Podcasts about prime minister johnson

February 24th marked the three-year anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war and talks of a security deal for Ukraine remain on the line. Former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, argues that despite Russia's continuation of drone and missile attacks, Ukrainians remain determined to fight on and win.     The U.S. has proposed a deal with Ukraine to gain access to their rare earth minerals, which are valuable to compete against China's development of artificial intelligence. Prime Minister Johnson recently visited Ukraine and notes a deal with the U.S. will benefit both nations.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Mike Bell, the first data visualiser to feature in almost 30 episodes of the podcast. Mike is the Founder and Owner of a thriving new business called Mike Bell Maps which describes itself as “Tube maps of bands and other stuff”.   Our conversation was recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, on 13 December 2023.   Thanks to Joe Hickey for production support.   Podcast artwork by Shatter Media.   Voice over by Samantha Boffin.   Mike's had a long career in creating and running tours for bands, a blend of logistical and strategic planning to the power of Excel. “I see tours in Excel!” he told me when we first met. He moved from arena and stadium tours for bands to production of live events for corporates, staging major conferences and exhibitions right around the world.   A combination of the first COVID lockdown – not a good couple of years for anyone in the live entertainment and production business – and a diagnosis of Parkinson's some years ago convinced Mike he had to “use it or lose it” when it came to his highly creative, data-driven brain. He started out by trying to represent the career of one of his favourite bands, The Fall, using the iconography, lines, and stations on the London Underground.   Once he'd got The Fall right – to the satisfaction of the brand's vocal and perhaps a little pedantic fanbase online – Mike's applied his unique and beautiful way of visualising the world of band line-ups and album contributors to many different spheres. These include films and film genres and even – in perhaps my favourite example – disgraced former Prime Minister Johnson's political career, with a special line for all those lockdown-breaking parties.   Mike's encouragement to keep mentally active from his neurologist has paid dividends. Though diagnosed several years ago, his “using it” strategy means he's not yet been medicated for Parkinson's. A tale almost as extraordinary as the beautiful manifestations of how he thinks that he now sells, both online and from a new shop in my hometown of Lewes, East Sussex.   Towards the end of our discussion, Mike gives one of the most lyrical and elegiac descriptions of his stock-in-trade, the humble spreadsheet. Once asked to describe them to his grandmother, he said: “They're like boxes floating in the air that you can connect, tied together with data strings, that allow you to magically make things make sense.” Beautiful!   EXTERNAL LINKS Mike Bell Maps – https://mikebellmaps.com Mike's experiential design business – https://www.freelancevisuals.co.uk 10,000 poems – Mike's project to take him to 85, writing a poem a day – https://mikebellpoems.com     To find out what kind of data storyteller you are, complete our data storytelling scorecard at https://data-storytelling.scoreapp.com. It takes just two minutes, and we'll send you your own personalised scorecard which tells you what kind of data storyteller you are.  

www.goodluckgabe.life    The Perils of Audience Capture How influencers become brainwashed by their audiences The Man Who Ate Himself In 2016, 24 year old Nicholas Perry wanted to be big online. He started uploading videos to his YouTube channel in which he pursued his passion—playing the violin—and extolled the virtues of veganism. He went largely unnoticed.   A year later, he abandoned veganism, citing health concerns. Now free to eat whatever he wanted, he began uploading mukbang videos of himself consuming various dishes while talking to the camera, as if having dinner with a friend.   These new videos quickly found a sizable audience, but as the audience grew, so did their demands. The comments sections of the videos soon became filled with people challenging Perry to eat as much as he physically could. Eager to please, he began to set himself torturous eating challenges, each bigger than the last. His audience applauded, but always demanded more. Soon, he was filming himself eating entire menus of fast food restaurants in one sitting.   In some respects, all his eating paid off; Nikocado Avocado, as Perry is now better known, has amassed over six million subscribers across six channels on YouTube. By satisfying the escalating demands of his audience, he got his wish of blowing up and being big online. But the cost was that he blew up and became big in ways he hadn't anticipated. Top: Nicholas Perry when he first started making mukbang videos. Bottom: Perry transformed by his audience's desires into Nikocado. Nikocado, moulded by his audience's desires into a cartoonish extreme, is now a wholly different character from Nicholas Perry, the vegan violinist who first started making videos. Where Perry was mild-mannered and health conscious, Nikocado is loud, abrasive, and spectacularly grotesque. Where Perry was a picky eater, Nikocado devoured everything he could, including finally Perry himself. The rampant appetite for attention caused the person to be subsumed by the persona.   We often talk of "captive audiences," regarding the performer as hypnotizing their viewers. But just as often, it's the viewers hypnotizing the performer. This disease, of which Perry is but one victim of many, is known as audience capture, and it's essential to understanding influencers in particular and the online ecosystem in general.   Lost in the Looking Glass Audience capture is an irresistible force in the world of influencing, because it's not just a conscious process but also an unconscious one. While it may ostensibly appear to be a simple case of influencers making a business decision to create more of the content they believe audiences want, and then being incentivized by engagement numbers to remain in this niche forever, it's actually deeper than that. It involves the gradual and unwitting replacement of a person's identity with one custom-made for the audience.   To understand how, we must consider how people come to define themselves. A person's identity is being constantly refined, so it needs constant feedback. That feedback typically comes from other people, not so much by what they say they see as by what we think they see. We develop our personalities by imagining ourselves through others' eyes, using their borrowed gazes like mirrors to dress ourselves.   Just as lacking a mirror to dress ourselves leaves us disheveled, so lacking other people's eyes to refine our personalities leaves us uncouth. This is why those raised in isolation, like poor Genie, become feral humans, adopting the character of beasts.   Put simply, in order to be someone, we need someone to be someone for. Our personalities develop as a role we perform for other people, fulfilling the expectations we think they have of us. The American sociologist Charles Cooley dubbed this phenomenon “the looking glass self.” Evidence for it is diverse, and includes the everyday experience of seeing ourselves through imagined eyes in social situations (the spotlight effect), the tendency for people to alter their behavior when in the presence of pictures of eyes (the watching-eye effect), and the tendency for people in virtual spaces to adopt the traits of their avatars in an attempt to fulfill expectations (the Proteus effect).   When we lived in small tight-knit communities, the looking glass self helped us to become the people our loved ones needed us to be. The “Michelangelo phenomenon” is the name given to the semi-conscious cycle of refinement and feedback whereby lovers who genuinely care what each other think gradually grow closer to their partner's original ideal of them.   The problem is, we no longer live solely among those we know well. We're now forced to refine our personalities by the countless eyes of strangers. And this has begun to affect the process by which we develop our identities.   Gradually we're all gaining online audiences, and we don't really know these people. We can only gauge who they are by what some of them post online, and what people post online is not indicative of who they really are. As such, the people we're increasingly becoming someone for are an abstract illusion.   When influencers are analyzing audience feedback, they often find that their more outlandish behavior receives the most attention and approval, which leads them to recalibrate their personalities according to far more extreme social cues than those they'd receive in real life. In doing this they exaggerate the more idiosyncratic facets of their personalities, becoming crude caricatures of themselves.   The caricature quickly becomes the influencer's distinct brand, and all subsequent attempts by the influencer to remain on-brand and fulfill audience expectations require them to act like the caricature. As the caricature becomes more familiar than the person, both to the audience and to the influencer, it comes to be regarded by both as the only honest expression of the influencer, so that any deviation from it soon looks and feels inauthentic. At that point the persona has eclipsed the person, and the audience has captured the influencer.   The old Greek legends tell of Narcissus, a youth so handsome he became besotted by his own reflection. Unable to look away from his image in the surface of the waters, he fell still forever, and was transformed by the gods into a flower. Similarly, as influencers glimpse their idealized online personas reflected back at them on screens, they too are in danger of becoming eternally besotted by how they appear, and in so doing, forgetting who they were, or could be.   III. The Prostitution of the Intellect Audience capture is a particular problem in politics, due to both phenomena being driven by popular approval. On Twitter I've watched many political influencers gradually become radicalized by their audiences, starting off moderate but following their increasingly extreme followers toward the fringes.   One example is Louise Mensch, a once-respectable journalist and former Conservative politician who in 2016 published a story about Trump's alleged ties to Russia, which went viral. She subsequently gained a huge audience of #NotMyPresident #Resist types, and, encouraged by her new, indignant audience to uncover more evidence of Trump's corruption, she appears to have begun to view herself as the one who'd prove Russiagate and bring down the Donald. The immense responsibility she felt to her audience seems to have motivated her to see dramatic patterns in pure noise, and to concoct increasingly speculative conspiracy theories about Trump and Russia, such as the claim that Vladimir Putin assassinated Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Breitbart News, so his job would go to Trump ally Steve Bannon. When her former allies, such as the hacker known as "the Jester," expressed concern over her new trajectory toward fringe theories, she doubled down, accusing all her critics of being Trump shills or Putin shills.   Another, more recent victim of audience capture is Maajid Nawaz. I've always liked Maajid, and as someone who once worked with the organization he founded, the counter terrorism think-tank Quilliam, I'm aware of how careful and considered he can be. Unfortunately, since the pandemic, he's been different. His descent began with him posting a few vague theories about the virus being a fraud perpetrated on an unsuspecting public, and after his posts went viral he found himself being inundated with new "Covid-skeptic" followers, who showered him with new leads to chase.   In January, after he lost his position at the radio show LBC due to his increasingly careless theories about a secretive New World Order, he implied his firing was part of the conspiracy to silence the truth, and urged his loyal followers to subscribe to his Substack, as this was now his family's only source of income. His new audience proved to be generous with both money and attention, and his need to meet their expectations seems to have spurred him, consciously or unconsciously, to double down on his more extreme views. Now almost everything he writes about, from Covid to Ukraine, he somehow ties to the shadowy New World Order.   Motivated by his audience to continually uncover new truths about the conspiracy, Maajid has been forced to scrape the barrel of claims. His recent work is his wildest yet, combining common tropes like resurrected Nazi eugenics programs, satanic rituals, and the Bilderberg meeting. Among the fields he now relies on for his evidence are... numerology.   Twitter avatar for @MaajidNawaz Maajid أبو عمّار  @MaajidNawaz British MPs have begun voting on a motion of ‘no confidence' in the UK Parliament against Prime Minister Johnson.    The vote commenced at:   6pm, on the 6th day, of the 6th month.    No joke.    آل عمران:[54] وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ  Twitter avatar for @MaajidNawaz Maajid أبو عمّار  @MaajidNawaz 3 of our British MPs were at this dodgy af global Bilderberg meeting:   Michael Gove (con) Tom Tugendhat (con) David Lammy (lab)   Their attendance alone must be remembered if they ever seek leadership of their respective political parties and hence try to become PM of Britain https://t.co/EKohVzfaiN 6:52 PM ∙ Jun 6, 2022 957 Likes 287 Retweets There is clear value in investigating the corruption that pervades the misty pinnacles of power, but by defining himself by his audience's view of him as the uncoverer of a global conspiracy, Maajid has ensured he'll see evidence of the conspiracy in all things. Instead of performing real investigation, he is now merely playing the role of investigator for his audience, a role that requires drama rather than diligence, and which can lead only to his audience's desired conclusions.   Muddying the Waters to Obscure the Reflection Maajid, Mensch, and Perry are far from the only victims of audience capture. Given how fundamental the looking glass self is to the development of our personalities, every influencer has likely been affected by it to some degree. And that includes me.   I'm no authority on the degree to which my mind has been captured by you, my audience. But I do suspect that audience capture affects me far less than most influencers because I've taken specific steps to avoid it. I was aware of the pitfall long before I became an influencer. I wanted an audience, but I also knew that having the wrong audience would be worse than having no audience, because they'd constrain me with their expectations, forcing me to focus on one tiny niche of my worldview at the expense of everything else, until I became a parody of myself.   It was clear to me that the only way to resist becoming what other people wanted me to be was to have a strong sense of who I wanted to be. And who I wanted to be was someone immune to audience capture, someone who thinks his own thoughts, decides his own destiny, and above all, never stops growing.   I knew there were limits to my desired independence, because, whether we like it or not, we all become like the people we surround ourselves with. So I surrounded myself with the people I wanted to be like. On Twitter I cultivated a reasonable, open-minded audience by posting reasonable, open-minded tweets. The biggest jumps in my follower count came from my megathreads of mental models, which cover so many topics from so many perspectives that the people who appreciated them enough to follow me would need to be willing to consider new perspectives. Naturally these people came to view me as, and expected me to be, an independent thinker as open to learning and growing as themselves.   In this way I ensured that my brand image—the person that my audience expects me to be—was in alignment with my ideal image—the person I want to be. So even though audience capture likely does affect me in some way, it only makes me more like the person I want to be. I hacked the system.   My brand image is, admittedly, diffuse and weak. My Twitter bio is “saboteur of narratives,” and few people can say for sure what I'm about, other than vague things like “thinker” or “dumb fuck.” And that's how I like it. My vagueness makes me hard to pigeonhole, predict, and capture.   For this same reason, I'm suspicious of those with strong, sharply delineated brands. Human beings are capricious and largely formless storms of idiosyncrasies, so a human only develops a clear and distinct identity through the artifice of performance.   Nikocado has a clear and distinct identity, but its clarity and distinctness make it hard to escape. He may be a millionaire with legions of fans, but his videos, filled with complaints-disguised-as-jokes about his poor health, hardly make him seem happy.   Unfortunately, salvation seems out of reach for him because his audience, or at least the audience he imagines, demands he be the same as he was yesterday. And even if he were to find the strength to break character and be himself again, he's been acting for so long that stopping would only make him feel like an imposter.   This is the ultimate trapdoor in the hall of fame; to become a prisoner of one's own persona. The desire for recognition in an increasingly atomized world lures us to be who strangers wish us to be. And with personal development so arduous and lonely, there is ease and comfort in crowdsourcing your identity. But amid such temptations, it's worth remembering that when you become who your audience expects at the expense of who you are, the affection you receive is not intended for you but for the character you're playing, a character you'll eventually tire of. So the next time you find yourself in the limelight of other people's gazes, remember that being someone often means being fake, and if you chase the approval of others, you may, in the end, lose the approval of yourself TikTok is a Time Bomb The ultimate weapon of mass distraction   For thousands of years, humans sought to subjugate their enemies by inflicting pain, misery, and terror. They did this because these were the most paralyzing emotions they could consistently evoke; all it took was the slash of a sword or pull of a trigger. But as our understanding of psychology has developed, so it has become easier to evoke other emotions in complete strangers. Advances in the understanding of positive reinforcement, driven mostly by people trying to get us to click on links, have now made it possible to consistently give people on the other side of the world dopamine hits at scale. As such, pleasure is now a weapon; a way to incapacitate an enemy as surely as does pain. And the first pleasure-weapon of mass destruction may just be a little app on your phone called TikTok. I. The Smiling Tiger TikTok is the most successful app in history. It emerged in 2017 out of the Chinese video-sharing app Douyin and within three years it had become the most downloaded app in the world, later surpassing Google as the world's most visited web domain. TikTok's conquest of human attention was facilitated by the covid lockdowns of 2020, but its success wasn't mere luck. There's something about the design of the app that makes it unusually irresistible. Other platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, use recommendation algorithms as features to enhance the core product. With TikTok, the recommendation algorithm is the core product. You don't need to form a social network or list your interests for the platform to begin tailoring content to your desires, you just start watching, skipping any videos that don't immediately draw your interest. Tiktok uses a proprietary algorithm, known simply as the For You algorithm, that uses machine learning to build a personality profile of you by training itself on your watch habits (and possibly your facial expressions.) Since a TikTok video is generally much shorter than, say, a YouTube video, the algorithm acquires training data from you at a much faster rate, allowing it to quickly zero in on you. The result is a system that's unsurpassed at figuring you out. And once it's figured you out, it can then show you what it needs to in order to addict you. Since the For You algorithm favors only the most instantly mesmerizing content, its constructive videos—such as “how to” guides and field journalism—tend to be relegated to the fringes in favor of tasty but malignant junk info. Many of the most popular TikTokers, such as Charli D'Amelio, Bella Poarch, and Addison Rae, do little more than vapidly dance and lip-sync. Individually, such videos are harmless, but the algorithm doesn't intend to show you just one. When it receives the signal that it's got your attention, it doubles down on whatever it did to get it. This allows it to feed your obsessions, showing you hypnotic content again and again, reinforcing its imprint on your brain. This content can include promotion of self-harm and eating disorders, and uncritical encouragement of sex-reassignment surgery. There's evidence that watching such content can cause mass psychogenic illness: researchers recently identified a new phenomenon where otherwise healthy young girls who watched clips of Tourette's sufferers developed Tourette's-like tics. A more common way TikTok promotes irrational behavior is with viral trends and “challenges,” where people engage in a specific act of idiocy in the hope it'll make them TikTok-famous. Acts include licking toilets, snorting suntan lotion, eating chicken cooked in NyQuil, and stealing cars. One challenge, known as “devious licks”, encourages kids to vandalize property, while the “blackout challenge,” in which kids purposefully choke themselves with household items, has even led to several deaths, including a little girl a few days ago.   As troublesome as TikTok's trends are, the app's greatest danger lies not in any specific content but in its general addictive nature. Studies on long term TikTok addiction don't yet exist for obvious reasons, but, based on what we know of internet addiction generally, we can extrapolate its eventual effects on habitual TikTokers. There's a substantial body of research showing a strong association between smartphone addiction, shrinkage of the brain's gray matter, and “digital dementia,” an umbrella term for the onset of anxiety and depression and the deterioration of memory, attention span, self-esteem, and impulse control (the last of which increases the addiction). These are the problems caused by internet addiction generally. But there's something about TikTok that makes it uniquely dangerous. In order to develop and maintain mental faculties like memory and attention span, one needs to practice using them. TikTok, more than any other app, is designed to give you what you want while requiring you to do as little as possible. It cares little who you follow or what buttons you click; its main consideration is how long you spend watching. Its reliance on machine learning rather than user input, combined with the fact that TikTok clips are so short they require minimal memory and attention span, makes browsing TikTok the most passive, uninteractive experience of all major platforms. If it's the passive nature of online content consumption that causes atrophy of mental faculties, then TikTok, as the most passively used platform, will naturally cause the most atrophy. Indeed many habitual TikTokers can already be found complaining on websites like Reddit about their loss of mental ability, a phenomenon that's come to be known as “TikTok brain.” If the signs are becoming apparent already, imagine what TikTok addiction will have done to young developing brains a decade from now. TikTok's capacity to stupefy people, both acutely by encouraging idiotic behavior, and chronically by atrophying the brain, should prompt consideration of its potential use as a new kind of weapon, one that seeks to neutralize enemies not by inflicting pain and terror, but by inflicting pleasure. Last month FBI Director Chris Wray warned that TikTok is controlled by a Chinese government that could “use it for influence operations.” So how likely is it that one such influence operation might include addicting young Westerners to mind-numbing content to create a generation of nincompoops? The first indication that the Chinese Communist Party is aware of TikTok's malign influence on kids is that it's forbidden access of the app to Chinese kids. The American tech ethicist Tristan Harris pointed out that the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, is a “spinach” version where kids don't see twerkers and toilet-lickers but science experiments and educational videos. Furthermore, Douyin is only accessible to kids for 40 minutes per day, and it cannot be accessed between 10pm and 6am. Has the CCP enforced such rules to protect its people from what it intends to inflict on the West? When one examines the philosophical doctrines behind the rules, it becomes clear that the CCP doesn't just believe that apps like TikTok make people stupid, but that they destroy civilizations. II. Seven Mouths, Eight Tongues China has been suspicious of Western liberal capitalism since the 1800s, when the country's initial openness led to the Western powers flooding China with opium. The epidemic of addiction, combined with the ensuing Opium Wars, accelerated the fall of the Qing Dynasty and led to the Century of Humiliation in which China was subject to harsh and unequal terms by Britain and the US. Mao is credited with eventually crushing the opium epidemic, and since then the view among many in China has been that Western liberalism leads to decadence and that authoritarianism is the cure. But one man has done more than anyone to turn this thesis into policy. His name is Wang Huning, and, despite not being well known outside China, he has been China's top ideological theorist for three decades, and he is now member number 4 of the seven-man Standing Committee—China's most powerful body. He advised China's former leaders Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, and now he advises Xi Jinping, authoring many of his policies. In China he is called “guoshi” (国师: literally, “teacher of the nation”).   Wang refuses to do press or to even speak with foreigners, but his worldview can be surmised from the books he wrote earlier in his life. In August 1988, Wang accepted an invitation to spend six months in the US, and traveled from state to state noting the way American society operates, examining its strengths and weaknesses. He recorded his findings in the 1991 book, America Against America, which has since become a key CCP text for understanding the US. The premise of the book is simple: the US is a paradox composed of contradictions: its two primary values—freedom and equality—are mutually exclusive. It has many different cultures, and therefore no overall culture. And its market-driven society has given it economic riches but spiritual poverty. As he writes in the book, “American institutions, culture and values oppose the United States itself.” For Wang, the US's contradictions stem from one source: nihilism. The country has become severed from its traditions and is so individualistic it can't make up its mind what it as a nation believes. Without an overarching culture maintaining its values, the government's regulatory powers are weak, easily corrupted by lobbying or paralyzed by partisan bickering. As such, the nation's progress is directed mostly by blind market forces; it obeys not a single command but a cacophony of three hundred million demands that lead it everywhere and nowhere. In Wang's view, the lack of a unifying culture puts a hard limit on the US's progress. The country is constantly producing wondrous new technologies, but these technologies have no guiding purpose other than their own proliferation. The result is that all technological advancement leads the US along one unfortunate trajectory: toward more and more commodification. Wang writes: “Human flesh, sex, knowledge, politics, power, and law can all become the target of commodification… Commodification, in many ways, corrupts society and leads to a number of serious social problems. These problems, in turn, can increase the pressure on the political and administrative system.” Thus, by turning everything into a product, Western capitalism devours every aspect of American culture, including the traditions that bind it together as a nation, leading to atomization and polarization. The commodification also devours meaning and purpose, and to plug the expanding spiritual hole that this leaves, Americans turn to momentary pleasures—drugs, fast food, and amusements—driving the nation further into decadence and decay. For Wang, then, the US's unprecedented technological progress is leading it into a chasm. Every new microchip, TV, and automobile only distracts and sedates Americans further. As Wang writes in his book, “it is not the people who master the technology, but the technology that masters the people.” Though these words are 30 years old, they could easily have been talking about social media addiction. Wang theorized that the conflict between the US's economic system and its value system made it fundamentally unstable and destined for ever more commodification, nihilism, and decadence, until it finally collapses under the weight of its own contradictions. To prevent China's own technological advancement leading it down the same perilous path, Wang proposed an extreme solution: neo-authoritarianism. In his 1988 essay, “The Structure of China's Changing Political Culture,” Wang wrote that the only way a nation can avoid the US's problems is by instilling “core values”—a national consensus of beliefs and principles rooted in the traditions of the past and directed toward a clear goal in the future. Such a consensus could eventually ward off nihilism and decadence, but cultivating it would in turn require the elimination of nihilism and decadence. This idea has been central to President Xi's governance strategy, which has emphasized “core socialist values” like civility, patriotism, and integrity. So how has the push for these socialist core values affected the CCP's approach to social media? The creator of TikTok and CEO of Bytedance, Zhang Yiming, originally intended for the content on TikTok and its Chinese version, Douyin, to be determined purely by popularity. As such, Douyin started off much like TikTok is now, with the content dominated by teenagers singing and dancing. In April 2018, the CCP began action against Zhang. Its media watchdog, the National Radio and Television Administration, ordered the removal from Chinese app stores of Bytedance's then-most popular app, Toutiao, and its AI news aggregator, Neihan Duanzi, citing their platforming of “improper” content. Zhang then took to social media to offer a groveling public apology, stating: "Our products took the wrong path, and content appeared that was incommensurate with socialist core values." Shortly after, Bytedance announced it would recruit thousands more people to moderate content, and, according to CNN, in the subsequent job ads it stated a preference for CCP members with “strong political sensitivity.” The CCP's influence over Bytedance has only grown since then. Last year, the Party acquired a “golden share” in Bytedance's Beijing entity, and one of its officials, Wu Shugang, took one of the company's three board seats. The CCP's intrusion into Bytedance's operations is part of a broader strategy by Xi, called the “Profound Transformation”, which seeks to clear space for the instituting of core socialist values by ridding China of “decadent” online content. In August 2021, a statement appeared across Chinese state media calling for an end to TikTok-style “tittytainment” for fear that “our young people will lose their strong and masculine vibes and we will collapse.” In the wake of that statement, there have been crackdowns on “sissy-men” fashions, “digital drugs” like online gaming, and “toxic idol worship.” Consequently, many online influencers have been forcibly deprived of their influence, with some, such as the movie star Zhao Wei, having their entire presence erased from the Chinse web. For Xi and the CCP, eliminating “decadent” TikTok-style content from China is a matter of survival, because such content is considered a herald of nihilism, a regression of humans back to beasts, a symptom of the West's terminal illness that must be prevented from metastasizing to China. And yet, while cracking down on this content domestically, China has continued to allow its export internationally as part of Xi's “digital Silk Road” (数字丝绸之路). TikTok is known to censor content that displeases Beijing, such as mentions of Falun Gong or Tiananmen Square, but otherwise it has free rein to show Westerners what it wants; “tittytainment” and “sissy men” are everywhere on the app. So why the hypocritical disparity in rules? Is the digital Silk Road intended as poetic justice for the original Silk Road, whereby the Western powers preached Christian values while trafficking chemical TikTok—opium—into China? Since Wang and Xi believe the West is too decadent to survive, they may have opted to take the Taoist path of wu wei (無為), which is to say, sit back and let the West's appetites take it where they will. But there's another, more sinister and effective approach they may have adopted. To understand it, we must consider one final piece of the puzzle: an amphetamine-fueled philosopher who lived in my hometown. III. The Matricide Laboratory At first glance the British philosopher Nick Land could hardly be more different from Wang Huning. Wang rose to prominence by being dour, discreet, and composed, while Land rose to prominence by ranting about cyborg apocalypses while out of his mind on weed and speed. In the late 1990s Land moved into a house once owned by the Satanist libertine Aleister Crowley (half a mile from where I grew up), and there he apparently binged on drugs and scrawled occult diagrams on the walls. At nearby Warwick University where he taught, his lectures were often bizarre (one infamous “lesson” consisted of Land lying on the floor, croaking into a mic, while frenetic jungle music pulsed in the background.)   Land and Wang were not just polar opposites in personality; they also operated at opposite ends of the political spectrum. While Wang would go on to be the top ideological theorist of the Chinese Communist Party, Land would become the top theorist (with Curtis Yarvin) of the influential network of far-right bloggers, NRx. And yet, despite their opposite natures, Land and Wang would develop almost identical visions of liberal capitalism as an all-commodifying, all devouring force, driven by the insatiable hunger of blind market forces, and destined to finally eat Western civilization itself. Land viewed Western liberal capitalism as a kind of AI that's reached the singularity; in other words, an AI that's grown beyond the control of humans and is now unstoppably accelerating toward inhuman ends. As Land feverishly wrote in his 1995 essay, “Meltdown:” “The story goes like this: Earth is captured by a technocapital singularity as renaissance rationalitization and oceanic navigation lock into commoditization take-off. Logistically accelerating techno-economic interactivity crumbles social order in auto-sophisticating machine runaway.” Land's drug-fueled prose is overwrought, so to simplify his point, Western capitalism can be compared to a “paperclip maximizer,” a hypothetical AI programmed by a paperclip business to produce as many paperclips as possible, which leads it to begin recycling everything on earth into paperclips (commodities). When the programmers panic and try to switch it off, the AI turns them into paperclips, since being switched off would stop it fulfilling its goal of creating as many paperclips as possible. Thus, the blind application of short term goals leads to long term ruin. Land believed that, since the runaway AI we call liberal capitalism commodifies everything, including even criticisms of it (which are necessarily published for profit), it cannot be opposed. Every attack on it becomes part of it. Thus, if one wishes to change it, the only way is to accelerate it along its trajectory. As Land stated in a later, more sober writing style: “The point of an analysis of capitalism, or of nihilism, is to do more of it. The process is not to be critiqued. The process is the critique, feeding back into itself, as it escalates. The only way forward is through, which means further in.” —A Quick-and-Dirty Introduction to Accelerationism (2017) This view, that the current system must be accelerated to be transformed, has since become known as “accelerationism.” For Land, acceleration is not just a destructive force but also a creative one; he came to believe that all democracies accelerate toward ruin but a visionary despot unfettered by the concerns of the masses could accelerate a country to prosperity. Land's own life followed the same course he envisioned for the liberal West; following years of high productivity, he fell into nihilism and the decadence of rampant drug use, which drove him to a nervous breakdown. Upon recovering in 2002, he embraced authoritarianism, moved to Shanghai, and began writing for Chinese state media outlets like China Daily and the Shanghai Star. A few years after Land moved to China, talk of accelerationism began to emerge on the Chinese web, where it's become known by its Chinese name, jiasuzhuyi (加速主义). The term has caught on among Chinese democracy advocates, many of whom view the CCP as the runaway AI, hurtling toward greater tyranny; they even refer to Xi as “Accelerator-in-Chief” (总加速师). Domestically, Chinese democracy activists try to accelerate the CCP's authoritarianism ad absurdum; one tactic is to swamp official tip-off lines with reports of minor or made-up infractions, with the intent of breaking the Party by forcing it to enforce all of its own petty rules. As for the CCP itself, it's known to have viewed former US president Donald Trump as the “Accelerator-in-Chief,” or, more accurately, “Chuan Jianguo” (川建国: literally “Build China Trump”) because he was perceived as helping China by accelerating the West's decline. For this reason, support of him was encouraged. The CCP is also known to have engaged in jiasuzhuyi more directly; for instance, during the 2020 US race riots, China used Western social media platforms to douse accelerant over US racial tensions. But the use of TikTok as an accelerant is a whole new scale of accelerationism, one much closer to Land's original, apocalyptic vision. Liberal capitalism is about making people work in order to obtain pleasurable things, and for decades it's been moving toward shortening the delay between desire and gratification, because that's what consumers want. Over the past century the market has taken us toward ever shorter-form entertainment, from cinema in the early 1900s, to TV mid-century, to minutes-long YouTube videos, to seconds-long TikTok clips. With TikTok the delay between desire and gratification is almost instant; there's no longer any patience or effort needed to obtain the reward, so our mental faculties fall into disuse and disrepair. And this is why TikTok could prove such a devastating geopolitical weapon. Slowly but steadily it could turn the West's youth—its future—into perpetually distracted dopamine junkies ill-equipped to maintain the civilization built by their ancestors. We seem to be halfway there already: not only has there been gray matter shrinkage in smartphone-addicted individuals, but, since 1970 the Western average IQ has been steadily falling. Though the decline likely has several causes, it began with the first generation to grow up with widespread TVs in homes, and common sense suggests it's at least partly the result of technology making the attainment of satisfaction increasingly effortless, so that we spend ever more of our time in a passive, vegetative state. If you don't use it, you lose it. And even those still willing to use their brains are at risk of having their efforts foiled by social media, which seems to be affecting not just kids' abilities but also their aspirations; in a survey asking American and Chinese children what job they most wanted, the top answer among Chinese kids was “astronaut,” and the top answer among American kids was “influencer.” If we continue along our present course, the resulting loss of brainpower in key fields could, years from now, begin to harm the West economically. But, more importantly, if it did it would help discredit the very notion of Western liberalism itself, since there is no greater counterargument to a system than to see it destroy itself. And so the CCP would benefit doubly from this outcome: ruin the West and refute it; two birds with one stone (or as they say in China, 箭双雕: one arrow, two eagles.) So, the CCP has both the means and the motive to help the West defeat itself, and part of this could conceivably involve the use of TikTok to accelerate liberal capitalism by closing the gap between desire and gratification. Now, it could be argued that we have no hard evidence of the CCP's intentions, only a set of indications. However, ultimately the CCP's intentions are irrelevant. Accelerationism can't alter an outcome, only hasten it. And TikTok, whether or not it's actively intended as a weapon, is only moving the West further along the course it's long been headed: toward more effortless pleasure, and resulting cognitive decline. The problem, therefore, is not China, but us. America Against America. If TikTok is not a murder weapon, then it's a suicide weapon. China has given the West the means to kill itself, but the death wish is wholly the West's. After all, TikTok dominated our culture as a result of free market forces—the very thing we live by. Land and Wang are correct that the West being controlled by everyone means it's controlled by no one, and without brakes or a steering wheel we're at the market's mercy. Of course, democracies do have some regulatory power. Indian lawmakers banned TikTok in 2020, and US lawmakers are now considering the same. However, while this may stop the theft of our data, it won't stop the theft of our attention; if TikTok is banned then another short-form video site will just take its place. Effortless dopamine hits are what consumers want, and capitalism always tries to give consumers what they want. Anticipating the demand, YouTube has added its own TikTok-style “YouTube Shorts” format, and Twitter recently implemented its own version of TikTok's For You algorithm. The market is a greater accelerator than China could ever hope to be. So what's the solution? Land and Wang may be right about the illness, but they're wrong about the cure. It's true that we in the West have little left of the traditions that once tied us together, and in their absence all that unites us are our animal hungers. But Wang's belief that meaning and purpose can be miraculously imposed on us all by a strongman leader is just a fantasy that has littered history with failed experiments. Sure, democracies are vulnerable because there's no one controlling their advancement, but autocracies are vulnerable precisely for the opposite reason: they're controlled by people, which is to say, by woefully myopic apes. China is currently suffering from the myopia of Xi's zero-covid policy, which has ravaged the country's economy, and from the disastrous one-child policy that's led to China's current population crisis. For all our problems, we'd be unwise to exchange the soft tyranny of dopamine for the hard tyranny of despots. That leaves only one solution: the democratic one. In a democracy responsibility is also democratized, so parents must look out for their own kids. There's a market for this, too: various brands of parental controls can be set on devices to limit kids' access (though many of these, including TikTok's own controls, can be easily bypassed.) But ultimately these are short term measures. In the long term the only way to prevent digital dementia is to raise awareness of the neurological ruin wrought by apps like TikTok, exposing their ugliness so they fall out of fashion like cigarettes. If the weakness of liberalism is its openness, then this is also its strength; word can travel far in democracies. We'll surely sound like alarmists; TikTok destroys so gradually that it seems harmless. But if the app is a time-bomb that'll wreck a whole generation years from now, then we can't wait till its effects are apparent before acting, for then it will be too late. The clock is ticking. Tik. Tok…   I just shit and cum. FAQ What does this mean? The amount of shit (and cum) on my computer and floor has increased by one. Why did you do this? There are several reasons I may deem a comment to be worthy of feces or ejaculation. These include, but are not limited to: Being gay Dank copypasta bro, where'd you find it walter Am I going to shit and cum too? No - not yet. But you should refrain from shitposting and cumposting like this in the future. Otherwise I will be forced to shit and cum again, which may put your shitting and cumming privileges in jeopardy. I don't believe my comment deserved being shit and cum at. Can you un-cum it? Sure, mistakes happen. But only in exceedingly rare circumstances will I put shit back into my butt. If you would like to issue an appeal, shoot me a hot load explaining what I got wrong. I tend to respond to retaliatory ejaculation within several minutes. Do note, however, that over 99.9% of semen dies before it can fertilize the egg, and yours is likely no exception. How can I prevent this from happening in the future? Accept the goopy brown and white substance and move on. But learn from this mistake: your behavior will not be tolerated in my mom's basement. I will continue to shit and cum until you improve your conduct. Remember: ejaculation is privilege, not a right.   I just came in your asshole. I just came in your asshole. FAQ What does this mean? A large load of baby gravy has been transferred from my testicles into your rectum. Why did I do this? There are several reasons why I came in your ass. These include, but are not limited to: Your comment turned me on You are cute Your dad was too busy How did I do this? I rammed your rectum with my handsome hog until I turned you into a frosting factory. Why am I telling you about this? Your ass will be leaking cum for at least 36 hours and may be a slipping hazard. Also you might be gay. How can you avoid this in the future? Unless you stop looking so breedable in the near future, you can't. I will always find a way to fill your tight little boyhole

It has barely been three weeks since September 6th, when a rumpled Prime Minister Johnson arrived at the Balmoral Castle gates to hand in his card at 11 a.m. In quick succession he was followed by the tight-skirted Truss. It was a long morning for our Queen, and for those watching with concern - seeing the Queen holding onto a stick with one hand while smiling and extending the other used and bruised hand, to Liz Truss.

A political picnic on Westminster's College Green whilst parliament is on its summer recess. Adam and Chris review the key moments of the last 12 months including Partygate, the war in Ukraine and Prime Minister Johnson's downfall with two of the journalists who helped break the news: Pippa Crerar, outgoing Political Editor of the Daily Mirror and BBC Political Correspondent Ione Wells. This episode was made by Sam Bonham, Alix Pickles, Clare Williamson, Cordelia Hemming and Danny Wittenberg. The technical producer was Emma Crowe.

A.M. Edition for July 7. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce today that he'll resign. WSJ bureau chief at large Stephen Fidler explains what led to Johnson's fall and what's next for the British government. Plus, European businesses and governments race to shore up energy supplies after Russia reduced its natural gas exports. Luke Vargas hosts.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sterling weakened only modestly on news that around ten members of the UK government or holders of government appointments resigned. A market moving change of policy seems unlikely (even with the Chancellor of the Exchequer quitting), but there will be a period of uncertainty while Prime Minister Johnson stalks the corridors of Westminster forcing anyone wearing a blue neck tie to become a minister of the Crown.

He's best known for his forensic select committee cross examination of cabinet ministers but the Labour MP for Rhondda lived multiple lives before reaching parliament in 2001. Originally a member of the Conservative Association at Oxford, Chris Bryant went on to become a priest before quitting and becoming a Hackney Labour councillor. In this remarkable and warm episode of Full Disclosure he speaks to James about his sexuality, religious beliefs and the state of politics under Prime Minister Johnson.

Three central banks have delivered policy decisions in the past 24 hours. The Bank of Japan left policy unchanged—given the legacy of years of disinflation pressures this is not necessarily a surprise, but the yen weakened anyway. The Bank of England delivered a quarter-point increase in rates. Why not more? The bank was early to start tightening, and Prime Minister Johnson is presiding over the biggest tax grab in nearly 70 years. The world is not just about monetary policy.

For once, it appears, the Small Data Forum three are ahead of the news. So often in recent months and years, we've recorded an episode on a Friday morning and by the Sunday night before publication we've had to make rapid edits to the show notes because … a president has been impeached, a special adviser been sacked, or a new lockdown announced. But today – today feels different. Is it because we were recording first thing on a Monday for next-day publication? Or is it because so much news had happened of late that we had the timing right for once? Time – of course – will tell. On day 110 of Russia's war on Ukraine – a topic that doesn't delay us beyond a heartfelt appeal for the nonsense to stop – Thomas opens proceedings by reflecting on Prime Minister Johnson's “victory” in his vote of (no) confidence handed to him by his own members of parliament. Well, 211 MPs (59%) voted for the bloated bloviator, while 148 (41%) wanted to see the back of him. A smaller majority than that recorded by Johnson's lame duck predecessor, Theresa May (a 63%-37% split), who was history less than six months on. Indeed, according to fashion and style bible Tatler – a hapax legomenon in the annals of these show notes if ever there was one – it was May who was ‘the real winner' of the vote, by virtue of turning up to the vote in a ball gown. Continue reading -> https://www.smalldataforum.com/

Prime Minister Johnson survived a no-confidence vote, but is his position really secure? With by-elections looming, the team discuss the mood inside the Conservative Party, the PM's "benefits to bricks" pledge, and what happens next for Boris Johnson as his premiership appears to sit on shaky ground. How are opposition parties capitalising on the challenges facing the Tories, and will we soon hear more on a second Independence referendum from the SNP?

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports on Britain Politics.

Concerns over the Ukraine crisis have reached a boiling point. Is a summit - agreed "in principle" between Putin and Biden - actually going to go ahead, which "media sources" were the US referring to when it warned its citizens, and will Prime Minister Johnson's grim prediction be proven correct?

Presidents Biden and Putin agree to in-person talks proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. The White House, however, says the meeting is contingent on Russia not crossing into Ukrainian territory. Speaking to CNBC at the Munich Security Conference, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he believes the West should refrain from revealing its sanctions plan for now – even as Ukraine's President calls for immediate action. Swiss lender Credit Suisse is forced to defend its working practices following a data leak which reportedly shows it held accounts for a variety of criminals and sanctioned dictators. And in England, all Covid-era restrictions are set to be lifted as Prime Minister Johnson lays out his plan for living with the virus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It is Lunar New Year, marking the beginning of the Year of the Tiger. Meanwhile, it's more 'Eye of the Tiger' in the UK, where Prime Minister Johnson is "just a man with the will to survive".

His apology came after the publication of a report into lockdown-breaching parties. Also: US and Russian diplomats have clashed over Ukraine in a heated session of the UN security council, and Mali has expelled the French ambassador in a row over security.

Darrell Castle talks about the failure and complete collapse of the Democrat/Joe Biden agenda and the replacement of the Covid crisis with a nuclear crisis. Transcription / Notes WAR MAKES A GOOD SCAPEGOAT Hello this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 28th day of January in the year 2022. I will be talking about the failure and complete collapse of the Democrat/Joe Biden agenda. The COVID Virus was the convenient or planned vehicle to carry the agenda forward as a never-ending crisis allowing a complete totalitarian revamping of the power of government. The end of the COVID crises demands another to take our minds off the failing poll numbers and to augment government power and that crises is conflict with Russia. Everything is driven by money today, and nothing by truth and public interest or public health. It is an agenda, I will submit, that deserves rejection by all decent Americans. This quote from the recent Rally Against Mandates held in Washington lays out the destruction that is possible from the agenda's vaccine mandates. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We love the United States Constitution. And we have witnessed over the past 20 months a coup d'état against democracy and the demolition, the controlled demolition of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, and starting with the censorship, James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson all said the same thing; we put freedom of speech in the first amendment because all of the other rights that we were trying to protect relied on that right. If you give government the license to silence its critics, you have given them the capacity to commit any atrocity they want, and to obliterate all the amendments and rights in the constitution.” Whether you believe the COVID Virus is a man-made bioweapon accidentally or intentionally released on humanity, or you believe it to be a naturally occurring mutation of nature, as Mr. Kennedy points out, it has been and is being used to obliterate the bill of rights, thus opening the door to totalitarian rule by government. It also illustrates how easy it is to generate world-wide lock-step action by governments and their health organizations egged on by compliant media. In other words, global conspiracy is possible obviously. It is not just a few people led by Mr. Kennedy who are resisting, but the entire world especially in the West is starting to say, wait a minute, maybe we over-reacted or maybe this is over, or perhaps we should just declare victory and quit fighting. The agenda of COVID tyranny is collapsing across the West. Prime Minister Johnson of the UK canceled his country's entire COVID restriction program as the truth about vaccine injuries became too obvious to ignore. Ireland and the Czech Republic followed. Some are holding on in obedience, but its only a matter of time because the vaccines have lost their credibility. In Florida, the governor set up clinics across the state to treat infected people with monoclonal antibody treatments and lives were being saved thus proving the vaccines unnecessary. President Biden just ordered the clinics closed as he banned the lifesaving treatment. What kind of man would condemn people to death just to avoid admitting that his enemy is right? One who is owned by the pharmaceutical industry most likely. The virus is only one crisis in the agenda and although it threatens our health there are others which threaten our income, capacity to earn a living and feed ourselves. The virus and the vaccines are being used as excuses for an obvious money driven agenda and by agendas unknown, for example: I'm going to take the position that Joe Biden is an intelligent man and not an idiot, but that makes his actions even worse because it means he is doing it on purpose. Migrants are streaming across the border in droves everyday with no tests for vaccines or mask requirements and this administration not only doesn't care, but openly encourages it.

Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute in Sydney, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the trilateral security agreement that Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed in September 2021, and the broader state of affairs in the Indo-Pacific.   Articles, Documents, and Speeches Mentioned in the Podcast   China's dossier of fourteen disputes with Australia via The Sydney Morning Herald, November 18, 2020   Natasha Kassam, Lowy Institute Poll 2021, Lowy Institute, June 23, 2021   “Remarks by President Biden, Prime Minister Morrison of Australia, and Prime Minister Johnson of the United Kingdom Announcing the Creation of AUKUS,” The White House, September 15, 2021   Jake Sullivan, “2021 Lowy Lecture,” delivered virtually at the Lowy Institute, November 11, 2021   Books Mentioned   Michael Fullilove, Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World (2013)

In this episode, Anthony is joined by Dr. Fiona Hill, former Deputy Assistant Director to President Trump, and Senior Director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council. They discuss her new book ‘There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century,' and she takes us back to her brave testimony during President Trump's first impeachment hearing. Next, Max Chafkin, author and features editor at Bloomberg Businessweek joins Anthony to discuss his book, ‘The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power,' which argues that Thiel may be the most powerful person in Silicon Valley—and perhaps the world.Finally, Lord Parry Mitchell, tech entrepreneur, member of Britain's House of Lords and former advisor on digital policy for Prime Minister Tony Blair, gives Anthony his take on the current UK Labour party — and what it would take to oppose Prime Minister Johnson in the 2024 general election. Follow our guests on Twitter:https://twitter.com/chafkin https://twitter.com/lordparry Follow us:https://twitter.com/moochfm  https://twitter.com/scaramucci  Sign up for our newsletter at:www.mooch.fm Created & produced by Podcast Partners:www.podcastpartners.com 

This week, the ASI SheepCast looks at the current situation as we look to fund the federal government into the next fiscal year, Prime Minister Johnson's announcement that UK lamb is on track to enter the U.S., and CFAP totals for sheep and wool producers.

The Context of White Supremacy monthly Global Sunday Talk on Racism. This broadcast is intended to encourage participation from non-white people in different parts of the world and Victims of Racism who are not able to join during the normal broadcast time. The global nature of White Supremacy was flagrantly displayed this week as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia formed a security alliance to counter the threat of China. We'll discuss the implications of this international White alliance and how this coalition is being discussed in other parts of the world. We'll make our mandatory monthly check-in on how the Covid-19 confusion. Whites in Canada, New York City and Australia engaged in rowdy protests in opposition to vaccine mandates or "passports." Prime Minister Johnson announced this week that there will be no vaccine passports in Britain. #WhiteSupremacyIsTerrorism INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE: 564943#

Sunday, September 19th 3:00PM Eastern/ 12:00PM Pacific The Context of White Supremacy monthly Global Sunday Talk on Racism. This broadcast is intended to encourage participation from non-white people in different parts of the world and Victims of Racism who are not able to join during the normal broadcast time. The global nature of White Supremacy was flagrantly displayed this week as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia formed a security alliance to counter the threat of China. We'll discuss the implications of this international White alliance and how this coalition is being discussed in other parts of the world. We'll make our mandatory monthly check-in on how the Covid-19 confusion. Whites in Canada, New York City and Australia engaged in rowdy protests in opposition to vaccine mandates or "passports." Prime Minister Johnson announced this week that there will be no vaccine passports in Britain. #UseLogic INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Invest in The C.O.W.S. - https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. Radio Program is specifically engineered for black & non-white listeners - Victims of White Supremacy. The purpose of this program is to provide Victims of White Supremacy with constructive information and suggestions on how to counter Racist Woman & Racist Man. Phone: 1-720-716-7300 - Access Code 564943# Hit star *6 & 1 to enter caller cue

Sunday, September 19th 3:00PM Eastern/ 12:00PM Pacific The Context of White Supremacy monthly Global Sunday Talk on Racism. This broadcast is intended to encourage participation from non-white people in different parts of the world and Victims of Racism who are not able to join during the normal broadcast time. The global nature of White Supremacy was flagrantly displayed this week as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia formed a security alliance to counter the threat of China. We'll discuss the implications of this international White alliance and how this coalition is being discussed in other parts of the world. We'll make our mandatory monthly check-in on how the Covid-19 confusion. Whites in Canada, New York City and Australia engaged in rowdy protests in opposition to vaccine mandates or "passports." Prime Minister Johnson announced this week that there will be no vaccine passports in Britain. #UseLogic INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Invest in The C.O.W.S. - https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. Radio Program is specifically engineered for black & non-white listeners - Victims of White Supremacy. The purpose of this program is to provide Victims of White Supremacy with constructive information and suggestions on how to counter Racist Woman & Racist Man. Phone: 1-720-716-7300 - Access Code 564943# Hit star *6 & 1 to enter caller cue

Derek Halpenny, Head of Research for Global Markets EMEA and International Securities, looks at what to expect from USD following bumper U.S. non-farm payrolls announced on Friday and fallout from the last FOMC meeting. Meanwhile, with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meeting tomorrow to discuss rate hikes and an expected announcement from Prime Minister Johnson about the end of UK COVID-19 restrictions, what is in store for the global FX markets? Listen to Derek's analysis here. Disclaimer: www.mufgresearch.com (PDF)

Gary and Shannon on the news late edition with the morning crew discussing the LATEST in news such as President Biden and Prime Minister Johnson stressing close ties, Moderna seeking FDA authorization for COVID-19 vaccine for ages 12 to 17, and California having the largest drop in spring college enrollment numbers!

On this episode of Fault Lines, hosts Jamarl Thomas and Shane Stranahan discuss the modern version of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the standoff between Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, and the ever evolving situation between Palestine and Israel.Guests:Raffaele Mauriello - Professor, author and renowned specialist on International relations, Iran and Islam. | Latest on Indirect Talks for JCPOAAlexander Mercouris - Editor-in-Chief at TheDuran.com | Cummings Contra Johnson & EHRC Vindicated SnowdenMohamed Mohamed - Executive Director of the Jerusalem Fund & Palestine Center | Blinken Meets Abbas and Netanyhu & Politics of Gaza and West BankIn the first hour Raffaele Mauriello joined Fault Lines to offer the perspective of Iran on America's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as well as the mindset of Hamas sympathizers in the Middle East.In the second hour we were joined by Alexander Mercouris to discuss both the accusations hurled at Prime Minister Johnson by Dominic Cummings and Edward Snowden.In the third hour we had a conversation with Mohamed Mohamed about the delicate situation between Israel and Palestine and all the complexities that factor into it.

During the Matrix Churchill affair – a conflict of interest and bit of political skulduggery so tepid compared with what’s happened in the intervening 20 years – the Tory MP Alan Clark conceded that he had been “economical with the actualité” in answer to Parliamentary questions. Lying about arms export licences to Iraq seems almost innocent compared to the stodge we’re served up daily by our demagogic masters in the fibbing 2020s. Even if Clark was branded by his wife as a “total Ess-Aitch-One-Tee” in a puff-piece documentary in the 1990s, not least for his endless affairs that were satirised by Private Eye as “discussions about Uganda”. We start our examination of the uses and abuses of data big and small with a focus on politics in the latest outing of the Small Data Forum podcast, episode 47. Sam is inspired by the writing and the message in comedian Stewart Lee’s tragedy vehicle, his weekly Observer byline. In a recent column picking through the ashes of Labour’s shambolic performance in British local elections, Lee takes aim at Prime Minister Johnson’s record as one of the worst – and most transparent – liars in British political history. Continue reading -> https://www.smalldataforum.com/

Welcome to the third episode of our Race To Zero series!   In this episode, we show you the money. Finance is an absolutely crucial factor in accelerating our world towards a Net-Zero future, and with less than 9 years left to halve our global emissions and current investments and markets spiraling towards catastrophic risk, it’s going to take every financial lever we have to shift the global economy to a sustainable, equitable, and just system.   On topics of investment, divestment, engagement, and tropical carbon pricing, you’ll hear from:   Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Prime Minister Johnson’s Finance Adviser for COP26    Amal-Lee Amin, Director of Climate Change at CDC and Senior Advisor to the UK COP26 Unit    Thomas Di Napoli, New York State Comptroller    Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility   Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF   And of course our good friend, Nigel Topping, High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26   The race is on! Buckle up and hit play.   —   Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!   Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter: Signals Amidst The Noise   —   Thank you to our guests this week!    Mark Carney  UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Prime Minister Johnson’s Finance Adviser for COP26  Twitter | LinkedIn   —   Amal-Lee Amin Director of Climate Change at CDC and Senior Advisor to the UK COP26 Unit  Twitter | LinkedIn   CDC Twitter | LinkedIn   —   Thomas Di Napoli  New York State Comptroller Twitter | Facebook | Instagram   —   Kristalina Georgieva  Managing Director, IMF Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin | Instagram   The IMF Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin | Instagram    —   Carlos Manuel Rodriguez CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility Twitter   The GEF Twitter   —   Nigel Topping High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26 Twitter l LinkedIn | Instagram   Race to Zero Twitter | LinkedIn   COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn   —   Keep up with Christiana Figueres here: Instagram | Twitter   —   Tom Rivett-Carnac: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn   —   Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn! LinkedIn   —   Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message! Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn Don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss another episode of Outrage + Optimism!

Hosts Guy Johnson and Alix Steel speak with Bloomberg Opinion Columnists Therese Raphael and Brooke Sutherland, and Bloomberg Economics & Policy Correspondent Michael Mckee. They discuss the controversy over funding arrangements for Prime Minister Johnson's official apartment, Boeing earnings, President Biden's tax plan, and the Federal Reserve.

Host Guy Johnson speaks with Bloomberg Transportation Reporter Siddharth Philip, Bloomberg Opinion Columnist Therese Raphael, Bloomberg Commodities Reporter Eddie Spence, Bloomberg International Economics & Policy Correspondent Mike Mckee, and Bloomberg West Coast Reporter Ed Ludlow. They discuss the resumption of global travel amid unequal inoculation efforts, the political fires engulfing Prime Minister Johnson, Tesla earnings, and look ahead to the Fed meeting later this week. Plus, we hear from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

In today's Daily Briefing, we discuss the developments in Prime Minister Johnson's Northern Ireland tunnel idea; the scrutiny of the cost of NHS Test and Trace; the proposed China and Russia Moon base; and the heartwarming story about a Pennyslvanian UPS delivery driver.

Colony Scotland or Equal Partner?Jimmy delivers the Covid briefing report which featured vaccination figures again...supplies, jag centres, delivery and a ScotGov row with the UKGov about secrecy…At the podium steady Jeane Freeman delivered steady Covid figures including an infection/test rate of 5.8% where the W.H.O. target is 5%...The former First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, has challenged the orthodoxy of the sovereignty of the Westminster parliament...He claims that that sovereignty breaches the conditions in the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England...His case names A V Dicey, Joanna Cherry MP and Lady Hale (prorogation of parliament) ...We discuss the relevance in Scotland today…We roast Prime Minister Johnson’s visit to Scotland while still speculating about the real reason he came...Channel4 News gets roasted for metrocentric coverage of it with Scottish expat Tory MP Alberto Costa interviewed...Is Scotland a colony or an equal partner?...Jimmy is seeking a Ghandi type leader for Scotland while still maintaining that most politicians are vain, venal creatures.

jQuery(document).ready(function(){ cab.clickify(); }); Original Podcast with clickable words https://tinyurl.com/yyj2d57l "New variable linked to higher death rate in Britain". "Baint ag athraitheach nua le ráta báis níos airde sa Bhreatain". British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has indicated that there is some evidence that a new variant of the coronavirus may be linked to a higher mortality rate among people who contract it. Tá sé tugtha le fios ag Príomh-Aire na Breataine Boris Johnson go bhfuil roinnt fianaise ann go bhféadfadh go bhfuil baint ag athraitheach nua ar an gcoróinvíreas le ráta báis níos airde i measc daoine a tholgann é. This variation was first observed in the southeast of England last month. Tugadh an t- athraitheach seo faoi deara ar dtús in oirdheisceart Shasana an mhí seo caite. It was already known that it spreads faster and stronger than other variables. Bhí a fhios cheana féin go scaipeann sé níos gasta agus níos tréine ná athraithigh eile. British chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said the evidence cited by Prime Minister Johnson is still inaccurate and more information is awaited. Dúirt príomhchomhairleoir eolaíochta na Breataine Patrick Vallance go bhfuil an fhianaise a luaigh an Príomh-Aire Johnson neamhbheacht go fóill agus go bhfuiltear ag fanacht le tuilleadh faisnéise. There is further evidence, he said, that the vaccines produced so far by pharmacists are able to adhere to the new variant. Tá fianaise eile ann, a dúirt sé, go bhfuil na vacsaíní atá táirgthe go dtí seo ag lucht cógaisíochta in ann an t-athraitheach nua a chloí. Chief Medical Officer for Ireland Dr Tony Holohan said yesterday that the variant of the virus first discovered in England is currently the most common in this country. Dúirt Príomhoifigeach Leighis na hÉireann an Dr Tony Holohan inné go bhfuil an t-athraitheach ar an víreas a aimsíodh ar dtús i Sasana ar an gceann is coitianta sa tír seo faoi láthair. It accounts for 60% of the most recent Covid-19 cases in the State, he said. Is é faoi deara 60 faoin gcéad de na cásanna covid 19 is deireanaí sa Stát, a dúirt sé.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share some words as we face this tough time. We will get through this, we will be there for one another and before you know it we'll be able to return to normal. For those who are suffering I offer you my love at this time. Dan Text from podcast I know that this evenings news is tough (for those outside of the UK, our Prime Minister Johnson announced that we are returning to a national lockdown which includes the closure of schools again) We have had a tough 10 months, almost a year of hard news and what we were told today is like starting all over again. In the last year I personally learned so much. I realised how much I took my family for granted and how much I loved being reunited with them last summer. I also realised that the little things, like going for a walk into town and having a coffee, not doing much, just hanging out was so important to me. When you don’t have these things than you start to realise how important they were and to yearn for them again. However these wants are temporary and I will learn to push on through the latest series of restrictions to my liberty. In comparison to many around the world right now I am a very lucky person. To those that have to shield fro their own safety, to those who are alone and need a hug, to those that have been separated from loved ones for months already and can’t see an end, I send you my love We will got though this. Your sacrifice so far has not been for nothing and you will be able to one day reunited with those you love. Today I received a card from Walter, a listener in the States, wow, I am so honoured Walter for your generosity. There is a sign if ever I saw that we can reach out and help one another and that the community we build i the low carb space is a genuine and close one. Thank you Walter In other news, Eranda is currently doing a fast with some of the Wolfpack from Monday to sometime in the week. If you go to UK Low Carb then you can join in and get support from the Wolf pack. I decided not to join them as Deliciously Guilt Free has only just fired up it’s ovens after being closed for Christmas and so I wanted to focus on that first. I am fasting for three days next week so feel free to join in with some of us doing a few days from Monday next week on the FB group. As we start the next level of restrictions I would also like to invite you to record a catch up Tuesday again, as a way to make sure we keep everyone connected during this time. Send me a message on dan@uklowcarb.com and we can arrange a time and date to do a zoom call

In this episode, Anthony is joined by Demetri Sevastopulo, Washington Bureau Chief at the Financial Times, to get his take on the highs and lows of the election - and what’s in store for 2021. With Brexit imminent, will Prime Minister Johnson deliver? Anthony talks to British music entrepreneur, political commentator and founder of Chrysalis Records, Chris Wright, to get the view from the UK.The US economy is in trouble - but by how much? Anthony examines the situation with Paul Aversano, global practice leader at Alvarez and Marsal.Follow our guests on Twitter:@Dimi @ChrisWChrysalis @PaulAversano Follow us:@moochfm @scaramucci Sign up for our newsletter at:www.mooch.fm Podcast created & produced by Right Angles:www.right-angles.global

Trump tweets “too soon to give up” after McConnell acknowledges Biden's election win. Biden introduces former rival Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary Nominee. CNN: Biden likely to get first coronavirus vaccine shot next week. Biden aiming to fill cabinet by Christmas; Sources say Judge Merrick Garland and Senator Doug Jones top contenders for Attorney General. Lawmakers negotiating on $900B COVID Relief Bill expected to include new stimulus checks. Wolf one-on-one with Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders: Possible stimulus deal is not enough; We're making progress but should go further on emerging stimulus package. Fauci: Moderna vaccine could get FDA emergency use authorization as early as tomorrow. United States Coronavirus death toll surpasses 306,000 with 16.8 million cases as massive vaccine rollout gains steam. Wolf one-on-one with London Mayor. London Mayor on disagreement with Prime Minister Johnson over restrictions.   To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

As time runs out for the United Kingdom to reach a deal with the European Union over how it leaves the single market, Prime Minister Johnson travelled to Brussels to meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in hope of a breakthrough. Professor Catherine Barnard is a senior tutor of EU law and Employment Law at the University of Cambridge; she's also a senior fellow for The UK in a Changing Europe, a thinktank conducting independent research on Brexit and UK-EU relations. Catherine tells Andy that the future of relations post-Brexit are looking 'gloomy' as we enter the final months of talks, revealing that the EU has produced contigency plans with the outlook that the UK will in fact leave without a deal. How did we get here? Explaining the news is a podcast from 5 News. Join Andy Bell as he explains the world's biggest news stories through interviews with politicians, experts and analysts.

What does Brexit really mean? The UK government's ‘global Britain' aspiration, and future UK-EU relations, both political and commercial, is considered. What can Britain expect from a Biden Presidency? Is there scope for a UK/USA or UK/USMCA trade agreement? What is the security/defense implications for Britain, for the EU, and for NATO? Prime Minister Johnson promised to Get Brexit Done. In fact, we may expect endless negotiation, arbitration and long-running dispute settlement procedures. Speaker: Dr. Simon Sweeney PhD, SFHEA, CMBE Simon Sweeney is a Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy and Business at the University of York Management School in the UK. He is the author of Europe the State and Globalisation (Routledge, 2016). His PhD was on EU Security and Defense Policy (University of Leeds, 2015). Between 2006 and 2013 he served as a UK Bologna Expert, sponsored by the European Commission. His research interests are European integration and EU security and defense policy. https://ukandeu.ac.uk/author/ssweeney/ He has published in books and journals on European integration, EU security and defense, and on various aspects of pedagogy. He began his career in English Language Teaching and speaks several languages. He has worked at Sheffield Business School at Sheffield Hallam University and at York St John University. In 2006 he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the UK Higher Education Academy. Date and time: Tuesday December 8, 2020 at 10 am MST YouTube Live link: https://youtu.be/2W-hD1tkBLg In order to ask questions of our speaker in the chat feature of YouTube, you must have a YouTube account and be signed in. Please do so well ahead of the scheduled start time, so you'll be ready. Go the YouTube Live link provided in this session flyer and on the top right of your browser click the “sign in” button. If you have Google or Gmail accounts, they can be used to sign in. If you don't, click “Create Account” and follow along. Once you are signed in, you can return to the live stream and use the chat feature to ask your questions of the speaker. Remember you can only participate in the chat feature while we are livestreaming. Link to SACPA's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFUQ5mUHv1gfmMFVr8d9dNA ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Recent Commentary articles on Brexit 'The letter that Lord David Frost, the UK's Brexit negotiator, will not address to the British public' 3 December 2020. DCU Brexit Institute Dublin City University. http://dcubrexitinstitute.eu/2020/12/the-letter-that-lord-david-frost-the-uks-brexit-negotiator-will-not-address-to-the-british-public/ 'Brexit, the US elections, and Covid-19: No hiding place for the UK government' 6 November 2020. UK in a Changing Europe. King's College London. https://ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-the-us-elections-and-covid-19-no-hiding-place-for-the-uk-government/ ‘Deal or No Deal? EU-UK negotiations have hit the wall, but the end is not in sight' Blog. 18 October 2020. DCU Brexit Institute, Dublin City University. http://dcubrexitinstitute.eu/2020/10/deal-or-no-deal-eu-uk-negotiations-have-hit-the-wall-but-the-end-is-not-in-sight/ Journal articles on EU security and defence policy Sweeney, S, and Winn, N. (2021, in press) ‘Do or Die? The UK, the EU and internal/external security cooperation after Brexit' European Political Science. Palgrave. Sweeney, S. and Winn, N. (2020) 'EU Security and Defence Cooperation in Times of Dissent: analysing PESCO, the European Defence Fund and the European Intervention Initiative (EI2) in the shadow of Brexit'. Defence Studies, 20(3) 224-249 https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2020.1778472 Sweeney, S. (2018) 'The European Union and EUFOR Althea's contribution to a dysfunctional peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bureaucratic politics, emergent strategy?' Journal of Regional Security 13(1) 3-38. https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/221

Her Majesty’s Government discloses the existence of a National Cyber Force. Hanoi tells Facebook to crack down on posts critical of Vietnam’s government. Chinese cyberespionage campaign targets Japanese companies. Egregor ransomware prints its extortion notes in hard copy. SEO poisoning with bad reviews. Mike Benjamin from Lumen on credential stuffing and password spraying. Our guest is Mark Forman from SAIC with a look at government agencies' COVID-19 response. And CISA may have a permanent director inbound. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/225

By any reckoning, 2020 will go down as a year to be forgotten. For the havoc and carnage wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic, right across the globe. For the most divided and divisive U.S. presidential election in living memory. And for the cocksure cockups of the giant brain of Prime Minister Johnson’s martinet, Demonic Cummings, and the confederacy of dunces lined up to steer Britain through the double-whammy of COVID-19 and Brexit. It’s enough to make a poor podcaster cry, but when the Small Data Forum triumvirate gathered to record episode 41 on – of course – Friday 13 November, there was almost a party mood of good news in the air. How could this be? Continue reading -> https://www.smalldataforum.com/ 

It's Friday, the 13th. Unlucky for some, but not for you because you've got a new edition of the Sustainable Futures Report to listen to. This week There's a new US president-elect. We'll look at what he can do on the climate front and what he might find rather more difficult to do. We'll look, too, at what Prime Minister Johnson might do on the climate in the UK. The IPPR has a 10-point plan. What's the attitude of business and the opposition party?  There is energy news as well, about UK windfarms, Russian gas, UK nuclear, a new green fuel - and could this be a tipping point for green technology? In the US, stormy weather continues, and I'm not talking about Trump's refusal to concede the election. Despite lockdown, international climate protests continue. Some at quite high levels. And we look at sustainable futures for food and public transport, and what will be the impact of AI on the climate crisis?

We recorded this episode the day after Prime Minister Johnson made yet another grand statement, but this time about the future of wind energy. Charles Haworth, Executive Director of Commercial Operations - Offshore Wind at GE was as surprised as anyone, but he knows what might seem like an outlandish claim is entirely possible. GE Hallade X turbine: https://www.ge.com/news/press-releases/ge-renewable-energy-launches-uprated-haliade-x-13-mw-wind-turbine-uk-dogger-bank Patreon:     https://www.patreon.com/FullyChargedShow

Despite winning a large majority at the last election, Prime Minister Johnson’s relationship with his party is an uneasy one. Just a few months after achieving its long term aim of leaving the EU, the Conservative Party seems ill at ease with itself and the sound of tribal Tory strife can be seen and heard. Is this just the way it’s always been: a cultural and historical norm for Tory leaders and their backbenchers? Or is there something else going on? In this edition of Analysis, Professor Rosie Campbell assesses Boris Johnson’s relationship with his own party and asks why Conservative backbenchers can be such a thorn in the flesh of their leaders. Will this Prime Minister go the same way, or can he buck the trend? Presenter: Rosie Campbell Producer: Jim Frank Editor: Jasper Corbett

In this episode of the Daily Briefing, we discuss the very first of the presidential election debates; this weeks' joust between Prime Minister Johnson and Leader of the Opposition Sir. Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions; and Coventry University students breaking social distancing rules. To sign up to the newsletter, visit tldrnews.co.uk/daily To watch the video version of this podcast, go to youtube.com/tldrdaily

In this episode of the Daily Briefing we discuss the YouTube football team playing in the FA Cup; the presentation given by Chris Whitty and Patrick Valance about the state of coronavirus in the UK and the speculation around Prime Minister Johnson's potential trip to Perugia a few weeks ago. To sign up to the newsletter, visit tldrnews.co.uk/daily To watch the video version of this podcast, go to youtube.com/tldrdaily

What is Boris Johnson's game? As the House of Commons debates Prime Minister Johnson's controversial Internal Markets bill, Pat and Hugh are joined by The Spectator's James Forsyth to discuss the levels of opposition and support the bill now enjoys, the strategy behind it and the impact it will have on negotiations with the EU.

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️UK Bans Huawei 5G Technology 🗼The British government has now banned Chinese company Huawei from participating in building equipment for the UK’s 5G networks. Without a doubt, part of this decision will have direct influence from the UK’s political allies in the United States, who already have a hard-line policy of banning Huawei from the US. In the UK, Huawei currently has over 1,600 employees and sponsors research at universities around the country.5G is critical communications infrastructure for every country in the world. There are high stakes in governments deciding who can work on 5G for security reasons, but there are also major considerations in ensuring the high technological quality of 5G networks. Without Huawei, who has already built part of the UK’s 3G and 4G infrastructure, the UK will have to look elsewhere.Prior to Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister David Cameron was considered one of the most ‘China-friendly’ leaders in the West, encouraging major increases in both bilateral trade and diplomatic relations. With this latest move by Prime Minister Johnson, the relationship between China and the UK will enter a new phase. Whether it’s right or wrong, Boris Johnson has made the assessment that the UK’s current relationship with China needs to change. Bilibili Launches Matchmaking Platform For Influencers ✨Bilibili is the Chinese video platform similar(ish) to Youtube, focused on a younger audience and the ACG sub-culture (Anime, Comics, Gaming). They just announced the new launch of a matchmaking platform for brands and content creators called Sparkle. Bilibili has 1.8 million active creators and the number of content creators with 10,000 fans or more has doubled over the last year.Rival platforms such as Douyin (the TikTok of China) already have a similar platform to Sparkle and TikTok has their own equivalent called Creator Marketplace. Linking creators with brands is a critical business model for all stakeholders, including the platform hosting the content.Bilibili is a publicly listed company with around 170 Million monthly active users and ad revenue coming from brands makes up around 10% of their total revenue. Sparkle should help increase Bilibili’s ad revenue by making it easier for brands to connect with creators and access data on creator engagement, reach, and other metrics. In a broader context, Bilibili is also looking at a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Currently the company is listed on the Nasdaq with a market cap around $16 Billion.Jio’s Latest Investor, Google 🚀Over the last few days, Google announced both a $10 Billion investment in India and a potential $4 Billion investment in Indian company Jio. Jio is owned by Reliance, which is one of India’s largest companies and owned by the richest man in Asia, Mukesh Ambani. When I wrote about Jio on June 10, the company had received $13 Billion in investment from Facebook, Paypal, private equity firms, and sovereign wealth funds. Since then, the company has also received $600 Million from TPG, $250 Million from L Catterton, $1.5 Billion from Saudi Arabia’s PIF, $253 Million from Intel, and $97 Million from Qualcomm.It seems that Jio has become the default beneficiary of the Chinese-US trade war. Jio is a 13-year-old company and has received more investment in a shorter time period than any other company in the world. Jio’s telecommunications/digital services have 388 Million subscribers, providing a gateway to Indian consumers. That is an attractive investment to all international companies, with the latest being Google. And considering what has happened over the last few weeks, Google surely will not be the last. There’s likely more to come. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

As President Trump and Prime Minister Johnson come under sustained criticism over their handling of the coronavirus crisis, the Alex Salmond Show examines how the media on both sides of the Atlantic are covering the pandemic – with award winning commentators Peter Oborne and Chris Hedges.

Coronavirus counter-measures...Pressure on stocks ease slightly as central banks take more action. The U.S. Federal Reserve extended its swap lines to another nine central banks in a bid to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus outbreak. President Trump also says that the government could take stakes in troubled corporates – something not seen since the automotive industry was bailed out. Italy is now the centre of the pandemic with deaths surpassing those of China for the first time. The BoE has cut rates to a historic low of 0.1 per cent to boost sterling up from 35-year lows. Prime Minister Johnson, however, has not ruled out further rescue measures to shore up British business.

If historical analogies provide the measure of a man, then Downing Street henchman-in-chief, lead iconoclast and perpetual ideas recyclist “Classic Dom” Cummings is doing a spectacularly good job. He has been likened to everyone in the “Who’s Who?” of strategy, warfare and statesmanship, from Sun Tzu, to “a cross between Macchiavelli and Rasputin”, alternatively “an amalgam of Thucydides and Stephen Hawking”, or “an unnerving cross between Robespierre and Dr Strangelove”, or in fact Thomas Cromwell to his boss’s Henry VIII. As for Prime Minister Johnson, a recent Unherd profile depicts him as Janus, the god of time, transitions, beginnings and endings. Our classicist-in-residence, Sam, will have particularly enjoyed the perspective of how young Boris got framed and primed in the “rhetorical world view”, laying the foundations of the fine specimen that all media social and traditional relay continuously: “He assumes a natural agility in changing orientations. He hits the street already street-wise. From birth, almost, he has dwelt not in a single value structure but in several. He is thus committed to no single construction of the world; much rather, to prevailing in the game at hand.” Continue reading -> https://www.smalldataforum.com/

The U.S. House of Representatives votes along party lines to impeach Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making him the third president in history to be charged with the procedure. We analyse rate decisions from Japan and the UK, where central banks are expected to keep policy unchanged, while Sweden’s Riksbank is likely to finally abandon negative rates. The Queen prepares to re-open Parliament following last week’s general election with Brexit and the state of the NHS headlining Prime Minister Johnson’s new government agenda. And in U.S. corporate news, Micron Technology sees shares jump after the chipmaker beat quarterly estimates and hints a recovery is around the corner in 2020.

The pound has crashed after Prime Minister Johnson vowed to make and further Brexit extension illegal, increasing the chances of a hard Brexit. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, politics becomes a little less volatile as Boris Johnson achieves the biggest Tory majority since Margaret Thatcher. So what happened in this election, and what next (00:50)? Plus, China has interned over a million Uyghur Muslims in so-called ‘re-education' camps – what is going on in Xinjiang (17:55)? And last, what are the rewards of mudlarking (31:25)?With Fraser Nelson, Steve Richards, Harald Maass, Rachel Harris and Lara Maiklem.Presented by Cindy Yu and Katy Balls.Produced by Cindy Yu.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the book “No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using 'Humanitarian' Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests.”Impeachment hearings start up again today, this time before the House Judiciary Committee. Democrats on the Intelligence Committee yesterday released their report, which, they say, shows damning evidence that President Trump committed crimes so grave that the only response must be removal from office. Today, four renowned legal scholars will testify as to the constitutional basis for impeachment. The second day of the two-day NATO Summit ended in acrimony after President Trump canceled a press conference and abruptly returned to Washington. This came just hours after Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, Prime Minister Johnson of the UK, President Macron of France, and Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands were caught on a hot microphone mocking Trump. Ann Wright, a retired United States Army colonel and former U.S. State Department official in Afghanistan, who resigned in protest of the invasion of Iraq and became an anti-war activist, joins the show. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the former Stanford University roommates who founded Google 20 years ago, resigned yesterday from all executive positions at Google and its parent company, Alphabet. Both Google and Alphabet will now be run by Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO. Page and Bryn will remain as board members and as Google’s largest shareholders. The resignations come at a time of turmoil for Google and in the immediate aftermath of the firing of a group of employees who sought to form a union at Google. And in the past year, Pichai has cracked down on employees who complained that the company was violating its own edict of “Don’t Be Evil” by working in national security and with oppressive regimes around the world. Brian and John speak with software engineer and technology and security analyst Patricia Gorky. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. A charismatic organizer beloved by the Black liberation and socialist movement, Hampton was gunned down as he lay in bed by Chicago police at the age of 21. But his legacy continues to inspire activists today. Aislinn Pulley, an organizer with the Black Lives Matter movement and Co-Executive Director of the Chicago Torture Justice Center, and Eddie Conway, Executive Producer with The Real News Network, was a leading member of the Baltimore branch of the Black Panther Party, and a political prisoner for 44 years, seven of which were in solitary confinement, joins the show.Yet another general strike is taking place today in Colombia as protests against the anti-worker, anti-peace agenda of far-right president Ivan Duque continue. 5 people have been killed so far, and more repression is feared today. James Jordan, a member of the Alliance for Global Justice and has been deeply involved in supporting the Colombian peace process, joins Brian and John. Wednesday’s weekly series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective, including the impeachment hearings, the NATO summit, and more. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.Our regular Thursday segment is on Wednesday today, and deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and the host of a nationally aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

In this week's edition of the BryghtCast Weekly Podcast, Bray Wheeler, Consultant, and Bryan Strawser, Principal and Chief Executive at Bryghtpath discuss three recent events and their potential impact on private sector organizations.   Topics discussed include: NY Times:  Leaders death will damage ISIS but not destroy it War on the Rocks:  Don't kill the Caliph! The Islamic State and the pitfalls of leadership decapitation BBC:  Johnson/EU agree to Brexit extension NBC News:  California wildfires force nearly 200,000 to evacuate NY Times:  Live update on California wildfires CalFire:  Live incident map Episode Transcript Bray Wheeler: Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of BryghtCast for the week of October 28th, 2019. I'm Bray Wheeler, consultant here at Bryghtpath. Bryan Strawser: And it's Bryan Strawser, principal and chief executive here at Bryghtpath. Bray Wheeler: So, this week, we have a few topics to talk about, the one being probably the most dominance in the news is the death of ISIS leader Al Baghdadi. Bryan Strawser: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. [crosstalk 00:00:46]. Bray Wheeler: Abu Bakr. He is no longer with us, according to the US government. Over the weekend, the US conducted a raid on the compound that they located him at and he was... According to reports, self-detonated a suicide vest after he was cornered by US special forces. Bryan Strawser: In a tunnel. In a dead-end tunnel. Bray Wheeler: In a dead-end tunnel, apparently. Unfortunately, it sounds like he took three of his children with him. However, the US was able to capture a lot of Intel out of that rate, it sounds like, according to the president who gave kind of an at-length kind of update on what had transpired over the weekend, revealing probably a little bit too much information. But needless to say, kind of around the death of ISIS's leader, there is no clear replacement. Sounds like we've also struck a couple of other targets, one being the heir apparent and the other being their primary spokesperson. Bryan Strawser: Both of whom were apparently killed this morning, US time. Bray Wheeler: Yep. Bryan Strawser: In separate actions. I think one of those I saw was perhaps done by Kurdish forces with US special operations' assistance. Definitely wound appears to have been a special operation by US military forces. I mean, this is a huge deal. I know there's been some that have been equating this to the Bin Laden raid, and I would not put it on that level because Bin Laden was someone who everyone knew in the world and was responsible for thousands of deaths here in the United States. And I don't want to downplay the role of the ISIS leader, but I don't think most people outside of this particular world that we live in knew who al-Baghdadi was. They probably just knew that there was a leader for ISIS. Bryan Strawser: I remember when this Saturday evening, not long before I was going to bed in the 9:00, 10:00 range, I was looking at Twitter and I saw the first tweet from someone claiming that we had captured al-Baghdadi, which would have been a fascinating intelligence grab, but I don't think this mission was aimed at capturing al-Baghdadi any more than the Neptune Spear operation was aimed to capture Osama bin Laden. The intent was to kill him as a legitimate target of the United States government, but it quickly broke out to, within a few hours, I think even credible folks who have been studying ISIS and the Syria issues for quite some time were coming around to it appears that we have killed al-Baghdadi. of course, there was no official confirmation until the president spoke at about 9:15 Eastern on Sunday morning from that. Bryan Strawser: There's a number of interesting things here we should unpack related to this, I think, briefly. The president stated that we had obtained information and intelligence from a number of sources and that we had the cooperation of a number of countries, and he specifically mentions Syria, Turkey, the Russians, and the Kurds as cooperating or not interfering with the operation during his press conference, then he answered several questions around that as well. Bray Wheeler: Yep. And I think some of the big reveals that kind of caused some consternation with security intelligence folks was, one, the question of airspace and our use of Russian airspace, Syrian airspace, Turkish airspace, which causes some apprehension in terms of revealing probably a little bit too much around how we're able to kind of get in, get out a little bit of how that process works. Bray Wheeler: I think that unfortunately... His press conference's announcement, unfortunately, revealed kind of too much in terms of operational details that potentially could pose some real significant challenges for kind of future operations, engagements. Certainly, part of that is to kind of protect publicly some of our cooperating partners here in the international community to have them save face a little bit. I think the president took a different approach of just trying to praise those people and kind of thank them for their cooperation, but unfortunately, that's not always very helpful. And so right now, I think it's kind of a mixed bag. Certainly, Bryan, to your point, his death is pretty prominent in terms of ISIS and kind of their future direction. Does it kind of 100% solve the ISIS problem? No, but it certainly leaves them kind of without a captain at the moment, without somewhat of a direction. And kind of to your point, the intent of probably not capturing him is to the benefit of kind of ripple effects of additional attacks and things like that. Certainly, if you know we had apprehended them and were holding him, there probably would've been- Bryan Strawser: Reprisals. Bray Wheeler: Reprisals pretty immediately. Bryan Strawser: There's going to be reprisals anyway, of course. No, I think you're right. I think it's important to look at this in the context of the broader fight on counter-terrorism. One of the things about this particular organization, ISIS as opposed to Al-Qaida is Al-Qaida was a little more decentralized than the way ISIS has operated. Al-Baghdadi has led ISIS since about 2010 or so if I remember correctly. Bray Wheeler: Yeah. Bryan Strawser: There was no real clear successor, although there was a potential heir apparent, a number three, I believe it was, that is who we're claiming was killed this morning. And they had a public spokesperson who was also killed this morning. I think it's likely, although we'll probably never know, that these raids today were driven by intelligence that was captured yesterday. That's kind of a hallmark of modern-day US special forces operations in terms of immediately exploiting intelligence captured from the scene and then just increasing the OPTEMPO of raids that go on from there. Bryan Strawser: I do think it's worth mentioning briefly that there has been some counter-argument around targeting al-Baghdadi. There's an article that we'll link in the show notes from War on the Rocks, the War on the Rocks blog and website, where pretty strong argument not to decapitate ISIS because al-Baghdadi, although clearly involved in the deaths of many US citizens and others, didn't appear to be an overly competent leader for ISIS. They lost all of their territories during the last two years, two and a half years. Bray Wheeler: After pretty strong aggressive gains that were very impressive by kind of any modern standard for a non-governmental military force. Bryan Strawser: Right. I think also worth pointing out here that one other thing that ISIS had going forward it as a terrorist movements, there's a significant amount of ISIS propaganda in teaching that is available on sites like YouTube and other more Jihadi-focused social media channels that would censor that kind of content, and you've had a number of attackers, even here in the United States, who have executed the lone actor attacks and then credited ISIS or credited al-Baghdadi or credited "I learned the tactics and techniques and tools through the ISIS magazine, online magazine" or through these online lectures. Bryan Strawser: So, even without a leader in place, the propaganda lives on, and these attacks, even the ones here in the US, have been... They haven't been centrally commanded and controlled. ISIS just takes credit for it after the details come out that this person who was motivated by ISIS or was trained through ISIS online material. Bray Wheeler: Yeah. ISIS has been pretty quick to kind of claim responsibilities for a lot of different things. Certainly, if the attacker or kind of intelligence or investigative kind of evidence after the fact suggests that they were on ISIS' websites or kind of any mention of them, they're quick to say, "Hey. Yep, we're responsible for that." ISIS is certainly much more tech and social media, and their presence online is much stronger than Al-Qaida's ever was and still is. ISIS, that's kind of one of their hallmarks is how savvy they are on that front. Bray Wheeler: And so certainly losing a couple of their head guys plus spokesman certainly, organizationally, paints a different kind of picture for them, directionally. But in terms of their presence online, it doesn't necessarily change much. I think the one thing too that is kind of significant here too and around that is the... And you kind of touched on this earlier, kind of the difference in kind of recognition of al-Baghdadi compared to Osama bin Laden is his... al-Baghdadi's death is much more significant for the Middle East region than it is, say, in the US or in Europe. He was responsible for several atrocities in that region. And so, most famously, the Jordan fighter pilot who was burned alive in a steel cage and then plastered kind of across the world, awful, awful video. Awful, awful event. But those are the kinds of things that he's been responsible for. Bray Wheeler: So, in terms of kind of a... The first kind of a sigh of relief for the breadth of... I don't want to say joy, but appreciation for what's happening is really in the Middle East region, and the US and Europe are kind of secondary. Now, doesn't mean that that's not going to change or we haven't experienced some of that stuff, San Bernardino kind of being the most probably famous one for folks with an ISIS affiliation to it, but- [ Bryan Strawser: I remember that one well. Bray Wheeler: For the region, his death certainly is appreciated, I think, from several different fronts kind of across that area. Bryan Strawser: So, I think there's a couple of geopolitical implications here. One is that Bray's right. I mean, this is going to have a big impact on the Middle East. There's probably going to be a period of time here where ISIS is going to be in some disarray, at least in terms of their ability to capture land and hold land or hold cities or towns. That was really kind of driven by al-Baghdadi. I think that will be seriously degraded, but I think we should keep in mind that we're probably going to see another day or two of decapitation strikes as the United States and its allies who exploit intel that was gained during the raid. Bryan Strawser: And so I think we'll see more impacts in the days to come or maybe we won't hear about them, but they will happen. But even in doing so, it's not going to stop the lone actor or the decentralized group that's affiliated with ISIS from carrying out attacks. I saw the French National Police went on alert today about potential reprisal attacks in France. That might just be precautionary. That might be because they know something or something was gained. Bray Wheeler: Yeah, or they've been fought... They'd been tracking several cases where they have known cells that are there that they're just preparing for those to activate. Paris and Belgium have also kind of been hit pretty hard from an ISIS standpoint. So, it's not surprising that those, in particular, are kind of standing up their precautionary measures and their alertness levels. Bray Wheeler: So, on that front, so transitioning a little bit too... I don't know if it's happier news or different news is the EU has agreed to extend the Brexit deadline for the United Kingdom moving it to January 31st of 2020. So, they reached that deal here kind of in the last 24 hours. It certainly is a good thing in terms of allowing for a little bit more time to hopefully negotiate an exit that is a little bit cleaner for the United Kingdom and the EU. It throws a little bit of a wrench into Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plans for trying to get the deadline hard and fast and kind of force some of the deals, but really kind of, one, it extends the conversation and kind of the negotiation longer, but at the same time opens up more room for potential kind of exit with a plan. Bray Wheeler: So, as we've talked about last week, the UK kind of approved kind of initially the deal that was struck, but didn't approve kind of the pace at which that was going to be negotiated. So, this certainly gives that buffer of, hey, there's kind of an agreement around the deal. Now, there's a little bit of time to kind of work through that. The other piece of it is the kind of election that Prime Minister Johnson has called for in December will more than likely take place, and the results of that will probably impact the way that the negotiations go. So, there'll probably be a little bit of talk over the next month and a half, but those will probably be more aggressive after the results of that election are kind of held. And right now- Bryan Strawser: Who knows how it's going to go? Bray Wheeler: Who knows how that's going to go? Bryan Strawser: This kind of reminds me of being involved in Minnesota politics and watching the every other year biennium where we try to negotiate a state budget in a divided government because we've had divided government here for almost seven years where, currently, the Republicans control one house, the Democrats control another, and the governor is a Democrat. And you can set whatever deadlines you want. The real action is when the session ends, and now you're screwed because the government's going to shut down if you don't pass a budget. And they tried that this year with all kinds of budget dates and it just didn't... It didn't get anywhere. There was a deal at the end after the session ended. Bryan Strawser: So, I think the extension is probably helpful for the UK. I don't know if that necessarily helps Boris Johnson in the planned December general election, but at least now they're not leaving without a framework in place, which I don't know would have gone well in a number of categories. So, I don't know. I suspect this will be the last extension that the EU is going to be willing to work on, or maybe the EU is kind of like that parable of the guy that's got the death sentence over his head and he tells the King that he's going to teach his horse to talk and the King gives him two years to do it or whatever. And someone's like, "Why did you do that?" And the horse can't talk. And he goes, "Yeah, but a lot can happen in two years. There could be a new King. The horse could talk." Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: Things can happen. There might be a revolution. So, I don't... I mean, I think ultimately, this is probably good. A negotiated exit is a better path. Bray Wheeler: Yeah. Bryan Strawser: They got a long way to go. Bray Wheeler: Well, I think that's always been the EU's preferences is to... As long as the UK is giving some semblance of, "Hey, we're clearly going down this road, but we're trying to do it in a somewhat reasonable fashion," the EU is probably going to go along with that to the point where if this election turns back towards Johnson and there's a bunch of hard-line stances, to your point, this will be the EU's last kind of extension of that deadline. I think it's a little... It's not necessarily that Johnson is removed from office, but I think the manner in which that kind of election goes will give the EU a little bit of a greater sense of what the UK kind of public wants to happen because right now, there's a little bit of mixed message there too. And so I think once that becomes a little bit clearer and kind of a statement, the EU will probably flex or not kind of one way or the other depending on the outcome of that. Bray Wheeler: The final topic that we have this week that's also been kind of breaking over the weekend and has been occurring here for the last several weeks has been the wildfires in California. Those are kind of continuing to kind of spread and move kind of throughout the states in different areas. Wine Country has been impacted. Los Angeles is now somewhat under threat from all these wildfires. PG&E and other utility companies have been kind of rationing power with rolling blackouts and shutting off power to kind of help prevent the spread of wildfire and damage to infrastructure and things like that. But right now, it's kind of a little bit of a mess in California with the different wildfires and kind of the high winds. There's been reported gusts of 80 miles per hour. Certainly not... Weather is not helping at the moment. So, it's kind of a little bit of a chaotic situation in California just from a "Are we evacuating? Are we not evacuating? Is it moving towards us? Is it now moving away from us?" Things like that. So, throughout the kind of significant portions of the state. Bryan Strawser: We know from wildfire experience and we've been involved in several in multiple states. High wind complicates the issue because it moves the fire faster, sometimes faster than you can build real firebreaks to contain this fire. I mean, California has got a number of challenges kind of intersecting here. California's been resistant to clearing brush that leads to strong fire conditions. PG&E has a lot of outdated infrastructure. They have tried stopping, cutting the power to broad swaths of the state in order to prevent wildfires. That's proven unsuccessful so far. Bray Wheeler: Yep. Bryan Strawser: At least unsuccessful in that we throw are having wildfires. It may have prevented additional wildfires. I guess I'm not close enough to know that, but that raised a challenge for citizens in the state because hundreds of thousands of people were losing power in some of these shutoffs, including major urban areas. So, there's... California's got a number of challenges around this right now, but on the ground right now, it's a massive firefighting operation being led by the Cal Fire folks with a lot of mutual aid from lots of different places. Bray Wheeler: And I think kind of impact-wise two organizations, certainly in California and certainly in those impacted regions, it's having likely devastating consequences to operations just from losing facilities and infrastructure and roadways and things like that. But if you are kind of in a periphery of these wildfires or working with partner organizations or you have satellite offices or other facilities, HQ facilities, etc. kind of in those regions, it's very much a time to start preparing for kind of closure of those facilities, evacuation, employee assistance funds, things like that for those areas. So, if those are things that you're not doing right now, those should be things that you are considering. If you're not in an impacted zone in California, probably best to dust off whatever those plans are and at least look at them and start thinking about what those are in addition to just monitoring kind of heavily what's going on there. Bray Wheeler: If you have... You're a big retailer and you have different stores there or you're a financial institution with different branches, you should be watching. And if you're a smaller organization, it's definitely... Especially with kind of partner organizations, starting to think about what your alternatives are to the source material or things like that in the interim. Bryan Strawser: Yeah, I think... And don't forget... I mean, Bray's got great advice on the wildfire. Don't forget that in the wildfire, one of your biggest impacts as a business is going to be to your team, and really just think about how to communicate what's going on. Make sure they have information. Make sure as the employer, you're giving them time to prepare and evacuate and that you're cognizant of the fact that when the fire's over, your team and their family and friends could be heavily impacted. And be sympathetic as an employer as you head into that in terms of time off and helping them kind of work through these situations. Bray Wheeler: Yep. Well, that is it for this week's edition of BryghtCast. Again, join us next week for our next weekly edition. Have a great week. Thank you.  

In this episode of our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast for the week of October 7th, 2019,  Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Consultant Bray Wheeler take a look at current risks and upcoming events: BBC News:  Brexit: Deal essentially impossible, No 10 source says after PM-Merkel call BBC News:  Turkey boosts troops on Syrian border after operation warning BBC News:  NBA boss Adam Silver defends freedom of speech amid China row Washington Post: Republicans deliver rare rebuke of Trump, slamming his Syria withdrawal decision //static.leadpages.net/leadboxes/current/embed.js Episode Transcript Bryan Strawser: Hello. Welcome to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. This is our BryghtCast edition for the week of October 7th, 2019. I'm Bryan Strawser, Principal and CEO here at Bryghtpath. Bray Wheeler: This is Bray Wheeler. I'm a consultant here at Bryghtpath. Bryan Strawser: As everyone knows during this edition we take a look at some hot topics and things that are going on or that we think are going to happen around the world and talk about their impact on the business and nonprofit community. I think we're going to start today with some discussion about the European Union and the United Kingdom. Bray? Bray Wheeler: Everybody's favorite topic, Brexit. The reason we're mentioning this week and to kind of be brief, but some developments that have happened here at the beginning of this week the United Kingdom is kind of active in discussions with the EU and some of those partners to try and negotiate their way out of Brexit. They're hoping that the EU will give some kind of latitude or make some concessions in the debate, and the EU is holding pretty firm. Bray Wheeler: The notable event that happened this week was a call between German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and prime minister Boris Johnson of the UK. They had a pretty frank discussion by all accounts. Boris was trying to lay out his plans. Chancellor Merkel was having- Bryan Strawser: None of it. Bray Wheeler: ... none of it. They really didn't end up with any kind of an agreement between the two of them. To kind of pile onto that the European Council President, Donald Tusk, also today, we're recording this on Tuesday, mentioned... had some pretty stark words for Mr. Johnson over what the UK is planning to do. His quote in I believe his tweet was, "What's at stake isn't winning some stupid blame game, at stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people." You don't want a deal. You don't want an extension. You don't want to revoke. Bryan Strawser: They're just going to leave. Bray Wheeler: Yeah. Bryan Strawser: Right? Bray Wheeler: Essentially my impression is Boris is putting on a show. Prime Minister Johnson is putting on a show with no real intent to reach a deal. The U just isn't going to play the game, and they're going to let kind of UK internal politics play themselves out, and they're going to leave without a deal. Bryan Strawser: There are three weeks to go, right? Bray Wheeler: Yep. Bryan Strawser: I think at this point this is what the prime minister wants. I think he wants to leave without a deal. The deal was they're going to leave. That's the deal. Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: I think it was over the weekend he essentially told the press... I don't think this was in parliament. I think he told the press discussion that he was basically daring the queen to remove him, that he wasn't going to resign. He wasn't going to give up the fight. If the queen wanted to, she could just remove him, which that hasn't happened in over 200 years I believe. I don't see that happening- Bray Wheeler: No. Bryan Strawser: ... in their current constitutional structure. Bray Wheeler: Not based on the nature of this topic. I think if this was some kind of extreme personal kind of moral-ethical dilemma, he's committed serious crimes or something like that, she may get involved, but the queen's been pretty hands-off and pretty kind of ceremonious with her role in a lot of this stuff and kind of letting the politics play politics. Bryan Strawser: It's going to leave a lot of things unsettled on the table around borders and immigration and trade and travel and a lot of stuff. Even in my own personal case, I'm a grad student at a school in London, distance learning student, but I do have to go over there for some things in the coming years. When we had our call a few weeks ago for new students with their staff about visas and immigration and stuff, almost every question about short-term study visas, which as a US citizen I can just show up with some documentation and be given that on the spot as long as I'm leaving within six months. Bryan Strawser: But for students coming from other countries that are in my program that's not true. They have to have a visa before they can travel. The answer to almost every question was we don't know, and we probably won't know until after this happens. So it's very unsettling. And that's just students. That's not even trade. Bray Wheeler: Didn't you mention that they were even saying it for you too that you asked- Bryan Strawser: Well, yeah, I did. Bray Wheeler: You could've asked the question as a US citizen, and they were like, "Yeah, we don't know either." Bryan Strawser: Yeah, I did. I don't think they anticipated anything is going to be any different. We have our own... The United States and the UK have their own immigration agreement about visas and visa-free travel as the United States does with the EU and individually with EU countries. But, yes, it's kind of... I will need to go there I think in January for some things. I think that the current state is true. I can just show up with the documentation that's required. But, yeah, I'll have to figure all this out. None of us are going to know anything until November. Bray Wheeler: Yep. I mean, that's really why we're mentioning it today is just kind of conversation, kind of formal... Some of these more formal talks between the UK and Europe are starting to happen, and they're not going well. By all accounts as an organization, really start kind of thinking through what your plans are. Travel doesn't sound like there's going to be any disruption kind of before then, but you'll need to be prepared for potentially some really significant changes or there may not be any changes. Bray Wheeler: Over the next three weeks it's going to be a topic to definitely watch, and I'm sure we're going to talk more about it. Bryan Strawser: Undoubtedly. Bray Wheeler: Moving on to our next topic it's really the withdrawal of US troops from Syria. This one will be pretty quick because there's not much kind of unfurled with this yet. Really why we're mentioning this is twofold. The US is pulling out their troops and essentially kind of told Turkey to handle the situation. That's caused some real kind of, to use a big word, consternation with the Syrian Kurds who have been long-time US allies in this area of the world. We're kind of leaving them on their own, and they don't get along with Turkey. Bray Wheeler: Turkey historically has not treated some of its minority populations all that well. So there's real concern kind of both within the US, in Europe, with the Kurdish population in the Middle East around what this withdrawal will mean for them. There's also kind of insinuations from the Kurds that says, "Hey, you know all the help that we've given you with ISIS and some of these terror organizations in the region? Yeah, we might be done because we're going to have to go handle our business and protect ourselves." Bray Wheeler: Kind of looking at this in a longer-term potential of this situation, this withdrawal really kind of invokes a lot of different things. Turkey is probably prime for some situations that aren't going to go over well, which if you have businesses or operations in Turkey that's definitely a real thing in terms of terrorist threats, operational disruptions, different internal politics that will happen within Turkey around this situation, but also the terror threat kind of at large globally could be reopening wide up especially if the Kurds aren't able to continue to put the pressure that they've been able to put on ISIS and some of those other fractions. Bray Wheeler: So not a whole lot, but there are definitely some significant repercussions. This is kind of agnostic of political party in the US right now in terms of our withdrawal kind of from the Syria conflict. Republicans are upset. Democrats are upset. Bryan Strawser: I mean the feedback to the President yesterday when this was announced, which was announced late in the evening the night before, I mean the feedback has been universally negative. Now, I have been entertained by I would say some Trump activists' comments about unnecessary endless war and some of that kind of stuff. I expected that. A lot of the folks, this is one of the reasons that they backed the president in the 2016 elections is he said he was going to get us out of these foreign entanglements and some of this. Bryan Strawser: At the same time, I feel like the country owes a debt of honor to the Kurds for the role that they played in combating ISIS and others. They took terrific casualties, a horrendous number of casualties in doing so. This is I think a really bad spot for the country to be in. To your point, I think the broader security issue is what does this raise in terms of terrorism and the impact on that. Does this give ISIS a potential new stronghold to reinvigorate themselves? I guess we'll find out. Bray Wheeler: There are also advantages to Russia, to Iran to other players. It feeds into the broader kind of... It's one more kind of swirl within the chaos that's going on in the Middle East right now with all the different topics. Not that it's ever clean cut region to discuss, but it's definitely a step that gives some advantages to some other players that are causing disruptions on other issues and other things. Bray Wheeler: Moving right along to another one of our favorite topics, Hong Kong, so a couple of developments. We're going to tie into kind of more broad China and kind of corporate aspects of that, but we'll just start out with Hong Kong right now. Kind of some of the developments that have come out of there, Carrie Lam, their chief executive has essentially kind of indicated that if this situation doesn't get under control soon, China will probably have to intercede in what's going on there. China has for the most part been formally out of kind of security control in there, but this is the first time that Carrie Lam has ever kind of insinuated that China might get directly involved in security operations. Bray Wheeler: The statement kind of comes on the heels of her using her executive power to ban mass and some other security things. Over the weekend they had shut down the subways, they had shut down shops, shopping malls, and things like that, so there was kind of a lot of executive control exercises over the last few days, some of which again kind of like the violence that we saw last time with direct kind of ballistic action with security forces. Now they're saying China might be involved. That's another kind of step in the escalation of what's going on there that that's the first insinuation that, hey, if you guys don't stop, China might actually take control. Bray Wheeler: Which kind of ties into the other component of Hong Kong that kind of broke over the weekend that's probably much more interesting now to corporations and their interactions with China was the Houston Rockets national basketball association team- Bryan Strawser: So their GM, right? The general manager. Bray Wheeler: The GM put out a tweet that essentially said stand by. Let's see, I have the quote here somewhere. Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong. That did not go over well in China. Bryan Strawser: Yes. Bray Wheeler: China is a huge market for the NBA. China has since said, "Hey, we're not going to show any preseason games. We're going to cancel some other stuff. We're kind of reevaluating our whole partnership with you." The GM kind of summarily deleted his tweets didn't really say too much more. Commissioner Adam Silver came out and said, "Hey, we can't value dollars over our kind of moral and ethics around some of this stuff, but we're still not going to talk about Hong Kong anymore." Bray Wheeler: So kind of in the same breath as I've directed everybody not to talk about Hong Kong to bring it up as a subject, but at the same time we stand for something that's counter to that kind of narrative. There's kind of this contrast there, kind of an addition to that Blizzard the video game interactive company- Bryan Strawser: Manufacturer of World of Warcraft. Bray Wheeler: Manufacturer of World of Warcraft. Bryan Strawser: A division of Activision. Bray Wheeler: Also removed a player from a tournament that was part of what they were sponsoring or one of their tournaments. They removed him for comments that he made in support of Hong Kong. So there's a lot of companies facing a lot of different criticism from China right now that they are kind of actively saying, yeah, we're choosing our business over democracy. That's the message that's playing out. That's not necessarily our stance on it. Bryan Strawser: Right. Bray Wheeler: But that's the conversation that's coming out that these companies are facing reputational kind of crunches against them for these stances or for people within their organization making pro-Hong Kong stances. Bryan Strawser: I recall that we talked about this a few weeks ago on a previous edition of the podcast where we were talking about Marriott Hotels and was it the Gap? Bray Wheeler: Yep. Bryan Strawser: Someone else, another fashion company, had kind of stepped in it because they had T-shirts, and they listed Macau and Hong Kong and Taiwan as separate entities. Marriott's issue is that in their country dropdown they didn't put- Bray Wheeler: China behind it? Bryan Strawser: China as the ... You'd go to China and you'd see the various Chinese cities, and they didn't have Macau and Hong Kong and Taiwan listed on there. They had them listed as separate sovereign countries or sovereign cities like Singapore. This is interesting because this is China flexing its economic muscle. I mean, the NBA thing got the NBA's attention really quickly because China has a deal... The NBA has a contract with the state-run media in China that opens up the market of about 500 million people to watch the NBA and professional basketball being one of the top sports for TV watching in China. Bryan Strawser: The NBA is experimenting with global expansion. They're playing games in India. This season they played a game... Did they play a game in China? I think they did. Bray Wheeler: Yep. Bryan Strawser: I think they were looking at some other countries. Bray Wheeler: Mexico. Bryan Strawser: In Mexico. Baseball has done London and Mexico and Japan. I think we're going to continue to see this. Eventually, I would expect we may have some true global leagues here. I mean the NBA is already running leagues in other parts of the country, but I expect that we might see true globalization of some of the professional sports leagues, which would be cool. But China is going to have their own take on this that is going to make this very difficult. This was purely China flexing economic power, enforcing the NBA to make a change, and then the NBA they whiplashed. I'm surprised they didn't get hurt in how radically they got yanked in two different directions because first, they followed China's wish, and then they reversed, mostly reversed themselves, because they got so much pressure from the US market from their current largest market. Bryan Strawser: They're in a weird spot. From a pure business perspective, leave the politics, they're in a very difficult situation because their future largest market ever is on the line with this. But they're alienating. They could also alienate their current largest market. What a difficult place to be in let alone of the politics of what's the right thing to do here. Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: As I think many people reminded them, they are our company based in the United States who started in the United States. Bray Wheeler: Today the New York Times had an article for companies in China political hazards are getting harder to see. The first line I think is very, very apropos for kind of what you just described to and you probably should've led with it, but the quote is, "For international companies looking to do business in China, the rules were once simple. Don't talk about the three T's, Tibet, Taiwan, and Tiananmen Square crackdown." Bryan Strawser: Ouch. Bray Wheeler: "No longer fast-changing geopolitical tensions, growing nationalisms, and rise of social media in China have made it increasingly difficult for multinationals to navigate commerce in the communist country." Bryan Strawser: Yowza. Bray Wheeler: That's pretty much what we've seen kind of play out especially with Hong Kong on the heels of trade wars and other things like that. China means a little bit of business right now. Bryan Strawser: It's a huge economy to participate in. I don't know if we have advice here on how to make the right decision. Certainly, organizations should be thinking about this. If you work in China, you operate in China, you desire to operate in China, know that strings come with the deal. You'll have to find a way to balance the competing interests here around that. We always argue that you should do the right thing whatever the right thing is. I think in this case when it comes to democracy on the line, the answer is pretty clear, but you got to make your own decisions. Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: That's it for this edition of The Managing Uncertainty Podcast. We'll be back next week on Monday with a new edition of the podcast. Hope to hear from you then. Thanks

Boris scores a Brexit breakthrough in Brussels. We host a special Brexit Endgame edition of Squawk Box, live from London, Brussels and Belfast. It is now up to Prime Minister Johnson to convince MPs to pass the agreement during an extraordinary parliamentary session scheduled tomorrow in order for EU leaders to officially ratify the deal by October 31st. However, he faces pushback from Northern Ireland where the DUP says it cannot abide by Johnson’s proposals due to serious concerns over customs and tax regulations. Elsewhere, China's third-quarter GDP grows at its slowest pace in almost 30 years, as weak factory production and an ongoing trade war weigh on the world's second-largest economy. And in corporate news, French automaker Renault has slashed its full-year revenue and profit forecasts citing weak sales outside of Europe.

Bloomberg's Ian Wishart and Ed Evans parse the rapid fire news from all parties on a Brexit deal. And Anand Menon, professor of European politics at King's College London and director of The UK in a Changing Europe, says the damage to the U.K. economy from Prime Minister Johnson's plan will be midway between Theresa May's agreement and a no-deal exit.

The Brexit crisis has come to a head with Prime Minister Johnson's confrontational tactics, which have served to unite the Remainer majority in Parliament. It is now intent on stopping a No Deal Brexit. Johnson has turned on his own MPs who dare to dissent, expelling recent former ministers and Tory grandees. A general election is now inevitable, but Labour would find one fought soly on Brexit difficult as it has shifted further in the direction of Remain, but still needs the support of Leave voters. It will need once again to focus on policies beyond Brexit, unifying people round an anti-austerity platform and its positive vision for Britain.

In this episode of our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast for the week of October 7th, 2019,  Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Consultant Bray Wheeler take a look at current risks and upcoming events: BBC News:  Brexit: Deal essentially impossible, No 10 source says after PM-Merkel call BBC News:  Turkey boosts troops on Syrian border after operation warning BBC News:  NBA boss Adam Silver defends freedom of speech amid China row Washington Post: Republicans deliver rare rebuke of Trump, slamming his Syria withdrawal decision Episode Transcript Bryan Strawser: Hello. Welcome to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. This is our BryghtCast edition for the week of October 7th, 2019. I’m Bryan Strawser, Principal and CEO here at Bryghtpath. Bray Wheeler: This is Bray Wheeler. I’m a consultant here at Bryghtpath. Bryan Strawser: As everyone knows during this edition we take a look at some hot topics and things that are going on or that we think are going to happen around the world and talk about their impact on the business and nonprofit community. I think we’re going to start today with some discussion about the European Union and the United Kingdom. Bray? Bray Wheeler: Everybody’s favorite topic, Brexit. The reason we’re mentioning this week and to kind of be brief, but some developments that have happened here at the beginning of this week the United Kingdom is kind of active in discussions with the EU and some of those partners to try and negotiate their way out of Brexit. They’re hoping that the EU will give some kind of latitude or make some concessions in the debate, and the EU is holding pretty firm. Bray Wheeler: The notable event that happened this week was a call between German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and prime minister Boris Johnson of the UK. They had a pretty frank discussion by all accounts. Boris was trying to lay out his plans. Chancellor Merkel was having- Bryan Strawser: None of it. Bray Wheeler: … none of it. They really didn’t end up with any kind of an agreement between the two of them. To kind of pile onto that the European Council President, Donald Tusk, also today, we’re recording this on Tuesday, mentioned… had some pretty stark words for Mr. Johnson over what the UK is planning to do. His quote in I believe his tweet was, “What’s at stake isn’t winning some stupid blame game, at stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people.” You don’t want a deal. You don’t want an extension. You don’t want to revoke. Bryan Strawser: They’re just going to leave. Bray Wheeler: Yeah. Bryan Strawser: Right? Bray Wheeler: Essentially my impression is Boris is putting on a show. Prime Minister Johnson is putting on a show with no real intent to re

Today, Rich Valdes has a conversation with The Honorable Alexandra Phillips, Member of European Parliament (MEP)   a conservative member of the European Parliament from England's BREXIT Party. The firebrand politician, Phillips, explains the challenges that Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces in Britain exiting the European Union. Then, they analyze the parallels of how the British left attacks Prime Minister Johnson the same way the American left attack President Trump. Plus, some breaking news from Ireland as it relates to Northern Ireland and the European Union's trade policies from Belgium. Comment and follow on Twitter @Rich Valdes and online at TheRichValdes.comSupport the show.

Luigi Zingales, University of Chicago Booth School Finance Professor, says the global slowdown is going to continue until Germany delivers a major fiscal package, which is unlikely to happen any time soon. Rosalind Mathieson, Bloomberg International Government Executive Editor, says Prime Minister Johnson will crash out if he gets a no-deal Brexit. John Stoltzfus, Oppenheimer & Co. Chief Investment Strategist, thinks that the demand for equities is likely to increase. Andrew Hollenhorst, Citi Global Markets Chief U.S. Economist, details the current growth scare saying, “it's harder to attribute this growth scare to something transitory.” David Rubenstein, Carlyle Group Co-Founder & Host of Bloomberg's Peer to Peer Conversations, reflects on his conversation with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who reiterated her belief in incremental justice.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Luigi Zingales, University of Chicago Booth School Finance Professor, says the global slowdown is going to continue until Germany delivers a major fiscal package, which is unlikely to happen any time soon. Rosalind Mathieson, Bloomberg International Government Executive Editor, says Prime Minister Johnson will crash out if he gets a no-deal Brexit. John Stoltzfus, Oppenheimer & Co. Chief Investment Strategist, thinks that the demand for equities is likely to increase. Andrew Hollenhorst, Citi Global Markets Chief U.S. Economist, details the current growth scare saying, “it’s harder to attribute this growth scare to something transitory.” David Rubenstein, Carlyle Group Co-Founder & Host of Bloomberg's Peer to Peer Conversations, reflects on his conversation with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who reiterated her belief in incremental justice. 

Former Prime Minister David Cameron has broken his long silence on Brexit, confessing in new memoirs that he is "truly sorry" for the chaos and rancour that has engulfed Britain after it voted to leave the European Union three years ago."I failed," Cameron concedes in his book, "For the Record," excerpted on Saturday in the London Times.The memoirs are artfully revealing. Cameron both covers his posterior and concedes some mistakes - of strategy and timing, mostly. He admits he is today "depressed" about Brexit; he charges that the current prime minister, Boris Johnson, was a major misleader; and he confesses he smoked a lot of dope during his Eton school days - sneaking off to an island in the River Thames to get "off my head" on marijuana.It was Cameron who confidently called for the June 2016 Brexit referendum - and it was Cameron who led the muddled, muted campaign for Britain to remain in the European Union.After Brexit won 52% to 48%, Cameron quickly resigned, notably caught on a hot mic humming a tune as he strode away from the podium in front of 10 Downing Street.Many Britons blame Cameron for today's Brexit quagmire, branding the former prime minister "the man who broke Britain."Cameron's critics say the British public was never really clamouring for the 2016 referendum and that Cameron called it only to quell internal squabbles in his fractious Conservative Party and to quiet the rabid Tory tabloids.Cameron confesses the whole thing quickly devolved into a "terrible Tory psychodrama."In an interview with the Times newspaper, as a part of the book's pre-publication publicity campaign, Cameron labelled Prime Minister Johnson's possible "no-deal" Brexit "a bad outcome."He also warned that the country might be forced to stage a second referendum on whether to leave the European Union."I don't think you can rule it out, because we're stuck," said Cameron, who served as prime minister from 2010 to 2016.In his memoir and interview, Cameron charges that his former political chums - Johnson and his sidekick, the current government minister in charge of carrying out Brexit, Michael Gove - misled voters in 2016 about the swell benefits of leaving Europe.Cameron calls his former friend Gove "mendacious" and says Gove and Johnson behaved "appallingly" during the 2016 referendum.Cameron points to their false pro-Brexit claims that Turkey was about to join the European Union (it wasn't) and their suggestions that soon Britain would be flooded by millions of Turkish Muslim immigrants (never happened).While he does not call Johnson or Gove liars, Cameron said the pair "left the truth at home" when they claimed, for example, that leaving Europe would produce a $440 million a week windfall to fund the country's beloved National Health Service."Boris had never argued for leaving the EU, right? Michael was a very strong Eurosceptic, but someone whom I'd known as this liberal, compassionate, rational Conservative ended up making arguments about Turkey and being swamped and what have you. They were trashing the government of which they were a part, effectively," Cameron told the newspaper.Cameron later said in an interview published Sunday that Johnson didn't really believe in Brexit when he broke ranks and led the campaign to take Britain out of the EU. Cameron had been expecting Johnson's help during the hard-fought campaign.Cameron says of Johnson: "The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn't believe in because it would help his political career."Cameron said in an interview published Sunday that Johnson didn't really believe in Brexit when he broke ranks and led the campaign to take Britain out of the EU. Cameron had been expecting Johnson's help during the hard-fought campaign.Cameron says of Johnson: "The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn't believe in because it would help his political career."In a bit of a side-dish, Cameron remembers Johnson's curren...

In this podcast we deconstruct the hashtag "surrender bill" which Prime Minister Johnson has been repeating at every opportunity. This hashtag attempts to spin the bill which recently passed through parliament making it illegal for the government to allow a no deal brexit or a brexit with a new deal without parliamentary consent on 31st October as somehow a surrender in an imagined war. We trace how this framing attempts to resonate with myths and fantasies around World War 2. [Free.  26 minutes.]

This Week: The Bahamas has a long road of recovery following Hurricane Dorian's path of destruction. It's path also took the storm up the south east coast of the U.S. including Florida, and the Carolinas. FOX's D.C. Correspondent Rachel Sutherland spent this week in the Carolinas and joins Jared from Myrtle Beach. In the latest setback this week for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the UK Parliament approved a bill that prevents Britain from leaving the European Union without an agreement. Forcing the Prime Minister Johnson to ask the EU to postpone Brexit if no agreement is made by mid-October. FOX's London-Based Correspondent Simon Owen explains. Congress returns to Washington next week after a month and a half recess. Democrats say they will reintroduce calls for comprehensive gun legislation following the mass shooting in El Paso TX, Dayton, OH and Odessa, TX. The challenge will be crafting a bill that Senate Republicans will support and President Trump will sign. Senior Capitol Hill producer Chad Pergram joins Jared to discuss the uphill battle for Democrats when they return. Marlin Fitzwater, former White House press secretary for President's Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, is out with a new book 'Calm Before the Storm: Desert Storm Diaries & Other Stories.' He spoke with Jared about the book and his time as press secretary for two administrations and how President Trump has changed the role of the press secretary. Listen to the latest "From Washington": Follow Jared on Twitter: @JaredHalpern Follow Rachel on Twitter: @SutherlandFox

Boris blocked. Conservative Party rebels and opposition lawmakers deliver U.K. Prime Minister Johnson a double defeat in the House of Commons, taking a no-deal Brexit off the table and also refusing to allow him to call a snap general election. We are live from Westminster with the latest. In Asia, markets rally on confirmation from the Chinese commerce ministry that trade talks between Washington and Beijing are set to resume in October. The Hang Seng enjoys extended gains following Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam's withdrawal of the controversial extradition bill, which is hoped will stem the violent protests in the Special Administrative Region. Over in the U.S., two-year treasuries slump to their lowest point since 2017, while we hear exclusively from Goldman Sachs CFO Stephen Scherr who says anxieties over a recession are becoming increasingly apparent.

On this episode of News With My Dad, Joe & Jefferson discuss the movement of Hurricane Dorian, Prime Minister Johnson’s very-bad-not-so-good week, and the contenders for Oregon’s Secretary of State.

Britain has a new prime minister. On today’s show we talk about Boris Johnson and what his becoming prime minister means for Britain’s future. We look at how it is tied to the revival taking place in America under Donald Trump; how Prime Minister Johnson is stacking his government with formidable conservatives that promise to take Britain in a bold new direction; how, just like in America, establishment politicians and press are apoplectic, calling Johnson a fascist Nazi; how this will affect Brexit and the European Union; and other effects. We also talk about Google’s plan to hack America’s next election. Information is emerging about how the company is determined to prevent a second term for Donald Trump. And we talk about something specific you should do when you start getting overwhelmed by so much bad news in the world. Links [1:25] Britain’s New Prime Minister (33 minutes) AUDIO: “Week in Review: MAGA-MUKGA-MIGA!—America-UK-Israel Resurgence, and What Could Undermine It” AUDIO: "Is Boris Johnson Saving Britain and Israel?" “Is Donald Trump Saving Britain?” [35:07] Google’s Nefarious Political Plans (17 minutes) “Google’s Plan to Hack Democracy” [52:03] LAST WORD: Thy Kingdom Come (7 minutes) "The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like" “Mystery of Civilization” from Mystery of the Ages “Who and What Is God?” from Mystery of the Ages Mystery of the Ages

Since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister after being declared party chief by Tory members, the Conservatives have gained 10 points to stand at 30%, a survey by Deltapoll for the Mail on Sunday showed. That puts them five points ahead of Labour at 25%, with the Liberal Democrats on 18% and the Brexit Party on 14%. But if Labour was to drop Jeremy Corbyn as leader, the poll says the party would shoot into the lead at 34%, with the Tories on 28%, the Brexit Party on 14% and the Lib Dems on 13%.

This week we discuss the prospects for the UK and EU showdown with Prime Minister Johnson (01:02), what a weak sterling means for the UK (03:27), the biggest government Cabinet change in history (05:20), what more the European Central Bank can do (08:36), and whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week (10:45), with Toby Cross, Head of Client Investment Solutions, Will Hobbs, Chief Investment Officer, and Sophie Traherne, from Government Relations.

On this week's New Statesman Podcast, Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Patrick Maguire to discuss Boris Johnson's arrival at No.10, his cabinet appointments and the controversial strategist joining his team. Then, she's joined by Sarah Manavis to discuss the New Statesman's new culture newsletter, The Dress Down, and finally, in You Ask Us, Anoosh and Patrick consider whether Prime Minister Johnson might call a second referendum.If you are a New Statesman digital subscriber you can get advert free access to this podcast by visiting newstatesman.com/nssubscribers. If you haven't signed up yet, visit newstatesman.com/subscribe to purchase your subscription.Send us your questions for future episodes via Twitter @ns_podcasts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The United Kingdom has a new Prime Minister! Boris Johnson beat his opponent Jeremy Hunt to secure leadership of the Conservative Party this week, before taking the keys to Number 10 Downing Street from his predecessor, Theresa May. With the Brexiteer in power, and Leavers dominating his newly formed government, what can we expect from Prime Minister Johnson in the coming months? Should you worry about Boris when it comes to your money?

Will it be Prime Minister Johnson or Prime Minister Hunt? In the week we get a new PM, Sean looks at what a change at the top might mean for agriculture. Also, the plan to put more trees on our farms, which might help save the environment.