Podcasts about Suez Canal

In this episode of the Leader's Edge Podcast, reporter Russ Banham discusses his October cover story on cyber-enabled cargo theft. From the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in 2021 to today's supply chain disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the freight shipping industry is no stranger to risk. But Russ's feature examines an evolving version of an old threat–cargo theft from trucks. In today's multibillion-dollar world of cyber-enabled larceny, criminal rings exploit digital tools to trick shippers, freight brokers, and motor carriers into unknowingly handing over valuable goods.

What's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here:Want my help starting a business? Join me here inside Zero To FounderSign up for my AI Masterclass: AI MasterclassFollow Me:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=enTwitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeuTailor Brands: Check out Tailor Brands to get started with your business today: https://bit.ly/TailorBrandsSeptQuince: Free shipping and 365-day returns at https://quince.com/impactpodElevenLabs: Book your demo at https://elevenlabs.io/impactpodCash App: Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/v6nymgjl #CashAppPod*Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Cash App Green features, Savings, Direct deposit, Round ups, Overdraft coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosure.Ketone IQ: Visit https://ketone.com/IMPACT for 30% OFF your subscription order.ATT Business: Switch to AT&T Business at https://business.att.comIncogni: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code IMPACT at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/impact Quo: ​​Try for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months at https://quo.com/impactPipedrive: Get more leads and grow your business. Go to https://www.pipedrive.com/impact and get started with a 30-day free trial.Netsuite: For the first time ever you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to https://NetSuite.ai/Theory.Butcherbox: Go to https://ButcherBox.com/IMPACT to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping alwaysThe team breaks down a real and fast-moving shift in the AI industry: open-weight models, which were a rounding error (~7% of traffic) back in December, have exploded—accounting for 56% of tokens generated by August, with Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch reporting a single-day record of 78.4% on September 19th, and spending on three Chinese labs (Moonshot, DeepSeek, z.ai) on that day topping spend on OpenAI. The host walks the money: open-weight share of dollars on the Vercel gateway went from under 4% in June to 8.6% in July to 14% in August, average price per token fell 23% in August alone, and developers are splitting the workload—hard, high-stakes work still goes to Anthropic (which has held 61%+ of gateway spend every month since December), everything else goes to whatever's cheapest. His read on what's breaking: not the frontier, but the low end of the big players—OpenAI's and Google's cheap "gateway" models are getting obliterated as people conclude "you're not as good as Anthropic, so I'll either pay for the best or use the cheap stuff." The real winners, he argues, are the chipmakers and cloud/inference providers (like Vercel), because value is shifting from owning the model to just providing access to the compute—the commoditization of intelligence. He frames the optimistic upside: companies will increasingly host their own open-weight models to keep their work proprietary and build a real edge, rather than everyone using the identical public tool. Ryan pushes the counter-thesis—that if OpenAI had stayed the 2015 nonprofit and gone all-in on open source (his analogy: how OBS open-sourced screen recording and dominated), the US might be further ahead of China. Tom steelmans it but argues the fatal flaw: someone has to build the "brains," the data centers are staggeringly expensive, and there's still no observed ceiling to how much smarter models get with more compute—so without the profit incentive to aggregate that capital, AI would have stalled out entirely. His synthesis lands close to the Musk-era idea: keep the frontier model paid to fund the enormous buildout, let older generations go open source to drive sub-frontier innovation, and don't let the government kill open weights. They also dig into China's logic—giving models away free as an authoritarian-enabled disruption play they can clamp down on later once they're manufacturing their own chips—and the cynical data angle that free Chinese models feed usage data straight back to labs that can close them off anytime. A sharp, first-principles look at where the AI value—and the risk—is actually moving.The team steps back from any single flashpoint to map how the world's conflicts are increasingly linking into one interconnected crisis. The weekend's near-escalation—a Houthi missile barrage on Riyadh, an Aramco depot fire, a State Department warning to reconsider travel to the entire region, and Trump briefly in "deciding mode" before reportedly backing off—is treated as just one node in a much larger web. The host lays out the loosely-sourced but growing hypothesis tying it all together: a China-Russia-Iran-North Korea alignment whose logic is to keep the US bogged down in as many places as possible—so China can move on Taiwan (possibly accelerating a 2027 timeline if it feels cornered on AI and chips), Russia can test whether NATO's guarantees mean anything while a wartime economy gives Putin every incentive to keep the Ukraine stalemate going, and Europe openly tells its citizens to prepare for war, with Germany talking about the biggest military on the continent. Threaded through every conflict is the same economic engine: the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb has pushed shipping costs from roughly $6–7 to $23+ per barrel, and that slow-building penalty cascades into fuel, food, and fertilizer crises—potentially a hard-winter scenario that pushes Europe to "escalate to de-escalate." The host's synthesis: calling it World War III is overstated, but these conflicts are genuinely connected and waiting on a spark. He traces the root cause to the erosion of the US as the "monolithic keeper of global peace"—a decline he pins on internal division and a watershed in Russia's Ukraine invasion—and argues America is now in a "Suez Canal moment": if it can't reopen Hormuz by force, the world's near-universal "back down when America says so" reflex collapses, and the US has to actually fight every skirmish at an unaffordable cost, on top of staggering debt. He frames it as a once-in-a-century shift in great-power politics unfolding at the exact moment AI emerges as the defining strategic technology, and closes on his recurring warning: regulating AI to death would hand China the opening to corner "intelligence itself." (A chat-prompted aside, which the host flags as a troubling hypothetical, entertains whether a large-enough war could be used to justify postponing an election—landing on Congress as the necessary check.)The team breaks down Trump's declaration of an "ultimate deal" with Denmark over Greenland—and separates the victory lap from the substance. The host's read: much of what Trump is trumpeting was already in place under the 1951 US-Denmark agreement (which lets the US operate military bases there), and he's taking a modest update and blowing it up for low-information voters who only hear the headline. But there is a genuinely new and strategically significant element—Greenland can no longer allow foreign-adversary infrastructure, specifically shutting China out. He explains why that matters: China has been insinuating itself into the Arctic (icebreakers, a new shipping route, calling itself "Arctic-adjacent"), and Chinese-built infrastructure/tech has a documented pattern of quietly sending data home (he cites a Nordic test where an isolated Chinese car kept pinging China), so keeping Chinese equipment out of a territory that sits on the direct line of any Russian attack on the US—and any future "golden dome" early-warning/defense system—is a real national-security win, one he says Denmark, Greenland, the UK, and the US all seem to accept. His broader points: this is smart strategy people miss because they hate Trump, and he argues there's a real shift toward Americans who no longer believe the US has moral standing to be the strongest power—a view he rejects, favoring a US that reestablishes its moral core but refocuses on hemispheric defense rather than policing the world. His sharpest criticism is Trump's method: publicly humiliating counterparts ("be the little bro, pat them on the head") breeds the exact resentment now visible with Canada and Europe, when the same wins could be gotten privately while letting the other side save face. On the forward look, he frames Greenland's real friction as a potential US-Europe proxy fight, notes that Europe won't fully hitch itself to China because China is aligned with Russia (a "suicide mission" militarily), and addresses a viewer point that America is rapidly losing soft power—arguing the only durable way to bring allies back is genuine economic and military strength (people getting richer by aligning with America), not threats, which produce brief compliance and permanent option-seeking. His path: stabilize Iran, lean into the Abraham Accords and hemispheric energy (Venezuela + US), stop policing the world, calm the violent left-right whipsaw, and grow the economy through AI.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Energy News Beat Podcast, host Stu Turley sits down with Kirk Edwards, President of Latigo Petroleum, to discuss the critical energy challenges reshaping global markets. From diesel shortages and geopolitical tensions to drone warfare targeting refineries, the conversation reveals how interconnected energy security has become. Edwards and Turley explore why proposed diesel export bans would backfire, how the Ukraine war is crippling global refining capacity, and why U.S. energy policy decisions could have catastrophic consequences for the economy. With oil prices hovering around $100 per barrel and refinery utilization at dangerous levels worldwide, this episode cuts through the noise to explain what's really driving energy markets—and why North American energy cooperation is more critical than ever.We highly recommend connecting with Kirk on LinkedIn, as he is a great writer and resource.https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-edwards-99757412a/1. Diesel Market Crisis & Export BansThe conversation opens with the critical issue of diesel prices and the political debate around banning diesel exports. Kirk explains that a diesel export ban would be counterproductive—refiners would simply reduce capacity rather than store excess inventory, which would increase prices for all refined products (gasoline, jet fuel, asphalt, kerosene).2. Global Diesel Shortage & Geopolitical ImpactThe war in Ukraine has devastated Russia's refining capacity, creating a massive global diesel shortage. Russia, historically a major diesel exporter, now has export bans. The U.S. exports approximately 1.5 million barrels per day of diesel, representing about 20% of the world's supply—making U.S. diesel critical to global energy security.3. California's Energy CrisisCalifornia's strict regulations have driven refineries to close or relocate to Texas and the Gulf Coast. This has left California dependent on imports (50-60% of diesel from Asia), resulting in diesel prices reaching $9-10 per gallon compared to $6 in Texas—a self-inflicted wound through poor policy.4. Iranian Oil Seizures & SanctionsThree Iranian tankers carrying 6 million barrels of oil have been seized and are headed to the U.S. This represents approximately $600 million in assets and demonstrates the effectiveness of sanctions in crippling Iran's economy and ability to fund military operations.5. Ukraine-Russia Warfare & Drone AttacksThe conversation highlights how drone warfare is reshaping global energy security. Ukraine's drone attacks on Russian refineries (150 drones got through out of 600 sent) are significantly impacting global oil production. The Novorossiysk refinery was hit, taking 110,000 barrels per day offline.6. Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ChallengesHouthi attacks on Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline have forced a "shuttle diplomacy" approach—using smaller tankers to move oil through the Red Sea and Suez Canal instead of the damaged pipeline. This reduces throughput from 4-6 million barrels per day to 3-5 million.7. Global LNG & Natural Gas DisparitiesNatural gas prices vary dramatically by region—$2-3 per MCF in Texas versus $30 per MCF in Europe. Qatar's LNG infrastructure has been damaged, and the global LNG shortage will worsen during winter as storage levels are depleted.8. U.S. Tanker Fleet VulnerabilityThe U.S. has less than 0.01% of the world's commercial shipping fleet. This creates a critical vulnerability—if other nations sanction U.S. tankers, America has no fleet to maintain energy exports or security.9. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) & Global Oil ReservesApproximately 3 billion barrels of oil have been displaced since the Ukraine war began. China strategically holds 2 billion barrels in reserves, which has helped stabilize global prices. The U.S. and other nations will need to replenish depleted reserves, supporting higher oil prices.10. Canada-U.S. Energy InterdependenceThe U.S. imports 4 million barrels per day from Canada—critical sour crude needed for refinery operations. Tensions over tariffs threaten this relationship, but disrupting Canadian oil would devastate the U.S. economy and Midwest refineries. The conversation criticizes Canadian leadership for potentially aligning with the EU and China rather than supporting North American energy security.11. Optimal Oil Pricing for Energy SecurityKirk argues that $75 per barrel is the "sweet spot" for maintaining U.S. drilling activity and energy security, while $60 is too low and $100+ is unsustainable. Goldman Sachs previously predicted $200 oil if the Bab el-Mandeb Strait was blocked, but refineries are now the actual bottleneck.12. Permian Basin & Oklahoma BoomThe Permian Basin remains the heartbeat of U.S. energy production, with disciplined operators focusing on completing uncompleted wells ("ducks") rather than drilling new ones. Oklahoma is experiencing a boom similar to the Permian's early days, with new formations and shale plays emerging.At Energy News Beat, we Make Appendices Great Again.Check out the World's Greatest Podcast Show Notes at EnergyNewsBeat.co or EnergyNewsBeat.com, and the Energy News Beat Substack at: https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling, and we use their tools for the Energy News Beat weekly Rig Reports: https://welldatabase.com/Also entering Sponsor Rey Trevino, Pecos Operating https://pecos.energy/

The Ndebele chief said the Rudd concession document did not reflect his verbal agreements. His induna's who'd negotiated the concession disputed the terms as well, along with missionary Charles Helms who'd translated for Lobengula. Nevertheless, chief negotiator Charles Rudd had returned to Kimberley clutching the concession, a single page document which purported to give Rhodes' British South Africa company sole rights to mining gold throughout Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and other adjacent territories, in exchange for one thousand Martini Henry Rifles, 100 000 rounds of ammunition, one hundred pounds, and a gunboat on the Zambezi River. Lobengula said he'd only agreed to the rights for ten men to dig for gold at one spot rather than the general rights throughout the region to the north of the Limpopo river. Once they discovered what Rhodes was claiming, some Ndebele induna's threatened to revolt. At least one, Gambo, approached the Boers of the Transvaal. To the East, there was also much trouble brewing in Manicaland. That lay between Delagoa Bay and the highlands of eastern Mashonaland, where the Portuguese lay claim. In a nutshell, like the headwaters of the Nile and the importance of the Suez Canal, the vast territories north of the Limpopo became the means through which southern Africa and the Cape could be controlled by the British Empire. The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand gave the Transvaal the cash to expand northwards and towards the coast and the Boers could rival the existing British dominance in the region north of the Cape. The Portuguese had ancient claims to Mozambique, stretching back almost 500 years and they posed a threat to the sea route between England and India. Then in 1887 Portugal laid claim to the a swath of land stretching coast to coast from Mozambique to Angola through the region north of the Limpopo. In the British colonial office, Lord Salisbury of the conservative party was trying to stymie the Portuguese, and supported Cecil John Rhodes at least nominally, but only north of the Limpopo. The more grandiose all red-route touted by Rhodes of the Cape to Cairo was a pipedream, thought Salisbury. He brushed aside the Portuguese protests based on their pre-existing treaties signed by Mashonaland chiefs stretching back to 1629, but then was warned that a Portuguese expedition had set off from the coast led by Colonel Joaquim Carlos Pavia d'Andrada heading towards Mashonaland. Backed by the newly created Companhia de Mozambique he was joined by Manuel Antonio de Sousa - half Portuguese, half African, mixed race soldier feared by the British because he had mobilised 7000 black irregulars — local warriors. Before they arrived in upper Manicaland, Lobengula's two emissaries would arrive in London. Babayane and Mshete were joined by Edward Maund, Rhodes' adversary in the concession-making business, and Natal translator, John Colenbrander. As you heard last episode, the emissaries carried two bits of information. One was a letter for Queen Victoria, complaining of Portuguese threats to his east, the other was for the Queen's ears only, and would be delivered verbally directly to her, face-to-face. Lobengula was going to formally renounce the Rudd concession. Eventually, on February 6 1889, Maund, Colenbrander, Babayane and Mshete boarded the the steamship Moor, and sailed to London. The next day, a telegram arrived at Robinson's official residence, apparently the Queen wouldn't have enough time to meet the envoys because she was preparing for a European trip. Robinson was relieved. Perhaps all the waylaying was going to work out and he wondered, were Babayane and Mshete on a doomed mission?

The Ndebele chief said the Rudd concession document did not reflect his verbal agreements. His induna's who'd negotiated the concession disputed the terms as well, along with missionary Charles Helms who'd translated for Lobengula. Nevertheless, chief negotiator Charles Rudd had returned to Kimberley clutching the concession, a single page document which purported to give Rhodes' British South Africa company sole rights to mining gold throughout Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and other adjacent territories, in exchange for one thousand Martini Henry Rifles, 100 000 rounds of ammunition, one hundred pounds, and a gunboat on the Zambezi River. Lobengula said he'd only agreed to the rights for ten men to dig for gold at one spot rather than the general rights throughout the region to the north of the Limpopo river. Once they discovered what Rhodes was claiming, some Ndebele induna's threatened to revolt. At least one, Gambo, approached the Boers of the Transvaal. To the East, there was also much trouble brewing in Manicaland. That lay between Delagoa Bay and the highlands of eastern Mashonaland, where the Portuguese lay claim. In a nutshell, like the headwaters of the Nile and the importance of the Suez Canal, the vast territories north of the Limpopo became the means through which southern Africa and the Cape could be controlled by the British Empire. The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand gave the Transvaal the cash to expand northwards and towards the coast and the Boers could rival the existing British dominance in the region north of the Cape. The Portuguese had ancient claims to Mozambique, stretching back almost 500 years and they posed a threat to the sea route between England and India. Then in 1887 Portugal laid claim to the a swath of land stretching coast to coast from Mozambique to Angola through the region north of the Limpopo. In the British colonial office, Lord Salisbury of the conservative party was trying to stymie the Portuguese, and supported Cecil John Rhodes at least nominally, but only north of the Limpopo. The more grandiose all red-route touted by Rhodes of the Cape to Cairo was a pipedream, thought Salisbury. He brushed aside the Portuguese protests based on their pre-existing treaties signed by Mashonaland chiefs stretching back to 1629, but then was warned that a Portuguese expedition had set off from the coast led by Colonel Joaquim Carlos Pavia d'Andrada heading towards Mashonaland. Backed by the newly created Companhia de Mozambique he was joined by Manuel Antonio de Sousa - half Portuguese, half African, mixed race soldier feared by the British because he had mobilised 7000 black irregulars — local warriors. Before they arrived in upper Manicaland, Lobengula's two emissaries would arrive in London. Babayane and Mshete were joined by Edward Maund, Rhodes' adversary in the concession-making business, and Natal translator, John Colenbrander. As you heard last episode, the emissaries carried two bits of information. One was a letter for Queen Victoria, complaining of Portuguese threats to his east, the other was for the Queen's ears only, and would be delivered verbally directly to her, face-to-face. Lobengula was going to formally renounce the Rudd concession. Eventually, on February 6 1889, Maund, Colenbrander, Babayane and Mshete boarded the the steamship Moor, and sailed to London. The next day, a telegram arrived at Robinson's official residence, apparently the Queen wouldn't have enough time to meet the envoys because she was preparing for a European trip. Robinson was relieved. Perhaps all the waylaying was going to work out and he wondered, were Babayane and Mshete on a doomed mission?

