Podcasts about Turkish

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN ALLIANCE VS. TURKEY Colleague Edmund Fitton-Brown. Fitton-Brownexamines the cooperation between Greece, Cyprus, and Israel as a necessary pushback against Turkish President Erdogan's neo-Ottoman expansionism. He argues Erdogan's aggressive rhetoric regarding Jerusalem and maritime claims threatens regional stability, necessitating a unified defense from these democracies to counter Turkish overreach in the Mediterranean. NUMBER 2

Immigrant entrepreneurs often build businesses to last, and their approach to resilience, hospitality, and value creation offers powerful lessons for any small business owner. Show Notes Page: https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/591-neri-sillaman-survival-to-sustainable/ In this episode, Henry Lopez talks with Neri Karra Sillaman, author of Pioneers: Eight Principles of Business Longevity from Immigrant Entrepreneurs, about what immigrant entrepreneurs can teach us about building businesses that endure. Neri shares her remarkable journey from growing up in a Turkish minority family in communist Bulgaria, being forced to flee as refugees, and helping her family rebuild their lives and livelihoods in Turkey. She explains how those early experiences shaped her view of entrepreneurship, not as a career choice, but as a means of survival that later evolved into a powerful business philosophy. Drawing from her family's business experience and her formal business education, Neri discusses several of the core principles from her book, including resilience, authentic hospitality, cultural bridge-building, and a focus on long-term value rather than short-term profit. She explains how immigrant entrepreneurs often leverage past hardship, adaptability, and deep human connection to create businesses that last across generations. Whether you are an immigrant entrepreneur or a small business owner looking to build something sustainable, this conversation offers practical insights on trust, perseverance, and designing a business for longevity. This episode is hosted by Henry Lopez. The How of Business podcast focuses on helping you start, run, grow and exit your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, small business coaching, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com

In this episode of The Westminster Podcast, Nate Shannon speaks from Istanbul with Göksel Erdoğdu, the first—and so far only—graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary from Turkey. Göksel shares his remarkable personal story as a second-generation Christian in a predominantly Muslim context, recounting how the gospel first came to his family amid social pressure, cultural shame, and political instability. From his upbringing in the Turkish church to his theological formation at Westminster, Göksel reflects on God's faithfulness in sustaining both faith and witness across generations. The conversation explores the present state of the church in Turkey, including the legal challenges facing Protestant congregations, the need for sound theological resources, and the growing hunger among younger believers for serious engagement with Scripture. Göksel also describes his current ministry work as a pastor, publisher, and translator, and explains how Westminster's emphasis on biblical foundations, apologetics, and cultural engagement has shaped his approach to ministry in a Muslim context. The episode concludes with a call to prayer and partnership, inviting listeners to consider how God may be at work in Turkey—and how the global church can faithfully support that work. If you enjoy this episode, you can access tons of content just like this at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wm.wts.edu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you would like to join us in our mission to train specialists in the bible to proclaim the whole counsel of God for Christ and his global church, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wts.edu/donate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thanks for listening!

Today's story: Labubu is a mischievous, rabbit-eared character created by illustrator Kasing Lung. Chinese toymaker Pop Mart has turned Labubu into a global toy craze, using gamified sales tactics and regularly releasing new collectible sets. Fans can't get enough. They film themselves opening the famous “blind boxes,” take photos with their Labubus, and bid up the value of their favorites online. Transcript & Exercises: https://plainenglish.com/827Get the full story and learning resources: https://plainenglish.com/827--Plain English helps you improve your English:Learn about the world and improve your EnglishClear, natural English at a speed you can understandNew stories every weekLearn even more at PlainEnglish.comMentioned in this episode:Hard words? No problemNever be confused by difficult words in Plain English again! See translations of the hardest words and phrases from English to your language. Each episode transcript includes built-in translations into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Turkish. Sign up for a free 14-day trial at PlainEnglish.com

We live in transitional times. "The old is dead and the new cannot be born—this is the time of monsters," Antonio Gramsci famously wrote. But today, as the West declines and the East rises, these may equally be times for middle powers like Turkey. That, at least, is the view from Istanbul of the Turkish commentator Soli Özel, who sees an opportunity for regional powers to become more influential players in the international system. Expect more international empowerment of states like Turkey, Brazil, and India in 2026, Özel suggests. Today's emerging multipolar world is, indeed, not just a time for monsters, but also for middle-ranked powers.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Double Tap Episode 442 This episode of Double Tap is brought to you by: C&G Holsters, Die Free Co., Night Fision, Blue Alpha, Second Call Defense, and Swampfox Optics   Welcome to Double Tap, episode 442! Your hosts tonight are Jeremy Pozderac, Aaron Krieger, Nick Lynch, and me Shawn Herrin, welcome to the show! Text Dear WLS or Reviews +1 743 500 2171 - Dear WLS Dependable Don - So what holsters do you run with your fanny pack? I got the qilo prison wallet which is Velcro backed so crossbreed has holsters that work but not crazy about it. Switch to a blapha or are Velcro backed holsters acceptable? Adam W - I am looking for a red dot that can stand up to a .357 magnum Chippa Rhino. I have put 2 other dots on it I had laying around and now I just want one I don't have worry about. I was thinking the Judge XL from Gideon. Would this be a good choice? The use case for this gun is local matches and range toy. Also, I am looking for a holster for this setup. The Chippa Rhino is the 60ds model with the pic rail in front of the cylinder. Your help is much appreciated. Scanks Adam Luis G - I am in Florida and do a lot of lake bank fishing. What would be a good caliber to carry and what type of rounds to use against alligators? Should I run a couple of snake shot rounds first for moccasins then the gator rounds? Jack B - Matt diniman just did a kickstarter campaign where 2 of the reward tiers included getting killed in a future DCC book. If you were get this prize for another cast member, which option would you choose and how would they die? Option, They are a crawler who gets killed. Option 2, They are a monster or NPC that gets killed by Donut and T-bagged by mongo. Ny(e)gerski - "This one is mostly for Mr. Saggins. Scroto, what are you signed up to hunt this year? I feel like we haven't had any 47 minute long hunting stories in a while and are due for one or 2. P.S.....are you sure you and Kevin from Q aren't kindred spirits?.....I can't tell who tells longer hunting stories... Pee Pee S.....i had something for here, but forgot....and now got you to say pee pee...." Eli K - I am building a new house soon. It will have a vault room in the basement. The floor, ceiling, and all four walls will be poured concrete. Other than that, I'm leaving it unfinished after framing and insulation, and I will take it form there. It will have HVAC and electrical available. What else should I do? Seems like a good idea to put a drain in. I'm tentatively planning to do Lockdown walls. Anything other suggestions? Jerry F - Do either of you guys have any idea where i can find Accurate Nitro 100NF for sale? I've been checking all of the reputable dealers online (Brownells, Midway usa, ammoseek etc) and I haven't been able to find any 4 or 8lb bottles all summer. I shoot trap every weekend with my dad and our local league just started and I commonly go through a hundred plus rounds each weekend. I believe accurate is a division of Hodgdens. Any help would be greatly appreciated. And in your opinions where is all the powder going? Love the show, thank you. Jeremy is not a cunt, he just doesn't have any patience for stupidity. John J - I've recently realized I'm a fan of both Jeremy and Aaron. Which probably means I'm either deeply complex, or there's something wrong with me. Thoughts? Also, would love to see some more Dangerous Freedom videos. I am looking forward to the red dot - magnifier comparison. One of my AR's has a CompM5 with a 3x magnifier. I want to love it for what the combo cost, but I find myself removing the magnifier more often than not. Thanks for the show.   The winner of this week's swag pack is John J! To win your own, go to welikeshooting.com/dashboard and submit a question!   Gun Industry News O/LINK Modular Trauma Panel (MTP) Analysis: A low-profile, "cyberpunk" inspired attachment designed by Evan Ohl to extend MOLLE webbing below mounted pouches for medical gear. Made from rigid yet lightweight 8-layer Tegris®, it attaches hardware-free to 4 columns of webbing and includes shock cord for securing items. Price / Availability: $25.00 / Available now at evanohl.com (Made to order, ~2 week lead time). Zaffiri Precision to Unveil Their First Complete Pistols at SHOT 2026 Analysis: Zaffiri Precision is shifting focus from à la carte parts to pre-configured complete uppers and will debut their first three complete pistols. The new lineup features five tiers (ZULU, ECHO, X-RAY, VECTOR, and IBS), each available in standard or "Elite" configurations with upgrades like threaded barrels and tritium night sights. Price / Availability: Pricing not listed / Unveiling at SHOT Show 2026; product shift begins January 2026. Weatherby Model 307 Cuts Barrel to 16 Inches for 7mm Backcountry Analysis: Weatherby introduces the Model 307 Alpine MDT SB, a compact rifle optimized for suppressor use and backcountry hunting. It features a 16-inch barrel specifically paired with Federal Premium's 7mm Backcountry ammunition to maintain performance in a short package. Built on the Model 307 action (Remington 700 footprint compatible), it sits in an MDT HNT26 carbon fiber chassis with a folding stock, reducing overall length by over 9 inches for transport. Price / Availability: $3,249 MSRP / Released late Dec 2025; available now. Turkish MMT Machine Gun Completes NATO Qualification Tests Analysis: The MKE MMT (Milli Makineli Tüfek) is a Turkish 7.62x51mm machine gun that has passed NATO qualification. Based on the Soviet PKM design (two-stage feed, right-side feed), it features modern updates like a detachable trigger mechanism, receiver cover Picatinny rail, and a new brass deflector. Weighing only 8 kg (17.6 lbs), it is lighter than the M240 and HK421. Price / Availability: No civilian price listed / Cleared for serial production as of Dec 2025; likely for Turkish military and potential export to African or former Warsaw Pact nations. Henry Honors America's 250th With Ultra-Limited Spirit of ‘76 Rifle Analysis: A highly exclusive collector's edition celebrating the U.S. Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary). Built on the "New Original Henry" platform (1860 patent reproduction) in .44-40 WCF. Features an engraved nickel-plated brass receiver with 24-karat gold accents depicting Revolutionary War imagery (Independence Hall, George Washington's sword, early flags). Includes a polished blued octagon barrel, hand-selected rosewood stock, and crescent buttplate. Price / Availability: $4,115 MSRP / Limited to 250 units; sold factory-direct. Released Dec 2025. Less Length, Same Strength: Samson Unveils The SAS-K Stock Analysis: A compact variant of the Samson Adjustable Stock (SAS) system, the SAS-K reduces the length of pull (LOP) by one inch (9"-10") compared to the standard model while maintaining the same durability and features. It includes a side-folding mechanism, 5-position adjustable LOP, 4-position adjustable cheek riser, and ambidextrous QD sling points. Designed for body armor users or confined spaces. Price / Availability: $315.65 / Available now. Badger Ordnance Forged Condition One Charging Handle (C1CH) Analysis: The C1CH differentiates itself by being machined from forgings rather than billet or extrusion for superior strength. It features a raised gas fence for gas mitigation (ideal for suppressed shooting), ergonomic ambidextrous latches with vertical serrations, and snag-free rounded edges. The width is streamlined at 2.42 inches, and it weighs 1.1 oz. Price / Availability: $100.00 / Available now in 5.56 (Black/Tan); 7.62 and MCX versions coming in 2026. CrossBreed Holsters Introduces The LightGuard Holster Analysis: The LightGuard is a new IWB holster built on CrossBreed's MultiFlex platform, specifically designed for pistols with weapon-mounted lights. It features a hybrid construction with a replaceable light-specific Kydex lower shell (allowing light upgrades without replacing the whole holster) and an injection-molded adjustable upper shell for firearm retention. It supports multiple mounting clips and carry positions (appendix, strong-side, cross-draw). Price / Availability: $44.95 (Base Price) / Available now directly from CrossBreed. New Product Highlight: Build A Custom Rifle Case With Lynx Defense Analysis: Lynx Defense now offers fully customizable rifle cases made in the USA (North Carolina) using 1,000D Cordura. Users can mix and match colors for the main body (solids, camo, splatter), exterior pocket, zippers, and logo. Available in four sizes: Byte (21" for PDWs), Bureau (32" for SBRs), Bronx (36" for 16" carbines), and Gigabyte (42" for long rifles). Price / Availability: $319.99 - $644.99 depending on size / Available now (made to order). Pistollo 77° Secures U.S. Distributor - Limited Launch Edition Planned Analysis: The Pistollo 77° semi-automatic pistol is coming to the U.S. civilian market via exclusive distributor Deluxe Imports (Boerne, Texas). The first release will be a "Launch Edition" designed for collectors with unique elements. To comply with U.S. regulations and market needs, the U.S. version features a rear Picatinny rail for braces, an upper receiver rail for optics, and a 1/2×28 threaded muzzle. A proprietary stabilizing brace is also in development. Price / Availability: Pricing not listed / Launch planned for Q2 2026; waitlist currently exceeds 2,000 customers.   Before we let you go - Join Gun Owners of America   Tell your friends about the show and get backstage access by joining the Gun Cult at theguncult.com.   No matter how tough your battle is today, we want you here fight with us tomorrow. Don't struggle in silence, you can contact the suicide prevention line by dialing 988 from your phone.

The Critical Corner - Recorded on: December 27, 2025In this episode, guest host Bedros Afeyan speaks with documentary filmmaker Diana Mkrtchyan about her feature documentary *Ojakh: On the Other Side of Silence*. The conversation traces the film's nine-year development, its origins in Turkish photographer Erhan Arik's *Horovel* project, and the urgent effort to document the last living Armenian Genocide survivors in border villages. The discussion also addresses artistic responsibility, dignity in testimony, cultural memory, censorship, and the continuity between Genocide-era trauma and the recent destruction of Artsakh.TopicsDiana Mkrtchyan's personal and artistic journeyThe origins of *Ojakh* in Erhan Arik's photographic workFilming the final testimonies of Armenian Genocide survivorsEthical and technical challenges of documenting traumaThe erasure of *Ojakh* from official cultural promotion in ArmeniaCinema as historical record and moral witnessMkrtchyan's Artsakh footage during the blockadeGuestDiana MkrtchyanGuest HostsBedros AfeyanEpisode 499 | Recorded: December 27, 2025https://podcasts.groong.org/499Subscribe and follow us everywhere you are: linktr.ee/groong

Your daily news in under three minutes. At Al Jazeera Podcasts, we want to hear from you, our listeners. So, please head to https://www.aljazeera.com/survey and tell us your thoughts about this show and other Al Jazeera podcasts. It only takes a few minutes! Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Your daily news in under three minutes.

While Democracy Works is on winter break, we're bringing you an episode from our colleagues at The Context, a podcast from the Charles F. Kettering Foundation and a fellow member of The Democracy Group podcast network. Host Alex Lovit looks back at the advice from the show's guests this year about how everyday people can get involved in fighting authoritarianism and encouraging citizen engagement. You'll hear from:Ece Temelkuran, Turkish writer and author of  How To Lose a Country, the Seven Steps From Democracy to FascismDaniel Hunter, educator with Freedom Trainers and director of Choose Democracy,Deva Woodly, professor of political science at Brown University and nonresident fellow at KetteringMaria Stephan, co-lead and chief organizer at Horizons ProjectSharon L. Davies, president and CEO of the Charles F. Kettering FoundationSteven Levitsky, professor of government at Harvard and co-author of How Democracies DieJohn C. Yang,  president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing JusticeWe hope this episode leaves you feeling inspired about what you can do to strengthen democracy in 2026 and beyond. Thank you to the team at The Context for sharing it with us! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Revisit this classic lesson on cognitive switching from the Plain English archives: What is cognitive switching? It's when you switch your attention from one task, or one type of task, to another. Cognitive switching could be robbing you of up to 40 percent of your daily productivity, and it may be increasing your potential to make mistakes.Get the full story and learning resources: https://plainenglish.com/lessons/cognitive-switching--Plain English helps you improve your English:Learn about the world and improve your EnglishClear, natural English at a speed you can understandNew stories every weekLearn even more at PlainEnglish.comMentioned in this episode:Hard words? No problemNever be confused by difficult words in Plain English again! See translations of the hardest words and phrases from English to your language. Each episode transcript includes built-in translations into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Turkish. Sign up for a free 14-day trial at PlainEnglish.com

BLUE CAST Ep 520 - BLUE CAST Ep 520 - Mark Edridge / BluesignThis BLUE CAST Episode, Tuncay Kilickan talks with Mark Edridge, Product Manager at BluesignAbout Mark EdridgeMark's work at Bluesign, is informed by a career working for some of the world's most prestigious and valuable consumer brands; he offers a unique perspective on the challenges businesses face in meeting new environmental regulations around textiles. Since 2022 he has brought to Bluesign technologies this understanding of the dilemma clients face when attempting to balance their commercial and brand needs with customer demands and ethical choices in the midst of a changing regulatory environment.Now in its 25th year, Bluesign is dedicated to assisting its partners in reducing the harmful impacts of textile production on people and the planetTuncay Kilickan - Highly respected Industry figure, having cut his teeth at Turkish giant ISKO spanning 20 years. Most recently Tuncay was part of R&D team of ISKO. Tuncay has a number of patents under his name. No doubt most of us have worn fabrics developed by him and his team. Tuncay takes on the Head of Global Business Development - Denim at LENZING.BLUE CAST by TENCEL™ / CARVED IN BLUE®   A podcast series created Lenzing's TENCEL™ Denim team. Each month, they will host an in-depth talk with a special guest working in the industry or on the fringes of the denim community. Listen for discussions on sustainability, career trajectories, personal denim memories and more.Find us on Instagram, Linkedin, X, and Facebook @carvedinblue.And get in touch: denim@lenzing.com

Advent is a time of great anticipation as we await the Christ-child entering our world at Christmas. This year, through the imagination of C.S. Lewis and his book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, join us on Sunday mornings as we uncover the story of the birth of Christ in a new way. Among all the Pevensie children, Edmund is unique. He is duped by the White Witch, enslaved by her promises and judicious giftings of Turkish delight. He struggles to know what is true. He turns on his siblings and endangers all of Narnia. And then he is found, redeemed, and returned to service as a soon-to-be-King of Narnia. This week, Evan Gratz discusses how at this time of year, when we set aside what we have been and work to set new patterns and habits for the new year, Edmund's story might inspire all of us to seek forgiveness, redemption, and new work as a part of Christ's kingdom. Passage: Romans 13:8–14 We have three worship opportunities for you to experience: 9:00 a.m. - Sanctuary Service 9:30 a.m. - Online Service 10:30 a.m. - Chapel Service  Please consider joining us for one of these services.  To view past worship services along with other digital content, go to our Youtube Channel @PointLomaChurchOnline.  To get involved in what God is doing within our community, please visit our website at www.pointlomachurch.org. For event happenings: http://pointlomachurch.org/connect/events/ To register for any event: http://pointlomachurch.org/register If you would like to give to the ministry: http://pointlomachurch.org/give/ or through our Venmo account: @Point-Loma-Church

fWotD Episode 3159: Moltke-class battlecruiser Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Sunday, 28 December 2025, is Moltke-class battlecruiser.The Moltke class was a class of two "all-big-gun" battlecruisers of the German Imperial Navy built between 1909–1911. Named SMS Moltke and SMS Goeben, they were similar to the previous battlecruiser Von der Tann, but the newer design featured several incremental improvements. The Moltkes were slightly larger, faster, and better armored, and had an additional pair of 28 cm (11 in) guns.Both ships served during World War I. Moltke participated in several major battles with the rest of the High Seas Fleet, including the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland in the North Sea, and the Battle of the Gulf of Riga and Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea. At the end of the war, Moltke was interned with the majority of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow while the ships' fate was being discussed during peace treaty negotiations. The ships were scuttled on 21 June 1919 to prevent their seizure by the Allies.Goeben was stationed in the Mediterranean at the start of the war; she escaped from pursuing Royal Navy ships to Constantinople. The ship, along with the light cruiser Breslau, was transferred to the Ottoman Navy soon after arrival. Strategically, Goeben played a very important role: she helped bring the Ottoman Empire into the war as a member of the Central Powers, and by acting as a fleet in being the ship prevented Anglo-French attempts to force the Bosporus, and similarly stymied a possible advance by the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Goeben was retained by the new Turkish government after the war. Only slightly modified from her original configuration, the ship remained on active service with the Turkish Navy until being decommissioned on 20 December 1950; she was stricken from the Navy register on 14 November 1954. The ship was unsuccessfully offered for sale to the West German government in 1963. Without a group willing to preserve her as a museum, the ship was sold to M. K. E. Seyman in 1971 for scrapping. She was towed to the breakers on 7 June 1973, and the work was completed in February 1976.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:37 UTC on Sunday, 28 December 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Moltke-class battlecruiser on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Gregory.

The legendary Ryan from FortNine drops in to go deep into his most ambitious project yet: a feature-length documentary chronicling a record-breaking, 16-day motorcycle trip around the entire world. With Zack Courts still out on the mend, Spurgeon Dunbar is joined by CTXP producer Spenser Robert to ask Ryan about his chaotic time in India, the freezing "Nullarbor" of Australia, the logistical miracles worked by Ducati fixers at the Turkish border, and what it's really like to live on a bike for 24+ hours at a time. Check out more from RevZilla: Common Tread: News, opinions, and written reviews RevZillaTV: Bike reviews, How-To's, and product videos

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AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on the arrest of a suspected Islamic State member in Turkey.

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Today on America in the Morning Christmas In America America celebrated Christmas Day, which included President Trump taking calls from kids on Christmas Eve, to kids across the nation finding gifts under the tree.  Around the world, it was the first Christmas for Pope Leo as Pontiff.   Severe California Weather Deaths Severe thunderstorms moved into California on Christmas Day, with areas north of San Francisco dealing with 70 mile per hour winds, and around Los Angeles, evacuations due to mudslides that buried some cars up to their windshields.  Lisa Dwyer reports that some areas received as much as 10 inches of rain, with rockslides, mudslides, and overflowing rivers washing out roads as California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency.   US Attacks ISIS In Nigeria President Donald Trump announced he authorized the launch of a “powerful and deadly strike” against alleged-Islamic State forces in Nigeria, after he spent weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.    We Have A Winner There's one lucky person in the United States who decided to purchase a Powerball ticket at a Murphy USA gas station in the small town of Cabot, Arkansas, located just off Interstate 57 with population of 23 thousand 575.  Correspondent Donna Warder reports someone who went to that gas station in that town known for its strawberries is holding the only winning ticket in the Powerball $1 point 8 billion dollar jackpot.   Charity Concerns ‘Tis the season for giving gifts, but this year, charity seems to be both starting and ending at home.  Correspondent Julie Walker reports most US adults aren't making year-end charitable contributions, according to a new poll.   Missing Lobsters There were a number of disappointed people around Illinois and Minnesota who were planning on a lobster dinner for the holidays.  As Katie Clark reports, the FBI is looking into how a truckload of lobsters was hijacked on their way to the Midwest.     US Attacks ISIS In Nigeria The US has launched military strikes against alleged-ISIS positions in Nigeria, in an assault that President Trump called a reaction to ongoing attacks and murders by terrorists against the Christians.   Christmas Day Negotiations Ukrainian and US negotiators spent Christmas Day on the phone talking to end the ongoing war launched by Russia against Ukraine.  As John Stolnis reports from Washington, the talks were heralded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “very good,” but comes as Russia turned down a holiday truce offer and fighting continued in Eastern Ukraine.  A Millionaire's Tax It's a state that currently doesn't have one, and for nearly a century, voters in the state of Washington have rejected establishing an income tax.  Now, with Washington State facing a mammoth projected $4 point 3 billion dollar deficit, the governor wants to try again – but only to tax people with seven-figure incomes.  Details on a proposed millionaire's tax from correspondent Rich Johnson in Seattle.   Alito's Response In an unusual move, Justice Samuel Alito criticized the Supreme Court's majority in a sharp dissent after the high court decided 6–3 to temporarily block President Trump from deploying the National Guard in Chicago.   Turkey Terror Attack Thwarted Overseas, the government in Turkey announced it has detained dozens of suspects allegedly planning attacks on non-Muslims during holiday events.  Correspondent Mike Hempen reports the Turkish government said the attacks were imminent and took immediate action.   Guardsmen Return The remains of two Iowa National Guard members killed in an attack in the Syrian desert were welcomed back to Des Moines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy this episode from the Plain English archives (with a recent update for 2025): The San José, a Spanish treasure ship carrying gold, silver, and valuable jewelry, sank off the coast of Colombia in 1708. The shipwreck, and its treasure, have been untouched for over 300 years. Now, the government of Colombia is working to bring the treasure to the surface. But who is its rightful owner?Get the full story and learning resources: https://plainenglish.com/lessons/san-jose-treasure/ --Plain English helps you improve your English:Learn about the world and improve your EnglishClear, natural English at a speed you can understandNew stories every weekLearn even more at PlainEnglish.comMentioned in this episode:Hard words? No problemNever be confused by difficult words in Plain English again! See translations of the hardest words and phrases from English to your language. Each episode transcript includes built-in translations into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Turkish. Sign up for a free 14-day trial at PlainEnglish.com

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The Australian state of New South Wales has passed gun control laws ten days after the Hanukkah attack in which 15 people were killed. There are also strict limits on how many firearms people can have and the police will have more powers to ban demonstrations. Also: four Palestine Action prisoners in Britain continue a prolonged hunger strike; Libya's army chief, General Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, is killed in a plane crash shortly after take-off from the Turkish capital of Ankara; in Egypt, specialists are restoring a nearly 4,000 year old ceremonial boat from the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu; and a theatre company in Rome trains actors with psychiatric problems and learning disabilities to perform classic Italian plays.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.ukImage credit: Dean Lewins EPA Shutterstock

PREVIEW HEZBOLLAH REARMAMENT FUNDED BY IRAN AND SMUGGLING TUNNELS Colleague Jonathan Schanzer. Jonathan Schanzer, from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, details Hezbollah'srearmament, funded primarily by Iran with some Turkish and Qatari involvement. He highlights the discovery of massive smuggling tunnels in Syria and Lebanon, illustrating the staggering financial investment made to arm the region for conflict against Israe

Allen, Joel, Rosemary, and Yolanda break down the TPI Composites bankruptcy fallout. Vestas is acquiring TPI’s Mexico and India operations while a UAE company picks up the Turkish factories. That leaves GE in a tough spot with no clear path to blade manufacturing. Plus the crew discusses blade scarcity, FSA availability floors, and whether a new blade manufacturer could emerge. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall. I’ve got Yolanda Padron and Joel Saxum in Texas. And Rosemary Barnes is back from her long Vacation in Australia and TPI. Composites is big in the news this week, everybody, because they’re in bankruptcy hearings and they are selling off parts of the business. Vestas is, at least according to News Reports positioned to acquire. A couple of the LLCs down in Mexico. So there’s uh, two of them, TPI in Mexico, five LLC, and TPI in Mexico, six LLC. There are other LLCs, of course involved with this down in Mexico. So they’re buying, not sure exactly what the assets are, but probably a couple of the factories in which their blades were being manufactured in. Uh, this. Is occurring because Vestas stepped in. They were trying to have an auction and Vestas stepped forward and just ended up buying these two LLCs. [00:01:00] Other things that are happening here, Joel, is that, uh, TPI evidently sold their Turkish division. Do you recall to who they sold? That, uh, part of the Joel Saxum: business too, two companies involved in that, that were TPI Turkey, uh, and that was bought by a company called XCS composites. Uh, and they are out of the United Arab Emirates, so I believe they’re either going to be Abu Dhabi or Dubai based. Uh, but they took over the tube wind blade manufacturing plants in Isme, uh, also a field service and inspection repair business. And around 2,700 employees, uh, from the Turkish operation. So that happened just, just after, I mean, it was a couple weeks after the bankruptcy claim, uh, went through here in August, uh, in the States. So it went August bankruptcy for TPI, September, all the Turkish operations were bought and now we’ve got Vestas swooping in and uh, taking a bunch of the Mexican operations. Allen Hall: Right. And [00:02:00] Vestas is also taking TPI composites India. Which is a part of the business that is not in bankruptcy, uh, that’s a, a separate business, a separate, basically LLC incorporation Over in India, the Vestus is going to acquire, so they’re gonna acquire three separate things in this transaction. The question everybody’s asking today after seeing this Vestus move is, what is GE doing? Because, uh, GE Renova has a lot of blades manufactured by TPI down in Mexico. No word on that. And you would think if, if TPI is auctioning off assets that GE renova would be at the front of the line, but that’s not what we’re hearing on the ground. Joel Saxum: Yeah, I mean it’s, the interesting part of this thing is for Vestas, TPI was about 35% of their blade capacity for manufacturing in 2024. If their 30, if, if Vestas was 35%, then GE had to be 50%. There [00:03:00] demand 60. So Vesta is making a really smart move here by basically saying, uh, we’ve gotta lock down our supply chain for blades. We gotta do something. So we need to do this. GE is gonna be the odd man out because, I mean, I think it would be a, a cold day in Denmark if Vestas was gonna manufacture blades for ge. Allen Hall: Will the sale price that Vest has paid for this asset show up in the bankruptcy? Hearings or disclosures? I think that it would, I haven’t seen it yet, but eventually it’ll, it must show up, right? All, all the bankruptcy hearings and transactions are, they have an overseer essentially, what happens to, so TPI can’t purchase or sell anything without an, um, getting approved by the courts, so that’ll eventually be disclosed. Uh, the Turkish sale will be, I would assume, would be disclosed. Also really curious to see what the asset value. Was for those factories. Joel Saxum: So the Turkish sale is actually public knowledge right now, and [00:04:00] that is, lemme get the number here to make sure I get it right. 92.9 million Euros. Uh, but of, of course TPI laden with a bunch of non-convertible and convertible debt. So a ton of that money went right down to debt. Uh, but to be able to purchase that. They had to assu, uh, XCS composites in Turkey, had to assume debt as is, uh, under the bankruptcy kind of proceedings. So I would assume that Vestas is gonna have to do the same thing, is assume the debt as is to take these assets over and, uh, and assets. We don’t know what it is yet. We don’t know if it’s employees, if it’s operations, if it’s ip, if it’s just factories. We don’t know what’s all involved in it. Um, but like you said, because. TPI being a publicly traded company in the United States, they have to file all this stuff with SEC. Allen Hall: Well, they’ll, they’re be delisted off of. Was it, they were Joel Saxum: in Nasdaq? Is that where they were listed? The India stuff that could be private. You may ne we may not ever hear about what happened. Valuation there. Allen Hall: Okay, so what is the, the [00:05:00] future then for wind blade production? ’cause TPI was doing a substantial part of it for the world. I mean, outside of China, it’s TPI. And LM a little bit, right? LM didn’t have the capacity, I don’t think TPI that TPI does or did. It puts Joel Saxum: specifically GE in a tight spot, right? Because GEs, most of their blades were if it was built to spec or built to print. Built to spec was designed, uh, by LM and built by lm. But now LM as we have seen in the past months year, has basically relinquished themselves of all of their good engineering, uh, and ability to iterate going forward. So that’s kind of like dwindling to an end. TPI also a big side of who makes blades for ge if Vestas is gonna own the majority of their capacity, Vestas isn’t gonna make blades for ge. So GEs going to be looking at what can we, what can we still build with lm? And then you have the kind of the, the odd ducks there. You have the Aris, [00:06:00] you have the MFG, um, I mean Sonoma is out there. This XCS factory is there still in Turkey. Um, you may see some new players pop up. Uh, I don’t know. Um, we’ll see. I mean, uh, Rosemary, what’s, what’s your take? Uh, you guys are starting to really ramp up down in Australia right now and are gonna be in the need of blades in general with this kind of shakeup. Rosemary Barnes: What do we say? My main concern is. Around the service of the blades that we’ve already got. Um, and when I talk to people that I know at LM or XLM, my understanding is that those parts of the organization are still mostly intact. So I actually don’t expect any big changes there. Not to say that the status quo. Good enough. It’s not like, like every single OEM whose, um, FSAs that I work with, uh, support is never good enough. But, um, [00:07:00] it shouldn’t get any worse anyway. And then for upcoming projects, yeah, I, I don’t know. I mean, I guess it’s gonna be on a case by case basis. Uh, I mean, it always was when you got a new, a new project, you need a whole bunch of blades. It was always a matter of figuring out which factory they were going to come from and if they had capacity. It’ll be the same. It’s just that then instead of, you know, half a dozen factories to choose from, there’s like, what, like one or two. So, um, yeah, I, that’s, that’s my expectation of what’s gonna happen. I presumably ge aren’t selling turbines that they have no capability to make blades for. Um, so I, I guess they’re just gonna have a lot less sales. That’s the only real way I can make it work. Allen Hall: GE has never run a Blade factory by themselves. They’ve always had LM or somebody do it, uh, down in Brazil or TPI in Mexico or wherever. Uh, are we thinking that GE Renova is not gonna run a Blade Factory? Is that the thought, or, or is [00:08:00] that’s not in the cards either. Rosemary Barnes: I don’t think it’s that easy to just, just start running a Blade Factory. I mean, I know that GE had blade design capabilities. I used to design the blades that TPI would make. So, um, that part of it. Sure. Um, they can, they can still do that, but it’s not, yeah, it’s, it’s not like you just buy a Blade factory and like press start on the factory and then the, you know, production line just starts off and blades come out the other end. Like there is a lot of a, a lot of knowhow needed if that was something that they wanted to do. That should have been what they started doing from day one after they bought lm. You know, that was the opportunity that they had to become, you know, a Blade factory owner. They could have started to, you know, make, um, have GE. Take up full ownership of the, the blade factories and how that all worked. But instead, they kept on operating like pretty autonomously without that many [00:09:00] changes at the factory level. Like if they were to now say, oh, you know, hey, it’s, uh, we really want to. Have our own blade factories and make blades. It’s just like, what the hell were you doing for the last, was it like seven years or something? Like you, you could easily have done what? And now you haven’t made it as hard for yourselves as possible. So like I’m not ruling out that that’s what they’re gonna try and do, because like I said, I don’t think it’s been like executed well, but. My God, it’s like even stupid of the whole situation. If that’s where we end up with them now scrambling to build from scratch blade, um, manufacturing capability because there’s Yolanda Padron: already a blade scarcity, right? Like at least in the us I don’t know if you guys are seeing it in, in Australia as well, but there’s a blade scarcity for these GE blades, right? So you’re, they kind of put themselves in an even more tough spot by just now. You, you don’t have access to a lot of these TPI factories written in theory. From what we’re seeing. You mean to get like replacement blades? Yeah. So like for, for issues? Yeah. New [00:10:00] construction issues under FSA, that, Rosemary Barnes: yeah. I mean, we’ve always waited a, a long time for new blades. Like it’s never great. If you need a new blade, you’re always gonna be waiting six months, maybe 12 months. So that’s always been the case, but now we are seeing delays of that. Maybe, maybe sometimes longer, but also it’s like, oh well. We can’t replace, like, for like, you’re gonna be getting a, a different kind of blade. Um, that will work. Um, but you know, so that is fine, except for that, that means you can’t do a single blade replacement anymore. Now, what should have been a single blade replacement might be a full set replacement. And so it does start to really, um, yeah. Mess things up and like, yeah, it’s covered by the FSA, like that’s on them to buy the three blades instead of one, but. It does matter because, you know, if they’re losing money on, um, managing your wind farm, then it, it is gonna lead to worse outcomes for you because, you know, they’re gonna have to skimp and scrape where they [00:11:00] can to, you know, like, um, minimize their losses. So I, I don’t think it’s, it’s, it’s Yolanda Padron: not great. Yeah. And if you’re running a wind farm, you have other stakeholders too, right? It’s not like you’re running it just for yourself. So having all that downtime from towers down for a year. Because you can’t get blades on your site. Like it’s just really not great. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, and I mean, there’s flaws on there. Like they’ve got an availability guarantee. Then, you know, below that they do have to, um, pay for that, those losses. But there’s a flaw on that. So once you know, you, you blast through the floor of your availability, then you know, that is on the owner. Now it’s not on the, um, service provider. So it’s definitely. Something that, yeah, there’s lots of things where you might think, oh, I don’t have to worry about my blades ’cause I’ve got an F, SA, but you know, that’s just one example where, okay, you will, you will start worrying if they, they yeah. Fall through the floor of their availability guarantee. Joel Saxum: Two questions that pop up in my mind from this one, the first one, the first one is [00:12:00] directly from Alan. You and I did a webinar, we do so many of ’em yesterday, and it was about, it was in the nor in North America, ferc, so. They have new icing readiness, uh, reporting you, so, so basically like if you’re on the, if you’re connected to the grid, you’re a wind farm or solar farm and you have an icing event, you need to explain to them why you had an outage, um, and why, what you’re doing about it. Or if you’re not doing something about it, you have to justify it. You have to do all these things to say. Hey, some electrons weren’t flowing into the grid. There’s certain levels. It’s much more complicated than this, but electrons weren’t flowing into the grid because of an issue. We now have to report to FERC about this. So is there a stage when a FERC or uh, some other regulatory agency starts stepping into the wind industry saying like, someone’s gotta secure a supply chain here. ’cause they’re already looking at things when electrons are on the grid. Someone’s got a secure supply chain here so we can ensure that [00:13:00]these electrons are gonna get on the grid. Could, can something like that happen or was, I mean, I mean, of course that’s, to me, in my opinion, that’s a lot of governmental overreach, but could we see that start to come down the line like, Hey, we see from an agency’s perspective, we see some problems here. What are you doing to shore this up? Allen Hall: Oh, totally. Right. I, I think the industry in general has an issue. This is not an OEM specific problem. At the minute, if this is a industry-wide problem, there seems to be more dispersed. Manufacturers are gonna be popping up. And when we were in Scotland, uh, we learned a lot more about that. Right, Joel? So the industry has more diversification. I, I, here’s, here’s my concern at the minute, so. For all these blade manufacturers that we would otherwise know off the top of our heads. Right. Uh, lm, TPI, uh, Aris down in Brazil. The Vestus manufacturing facilities, the Siemens manufacturing [00:14:00] facilities. Right. You, you’re, you’re in this place where. You know, everybody’s kind of connected up the chain, uh, to a large OEM and all this made sense. You know, who was rebuilding your blades next year and the year down, two years down the road. Today you don’t, so you don’t know who owns that company. You don’t know how the manager’s gonna respond. Are you negotiating with a company that you can trust’s? Gonna be there in two or three years because you may have to wait that long to get blades delivered. I don’t know. I think that it, it put a lot of investment, uh, companies in a real quandary of whether they wanna proceed or not based upon the, what they is, what they would perceive to be the stability of these blade companies. That’s what I would think. I, I, Vestas is probably the best suited at the minute, besides Siemens. You know, Vestas is probably best suited to have the most perceived reliability capability. Control, Joel Saxum: but they have their own [00:15:00] blade factories already, right? So if they buy the TPI ones, they’re just kind of like they can do some copy pasting to get the the things in place. And to be honest with you, Vesta right now makes the best blades out there, in my opinion, least amount of serial defects. Remove one, remove one big issue from the last couple Allen Hall: years. But I think all the OEMs have problems. It’s a question of how widely known those problems are. I, I don’t think it’s that. I think the, the, the. When you talk to operators and, and they do a lot of shopping on wind turbines, what they’ll tell you generally is vestus is about somewhere around 20% higher in terms of cost to purchase a turbine from them. And Vestus is gonna put on a, a full service agreement of some sort that’s gonna run roughly 30 years. So there’s a lot of overhead that comes with buying a, a Vestas turbine. Yes. You, you get the quality. Yes. You get the name. Yes, you get the full service agreement, which you may or [00:16:00] may not really want over time. Uh, that’s a huge decision. But as pieces are being removed from the board of what you can possibly do, there’s it, it’s getting narrow or narrow by the minute. So it, it’s either a vestus in, in today’s world, like right today, I think we should talk about this, but it’s either Vestus or Nordic. Those are the two that are being decided upon. Mostly by a lot of the operators today. Joel Saxum: That’s true. We’re, and we just saw Nordex, just inked a one gigawatt deal with Alliant Energy, uh, just last week. And that’s new because Alliant has traditionally been a GE buyer. Right. They have five or six ge, two X wind farms in the, in the middle of the United States, and now they’ve secured a deal with Nordex for a gigawatt. Same thing we saw up at Hydro Quebec. Right. Vestas and Nordex are the only ones that qualify for that big, and that’s supposed to be like a 10 gigawatt tender over time. Right. But the, so it brings me to my, I guess my other question, I was thinking about this be [00:17:00] after the FERC thing was, does do, will we see a new blade manufacturer Allen Hall: pop Joel Saxum: up? Allen Hall: No, I don’t think you see a new one. I think you see an acquisition, uh, a transfer of assets to somebody else to run it, but that is really insecure. I, I always think when you’re buying distressed assets and you think you’re gonna run it better than the next guy that. Is rare in industry to do that. Think about the times you’ve seen that happen and it doesn’t work out probably more than 75% of the time. It doesn’t work out. It lasts a year or two or three, and they had the same problems they had when the original company was there. You got the same people inside the same building, building the same product, what do you think is magically gonna change? Right? You have this culture problem or a a already established culture, you’re not likely to change that unless you’re willing to fire, you know, a third of the staff to, to make changes. I don’t see anybody here doing that at the minute because. Finding wind blade technicians, manufacturing people is [00:18:00] extremely hard to do, to find people that are qualified. So you don’t wanna lose them. Joel Saxum: So this is why I say, this is why I pose the question, because in my mind, in in recent wind history, the perfect storm for a new blade manufacturer is happening right now. And the, and the why I say this is there is good engineers on the streets available. Now washing them of their old bad habits and the cultures and those things, that’s a monumental task. That’s not possible. Allen Hall: Rosemary worked at a large blade manufacturer and it has a culture to it. That culture really didn’t change even after they were acquired by a large OEM. The culture basically Rosemary Barnes: remained, they bizarrely didn’t try and change that culture, like they didn’t try to make it a GE company so that it wasn’t dur, it was wasn’t durable. You know, they, they could have. Used that as a shortcut to gaining, um, blade manufacturing capabilities and they didn’t. And that was a, I think it was a choice. I don’t think it’s an inevitability. It’s never easy to go in and change a, a culture, [00:19:00] but it is possible to at least, you know, get parts of it. Um, the, the knowledge should, you should be able to transfer and then get rid of the old culture once you’ve done that, you know, like, uh. Yeah, like you, you bring it in and suck out all the good stuff and spit out the rest. They didn’t do that. Joel Saxum: The opportunity here is, is that you’ve got a, you’ve got people, there’s gonna be a shortage of blade capacity, right? So if you are, if you are going to start up a blade manufacturing facility, you, if you’re clever enough, you may be able to get the backlog of a bunch of orders to get running without having to try to figure it out as you go. Yolanda Padron: I feel like I’d almost make the case that like the blade repair versus replace gap or the business cases is getting larger and larger now, right? So I feel like there’s more of a market for like some sort of holistic maintenance team to come in and say, Hey, I know this OEM hasn’t been taking care of your blades really well, but here are these retrofits that have proven to be [00:20:00]to work on your blades and solve these issues and we’ll get you up and running. Rosemary Barnes: We are seeing more and more of of that. The thing that makes it hard for that to be a really great solution is that they don’t have the information that they need. They have to reverse engineer everything, and that is. Very challenging because like you can reverse engineer what a blade is, but it doesn’t mean that, you know, um, exactly like, because a, the blade that you end up with is not an optimized blade in every location, right? There’s some parts that are overbuilt and um, sometimes some parts that are underbuilt, which gives you, um, you know, serial issues. But, so reverse engineering isn’t necessarily gonna make it safe, and so that does mean that yeah, like anyone coming in with a really big, significant repair that doesn’t go through the OEM, it’s a, it’s a risk. It, it’s always a risk that they have, you know, like there’s certain repairs where you can reverse engineer enough to know that you’re safe. But any really big [00:21:00] one, um, or anything that involves multiple components, um, is. Is a bit of a gamble if it doesn’t go through the OEM. Joel Saxum: No, but so between, I guess between the comments there, Yolanda and Rosemary, are we then entering the the golden age of opportunity for in independent engineering experts? Rosemary Barnes: I believe so. I’m staking, staking my whole business on it. Allen Hall: I think you have to be careful here, everybody, because the problem is gonna be Chinese blade manufacturers. If you wanna try to establish yourself as a blade manufacturer and you’re taking an existing factory, say, say you bought a TPI factory in Turkey or somewhere, and you thought, okay, I, I know how to do this better than everybody else. That could be totally true. However, the OEMs are not committed to buying blades from you and your competition isn’t the Blade Factory in Denmark or in Colorado or North Dakota, or in Mexico or Canada, Spain, wherever your competition is when, [00:22:00] uh, the OEM says, I can buy these blades for 20 to 30% less money in China, and that’s what you’re gonna be held as, as a standard. That is what’s gonna kill most of these things with a 25% tariff on top. Right? Exactly. But still they’re still bringing Joel Saxum: blades in. That’s why I’m saying a local blade manufacturer, Rosemary Barnes: I think it’s less the case. That everyone thinks about China, although maybe a little bit unconventional opinion a about China, they certainly can manufacture blades with, uh, as good a quality as anyone. I mean, obviously all of the, um, Danish, uh, American manufacturers have factories in China that are putting out excellent quality blades. So I’m not trying to say that they dunno how to make a good blade, but with their. New designs, you know, and the really cheap ones. There’s a couple of, um, there’s a couple of reasons for that that mean that I don’t think that it just slots really well into just replacing all of the rest of the world’s, um, wind turbines. The first is that there are a lot of [00:23:00] subsidies in China. Surely there can only continue so long as their economy is strong. You know, like if their economy slows down, like to what extent are they gonna be able to continue to, um, continue with these subsidies? I would be a little bit nervous about buying an asset that I needed support for the next 30 years from a company like. That ecosystem. Then the other thing is that, um, that development, they move really fast because they take some shortcuts. There’s no judgment there. In fact, from a develop product development point of view, that is absolutely the best way to move really fast and get to a really good product fast. It will be pervasive all the way through every aspect of it. Um, non-Chinese companies are just working to a different standard, which slows them down. But also means that along the way, like I would be much happier with a half developed, um, product from a non-Chinese manufacturer than a half developed product from a Chinese manufacturer. The end point, like if China can keep on going long enough with this, [00:24:00] you know, like just really move fast, make bold decisions, learn everything you can. If they can continue with that long enough to get to a mature product, then absolutely they will just smash the rest of the world to pieces. So for me, it’s a matter of, um, does their economy stay strong enough to support that level of, uh, competition? Allen Hall: Well, no, that’s a really good take. It’s an engineering take, and I think the decision is made in the procurement offices of the OEMs and when they start looking at the numbers and trying to determine profitability. That extra 20% savings they can get on blades made in China comes into play quite often. This is why they’re having such a large discussion about Chinese manufacturers coming into the eu. More broadly is the the Vestas and the Siemens CAAs and even the GE Re Novas. No, it’s big time trouble because the cost structure is lower. It just is, and I. [00:25:00] As much as I would love to see Vestas and Siemens and GE Renova compete on a global stage, they can’t at the moment. That’s evident. I don’t think it’s a great time to be opening any new Blade Factory. If you’re not an already established company, it’s gonna be extremely difficult. Wind Energy O and M Australia is back February 17th and 18th at Melbourne’s Pullman on the park. Which is a great hotel. We built this year’s agenda directly from the conversations we’ve had in 2025 and tackling serial defects, insurance pressures, blade repairs, and the operational challenges that keeps everybody up at night around the world. So we have two days of technical sessions, interactive roundtables and networking that actually moves the industry for. Forward. And if you’re interested in attending this, you need to go to WMA 2020 six.com. It’s WOMA 2020 six.com. Rosemary, a lot of, uh, great events gonna happen at. W 2026. Why don’t [00:26:00] you give us a little highlight. Parlet iss gonna be there. Rosemary Barnes: Parlow is gonna be there. I mean, a highlight for me is always getting together with the, the group. And also, I mean, I just really love the size of the event that uh, every single person who’s there is interested in the same types of things that you are interested in. So the highlight for me is, uh, the conversations that I don’t know that I’m gonna have yet. So looking forward to that. But we are also. Making sure that we’ve got a really great program. We’ve got a good mix of Australian speakers and a few people bringing international experience as well. There’s also a few side events that are being organized, like there’s an operators only forum, which unfortunately none of us will be able to enter because we’re not operators, but that is gonna be really great for. For all of them to be able to get together and talk about issues that they have with no, nobody else in the room. So if, if you are an operator and you’re not aware of that, then get in touch and we’ll pass on your details to make sure you can join. Um, yeah, and people just, you know, [00:27:00] taking the opportunities to catch up with clients, you know, for paddle load. Most or all of our clients are, are gonna be there. So it is nice to get off Zoom and um, yeah, actually sit face to face and discuss things in person. So definitely encourage everyone to try and arrange those sorts of things while they’re there. Joel Saxum: You know, one of the things I think is really important about this event is that, uh, we’re, we’re continuing the conversation from last year, but a piece of feedback last year was. Fantastic job with the conversation and helping people with o and m issues and giving us things we can take back and actually integrate into our operations right away. But then a week or two or three weeks after the event, we had those things, but the conversation stopped. So this year we’re putting some things in place. One of ’em being like Rosemary was talking about the private operator forum. Where there’s a couple of operators that have actually taken the reins with this thing and they wanna put this, they wanna make this group a thing where they’re want to have quarterly meetings and they want to continue this conversation and knowledge share and boost that whole Australian market in the wind [00:28:00]side up right? Rising waters floats all boats, and we’re gonna really take that to the next level this year at Allen Hall: WMA down in Melbourne. That’s why I need a register now at Wilma 2020 six.com because the industry needs solutions. Speeches. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate all the feedback and support we received from the wind industry. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn and please don’t forget to subscribe so you’d never miss an episode. For Joel Rosemary and Yolanda, I’m Allen Hall. We’ll catch you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

The United States continues to squeeze and isolate the Venezuelan regime led by Nicolas Maduro with another oil tanker being seized, steady military action against narco-terrorist drug boats, and the recent daring extraction of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Both Russia and China tight relationship with Venezuela dates back to the reign of Hugo Chavez, but now Turkish relations with Venezuela have become a major source of support for the Maduro regime. Turkey being a NATO member while supporting Maduro seems raise some eyebrows but why are they so committed to any sort of investment into Venezuela. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Dr. Sinan Ciddi, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Director of the Turkey program, who says the tightening relations between Turkey and Venezuela needs to monitored more closely, and he breaks down what the two countries are getting from each other. Click Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We got a "Triple Berke" and Gary is here to celebrate for four hours.

Today's story: Classic stories are an important part of Christmas traditions for both kids and adults. They teach values of generosity, family, love, wonder, and belief. Here are five that stand the test of time: The Snowman, The Polar Express, The Legend of the Poinsettia, A Christmas Carol, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!Transcript & Exercises: https://plainenglish.com/826Get the full story and learning resources: https://plainenglish.com/826 --Plain English helps you improve your English:Learn about the world and improve your EnglishClear, natural English at a speed you can understandNew stories every weekLearn even more at PlainEnglish.comMentioned in this episode:Hard words? No problemNever be confused by difficult words in Plain English again! See translations of the hardest words and phrases from English to your language. Each episode transcript includes built-in translations into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Turkish. Sign up for a free 14-day trial at PlainEnglish.com

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports Turkey intelligence agents have captured who they believe to be a senior member of the Islamic State group along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The United States continues to squeeze and isolate the Venezuelan regime led by Nicolas Maduro with another oil tanker being seized, steady military action against narco-terrorist drug boats, and the recent daring extraction of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Both Russia and China tight relationship with Venezuela dates back to the reign of Hugo Chavez, but now Turkish relations with Venezuela have become a major source of support for the Maduro regime. Turkey being a NATO member while supporting Maduro seems raise some eyebrows but why are they so committed to any sort of investment into Venezuela. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Dr. Sinan Ciddi, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Director of the Turkey program, who says the tightening relations between Turkey and Venezuela needs to monitored more closely, and he breaks down what the two countries are getting from each other. Click Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The United States continues to squeeze and isolate the Venezuelan regime led by Nicolas Maduro with another oil tanker being seized, steady military action against narco-terrorist drug boats, and the recent daring extraction of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Both Russia and China tight relationship with Venezuela dates back to the reign of Hugo Chavez, but now Turkish relations with Venezuela have become a major source of support for the Maduro regime. Turkey being a NATO member while supporting Maduro seems raise some eyebrows but why are they so committed to any sort of investment into Venezuela. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Dr. Sinan Ciddi, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Director of the Turkey program, who says the tightening relations between Turkey and Venezuela needs to monitored more closely, and he breaks down what the two countries are getting from each other. Click Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we begin looking back on some of the most moving moments shared on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio in 2025:          Hope & Nagy have been called by God to live in some very difficult places. They were serving Him in Libya when civil war broke out; they stayed and thrived under the Lord's protection. Then they heard the Lord call them to a new and equally-challenging land.          Jerry Mattix has been banned twice from entering Türkiye, once in 2013 and again earlier this year. Jerry knows God is able to do His work among Turkish people without him in the country.          Nathan and Kari were raised differently, yet the Lord called them to Himself, and to missions, together. In South Asia, they are seeing the gospel on fire, not waiting for foreign missionaries but moving forward through the gospel fervor of national Christians.          John Samara knows the high cost of serving Christ in a place like Syria. He grew up there and continues to serve persecuted Christians in the Middle East and North Africa through Ananias House.          Eric Mock, from Slavic Gospel Association, shares how war between Russia and Ukraine has actually accelerated SGA's ministry as they provide aid and share the gospel with hundreds of thousands of people.          Teaching students in the UK and around the world, Dr. Michael Reeves has a passion for strengthening the faith of persecuted Christians in hostile and restricted nations. He served as a missionary on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.          Ty Scott, leader of VOM's work in east and southern Africa, shares about Christians living in a country that has never been discussed on VOM Radio until this year — Comoros. He also shared how VOM handles Bible distribution in Africa.          Author of the book, Inside Afghanistan, John Weaver, shares what it looks like to be a Christian in Afghanistan today. Believers must carefully plant gospel seeds and seek out people of peace.          Abraham & Sara minister to Muslim refugees in the Middle East who are open to the gospel. They see the hunger to know Jesus, and the Lord is revealing Himself to these refugees through dreams, visions, and the love of Christ, as seen in the example of Abraham, Sara, and their team. After hearing these brief excerpts, you'll want to listen to the entire conversations with these guests from 2025. Click on the links below to listen at VOMRADIO.net or listen in the VOM APP.          Hope & Nagy, gospel workers to Libya and the Middle East          Jerry Mattix, long-time aid ministry worker and pastor in Türkiye          Nathan & Kari, gospel workers in South Asia with the International Mission Board (IMB)          John Samara, Founder and Executive Director of Ananias House          Eric Mock, the Senior Vice President of the Slavic Gospel Association          Dr. Michael Reeves, President of Union School of Theology in the United Kingdom          Ty Scott, VOM's Regional Leader for East and Southern Africa          John Weaver, long-time gospel worker in Afghanistan          Abraham & Sara serve refugees at a church in a Middle Eastern country We thank the Lord for allowing VOM Radio to encourage and challenge listeners all over the world this year. Thank you for faithfully listening and praying for our persecuted family in restricted nations and hostile areas around the world! We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what conversation in 2025 most inspired your faith or equipped you to pray. You can also give online to support persecuted Christians through the work of The Voice of the Martyrs. Next week, we'll have Part II of our look back to the most moving moments of 2025 on VOM Radio.

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SBS Hebrew hears from Australia's multicultural community, where a plethora of vigils were held across Sydney to honour the fallen. We hear from Arabic, Thai and Turkish speakers, amongst others.

Today's story: Ted Danson stars in *Man on the Inside*, a warm, thoughtful comedy about a retired professor who becomes a private investigator. The show gently explores themes of aging, intergenerational relationships, and finding purpose later in life, all wrapped in a light mystery and comedic tone.Transcript & Exercises: https://plainenglish.com/825Full lesson: https://plainenglish.com/825 --Plain English helps you improve your English:Learn about the world and improve your EnglishClear, natural English at a speed you can understandNew stories every weekLearn even more at PlainEnglish.com-- Mentioned in this episode:Hard words? No problemNever be confused by difficult words in Plain English again! See translations of the hardest words and phrases from English to your language. Each episode transcript includes built-in translations into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Turkish. Sign up for a free 14-day trial at PlainEnglish.com

//The Wire//2300Z December 16, 2025////ROUTINE////BLUF: STABBING ATTACK STRIKES MOSCOW SCHOOL. TURKEY DOWNS UNIDENTIFIED DRONE OVER BLACK SEA. AMERICAN FORCES CONTINUE STAGING IN THE CARIBBEAN. WHITE HOUSE EXPANDS IMMIGRATION VISA RESTRICTIONS.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE----- -International Events-Russia: This morning a mass stabbing was reported at the Gorki-2 school just outside Moscow. The suspect has been identified as a 15-year-old by the name of Timofey K. (full last name unknown). One student was killed during the attack, and many others wounded.Turkey: Yesterday Turkish defense forces shot down an unidentified drone that was on a course to violate their airspace. F-16's were scrambled to intercept the drone over the Black Sea, and the decision was made to down the drone before it entered Turkish airspace, so that the debris would land in the Sea and not injure anyone on the ground. Analyst Comment: Turkey has not commented on which nation the drone was from, however the most likely culprit is probably Russia, as reports of rogue drones flying off course have been common lately. It's certainly possible it was an errant Ukrainian drone, however Russia is really the one who is famous for industrializing the use of long range drones during the war.Caribbean: Strikes have continued as American force posturing remains elevated throughout the region. Observers have noted the presence of 10x KC-135 tanker aircraft forward deployed to the Dominican Republic, adding to the growing list of forces being staged in the region. Analyst Comment: This afternoon President Trump announced on social media the formal implementation of a total blockade of sanctioned oil tankers within Venezuelan waters. This is a major escalation that will very likely result in the situation becoming more tense over the next few days.-HomeFront- Massachusetts: This afternoon a suspicious death was reported at the home of a high-ranking MIT professor. Nuno Loureiro, the director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT was found dead in his home in Brookline. He was found deceased, with several gunshot wounds being the preliminary cause of death.Analyst Comment: Due to the Brown University shooting, it's likely that increased scrutiny will be placed on crimes that occur at universities or within the sphere of higher education in general. So far, not enough information is known on this murder case to discern what happened here. This could be a more routine murder, or it could be something else entirely, there's no way to know at the moment.Washington D.C. - This afternoon the White House announced a revision to the previously-implemented travel restrictions from High-Risk nations. The update now includes a total travel ban on Palestinians entering the US, along with adding partial restrictions to most of the continent of Africa. Laos and Sierra Leone have also moved up from partial restrictions to full restrictions.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: Mass stabbing attacks are rare in Russia, and this one was very disturbing even by western standards. The attacker recorded the attack by mounting his phone to his helmet, and took selfies with the victims after he stabbed them. Regarding motive for the attack, so far this looks like a classic 764/O9A situation. Going by the textbook, the US might classify this individual under the new category of terrorist, the "NVE" or Nihilistic Violent Extremist. This is a comparatively new class of terrorist which often displays strange and contradictory ideology.In this case, the main clue that this was a 764/O9A-style attack is the firearm that was recovered from the suspect's home after the attack. Phrases written in white paint pen on an all-black weapon are the calling card of both the 764 Network and the Order of Nine Angles. Both of these groups are infamous for

In this episode, we examine what actually happens when crypto markets break — how leverage builds beneath the surface, liquidity disappears, and liquidation cascades turn volatility into systemic failure. Doug Colkitt, a quantitative trader and DeFi builder whose experience spans both traditional finance and crypto market structure. Doug began his career on Wall Street at Citigroup before moving into high-frequency trading at Citadel during the 2008 financial crisis. He later built and traded his own systems across futures, volatility products, and international equities, including running a major market-making operation in Turkish stocks. Today, Doug focuses on crypto and DeFi infrastructure, working with perpetual futures, liquidation mechanics, and exchange design. We discuss why traders still get wiped out when they think they're hedged, how liquidation cascades accelerate, and what recent market failures reveal about leverage and market structure under stress. Links +Resources: Ambient Finance on X (Twitter): @AmbientFinance Website: https://ambient.finance Sponsor of Chat With Traders Podcast: ●       Trade The Pool:  ⁠⁠http://www.tradethepool.com⁠⁠    Time Stamps: Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads. 00:00:00  Intro and Background 00:03:43  Starting Individual Trading and High Frequency Systems 00:04:09  Focus on Index Futures and Competitive Markets 00:06:15  Michael Lewis's 'Flash Boys' and HFT Accuracy 00:07:00  Impact of HFT on Smaller Traders 00:09:13  Market Makers and Price Competition 00:09:37  HFT Evolution and Market Dynamics 00:11:24  Trading VIX Futures and Market Inefficiencies 00:13:08  Transitioning to Medium Frequency Trading 00:13:34  Trading Turkish Equities and Market Makings 00:15:35  Exploring Cryptocurrency Trading 00:18:32  Diving into Decentralized Finance (DeFi) 00:20:06  Arbitrage Opportunities in Crypto Markets 00:22:00  Flash Loans and Risk-Free Trading 00:22:48  Adjustments to Trading Bots Over Time 00:25:11  Criteria for Trusting Decentralized Exchanges 00:28:46  Liquidity Providing and Yield Opportunities 00:29:16  Volatility and Risks in Liquidity Provisioning 00:31:47  Understanding Perpetual Contracts in Crypto 00:36:04  October 10, 2025 Crypto Massacre Overview 00:37:36  Leverage and Market Dynamics 00:41:23  Impact of Liquidations on Market Sentiment 00:41:43  Market Maker Behavior During Crises 00:43:45  Liquidity Issues in Centralized Exchanges 00:44:53 Hyper Liquid Vault and Liquidation Dynamics 00:45:55 Market Making Strategies and Risk Management 00:49:15 Insurance Fund Models in DeFi 00:51:43 Ambient Finance Project Overview 00:53:08 Separation of Exchange and Clearinghouse 00:54:14 Innovations in Perpetual Trading 00:55:46 Takeaways from the October 10th Massacre 00:57:03 Future Plans for Insurance Fund Integration 00:58:28 Real World Assets and Crypto Integration Trading Disclaimer:  Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh discuss the shocking circumstances around the firing and arrest of Michigan coach Sherrone Moore and how his misconduct speaks to a systemic issue within Michigan Athletics. Next, the team is joined by The Ringer's David Shoemaker to pay tribute to the pro wrestling career of John Cena following his final match. And finally, Turkish sociologist and journalist Dağhan Irak helps us unpack the betting scandal rocking Turkish football.    On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, the gang talks about The Kansas City Chiefs' fall from grace. Get more Hang Up and Listen with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Hang Up and Listen and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Hang Up and Listen show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/hangupplus for access wherever you listen. Episode Notes: Read Alex's piece on the Michigan situation.  Check out The Squared Circle by David Shoemaker Read David Shoemaker's piece on John Cena Read more on the Turkish betting scandal   You can email us at hangup@slate.com. Podcast production and editing by Kevin Bendis and Jessamine Molli, with production assistance from Patrick Fort. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh discuss the shocking circumstances around the firing and arrest of Michigan coach Sherrone Moore and how his misconduct speaks to a systemic issue within Michigan Athletics. Next, the team is joined by The Ringer's David Shoemaker to pay tribute to the pro wrestling career of John Cena following his final match. And finally, Turkish sociologist and journalist Dağhan Irak helps us unpack the betting scandal rocking Turkish football.    On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, the gang talks about The Kansas City Chiefs' fall from grace. Get more Hang Up and Listen with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Hang Up and Listen and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Hang Up and Listen show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/hangupplus for access wherever you listen. Episode Notes: Read Alex's piece on the Michigan situation.  Check out The Squared Circle by David Shoemaker Read David Shoemaker's piece on John Cena Read more on the Turkish betting scandal   You can email us at hangup@slate.com. Podcast production and editing by Kevin Bendis and Jessamine Molli, with production assistance from Patrick Fort. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh discuss the shocking circumstances around the firing and arrest of Michigan coach Sherrone Moore and how his misconduct speaks to a systemic issue within Michigan Athletics. Next, the team is joined by The Ringer's David Shoemaker to pay tribute to the pro wrestling career of John Cena following his final match. And finally, Turkish sociologist and journalist Dağhan Irak helps us unpack the betting scandal rocking Turkish football.    On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, the gang talks about The Kansas City Chiefs' fall from grace. Get more Hang Up and Listen with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Hang Up and Listen and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Hang Up and Listen show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/hangupplus for access wherever you listen. Episode Notes: Read Alex's piece on the Michigan situation.  Check out The Squared Circle by David Shoemaker Read David Shoemaker's piece on John Cena Read more on the Turkish betting scandal   You can email us at hangup@slate.com. Podcast production and editing by Kevin Bendis and Jessamine Molli, with production assistance from Patrick Fort. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A concise new narrative history of Islam that draws on the transformative insights of recent research to emphasize the diversity and dynamism of the tradition. Today's Muslim world has been experiencing upheaval: legalists and mystics engage in intense debates, radical groups invoke Sharia, Muslim immigrants in the West face prejudice and discrimination, and Muslim feminists advocate new interpretations of the Koran. At the same time, Islam is mischaracterized as unitary and unchanging by people ranging from right-wing Western politicians claiming that Islam is incompatible with democracy to conservative Muslims dreaming of returning to the golden age of the prophet.  Against this contentious backdrop, this book provides a timely new history of the religion in all its astonishing richness and diversity as it has been practiced by Muslims around the world, from seventh-century Mecca to today. Most popular histories of Islam continue to repeat conventional pietistic accounts. In contrast, John Tolan draws on decades of new historical research that has transformed knowledge of the origins and development of the Muslim faith. He shows how the youngest of the three great monotheisms arose in close contact with Jewish, Christian, and other religious traditions in a mixture of cultures, including Arab, Greek, Persian, and Turkish; how Islam spread across an enormous territory encompassing hundreds of languages and cultures; how Muslims have forged widely different beliefs and practices over fourteen centuries; and how Islamic history provides crucial context for understanding contemporary debates in the Muslim world. At a time when much talk about Islam is filled with misunderstanding, stereotypes, and bias, this book provides a fresh and lucid portrait of the continuous and ongoing transformations of a religion of tremendous variety and complexity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Subscribe for unfiltered analysis and on-the-ground truth from the Land of Israel. Turkey is signaling it is ready to send troops into Gaza as part of an International Stabilization Force (ISF), a move Israel strongly opposes, even as the United States pressures Ankara to take a leading role. Turkish and Egyptian officials argue the force should “separate” Israel and Hamas, not disarm the terror organization. a position Israeli leaders warn will guarantee failure. In this wide-ranging and urgent episode, the discussion explores: Why foreign troops on Israeli soil threaten Israel's security How Turkey's ambitions intersect with Trump's emerging “Board of Peace” Why the world is being whipped into a frenzy against Israel The return of Hellenism in modern form The spiritual meaning of Hanukkah, sovereignty, and inheritance of the Land And why Israel's survival depends on clarity, strength, and truth Powerful scenes unfolding in Israel today, from Haredi soldiers completing IDF training at the Western Wall to Levitical singing returning to the Temple Mount for the first time in nearly 2,000 years This is not just geopolitics, it's history, faith, and destiny unfolding in real time.

Since it was introduced, President Trump's peace plan for Ukraine has put many European leaders in a bind. With Turkey's occupation of Cyprus in its 51st year, and amid open Turkish threats against Greece's Aegean islands, Greece is also worried about the precedent this plan would set. John Psaropoulos joins Thanos Davelis as we break down these concerns, the latest comments by US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack about resolving Greek-Turkish differences, and Greece's efforts to aggressively court US investments.John Psaropoulos is an independent journalist and Al Jazeera's correspondent in southeast Europe. He publishes Hellenica, a weekly deep dive into Greek current affairs and history. You can find it on Substack.com.You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:Why Trump's plan for Ukraine alarms the GreeksCyprus pitches plan to untangle Turkey tensionsFarmers' protests escalate into third weekProtesting farmers present their demands

Today's story: Though most Christmas trees are plastic, millions of families like to get live Christmas trees every year. Real trees are grown at special Christmas tree farms and they take many years (and twice-a-year trimming) to mature into the picture-perfect trees you see in family photos.Transcript & Exercises: https://plainenglish.com/824Full lesson: https://plainenglish.com/824 --Upgrade all your skills in English: Plain English is the best current-events podcast for learning English.You might be learning English to improve your career, enjoy music and movies, connect with family abroad, or even prepare for an international move. Whatever your reason, we'll help you achieve your goals in English.How it works: Listen to a new story every Monday and Thursday. They're all about current events, trending topics, and what's going on in the world. Get exposure to new words and ideas that you otherwise might not have heard in English.The audio moves at a speed that's right for intermediate English learners: just a little slower than full native speed. You'll improve your English listening, learn new words, and have fun thinking in English.--Did you like this episode? You'll love the full Plain English experience. Join today and unlock the fast (native-speed) version of this episode, translations in the transcripts, how-to video lessons, live conversation calls, and more. Tap/click: PlainEnglish.com/joinHere's where else you can find us: Instagram | YouTube | WhatsApp | EmailMentioned in this episode:Hard words? No problemNever be confused by difficult words in Plain English again! See translations of the hardest words and phrases from English to your language. Each episode transcript includes built-in translations into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Turkish. Sign up for a free 14-day trial at PlainEnglish.com

A concise new narrative history of Islam that draws on the transformative insights of recent research to emphasize the diversity and dynamism of the tradition. Today's Muslim world has been experiencing upheaval: legalists and mystics engage in intense debates, radical groups invoke Sharia, Muslim immigrants in the West face prejudice and discrimination, and Muslim feminists advocate new interpretations of the Koran. At the same time, Islam is mischaracterized as unitary and unchanging by people ranging from right-wing Western politicians claiming that Islam is incompatible with democracy to conservative Muslims dreaming of returning to the golden age of the prophet.  Against this contentious backdrop, this book provides a timely new history of the religion in all its astonishing richness and diversity as it has been practiced by Muslims around the world, from seventh-century Mecca to today. Most popular histories of Islam continue to repeat conventional pietistic accounts. In contrast, John Tolan draws on decades of new historical research that has transformed knowledge of the origins and development of the Muslim faith. He shows how the youngest of the three great monotheisms arose in close contact with Jewish, Christian, and other religious traditions in a mixture of cultures, including Arab, Greek, Persian, and Turkish; how Islam spread across an enormous territory encompassing hundreds of languages and cultures; how Muslims have forged widely different beliefs and practices over fourteen centuries; and how Islamic history provides crucial context for understanding contemporary debates in the Muslim world. At a time when much talk about Islam is filled with misunderstanding, stereotypes, and bias, this book provides a fresh and lucid portrait of the continuous and ongoing transformations of a religion of tremendous variety and complexity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

2025-12-14 | UPDATES #078 | A Russian drone hits Turkish cargo vessel VIVA in the Black Sea. This matters for Turkey, maritime security, and Ukraine's campaign against Russia's “shadow fleet.” We look at the increased risk for shipping in the black sea, both those that serve Ukraine's legitimate and legal export needs, and those that form part of Russia grey fleet trading illegally in oil. Ukraine says Russia hit a Turkish civilian cargo ship with a drone — a vessel carrying sunflower oil to Egypt — inside what Ukraine describes as a protected coastal “grain corridor.” And it happened within hours of Erdoğan raising port strikes with Putin. On Saturday, 13 December 2025, Ukraine's navy accused Russia of a deliberate drone strike on the Turkish vessel VIVA, describing it as a “targeted strike” on a civilian ship heading to Egypt with sunflower oil. (Reuters)----------SOURCES: Reuters (Dec 13, 2025): Ukraine says Russian drone attack hit civilian Turkish vessel The Moscow Times / AFP (Dec 14, 2025): Ukraine says Russian drone hit Turkish cargo vessel VIVAReuters (Dec 12, 2025): Vessel on fire after Russian attack on Ukraine's Odesa region, sources sayReuters (Dec 13, 2025): Erdoğan comments after Putin meeting; calls to protect ports/energy facilities Turkey MFA statement (Dec 12, 2025): Chornomorsk port attack; maritime security/freedom of navigation Ukrinform (Dec 13, 2025): Turkey urges halt to attacks on energy and port infrastructureKyiv Independent (Dec 14, 2025): Mentions *VIVA* incident amid broader strikes Ukrainian Pravda (Dec 13, 2025): Ukraine Navy statement on “targeted strike” against VIVAReuters (Dec 10, 2025) background: Ukraine disables “shadow fleet” tanker Dashan with sea dronesBackground (outside 48h): Beşiktaş Shipping halts Russia-linked voyages after explosions----------Silicon Curtain is a part of the Christmas Tree Trucks 2025 campaign - an ambitious fundraiser led by a group of our wonderful team of information warriors raising 110,000 EUR for the Ukrainian army. https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-silicon-curtainThe Goal of the Campaign for the Silicon Curtain community:- 1 armoured battle-ready pickupWe are sourcing all vehicles around 2010-2017 or newer, mainly Toyota Hilux or Mitsubishi L200, with low mileage and fully serviced. These are some of the greatest and the most reliable pickups possible to be on the frontline in Ukraine. Who will receive the vehicles?https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-silicon-curtain- The 38th Marine Brigade, who alone held Krynki for 124 days, receiving the Military Cross of Honour.- The 1027th Anti-aircraft and artillery regiment. Honoured by NATO as Defender of the Year 2024 and recipient of the Military Cross of Honour.- 104th Separate Brigade, Infantry, who alone held Kherson for 100 days, establishing conditions for the liberation of the city.- 93rd Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar", Black Raven Unmanned Systems Battalion ----------SILICON CURTAIN FILM FUNDRAISERA project to make a documentary film in Ukraine, to raise awareness of Ukraine's struggle and in supporting a team running aid convoys to Ukraine's front-line towns.https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras----------SILICON CURTAIN LIVE EVENTS - FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN Events in 2025 - Advocacy for a Ukrainian victory with Silicon Curtainhttps://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasOur events of the first half of the year in Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa were a huge success. Now we need to maintain this momentum, and change the tide towards a Ukrainian victory. The Silicon Curtain Roadshow is an ambitious campaign to run a minimum of 12 events in 2025, and potentially many more. Any support you can provide for the fundraising campaign would be gratefully appreciated. https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------

Is Xabi Alonso's time up at Real Madrid, why is everyone talking about Paul Pogba's camels, how is Turkish football headed into ‘panic', can Lens push PSG for the Ligue 1 title and what on EARTH is going on in the Polish league this season?It's a packed Euro Leagues episode as Mina Rzouki, Guillem Balague and Julien Laurens join Steve Crossman to go through all the best stories across the continent in the last week.That includes Atalanta's late victory over Chelsea, and the impressive performance of goalscorer Charles De Ketelaere, as well as Jamie Vardy's form in Italy, where he's been named Serie A Player of the Month.Turkish football commentator & presenter Can Onduygu joins the show to dissect the latest in the gambling scandal which has seen more than 1,000 players suspended, and several detained, including players from Fenerbahce and Galatasaray.Polish writer Michal Zachodny also comes on, talking about the struggles of Legia Warsaw, the 15-time champions who are currently in the relegation zone, and the uniqueness of the Polish top-flight this season.Timecodes: 00:10 An unexpected Euro Leagues F1 meet-up 01:52 Paul Pogba's camels 05:55 Xabi Alonso's uncertain Real Madrid future 19:25 Jamie Vardy named Serie A Player of the Month 22:30 Turkish football's 'growing sense of panic' amid gambling investigation, with Can Onduygu 32:00 Lens at the top of Ligue 1! 36:50 What's happening in Poland?!5 Live / BBC Sounds Premier League commentaries: Sat 1500 Liverpool v Brighton, Sat 1500 Chelsea v Everton on Sports Extra, Sat 1730 Burnley v Fulham, Sun 1400 Sunderland v Newcastle, Sun 1400 Crystal Palace v Man City on Sports Extra, Sun 1400 Nottingham Forest v Tottenham on Sports Extra 2, Sun 1400 West Ham v Aston Villa on Sports Extra 3, Sun 1630 Brentford v Leeds.

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PREVIEW. The Geopolitical "Trade" in Ukraine — Judy Dempsey — Dempsey describes an emerging diplomatic scenario wherein Ukraine would receive guaranteed, expedited membership into the European Union—effectively "jumping the line" ahead of other candidate nations—in exchange for ceding the Donbas territory in Eastern Ukraine to Russiancontrol, creating a complex geopolitical and ethical dilemma transcending traditional security calculations. Dempseyemphasizes that European Union membership represents a coveted strategic "prize" that Ukraine might otherwise fail to qualify for due to documented institutional corruption, governance deficiencies, and rule-of-law concerns requiring substantial reform. However, Dempsey stresses that officially surrendering sovereign territory violates the foundational principle of territorial integrity, constituting a "bitter pill to swallow" for Ukrainian nationalism and democratic legitimacy. Dempsey acknowledges historical precedent for EU admission of divided nations, specifically citing Cyprus's 2004 admission despite ongoing partition between Greek and Turkish communities. Dempsey documents significant Ukrainian and European concern that the Trump administration cannot be trusted to honor commitments and may unilaterally "sideline Ukraine," negotiating bilateral deals directly with Russia behind President Zelensky's back, thereby undermining Ukrainian negotiating leverage and European institutional voice in the settlement process. 1890 BLACK SEA RUSSIAN FLEET