the IRS is being deployed FOR AMERICANS FIRST — not against working families. Follow the money. Audit everything. Prosecute whoever broke the law.    protection from the Fake News Media but, it will end, as we, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Joy Behar of The View: Trump Will Use ICE Protests in Minneapolis to Declare Martial Law and Cancel the Midterm Elections (VIDEO) This week on The View, Joy Behar suggested that she is worried that Trump is planning to use the ICE protests in Minneapolis and elsewhere to declare martial law and cancel the 2026 midterm elections. Think about what she is suggesting here. She is saying that Trump will override local jurisdictions, put the military in charge, and then cancel elections. It is pure BlueAnon lunacy. And remember that The View falls under the ABC ‘News' division. FOX News reports: Joy Behar claims Trump seeking to declare martial law to stop midterm elections amid ICE protests     ABC News should be held accountable for pushing this madness on the air. Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2011606173993353376?s=20 https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/2011613524251066484?s=20 https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2011628944877883438?s=20   is EXTREMELY dangerous stuff. Not only is he lying about what's happening, but not once did he tell his constituents to stay out of the way of federal law enforcement officers. He is actively encouraging them to obstruct ICE agents, as a means to cover up the massive fraud and criminality in his state. This is 1860's type stuff we are dealing with here, and you can see it on Walz's face, especially at the end. He knows the severity of what he just did. The Dems are in open rebellion against the Trump administration, while harboring illegal aliens in their Unconstitutional “sanctuary cities”, which they use to steal elections. This is irregular warfare. Things are about to get real. We are witnessing something historic.   https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2011525886630379525?s=20 https://twitter.com/MJTruthUltra/status/2011802180710289546?s=20   President Trump's Plan   https://twitter.com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/2011799570041250146?s=20  This authority can be invoked unilaterally by the President without congressional approval, though it includes specific procedural requirements.  The Act has three main triggers for invocation: At a state’s request (§251): When a governor or state legislature requests federal aid to suppress an insurrection within the state.   To enforce federal authority (§252): When unlawful obstructions, combinations, assemblages, or rebellion make it impracticable to enforce U.S. laws through ordinary judicial processes.   To address domestic violence or rights deprivations (§253): When insurrection, domestic violence, or conspiracy hinders the execution of laws or deprives citizens of constitutional rights, and state authorities are unable, fail, or refuse to act. For the Minnesota scenario described in the post (involving federal agents and no mention of a state request), §§252 or 253 would likely apply, allowing action without state consent. Next Steps for InvocationIf President Trump decides to proceed, the process is straightforward but must follow statutory requirements. Here’s a step-by-step outline based on the law and historical precedents: Assess and Determine Applicability: The President (or advisors) evaluates whether the situation meets one of the Act’s criteria, such as rebellion against federal authority or obstructions to law enforcement. This is an internal executive decision, often informed by reports from agencies like DHS, DOJ, or DOD. No formal public step is required here, but it sets the legal justification.  Issue a Presidential Proclamation (§254): Before deploying forces, the President must publicly issue a proclamation ordering the “insurgents” or obstructors to disperse and return home peacefully within a specified time limit (e.g., hours or days). This serves as a formal warning and is a mandatory prerequisite under the law. The proclamation is typically published in the Federal Register and announced via White House channels.  Failure to issue this could make any deployment unlawful. Monitor Compliance and Issue an Executive Order for Deployment: If the proclamation is ignored, the President can issue an executive order authorizing the deployment of federal troops or federalizing the National Guard. This order specifies the scope, duration, and rules of engagement. Troops can then be mobilized to enforce laws, restore order, or protect federal operations (e.g., supporting ICE in this case). Deployment is not automatic upon invocation; it’s at the President’s discretion. Oversight and Termination: Once invoked, the deployment continues until the President determines the crisis is resolved. Congress can potentially override or limit it through legislation, but this is rare. The Act requires reporting to Congress “as soon as practicable” on the reasons and measures taken. https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2011886917311414381?s=20 Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman (WY-At-Large) challenged former Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano on whether any participants in the January 6th protest in 2021 had been convicted under the federal insurrection statute. It was a question that led Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-8) to attempt to interject, to no avail. https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/2011604461412663618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2011604461412663618%7Ctwgr%5Ecfabd7c33610a57fe0964ce3add2ff2ab7586c34%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fredstate.com%2Frusty-weiss%2F2026%2F01%2F15%2Fwatch-raskin-shut-down-after-hageman-exposes-insurrection-myth-at-new-j6-committee-n2198161 https://twitter.com/ChiefSund/status/2011625686289494153?s=20  the requests and denials GOP Rep. Neal Dunn Announces Retirement After Five Terms — Triggering Critical March 10 Special Election  Republican Congressman Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) has announced he will retire after five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, opting not to seek re-election in 2026. The Panama City physician-serving lawmaker said he wants to spend more time with his family, but his departure comes at a perilous moment for the GOP as Republicans cling to a razor-thin House majority. Dunn's decision to step away from the House after a decade of service leaves Florida's 2nd Congressional District wide open and adds to a growing list of incumbents abandoning their posts ahead of one of the most consequential midterm cycles in recent memory. https://twitter.com/DrNealDunnFL2/status/2011092421866930495?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2011092421866930495%7Ctwgr%5E90201f9195637f0f3c794268082281e562876921%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fgop-rep-neal-dunn-announces-retirement-after-five%2F Source: thegatewaypundit.com UPDATE: Pam Bondi Reveals Classified Leaker Behind Trump's Venezuela Operation Was Pentagon IT Contractor   Pam Bondi revealed that the classified leaker was a Pentagon IT contractor who has been arrested and jailed for endangering U.S. military operations and national security. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has unmasked the traitor behind the illegal leak of classified information about President Trump's bold Venezuela operation. Pam Bondi revealed Wednesday night that the individual responsible for leaking classified information about President Trump's Venezuela operation was an IT contractor for the Department of War and he is now sitting in jail. The disclosure came during an explosive interview with Sean Hannity, where Bondi confirmed that the Trump DOJ and FBI are aggressively pursuing those who leak classified military intelligence and the media figures who obtain and publish it. Source: thegatewaypundit.com   https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2011673479813222821?s=20   https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/2011574493966188556?s=20 https://twitter.com/profstonge/status/2011860087313154089?s=20   https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2011565907110224263?s=20  “These two individuals have been particularly egregious in their contempt of the President and putting their personal views in front of their duty as judges to carry out the jobs that they hold.” UPDATE: Pam Bondi Says Minnesota Prosecutors Didn't Quit — “I FIRED THEM ALL” After Refusing to Cooperate with ICE and Demanding Taxpayer-Funded Paid “Vacation” Till April Pam Bondi appears on Fox News' Hannity announcing that Minnesota prosecutors who refused to cooperate with ICE were fired. The narrative pushed by the corporate media has officially collapsed. After early reports claimed that at least six prosecutors in the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney's Office had “resigned in protest” over the Justice Department's actions following the fatal shooting of ICE protester Renee Nicole Good, Attorney General Pam Bondi stepped in and set the record straight.  According to The New York Times, the group of ousted attorneys includes Joe Thompson (Former Acting U.S. Attorney) Harry Jacobs Melinda Williams Thomas Calhoun-Lopez Ruth Schneider Tom Hollenhurst Source: thegatewaypundit.com HUGE WIN FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY: Supreme Court Greenlights Lawsuits Against Late Mail-In Ballots — Opens Door to Nationwide Challenges to Democrat Schemes The Supreme Court handed a crushing blow to the radical left's ballot-harvesting machine on Wednesday. In a stunning 7-2 decision, the High Court ruled that Republican Congressman Mike Bost (R-IL) has the legal standing to challenge Illinois's unconstitutional law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted up to 14 days after Election Day. This ruling reverses the Seventh Circuit and sends the case back to the lower court—where Illinois' late-ballot scheme will now be evaluated on the merits This is the game-changer we have been waiting for. For years, Democrats and their media allies have relied on “late-arriving ballots” to shift the results of elections days or even weeks after the polls close. We all remember what happened in 2020. We remember the “pauses” and the late-night spikes. But now, the Supreme Court has finally opened the floodgates for Republicans to sue to stop it. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, made it clear: candidates have a “personal stake” in the rules governing their elections. This destroys the liberal argument that Republicans can't sue unless they can prove a specific fraudulent ballot cost them the race. The following states accept ballots that arrive late, as long as they have a valid postmark: Alaska California District of Columbia Illinois Maryland Massachusetts Mississippi Nevada New Jersey New York Oregon Texas (Note: Must be received by 5:00 PM the day after Election Day) Virginia Washington West Virginia Note on Territories: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam also typically accept late-arriving ballots if postmarked by Election Day. Several states that previously accepted late-arriving ballots have recently passed laws requiring ballots to be in the hands of election officials by the time polls close on Election Day, regardless of when they were mailed. Kansas (Changed in 2024/2025) North Dakota (Changed in 2025) Ohio (Changed in 2025) Utah (Changed in 2025) In all other states (e.g., Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona), your ballot must be received by the county election office by the close of polls on Election Day. Source: thegatewaypundit.com (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");

The New Yorker editor David Remnick joins Sam to talk about if The New Yorker is the “slow food movement” of news and how today’s current events remind him of living in Moscow at the end of the Soviet Union. They talk about how the industry changed when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post and why his ownership is different in the second Trump administration than in the first, and how David is currently being sued by the president. They discuss how you can’t say the quiet part out loud anymore since there’s no quiet part, why David has been listening to Joe Rogan in the middle of the night, why teenagers are consuming so much fitness content, and how the two best decisions he’s ever made are marrying the right person and not signing up for social media when he first had the chance. Keep up with Samantha Bee @realsambee on Instagram and X. And stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On November 13th, 2022, four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their off-campus house at 1122 King Road in Moscow. The victims were 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, 21-year-old Madison Mogen, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin. Two other roommates in the home survived that night. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the murders at the University of Idaho. In part two, we'll cover additional information about the crime that was released in the months after Kohberger's arrest, his plea deal, and speculation on a potential motive. Even though this case has been solved, there are still some unanswered questions.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.