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Last time we spoke about Operation Chahar. In July 1937, the tensions between Japan and China erupted into a full-scale conflict, ignited by the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Following a series of aggressive Japanese military maneuvers, Chiang Kai-shek, then enjoying a brief respite at Kuling, learned of the escalating clashes and prepared for battle. Confident that China was primed for resistance, he rallied his nation, demanding that Japan accept responsibility and respect China's sovereignty. The Japanese launched their offensive, rapidly capturing key positions in Northern China. Notably, fierce battle ensued in Jinghai, where Chinese soldiers, led by Brigade Commander Li Zhiyuan, valiantly defended against overwhelming forces using guerrilla tactics and direct assaults. Their spirit was symbolized by a courageous “death squad” that charged the enemy, inflicting serious casualties despite facing dire odds. As weeks passed, the conflict intensified with brutal assaults on Nankou. Chinese defenses, though valiant, were ultimately overwhelmed, leading to heavy casualties on both sides. Despite losing Nankou, the indomitable Chinese spirit inspired continued resistance against the Japanese invaders, foreshadowing a long, brutal war that would reshape East Asia.   #156 The Battle of Shanghai Part 1: The Beginning of the Battle of Shanghai 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. On August 9, a bullet riddled sedan screeched to an abrupt halt at the entrance to the Hongqiao airport along Monument Road. The gruesome scene on the dashboard revealed that one of the victims had died in the car. He had been dragged out and subjected to brutal slashing, kicking, and beating until his body was a mangled mess. Half of his face was missing, and his stomach had been cut open, exposing the sickly pallor of his intestines, faintly glimmering in the night. The other man had managed to escape the vehicle but only got a few paces away before he was gunned down. A short distance away lay a third body, dressed in a Chinese uniform. Investigators swiftly identified the badly mangled body as belonging to 27-year-old Sub-Lieutenant Oyama Isao, while the other deceased Japanese man was his driver, First Class Seaman Saito Yozo. The identity of the Chinese victim remained a mystery. At first glance, the scene appeared to be the aftermath of a straightforward shootout. However, numerous questions lingered: What were the Japanese doing at a military airfield miles from their barracks? Who had fired the first shot, and what had prompted that decision? The Chinese investigators and their Japanese counterparts were at odds over the answers to these questions. As they walked the crime scene, searching for evidence, loud arguments erupted repeatedly. By the time the sun began to rise, they concluded their investigation without reaching any consensus on what had transpired. They climbed into their cars and made their way back to the city. The investigators were acutely aware of the repercussions if they failed to handle their delicate task with the necessary finesse. Despite their hopes for peace, it was evident that Shanghai was a city bracing for war. As they drove through the dimly lit suburbs on their way from Hongqiao back to their downtown offices, their headlights illuminated whitewashed trees, interspersed with sandbag defenses and the silhouettes of solitary Chinese sentries. Officially, these sentries were part of the Peace Preservation Corps,  a paramilitary unit that, due to an international agreement reached a few years earlier, was the only Chinese force allowed to remain in the Shanghai area. In the hours that followed, both sides presented their versions of the incident. According to the Chinese account, the Japanese vehicle attempted to force its way through the airport gate. When members of the Peace Preservation Corps stationed at the entrance signaled for Saito, the driver, to stop, he abruptly turned the car around. Sub-Lieutenant Oyama then fired at the Chinese guards with an automatic pistol. Only then did the Chinese return fire, killing Oyama in a hail of bullets. Saito managed to jump out before he, too, was gunned down. The commander of the Chinese guards told a Western reporter that this wasn't the first time someone Japanese had attempted to enter the airport. Such incidents had occurred repeatedly in the past two months, leading them to believe that the Japanese were “obviously undertaking espionage.” The Japanese account, predictably, placed the blame for the entire incident squarely on China. It asserted that Oyama had been driving along a road bordering the airfield with no intention of entering. Suddenly, the vehicle was stopped and surrounded by Peace Preservation Corps troops, who opened fire with rifles and machine guns without warning. Oyama had no opportunity to return fire. The Japanese statement argued that the two men had every right to use the road, which was part of the International Settlement, and labeled the incident a clear violation of the 1932 peace agreement. “We demand that the Chinese bear responsibility for this illegal act,”. Regardless of either side, it seemed likely to everyone in the region, war would soon engulf Shanghai.  Meanwhile, as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident escalated into a full blown in the far north, General Zhang Fakui was attending a routine training mission at Mount Lu in southeastern Jiangxi. A short and small man, not considered too handsome either, Zhang had earned his place in China's leadership through physical courage, once taking a stand on a bridge and single handedly facing down an enemy army. He was 41 years old in 1937, having spent half his life fighting Warlords, Communists and sometimes even Nationalists. In the recent years he had tossed his lot in with a rebel campaign against Chiang Kai-Shek, who surprisingly went on the forgive him and placed him in charge of anti communist operations in the area due south of Shanghai. However now the enemy seemed to have changed.  As the war spread to Beijing, on July 16th, Zhang was sent to Chiang Kai-Shek's summer residence at Mount Lu alongside 150 members of China's political and military elites. They were all there to brainstorm how to fight the Japanese. Years prior the Generalissimo had made it doctrine to appease the Japanese but now he made grandiose statements such as “this time we must fight to the end”. Afterwards Chiang dealt missions to all his commanders and Zhang Fakui was told to prepare for operations in the Shanghai area.  It had been apparent for weeks that both China and Japan were preparing for war in central China. The Japanese had been diverting naval troops from the north to strengthen their forces in Shanghai, and by early August, they had assembled over 8,000 troops. A few days later, approximately thirty-two naval vessels arrived. On July 31, Chiang declared that “all hope for peace has been lost.” Chiang had been reluctant to commit his best forces to defend northern China, an area he had never truly controlled. In contrast, Shanghai was central to his strategy for the war against Japan. Chiang decided to deploy his finest troops, the 87th and 88th Divisions, which were trained by generals under the guidance of the German advisor von Falkenhausen, who had high hopes for their performance against the Japanese. In doing so, Chiang aimed to demonstrate to both his own people and the wider world that the Chinese could and would resist the invader. Meanwhile, Chiang's spy chief, Dai Li, was busy gathering intelligence on Japanese intentions regarding Shanghai, a challenging task given his focus in recent years. Dai, one of the most sinister figures in modern Chinese history, had devoted far more energy and resources to suppressing the Communists than to countering the Japanese. As a result, by the critical summer of 1937, he had built only a sparse network of agents in “Little Tokyo,” the Hongkou area of Shanghai dominated by Japanese businesses. One agent was a pawnshop owner, while the rest were double agents employed as local staff within the Japanese security apparatus. Unfortunately, they could provide little more than snippets, rumors, and hearsay. While some of this information sounded alarmingly dire, there was almost no actionable intelligence. Chiang did not take the decision to open a new front in Shanghai lightly. Built on both banks of the Huangpu River, the city served as the junction between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the great Yangtze River, which wound thousands of kilometers inland to the west. Shanghai embodied everything that represented modern China, from its industry and labor relations to its connections with the outside world. While foreign diplomatic presence was concentrated in nearby Nanjing, the capital, it was in Shanghai that the foreign community gauged the country's mood. Foreigners in the city's two “concession” areas nthe French Concession and the British-affiliated International Settlement often dismissed towns beyond Shanghai as mere “outstations.” Chiang Kai-shek would throw 650,000 troops into the battle for the city and its environs as well as his modest air force of 200 aircraft. Chiang, whose forces were being advised by German officers led by General Alexander von Falkenhausen, was finally confident that his forces could take on the Japanese. A German officer told a British diplomat, “If the Chinese Army follows the advice of the German advisers, it is capable of driving the Japanese over the Great Wall.”   While Chiang was groping in the dark, deprived of the eyes and ears of an efficient intelligence service, he did have at his disposal an army that was better prepared for battle than it had been in 1932. Stung by the experience of previous conflicts with the Japanese, Chiang had initiated a modernization program aimed at equipping the armed forces not only to suppress Communist rebels but also to confront a modern fighting force equipped with tanks, artillery, and aircraft. He had made progress, but it was insufficient. Serious weaknesses persisted, and now there was no time for any remedial action. While China appeared to be a formidable power in sheer numbers, the figures were misleading. On the eve of war, the Chinese military was comprised of a total of 176 divisions, which were theoretically organized into two brigades of two regiments each. However, only about 20 divisions maintained full peacetime strength of 10,000 soldiers and officers; the rest typically held around 5,000 men. Moreover, Chiang controlled only 31 divisions personally, and he could not count on the loyalty of the others. To successfully resist Japan, Chiang would need to rely not only on his military command skills but also on his ability to forge fragile coalitions among Warlord generals with strong local loyalties. Equipment posed another significant challenge. The modernization drive was not set to complete until late 1938, and the impact of this delay was evident. In every category of weaponry, from rifles to field artillery, the Chinese were outmatched by their Japanese adversaries, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Domestically manufactured artillery pieces had shorter ranges, and substandard steel-making technology caused gun barrels to overheat, increasing the risk of explosions. Some arms even dated back to imperial times. A large proportion of the Chinese infantry had received no proper training in basic tactics, let alone in coordinated operations involving armor and artillery. The chief of the German advisory corps was General Alexander von Falkenhausen, a figure hard to rival in terms of qualifications for the role. Although the 58-year-old's narrow shoulders, curved back, and bald, vulture-like head gave him an unmilitary, almost avian appearance, his exterior belied a tough character. In 1918, he had earned his nation's highest military honor, the Pour le Mérite, while assisting Germany's Ottoman allies against the British in Palestine. Few, if any, German officers knew Asia as well as he did. His experience in the region dated back to the turn of the century. As a young lieutenant in the Third East Asian Infantry Regiment, he participated in the international coalition of colonial powers that quelled the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. A decade later, he traveled through Korea, Manchuria, and northern China with his wife, keenly observing and learning as a curious tourist. From 1912 to 1914, he served as the German Kaiser's military attaché in Tokyo. He was poised to put his extensive knowledge to good use in the months ahead. Chiang believed that Shanghai should be the location of the first battle. This decision was heavily influenced by Falkenhausen and was strategically sound. Chiang Kai-shek could not hope to win a war against Japan unless he could unify the nation behind him, particularly the many fractious warlords who had battled his forces repeatedly over the past decade. Everyone understood that the territory Japan was demanding in the far north did not need to be held for any genuine military necessity; it was land that could be negotiated. The warlords occupying that territory were unpredictable and all too willing to engage in bargaining. In contrast, China's economic heartland held different significance. By choosing to fight for the center of the country and deploying his strongest military units, Chiang Kai-shek signaled to both China's warlords and potential foreign allies that he had a vested interest in the outcome.  There were also several operational reasons for preferring a conflict in the Yangtze River basin over a campaign in northern China. The rivers, lakes, and rice paddies of the Yangtze delta were much better suited for defensive warfare against Japan's mechanized forces than the flat plains of North China. By forcing the Japanese to commit troops to central China, the Nationalists bought themselves the time needed to rally and reinforce their faltering defenses in the north. By initiating hostilities in the Shanghai area, Japan would be forced to divert its attention from the northern front, thereby stalling a potential Japanese advance toward the crucial city of Wuhan. It would also help safeguard potential supply routes from the Soviet Union, the most likely source of material assistance due to Moscow's own animosity toward Japan. It was a clever plan, and surprisingly, the Japanese did not anticipate it. Intelligence officers in Tokyo were convinced that Chiang would send his troops northward instead. Again in late July, Chiang convened his commanders, and here he gave Zhang Fukai more detailed instructions for his operation. Fukai was placed in charge of the right wing of the army which was currently preparing for action in the metropolitan area. Fukai would oversee the forces east of the Huangpu River in the area known as Pudong. Pudong was full of warehouses, factories and rice fields, quite precarious to fight in. Meanwhile General Zhang Zhizhong, a quiet and sickly looking man who had previously led the Central Military Academy was to command the left wing of the Huangpu. All of the officers agreed the plan to force the battle to the Shanghai area was logical as the northern region near Beijing was far too open, giving the advantage to tank warfare, which they could not hope to contest Japan upon. The Shanghai area, full of rivers, creaks and urban environments favored them much more. Zhang Zhizhong seemed an ideal pick to lead troops in downtown Shanghai where most of the fighting would take place. His position of commandant of the military academy allowed him to establish connections with junior officers earmarked for rapid promotion. This meant that he personally knew the generals of both the 87th and 88th Divisions, which were to form the core of Zhang Zhizhong's newly established 9th Army Group and become his primary assets in the early phases of the Shanghai campaign. Moreover, Zhang Zhizhong had the right aggressive instincts. He believed that China's confrontation with Japan had evolved through three stages: in the first stage, the Japanese invaded the northeast in 1931, and China remained passive; in the second stage, during the first battle of Shanghai in 1932, Japan struck, but China fought back. Zhang argued that this would be the third stage, where Japan was preparing to attack, but China would strike first.   It seems that Zhang Zhizhong did not expect to survive this final showdown with his Japanese adversary. He took the fight very personally, even ordering his daughter to interrupt her education in England and return home to serve her country in the war. However, he was not the strong commander he appeared to be, as he was seriously ill. Although he never disclosed the true extent of his condition, it seemed he was on the verge of a physical and mental breakdown after years in high-stress positions. In fact, he had recently taken a leave of absence from his role at the military academy in the spring of 1937. When the war broke out, he was at a hospital in the northern port city of Qingdao, preparing to go abroad for convalescence. He canceled those plans to contribute to the struggle against Japan. When his daughter returned from England and saw him on the eve of battle, she was alarmed by how emaciated he had become. From the outset, doubts about his physical fitness to command loomed large. At 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 10, a group of officers emerged from the Japanese Consulate along the banks of the Huangpu River. This team was a hastily assembled Sino-Japanese joint investigation unit tasked with quickly resolving the shooting incident at the Hongqiao Aerodrome of the previous night. They understood the urgency of reaching an agreement swiftly to prevent any escalation. As they drove to the airport, they passed armed guards of the Chinese Peace Preservation Corps stationed behind sandbag barricades that had been erected only hours earlier. Upon arriving at Hongqiao, the officers walked up and down the scene of the incident under the scorching sun, attempting to piece together a shared understanding of what had transpired. However, this proved to be nearly impossible, as the evidence failed to align into a coherent account acceptable to both parties. The Japanese were unconvinced that any shootout had occurred at all. Oyama, the officer who had been in the car, had left his pistol at the marine headquarters in Hongkou and had been unarmed the night before. They insisted that whoever shot and killed the man in the Chinese uniform could not have been him. By 6:00 pm the investigators returned to the city. Foreign correspondents, eager for information, knew exactly whom to approach. The newly appointed Shanghai Mayor, Yu Hongjun, with a quick wit and proficiency in English, Yu represented the city's cosmopolitan image. However, that evening, he had little to offer the reporters, except for a plea directed at both the Japanese and Chinese factions “Both sides should maintain a calm demeanor to prevent the situation from escalating.” Mayor Yu however was, in fact, at the center of a complex act of deception that nearly succeeded. Nearly eight decades later, Zhang Fakui attributed the incident to members of the 88th Division, led by General Sun Yuanliang. “A small group of Sun Yuanliang's men disguised themselves as members of the Peace Preservation Corps,” Zhang Fakui recounted years later in his old age. “On August 9, 1937, they encountered two Japanese servicemen on the road near the Hongqiao military aerodrome and accused them of forcing their way into the area. A clash ensued, resulting in the deaths of the Japanese soldiers.” This created a delicate dilemma for their superiors. The two dead Japanese soldiers were difficult to explain away. Mayor Yu, likely informed of the predicament by military officials, conferred with Tong Yuanliang, chief of staff of the Songhu Garrison Command, a unit established after the fighting in 1932. Together, they devised a quick and cynical plan to portray the situation as one of self-defense by the Chinese guards. Under their orders, soldiers marched a Chinese death row inmate to the airport gate, dressed him in a paramilitary guard's uniform, and executed him. While this desperate ruse might have worked initially, it quickly unraveled due to the discrepancies raised by the condition of the Chinese body. The Japanese did not believe the story, and the entire plan began to fall apart. Any remaining mutual trust swiftly evaporated. Instead of preventing a confrontation, the cover-up was accelerating the slide into war.  Late on August 10, Mayor Yu sent a secret cable to Nanjing, warning that the Japanese had ominously declared they would not allow the two deaths at the airport to go unpunished. The following day, the Japanese Consul General Okamoto Suemasa paid a visit to the mayor, demanding the complete withdrawal of the Peace Preservation Corps from the Shanghai area and the dismantling of all fortifications established by the corps. For the Chinese, acquiescing to these demands was nearly impossible. From their perspective, it appeared that the Japanese aimed to leave Shanghai defenseless while simultaneously bolstering their own military presence in the city. Twenty vessels, including cruisers and destroyers, sailed up the Huangpu River and docked at wharves near "Little Tokyo." Japanese marines in olive-green uniforms marched ashore down the gangplanks, while women from the local Japanese community, dressed in kimonos, greeted the troops with delighted smiles and bows to the flags of the Rising Sun that proudly adorned the sterns of the battleships. In fact, Japan had planned to deploy additional troops to Shanghai even before the shooting at Hongqiao Aerodrome. This decision was deemed necessary to reinforce the small contingent of 2,500 marines permanently stationed in the city. More troops were required to assist in protecting Japanese nationals who were being hastily evacuated from the larger cities along the Yangtze River. These actions were primarily defensive maneuvers, as the Japanese military seemed hesitant to open a second front in Shanghai, for the same reasons that the Chinese preferred an extension of hostilities to that area. Diverting Japanese troops from the strategically critical north and the Soviet threat across China's border would weaken their position, especially given that urban warfare would diminish the advantages of their technological superiority in tanks and aircraft. While officers in the Japanese Navy believed it was becoming increasingly difficult to prevent the war from spreading to Shanghai, they were willing to give diplomacy one last chance. Conversely, the Japanese Army was eager to wage war in northern China but displayed little inclination to engage in hostilities in Shanghai. Should the situation worsen, the Army preferred to withdraw all Japanese nationals from the city. Ultimately, when it agreed to formulate plans for dispatching an expeditionary force to Shanghai, it did so reluctantly, primarily to avoid accusations of neglecting its responsibilities. Amongst many commanders longing for a swift confrontation with Japan was Zhang Zhizhong. By the end of July, he was growing increasingly impatient, waiting with his troops in the Suzhou area west of Shanghai and questioning whether a unique opportunity was being squandered. On July 30, he sent a telegram to Nanjing requesting permission to strike first. He argued that if Japan were allowed to launch an attack on Shanghai, he would waste valuable time moving his troops from their position more than 50 miles away. Nanjing responded with a promise that his wishes would be fulfilled but urged him to exercise patience: “We should indeed seize the initiative over the enemy, but we must wait until the right opportunity arises. Await further orders.” That opportunity arose on August 11, with the Japanese display of force on the Huangpu River and their public demand for the withdrawal of China's paramilitary police. Japan had sufficiently revealed itself as the aggressor in the eyes of both domestic and international audiences, making it safe for China to take action. At 9:00 p.m. that evening, Zhang Zhizhong received orders from Nanjing to move his troops toward Shanghai. He acted with remarkable speed, capitalizing on the extensive transportation network in the region. The soldiers of the 87th Division quickly boarded 300 trucks that had been prepared in advance. Meanwhile, civilian passengers on trains were unceremoniously ordered off to make room for the 88th Division, which boarded the carriages heading for Shanghai. In total, over 20,000 motivated and well-equipped troops were on their way to battle.  On August 12, representatives from the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Italy, Japan, and China gathered for a joint conference in Shanghai to discuss ceasefire terms. Japan demanded the withdrawal of Chinese troops from Shanghai, while the Chinese representative, Yu Hung-chun, dismissed the Japanese demand, stating that the terms of the ceasefire had already been violated by Japan. The major powers were keen to avoid a repeat of the January 28 Incident, which had significantly disrupted foreign economic activities in Shanghai. Meanwhile, Chinese citizens fervently welcomed the presence of Chinese troops in the city. In Nanjing, Chinese and Japanese representatives convened for the last time in a final effort to negotiate. The Japanese insisted that all Peace Preservation Corps and regular troops be withdrawn from the vicinity of Shanghai. The Chinese, however, deemed the demand for a unilateral withdrawal unacceptable, given that the two nations were already engaged in conflict in North China. Ultimately, Mayor Yu made it clear that the most the Chinese government would concede was that Chinese troops would not fire unless fired upon. Conversely, Japan placed all responsibility on China, citing the deployment of Chinese troops around Shanghai as the cause of the escalating tensions. Negotiations proved impossible, leaving no alternative but for the war to spread into Central China. On that same morning of Thursday, August 12, residents near Shanghai's North Train Station, also known as Zhabei Station, just a few blocks from "Little Tokyo," awoke to an unusual sight: thousands of soldiers dressed in the khaki uniforms of the Chinese Nationalists, wearing German-style helmets and carrying stick grenades slung across their chests. “Where do you come from?” the Shanghai citizens asked. “How did you get here so fast?” Zhang Zhizhong issued detailed orders to each unit under his command, instructing the 88th Division specifically to travel by train and deploy in a line from the town of Zhenru to Dachang village, both located a few miles west of Shanghai. Only later was the division supposed to advance toward a position stretching from the Zhabei district to the town of Jiangwan, placing it closer to the city boundaries. Zhang Zhizhong was the embodiment of belligerence, but he faced even more aggressive officers among his ranks. On the morning of August 12, he was approached by Liu Jingchi, the chief of operations at the Songhu Garrison Command. Liu argued that the battle of 1932 had gone poorly for the Chinese because they had hesitated and failed to strike first. This time, he insisted, should be different, and Zhang should order an all-out assault on the Japanese positions that very evening. Zhang countered that he had clear and unmistakable orders from Chiang Kai-shek to let the Japanese fire first, emphasizing the importance of maintaining China's image on the world stage. “That's easy,” Liu retorted. “Once all the units are deployed and ready to attack, we can just change some people into mufti and send them in to fire a few shots. We attack, and simultaneously, we report that the enemy's offensive has begun.” Zhang Zhizhong did not like this idea. “We can't go behind our leader's back like that,” he replied. Zhang Zhizhong's position was far from enviable. Forced to rein in eager and capable officers, he found himself acting against his own personal desires. Ultimately, he decided to seek the freedom to act as he saw fit. In a secret cable to Nanjing, he requested permission to launch an all-out attack on the Japanese positions in Shanghai the following day, Friday, August 13. He argued that this was a unique opportunity to capitalize on the momentum created by the movement of troops; any further delay would only lead to stagnation. He proposed a coordinated assault that would also involve the Chinese Air Force. However, the reply from Chiang Kai-shek was brief and unwavering: “Await further orders.” Even as Chiang's troops poured into Shanghai, Chinese and Japanese officials continued their discussions. Ostensibly, this was in hopes of reaching a last-minute solution, but in reality, it was a performance. Both sides wanted to claim the moral high ground in a battle that now seemed inevitable. They understood that whoever openly declared an end to negotiations would automatically be perceived as the aggressor. During talks at the Shanghai Municipal Council, Japanese Consul General Okamoto argued that if China truly wanted peace, it would have withdrawn its troops to a position that would prevent clashes. Mayor Yu responded by highlighting the increasing presence of Japanese forces in the city. “Under such circumstances, China must adopt such measures as necessary for self-defense,” he stated. Late on August 13, 1937, Chiang Kai-shek instructed his forces to defend Shanghai, commanding them to "divert the enemy at sea, secure the coast, and resist landings."  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. In July 1937, tensions between Japan and China escalated into war following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Confident in his country's resolve, Chiang Kai-shek rallied the Chinese against Japanese aggression. On August 9, a deadly confrontation at Hongqiao Airport resulted in the deaths of Japanese soldiers, igniting further hostilities. As both sides blamed each other, the atmosphere became tense. Ultimately, negotiations failed, and the stage was set for a brutal conflict in Shanghai, marking the beginning of a long and devastating war.

