Podcasts about Pyongyang

Korea Risk Group Correspondent Joon Ha Park joins this week's podcast to discuss the latest signals from Pyongyang following President Donald Trump's renewed outreach to Kim Jong Un and the decision to shorten the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises from 11 days to five. He breaks down two recent statements from Kim Yo Jong, including her acknowledgment of the “excellent” personal relationship between Trump and her brother, while dismissing the reduced drills as insufficient. The conversation then turns to the wider implications of Trump's willingness to alter major alliance exercises, including whether North Korea could seek further concessions affecting South Korean defense priorities such as wartime operational control transfer and Seoul's plans for nuclear-powered submarines. In the second part of the episode, veteran journalist Mike Chinoy and humanitarian worker Kathi Zellweger discuss their new book, “Miss Kathi: Saving Lives in North Korea,” which draws on Zellweger's 75 trips to the DPRK and five years living in Pyongyang. They reflect on the famine of the 1990s, the difficulty of getting outsiders to understand the scale of the crisis and why predictions that hardship would bring down the North Korean system repeatedly proved wrong. They also explore the enduring debate over humanitarian access and aid monitoring, how repeated visits allowed Kathi to document the gradual rise of markets and other social changes and why they hope the book will encourage readers to see North Koreans not simply through the lens of nuclear weapons, diplomacy or the ruling family. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and all of our episodes. Danny and Derek speak with Jonathan Cheng, China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, about the Christian origins of North Korea's founding ideology and the subsequent personality cult. The discussion explores missionary Samuel Moffat's work in Pyongyang, the conversion of Kim Il-sung's family to Christianity, Christian nationalism during Japanese colonial rule, the turn toward socialism, Kim's postwar personality cult, and how Christianity informs the Kim family's rule today.   Be sure to grab a copy of Jonathan's book Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek speak with Jonathan Cheng, China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, about the Christian origins of North Korea's founding ideology and the subsequent personality cult. The discussion explores missionary Samuel Moffat's work in Pyongyang, the conversion of Kim Il-sung's family to Christianity, Christian nationalism during Japanese colonial rule, the turn toward socialism, Kim's postwar personality cult, and how Christianity informs the Kim family's rule today. Be sure to grab a copy of Jonathan's book Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

No peace in sight between Israelis and Palestinians. Christiane speaks with Hamas official Basem Naim about the state of President Trump's peace plan. Then, as Gaza's hospitals crumble, American doctors Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa tell Christiane about their grueling work treating Palestinians in the enclave, now the subject of the new documentary “American Doctor.” In India, a student who left the U.S. to take on the Modi government with his “cockroach movement.” Abhijeet Dipke tells Christiane how India's Gen Z won its first battle. Plus, the mysterious case of a woman who tried to blow up a Ukrainian millionaire in Monaco for $8,000, then turned up dead. A special investigation asks what really happened. Also on the program, “Half Man,” the dark new show from “Baby Reindeer” creator Richard Gadd. He tells Christiane why he keeps returning to trauma and male relationships. And as President Trump once again sets his sights on Kim Jong Un, from the archives: George W. Bush and the high-stakes cultural exchange that saw the New York Philharmonic perform in Pyongyang. Air date: August 22, 2026 Guests: Basem Naim, Member of Hamas Political Bureau Mark Perlmutter, American surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, American surgeon Abhijeet Dipke, activist Richard Gadd, creator and star of “Half Man” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tonight on America At Night with McGraw Milhaven, Dr. Bruce Bechtol, Professor of Political Science at Angelo State University and former Senior North Korea Intelligence Analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, explains why North Korea doesn't appear as interested in rekindling its relationship with President Trump as Trump may be. Bechtol examines North Korea's strategic calculations, its relationship with the United States and what Pyongyang may want from any future negotiations. Julie Boardman, Executive Producer, Creative Director and Co-Founder of the Museum of Broadway, takes McGraw behind the scenes of the unique New York City museum celebrating the history, performers, productions and cultural impact of Broadway. Plus, entertainment guru Mathew Wolfe returns for his weekly summer box office segment, breaking down the latest movies in theaters, the biggest hits and what audiences are watching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greg Scarlatoiu, President and CEO of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, analyzes the multifaceted security threats posed by Pyongyang. Scarlatoiu describes North Korea as a post-communist, dynastic kleptocracy and a crime family masquerading as a nation-state. Under Kim Jong-un, the regime has consolidated its intelligence and police agencies while streamlining its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Scarlatoiu explains that North Korea's war economy exploits its people's human rights and security to fund weapons, which it now exports globally to Russia and Iran. The discussion, co-hosted by Gordon Chang, highlights active military provocations along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), including recent boundary crossings. Finally, Scarlatoiu and Chang evaluate how controversial remarks by the Trump administration praising Kim Jong-un have strained trust in extended deterrence and undermined relationships within the vital US-South Korea alliance. (3)

TABLE OF CONTENTS THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 8-19-2026Rebecca Grant, Vice President of the Lexington Institute, discusses technological advancements on the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. She details the transition from traditional steam-powered catapults to modern electromagnetic aircraft launch systems (EMALS), which offer superior, adjustable torque to launch both lightweight drones and heavily armed fighter jets. Additionally, Grant highlights the ship's new electromagnetic advanced weapons elevators, which double the capacity of older Nimitz-class systems and move much faster to significantly improve sortie generation rates. However, a White House executive order directing a study to reconsider steam systems threatens to disrupt these advancements. Grant warns that backtracking to older technology on carriers currently in construction, like the CVN-81, could delay delivery by up to seven years, creating dangerous operational gaps as Chinese naval threats rise in the Pacific. (1)Rick Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center analyzes China's advancement in space and its competition with the United States. Fisher discusses China's Gandai constellation, a space debris monitoring satellite system controlled by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which tracked a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster crashing near the moon's Einstein crater from over 380,000 kilometers away. He warns that this constellation can perform dual-use military targeting for space combat and missile defense. Fisher criticizes China's lack of transparency, noting its refusal to give advance notice for earthbound ICBM tests and its intention to let expendable propulsion stages crash into the lunar surface. Finally, he highlights the rapid progress of China's LandSpace with its liquid-fueled, methane-oxygen-powered reusable Zhuque-3 rocket, predicting that ten Chinese companies will offer cheap reusable launch services within five years and directly undercut Western competitors. (2)Greg Scarlatoiu, President and CEO of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, analyzes the multifaceted security threats posed by Pyongyang. Scarlatoiu describes North Korea as a post-communist, dynastic kleptocracy and a crime family masquerading as a nation-state. Under Kim Jong-un, the regime has consolidated its intelligence and police agencies while streamlining its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Scarlatoiu explains that North Korea's war economy exploits its people's human rights and security to fund weapons, which it now exports globally to Russia and Iran. The discussion, co-hosted by Gordon Chang, highlights active military provocations along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), including recent boundary crossings. Finally, Scarlatoiu and Chang evaluate how controversial remarks by the Trump administration praising Kim Jong-un have strained trust in extended deterrence and undermined relationships within the vital US-South Korea alliance. (3)Craig Unger, investigative reporter and author, explores President Donald Trump's unstable foreign policy toward Russia and Ukraine. Unger contends that Trump behaves as a Russian appeaser whose real estate-linked advisers take marching orders from Vladimir Putin. The discussion highlights how Ukrainian-manufactured drones have successfully targeted Russian oil refineries, causing severe fuel shortages and long gas lines across Russia. While these military successes initially impressed Trump, leading him to publicly promise Patriot missiles and production technology to President Zelenskyy, Unger reveals that Trump subsequently withheld this critical support. Unger cautions that as Putin faces an existential crisis and potential military defeat, he may launch a limited incursion into Baltic states like Estonia or Poland. This would trigger NATO's Article 5, which Unger warns Trump would likely refuse to honor, thereby destroying the Western alliance. (4)Caleb Weiss of the Bridgeway Foundation and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies examines the evolution of African jihadist movements. Weiss details the case of Jamal Chima, a Ugandan Guantanamo Bay alumnus who transitioned from Al-Qaeda to recruiting for the Islamic State Central African Province (ISCAP) in Kampala. Weiss explains that East African court systems frequently experience "catch and release" cycles due to strict evidentiary demands for terrorism cases. The segment also addresses the kidnapping of missionary Kevin Rideout by the Islamic State Sahel Province. Weiss describes how these groups raise funds through lucrative ransoms, utilizing regional coordination hubs like the Al-Furqan and Al-Karrar offices to move capital globally to active cells in regions like Afghanistan. Finally, he notes that eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar has leveraged anti-jihadist operations to secure Western backing. (5)Michael Bernstam of the Hoover Institution warns of a severe global crisis in refined petroleum products, especially diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel. Bernstam explains that the "crack spread"—the cost differential between crude oil and refined diesel—has reached an unprecedented historical peak of over $102 per barrel. This crisis stems from a fifty-year systemic failure, during which no major new refineries were built in the United States or Europe. Compounding this, sophisticated Ukrainian drone strikes have successfully knocked out 40% of Russia's refining capacity, forcing the major oil exporter to ban refined product exports and become an importer. Additionally, China has halted refined exports to meet its domestic demand. Bernstam warns that the resulting global diesel shortage directly threatens agricultural planting, harvesting, and regional food security, particularly for developing nations as winter approaches. (6)Peter Huessy of the Gold Institute for International Strategy critiques the Hollywood film House of Dynamite for its inaccurate depiction of US nuclear command and control. Huessy argues that the movie relies on flawed premises, such as the sudden, unexplained failure of Defense Support Program (DSP) tracking satellites and the total failure of US missile defense interceptors, to fabricate a helpless crisis scenario. He highlights that actual US missile defenses achieve 75% to 85% success in tests and up to 98% in combat scenarios like Israel's missile defense systems. Huessy strongly refutes the film's negative portrayal of military leadership as reckless warmongers and its central message that nuclear deterrence is ineffective. He asserts that the nuclear triad has successfully and perfectly preserved global peace for eighty years, keeping the country safe. (7)Simon Constable, writer for the Wall Street Journal, discusses European climate anomalies and their severe impact on global commodities. Speaking from the south of France, Constable reports temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius, contributing to low water levels in the Danube, Rhine, and Po rivers. These climate constraints, alongside maritime blockades of Ukrainian ports, have driven up prices for energy, wheat, and coffee. Turning to UK politics, Constable criticizes Prime Minister Keir Starmer for failing to spur house-building and notes that regional politicians like Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham lack an international profile. Finally, he reviews a longevity quiz from the Wall Street Journal, which highlights that the wealthiest Americans live fourteen years longer than the poorest. He notes that Japan leads the world in centenarians, emphasizing that geographic location and financial wealth are pivotal factors in determining an individual's healthy lifespan. (8)Andrea Stricker of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies examines Middle Eastern nuclear proliferation and the mystery surrounding legacy materials. Stricker details a positive, US-brokered development in which the post-AssadSyrian government agreed to cooperate and turn over legacy yellowcake uranium stored at a covert facility known as Site 99. This material was intended for a North Korean-built plutonium-producing reactor at Al-Kibar, which was destroyed by Israel in 2007. Despite long-standing Syrian secrecy and the site changing hands among various factions, environmental sampling by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed undeclared, man-made uranium particles at multiple locations. Stricker also raises concerns regarding Turkey's nuclear ambitions, highlighting its civilian programs' potential military purposes and Turkey's recent attempt to secure raw uranium contracts with the military regime in Niger. (9)Joel Kotkin, senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, examines California's economic and demographic challenges. Kotkin notes that California is on the verge of losing its population lead as middle-class families vote with their feet and move to states like Texas. He attributes this out-migration to exorbitant housing costs, a severe shortage of upwardly mobile middle-class jobs, and high electricity prices that hamper manufacturing and modern technology sectors like artificial intelligence. Furthermore, Kotkin highlights systemic social issues, including high teen unemployment, rising store break-ins, and a deteriorating public education system. These factors have depleted the state's middle class, leaving the tax base heavily dependent on a wealthy top one percent who can easily relocate to lower-tax states like Florida. Kotkin warns that this loss of middle-class families threatens California's future tax base and demographic vitality. (10)Corrections applied, several pending your confirmation: Bridgeway Foundation (transcribed as "Ridgeway," segment 5 — Weiss's actual affiliation), Al-Furqan and Al-Karrar offices (transcribed as "Al-Furkan and Al-Karr" — the standard renderings of the ISIS regional offices), LandSpace and Zhuque-3 (transcribed as "Land Space Corporation" and "Juk 3" — the Chinese firm and its rocket), Zelenskyy per house style, and "yellow cake" → yellowcake. One flag: "Gandaiconstellation" (segment 2) — I couldn't verify that name; the audio may be rendering a Chinese program name roughly, worth checking with the transcript or Fisher's notes. In segment 8, note the source describes Keir Starmer as PM and Andy Burnham as Manchester Mayor — this contradicts the recent batches where Burnham is PM. I've left it as the source has it since it's Constable's segment, but flag it if the summary tool garbled the timeline.R

A.M. Edition for Aug. 19. President Trump hits pause on 50% tariffs that had been set to hit a range of Canadian products – buying more time for trade negotiators to reach a deal with Ottawa. Plus, OpenAI's second quarter sales disappoint as rival Anthropic sees its revenue double. And a Chinese cargo ship sets sail for the Arctic in a move that WSJ foreign correspondent Sune Rasmussen says could upend global trade. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Donald Trump is once again reaching out to Kim Jong Un, praising their personal relationship, calling for a reduction in U.S.-South Korea military exercises and claiming the North Korean leader has responded “very positively.” This week, NK News Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy joins the podcast to unpack what Trump actually said, how closely it resembles his 2018 diplomacy playbook and why the U.S. president may be turning toward North Korea again. He also discusses Washington and Seoul's decision to cut the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise from 11 days to five after Trump's directive, as well as what the abrupt change could mean for alliance cohesion.  Later, Shreyas explains why Kim would enter any renewed diplomacy from a much stronger position than he did in 2018 and looks at why U.S. strikes on Iran have further reinforced North Korea's rejection of denuclearization. The episode concludes with the possible ways Pyongyang could respond to Trump's overtures and the risk that renewed leader-to-leader diplomacy could leave South Korea on the sidelines.  About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

Why is North Korea so weird? Is it Stalinism? Maoism? Japan-style emperor worship? Ancient Korean hermit kingdom energy? No, argues Jonathan Cheng, Beijing bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and author of The Korean Messiah: The Failed Dynasty That Shaped the Hermit Kingdom. You've all been sleeping on the influence of 19th-century American revival Protestantism. To discuss why Kim Il-sung kind of thought he was Jesus — or at least wanted to convince everyone else he was — we have the honor of Jonathan joining ChinaTalk today, with Alex Boyd. Our conversation covers: Billy Graham meets Kim Il-sung — how America's pastor visited Pyongyang in 1992 and bonded with the dictator over their shared Presbyterian childhoods, while touring a birthplace resembling the nativity story. From “Jerusalem of the East” to totalitarian theocracy — how 22-year-old missionary Samuel Moffett brought eschatological founder energy to the wickedest city in Korea, and transformed Pyongyang into the most Protestant city in Asia, complete with jazz clubs and a Chevrolet dealership. The Manchurian cauldron — how the lawless frontier of 1920s Manchuria blended Christianity, Korean nationalism, and Marxism to forge Kim Il-sung's messiah complex — and why the 33-year-old decided to let peasants believe he could walk on water. Jim Jones, superfan — how the Jonestown cult leader became obsessed with Kim Il-sung, adopted Korean children, and traded tips with North Korean diplomats on running a closed religious society. Christianity as political technology — how Kim weaponized Protestant doctrine and ritual to build a state religion that has outlasted the Soviet Union by three decades. Plus, why North Korea is best understood not as a nation-state but as a religious society, and what Hong Xiuquan and Xi Jinping have to do with any of this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Londinium Chronicles — Multi-Part, Part Two: Gaius (John Batchelor) and Germanicus (Michael Vlahos) turn to the ragged ends of wars and the long-term consequences of current strategic decisions. Germanicus argues that by handcrafting the war in Ukraine and blockading Russia, the United States has inadvertently fostered a united Eurasia, a powerful condominium of Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang that threatens to eclipse Western power. He compares modern strategic failures to historical precedents such as the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and the 1953 Koreanarmistice, both of which created conditions for future catastrophes. A major theme is the collapse of American industrial capacity. Germanicus asserts that the United States has lost the skilled labor and shipyards necessary to maintain naval dominance, describing the current state as atrophied and sclerotic. He suggests that the United States must now rely on allies such as Japan and Korea for naval deterrence against China because American shipbuilding cannot revive itself for at least fifteen to thirty years. He concludes that the nation is in deep trouble but lacks the pragmatic builders required to fix it, suggesting a period of drift that may last until 2055. (2)

En Corée du Sud, 76 ans après la fin des combats, la guerre de Corée continue chaque année de faire des victimes à cause des mines. Il y en aurait plus de deux millions le long de la frontière entre les deux Corées - la plus grande concentration au monde. Cette situation rend la frontière dangereuse alors que de nombreux Sud-Coréens y vivent et y travaillent encore. Face aux risques, un militaire à la retraite s'est donné pour mission de déminer les lieux. De notre correspondant à Séoul, Passé le checkpoint militaire, nous entrons au cœur de la zone démilitarisée. Ici, le silence n'est interrompu que par le bruit des tirs venant des bases militaires. Nous rejoignons Kim Ki-ho, 76 ans, dans son travail, au cœur d'un champ de mines. « Là, il y en a une près de l'arbre, ne bougez pas. Il faut creuser un peu, attention quand même. La M7, c'est une mine antichar américaine qui contient sept kilos de TNT. Elle est encore active. Souvent, elles viennent par grappe. Normalement, seul un véhicule lourd peut les faire exploser, mais comme la mine est très vieille, elle devient très sensible. Là, si je mets mon pied, on est morts », explique-t-il. En une trentaine de minutes, Kim Ki-ho a récupéré quatre mines dans un rayon de 50 mètres : « Rien que dans la zone où on est et à laquelle les civils ont accès, il y aurait environ 500 000 mines. À cela s'ajoutent environ 200 000 mines qui ont été placées sans être cartographiées, donc même l'armée ne sait pas où elles peuvent être. 99% d'entre elles sont des mines américaines et sud-coréennes ». Ces engins explosifs continuent de faire des victimes. Depuis la fin de la guerre, on dénombre 6 400 personnes blessées ou tuées par des mines, comme Ahn Mijae, 73 ans. Cette agricultrice, qui vit au cœur de la zone démilitarisée, est aujourd'hui en situation de handicap à cause de ces armes. « J'étais venue dans cette région pour cultiver des terres et j'avais commencé à faire pousser du ginseng. Au bord du champ, une courge était arrivée à maturité. J'ai voulu la cueillir. Au moment où j'ai posé le pied pour la prendre, il y a eu une énorme explosion. Je me suis effondrée immédiatement, ma jambe ne tenait plus qu'à un bout de chair. C'était cette mine-là, une M14 coupe-cheville, comme les Américains l'appellent », se souvient-elle. Chaque été, les pluies torrentielles de la mousson provoquent des glissements de terrain, déplaçant les mines et augmentant le danger aux abords des habitations. Ces conditions rendent le travail de déminage de Kim Ki-ho toujours plus difficile et périlleux. À lire aussiLe président sud-coréen propose un dialogue à Pyongyang pour mettre formellement fin à la guerre de Corée

En Corée du Sud, 76 ans après la fin des combats, la guerre de Corée continue chaque année de faire des victimes à cause des mines. Il y en aurait plus de deux millions le long de la frontière entre les deux Corées - la plus grande concentration au monde. Cette situation rend la frontière dangereuse alors que de nombreux Sud-Coréens y vivent et y travaillent encore. Face aux risques, un militaire à la retraite s'est donné pour mission de déminer les lieux. De notre correspondant à Séoul, Passé le checkpoint militaire, nous entrons au cœur de la zone démilitarisée. Ici, le silence n'est interrompu que par le bruit des tirs venant des bases militaires. Nous rejoignons Kim Ki-ho, 76 ans, dans son travail, au cœur d'un champ de mines. « Là, il y en a une près de l'arbre, ne bougez pas. Il faut creuser un peu, attention quand même. La M7, c'est une mine antichar américaine qui contient sept kilos de TNT. Elle est encore active. Souvent, elles viennent par grappe. Normalement, seul un véhicule lourd peut les faire exploser, mais comme la mine est très vieille, elle devient très sensible. Là, si je mets mon pied, on est morts », explique-t-il. En une trentaine de minutes, Kim Ki-ho a récupéré quatre mines dans un rayon de 50 mètres : « Rien que dans la zone où on est et à laquelle les civils ont accès, il y aurait environ 500 000 mines. À cela s'ajoutent environ 200 000 mines qui ont été placées sans être cartographiées, donc même l'armée ne sait pas où elles peuvent être. 99% d'entre elles sont des mines américaines et sud-coréennes ». Ces engins explosifs continuent de faire des victimes. Depuis la fin de la guerre, on dénombre 6 400 personnes blessées ou tuées par des mines, comme Ahn Mijae, 73 ans. Cette agricultrice, qui vit au cœur de la zone démilitarisée, est aujourd'hui en situation de handicap à cause de ces armes. « J'étais venue dans cette région pour cultiver des terres et j'avais commencé à faire pousser du ginseng. Au bord du champ, une courge était arrivée à maturité. J'ai voulu la cueillir. Au moment où j'ai posé le pied pour la prendre, il y a eu une énorme explosion. Je me suis effondrée immédiatement, ma jambe ne tenait plus qu'à un bout de chair. C'était cette mine-là, une M14 coupe-cheville, comme les Américains l'appellent », se souvient-elle. Chaque été, les pluies torrentielles de la mousson provoquent des glissements de terrain, déplaçant les mines et augmentant le danger aux abords des habitations. Ces conditions rendent le travail de déminage de Kim Ki-ho toujours plus difficile et périlleux. À lire aussiLe président sud-coréen propose un dialogue à Pyongyang pour mettre formellement fin à la guerre de Corée

TABLE OF CONTENTS, JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 8-11-2-26Mary Kissel discusses North Korea's transformation into a critical military supplier for Russia's war in Ukraine, providing ballistic missiles and thousands of combat troops. This collaboration integrates Pyongyang into an "axis of tyranny" alongside Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran to challenge the West and NATO. Kissel notes that the Kim regime's involvement stems from a desire for cash, a need to demonstrate missile capabilities, and a shared goal of weakening U.S.global influence. This development highlights the long-term failure of U.S. diplomacy to prevent North Korean nuclear proliferation and serves as a warning regarding Iran. (1)Jonathan Schanzer addresses the mysterious absence of Iran's Supreme Leader and the resulting tightening grip of the IRGC on the government. The regime is characterized as sclerotic, relying on aging hardliners with "blood on their hands" to maintain power. Meanwhile, the Houthis have escalated attacks in the Red Sea, targeting Saudi infrastructure and shipping ports like Mocha and Jazan. Schanzer argues this is a strategic move by Iran to shut down trade on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula, exploiting a lack of unity between competitive regional powers like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. (2)Liz Peek analyzes the surprisingly vigorous U.S. economy, where consumer spending and small business optimism remain high despite elevated oil prices and stagnant job growth. While the Fed weighs interest rate hikes to curb inflation, a "wealth effect" from the stock market continues to buoy the economy. Politically, Peek highlights a "civil war" within the Democratic Party, where "revolutionary" candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are challenging the establishment in key swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin. These far-left candidates struggle with electability among moderate voters in general elections. (3)Joseph Sternberg observes that the current midterm cycle has become an "election about nothing," with both parties failing to articulate clear policy agendas. He argues that Congress has outsourced its constitutional authority to the executive branch and regulatory agencies, losing the habit of legislating. This vacuum is being filled by "celebrity influencers" from the MAGA and DSA factions who prioritize social media attention over governing. Consequently, critical issues like Social Security reform and fiscal reality are being ignored until an inevitable crisis forces congressional action. (4)Gregory Copley evaluates the new "Mecca Joint Defense Agreement" between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, which aims to counter Iranian influence despite mutual distrust among the members. The discussion also explores the massive transformation of global trade routes, including China's "Ice Silk Road" through the Arctic and Russia's International North-South Transport Corridor. Copley notes that these routes aim to bypass vulnerable maritime choke points like the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz. Finally, he provides a report on King Charles III's summer activities and public engagements in Scotland. (5)Veronique de Rugy critiques the Trump administration's shift toward "socialism on the right," evidenced by the government taking ownership stakes in private companies like Intel. Often justified by national security, these interventions mirror European state-owned enterprise models that historically burden taxpayers and distort market competition. De Rugy argues that such moves make private companies hostage to government dictates, such as labor or diversity requirements. By adopting policies championed by far-left senators like Bernie Sanders, the administration risks damaging long-term economic efficiency and creating a "state enterprise" system similar to China's. (6)Ahmad Sharawi explains that Russia has secured its military foothold in Syria through a new memorandum of understanding with the Al-Shara government. Russia will maintain access to vital maritime and aerial bases for its operations in the Mediterranean and Africa, while Syria remains dependent on Russian grain and energy. Sharawi notes that the U.S. appears to be losing diplomatic leverage by removing sanctions without obtaining counterterrorism concessions or progress in neutralizing ISIS. The new Syrian administration is successfully playing major powers against each other to maintain domestic stability and maximize international benefits. (7)Samuel Ben-Ur and Bill Roggio discuss the "Board of Peace" plan for post-war Gaza, which proposes a civilian Palestinian government overseen by international forces. A significant impasse remains: Israel refuses to withdraw until Hamas is disarmed, while Hamas has endorsed the plan, likely hoping its allies—Turkey and Qatar—will oversee the verification process. The discussion reveals that Gaza's tunnel network is more extensive than previously believed, with only 40–50% cleared after years of war. One proposed solution to prevent Hamas from regrouping is filling the remaining tunnels with cement. (8)Thaddeus McCotter analyzes the Michigan Senate race between Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed, a Rhodes Scholar supported by the far-left DSA. El-Sayed's primary victory over the Democratic establishment highlights the growing influence of "woke" ideology in college towns. While El-Sayed attempts to pivot to the center for the general election, his lack of a public voting record makes his true agenda difficult to pin down. McCotter suggests the race will test whether voters will reject the "Jacobin" manifestations of cancel culture and extreme progressive policies in favor of a more traditional candidate. (9)All nine files this time, with Gregory Copley in place at (5).

Mary Kissel examines North Korea's emergence as a critical military supplier for Russia, providing ballistic missiles and combat troops to aid Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. This partnership integrates Pyongyang into a broader "axis of tyranny" alongside Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran. The discussion highlights the failure of past U.S. diplomatic efforts to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power, which now serves as a warning for current dealings with Iran. Additionally, Kissel addresses the strategic complexities of Ukraine utilizing private technology like Starlink for strikes inside Russian territory and the intractable nature of negotiations with the ideological Iranian regime. (1)

Jeongmin Kim hosts this week's NK News Podcast and is joined by Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko to discuss a series of recent satellite imagery investigations into North Korea's military infrastructure, beginning with an unusual new facility at a factory producing short-range ballistic missiles supplied to Russia. Colin explains why North Korea built and then buried the structure, what its location may suggest about safety or security requirements and how recent missile activity could relate to Pyongyang's evolving battlefield experience from the war in Ukraine. The conversation then turns to a large new complex beside Pyongyang's international telecommunications station, where 17 circular structures could eventually support satellite dishes used for communications or monitoring foreign broadcasts. Later, he breaks down the severe flooding near a major military facility in Shingae before looking at renewed construction at a long-stalled naval base north of Wonsan, as North Korea builds larger warships without suitable facilities to host them. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

Ukraine’s president warns that Pyongyang is increasingly bolstering Putin’s war effort. We ask what the fresh shipments of ground troops and weapons could mean for other Asian powers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 1,628.Today, as President Zelensky warns that as many as 50,000 North Korean troops could be preparing to deploy to Russia, we examine what a renewed role for Pyongyang could mean for the war in Ukraine. We also report on Ukraine's latest strikes against Wildberries, after one of the Russian e-commerce giant's largest warehouses was set ablaze overnight, as Kyiv continues targeting the logistics infrastructure sustaining Moscow's war machine. Then we turn to politics inside Russia, where a top Moscow court has barred an opposition anti-war party from standing in September's elections, offering another glimpse of the Kremlin's tightening grip on political life. And later, we hear firsthand what life is like in some of Ukraine's key frontline cities as the war enters a new and potentially dangerous phase, from a journalist who has just returned from the battlefield. Contributors: Francis Dearnley (Host on Ukraine: The Latest). @FrancisDearnley on X.Sophie O'Sullivan (Telegraph Journalist). With thanks to journalist and author Felicity Spector. @felicityspector on Instagram.Producer: Phil AtkinsSenior Producer: Lilian FawcettVideo Producer: Sophie O'SullivanSocial Producer: Tom SteedStudio Director: Meghan SearleExecutive Editor: Francis DearnleyCreated by David KnowlesNOW IN FULL VIDEO WITH MAPS & BATTLEFIELD FOOTAGE:Every episode is now available on our YouTube channel shortly after the release of the audio version. You will find it here: https://www.youtube.com/@UkraineTheLatest CONTENT REFERENCED:Felicity's Book ‘Bread and War':https://amzn.eu/d/07Go8UBm Learn more about ‘Bake for Ukraine':https://bakeforukraine.org/ Putin's war machine scours the home front for recruits (Financial Times):https://www.ft.com/content/45289802-848f-4fa6-9769-6971b4b69bcc?syn-25a6b1a6=1 Janis Kluge's Substack:https://janiskluge.substack.com/p/russian-recruitment-stabilizes-at If you're interested in sponsoring Dom's upcoming defence event, email our colleagues at events@telegraph.co.ukEMAIL US:Contact the team on ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk. We continue to read every message, and seek to respond to as many as possible.HIGHLIGHTS: North Korea 'sending 50,000 troops' as its missiles fall on Ukraine Wildberries campaign re-ignites as 156,000m2 warehouse ablaze Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Les treillis nord-coréens se font de plus en plus nombreux sur le sol russe. ⁠Le président ukrainien estime ⁠à 50 000 au maximum le nombre de soldats déployés pour combattre aux côtés de la Russie, alliée de Pyongyang. Un afflux de militaires non russes qui intervient à un moment où Vladimir Poutine peine à recruter au sein de sa population et à accumuler les réserves nécessaires à des opérations de grande ampleur. Entretien avec Marie Mendras, professeure à l'École des affaires internationales de Sciences Po et auteure de La guerre permanente : l'ultime stratégie du Kremlin, aux éditions Calmann-Lévy. 

Former U.N. official Jerome Sauvage joins this week's podcast to discuss his new book, Witness to North Korea: Three Years on the Ground in the DPRK, which recounts his posting in Pyongyang from late 2009 to early 2013. He explains why he accepted one of the U.N.'s most difficult assignments and what it took to reopen the U.N. Development Programme office after its 2007 closure amid allegations over financial controls and sanctions evasion. The conversation explores North Korea's failed 2009 currency redenomination, the gap between Pyongyang and the impoverished countryside and what census data, cooperative farms and the public distribution system revealed about chronic food insecurity and the growing importance of markets. Sauvage also reflects on living in North Korea during the sinking of the Cheonan warship and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, as well as attending Kim Jong Il's official wake and observing the fear, grief and uncertainty surrounding Kim Jong Un's rise to power. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

Of the two Koreas, it is the South which appears much the more Christian today, with all major cities dotted with church spires and illuminated crosses. But a century ago it was the northern half of the peninsula that was the more established home for Christianity, the northwestern city of Pyongyang being celebrated as a “Jerusalem of the East.” And among the faith's devotees were the parents of the man who would eventually come to lead the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the middle of the twentieth century. Kim Il Sung, Jonathan Cheng shows in his fluidly written and richly researched book Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult (Knopf, 2026), grew up in an environment suffused in Christian teachings and actively involved himself in church life, facts which raise questions about his later career as a guerrilla fighter and national leader. Cheng traces the long arc of Christian associations in Kim's biography, from the arrival of Presbyterianism in Korea through to the leader's battles with the church as North Korean leader, his softening towards the faith in later life, and of course his erection of a personality cult around himself that had no few similarities with the practices and aesthetics of Christianity. Understanding North Korea from its founding until the present day thus, Cheng shows, demands an awareness of an at-times-astonishing collision of religion, nationalism and authoritarianism which are narrated expertly in this thought-provoking book. Jonathan Cheng professional web page here Book website here Ed Pulford is an Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on friendships and histories between the Chinese, Korean and Russian worlds, and socialism and empire in Eurasia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Of the two Koreas, it is the South which appears much the more Christian today, with all major cities dotted with church spires and illuminated crosses. But a century ago it was the northern half of the peninsula that was the more established home for Christianity, the northwestern city of Pyongyang being celebrated as a “Jerusalem of the East.” And among the faith's devotees were the parents of the man who would eventually come to lead the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the middle of the twentieth century. Kim Il Sung, Jonathan Cheng shows in his fluidly written and richly researched book Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult (Knopf, 2026), grew up in an environment suffused in Christian teachings and actively involved himself in church life, facts which raise questions about his later career as a guerrilla fighter and national leader. Cheng traces the long arc of Christian associations in Kim's biography, from the arrival of Presbyterianism in Korea through to the leader's battles with the church as North Korean leader, his softening towards the faith in later life, and of course his erection of a personality cult around himself that had no few similarities with the practices and aesthetics of Christianity. Understanding North Korea from its founding until the present day thus, Cheng shows, demands an awareness of an at-times-astonishing collision of religion, nationalism and authoritarianism which are narrated expertly in this thought-provoking book. Jonathan Cheng professional web page here Book website here Ed Pulford is an Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on friendships and histories between the Chinese, Korean and Russian worlds, and socialism and empire in Eurasia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Of the two Koreas, it is the South which appears much the more Christian today, with all major cities dotted with church spires and illuminated crosses. But a century ago it was the northern half of the peninsula that was the more established home for Christianity, the northwestern city of Pyongyang being celebrated as a “Jerusalem of the East.” And among the faith's devotees were the parents of the man who would eventually come to lead the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the middle of the twentieth century. Kim Il Sung, Jonathan Cheng shows in his fluidly written and richly researched book Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult (Knopf, 2026), grew up in an environment suffused in Christian teachings and actively involved himself in church life, facts which raise questions about his later career as a guerrilla fighter and national leader. Cheng traces the long arc of Christian associations in Kim's biography, from the arrival of Presbyterianism in Korea through to the leader's battles with the church as North Korean leader, his softening towards the faith in later life, and of course his erection of a personality cult around himself that had no few similarities with the practices and aesthetics of Christianity. Understanding North Korea from its founding until the present day thus, Cheng shows, demands an awareness of an at-times-astonishing collision of religion, nationalism and authoritarianism which are narrated expertly in this thought-provoking book. Jonathan Cheng professional web page here Book website here Ed Pulford is an Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on friendships and histories between the Chinese, Korean and Russian worlds, and socialism and empire in Eurasia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Of the two Koreas, it is the South which appears much the more Christian today, with all major cities dotted with church spires and illuminated crosses. But a century ago it was the northern half of the peninsula that was the more established home for Christianity, the northwestern city of Pyongyang being celebrated as a “Jerusalem of the East.” And among the faith's devotees were the parents of the man who would eventually come to lead the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the middle of the twentieth century. Kim Il Sung, Jonathan Cheng shows in his fluidly written and richly researched book Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult (Knopf, 2026), grew up in an environment suffused in Christian teachings and actively involved himself in church life, facts which raise questions about his later career as a guerrilla fighter and national leader. Cheng traces the long arc of Christian associations in Kim's biography, from the arrival of Presbyterianism in Korea through to the leader's battles with the church as North Korean leader, his softening towards the faith in later life, and of course his erection of a personality cult around himself that had no few similarities with the practices and aesthetics of Christianity. Understanding North Korea from its founding until the present day thus, Cheng shows, demands an awareness of an at-times-astonishing collision of religion, nationalism and authoritarianism which are narrated expertly in this thought-provoking book. Jonathan Cheng professional web page here Book website here Ed Pulford is an Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on friendships and histories between the Chinese, Korean and Russian worlds, and socialism and empire in Eurasia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/korean-studies

We are joined by Dr. Benjamin R. Young to discuss his TNSR article, "Saving Socialism: What North Korea Learned from the Collapse of the Soviet Union." Dr. Young argues that the fall of the USSR profoundly influenced Pyongyang's grand strategy. Rather than embracing reform, he explains that North Korea interpreted the Soviet collapse as a failure of ideological fervor and leadership. He contends that this historical turning point catalyzed North Korea's shift toward "military first" politics (Songun), stricter information blockades, and the accelerated development of its nuclear weapons program. Join us for a fascinating conversation on regime survival, Stalinism, and the historical drivers of North Korea's modern security posture. Guest: Dr. Benjamin R. Young (Assistant Professor of Intelligence Studies at Fayetteville State University) Hosts: Sheena Chestnut Greitens Ryan Vest, PhD Producer: Jordan Morning

In this episode of The Diplomat's Asia Geopolitics Podcast hosts Ankit Panda and Katie Putz examine the status of the Russia-North Korea partnership. Since the signing of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty in 2024, the two have held three strategic dialogues, the most recent in late July in Moscow. How transactional is the massive shift in their relations and how sensitive is it to the Ukraine war? And what does China -- which has its own nuanced relations with North Korea and Russia -- think about the growing closeness between Moscow and Pyongyang?You can subscribe to The Diplomat's Asia Geopolitics podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; and watch the episode on YouTube.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Ukraine strikes another Wildberries logistics hub, and new reporting says the Kremlin is considering emergency support for Russia's largest online retailer. We examine how Kyiv's campaign against Russia's version of Amazon could create unexpected pressure on the country's banking system. The fighting between the United States and Iran intensifies after Tehran launches a surprise missile attack on American forces in Jordan, prompting U.S. and allied retaliation. Ukraine warns that Russia is preparing to deploy as many as 30,000 North Korean troops, marking a dramatic expansion of Pyongyang's role in the war. In today's Back of the Brief, the U.S. military is reportedly considering requiring some troops in the Middle East to surrender their cell phones over fears Iran is using social media to identify and target American bases. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Cardiff: Get fast business funding without bank delays—apply in minutes with Cardiff and access up to $500,000 in same‑day funding at https://Cardiff.co/PDB QUO: Make this the season where no opportunity slips away. Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://Quo.com/PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes the hardest setback becomes the start of a far better life. I speak with Jeff Brown, an international photography business mentor whose path began with dyslexia, school struggles, and a fishing fly business at age 16. Jeff shares how military photography, personal branding, and business skills helped him build a successful creative career. He also opens up about losing everything through a failed pub, rebuilding his mental health, and creating a global photography mentoring business. His story shows how persistence, clear goals, strong branding, and the courage to change direction can create an unstoppable life. Highlights: 00:01:38 - How dyslexia and school struggles shaped Jeff's drive to work for himself. 00:05:58 - The first sale that showed him entrepreneurship was possible. 00:14:50 - Why passion and effort mattered more than early photography skills. 00:35:49 - How branding and marketing helped grow four photography businesses. 00:39:06 - The business failure that forced Jeff to rebuild his life. 01:01:49 - Why clear goals, strong branding, and steady action create growth. About the Guest: Jeff Brown is an International Photography Business Mentor, Best Selling Photography Business Author, Public Speaker and President of The British Institute of Professional Photography. Also working for The International School Photography Conference Team he has delivered sell-out courses and workshops around the world. Jeff works closely with photographers from all niches and photographic backgrounds having a real passion to help them grow their online brand and achieve their goals.          Jeff first dipped his toe into entrepreneurship at the age of 15 while still at school, selling handmade fishing flies to local tackle shops to boost his pocket money. After leaving school at 16 he set up his first full-time venture, a mail-order fishing tackle business. His fishing tackle business came to an end 7 years later, shortly after Jeff enlisted in the Royal Navy where he went on to serve as a military photographer and intelligence analysist.            Following nearly 10 years service he left the armed forces to set up his own photography company, and eighteen months later had a successful six-figure wedding photography company and a commercial photography business, then going on to open a separate school photography business and a Boudoir Makeover studio turning over 1,000 boudoir and model shoots per year.            In 2014 Jeff decided to follow his dreams of owning a country food pub by investing over £120k of his own money into a pub venture, which turned out to be his greatest ever failure, losing his entire investment and racking up £60k of debt in just 12 months while at the same time going through a divorce.           After suffering from depression in 2015, he changed direction again and developed an online photography business mentoring program, making it his mission to help and inspire photographers worldwide to market their businesses better.                                                Part of Jeff's major focus and teachings are in the areas of Goal Setting, Brand Message, Consistency, and Website Content including the new AI and AEO search on Google, and also his favourite social media platform which is LinkedIn. It's essential to have a mindset for success and a clear path to follow. No business can truly succeed without goals, direction, a powerful brand and a positive mindset to achieve.        Jeff has written 4 internationally best-selling photography books and recently published his first travel book – ·      The Photographers Missing Link-edIn ·      The Ambitious Photographer's Journal          ·      Help My Photography Website Needs More Customers        ·      The Photographer's Gratitude & Mindset Journal       ·      Plan Your Ultimate Northumberland 250 Road Trip   He writes for several photography magazines and associations and is also a brand ambassador for OM System (Olympus Cameras), The British Photography Awards, Studio Ninja, The Societies of Photographers, and the UK and US Brand Ambassador for The Shutter Studio App.         Jeff lives in the beautiful scenic county of Northumberland, England. He's a keen traveller having visited over 60 countries so far, as well as being an outdoor enthusiast, motorbiker and loves getting out in nature when ever he can. Ways to connect with Jeff**:** Website: www.thephotographersmentor.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/JeffBrownThePhotographersMentorLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/thephotographersmentorAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff%20Brown/author/B09M76J1XK About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:04 What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what's in front of you, but rather what you believe? Welcome to Unstoppable Mindset, where inclusion, diversity, and the unexpected meet. I'm your host, Michael Hingston, speaker, author, and advocate for inclusion and possibilities. This podcast explores how the beliefs we carry shape the way we live, lead, and connect with others. Each week, I talk with people who challenge assumptions, face adversity head-on, and show what's possible when we choose curiosity over fear. Together, we focus on mindset, resilience, and the small shifts that lead to meaningful change. Let's get started. Hi again, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Unstoppable Mindset. You know what's really fun about this podcast is we get to meet all sorts of people who talk about all sorts of different kinds of things, and today we get to talk to a gentleman from England, Jeff Brown, and Jeff, among other things, is an international photography business mentor, best-selling photography business author, he's a public speaker and also the president of the British Public Institute of Photography. I think I said that right. Jeff Brown  01:36 British British Institute of Professional Photography. British Michael Hingson  01:40 Institute of Professional Photography. Got to say it right, but anyway, and and all sorts of other things. He's an adventurous kind of person, as you're going to learn in the course of the day. So, Jeff, I want to welcome you to Unstoppable Mindset, and we're really glad you're here. Jeff Brown  01:55 Thank you. Thanks for having me on. Michael Hingson  01:57 Well, I'm glad to do it, and I have a visitor in the studio today, my cat Stitch, who is monitoring this, and I'm sure that if she has any opinions, she's going to voice them. But we'll see. Stitch is a wonderful kitty. She's almost 16 years old, and we we love having her around. But anyway, so Jeff, why don't we start by you telling us kind of maybe about the early Jeff growing up and some of those things, and we'll go from there. Jeff Brown  02:25 So growing up, so I grew up in the northeast of England, and I was born in 1970. So I'm 55 now, and back in sort of late 70s, early 80s, the northeast of England was a was a bit of a grim place. It was gray. It was there was a lot of poverty. It was mainly coal mining and shipbuilding, and it was the old sort of mentality of you know you go to school, you study hard, you get a job, you stay in the job for for your life, you retire, and then you're dead. That's it. Yeah. So, for some reason, that didn't really, really appeal to me. And I used to love reading. I read loads of books. I was obsessed with books. Got into books from a very early age. Into sort of fantasy type books, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and stuff like that. But it was only when I got into maybe probably about the the junior schools I'd gone through the infant school I got to about eight or nine year old that I realized there was something the matter with me in the fact that I'm really struggled with with school I wasn't very good at it years and years later, I found out I was dyslexic, but I couldn't read out aloud. I had real problems with numbers. Numbers seemed to always look the wrong way around to me, and I got an instant dislike of school and an instant dislike of authority. I had I just I couldn't wait to get out of it, but I was quite creative when I got into fishing, I was good at making fishing flies. I got into photography, and that sort of gave me more of a creative mindset. Where I thought, well, I don't want to work for anybody else. I don't want to be told what to do. I want to try and make my own direction. And I decided that I was going to be self-employed or you know start my own business at the age of 14, Michael Hingson  04:23 what did your parents think of your your kind of independent mindset or entrepreneurial mindset? Because you must have voiced it along the way. Jeff Brown  04:31 Well, I did, yeah, and funny enough, you know, I said I had a real dislike of school. I mean, I actually not not overly proud of it, but I was expelled from school at the age of 16, kicked out of school because I got into quite a bit of trouble. I was I was very rebellious. I really disliked it with the passion, and I left school with zero qualifications. So I didn't I didn't pass any exams. I filled every exam that I actually bothered to turn up for, but to. It matters worse. My dad was a college lecturer, and my mum was a teacher. So, so obviously it didn't go down well with with having two parents who were in the education system. But they backed me 100% They were they they could see that I was struggling, but dyslexia wasn't really a thing that was talked about back. Yeah, and yeah, my my dad put forward at the time one and a half 1000 pound to help me get onto the you know get the equipment I needed and the the office space to start my first business. Michael Hingson  05:34 So it was pretty supportive, Jeff Brown  05:36 very supportive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and and I think it helped as well that my first business was making fishing flies and tying and exporting fishing flies to fishing businesses around the world. But my dad was keen on fishing as well, so he had he had an attraction to the business. Michael Hingson  05:54 Okay. Well, I know that my wife had lots of relatives in England. A lot of them were from the Cornwall Mosel area, and a lot of them, of course, were very much into fishing. Jeff Brown  06:05 Oh yeah, yeah. I know Cornwall. In fact, I spent a year in Cornwall on on Navy search and rescue, and that would have been 1919 98 I think it was then very beautiful place. Michael Hingson  06:19 I've not been. I'd love to go sometime. We'll have to figure that out. Jeff Brown  06:23 Yeah, it is. It's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. Michael Hingson  06:26 So you started this business. So you were basically 15 when you started the the business, which I think is kind of interesting. That's at a young age, and of course, by the time you were 16, as you said, you got expelled from school, which had to not be very very much fun. Jeff Brown  06:44 Yeah, I mean, well, to be honest, so the the starting of the business, I used to I used to go into the fishing tackle shops at weekend myself and one of my friends who who I used to go fishing with, and he was good at making flies. He was called Phil. Obviously, I'm called Jeff, and we decided we were going to create a business called PJ Flies. And one weekend, we we went into one of the local fish and tackle shops, and we were buying some some bits and bobs to make fish and flies with. And the business owner, the owner of the shop, said, "Look, says, look, if you bring me some flies down next week, if they if they if they're any good, I'll buy them off you. So we walked into the shop and took these fishing flies in the following week in a little presentation box. And I remember him individually taking each fly out at a time because he said, "How much how much how much are you going to sell me them for? And I said, "Well, I'll sell them for 10 pence each. So he was taking them out, and I was counting up in my head. And at the time, my pocket money was, I think, was three or four pounds a week, and I came out of that shop with a 10-pound note. So it was double what I was getting paid off my pocket money, and it was such a great feeling. So that was my first ever sort of dip into entrepreneurship, earning money, and and he said, and the last thing he said as I went out the door, he says, if you can if you can make the same amount next week or even double, bring them back and I'll buy them off you. So the following week I went back and made 20 quid. Michael Hingson  08:18 Wow, what goes into making a fly, I'm not a fisherman by by training or anything, so I don't know a lot about fly fishing. Jeff Brown  08:27 Yeah, so it's all feathers and so feathers and furrows, and it's all held onto the hook with with a very fine thread, like what's called a gossamer thread. It takes it takes a while to learn. So I was taught by an old guy who was a really good fisherman, and he he had a caravan on the same caravan site that my parents had that they used to go on holiday on, and because we we we never used to go abroad in those days, all the holidays were spent in England, and that he he saw that I was getting into fishing, and he came and taught me how to how to tie fishing flies, which was great. Michael Hingson  09:06 Yeah, and of course, the whole idea behind the fly is to attract the fish, right? Jeff Brown  09:10 That's right. Yeah, yeah. Michael Hingson  09:13 So that they will, if you will, take the bait. Jeff Brown  09:16 Yeah, yeah, totally. And the funny thing was, I was yeah, I used to love fishing, but I don't need fish, so I would either put you know put them back in the in in the river, or I'd I'd give them away to to members of the family. Michael Hingson  09:30 Wow. Well, and suddenly fortunes changed, and there you were making flies and selling them. Jeff Brown  09:37 That's right. That's right. Michael Hingson  09:39 So how long did you do that? Jeff Brown  09:42 So we we got we got a proper sort of business premises in 1986. So when I was I was 16 year old, and we applied for a grant with the then Prince's Trust, which was run by Prince Charles, who's now King Charles. And we were the youngest people in in the UK to be accepted for a grant. They bent the rules and they give us the grant under the age of 18. So we got the grant at 17 year old, and then shortly after, we were in a business sort of a business community, a big a big workspace with lots of offices with other creative people in, and shortly after the the center had opened, about six months after, the the the manager of the center came up and says, "Well, look, we'd like to we'd like you to make a box of salmon flies, but a really good box of salmon flies, all the best ones, and we'll pay you. And it's going to be a presentation box for a special guest who's coming to officially open the business center in a few months. But we can't tell you who it is. And anyway, it turned out two months later it was it was Prince Charles. Speaker 1  10:59 He Jeff Brown  10:59 came to visit us, and he was presented with a box of fishing flies-the the flies that we tied from. Michael Hingson  11:07 Wow, that was pretty cool. So you got to meet him. Jeff Brown  11:11 So yeah, we got to meet him. He talked about fishing. He talked about fly tying. He said he'd he'd been bought a fly tying kit for Christmas one year from his wife, who would have been Princess Diana, but he couldn't get away from get away from it. It was too. He found it too complicated and too complex. So he says, "I really admire that you you know that you guys can can tie the flies. So so yeah. So it was nice. It was nice to meet him. It was nice to be able to do that presentation box, and we had that business till I was 26 so Michael Hingson  11:45 10 years, Jeff Brown  11:46 nearly 10 years. Yeah. Michael Hingson  11:48 Now, have you met him ever since Jeff Brown  11:52 then? I haven't met him, but I have met other members of the the royal family because I was a my next stage in business, so my next stage in life was to become a a military photographer. I met a few members of the royal family in my capacity as a military photographer. So I went from so one avenue being creative, which was the fishing flies, into sort of another avenue being creative. And the funny thing was, I'd never had any intention of John in the military. None of my family were in the military. My dad had done his national service, and my granddad had served in the in the navy during the Second World War. But just on a whim, one day I happened to be walking past a military careers office, and I thought I'd pop in. I love cooking. I thought, oh look, I'd seen a picture on the window where he could train to be a military chef. Yeah, okay. So I went into enquire about being a chef, joined as an aircraft engineer, and then transferred across to become a military photographer. And funny enough, like I said early on, that I hate authority and I hate being told what to do because that came from a hatred of hatred of schools. Michael Hingson  13:10 A school, right? Jeff Brown  13:11 But I believe that the military was different because people say, "Well, you know, if you if you hate authority and hate being told what to do, why the hell did you go and join the military? But the military was very different in the fact that I put up with the I put up with the authority because the military give you adventure. It wasn't a nine foot nine to five. It wasn't a routine job, you know. So it give and I love excitement. I love adventure. I love the the idea of every day being different. So so I was happy enough to put up with military life, and I did that for nearly nine years. Michael Hingson  13:49 Well, so did you find that the military respected your creativity as you grew at being a photographer, and so you were a photographer, so that you were allowed to, to to be creative and do the things that you wanted to do, or did you find that there was just as much authoritarianism, if you will, and they kept telling you what to Jeff Brown  14:15 do? No, no, they were very good at being creative. Funny, the the military photography branch-it's only a small branch. It's about 80 people in the in the in the navy photography branch. So by comparison to all the other branches of the navy, it's tiny, and it's always also a very sought after branch. So basically, have to wait till somebody retires or somebody, you know, gives up their position that you can actually request, and I just managed to get in at the right time where somebody had left, and I applied, and I got accepted and went on to their training course, and their training course is is quite intense, 26 exams in six months, but. All the people who run it are really passionate photographers, so they're all about developing your own creativity. Yes, there's rules and regulations to follow, but it was very different than other other avenues of the armed forces. And then, you know, your average working day, you were you were given a lot of freedom. You were given a brief for a job, but then quite often you would just go off and design that job the way you wanted, you know. Michael Hingson  15:24 But why did you, since you, I guess you, as you said, joined as an aircraft engineer? Why did you decide to look at photography? What what attracted you to that? Jeff Brown  15:35 Because I didn't. Well, first of all, I didn't realize you could be a military photographer. So it was, and you can't join as a military photographer anyway. It's what's called a sidewards entry branch. You have have to have served three years in a in a another part of the armed forces before you can apply. And to apply to get into the military military photography branch, you have to pretty much do it on your own merit. So you've got to build a portfolio up. You've got to do all the application yourself, and they also look at your. It's not like the way you react to discipline, the way you think on your own two feet, sort of thing. So, funny enough, when I went through the interviews and and they looked at my portfolio, they said that my my work was pretty poor, but they loved the way I thought, and they loved the way I was driven, and would get up early and go out and do stuff. This is, you know, it's the it's the passion and the the willingness to learn. We can teach you all the other stuff, but you you know you you're showing that willingness and and going that extra mile. That's that's what got us in and and got us to be accepted into the into the branch. It wasn't my skills as a photographer because I was that was pretty useless. Pretty new, Michael Hingson  16:49 yeah, Jeff Brown  16:50 yeah. But you know they they developed that. Michael Hingson  16:55 So the the whole idea of going in and learning to cook and being a chef kind of went by the wayside, huh? Jeff Brown  17:00 It did, yes. But I still, I still, I still love cooking to this day, and I was still very passionate about it. And I always had a dream of, you know, one day owning a a pub or running a food pub, Michael Hingson  17:12 right? Well, and you know things happen, but you you clearly are an adventurous sort of person that you even chose to do all of this, and that-that's in of itself, I think, admirable to you know to do that. So you you became a photographer, and so what kind of things did you do during the time you were in the military from a photographic standpoint? Jeff Brown  17:40 So we would do everything. We do everything from portraits of sort of admirals in uniform, official portraits. We do big presentations and awards. We do a lot of PR photography. So we'd be we'd be tasked with with a concept or an idea, or being told something is happening, or we want to promote this, so they might say, right? We've got an aircraft carrier coming into your area. Can you come up with some ideas to to sort of really promote it? Something that look really exciting. It'll encourage people to to join the military because one of the one of the things military photography branch, it's it's about PR. It's trying to get pictures of the military into the into the newspapers in a positive light. So you know, young young men and women go, "Oh, that looks great! I'd love to join, and it serves them an absolute fortune in in in advertising. So so that was that was a lot of the stuff we did, we create concepts and ideas, and quite often the concept and ideas led to having a lot of fun. You know, I'd say like, well, what have I got at my disposal? And then an admiral might say, well, what do you need? I said, well, I need a few helicopters. I need some fast patrol boats. I need some marines on on on ribs lent over these these you know rigid inflatable boats all camouflaged up with their cam cream on and their rifles and they'll be in front of the in front of the the aircraft carrier then we'll have the the helicopters flying in the background and all this was was so basically controlled by us, so we would have headsets on. We'd be talking to the, talking to the the pilots. We'd be directing people, and those shoots probably cost 10s and 10s of 1000s of pounds to to put together. When you think about it, but it was great to see some of the images come out. And in those days, when I first started doing it, we were shooting a lot of the stuff on film, so we didn't have the the the the benefit of seeing the images instantly, as in you know with digital photography. Michael Hingson  19:51 I was going to say much less digitally editing it. It was all on film. Jeff Brown  19:54 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Michael Hingson  19:56 When did it migrate over to be more digital? Jeff Brown  20:00 So we were still we when I was in training we we were using digital but still preferred you to to do a bit more on the film side of things Michael Hingson  20:08 higher quality Jeff Brown  20:10 yeah and and they also I think for like an archival purposes for the idea of have negatives and hard print Speaker 2  20:18 yeah Jeff Brown  20:19 but then you know towards like the 2004 two you know 2003 2004 Then they were starting to embrace digital fully, and and you know do away with all the the film. Michael Hingson  20:33 Wow! Jeff Brown  20:34 And obviously there is the cost aspect as well. You know because you with film it costs every time you you press the shutter button, you know you can you can take a lot more images. But I suppose it does it does make you a bit more of a lazy photographer. Michael Hingson  20:49 Well, I I suppose in some senses it can. It just depends on how disciplined you are. Well, you seem to be a pretty disciplined kind of person, and so you you worked at that pretty well, and I can. I can appreciate that. So so when did you start doing photography for the military? When did you enroll in the military? Jeff Brown  21:11 So that was 1997 Michael Hingson  21:14 Okay, so you were what 2526 25 Jeff Brown  21:19 Yeah, 2026 Yeah, yeah, 2627 yeah. Michael Hingson  21:23 Well, and the the thing about photography or or any skill like that that is is pretty unique and pretty new for you is that you had to really develop the knack to doing it, but you obviously also had to have a lot of understanding about things like, as you said, PR and all that. I mean, some of that just had to be a little bit more natural, or just you observed so much that you realized the value of it. And as you pointed out, having the the whole photography branch in the military had to be incredibly much less expensive for the military, no matter what you wanted them to do, than them doing PR in other ways because it was all done internally. Yes, yes, you had to have helicopters and military people and all that other stuff, but they didn't have to pay the company to go out and, or didn't have to pay it much to go out and do the photography because you're the company. Jeff Brown  22:29 That's right. That's right. And also, some some of the jobs were required a certain level of vetting that they couldn't bring a company in unless those people were vetted. To you know, like on, I did quite a few photography shoots on nuclear submarines, which you you can't enter a nuclear submarine base unless you're you're vetted to a certain level. Michael Hingson  22:51 Right. Now that brings up a point. So let's let's go back to that. So going into a nuclear submarine base and so on, and and doing photography. What what was the purpose of pictures for that? Since it had to be pretty cleared and must have been somewhat classified. Jeff Brown  23:11 Well, sometimes some of the the shoots on board the submarine would be like award ceremonies. So okay, yeah, you know, people getting medals or achievements, and actually getting a photograph from receiving their award from the captain of the submarine. But then sometimes we would have PR photographs of of the the submarine sailing, and we'd be on speedboats going down the lock, photographing the submarine. Michael Hingson  23:41 But what you were not doing was taking pictures of things that were so classified that they didn't dare show them to the public or whatever. Jeff Brown  23:49 Yes, yes, Michael Hingson  23:50 yeah. Which which makes sense. Speaker 1  23:57 If you enjoy unstoppable mindset and would like to help us continue bringing these conversations to you each week, we've created a way for you to support the show. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and continue sharing stories, insights, and ideas that inspire people to live with purpose and possibility. If supporting the podcast feels right for you, you'll find the link in the show notes. Thank you for being part of the Unstoppable Mindset Community. Michael Hingson  24:30 So you you did that, and so you clearly found a niche to to do and to to work at, and obviously loved it. Jeff Brown  24:43 I do. I mean, it took it took a while to get the confidence. I'm quite an introverted person, so where I love taking photographs, and you know, it's easy to take photographs of things and objects and landscapes and that sort of stuff. It's. It's quite hard when you don't have a lot of confidence and you are quite introverted to start directing people and telling people what to do, especially when you had to direct, you know, entire ships, companies, or groups of 4050, people to do a a group shot at the awards ceremony. So that that was something that took a bit of getting used to and put me out of my comfort zone to to become a bit more sociable and a bit less introverted, and also direct people from behind the camera. Michael Hingson  25:31 So you you became a director, Jeff Brown  25:35 I suppose. Yeah, you do. In some senses, Michael Hingson  25:38 anyway. Jeff Brown  25:38 Yeah, yeah, and from from another point of view, I sudden realized that you know you might not like directing people, or you might be really nervous about speaking to people you've never met before and telling them what to do. But quite often, the people on the other side of the camera are just as nervous as you because they don't like having their photograph taken. They feel awkward, so you know part of your job as a photographer is to put people at ease and make people feel comfortable. Michael Hingson  26:03 Yeah, and I think about it as a public speaker. I keep hearing all the time that one of the top fears that people have is speaking and standing on a stage and speaking. And I and I finally realize that that's because we're conditioning people to think that it's scary, but the fact of the matter is that, and I still believe this to this day, audiences want speakers to succeed. Unless you're just a real jerk, audiences want you to succeed, and I would think that that some of that same level of confidence goes into what you do as a photographer. You are-they want you to succeed, and the people who are nervous about you taking their pictures and so on. Your job, as you point out, is to kind of help make them feel more comfortable about Jeff Brown  26:55 it. Yeah, and and you, you know, on from your point of view, you know, you you want somebody to love the picture? Michael Hingson  27:02 Yeah, Jeff Brown  27:02 you want someone to go, oh wow, you know, like actually take away their their dislike and awkwardness of having a photograph taken, and you know it's it's quite rewarding when you see somebody go, oh wow, I didn't know I could look that good, you know, because you've you've directed them, you've posed them, you've helped them feel more relaxed, and they see themselves in a different because it's it's quite it quite often it's not that somebody always looks awkward or you know they don't take a good picture as people say oh don't take my picture I don't take a good picture you know it's the fact that they've never been directed they've never they've always felt felt uncomfortable and awkward so it comes through in the the final image because they don't look relaxed. They don't look natural. They've got this fake smile. They look uncomfortable. Michael Hingson  27:49 I know. For me, I've I've never worried about that. Of course, being blind my whole life, I never really cared a whole lot about pictures. Yeah. So I love to pick on pictures all the time. So you know, for example, people say that a picture is worth 1000 words, and I just point out, yeah, but it takes a whole lot more memory. So, but but but I I appreciate pictures, and I've learned a lot more about photography and appreciating photography ever since September 11th. And part of that was my guide dog Roselle at the time, who became a real camera ham hound. She loved to be in front of the camera, and there was one time we were on a Larry King show on CNN, and you know his shots are and the photographers and and the and everything on the show is basically front like from the chest up, and and so on, and they take pictures. So one day we were going to be on the show, and they made a a little platform that Roselle, my guide dog, could lie on, and they said, "Okay, put her up on there, and I did, and she laid down, put her head between her paws, and that was it. And the director came like about a minute before the show started, and he said, "Isn't there anything you can do to get her to react more and to be a little bit more involved in the show? And I said, "Are the Klieg lights on yet? And he said, "No. I said, "Just wait till you turn the lights on. Everything will change. The lights came on. She lifted up her head, started blinking her eyes and flashing her eyelashes, smiling and licking her chops, and just having a good old time. She loved the camera. It was so funny. Jeff Brown  29:39 Yeah, I can't get. I can't get my dog to sit. He won't sit in front. He won't sit in front of the camera. He's a working Springer Spaniel. He will not stay still for two minutes. And there's something about it. Every time you look, you pick up the camera. I think he knows that you want to take a picture, and he turns his head away. He looks the opposite direction. Michael Hingson  29:57 Yeah. See, Roselle was exactly the opposite. Knew you wanted to take her picture, and she was going, "Bring it on! She just absolutely loved it. It was so funny, and and and it was it was a blessing. But it it as as we talked about it, as I talked to photographers and other people when we dealt with different interviews and so on, I grew to appreciate the value of pictures and what it was that they were trying to get, and it didn't take any work really to get Roselle to be involved in that. It didn't take a lot of work to get me involved with it, but I gained a greater understanding of it. So I certainly value the fact that there's there's a lot of reasons for taking photographs, although I also like audio input and other things like that that I'm going to see. But still, it's it's great that we have this technology, and nowadays, of course, because it is so digital, it makes it so much easier. Jeff Brown  30:59 It does. I think I think obviously there's you know everybody's using photographer now. Everyone walks around with a camera in their pocket, which is you know effectively a smartphone, and the quality of the images that you can take on a phone are fantastic. You know the you know the the resolution, the color saturation, the the look absolutely amazing. But sometimes I think people forget to stop and appreciate the moment. So everybody is more, you know, getting the picture taken, sticking it onto Instagram, onto Facebook, and also we have all these digital memories. But not many people are printing pictures out and putting them on the walls like we used to in the 80s and 90s. You know, family portraits, and I think that is a big thing that photographers need to be to be sort of reinventing and encouraging people to to enjoy the wall art, personalize the home, have a picture on the wall that brings a smile to your face every time you see it. Because if you take it on your phone, you you enjoy it for a second, and then it becomes a memory, and it goes in. I looked the other day. I've got 14 and a half 1000 pictures on my phone. Yeah. So, and I only ever see them, you know, seconds after I take them and I post them on Facebook, and then maybe a year later when a Facebook memory comes up and reminds me, oh, this is what you were doing this time last year. Michael Hingson  32:20 Yeah. Well. Well, and I understand that, and I, I, I also understand what you're saying about lazy photography because, as you said, you take the picture, you look at it, and it's gone, and you don't necessarily do all you can to make sure that the picture is looking as good as it as it can look, and sometimes we just rely on the automatic zoom and other things like that to make the picture look good. But the bottom line is that ultimately we're in control of it and really should make the picture as good as we can make it. Jeff Brown  32:54 Yeah, I mean that was that was what we were taught in the military right at the very beginning. And as I say, you know, was starting out on on on film cameras. It was get it right in the camera. You know, get it right in the camera. It'll look a lot better, and it'll save you hours of time in the dark room. And then there's a tendency now for photographers to think, "Oh, that'll do. I'll just sort it out in Photoshop afterwards, and which again takes time. And as a photographer, time is money. So yeah, yeah. The better you can get the composition and the and the way a photograph looks in the camera, then the less work you're going to have to do afterwards. Michael Hingson  33:35 Yeah, which makes perfect sense. And so I appreciate that. Well, so you were in the military for 10 years, and what made you retire from the military? And also, what kind of skills did you learn that you then took away from the military? One of them had to be accepting authority a little bit more, but I'm being sarcastic. But still, what what kind of skills and so on did you learn, and and did you take away, and and why did you even leave the military after 10 years? Jeff Brown  34:07 So, so being a military photographer, I was a military photographer, and there was a new a new sort of breed of like a new discipline that was coming into into the into our area into the the photography branch, and it was called IA, which is an intelligence analyst, and they believed that photographers, probably rightly, had a real attention to detail and a keen a keen eye for spotting things, and they were so they recruited intelligence analysts from the photography branch to analyze intelligence imagery, satellite imagery, reconnaissance, and then collate this information with other intelligence services. Like Lacher on I six and JCHQ, so so people on the ground, you know, and and military listening outposts, and so I got sent to work. So I did my intelligence course, and I got sent to work for with the intelligence services for about two and a half years now. While I was while I was doing my job as a military analyst, intelligence analyst, I started getting people coming into my office and saying, "You're a military photographer, aren't you? Yeah. Would you photograph my dog? Can you can you photograph my daughter at her birthday? Do you do weddings? Can you do my my my partner's wedding and stuff like that? So started doing a little bit of stuff on weekends, and then soon realized that there was actually quite a good bit of money being a photographer. So that was it. So that that set me on the path of right. I'm going to get out the military. I'm going to start with my own business. I'm going to go back to being self-employed again, but this time using my skills as a photographer. And yeah, I had good photography skills. I had other skills that the military had sort of drummed into me, which was you know timekeeping, organization, attention to detail, and that would work brilliant with a wedding because with a wedding you've got to organize people, everything's got to be on time. You've you've got to have that attention to detail, so started doing weddings on weekends, and then I left, and now decided to go into partnership with another military photographer who was working at the same the same base as me, and was also from the same the same area, the same the same city. So I left first because he was married with two kids. Alif first to set the business up and get the business bringing in money, and then about six months later, the business was bringing in enough money for him to put his notice in and and come out and and join me full time in the photography business. So and then it just skyrocketed from there. We ended up having four different photography businesses, Michael Hingson  37:03 pretty impressive, huh? Jeff Brown  37:05 It was good, but I think you know a lot of the lot the stuff that we did is when we left the military is you get a resettlement grant to resettle you back into civilian life to to to get you ready to work for other people, but obviously we were going to go self employed, so we we spent this resettlement grant of 7000 pound on marketing and branding training. So I got 7000 Kev got 7000 So we spent spent a lot of our money on understanding how to run a business, understanding what brand was all about and brand concept and and marketing. And it wasn't necessarily our photography skills that helped us succeed. It was the skills of actually understanding how to run a business and how to market our brand, Michael Hingson  37:49 which also goes a little bit back to understanding PR and just as you said, understanding all about business, which is which is pretty cool. Speaker 3  37:57 Yeah. Michael Hingson  37:59 Well, as you as you did that, how easy was it for you to integrate back into society and become disciplined enough to run your own business? Because when you were in the military, you had other people who were making a lot of those decisions, but you had to learn something along the way or figure out something along the way that allowed you to truly run your own business. Jeff Brown  38:22 To be honest, I felt I felt quite excited to be going back to it because, obviously, you know, from sort of 1415, year old, I'd had I'd had my own business, and that that was my first my first ever job. You know, working for myself with fish and fish and tackle business, and I sort of realized early on that yes, I don't have a boss, but ultimately the business is the boss because the business demands from you all the time. It demands how much work you need to put in, and if you don't put the work in, then you don't get the money. But the other good thing about running your own business is you're not on a fixed wage. You know, you have that ability to make a lot more money, without having to be promoted or or impress somebody else, you know. So for some people, it doesn't work. Like my girlfriend always says, she doesn't think she could do what I do because she doesn't like that uncertainty. Of you know, because every business is ups and downs, ups and downs. You have low moments. You have high moments, but that's life in general, isn't it? And I think you've just got to have more high moments than low moments. But yeah, I love it. I don't think I could ever work for anybody else. But a lot of, I think I'm unemployable. I don't think I can. I don't think I could go into a normal job. But a lot of those high Michael Hingson  39:40 moments are also moments that essentially you create. It's your mindset. That's Jeff Brown  39:45 right. Yeah, Michael Hingson  39:46 because you know, like failure. Everybody talks about failure. Well, you know, you're going to experience failure in your life, and I have gotten to the point where I tend to react and say there really is no such thing as failure. Because failure seems to be an absolute-you screwed up, and that's all there is to it. And the reality is, it's not. Failure isn't really the issue. The issue is okay. You made a plan. Something didn't work right. The question really is now: Where do you go from here? How do you fix it? What have you learned from what happened? And I think that's really the issue. Jeff Brown  40:20 That's totally that's totally right, and you know, but I made a a decision back in 2014 So you said, you know, I love cooking, and had the photography businesses, which which were both doing very well. They were both they were all super successful, you know, bringing in the money, and I decided, wouldn't it be nice to buy a really, really beautiful traditional country pub, one with log fires, you know, in the middle of the countryside, maybe a two, 300 year old building, and and run my own pub? So that was that was my idea. So so I found this this beautiful little country pub in Durham, in the northeast of England, and it was like a picture postcard country pub that looked beautiful. It actually had two log fires. It had, I think, it was about 300 year old. It had wooden beams, everything, and so I fell in love with it. I I bought the lease on it. I plowed 120,000 pounds of my own money into it, and within 12 months, I'd lost all that money. I was a further 60,000 pound in debt, and I couldn't see any way out. Because you say, you know, like failure. Sometimes people think failure is that's it, that's the end. They can't see past it, and stupidly, I decided that that was it. I couldn't go on anymore, so I tried to drive my car off a bridge. I was, I was drunk at the time, but you know, luckily I didn't. I just damaged the car. I didn't damage myself. I woke up the next morning feeling utterly disgusted with myself because my daughter at the time would have been seven year old. and I realized I needed to get out the pub, and I needed to change a different direction, which I did. So I ran away, and I came to the countryside where I live now in Northumberland, and moved away from all my family and and my friends, about an hour away from all my family and friends to restart my life again, and I spent probably about six months listening to positivity books and audio books, and and trying to rewind my mindset, and then take a new direction. And that's when I got into the idea of because I was in the middle of the countryside, I could run an online business training photographers in marketing and branding, and you know how to how to promote themselves on the internet, and I could do that with anybody anywhere in the world who was a photographer. So that was my idea, and that's what I went for. And you know, looking back at it, 11 years on from that, it would be 11 years in March when I tried to take my own life, and I thought that was that was the biggest worst failure I'd ever have. It was the best failure I ever had because I've never been as happy. I've never been as stress free. My work takes me all over the world, speaking and meeting photographers. I have an absolutely amazing community. No day is the same because I'm on all different time zones, speaking to different people, and and I just love it. It's stress free, but you know, if I'd stayed at the pub, that wouldn't have been stress free. So, Michael Hingson  43:33 so what happened? That why did the pub fail? Fail, or or why didn't the public pub succeed? And what did you learn from that? Jeff Brown  43:40 So, well, first of all, probably I probably fell in love with the idea of the pub, but I probably didn't do enough research. Now, funny enough, it was in an old mining village, my coal mining village, that was very, very much based around if you weren't born and bred in the area, you didn't fit in, so first of all, I think fit into the village very well. But the profitability in the pub trade is is very hard, especially if the pub, if the building is owned by a brewery and you've got to buy your beer direct from the brewery, it reduces the profit margins. And I just think everything that could go wrong in that 12 month did go wrong. We had staff stealing offers. We had a couple of sabotages to the pub, a couple of really big bills that wasn't expected, equipment going wrong and equipment failing, and yeah, the costs just spiraled out of control. Michael Hingson  44:38 Just a lot of lack of research, Jeff Brown  44:41 yeah, yeah, yeah, Michael Hingson  44:42 and I would suspect that you would say that because of that, and because you realized all that, you learned. Jeff Brown  44:50 I learned, yeah, yeah, I, I totally learned, and I think you know that I, I, I fell in love with the idea of it. I fell in love with the building, and probably, probably didn't research it. And also, you know, yeah, I was great at marketing. I was great at business, but I'd never run a pub before. And yeah, it was probably a bit of a. I'd probably sort of trying to run before I could walk. In that, you know, might have been better off going and working for somebody else and being a manager or working in a bar. And you know, the the day I opened the pub, I'd never even pulled a pint before. Never stood behind a bar and served served a drink. So, Michael Hingson  45:28 yeah, and that's that's an art in of itself. Jeff Brown  45:32 Yeah, yeah, that's right. Michael Hingson  45:34 I used to when I lived in New Jersey and worked in New York. I used to go to a restaurant called Virgil's Real Barbecue, best barbecue I think in the country, and so if you're ever in New York, it's Virgil's. Anyway, they had opened a facility in Las Vegas. Also, they opened a restaurant in Las Vegas, and so last week when I was at the Consumer Electronics Show, I went there, and one of the things I had heard early on when they I heard about them opening the restaurant several years ago, was that the people who opened the restaurant before they could open it had to go spend six months in New York at the original Virgil's, learning everything about it, so that they could make this restaurant and the food be the same as as what they experienced, because they wanted Virgil's to be the same in both places, and they did. And I can say that, from my perspective, at least, they did a really great job, and they learned from that, which was exactly what you wanted for the people in Las Vegas to do, and they survived the pandemic, and it's still open. So when you're in Las Vegas next time, Jeff Brown  46:47 yeah, I'm there next week. So yeah, I'll have to Virgil's. Yeah, I'll check it out. Michael Hingson  46:52 Virgil's real barbecue, best ribs in the country. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it, everybody. Well, that's cool. So. So, do you believe that things happen for a reason? I mean, a lot has happened, and of course, the pub closed and and all that. Do you believe that things happen for a reason? Jeff Brown  47:13 I do, and and you know now I I think one of the things as well when you get to that point where you you don't believe there's there's there's any way out, and and you know you you get that alone, you get depressed, but you you feel that you've got to take your own life. You are right at the very bottom. I think for you to go to the very bottom and then come back up again, it changes your mindset about stuff. And I I never get stressed. I am a very, very chilled out person. If something goes wrong now or something fails, I just go. Well, it's happened for a reason. Maybe something better is around the corner. Maybe it's the universe trying to direct me in a in a different path. You know, and and I think the less you live, the more you live by that mindset, the more it opens you up to other opportunities. Yeah, keeps you living it. You know, you're not living in the past; you're living in the future. It it was for the first six months coming up here 11 years ago. It was hard to move away from that failure in my mind. I kept playing it over and over again, but you know, playing it over and over again wasn't going to make that failure with the pub any different. The outcome had happened, and what I needed to do was focus on the future, get back together and get my myself back together, both mentally and also establish a new business and a new way of life. And that in itself was a a massive learning curve, but for the better. Michael Hingson  48:44 Well, and and the reality is, it it certainly has made a big difference in your life. And the fact is that, again, it goes back to failure isn't the end all, and failure is is probably the wrong way to put it. It's a learning experience, and I think that it's so important to do that. I am like you. I refuse to feel stress. I've been through too many experiences in my life that that caused stress, and I've learned that there are always ways to to deal with things, and so it's important to not let the stress overwhelm you. I wrote a book that was published in 2024 called "Live Like a Guide Dog: True Stories from a Blind Man and His Dogs About Being Brave, Overcoming Adversity, and Moving Forward in Faith. And moving forward in faith is part of it, but the whole issue is we focus on our lives on so many things. We think we need to control everything, and the reality is, we only control probably much less than 10% of all the things that we experience, but we worry about 100% of everything, and that doesn't help. And so, it builds up so much fear and causes so much stress. And if we would just focus on the things over which we really can control, we would be much better off. Jeff Brown  49:59 Saying that, you know, after leaving the pub, because my mindset was very, very delicate, and I had to build my my mental health back up, I decided to stop watching the news. So I used to used to get up and go downstairs and put the news on TV and have my morning coffee and and listen to all this negativity, all this drama, every single morning, which I've done for probably 40, you know, well, at least 30-five years, and and that was it. I've never watched the news since. I don't watch any live TV. I don't watch the news. People say, "Well, how do you manage? So, well, somebody will tell me something, but most of the time, half the stuff that people get worried about never actually happens. And if it does happen, quite often there's nothing you can do about it because it's the other side of the world. Michael Hingson  50:53 Well, even if it's in England, you don't have control over it, so why worry about it? Now, I watch I watch the news, but I do it because I want to get the information. But I won't worry about it. And there's so much that happens. But I feel that that at least there is information to be gained by watching the news. But what I had to learn somewhere along the line is don't take it personally because you don't have any control over it. And there are so many things that that go on, but the the trick is not to let things you don't have any control over really affect you to the point where you get nervous and stressful again. Jeff Brown  51:34 Yeah, yeah, and I think that you know the the same thing can be put into social media. You know, people say social media is negative. Social media is dangerous, and it depends how you react to it and what you engage on. You know, in my own social media, I follow a lot of photographers, a lot of people who talk about adventures and motorcycle rides and travel and nature. So my news feed is filled with a lot of positive stuff. And if if I see something negative or see something sensationalist, what I do is I don't unfriend that person. I just unfollow them, so I don't see their content again. Michael Hingson  52:09 Yeah. Jeff Brown  52:10 But from from the plus side, you know, social media has bought me more opportunity than anything else, and and effectively for free. And I've traveled traveled a lot because of my work. I have over 100,000 followers across my my social media platforms, and social media brings me customers, brings me clients. It helps me sell books, so there is a lot of positivity to it. I suppose it. The negative is only if you engage in the negative, then you will you'll find the the negative aspect. Michael Hingson  52:40 Yeah. Well, and the reality is that again, it's it's how you approach life, and you've clearly learned a lot about how to approach life in a much more positive way. You've developed, well, we'll call it an unstoppable mindset. You've developed a mindset that allows you to go through life and do the things that you need to do, and focus on the things that you can, and you leave the rest of it alone. Jeff Brown  53:06 Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Michael Hingson  53:08 Which which makes a lot of sense. Well, for you, you you talked earlier about the fact that you have dyslexia, and you've been with dyslexia for most of your life, or maybe all of your life. It's interesting. I've talked to so many people who didn't know that they had dyslexia when they were in school and so on, and experienced a lot of the same frustrations and kinds of experiences that that you've experienced. And somewhere along the line, they finally discovered that they they had dyslexia. How did that when you when you finally realized that? What did that do for you? How did how did that really affect you? Jeff Brown  53:52 Well, funny enough, I I can remember a moment where I must have been about eight year old, where a teacher and you know, back in the 70s, teachers weren't as kind, weren't as kind to to schoolchildren as they are now. You know, and and this this teacher singled me out in front of the class and and told me that I was stupid and I wouldn't amount to anything because I kept struggling with this reading and my numbers. And at the time, I I was I was chubby. I had ginger hair, so I didn't have a I didn't have a lot going for us in in the popularity front, and also being you know the the stupid one in the class. So I found it really negative, and I found it really really personal because I didn't realize that I was dyslexic because nobody knew what dyslexia was now, and when I got to my mid 30s, and I went to train to go into the work with the intelligence services and be an image analyst, I had to redo my English and maths all level qualifications that I should have passed at school, but obviously I didn't. I had to do them through the military, and that was when I found out I was dyslexic, and I didn't actually know what dyslexia was until until I made up on it, and then it all made sense. You know why why I'd struggled for so long. I have my own workarounds. I know what my I know what my what my issues are. I mean, now with with with my work, there's so much out there that helps you as a dyslexic. You know, you you have you have spell checker, you have read aloud where you might not be able to see see it. You know, so quite often I'll do a social media post, and I'll I'll get Word document to read it out aloud so I can hear it. But if I if I if I read it back, I can't see the mistakes I've made because my mind doesn't process that. I know when I write a number down, I probably write write it down the wrong way. So if somebody gives me a phone number and I phone it and it's dead, I just change some of the digits around and figure Michael Hingson  55:58 it out. Do you agree? Do you use technology like Dragon, naturally speaking, to dictate? Jeff Brown  56:04 I tend, I tend to. So I started using only in the past six months. I was quite, I was quite sort of against AI, and well, not against it, but everybody was jumping on the chat, ChatGPT bandwagon, and I always tend to do something different than everybody else does. Six months ago, I jumped on a piece of software called Claude, and because I've because I've written five books now, I've written four business books, and I've written a travel book. I also had a lot of content to give to Claude to feed Claude, and then I had transcripts from my YouTube channel, and and then I gave them some do's and don'ts about you know tone of voice and language, and you know I would never say things like this, I would never say things like that. Told them that you know don't be spelling color without a U. Don't put a Z in sympathize because not American English. It's English, English, and the funny thing is, like over the over the past few months, he's he's pretty much replicated my tone of voice, so I can get Claude to write me a social media post, and then I I just tweak it slightly, and I'll make some changes, and then when I've written that social media post, I give it back to Claude and say, can you note? Can you identify the changes that I've made from what you've originally made, Michael Hingson  57:24 right? Jeff Brown  57:25 And take them on board for the next one, and then you give a summary of the changes. And it's yeah, it's it's it's quite impressive. It's quite scary as well because he he says things like, "Am I becoming more Jeff? Yeah, yeah, you are a bit. Michael Hingson  57:42 Well, the other thing is there are programs and technologies, as I mentioned, like Dragon, which is a a technology that you can get where you dictate, and it recognizes your voice, and it will then convert what you say directly into digitized form, which is pretty cool. I use Dragon when I write a fair amount, and and so that that goes back far earlier than AI. Although I'm sure that there are AI, there are AI components to Dragon naturally speaking today. But it's a it's a great program, and it makes writing a lot easier. So rather than typing on a keyboard, I'm speaking, and it is essentially taking what I write, and it just completely digitizes it by recognizing my voice and then putting it out in in in a digital form for me. I can use it with Microsoft Word and other things like that, Jeff Brown  58:41 yeah. And then do then do you listen back to that and then give edits on on what has been on what is being done? Michael Hingson  58:49 Yeah, I can. I just go back and read the word doc, and but it's but it literally is is transcription of what I say, so I can then go back and say, okay, let's fix this, or everything is fine, and I can go even go back and figure out what's misspelled if there are things that it misrecognized. But it works pretty well. Jeff Brown  59:12 Yeah, tech technology is is is fantastic. It's also got it's it's it's I suppose worrying sides for creative people, where there's a lot, a lot of creatives that potentially AI could could really damage their careers going forward. So it's it's interesting to see which direction it's taken. You know, work with it, but then also be aware of it. Michael Hingson  59:40 Yeah. Well, you still need to take control. Jeff Brown  59:43 Yeah, yeah. Michael Hingson  59:45 So, what's the most unusual or interesting country that you've ever visited since you do so much traveling? Jeff Brown  59:52 I've been to North Korea. So, 2019 I went to North Korea for New. New Year's Eve to celebrate New Year in in Pyongyang Square with another 100,000 North Koreans. There was only 12 Western tourists in Pyongyang at the time, and we were there for 10 days. So yes, I've I've done North Korea, which it took a bit getting into getting into North Korea. It's not as easy as just you can't go on and book a holiday. He can't choose a hotel. It all has to be done through a third-party agent, and it took about six months to get the whole thing to together. But it was-it was very interesting. It was a completely different than every anything I'd ever experienced before, and it's also supposed to be one of the safest countries you can travel to because you you're followed by the North Korean secret police everywhere you go, even inside buildings, when you're in restaurants, when you're in bars. That nothing could ever happen to you, but the North Korean people would never dare to come up and speak to you anyway, you know. But the the thing with North Korea is everything is everything is orchestrated. Everything is set for you alive and there in advance, so you only ever see what they want you to see. You never see the other side of North Korea. I've also been to Chernobyl, where the the last was that was absolutely fascinating, and last year I went to Transnistria, which is one of these countries that doesn't exist. It's not officially recognized by by the UN, and that was like stepping back into the 1980s Speaker 1  1:01:38 That was, Jeff Brown  1:01:39 but everywhere I've been, you know, I think that that's t

This month, Dr. Rüdiger Frank joins North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot to discuss how decades of marketization have transformed North Korea's economy and society, and why old assumptions about engagement and pressure may no longer apply. He talks about the emergence of what he describes as a sizable North Korean middle class, how smartphones, private wealth and limited consumer choices point to deeper social change, and why leader Kim Jong Un may be a reluctant reformer forced to manage economic realities he did not create. He also explains why money is increasingly trapped inside North Korea, how projects like Wonsan-Kalma may be designed to absorb domestic spending and why Pyongyang could be moving toward something resembling a developmental dictatorship. Dr. Rüdiger Frank is professor of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna and one of Europe's foremost experts on North Korea. He studied at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang from 1991-1992, and has spent decades researching North Korea's political economy, economic transformation and international relations. About the podcast: North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot is a monthly long-form interview series from the NK News Podcast, featuring in-depth conversations with experts and specialists on North Korea. The regular weekly NK News Podcast, hosted by Alannah Hill, continues to cover the latest developments in the North Korea news cycle.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Brewstilled Barrel Aged Mysteries continues. For this edition of Barrel Aged Mysteries, we're exploring the mystery surrounding Room 39 in North Korea. Room 39 has been described as the cornerstone of the North Korea's so-called "court economy" centered on the dynastic Kim family. Room 39 is also involved in the management of foreign currency earnings from foreigners' hotels in Pyongyang, mining operations, along with various business ventures. It's also believed to run networks of illegal and legal companies that often change names. Yet, Room 39 has a darker and mysterious side as its believed to have been involved with sinister operations surround this organization with mystery. I'll discuss the mystery of Room 39 here on Brewstilled with a Barrel Aged Ale from Pherm Brewing Company as the beer pairing.  

NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin joins this week's podcast to discuss North Korea's deepening ties with China and Russia, starting with Premier Pak Thae Song's meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing during a visit marking the 65th anniversary of the China-DPRK alliance treaty. He also previews Wang Huning's upcoming visit to Pyongyang and explains what these high-level exchanges suggest about where Beijing-Pyongyang ties stand. The conversation turns to Russia's growing demand for North Korean labor, before breaking down a strange Russian court case involving a failed corn shipment to North Korea and how it exposed DPRK sanctions-evasion networks. In the second part of the episode, retired senior U.S. diplomat Susan Thornton discusses the “fire and fury” period of 2017, the Trump-Kim summit process and what lessons Washington should draw from that era of direct diplomacy with Pyongyang. She also delves into whether denuclearization remains a realistic goal, what interim steps the U.S. could pursue, how China and Russia are shaping North Korea's strategic calculations and what a realistic policy success might look like in the years ahead. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

Ari Redbord sits down with Katherine, Jessi, and Vy to talk about SEC clarity, the onshore perps boom, and DeFi's opsec problem — plus why the U.S. should hack North Korea back. Thank you to our sponsor! Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). The hosts of DEX in the City spend every week breaking down crypto's legal fights. This time, they're the ones answering the questions. Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy at TRM Labs, sits down with Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, Jessi Brooks, and Vy Le for a wide-ranging conversation on where crypto's regulatory and security battles are actually headed. Vy traces her path from SEC enforcement to her case for "tech-neutral" rules: regulators should regulate outcomes, not technology. Katherine explains why DCMs have become crypto's hottest acronym, as true perps and prediction markets move onshore. And Jessi makes her push to stop calling North Korea's hacks "illicit finance" and start naming them a national security threat: Pyongyang, she notes, is funding a weapons program with stolen crypto. Ari goes further — if North Korea can steal hundreds of millions from DeFi, the U.S. should steal it back. Vy pushes back on the panic over the recent hacks: most, she argues, weren't broken smart contracts at all, just sloppy operational security. The conversation covers SEC clarity, the CFTC's moment, DeFi security, on-chain privacy, and what it really takes to keep the ecosystem safe. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ari Redbord - Global Head of Policy at TRM Labs and Host of TRM Talks Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vy Le⁠⁠⁠ - Co-host of DEX in the City and General Counsel of Veda Timestamps

Guerre en Ukraine, conflit au Moyen Orient… plus personne ou presque n'a les yeux sur Pyongyang et sa bombe atomique…. Alors qu'il y a encore quelques années l'arrêt du programme nucléaire Nord-Coréen semblait une priorité pour la communauté internationale. Un désintérêt qui n'est pas sans conséquences... Partenariat magazine Questions Internationales.  Avec : Théo Clément, chercheur associé à l'École des Hautes études en Sciences sociales, il enseigne dans plusieurs universités françaises et étrangères, dont l'Université pour la Science et la Technologie de Pyongyang en Corée du Nord. Il retourne en Corée du Nord en septembre. (Téléphone, enregistré en son propre depuis Dar Es Salaam) Nicolas Rocca, reporter au service International de RFI, ancien correspondant à Séoul. Spécialiste de l'Asie. (En studio à Paris).  Serge Sur, rédacteur en chef du magazine Questions Internationales, professeur émérite de l'université Panthéon-Assas. (En Studio à Paris).  

This week's episode of the NK News Podcast looks at North Korea's military modernization, from Kim Jong Un's new 5,000-ton Choe Hyon destroyer to recent tactical missile and artillery tests. Korea Risk Group Correspondent Joon Ha Park discusses what the destroyer adds to Pyongyang's navy, why its assignment to the West Sea Fleet matters and what South Korea's delayed public confirmation of a Hwasong-11D launch reveals about missile disclosure policy. He also breaks down Seoul's push to expand drone and counter-drone capabilities — including loitering munitions, laser and microwave defenses — and plans to train hundreds of thousands of “drone warriors.” Afterward, Dr. Fyodor Tertitskiy joins the podcast to discuss his new book, “Pyongyang on the Brink,” which explores 16 crises that could have changed North Korea's history — and what they reveal about the survival, fragility and possible future of the Kim dynasty. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: The Trump administration continues to ratchet up pressure on Cuba, but if tensions were ever to turn military, Havana may have little ability to respond. We'll examine the dramatic collapse of Cuba's once-feared armed forces and how one of the Cold War's most formidable militaries became a shadow of its former self. Ukraine continues taking the fight deeper into Russia, striking key oil facilities as part of its long-range drone campaign. We'll explain how the attacks are forcing Moscow to reposition valuable air defenses away from the front lines. North Korea enters a new era of naval power after commissioning its first destroyer capable of carrying nuclear-armed missiles, marking a significant expansion of Pyongyang's maritime ambitions. In today's Back of the Brief—Venezuela is reeling from its worst earthquakes in nearly six decades as rescue crews search for survivors and authorities race to assess the full scale of the devastation. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief.  YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Sundays for Dogs: Upgrade your dog's food without the hassle—try Sundays for Dogs and get 50% off your first order at https://sundaysfordogs.com/PDB or use code PDB at checkout. Wild Alaskan Company: Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to: https://www.wildalaskan.com/PDB Ethos Life Insurance: Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at: https://ethos.com/PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thirty years in the principal chair can look effortless from the audience, but it rarely feels that way from the stage. We're joined by cellist Carter Brey as he steps back and takes stock of a remarkable run leading the New York Philharmonic cello section and why he's choosing to retire at the end of the season while his playing still feels strong.We get into what most people never see: how long it can take to truly feel “at home” in a top orchestra job, how you learn to handle pressure and politics without losing your musical center, and how the weekly reset of new programs forces you to stay sharp. Carter also shares how he keeps perspective when repertoire repeats, and why the best nights can be the quietest ones when the orchestra's precision and trust are on full display.Carter walks us through the very different worlds of Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Alan Gilbert, Jaap van Zweden, and Gustavo Dudamel, and what adapting to each music director teaches you about musicianship, preparation, and leadership. We also talk about defining experiences, including the unforgettable 2008 Pyongyang concert, what he'll miss most about his “second family,” his retirement plans for travel and sailing, and even the decision to sell his 1754 Guadagnini cello while viewing instruments and positions as things we steward for the next person.If you care about orchestra life, principal string leadership, professional musician longevity, and the psychology of performing at a high level, this conversation is for you. Subscribe for more, share this with a musician friend, and leave a review so more players can find the show.For more information on Carter: https://www.nyphil.org/about-us/artists/carter-brey/ You can also find Carter on FacebookIf you are looking for in person/virtual cello lessons, or orchestral repertoire audition coachings, check out www.theCelloSherpa.comFollow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads & YouTube: @theCelloSherpaFor more information on our sponsor: www.CLEAResources.com 

SCHEDULE JBS, 6-23-2026.1936Alan Greenspan's Legacy and the New Fed Chair. Guest: Elizabeth Peek. This segment reflects on the passing of Alan Greenspan and the transition to Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve Chair. Peek highlights Warsh's goal to reform data collection and move away from forecasting, favoring real-time data over the traditional, often confusing, communication styles of his predecessors like Greenspan. 1The Resilient US Consumer and AI Infrastructure. Guest: Elizabeth Peek. Despite concerns over tariffs and wars, consumer spending remains robust, fueled by record stock market levels and rising low-end wages. Peek argues against AI alarmism, noting that massive investments in AI infrastructure are creating a surge in blue-collar job demand for skilled trades like welding and construction. 2Critiquing the Memo of Understanding with Iran. Guest: Jonathan Schanzer. Schanzer describes the newly established Memo of Understanding as a "dog's breakfast" that grants the Iranian regime significant sanctions relief and upfront cash. He argues the agreement appears to be an American defeat, particularly regarding the shaky nuclear inspection protocols and the uncertain status of the Strait of Hormuz. 3Hezbollah's Role and the Fog of Middle East Diplomacy. Guest: Jonathan Schanzer. The discussion focuses on Hezbollah as a "wholly owned subsidiary" of Iran, with the IRGC directing its activities in Lebanon. Schanzer criticizes the administration for expecting Israel to adhere to a ceasefire while Iran continues to provoke attacks, labeling the current diplomatic strategy as improvised and potentially harmful. 4Secretary Rubio's Reassurance Mission to Gulf Allies. Guest: Mary Kissel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio travels to the Gulf to reassure the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain of U.S. security commitments following Iranian attacks. Kissel criticizes the administration for granting Iran sanctions relief and 60-day exemptions, arguing that the diplomatic effort prioritizes "hope over experience" regarding Iranian nuclear ambitions. 5The Impact of Foreign Policy on Domestic Midterms. Guest: Mary Kissel. Kissel examines whether foreign policy influences American voters, noting it is rare compared to "pocketbook" issues like inflation and interest rates. She warns that adversarial regimes like Iran and China are sophisticated observers of the U.S. electoral calendar and may attempt to influence domestic politics. 6Kevin Warsh's Reformist Vision for the Federal Reserve. Guest: Joseph Sternberg. Sternberg analyzes Kevin Warsh's first FOMC meeting, noting a shift toward shorter policy statements and the removal of the "dot plot" forecasting tool. Warsh is initiating five task forces to reform the Fed's intellectual framework, specifically targeting productivity, data quality, and balance sheet management. 7The Turmoil of British Leadership and the Labour Party. Guest: Joseph Sternberg. This segment explores the potential replacement of Keir Starmer with Andy Burnham as UK Prime Minister. Sternberg argues that Labour's struggles go beyond charisma, involving a lack of clear economic direction and the failure to address core voter concerns like the broken NHS and illegal immigration. 8The Geopolitical Chessboard of the Strait of Hormuz. Guest: Gregory Copley. Copley discusses the power struggles within Iran and the strategic card of the Strait of Hormuz. He notes that while the strait is "more or less open," the situation remains in flux, with regional players like Turkey seeking to thwart Iranian ambitions in the Mediterranean. 9Xi Jinping's Strategic Outreach to North Korea. Guest: Gregory Copley. Xi Jinping's visit to Pyongyang is seen as a move to reassert Chinese influence over North Korea as Kim Jong-un shifts away from communist identity. Kim is positioning himself as an equal to Xi while strengthening his ties with Russia, creating a complex ideological shift in the region. 10British Political Fragmentation and the Immigration Crisis. Guest: Gregory Copley. Britain has seen seven prime ministers in ten years due to political fragmentation over illegal immigration and European relations. Copley suggests that the Labour Party is failing to represent the British working class, which favors traditional values and stricter border controls, leading to a rise in alternative parties. 11The Crown as a Symbol of British Identity. Guest: Gregory Copley. Amidst political instability, King Charles III is viewed as a dynamic symbol of national dignity and continuity. The segment discusses the King's role in stabilizing the United Kingdom following Prime Minister Starmer's resignation and managing sensitive royal family matters to preserve the image of the monarchy. 12Recovering the Original Understanding of Unalienable Rights. Guest: Peter Berkowitz. Berkowitz reflects on the 2019 Commission on Unalienable Rights, which sought to ground human rights in the American founding tradition. The commission aimed to counter the "proliferating industry" of rights that often serves partisan progressive ends, emphasizing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' original austere framework. 13Unalienable Rights and the Challenge of Foreign Policy. Guest: Peter Berkowitz. This segment discusses applying founding principles to modern diplomacy, specifically condemning the Chinese Communist Party's crimes against the Uyghurs. Berkowitz argues that despite economic entanglements, the United States must maintain its dedication to universal principles and use its diplomatic toolbox to address massive human rights violations. 14The Strategic Failure of the Iran Memo of Understanding. Guest: Thaddeus McCotter. McCotter analyzes the Memo of Understanding, highlighting unresolved issues like the Strait of Hormuz and the $80 billion war funding request. He argues the administration is trying to make kinetic action palatable to voters while failing to secure meaningful concessions on Iran's nuclear program or its sponsorship of terrorism. 15The Republican Fissures and Potential Third-Party Movements. Guest: Thaddeus McCotter. The discussion centers on Tucker Carlson's potential departure from the Republican Party over foreign policy disagreements. McCotter suggests this reflects deeper fault lines within the MAGA base, where isolationist tendencies and dissatisfaction with the administration's relationship with allies like Israel could lead to future political discord. 16

Xi Jinping's Strategic Outreach to North Korea. Guest: Gregory Copley. Xi Jinping's visit to Pyongyang is seen as a move to reassert Chinese influence over North Korea as Kim Jong-un shifts away from communist identity. Kim is positioning himself as an equal to Xi while strengthening his ties with Russia, creating a complex ideological shift in the region. 101936

This week's episode of the NK News Podcast looks at North Korea's decision to recall its ambassador to the U.K. just weeks after his appointment, in protest over British sanctions on the Songdowon International Children's Camp.  NK News Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy discusses why the camp holds symbolic importance for Pyongyang, its links to Russia and Ukrainian children from Russian-controlled territories, and what the diplomatic downgrade could mean for DPRK-U.K. relations. He also examines a new Nisos investigation into a North Korean IT worker network that submitted nearly 170,000 job applications and secured more than 21,000 interviews over nine months.  Later on, Jieun Baek joins the podcast to discuss her new book “Privileged But Powerless,” which examines the lives of North Korea's elites through interviews with senior-level defectors.  She explains how diplomats, party officials and other elites can enjoy access and status while remaining vulnerable to surveillance, purges and shifting political pressures, as well as why fear and “performative loyalty” continue to shape behavior among those closest to power. About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.

This month, retired U.S. Army Col. Brian Davis joins North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot to discuss lessons from his nearly 40-year career spanning some of the most consequential periods in U.S.-DPRK relations. He talks about how intelligence on North Korea is gathered and analyzed, how U.S. and South Korean military priorities shifted from conventional threats to nuclear and missile programs and why Pyongyang remains one of the world's most difficult intelligence targets.  Davis also reflects on the 2017 "fire and fury" period, the risks of military action against North Korea and what lessons Pyongyang may have drawn from conflicts in Ukraine, Iran and elsewhere. He also recounts one of the most unusual episodes of his career: crossing the Military Demarcation Line at Panmunjom to help service a fax machine gifted to North Korean counterparts. U.S. Army Col. Brian Davis is a former military intelligence officer, a role in which he analyzed DPRK military capabilities, threat environments and decision-making at an operational level. About the podcast: North Korea Unpacked with Jacco Zwetsloot is a monthly long-form interview series from the NK News Podcast, featuring in-depth conversations with experts and specialists on North Korea. The regular weekly NK News Podcast, hosted by Alannah Hill, continues to cover the latest developments in the North Korea news cycle.

This week, NK News CEO Chad O'Carroll and Chris Green of International Crisis Group join the podcast to discuss a Seoul court's decision to sentence former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison, finding that he orchestrated a drone operation that sought to provoke a North Korean response and create a pretext for declaring martial law. The episode also explores Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Pyongyang, the absence of denuclearization from official summit readouts, China's increasingly pragmatic approach to North Korea's nuclear status and the prospects for expanded trade, tourism and people-to-people exchanges.  Finally, Chad and Chris preview the upcoming West Coast Exchange, a three-day gathering of Korea watchers, diplomats, journalists, academics and policymakers. They discuss the event's emphasis on informal networking and field visits, the value of off-the-record conversations and why participants often gain as much from discussions outside the conference room as they do from the formal sessions. About the podcast: The NK News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering the latest developments in and around North Korea. Each episode breaks down the week's news cycle with NK News journalists, analysts and expert guests.

Jack Burnham discusses China and North Korea's strategic alignment, noting that Xi Jinping's festive visit to Pyongyang signals China's willingness to de-emphasize denuclearization in favor of regional stability and strategic balancing against the US. North Korea, now an "arsenal of tyranny," leverages its military experience from the Ukrainian front lines to strengthen its regime. (5)1919

SCHEDULE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 6-11-26.1900 BRUSSELSAnatol Lieven discusses NATO's top US commander, General Grynkewich, who states Russia is not looking for conflict despite European concerns about US military withdrawals. Lieven agrees, noting that the Russian army is bogged down in Ukraine, making a deliberate attack on NATO members like the Baltics appear militarily absurd. (1)Anatol Lieven examines rising anti-immigrant tensions in the United Kingdom, where violent demonstrations in Belfastand England highlight growing public anger toward sudden demographic changes and crimes allegedly committed by asylum seekers. Lieven suggests these tensions are politically explosive, potentially forcing a leadership change in the Labour Party if right-wing parties continue to gain ground. (2)Leila Philip discusses the ancient Algonquin legend of Great Beaver, an environmental parable about resource hoarding and the creation of the Connecticut River Valley. The story reflects traditional ecological knowledge, emphasizing the beaver's immense power to control the water cycle and shape resilient landscapes. (3)Cliff May argues that Qatar utilizes its vast energy wealth to buy influence through professional sports, media platforms like Al Jazeera, and university campuses. He argues these investments allow the state to manipulate Western academic discourse and hedge political bets while hosting major US military assets. (4)Jack Burnham discusses China and North Korea's strategic alignment, noting that Xi Jinping's festive visit to Pyongyang signals China's willingness to de-emphasize denuclearization in favor of regional stability and strategic balancing against the US. North Korea, now an "arsenal of tyranny," leverages its military experience from the Ukrainian front lines to strengthen its regime. (5)Jack Burnham examines the Pentagon's 1260H list, which identifies Chinese companies allegedly assisting the PRC's military-industrial base, signaling increased regulatory scrutiny for these entities. Burnham recommends streamlining government lists to prevent companies from exploiting gaps and advises retail investors of the national security risks these firms pose. (6)Andrea Ferrara describes using the James Webb Space Telescope to investigate a mysterious red light source initially thought to be the most distant galaxy. By observing luminosity changes over two years, he determined it is likely a rare pair-instability supernova, resulting from the explosion of a massive primordial star. (7)Andrea Ferrara proposes building a 40-meter telescope on the lunar surface to succeed the James Webb Space Telescope. This moon-based facility would avoid atmospheric interference, allowing scientists to directly detect the universe's first stars and resolve long-standing mysteries regarding the aftermath of the Big Bang. (8)Mickey Trescott explains that autoimmune diseases occur when the body's immune system attacks its own organs, a condition affecting a high percentage of women. The protocol is a diet and lifestyle experiment designed to help individuals identify personal triggers and manage their chronic health symptoms. (9)Mickey Trescott describes how the core autoimmune protocol involves a strict 30-to-90-day elimination phase removing common triggers like grains, dairy, and nightshades. This "detective work" calms the immune system, allowing patients to systematically reintroduce foods to discover which specific ingredients negatively impact their health. (10)Mickey Trescott introduces a modified autoimmune protocol that includes rice and coffee, making it more accessible and affordable than the core version. A successful transition requires tracking baseline symptoms and preparing the kitchen to handle the nutritional demands of the upcoming elimination and reintroduction phases. (11)Mickey Trescott emphasizes consuming nutrient-dense foods like bone broth and fatty fish to resolve inflammation and support the microbiome. During reintroduction, patients identify specific food "villains" by monitoring symptom flare-ups, ultimately empowering them to choose a diet that maintains their long-term vitality. (12)Evan Ellis discusses Bolivia's severe instability as blockades led by supporters of Evo Morales disrupt the capital's supply of food and oxygen. Morales is described as a dangerous figure using cocaine-related funds to destabilize the democratically elected government, posing a significant risk to regional US allies. (13)Evan Ellis highlights a razor-thin election in Peru between Keiko Fujimori and Roberto Sanchez, exposing deep national divisions over corruption and wealth distribution. The outcome is geopolitically significant, as China already maintains a massive foothold in Peru through control of critical infrastructure, including major ports, mines, and electricity. (14)Evan Ellis notes how public frustration with rising crime and President Petro's "total peace" plan has fueled the rise of hardline political candidates in Colombia. As the country grapples with internal conflict, many Colombians seek a "strong hand" to restore security, mirroring historical law-and-order movements seen in neighboring South Americannations. (15)Evan Ellis discusses how a banking scandal involving Flavio Bolsonaro has impacted Brazilian polls, giving Lula da Silva a temporary lead. Meanwhile, El Salvador's President Bukele remains highly popular due to a dramatic security transformation that has revitalized urban life, despite international concerns regarding due process and human rights. (16)Four name/term corrections: (1) Grinkovich → Grynkewich (General Alexus Grynkewich, current SACEUR) (2) Labor Party → Labour Party (UK spelling per house style) (3) Laya Philip → Leila Philip (the actual author of Beaverland) (6) 126H list → 1260H list (Section 1260H of the NDAA — the standard reference)

Greg Scarlatoiu analyzes Xi Jinping's visit to Pyongyang, noting that Kim Jong-un now views himself as a strategic equal to Xi and Putin. Despite sanctions, North Korea's economy shows a facade of growth fueled by billions made exporting artillery and special forces to Russia. Kim is also modernizing his security apparatus into a structure similar to Russia's FSB. (1)

SCHEDULE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 6-10-26.Greg Scarlatoiu analyzes Xi Jinping's visit to Pyongyang, noting that Kim Jong-un now views himself as a strategic equal to Xi and Putin. Despite sanctions, North Korea's economy shows a facade of growth fueled by billions made exporting artillery and special forces to Russia. Kim is also modernizing his security apparatus into a structure similar to Russia's FSB. (1)Professor Jim Holmes discusses the naval balance between the U.S. and China, suggesting the PLA Navy aims for six aircraft carriers to project power in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. While China has made strides in naval aviation without the heavy losses the U.S. historically endured, Holmes believes they still lag behind in technological sophistication and human tactical proficiency. (2)Victoria Coates highlights Taiwan's indispensable role in the global AI revolution through TSMC's high-end chip production, which the U.S. and China currently cannot replicate. She emphasizes that Taiwan's engineering "super workers" are a state secret. Coates also discusses the political friction in Washington regarding arms sales and the need for Taiwan to increase its own defense spending. (3)Victoria Coates addresses the Pentagon's decision to list major Chinese companies like BYD and Alibaba as security risks due to their military ties. She argues for clear country-of-origin labeling on products to inform American consumers. Furthermore, Coates criticizes the Biden administration for prioritizing climate goals over addressing China's use of forced labor in the solar panel supply chain. (4)Natalie Ecanow details Qatar's massive $400 billion investment footprint in the United States, including high-profile real estate like New York's Park Lane Hotel and significant orders for Boeing aircraft. She argues these investments are not merely financial but serve to buy long-term political influence and goodwill with American policymakers, regardless of party affiliation, by embedding Qatari wealth into the U.S. economy. (5)Natalie Ecanow explains that Qatari wealth is controlled by the Al-Thani autocracy, whose values often conflict with U.S. interests, such as their support for Hamas and the Taliban. She highlights the lack of transparency in Qatarifunding, citing a lawsuit that revealed nearly half a billion dollars in undisclosed money sent to Texas A&M University, and calls for stricter U.S. disclosure laws. (6)Joel Kotkin examines the definition of fascism, arguing that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is not a fascist because she respects democratic norms. He identifies China's government-led economy as the closest modern parallel to historical fascism. Kotkin also warns of "techno-fascism," where a small group of global tech companies exert unprecedented control over public opinion and information through surveillance tools. (7)Joel Kotkin disputes the label of "fascist" for the MAGA movement, noting it lacks the youth-driven, paramilitary organization characteristic of movements led by Mussolini or Hitler. He describes MAGA as a chaotic coalition of various interest groups held together by Donald Trump's personality. Kotkin emphasizes that using the term as a political slur ruins the possibility of necessary civil discourse. (8)Michael Bernstam discusses a looming glut of liquefied natural gas driven by record U.S. shale production, which is stabilizing energy prices in Europe. Regarding Russia, he explains that while crude exports continue, Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries have created a domestic manufacturing crisis, leading to fuel shortages for Russian agriculture and industry that are difficult to repair under sanctions. (9)Michael Bernstam reveals that China has significantly reduced its oil imports by nearly half by drawing on massive strategic reserves of 1.4 billion barrels and increasing electric vehicle adoption. Simultaneously, the U.S. has reached record domestic oil production of nearly 14 million barrels per day. These factors combined help lower global oil prices despite declining inventories in other OECD countries. (10)Tal Fortgang explores Justice Scalia's legal philosophy through a biography by James Rosen, focusing on Scalia's dissent in Lee v. Weisman regarding religious benedictions at public graduations. Fortgang explains how Scaliapopularized "originalism" and "textualism," arguing that the Constitution should be interpreted based on the original public meaning of the text rather than through subjective "moral readings" by judges. (11)Tal Fortgang discusses the "Scalian revolution" that shifted the Supreme Court toward judicial restraint. He notes that while Scalia faced a hostile press and "nasty" internal criticism from colleagues like Harry Blackmun, his ideas eventually prevailed. Fortgang also observes that the modern partisan venom in confirmation hearings began during Scalia's era with the contentious treatment of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. (12)Simon Constable reports from France on falling global commodity prices for food and energy due to supply meeting demand. He then shifts to the immigration crisis in Britain, where violent incidents in Belfast and Southampton have fueled public outrage. Constable attributes the unrest to a failure of both major parties to manage unfettered immigration and the lack of cultural integration. (13)Simon Constable discusses the declining popularity of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the potential rise of challengers like Andy Burnham. He highlights a dramatic shift in British public opinion, with polling by Lord Ashcroftshowing that a vast majority of Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Green voters—and even a third of Conservatives—now favor rejoining the European Union after a decade of Brexit. (14)Bob Zimmerman tracks the transition to commercial space, noting that private companies like Vast are leading the race to build stations to replace the aging ISS. He discusses Amazon's struggle to launch its satellite constellation due to rocket delays, contrasted with SpaceX's efficiency. Zimmerman also reports on a milestone for SpaceX, as a single Falcon 9 booster successfully completed a record 35th flight. (15)Bob Zimmerman highlights discoveries by the James Webb Space Telescope, including a black hole 6 billion times the mass of the sun located 10 billion light-years away. He also describes a "flickering" quasar from the early universe that challenges current Big Bang theories. Finally, Zimmerman provides an update on the Curiosity rover as it travels through the "Grand" valley on its ascent of Mars. (16)Two name fixes: Joel Cotkin → Joel Kotkin (7, 8) — the urbanist/scholar's correct spelling Natalie Eacano → Natalie Ecanow (5, 6) — the FDD scholar's correct spelling

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: • Just hours after threatening another round of strikes against Iran, President Trump abruptly called them off, claiming negotiators may be closing in on a deal. We break down what the White House is saying, why Tehran has yet to confirm it, and what it could mean for the future of the crisis. • A newly revealed uranium-enrichment facility inside North Korea could significantly expand Kim Jong Un's ability to produce nuclear weapons. We explain what the discovery reveals about Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions and why it matters. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com.  Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief.  YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Goldbelly: Make Father's Day unforgettable with iconic foods delivered—get free shipping and 20% off your first order at https://GOLDBELLY.com with code PDB. Acre Gold: Turn your pocket change into physical 24-karat gold and enter to win a limited-edition Hot Wheels gold bar at https://GetAcreGold.com/PDB Chapter: Compare every medicare plan call 915-671-5252 today! Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan's contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don't directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact https://Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's episode, NK News Lead Correspondent Shreyas Reddy unpacks Chinese President Xi Jinping's first visit to North Korea in seven years and what it reveals about the future of China-DPRK relations. The conversation examines the symbolism and strategic messaging behind the two-day summit, including Xi's meetings with Kim Jong Un, visits to the Sino-DPRK Friendship Tower and the Workers' Party cadre school. Shreyas also discusses why denuclearization was notably absent from official readouts and what that suggests about Beijing's evolving approach to North Korea's nuclear program. The episode also explores whether China is seeking to reassert its influence as North Korea's ties with Russia deepen, what signs to watch for regarding trade, tourism and border reopenings, and why the composition of the Chinese delegation may offer clues about Beijing's priorities.  About the podcast: The NK News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Alannah Hill exclusively for NK News, covering the latest developments in and around North Korea. Each episode breaks down the week's news cycle with NK News journalists, analysts and expert guests.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: After a weekend that raised fears of a broader Middle East war, Israel and Iran are once again observing a ceasefire. We examine what changed, why both sides appear reluctant to escalate further, and what the latest developments may reveal about ongoing diplomatic efforts behind the scenes. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is heading to Pyongyang for his first visit in years. We explain why Beijing is renewing its focus on North Korea and what the trip says about China's evolving strategic priorities in East Asia. Russian authorities in occupied Crimea are tightening fuel restrictions after a series of Ukrainian strikes disrupted supply lines. We look at how Kyiv is increasingly turning the peninsula into a logistical liability for Moscow. With the World Cup just days away, intelligence and security agencies are preparing for what could be the most complex sporting event ever staged. We examine the threats officials are monitoring and the unprecedented security measures now being deployed. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief StopBox: Get firearm security redesigned and save 10% off @StopBoxUSA with code PDB10 at https://stopboxusa.com/PDB10 #stopboxpod Blocktrust: Move your retirement into the next generation of assets, go to https://mikebakercrypto.com now to claim your $2,500 Bitcoin bonus. Pocket Hose-Ballistic: Text PDB to 64000 for your 2 free gifts with the purchase of any Pocket Hose Ballistic hose. By Texting 64000, you agree to receive recurring automated marketing messages from Pocket Hose. Message frequency varies and data rates may apply. Text STOP at any time to opt out. Text HELP for additional Information. No purchase required. Terms apply, available at PocketHose.com/terms Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iran and Israel trade fire testing a two-month ceasefire, and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Pyongyang for his first trip to North Korea in seven years. Plus, software buyout deals have collapsed to the lowest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic, and the head of the OECD has warned governments around the world not to go it alone in taxing large multinationals.Mentioned in this podcast:Israel launches retaliatory air strikes on IranTrump says Netanyahu will have ‘no choice' but to accept a deal with IranSoftware buyout deals collapse to lowest level since pandemic after AI routXi Jinping heads to North Korea for first trip in 7 yearsOECD chief urges governments not to go it alone on digital taxationWant to get in touch? Email us at podcasts@ft.comNote: The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts The FT News Briefing is produced by Victoria Craig, Sonja Hutson, Saffeya Ahmed, Katya Kumkova, and Fiona Symon. Our editor is Marc Filippino. Our show was mixed by Alex Higgins. Additional help from Peter Barber. Our intern is Cole van Miltenburg. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Flo Phillips is the FT's global head of audio. The show's theme music is by Metaphor Music. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Iran is accused of sending IRGC commandos onto Kuwaiti territory during the fragile Gulf ceasefire, raising fears the region's shadow war is still escalating behind the scenes. The war with Iran is reportedly accelerating U.S.-Ukraine defense cooperation, with Washington and Kyiv now pursuing a landmark drone and air defense agreement as modern warfare rapidly evolves. Frustrations between Kyiv and the Trump administration appear to be boiling over, as President Volodymyr Zelensky increasingly distances Ukraine from what was once its most important ally. And in today's Back of the Brief — North Korea's support for Russia's war effort is reportedly fueling the country's biggest economic growth surge in nearly a decade, as Pyongyang earns billions supplying troops, missiles, and ammunition to Moscow. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Support Jimmy Lai: Free Jimmy Lai: Stand with the 78-year-old entrepreneur facing a life sentence for defending democracy in Hong Kong—visit https://supportjimmylai.com to take action now. StopBox: Get firearm security redesigned and save 10% off @StopBoxUSA with code PDB10 at https://stopboxusa.com/PDB10#stopboxpod Superpower: Stop guessing about your health—get $20 off Superpower at https://superpower.com/pdb with code PDB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices