Podcasts about russia turkey

#RUSSIA: #TURKEY: #NATO: US seeks to compete with ROSATOM in Istanbul. Andrea Striker, FDD https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/07/10/u-s-considers-nuclear-cooperation-with-turkey-as-congress-tees-up-sanctions/ 1908 Turkey

Let's talk about Russia, Turkey, eggs, and birds.... --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beau-of-the-fifth-column/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beau-of-the-fifth-column/support

1/2: #Russia: #Turkey: Erdogan meets Putin at Sochi & What is to be done? Ekaterina Zolotova, Geopolitical Futures. @GPFutures https://geopoliticalfutures.com/turkeys-pivot-to-the-west/ Photo:  1910 Peter No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow

2/2: #Russia: #Turkey: Erdogan meets Putin at Sochi & What is to be done? Ekaterina Zolotova, Geopolitical Futures. @GPFutures https://geopoliticalfutures.com/turkeys-pivot-to-the-west/Photo:  1915 Vladimir No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow

Europe correspondent Seamus Kearney joins Kathryn to talk about the Rugby World Cup fever hitting the continent a week out from the opening match between France and New Zealand. Meanwhile investigations continue into Spain's football federation president Luis Rubiales over his kiss of player Jenni Hermoso just after the team won the Women's Football World Cup. Russian drones have hit infrastructure at Ukraine's Danube River port, which is essential for global grain exports, just a day before Russia-Turkey talks on the grain issue.

A round-up of the main headlines in Sweden on June 26th, 2023. You can hear more reports on our homepage radiosweden.se, or in the app Sveriges Radio Play. Presenter: Michael WalshProducer: Kris Boswell

On the podcast this week we look at the outcome of the final round of Turkey's presidential election. Despite the polls showing him behind, and amid a devastating earthquake and an economy in crisis, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been re-elected as Turkey's president, winning by 52 per cent of the vote. In the last episode we covered what Erdoğan's re-election might mean for Turkey's fragile democracy and economy, this week we discuss what five more years of Erdoğan's foreign policy means for Ankara and for its relations with critical players like the US, NATO and Russia. Joining Leslie Vinjamuri on the show to discuss where Turkey may be heading are Galip Dalay, an Associate Fellow Middle East and North Africa programme, Sinem Adar, an Associate Researcher for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and finally Dimitar Bechev, from the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies. Read our expertise: Turkey's politics on the cusp of generational change  Turkey's next leader may be pro-West but not anti-Russia Turkey at a crossroads Subscribe to Independent Thinking wherever you get your podcasts. Please listen, rate, review and subscribe. Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Abdul Boudiaf and Alex Moyler.

This week on podcast we look at the fallout from the first round of Turkey's presidential and parliamentary elections. President Erdogan is just a hair's breadth away from securing the 50% of the vote needed to become president. With Turkey set to enter a presidential run-off on 28 May we ask what this means for Turkey's fragile democracy? Has the opposition under Kilicdaroglu lost momentum? And what impact did issues such as identity politics, the economy, foreign policy, and the devastating earthquakes play in the election?  We also look more broadly to what the result means for Turkey's place in the world. With Turkey potentially about to enter a third decade of rule under Erdogan, where will this place Ankara's ties with Russia, Europe, and the United States? What does this mean for Sweden's entry into NATO? And what does the election result mean for the future of Turkey's fragile economy? Joining Bronwen Maddox on the show this week is Galip Dalay is an Associate Fellow with our MENA programme; Timothy Ash an Associate Fellow with our Russia, and Eurasia programme; Evren Balta, a Professor of International Relations at Özyeğin University and journalist Guney Yildiz, formerly with the BBC, but now with Cambridge University.  Read our expertise: Turkey's next leader may be pro-West but not anti-Russia Turkey elections: High stakes for democracy Turkey at a crossroads Subscribe to Independent Thinking wherever you get your podcasts. Please listen, rate, review and subscribe. Presented by Bronwen Maddox. Produced by John Pollock. Sound by Abdul Boudiaf and Alex Moyler.

Busy 4 the Lord --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aei-leon/message

On this episode of Countdown 2 Eternity, Pastors James Kaddis and Don Stewart talk about several significant headlines from the Middle East, Turkey, and Russia. They'll also discuss the enemy's concerted effort to shut the mouths of those that are seeking to preach the Gospel. God will not be stopped! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1479/29

On this episode of Countdown 2 Eternity, Pastors James Kaddis and Don Stewart talk about several significant headlines from the Middle East, Turkey, and Russia. They'll also discuss the enemy's concerted effort to shut the mouths of those that are seeking to preach the Gospel. God will not be stopped! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1479/29

The latest: Grain shipments from Ukraine are gathering pace under the agreement hammered out by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations in July. Russia's blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports had sent food prices soaring and raised fears of more hunger in the Middle East and Africa. At least 18 ships, including loads of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, have departed. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/you-betterknow4/message

The latest: Grain shipments from Ukraine are gathering pace under the agreement hammered out by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations in July. Russia's blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports had sent food prices soaring and raised fears of more hunger in the Middle East and Africa. At least 18 ships, including loads of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, have departed. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/you-betterknow4/message

With Turkish Russian trade booming since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna's visit to Turkey this week focused on efforts to further isolate Moscow. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu welcomed Colonna. But behind the diplomatic pleasantries, there are growing concerns in the EU over Ankara's refusal to enforce western sanctions against Moscow. At a joint press conference with Cavusoglu, Colonna stressed the importance of unity in standing up to Russian aggression. "The European Union and other partner and allied countries have the same objective: to limit the renewal of the Russian war effort and to make Russia understand that it has chosen a dead end," said Colonna. "In this context, it is important that as many countries as possible send the same message." Deep financial ties Russian-Turkish trade has surged to record levels since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict. Bilateral trade with European countries, which had strong trading ties with Russia, has spiked fuelling suspicions that Turkey is becoming a backdoor to circumvent sanctions. Turkish-Russian financial ties deepened further, with Moscow depositing five billion dollars in Turkey, ostensibly to aid a Russian company's construction of a nuclear power station in Turkey. A further 10 billion dollars is reportedly expected in the next few weeks. The infusion of hard currency is a welcome boost for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose 2023 campaign for reelection is dogged by a plunging lira and inflation running at nearly 80 percent. "By helping Russia get around sanctions, Turkey can earn key balance of payments receipts, and that will help support the lira, write down inflation and help Erdogan win the elections," explained Timothy Ash, a senior strategist with Bluebay Asset Management. 'Black knight' To safeguard his close ties with Vladimir Putin, Erdogan has resisted calls from his western allies to enforce sanctions against Russia. Last month at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the two leaders discussed further developing trade ties. Turkey has doubled Russian oil imports since this year's assault on Ukraine. Russian oligarchs continue to moor their yachts in Turkish marinas, knowing that Turkish authorities won't attempt to seize them. "Turkey has de facto become a black knight. In academic literature, that means a state that is willing to help a sanctioned country, at least to mitigate sanctions," said Maria Shagina, a specialist on international sanctions at the Institute for Strategic Studies.  "And this is where Russia sees Turkey in that light, that it can come in handy in terms of developing its economic ties against the background of Western companies fleeing the country," added Shagina. Grain deal Turkey and the United Nations have brokered a deal to export Ukrainian grain to world markets, and those export operations are based in Istanbul. Erdogan claims credit for the agreement, saying it was possible only because of his close ties with Putin, relations which analysts suggest are set to deepen. Turkey's Erdogan due in Russia to 'sound out' Putin on Ukraine and Syria "The current Turkish Russian relations have definite bonds with the current war in Ukraine. Ukraine wheat exports is a new chapter for the region, and Turkey plays a quite significant role as an intermediary," said Russia Turkey expert Zaur Gasimov of Bonn University. "And also close military cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey and the aspect of Turkey not joining the anti-Russian sanctions, all that results in dynamics of importance for Moscow and for Ankara," said Gasimov. Ukraine drone sales Erdogan routinely points out that along with close ties with Putin, Turkish firms continue to sell military drones to Ukraine, weapons which are proving effective against Russian forces. But this balancing act between Ukraine and Russia raises questions about where the Turkish leader's loyalties lie. In a move interpreted as further stoking questions over Erdogan's loyalties, Putin invited the Turkish leader to this month's meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a Chinese-Russian-led, Eurasian security grouping. Turkey lays the ground for a smoothing of relations with Syria Galip Dalay, a Russia Turkey expert at the London-based Chatham House, says Putin's invitation and regular meetings with Erdogan are part of a broader Russian strategy. "Putin's telling the international community, 'actually I am not as isolated as the West wants or portrays me to be'," said Dalay. "So, the symbolism of these meetings, including Erdogan potentially joining the Shanghai Cooperation meeting in Uzbekistan, the symbolism is more important than the substance." High technology Analysts warn that Putin may seek to further leverage Erdogan's relationship and growing financial dependency on Russia to circumvent Western technology sanctions, putting Ankara on a collision course with its allies. "To me, the game-breaker is high technology," warned Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, "If I understand it correctly, both in a civilian area and in a military area, Russia is denied high technology that is really hitting their supply lines. "If Turkish companies are used to import proscribed items to reexport to Russia, that will blow the game open, and Turkey will be sanctioned," added Yesilada. In a sign that Turkey's western allies are losing patience, the US Treasury sent a letter to Turkey this month bluntly warning Turkish businesses of the financial dangers of trading with sanctioned Russian companies. With Turkey's economy in a weak state, sanctions could trigger a devastating economic crisis. At the same time, analysts say Erdogan is placing his bets on Russia in the hope that Russian trade and support will revitalise his nation's economy ahead of next year's elections.

S.Sudan first unified forces graduate amid calls for peace +++ Kenyan women make history with record election wins +++ DW's set to launch re-branded African Roots podcast +++ Ghana outlaws corporal punishment +++ Russia-Turkey relations

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow 1/2: #Iran #South Caucasus: #CentralAsia:  #Russia: #Turkey  Iran's rough relationships with the tough neighborhood. Brenda Shaffer, FDD https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2022/08/17/irans-policy-caucasus-central-asia/

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow 2/2: #Iran #South Caucasus: #CentralAsia:  #Russia: #Turkey  Iran's rough relationships with the tough neighborhood.Brenda Shaffer, FDD https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2022/08/17/irans-policy-caucasus-central-asia/

Turkey and Russia are shoring up their cooperation as Moscow faces isolation and sanctions. As it wages a war in Ukraine, how will Russia benefit from the partnership? And should the West be nervous?  Join host Kim Vinell. Guests: Maximilian Hess,  fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and an expert in Eurasian affairs. Liudmila Samarskaia, specialist in the contemporary history of the Middle East and a Research Fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. Sinan Ulgen, former Turkish diplomat and director of Edam, a think tank that focuses on Turkey's foreign, security, economic and digital policy.  

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow #Iran: #Russia; #Turkey: #PRC: Eurasia powers in the 21st Century. Gregory Copley, Defense & Foreign Affairs https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-russia-turkey-meetings-in-iran-aim-to-reshape-region-analysis/ar-AAZMUi5

Latest news from 22 July 2022, as reported in the Ukrainian media. RevengeFor initiative to help Ukrainian Army: https://revengefor.com Support the podcast at: https://www.patreon.com/highlightsfromukraine Special thanks to our top Patreon supporters - Helena Pszczolko O'Callaghan, Pete Carroll and mattg629! Contact us at: highlightsfromukraine@gmail.com.

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow #Iran: #Russia: #Turkey: What's in it for Tehran? Behnam ben Taleblu, FDD. https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-tehran-putin-raisi-and-erdogan-vow-to-continue-syria-cooperation/

Vladimir Putin works his Middle East connections. For his first international outing since the war in Ukraine, he went to Iran to meet with supreme leader Ali Khamenei and Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Iran and Russia are seeking closer ties in the face of Western sanctions. Also on the agenda: negotiations over blockaded imports of Ukrainian grain and the situation in Syria.

The financial turmoil unleashed by the Ukrainian conflict is hitting Turkey harder than most, with its economy still grappling with galloping price hikes caused by last year's currency collapse.  In Istanbul, opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu is turning to a historic tradition to alleviate hardship as inflation surges past 50 percent. His efforts have won international recognition, enhancing the mayor's reputation as a possible challenger to sitting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  For decades baker Yavuz Eraldi has been serving Turkey's largest city Istanbul, where – like in many other places – bread is a traditional staple of the poor. But not anymore, with the price of bread nearly doubling in less than a year. Such hard times, Eraldi says, mean people are increasingly turning to a centuries-old charitable tradition called "on the hook".  Pointing to a plastic board above the counter, Eraldi explains: "A customer pays for three extra loaves. Then I write here on a board – 3 "on the hook", and people in need see that free bread is available. Purchasing power plummets People's purchasing power has really gone down. Even those on a monthly salary have started to come and ask if there's any bread left "on the hook". "I've never seen this before, but this is the reality we're facing," Eraldi says. Last year's collapse of the Turkish lira triggered a surge in inflation. Officially running at more than 50 percent, independent studies put it at double that.  Anger over rising prices is spilling onto the streets, with social media filled with videos of people burning their utility bills in impromptu protests over price hikes. The strategic role of Istanbul's Bosphorus in the Ukraine crisis Anti-poverty groups say this winter people are facing a stark choice between eating or heating – a situation that is set to only worsen with financial turmoil caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Turkey's economy is still recovering from last year's currency collapse coupled with the country's dependence on imported energy and wheat from Russia and Ukraine. "If the currency weakens once more obviously, it will immediately pass through to inflation," warns analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. "Then inflation would shoot up to hyper inflation levels, which is unstable inflation which may reach three digits. "Poverty has reached unprecedented levels. Of course, inflation makes it very difficult for the Turkish people to afford any discretionary items. All the budget is focused on heating, rent, and food. Political fallout "People are running out of patience with Erdogan. He is urging people to wait a couple more months, but if I am hungry and my children are cold, I don't have the luxury of waiting a couple more months," added Yesilada. Istanbul's opposition-controlled municipality is now updating the "on-the-hook" tradition for the digital world to alleviate growing poverty. "We need creative solutions to face this crisis, one of them is bills on the hook. The need is greater than at any other time," says Sengul Altan Arslan, deputy secretary of the Istanbul municipality. Why drones pose a threat to Russia-Turkey relations as Ukraine crisis develops Arslan shows a web page they created where people who can't afford their utility bills can post them, and where someone else can pay them through the site. "When you look at the numbers, you see in November 18,000 people left their bills on the hook to be paid, whereas in December it was up to 25,000 bills. On February 1st, only 10,000 people put their bills "on the hook" in one day." The dire situation we're in requires more solidarity," says Arslan.  Calls for help Local officials say all those applying for help are verified as being "in need". So far, more than 300,000 bills have been paid through the scheme. Initiatives like this by Istanbul's charismatic mayor Imamoglu are playing well in opinion polls, ranking him a potential frontrunner to unseat Erdogan in next year's presidential elections. The mayor has turned his municipality into the country's biggest bread producer. Last month he visited a newly opened bakery that produces more than a million subsidised loaves a day.  Queues for subsidised bread have become a symbol of Turkey's economic pain. In Istanbul's Kadikoy district, scores of people patiently wait for bread, which costs about a third of the usual price. Among them is retiree Ali Demir, who has high praise for the mayor.   "This is great work; the public should wake up," he says. "A service like this doesn't exist anywhere else in Turkey except here. People are hungry in this city. We need help." A previous economic crisis brought an Istanbul mayor, President Erdogan, to power. Imamoglu and his supporters may well be hoping that history repeats itself.

Is it time for the US to start treating the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean as bigger than a Greco-Turkish dispute? Endy Zemenides, the Executive Director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, argues in his latest piece for Kathimerini - “Dangerous Double Standards” - that continuing to get this wrong, and continuing to give Turkey a free pass when it comes to invasion, occupation and threatening war, only enables Russia in Ukraine and China in the South China Sea. Endy Zemenides joins our host Thanos Davelis to discuss his latest op-ed and look at how the failure to hold Turkey accountable for its threats against Greece and its 47+ year occupation of Cyprus undermines US goals and enables malign actors like Russia.Read Endy Zemenides' latest op-ed in Kathimerini: Dangerous double standardsYou can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:The Best Historical Analogy for Crimea Doesn't Involve Nazis: For precedent, look to Cyprus instead of PolandBiden says Russia's military moves are the beginning of an invasion of UkraineEU sanctions to limit Moscow's access to financial markets‘Russia undermining international stability,' says Greek PM

With Russian forces poised to attack Ukraine, Turkish-made drones are set to face a big test in battle as well as a challenge to Turkey's relations with Russia. Russian tanks continue to exercise close to the Ukrainian border; the gunfire is just training for now. As Russia continues to build up its forces, Turkey continues to supply Ukraine with newly developed armed drones in the face of Moscow's warnings. "Turkey is not happy about Russian expansion. Turkey is not happy that Russia is flexing its muscles in the former Soviet space," claims Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the European Council. "Ankara is seeing this as an opportunity to improve relations with NATO," adds Aydintasbas. "Relations with Washington, they have really been up and down and sometimes quite tense over the last few years. " "So, the Ukraine crisis is a chance to polish Turkey's credentials as a NATO member. And it's been particularly supportive of Ukraine by way of selling weapons but also drones."  Drones as weapons  From Libya to Syria, Turkish drones, or unmanned air vehicles – also known as UAVs - have quickly gained a reputation as being cheap and effective. "A single armed drone equipped with a couple of bombs may destroy a whole air defuse battery or a very expensive electronic warfare system or take out some armed vehicles " said defense analyst Arda Mevlutoglu. Turkish drones drew world attention in 2020 after playing a key role in Azerbaijan's defeat of Armenian-backed forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. The drones are most recently playing a key role in turning the tide against Tigray rebels in the Ethiopian civil war.  But defense analyst Mevlutoglu warns that in Ukraine the Turkish drones would face a far more formidable challenge from Russian forces. "In conflicts such as Syria, Libya Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkish drones were used against air defenses of low quality, or virtually no air defenses at all. However Russian army possesses a large number of sophisticated air defense equipment, electronic warfare equipment," said Mevlutoglu.   In October, the Ukrainian army's use of Turkish drones against Russian-backed separatists underscored - some analysts say - the drones' importance not only militarily but psychologically. "That (October drone attack) increased morale not only in the Ukrainian army but also in the general public," said Petro Burkovskiy is, a senior fellow at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation in Kyiv. "It showed that, yes, Ukrainians can resist and can defend themselves from the Russian region in Donbas, and that also made Turkey more visible as an ally. Russian condemnation Russia was quick to condemn Ukraine's use of Turkish drones.  The Turkish and Russian presidents have developed strong ties, raising concerns at NATO. Turkey is heavily dependent on Russian gas and cooperation in Syria. But if Turkish-made drones end up causing Russian casualties, bilateral ties could face a big challenge. "Turkish ammunitions and also UAVs would be used by the Ukrainian side, and that would be not very acceptable for the Russians," warned Mustafa Aydin is a professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. "If Turkey is pushed for a choice, Turkey would choose the western alliance and NATO, but it's very difficult to predict whether Ukraine is that eventuality," added Aydin. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now trying to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, hoping that averting confrontation will avoid a difficult choice for Turkey. 

Photo:   A Shadda Blanket, South Caucasus, first half 19th century. Weft face structure with extra weft wrapped patterning, two joined panels, stitched onto a material backing, overall very good condition. 9ft.4in. x 5ft.11in. (285cm. x 180 cm.) £20,000-25,000 1/2:  #Azerbaijan   Balancing the powers Russia, Turkey and Iran in the South Caucasus. Michael Doran@Doranimated; senior Fellow at Hudson Institute. @HudsonInstitute, Baku Dialogues.   https://bakudialogues.ada.edu.az/articles/azerbaijan-in-the-struggle-for-eurasia-27-01-2022

Photo: Caucasus:  Common view of the Devdaraki glacier 2/2:  #Azerbaijan   Balancing the powers Russia, Turkey and Iran in the South Caucasus.  Michael Doran@Doranimated; senior Fellow at Hudson Institute. @HudsonInstitute, Baku Dialogues.   https://bakudialogues.ada.edu.az/articles/azerbaijan-in-the-struggle-for-eurasia-27-01-2022

今日格言：The greatest discovery of my generation is that a person can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. 在我这个世代最棒的发现就是一个人可以改变他的态度来改变他的生活。今日实用句：I have good news. I just got promoted.告诉你一个好消息，我刚刚升职了。Really? Congratulations. 真的吗？恭喜呀！Day 8 探索问题：A list of the places you have visited 列出一张你去过的所有地方的列表the U.S.A. 美国Canada 加拿大Thailand 泰国Singapore 新加坡Japan 日本Dominican Republic 多米尼加共和国Guatemala 危地马拉Italy 意大利the U.K. 英国Spain 西班牙France 法国Ireland 爱尔兰the Netherlands 荷兰Vatican 梵蒂冈Cuba 古巴Nepal 尼泊尔Sweden 瑞典Finland 芬兰Estonia 爱沙尼亚Russia 俄罗斯Turkey 土耳其Romania 罗马尼亚Denmark 丹麥Iceland 冰岛Malaysia 马来西亚Peru 秘鲁Lithuania 立陶宛Norway 挪威Portugal 葡萄牙Monaco 摩纳哥Switzerland 瑞士Austria 奥地利Germany 德国Slovakia 斯洛伐克Hungary 匈牙利Croatia 克罗地亚Czech Republic 捷克

As Turkey increasingly drifts from the West, we've seen Turkey and Russia have moved closer. In a recently published report for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a team of experts look at Russia-Turkey relations under Presidents Putin and Erdogan, where they document how the Erdogan and Putin regimes have managed to compartmentalize their relationship, mixing competition with substantial cooperation across a range of areas. The authors also offer a nuanced set of policy recommendations for the US and its transatlantic allies, highlighting how they should react to Turkey's drift from the West under Erdogan. Aykan Erdemir and John Hardie, two of the authors of this report, join The Greek Current to break down their work, titled “Collusion or Collision? Turkey-Russia Relations Under Erdogan and Putin”. Dr. Aykan Erdemir is the senior director of the Turkey program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Turkish lawmaker.John Hardie is the research manager at FDD, and his own research focuses on Russian foreign and security policy, U.S. policy toward Russia, and transatlantic relations.Make sure to read their report here: Collusion or Collision? Turkey-Russia Relations Under Erdogan and PutinYou can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:ECB: Monetary policy decisionsEuropean Central Bank to taper pandemic stimulus, but gentlyTurkish lira dips to new low after another interest rate cutTurkey's lira tumbles after central bank cuts rates

ARCHES (Kazan, RUSSIA) Russian based musician and producer located at third capital of Russia - Kazan city.Released at lots of labels like Ballroom / Lost On You / Wasabi / Baroque / Doppelgaenger. And hosting his own label Zolotaya Orda. Played around the country, and outside the Russia - Turkey, India.

Welcome to the Policy Pulse - a breakdown summary of some of the most compelling recent reports to come out of think tanks from around the world. This edition of the Policy Pulse is recorded as an episode of the Policy People Podcast. You can find all the links to the reports mentioned here in the show notes or in the newsletter.Thank you to Sasanka Kanuparthi for curating this edition of Policy Pulse.And now I bring you Policy pulse, (Date).Do Russia-Turkey pose a joint threat to EU regional hegemony?In recent years, the Russia-Turkey relationship has been marred by a trust deficit stemming from contentious geopolitics and diplomatic disagreements. However, the two share autocratic tendencies, weak institutions, and anti-Western attitudes. Adding to this, Turkey’s energy dependencies and defense engagements in the region make its Russia equation even more complex. This ISS paper explores various facets of this relationship in excruciating detail, covering areas of cooperation, conflict, and foreign policy convergence. This ‘cooperative rivalry’ raises several issues, and the EU’s preparedness to handle surprise changes is being monitored closely. Get deeper insights on the Russia-Turkey dynamic by reading this paper. Can France secure its Indo-Pacific interests by partnering with Australia?France controls territories and military facilities in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, wielding influence over regions off the East African coast and the Southern Pacific. The burgeoning strategic partnership with Australia holds significant promise in the eyes of French policymakers. How can France leverage this relationship to overcome limitations in its regional capabilities to achieve its strategic goals? This ASPI report looks at historical precedents and recent developments and lays out opportunities and constraints for strategists. Find out more by reading the seminal work by Nicolas Regaud on French interests in the Indo-Pacific.Can regional governance save Latin America from descending into chaos?Latin America is extremely vulnerable after facing multiple waves of COVID-19, economic crises, and socio-political strife. Regional rivalries and ideological conflicts are once again dominating the discourse at a time when citizens require real support from institutions. Scholars researching for Carnegie argue that reviving regional governance mechanisms will allow countries to better prepare for the post-pandemic world and that public health systems and economic recovery should be the top priorities. Further, they suggest that multilateral engagements will help the region secure a seat at the table in the newly emerging global order. Those interested in understanding Latin America better can read this report. Can Ukraine remove the stumbling blocks to reform?As a post-Soviet country, Ukraine’s emergence from the 1990s to the 2000s is reminiscent of newly formed democratic institutions riddled with vested interests and connections to oligarchs. Their influence spread far and wide as law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, media, and government accentuated crony capitalism. John Lough’s research paper for Chatham House evaluates the structures of the system, the sway of the oligarchs in key sectors, and the role of media in the system. He explores corruption in sectors such as banking, energy, and transport and the contemporary realities of post-2014 Ukraine. To learn more about the inner workings of Ukraine, read this paper.Is Australia ready for an upsurge in cybercrime and ransomware attacks?Australia came under incessant cyber and ransomware attacks in recent times, and this ASPI report finds the country underprepared to deal with the economic repercussions. Digitization has helped nations with better governance, financial transparency, and last-mile connectivity. However, policymakers are yet to fully understand the risks and security threats it poses. The report analyzes the role of external, state & non-state actors in instigating these attacks on Australian organizations and details the functional aspects of ransomware. It also lists recommendations to mitigate risks, some of which include, instituting legal frameworks, building transparency, and organizing nationwide education campaigns. Delve into the world of ransomware and discover Australia’s options with this report.   You can listen to the episode right away in the audio player embedded above, or right below it you can click “Listen in podcast app” — which will connect you to the show’s feed. Alternatively, you can click the icons below to listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Thanks again to Sasanka Kanuparthi for his work on this edition of Policy Pulse.Since Policy Pulse is a new format we’re experimenting with, we’d really appreciate any suggestions or feedback on how we can improve this program, so feel free to reply to this email, leave a comment or message me on my LinkedIn profile.Stay well and stay safe,- LiamFounder of Policy People Subscribe at policypeople.substack.com

Geopolitical analyst Nikola Mikovic covers a broad swath of geopolitical competition between the US, China, Russia, and Turkey from the EU and Balkans to MENA and the Caucasus. We cover the aftermath of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, recent elections in Armenia, Turkey's expanding influence, and how Ankara will continue to spar with Russia despite being frenemies. […]

Pro Sports Bettors Alex Vella & Neel Shah, and Football Tipster George Gamble take a look at Tuesday and Wednesday's Euros 2021 fixtures. 7:15 Hungary v Portugal 19:25 France v Germany 33:00 Finland v Russia 42:25 Turkey v Wales 53:40 Italy v Switzerland 1:07:10 Best Bets   George Gamble: https://twitter.com/CGeorgeGamble   Neel Shah: https://twitter.com/mybettorlife Alex Vella: https://twitter.com/AlexVella_   1 WEEK FREE TRIAL OF TRADEMATE http://tradematesports.com/   TRADEMATE CORE A tool for new and aspiring sports bettors and traders: https://tradematesports.com/core    TRADEMATE PRO A tool for professional sports bettors and traders: https://tradematesports.com/pro   SOCIAL LINKS: Instagram ➠ https://www.instagram.com/tradematesports/ Facebook ➠ https://www.facebook.com/TrademateSports Twitter ➠ https://twitter.com/TrademateSports   BLOG:  Learn more about how you can improve your betting on our blog ➠ http://blog.tradematesports.com/

This is an audio version of our YouTube show. Euro 2020 betting tips, picks and predictions from Oddspedia on Group A & Group B's Matchday 2 fixtures: Finland vs Russia, Turkey vs Wales & Italy vs Switzerland. Hit ‘Subscribe' to never miss our Euro 2020 (in 2021) predictions & betting previews! No Account at Novibet yet? Claim your £10 Free Bet directly: bit.ly/3i41Ttf This is our Euro 2020 (2021) betting preview for Group A & Group B's Matchday 2 fixtures. Our resident host Eduardo Siles is back to preview all the best action across Euro 2020. The trio of tipsters is made up by Alvaro Romeo and Daniele Fisichella. Our experts are here to preview, discuss, analyse and dissect every fixture of the European Championships. They're also on hand to provide betting tips, odds, picks and predictions. For all the latest Euro 2020 (in 2021) info, news and betting tips, head to http://oddspedia.com/football where you'll find everything you need to secure your best bet. And don't forget to check our betting tools to discover Sure Bets, Dropping Odds, Value Bets, Blocked Odds and Blocked Matches to give you the upper hand this weekend. Here's what on this week's show: 00:00 Introduction 01:12 Euro 2020, Finland vs Russia betting tips and predictions 07:59 Euro 2020, Turkey vs Wales betting tips and predictions 14:23 Euro 2020, Italy vs Switzerland betting tips and predictions Head to http://oddspedia.com for all the latest sports news, data, tips, predictions, best odds and other info to guarantee your best bet. Please like this video, share and subscribe to our channel. Plus, make sure you don't miss any of Oddspedia's new content by clicking the notifications bell. Let's stay connected: Facebook | facebook.com/oddspedia Twitter | twitter.com/oddspedia Instagram | instagram.com/oddspedia Podcast | https://anchor.fm/oddspedia #Euro2020 #EuropeanChampionships #Oddspedia

Despite his signature militant rhetoric, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently signaled a more pragmatic approach to several regional issues. He has seemingly moderated his stand towards Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and even Turkey’s arch-rival, Greece. When U.S. President Joe Biden broke with his predecessors’ reluctance to recognize the Ottoman massacres of Armenians more than a century ago as genocide, Ankara was predictably angry but much less than was expected. An obvious explanation is Turkey’s historic fear of Russia, its neighbor across the Black Sea, as indicated by Erdoğan’s embrace of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky. Panel: - Jonathan Hessen, Host. - Amir Oren, TV7 Analyst and Host of Watchmen Talk. - Mr. Yusuf Erim, TRT World Editor at large. - Prof. Zeev Khanin, Expert on Russian and Middle Eastern Studies, Bar Ilan and Ariel Universities. Articles on the topic: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/turkey-us-must-reverse-armenia-policy/ https://www.tv7israelnews.com/turkey-invites-israeli-minister-to-visit/ https://www.tv7israelnews.com/turkey-to-us-s400s-a-done-deal/ You are welcome to join our audience and watch all of our programs - free of charge! TV7 Israel News: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/563/ Jerusalem Studio: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/18738/ TV7 Israel News Editor’s Note: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/76269/ TV7 Israel: Watchmen Talk: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/76256/ Jerusalem Prays: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/135790/ TV7’s Times Observer: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/97531/ TV7’s Middle East Review: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/997755/ My Brother’s Keeper: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/53719/ This week in 60 seconds: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/123456/ Those who wish can send prayer requests to TV7 Israel News in the following ways: Facebook Messenger: https://www.facebook.com/tv7israelnews Email: israelnews@tv7.fi Please be sure to mention your first name and country of residence. Any attached videos should not exceed 20 seconds in duration. #IsraelNews #tv7israelnews #newsupdates Rally behind our vision - https://www.tv7israelnews.com/donate/ To purchase TV7 Israel News merchandise: https://teespring.com/stores/tv7-israel-news-store Live view of Jerusalem - https://www.tv7israelnews.com/jerusalem-live-feed/ Visit our website - http://www.tv7israelnews.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/tv7israelnews Like TV7 Israel News on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/tv7israelnews Follow TV7 Israel News on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tv7israelnews/ Follow TV7 Israel News on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tv7israelnews

Join ACGA's Director of International Policy Chris Czerwinski and our team of analysts as they discuss the recent U.S. sanctions against Russia and their impact as well as the first meeting of the Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT). They also discuss the status of a possible infrastructure package as negotiations continue. This podcast is a lightly edited version of a policy call held on April 15th, 2021.

This Week in Turkey‘s guest was Dimitar Bechev. Mr. Bechev is a fellow at the Atlantic Council Europe Center and the Institute for Human Sciences Vienna, as well as a visiting researcher at Oxford University. Dr. Bechev has written extensively on the EU’s external relations, the politics and modern history of Turkey and the Balkans, and Russia’s foreign policy. Mr. Bechev evaluated the today and tomorrow of Russia-Turkey relations, in light of the S400 situation, Syria and NATO. Mr. Bechev also assessed the role of democratic values in Turkey’s future relations and how foreign policy and Erdoğan’s domestic popularity align.

The guys discuss their current and upcoming games, try finishing off their unbreakable Juggernaut alliance before the recorder packs it in. Intro The guys discuss their drinks, venue and proximity to the train line (0 mins 10 secs) They flag there's no interview this episode. They talk about producing the show (4 mins 45 secs) Kaner starts a discussion on having a face to face game, but it looks like the numbers aren't going to be there for a full board (6 mins 45 secs) Around the grounds Amby starts discussing a Europa Renovatio game he bought into and how he's not doing well. He goes onto discuss his Imperial Diplomacy game where he's also doing pretty ordinary (9 mins 15 secs) He touches on his Declaration of War game (13 mins) They move to another bar due to the train noise and discuss their new drinks and venue (19 mins 20 secs) Amby finishes up his last game: Winning is for Losers and describes how there's many games within the game. He goes onto discuss the nature of being able to win the thread game, allowing players to force one order of a player. Amby gives credit to gopher's gameplay (21 mins 45 secs) The guys move onto their Europa Renovatio team game that is starting, discuss the way the game works and first thoughts on gameplay (32 mins 15 secs) Kaner goes onto discuss one of his Europa games that he's dying in (40 mins 30 secs) They go onto discuss their local Brisbane based team being part of the webDip World Cup, participating as the Democracy Sausages. They go onto discuss the other players before discussing the tyranny of the Australia timezone (44 mins 40 secs) Amby goes on a rant about the Chinese punitive nit-picking against Australia in the latest round of trade wars (53 mins 30 secs) Return to the Juggernaut unbreakable alliance The guys bring up their Russia-Turkey game where they're testing alliances to see how well they work. They reset the scene where they were last up to in Fall 1907 (55 mins 40 secs) Fall 1907 They do builds and enter spring 1908 before planning their moves and adjudicating (59 mins) Spring 1908 Next up is their planning for fall 1908, their moves,  adjudicating and builds (1 hr 10 mins) Fall 1908 Its spring 1909. The guys talk moves and then adjudicate (1 hr 20 mins 40 secs) Spring 1909 Onto fall 1909. Moves are planned before... (1 hr 30 mins) Something goes terribly wrong with the recorder and the guys have no idea how much was recorder (and lost.) As it turned out it was only about 5-10 minutes (1 hr 34 mins) They quickly wrap up the show (1 hr 34 mins 30 secs)   If you want to help the guys with a donation to help get a new recorder, please seriously consider becoming a Patreon of the show. Venue: Oche and Mr Chester Wine Bar, Brisbane Drinks of choice: Kaner:  Oche pale ale from Brisbane and Mornington draught from the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria Amby: Balter XPA from the Gold Coast and Rossovero Primitivo from Salento in Italy   Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help improve the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone. Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.      

In special podcast series, I am joined by Mikhail Reider-Gordon, Managing Director of Institutional Ethics & Integrity at Affiliated Monitors. Mikhail's areas of expertise include technology, privacy, cybersecurity, IP and accountability in artificial intelligence; the global anti-corruption and anti-money laundering regimes; media & entertainment; biotech and the life sciences; the public sector and international law. She is accustomed to working on extremely sensitive and high-profile matters, both nationally and internationally. In this episode, we how Wirecard used binary options to facilitate its massive fraud. Some of the highlights include: ·       Weekly news wrap-up on Wirecard ·       Austrian BBT and the largest intelligence scandal for Austria since WWII. ·       Was Jan Marsalek a BVT agent, asset or fellow traveler? ·       What is the IMS Capital connection? ·       Enter a Russia/Turkey connection. ·       BaFin's right hand cannot find its left hand. ·       Never buy a binary option in a dark alley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And more. Prayed up and prepped up! You can support my work at the links below. We are totally listener supported and we appreciate each and every one of you! Thank you and God bless! Express VPN Link: https://www.xvbelink.com/?offer=3monthsfree&a_fid=jstorm1 *Get 3 months Free* Select the 12 month package and get 3 months free! Bitcoin Wallet: 3M2rBQMPjS2UihwQLuzCeMTveoUSSmH87h PayPal: https://paypal.me/johnnystorm Patreon: https://patreon.com/dontspeak NEW! Cash app now available for donations! Our cash tag is $jstorm212 For checks and money orders please email us at dntspk5@gmail.com and we will send you the address. Support us through the BRAVE web browser here: https://brave.com/don308 Free book on Spiritual Warfare below! https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/780462 https://twitter.com/DontSpe54156130 Show Email dntspk5@gmail.com Back up Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC8vqWJ1jWO30n4RWqbAquA?view_as=subscriber Website: https://dontspeaknews.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dontspeak/support

Al-Monitor Columnist Semih Idiz discusses why Turkish-pro government media has made former Vice President Joe Biden an ‘object of anger’; why Turkey is escalating the diplomatic fight with Europe over offensive cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad; Russia-Turkey relations; and Turkey’s interests and objectives in Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Syria.

Register for the Communications and Geopolitics Webinar HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/communications-and-geopolitics-what-leaders-need-to-know-now-tickets-122586488487 (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/communications-and-geopolitics-what-leaders-need-to-know-now-tickets-122586488487)   In this episode, Jacob speaks with Max Suchkov, a Senior Fellow and Associate Professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He is also a non-resident expert at the Russian International Affairs Council and an Associate Research Fellow at the Italian institute of International Political Studies.  Timestamps:  00:00 Introduction 2:46 What's the trajectory of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict?9:35  Whither Iran?15:07 What are the chances for direct Russia-Turkey conflict, now and in the future?25:55 What are Russia's top foreign policy priorities?32:50 What does Russia think about Xinjiang?36:49 A Russian's view of the US48:20 Will Putin still rule Russia in 2030?50:48 OutroSubscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any new episodes!  We put out new videos every other Monday Questions? Reach out at: info@perchperspectives.com Socials-Twitter: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqa2N5Rmh1ZUQxNWdsVGptSzU4aFNsSG5kMjg3Z3xBQ3Jtc0ttOV9nWGlVTzNqbWNQLTZrWmVpQVpXbndvY25FTlJIdzBrU2tad3NYcWxON0gyT204REw1b2xONVhSZW9JUEFNdDhVdnI3Mk9HYWJhQmlhMlhSRS1UcG1oMjV5WmtISDdMQ3JUdm5wU1MzRWhxdXhQOA%3D%3D&v=tfr8Wm8LpfE&q=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FPerchSpectives&event=video_description (https://twitter.com/PerchSpectives) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/perch-perspectives/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/perch-perspectives/) Website: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmk0NDRSTGtBWVh2c0hVOWZiZTM1aEFBaVRNUXxBQ3Jtc0ttaFhSaXRwc09sSTBkNDJVWW5lajZlRFp4d2laOV93Q0hjNU4yT1NjSXUzRG1KdnN0NC1XeWJOdWVyOC11RHNVUU1SZE5LdUhFbjI0RW9MbmN3SVcxWEc2d043cEQ3bURpOVJmeHIyN2tVZGc2ek9Taw%3D%3D&v=tfr8Wm8LpfE&q=https%3A%2F%2Fperchperspectives.com%2F&event=video_description (https://perchperspectives.com/)

A remote, landlocked and mountainous piece of land in the South Caucuses is drawing a lot of attention - and firepower - as two former Soviet republics with Russia Turkey and others in the mix battle it out. The battle between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh threaten stability in the region. We also go over the latest Covid-19 data: has the dreaded second wave already arrived in some parts of the world? And countdown to the contentious November election in the United States - we take you deep into Trump country in Iowa. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/michael-bociurkiw/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michael-bociurkiw/support

With one million dead, governments abandon efforts to contain COVID-19 pandemic / Trump uses debate to incite fascist violence / Armenian-Azeri war threatens to trigger Russia-Turkey clash

In this week’s editors’ discussion on Trend Lines, WPR’s Judah Grunstein and Elliot Waldman talk about Turkey’s escalating military confrontation with the Russian-backed forces of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. They also discuss the refugee crisis that erupted this week along the Greece-Turkey border. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines and what you’ve read on WPR, you can sign up for our free newsletter to get our uncompromising analysis delivered straight to your inbox. The newsletter offers a free preview article every day of the week, plus three more complimentary articles in our weekly roundup every Friday. Sign up here. Then subscribe. Relevant Articles on WPR: An Isolated Erdogan Learns the Cost of Hubris in Idlib NATO Is in Denial About the Risk of War Between Turkey and Russia Turkey and NATO May Be at Loggerheads, but They Still Need Each Other A Responsibility to Protect the Earth? Reframing Sovereignty in the Anthropocene In the Dominican Republic, Protests Could Challenge the Ruling Party’s Grip Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie. To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Elizabeth Warren is out, the latest Democratic contender to call it a day in the 2020 race. Meanwhile, Sanders has turned over a new leaf and seems finally willing to go on the attack. The senator is drawing sharper contrasts between himself and rival Joe Biden, who simply cannot stop fumbling, promising higher health premiums and health care that is “only affordable.” Thanks, Joe! Kathy Kelly, American peace activist and author, founding member of Voices in the Wilderness and co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, joined hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas to discuss the strange peace deal in Afghanistan, which can apparently accommodate one party - the US - bombing the other - the Taliban. How peace can be achieved when some of the main players to the deal have so much to gain by making war is a mystery. Will the International Criminal Court inquiry into US and other war crimes in Afghanistan be a step toward some measure of accountability? Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Syria, told the misfits it appears that Russia had won on points in its diplomatic bout with Turkey on Syria. Turkey has had to back off its biggest demands and Syria will not relinquish the territorial control it has. Erdogan appears to have alienated most potential supporters, but with an agreement that can only hold a few weeks or months, Idlib’s future remains in doubt. Brandon Sutton, host of The Discourse podcast and everyone’s favorite Twitter lefty, came with some advice for Bernie Sanders: make it known that the Democratic Party is shutting you out because of your ideas, not over manners or any other faux bones of contention. The more you let them dodge this ideological conversation, the more they win. Our gentlemen discussed the rise and fall of Warren’s campaign, who she might endorse and why, and what she does and doesn’t offer as a potential running mate.

Tensions between Ankara and Moscow persist, amid ongoing battles in Syria’s northwestern Idlib region. President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are seemingly on a collision course; with Turkey – historically – the weaker party, looking to avoid a major confrontation with Russia. Are we heading to such a conflict or is there a diplomatic solution to this crisis? Panel: - Jonathan Hessen, Host. - Amir Oren, Analyst. - Dr. Eran Lerman, Vice President, Jerusalem Institute of Strategy and Security, Lecturer at Shalem College. - Prof. Zeev Khanin, Expert on Russian and Middle Eastern Studies, Bar Ilan and Ariel Universities. Articles on the topic: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/turkish-military-attacks-hundreds-of-syrian-army-targets-in-idlib/ https://www.tv7israelnews.com/assad-idlib-gains-mark-prelude-of-rebels-ultimate-defeat/ https://www.tv7israelnews.com/do-syria-turkey-clashes-presage-a-wider-confrontation-in-the-middle-east/ #IsraelNews #tv7israelnews #newsupdates Rally behind our vision - https://www.tv7israelnews.com/donate/ To perches TV7 Israel News merchandise: https://teespring.com/stores/tv7-israel-news-store Live view of Jerusalem - https://www.tv7israelnews.com/jerusalem-live-feed/ Visit our website - http://www.tv7israelnews.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/tv7israelnews Like TV7 Israel News on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/tv7israelnews Follow TV7 Israel News on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tv7israelnews/ Follow TV7 Israel News on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tv7israelnews

This week on Look Forward, Jay and Brad return to discuss the killing of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, Russia/Turkey's agreement on Syria, Bill Taylor testifies, DOJ investigates itself, federal judge lands serious blow to Trump's DOJ, Zuckerberg gets embarrassed by AOC, Katie Hill fiasco, Tulsi does exactly what we knew she would, and much more. SHOW NOTES ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills self during raid by US Special Forces; Trump Trumps up announcement of the death in the Trumpiest way possible Russia and Turkey come to quick arrangement to control Syrian area formerly occupied by US and Kurdish forces AS THE IMPEACHMENT TURNS Bill Taylor spills all the tea House Republicans perform elaborate stunt to attempt to undermine impeachment depositions Sondland lawyer says he told House that Trump offered a quid pro quo in wake of Bill Taylor testimony DOJ turns an inquiry into Russia investigations origins into a criminal investigation Federal judge rules House can see Mueller grand jury material; also says DOJ OLC opinion preventing indictment of sitting President has no foundation in law Mark Zuckerberg makes ass of himself in front of Congress and again later! And 47 states are investigating anti-trust violations against Facebook! Large-toothed idiot expresses shock at court ruling allowing states to regulate broadband internet after deregulating broadband internet on federal level Katie Hill fiasco US Cybersecurity Consultant butt dials reporter (twice!); talks need for money and craps on the Biden family STATUS of 2020 race: Our thoughts at this moment Tim Ryan drops out (allegedly) Tulsi continues losing her mind

*)Attacks violate reported Russia-Turkey ceasefire in Idlib We begin in Syria where Turkey’s defense ministry says a Turkish observation post in Idlib province was attacked. The shells fired from areas under the Syrian regime come after Russian media reported Turkey and Russia brokered a complete ceasefire in Idlib. But intensive shelling by Russian-backed regime forces continued to target Idlib and Hama countrysides after midnight, according to a war monitor. *)Two oil tankers struck in Gulf of Oman Two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman were reportedly attacked, with one adrift and on fire. All crew members were safely evacuated and the US Navy is assisting the tankers targeted. The possible attack comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran and a high-stakes visit by Japan’s prime minister to Iran. *)PM meets Iran supreme leader Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the last day of his unprecedented visit. Abe earlier warned of unintended clashes in the Middle East after meeting Iranian President Hasan Rouhani. Tensions have escalated in the Mideast with Iran apparently poised to break the 2015 nuclear deal after the US quit the agreement last year. *)Ebola kills second patient in Uganda - health official A 50-year-old woman who tested positive for Ebola in Uganda has died, a health ministry official said. This is the second fatality since the virus spread from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The woman was the grandmother of a five-year-old boy died of Ebola after crossing into Uganda with his family from the DRC. Turkish artist goes viral with misery-comfort contrast images And finally, Powerful collages by Turkish artist Ugur Gallenkus have taken the internet by storm. The juxtaposed photos show misery in war-torn countries with the comforts of the West. He first started the project in 2016 in reaction to the photo of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee who was found drowned on a Turkish beach. Gallenkus hopes he will raise awareness of a "parallel world".

Today on TruNews we share details from the historic trilateral war council on Syria between Russia, Turkey and Iran as they prepare to stand against the Western World Order in Syria. Later we discuss Elon Musk’s comments to Joe Rogan regarding artificial intelligence, brain implantsand how humans have already become cyborgs. Air date: 9/7/2018

Today on TruNews we share details from the historic trilateral war council on Syria between Russia, Turkey and Iran as they prepare to stand against the Western World Order in Syria. Later we discuss Elon Musk’s comments to Joe Rogan regarding artificial intelligence, brain implantsand how humans have already become cyborgs. Air date: 9/7/2018

In this first episode of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Srdja Trifkovic and Dr. Tom Fleming discuss the downing of Russian jets by the Turkish military. Was the US involved? What does this mean for Erdogan? for Putin? They also discuss what the UK's contribution will be now that they have joined the “coalition.” In the second part of the episode Dr. Trifkovic says that Donald Trump is saying the “unsayable” and while not having a true grasp of the issues, is expressing a visceral reaction that is causing people to look seriously at the idea of immigration - either via economic or security lenses. Original Air Date: December 14, 2015 Show Run Time: 42 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Srdja Trifkovic, Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner Episode page: https://fleming.foundation/2015/12/foreign-affairs-episode-1-russia-turkey-and-trump/ The Fleming Foundation Presents Foreign Affairs: https://fleming.foundation/category/podcasts/fa/ Subscribe: https://fleming.foundation/membership-signup/ The Fleming Foundation Presents Foreign Affairs℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2016. All Rights are Reserved.

Jacob L. Shapiro and Xander Snyder discuss the future of Syria, the prospect of US-Russian cooperation in the Middle East, and whether ideology defines geopolitics or vice versa. Sign up for free updates on topics like this! Go here: hubs.ly/H06mXwR0 TRANSCRIPT: Xander Snyder: Hi, and welcome to the Geopolitical Futures Podcast. I'm Xander Snyder. I'm an analyst here at Geopolitical Futures, and I'll be chatting with Jacob Shapiro, the director of analysis here at Geopolitical Futures. How's it going Jacob? Jacob L. Shapiro: Nice to be back, we've been on hiatus it feels like for a couple weeks. XS: Yeah, and today we're going to dig into a subject that's probably more on the forefront of people's minds than many others in the world of international affairs. We're going to be talking about the conflict in the Middle East and U.S. and Russian interests, and how they're affected by what's going on there now. So just for the sake of context, let's lay out the current lay of the land for what's going on in the Syrian civil war right now. You can either just look at this as a single conflict, but really it's more complicated than this and the nature of the fight is that there are multiple fronts or fights all built into one. How would you describe the nature of those different individual conflicts Jacob? JLS: Yeah, it's really difficult to talk about Syria and the conflict that's going on there in the first place because Syria really doesn't exist anymore, and we don't really have the vocabulary for talking about what actually exists in its place because nothing has emerged. I don't think that anything is really going to emerge. I was looking into this for a research project lately, and I sort of knew this intuitively, but I think of Lebanon and Syria as together. I've always thought of them as part of the same sphere of influence and usually it was Syria always interfering in Lebanon, but you could also think of Lebanon as a model for what's going to happen in Syria. And Lebanon is, it's a much smaller country than Syria, and yet it fought a civil war for 15 years. So the idea that Syria is going to calm down and that Syria is going to remerge as a single country at some point in the near future seems to me to be mostly folly in the same way that thinking that Iraq is going to be able to pull itself back together is simply folly. But in thinking about all the different sides that are in this fight – I mean, it started as an internal Syrian conflict and in some ways, it still is. It's the Assad regime, which is the Syrian Alawites, and also a lot of Sunnis bought into the Assad regime and the Syrian Kurds and the more secular opposition and then all the opposition groups that are various flavors in terms of Islam, some of which are more moderate in the way they want Islam to govern daily life and some of whom are like Islamic State, who are sort of on the religious totalitarianism end of the spectrum. So there's the local fight, there is the sectarian fight in general between Sunnis and Shiites for which Syria and especially Iraq have become huge battlegrounds. There's the problem with Syria now being really a way for different powers in the region to position themselves. The Turks have their interests in Syria, the Iranians have their interests in Syria, Saudis have their interests in Syria, the Israelis have their interests in Syria, and then you zoom an even bigger step out and it seems like almost every Western power in the world is somehow participating in bombing Syria or attacking ISIS in some way. I mean, when you read down the list of countries that have actually participated in military actions in Syria, it's a pretty impressive list. So it started as an internal Syrian conflict, but as most conflicts in the Middle East go, it quickly morphed into all these different levels, and I think that's one of the things that's going to keep it going for a long time. XS: Yeah, and part of the reason why it's difficult to imagine any sort of coherent Syria, in the way that we've come to know it, emerging out of this is in part due to what Syria was defined as most of the 20th century anyways, right? You had a number of countries in this region that were drawn basically specifically to allow outside … powers to maintain some degree of influence over these countries. So just like it's hard to imagine Syria with its borders before 2011 emerging again, it's hard to imagine Iraq coming out of this with similar borders. And what is it that has changed in the last 25 but also hundred years that has weakened the powers that existed in the 20th century that maintained these borders and has driven it to what it looks like today? I mean certainly, the rise of Islamism in the last 30, 40 years and the decline in the Soviet Union play some role in that. But what's really sparked the deterioration of these borders? JLS: I would say two things. First of all, it would've been better if the outside powers that carved up the Middle East had thought about it in terms of how are going to best control or influence these particular countries. I think it wasn't even that thoughtful. I think it really was they were just carving up the region, and they thought of the region from a sort of, “what are the resources that I can access here or what does owning this particularly territory versus this particular territory give me for my power.” So they didn't really think about where different local communities were, and how to divide things in such a way that these states would be more manageable. It's a general trend of homogenization, right? Even if you look at a place like Eastern Europe today, Eastern Europe is now a collection of states with a lot more homogenized populations than they were even a century ago. You had large pockets of minorities in these different states, and that's less so. That's also true of the Middle East, the Turks are now in Turkey. Well, you can't really speak about Iran because Iran is such a cluster of different things, but people are self-segregating themselves into their little groups and the previous multinational way of dealing with things has sort of broken down. The Ottoman Empire was a multinational empire, there was no real nationalist impulse there. And this gets to the second question that you posed, which is: What has changed? And I think that the thing to think about there is to remember a lot of the ideas that led to the political ideologies that created nationalism – and not just nationalism in Europe but helped organize Europe into the nation-states that exist today – I mean, those started bubbling up around the Enlightenment, right? So we're talking really even by the 1600 and 1700s, a lot of those things are beginning to develop. They didn't come to the Middle East really until the Ottoman Empire collapsed. So the Middle East really encountered the Enlightenment and modernity and nationalism and all of these ideas when the Ottoman Empire fell apart after World War I. And they had to integrate these new ideas with their traditional notion of how things should be governed, and Islam was obviously a big part of that. There was a big rush at first in the embrace of nationalism, and you had all different kinds of nationalism flourishing in the Middle East in the 20th century. You had Turkish nationalism, Iran rose as a national power, certainly Israel is an example of that, Zionism is just a fancy word for Jewish nationalism. And then you had Arab nationalism. And Arab nationalism I guess we would say didn't quite work. You know, there was a sense that the Arabs are a group as a whole, but then they also created these subidentities. Egypt was one that made more sense because Egypt has always been sort of separate and unto itself. But especially Lebanon, Syria, Iraq – these were countries that were really trying to create a national identity essentially out of nothing, and it worked for a while. It was seductive for a while, Nasserism and Baathism and all these things certainly gave a lot of these countries meaning. But in the long term, they were viewed as bankrupt by the populations. They didn't bring economic prosperity to the region. They didn't bring greater choice in representation to the region. They sidelined Islam to a great extent because they were afraid that Islam was a threat to their power. And they couldn't defeat Israel. Israel was one of the major political issues for these Arab nationalist powers, and I mean, to be frank, they got their butts kicked every time they tried to engage with Israel. So I think all of those things led people to look somewhere else and the only real organizing principle that has ever worked in bringing the peoples of the Middle East, the Arab people of the Middle East, together has been Islam. Besides Islam, there's never been a unifying sense of what's going on. So in that sense, it's a reversion to the previous organizing principle of the region. Now, the problem is that you have people using Islam for their own political purposes, and everybody's arguing that they have the one true path, and they all have to fight each other. XS: As an American and someone who's obviously observed how U.S. media and U.S. society has attempted to interpret the events in the Middle East over the last six years – you know, you mentioned a moment ago how the ideas of Enlightenment didn't really even get there until the early 20th century, and it seems like so much of American identity is defined by our relationship to Enlightenment principles. And it seems to me that part of the reason that a lot of folks here didn't really truly understand what was going on during what's come to be called the Arab Spring, is just this sense of optimism that, you know, the rest of the world is finally going to come around to this idea of democracy, and this kind of led a lot of commentators and analysts to really miss what was going on there, right? It wasn't that you had huge percentages of these protestors ascribing to liberal ideas or philosophies. The more powerful subgroups within them turned out to be or many of them turned out to be jihadi. Is there more to it than just optimism? Why did so many people miss the nature of the uprisings that began in 2011? JLS: Well, I understand why people wanted to interpret the events of 2011 in that way. There was some reason for it. First of all, the vanguard of the protestors, there were liberals among them. There were people who wanted greater political representation, and they were certainly at the forefront, especially in Egypt. I mean, it wasn't by any means even a majority of the protestors probably, but there was a significant contingent that wanted real reform. But when you think about how things set off in Tunisia, that wasn't a result of any kind of democratic rising. That was a vegetable salesman who couldn't make ends meet, and he got accosted by a female police officer, and he felt humiliated and embarrassed, and it set off a bunch of protests. We've got more protests in Tunisia now, the military has actually now intervened, which is a little out of character for Tunisia because the military has never played that big a role. But I am getting a little off track in answering your question. I've written before about what people got wrong when they were dissecting the Arab Spring. I don't blame people for getting it wrong. There's a reason to hope that these things would happen. What I think happened though was a complete lack of self-awareness because even in Europe, even in a place like the United States that has this allegiance to the principles that you talked about, it took many hundreds of years and a great deal of bloodshed before the present-day reality emerged, and these things certainly aren't perfect. There are Enlightenment principles, and there are nationalist principles, and in Europe those two things combined together to create World War I and World War II and some of the greatest horrors the world had ever seen. So I understand that there was this sense of optimism and that, you know, the Middle East was ready, and I think also there might have been some residual guilt on behalf of the parties that had been colonial powers in the region and had really not set them up for success. They wanted them to succeed, and there's nothing really wrong with wanting them to succeed. But when you got down to it, there was really no deep tradition, not even tradition but there was no real political organization for the ideas that we're talking about right now in the Middle East. The groups that were the best organized were the Islamic groups, whether that was offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood or different ones because they were able to speak directly to the people to engage them. And over time, they were able to come to dominate a lot of these protest movements which we've seen, Syria is a great example. The initial protests in Syria were a result of, you know, there had been a big drought, and the government had not been providing the level of goods and services necessary. And the people looked out and saw that things were changing ostensibly in Egypt and changing in Tunisia, and they asked for more. Assad did not do what his father did in similar situations and just completely crack down, but he tried to sort of give them what they wanted piece meal, and it wasn't enough. And you had a bunch of different groups with a bunch of different interests, and eventually the ones that were able to carry the day were the Islamist ones because they were the best organized, and they were most willing to die for the things that they were pushing for. So I guess I don't know if that actually answers your question Xander, but that's sort of how I see how we got the wrong impression of what was going on there. XS: Do you think that if there was any optimism involved in the misinterpretation of these events, has that optimism been beaten out of us? Is the U.S. beginning to look at the world less from the perspective of spreading democracy and more in terms of what's good for us? I mean, when I was growing up, you know I was younger during the 2003 Iraq invasion, for example, and I remember this idea of “spreading democracy” not really being debated too much, at least in the mainstream. I mean, it was somewhat taken for granted that this was a foreign policy goal worth achieving, worth exerting forces on achieving. Now it seems more taken for granted, at least by many that this just isn't a tenable model for forming U.S. foreign policy strategy. Have we lost this optimism? The last six years of events in the Middle East, is this pushing us to change how we look at the world or was this change in ideology inevitable? JLS: Well it's funny, and it's a good question because and I've written about this before. I don't remember the last time I wrote about it for GPF, but you know, after the Cold War ended and the U.S. emerged as the really only dominant global power in the world, there was the Clinton presidency, but after that came the Bush presidency, and they were the ones that had to respond to 9/11 and also carried out the 2003 Iraq invasion. They were neoconservatives, and this was a political ideology, which basically equated the national interests of the United States with ideological goals. So the spread of things like democracy and human rights came to be identified directly with the national interest. And then the other important part of neoconservativism was that the U.S. would intervene when it needed to, to promote those values because that was in the national interest. The funny thing that people often forget is that, in that sense, neoconservatism really is a cousin of liberal internationalism because liberal internationalism says the same thing. It also equates the national interest of the United States with the spread of particular liberal principles. The main difference between the two is that neoconservatism is willing to have the United States unilaterally intervene in different countries to push those principles, whereas liberal internationalists would rather do it through the U.N. or other multilateral institutions. So this has always been part of the United States, the spread of American values has always been embedded within U.S. ideology and U.S. foreign policy frameworks. And certainly coming out of World War II, there was a real sense that liberal internationalism the way Roosevelt defined it was the way to help make the world better and also make the world safer from the prospective of the United States. As the Cold War really ratcheted up, that all fell aside and realism and pragmatism, which I have always argued are the great American philosophies, asserted themselves, and you had people dealing not so much with the ideologies – although they certainly dress them up in the guise of those things – but there was a larger enemy to defeat. And those ideological concerns had to be subordinated to the goal of defeating the Soviet Union. So what I am saying there is I think the United States goes back and forth depending on how powerful it is, and when the U.S. is feeling particularly powerful, and its challengers are particularly weak, the United States has the luxury of saying, “well yeah, we should push our values because that's what's best for the world and that's what's best for the United States.” When you enter a situation as the U.S. did after really the failure of the Iraq intervention, you get into a place not only where there's political fatigue in the United States with those ideas but where the United States is spread too thin. There's no one power that is challenging U.S. dominance in the world right now, but there are so many smaller conflicts, all of which seem to require U.S. attention that the United States is spread too thin and it can't think in terms of making the world a better place and convincing itself that that is what's going to be best for United States policy. It has to define a clear set of objectives and then pursue them and have a larger goal but deal with the people you have to deal with no matter what your ideological differences are with them. So I definitely think the U.S. has moved more towards a realist view of the world, and I would note that this shift happened under the Obama administration, the administration that from a rhetorical point of view was probably more hopeful and more internationalist than many previous administrations. Obama even won a Nobel Peace Prize because the Europeans were so happy that somebody who spoke their language got into office. But he got into office and the challenges were laid in front of him, and then he had to make compromises. And that's where we are today. XS: I think that raises sort of an interesting question that's really at the core of any sort of social studies, which is trying to understand the direction of causality – what leads to another thing, right? I think it's almost common sense that ideology influences a society in a state's actions and that just makes sense because what someone thinks influences what they do. But to a degree, it seems like ideology is also influenced by the constraints that a state finds itself in at any given time. For example, with the U.S. after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was essentially supremely powerful I think. It was the global superpower, so to an extent it could afford to think that neoconservatism in that constant global intervention was in its national interest because it could make the mistakes essentially that the U.S. has made over the last 25 years without having its core fundamental interests threatened in a way that a state with a lower margin of error would encounter. How do you think about causality in this context? JLS: Yeah in this sense – and you and I have argued about this before – I am on the side of saying that reality determines ideology and that ideology very rarely goes the other way. I use the term ideology very broadly. So we were just talking about neoconservative ideology – neoconservative ideology is a product of the Cold War, the way the Cold War ended, U.S. military economic power in the 1990s. You can't have neoconservative ideology, be a convincing ideology, if you don't have all of those other things first. Islam is a really interesting example of this question. Is Islam an ideology? What are the factors that have led to this birth of Islamism throughout the Middle East, and is it the factors there that led to Islamism or is Islamism driving regional actors to their current situation? You know, if I'm going to stick to my guns then I really have to say that, no, I think that there are actually hard objective political and social realities that then lead people towards embracing Islam and its various manifestations. One of the things that I get asked often is, is it even possible for a Muslim country to be a liberal democracy? Can Islam coexist with liberal democracy? Does it make any sense to want these types of political regimes in the Middle East? And I would say that just in terms of principles, there's no reason that Islam can't coexist with liberal democracy, there's no reason that Christianity or Judaism can't coexist with liberal democracy. The problem comes in understanding the objective political realities, and there, to have the types of regimes that the United States wants, there has to be a certain level of wealth, a certain tradition of rights. And if it's not there, you can't just create it. So the U.S. found that out in Iraq when it tried to engage in state building there. And in some ways, I am not sure that U.S. policymakers have learned the lesson because when they talk about what they want after the fighting in Syria ends, whenever that's going to happen, they think about reconstituting some sort of federalist system in Syria and a federalist system in Iraq, and as I said at the beginning, Syria doesn't exist anymore, Iraq doesn't exist anymore. These countries are not going to get put back together, and trying to put them back together and believing that federalist principles or the right separation of powers in the government is going to achieve that to me is really wishful thinking. If you want to engage with the reality on the ground, you have to engage with the fact that you live in a world where people want to take care of their own and identify with their own and trust their own and they are going to fight and die for their own. You can't put people who hate each other and who have a history of hating each other in the same country and expect that overnight they are going to sign a piece of paper and going to trust each other. Again, there's nothing really that outside powers can do in a situation like Syria and Iraq, there's the illusion that the United States or the illusion that Russia, in its talks in Astana and wherever else it's having its talks, that they're going to be able to accomplish something at the diplomatic level that will fix things in a place like Syria. It just won't. It doesn't matter what ideology you have, it doesn't matter what people say far away from the conflict, this is a civil war. And it's a civil war that nobody can win except the actors that are in it, and they're going to have to fight it out. Most countries in the world have gone through these upheavals. I think it's hard to see yourself in other parts of the world, but it's something that should be better understood. XS: So how then have the U.S. and Russia been engaging in these difficult or thorny, prickly realities that they're encountering in the Middle East? Is there room for overlap of interests between the global superpower and the European regional power, Russia, or are our interests fundamentally divergent in the Middle East or can we find and have we found ways to cooperate with Russia? JLS: I was listening to George give a speech a couple weeks ago, and one of the things he said was that he wrote his book “The Next 100 Years” – and if you go back and read “The Next 100 Years”, it's pretty incredible how accurate George was in a lot of the predictions that he made. But he said in the speech the one thing that he really got wrong, was he really got the Middle East wrong. He didn't realize that Islamism was going to be a force and that jihadism was going to be a force and that the U.S. was going to have to commit so much energy and so many resources to the region. He really thought that there was going to be a pullback on the part of the United States and that it would be focusing on other parts of the world. So I say all that to say that when I heard George making that point that one of the things that stood out to me was he was still thinking about the Middle East through a Cold War prism. And the Middle East was one of the real main battlegrounds between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Middle East had a great share of global oil production, it's less so today and the proxy conflicts that were happening in places like the Middle East had a lot more, there was a lot more at stake in them then there currently is today. We talked a little bit about ideology. I actually think that inertia is a more difficult thing for both the United States and Russia to overcome in their relations when it comes to the Middle East than any ideological things. There's no capitalism versus communism anymore, it's really Russian nationalism versus United States national interests. So the place where Russia and the United States can get bogged down in a place like the Middle East is to get used to dealing with each other as if they're adversaries. When you look at what the actual hard interests are in the Middle East, the United States and Russia first of all share some general interests, and second of all, this region is of little importance to both of them honestly. Russia has much bigger fish to fry in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus and Central Asia. It has real differences with the United States in a lot of these regions, particularly in Eastern Europe. That was part of the reason that Russia intervened in Syria in the first place, to try and create some leverage with the United States with the Ukraine crisis. And for the part of the United States, it has been trying unsuccessfully to get out of Iraq really since 2007. The surge that Bush administration put through was one strategy to try and finish off the conflict and get out, that didn't work. Obama just tried to pull everything out and hope that everything was going to be fine, that didn't work. Trump seems to be going back to more of a surge kind of mentality of, you know, let's commit a couple more forces now and knock out these ISIS guys, and then we'll finally leave. At the end of the day, what do the United States and Russia share in common in the Middle East? Neither one of them has any interest in ISIS being a powerful force. It's a lot closer to home for Russia, there are a lot of Chechens fighting in the Syrian civil war, and the Caucasus is a fertile ground for the types of radical Islamist ideologies that have developed in the Middle East. So Russia has that in mind. And I think the other thing that Russia has to think about is containing Turkey. I know that everybody sees that Putin and Erdogan seem to have buried the hatchet, but Russia and Turkey are historical enemies. And Russia is a declining power, and Turkey is a rising power, and Turkey is historically a U.S. ally, but it is also beginning to have problems with the United States that we've seen in recent weeks really become clear. So for Russia, it's really about containing radical Islam and then making sure that a country like Turkey or a coalition of powers with Turkey at the head can threaten Russian interests in places that are more important to them like in the Caucasus or the Balkans and the rest of Eastern Europe. The United States shares a similar concern with ISIS. It can't tolerate ISIS mostly because I think when the United States looks at ISIS, it worries about – is this or could this be some kind of unifying Sunni Arab state that would be completely hostile to the United States? That's the fear. And then the second part is that the United States is trying to build a balance of power. The United States wrecked the balance of power when it invaded Iraq in 2003. The Iraq-Iran standoff was a major part of that balance of power. The United States has been trying to restore some order to it ever since, so in that sense, the United States also doesn't want Turkey to become too powerful. Certainly, the United States would like Turkey to take a greater role in managing ISIS. But at the same time, as Turkey becomes more powerful, you are going to see more and more clashes between the United States and Turkey, and in that sense, this weird U.S.-Russia-Turkey triangle is going to be a constant maneuvering of different sides against each other. So I think that overall the Middle East is not that important to Russia and the United States, but they both find themselves there, and they both share some tactical goals there. We've said in our 2017 forecast that we expected that the U.S. and Russia would find some quiet ways to cooperate and coordinate their activities in the Middle East. I still expect that to be the case. I don't necessarily expect it to be friendly or even cordial, but I do think that when you look just at the hard interests and you put away the baggage and when you put away the history and when you put away the ideology and you just look at what both countries want in the Middle East, there is some room for cooperation. XS: Right and at Geopolitical Futures, this is really how we try to interpret and analyze what's going on in the world, right? It's not so much what one country says, its rhetoric or even what it wants but rather what's in the realm of possibility. And at least as it relates to U.S. and Russian overlaps of interests in the Middle East, I mean there are places for cooperation despite the tension between the two countries that probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon. We've written a good deal about both U.S.-Russian relations as well as their role in the Middle East and the developments in the Middle East on our website http://geopoliticalfutures.com. Check it out, you can navigate directly to analyses by region if you are interested in learning a little bit more about our net assessment on any particular region. We've written large-scale long-term forecasts, and we update these regularly with our Reality Checks and Deep Dives, so if anything on this episode interests you, go to http://geopoliticalfutures.comand you can learn more there. Thanks for chatting today Jacob. JLS: My pleasure, and if folks out there have comments, please also we love comments so let us know how we're doing. If you even have suggestions for topics, we're here, we're listening. XS: And you can reach us at comments@geopoliticalfutures.com Thanks everyone for listening, and we'll see you next week.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Sputnik International political analyst Dmitry Babich to discuss the shocking assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey. Andrey Karlov was shot dead in Ankara at an art exhibition as his shooter, a policeman, shouted “Do Not Forget Aleppo”. Russia has called the incident an act of terrorism, but will the western powers agree? How will this incident impact the war in Syria and relations between Turkey and Russia?The evacuation of Islamist rebels from Aleppo continues as the mainstream media shamefully ignores attacks by jihadists and the evacuation of the Shia majority villages of Fua and Kefraya. Will the UN Security Council resolution to send observers make a difference? Catherine Shakdam, independent political analyst, joins Becker to discuss the ongoing information war. As President Obama holds his last press conference the narrative that Russia had a role in hacking the Democratic Party during the election continues to be promoted endlessly in the corporate media. Will there be any letup in this war-mongering campaign? Becker is joined by Mark Sleboda, international affairs and security analyst.

Interpreter Managing Editor Emma Connors speaks to Matthew Dal Santo, a Danish Research Council post-doctoral fellow at the Saxo Institute at the University of Copenhagen, about the assassination of Andrei Karlov, Russia's Ambassador to Turkey, and the general state of the Turkey-Russia relationship.

Stewart Warther, BNP Paribas Equity Strategist, and David Kotok, Cumberland Advisors Chairman, on what will drive volatility higher; Admiral James Stavridis, Dean of Tufts University Fletcher School, on G20 meeting and Russia-Turkey relations; and Stephen Schork, Schork Group President, says the cruel summer has been phenomenal for energy. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Stewart Warther, BNP Paribas Equity Strategist, and David Kotok, Cumberland Advisors Chairman, on what will drive volatility higher; Admiral James Stavridis, Dean of Tufts University Fletcher School, on G20 meeting and Russia-Turkey relations; and Stephen Schork, Schork Group President, says the cruel summer has been phenomenal for energy.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by international security and affairs analyst Mark Sleboda to discuss the thaw in relations between Turkey and Russia. The two countries may hit the re-set button in St. Petersburg today as President Erdogan arrives for a state visit where he will meet with President Vladimir Putin. What accounts for the sharp turnaround in relations, and is Turkey increasingly moving away from NATO after last month’s failed coup or is this a limited maneuver on the part of both governments. Donald Trump could barely finish a sentence as he delivered his vision for the U.S. economy over the objections of protesters in Detroit. His newly-unveiled team of advisers is packed with bankers, hedge fund managers and real estate sharks. Becker is joined by political cartoonist and analyst Ted Rall to assess Trump's economic policy.Nagasaki, Hiroshima: Hundreds of thousands of Japanese were slaughtered as guinea pigs in a huge weapons testing operation. Today is the anniversary of the United States dropping an atomic bomb on Nagasaki that instantly killed tens of thousands of people days after the bombing of Hiroshima and left future generations to suffer the after effects of radiation poisoning. 71 years later, the U.S. is updating its nuclear arsenal and the right-wing Abe government of Japan is intensifying its drive to remilitarize the country. Joining Becker is Kevin Kamps, the radioactive watchdog at Beyond Nuclear.

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