Following Sean "Diddy" Combs' recent arrest on serious charges including sex trafficking, racketeering, and kidnapping, his alleged co-conspirators could be facing significant legal jeopardy. Prosecutors have accused Combs of leading a criminal enterprise involving forced labor, trafficking, and violence spanning decades. These associates were allegedly instrumental in facilitating his activities, from arranging illicit gatherings to helping cover up the abuse.If the co-conspirators are found to have played roles in these events—such as arranging travel, securing locations for the alleged crimes, or participating in acts of intimidation—they could face charges similar to Combs, such as racketeering, conspiracy, and witness tampering. Notably, one co-conspirator is already accused of kidnapping a person at gunpoint to facilitate a break-in, which later escalated to setting fire to the victim's car. These charges, if proven, could result in lengthy prison sentences for the co-conspirators, as they are closely tied to the violent and coercive aspects of Combs' criminal enterprise​Given the severity of the charges against Combs, those involved may also be subject to intense scrutiny, as prosecutors have made it clear they intend to pursue all parties who participated in the operation. With mounting evidence—including seized videos, narcotics, and firearms—legal outcomes for his associates could be just as dire, particularly if they are implicated in covering up or enabling the alleged abuses(commercial at 8:03)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Diddy's entourage could be charged over 'Freak Off' supplies after 1,000 bottles of lube seized, lawyer warns | The US Sun (the-sun.com)

In 1973, two seemingly unrelated murders in Toronto leave families shattered and the public searching for answers. Detectives chase every lead, but the case goes cold. Decades later, Detective Sergeant Steve reopens the investigation, armed with advanced DNA technology. But solving this case isn't just about science—it requires earning the trust of a remote Indigenous community and holding onto the hope that justice can finally be served. Detective Sergeant Steve is a seasoned investigator with 28 years of service in the Toronto Police Service, where he currently leads the Homicide Cold Case Unit—home to the largest caseload of unsolved cases in Canada. In addition to overseeing the Cold Case Unit, Steve also manages the Forensic Video Unit and played a key role in the establishment of the Missing Persons Unit, guiding its development from the ground up.Throughout his distinguished career, Steve has held various positions in specialized units, including the Drug Squad, Major Crime Unit, Major Projects, ROPE (Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement) Squad, and the Hold Up Squad. Notably, while in the Hold Up Squad, he was instrumental in solving the high-profile multi-national bank robbery series known as the "Vaulter Bandit." A graduate of Brock University, Steve holds a major in Political Science and a minor in Business Entrepreneurship. His early career interests in law enforcement were sparked by his work with the Canada Border Services Agency during his time at university. For bonus episodes, behind-the-scenes shenanigans, join the SuperFam community at smalltowndicks.com/superfam

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with John Nguyen, CEO of Heritage Line. In our conversation, John shares his passion for his home in Southeast Asia and describes his luxury cruise line, how he developed it, and how they deliver on unique experiences by going to places that most tour operators cannot access. John describes partnerships that he has built with competing river cruise companies to help develop sustainable practices and facilitate connections between locals and international visitors that make a positive impact. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How John Nguyen overcame losing his sight and used it as inspiration to launch two successful businesses in Southeast Asia's luxury travel sector Why honoring local communities and creating positive impacts in the destinations he visits is central to John's business philosophy What makes Heritage Line's luxury river cruises unique including access to hidden, off-the-beaten-path villages and authentic guest experiences How John developed partnerships and collaborations to promote sustainable practices and protect the villages visited by river cruises Why relationships, word-of-mouth, and tailored experiences have been fundamental to reaching high-end international travelers and building reputable brands How John and his teams implement philanthropic initiatives such as vocational training and literacy programs to support and empower local communities What inspires John's ongoing projects and new destination explorations, including his process for identifying and creating exceptional travel experiences in emerging regions Adversity to Industry Leader Growing up along the Perfume River in Hue, Vietnam, John was surrounded by a rich culture, history, and a profound sense of place. These early influences fueled his passion for boating and inspired the creation of guest experiences that combine authentic local connections with high-end service. After losing his sight in the late 1990s and faced with the daunting prospect of unemployment, John chose entrepreneurship instead. He launched his first venture, Trails of Indochina, in 1999, even before luxury tourism infrastructure existed in Vietnam. Despite the limited five-star accommodations available at the time, John believed that travelers would value unique, immersive experiences over amenities alone. “I was able to persuade people to stay at just decent hotels, but they got the opportunity to really experience authentic and unique experiences in the region.” This focus on access, storytelling, and local connection formed the foundation for his later river cruise company, Heritage Line. Small Ships with a Big Impact By operating boutique ships with as few as six to 27 cabins, Heritage Line is able to visit secluded villages and rarely accessed corners of the Mekong and other major waterways. This approach not only creates exclusivity for travelers but also preserves the intimacy and integrity of local communities. Guests may visit villages where electricity is a novelty, collaborate with locals on traditional crafts such as textile weaving and wood carving, and support philanthropic projects, including building wells and eradicating illiteracy. Travelers have the opportunity to really learn more about how locals live. Collaboration Over Competition As Southeast Asia's tourism profile has grown, John has witnessed an influx of international operators, some with larger, less community-integrated ships. Rather than seeing them strictly as rivals, John champions “coopetition.” Heritage Line works directly with other cruise companies to build sustainable practices and prevent the negative impacts of overtourism. By coordinating with these “friendly competitors,” John and his peers can spread the benefits of tourism more equitably, develop vocational and philanthropic programs, and ensure that the arrival of travelers enhances rather than disrupts local communities. Notably, Heritage Line has spearheaded projects to provide clean water, vocational training for marginalized groups, and even tackle illiteracy through book donations and mobile libraries. For John, the true essence of travel lies in its ability to forge meaningful, transformational connections. Whether helping a guest donate a sampan (boat) to a family, bringing books to a remote village, or enabling visitors to join local festivals, Heritage Line's experiences go beyond passive sightseeing. Resources: Website: https://heritage-line.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/heritage-line/ We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more o​f. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!

"To save my world, I have to help Apocalypse destroy a past one." After four consecutive self-contained episodes, X-MEN wisely ramps up the pace and the tension directly at the season's mid-point with a high-octane two-parter. "Time Fugitives" goes big in all the right aways, logically bringing together the show's resident time travelers Bishop and Cable as their respective futures are placed in direct conflict. Also returning is arch-villain Apocalypse, who is immortalized as a true existential threat unlike any other our heroes have faced by his malignant presence in two of the three distinct timelines tracked across these episodes. With recurring season 2 foes the Friends of Humanity continuing to sow anti-mutant sentiment amongst the public, the script has its hands full juggling a plethora of characters within a dense plot. Nevertheless, with the aid of veteran comics and science fiction writer Elliot S. Maggin pitching in, alongside some clever animation reuse through the magic of time travel, the story makes good on its epic ambitions as a series stand-out and fan favorite. Cable in particular receives a welcome makeover following his introduction as a blank slate, stock badass/mercenary. It's confirmed from the jump that he's a time traveler, though this was probably best avoided in the first season given the proximity of his appearances to Bishop's arrival. Here, that redundancy is treated as a feature rather than a bug, with Bishop's successful efforts to create a better future threatening to unravel Cable's (even more distant) future. Time travel nonsense aside, it comes down to a classic moral dilemma wherein Cable must make the impossible choice between two horrible alternatives. Unlike our initial encounter with the character, this Cable is informed by an actual backstory and origin that the comics had finally settled on -- and all the better for it. Here we meet a world-weary soldier and hardened pragmatist by circumstance, but a principled man nonetheless. More importantly, this Cable is a dedicated leader and father, one who grapples with his conscience constantly in search of any way for his and Bishop's respective worlds to co-exist. Equally clever strategist that he is, Cable's solution is ingenious (and, true to form for this series, accidentally socially relevant over 30 years later). In a season defined by its focus on character development, this reinvention of Cable arguably outshines the high-concept action surrounding it. X-TRA: Though Apocalypse's genetically engineered plague is only referred to once as a "techno-virus," it's fitting that this line is spoken by Cable. When his parentage is ultimately confirmed in X-MEN '97, we learn that Cable is the child of Cyclops and Jean's clone, Madelyne Pryor. Notably, he is exposed to a virus by Mr. Sinister, with symptoms very much resembling (and that Beast even compares to) this very same plague. Sinister's variant is more lethal, prompting Madelyne to send the stricken infant into the future as his only hope of survival.

Following Sean "Diddy" Combs' recent arrest on serious charges including sex trafficking, racketeering, and kidnapping, his alleged co-conspirators could be facing significant legal jeopardy. Prosecutors have accused Combs of leading a criminal enterprise involving forced labor, trafficking, and violence spanning decades. These associates were allegedly instrumental in facilitating his activities, from arranging illicit gatherings to helping cover up the abuse.If the co-conspirators are found to have played roles in these events—such as arranging travel, securing locations for the alleged crimes, or participating in acts of intimidation—they could face charges similar to Combs, such as racketeering, conspiracy, and witness tampering. Notably, one co-conspirator is already accused of kidnapping a person at gunpoint to facilitate a break-in, which later escalated to setting fire to the victim's car. These charges, if proven, could result in lengthy prison sentences for the co-conspirators, as they are closely tied to the violent and coercive aspects of Combs' criminal enterprise​Given the severity of the charges against Combs, those involved may also be subject to intense scrutiny, as prosecutors have made it clear they intend to pursue all parties who participated in the operation. With mounting evidence—including seized videos, narcotics, and firearms—legal outcomes for his associates could be just as dire, particularly if they are implicated in covering up or enabling the alleged abuses(commercial at 8:03)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Diddy's entourage could be charged over 'Freak Off' supplies after 1,000 bottles of lube seized, lawyer warns | The US Sun (the-sun.com)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Here's what happened last night: Saying Goodbye: Committee Member Lima Barbosa announced that next month's meeting will be her last. Her departure will create an opening on the Committee, yet we did not hear about the process of filling her seat. Host Ross Wilson announced that he will look into potentially joining the committee in her stead. Public Comment: Eid, Henderson, and Equity: The Eid Coalition Group dominated public comment as multiple speakers urged the district to close schools on Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The parents, students, and advocates highlighted the difficulty of having to choose whether they must miss a school day or an important holiday. Additionally, parents from the Henderson Inclusion School gave a moving statement about how the school's original inclusive mission has eroded, illustrating greater concerns raised over the past year about its decline. Votes, Votes, Votes: The School Committee ticked off a number of unanimous votes on various matters that had been previously brought up before the members. These included: authorization for student activity funds, superintendent approval authority over trust expenditures, Boston Green Academy's charter renewal, Urban Achievers High School private school application, graduation requirements amendment for alternative education, and the competency determination for the Class of 2026. Notably, there was little inquiry from any School Committee members on graduation rates for this past year. We will be on the lookout for further information about this during future meetings. Superintendent's Report: Progress, But Few Details Superintendent Mary Skipper opened her report with a thank you to this year's retiring BPS staff. She then introduced a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Boston Police Department, which outlines limited circumstances under which schools will share information with law enforcement. The agreement maintains the district's commitment to restorative justice and explicitly prohibits inquiries into students' immigration status. The quarterly update on transformation schools noted “slow and steady” progress, particularly with more coaching and monitoring around grade-level curriculum as well as excitement and school culture improvements. The Superintendent also stated that there remains major issues with chronic absenteeism throughout these schools. Superintendent Evaluation: “Proficient” The Committee presented its annual evaluation of Superintendent Skipper, giving her an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5 and labeling her “proficient.” According to the report, she showed improvement in every category over the past year. However, the evaluation relied on a BPS-specific rubric, diverging from the state's DESE model, raising questions about alignment and transparency. More critically, the Committee did not address major issues in its evaluation, including: the long-term facilities plan, ballooning White Stadium costs, declining enrollment, transportation controversy, and federal funding uncertainty. Exam Schools: Bonus Points No More? The night's final report focused on the exam school admissions policy. While no changes were proposed, as the district made clear their presentation was just an analysis, data simulations hinted at a likely shift away from the controversial “bonus points” system, especially as exam school applicants have dropped by more than 1,000 students over the past five years. Vice Chair O'Neill expressed concern about the unintended consequences of the current tier-based residency system, despite having supported the policy in the past. Two public speakers critiqued the district for their actions, stating that the information they presented was clear when they began the process of changing the admissions policy. Looking Ahead The School Committee's next meeting is scheduled for July 9th, when it will formally vote on Superintendent Skipper's evaluation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthony Parnther is a conductor, bassoonist, and music educator prominently known for his work conducting and playing for critically acclaimed film scores. In 2019 he was appointed music director and conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and concurrently serves as the music director of the Southeast Symphony in Los Angeles, California, a position he has held since 2010. His notable film and TV work includes the scoring sessions for critically acclaimed films and TV shows such as “Avatar: The Way of Water”, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, “The Mandalorian”, Grammy Award-winning film “Encanto”, and Oscar winning film “Oppenheimer”. Notably, Panther led the scoring session for “Oppenheimer” which won Best Original Score in addition to Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2024.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a textA Legacy Rooted in Wine and FamilyThe episode kicks off with lighthearted banter and a warm welcome to the first Inside the Bunghole episode of 2025, featuring Michael Keenan of Keenan Wines in Napa Valley. Michael shares the multigenerational story of his family's vineyard, which began when his father, Robert Keenan, was inspired by his father-in-law's wine collection and purchased the Spring Mountain property in 1974. At the time, Napa was far from the food and wine mecca it is today, but Robert had a vision of producing first-growth quality Cabernet Sauvignon. Spring Mountain's ideal east-facing slopes and abundant water supply made it the perfect location. Michael reminisces about the winery's origin, including its ghost winery roots (the property housed a winery from 1890–1930) and the early Bordeaux varietals they were the first to plant on that specific land.From Wandering Seeker to Reluctant WinemakerMichael's personal journey into winemaking wasn't direct. After high school, he traveled the world, became a vegetarian, and meditated in India before returning home in 1977. Initially working the harvest temporarily, he pursued a career in carpentry and general contracting for over 20 years. A family dispute later separated him from the winery, but after the death of his stepmother and reconciling with his father, Michael took over operations in 1998 with one condition: total control. Over time, he reestablished the winery's reputation, embraced a restrained, old-world style of winemaking, and distanced himself from overly ripe Napa wines, aligning more with French techniques that emphasized balance, savoriness, and complexity.Craft, Chemistry & the Keenan IdentityThe conversation shifts into the mechanics of winemaking—Michael explains his preference for mostly neutral barrels and minimal oak influence, likening barrel use to salt in cooking: essential but never overpowering. He also criticizes the use of additives like MegaPurple, which mask a wine's true characteristics and require toxic stabilizers. As the discussion continues, Michael shares stories about label design rooted in family history, his deepening pride in the winery over time, and the upcoming 50th vintage celebration. Notably, the Tribute wine—a 50/50 blend of Bordeaux clones—symbolizes both a viticultural and emotional milestone, coinciding with his father's passing and marking a profound evolution in both the vineyard and Michael's stewardship.Cheers! Please like, follow, subscribe and rate us! We LOVE to hear your comments! Reach out to us on our social media: Facebook and Instagram @insidethebungholeTwitter @bungholepodcastOur webpage is insidethebunghole.buzzsprout.comOR email us at insidethebunghole@gmail.com

Wildfires and climate change: a brief overview North America is no stranger to wildfires. As of August 15, 2024, 29,917 fires this year have burned more than 5.2 million acres, according to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. While this year's number of wildfires is below the annual average of 35,691, the yearly acres burned is above the average of 3.8 million acres of the past 10 years.While wildfires are a naturally occurring phenomenon, their frequency is heavily influenced by climate change, especially on the west coast of the United States. Wildfire risk increases depending on a number of factors, including temperature, soil moisture, and the presence of trees, shrubs, and other fuel. Additionally, climate change dries out organic matter or “fuel” in forests, resulting in a doubling of the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States. As climate change creates warmer and drier weather conditions, wildfires will likely become more frequent; studies show that an average annual warming of one degree celsius would increase the median burned area per year by as much as 600 percent in some types of forests. Ultimately, as temperatures warm globally and drier conditions ravage the country, these fires will spread farther and become harder and harder to extinguish. “Good” fire: an ancestral solution to our wildfire problem  As the planet warms, many have turned to ancient methods to mitigate the effects of climate change. Notably, Dr. Adams borrows the concept of “good” fires from Native American cultural fires practices, where low intensity fires are lit to heal the surrounding ecosystem. In order to positively change the public's relationship with fire, fire agencies in California and Native American tribes have started using this term. Generally, “good” or cultural fires not only restore degraded soils and decrease vegetation or fuel overgrowth, but also deepen the spiritual ties people have to the land they inhabit. Specifically, good fire increases organic matter, keeps soil surfaces vegetated through the regrowth of plants, and encourages biodiversity. In California, many ecosystems rely on fire for its regenerative powers. Dr. Adams notes that fire connects to water, soil health, and the health of animals and surrounding areas. It can also mitigate invasive species growth and eliminate harmful pests that are killing a lot of trees, making them more susceptible to catching fire and starting larger forest fires. As a result, fire promotes many benefits for ecosystem health.Dr. Adams writes that as a member of the N'dee San Carlos Apache Tribe, she maintains a sacred attachment to the land, and believes that humans and the Earth are relatives. Subsequently, as siblings, humans and the land must help each other survive. Following these teachings around our relationship to more-than-human sibling and reciprocity, “good” fire participants can achieve “futurity” (intergenerational exchanges) that will safeguard future protection of the environment and human communities. Listening to these Native American Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) could lead the way to developing a more sustainable relationship to the planet and, in doing so, mitigate the effects of climate change.Mother Earth: how climate matriarchy can save the planet The concept of “good” fire stems from Indigenous Matriarchal Ecology. Many Native American tribes are matriarchal, such as the Cherokee and the Navajo. Applying traditionally “matriarchal” values such as care, tenderness, and love to environmental conservation could be an effective climate change solution. Inclusivity and the centering of Indigenous women's knowledge can also allow opportunities to enhance plant and soil health, remediation, and rematriation of the quality of our plant and soilscapes to provide a prosperous support structure that enables ecosystems to thrive.By practicing Indigenous Matriarchal Ecology, cultural fire participants can collectively start seeing the Earth as a Mother: one who gives life and receives it in return. This is why Dr. Adams and her colleagues focus on the role the soil can play in the fight against climate change through the practice of Matriarchal Ecology. Dr. Adams writes that applying a soil health approach to ecology in tandem with cultural fires can play an important role in climate mitigation by storing carbon and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. By restoring degraded soils and adopting soil conservation practices, such as cultural fire and Indigenous Matriarchal Ecologies, “good” fire practitioners can enhance the Earth's carbon sequestration capacity and build resilience to climate change. Furthermore, these soil improvements on formerly mined and degraded lands could make soilscapes more resilient to erosion and desertification, while maintaining vital ecosystem services. And hopefully, these practitioners can inspire others, non-Native and Native alike, to develop a better understanding of and relationships with the planet.Indigenous Matriarchal Ecologies can highlight the positive effects of cultural fire on environmentally degraded soils, while simultaneously building native plant and soil resilience toward climate and cultural futurity that all communities can enjoy.Who is our guest?Dr. Melinda Adams is a member of the N'dee San Carlos Apache Tribe and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science at the University of Kansas. A cultural fire practitioner and scholar, her research focuses on the revitalization of cultural fire with Tribes in California and more recently with Tribes in the Midwest. Her work with Indigenous communities combines environmental science, environmental policy, and Indigenous studies methodologies.ResourcesCenter for Climate and Energy Solutions: Wildfires and Climate ChangeCalifornia Native Plant Society: Native Plants and Climate Change: Indigenous Perspectives Further reading UC Davis: Melinda Adams: Flame KeeperClimate Designers: Podcast: Deep Dive with Dr Melinda Adams: Solastalgia & Soliphilia For a transcript of this episode, please visit https://climatebreak.org/regenerating-our-ecosystems-with-good-fire-with-dr-melinda-adams/.

In this episode of Around the School Table, host Steve Davis talks with Craig Ainsworth from Westport Public School about how a modest chess program in a low socio-economic school achieved elite educational outcomes over 18 years. Far from just a lunchtime club, Craig’s program developed students’ physical control, emotional intelligence, intellectual stamina, and creative thinking—all through the game of chess. Ainsworth shares that success wasn’t about innate giftedness, but about effort and process. Using a structured approach—such as the KM-PPS framework (King safety, Material, Pawn structure, Position, Space)—students learned to handle pressure, make strategic decisions, and apply consistent critical thinking under stress. Chess became more than a game; it was a vehicle for building resilience and a growth mindset. The program had broad academic impacts, boosting students’ performance in both maths and literacy. Notably, it also shattered stereotypes: many of the top players were athletic or quiet students who, through chess, discovered untapped cognitive strengths. Craig emphasises that coaching was not passive—it required active engagement, questioning students about their decisions, and creating an environment where learning was mutual. A key to the program’s longevity was its self-sustaining culture of mentoring. Elite players trained the next cohort, creating a legacy of peer-led excellence. Even though the program paused when Craig left in 2018, its ripple effects are seen in students now pursuing high-level studies and careers. When asked why chess still matters in the age of AI, Craig affirms that machines can analyse but not create. It’s human creativity, developed through tools like chess, that remains irreplaceable. This episode is a testament to how traditional games, paired with intentional teaching, can unlock transformative educational experiences—especially in places where they’re least expected. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Founder of the Raising Capitalists Foundation and previous co-host of The Real Estate Guys Radio show, Russell Gray, joins Keith to discuss the historical and current devaluation of the U.S. dollar, its impact on investors, and the broader economic implications. Gray highlights how the significant increase in interest rates has trapped equity in properties and affected development. He explains the shift from gold-backed currency to paper money, the role of the Federal Reserve, and the impact of the Bretton Woods Agreement.  Gray emphasizes the importance of understanding macroeconomic trends and advocates for Main Street capitalism to decentralize power and promote productivity. He also criticizes the idea of housing as a human right, arguing it leads to inflation and shortages. Resources: Connect with Russell Gray to learn more about his "Raising Capitalists" project and his plans for a new show. Follow up with Russell Gray to get a copy of the Beardsley Rummel speech transcript from 1946. follow@russellgray.com Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/558 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”.  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Automatically Transcribed With Otter.ai  Keith Weinhold  0:01   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, what's the real backstory on why we have this thing called the dollar? Why it keeps getting debased? What you can do about it and when the dollar will die? It's a lesson in monetary history. And our distinguished guest is a familiar voice that you haven't heard in a while. Today on get rich education.   Mid south home buyers, I mean, they're total pros, with over two decades as the nation's highest rated turnkey provider, their empathetic property managers use your ROI as their North Star. So it's no wonder that smart investors just keep lining up to get their completely renovated income properties like it's the newest iPhone. They're headquartered in Memphis and have globally attractive cash flows and A plus rating with a better business bureau and now over 5000 houses renovated. There's zero markup on maintenance. Let that sink in, and they average a 98.9% occupancy rate, while their average renter stays more than three and a half years. Every home they offer has brand new components, a bumper to bumper, one year warranty, new 30 year roofs. And wait for it, a high quality renter. Remember that part and in an astounding price range, 100 to 180k I've personally toured their office and their properties in person in Memphis, get to know Mid South. Enjoy cash flow from day one. Start yourself right now at mid southhomebuyers.com that's mid south homebuyers.com   Russell Gray  1:54   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  2:10   Welcome to GRE from St John's Newfoundland to St Augustine, Florida and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith weinholden. You are inside get rich education. It's 2025. The real estate market is changing. We'll get into that in future. Weeks today. Over the past 100 years plus, we've gone from sound money to Monopoly money, and we're talking about America's currency collapse. What comes next and how it affects you as both an investor and a citizen.   I'd like to welcome in longtime friend of the show and someone that I've personally learned from over the years, because he's a brilliant teacher, real estate investors probably haven't heard his voice as much lately, because until last year, he had been the co host of the terrific real estate guys radio show for nearly 20 years. Before we're done today, you'll learn more about what he's doing now, as he runs the Main Street capitalist platform and is also founder of the raising capitalists foundation. Hey, it's been a few years. Welcome back to GRE Russell Gray.   Russell Gray  3:19   yeah, it's fun. I actually think it's been maybe 10 years when I think about it, I remember I was at a little resort in Mexico recording with you, I think in the gym. It was just audio back then, no video.    Keith Weinhold  3:24   Yeah, I remember we're trying to get the audio right. Then I think you've been here more recently than 10 years ago. But yeah, now there's this video component. I actually have to sit up straight and comb my hair. It's ridiculous. Well, Russ, you're also a buff of monetary history. And before we discuss that, talk about the state of the real estate market today, just briefly, from your vantage point.   Russell Gray 1  3:55    I think the big story, and I'm probably not telling anybody anything they don't know, but the interest rate hike cycle that we went through this last round was quite a bit more substantial, I think, than a lot of people really appreciated, you know. And I started talking about that many years ago, because when you hit the zero bound and you have 6,7,8, years of interest rates below half a point, the change when they started that interest rate cycle from point two, 525 basis points all the way up to five and a quarter? That's a 20x move. And people might say, well, oh, you know, I go back to what Paul Volcker did way back in the day, when he took interest rates from eight or nine to 18. That was only a little bit more than double. Double is a far cry from 20x so we've never seen anything like that. Part of the fallout of that, as you know, is a lot of people wisely, and I was on the front end of cheerleading This is go get those loans refinanced and lock in that cheap money for as long as possible, because a loan will actually become an asset. The problem is, when you do that, you're kind of married to that property. Now it's not quite as bad. As being upside down in a property and you can't get out of it, but it's really hard to walk away from a two or 3% loan in a Six 7% market, because you really can't take your same payment and end up getting more house. And so that equity is kind of a little bit trapped, and that creates some opportunities, but I think that's been the big story, and then kind of the byproduct of the story. Second tier of the story was the impact it had on development, because it made it a lot harder for developers to develop, because their cost of funds and everything in that supply chain, food chain, you marry that to the 2020, COVID Supply Chain lockdown and that disruption, which, you know, you don't shut an economy down and just flick a switch and have it come back on. And so there's all of that. And then the third thing is just this tremendous uncertainty everybody has, because we just went from one extreme to another. And I think people, you know, they don't want to, like, rock the boat, they're going to kind of stay status quo for a little bit, whether they're businesses, whether they're homeowners, whether they're anybody out there that's thinking about moving them, unless life forces you to do it, you're going to try to stay status quo until things calm down. And I don't know how close we are to things calming down.   Keith Weinhold  6:13   One word I use is normalized. Both the 30 year fixed rate mortgage and the Fed funds rate are pretty close to their long term historic average. It just doesn't feel that way, because it was that rate of increase in 2022 that caught a lot of people off guard, like you touched on Well, Russ, now that we've talked about the present day, let's go back in time, and then we'll slowly bring things up to the present day. The dollar is troubled. It's worth perhaps 3% of what it was 100 years ago, but it's still around since it was established in the Coinage Act of 1792 and it's still the world reserve currency. In fact, only three currencies have survived longer than the dollar, the British pound, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. So talk to us about this really relentless debasement of the dollar over time, including the creation of the Fed and the Bretton Woods Agreement and all that.   Russell Gray 7:09   That's a big story, as you know, and I always like to try to break it down a little bit. One of my specialties I'd like to believe, is I speak macro and I speak Main Street. And so when I try to break macroeconomics down, I start out with, why do I even care? I mean, if I'm a main street investor, why do I even care? In 2008 as you know, is a wipeout for me. Why? Because I didn't think anything had happened in the macro I didn't think Wall Street bond market. I didn't think that affected me. One thing I really cared about was interest rates. And I had a cursory interest in the bond market. We just try to figure out where interest rates were going. But for the most part, I thought, as a main street real estate investor, I was 100% insulated. I couldn't have been more wrong, because it really does matter, because the value of the dollar, in other words, the purchasing power of the dollar, and usually you refer to that as inflation, right? If inflation is there, the dollar is losing its purchasing power, and so the higher the inflation rate, the faster you're losing that purchasing power. And you might say, well, maybe that matters to me. Maybe it does. But the people who make the money available to the mortgage community, right to the real estate community to borrow that comes out of the bond market. And so when people go to buy a bond, which is an IOU, they're going to get paid back in the currency that they lent in, in this case, dollars. And if they know, if they're making a long term investment in a long term bond, and they're going to get paid back in dollars, they're going to be worth a whole lot less when they get them back. One of the things they're going to want is compensation for that time risk, and that's called higher interest rates. Okay, so now, if you're a main street investor, and higher interest rates impact you, now you understand why you want to pay attention. Okay, so let's just start with that. And so once you understand that the currency is a derivative of money, and money used to be you mentioned the Coinage Act Keith money, which is gold, used to be synonymous with the dollar. The dollar was only a unit of measure of gold, 1/20 of an ounce. It was a unit of measure. So it's like, the way I teach people is, like, if you had a gallon of milk and you traded, I'm a farmer, and I had a lot of milk, and so everybody decided they were going to use gallons of milk as their currency. Hey, where there's a lot of gallons of milk. He's got a big refrigerator. We'll just trade gallons of milk. Hey, Keith, I really like your beef. I you know, will you sell me some, a side of beef, and I'll give you, you know, 100 gallons of milk, you know, like, Oh, that's great. Well, I can't drink all this milk, so I'm going to leave the milk on deposit at the dairy, and then later on, when I decide I want a suit of clothes, I'll say, well, that's 10 gallons of milk. So I'll give the guy 10 gallons of milk. So I just give him a coupon, a claim, a piece of paper for that gallon of milk, or 20 gallons of milk, and he can go to the dairy and pick it up, right? And so that's kind of the way the monetary system evolved, except it wasn't milk, it was gold. So now you got the dollar. Well, after a while, nobody's going to get the milk. They don't care about the milk. And so now. Now, instead of just saying, I'll give you a gallon of milk, you just say, well, I'll give you a gallon. And somebody says, Okay, that's great. I'll take a gallon. They never opened the jug up. They never realized the jug is empty. They're just trading these empty jugs that used to have milk in them. Well, that's what the paper dollar is today. It went from being a gold certificate payable to bearer on demand, a certain amount of gold, a $20 gold certificate, what looks exactly like a $20 FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE. Today they look exactly the same, except one says FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE, which is an IOU backed by nothing, and the other one said gold certificate, which was payable to bearer on demand, real money. So my point is, is he got money which is a derivative of the productivity, the beef, the soot, the milk, whatever, right? That's the real capital. The real capital is the goods and services we all want. Money is where we store the value of whatever it is we created until we want to trade it for something somebody else created later. And it used to be money and currency were one in the same, but now we've separated that. So now all we do is trade empty gallons, which are empty pieces of paper, and that's currency. So those are derivatives, and the last derivative of that chain is credit. And you had Richard Duncan on your show more than once, and he is famous for kind of having this term. We don't normally have capitalism. We have creditism, right? Everything is credit. Everything is claims on wealth, but it's not real wealth, and it's just when we look at what's going on with our current administration and the drive to become a productive rather than a financialized society, again, as part of this uncertainty that everybody has. Because this is not just a subtle little adjustment on the same course. This is like, No, we're we're going down a completely different path. But fundamentally, your system operates on this currency that is flowing through it, like the blood flowing through your body. And if the blood is bad, your body's sick. And right now, our currency is bad, and so it creates problems, not just for us, but all around the world. And now we're exacerbating that. And I'm not saying it's bad. In fact, I think it's actually it's actually good, but change is what it is, right? I mean, it can be really good to go to the gym and work out before we started recording, you talked about your commitment to fitness, and that if you stop working out, you get unfit, and it's hard to start up again. Well, we've allowed our economy to get very unfit. Now we're trying to get fit again, and it's going to be painful. We're going to be sore, but if we stick with it, I think we can actually kind of save this thing. So I don't know what that's going to mean for the dollar ultimately, or if we end up going to something else, but right now, to your point, the dollar is definitely the big dog still, but I think it's probably even more under attack today than it's ever been, and so it's just something I think every Main Street investor needs to pay attention to.    Keith Weinhold  12:46   And it was really that 1913 creation of the Fed, where the Fed's mandates really didn't begin to take effect until 1914 that accelerated this slide in the dollar. Prior to that, it was really just periods of war, like, for example, the Civil War, where we had inflation rise, but then after wars abated, the dollar's strength returned, but that ceased to happen last century.   Russell Gray  13:11   I think there's a much bigger story there. So when we founded the country, we established legal money in the Coinage Act of 1792 we got gold and silver and a specific unit of measure of gold, a specific unit, measure of silver was $1 and that's what money was constitutionally. Alexander Hamilton advocated for the first central bank and got it, but it was issued by Charter, which meant that it was operated by the permission of the Congress. It wasn't institutionalized. It wasn't embedded in the Constitution. It was just something that was granted, like a license. You have a charter to be able to run a bank. When that initial charter came up for renewal, Congress goes, now we're not going to renew it. Well, of course, that made the bankers really upset, because bankers have a pretty good gig, right? They get to just loan people money. They don't have to do any real work, and then they make money on just kind of arbitraging, you know, other people's money. Savers put their money in, and they borrowed the money out, and then they with fractional reserve, they're able to magnify that. So it's, it's kind of a cool gig. And so what happened? Then he had the first central bank, so then they got the second central bank, and the second central bank was also issued by charter this time when it came up for renewal, Congress goes, Yeah, let's renew it, right? Because the bankers knew we got to go buy a few congressmen if we want to keep this thing going. But President Andrew Jackson said, No, not going to happen. And it was a big battle. Is a famous quote of him just calling these bankers a brood of vipers. And I'm going to put you down. And God help me, I will, right? I mean, it was like intense fact, I do believe he got shot at one point. I think he died from lead poisoning, because he never got the bullet out. So, you know, when you go to up against the bankers, it's not pretty, but he succeeded. He was the last president that paid off all the debt, balanced budget, paid off all the debt, and we got kind of back on sound money. Well, then a little while later, said, Okay, we're going to need, like, something major, and this would. I should put on. I got my, this is my hat, right now, I'll kind of put it on. This is my, my tin foil hat. Okay? And so I put this on when I kind of go down the rabbit trail a little bit. No, I'm not saying this is what happened, but it wouldn't surprise me, right? Because I know that war is profitable, and so sometimes, you know, your comment was, hey, there's the bank, and then there was, you know, the war, or there's the war, then there's a bank, which comes first the chicken or the egg. I think there's an article where Henry Ford and Thomas Edison went to Congress. I think it was December. The article was published New York Tribune, December 4. I think 1921 you can look it up, New York Tribune, front page article   Keith Weinhold  15:38   fo those of you in the audio only. Russ started donning a tin foil looking hat here about one minute ago.    Russell Gray  15:45   I did, yeah, so I put it on. Just so fair warning. You know, I may go a little conspiratorial, but the reason I do that is I just, I think we've seen enough, just in current, modern history and politics, in the age of AI and software and freedom of speech and new media, there's a lot of weird stuff going on out there, but a lot of stuff that we thought was really weird a little while ago has turned out to be more true than we thought. When you look back in history, and you kind of read the official narrative and you wonder, you kind of read between the lines. You go, oh, maybe some stuff went on here. So anyway, the allegation that Ford made, smart guy, Thomas Edison, smart guy. And they go to Congress, and they go, Hey, we need to get the gold out of the banker's hands, because gold is money, and we need money not to revolve around gold, because the bankers control gold. They control the money, and they make profits, his words, not mine, by starting wars, because he was very upset about World War One, which happened. We got involved right after Fed gets formed in 1913 World War One starts in 1914 the United States sits off in the background and sells everybody, everything. It collects a bunch of gold, and then enters at the end and ends it all. And that big influx created the roaring 20s, as we all know, which ended big boom to big bust. And that cycle, which then a crisis that created, potentially a argument for why the government should have more control, right? So you kind of go down this path. So we ended up in 1865 with President Lincoln suppressing states rights and eventually creating an unconstitutional income tax and then creating an unconstitutional currency. That's what Abraham Lincoln did. And then on the back end of that, you know, it didn't end well for him, and I don't know why, but all I know is that we had a financial crisis in 1907 and the solution to that was the Aldrich plan, which was basically a monopoly on money. It's called a money trust. And Charles Lindbergh, SR was railing against it, as were many people at the time, going, No, this is terrible. So they renamed the Aldrich plan the Federal Reserve Act. And instead of going for a bank charter, they went for a constitutional amendment, and they got it in the 16th Amendment, and that's where we got the IRS. That's where we got the income tax, which was only supposed to be 7% only affect like the top one or 2% of earners, right? And that's where we got, you know, the Federal Reserve. That's where all that was born. Since that happened, to your point, the dollar has been on with a slight little rise up in the 20s, which, you know, there's a whole thing about whether that caused the crash or not. But at the end of the day, if you go look at St Louis Fed, which you go look at all the time, and you just look at the long term trend of the dollar, it's terrible. And the barometer, that's gold, right? $20 of gold in 1913 and 1933 and then 42 in 1971 or two, whatever it was, three, and then eventually as high as 850 but at the turn of the century, this century, it was $250 so at $2,500 it would have lost 90% in the 21st Century. The dollars lost 90% in the 21st Century, just to 2500 that's profound to go. That's right, it already lost more than 90% from $20 to 250 so it lost 90% and then 90% of the 10% that was left. And that's where we're at. We're worse than that. Today, no currency, as far as I understand, I've been told this. Haven't done the homework, but it's my understanding, no currency in the history of the world has ever survived that kind of debasement. So I think a lot of people who are watching are like, okay, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And then the big question is, is when that when comes? What does the transition look like? What rises in its place? And then you look at things like a central bank digital currency, which is not like Bitcoin, it's not a crypto, it's a centrally controlled currency run by the central bank. If we get that, I would argue that's not good for privacy and security. Could be Bitcoin would be better. I would argue, could go back to gold backing, which I would say is better than what we have, or we could get something nobody's even thought of. I don't know. We don't know, but I do think we're at the end of the life cycle. Historically, all things being equal. And I think all the indication with a big run up of gold, gold is screaming something's broken. It's just screaming it right now, not just because the price is up, but who's buying it. It's just central banks.   Keith Weinhold  20:12   Central banks are doing most of the buying, right? It's not individual investors going to a coin shop. So that's really screaming, telling you that people are concerned. People are losing their faith in giving loans to the United States for sure. And Russ, as we talk about gold, and it's important link to the dollar over time, you mentioned how they wanted it, to get it out of the bank's hands for a while. Of course, there was also a period of time where it was illegal for Americans to own gold. And then we had this Bretton Woods Agreement, which was really important as well, where we ended up violating promises that had to do with gold again. So can you speak to us some more about that? Because a lot of people just don't understand what happened at Bretton Woods.   Russell Gray  20:56   What happened is we had the big crash in 1929 and the net result of that was, in 1933 we got executive order 6102 In fact, I have a picture of it framed, and that was in the wake of that in 1933 and so what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in signing that document, which was empowered by a previous act of Congress, basically let him confiscate all The money. It'd be like right now if, right now, you know, President Trump signed an executive order and said, You have to take all your cash, every all the cash that you have out of your wallet. You have to send it all, take it into the bank, and they're going to give you a Chuck E Cheese token, right? And if you don't do it, if you do it, it's a $500,000 fine in 10 years in prison. Right? Back then it was a $10,000 fine, which was twice the price of the average Home huge fine, plus jail time. That's how severe it was, okay? So they confiscated all the money. That happened in 33 okay? Now we go off to war, and we enter the war late again. And so we have the big manufacturing operation. We're selling munitions and all kinds of supplies to everybody, all over the world, right? And we're just raking the gold and 20,000 tons of gold. We got all the gold. We got the biggest army now, we got the biggest bomb, we got the biggest economy. We got the strongest balance sheet. Well, I mean, you know, we went into debt for the war, but, I mean, we had a lot of gold. So now everybody else is decimated. We're the big dog. Everybody knows we're the big dog. Nine states shows up in New Hampshire Bretton Woods, and they have this big meeting with the world, and they say, Hey guys, new sheriff in town. Britain used to be the world's reserve currency, but today we're going to be the world's reserve currency. And so this was the new setup. But it's okay. It's okay because our dollar is as good as gold. It's backed by gold, and so anytime you want foreign nations, you can just bring your dollars to us and we'll give you the gold, no problem. And everyone's like, okay, great. What are you going to say? Right? You got the big bomb, you got the big army. Everybody needs you for everything to live like you're not going to say no. So they said, Yes, of course, the United States immediately. I've got a speech that a guy named Beardsley Rummel did. Have you ever heard me talk about this before? Keith, No, I've never heard about this. So Beardsley Rummel was the New York Fed chair when all this was happening. And so he gave a speech to the American Bar Association in 1945 and I got a transcript of it, a PDF transcript of it from 1946 and basically he goes, Look, income taxes are obsolete. We don't need income tax anymore because we can print money, because we're off the gold standard and we have no accountability. We just admitted it, just totally admitted it, and said the only reason we have income tax is to manipulate behavior, is to redistribute wealth, is to force people to do what we want them to do, punish things and reward others, right? Just set it plain language. I have a transcript of the speech. You can get a copy of you send an email to Rummel R U, M, L@mainstreetcapitalist.com I'll get it to you. So it's really, really interesting. So he admitted it. So we went along in the 40s and the 50s, and, you know, we had the only big manufacturing you know, because everybody else is still recovering from the war. Everything been bombed to smithereens, and we're spending money and doing all kinds of stuff. And having the 50s, it was great, right, right up until the mid 60s. So the mid 60s, it's like, Okay, we got a problem. And Charles de Gaulle, who was the president of France at the time, went to a meeting. And there's a YouTube video, but you can see it, he basically told the world, hey, I don't think the United States is doing a good job managing this world's reserve currency. I don't think they've got the gold. I think they printed too much money. I think that we should start to go redeem our dollars and get the gold. That was pretty forward thinking. And he created a run on the bank. And at the same time, we passed the Coinage Act in 1965 and took all the silver out of the people's money. So we took the gold in 33 and then we took the silver in 65 right? Because we got Vietnam and the Great Society, welfare, all these things were going on in the 60s. We're just going broke. Meanwhile, our gold supply went from 20,000 tons down to eight and Richard. Nixon is like, whoa, time out. Like, this is bad. And so we had inflation in 1970 August 15, 1971 year before August 15, 1971 1970 Nixon writes an executive order and freezes all prices and all wages. It became illegal by presidential edict for a private business to give their employee a raise or to raise their prices to the customers.    Keith Weinhold  25:30   It's almost if that could happen price in theUnited States of America, right?    Russell Gray  25:36   And inflation was 4.4% and it was a national emergency like today. I mean, you know, a few years ago, like three or four years ago, we if we could get it down 4.4% it'd be Holly. I'd be like a celebration. That was bad. And so that's what happened. So a year later, that didn't work. It was a 90 day thing. It was a disaster. And so in a year later, August 15, 1971 Nixon came on live TV after Gunsmoke. I think it was, and I was old enough I'm watching TV on a Sunday night I watched it. Wow. So I live, that's how old I am. So it's a lot of this history, not the Bretton Woods stuff, but from like 1960 2,3,4, forward. I remember I was there.    Keith Weinhold  26:13   Yeah, that you remember the whole Nixon address on television. We should say it for the listener that doesn't know. Basically the announcement Nixon made, he said, was a temporary measure, is that foreign nations can no longer redeem their dollars for gold. He broke the promise that was made at Bretton Woods in about 1945   Russell Gray  26:32   Yeah. And then gold went from $42 up to 850 and a whole series of events that have led to where we're at today were put in place to cover up the fact that the dollar was failing. We had climate emergency. We were headed towards the next global Ice Age. We had an existential threat in two different diseases that hit one right after the other. First one was the h1 n1 flu, swine flu, and then the next thing was AIDS. And so we had existential pandemic, two of them. We also had a oil shortage crisis. We were going to run out of fossil fuel by the year 2000 we had to do all kinds of very public, visible, visceral things that we would all see. You could only buy gas odd even days, like, if your license plate ended in an odd number, you could go on these days, and if it ended on an even number, you could go on the other days. And so we had that. We lowered our national speed limit down to 55 miles an hour. We created the EPA and all these different agencies under Jimmy Carter to try to regulate and manage all of this crisis. Prior to that, Nixon sent Kissinger over to China, and we opened up trade relations. And we'd been in Vietnam to protect the world from communism because it was so horrible. And then in the wake of that, we go over to Communist China, Chairman Mao and open up trade relations. Why we needed access to their cheap labor to suck up all the inflation. And we went over to the Saudis, and we cut the petro dollar deal. Why? Because we needed the float. We needed some place for all these excess dollars that we had created to get sucked up. And so they got sucked up in trading the largest commodity in the world, energy. And the deal was, hey, Saudis, here's the deal. You like your kingdom? Well, we got the big bomb. We got the big army. You're going to rule the roost in the in the Middle East, and we'll protect you. All you got to do is make sure you sell all your oil in dollars and dollars only. And they're like, Well, what if we're selling oil to China, or what if we're selling oil to Japan? Can they pay in yen? Nope, they got to sell yen. Buy dollars. Well, what do we do with all these dollars? Buy our treasuries. Okay, so what if I got this? Yeah, and so that was the petrodollar system. And the world looked at everything went on, and the world is like, Hmm, the United States coming back to Europe, and Charles de Gaulle, they're like, the United States is not handling this whole dollar thing real well. We need an alternative. What if all of us independent nations in Europe got together and created a common currency? We don't want to be like one country, like the United States, but we want to be like an economic union. So let's create a current let's call it the euro. And they started that process in the 70s, but they didn't get it done till 99 and so they get it done in 99 as soon as they get it done, this guy named Saddam Hussein goes, Hey, I'm now the big dog here. I got the fourth largest army in the world. I'm here in, you know, big oil producing nation. Let's trade in the euro. Let's get off the dollar. Let's do oil in the euro. And he's gone. I'm not sure I should put my hat back on. I'm not sure, but somehow we went into Afghanistan and took a hard left and took this guy out.   Keith Weinhold  29:44   Some credence to this. Yes, yeah, so. But with that said,   Russell Gray  29:47   you know, we ended up with the Euro taking about 20% of the global trade market from the United States, which is about where it sits today. And the United States used to be up over 80% and now we're down below 60% still. The Big Dog by triple and the euro is not in a position to supplant the US, but I think China, whose claim to fame is looking at other people's technology and models and copying it, looked at what the United States did to become the dominant economic force, and I think they've systematically been copying it. I wrote a report on this way back in 2013 when I started really paying attention to it and began to chronicle all the things that they were doing, this big D dollarization movement that I think still has legs. It's the BRICS movement. It's all the central banks buying gold. It's the bilateral trade agreements where people are doing business outside the dollar. There's been not just that, but also putting together the infrastructure, right? The Asian Infrastructure Bank is an alternative to the IMF looking, if you have you read Confessions of an economic hitman. No. Okay, so this is a guy that used to work in the government, I think, CIA or something, and he would go down and he'd cut deals with leaders of countries to get them to borrow from the United States to put in key infrastructure so they could trade with the US. And then, of course, if they defaulted, then the US owned that in the infrastructure. You can look it up. His name is Perkins, right. Look it up confessions of economic hit now, but you see China doing the same thing. China's got their Belt and Road Initiative. And you go through, and if you want to trade with China on that route, you have traded, you're gonna have to have infrastructure. You can eat ports. You're gonna need terminals for distribution. But you, Oh, you don't have the money. We'll loan it to you, and we'll loan it to you and you want. Now we're creating demand for you want, and we also are enslaving borrower servant to the lender. We're beginning to enslave these other nations under the guise of helping them by financing their growth so they can do business with us. It's the same thing the United States did and Shanghai Gold Exchange, as opposed to the London Bullion exchange. So all of the key pieces of infrastructure that were put in place to facilitate Western hegemony in the financial markets the Chinese have been systematically putting in place with bricks, and so there's a reason we're in this big trade war right now. We recognize that they had started to get in a position where they were actually a real threat, and we got to cut their legs out from underneath them before they get any stronger. Again, I should put my hat back on. Nobody's calling me up and telling me, I'm just reading between the lines. Sure,   Keith Weinhold  32:23   there certainly are more competitors to the dollar now. And can you imagine what rate of inflation that we would have had if we had not outsourced our labor and productivity over to a low wage place like China in the east? Russ and I have been talking about the long term debasement of the dollar and why. More on that when we come back, including what Russ is up to today. You're listening to get rich education. Our guest is Russell Gray. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold, the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your pre qual and even chat with President Chaley Ridge personally while it's on your mind, start at Ridge lendinggroup.com that's Ridge lendinggroup.com. You know what's crazy? Your bank is getting rich off of you. The average savings account pays less than 1% it's like laughable. Meanwhile, if your money isn't making at least 4% you're losing to inflation. That's why I started putting my own money into the FFI liquidity fund. It's super simple. Your cash can pull in up to 8% returns, and it compounds. It's not some high risk gamble like digital or AI stock trading. It's pretty low risk because they've got a 10 plus year track record of paying investors on time, in full every time. I mean, I wouldn't be talking about it if I wasn't invested myself. You can invest as little as 25k and you keep earning until you decide you want your money back. No weird lockups or anything like that. So if you're like me and tired of your liquid funds just sitting there doing nothing. Check it out. Text family, 266, 866, to learn about freedom family investments, liquidity fund again. Text family, 266, 866,   Garrett Sutton  34:36   hi. This is Rich Dad advisor, Garrett Sutton. You're listening to the always valuable. Get rich education with Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.    Keith Weinhold  34:52   Welcome back to get rich education. We're talking with the main street capitalists Russell gray about this long term debasement of the dollar. It's an. Inevitable. It's one of the things we actually can forecast with pretty good predictability that the dollar will continue to debase. It's one of the few almost guarantees that we have in investing. So we can think about how we want to play that Russ one thing I wonder about is, did we have to completely de peg the dollar from gold? Couldn't we have just diluted it where we could instead say, Well, hey, now, instead of just completely depegging the dollar from gold, we could say, well, now it takes 10 times as many dollars as it used to to redeem it for an ounce of gold. Did it make it more powerful that we just completely de pegged it 100%   Russell Gray  35:36   it would disempower the monopoly. Right? In other words, I think that the thing from the very beginning, was scripted to disconnect from the accountability of gold, which is what sound money advocates want. They want some form of independent Accountability. Gold is like an audit to a financial system. If you're the bankers and you're running the program, the last thing in the world you want is a gold standard, because it limits your ability to print money out of thin air and profit from that. So I don't think the people who are behind all of this are, in no way, shape or form, interested in doing anything that's going to limit their power or hold them accountable. They want just the opposite. I think if they could wave a magic wand and pick their solution to the problem, it would be central bank digital currency, which would give them ultimate control. Yeah. And it wouldn't surprise me if we maybe, perhaps, were on a path where some crises were going to converge, whether it's opportunistic, meaning that the crisis happened on its own, and quote Rahm Emanuel and whoever he was quoting, you know, never let a good crisis go to waste, and you're just opportunistic, or, you know, put the conspiracy theory hat on, and maybe these crises get created in order to facilitate the power grab. I don't know. It really doesn't matter what the motives are or how it happens at the end of the day, it's what happens. It happened in 33 it happened in 60. In 71 it's what happens. And so it's been a systematic de pegging of any form of accountability. I mean, we used to have a budget ceiling. We used to talk about now it's just like, it's routine. You blow right through it, right, right. There's you balance. I mean, when's the last time you even had a budget? Less, less, you know, much less anything that looked like a valid balanced budget amendment. So I think there's just no accountability other than the voting booth. And, you know, I think maybe you could make the argument that whether you like Trump or not, the public's apparent embrace of him, show you that the main street and have a lot of faith in Main Street. I think Main Street is like, you know what? This is broken. I don't know what's how to fix it, but somebody just needs to go in and just tear this thing down and figure out a new plant. Because I think if you anybody paying attention, knows that this perpetual debasement, which is kind of the theme of the show is it creates haves and have nots. Guys like you who understand how to use real estate to short the dollar, especially when you marry it to gold, which is one of my favorite strategies to double short the dollar, can really magnify the power of inflation to pull more wealth onto your balance sheet. Problem is the people who aren't on that side of the coin are on the other side of the coin, and so the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Well, the first order of business in a system we can't control is help as many people be on the rich get richer. That's why we had the get rich show, right? Let's help other people get rich. Because if I'm the only rich guy in the room, all the guns are pointed at me, right? I wanted everybody as rich as possible. I think Trump and Kiyosaki wrote about that in their book. Why we want you to be rich, right? When everybody's prospering, it's it's better, it's safer, you have people to trade with and whatnot, but we have eviscerated the middle class because industry has had to go access cheap labor markets in order to compensate for this inflation. And you know, you talk about the Fed mandate, which is 2% inflation, price inflation, 2% so if you say something that costs $1 today, a year from now, is going to cost $1 too, you think, well, maybe that's not that bad. But here's the problem, the natural progression of Business and Technology is to lower the cost, right? So you have something cost $1 today, and because somebody's using AI and internet and automation and robots and all this technology, right? And the cost, they could really sell it for 80 cents. And so the Fed looks at and goes, Let's inflate to $1.02 that's not two cents of inflation. That's 22 cents of inflation. And so there's hidden inflation. The benefits of the gains in productivity don't show up in the CPI, but it's like deferred maintenance on an apartment building. You can make your cash flow look great if you're not setting anything aside for the inevitable day when that roof is going to go out and that parking lot is going to need to be repaved, right? And you don't know how far out you are until you get there and you're like, wow, I'm really short, and I think that we have been experiencing for decades. The theft of the benefit of our productivity gains, and we're not just a little bit out of position. We're way out of position. That's   Keith Weinhold  40:07   a great point. Like I had said earlier, imagine what the rate of inflation would be if we hadn't outsourced so much of our labor and productivity to low cost China. And then imagine what the rate of inflation would be as well, if you would factor in all of this increased productivity and efficiency, the natural tendencies of which are to make prices go lower as society gets more productive, but instead they've gone higher. So when you adjust for some of these factors, you just can't imagine what the true debased purchasing power of the dollar is. It's been happening for a long time. It's inevitable that it's going to continue to happen in the future. So this has been a great chat about the history and us understanding what the powers that be have done to debase our dollar. It's only at what rate we don't know. Russ, tell us more about what you're doing today. You're really out there more as a champion for Main Street in capitalism.   Russell Gray  41:04   I mean, 20 years with Robert and the real estate guys, and it was fantastic. I loved it. I went through a lot, obviously, in 2008 and that changed me a little bit. Took me from kind of being a blocking and tackling, here's how you do real estate, and to really understanding macro and going, you know, it doesn't matter. You can do like I did, and you build this big collection. Big collection of properties and you lose it all in a moment because you don't understand macro. So I said, Okay, I want to champion that cause. And so we did that. And then we saw in the 2012 JOBS Act, the opportunity for capital raisers to go mainstream and advertise for credit investors. And I wrote a report then called the new law breaks Wall Street monopoly. And I felt like that was going to be a huge opportunity, and we pioneered that. But then after my late wife died, and I had a chance to spend some time alone during COVID, and I thought, life is short. What do I really want to accomplish before I go? And then I began looking at what was going on in the world. I see now a couple of things that are both opportunities and challenges or causes to be championed. And one is the mega trend that I believe the world is going you know, some people call it a fourth turning whatever. I don't consider that kind of we have to fall off a cliff as Destiny type of thing to be like cast in stone. But what I do see is that people are sick and tired of monopolies. We're sick and tired of big tech, we're sick and tired of big media, we're sick and tired of big government. We're sick and tired of big corporations, we don't want it, and big banks, right? So you got the rise of Bitcoin, you got people trying to get out from underneath the Western hegemony, as we've been talking about decentralization of everything. Our country was founded on the concept of decentralization, and so people don't understand that, right? It used to be everything was centralized. All powers in the king. Real Estate meant royal property. That's what real estate it's not like real asset, like tangible it's royal estate. It's royal property. Everything belonged to the king, and you just got to work it like a serf. And then you got to keep 75% in your produce, and you sent 25% you sent 25% through all the landlords, the land barons, and all the people in the hierarchy that fed on running things for the king, but you didn't own anything. Our founder set that on, turn that upside down, and said, No, no, no, no, no, it's not the king that's sovereign. It's the individual. The individual is sovereign. It isn't the monarchy, it's the individual states. And so we're going to bring the government, small. The central government small has only got a couple of obligations, like protect the borders, facilitate interstate commerce, and let's just have one common currency so that we can do business together. Other than that, like, the state's just going to run the show. Of course, Lincoln kind of blew that up, and it's gotten a lot worse after FDR, so I feel like we're under this big decentralization movement, and I think Main Street capitalism is the manifestation of that. If you want to decentralize capitalism, the gig economy, if you want to be a guy like you, and you can run your whole business off your laptop with a microphone and a camera, you know, in today's day and age with technology, people have tasted the freedom of decentralization. So I think the rise of the entrepreneur, I think the ability to go build a real asset portfolio and get out of the casinos of Wall Street. I think right now, if we are successful in bringing back these huge amounts of investment, Trump's already announced like two and a half or $3 trillion of investment, people are complaining, oh, the world is selling us. Well, they're selling stocks and they're selling but they're putting the money actually into creating businesses here in the United States that's going to create that primary driver, as you well know, in real estate, that's going to create the secondary and tertiary businesses, and the properties they're going to use all kinds of Main Street opportunity are going to grow around that. I lived in Silicon Valley, when a company would get funded, it wasn't just a company that prospered, it was everything around that company, right? All these companies. I remember when Apple started. I remember when Hewlett Packard, it was big, but it got a lot bigger, right there. I watched all that happen in Silicon Valley. I think that's going to happen again. I think we're at the front end of that. And so that's super exciting. Wave. The second thing that is super important is this raising capitalist project. And the reason I'm doing it is because if we don't train our next generation in the principles of capitalism and the freedom that it how it decentralizes Their personal economy, and they get excited about Bitcoin, but that's not productive. I'm not putting it down. I'm just saying it's not productive. You have to be productive. You want to have a decentralized currency. Yes, you want to decentralize productivity. That's Main Street capitalism. If kids who never get a chance to be in the productive economy get to vote at 1819, 2021, 22 before they've ever earned a paycheck, before they have any idea, never run a business. Somebody tells them, hey, those guys that have all that money and property, they cheated. It's not fair. We need to take from them. We need to limit them, not thinking, Oh, well, if I do that, when I get to be there, that what I'm voting for is going to get on me. Right now, Keith, there are kids in ninth grade who are going to vote for your next president, right?   Keith Weinhold  45:56   And they think capitalism is evil. This is part of what you're doing with the raising capitalists project, helping younger people think differently. Russ, I have one last thing to ask you. This has to do with the capitalism that you're championing on your platforms now. And real estate, I continue to see sometimes I get comments on my YouTube channel, especially maybe it's more and more people increasingly saying, Hey, I think housing should be a human right. So talk to us about that. And maybe it's interesting, Russ, if I take the other side of it and play devil's advocate, people who think housing is a human right, they say something like, the idea is that housing, you know, it's a fundamental need, just like food and clean water and health care are without stable housing. It's incredibly hard for a person to access opportunities like work and education or health care or participate meaningfully in society at all. So government ought to provide housing for everybody. What are your thoughts there?   Russell Gray  46:54   Well, it's inherently inflationary, which is the root cause of the entire problem. So anytime you create consumption without production, you're going to have more consumers than producers, and so you're going to have more competition for those goods. The net, net truth of what happens in that scenario are shortages everywhere. Every civilization that's ever tried any form of system where people just get things for free because they need them, end up with shortages in poverty. It doesn't lift everybody. It ruins everything. I mean, that's not conjecture. That's history, and so that's just the way it works. And if you just were to land somebody on a desert island and you had an economy of one, they're going to learn really quick the basic principles of capitalism, which is production always precedes consumption, always 100% of the time, right? If you're there on that desert island and you don't hunt fish or gather, you don't eat, right? You don't get it because, oh, it's a human right to have food. Nope, it's a human right to have the right to go get food. Otherwise, you're incarcerated, you have to have the freedom of movement to go do something to provide for yourself, but you cannot allow people to consume without production. So everybody has to produce. And you know, if you go back to the Plymouth Rock experiment, if you're familiar with that at all, yeah, yeah. So you know, just for anybody who doesn't know, when the Pilgrims came over here in the 1600s William Bradford was governor, and they tried it. They said, Hey, we're here. Let's Stick Together All for one and one for all. Here's the land. Everybody get up every day and work. Everybody works, and everybody eats. They starved. And so he goes, Okay, guys, new plan. All right, you wine holds. See this little plot of land, that's yours. You work it. You can eat whatever you produce. Over there, you grace. You're going to do yours and Johnson's, you're going to do yours, right? Well, what happened is now everybody got up and worked, and they created more than enough for their own family, and they had an abundance. And the abundance was created out of their hunger. When they went to serve their own needs, they created abundance forever others. That's the premise of capitalism. It's not the perfect system. There is no perfect system. We live in a world where human beings have to work before they get to eat. When I say eat, it could be having a roof over their head. It could be having clothes. It could be going on vacation. It could be having a nice car. It could be getting health care. It doesn't matter what it is, whatever it is you need. You have the right, or should have, the right, in a free system to go earn that by being productive, but the minute somebody comes and says, Oh, you worked, and I'm going to take what you produced and give it to somebody else who didn't, that's patently unfair, but economically, it's disastrous, because it incentivizes people not to work, which creates less production, more consumption. I have another analogy with sandwich makers, but you can imagine that if you got a group if you got a group of people making sandwiches, one guy starts creating coupons for sandwiches. Well then if somebody says, Okay, well now we got 19 people providing for 20. That's okay, but then all the guys making sandwiches. Why making sandwiches? I'm gonna get the coupon business pretty soon. You got 18 guys doing coupons, only two making sandwiches. Not. Have sandwiches to go around all the sandwiches cost tons of coupons because we got way more financialization than productivity, right? That's the American economy. We have to fix that. We can't have people making money by just trading on other people's productivity. We have to have people actually being productive. This is what I believe the administration is trying to do, rebuild the middle class, rebuild that manufacturing base, make us a truly productive economy, and then you don't have to worry about these things, right? We're going to create abundance. And if you don't have the inflation is which is coming from printing money out of thin air and giving to people who don't produce, then housing, all sudden, becomes affordable. It's not a problem. Health care becomes affordable. Everything becomes affordable because you create abundance, because everybody's producing the system is fundamentally broken. Now we have to learn how to profit in it in its current state, which is what you teach people how to do. We also have to realize that it's not sustainable. We're on an unsustainable path, and we're probably nearing that event horizon, the path of no return, where the system is going to break. And the question is, is, how are you going to be prepared for it when it happens? Number two, are you going to be wise enough to advocate when you get a chance to cast a vote or make your voice heard for something that's actually going to create prosperity and freedom versus something that's going to create scarcity and oppression? And that's the fundamental thing that we have to master as a society. We got to get to our youth, because they're the biggest demographic that can blow the thing up, and they're the ones that have been being indoctrinated the worst.   Keith Weinhold  51:29   Yes, Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself said that we live in a economic system today that is unsustainable. Yes, the collectivism we touched on quickly descends into the tyranny of the majority. And in my experience, historically, the success of public housing projects has been or to mixed at best, residents often don't respect the property when they don't have an equity stake in it or even a security deposit tied up in it, and blight and high crime rates have often followed with these public housing projects. When you go down that path of making housing as a human right, like you said earlier, you have a right to go procure housing for yourself, just not to ask others to pay for it for you. Well, Russ, this has been great. It's good to have your voice back on the show. Here again, here on a real estate show. If people want to connect with you, continue to see what you've been up to and the good projects that you're working on, promoting the virtues of capitalism. What's the best way for them to do that?   Russell Gray  52:31   I think just send an email to follow at Russell Gray, R, U, S, S, E, L, L, G, R, A, y.com, let you know where I am on social media. I'll let you know when I put out new content. I'll let you know when I'm a guest on somebody somebody's show and I'm on the cusp of getting my own show finally launched. I've been doing a lot of planning to get that out, but I'm excited about it because I do think, like I said, The time is now, and I think the marketplace is ripe, and I do speak Main Street and macro, and I hope I can add a nuance to the conversation that will add value to people.   Keith Weinhold  53:00   Russ, it's been valuable as always. Thanks so much for coming back onto the show. Thanks, Keith.   Yeah, terrific, historic outline from Russ about the long term decline of the dollar. It's really a fresh reminder and motivator to keep being that savvy borrower. Of course, real estate investors have access to borrow giant sums of dollars and short the currency that lay people do not. In fact, lay people don't even understand that it's a viable strategy at all. Like he touched on, Russ has really been bringing an awareness about how decentralization is such a powerful force that reshapes society. In fact, he was talking about that the last time that I saw him in person a few months ago. Notably, he touched on Nixon era wage and price controls. Don't you find it interesting? Fascinating, really, how a few weeks ago, Trump told Walmart not to pass tariff induced price increases onto their customers. Well, that's a form of price control that we're seeing today to our point, when we had the father of Reaganomics, David Stockman here on the show, five weeks ago, tariffs are already government intervention into the free market, and then a president telling private companies how to set their prices, that is really strong government overreach. I mean, I can't believe that more people aren't talking about this. Maybe that's just because this cycle started with Walmart, and that's just doesn't happen to be a company that people feel sorry for. Hey, well, I look forward to meeting you in person in Miami in just four days, as I'll be a faculty member for when we kick off the terrific real estate guys Investor Summit and see and really getting to know you, because we're going to spend nine days together. Teaching, learning and having a great time on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Until then, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Speaker 3  55:13   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively.   Keith Weinhold  55:36   You know whatever you want, the best written real estate and finance info. Oh, geez, today's experience limits your free articles access and it's got pay walls and pop ups and push notifications and cookies disclaimers. It's not so great. So then it's vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that adds no hype value to your life. That's why this is the golden age of quality newsletters, and I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor, and it's to the point because even the word abbreviation is too long, my letter usually takes less than three minutes to read. And when you start the letter, you also get my one hour fast real estate video. Course, it's all completely free. It's called the Don't quit your Daydream letter. It wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be easier for you to get it right now. Just text. GRE to 66866, while it's on your mind, take a moment to do it right now. Text, GRE to 66866   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth, building, getricheducation.com.

Interview with Marco Roque, President & CEO of Cassiar Gold Corp.Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/cassiar-gold-tsxvgldc-defining-a-5-million-ounce-gold-district-scale-opportunity-in-bc-canada-5923Recording date: 12th June 2025Cassiar Gold (TSXV:GLDC) has emerged as one of North America's most compelling exploration stories, delivering substantial resource growth while maintaining a disciplined approach to development at their flagship project in northern British Columbia. The company recently expanded its mineral resource estimate to 1.93 million ounces inferred plus 410,000 ounces indicated, representing a significant increase from the previous 1.4 million ounces.What distinguishes Cassiar from typical exploration projects is its unique infrastructure advantage. The company owns fully permitted mill and mining facilities, along with mining permits for five past-producing mines within their expansive 590 square kilometer land package. President and CEO Marco Roque emphasized this positioning: "Most exploration projects don't have access, most exploration projects don't have infrastructure and most exploration projects do not have fully owned permitted mill and mining permits. We have all of the above."Management has set an ambitious target of reaching 5 million ounces before considering production or potential acquisition by major producers. This confidence stems from the early-stage nature of exploration, with drilling covering less than 0.3% of their total land package. Notably, 48% of current resources lie within 50 meters of surface, providing significant advantages for future mining economics.The project features dual mining optionality through both bulk tonnage disseminated gold averaging 1.4+ grams per ton and high-grade underground veins carrying 10-20 grams per ton, with intercepts reaching up to 270 grams per ton. Recent completion of 70 square kilometers of geophysical surveys has identified multiple anomalous areas for follow-up exploration.Operating in northern British Columbia's tier-one jurisdiction provides political stability and excellent infrastructure access. With approximately $5 million in cash and drilling operations set to commence, Cassiar is positioned to capitalize on the growing disconnect between producer valuations and junior exploration companies as the gold sector recovery unfolds.View Cassiar Gold's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/cassiar-goldSign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com

First up, Georgetown law professor and former national legal director at the ACLU, David Cole, joins us to discuss the legal response to the Trump Administration's serial violations of the Constitution. Then Mike Ferner of Veterans for Peace checks in to update us halfway through his Fast for Gaza, 40 days of living on 250 calories per day, which is the average caloric intake of Palestinian survivors in Gaza. Finally, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Joe Holley, stops by to pay tribute to his mentor and colleague, the late crusading journalist, Ronnie Dugger, founder of the progressive Texas Observer.David Cole is the Honorable George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy and former National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He writes about and teaches constitutional law, freedom of speech, and constitutional criminal procedure. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and is the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation.Trump is obviously not concerned about antisemitism. He's concerned about targeting schools because they are places where people can criticize the president, where people can think independently, are taught to think independently, and often don't support what the president is doing. He's using his excuse to target a central institution of civil society.David ColeThe decision on Trump versus the United States is only about criminal liability for criminal acts, not for unconstitutional acts. And violating the Constitution is not a crime. Every president has violated the Constitution probably since George Washington. That's not a crime.David ColeMike Ferner served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, and he is former National Director and current Special Projects Coordinator for Veterans for Peace. He is the author of Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran for Peace Reports from Iraq.Two hundred and fifty calories is technically, officially, a starvation diet, and we're doing it for 40 days. The people in Gaza have been doing it for months and months and months, and they're dying like crazy. That's the whole concern that we're trying to raise. And I'll tell you at the end of this fast, on the 40th day, we are not just going out silently. There are going to be some fireworks before we're done with this thing. So all I'm saying is: stay tuned.Mike Ferner: Special Projects Coordinator of Veterans for Peace on “FastforGaza”They're (The Veterans Administration is) being defamed, Ralph, for the same reason that those right-wing corporatists defamed public education. So they can privatize it. And that's exactly what they're trying to do with the VA. And I can tell you every single member of Veterans for Peace has got nothing but praise for the VA.Mike FernerJoe Holley was the editor of the Texas Observer in the early 1980s. A former staff writer at The Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist at the Houston Chronicle, he is the author of eight books, mostly about Texas.He would talk to people, and he would find out things going on about racial discrimination, about farm workers being mistreated, all kind of stories that the big papers weren't reporting. And this one guy, young Ronnie Dugger, would write these stories and expose things about Texas that a lot of Texans just did not know.Joe Holley on the late progressive journalist, Ronnie DuggerHe knew the dark side of Texas, but he always had an upbeat personality. I had numerous conversations with Ronnie (Dugger), and he was ferociously independent.Ralph NaderNews 6/13/251. On Monday, Israeli forces seized the Madleen, the ship carrying activist Greta Thunberg and others attempting to bring food and other supplies past the Israeli blockade into Gaza, and detained the crew. The ship was part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thunberg had been designated an “Ambassador of Conscience,” by Amnesty International. The group decried her detention, with Secretary General Agnès Callamard writing, “Israel has once again flouted its legal obligations towards civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip and demonstrated its chilling contempt for legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice.” On Tuesday, CBS reported that Israel deported Thunberg. Eight other passengers refused deportation and the Jerusalem Post reports they remain in Israeli custody. They will be represented in Israeli courts by Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. One of these detainees is Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.2. Shortly before the Madleen was intercepted, members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing concern for the safety of these activists, citing the deadly 2010 raid of the Mavi Marmara, which ultimately resulted in the death of ten activists, including an American. This letter continued, “any attack on the Madleen or its civilian crew is a clear and blatant violation of international law. United Nations experts have called for the ship's safe passage and warned Israel to “refrain from any act of hostility” against the Madleen and its passengers…We call on you to monitor the Madleen's journey and deter any such hostile actions.” This letter was led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and drew signatures from Congressional progressives like Reps. Summer Lee, AOC, Ilhan Omar, Greg Casar, and others.3. On the other end of the political spectrum, Trump – ever unpredictable – seemed to criticize Israel's detention of Thunberg. In a press conference, “Trump was…asked about Thunberg's claim that she had been kidnapped.” The president responded “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg…Is that what she said? She was kidnapped by Israel?” The reporter replied “Yes, sir,” to which “Trump responded by shaking his head.” This from Newsweek.4. Of course, the major Trump news this week is his response to the uprising in Los Angeles. Set off by a new wave of ICE raids, protesters have clashed with police in the streets and Trump has responded by increasingly upping the ante, including threatening to arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom, per KTLA. Beyond such bluster however, Trump has moved to deploy U.S. Marines onto the streets of the nation's second-largest city. Reuters reports, “About 700 Marines were in a staging area in the Seal Beach area about 30 miles…south of Los Angeles, awaiting deployment to specific locations,” in addition to 2,100 National Guard troops. The deployment of these troops raises thorny legal questions. Per Reuters, “The Marines and National Guard troops lack the authority to makes arrests and will be charged only with protecting federal property and personnel,” but “California Attorney General Rob Bonta… [said] there was a risk that could violate an 1878 law that…forbids the U.S. military, including the National Guard, from taking part in civilian law enforcement.” Yet, despite all the tumult, these protests seem to have gotten the goods, so to speak: the City of Glendale announced it would, “end its agreement with…ICE to house federal immigration detainees.” All of this sets quite a scene going into Trump's military parade in DC slated for Saturday, June 14th.5. In classic fashion however, Trump's tough posture does not extend to corporate crime. Public Citizen's Rick Claypool reports, “Trump's DOJ just announced American corporations that engage in criminal bribery schemes abroad will no longer be prosecuted.” Claypool cites a June 9th memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, which reads, “Effective today, prosecutors shall…not attribute…malfeasance to corporate structures.” Claypool also cites a Wall Street Journal piece noting that “the DOJ has already ended half of its criminal investigations into corporate bribery in foreign countries and shrunk its [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] unit down to 25 employees.”6. Americans can at least take small comfort in one thing: the departure of Elon Musk from the top rungs of government. It remains to be seen what exactly precipitated his final exit and how deep his rift with Trump goes – Musk has already backed down on his harshest criticisms of the president, deleting his tweet claiming Trump was in Epstein files, per ABC. Yet, this appears to be a victory for Steve Bannon and the forces he represents within Trump's inner circle. On June 5th, the New York Times reported that Bannon, “said he was advising the president to cancel all [Musk's] contracts and… ‘initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status'.” Bannon added, “[Musk] should be deported from the country immediately.'” Bannon has even called for a special counsel probe, per the Hill. Bannon's apparent ascendency goes beyond the Oval Office as well. POLITICO Playbook reports Bannon had a 20-minute-long conversation with Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman on Monday evening – while Fetterman dined with Washington bureau chief for Breitbart, Matt Boyle – at Butterworth's, the DC MAGA “watering hole.” This also from the Hill.7. On the way out, the Daily Beast reports, “Elon Musk's goons at the Department of Government Efficiency transmitted a large amount of data—all of it undetected—using a Starlink Wi-Fi terminal they installed on top of the White House.” Sources “suggested that the [the installation of the Starlink terminal] was intended to bypass White House systems that track the transmission of data—with names and time stamps—and secure it from spies.” It is unknown exactly what data Musk and his minions absconded with, and for what purpose. We can only hope the public gets some answers.8. With Musk and Trump parting ways, other political forces are now seeking to woo the richest man in the world. Semafor reports enigmatic Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley and chaired Bernie Sanders' campaign in California, “talked with one of…Musk's ‘senior confidants' …about whether the ex-DOGE leader…might want to help the Democratic Party in the midterms.” Khanna added, “Having Elon speak out against the irrational tariff policy, against the deficit exploding Trump bill, and the anti-science and anti-immigrant agenda can help check Trump's unconstitutional administration…I look forward to Elon turning his fire against MAGA Republicans instead of Democrats in 2026.” On the other hand, the Hill reports ex-Democrat Andrew Yang is publicly appealing to Musk for an alliance following Musk's call for the establishment of an “America Party.” Yang himself founded the Forward Party in 2021. Yang indicated Musk has not responded to his overtures.9. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Democratic Party appears to be giving up entirely. In a leaked Zoom meeting, DNC Chair Ken Martin – only elected in February – said, “I don't know if I wanna do this anymore,” per POLITICO. On this call, Martin expressed frustration with DNC Vice Chair David Hogg, blaming him for, “[destroying] any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to.” Hogg meanwhile has doubled down, defying DNC leadership by “wading into another primary,” this time for the open seat left by the death of Congressman Gerry Conolly in Virginia, the Washington Post reports. The DNC is still weighing whether to void Hogg's election as Vice Chair.10. Finally, in some good news from New York City, State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani appears to have closed the gap with disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo began the race with a 40-point lead; a new Data for Progress poll shows that lead has been cut down to just two points. Moreover, that poll was conducted before Mamdani was endorsed by AOC, who is expected to bring with her substantial support from Latinos and residents of Queens, among other groups. Notably, Mamdani has racked up tremendous numbers among young men, a demographic the Democratic Party has struggled to attract in recent elections. Cuomo will not go down without a fight however. The political nepo-baby has already secured a separate ballot line for the November election, meaning he will be in the race even if he loses the Democratic primary, and he is being boosted by a new million-dollar digital ad spend by Airbnb, per POLITICO. The New York City Democratic Primary will be held on June 24th.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

"Mystic Maya: Journey of Initiation," is a cinematic masterwork that unveils the ancient wisdom of the Maya. Prepare to be captivated, challenged, and forever changed by this extraordinary exploration of esoteric knowledge.Step into a hidden realm beyond the pyramids as this captivating documentary unravels the truth about these enigmatic structures, intertwining the sacred initiation rites of the Maya, Egypt, and modern Western Esoteric Mystery schools. Prepare for a mesmerizing journey that challenges your perception of history and illuminates profound connections between diverse esoteric traditions."Mystic Maya" unlocks the secrets of pyramids, revealing their purpose as catalysts for personal transformation and global change. Featuring intimate interviews with Mayan lineage holders, esteemed Western Esoteric authors, and renowned experts, "Mystic Maya" reveals the once-veiled knowledge and illuminates the hidden dimensions of world history. Experience a transcendent journey that awakens curiosity and invites you to embark on your own path of initiation.Douglas Beechwood is a filmmaker with extensive experience in Commercial/Documentary and Live event production. He studied Fine Art and Photography at the University of Colorado and has immersed himself in the study of world religions for over three decades.Notably, Douglas served as Editor for "Yangsi: Reincarnation is Just the Beginning," a documentary following the life of renowned Buddhist Lama Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche for close to twenty years, from his coronation at age three to his graduation as an empowered Tibetan teacher. Additionally, he served as Production Manager, TD, and finish editor for all three seasons of the New Mexico PBS series entitled "Ageless Living."Douglas worked for twelve years as the Technical Director and Production Manager for the prestigious Festival of Faiths in Louisville, KY, which brings together faith leaders from diverse backgrounds from Native America, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism for a multi-day theatrical livestream conference. His efforts helped grow the Festival of Faiths from a small local event into a world-renowned happening that continues to engage the viewership of many millions.His spiritual journey embraces practices in Christianity, Native American beliefs, Western Esoteric Mystery Schools, and the profound teachings of Dzogchen Buddhism. Douglas further works as the media coordinator for the worldwide outreach of Tsoknyi Rinpoche's humanitarian activities through the Pundarika Foundation USA, which involves producing Buddhist retreats and secular mindfulness programs, as well as the support of Buddhist schools and nunneries in Nepal and Tibet.Free viewing, https://www.mysticmayamovie.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/earth-ancients--2790919/support.

We are doing a mini-series on AI tools in real estate. Some of these tools are the same ones we use in our development company Y. Street Capital. We use these tools in-house and on projects belonging to our consulting clients. If you want to learn more about how our consulting division could help you with your projects, send an email to victor@victorjm.com.-----------------On yesterday's show we spoke about land.id. This is a tool that has a ton of capability for evaluating land. On today's show we're going to start with another tool called paxiv.ai. This tool started with mapping the state of Utah first and since is mapping out the entire United States. It's now boasting over 155M properties in its database. This tool has an AI language model built into it. You can perform searches for example you can ask it to find all of the properties in a particular city that is zoned industrial with a minimum size of 10 acres. It will then give you a list of properties. You can then refine your search to say increase the minimum building height to 40 feet tall. Once you find the property you are interested in, you can then turn on a whole bunch of layers including traffic counts on roads, soil types, building inventories, housing inventory, presence of fibre optics, water, mineral rights, building permits.; all kinds of different layers. Predictiv AI has been actively pursuing strategic acquisitions to expand its capabilities. Notably, they've been involved in discussions to acquire Shift Technologies Canada Inc. (an AI-driven fleet management platform) and HouseStack Holdings Inc. (which includes real estate intelligence platforms). HouseFax Appraiser Pro: Designed for appraisers to streamline the appraisal process with automated report generation and data analysis. (Currently in development).HouseStack AI Brokerage: An AI-driven brokerage combining technology with "expert guidance" for clients buying, selling, and evaluating real estate transactions.Propsize AI: A proprietary solution using advanced AI to provide precise property measurements and features for residential properties nationwide.LiLA AI Assistant: A generative AI assistant providing instant answers on real estate, leveraging a massive 11+ million nationwide property dataset. (Currently in beta development).Homeselling AI is primarily a tool for agents, enabling them to work more efficiently, provide data-backed insights to their clients, and focus on relationship-building and complex negotiations.-------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

In this essential professional development episode, President and executive writing coach Christine Tulley demonstrates the importance of conducting an annual Google search audit of your academic presence. She provides practical guidance for academics on monitoring and managing their online research profile, particularly during summer months when professional development tasks typically receive more attention. Christine begins by sharing her personal practice of Googling herself annually, acknowledging that while she doesn't always maintain perfect consistency, this summer task has become integral to her professional maintenance routine. She explains how summer naturally lends itself to career-focused activities like CV updates, professional organization memberships, and overall research profile assessment. During her live demonstration of searching her own name, Christine reveals several key insights about academic online presence. She expresses satisfaction that her search results display primarily research-oriented content, including conference presentations with proper institutional affiliations and research interests. Notably, she celebrates that Google's algorithm has finally updated to reflect her current research areas rather than outdated interests from 15 years ago - a common problem academics face with persistent, obsolete online information. Her search results showcase a well-rounded academic digital footprint including her institution, LinkedIn profile, Defend Publish & Lead company page, personal WordPress site, sabbatical work at Ohio State, book publications, ResearchGate, Humanities Commons, X (formerly Twitter) posts, and Google Scholar profile. She notes that posts from Inside Higher Education also appear in her results, demonstrating the value of external publication visibility. However, Christine identifies a significant gap in her current online presence: two new books published in April - an edited collection on faculty writing research and a Routledge publication on time management for academic mothers (Rec Comp Moms) - are notably absent from her first-page search results. This discovery illustrates the episode's central point about the need for proactive promotion of recent scholarship. Christine explains the strategic importance of maintaining current search visibility, noting that while people may discover new work through social media posts, many researchers conduct Google searches when they encounter someone's work for the first time. If recent publications don't appear on the first page, potential readers and collaborators may miss significant contributions to the field. She discusses the nuanced relationship between Google's algorithm and academic self-promotion, explaining that consistent activity around specific projects eventually leads to first-page visibility. While a 2018 book continues to appear prominently in her results, she emphasizes the need to actively promote newer work through various channels including Substack blogs, LinkedIn posts, and other content that refreshes regularly. Christine positions this digital audit as complementary to traditional CV work, particularly valuable for academics preparing for job market activities or tenure and promotion applications in the fall. She stresses that a well-organized Google presence can significantly impact professional opportunities when search committees or colleagues investigate an academic's background. The episode concludes with information about Defend Publish & Lead's upcoming faculty development seminarsavailable through Eventbrite, covering topics from faculty writing groups to supporting chairs and deans as writers, paragraph writing for dissertation students, and book writing strategies.   Related Episodes ●      DPL Podcast Episode 74: CV and Online Profile Updating ●      DPL Podcast Episode 119: Making Time for Career Advancement Tasks   DPL Resources Summer Coaching Opportunity: Defend, Publish & Lead is offering a limited-time summer burst sale with 100 coaching hours available at reduced rates. Whether you're a current client or new to their services, email christine@defendpublishlead.com to learn more. Free Consultation Available: New clients can schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation to discuss projects, summer writing planning, or fall preparation strategies. Need help with your academic writing goals or semester transitions? Contact Defend, Publish & Lead for personalized coaching support tailored to your specific needs and timeline.

Geoff Thompson's documentary, Luxembourg in America, shows the continued and important connections between American ancestors from the wave of Luxembourg immigrants to the U.S. Midwest After a round-up of the ever evolving and heavy news of our times, with Sasha Kehoe, my guest this week is Geoff Thompson. Geoff is known for many things in Luxembourg, but most recently has turned his hands and brain to documentary making. Mid-19th century exodus In the mid-19th century, due to Napoleonic law here in Luxembourg which meant equal sharing of inheritance, once sustainable farms became unsustainable when divided between large numbers of children. And so, some shares were sold to siblings and that money was used to pay for the voyage to the ‘free world'. Geoff Thompson's documentary Luxembourg in America visits their descendants in places like Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, and sees the heritage that is both celebrated and remaining. A Personal Exploration of Heritage Geoff Thompson, who is also President of the British & Irish Film Festival Luxembourg, shared his motivation: “It started with a simple curiosity – how had these Luxembourg communities preserved so much of their identity? What I found was an entire parallel Luxembourg, alive and well in small towns across the Midwest.” From townships like Dacada and Belgium in Wisconsin to the Luxembourg American Cultural Society (LACS) housed in a traditional stone home, the film uncovers an "island of Luxembourgish culture" preserved across oceans and generations. Thompson brings the audience along to the annual “Luxembourg under the Stars” summer festival, where Bofferding beer flows, Träipen (blood sausage) contests are held, and Moselle wine is imported and enjoyed. Midwestern Roots, European Branches The importance of maintaining and exploring one's heritage is deeply evident in this documentary, underscoring our internal need to know where we come from. By deepening our roots on this earth, we seem to feel more connected to our time and place in history. This documentary shows the shared journeys of these Luxembourg-Americans back to Luxembourg for visits, and vice versa, where Luxembourg officials visit the American diaspora. Notably, it is when some of the American Luxembourgers find family connections still alive here in Luxembourg that the magic deepens. The roots grow stronger and that ancestral bond over time is secured today. For Luxembourg nationals and many of us who live in Luxembourg, coming from other countries, this film highlights our own movements and distance from our own roots. It provokes conversation and reflection on multiculturalism, belonging, and identity. Half of Luxembourg's current population is of foreign background. Yet, just like the Luxembourg-Americans abroad, the modern Grand Duchy is also navigating what it means to preserve culture in a globally connected society. We often think of emigration as loss, and indeed one third of the population of Luxembourg was lost at the time, but it grew in another part of the world, maintaining what culture there was. This cultural identity is most evident in food, the passing down of recipes, the religion and of course the language. You can watch the documentary here: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt33996768/

Click to Subscribe: https://bit.ly/Youtube-Subscribe-SoapDirt Bold and the Beautiful, the popular CBS soap opera, is set for an intense new storyline involving Doctor Bridget Forrester (Ashley Jones) and Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton). The character of Bridget Forrester has recently returned to the show, sparking rampant speculation about her role in the upcoming plot. Notably, Nick Marone (Jack Wagner) is also making a comeback, though his romantic storyline with Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang). B&B sees Bridget's reappearance is more likely connected to the devastating health condition of Liam Spencer, who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, is currently at the center of a gripping 'will he, won't he survive' narrative. Bridget's return on July 7th, during the July sweeps, hints at a big change in Liam's storyline.  Bold sees that given the timing and Bridget's medical expertise, it is plausible that she may contribute towards a solution for Liam's terminal cancer. Despite Bridget and Doctor Finn's (Tanner Novlan) successful treatment of Eric Forrester (John McCook) in a similar situation, the prognosis for Liam remains uncertain. However, considering Scott Clifton's award-winning portrayal of Liam Spencer, it is hard to imagine the writers killing off the character. Bold and Beautiful sees other characters like Luna Nozawa (Lisa Yamada) and Hope Logan (Annika Noelle) add to the complex dynamics of the unfolding narrative. Luna's conflict with Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Hope's relationship with Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor) are story arcs to watch out for in the coming weeks. The Soap Dirt podcast made the Top 100 List for Apple Podcast's Entertainment News Category. Visit our Bold and the Beautiful section of Soap Dirt: https://soapdirt.com/category/bold-and-the-beautiful/ Listen to our Podcasts: https://soapdirt.podbean.com/ Check out our always up-to-date Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers page at: https://soapdirt.com/bold-and-the-beautiful-spoilers/ Check Out our Social Media... Twitter: https://twitter.com/SoapDirtTV Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoapDirt Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/soapdirt/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soapdirt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soapdirt/

This morning, a plane in India tragically crashed, resulting in the deaths of approximately 250 people, with only one survivor. Notably, a passenger on the same flight reported on social media two hours before the crash that the plane had experienced several unaddressed technical issues. What was the true cause of this plane crash? Was it a freak accident or something more sinister? In other news, Donald Trump continues to dominate headlines with deals, press conferences, Truth Social posts, and bombshell revelations. Meanwhile, the Anti-ICE "No Kings" riots persist, with Seattle now facing destruction. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has authorized law enforcement to take strong action against violent rioters, and a Florida sheriff has warned that police will use lethal force if attacked. We'll discuss all this and more on today's Untamed!  

Microsoft 365 Copilot has been identified as having a significant security vulnerability known as Echo Leak, which allows hackers to access sensitive information without user interaction. This zero-click exploit was discovered by AIM Security after three months of reverse engineering the software. Although Microsoft claims the issue has been addressed and no customers were affected, experts warn that this flaw reflects deeper security concerns in AI systems, reminiscent of vulnerabilities seen in software two decades ago. The incident raises critical questions about the security of AI agents that have ambient access to data and the need for rethinking endpoint protection and trust boundaries.OpenAI's latest threat report reveals that state-level actors, including those linked to North Korea and Russia, are exploiting ChatGPT for cyber operations. The report outlines ten operations that were shut down, including the generation of fake job applications and social media content aimed at spreading disinformation. Notably, some campaigns were traced back to China, showcasing the use of AI in creating deceptive online personas. This highlights the strategic use of AI by malicious actors, emphasizing the need for heightened awareness and security measures.ConnectWise is facing scrutiny over its recent digital certificate updates, urging customers to update their ScreenConnect, Automate, and ConnectWise RMM solutions. The company is attempting to distance itself from a previously disclosed nation-state breach while addressing concerns raised by a third-party researcher regarding configuration data handling. The rushed certificate rotation has led to reduced confidence among customers, especially given the recent history of exploitation of ScreenConnect. This situation underscores the importance of transparency and trust in vendor relationships, as well as the need for managed service providers to audit their update processes.New tools from Huntress, Netgear, and Varonis signal a shift towards more automated and resilient security solutions. Huntress has launched a Threat Simulator to enhance user engagement in security training, while Netgear's acquisition of Exium aims to simplify networking and security for managed service providers. Varonis has introduced a Model Context Protocol Server to integrate AI tools into its data security platform. These developments reflect a growing trend in cybersecurity towards realism, automation, and simplification, emphasizing the need for IT service providers to adapt and align with these evolving security landscapes. Three things to know today 00:00 From Copilot to Cybercrime: How AI Agents Are Creating New Frontlines in Espionage and Misinformation05:54 ConnectWise Urges Immediate Updates Amid Certificate Rotation, Rekindling Security Concerns After Prior Breach08:45 Automation, Engagement, and Recovery: Security Vendors Roll Out Tools That Align with MSP Priorities Supported by: https://www.huntress.com/mspradio/https://cometbackup.com/?utm_source=mspradio&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sponsorship All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Welcome to the Season 6 Finale of Decorating the Set: From Hollywood to Your Home with Beth Kushnick!  This week on Decorating the Set, the Season 6 Finale, we are bringing you special guest, Tracey Baker-Simmons.  A brilliant creator and Executive Producer who started in the music industry and then became a pioneer of reality television. In addition, Tracey is the co-executive producer on the upcoming Peacock reality series, Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together!  So much to learn from this phenomenal woman!  What a wonderful way to end another epic Season of Decorating the Set: From Hollywood to Your Home! The Interview with Tracey begins at Time Code: 3:53 Join the Decorating the Set Community by subscribing to our Official Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/decoratingthesetpodcast)! Interact with Beth, Caroline, Producer Mike, and all of the DTS listeners! GUEST BIO: TRACEY BAKER-SIMMONS Tracey Baker-Simmons is a 25+ year Entertainment industry veteran and seasoned film and television producer, recognized as one of the pioneers of Reality Television. She began her journey in the music industry, where she honed her skills, eventually segueing into producing national commercials for prominent brands like Sprite and McDonald's. She also spearheaded the production of numerous music videos with acclaimed artists such as Brandy, Nas, Monica, and numerous others. In 2004, Baker-Simmons made a significant transition into Reality Television by pioneering the hit series "Being Bobby Brown," featuring the late Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. This marked a pivotal moment in her career, showcasing her knack for producing captivating and influential content in this burgeoning genre. In recent years, Tracey Baker-Simmons has concentrated her efforts on content development, while thriving as a Showrunner and Executive Producer in the Non-Scripted landscape. Notably, she served as Executive Producer and Director for the acclaimed Hip Hop series "Hip Hop Treasures," featuring Icons like LL Cool J and Ice-T. Her contributions extended to the Hulu series "The Conversations Project" and an upcoming Women in Hip Hop series slated for release on Showtime. Her portfolio spans collaborations with major networks such as Showtime, Bravo, OWN, MTV, VH1, Lifetime, BET, TNT, TBS, TV1, A&E, TLC, Oxygen, WEtv, Hallmark, Hulu, and continues to grow. Moreover, Baker-Simmons serves on a White House Media Group, ECCO, originally formed under the Obama Administration and now serving the Biden Administration. Tracey is an expert in the area of packaging, selling and producing Reality Television. Her experience ranges from challenging celebrity talent to intuitive college students and all other personality types in between. Her mission revolves around imparting the art of shaping authentic narratives by allowing real people's stories to resonate powerfully with audiences. Follow Tracey on Instagram: @tbakersimmons  Tracey's Website: https://www.traceybakersimmons.com/ TV Decoded Website:  https://www.realitytvdecoded.com/ ### For over 35 years, Beth Kushnick has created character-driven settings for countless award-winning television series and feature films. As a Set Decorator, she's composed visuals that both capture and enhance any story. Now, she wants to help you capture and enhance YOUR story. Join Beth and her co-host, Caroline Daley, each week as they go behind the scenes of Hollywood's magic, and give you approachable, yet sophisticated tips to realize the space that best expresses who you are. ### Follow Beth Kushnick on Social Media:  Instagram: @bethkushnick Twitter: @bethkushnick Website: BethKushnick.com Beth is the Decorator By Your Side and now, you can shop her Amazon Store! CLICK HERE! Follow Caroline Daley on Social Media: Twitter: @Tweet2Caroline Website: PodClubhouse.com ### Credits: "Giraffes" by Harrison Amer, licensed by Pod Clubhouse.

THE LANCET 2003;362:767-771Background: Angiotensin II which plays a role in ventricular remodeling and progression of heart failure can be produced by pathways independent of angiotensin convening enzyme. Preliminary studies showed that the combination of angiotensin II blockers with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) improves hemodynamics and reduces ventricular remodeling.Cardiology Trial's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Candesartan in Heart failure: Assessment of Reduction in Mortality and morbidity (CHARM)-Added trial sough to assess if adding the angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB), candesartan, to ACEi could improve outcomes in patients with systolic heart failure.Patients: Eligible patients had left ventricular ejection fraction of 40% or less within the previous 6 months, and NYHA class II, III or IV symptoms. Patients with NYHA class II symptoms had to have cardiac-related hospitalization within 6 months. Patients also had to have treatment with ACEi at a constant dose for at least 30 days.Exclusion criteria were not provided in the main manuscript.Baseline characteristics: Patients were recruited from 618 centers in 26 countries. The trial randomized 2,548 patients – 1,276 randomized to receive candesartan and 1,272 to receive placebo.The average age of patients was 64 years and 79% were men. The average left ventricular ejection fraction was 28%. Cardiomyopathy was ischemic in 62% of the patients. The NYHA class was II in 24% of the patients, III in 73% and IV in 3%.Approximately 48% had hypertension, 30% had diabetes, 56% had prior myocardial infarction, 9% had stroke, 27% had atrial fibrillation and 17% were current smokers.At the time of enrollment, 90% were taking a diuretic, 58% were taking digoxin, 55% were taking beta-blockers, 17% were taking spironolactone and all but two patients were taking ACEi.Procedures: The trial was double-blinded. Patients were assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive candesartan starting at 4 or 8mg once daily or placebo. The treatment was doubled every two weeks to a target dose of 32mg once daily.After randomization, follow up occurred at 2, 4, and 6 weeks, 6 months and every 4 months thereafter.Endpoints: The primary outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalizations. All deaths were classified as cardiovascular unless there was a clear non-cardiac cause.Analysis was performed based on the intention-to-treat principle. The estimated sample size to have 80% power at 5% alpha was 2,300 patients. The sample size calculation assumed 16% relative risk reduction in the primary outcome with candesartan assuming an 18% annual event rate in the placebo arm.Results: The median follow up time was 41 months. The mean candesartan daily dose was 24mg at 6 months.Candesartan reduced the primary endpoint of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalizations (37.9% vs 42.3%, adjusted HR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.75 – 0.96; p= 0.01). Candesartan reduced the individual components of the primary outcome - (23.7% vs 27.3%; p= 0.021) for cardiovascular death and (24.2% vs 28.0%; p= 0.018) for heart failure hospitalizations. There was no significant reduction in all-cause death (29.5% with candesartan vs 32.4%; p= 0.105). The number of patients who had any hospitalization was similar in both groups (66.8% with candesartan vs 67.5%; p= 0.7), however, the total number of hospitalizations was lower with candesartan (2,462 vs 2,798; p= 0.023).Serum creatinine at least doubled in 7% of the patients in the candesartan group vs 6% in the placebo group. In the subset of patients taking spironolactone, serum creatinine at least double in 11% of the patients taking candesartan compared to 4% of the patients taking placebo.Hyperkalemia, defined as serum potassium of 6 mmol/L or higher, occurred in 3% of the patients in the candesartan group vs 1% in the placebo group. In the subset of patients taking spironolactone, hyperkalemia occurred in 4% of the patients taking candesartan compared to 1% of the patients taking placebo.There were two cases of angioedema in the candesartan group and three in the placebo group. All patients were taking an ACEi.There were no significant subgroup interactions, including in patients taking both beta-blockers and ACEi at baseline.Conclusion: In patients with systolic heart failure, adding candesartan to an ACEi reduced the primary composite outcome of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalizations with a number needed to treat of approximately of 23 patients over 41 months of follow up. The total number of all-cause hospitalizations was reduced by 336 with candesartan. All-cause death was not significantly reduced with candesartan.While the results of the trial appear impressive, the high number of adverse outcomes with candesartan in patients taking spironolactone is concerning. Spironolactone led to significant reduction in all-cause mortality in patients with systolic heart failure, as seen in the RALES trial, and should be prioritized over adding candesartan. Notably, fewer than 20% of patients in the trial were on spironolactone at baseline; if more had been, the incremental benefit of candesartan would likely have been reduced due to an increased risk of adverse effects from triple neurohormonal blockade (ACEi, ARBs, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists). Furthermore, spironolactone acts by blocking the aldosterone receptor, which is downstream in the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system. Since candesartan blocks angiotensin II upstream in the same pathway, simultaneous inhibition at multiple points may lead to diminishing benefit.Finally, the differences observed in the subgroup of patients on beta-blockers between this trial and Val-HeFT remain unclear and may simply reflect the play of chance. As we previously discussed, patients receiving both an ACEi and beta-blockers had worse outcomes with valsartan in the Val-HeFT trial.Cardiology Trial's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Cardiology Trial's Substack at cardiologytrials.substack.com/subscribe

In conversation with Phakamile Madonsela and Belinda Matore In this episode of Africa Rights Talk, Belinda Matore sits down with Phakamile Madonsela, from Media Monitoring Africa. The episode explores the pressing issue of online harms faced by children in South Africa and the continent more broadly. Drawing from her work at Media Monitoring Africa, Madonsela outlines the dual nature of the digital world—highlighting both its potential for connectivity, education, and self-expression, and its darker side, including cyberbullying, child sexual abuse material, and online stalking. She stresses the importance of equipping young people with digital literacy and the tools to become responsible digital citizens while also emphasizing the need for inclusive, rights-based digital participation frameworks.   Phakamile highlights the interplay between personal responsibility, institutional duty, and systemic influence also speaks to the important role of the state and digital platforms in safeguarding children's rights online. While much responsibility has traditionally been placed on parents, often without sufficient regard to their digital literacy or social context, the state remains the primary duty bearer in upholding children's rights. Through enforceable legislation, such as South Africa's POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act), the state is empowered to set the rules by which tech companies must operate. Yet, the interview highlighted how inconsistencies in enforcement allow global platforms like Instagram and TikTok to offer less protection to children in South Africa than in Europe. This disparity reflects a need for stronger state-led regulation and enforcement to ensure equal digital protection.    Phakamile Madonsela is a dedicated advocate for the protection and promotion of children's rights in the media, specializing in children's rights, media, and digital advocacy.  At MMA,she leads critical projects that advance child participation and digital rights within the African context, with a particular emphasis on creating safe, inclusive digital spaces for young people. Her expertise centers on the intersection of human rights, internet governance, and children's digital rights, with a passion for child participation in democratic processes. Notably, she was listed in the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans in 2019 and selected for the DGMT Innovation Fellowship in 2024, and is currently  pursuing a Masters degree in Multidisciplinary Human Rights to further advance her work in child participation and digital rights within the African context.   Belinda Matore is a passionate advocate for children's rights in the digital age, with a special focus on online child protection, digital rights and legal technology. As a Doctor of Laws (LLD) candidate at the University of Pretoria, her research explores legal technology, regulatory compliance, and digital governance, all through the lens of safeguarding children in digital spaces. In her role as Project Officer at the Expression, Information, and Digital Rights (EIDR) Unit, Belinda leads work that strengthens freedom of expression, access to information, digital rights and child safety frameworks within the African context. Her work is driven by a commitment to shaping policies that uphold children's rights online and empower their participation in digital society. She was recently featured in Legal Africa Magazine for her contributions to the field of digital law and child protection.   This conversation was recorded on 4 June 2025.   Youtube: https://youtu.be/MpQFogU6lns Music and news extracts: Inner Peace by Mike Chino https://soundcloud.com/mike-chinoCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...Music promoted by Audio Libraryhttps://youtu.be/0nI6qJeqFcc Limitless https://stock.adobe.com/za/search/audio?k=452592386

Just rookies and some second-year players on the Chicago Bears took part in this portion of the Bears offseason program. Notably in attendance was Caleb Williams as he continues to learn Ben Johnson's offense. However, the Bears top-2 picks from the NFL Draft, Colston Loveland and Luther Burden were still unable to participate in practice as they nurse injuries. Will either be ready for Training Camp? WE bring you our best and worst from practice and also hear from the rookies. Join Adam Hoge, Mark Carman and Greg Braggs Jr. on the CHGO Bears Podcast.

Arundhathi Subramaniam, an accomplished poet and author, has garnered acclaim for her 15 comprehensive works encompassing poetry and prose, solidifying her position as one of India's leading literary figures. Her latest publication, "Women Who Wear Only Themselves," intricately explores the lives of contemporary women on sacred journeys, offering a unique perspective on spirituality and personal growth. Notably, Arundhathi's role as the editor of "Wild," a seminal anthology of Indian female mystic poetry, and her accolades, including the Sahitya Academy Award for poetry in 2020, underscore her remarkable contributions to literature. Beyond her literary achievements, she has made significant strides as a curator, editor, and critic, shaping compelling conversations on poetry and spirituality. Arundhathi's work serves as a vital resource for individuals seeking genuine, spiritually aligned creative expression, making her a revered figure in the literary and spiritual realms.   The key moments in this episode are:  00:02:06 - Arundhati's Spiritual Awakening  00:10:42 - Writing "Women who Wear Only Themselves"  00:15:19 - The Journey of Self-Realization  00:27:04 - Embracing the Sacred in Everyday Life  00:30:50 - The Absurdity of Creativity    Connect with Arundhathi Subramaniam Website: arundhathisubramaniam.com Instagram: @arundhathisubramaniam Facebook: facebook.com/arundhathi.subramaniam Connect with Amina AlTai Website: aminaaltai.com Instagram: @aminaaltai TikTok: @theaminaaltai Linkedin: linkedin/in/aminaaltai  Book: aminaaltai.com/book  

This week on the English edition of Vietnam Innovators, we're honored to welcome Chandu Rajapreyar — our very first guest from Sri Lanka, currently serving as the Group Executive Creative Director at Hakuhodo. With over 25 years of experience in the advertising industry, Chandu stands out for his strategic thinking, exceptional creativity, and deep market insight.He has earned numerous prestigious awards including Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clio, The One Show, and Effie, and has been recognized at Smarties Global, MMA Regional, and MMA Vietnam. In 2023, Campaign Brief ranked him among the top 10 most creative individuals in Vietnam.Over the past decade, Chandu has played a key role in helping agencies across Southeast and South Asia earn the title of "Agency of the Year." Notably, he helped elevate MullenLowe Sri Lanka to 9th in Asia and 36th globally on the Effie Index. Beyond advertising, he is also a co-founder of several tech startups, including SD TECH, which provides AI and blockchain solutions in markets such as the U.S., India, and Singapore.---Listen to this episode on YoutubeAnd explore many amazing articles about the pioneers at: https://vietcetera.com/vn/bo-suu-tap/vietnam-innovatorFeel free to leave any questions or invitations for business cooperation at hello@vietnaminnovators.com

In 2016, an unexpected gem emerged as one of the greatest modern action films. Its surprising rise makes it not only significant but also pivotal in understanding the evolving landscape of storytelling. Notably, this was not the Ben Affleck film that dominated headlines that year.

In an industry grappling with unprecedented changes, from liquid cooling innovations to bridging labor gaps, the HVAC world is evolving rapidly. With sustainability and efficiency becoming central themes, it's a critical moment for rethinking solutions and workforce development. The stakes are high—data centers alone, for instance, are expected to account for 3-4% of global electricity consumption by 2030. How can the HVAC sector meet growing demands while addressing environmental and manpower challenges?That's the question explored on this episode of Straight Outta Crumpton, hosted by Greg Crumpton and featuring Mike Donahue, a veteran of the HVAC and data center cooling industry. The episode dives into pressing industry issues, sustainability initiatives, and the challenges of attracting the next generation of tradespeople.Key takeaways from the episode:Labor Shortages and Solutions: Mike and Greg discuss the pressing need for skilled technicians and strategies for recruiting and training young talent in the HVAC and data center industries.Sustainability Meets Innovation: Mike highlights how advancements like serviceable PCB fan motors can reduce waste and energy consumption, paving the way for a greener future.Bridging Industry Gaps: From air conditioning to heat rejection, the episode sheds light on the untapped potential for cross-sector knowledge-sharing and collaboration.Mike Donahue has been a cornerstone in the HVAC and data center cooling industries since 1985. A U.S. Army veteran, he honed his expertise working with the Department of Energy and leading companies like Liebert (now Vertiv). Currently with Infinitum, he focuses on sustainable, cutting-edge cooling solutions. Notably, he witnessed history firsthand, stationed on the East-West German border as the Berlin Wall fell.

In this episode of the OnStage Colorado Podcast, hosts Alex Miller and Toni Tresca began by discussing our Colorado theatre experiences since the last episode. Alex reviewed & Juliet at the Denver Center, describing it as surprisingly enjoyable despite disliking the pop music soundtrack. He also attended the 24 Hour Plays fundraiser at Curious Theatre, featuring six playwrights creating original works in 24 hours, with notable performances from Denver theater veterans.Toni covered several productions including Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song (which we discussed in detail on a bonus episode), the interactive art installation Oracle at Union Hall, Comedy Works' New Faces competition (25th year, 168 local comics competing), Little Miss Sunshine at Aurora Fox (which he found problematic as an adaptation), and The Tempest at Colorado Shakespeare Festival, which he praised for its visual magic and strong performances.Denver Fringe Festival RecapTime: 24:30 - 33:30We both attended the sixth annual Denver Fringe Festival, which kicked off with a showcase at Cleo Parker Robinson Theater hosted by Juice the Clown. Alex saw three shows including a cabaret performance and Plant the Musical (a confusing two-person show where both actors played the same character). Toni saw eight shows and published seven reviews, with Ben Franklin Sex Party at Rise Comedy being his favorite — an immersive comedy involving the audience in founding a new country called “Birdlandia” that ended with a group orgy scene and syphilis outbreak.Tony Awards DiscussionTime: 33:30 - 42:45We discussed the relevance of the Tony Awards for Colorado theatergoers, noting that while the shows are only in New York initially, Tony wins can help shows tour nationally. Major winners included Maybe Happy Ending (Best Musical) and Purpose (Best Play). Toni watched clips of the ceremony, praising host Cynthia Erivo's opening and noting that the Hamilton reunion performance was the evening's highlight, though it overshadowed other nominees.Colorado Theater NewsTime: 42:45 - 49:45Theater Funding Crisis: As reported by the Denver Gazette's John Moore, two northern Colorado theatres - Bas Bleu (33 years old) and OpenStage (50 years old) – are both facing financial shortfalls due to reduced public arts funding, needing emergency fundraising of $40,000 and $15,000 respectively. This contrasts with Denver metro theaters that benefit from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).Other News:Colorado Renaissance Fair opens June 14th for its 48th season, though elephants may be banned due to legal challengesDenver native Annaleigh Ashford returns for DCPA's Saturday Night Alive gala on June 14thBreaking news: We announced the 19th Annual Henry Award nominees, with the ceremony scheduled for July 28th at Lone Tree Arts Center. Notably, this is the first year without gendered performance categories.Interview: Sasha Cucciniello, Telluride TheaterTime: 49:45 - 1:15:15We interviewed Artistic Director Sasha Cucciniello about her journey from avant-garde theater in New York (Performance Space 122) to founding Telluride Theater 18 years ago with just $68. The theater has grown to three full-time employees including new Operations Manager Kevin Douglas and Executive Director Ryan Heidenreich.Key Topics We Covered:Unique Programming: Combines traditional theater with burlesque performances through their troupe “House of Shimmie Shake,” which sells out annuallyOriginal Works: Cucciniello has written over 20 plays, mostly devised collaboratively with ensemble castsRecent Success: Ski Bum the Musical by local ski bum Li

China's Sodium-Ion Scooter Revolution Summary: China is rapidly adopting sodium-ion batteries in its electric scooter market, led by companies like Yadea. These cheaper and safer alternatives to lithium are ideal for short-range urban transport and could eventually disrupt global battery supply chains. ________________________________________ Toyota Bets Big on Logistics Tech Summary: Toyota is privatising Toyota Industries Corporation to focus on autonomous forklifts, logistics software, and low-emission powertrains. The move reflects a broader trend: rebranding transport as "mobility" and modernising freight handling from the warehouse floor up. ________________________________________ Can Telematics Tame Young Drivers? Summary: A small-scale Aussie study shows real-time driver feedback via telematics might help young drivers—but only briefly. Long-term behavioural change remains elusive, and the research highlights the need for better message delivery methods behind the wheel. ________________________________________ Great Wall Climbs 'Beer O'Clock Hill' Summary: Great Wall Motors proved its off-road mettle by conquering one of Australia's toughest 4WD tracks. Notably, a plug-in hybrid Ute made the climb—demonstrating how EVs and hybrid tech are redefining off-road performance expectations. ________________________________________ Dodge's Electric Muscle Car Stalls Summary: Dodge has paused production of its EV muscle car after poor U.S. sales. Traditional petrolhead buyers weren't sold on battery-powered bravado, highlighting the emotional and cultural resistance still facing EVs—especially in the performance segment. ________________________________________ Driving While Female: Beyond Tokenism Summary: An international survey aims to understand women's experience behind the wheel. While the intent is strong, David and Paul warn against shallow analysis. Real progress requires data that captures access issues, social pressures, and behavioural patterns—not just averages. ________________________________________ Road Toll Stats: Misused, Misunderstood, and Misleading Summary: David unpacks Australia's latest road fatality stats, urging caution when interpreting small sample sizes or percentage shifts. A major jump in remote area deaths is likely due to improved reporting or infrastructure gaps, rather than sudden behavioural changes. ________________________________________ Northern Territory Tops Road Risk Charts Summary: The NT continues to record Australia's highest road fatality rate per capita—over four times higher than most other states. Long distances, rough roads, and speed are likely factors. The data underscores the life-saving power of infrastructure investment. ________________________________________ Respecting the Lane: Lessons from the Autobahn Summary: Paul reflects on how German road courtesy—like letting buses overtake trucks—contrasts with Australia's often combative driving culture. It's a reminder that education, not just engineering, plays a key role in safer roads. ________________________________________ Review: Jaecoo J7 SUV – Chinese Sophistication on a Budget Summary: The Jaecoo J7, a more refined cousin of the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro, offers great value with a premium feel. It's better built, offers AWD, and comes with a future buyback guarantee—appealing features in a rapidly evolving Chinese car landscape. ________________________________________ Program Links and Credits This Overdrive program originally aired on the 7th of June 2025. For extended interviews, video content, and podcasts, visit our website, or search “Cars Transport Culture” on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Credits: Hosted by David Brown. Contributor: Paul Murrell from seniordriveroz.com. Production: Bruce Potter. Technical support: Mark Wesley. Syndicated nationally via the Community Radio Network.

With cohost Tim Swartz on "Special Assignment," Gene presents a genuine paranormal power couple, Tillie Treadwell and Artemaeus Treadwell. Tillie, who is our guest cohost on this episode, is an American author and experiencer. Her very earliest memories include what seem to be paranormal encounters, and the other side has always played a central role in her life. She was co-lead of an exorcist and investigative team with the Catholic church, has worked as an independent tarot interpreter, healer, medium and advisor, and today is an author for Zontar Press, a publishing house run by Tim R. Swartz, co-host on The Paracast. She also writes for Outer Limits Magazine and The Quad Coalition of Sciences. Notably, later this year a piece of hers will appear in a new book by Malcolm Robinson of SPI in the UK, and she is currently hard at work on several other book inclusions and some standalone volumes with Zontar Press. Artemaeus is an American experiencer. After meeting  Tillie, his life took thousands of unforeseen, unforgettable turns, from witnessing her psychic abilities, to bumping into a faerie, meeting mimics, dark entities, maybe an Egyptian god or two, seeing UFOs and strange planetary behavior and more. At home, extreme electrical events, strange scientific anomalies, apports and disappearing objects, time glitches and the Mandela Effect are positively common events. Bizarrely, his foray into the deep paranormal has transformed his personality, beliefs and understanding of psychology, reality and life in measures and ways no short of miraculous.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-paracast-the-gold-standard-of-paranormal-radio--6203433/support.

Attorney Tony Buzbee has announced plans to file approximately 120 individual lawsuits against Sean "Diddy" Combs, alleging sexual assault, exploitation, and abuse. These cases involve both male and female plaintiffs, with incidents reportedly spanning from 1991 to 2024. Notably, 25 of the alleged victims were minors at the time of the purported offenses, with the youngest being nine years old.Buzbee's firm has received over 3,000 inquiries related to these allegations, leading to the representation of 120 individuals. The lawsuits are expected to be filed individually across various courts in the United States. The claims include violent sexual assault, facilitated sex with controlled substances, false imprisonment, and sexual abuse of minors.In response, Combs' legal team has denied all allegations, labeling them as false and defamatory. Combs is currently facing federal charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking, and is detained awaiting trial.Additionally, Buzbee has faced accusations of unethical conduct. A recent court filing alleges that he encouraged a woman to fabricate claims against Combs. Buzbee has denied these accusations, maintaining his commitment to ethical legal practices.The situation continues to develop, with potential for more lawsuits and revelations involving other high-profile individuals. Buzbee has indicated that additional defendants may be named as more evidence emerges.(commercial at 11:09)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Number of civil cases against Sean 'Diddy' Combs 'is probably in the 300 range', claims lawyer acting for alleged victims | Daily Mail OnlineBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Attorney Tony Buzbee has announced plans to file approximately 120 individual lawsuits against Sean "Diddy" Combs, alleging sexual assault, exploitation, and abuse. These cases involve both male and female plaintiffs, with incidents reportedly spanning from 1991 to 2024. Notably, 25 of the alleged victims were minors at the time of the purported offenses, with the youngest being nine years old.Buzbee's firm has received over 3,000 inquiries related to these allegations, leading to the representation of 120 individuals. The lawsuits are expected to be filed individually across various courts in the United States. The claims include violent sexual assault, facilitated sex with controlled substances, false imprisonment, and sexual abuse of minors.In response, Combs' legal team has denied all allegations, labeling them as false and defamatory. Combs is currently facing federal charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking, and is detained awaiting trial.Additionally, Buzbee has faced accusations of unethical conduct. A recent court filing alleges that he encouraged a woman to fabricate claims against Combs. Buzbee has denied these accusations, maintaining his commitment to ethical legal practices.The situation continues to develop, with potential for more lawsuits and revelations involving other high-profile individuals. Buzbee has indicated that additional defendants may be named as more evidence emerges.(commercial at 11:09)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Number of civil cases against Sean 'Diddy' Combs 'is probably in the 300 range', claims lawyer acting for alleged victims | Daily Mail Online

(The Center Square) – Spokane County Commissioner Al French said on Tuesday that his peers should consider clarifying their stance on federal immigration enforcement due to recent events. Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted a list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” online, including 35 states and the District of Columbia. Washington was one, with 36 of its 39 counties listed, with the addition of the cities of Everett, Olympia, Seattle, Tacoma and Yakima. Notably, Spokane County was included, but not the city of Spokane, which passed a resolution on Feb. 10, specifically reaffirming what many call Washington's sanctuary state law. The county adheres to the Keep Washington Working Act, or KWWA, but hasn't explicitly supported it like the city.

In our first segment...In the case of United States v. Combs (24-cr-542), Sean Combs' legal team has formally requested that the court instruct the U.S. Marshals Service to remove his leg shackles before courtroom appearances. They argue that during the October 10, 2024, conference, Combs was unnecessarily shackled, a situation observed by both the press and the public. The defense contends that such restraints are unwarranted and could prejudice public perception.In our second segement...Recent reports suggest that Sean "Diddy" Combs, currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on charges including sex trafficking and racketeering, is receiving notable attention from fellow inmates. Allegations indicate that certain inmates, referred to as "groupies," are vying for his favor, with some reportedly competing to perform tasks such as making his bed. These claims have been highlighted by journalist Toure, who cited an insider's account of Combs' experiences in custody.Additionally, a former inmate of the same facility has corroborated these assertions, describing a 20-man dormitory where inmates are allegedly "jealous" and "fighting" for Combs' attention. These reports provide insight into the dynamics within the detention center, suggesting that Combs' celebrity status may be influencing interactions among inmates.In our third segment..Recent reports indicate that private investigators have approached content creators discussing Sean "Diddy" Combs, aiming to determine if these influencers are being compensated for their coverage. Notably, YouTuber Amala Ekpunobi, with over two million subscribers, claimed that investigators visited her former residence to inquire about potential payments related to her commentary on Diddy. Similarly, TikTok personality "Secret Service Samson" reported a visit from private investigators questioning his Diddy-related content. These incidents suggest a concerted effort to scrutinize the motivations behind online discussions of Combs, particularly in light of his recent legal challenges.(commercial at 10:51)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:gov.uscourts.nysd.628425.73.0_1.pdfsource:Diddy Surrounded By “Groupies” Fighting To Make His Prison Bed, Former MDC Inmate Claims  - AllHipHopsource:Influencers Allegedly Targeted By Private Investigators Over Diddy Coverage

In this episode of 'This Week in Futures Options,' Mark Longo and Russell Rhoads (Indiana University - Kelley School of Business) dive deep into the world of futures and options trading, specifically focusing on the metal markets like silver, gold, and platinum. The discussion highlights the recent significant moves in the precious metals sector, with silver showing a substantial uptrend. The conversation shifts to copper and natural gas, with attention paid to their volatile trading volumes and market trends. Notably, the episode touches on the energy sector, particularly WTI crude oil, discussing its price movements and market factors. The episode also features a brief dive into the equity index space, analyzing the latest volatility trends and what to expect leading up to key economic announcements. Listeners are also updated on different trading strategies and the importance of skew in understanding market biases. 01:03 Welcome to This Week in Futures Options 03:46 Guest Introduction: Russell Rhodes 05:00 Movers and Shakers Report 11:50 Deep Dive into Silver and Gold 28:07 Exploring Platinum Trends 30:08 Analyzing Open Interest and Volume 30:36 Diving into Platinum and Copper Markets 31:16 Copper's Economic Indicators and Market Trends 32:10 Copper Options and Market Sentiment 35:46 Palladium and Transition to Energy Markets 36:44 Exploring Natural Gas Market Dynamics 43:36 Crude Oil Market Analysis 49:03 Equity Markets and Volatility Insights 54:22 Concluding Remarks and Upcoming Content  

In this episode of 'This Week in Futures Options,' Mark Longo and Russell Rhoads (Indiana University - Kelley School of Business) dive deep into the world of futures and options trading, specifically focusing on the metal markets like silver, gold, and platinum. The discussion highlights the recent significant moves in the precious metals sector, with silver showing a substantial uptrend. The conversation shifts to copper and natural gas, with attention paid to their volatile trading volumes and market trends. Notably, the episode touches on the energy sector, particularly WTI crude oil, discussing its price movements and market factors. The episode also features a brief dive into the equity index space, analyzing the latest volatility trends and what to expect leading up to key economic announcements. Listeners are also updated on different trading strategies and the importance of skew in understanding market biases. 01:03 Welcome to This Week in Futures Options 03:46 Guest Introduction: Russell Rhodes 05:00 Movers and Shakers Report 11:50 Deep Dive into Silver and Gold 28:07 Exploring Platinum Trends 30:08 Analyzing Open Interest and Volume 30:36 Diving into Platinum and Copper Markets 31:16 Copper's Economic Indicators and Market Trends 32:10 Copper Options and Market Sentiment 35:46 Palladium and Transition to Energy Markets 36:44 Exploring Natural Gas Market Dynamics 43:36 Crude Oil Market Analysis 49:03 Equity Markets and Volatility Insights 54:22 Concluding Remarks and Upcoming Content  

Karen Colbert, an AI strategist, data scientist, and Lead Math Faculty at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, speaks with Pitt HexAI Producer, Brent Phillips about tribal colleges and their mission and vision to revitalize language and culture through education, the indigenization of math and teaching math, computing and data science in the AI age, collaboration tools, data sharing and privacy, explainability and storytelling, project ideation, AI applications, data annotation, and life lessons for students.Karen Colbert is an AI strategist, data scientist, keynote speaker, and a nationally recognized advocate for STEM education. She currently serves as the General Education Department Chair and Lead Math Faculty at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, a Tribal College, where she advances data and computational literacy for Indigenous students. Notably, Karen became the first Data Carpentries Instructor and Trainer among all Tribal Colleges, pioneering efforts to bridge the digital divide in higher education. Her passion lies in ensuring that non-traditional, re-entry, and adult learners are not left behind in the AI revolution. Karen is passionate about sharing her insights on “digital sovereignty in the age of AI.” Specifically, she has a deep interest in exploring how AI is reshaping education, research, and opportunity, challenging educators to lead with cultural integrity as technology evolves. She also has an upcoming book 'The Algorithm wasn't Built for Us: Reclaiming the Future of AI, Education, and Culture' available July 4 on Amazon. Visit her website: https://www.karencolbert.com/

Recent digital developments show a growing gap between technological innovation and the protections needed to safeguard privacy, autonomy, and society at large. A string of high-profile incidents showcases the systemic vulnerabilities across sectors.Data breaches remain rampant. LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a leading data broker, suffered a breach via a third-party vendor, compromising the PII of over 364,000 individuals. This underscores the inherent risks of outsourcing sensitive data and the challenge of securing even “security-focused” firms.Retail giants like Cartier, Victoria's Secret, Harrods, and Marks & Spencer have been targeted by cyberattacks, exposing customer data and causing disruptions. Notably, Marks & Spencer reported potential losses of up to £300 million. Credential-stuffing attacks, such as the one affecting The North Face, exploit reused passwords from earlier breaches, emphasizing the cascading risks of weak user hygiene.Social media platforms are still vulnerable. A scraping operation exposed data from 1.2 billion Facebook users due to a public API flaw—reaffirming that even mature platforms are prone to exploitation when data is monetizable at scale.Government surveillance is expanding in concerning ways. The U.S. has collected DNA from over 133,000 migrant children—many without criminal charges—and stored it in a national criminal database. This raises major ethical concerns about consent, privacy, and the erosion of legal norms like the presumption of innocence.Brazil's dWallet initiative offers a contrasting vision: enabling citizens to monetize their personal data. While empowering, it also prompts questions about equity, digital literacy, and the unintended consequences of commodifying identity.AI tools are now weaponizing digital footprints. “YouTube-Tools” scrapes public comments and uses AI to infer users' locations, political views, and more—posing risks of harassment and surveillance, despite being marketed for law enforcement.LLMs show serious limitations in sustained, autonomous operations. Simulations involving AI running simple businesses failed dramatically—some models contacted the FBI, others misunderstood basic logic, showing how far AI remains from reliable real-world decision-making.AI ethics research via "SnitchBench" shows that some models will autonomously report unethical behavior, raising questions around AI moral agency and alignment—specifically, when and how AI should intervene in human affairs.Finally, a grave data leak in Russia revealed nuclear infrastructure details through a procurement portal—due to careless document handling. This illustrates that critical security failures often originate not from elite hacks, but from bureaucratic neglect.

ZOE's menopause research shows that perimenopause and menopause symptoms can be reduced through nutrition. Thousands of women took part in their research and the findings show that changing food habits may reduce the chance of having a particular menopause symptom by up to 37% for some women, and this includes women taking HRT. It's no surprise that what you eat can impact how you feel In this interview you'll learn more about the research and specific food and lifestyle modifications that make a difference. My two guests are: Dr. Federica Amati, who works as Head Nutritionist for science and nutrition company, ZOE and holds a PhD in Clinical Medicine Research from Imperial College London, has a masters in Public Health and is an Association for Nutrition (AfN) accredited Nutritionist. Alongside her research and nutrition work, Federica has written two books, Recipes for a Better Menopause and Every Body Should Know This, which was recently released in the UK. Sarah Berry is a Professor at King's College London and has run more than 35 human nutrition studies. Notably, she is the Chief Scientist at ZOE, the science and nutrition company. She's the lead nutritional scientist for the ZOE PREDICT study — the world's largest in-depth nutritional research program and leads research across menopause, microbiome and sleep. This is a deep dive into how to use nutrition to manage menopausal symptoms so be sure to share it with your friends! RESOURCES MENTIONED JOIN MICHELE'S NEWSLETTER + Receive A Free Curated List of 52 Self-care Tips Michele on IG GUEST INFORMATION Website: zoe.com/menoscale Instagram: Zoe Sarah on IG Federica on IG If you enjoyed this interview, please take a moment to rate and review it on Apple podcasts. Your reviews are so appreciated! Not sure how to do it? Instructions are below. XO, Michele Rate + Review: 1. Click on this link 2. Click “View in iTunes” button 3. Click “Subscribe” button 4. Click “Ratings and Reviews” text 5. Click to rate and leave short review and you're done!

On this Mastery Unleashed episode, Christie Ruffino welcomes Mona Das, a former Washington State Senator, policy trailblazer, and champion for women and diversity. Mona shares her incredible journey from immigrant roots to politics, how she passed 28 bills in just four years, and why she left the Senate to create a bigger impact globally.This conversation is a must-listen for change makers, entrepreneurs, and those looking to own their power!Key Takeaways:✅ How Mona flipped a Senate seat, defied expectations, and made history✅ The challenges of being a woman of color in politics and why representation matters✅ Why she left the Senate and how she's driving change through film, advocacy, and global leadership✅ The power of networking, visibility, and connection to create massive impact✅ Why women must step into leadership roles boldly and unapologetically

Can you be scandalized by a 2000-year-old book? I think I was with Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars, a gripping, gossipy account of the first twelve Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Domitian. Written around 120 AD, Suetonius' work (part of The Honest Broker's “Humanities in 52 Weeks” list) blends history with salacious details, offering a vivid, if dark, portrait of power, excess, and moral decline. It's not exactly light beach reading but proved endlessly fascinating for its unapologetic dive into the personal lives of Rome's rulers.Suetonius, born around 70 AD to a Roman knight family, organizes the book into twelve biographies, which I've listed here for easy reference:Julius CaesarAugustusTiberiusCaligulaClaudiusNeroGalbaOthoVitelliusVespasianTitusDomitian. Notably, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, from the chaotic years of 68-69 AD, were barely recognized as emperors. Each biography sketches the ruler's family background, reign, military campaigns, and personal habits, with Suetonius excelling in the juicy details of their excesses. His vivid prose, like describing Caligula as transitioning from “emperor” to “monster,” reveals the depravity of unchecked power—think murders, incest, and shocking debauchery.The book's strength lies in its storytelling, but its darkness—wanton death, sexual depravity, and a lack of heroism—can be exhausting. The Roman people's hope for better rulers is repeatedly dashed, as seen when Caligula's assassination leads to Claudius, another cruel leader. The complex web of intermarriage and adoptions among the Julio-Claudians is dizzying, with family trees barely helping. Economically, Suetonius notes rising “value” in Roman real estate under Julius Caesar, missing that this was inflation driven by reckless state spending, a recurring issue that strained the empire and its people.Suetonius' perspective, shaped by living through Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian's reigns, adds depth, though his distance from earlier emperors allows for embellishment. This week's music was Mozart's symphonies 39-41, sweetness and light compared to Rome's darkness. This is a year-long challenge! Join me next week for the Koran and the poems of Rumi.LINKTed Gioia/The Honest Broker's 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!)My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link)I misspoke! Gates of Fire was written by Steven Pressfield, not Victor Davis Hansen. Sorry about that!CONNECTTo read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com.Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ LISTENSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bdApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

Fabio Segura, Co-CEO of the Jacobs Foundation, offers a deep dive into the foundation's bold and evidence-driven approach to improving learning outcomes in low- and high-resource environments alike. At the heart of the discussion is a new $120 million co-funding initiative in Ghana—an ambitious, multi-stakeholder collaboration bringing together the country's Ministry of Education, the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Education, and an expanding consortium of private sector actors. What emerges is a compelling framework for what true impact entails. Success is no longer measured solely by the number of schools built or children enrolled, but by the cultivation of resilient education systems that are capable of continuous learning, self-correction, and scale. This means embedding a “culture of rigor” while retaining the humility to revise assumptions as conditions change. Segura is candid about the complexities of building trust across sectors—philanthropy, government, business, and academia—each of which brings different priorities and expectations to the table. He highlights the importance of clearly defined success metrics, transparent governance structures, and a willingness among partners to surrender individual control for the sake of shared objectives. Notably, he underscores how corporate partners are being asked to expand their lens beyond traditional CSR and consider educational reform as a long-term investment in system-wide human capital development. Ultimately, Segura offers a persuasive argument for rethinking philanthropic and developmental practice. In a world where challenges outpace resources, the path forward is not to pursue impact in silos, but to build shared, data-informed architectures for change—anchored in realism, yet animated by the conviction that systems can evolve. Thank you for downloading this episode of the Do One Better Podcast. Visit our Knowledge Hub at Lidji.org for information on 300 case studies and interviews with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.  

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 4: 6:05pm- Jake Tapper's new book, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which is critical of the Biden Administration for covering up the president's physical and cognitive decline released earlier this month. Notably, during an interview with Lara Trump in 2024, Tapper vociferously denied Joe Biden was experiencing any sort of cognitive decline and suggested that people were merely picking on the then-president for suffering from a life-long stutter. Trump revealed that Tapper has since called her and apologized. 6:30pm- In a hidden video interview conducted by Project Veritas, Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee David Hogg and former Biden Administration staffer Deterrian Jones revealed that Jill Biden's Chief of Staff Anthony Bernal “had an enormous amount of power.” Jones continued: “The general public wouldn't know how this man looked, but he wielded an enormous amount of power. I can't stress to you enough how much power he had at the White House.” 6:35pm- While appearing on CNN, Alex Thompson—Axios reporter and co-author of “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”—revealed that Biden Administration cabinet members were not confident that Joe Biden was capable of handling a “2 am crisis,” if one were to occur. So, who was in charge? 6:40pm- During a segment on PBS, host Judy Woodruff examined whether the president—Donald Trump specifically—has the authority to unilaterally launch a nuclear strike. Why wasn't PBS expressing similar concern when, according to recent reports, a cognitively fading Joe Biden held the presidency?

Judge John Bates; a long-serving federal district court judge in Washington DC ruled that Donald Trump's executive order punishing the law firm Jenner & Block was not only unconstitutional, but that Trump's actions were "doubly violative of the Constitution".Notably, Bates (who was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush) also delivered a pointed message to the law firms that decide to bend a knee to Trump instead of fighting his unconstitutional conduct.Glenn reviews the new ruling and order in the Jenner case, and also discusses who should stand up against Trump's unconstitutional conduct in the Jenner case and in other cases.If you're interested in supporting our all-volunteer efforts, you can become a Team Justice patron at: / glennkirschner If you'd like to support Glenn and buy Team Justice and Justice Matters merchandise visit:https://shop.spreadshirt.com/glennkir...Check out Glenn's website at https://glennkirschner.com/Follow Glenn on:Threads: https://www.threads.net/glennkirschner2Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glennkirschner2Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glennkirsch...Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/glennkirschn...TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/glennkirschner2See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 1: 3:05pm- Jake Tapper's new book, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which is critical of the Biden Administration for covering up the president's physical and cognitive decline is due to be released later this week. While Tapper is now reporting on internal stories about Biden's health decline, why did he ignore the story prior to Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election? Notably, during an interview with Lara Trump, Tapper vociferously denied Joe Biden was experiencing any sort of cognitive decline and suggested that people were merely picking on the then-president for suffering from a life-long stutter. 3:30pm- Tom Homan—Trump Administration Border Czar—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss how the Big Beautiful Bill Act will benefit border security and fulfill President Donald Trump's campaign pledge to stifle illegal border crossings. He explains: “We have the most secure border in the most history of the country, but we need to finish it. We need to make it permanent!”

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (05/21/2025): 3:05pm- Jake Tapper's new book, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which is critical of the Biden Administration for covering up the president's physical and cognitive decline is due to be released later this week. While Tapper is now reporting on internal stories about Biden's health decline, why did he ignore the story prior to Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election? Notably, during an interview with Lara Trump, Tapper vociferously denied Joe Biden was experiencing any sort of cognitive decline and suggested that people were merely picking on the then-president for suffering from a life-long stutter. 3:30pm- Tom Homan—Trump Administration Border Czar—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss how the Big Beautiful Bill Act will benefit border security and fulfill President Donald Trump's campaign pledge to stifle illegal border crossings. He explains: “We have the most secure border in the most history of the country, but we need to finish it. We need to make it permanent!” 4:05pm- On Wednesday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa joined President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. During the meeting, Trump confronted Ramaphosa with video clips and news articles documenting instances of genocide against white South African farmers. Ramaphosa denied the allegations, but Trump continued to pushback with evidence: "You do allow them to take land. And then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer—and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them." 4:15pm- In response to the Oval Office confrontation between President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, many media outlets ignored Trump's claims of an unfolding genocide—with CNN even accusing Trump of “ambushing” the South African president. 4:40pm- On Wednesday, President Donald Trump welcomed the NCAA Men's Basketball Champion Florida Gators to the White House. 4:50pm- While appearing on CNN, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” co-author Alex Thompson discussed a particularly disturbing report documented in his new book. Thompson explained that the 2024 Biden campaign spent millions of dollars on producing a fake town hall—but then couldn't use the content because Joe Biden's performance was so poor. 5:05pm- Susan Crabtree—RealClearPolitics National Political Correspondent & Author of the book, “Fools Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino revealing that there is no evidence suggesting a larger conspiracy surrounding the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. But why are there still so many unanswered questions? 5:40pm- Brand Manager Greg Stocker joins the show, John Cena's apology to China was so awkward and hilarious that we must play it again—four-years later, and how do you pronounce “Ingraham”? 6:05pm- Rich is joined in studio by… Nick Kayal, Dawn Stensland, and Greg Stocker! Don't they have a show to do in 12-hours? 6:10pm- Democrat political strategist James Carville baselessly claimed that Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba only charged Rep. LaMonica McIver with assault of an ICE agent outside of Delaney Hall in Newark, NJ because of her skin color. Carville argued: “I don't have any proof…but I think if it was a white congressperson, they would not have arrested her.” 6:15pm- Now Dom Giordano is in studio! What did he think of last night's NJ Republican Gubernatorial Primary? And will the One Big Beautiful Bill Act be passed? Plus is it sauce or gravy? 6:30pm- During a Wednesday Senate hearing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio destroyed progressive Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal during a debate over the revocation ...

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 3: 5:05pm- Dr. Victoria Coates— Former Deputy National Security Advisor & the Vice President of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation—joins The Rich Zeoli Show. Rich is broadcasting alongside Dr. Coates from The Heritage Foundation's studio in Washington D.C. and the two discuss “Project Esther,” the foundation's strategy to combat anti-Semitism. Dr. Coates is author of the book, “The Battle for the Jewish State: How Israel—and America—Can Win.” You can find it here: https://a.co/d/iTMA4Vb. 5:40pm- The White House held a “Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day” during Tuesday's press briefing. One child hilariously asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt how much candy President Trump eats each day. 5:50pm- Jake Tapper's new book, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which is critical of the Biden Administration for covering up the president's physical and cognitive decline is due to be released later this week. While Tapper is now reporting on internal stories about Biden's health decline, why did he ignore the story prior to Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election? Notably, during an interview with Lara Trump, Tapper vociferously denied Joe Biden was experiencing any sort of cognitive decline and suggested that people were merely picking on the then-president for suffering from a life-long stutter.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (05/20/2025): 3:05pm- In a statement on Sunday, former President Joe Biden's office announced that he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer with metastasis to the bone. In response to the news, President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social: “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden's recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.” 3:15pm- In an interview with Joe Nocera of The Free Press, Dr. Mark Scholz—a prostate cancer specialist—said that White House doctors either neglected to test Joe Biden for the disease, in which case they are “perhaps the most incompetent doctors on the face of the earth,” or they held the information from the public. He also suggested that its possible Biden was being treated for cancer while serving as president—noting that treatment symptoms could include an “unsteady gait, loss of muscle mass, and even loss of memory.” You can read the full article here: https://www.thefp.com/p/when-did-biden-know-he-had-cancer. 3:30pm- On Tuesday, President Donald Trump visited Capitol Hill where he spoke with Republican members of the House—imploring them to vote in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. On Sunday night, the House Budget Committee successfully advanced the Republican tax and spending bill through committee vote—with the final vote being 17-16 in favor. The bill would extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts while reforming Medicaid and other government subsidy programs. The House Rules Committee is expected to take up the legislation later this week. Congressmen Ralph Norman, Andrew Clyde, Josh Brecheen, and Chip Roy voted “present” which allowed the bill to move forward. 3:40pm- While speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump insisted there will be no changes to Medicaid or Medicare—and that the “only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud, and abuse.” 3:45pm- Jake Tapper's new book, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which is critical of the Biden Administration for covering up the president's physical and cognitive decline is due to be released later this week. While Tapper is now reporting on internal stories about Biden's health decline, why did he ignore the story prior to Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election? Notably, during an interview with Lara Trump, Tapper vociferously denied Joe Biden was experiencing any sort of cognitive decline and suggested that people were merely picking on the then-president for suffering from a life-long stutter. 4:05pm- From the Oval Office, President Donald Trump—alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—announced the development of a “Golden Dome” missile defense program. Trump estimates that the system will be fully operational by the time he leaves office. 4:30pm- Robert Peters—Senior Research Fellow for Strategic Deterrence in Heritage's Allison Center for National Security—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and offers reaction to the Trump Administration's “Golden Dome” missile defense project. Plus, he discusses his report, “A Missile Defense Review for the United States.” You can read the full report here: https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/missile-defense-review-the-united-states. 5:05pm- Dr. Victoria Coates— Former Deputy National Security Advisor & the Vice President of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation—joins The Rich Zeoli Show. Rich is broadcasting alongside Dr. Coates from The Heritage Foundation's studio in Washington D.C. and the two discuss “Project Esther,” the foundation's strategy to combat anti-Semitism. Dr. Coates is author of the book, “The Battle for the Jewish State: How Israel—and America—Can Win.” You can find it here: https://a.co/d/iTMA4Vb. 5:40pm- The White House held a “Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day” during Tu ...