On this week's Defense & Aerospace Report Washington Roundtable, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute think tank, Michael Herson of American Defense International, former DoD Europe chief Jim Townsend of the Center for a New American Security, and former Pentagon Comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim of the Center for Strategic and International Studies join Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss reconciliation being punted to the lame duck session as work on appropriations and the National Defense Authorization Act conference accelerate; new Russia sanctions head to the White House for President Trump's signature as the Pentagon reportedly prepares to withdraw tens of thousands of US troops from NATO; US and Iranian forces trade fire as the Pentagon says war costs top $33 billion; with control of the Bab al Mandab, Tehran-backed Houthi rebels advance on oil-rich Marib province and strike Saudi oil facilities as Trump rebuffed Saudi calls for help, striking his own deal with the Houthis for safe passage of US and Israeli ships; China's effort to avoid the Bab al Mandab and Suez Canal by sailing the first commercial ship via a northern route from China to Europe via the Russian Arctic Coast; Trump approves F-35 fighters for Saudi Arabia despite intelligence community concerns the stealth jet's technology could leak to China; Gulf states question US reliability as American forces pull back from regional bases meant to deter Iranian attack; Washington's approval of a $2.8 billion in arms package for Israel including 2,000-pound bombs blocked by the Biden administration as the White House again blocks a visa for Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to visit the UN; as Washington woos Russia to peace in Ukraine with lucrative deals, Moscow ramps up attacks on Europe, with one of its warships firing flares at a Danish helicopter, Dutch rail lines sabotaged and a second Bulgarian ammunition depot since August that caught fire and exploded; Finland becomes the 10th nation to joins France's nuclear deterrence initiative; as the US-Canada trade war continues, Prime Minister Mark Carney sought a trillion dollars in investment and the European Union offered the country associate member status that Trump said could be “a hostile act” and threatened to block trade with Europe; speculation about Xi Jinping's health; South Korean President Lee Jae Myung rules out combat forces for the Gulf; and former Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl dies at age 84.

China opened a vital waterway on Wednesday, giving its landlocked southwestern areas a shortcut to the coast and overseas markets, as the country moves to further strengthen its trade relations with regional neighbors, particularly those in Southeast Asia.中国星期三开通一条重要水运通道，为西南地区内陆省区通往沿海和海外市场提供了一条“捷径”。随着中国进一步加强与周边国家，尤其是东南亚国家的贸易联系，这一工程将发挥重要作用。The Pinglu Canal, built in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region at a cost of 72.7 billion yuan ($10.8 billion), stretches for 134.2 kilometers from the Xijin reservoir in the county-level city of Hengzhou to the Qinzhou Port in the Beibu Gulf. It is the first waterway built in the country to connect a river system directly to the sea since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.平陆运河位于广西壮族自治区，总投资727亿元人民币（约合108亿美元），全长134.2公里，北起横州市西津水库，南至北部湾钦州港。这是中华人民共和国成立（1949年）以来，中国建设的首条连接内河水系与大海的人工运河。The canal shortens the inland waterway journeys of goods from southwestern China by more than 560 km compared with traditional routes through ports in Guangdong province. It is expected to reduce overall logistics expenses and save more than 5 billion yuan in transportation costs each year.平陆运河使中国西南地区货物运输相比过去经广东港口出海的传统路线缩短超过560公里，预计将降低整体物流成本，每年节约运输费用超过50亿元人民币。Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang, who attended the canal's opening ceremony, called for making full use of the new waterway to develop a first-class international gateway port in the Beibu Gulf and support further opening-up of China's western region.出席运河通航仪式的国务院副总理丁薛祥表示，要充分发挥这一新航道作用，加快建设北部湾一流国际门户港，进一步推动中国西部地区扩大开放。Ding also called for efficient operation of the canal, which serves as key infrastructure for multimodal transportation integrating river, rail and sea, and is a backbone project of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor — a strategic route connecting China's inland areas with regional and global markets.丁薛祥还强调，要高效运营平陆运河，使其成为连接江、铁、海多式联运体系的重要基础设施，并服务于西部陆海新通道建设。这一战略通道连接中国内陆地区与区域及全球市场，是推动内陆开放发展的重要工程。Construction of the Pinglu Canal started in August 2022 to address a long-standing geographical problem in terms of trade.平陆运河于2022年8月开工建设，旨在解决长期存在的贸易地理瓶颈问题。While Guangxi boasts a coastline and borders Vietnam, its major inland rivers flow east, which means cargo moving by water from Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, and other parts of the Xijiang River basin could only reach the sea through Guangdong.广西虽然拥有海岸线并与越南接壤，但其主要内河向东流动，这意味着来自广西首府南宁以及西江流域其他地区的水运货物过去只能经过广东港口出海。The Pinglu Canal, designed to handle vessels of the 5,000-metric-ton class, now allows cargo to turn south and reach the Beibu Gulf — the closest maritime outlet for much of southwestern China — through the Qinzhou Port.如今，平陆运河可通行5000吨级船舶，使货物能够向南转运，经钦州港抵达北部湾——这里是中国西南大部分地区距离最近的出海口。One of the biggest engineering challenges during construction of the canal was navigating a difference of 65 meters in the water level between its northern end and the sea. Three navigation hubs — Madao, Qishi and Qingnian — featuring twin-line ship locks were built to raise and lower vessels, effectively acting as giant elevators.建设过程中，最大的工程挑战之一，是需要克服运河北端与大海之间65米的水位落差。为此，工程建设了马道、企石、青年三座通航枢纽，并配备双线船闸，通过调节水位帮助船舶升降，如同巨型“电梯”。Ni Yuping, vice-dean of Tsinghua University's School of Humanities in Beijing, placed the megaproject in a broader context, saying that one of the key questions it seeks to answer is "how western China can better integrate into the global economy".清华大学人文学院副院长倪玉平表示，这一重大工程放在更宏观背景下，其试图回答的关键问题之一是：“中国西部如何更好融入全球经济。”Unlike the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, which primarily provide shortcuts for vessels between major seas and oceans, the Pinglu Canal gives a vast inland economic hinterland a shorter route to the coast — and from there to international markets.与主要为连接不同海域和大洋船舶提供捷径的苏伊士运河和巴拿马运河不同，平陆运河为一个庞大的内陆经济腹地提供了更短的出海通道，并进一步连接国际市场。Wu Tao, a history professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, noted that inland waterway shipping routes "remain irreplaceable" even though China's road, rail and air transportation networks have expanded. Their large carrying capacity and relatively low logistics costs make inland waterways particularly suited for bulk cargo, Wu said.广州中山大学历史学教授吴滔指出，尽管中国公路、铁路和航空运输网络不断完善，但内河航运依然“不可替代”。他说，内河运输具有运量大、物流成本相对较低等优势，尤其适合大宗货物运输。For businesses, the new canal is already dictating logistics and investment decisions.对于企业而言，平陆运河已经开始影响物流布局和投资决策。On Sept 8, a consignment of auto parts from Chinese vehicle manufacturer SAIC-GM-Wuling left Liuzhou for Nanning Port, before continuing by ship through the Pinglu Canal to reach Can Tho Port in Vietnam.9月8日，中国汽车制造商上汽通用五菱的一批汽车零部件从柳州出发，运抵南宁港，随后通过平陆运河水运前往越南芹苴港。The company said the new river-sea route could cut its logistics costs by about 10 percent. "For us, the freight saved is real profit, and that translates directly into greater price competitiveness in ASEAN and other global markets," said Cai Yan, a senior technical officer at SAIC-GM-Wuling.该公司表示，这条江海联运新线路可帮助企业降低约10%的物流成本。上汽通用五菱高级技术主管蔡艳表示：“对我们而言，节省下来的运费就是实实在在的利润，也直接转化为我们在东盟及其他全球市场上的价格竞争力。”The canal has added waterway to the company's existing road and rail transportation options, giving it more flexibility as it expands its business and production links across Southeast Asia, Cai said.蔡艳表示，平陆运河为公司现有公路和铁路运输方式增加了水运选择，使企业在拓展东南亚业务和生产联系过程中拥有更大的灵活性。The new route is being factored into investment plans of companies.这一新航线也正被纳入企业投资规划。About 50 km from the Pinglu Canal's northern end, French chemicals producer SNF Group is building a plant in Nanning's Liujing Industrial Park, with an annual capacity of 370,000 tons.距离平陆运河北端约50公里的南宁市六景工业园区，法国化工企业SNF集团正在建设一座年产能37万吨的工厂。The factory, which will be the group's largest production base in southern China, is expected to start operations in stages before June 2027.该工厂将成为该集团在中国南方最大的生产基地，预计将在2027年6月前分阶段投入运营。"The Pinglu Canal will reduce our logistics costs and enable convenient delivery to South China and all of Southeast Asia. It offers great advantages in both materials sourcing and product distribution," said Thomas Wilsius, head of the company's Nanning project.该公司南宁项目负责人托马斯·威尔休斯表示：“平陆运河将降低我们的物流成本，使产品能够更加便捷地运往华南地区和整个东南亚市场。无论是在原材料采购还是产品配送方面，它都具有明显优势。”The waterway is likely to bring more Southeast Asian products to the Chinese market.这条水运通道也有望推动更多东南亚产品进入中国市场。Philippine Ambassador to China Jaime A. FlorCruz, who visited the canal with a group of ASEAN envoys in July, said that fresh seafood and other time-sensitive products could be exported more efficiently from his country to China.菲律宾驻华大使海梅·A·弗洛克鲁斯7月曾率东盟国家驻华使节团参访平陆运河。他表示，菲律宾的新鲜海产品以及其他对时效要求较高的产品，未来可以更加高效地出口到中国。"In the long run, this will benefit not only the local people, but the broader region and even the world," he said, adding that shorter shipping distances, lower freight costs and faster deliveries would bring tangible benefits to fishermen, farmers, traders and entrepreneurs.他说：“从长远来看，这不仅将惠及当地民众，也将惠及更广泛的地区乃至全世界。”他指出，更短的航程、更低的运输成本以及更快的交付速度，将为渔民、农民、贸易商和企业家带来切实收益。For Shen Guiping, a resident of Shangjing village in Qinzhou, who took part in relocation work for the project, the opening of the Pinglu Canal carries a more personal meaning.对于参与该项目搬迁工作的钦州市上京村居民沈桂平而言，平陆运河的开通有着更加特殊的意义。"It almost feels like a dream that has finally been realized. It is something generations of locals hoped for," she said.“感觉像是一场终于实现的梦想，这是当地几代人一直期盼的事情。”她说。【词汇提炼】shortcut /ˈʃɔːtkʌt/ n.捷径；便捷通道landlocked /ˈlændlɒkt/ adj.内陆的；无出海口的logistics /ləˈdʒɪstɪks/ n.物流；运输管理multimodal /ˌmʌltiˈməʊdl/ adj.多式联运的；综合运输的corridor /ˈkɒrɪdɔː(r)/ n.通道；走廊；经济带gateway /ˈɡeɪtweɪ/ n.门户；枢纽infrastructure /ˈɪnfrəstrʌktʃər/ n.基础设施hinterland /ˈhɪntəlænd/ n.腹地；内陆地区consignment /kənˈsaɪnmənt/ n.货物；托运物

Jonathan McConnell of Meridian US joins Sean Sullivan on Midday Mobile to break down the rapidly changing security situation in the Red Sea and the broader Middle East.Drawing on years of maritime-security experience in the region, McConnell explains why shipping traffic has been diverting away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal, how war-risk insurance can dramatically increase the cost of moving vessels through dangerous areas, and what the Houthi presence around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait means for global trade.Sean and Jonathan also discuss the Strait of Hormuz, mine-clearing operations, vessels turning off tracking systems, attacks on regional infrastructure and the challenges facing U.S. and allied forces as the conflict continues.It's a detailed look at how events thousands of miles away can affect shipping, energy markets and international security.

A 7th generation shipper and 2nd generation winegrower, Basile Aloy of Avignonesi in Tuscany, has a unique perspective on the geopolitical and macroeconomic events happening today and how they impact the cost of wine. Oil prices, war, tariffs, and climate change all come into play in this wide ranging conversation that showcases how much some of these macro events impact the world of wine. Detailed Show Notes: Basile's background: Chairman of Avignonesi, wine distribution in Italy & US, 7th generation shipping family, CEO of shipping businesses EBE & Victrix, studied winemaking in BordeauxRuns a fleet of dry bulk carriers in shipping, does not ship wineIran war has increased the cost of cargo, a 40 ft container for wine went from $1,600 to $2,700 (~70% increase), however, per bottle (~18k bottles/container) that goes from $0.09 to $0.15/bottle (not a huge impact)Many ships have been re-routed around South Africa instead of crossing the Suez Canal, they don't send ships through Hormuz, which has caused congestion for trucking in the Middle EastThere has been less fuel on the market, causing some wait times to re-fuel shipsTariffs have had a bigger impact on wine costs, earlier in 2026, Italy paid 15% tariffs on wine to the US, mid-2026 it is now down to 10%, which has outweighed the freight increaseFood costs are rising, ~30% of global fertilizers come from the Middle East, diesel costs are up; food price increases are comingDomesticating production can be challenging, but it is happening in some places, both Canada and China are leaning in; Avignonesi saw China as a big growth market, but has fallen dramatically, partially due to high quality wines made in ChinaBoth shipping and wine are very capital intensive, but ships can be purchased on the secondary market, where prices swing dramatically (from $25M to $75M in 5 years); wine cycles are much longer, which can create longer downturns like we're experiencing todayAvignonesi overview170 ha vineyardsFocused on Sangiovese and some international varieties, as well as Vin Santo~50-60% exportedItalian market is semi-export, as tourists drive a decent amount of consumption (e.g. - during Covid, Italian sales were down ~20-30%)Basile's family took over Avignonesi in 2009, have a vision to be more transparent with customers, healthy (move towards organic and biodynamic viticulture), and a desire to take care of the environment, broadly speaking (become a B Corp, provide English classes to the community)Avignonesi requested permission from regulators to put “Nobile” bigger than “Montepulciano” for their Vino Nobile di MontepulcianoWine is more brand driven vs shipping, need to be careful about discounting and its impact on the brandShipping can be more sustainable than trucking wine; glass weight of wine has a huge impact on sustainability (~750g of wine in a bottle vs ~400-800g of glass; Avignonesi chose light weight bottles)Europe is like Disneyland, “growers of memories,” which builds a connection to their wines, particularly the premium winesThe future of Avignonesi: starting a re-branding exercise, planted a “3rd millennium” vineyard to address viticulture issues with climate change (1st harvest 2027) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia have exchanged further strikes, amid signs that Tehran is ramping up the war against Riyadh to compensate for a stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz. On today's episode of Iran: The Latest, Venetia Rainey speaks with Arabist and Yemen expert Dr. Elisabeth Kendall (mistress of Girton College) to explain why the Houthis and Iraqi militias are part of a new Iranian Axis of Resistance. They also discuss how Saudi leader Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) is facing an existential crisis following devastating pipeline attacks and escalating violence, with missile alerts sounding as far as Jeddah. Following Donald Trump's refusal to help, Saudi Arabia has called on the UK and Egypt while Iran turns to China. Who will step in?Plus, how Iran helped the Houthis to evolve into a formidable fighting force and the US pushes back against the IRGC's fake news about sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz. HighlightsIran activates Yemen Houthi ‘ace card' amid Strait of Hormuz stalemateSaudi Arabia turns to UK for help after ‘shocking' Trump-Houthi callCONTRIBUTORS:Venetia Rainey, co-host and executive producer @venetiaraineyElisabeth Kendall, mistress of Girton College, University of Cambridge @Dr_E_KendallWATCH US ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJnf_DDTfIVAif-vifC6F2aoPB8GIw6dkCONTENT REFERENCED:https://understandingwar.org/research/middle-east/iran-update-september-14-2026/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/09/14/proscribing-houthis-bring-energy-bills-down-burnham/Winner Best News and Analysis Podcast - Publisher Podcast Awards 2026Nominated Podcast of the Year - Society of Editors News Podcasts Awards 2026Nominated Best News, Politics and Current Affairs - British Podcast Awards 2026The Telegraph, Winner Podcast Publisher of the Year 2026 - Publisher Podcast Awards 2026Audio Producer: Elliot Lampitt Video Producer: Max BowerResearcher and Social Producer: Anna HindmarshStudio Operator: Andy WatsonExecutive Producer: Venetia Rainey ► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor► EMAIL US: Contact the team on battlelines@telegraph.co.uk► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is one of the world's most strategically important maritime chokepoints—and renewed Houthi activity could make it even more consequential. In this episode of STRAT, retired Marine Intelligence Officer LtCol. Hal Kempfer examines the Houthis' reported expansion along Yemen's Red Sea coast and the strategic importance of controlling territory overlooking this vital shipping corridor. Hal explains how disruption at Bab el-Mandeb reverberates through the Suez Canal, global shipping routes, energy markets, and international supply chains. He traces Yemen's complicated history of civil war and foreign intervention while examining Iran's relationship with the Houthis and the implications for Saudi Arabia and regional security. With maritime commerce, oil transportation, military alliances, and Iran's regional proxy network all intersecting around this narrow waterway, Hal assesses what Saudi Arabia and its partners may do next—and why developments in Yemen could have consequences extending far beyond the Red Sea.Takeaways:Bab el-Mandeb remains a critical global maritime chokepoint.Houthi coastal gains strengthen maritime surveillance capabilities.Red Sea disruption threatens international shipping and supply chains.Longer African routes substantially increase shipping costs and transit.Yemen's history complicates prospects for another foreign intervention.Saudi Arabia faces increasing pressure to confront Houthi expansion.Iranian proxy relationships magnify Yemen's broader strategic importance.Houthi developments could reshape Middle Eastern security calculations.#STRATPodcast #HalKempfer #MutualBroadcastingSystem #StrategicRiskAnalysis #BabElMandeb #RedSea #Houthis #Yemen #SaudiArabia #Iran #MaritimeSecurity #GlobalTrade #SuezCanal #MiddleEast #Geopolitics #NationalSecurity #EnergySecurity #Shipping #StrategicIntelligence #RiskAssessment

This is a two-part episode that focuses on very different topics with similar names. The original Operation Choke Point was launched by Obama as a way to shakedown industries that he thought he could manipulate. Biden revised the program in order to focus specifically on cryptocurrency-related businesses, exchanges, and banks working with industry leaders. The second part of the show features the maritime choke points worldwide that play a major role in the creeping spectre of World War 3. We focus on the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hurmuz, the Panama Canal, and the Strait of Malacca in southeast Asia. Conflict in the Middle East will cause multiple choke points to shut down, forcing the price of a barrel of oil to astronomical levels in a matter of weeks, not years.---Charlie's New Book:The Octopus Of Population Control - Paperback, Kindle, & AudiobookMacroaggressionswww.Macroaggressions.io | Merch Store | Link TreeVideo Channels: Rumble | YouTube | BrighteonActivist Post: Newsletter Sign UpSupport Our SponsorsReplace Your Mortgage: www.WipeOutYourMortgageNow.comGround Luxe Grounding MatsC60 Power | Promo Code: MACROChemical Free Body | Promo Code: MACROWise Wolf Gold & SilverLegalShield: www.DontGetPushedAround.comEMP Shield | Promo Code: MACROChristian Yordanov's Health ProgramAbove PhoneVan ManThe Dollar VigilanteAugason Farms

The Israeli: A Work of Historical Fiction by Phillip Kurata https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DYQ7CTRC The Israeli: A Work of Historical Fiction - This page-turning tale, based loosely on the life of legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen, explores the terrible effects of ethnic hatred on individuals, peoples and nations. As a new, free Egypt emerges from British colonial rule after World War Two, Eli Cohen, an Egyptian Jew, ignores his mother's warnings and tries to enlist in the Egyptian army. He is shouted out of the enlistment office as an insidious Jew. Later, his closest friend, Sami Azar, is executed by the Nasser regime for participating in a Zionist bombing campaign aimed at thwarting British plans to turn over ownership of the Suez Canal to Egypt. These events turn Cohen into a fervent Zionist and hater of Arabs. The Israeli tracks Cohen's rise as a top Israeli spy, from his resettlement in Israel, his marriage to the beautiful intelligent Nadia and his recruitment and training by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. He infiltrates into an unstable Syria where he becomes part of the country's political and military power structure that is bent on destroying Israel. Soon he finds himself under consideration for deputy defense minister.

Nick Kunze of Sanlam Private Wealth previews Tuesday's Q2 GDP figures and the impact of the Middle East storm. Investec's Vernon Sinden on what the Suez Canal reopening means for SA businesses. Plus, Richard Henwood of Merchant West Investments unpacks SA Reits's August performance.

From March 29, 2023: We live in a time of seemingly constant catastrophes, and we always seem a step behind and still fumble when they occur. It's no longer about preventing disasters from occurring, but learning how to use the tools at our disposal to minimize the consequences when they inevitably do.Juliette Kayyem has just written a book about it all called, “The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters.” Juliette is a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a CNN national security analyst, and David Priess sat down with her to talk about it all. They talked about the traditional focus of the disaster framework; consequences minimalization; the paradox of preparedness; and a variety of disasters and what we can learn from them, ranging from the Y2K incident, to Super Bowl XLVII, to the shipping incident in the Suez Canal back in 2021. They talk a lot about how to recover from disasters, and how to deal with them in a way that stops the bleeding and keeps them from getting worse, even as they're occurring.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Asymmetric Warfare The strategies on how wars are fought has been turned on its head the last couple of years. In the past, the country with the most tanks, ships and planes would overwhelm the enemy with superior firepower. Currently, small countries with very limited resources, have been able to stalemate their bigger adversaries using drones and other low cost weapons. Ukraine, has kept the much stronger Russians at bay for 5 years. America's navy can't keep the Strait of Hormuz open, and Britain and France are having the same problem moving traffic through the Suez Canal. Investors need to pay attention. As the tools of warfare change, so are the companies that make them. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

What's up, guys? Today I'm hitting you with a truly essential conversation featuring Andrew Bustamante. This guy's not just a former covert CIA intelligence officer—he's become one of the most sought-after experts on modern espionage, national security, and global power. With everything that's exploding right now between the U.S., Iran, China, and Russia, I could not wait to get his perspective.Andrew is breaking down how the new world order is shaping up in real time—why China's playing a long, strategic game, what the real stakes are in the U.S.-Iran conflict, and how economic warfare and public perception matter more than ever. If you've ever wondered what global power really means today, or how to navigate a world that's changing at crazy speed, this episode will give you the frameworks and mental models you need to make sense of it all.I hope you guys get as much out of this episode as I did recording it with Andrew. If you find it valuable, please drop us a review—it's the best way to support the show and make sure we continue to bring bold, unfiltered conversations right to you. I'm Tom Bilyeu, and welcome to Impact Theory.00:00 - Welcome and intro: Why meeting with Andrew Bustamante was urgent with global tensions00:20 - What China Learned While US Fights Iran05:24 - The global scramble: How 157 countries are hedging against US dollar and US tech; why the “portfolio split” just got real09:06 - The “Suez Canal moment” for the US: Why losing grip in the Strait of Hormuz is historic19:15 - How global perception shifts when threats (“economic D-Day”, anyone?) become empty—China's new confidence in resisting American pressure31:08 - From American Dream to “Red Dream”: How Xi Jinping's CCP is remaking global aspirations, and the chilling influence on wavering democracies40:45 - Why China WANTS conflict close to its home turf (South China Sea)—and what happens if the US ever takes the bait53:21 - Does China see itself in decline? The real calculus behind demographics, technology, and whether they're just waiting for the world to come back to themWhat's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here:Want my help starting a business? Join me here inside Zero To FounderSign up for my AI Masterclass: AI MasterclassFOLLOW TOM:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=enTwitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeuCash App: Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/v6nymgjl #CashAppPod*Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Cash App Green features, Savings, Direct deposit, Round ups, Overdraft coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosure.Quince: Free shipping and 365-day returns at https://quince.com/impactpodWhatnot: Download the Whatnot app today and get free shipping on your first order.Ketone IQ: Visit https://ketone.com/IMPACT for 30% OFF your subscription orderEthos: Get a free quote at https://ethos.com/impactIncogni: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code IMPACT at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/impact ATT Business: Switch to AT&T Business at https://business.att.comPique: 20% off at https://piquelife.com/impactSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens to one of Israel's most important regional relationships when the Middle East is being reshaped by war, new alliances and shifting interests?In this episode of ROPESCAST, Ksenia Svetlova speaks with Amira Oron, former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt, a senior diplomat with deep expertise in the Arab world.They discuss the increasingly tense Israeli-Egyptian relationship, Egypt's role in a rapidly changing Middle East, and how new regional alliances are affecting Cairo and Jerusalem. They also look at the consequences of the war with Iran for Egypt and its economy—from regional security to trade, energy and the Suez Canal.And, because no conversation about Egypt is complete without talking about Cairo itself, Ksenia asks Amira the ultimate tough question: What is her favorite place in Cairo?

We've all experienced times when we feel like we're in the center of a storm that is completely outside of our control. (If you haven't yet, chances are you will.)We wish the storm would end. We wonder when it will end. We may ask if it will ever end. But perhaps the better question is, “Who am I becoming while I'm in the midst of the storm?”That is where the story of Captain Joshua Slocum comes in. In 1895, he set out alone to sail around the world in a boat measuring just under 37 feet long. With no GPS, no satellite weather system, no communication and no support crew, he left with only his boat, his experience, his judgment and his ability to respond to whatever happened next.More than three years and approximately 46,000 miles later, he became the first person known to circumnavigate the globe alone by sail.Slocum survived storms, 3 years of isolation (think about that), dangerous seas and the uncertainty of survival that surely dominated his thoughts. Through all of it, he developed the character, competence and resourcefulness necessary to navigate successfully through the obstacles.That is where our story of survival can become like his.Every one of us will eventually find ourselves in circumstances we cannot control. Some may be the result of our own choices, and others that we would never have chosen may be thrust upon us.We will face disappointment, detours, setbacks, uncertainty, opposition, loss, grief and seasons when our best efforts seem to produce very little progress.The question is not whether we will encounter storms We will. The question is whether we will become better navigators of the storms of life.Here are 10 lessons from Captain Joshua Slocum's extraordinary journey that can help all of us navigate our own.1. Start With What We HaveSlocum did not begin with a perfect boat. The Spray was an old vessel that required extensive rebuilding before it could carry him around the world. He worked on what he had until it became capable of taking him where he wanted to go.That is a powerful lesson because many of us postpone finding and fulfilling our purpose while waiting for conditions to improve. We tell ourselves that we will begin when we have more money, more education, more confidence, more support, more time or better connections.Meanwhile, years pass.Most meaningful things do not begin under perfect conditions. Purposeful goals begin when we look at what we already have and decide to use it well.We may not have everything we want, but we probably have more than we realize. We have experience, relationships, abilities, the wisdom of lessons learned, access to information, and the capacity to work.Never underestimate all of the assets you already have—character and personality traits, intelligence, determination, courage, resilience, resourcefulness, and all the other good that's already in you. Start there.2. Preparation Creates CourageSlocum was not courageous because he believed the ocean was safe. He knew exactly how dangerous it could be. His confidence came from his knowledge and experience.There is an important difference between courage and recklessness. Recklessness assumes everything will work out. Courage prepares for the possibility that it might not.We sometimes admire people who appear fearless, but authentic confidence comes from preparation. When we practice, study, plan and develop competence, we do not need circumstances to be easy because we did the work necessary to increase our ability to handle difficulty.That applies to almost everything in life. If we want greater responsibility, we need to prepare for it. If we want to lead, we need to become better leaders. If we want financial stability, we need to learn to manage money. If we want healthier relationships, we need to develop healthier listening and communication skills. If we want to pursue an opportunity, we need to develop the skills the opportunity will require.For those of us who have lofty goals, it's important to become capable of achieving them.3. Change the Route, Not the DestinationSlocum originally planned a route that would have taken him through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. When conditions made that route too dangerous, he changed course.He did not abandon the goal. He changed the way he intended to reach it. Understanding that principle can save us unnecessary frustration.It's possible to become so attached to our plan that we conflate the plan with our purpose. When that's the case, if things go wrong, we can too easily draw wrong conclusions, and believe that the whole endeavor was a mistake. If we keep the plan separate from our purpose, we will have the ability to make adjustments to the plan and still pursue our purpose.The job may change while the career remains. The business model may change while the mission remains. A relationship may require a different approach. The timeline may be longer than expected. The opportunity may come through a door we hadn't considered.Changing our strategy for implementing the goal is far better than quitting.It's important that we know the difference between our perseverance and our stubbornness. We can stay committed to the purpose and still remain flexible about the route.4. Patience Is StrengthThere were times during Slocum's voyage when he fought wind and current all day and made very little progress. Imagine working from morning until night and discovering that you had moved only a few miles closer to the destination… or maybe even further away from your destination.Most of us know that feeling. We work hard at something. We make responsible decisions. We keep showing up. And still, we see no measurable progress. It is tempting think that we've made a mistake—maybe the biggest mistake of our life.But delayed progress is still progress.Some of the most important things in life cannot be rushed. Healing, trust, character building, nurturing healthy relationships take time. Building anything worthwhile usually takes longer than we would like it to.Patience does not mean sitting still and doing nothing. Patience means continuing to do the right thing without giving up when the results don't happen according to our timetable.Patience means refusing to quit.5. Control What We CanSlocum could not control the wind, the waves, the currents or the weather. He could control his sails, his decisions, his preparation and his response.That may be one of the most useful principles for living with peace.We waste enormous amounts of emotional energy trying to control things that aren't ours to control. We wish we could control other people's decisions, opinions, behavior and reactions. We want certainty about the future. We wish the past had been different.None of those things are fully within our control.What is within our control are our choices, our words, our actions, our attitude, our integrity and our response to every situation we face.There is incredible peace and freedom in accepting this truth. We can do what is ours to do. The sooner we learn to release what is not ours to control, the more peaceful and joyful we will be.6. Resourcefulness Is More Valuable Than ResourcesWhen something breaks in the middle of the ocean, there is no repair shop around the corner.When something in our life breaks and we cannot fix it, we can improvise, adapt, get creative and figure it out, or learn how to live without it.Slocum's voyage is filled with examples of solving problems with what little was available to him at the time.Resourcefulness may be one of the most underrated predictors of success.People who have always had abundant resources can struggle when those resources disappear. On the other hand, people who have had to solve problems, stretch limited resources and find work-arounds tend to develop an extraordinary ability to adapt.The resourceful person says, “We may not know the answer yet, but we will find one.” “We may not have exactly what we need, but let's begin with what we have.” “This is difficult, but not impossible.” “If it was easy, everyone would do it.”Some of the circumstances we would never choose develop in us character traits and skills we may need in the future.7. Learn to Lead OurselvesSlocum had no crew to motivate him, monitor him or make decisions for him. If something needed to be done, he had to recognize it and do it.That required self leadership.Before we can lead anyone else well, we have to learn to lead ourselves, which involves regulating our emotions and controlling our responses.We must determine to keep our commitments. We must be willing to work hard without recognition. We must manage our emotions rather than allowing our emotions to manage us. We must be able to make tough decisions when lesser options would be easier.Character is developed in private long before it is recognized in public.The ability to lead ourselves may ultimately determine how much responsibility we will be trusted to carry.8. Keep Our Sense of HumorOne of the most appealing things about Slocum's story is his sense of humor. He encountered legitimate danger and serious setbacks, yet he did not allow hardship to become his identity or distort his perspective.Humor is an important aspect of the character trait of resilience.Humor does not mean pretending something is not difficult. It means refusing to allow the problem to become our only focus.Sometimes we make hard situations even harder by giving every frustration enormous emotional weight. A small setback becomes a catastrophe. An inconvenience ruins the day. A mistake becomes evidence that everything is falling apart. It's commonly called “catastrophizing,” and that can steal your peace and kill your joy.Sometimes the healthiest response is to acknowledge disappointment, keep the situation in perspective, find something to laugh about if we can, make any necessary adjustments and keep going.Laughter can be an act of faith that everything is going to work out some how, some way. It reminds us that the difficulty is real, but it is not everything.9. Let the Difficulty Teach UsAfter completing his voyage, Slocum reflected that he had learned a lot despite already being a highly experienced sailor.Lessons learned by going through may be one of the greatest gifts hidden inside tough situations.Painful experiences can teach us things comfortable seasons cannot. We learn discernment because someone deceived us. We learn boundaries because we were mistreated after failing to establish them. We learn financial discipline when money becomes scarce. We learn courage when we face a frightening situation. We learn compassion through suffering. We learn resilience when quitting is not an option.Hardship does not automatically make us wiser. Some people become bitter. Some repeat the same mistakes indefinitely. But others mine the lessons out of difficulties and becomes wiser because of them.Wisdom comes when we ask, “What is this teaching me?”Resilience is earned by surviving. Wisdom is earned by seeing difficulties as opportunities to learn and grow. Growth is earned by becoming better as a result of what you've gone through.That is how wounds become wisdom.10. Purpose Can Give Us EnergyOne of the remarkable details of Slocum's journey is that after more than three years at sea, he reportedly returned looking remarkably well, not haggard and exhausted as many people expected.That should make us reconsider the assumption that difficulty always harms us. Sometimes it does. But sometimes what hurts most is suffering without finding the meaning in it.Purpose changes our perspective of difficulty.When we know why something matters, we can endure extraordinary discomfort. Parents do it for their children. Entrepreneurs do it to build something they believe in. Caregivers do it for people they love. People working toward a calling often endure inconveniences they would never tolerate for something meaningless.Purpose does not remove exhaustion, it gives it a reason.There is tremendous energy in knowing, “This matters. Someone will be helped by this. Good can come from this. We are doing something meaningful.”A difficult life is not necessarily an unhappy life. And an easy life is not necessarily a meaningful one.Purposeful Practice: What Kind of Sailors Are We Becoming?It helps to think about the area of our lives right now that feels most like rough water. It may be a relationship, a financial concern, a health issue, a business challenge, a disappointment, an unanswered prayer or simply uncertainty about what comes next.Instead of asking only when the situation will change, we can try to discern what this season is developing in us. Ask yourself these six questions:* What do I already have that I can use to navigate through this situation?* What can I learn from this?* Where would better preparation help?* Is there a route that should be changed while the destination remains the same?* What am I trying to control that is not mine to control?* What skill, strength, character trait, or wisdom could this experience be developing in me?After you've answered these questions for yourself, it will be easier to identify actions that you can take to continue towards your purpose.We do not need to know exactly what the next day will bring. Joshua Slocum could not know every danger that lay between him and home when he began his journey. He simply had to become capable of navigating the water in front of him.Let's not spend our lives wishing for calmer seas. Let's become people who can sail through rough ones. Because sometimes God does calm the storm.Sometimes He teaches us how to sail.“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rhondasciortino.substack.com

Masaki Miyagawa returns to The Cosmic Switchboard Show to discuss China, the Mandate of Heaven and a possible lockdown in China as early as next month. Masaki lays out what he sees as the collapse of the post-World War II system, and the idea that most modern nations, from Japan and Germany to Israel, are post-war constructs that are now coming apart. He walks through the contest between China and the American-Israeli bloc as a fight over shipping lanes and chokepoints: the Strait of Gibraltar and the migrant surge into Ceuta, the Strait of Hormuz, the Panama Canal and Colombia’s historic claim to it, and the Strait of Malacca. He also describes conditions inside China that rarely get reported in the West, including catastrophic flooding in Guangxi with mud reaching the second and third floors of buildings, questions about the country’s real population after COVID, half-empty cities and villages, and why the Chinese government cannot afford to report on the floods given the cultural weight of the Mandate of Heaven. Masaki connects the timing to generational astrology, with Pluto’s move out of Leo and into Aquarius marking the end of the boomer-era order, and argues that the BRICS system and the Western new world order want many of the same things, a cashless society among them. He closes the first segment with practical advice about keeping basic supplies on hand. In Part 2 Masaki Miyagawa discusses the astrological perspective and the role the transits of planets have in helping understand what is going on here on Earth and its relation to the Economy, Geopolitics, War and epochal changes that are in the works. Masaki turns to the precious metals markets and argues they are heavily manipulated, giving his outlook for silver over the next several years and explaining the Chiron in Taurus transit as a roughly seven-year stretch in which housing, food and basic material needs stay unstable. James and Masaki then work through the widening regional wars: the Yemeni closure of the Bab al-Mandab strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, Iranian fire on a ship in the northern Red Sea threatening the Suez Canal, and what happens to Saudi oil exports with both ends of the Red Sea shut. They discuss the Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi arrangement, the exposure of the Gulf states now that the American protective umbrella looks thin, the socialization and demographic decline of Europe, and the argument that America itself is meant to be balkanized. The conversation ends on a personal note, with Masaki on the Uranus in Gemini transit, the mental instability he says he is seeing in people around him, and why grounding and clearing work matter when events start moving quickly. Masaki Miyagawa – Website Part 1 Video: [This post contains video, click to play] Part 2 Video: [This post contains video, click to play] Part 1: https://www.thecosmicswitchboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Masaki-Miyagawa-Interview-with-James-Bartley-on-thecosmicswitchboard.com-Part-1.mp3&Download: mp3 Audio Part 2 – Members Only: https://www.thecosmicswitchboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Masaki-Miyagawa-Interview-with-James-Bartley-on-thecosmicswitchboard.com-Part-2.mp3To Play or Download: Login or Join To Download Use the link under the player for the part you want to download. The post The Collapse of the Post-War Order & Mandate of Heaven – Masaki Miyagawa Interview with James Bartley appeared first on The Cosmic Switchboard.

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

Gregory Copley evaluates the new "Mecca Joint Defense Agreement" between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, which aims to counter Iranian influence despite mutual distrust among the members. The discussion also explores the massive transformation of global trade routes, including China's "Ice Silk Road" through the Arctic and Russia's International North-South Transport Corridor. Copley notes that these routes aim to bypass vulnerable maritime choke points like the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz. Finally, he provides a report on King Charles III's summer activities and public engagements in Scotland. (5)

Market HighlightsUS refunds $100 billion in tariffs struck down by Supreme Court, filing shows | AJOT.COMBrazil Announces Efforts for Economic Agreements with China and South KoreaGemini Cooperation expands return to Suez Canal | trans.infoAsia-US East Coast box rate hits new high of $9,400 - FreightWavesEuropean air cargo demand continues to fall following EU's stricter import rules - Air Cargo NewsWorldACD Weekly Air Cargo Trends 2026 - week 31 - WorldACDMexico plans major expansion of busiest cross-border truck crossing - FreightWavesArticles of InterestSingapore says exports worth $7.4 billion affected by new U.S. tariffs | AJOT.COMDiesel theft wave hits Italian hauliers | trans.infoWhite House Announces Section 232 Tariffs on Polysilicon and Derivative ProductsBritish hauliers move more freight with fewer empty runs | trans.infoAfter sidelining 26,000 truck drivers, FMCSA seeks to lock in English rules - FreightWavesCanadian province removes 20 unsafe trucking companies from roadways - FreightWavesTrump extends Jones Act waiver; direct effect “pennies per gallon,” say analysts - FreightWavesUpcoming EventsAug. 19 – Incoterms Basics 2020Aug. 25 – U.S. Customs & Trade Update for Japanese CompaniesAug. 26 – Breaking Down the Customs Enforcement Executive OrderSept. 2 – Breaking Down the U.S. Customs Enforcement Executive Order (Europe)

On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we break down new reports that the economy is in worse shape than predicted, new Iranian strikes near the Suez Canal, Elon Musk's attempt to block anti-nudification legislation in Minnesota, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we break down new reports that the economy is in worse shape than predicted, new Iranian strikes near the Suez Canal, Elon Musk's attempt to block anti-nudification legislation in Minnesota, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we break down new reports that the economy is in worse shape than predicted, new Iranian strikes near the Suez Canal, Elon Musk's attempt to block anti-nudification legislation in Minnesota, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Milk already feels tight across much of the U.S. That could be the setup for a perfect storm. Summer heat, warm nights, wildfire smoke and plant disruptions have pressured milk production and moved milk into unexpected places. Now, Class I bottlers are preparing for schools to reopen just as cheese plants, protein beverage manufacturers and other processors compete for the same milk solids. In this episode of The Milk Check, guest host Josh White and the Jacoby team break down what could make August, September and October especially interesting for dairy markets. We cover: How heat, smoke and limited nighttime cooling affected milk production Why school bottling demand could tighten the market further How the cybersecurity disruption temporarily increased condensed skim availability How conflict, Red Sea risk and higher freight costs are complicating dairy exports The dairy market is not moving in a straight line. But competition for milk solids is building, and the next few months could determine which product sectors get the milk they need. Listen to The Milk Check episode 103: The Perfect Storm for Milk Solids. Also available on: Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Got questions? We'd love to hear them. Submit below, and we might answer it on the show. Ask The Milk Check Transcript: [Opening commercial] Josh White: [00:00:00] Coming up on the Milk Check. Jennifer S. Kuo: The Red Sea seems to be an issue now as well. Tyler Jokerst: Yeah. Josh, if the Houthis are getting involved, when you’re looking at Yemen that’s a direct effect on the Red Sea, which is the other half of that peninsula . And then it starts to limit the only access point that you can have into the Red Sea being through the Suez Canal. Josh White: ​In absence of our fearless leader, Ted we invite our audience to join us for one of our bi-weekly commercial meetings, where our group gets together and breaks down the market based on our individual disciplines. Today’s group is a fairly large one but we have members representing our fluid team, our ultrafiltered and cream team, cheese, butterfat, milk powder, and whey, which makes up our trading group.  We’re in the dog days of summer right now, schools are out, families are traveling. There’s people out of the office not making decisions. That’s happening both in the U.S. and in Europe. Let’s touch on current market, climate, what we’re experiencing, and then what we’re paying attention to or looking out for in 30 days time. Let’s start with where we’re at on the milk side of things. Greg, both you and Jared, have experienced a little turbulence over the past week or so with some milk movements. We’re just coming out of a big heat stretch. We’re on the cusp of the South starting to refill its bottling pipelines. What are you feeling and seeing right now, Greg? Greg Scheer: We’ve had some plant closures that have pushed milk around the Mideast, the Northeast, and, around the country. We have had a week or two of that. The first heat wave, back several weeks ago, hit the cows harder than expected, and I’m wondering if maybe that’s the age of the herd is a little older that maybe it hit them a little more. Usually, you have a heat wave, the cows recover some. Normal summer, they get another heat wave, and then, it hits them a little harder the second time or third time. Seems like the first heat wave hit the cows a little harder. I think production’s down just a little bit more than we expected or earlier than maybe a normal summer. Other than plant problems that push milk around, it feels tight. We get to next month, schools start up again or are about to, and bottlers start putting milk into the bottle for schools, then it’s gonna get really tight and could be tight through September, October when maybe production comes back a little bit and the pipeline gets filled, and then it levels off demand a little bit. It feels tight other than plant closures. It’s gonna get really tight in a month. And, we’ll see where it goes. But production does seems like it was hit harder. I’m just wondering if maybe the age of the herd may have a little bit to do with it. Josh White: It was also pretty warm nights for the Midwest. It’s pretty well documented that above 70s: tough on cows; below 70s: allows them to recover nicely. I’m in Gurnee, Illinois, which is Grand Rapids [00:03:00] latitude on the Michigan side. For us to get nights above 70 is rare. And we just went through a pretty good stretch where we had a lot of them. The entire Mideast and the Midwest, we went through a solid four or five days of pretty bad smoke. At least our area was bad enough that just walking outside to get your mail, you could taste it. So I can’t imagine that helped anything. Greg Scheer: How much it hurt is hard to quantify maybe, but definitely didn’t help things. Josh White: Are we still really talking about two different countries, more or less? California, everything seems to be fine. They’re running great. They’re just pumping out milk, and then the rest of the country where it feels a little tighter? Greg Scheer: That’s the sense I get everybody I talk to. Yes. You’ve got California on an island there just filling up their plants, and everybody else in a tighter feel, all the way from the Upper Midwest, Mideast, Northeast. And then as you mentioned, I do think the pull to the Southeast will be starting fairly soon as their production slows, and by mid-August when they’re bottling for schools it’ll really get tight. Josh White: Europe is also talking about some of the same things. Heat sounds like it’s impacted France the most. Germany’s been pretty resilient. Everything I’ve read or heard is that in the recent weeks, people have taken their milk production forecast for the remainder of the year down in Europe, and by a noteworthy amount. To be clear, I think most expect European milk production for 2026 to be higher than it was in 2025, but it’s been notably higher through June. And looking ahead, for them to be taking those numbers down to modest growth means that they’re expecting year-over-year numbers to be down the second half of the year. So Europe seems to be slowing its rate of growth. Curious to what that means going into 2027. We seem to be making good milk, and we’ve got plenty of ability to process it, but the rest of the world feels like it’s starting to slow its growth rate, and maybe start to slow down as we look ahead to 2027. Class I plants looking to start filling up a bit in the next two to four weeks. Jared, what’s that mean for you and your team and your products? Jared Miklasz: Yeah, moving over to the condensed and fluid skim side, the market has become noticeably longer over the past couple weeks, and the obvious driver there was the disruption that Fairlife experienced, which affected multiple plants across the country. With those plants still operating below full capacity following that cybersecurity event, milk that would have normally went into their UF and finished protein beverages has been redirected into balancing outlets which, in turn, made condensed skim much more available, and that increased availability was real. We saw a lot more local offers as a result. As operations normalize and those plants continue to ramp up, I would expect some of that excess product to be reabsorbed, although the timing remains still uncertain. Condensed skim has been tight for much of the year. Obviously, that’s been supported by the steady Demand from both Class II and III. And the strong nonfat demand has also kept skim solids competitive. As those dryers continue to pull available skim [00:06:00] away from the condensed markets school milk will also begin here, as Greg alluded to, which should move more milk back into the bottling programs and further reduce the amount of condensed skim available for manufacturing for these Q4 months. Moving over to the UF side of things, that continues to have the strongest long-term demand story. We’ve touched on it almost every podcast, but high-protein dairy appears to have real staying power. Demand is coming from athletes, consumers focused on weight management, older adults trying to maintain muscle. And that’s even beyond the folks using the GLP-1 medications who are told to prioritize protein. That demand also extends well beyond protein shakes. It’s into yogurt, lactose-reduced products, other nutritional beverages, other applications that require greater control over protein, lactose and total solids. But the other key part of that is the cheese, as that’s an important outlet for UF. As those butterfat levels in the farm milk continue to rise, high protein UF can help rebalance that cheese vat and improve yields. The challenge is that cheese makers are competing with higher value protein beverage and yogurt for that same UF supply. More UF capacity is expected to come online, though, here later this year and into ’27, but that does not necessarily mean that the market will become over-supplied. I think the key question is whether capacity grows faster than the demand. The category obviously remains strong, although that increased competition from a wider retail perspective and potential consolidation could eventually slow growth. But so far that demand has continued to outperform expectations. That strong UF demand also tightens the broader skim market because, obviously that milk is moving into UF and no longer available for condensed skim or nonfat. But, overall improving milk production should create more opportunities, particularly in the skim market. However, that strong demand has regional processing constraints and plant reliability all play key factors here long term. Josh White: So we’re probably not gonna be moving in a straight line here, right? As production responds, we’re trying to anticipate how demand continues to grow. We definitely know it’s in vogue. It seems structural, like that we would see more of these protein-enhanced consumer products coming online that are using liquid protein, as well as the popularity of the whey products and some of the others. But over the course of the next 30, 60 days, how are you feeling like that balances out? I heard you mention that we don’t really see a lot more UF coming on until maybe later in the year. In the meantime, if I’m mapping this out correctly, particularly in the eastern half of the country, we’re already snug milk. We have a lot of capacity for cheese that has been filling. We got hit with some heat, and we’re trying to digest the impact on milk production, but we believe there’s been some already in mid-July. And Class I’s gonna start to ramp up in August, and at the moment it feels to me like we’re gonna be competing pretty heavily in all of these sectors for the available milk solids that are out there, and it’s already snug [00:09:00] before the Class I starts to pull their share. Jared Miklasz: Yeah, it feels like a perfect storm here. Everyone’s competing for those solids in the back half of this year before that additional capacity comes online to meet some of that demand. And that competition’s been playing out all summer, but I think it’ll really heat up as we get into August and September, and October, and schools start ramping up, and all, everything aligns there. So I think it’ll be very interesting to see, if any product sectors get shorted.  On the protein beverage side they have shelves to make sure they stock and keep that space at the big box stores as well. So I think they’re gonna try to get their milk, but you alluded to it, these, investments on the cheese side, they’re gonna wanna keep those plants full. Jared Miklasz: So it’s gonna be interesting to watch. Josh White: June milk production was a little bit higher than maybe most expected, 2.3% for the country, if I read it right. But most of that heat impact has been in recent weeks, right? The recent three weeks, so since July. We’re looking at a milk production number that’s dated, but we’re experiencing a milk production climate right now that seems to be a little bit tighter for a variety of reasons. But probably one of the bigger one is normal seasonal summertime heat, but may be coming on a bit earlier than expected and a bit stronger than we’re used to at this point in time. We’ve had more headwinds in July. Let’s talk cream for a second. Butter is moving counter seasonally.  Overall, the market still feels heavy, but normally this time of year we wouldn’t be moving in the direction that we are. So let’s go with where everything starts. What’s happening on the cream side of things? Jared Miklasz: Yeah, fat remains tight, which has been, somewhat surprising given the amount of milk being separated for the high-protein beverages and all the value-added skim products that we just talked about. As those markets continue to grow, obviously that generates butterfat and that has to find a home. But based on that, I, I would’ve expected more cream to be available, but instead that market has continued to absorb it. Butter is currently trading in the 155 to 160 range, well below levels that we saw last year. And at those levels, cream is much easier for the manufacturers to use in ice cream, cultured dairy, cream cheese, and other Class II applications. It reduces that risk far as finished product and carrying less value. but part of that may be the manufacturers that, you know, adding that fat back into formulations after pulling back when butter prices were much higher. Lower fat cost obviously as far as the taste and texture can improve flavor and yield across the board for a range of products. Even with the stronger milk production and continued growth in the farm level butterfat I do not expect that the cream market is suddenly gonna become long, particularly during these summer months and with the heat that’s still on the horizon and pressure on both milk and volume and components. Over time, the additional milk and fat production should help bring the market back into better balance. But right now, it’s been long. That processing capacity will remain just as important as the total volume that’s being produced. Josh White: Is Class II performance still very strong this year? Jared Miklasz: It is, yeah. They’re the ones that are soaking up the majority of that fat right now. Josh White: Do we have a sense for if we had to try to measure the whole category, and I realize there’s a lot of products that go [00:12:00] into that category, it’s pretty difficult to paint the broad brush. But do we have a sense for are people looking at current markets as an opportunity to build structural inventory, or are they just moving that much more at the shelf? Jared Miklasz: I don’t have a good answer for that one, man. Josh White: Yeah, I don’t either. It’d be curious. ‘Cause if our Class II performance, we’ve seen just domestic performance in certain products look really well year to date. Like the amount of nonfat that’s been consumed domestically, the Class II numbers suggest that things are going really well in, in those markets. I’m just curious if consumer demand is up that much for some of these because maybe pricing promotions or other things, or if there’s been some structural stock building in anticipation of needs the rest of the year. Let’s move on. Let’s talk about cheese a bit. Cheese just made a pretty decent move higher. In Europe similar things, mozzarella prices have really started to move higher in Europe. And now all of a sudden with the U.S. moving higher and European cheddar quite a bit lower than the bounce they saw on their mozzarella, we’re not maybe in quite as an advantageous price position internationally as we were before. How do we see that playing out? Jeff Daanen: You just wonder the real effect is it gonna be for a month or two when we see what happens and how much cheese is out there. But there is cheese available. If you wanted extra loads, they are there. We’re pretty heavy in cheese. The only thing that we don’t have a lot of right now is mozzarella. A lot of that had to do with the World Cup, and there’s some plants that shut down for maintenance. Like Jared said, it was kinda like the perfect storm. plants shut down. People were eating a lot of pizza because of the World Cup, a lot of house parties and stuff like that. But in about another month we’ll be out of this, and there’ll be plenty of mozzarella available. Jennifer S. Kuo: Our price is a lot higher right now than compared to Europe. especially in the Middle East, and even in Asia still, so many people delayed what they would’ve normally ordered in Q2 and going into Q3 because of all the uncertainty, the much higher fuel costs. Everybody has depleted their inventory. And despite our higher prices, we are still getting many requests now still from the Middle East. Pricing really isn’t an issue. It’s just how soon can you ship, and how soon can you guarantee that it’ll get here? So price does not seem to be the barrier right now. Everybody has used their inventory, and they all need to restock. We have the supply. They’re willing to pay a little more. Europe hasn’t really been a conversation with any of our customers. They have not really tried to push back and say, “Europe is better priced right now.” But yeah, the demand is definitely there right now, despite the jump in our market recently. Josh White: Interesting. So it feels like the international demand’s there. The customer’s de-stocked. But at least for products other than mozzarella, we feel really heavy domestically. Is that still accurate? Jennifer S. Kuo: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. But we are seeing the demand in the Middle East is not just for mozzarella right now. It is more geared towards [00:15:00] cheddar. We are getting more inquiries for cheddar than mozzarella right now, which is good for us, both white and color. Tyler Jokerst: Obvious barriers there or risk can be tied around the current situation in Iran as well. Jennifer S. Kuo: The Red Sea seems to be an issue now as well. Tyler Jokerst: Yeah. Josh, you’re dealing with updated issues if the Houthis are getting involved, when you’re looking at Yemen that’s a direct effect on the Red Sea, which is the other half of that peninsula . And then it starts to limit the only access point that you can have into the Red Sea being through the Suez Canal. So it can create a major supply chain choke point for just anybody trying to get any kind of imports into the region. Josh White: Including Europe, right? Tyler Jokerst: Yeah, because, that tends to be a route that can cut down on transit times. So you can run into situations where you might have to go around the Cape of Good Hope to get where you need to get. So it can cause a lot of complications across the board. Josh White: So, you got an international market that does demand product. They’re not well covered, but we’re constantly fighting our ability to access and supply that demand. Same story two months later. Jennifer S. Kuo: Yeah, and freight has doubled, And that did not seem to be a barrier. Tyler Jokerst: Nope. Josh White: Demand seems resilient then, huh? Tyler Jokerst: Yeah, so I guess Josh, not being too familiar on the dairy side, still learning a lot I would imagine that means the price difference there is significant enough where historically logistics has been a major barrier for U.S. product getting international. I think that clearly the opportunities continue to make themselves clearer for international growth with U.S. dairy product. Josh White: If we could wave a wand and the conflict was over tomorrow, which is not likely, I understand that, do we think that customers are going to step in heavily and demand’s gonna feel strong at that moment because they’re not getting an adequate amount of product? Or have they been purchasing to be safe all along and trying to stay ahead of their needs? Jennifer S. Kuo: I think they’ve been trying to wait it out, and they keep thinking, “Oh, okay, it’s, the war is over, the war is over,” and it keeps restarting. I don’t think they have any inventory now. They wanna know how fast can you get it here and how much. Josh White: Specifically as it relates to the Iran conflict, where are we at in terms of demand destruction? Because when we started these conversations, and I think we had Cefetra on a call probably almost two months ago now, and we asked the question: how long does this have to go on before it goes into notable demand destruction within the region because people can’t import the raw materials they need to make the products that they consume? If price isn’t, really the barrier at the moment, it still is access to the supply. I think at that point in time we talked about August sort of being, like, the magic month to where if this lasts into August, we’re gonna start to really hurt dairy consumption within the region. Jennifer S. Kuo: I think that’s still the magical question we’re trying to find the answer to. Tyler Jokerst: The war is prolonging the situation. It could’ve happened by now, but that huge variable is not really giving us a good read. Josh White: Do we think the answer is gonna be universally the same between milk [00:18:00] powders, butterfat, and cheese, or is it different for different products? Jennifer S. Kuo: The answer’s the same because it’s availability. They’re all on the same boats, right? Yeah. You don’t ship cheese separately from powder separately from butter. I think it’s all just access based. Josh White: I’ll clarify the question. It’s less about the ability to get the product and more about at what point in the timeline when you can’t get it conveniently, do you start to have demand destruction on the consumer level? Because you can’t get the cheese, which you will find its way to retail, the butterfat, which is largely an ingredient for processed cheese applications and other things, the milk powders, which serve some of the same and some different manufacturing products. All three of them overlap each other like a chain, but the cheese is closest to consumer. The butterfat is very close to consumer as an ingredient making some of these processed cheese products and other things, milk powder is going into some of that, but then also as an ingredient maybe in other applications like bakery and some consumer packaged goods. If we get into August, which of those areas is most vulnerable? Is it the consumer products because they really are bringing it in just in time, they have to make what they make they’re considered more luxury type items that, you can cut from your diet if you can’t get it versus maybe something along the lines of manufactured products that they may have more deep inventories of, and they will run out, but they might not be running out until September or beyond. At this moment I don’t get the impression talking to European colleagues, talking within our own team in the different product categories, it doesn’t feel like material demand destruction yet. It seems like we’re still finding a way to get some product in, seems like they’re still willing to pay for product, seems like some stuff’s still happening. It’s just at some moment that will come to a head, I think. And we initially expected by August it would become a real problem that meant we’re going to be missing dairy demand out of that region. And we’re knocking on the door of August. Josh White: We’ll be right back after these messages. Diego Carvallo: I’m Diego Carballo with T.C. Jacoby & Co.. T.C. Jacoby & Co. specializes in international dairy markets. For new customers that haven’t done business with Jacoby, I would tell them that we can provide them with many of the powders, dairy products that they consume, not only with the physical product, but we can also help them mitigate their risk. We know dairy. We know the main players. We know the main providers for the whole value chain. We are one of the strongest players in the U.S. market because we have contact all the way from the farmer moving the liquid milk all the way to the end users that buy the end products. I am Diego Carballo with T.C. Jacoby & Co., and we bring dairy to the world. Josh White: Let’s shift gears. Diego, let’s talk a bit about nonfat dry milk, skim milk powder, and what’s happening, globally [00:21:00] there. Yesterday, we had a firm GDT. What does that tell you? Diego Carvallo: We’ve seen the market under heavy pressure, mainly in the U.S., which was the market that was the most expensive for the past I would say six months. It seems like the U.S. market is going back into a price range where we’re competitive internationally. And that had to happen because the U.S., as we’ve mentioned before, we need to export about two out of three loads that we manufacture in the U.S. for nonfat. And we were not competitive for a long period of time. Our prices were $400 to even $1,000 per metric ton higher than European prices. And now that we finally have plenty of availability we have to find a price where exports become competitive again. And that’s what’s happened. In the past few weeks, we’ve had a few additional factors that have added pressure to prices, and that’s what Jared mentioned on plant interruptions in the U.S. And that’s definitely shifted some skim milk concentrate and some products to the drying towers. And that’s adding a lot of pressure onto prices. We’re seeing more inventory, more product availability from the manufacturers. The market is looking for other outlets, and those outlets are in the Middle East, in Asia, and other places, maybe South America, where the cost of the freight has gone up to an extent where we’re paying probably twice what we used to pay. So the exports price has to come down so that we’re competitive again. We should find some support in the current levels. We’re close to the $1.40s and the physical offers are even lower than that especially for SMP. For SMP, we’re seeing offers close to the $1.35, which is ten cents under the current futures. And I think at that level, we’re starting to be competitive even with a more expensive freight rate. I think we should find support unless we start seeing Europe trend lower and New Zealand prices also trending lower, which hasn’t happened at this point. A lot of availability around and not too many customers looking for product at this moment. Josh White: Okay, on the whey product side, it is absolutely the definition of a summer market right now. I think after two quarters of prices constantly moving up for whey proteins, and the whey market trying to rebalance so many changes over the past year. Over the course of 2025 and into early 2026, we saw a lot of large sweet whey powder producers upgrade their facilities to higher protein WPC80 or WPI. At the same time, there was the commissioning of a very large sweet whey powder facility in Texas that is offsetting the production that we’ve lost, and that’s been a bit turbulent. And that just means that we’re exchanging approved brands for both domestic [00:24:00] customers and international customers for a new brand that needs to be approved. And so we’ve seen a trading range for sweet whey powder that’s been 60 to 70 cents for quite a while. But the actual spot market has seen a lot more basis volatility. New brands trying to buy their way into business, brands that remained that have legacy or approvals for perhaps Asian clientele in a market that seems to be pretty short right now, they’re getting bigger basis premiums. So sweet whey powder has been largely range-bound, but that doesn’t really tell the story. It’s been a big shift in who has the product and where that product can go. On the protein side that story’s pretty well-documented and well-reported at the moment. It is shockingly resilient. Diego mentioned that milk proteins are realizing the benefits of this health and wellness movement. Some of the current trade relationships might be supportive of milk proteins. Aside from that, we’re just seeing more demand, people formulating to it, buying more and using more of it. Jared talked about the UF side of things and how there’s just new demand creation in a lot of different categories from beverage to, some of the other Class II products. The whey category remains just on fire. It seems to be both products. Now, we had two quarters in a row where people were terrified they couldn’t get access to supply, and they watched pricing increase by 20-plus percent. Now we get into the summer and pricing hasn’t increased over the last few weeks, and that’s making some people nervous. You’ve got a lot of people out there that are like, “Oh, it’s not gonna continuously go up. does that mean this market’s going to crash?” It’s always possible, of course. These markets don’t move one-directionally. We should expect a retracement at some moment in time. But everything I read from the consumer demand aspect of it, I don’t see any cracks in the floor. What I see is we’ve moved pricing up so rapidly that now that people are going into the summer months and maybe taking some holidays, if they come back in August and need to replenish, this thing goes right back up. If they come into August and find out that the movements on the shelf at the grocery stores have slowed as much of a price increase we’ve seen, we should look out. So I’m not in either camp right now. I guess I’m a little bit more of the belief that the consumer profile seems to be growing, seems to be willing to pay the prices that we’ve seen. And every time we start to think that the GLP-1 catalyst will end or mature, the GLP-1 drug gets cheaper, you can take it in a different form, and a larger percentage of Americans are actively using the drug. I’m also starting to see the GLP-1 aspect of the protein market get reported in Europe more. We have to remember, the U.S. market is nowhere near mature and in terms of its adoption of GLP-1 as a weight loss tool, consumers are educating themselves at a rapid level, trying to understand what the right foods are, and dairy seems to be on the right side of that discussion. Whey protein maybe being the biggest beneficiary. Milk proteins, though, certainly [00:27:00] a beneficiary. And the rest of the world still can follow. So I don’t know. I remain pretty bullish protein overall, but I think it would be irresponsible to assume that this is a one-directional market, and that it’s just gonna resume an uptrend as we get past the summer slowdown that we’re experiencing in North America and Europe. We need to be aware of what some of the potential upside shocks could be to the market as the globe enters those months where we produce the least amount of milk. We should keep our eye on a few potential shocks. Not all to the upside, some to the downside but I think we’re vulnerable to see maybe a little bit of volatility in the months to come. Let’s go through the group as sort of kind of a fun round the table. Most important discussion or impactful thing in the past week that has your attention. So Tristan, let’s start with you. Tristan Suellentrop: One of the most notable developments is the continued shift towards milk proteins. As WPC80 and WPI prices remain expensive and a little bit more difficult to source, I’ve noticed more people are evaluating MPCs as a partial replacement which is creating stronger demand across the entire high proteins category.  Kait, how about you? Kait Holzschuh: There does seem to be a lot of demand for whey permeate and lactose abroad that you just don’t see in the U.S., so I find that kinda interesting. Josh White: Yeah, good point. We didn’t touch on that, but it started with lactose, and now it’s even cascaded to whey permeate. The amount of inquiries that we’ve received in the past couple weeks across all sectors: international feed sectors, international food sectors, domestic food, and domestic feed. There’s clearly it’s clearly a tight market. Great point. Thank you. Miguel? Miguel Aragón: It might be just isolated to Mexico, but there is a glut of cheese in Mexico. When we were in the $1.40s, probably, a lot of cheese made its way down there, and it has affected the market right now. With the prices now, the hope of the customers that we talk to is that things will level off. But right now, still a lot of cheese, a lot of cheap cheese in Mexico. It affects current business right now. And the second one is demand during World Cup was not as good as expected, and this comes from the Association of Supermarkets and Convenience Stores in Mexico. So two things that really caught my eye in the last two weeks. Josh White: How do we feel the same question would be answered in the U.S.? Do we think that the World Cup impact on demand was worse than, equal to, or better than expected? Jeff Daanen: I think it was better than expected. Because when this first came out, I didn’t think that it would impact a whole lot. But when it was all said and done, it just seems like the snack part of the cheese business really took off, along with pizzas. I think there were a lot of pizzas consumed. That’s why mozzarella’s really tight, and it probably will be for at least another month or so. Josh White: Jonathan? Jonathan B. Powers: Yeah, I think probably the most impactful thing is talking about WPC [00:30:00] 34 and nonfat. Nonfat and SMP hasn’t been readily available in the Midwest, and there’s a need for that protein range in the calf milk replacer world, and we’re starting to get a lot more conversations around stockpiles for those products. As we’ve discussed, WPC 34 is kind of a dying product. There’s not a lot of people that are making it anymore, and there seems to be a lot of companies, even in the food space, that are still very reliant on it and trying to satisfy the need for it when it isn’t necessarily available. We’ve had people reach out for permeating lactose. The volume of requests has been astonishing, honestly. Josh White: Manuel? Miguel Aragón: Where I have a lot of my focus is cheese in general. It just feels like there is something brewing right now. Technically, it’s entered a uptrend right now again and it’s still choppy, right? At least on the futures board. But it feels like there’s opportunities there and yeah. So I’m just soaking up everything I can hear about cheese right now and really try to get a feeling for the market there. Besides that, nonfat is just shaving off more and more. We basically broke the support we had for a long time now, so it really feels like it’s on another leg down. Yeah, we’re gonna see how that plays out. I personally also think we’re gonna find support in the 140s. We might test a little lower than that, but at some point, it should stall and become a little more stable. Josh White: Diego, based on what you said about S&P in the 130s and then what Manuel just said about the technical support and what that looks like, that kind of aligns, right? Because I think I heard you make the comment that as we, a 140 nonfat, you can make S&P cheaper for those that don’t really pay attention to the difference. Lactose is really tight, too. Do we think that there’s a connection to why the milk sugars are tight, and all of a sudden, we are seeing pricing that’s a little bit more SMP competitive globally? Diego Carvallo: I do think that there is, yeah. We made very little SMP for the first six months of the year because it wouldn’t make any sense to export when we’re $1,000 higher than European markets. Now that we’re competitive, it does make a lot of sense to make SMP, especially when protein is very high and you can take it down with a cheap product like lactose or milk permeate. It makes sense to find demand in other markets for the SMP. So I do think that the demand for the carbohydrates has picked up now that nonfat has become competitive again. ​ Josh White: For the benefit of everyone so we’re all talking the same language, nonfat dry milk and SMP are typically universally used in applications, but they’re very different products. What we call nonfat dry milk is an unstandardized product. That specification is a minimum protein percent of 34. But today’s productivity [00:33:00] of components in our milk supply, the average unstandardized protein level in nonfat dry milk is pushing 38 or more percent at least 37 and a half in most times. Now, the rest of the world standardizes their product, and they standardize to either one of two things: 32%, which is the old Codex, 34%, which I think is a little bit more common. Or at least it’s common out of the U.S. that we would standardize to 34%. When we say why would there be a connection between lactose and milk powder, you can add lactose or milk permeate to your nonfat supply to bring the protein down to a standard level. So when we stay standardized, that’s what we mean, where they’re basically bringing it to a 34% protein, most commonly out of the U.S., and then that allows us to compete for international business. Certain markets can use either, but certainly would, prefer a higher protein content at a competitive price. So when I mention our futures are at $1.40, that’s nonfat, and our average nonfat has a higher protein. So if we’re standardizing, that means that we can add this cheaper lactose or cheaper milk permeate to the volume, and that lowers the overall price. So the whole conversation there was more or less like, “Hey, are we making SMP now, and are we competing globally for international business? ‘Cause if we are, that also tells us at least we’re closer to finding a support price, finding some type of global support level for the product.” But you’ll hear us really start to break down the difference between SMP, nonfat dry milk. But many customers can use either. I wouldn’t say most, but many Okay. I, we covered a lot. Yara, any discussions over the past week that you that you feel were most interesting? Yara Morales: It’s a lot of inventory in Mexico, and the customer was offering me nonfat dry milk instead of buying. That was the most surprise, we know that since the price is going down so bad, and they have a lot of inventory with high prices. They have a contract that they have to take it. That’s hard for them. They are losing a lot of money. And the inquires, they looking for whey permeate. They are looking for lactose and proteins. But it’s hard to get the whey permeate and the lactose like you mentioned it. But this is the inquiry we have in Mexico so far, just protein basically because otherwise it’s difficult right now. Josh White: Yeah, agreed. Okay, all, I know it was an unusual discussion. Thanks for joining us today on the Milk Check. Mike Brown: For one part of the supply chain to be successful, everyone has to be. My superpower is practical application of data and analysis. I believe firmly that Jacoby’s success is because we help our suppliers and our buyers be successful. I’m Mike Brown, and I love working for T.C. [00:36:00] Jacoby and Co. because I get to help people Make their businesses more successful. ​

What happens when tariffs, global shipping disruptions, AI infrastructure demands, and changing buyer behavior all hit wholesale distribution at the same time?On this episode of Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution, Kevin Brown and Tom Burton examine the economic, technological, and supply chain forces shaping manufacturers and wholesale distribution teams. They discuss inflation and interest rates, the transition to Section 301 tariffs, growing risks across major shipping routes, Amazon Business's expanding influence, the copper shortage behind AI data center growth, and why companies need a more disciplined approach to AI investment.What You'll LearnHow Section 301 tariffs could create greater planning certainty for distributors, even as import costs remain elevatedWhy disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal, and the Panama Canal could create a global supply chain “perfect storm”How distributors can compete with Amazon Business by solving complex problems and embedding themselves in customer operationsWhy AI efficiency may increase total energy and computing demand instead of reducing itHow revenue leaders in distribution can evaluate AI tools based on measurable business outcomes instead of promisesWhy employees who guide, challenge, and pressure-test AI produce stronger work than those who simply delegate tasksEpisode Highlights04:20 – How LeadSmart uses connected ERP and CRM data to uncover hidden revenue opportunities13:45 – What the Federal Reserve's inflation language could mean for interest rates and business planning23:10 – Why Section 301 tariffs may be more legally durable than previous tariff policies34:05 – The global supply chain risks developing around the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal, and Panama Canal43:20 – How Amazon Business reached $60 billion in merchandise volume and what distributors should do next52:15 – Why complex services, technical support, and customer integration remain powerful competitive advantages59:40 – Copper shortages, data center construction, and the infrastructure required to support AI growth1:10:05 – Why workers who actively direct AI agents outperform people who accept the first answerTools, Frameworks, and Strategies MentionedMeridian 360 HubLeadSmart's connected data hub brings information from across the business into one environment, giving leaders greater visibility into customers, teams, sales activity, and growth opportunities.GeniusFeed AI and Revenue ExpanderThese tools analyze business data to identify white space, wallet-share opportunities, customer risk, and hidden revenue. The discussion also explores how this type of predictive sales analytics could support M&A due diligence and business valuation.Make Complexity Your StrategyDistributors can protect their customer relationships by focusing on services that are difficult for large online marketplaces to replicate. These may include product customization, technical support, equipment commissioning, kitting, cutting, and on-site problem solving.Embed Into Customer OperationsVendor-managed inventory, on-site personnel, tool cribs, vending systems, and job-site inventory programs make the distributor a direct part of the customer's workflow.Jevons ParadoxAs technology becomes more efficient and less expensive, demand often grows faster than the efficiency gains. The hosts apply this idea to AI computing, data centers, energy consumption, and future infrastructure requirements.Outcome-Based AI AdoptionBefore investing in AI or sales technology, businesses should define specific outcomes they expect to achieve. Those outcomes should guide implementation, client success meetings, performance measurement, and technology budgeting.Closing Insight:AI, tariffs, e-commerce, infrastructure shortages, and supply chain disruption are creating a more complicated operating environment for wholesale distribution. The companies that succeed will be the ones that improve visibility, strengthen customer relationships, and connect technology investments to measurable growth.Subscribe to Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution for weekly analysis of the news and trends affecting manufacturers, independent sales agents, distributors, and the global wholesale supply chain.To receive the weekly newsletter, visit AroundTheHornPod.com.To learn how LeadSmart Technologies helps distributors connect sales, CRM, ERP, marketing, quoting, and customer intelligence data, visit LeadSmartTech.com.Leave a Review: Help us grow by sharing your thoughts on the show.Learn more about the LeadSmart AI B2B Sales Platform: https://www.leadsmarttech.com/Join the conversation each week on LinkedIn Live.Want even more insight to the stories we discuss each week? Subscribe to the Around The Horn Newsletter.You can also hear the podcast and other excellent content on our YouTube Channel.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.

//The Wire//1700Z July 23, 2026// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: TARGETING THROUGHOUT MIDDLE EAST CONTINUES TO ESCALATE. CRUDE OIL FUTURES SURGE AS HOUTHIS ENTER THE WAR BY STRIKING TWO SAUDI TANKERS. U.S. HOUSE PASSES 2027 NDAA, WITH SECTION 219 LANGUAGE INTACT. POLICE SHOOTING REPORTED IN WISCONSIN, PROTESTS ALREADY UNDERWAY.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Red Sea/HOA: The Houthis entered the war overnight, striking two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea. The Houthis claim to have targeted the M/T ENCELA and the M/T LAYLIA for attempting to transit the Red Sea to the Saudi oil terminal at Yanbu. The UKMTO confirmed that at least one tanker was struck, but made no mention of the other vessel.Kuwait: Last night the Abdali Border Checkpoint crossing with Iraq was struck by an unidentified Iranian munition. This morning, satellite imagery became available for the first time in a few days over Ali Al Salem Airbase. At this base, a 50+ meter impact crater is visible directly in the center of a series of barracks buildings. The exact timing of this attack is not known, but the imagery indicates it was conducted sometime over the past week.-HomeFront-Wisconsin: Yesterday afternoon a high-profile police shooting was reported in Madison, which involved a man with a knife being shot during a scuffle in the vicinity of Baldwin and Williamson Street. The suspect's identity has not been confirmed yet, however protests and demonstrations broke out immediately after the shooting occurred. More demonstrations were carried out this morning, and more protests are expected over the next few days.Washington D.C. - Last night, the House of Representatives passed the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included the highly controversial Section 219 language intact. This section links the American military industry with Israel, embedding Israeli control of discretionary budgets within the Pentagon. The bill enables the creation of an "Executive Agent" for the Pentagon, which will direct American military technological advancements at the behest of the IDF. The bill now heads to the Senate for approval, where it is expected to pass.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: Following the strikes in the Red Sea, financial markets reacted as Brent crude spiked to over $100/bbl, bringing futures prices back in line with the height of the war months ago. This is an indicator that the flimflammery present in the financial sector can no longer ignore the reality of the situation at hand. Since the war began, a grand game of musical chairs has been played by powerful entities to pretend that everything is fine, but at some point the markets will be forced into accepting reality by the sheer lack of oil. Within a few weeks the music is going to stop, and hard decisions will have to be made. This is why President Trump himself stated on June 17th that the main reason for signing the MOU was to prevent an extremely dire energy crisis, because the US was running out of oil. He directly stated that the US had 4 weeks of oil reserves left, and that if those run out, "bedlam" would be the result.The Houthi's becoming involved, and proving their dedication by striking oil tankers, is stacking concerns on top of concerns. The war in the Middle East now officially affects three of the most important maritime choke points in the world: the Strait of Hormuz, Bab el Mandeb, and the Suez Canal. Shipping attempting to transit any of these three points will very likely either be targeted directly, or be negatively affected in some way and the other options for securing oil are tightening as well. Venezuela, the nation that has become a proxy state of the US and thusly touted as being a major source of US oil during the Hormuz Crisis...just suffered a catastrophic earthquake that severely damaged infrastructure. Despite this destruction, oil continues to flow, but it was only ever half a million barrels per day before the war, and it's hard to imagine that an earthquake would make that export any easier. The war in Ukraine now including the daily mutual targeting of Russian and Ukrainian tanker vessels further squeezes an already dire situation. Even if the US does not use Russian oil, petroleum is a commodity...a scarcity in one place on earth affects the whole world because supply is reduced and demand remains the same.Over the past few days, most indications and warnings point to a widening of the war in the Middle East. The US has flown a lot of assets into the region, and has relocated many other assets based on the assumption that American bases will continue to be struck. The Israelis are starting to prepare their larger civil defense bunkers in preparation for large-scale ballistic missile strikes, and PM Netanyahu is scheduled to visit the US sometime this week, though the schedule has not been finalized. Glancing at mainstream media right now results in an onslaught of commentary urging strikes on Iran...you can't turn on the television without hearing the words "Pickaxe Mountain" in the context of a random ex-General urging strikes on this bunker complex, which is impervious to everything but a subterranean nuclear detonation.Nothing on the table right now points to de-escalation, in fact, all indications align with a return to the full-scale bombing campaign of the early days of the war. It's always possible to suddenly switch back to diplomacy and not restart major operations, but wars are usually fought on trends. And right now, the trends continue to suggest the war escalating for the time being.Analyst: S2A1 Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269 Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report. //END REPORT//

"Just-in-time inventory is great when it's working, but when it stops working, it's a huge disaster because you don't have material staged and you don't have strategic reserves." — Michael Murray, Senior Director of Global Supply Chain, DSV Inventory Management Solutions For most of the 2000s, the mandate in manufacturing was lean: hold less, order just-in-time, and keep working capital off the balance sheet. Then came a string of shocks: COVID, the Suez Canal blockage, and a global chip shortage.  All of a sudden, just-in-time started looking more like just-in-trouble. Companies swung hard toward just-in-case, stockpiling inventory as insurance against the next disruption. Michael Murray, Senior Director of Global Supply Chain at DSV Inventory Management Solutions, isn't ready to declare just-in-time dead.  In this episode of Art of Supply, Michael joins Kelly Barner to talk about the cost challenges that can result when inventory is managed reactively:  - Why the pendulum keeps swinging between just-in-time and just-in-case - Why trade policy is becoming a bigger driver of inventory strategy than COVID ever was - How a consolidated VMI model changes the math for OEMs, and why suppliers may be harder to convince than CFOs   Links: Michael Murray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mp-murray/  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe   

Rey Trevino, Crude Truth Podcast Host, and President at Pecos Operating stops by.We have a wild stand-up with 8 huge stories. It is fun having guests on the stand-up, and Rey brought the receipts today. The picture above was created by Grok, and it is Clark Savage standing by the tanker “Stan Turley” - I think Grok was having a moment.With Brent crude surging past $100 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate jumping dramatically, the conversation reveals how Houthi attacks on shipping lanes, Chinese strategic positioning, and disruptions at key maritime chokepoints are reshaping energy markets worldwide. Through an in-depth discussion with energy expert RT Trevino, the podcast challenges prevailing narratives about the energy transition, presenting compelling data that shows fossil fuels still account for 86% of global energy consumption. From Europe's LNG crisis and America's emergence as a natural gas superpower to the manufacturing exodus from Canada to the U.S., this episode provides essential context for investors, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand the complex forces driving energy prices and global economic security in 2026.1. Oil Price Surge & Global Geopolitical TensionsBrent crude has surged above $100/barrel, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) jumping from $81 to $91. This spike is driven by geopolitical instability, particularly Houthi attacks on tankers in the Bab El-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea, which are disrupting global oil supply routes and forcing tankers to take longer routes around the world.2. Strategic Chokepoints & Supply Chain DisruptionsThe podcast discusses critical maritime chokepoints—the Bab El-Mandab Strait, Suez Canal, and Panama Canal—all facing disruptions. VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers, carrying ~2 million barrels each) cannot fully load through the Suez Canal, and the Panama Canal is experiencing drought conditions. These disruptions add months to shipping times and significantly impact global energy markets.3. China's Strategic Positioning & U.S. Energy PolicyThe hosts explore China's role in global energy dynamics, including its partnership with Iran and the Houthis, and how President Trump's sanctions on Venezuelan and Iranian oil are affecting global supply. There's discussion of a Chinese military base in Yemen and how U.S. strategic bombing targets infrastructure supplying Iran.4. LNG Supply Crisis & Europe's Energy DependencyEurope faces an LNG supply crisis, forcing buyers toward coal and natural gas. The podcast highlights the hypocrisy of European nations sanctioning Russia while importing 90% of Russia's LNG. Germany's decision to blow up coal plants and Japan's mothballing of nuclear facilities are criticized as short-sighted energy policy.5. U.S. Natural Gas as the FutureThe U.S. is positioned as the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas” and is exporting record amounts to Europe. The podcast emphasizes natural gas as a critical energy source and advocates for expanded infrastructure and production.6. Grid Reliability & Energy Mix RealityUsing Texas ERCOT as an example, the discussion shows that despite renewable energy investments, fossil fuels remain essential. Natural gas provided 62% of grid power, wind 25%, and solar dropped to zero at night. The grid required battery storage to prevent blackouts, demonstrating the unreliability of intermittent renewables.7. Global Energy StatisticsKey data points: 86% of the world's energy still comes from fossil fuels (gasoline, diesel, transportation), and 57% of global electricity is generated from fossil fuels. This underscores that the energy transition is actually an “energy addition,” not a replacement.8. Manufacturing Shift from Canada to the U.S.A KPMG survey shows 42% of Canadian manufacturers have moved or are moving production to the United States, driven by pro-business U.S. policies and concerns about supply chain dependency on China.9. Corporate Earnings & Energy Sector PerformanceGE Vernova reported strong Q2 2026 earnings ($11 billion, up 22%), with natural gas turbines sold out for five years. Tesla's Q2 earnings showed record deliveries but profit concerns due to AI investments.10. Oil & Gas Investment OpportunitiesWe conclude with a discussion of oil and gas as solid investment portfolio additions, offering monthly revenue, tax deductions, and long-term returns compared to renewables, which have years before generating returns.●1.Brent at $100 and U.S. Refinery Utilization at 96%: What This Means for Consumers and Investors2.LNG Supply Crisis Pushes Buyers Toward Coal, Natural Gas, and Oil: Energy Security Takes Center Stage3.Greece Exposes the Hypocrisy and Limits of Europe's Russia Energy Sanctions4.Mark P. Mills Covers the Myth of an Energy Transition5.Fossil Fuels Still Generate 57% of the World's Electricity — But We Remain Deeply Dependent on Them for Transportation, Manufacturing, and Building the “Renewables” Themselves6.GE Vernova Raises 2026 Outlook on Surging AI-Driven Power Demand While Advancing Venezuela7.Nearly Half of Canadian Manufacturers Are Moving to the US — A Self-Inflicted Wound from Tariffs, Uncertainty, and Costly Green Policies8.Tesla's Q2 2026 Earnings: Record Deliveries and Energy Growth Overshadowed by Profit Miss Amid Massive AI InvestmentsCheck the articles on https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

Cellulite is a regular source of insecurity among women. That's been especially true since women's magazines came along, pretty much labelling it public enemy number one. In our collective minds, it's become inextricably linked to being overweight or having gone through pregnancy. In reality, cellulite is the result of a number of factors, and hormonal changes in particular. The first thing to know is that there are actually three types of cellulite: aqueous cellulite which is flexible and slightly visible; adipose cellulite, which is soft and limited to a certain part of the body, and fibrous cellulite, which is hard and painful to the touch, sometimes coming with a purplish-blue colour. What do those three types have in common? Can cellulite have negative health consequences? So what techniques are out there for getting rid of cellulite? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the latest episodes, click here: ⁠⁠What is the best way to soothe a crying baby?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠What is the Suez Canal?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Who are the main victims of natural disasters?⁠⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast written and produced by Joseph Chance. First broadcast : 14/11/2022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In past episodes of Do You Really Know, we've talked about a number of Scandinavian lifestyle trends, like death cleaning and hygge for example. Both of those are inspired by similar sentiments; to do with feeling good in surroundings that aren't overflowing with useless items. And yet, in recent months, we've been hearing more and more about a home decor trend that's the complete opposite. Maximalism is making a comeback! The signs have been there at furniture shows, such as the 2022 Milan Furniture Fair where Dimore Studio displayed a maximalist interior that got a lot of attention. Of course, influencers have been sharing pictures and videos of their interiors on social media too. Where does this desire for maximalism come from? How can I bring maximalism into my home then? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the latest episodes, click here: ⁠⁠What is the best way to soothe a crying baby?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠What is the Suez Canal?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Who are the main victims of natural disasters?⁠⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast written and produced by Joseph Chance. First Broadcast: 13/11/2022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when wholesale distributors realize “CRM” is no longer the real conversation, growth, data, AI, and sales enablement are?In Episode 198 of Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution, Kevin Brown and Tom Burton unpack the shift they saw firsthand at the Affiliated Distributors Functional Success Summit: distributors are moving beyond traditional CRM adoption questions and toward connected data systems, AI-enabled sales strategy, and future-proofing distribution. The episode connects macroeconomic uncertainty, supply chain risk, AI governance, human judgment, and enterprise growth strategy to the real decisions facing wholesale distribution teams today.What You'll Learn:Why distributors are moving past traditional CRM conversations and focusing instead on how to help sales teams create more value, become more consultative, and grow revenueHow CRM-ERP integration, data warehouses, e-commerce platforms, marketing automation, and disconnected point solutions can limit customer visibility unless they are unified into a true enterprise growth platformWhy inflation measurement, interest rate uncertainty, and prediction markets matter to revenue leaders in distribution making investment and growth decisionsHow Strait of Hormuz disruption, Suez Canal risk, oil volatility, plastics, fertilizers, helium, and global logistics instability can ripple through manufacturing and wholesale distributionWhy AI still needs human judgment, oversight, and strategy, and why many companies miss expected ROI when they assume full automation instead of building a realistic digital transformation planEpisode Highlights:01:16 – Lessons from the Affiliated Distributors Functional Success Summit and why sales enablement is replacing traditional CRM talk03:55 – Why disconnected data across ERP, marketing automation, e-commerce, and point software creates risk for distributors06:37 – Episode 198 begins: how Around the Horn connects the economy, supply chain, M&A, sales, marketing, AI, and robotics to wholesale distribution08:30 – LeadSmart's Meridian 360 Enterprise Growth Platform and the move from Smart CRM to broader business growth engines12:32 – Inflation cooling, gas prices, and why energy volatility still affects distributors, manufacturers, fertilizers, heavy minerals, and supply chains15:23 – Kevin Warsh, Fed measurement reviews, CPI, PPI, the 2% inflation target, and the need for more real-time data20:25 – Prediction markets, PolyMarket, Kalshi, and whether betting markets can offer useful economic signals27:17 – Strait of Hormuz risk, Iran, shipping disruption, oil exposure, the Suez Canal, Houthi rebels, and what it means for global supply chains43:02 – AI watchdogs, model testing, DeepMind, Fable, Mythos, and the role of government QA for high-powered AI systems48:38 – Human judgment in the age of AI, digital twins, job displacement fears, and why AI ROI depends on data readiness and realistic automation expectations56:00 – APR Supply's sales tool adoption gains and how better sales technology can support outside sales revenue growthTools, Frameworks, and Strategies Mentioned:LeadSmart TechnologiesMeridian 360 Enterprise Growth PlatformSales CompassSmart CRMSales Co-PilotAI Co-Pilot for SalesCRM-ERP IntegrationCRM Data Enrichment with AIHidden Revenue DetectionSales Automation Without Losing the Human TouchFuture-Proofing DistributionHybrid Selling ModelsConsultative CommerceData warehouses and data lakesMarketing automationE-commerce data integrationERP data unificationAI-enabled business intelligencePrediction marketsPolyMarketKalshiCPI and PPI measurement reviewsAI model QA and AI watchdog conceptsHuman judgment in AI strategyAPR Supply sales tool adoptionMaster of Distribution Management programClosing Insight:The episode's central message is clear: the future of distribution is not about buying more disconnected technology. It is about connecting data, people, process, and AI into a strategy that helps teams sell smarter, serve customers better, and make better decisions under uncertainty.Leave a Review: Help us grow by sharing your thoughts on the show.Learn more about the LeadSmart AI B2B Sales Platform: https://www.leadsmarttech.com/Join the conversation each week on LinkedIn Live.Want even more insight to the stories we discuss each week? Subscribe to the Around The Horn Newsletter.You can also hear the podcast and other excellent content on our YouTube Channel.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.

For the ad-free version of this episode, subscribe to Politicology+ at https://politicology.com/plus In this episode, Ron talks to Jay Solomon (executive director of investigations at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University and cohost of The Threat podcast) and Hagar Chemali (former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN and cohost of The Threat podcast) about what the latest war with Iran reveals about the limits of American power. They explore why allies failed to rally around the United States, how the Strait of Hormuz became a political weapon, and why both ends of the political spectrum increasingly argue that America itself is the problem. Then they trace the radicalization of one young American activist as a window into the forces pulling at the country from the outside.  Later, Ron, Jay, and Hagar turn to corruption, transactional foreign policy, and where American leadership goes once the old institutions can no longer be rebuilt. They discuss: (5:01) What this war revealed about the limits of American power (6:41) Why allies didn't rally, and the Strait of Hormuz as a toll booth (8:34) The case that confrontation with Iran was inevitable (15:21) The left's turn: DSA, the Mamdani primaries, and a hollowing party (20:26) Populism meets foreign policy (25:52) The radicalization of Calla Walsh (35:02) Utopian movements and the dream of a perfectible world (39:09) The anti-war tradition versus foreign influence (46:30) The right's turn: JD Vance, Qatar, Pakistan, and the Quincy Institute (54:40) Transactionalism, corruption, and values that left the room (1:02:41) Anti-Semitism, legitimate debate, and the new litmus tests (1:09:47) What Israel does if American support collapses (1:13:12) The industrial complexes and their competing incentives (1:21:47) Iran's real motives and the lessons of the pallets of cash (1:33:49) Is this our Suez Canal moment? Check out The Threat podcast: The Threat podcast: https://bit.ly/3QPoKhZ Follow Ron on Twitter:https://twitter.com/RonSteslow Follow Jay on Twitter: https://x.com/FPJaySolomon Follow Hagar on Twitter: https://x.com/HagarChemali  Email your questions to podcast@politicology.com or leave us a voicemail at ‪(202) 455-4558‬  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zak Paine and Ghost hold down Monday's show solo while CannCon travels back from GART, and they cover a weekend full of overlapping stories across three continents. Trump's weekend Truth Social post warning about communism finding its moment looks almost prophetic within hours, as California State Senator Scott Wiener gets publicly heckled at a trans march and again at dinner by his own coalition over his record on Gaza. Ghost connects a major Iraqi corruption sweep, including $11 million in cash and 98 billion dinars seized from a former deputy oil minister, directly to a string of rogue tanker incidents disrupting the Iran peace deal's Strait of Hormuz traffic pattern, tracing one ship back to the same company involved in the 2021 Suez Canal blockage and another to a sanctioned oil smuggling network laundering money through UAE and Iraqi banks. Ghost also floats a weather warfare theory connecting Iran's historic regional drought to the radar towers being struck in Qatar and the UAE. Zak and Ghost close with World Cup culture shock content, Turkey preserving an Alexander the Great battle site, and Colombia's transition following Petro's concession, including a resurfaced whistleblower account alleging Ukraine traded Biden-era weapons to Mexican cartels for cocaine.

James 5:16-18 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. SERMON NOTES I. The Burden of Legacy The Coca-Cola Lesson: In 1985, "New Coke" failed because customers felt betrayed by the loss of something familiar and trustworthy, even though the new flavor was "better". Defining the Mantle: To "take up the mantle" means to assume the role and responsibility of a predecessor and say, "I will carry on what they began". Succession is Hard: It is almost impossible to follow a "GOAT" (Greatest of All Time) because you are constantly compared to their legacy. II. The Pitfall of Talent: Churchill vs. Eden Winston Churchill: A legendary leader who rallied Britain against "monstrous tyranny" with bold determination and grit. Anthony Eden: A "polished diplomat" and Churchill's right-hand man who seemed perfect on paper but failed his first test (the Suez Canal crisis) and resigned in disgrace. Insight: It isn't easy to take up the mantle. III. The Source of Power: Elijah vs. Elisha Dark Days: King Ahab and Jezebel led Israel into extreme evil, murdering God's prophets and worshipping idols. Elijah's Fire: Elijah single-handedly confronted 450 prophets of Baal, and God answered with fire from heaven to prove He was the true God. The Big Truth: Elisha was called to follow this legend, but James 5:17 reminds us Elijah was "a man just like us". The power came from God's presence, not Elijah's ability. IV. Taking Up the Mantle Today The Current Call: In modern days of darkness and challenge, we are called to be the church. The First Passing: Successful legacy requires mentorship. Elijah didn't just leave; he invited Elisha to walk with him and learn from his presence for years. The Ultimate Strength: We take up the mantle by trusting the Spirit of Jesus, who conquered death and lives in us.   Discussion Questions The "Familiarity" Factor: Why do you think people react so strongly to change (like the "New Coke" example)? In your own life, when has it been difficult to let go of the "familiar" to embrace something new? The Pressure of Success: What makes it so hard to live up to a previous legacy? The "Just Like Us" Reality: James 5:17 says Elijah was "a man just like us." How does it change your view of your own faith to know that Elijah's miracles were about God's power rather than Elijah's special abilities? Practical Mentorship: The sermon mentioned a "first passing" of the mantle where Elijah gave Elisha his presence. What does it look like practically for different generations in our church to spend time together and share their walks with the Lord? Looking at the "Faith Hall of Fame" (Hebrews 11), many faced extreme hardships. Which "dark days" in our world today feel most overwhelming to you, and how does the promise that "He who lives in you is greater" give you courage?

Oil may dominate the headlines about the Middle East, but the real power often flows through water. Three narrow passages - the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, and Bab el-Mandeb – shape how the world moves. In times of crisis, they've become chokepoints, disrupting global trade, rattling markets, and shifting the balance of power way beyond the region. In this episode, three stories from these waterways… how they've helped define the modern Middle East and, as we've seen recently with Hormuz, the economic currents that affect us all.Guests:Alex Von Tunzelmann, author of Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for PeaceHarold Lee Wise, author of Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf, 1987-1988Farea Al-Muslimi, Yemen and Gulf researcher at Chatham House in LondonSupport shows like Throughline with NPR+. Sign up today at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Theatrical stages often mirror the intricate evolution of the societies that build them. Professor Carmen Gitre explores the burgeoning performance culture of Cairo between 1867 and 1930. This era witnessed a shift from street storytelling and shadow plays to formal theater houses designed for an emerging class of Western-educated intellectuals. The discussion traverses the grand spectacle of the Suez Canal's opening to the subversive nationalist songs of performers like Mounira al-Mahdiyya. Through this historical lens, the stage appears as a critical site for negotiating modernity, colonial influence, and Egyptian identity.   00:00 Introduction 01:28 The Evolution of Performance 03:56 Commissioning an Operatic Staple for a Global Stage 07:35 Street Storytelling & the Shadows of Earlier Traditions 12:02 Urban Redesign Mirroring a Parisian Vision of Modernity 18:46 Defensive Developmentalism & the Weight of Sovereign Debt 27:21 Syrian Practitioners & the Burgeoning Role of the Press 32:31 Efendi vs. Basha 39:01 Vernacular Choices for an Elevated Public Education 44:31 Satirical Observations through a Modernist Lens 51:14 The nuances of the women's movement 57:04 Disembodied Voices in the Era of Early Recording 58:00 Performances Spilling into the Nationalist Fervor of 1919 01:03:02 Cinematic Transitions and Legacies for the Everyman   Carmen Gitre is an Associate Professor of Middle East History and Associate Chair of History at Virginia Tech University. She earned her Ph.D. at Rutgers University in 2011. From 2011 to 2014, she taught in the International Studies and History Departments at Seattle University. Her academic interests include cultural history, imperialism, and the relationship between performance, identity, and modernity in Egypt. Her book, Acting Egyptian: Theater, Identity, and Political Culture in Cairo, 1867-1930, was published by the University of Texas Press in 2019. Other publications include 'The Dramatic Middle East: Performance as History in Egypt and Beyond,' and 'Nonsense and Morality: Comedy in Interwar Egypt.' Her current work delves more deeply into interwar art, performance, and cultural influence in Egypt.   Connect with Carmen Gitre

17 Jun 2026. Oil to a three-month low and gold has surged. Guy Wolf from Marex on what the US-Iran deal means for markets. DMCC's Future of Trade 2026 report is out with the UAE ranking second globally in commodities trade. CEO Ahmed Bin Sulayem joins us live on location. We also speak to Michael Lawrence from Asia House, the think tank behind the analysis in DMCC's new report. And Oxford Economics has revised its global outlook in light of a potential peace deal between the US and Iran. Azad Zangana joins us with the details.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nihal El Aasar returns to this podcast to discuss the competing progressive alternatives in the Arab world prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. Arab attempts to join capitalist systems were obstructed by British and Zionist colonial power, leading to the maintenance of a hegemonic state. We also reference the Union of Arab States and the role of the Zionist entity in hindering regional development. Gamal Abdel Nasser and other leaders in Egypt attempted to create a sovereign economic and political space through nationalist projects. This was actively resisted by Western powers and seen as a threat to imperialist interests. The theory of dependency, as developed by Samir Amin, highlights how underdevelopment in the global South is the result of the expansion of global capital. Nihal argues that while Nasser's project was popular and supported by the masses, his distrust in popular participation and repressive actions against intellectuals helped prevent the project from fully being actualized. The formation of Israel was intertwined with Western efforts to manage the political future of the so-called Middle Eastern region. Israel has hindered the Arab modernization project and has negatively affected the surrounding countries. We discuss how Israel exists in the region to halt the potential of the Arab people as a whole. This is done through repression, impoverishment, and preventing economic prosperity. The U.S. interests in extraction and controlling resources in the region also play a role in this. Apart from that, we meditate on Egypt's early 20th century role as a leader in the Arab world and the expectations placed on its military and economy for stability and development being largely shaped by its history of conflict with Israel and the continued presence of Zionism in the region. The military's control of the economy, rise of religious fundamentalism, and prevalence of conspiracy theories can all be traced back to this relationship. Additionally, Egypt's 20th century development was and continued to be hindered by both structural pressures from outside and its own struggle with overextension as a newly decolonized nation. The working class in Egypt consisted mainly of peasants who were oppressed under the Egyptian monarchy. Land reforms were necessary for progress and industrialization was slowly taking place. From the start, Egyptian nationalism was formed in opposition to Zionism. Nasser faced challenges from the US and its allies and had to build up the Egyptian military in response. We discuss how the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the creation of the United Arab Republic were unprecedented events, but internal struggles and external interference ultimately led to its downfall. The Gulf monarchies have also been deeply intertwined with imperial and capitalist interests since their founding, making them a natural opposition to Arab socialist and progressive projects. The 1973 oil embargo, El Aasar argues, was the last major act of Arab unity but was not an altruistic act of solidarity. The embargo affirmed the importance of the petrodollar for the US and was influential in bringing about the Camp David Accords, which aimed to consolidate the petrodollar and move Egypt fully from the Soviet camp to that of the United States. We meditate on the significance of Camp David and the 1978 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, arguing that it represents a betrayal of Egyptian sovereignty and a move towards neoliberalism and repression. She also highlights how this has instilled a defeatist mindset in Egyptians and led to ongoing struggles with poverty and domestic warfare. She argues that the current regime in Egypt is a continuation of the "Camp David Republic" and that the promised benefits of peace, such as prosperity and political openness, have been left unfulfilled.   If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more conversations like this. Please consider becoming a Patron. You can do so for as little as a 1 Dollar a month and you will gain access to our Discord.   Nihal is an Egyptian  writer, researcher, political analyst, radio host and DJ. She has written about politics, political economy, culture, literature and music in several publications including The Baffler, The Transnational Institute, Verso, Jacobin, Tribune, Parapraxis, Mundial, Art Review, The Wire, Protean, Novara media, and others, as well as authoring a book chapter about Egyptian political economy and consulting on related issues. "The Condition for Freedom Is for the Egyptian Masses to Take to the Streets"Egypt's Centrality in the Struggle for Palestine" by Nihal El Aasar   Episode artwork includes an artificially colorized version of this photo: "Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin acknowledge applause during a Joint Session of Congress in which President Jimmy Carter announced the results of the Camp David Accords." full credit information here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sadat_and_Begin_clean3.jpg  

In the third and final installment of the series, President Theodore Roosevelt mobilizes the full industrial might of United States to “make the dirt fly” in Panama and succeed where the French Syndicate failed. But many perils await them in “The Zone”. From disease-bearing mosquitos and intractable terrain, to labor problems and lethal accidents, the Panamanian jungle will not be tamed without a fight.    SOURCES: Burton, Anthony. The Canal Pioneers: Canal Construction from 2500 BC to the Early 20th Century. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2018. Charles River Editors. The Panama Canal: The Construction and History of the Waterway Between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2013. Diaz Espino, Ovidio. How Wall Street Created a Nation: J.P. Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Panama Canal. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003. Greene, Julie. The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal. New York: Penguin Press, 2009. Karabell, Zachary. Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Keller, Ulrich. The Building of the Panama Canal in Historic Photographs. New York: Dover Publications, 1983. Lasso, Marixa. Erased: The Untold Story of the Panama Canal. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019. Lindsay, John. Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama. 2003. Lopez, Sean J. Chokepoint: The Epic History of the Suez Canal. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2024. Marlowe, Elias. A History of Panama: Canal, Conquest, and Independence. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2012. McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977. Morton, Levi P. “No. 105. Mr. Morton to Mr. Frelinghuysen.” Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1884, U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian, 5 July 1884,https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1884/d105 Parker, Matthew. Panama Fever: The Epic Story of the Building of the Panama Canal. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Cohen, Lucy M. “The Chinese of the Panama Railroad: Preliminary Notes on the Migrants of 1854 Who ‘Failed.'” Ethnohistory 18, no. 4 (1971): 309–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/481071. “The Tragedy of the Chinese.” Panama Railroad Historical Society, www.panamarailroad.org/chinesetragedy.html “Many Canal Workers Killed,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed May 16, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1085. https://newsroompanama.com/2026/03/22/clear-rules-and-fair-compensation-indio-river/?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://frontera.library.ucla.edu/recordings/coge-el-pandero-que-se-te-va-0 “Wilson Blows Up Last Bar Between Oceans; Canal Becomes Reality.” The Audubon County Journal (Audubon, Iowa), October 17, 1913. Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. “Canal Is Opened by Wilson's Finger.” The New York Times, October 11, 1913. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prison Revolt! Adultery! Court Intrigue! War! The Suez Canal! 1930 has a little bit of everything, as long as everything is basically one of those five subjects. Craig and Meghann continue the Great Work, with the Best Picture Nominees of 1930.

In 1882, the German mathematician Ferdinand von Lindemann proved that π was transcendental: it cannot be reduced to a tidy equation, never captured inside the comfortable boundaries expected by mathematicians. For centuries mathematicians tried to “square the circle” — creating a perfect square with the same area as a circle using only classical tools. In 1882, they finally got their answer: impossible. π's transcendence meant the problem itself can never be solved. π sits at the centre of order — wheels, planets, architecture, engineering — but does not obey the rules mathematicians thought would contain it. The more closely pi is examined, the more it slips beyond simple description. But pi also has beauty in it's patterns. π — roughly 3.14 etc etc — is the hidden constant inside every circle: divide the distance around any circle by the distance across it, and written out as a decimal, it goes on forever without ever stopping and without ever falling into a repeating pattern. Southern Africa in the early 1880s had the appearance of something similar. The neat assumptions of empire borders that could be drawn, peoples classified, and territories administered into obedience — were beginning to collide with a far messier reality. The aftermath of the First Anglo-Boer War had humbled imperial confidence, African polities remained powerful actors, and the mineral revolution was creating forces no colonial administrator fully controlled. Like π, South Africa was proving resistant to simple formulas. Emerging at this time was the Afrikaner Bond, led by Jan Hendrick Hofmeyr, his Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging, Farmers Protection Society, had merged with the Bond. Hofmeyr's main aim was to merge the diverse Afrikaner cultural movements from behind the scenes, thus his nickname, The Mole. Cape Prime Minister John Gordon Sprigg was sparring with political humanists, particularly Saul Solomon who owned the Cape Argus. As a liberal member of parliament, he was an articulate defender of African rights, called a friend of the natives and worse by some settlers. He was enticed to sell his paper to the editor at the time, what he didn't know, was that Cecil John Rhodes was secretly backing the sale - no Rhodes owned the Argus. It was in that moment that the Cape lost its important outsider voice, and Rhodes gained a news outlet. The main story the paper was covering after the first Anglo-Boer war was the instability in Basotholand. The Argus and other liberals had taken up the Basotho cause against the land-hungry settlers of the Orange Free State. Shoring up his personal wealth and power, Rhodes was simultaneously using his growing influence in the Cape to protect its northern territories. This was a natural progression, north of Kimberley lay the Vaal River, and the Molopo River. Between the two lay not only the Boers of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, but the Tswana people. South of the Molopo there were the Thlaping, the Rolong, north of the Molopo the Ngwato chiefdom, ruled by Khama as well as the Kwena under chief Sechele, the Ngwaketse ruled by Gaseitsiwe and soon, his son, Bathoen. The Tswana were tussling with colonial expansion, and navigating the difficult politics of the frontier, keeping the Boer settlers at arm's length. Along the edge of these chief's territory there lay the Great North Road, on the eastern side of the Tswana lands. Transvaal President Paul Kruger was behind efforts to cut off the Road to the North, something the British authorities suspected but couldn't prove. For Cecil Rhodes and British ambitions, these two micro-republics were a geopolitical nightmare. If the Transvaal annexed Stellaland and Goshen which was Paul Kruger's ultimate goal, the Boers would completely block Cape Colony access to the interior of Africa. Rhodes had taken to calling the Great north Road the Suez Canal of South Africa.

The National Security Hour with Brandon Weichert – Yon emphasized the strategic importance of maritime chokepoints such as the Danish Strait, the Strait of Hormuz, the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, and the Strait of Malacca. These locations are not obscure geographic trivia; they are the pressure valves of the international system. If even one is blocked or militarized, the economic...

In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we examine the opening moves of the Ottoman Empire's war against Britain – a desperate, audacious campaign to seize the Suez Canal that has been largely forgotten but which revealed the fragility of the British Empire and the resilience of the Ottoman army.At the outbreak of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire saw itself surrounded by enemies: the British in Egypt, the Russians to the north, a hostile Habsburg Empire to the west, and a recently hostile Italy in the Mediterranean. The Young Turk government initially hoped to stay out of the war. But when they looked at Britain, France, and Russia, they saw voraciously hungry powers intent on dismembering their empire. Germany offered a security guarantee – unreliable, but the best available.The German High Command placed a high priority on cutting the Suez Canal. Between August and December 1914, 376 transport ships carried nearly 164,000 Allied troops through the canal. It was the vital artery connecting the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean – the lifeline of Britain's Asian empire. If the Ottomans could pinch it off, they could deal Britain a mortal blow and perhaps inspire a pan‑Islamic jihad against British rule.The man chosen to lead the attack was Cemal Pasha. In November 1914, he stood in Istanbul's central train station and publicly proclaimed his intention to conquer Egypt. The British dismissed his pledge as empty rhetoric. They did not believe he could raise an army large enough or cross the waterless, hostile Sinai desert.But Cemal assembled a heterogeneous, multi‑ethnic force – regular soldiers from the Arab provinces, volunteers from Bedouin, Druze, Circassian, Kurdish, Albanian, and even Jewish communities. He wrote to the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein ibn Ali, asking for troops under one of his sons. Hussein's son Ali went no further than Medina – a warning sign Cemal chose to ignore.Against all odds, Cemal's force marched across the Sinai in 12 days, losing neither a man nor a beast. They carried light rations of dates, biscuit, and olives, water carefully rationed, marching through the freezing nights and resting by day. British aerial surveillance initially failed to detect them – early aircraft lacked the range to reach central Sinai.By late January 1915, the British realised the impossible was happening. They withdrew all troops to the western shore of the canal, chained guard dogs on the east bank, and waited. The odds were stacked against the Ottomans – 25,000 attackers against 50,000 dug‑in defenders, backed by warships, armoured trains, and the canal itself. But Cemal had achieved surprise. What happened next would shape the course of the war in the Middle East.Drawing on Eugene Rogan's *The Fall of the Ottomans*, this episode explores the political context of the Ottoman decision to enter the war, the challenges of mobilising a multi‑ethnic army, the incredible logistics of the Sinai crossing, and the early use of aerial reconnaissance in desert warfare.**Topics covered:**- The Ottoman Empire's strategic dilemma in 1914- The alliance with Germany and the promise of jihad- The importance of the Suez Canal to the British war effort- Cemal Pasha and his public proclamation- The composition of the Ottoman expeditionary force- Sharif Hussein's reluctant cooperation- The 12‑day march across the Sinai- British aerial reconnaissance and its limitations- The defence of the canal: warships, armoured trains, and guard dogs- The moment of surprise before the attack---*If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.*Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Be optimistic about the boom, but don't buy the stock.” — Liaquat Ahamed on the AI bubble Yesterday, Alexander Starritt argued that the 2008 financial crash ruined the lives of his generation. But compared with the great crash of 1873, 2008 looks like a tremor. The Pulitzer Prize-winning economic historian Liaquat Ahamed has a new book out today, 1873, which presents this 19th century economic crash as the first truly global financial crisis. In 1870, three globalising infrastructure projects were completed in quick succession: the US transcontinental railroad, the Suez Canal, and the Trans-India railroad linking Bombay to Calcutta. Into this newly integrated global economy, the Franco-Prussian War injected a trillion-dollar-equivalent indemnity that the Rothschilds helped France raise — and the resulting dramatic capital flows produced three simultaneous bubbles in Berlin, Vienna, and New York. A French journalist named Jules Verne worked out that for the first time, you could circumnavigate the globe in less than eighty days. Around the world in one global economic crisis. The lesson for posterity, Ahamed warns, is that the authorities made a catastrophic error by doubling down on the gold standard, producing decades of deflation that triggered an anti-semitic and anti-globalist populism, and ultimately led to the Great Depression of the 1930s. So what does that tell us about today's AI boom, which is about to be rocketed by three trillion-dollar IPOs? Be optimistic about the boom, the wise Ahamed says. But don't buy the stock. Five Takeaways •       Jules Verne and the First Global Economy: In 1870, three iconic infrastructure projects were completed: the US transcontinental railroad, the Suez Canal, and the Trans-India railroad linking Bombay to Calcutta. A French newspaper noted that for the first time, a traveller could circle the globe in less than eighty days. Jules Verne read the article and found his next novel. The point for Ahamed: this moment marked the creation of a genuinely integrated global economy for the first time in history. And with global integration came the first global financial crisis. The boom of the 1850s and 1860s was not irrational. It reflected real economic growth. The crash came from what happened next. •       The Trillion-Dollar Indemnity and Three Simultaneous Bubbles: Under the peace treaty ending the Franco-Prussian War, France was required to pay Germany an indemnity worth the equivalent of $1.2 trillion in today's money. With the help of the Rothschilds, France raised this sum in six months. The resulting capital injection caused the Berlin and Vienna equity markets to rise 200–300 percent. Simultaneously, European capital fleeing the war flowed into US railroad construction, inflating that bubble further. A third bubble formed in foreign borrowing on the London capital markets, as money chased yield in countries that should never have been given credit. Three bubbles, one crash. •       The Wrong Lesson from 1873: Gold Standard Orthodoxy: When the crash came, the authorities made a catastrophic error: they concluded that the gold standard had worked because the 1850s and 1860s boom had happened under it. They failed to see that the crash itself was partly produced by the gold standard's rigidities. The resulting decade of deflation crushed farmers, debtors, and ordinary people across Europe and America, fuelling anti-globalist populism. The same orthodoxy — applied by Montagu Norman and others in the 1920s — helped cause the Great Depression. We always fight the last war. •       The Rothschilds: Scapegoated Despite Being Innocent: The Rothschilds were at the centre of the 1873 boom as the world's leading bond underwriters. Presciently, they kept a low profile during the most speculative phase of the bubble. When the crash came, they were viciously scapegoated — part of the wave of antisemitism that swept Europe in the wake of the depression. Ahamed's irony: the Rothschilds were blamed for a crisis they had been cautious enough to partially avoid. The story of 1873 is, among other things, a story of how financial panic turns into political persecution. •       The AI Boom: Be Optimistic, Don't Buy the Stock: Andrew's final question: should we buy Anthropic and OpenAI when they go public? Ahamed's answer, via the lesson of every bubble from 1873 to 1929 to the dot-com era: bull markets are usually driven by real fundamentals — until the last phase, when they become untethered. The 1920s were rational until 1927; the dot-com era was rational until 1997. The dilemma: the last irrational phase may still produce 40 percent gains. Ahamed's advice: be optimistic about the AI boom. It reflects real productivity growth. But don't buy the stock. About the Guest Liaquat Ahamed is a financial historian and investment manager. He graduated with degrees in economics from Cambridge and Harvard, worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and had a twenty-five-year career as a professional investment manager based in London and New York before turning to writing. He is the author of 1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World (Penguin Press, June 2, 2026) and Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World (winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Gold Medal, and the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year). He lives in Washington, D.C. References: •       1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World by Liaquat Ahamed (Penguin Press, June 2, 2026). •       Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (Penguin Press, 2009) — the Pulitzer Prize-winning predecessor, referenced throughout. •       Episode 2928: Alexander Starritt on Drayton and Mackenzie — directly referenced at the opening; the 2008 companion. •       James Surowiecki, “Why Stocks Keep Going Up,” The Atlantic — referenced in the final exchange. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstack

A stalemated war. Fractured alliances. A rival waiting in the wings. It feels to me that we're having an “end of the American empire” moment. My guest this week, Ray Dalio, is an unlikely prophet of doom — the billionaire Bridgewater investor conquered Wall Street by studying history and mastering global trends. He foresaw the 2008 financial crisis,and these days he's warning that the U.S. is repeating the patterns that ended great empires of the past. 0:00 - Intro 01:24 - The rise and fall of empires through big cycles 08:35 - Geopolitical tensions: China, Iran and the Suez Canal 14:27 - Fiat currency or gold? 24:19 - America's coming ‘heart attack' 30:37 - Acts of nature, A.I. and technology 43:37 - ‘Could we have a Japanese future?' (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Preview for Later Today: Edmund Fitton-Brown compares the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb maritime choke points. He notes the Red Sea's accessibility via the Suez Canal and the varying capabilities of regional threats like the Houthis. (2)1869 SUEZ CANAL

**Binge to the entire series ad-free by joining the Empire Club at empirepoduk.com** How did the oil crisis totally transform the wealth of the Gulf states and alter the power balance of the Middle East? Who was Egypt's underrated president, Sadat? How did water cannons destroy Israel's seemingly impenetrable defenses along the Suez Canal in 1973? In Episode 5 of our series on the Arab-Israeli Conflict of 1967-1982, William and Anita discuss the shocking events of the Yom Kippur War and the first time that oil prices were used as a weapon of war. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/EMPIRE. Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com  For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Assistant Producer: Imogen Marriott Editor: James Clayden Social Producer: Charlie Johnson Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices