Podcasts about United Nations

Gloria Steinem, a leader of the women's liberation movement in the US, has died at the age of 92. During the 1960s and 1970s, she campaigned for women's reproductive rights and equal pay laws. She also co-founded the Ms. magazine - one of the first feminist publications in the US - and advocated for the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Steinem died peacefully at her home in New York. Also: the United Nations warns of a "supersized" El Niño as countries prepare for the impact of the severe weather event. Britain's Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, meets President Emmanuel Macron in London, with irregular migration high on the agenda. France is deploying a new team of police officers to its western beaches to try to stop migrants on large, overcrowded vessels from crossing the English Channel. Are we one step closer to discovering dark matter - the substance that binds galaxies together? And women's tennis world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, hits back at suggestions she had been attending 'lots of parties' in the build-up to the US Open.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.ukPhoto: Gloria Steinem speaks at a women's march in Washington, US., January 21, 2017. Credit: Reuters

From devastating floods in Nepal to growing weather concerns across Africa, extreme weather is once again putting communities at risk. The United Nations warns that up to 162 million children in Eastern and Southern Africa live in areas exposed to the impending El Niño weather event. Experts say it could be the strongest El Niño in more than 70 years, bringing the risk of intensifying drought, extreme heat and flooding.And we hear from a macro photographer who captures tiny insects in remarkable detail, in the environments they call home, to inspire people to care about their vital role in our ecosystems.Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producer: Keikantse Shumba Technical Producer: Maxwell Onyango Senior Producer: Blessing Aderogba Editors: Daniel Dadzie and Maryam Abdalla

Addressing the United Nations about women in pastoralism is a long way from day-to-day life on a station in the Southern Rangelands of Western Australia. But that’s exactly where Debbie Dowden has found herself — one of three women from around the world invited to take the stage in Mongolia and share her perspective on pastoralism. We first heard from Debbie on the podcast back in 2022. Since then, Debbie and her husband have made the difficult decision to sell Challa Station, bringing more than 130 years of family ownership to an end. But leaving the station hasn’t meant leaving pastoralism behind. In this episode, we talk about Debbie’s involvement in the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, what’s happened with wild dogs since we last spoke, and the book she’s written about her experiences on the land. This episode is proudly brought to you by the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists West Australian committee, in partnership with the Southern Rangelands Pastoral Alliance, and Regional Development Australia Midwest and Gascoyne.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 The global order may be broken, but international relations scholar Charles A. Kupchan has a plan to remake it. In a forthcoming Foreign Policy essay, he argues that because power is becoming more diffuse, regional groupings such as the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations will become more essential. But to really manage global governance, he proposes the creation of a high-level brain trust that would sit above a currently paralyzed United Nations and resolve disputes between world powers. Kupchan joins FP Live to discuss how to put his provocative plan into action. Plus, Ravi shares his read on how China and the United States are presenting two different visions of leadership at this week's G-20 and Shanghai Cooperation Organization conferences. Alexandra Sharp: Moscow's Moment of Global Summitry Comfort Ero and Richard Gowan: Peacemaking Is Power Politics Again Bruno Maçães: What Comes After Global Order Nick Danforth: Who Killed the Liberal International Order? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caption: 1521 PERSIATONIGHT CONTENTS THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW 8-31-2026Tehran Under Siege: Sanctions, War Fatigue, and the Credibility Crisis of the UNEdmund Fitton-Brown details the bleak economic reality for citizens in Tehran living under severe economic sanctions and a low-intensity conflict. Ordinary residents are reduced to driving for ride-sharing apps like Snapp and begging for food due to skyrocketing prices of staple goods like yogurt. While the regime's elite remain insulated, sanctions have severely strained the general population without driving systemic behavior changes. Furthermore, the discussion examines the declining global credibility of the United Nations. The organization has abandoned its neutrality by focusing excessively on targeting Israel and prioritizing humanitarian relief, which frequently ends up diverted to empower oppressive regimes. (1)Demographic Doom: How the One-Child Legacy and Youth Cynicism Threaten China's FuturePiero Tozzi explores China's severe demographic crisis resulting from the legacy of the totalitarian one-child policy enacted in 1979 and officially lifted in 2015. Despite transitioning to a three-child policy, fertility rates continue to plummet due to youth disillusionment. The gender imbalance has catalyzed widespread female trafficking from neighboring countries, while a high proportion of single-child soldiers in the military creates unique domestic vulnerabilities in conflict scenarios. Young Chinese citizens are increasingly opting out of intense economic exploitation through passive resistance movements like "laying flat" and "letting it rot," directly challenging propaganda regarding national rejuvenation. (2)The Domestic Surge: AI Infrastructure, Aerospace Recovery, and US Manufacturing RenaissanceAlan Tonelson highlights the significant manufacturing revival currently taking place in the United States, driven by key sectors like aerospace and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Boeing's resolution of safety and production issues has revitalized aerospace, while a massive buildout of AI data centers has boosted demand for semiconductors, steel, and electronic equipment. Although trade tensions with Canada persist, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement protects most trade, rendering short-term disruptions minimal. Furthermore, while widespread local protests against data centers have emerged across various states, they have not yet slowed down the overall rapid pace of construction. (3)Middle East Realignment: Iranian Devaluation, Turkish Expansion, and Mediterranean Defense PartnershipsMalcolm Hoenlein covers shifting geopolitical and economic dynamics across the Middle East. Inside Iran, severe inflation, food shortages, and medicine price hikes are suffocating the middle class, prompting harsher internal crackdowns by the regime. Meanwhile, Omani channel shipping flows have partially improved following US-led mine sweeping efforts. In Syria, Turkey is pursuing a quiet military takeover, a move contested by Israel. Additionally, Saudi Arabia is utilizing pipelines to bypass shipping threats, and Finland has joined other nations in defunding the corrupt Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. Finally, Greece and Israel have solidified a historic $3.5 billion multi-level defense agreement. (4)Cult of Rebellion: Understanding the Resilient and Hostile Ideology of the HouthisEdmund Fitton-Brown chronicles the history, structure, and ideological motivations of the Houthi movement in Yemen. Emerging in the mid-1990s as a Zaydi revivalist cult modeled after Lebanese Hezbollah, the group adopted a highly hostile five-part slogan ("the scream") emphasizing anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel vitriol. Over decades of conflict, they waged multiple rebellions against former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh before forming a tactical alliance with him to seize power. Known as relentless fighters who are always up for a battle, the Houthis harbor expansive territorial ambitions in southern Saudi Arabia, aiming to control the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. (5)Tehran in Limbo: Evaluating Sanctions, Bureaucratic Alienation, and Paths to Regime ChangeJanatyn Sayeh addresses the psychological state of "no war, no peace" in Tehran a year after the September 2025 conflict. The population faces deep war fatigue, compounded by blockades and new sanctions. While sanctions alone cannot topple the regime, they successfully alienate key socio-economic groups. Specifically, lower-level administrative bureaucrats and ideologues are losing their financial incentives and faith in the regime's competence. True systemic change will not happen overnight, but dragging out the process and bringing civil unrest into urban streets could break pro-regime morale and dismantle the kleptocratic elite's hold on power. (6)Deterrence and Covert Diplomacy: Analyzing CIA Trip to Moscow and the North Korean AllianceJohn Hardie analyzes CIA Director John Ratcliffe's unexpected visit to Moscow. Speculation suggests the trip aimed to deter Russian sabotage against NATO, push for a diplomatic settlement in Ukraine, and pressure Moscow to limit support for Iran. Although Russian leader Vladimir Putin remains convinced of victory and resistant to compromises, maintaining deterrence remains critical. Simultaneously, military intelligence reports that North Korea has supplied dozens of short-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine, with thousands of combat troops potentially deployed, further complicating the global security landscape. (7)A Shift in Rules: IDF's Aggressive Gaza Targeting, Tunnel Demolition, and West Bank Air PowerSamuel Ben-Ur highlights a shift in Israeli military operations. Following a ceasefire, the IDF returned to pre-agreement rules by striking an active Hamas militant at a Gaza bakery. The military has destroyed roughly half of Gaza's tunnels, with operations continuing on the Hamas-controlled side. Additionally, Israel executed a rare West Bank airstrike to eliminate Kais Betawi, a high-value financial and military operative, signaling strength ahead of upcoming elections. Finally, the discussion outlines the total exclusion of the heavily compromised UNRWA from future Gaza recovery efforts, noting that the United States and Israel will sideline the agency entirely. (8)Higher Education in Crisis: Rising Debt, STEM Brain Drain, and Political PolarizationTom Katsouleas critiques the declining public trust and degrees in American higher education despite high spending. Driven by cost, value, and inclusion issues, students face massive debts that delay major life milestones like marriage and housing. Public universities have increased tuition to compensate for shrinking state budgets, while investing in luxury facilities and high-end services. In graduate education, US research programs depend heavily on international students—primarily from China—for STEM fields. However, rising immigration hostility and aggressive geopolitical competition are reversing this brain drain, while perceived progressive bias further polarizes public trust. (9)The Strategic Vanguard: Hezbollah's Regional Reach, Ceasefire Probing, and Lebanese Shia PoliticsDavid Daoud outlines the strategic dynamics of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah is currently launching pinprick probing attacks to test Israel's rules of engagement under ceasefire constraints and US pressure. Within Lebanesepolitics, the Shia community remains structured around a symbiotic relationship between the nationalist Amal movement and Hezbollah, preventing any independent Shia opposition from gaining ground. Beyond Lebanon, Hezbollah acts as the tip of the spear for Iranian expansionism, training regional proxies in rocket, tunnel, and propaganda warfare. This veteran, transnational expertise makes Hezbollah an indispensable regional asset that Iran would find impossible to replace. (10)The Silent Drip: Structural Remedies for America's $40 Trillion Debt CrisisThomas Savidge addresses the economic implications of the United States crossing the $40 trillion national debt threshold, fueled by pandemic spending and mandatory entitlements. This massive debt competes with private capital, driving up consumer borrowing rates and depressing real wages through inflation. To halt this slow economic drip, Savidge proposes a "fiscal constitution." This includes strong constitutional amendments, Colorado-style spending caps tied to population growth and inflation, a silent-approval budget commission to enact spending cuts, and strict regulatory limits on the scope of government authority to prevent accounting tricks. (11)

Caption: 1890 Russian Black Sea FleetLIVE STREAMING OF THE MAKING OF THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW WITH EDMUND FITTON-BROWN AND SAMUEL BEN-UR OF FDD.ORGThis text provides a transcript of a broadcast featuring John Batchelor and Edmund Fitton Brown discussing the volatile geopolitical landscape of the Middle East. The speakers examine the global energy crisis, specifically focusing on the critical shortages in refined oil caused by military conflicts and infrastructure limits. A significant portion of the conversation details the suffering of the Iranian people under a repressive regime, using anecdotes from a firsthand account of life in Tehran. The dialogue also addresses the ongoing war in Gaza, the complexities of urban warfare, and the challenges of achieving peace through international organizations like the United Nations. Finally, the participants reflect on the political polarization surrounding Middle Eastern reporting and the difficulties of maintaining objectivity during conflict.

Jeff Hoffman is an award-winning global entrepreneur, proven CEO, bestselling author and speaker who has played a role in some of the world's best-known startups, including Priceline.com/Booking.com and uBid.com.  Over his career, he has founded multiple companies, led both public and private businesses, and worked across industries ranging from technology and entertainment to gaming. His work has also earned recognition beyond business, including producing a Grammy Award-winning jazz album and executive producing an Emmy Award-winning television show. Today, Jeff is Chairman of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, which supports entrepreneurs across 200 countries, and serves as Chairman of the Global Gaming League. He has advised entrepreneurs, corporations and governments around the world, working with organizations including the White House, U.S. State Department and United Nations on entrepreneurship and economic growth initiatives. He has spoken in more than 70 countries and is the author of SCALE, a guide to growing businesses. Beyond business, Jeff is the founder and CEO of World Youth Horizons, a nonprofit providing homes, education, food and healthcare to children in need around the world. His career has increasingly focused on using entrepreneurship not simply to build successful companies, but as a tool to create opportunity and positive impact at scale.

In this episode of The Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about career pivots, self-discovery and why waiting for the perfect time can keep us from pursuing what matters. My guest this week is Niki Lazaridou, who has held a number of entrepreneurial and senior leadership roles.Niki shares her diverse career background and the journey that led her to finding her purpose. In our conversation, we discuss the balance between having enough pressure to motivate us and having so much pressure that we shift into survival mode. Niki introduces the Greek word meraki, which describes putting a piece of your soul into what you do, and explains why curiosity, effort and personal investment can create a deeper sense of purpose.Finally, we explore how our core values can help us distinguish impostor syndrome from a work environment that is genuinely out of alignment. Niki shares how identifying directness, empathy and freedom as her three core values helped her better understand her emotional reactions at work, and why saying our fears out loud can release pressure and create stronger human connection.About My GuestWith 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur and working in senior positions in a variety of corporations and organizations, Niki has been positioned as a Pool of Experts Team in the United Nations, Senior Risk Manager in PWC, and Program Manager in Publicis Sapient.Currently serving as Strategy Manager at Minc Sweden, she is commissioned to redesign the entire incubator model in order to foster collaboration in the Nordic Region.She is also a Mentor in Entrepreneurship at Harvard University, as well as a professional advisor at MIT, currently driving her own collaboration initiative between Harvard and CERN in Geneva.Niki is also a member of Forbes Women connecting to a global network of women leaders, founders, and professionals.As an entrepreneur, Niki has worked on projects with MIT Media Lab, ABC, BBC, Puma, Amazon, Peabody Essex Museum, Blue Lagoon Iceland, Body Worlds Exhibition while also being published in Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Boston Globe, i-D, Cosmopolitan.She has delivered workshops & Academic Teaching at IKEA, Hyper Island, Apple, and BA courses in Media Technology at BTH. Her education focuses in Software Engineering, Media and Communications, and AI.~Connect with Niki:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikilazaridou/ Website: https://www.nikilazaridou.com/~Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:https://www.kimmeninger.com/challengeLearn more about the Leading Humans discussion group:https://www.kimmeninger.com/leadinghumansgroupJoin the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals: https://forms.gle/Ts4Vg4Nx4HDnTVUC6Join the Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadinghumansSchedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges: https://bookme.name/ExecCareer/strategy-sessionConnect on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmeninger/Website:https://www.kimmeninger.com

Chines President Xi Jinping has addressed the SCO Plus meeting and called for a more equal, just, and multipolar world order. He urged major powers to take the lead in upholding international rule of law and called for a reinvigorated United Nations.

JJ Richards is a photographer whose creative journey has been shaped by a lifetime of travel, service, and a desire to share positivity through images. Originally from New Zealand, JJ took an unconventional path after completing school. Rather than immediately attending university, he joined the army, where he spent 12 years in service. Following his military career, JJ joined the United Nations as a telecommunications technician and went on to spend 30 years working in peacekeeping operations around the world before retiring in 2020. His career gave him the opportunity to travel to more than 65 countries, experiencing different cultures, communities, and landscapes along the way. Those experiences have helped shape the way he sees the world—and, ultimately, the way he approaches photography. JJ was first introduced to photography by an uncle who taught him film photography in the 1970s. Although he stepped away from photography for many years, he eventually returned to it and rediscovered the joy of being behind the camera. Today, photography is less about business for JJ and more about connection, relaxation, and exploration. He enjoys getting outside for photo walks, combining creativity with the simple pleasure of discovering something worth capturing. In a world where negativity can often dominate the online conversation, JJ uses photography as a way to spread something different: positivity. Through his work, he hopes to share moments, perspectives, and images that encourage people to pause, look around, and find something good in the world.

CAPTION: ARTAXERSES OF PERSIAEdmund Fitton-Brown details the bleak economic reality for citizens in Tehran living under severe economic sanctions and a low-intensity conflict. Ordinary residents are reduced to driving for ride-sharing apps like Snapp and begging for food due to skyrocketing prices of staple goods like yogurt. While the regime's elite remain insulated, sanctions have severely strained the general population without driving systemic behavior changes. Furthermore, the discussion examines the declining global credibility of the United Nations. The organization has abandoned its neutrality by focusing excessively on targeting Israel and prioritizing humanitarian relief, which frequently ends up diverted to empower oppressive regimes. (1)

It's Monday, August 31st, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Burmese military killed pastor and another believer The Burma Research Institute has confirmed that Rev. William, who used no last name, and another Chin Christian, Nam Ceu, were extrajudicially murdered on June 4th by the Burmese military dictatorship in Myanmar, reports International Christian Concern.  Rev. William had pastored the Chungcung Baptist Church in Chin State for more than 25 years. He was arrested with Ceu in May and had been detained by the military since then. Sources told the Burma Research Institute that Rev. William and Nam Ceu were killed for allegedly supporting the Hakha Chinland Defense Force, which is fighting against the Burmese military dictatorship. Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Zo Tum Hmung, President of the Burma Research Institute, said, “We call the Trump administration to protect the persecuted Christians in Burma.” Send a polite, 4-sentence note to Kyaw Moe Tun, the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations.  Address it to the Myanmar Delegation, 10 East 77th Street, New York, NY 10075. Democrat James Talarico: Muslims and Christians worship same God James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator in Texas who is running against Republican Ken Paxton, the current Texas Attorney General, falsely claimed that Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians. Listen. TALARICO: “Christians and Muslims and Jews all worship the same God. Muslims love Jesus. They love Moses and Abraham. We are all branches on the same tree as the Abrahamic faiths.  “So. it's heartbreaking to watch extremists, whether they are Christian nationalists or whether they're the Taliban or al-Qaeda, perverting these beautiful traditions, that have so much in common, to attack others and consolidate their own power.” There are three primary differences between Christianity and Islam. First, regarding the nature of God, Christians teach that God is the Trinity—one God existing in three co-equal, co-eternal persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19) By contrast, Islam completely rejects the Trinity. Second, Christians believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God and God incarnate who physically died on the cross for the atonement of the sins of the elect and rose from the dead. (John 1:1,14) By contrast, while Islam reveres Jesus as a major, virgin-born prophet and messenger of God, it explicitly denies His divinity, crucifixion, and resurrection. And third, Christianity teaches that salvation is a free gift of grace received through personal faith in the finished sacrificial work of Jesus Christ, rather than by human effort. (Ephesians 2:8-9) By contrast, Islam teaches that salvation depends on total submission to Allah's will, adherence to the Five Pillars of Islam, and the final judgment of one's deeds. Therefore, Muslims and Christians clearly do not worship the same God. Georgia Democrat distanced himself from antisemitic leftist Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff has offered sharp criticism of President Donald Trump which generated buzz about Ossoff potentially running for president in 2028.   That, in turn, has attracted some left-wing figures who have lauded his messaging like left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in April that he was “intrigued” by Ossoff. There are two developments of note.  First, Ossoff, whose father is Jewish, is facing criticism from some of Georgia's local Jewish community over his votes to block certain arms sales to Israel. Second, Senator Ossoff has distanced himself from Hasan Piker over recent comments that many interpreted as justifying threats to American Jews,  reports the Jewish Telegraph Agency.   Speaking on a Twitch livestream on August 20th, Piker said this. PIKER: “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone's going to come around and take action. Not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.” Last Thursday, according to Fox News, an Ossoff spokesman said that the senator “unreservedly rejects reckless and dangerous rhetoric suggesting that policy advocacy invites violence against the Jewish community or any community.” In Genesis 12:3, God said, “I will make [Israel] into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on Earth will be blessed through you.” Undercover video exposes GOP Sen. Murkowski on SAVE Act And finally, liberal Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska stood on the Senate floor and painted a grim picture of the supposed damage the SAVE America Act, or the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would do in her home state.  This is the bill that would ensure that American citizens — and only American citizens — should decide American elections. It would simply require: A valid ID before registering to vote in a federal election. Proof of citizenship. No Mail-in Ballots (except for illness, disability, military, or travel). Listen to Senator Murkowski's claim. MURKOWSKI: “What we're talking about right now is just the registration to vote. So, you're in Unalaska -- say you're a fisherman or a teacher -- the flight to Anchorage, because this is where you're going to have to go -- you're going to have to go into Anchorage: 800 air miles, $1,100 per seat, if you can maybe get on a charter.” James O'Keefe, an undercover journalist with the O'Keefe Media Group and the Justice League, flew to Unalaska to find out firsthand if Senator Murkowski's claim was true. Listen to his analysis. O'KEEFE: “I'm James O'Keefe, and I'm in the middle of absolutely nowhere, about 800 miles off the coast of Alaska, on a remote island in the Aleutian Islands. “Now, Senator Lisa Murkowski says that one of the reasons she's not going to pass the SAVE Act is because of people that live here on this island of Unalaska.  “Senator Murkowski saying if the SAVE Act passes, online registration goes away, and the residents here, the few thousand people that live here, are going to have to fly 800 miles and spend thousands of dollars to go to Anchorage to take care of their business.  “But all the people we spoke with here, they all said that that's wrong, including the post office, the library, the city clerk, the DMV. We didn't know there was a DMV here. Everyone we spoke to here said they're able to register to vote here. They're able to prove citizenship by going to the library.  “So, Senator Murkowski says, ‘If you're a fisherman in Unalaska, the closest election office is 800 miles away; it would cost $1,500. You would also need a hotel, cabs, and food while in Anchorage. But the librarian just told us differently.” Here is the portion of the undercover investigation with a female undercover agent, who accompanied O'Keefe, to the library in Unalaska. UNDERCOVER FEMALE AGENT: “Just wanted to learn a little bit more about the process to get an ID. “ LIBRARIAN: “We do passports here.” UNDERCOVER AGENT: “Oh, you do passports here.” UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “Mmm.” UNDERCOVER FEMALE AGENT:  “That's good to know, though, that if somebody wants to confirm their citizenship, they can do it here.” UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “To get the Alaska ID, do you get it here or back in Anchorage?” LIBRARIAN: “Oh no, here. The DMV should be the near the police station.” UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “So, we don't have to go to Anchorage to get it.”  LIBRARIAN: “No, no, no. As long as you have all the paperwork you need.”  UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “But I read in the newspaper that the senator [Lisa Murkowski], said, ‘Oh, they're going to pass this SAVE Act, and everyone's got to go to Anchorage to get it.'” LIBRARIAN: “I don't think so.” UNDERCOVER O'KEEFE: “Oh no. Okay.” Proverbs 12:19 says, “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.” Call liberal Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski's office in DC, 24 hours a day/7 days a week, and ask the live operator to connect you to her voicemail, urging her to support the SAVE America Act. Her number is (202) 224-6665. Tell her that you reject her false claim that people in the Aleutian Islands have to travel 800 miles by air to register to vote in Anchorage. Plus, call your two Senators at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vote for the SAVE America Act as well. Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, August 31st, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ

Welcome back to the NSG Indie Game Roundup, our monthly series featuring indie games news, plus game demos and new release discussions. We may be almost through summer, but the gaming news continues to flow, for better or worse. We dig into some big indie game news stories from the past month, plus a little internet discourse, as a treat. As usual, we also have a ton of awesome game demos and new releases to tell you about! Make sure you stay through the end of the roundup because we have a very special bonus segment at the end, where we got to chat with our dear friends Cognitive Clips and Cecilie about this year's Games for Change Festival. They shared some great highlights from this year's event, some of which you can watch at the links in the show notes. Also, huge thanks to our newest Patreon supporters! In addition to other fun perks, members on Patreon get early access to all of the Indie Game Roundup episodes. If you love No Small Games and would like to support us in growing the show, while also unlocking fun, exclusive content, you can check out our Patreon page. You can find our full show notes, including links and shoutouts, on the No Small Games site: Indie Game Roundup - August Show Notes Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:03:48 - Icebreaker Question  00:13:00 - Indie Game News 00:34:15 - Demos 00:47:10 - Big Walk 00:57:36 - Capy Castaway 01:00:39 - Mind Inc. 01:03:10 - Sephiria 01:08:50 - Nimbit Frontier 01:13:52 - Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story 01:20:32 - Walk 01:24:46 - Fields of Mistria 01:38:28 - A Musical Story Meet our Guests CognitiveClips @cognitiveclips.bsky.social Jordan, aka CognitiveClips, is a gaming content creator and one of the co-hosts of Drop-in Drop-out Podcast. Jordan produces video essays, game impressions and playthroughs for YouTube. As a co-host on Drop-in Drop-out, he joins a large cast of rotating hosts and guests to discuss video game news, new releases and everything in between. Check out Jordan's content on: Bluesky  YouTube  Instagram  Drop-in Drop-out Podcast C3C1LIE @c3c1lie.bsky.social Cecilie works in advocacy and policy work at the United Nations, with a focus on international migration and displacement. She works with governments, NGOs, UN agencies and other stakeholders to uplift grassroots experiences and bring them to policy making spaces at the UN. She also occasionally streams on Twitch, including recapping events like Games for Change. Follow Cecilie on: Bluesky  Instagram  Twitch Keep in touch with us on social media: Kate's Bluesky ✦ https://bsky.app/profile/katerblossom.bsky.social  Emily's Bluesky ✦ https://bsky.app/profile/aspecificegg.bsky.social  No Small Games Bluesky ✦ https://bsky.app/profile/nosmallgames.bsky.social  No Small Games Instagram ✦ https://www.instagram.com/nosmallgames  Want to learn more and weigh in on what games we should play in future episodes? Check us out and leave a game suggestion at nosmallgames.com

Show DescriptionWhen a disaster begins high in the mountains, its consequences can reach communities far downstream before people understand what is coming.In this episode of the Emergency Management Network podcast, we examine Nepal's devastating August 26 flash flood and debris flow, the unfolding humanitarian emergency, and the operational challenges facing responders. Preliminary USGS findings describe a rapid slope failure involving a glacier that sent destructive debris and floodwaters nearly 100 kilometers downstream. USGSAmid the destruction, a last-minute warning helped a school leader evacuate more than 900 students—a powerful starting point for discussing warning systems, decision authority, and protective action. ReutersWe explore the immediate response priorities, the consequences of damaged infrastructure, and the responsibilities that continue long after the initial flood. For emergency management professionals, this episode asks: What does this disaster reveal about our own readiness, and what should we do with those lessons?Show NotesBriefing Script — Situation as of August 31, 2026Nepal is confronting a major flash-flood and debris-flow disaster along its northern border with Tibet. The event began on August 26, when a rapid slope failure involving a glacier in Langtang National Park likely sent rock, mud, ice, and water into the Lende Khola and Trishuli river systems. The destructive flow traveled nearly 100 kilometers downstream. The precise initiating mechanism remains preliminary and requires continued scientific assessment. USGSThe humanitarian consequences are severe. According to the cited reporting, Nepalese authorities have reported more than 900 deaths, over 4,200 people missing—including hundreds of foreign nationals—and more than 10,000 rescues. The Nepal Red Cross estimates that more than 90,000 people have been affected. These figures are provisional; access constraints, debris burial, displacement, and disrupted communications complicate accountability. NBC NewsThis is a compound mountain disaster, with flooding, debris movement, isolation, and infrastructure failures creating overlapping response challenges. Buildings and a vital highway connecting Nepal and China have reportedly been buried or destroyed. USGS Reports also indicate that hundreds of workers may be trapped or unaccounted for at damaged hydropower projects in Rasuwa and Nuwakot. Associated PressSo What? Now What for the Emergency Management Professional?The following priorities frame our operational discussion:* Sustain lifesaving operations. Support search and rescue, missing-person accounting, and family reunification, particularly in isolated valleys and at damaged hydropower sites.* Restore safe access. Assess and establish ground and air access to communities isolated by road and bridge failures, while accounting for responder safety and changing conditions.* Meet immediate humanitarian needs. Coordinate emergency shelter, safe water, food, trauma care, and continuity of essential health services.* Rebuild situational awareness. Restore communications and conduct rapid damage, needs, and infrastructure assessments.* Monitor secondary hazards. Maintain downstream monitoring and public warning while assessing unstable slopes, river blockages, rainfall, and glacial hazards.* Plan for sustained displacement and recovery. Incorporate education, protection, psychosocial support, and safer reconstruction into early recovery discussions.According to the cited UN report, the United Nations has released an initial $2 million in emergency funding, while WHO has deployed emergency health supplies sufficient to support basic health services for up to 10,000 people. UNICEF reports that at least 17,000 children have been affected, facing risks associated with disease, malnutrition, disrupted education, violence, and exploitation. UN NewsNepal's emergency requires simultaneous attention to immediate life safety and prolonged needs involving access, shelter, health, infrastructure, and recovery. Our discussion considers how government-led coordination, local capacity, and international support can address those demands while continuing to monitor cascading hazards.Lifesaving Warnings: The School EvacuationReuters reports that a last-minute warning helped save more than 900 students at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School. We use that account to examine the connection between receiving information and initiating protective action. ReutersDiscussion questions include:* Who can authorize an immediate evacuation without waiting for additional approval?* Can warnings reach schools through multiple, trusted communication channels?* Do evacuation plans address arriving buses, accessible transportation, accountability, and family reunification?* How do local emergency managers receive information about threats originating upstream or across borders?* How can recovery decisions reduce exposure to future disasters?Additional ReadingNPR: Nepal floods, climate change, and the HimalayasInformation reflects reporting available as of August 31, 2026. Casualty figures, missing-person totals, humanitarian estimates, and scientific findings are provisional and should be checked before recording or publication.Nepal Flash Flood: Top-Rated Charities Providing Reliefhttps://blog.charitywatch.org/nepal-flash-flood-top-rated-charities-providing-relief/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Shagg Makino Counting Countries has been to 169 countries Hey now, I am your host, Ric Gazarian. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Shagg Makino. Shagg is a part-time resident of Bangkok, and we have met socially several times this year. Shagg will also be joining over 200 people at the Extraordinary Travel Festival. I was in Bangkok while Shagg was also in Bangkok for this recording. Please listen in and enjoy.

The Digital Sovereignty Alliance (DSA) is a nonprofit social welfare organization committed to advocating for public policies that support ethical innovation in decentralized technologies, blockchain, cryptocurrency, Web3, and artificial intelligence. DSA conducts research, organizes educational events, and promotes policies that prioritize public welfare and digital sovereignty.Adrian Wall is Managing Director of the Digital Sovereignty Alliance (DSA), where he is a leading voice on blockchain policy, digital asset regulation, and financial innovation. Adrian recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the Clarity Act, the DSA's mission and much more.The conversation in this episode highlights the immense benefits that statutory regulation would bring to the American digital asset industry, emphasizing that legal clarity and consistency are vital to unlocking hesitant investment capital. Adrian explains how formal rules of the road would trigger an innovation renaissance, forcing traditional banks to improve customer service to compete with faster, more reliable digital alternative ecosystems.Furthermore, a global perspective is explored, noting that while stablecoin adoption is driven by existential hyperinflation in developing nations, a proliferation of U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins ultimately solidifies America's geopolitical position and economic power projection tools.Adrian Wall's work bridges government, academia, and industry to advance responsible frameworks that promote innovation, transparency, and financial inclusion. Adrian directs DSA's Learning Team, developing blockchain education programs for policymakers, universities, and financial institutions, and has advised on major bipartisan legislative efforts including the GENIUS Act and the Clarity Act.A frequent speaker at global policy and industry forums including the United Nations, Nacha, and the DC Blockchain Summit, his published work explores decentralized finance, stablecoins, and regulatory harmonization. Adrian holds an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College and a Public Leadership Credential from Harvard Kennedy School.To learn more visit discoverdsa.org.

In this episode of Growing Kentucky's Leaders, Sheldon and Ruth and sit down with former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft. Craft is a "lifelong Kentuckian", a successful American businesswoman, and former diplomat who has much to say about the future of Kentucky and the future of Kentucky FFA. More on Ambassador Craft at the link below! https://kyffa.org/ambassador-kelly-craft-establishes-forever-blue-fund-to-benefit-glasgow-and-barren-county-ffa-chapters/

Five years after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban's near-total crackdown on the rights of women and girls has made the country ‘a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world', according to the United Nations. The Taliban governed for five years in the late 1990s before the US invasion. Now, as Afghanistan reaches the same milestone with the Taliban's second stint in power, how is the international community engaging with them this time around? We speak to the BBC's chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, who has reported on the country for decades. She recounts her recent trip to Afghanistan and her conversations with senior Taliban ministers, as well as women and girls trying to challenge their repression. Producers: Hannah Moore and Sam ChantarasakExecutive producer: Martine PowersMix: Travis EvansSenior news editor: China CollinsPhoto: An Afghan burqa-clad woman walks along a road at Kolcha Abad village in the Dand district of Kandahar on June 16, 2026. Credit: Sanaullah Seiam/AFP via Getty Images.

“For 80 years, we only have men [lead the UN] and I think it is not about women because she is a woman … The idea is a woman because she has the experience, the leadership, the capacity, the knowledge, the ability to do things that need to be done…So I hope that that will be something that members could understand that it will be fantastic. But, to be honest, I'm not sure that every country is ready for that.” James Copnall speaks to Michelle Bachelet, a former President of Chile and one of the world's most prominent human rights advocates. Bachelet made history as Chile's first woman president, serving two terms before going on to become the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. Now, she is one of the candidates vying to become the next secretary general of the United Nations, a position never held by a woman since the organisation was founded in 1945. With the UN facing growing pressure to reform, Bachelet says the organisation needs to adapt to a changing world, become more effective and better reflect the people and countries it represents. She also argues that it is time for a woman to lead the United Nations, after eight decades in which the top job has been held exclusively by men. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and film director Christopher Nolan. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: James Copnall Producers: Sharon Hemans, Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Michelle Bachelet. Credit: Raul Bravo/AFP via Getty Images)

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on world leaders declaring checkmate on Donald Trump and outmaneuvering him on the world stage as new global alliances take shape and the United States grows increasingly isolated and weaker under Trump. Meiselas highlights the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, President Xi's meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney strengthening ties with the European Union. Meiselas then speaks with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice for a powerful discussion about the current geopolitical situation and America's standing in the world. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the spring of 1948, three armed Jewish militias had been fighting and working towards the birth of modern Israel. There was the Haganah, under David Ben-Gurion, which would become the core of the new Israel Defense Forces. There was the Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, and a smaller group, the Lehi. Begin agreed to dissolve the Irgun units operating in Israel into the new army, a decision he made in the name of national unity and cohesion even though tensions between the Irgun and the Haganah were deep, and Haganah operatives had previously informed on their counterparts in the Irgun to British officials. Even so, the Irgun had pledged to become a part of the IDF in the newly formed state of Israel. A month after Ben-Gurion declared independence, a ship named the Altalena set sail from France under the auspices of the Irgun, carrying rifles and some 900 immigrants, many of them survivors of the Shoah. The ship left port the same day a United Nations cease-fire took effect, a truce that barred the importation of any new arms or combatants into the country. When it reached the coast at Kfar Vitkin just north of Tel Aviv, a dispute broke out over how the weapons would be distributed, and in particular over Begin's insistence that a share go to an Irgun battalion in Jerusalem, which he argued stood outside the truce's terms since Jerusalem's status remained unsettled under the UN partition plan. The standoff turned violent onshore, and Begin ordered the ship to sail south, to Tel Aviv, in full view of the city and the international press. Near what is today Frishman Beach, Ben-Gurion gave the order to open fire on the ship, and by this time, with Begin aboard, on his main political rival. Two officers refused before a third accepted the command. Sixteen Irgun men and three IDF soldiers were killed. And Begin, standing on the burning deck with comrades dying around him, ordered his own men not to fire back. He would repeat that order over the radio that night: never, he said, could he condone a war between brothers. The specter of the Altalena has haunted Israeli politics ever since. It plays a potent and mythological role in the imagination of the political right as one of the earliest examples of a centralized government dominated by the political left that uses the power of the state against its domestic opponents. Now, six weeks before an Israeli election, the wreckage of the Altalena has been discovered. To discuss the ship's sinking and the significance of its recovery, Jonathan Silver, the host of the Tikvah podcast and the editor of Mosaic, is joined by the historian, educator, and writer Avi Shilon. Shilon is the author of, among other works of scholarship, the definitive biography of Menachem Begin, published in 2012 by Yale University Press.

"I would be prepared to accept the status of independence for Cyprus on the condition that this status shall not be changed, either by union with Greece, by partition, or by any other way, unless the United Nations approves such a change." Archbishop Makarios, September 1958 In this episode, we explore connections between the American struggle for independence from Britain in 1776 and the Cypriot struggle for independence from Britain nearly 200 years later. Here is a list of key terms, organizations, and people: ENOSIS: the union of Cyprus with Greece TAKSIM: the partition of Cyprus between Turkish and Greek populations NATIONAL RADICAL UNION OF CYPRUS: precursor to EOKA EOKA: the name of the Greek nationalist organization TMT: the name of the Turkish nationalist organization AKEL: the trade union party of Cyprus, with links to communism Archbishop Makarios: Leader of the enosis movement and first president of Cyprus Jason Loukianou: proponent of a liberal republic of Cyprus Antonios Triantafyllides: lawyer and nationalist politician assassinated in 1934 for agreeing to participate in British Colonial Advisory Council General Georgios Grivas: Greek nationalist and military leader of EOKA Topics include: -a brief history of modern Cyprus from 1776, during Ottoman rule (1570-1878), through British rule (1878-1960) -the changing governance models in Cyprus and the evolving legal status of Cypriots while under British rule -the re-introduction by the British of democratic practices, constitutional rule, and a liberal legal system into Cyprus -the impact of the Great Depression on Cyprus -the impact of WWII, the Greek Civil War, and the Cold War on Cyprus Prof. Varnava's books can be found here: [Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA](https://anthempress.com/books/assassination-in-colonial-cyprus-in-1934-and-the-origins-of-eoka-pb) [British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914-1925: Empire, Loyalties and Democratic Deficit ](https://www.routledge.com/British-Cyprus-and-the-Long-Great-War-1914-1925-Empire-Loyalties-and/Varnava/p/book/9781138698321?fbclid=IwAR3EVpbAACDza6h6eIHrw1H5ghmBXeMRmEKGjtwGIaIgpG1wGVxBH-5Y36E) [Serving the Empire in the Great War: The Cypriot Mule Corps, Imperial Loyalty and Silenced Memory](https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103673/) [ British Imperialism in Cyprus, 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession](https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719086403/) The cover image depicts the British military hoisting the Union Jack in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 12 July 1878.

Ahead of the 81st General Assembly of the United Nations, host Landry Signé is joined by the UN's Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, Ahunna Eziakonwa. Their discussion highlights the UN's work to coordinate African development and how African countries themselves are shaping a more sustainable and equitable global system. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

The United Nations is in the midst of selecting its next Secretary-General — and the race to succeed António Guterres just got more interesting. Last week, the Security Council held a straw poll to test the viability of the eight women and men vying to become Secretary-General in January. The results: we have a new frontrunner, though her apparent lead is narrow. Meanwhile, some candidates once considered frontrunners now look like long shots. On this episode of our sister podcast, To Save Us From Hell,  Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal dissect the results of the straw poll and discuss the latest developments in the Secretary-General race You can unlock full access to To Save Us From Hell with a paid subscription --> https://www.globaldispatches.org/ 

Five years ago this month, the United States ended its war in Afghanistan. Washington's exit was chaotic; as Taliban forces swept through the country and the U.S.-backed government collapsed, officials scrambled to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans who might fall victim to repression and retribution. In the years since, Afghanistan has practically vanished from American foreign policy discussion. But the situation in the country remains dire, and the collective forgetting of the United States' longest war carries costs of its own. Laurel Miller and Graeme Smith have each spent many years working on and within Afghanistan. Miller, now president of the Asia Foundation, was a longtime U.S. diplomat who became a top official focused on Afghanistan from 2013 to 2017. Smith worked as a political affairs officer for the United Nations in Afghanistan from 2015 to 2018 before serving as an Afghanistan analyst for the International Crisis Group. Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke to Miller and Smith on Tuesday, August 25, about the lessons and legacy of the American war in Afghanistan, how the country has changed under Taliban rule, and the questions that U.S. policymakers should grapple with moving forward. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.

Despite increasingly difficult conditions, the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, continues to operate on the ground, remaining a vital lifeline and providing education, healthcare, humanitarian aid and social protection in Gaza and the West Bank. Roland Friedrich, director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank, spoke to UN News' Reem Abaza and stressed that the issue goes beyond the agency itself, saying the “restoration of respect for the United Nations at large and for UNRWA as an agency mandated by the General Assembly” is essential. He warned that shrinking humanitarian space and displacement are dangerous trends and underlined that urgency of returning to a credible pathway towards the two-State solution and eventually a situation where UNRWA as an agency “does not have to do its work anymore because the conflict is moving towards a solution”.

We are so privileged to have had the opportunity to speak with author and scholar Kate Price after her reading at Booktenders in Barboursville earlier this month. Join us as we discuss the dynamics of gender-based violence in Appalachia and explore some of the ways resilience blooms in unlikely places. Kate Price is an associate research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women, a research institute at Wellesley College. She is also an advisor for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Child Sex Trafficking Expert Working Group and Global Platform for Child Exploitation Policy, and an alumni scholar at the Brandeis University Women's Studies Research Center. An internationally recognized child sex trafficking expert and lecturer, Price has influenced the passage of state-level children's human rights legislation and United Nations policy. Price is the recipient of a My Life, My Choice Beacon of Light Award, a Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize medal, a Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award from the International Centers for Research on Women, and an American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship. She has worked extensively with trauma pioneers Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Body Keeps the Score, in which Price is featured, and Dr. Judith Herman. Price received her MA in gender/cultural studies from Simmons College and earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.Branches Domestic Violence Shelter has been providing services to victims of domestic violence in the Appalachian communities of Cabell, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam, and Wayne counties in West Virginia.Let's Be Friends! On FacebookOn InstagramSign up for our NewsletterOr Donate.

Ghislaine Maxwell attempted to reinvent herself as an environmental philanthropist through the TerraMar Project, a nonprofit she founded in 2012 that promoted ocean conservation and protection of the high seas. TerraMar gave Maxwell access to respectable institutions and influential audiences, including appearances connected to the Council on Foreign Relations and the United Nations, while allowing her to cultivate a public image as an advocate for the oceans. But despite the ambitious rhetoric surrounding the project, questions lingered about how much tangible conservation work TerraMar actually accomplished. Its website promoted ideas such as treating the high seas as a kind of shared global territory and encouraged supporters to become symbolic “citizens” of the ocean, but the organization remained relatively opaque and its accomplishments were difficult to measure against the grand vision Maxwell presented publicly.The project became even more controversial because of Maxwell's longstanding relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, whose 2008 conviction and later 2019 federal sex-trafficking charges cast a much darker light on her philanthropic persona. TerraMar abruptly announced that it was shutting down on July 12, 2019, less than a week after Epstein's arrest became public, effectively ending Maxwell's attempt to establish herself as a prominent environmental advocate. By then, Maxwell herself was facing renewed scrutiny over allegations concerning her role in Epstein's world, including litigation brought by one of his victims. The collapse of TerraMar ultimately became another example of the respectable public identity Maxwell constructed around elite institutions and philanthropy while serious allegations about her conduct alongside Epstein were closing in around her.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Whatever Happened to Ghislaine Maxwell's Plan to Save the Oceans? - The New York Times

In this episode, Siri and I sit down with Carolina L., an Argentinian economist and humanitarian whose career with the United Nations took her from New York to East Timor and Iraq. Carolina reflects on the experiences that first drew her to international affairs, her fascination with diplomacy, and the sense of purpose she found working in some of the world's most challenging environments.Carolina shares her memories of helping rebuild East Timor following its independence, the relationships she formed there, and meeting her partner, Sergio Vieira de Mello. She describes their shared commitment to peacebuilding and public service, and the optimism that sustained them through complex international missions.We also talk about the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, in which Sergio and 21 of Carolina's colleagues were killed, and the long journey that followed. Carolina reflects with remarkable honesty on grief, rebuilding a life after profound loss, finding meaning through Viktor Frankl's work, and carrying Sergio's legacy forward through mentorship and service.Recorded on 12 April 2022, with new introduction recorded in July 2026.Instagram: @at.the.coalfaceConnect with Carolina on Instagram @carolina.larriera. Centro Sergio Vieira de Mello (sergiovieirademello.org) aims to keep Sergio's legacy alive by bringing diplomatic skills to Brazil's underprivileged youth.Please subscribe to At the Coalface wherever you get your podcasts to receive a new episode every two weeks: Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  |  Google PodcastsHelp us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during upcoming recordings. Thank you.Support the show

What are the Noahide Laws, and why have governments and international organizations discussed them as a universal moral code? In Episode 964 of The Smith and Rowland Show, Jeff Rowland and Alan Smith examine the seven Noahide Laws, their origins in the Talmud, and the differences between these laws and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The conversation focuses on the seventh law, the establishment of courts of justice, and how legal authority could shape the meaning and enforcement of the other six laws. The discussion also reviews statements and resolutions connected to the Noahide Laws, including references to President Ronald Reagan, President George H. W. Bush, the United States Congress, the European Union, Australia, and a 2012 United Nations conference. Jeff and Alan consider whether this system could unite Judaism, Islam, and apostate Christianity under a shared religious and legal framework. The conversation then turns to biblical prophecy, the rise of a one-world government and religion, the restrainer described in 2 Thessalonians 2, the rapture of the church, and the role of the Holy Spirit during the Tribulation. They also discuss the 144,000, the two witnesses, and the revival Scripture describes during that period. Before the main discussion, the hosts invite viewers to join KingdomProphetic.org, an interactive Christian platform featuring articles, videos, live chat, and the complete Smith and Rowland podcast archive. Watch the full episode, compare the claims with Scripture and historical sources, and share your thoughts in the comments. https://kingdompropheticsociety.org  #NoahideLaws #BibleProphecy #EndTimes #ChristianTeaching #SmithAndRowland

The country music legend Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80 in Nashville, Tennessee. In a seven-decade career, she won 10 Grammy awards, sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and wrote in excess of 3,000 songs. We'll be looking back at her life and legacy.Also in the programme: the United Nations and the Red Cross have called for urgent negotiations to restrict the use of autonomous weapons; and why the Indian government is sending onions across the country.(Photo: The American country music star, Dolly Parton, performs on the Pyramid Stage during the Glastonbury Festival June 29, 2014. Reuters/Cathal McNaughton.)

Somewhere on the ocean floor right now, a coral colony has been growing since before the Great Pyramid of Giza was finished. One deep-water black coral off the coast of Hawaii has been dated at 4,270 years old, making it one of the oldest living skeleton-building organisms known to science. A single pass of a bottom trawl net can wipe out that kind of habitat in seconds, and it's a fight that's still being decided this very year at the United Nations. In this episode, Andrew breaks down why bottom trawling is such a hard problem to regulate. It's rarely the fish stock itself that takes the worst damage. It's the seafloor habitat those fish depend on to hide, feed, and survive, and that habitat can take centuries to rebuild once it's gone. Andrew traces the policy fight behind this back to a failed 2004 push for an outright ban on high seas bottom trawling, the 2006 compromise that did pass (UN Resolution 61/105), and the recurring cycle of reviews since then that have kept tightening the rules bit by bit. That fight isn't a closed chapter. A UN preparatory workshop on bottom fishing's impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems was held in July 2026, feeding into a full General Assembly review later this year, with advocates pushing for a firm, time-bound end to seamount trawling on the high seas by 2027. Andrew connects it to Canada's own back-and-forth over fish habitat protection in the Fisheries Act, and sets up Friday's interview with the guest who chaired the UN fisheries negotiations that started this whole process. Takeaways: Some deep-sea corals have been alive for thousands of years, and a single trawl pass can destroy that habitat in seconds. Bottom trawling's real damage usually lands on the seafloor habitat fish depend on, not the fish stock itself. The landmark 2006 UN resolution on bottom trawling (Resolution 61/105) was a hard-fought compromise reached after an outright ban failed in 2004. International ocean policy almost never arrives finished. It gets built in stages and strengthened through repeated review cycles. A new UN review is underway in 2026, with advocates pushing for a firm end to seamount bottom trawling by 2027. Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube  

Olivia Fox Cabane: The Charisma Myth Olivia Fox Cabane is one of the world's leading authorities on the science of charisma and the bestselling author of The Charisma Myth, which has been translated into 27 languages. Previously Director of Innovative Leadership for Stanford StartX, Olivia has lectured on charisma, leadership, and innovation at Harvard, Yale, MIT, the Marine War College and the United Nations. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, and The Wall Street Journal and has recently released the revised version of The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism (Amazon, Bookshop)*. Charisma. We all notice leaders who've got it. Many of us wish we had more of it. Good news though – like so many leadership skills we talk about on this podcast, you can get better at it. In this conversation, Olivia and I explore how almost anyone can improve their charisma. Key Points Charisma is a skill that you can learn and practice. While some people have natural strengths for charisma more so than others, people are not simply born charismatic. Many just start young. You don't have to be naturally outgoing. You can be a very charismatic introvert. Presence + Power + Warmth = Charisma Power is the “Can you move mountains for me?” question. Warmth is the “Would you want to move them for me?” question. Presence is the “Are you aware of which mountains I need moved?” question. A small amount of improvement can make a big difference on how you are perceived. Three quick tips to improve your charisma: Lower the intonation of your voice at the end of your sentences. Reduce how quickly and how often you nod. Pause for two full seconds before you speak. Resources Mentioned The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane (Amazon, Bookshop)* Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Six Ways to Recover From a Bad First Impression, with John Corcoran (episode 169) The Way to Make Sense to Others, with Tom Henschel (episode 518) How to Make a Better Impression on Camera, with Mark Bowden (episode 643) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. Go beyond the podcast to find the right ideas and apply them with confidence in Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Datshiane Navanayagam discusses the impact of toxic masculinity in South Africa and South Korea. The United Nations has raised concern about online communities promoting misogynistic and anti-feminist views saying they're a serious threat to gender equality.    Kutlwano Mokgwathi is a doctoral researcher from Botswana, studying at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa - a country with some of the world's highest levels of gender-based violence. Her work is examining the emergence of the “Africana Manosphere” – with a focus on South Africa and Botswana.Seungsook Moon is Professor of Sociology at Vassar College in New York State. She grew up in Seoul, and her research includes gender and social change in South Korea. In particular, she focuses on the remaking of masculinities shaped by neoliberal transformation of economy, politics, and culture locally and globally. South Korea ranked the highest out of 30 countries for how citizens perceive tension between men and women, according to a study by King's College London. But what is driving the country's gender-divide and how is misogyny taking shape online?Produced by Elena Angelides(Image: (L) Kutlwano Mokgwathi, courtesy Kutlwano Mokgwathi. (R) Seungsook Moon, courtesy Seungsook Moon.)

For years, President Trump has been openly criticizing multilateral organizations like NATO and the United Nations.Criticisms like these were once rare from American presidents, since the US had such a prominent role in these organizations and the order they brought to global affairs.How might this shift affect how countries deal with conflict and one another?Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show's perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.This episode was produced by Christopher Harland-Dunaway. Our director is Elena Burnett. It was edited by Tinbete Ermyas. Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

“Sometimes we confuse activity with impact. And here I think the way we measure results should be different. How many lives has the UN saved? How many people has the UN helped to live out of poverty? How many people have we prevented from conflict? How many people were we able to support?” The BBC's Anne Soy speaks to María Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador's former foreign minister and a candidate to become the first woman secretary general of the United Nations. She is seeking the role at a time when the UN faces severe financial pressure, falling international aid budgets and questions about its influence over major conflicts. Espinosa believes the organisation remains essential, but warns that it could become irrelevant unless it changes how it works. She describes the choice facing the UN as “reform, transform or die”. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Russia's nuclear envoy Mikhail Ulyanov and UNICEF chief Catherine Russell. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Anne Soy Producer: Osman Iqbal, Sharon Hemands and Farhana Haider Editor: Damon Rose(Image: María Fernanda Espinosa. Credit: Getty)

Search and rescue efforts continue in Ukraine after Russian drone attacks kill at least 16 in a shopping centre in the city of Kryvyi Rih. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack on his home town cynical and despicable. Also:Donald Trump wins the latest round in an ongoing legal battle over his plans to rebuild the entire east wing of the White House; Uber is fined a huge sum under Europe's technology privacy rules; FIFA punishes Argentina for breaches of discipline; the United Nations says the ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now growing exponentially; handwritten notes by the Indian independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi, sell for US$1.7m at auction; a python becomes the first snake to be given a cancer treatment normally used on humans, and Wile E Coyote takes on the American corporate giant, the Acme Corporation, in a blockbuster film.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.uk Photo: (write brief description of what photo shows) Aftermath of a Russian drone attack in Kryvyi Rih. Credit: TELEGRAM/Reuters

Ralph welcomes Dr. Mimi Syed to discuss the recent report from Brown University's Costs of War Project: “Lethal Precision Without Accountability: Israeli Government ‘Quadcopter' Use in Gaza.” Then, Ralph speaks to Joel McCleary (former Deputy Assistant to President Jimmy Carter and international consultant) about his “Dancing in the Dark” essay series on the strategies that Trump is using to hold onto power at almost any cost.Dr. Mimi Syed is an emergency medicine physician and assistant clinical professor at University of Washington and Washington State University, and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Syed served in Gaza at both al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Hospital, where she documented severe injuries from drone strikes and she has firsthand experience treating civilians targeted by the IDF. She is co-author of the Costs of War Project's new report: Lethal Precision Without Accountability: Israeli Government “Quadcopter” Use in Gaza.A lot of the attention has essentially fallen off from Gaza because of this so-called ceasefire…And the media (Western media) unfortunately is complicit in this—has no interest in covering Gaza, has no interest in covering the ongoing slaughter that's happening in Gaza.Dr. Mimi SyedThe irony of all of this is that the drones and the capabilities that these drones have to shoot and to distinguish between a civilian and a combatant—the whole purpose of this is to mitigate civilian harm. And instead, perversely, they're being used for the opposite. They're being used to target civilians and children. And in the U.N. report, they specifically talk about a soldier describing the experience, saying that it's like a video game. He can be sitting somewhere far away, away from the dangers of a military zone, away from the dangers of combatants, and essentially target whoever he wants, and shoot. And these drones have the capability of distinguishing between a child, an adult, a combatant. And most of these cases that I documented, the child was by themselves. There was no other adult harmed.Dr. Mimi SyedJoel McCleary served as Deputy Assistant to the President during the Carter Administration. As president of the Sawyer-Miller Group he oversaw international strategic advisory work for fourteen prime ministers and presidents. Currently, he is Managing Partner of Four Seasons Ventures, which has conducted in-depth studies for the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security on biodefense. These studies reviewed the emergency powers of the President in the event of a pandemic or major biological weapons attack. He is co-founder of the nonpartisan nonprofit Keep Our Republic.November 3rd is just the prelude to January 3rd—the game (so to speak) is who controls the Speakership. And that is determined by the certified members who are certified by the current House—they will determine who meets on January 3rd. So obviously what Trump does not want (or any President does not want) is there to be an opposing party's Speaker.Joel McClearyWe're not saying that anything is inevitable. We're just saying what is possible if you look at what they're saying and if you look at where they might go if they feel compelled to do so. So NSPM-7 is probably the most frightening aspect of this whole thing. And what's most frightening is how few people have focused on it. All of us need to read these documents at the ACLU (the Brennan Center has done fantastic work). And Mark Medish and I just are appalled that still, in Democratic circles or other circles, we are not yet comprehending the meaning of NSPM-7 and how it threatens each one of us in reality.Joel McClearyNews 8/21/26* This week, another round of primaries were held, most notably in Florida. For progressives, the biggest victory is that of Angie Nixon, a DSA-backed member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing Jacksonville. Nixon trounced her opponent – Alex Vindman, who testified against Trump during the 2019 impeachment effort – winning 56% of the vote to his 44% despite being outspent by a margin of 16 to 1. Forbes reports that in her victory speech, Nixon said “We have proved that everyday people are more powerful than corporations and billionaires…We went up against the political establishment, against millions of dollars of outside spending…and we won. This win was for the little guys and girls…We, the hardworking everyday people of Florida, sent a shock wave to the Washington, D.C., establishment.” Unfortunately, Nixon's candidacy, like that of any statewide Democratic campaign in the Sunshine State, remains a long shot. The last Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in Florida was former astronaut Bill Nelson in 2012.* More disappointing were the down-ballot results in these primaries. In the 20th congressional district, a majority-minority district centered on Broward County, Debbie Wasserman Schultz won with 45% of the vote, according to NBC. She defeated four Black candidates, including young progressive Elijah Manley. Wasserman Schultz previously represented the 25th district, but following the Republican-led mid-decade redistricting program carried out in Florida, she opted to seek reelection in this heavily Democratic seat. The Black candidates had tried and failed to consolidate behind a single choice.* And in Florida's 25th congressional district, ultra-zionist incumbent Congressman Jared Moskowitz “warded off” a challenge from his left in the form of Oliver Larkin, a DSA-backed union organizer. Larkin drew substantial media attention, first when he appeared on Fox and, asked about immigration and crime, he demanded accountability for “this pedophile president Donald Trump” and others implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and again during an interview with WPLG Local 10 when Larkin was “faced with genocide denial.” According to the Middle East Eye, Larkin “raised the topic of Israel's genocide in Gaza, pointing to statements and findings from institutions such as the United Nations, Amnesty International and Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem,” which the interviewer, Glenna Milberg incorrectly dismissed as “factually incorrect.” Larkin “outlined Israel's deliberate targeting of civilians, restrictions on humanitarian aid and attacks on churches, schools and other places of worship,” and Milberg again “interrupted and said his account was ‘factually not correct.'” The Middle East Eye writes that the exchange was then “cut short when Milberg said she was being told they had to wrap up the interview.”* Turning to Texas, NOTUS reports Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico – capitalizing on the acrimonious primary battle between sitting Republican Senator John Cornyn and his victorious primary opponent Texas AG Ken Paxton – has taken the extraordinary step of bringing a Cornyn aide onto his campaign. According to this piece, “Jacob Smith, who worked for Cornyn for five years as a deputy legislative director and policy adviser, is taking on the role of deputy policy director for Talarico's campaign.” In a statement, Smith said that he is “proud” to join Talarico's campaign and that “Instead of playing partisan politics, Talarico speaks to the needs of everyday people who day in and day out work too hard for too little.” Smith also laid into Paxton, calling him “the most corrupt, self-dealing politician in Texas who would sell their futures to the highest contributor just to hold onto power,” and urging “fellow Republicans who know Ken Paxton is unfit to serve in the Senate to finally hold him accountable at the ballot box.” This piece quotes an anonymous “Republican operative” who characterized this kind of “cross-party hire” as “unheard of.” He added that Talarico has a “better chance than any Democrat has had in the state in a very long time.”* In more primary news, last week we discussed the victory of former Hartford, Connecticut Mayor Luke Bronin over 14-term incumbent Congressman John Larson. That same day, the Lever published an exposé of Stephen Mandel, a Connecticut-based billionaire hedge fund manager and Democratic mega-donor who is the “largest bankroller of a nascent political machine promising to ‘redefine' the Democratic Party.” Via two organizations – Majority Democrats and the Bench – Mandel and his wife have funneled tens of millions of dollars to candidates of their choosing in an attempt to form a “new [political] center.” According to this report, Bronin amassed a “sizable war chest,” during his primary challenge against Larson, much of which traces back to Mandel. Not only that, apparently, Bronin “used to be on the payroll of a nonprofit funded by the billionaire,” and his campaign's policy stances reflect the network's preferences and priorities. The Lever notes that, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Mandels did not return their requests for comment.* In more Connecticut news, in the wake of Larson's defeat, local media is beginning to question whether Senator Richard Blumenthal should run for another term in 2028, with WTNH noting that he will be 82 at the end of his current term. While Blumenthal has not formally announced that he will run for a fourth senate term, he did confirm that he has a campaign committee and it is raising money. This piece notes that Blumenthal is the second oldest member of Connecticut's congressional delegation, behind only Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, 83, who represents the state's third congressional district. With the increased scrutiny on aging Democrats, and donors like Stephen Mandel bankrolling primary challenges by younger candidates, Blumenthal's decision of whether or not to run or anoint a successor could prove critical. For his part, Blumenthal is quoted saying “Age is a state of mind…and I am very, very happy doing my job right now, as energetically as I feel is appropriate.”* Senator Blumenthal features prominently in another story this week from a different part of Washington. NOTUS reports that on K Street, lobbyists for the defense industry – literally the military industrial complex – are “girding for aggressive investigations of President Donald Trump's Pentagon and the companies that do business with it,” if the Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections. This piece emphasizes that Democrats have “spent two years seething that the Trump administration shut Congress out of decisions about the Pentagon, from the Iran war to politically connected contractors and a defense budget that's ballooned to $1.5 trillion.” Lobbyists are reported to be particularly wary of their clients being caught between outraged congressional Democrats and an uncooperative White House for the next two years. Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Investigations Subcommittee, is already zeroing in on 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is an investor, and American Ventures, where Eric Trump is an investor, both of which received billions of dollars in government awards. He is quoted saying “We need to look into whether Trump's sons are profiting from investments in defense contractors that involve insider information or contracts awarded in ways that compromise defense interests.” Other investigations he signaled they might pursue include a probe of “the administration's growing reliance on single-source contracts and whether the administration has given preferential treatment to companies with political ties, particularly those that donated to Trump's White House ballroom project.” In the House, Democrats on the Armed Services Committee will likely focus on “military strategy, acquisition decisions and the Pentagon's rapidly growing budget,” while the Oversight Committee, is more focused on “corruption, conflicts of interest, companies connected to Trump allies such as SpaceX and other ethics issues.” When Republicans won control of the House, Senate, and presidency in 2024, many lobbying firms axed their Democratic staff. It seems they are beginning to regret that decision.* Our next two stories have to do with the AI boom. First, in Wisconsin, the politics of AI data centers have come to in large part define the ongoing race to succeed Democrat Tony Evers as Governor. DSA-backed candidate Francesca Hong rode her vow of a moratorium on new data center construction to front-runner status in the primary, only to lose by a hair to Evers' last minute chosen successor, David Crowley. Since becoming the nominee, Crowley has refused to adopt Hong's signature issue and his opponent, Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany is taking full advantage. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, Tiffany's campaign has released a new TV ad labeling his opponent “data center David Crowley.” In the ad, Crowley is “seen saying Wisconsin has the opportunity to be ‘an AI and a data hub not only for the entire country, but for the entire globe.'” Ironically, Tiffany himself has cast “pro-data center votes in Congress” and Crowley's campaign argues that Tiffany “wouldn't be as hard on developers as his campaign claims,” though he is now campaigning on “ending state subsidies for data centers and creating additional protections for ratepayers and the state's farmland and water.”* Next, a stunning feat of reporting by 404 Media exposed how “Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process.“ To investigate this, the outlet placed a tracking device in a rare book that they suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data. Then, when indeed it was, they followed the book around the country to its final destination – an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada – where employees say that “all [they] do is scan books..Some are assigned to cut books, and others go to receive where they get books and scan the bar codes.” The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands. The piece notes that the AI company Anthropic has previously been sued for engaging in the practice of destroying rare books in order to feed them into their large language models, or LLMs, on copyright grounds, but the “judge in the lawsuit ruled it was fair use and not a copyright violation for Anthropic to scan a book for training data in part because it destroyed the original, printed copy.” The author of this piece notes that these rare books are not necessarily monetarily valuable – they could be rare because “not many copies of them were ever printed,” or “they are in a foreign language not many people speak.” Still, as one bookseller said “There are different types of value…[besides monetary value] There's historical value, intellectual value, sentimental value. All sorts of things, and all of those the AI companies don't care about. They just want the content as a bunch of words strung together.”* Finally, we turn to the Vatican, where, Drop Site reports, Pope Leo XIV is using his pulpit to call for the opening of humanitarian corridors for civilians in Sudan. In his weekly Angelus address, the first American Pope highlighted “the plight of civilians in the besieged city of el-Obeid.” In addition to his call for humanitarian corridors, the pontiff called for both sides to “cease attacks on civilian targets.” Drop Site explains that El-Obeid, the largest city in Kordofan – the region comprising central Sudan – has faced intense drone attacks as the rebels of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) battle the Sudanese army for supremacy in the region. An RSF siege has “left over 500,000 people in famine conditions for months and without supplies.” The United Nations warns that if El-Obeid falls, it could follow in the mold of el-Fasher, which fell to the RSF last year and resulted in “mass ethnic cleansing massacres by the RSF that killed an estimated 60,000 people.” We can only hope that the world will heed the Pope's plea for peace and humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Sudan.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Lalkar writers | 1 July 2026 Like just about everything else of note that happened in 1945, the United Nations project came dressed in the guise of peace, progress and the amity of nations. What the welfare state offered to the masses was something sounding an awful lot like socialism. Similarly, if you squinted, what the UN offered to the world's nations looked like the long-dreamed-of democratic world government, one that would enforce international law, peace and social justice for the world's grateful peoples. As was the case with the welfare state, it was the fear of revolution that persuaded the imperialists to go along with the notion of a pretend world government pledged to upholding peace and justice for all the nations of the world. ------------------------------------ Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! www.thecommunists.org www.lalkar.org www.redyouth.org Telegram: t.me/thecommunists Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml Soundcloud: @proletarianradio Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: https://thecommunists.org/education-programme/ Each one teach one! www.londonworker.org/education-programme/ Join the struggle www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: www.thecommunists.org/donate/

It's been nearly three years into Israel's genocidal war on Palestinians, and still no step closer to its end. Since the latest “ceasefire” began in October 2025, Israel has continued to bombard Gaza and has killed more than 1,200 people, United Nations experts reported earlier this month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more recently rejected President Donald Trump's Board of Peace agreement with Hamas for Israeli troops to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.“The burden has really continued to devastate the healthcare system in general. So you're hearing from colleagues every day. They don't have the materials that they need to serve their patients,” Dr. Thaer Ahmad tells The Intercept Briefing. “They don't have even the basic sort of guarantee that there is a cloak of security allowing them to operate in the traditional ways that they would like to.” This week on the podcast, Intercept reporter Jonah Valdez speaks to Ahmad, an emergency medicine physician and humanitarian who has provided medical relief in conflict zones including Gaza, and director Poh Si Teng about their new documentary “American Doctor.” It follows three U.S. physicians from three different states who volunteer to enter Gaza to provide emergency medical care as best they can, with the insufficient supplies they have, to save lives — under the threat, as healthcare workers and hospitals have repeatedly been the target of strikes, of losing theirs.The American doctors were not just targeted by the Israeli military, however. Upon returning home and trying to share the atrocities they had witnessed in Gaza, they were “pummeled,” says Teng, in interviews with mainstream media outlets and ignored by lawmakers in Congress.“There's this refusal to acknowledge what most American people are interested in — and that is money out of the Middle East in terms of military and wars, and into our communities here, into healthcare, and into some of the services that we are deprived of, that, for example, Israeli society is able to provide for their citizens: free education, free healthcare,” says Ahmad. “We don't even have that here, and yet we're still providing a significant amount of aid.”Teng says, “For everybody who's trying to do something in this moment, it's not like as individuals we have no agency. We do. But it's also important to remind people of the systems in place that make it very hard for us to do the right thing. If there was any path forward or a glimmer of inspiration, I felt, follow these doctors.”For more, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.Full transcript: https://interc.pt/4xbqfa5 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Woke Los Angeles burned to the ground while the equipment that could have helped fight the fires was relocated to Ukraine by the Marxist Mayor, Karen Bass. Cuts to the fire department budgets certainly did not help the situation either, nor did the lack of leadership by the elected officials who allowed the Pacific Palisades reservoir to remain empty for over a year. The United Nations had signed Los Angeles on to become a 15-Minute City a few years earlier, as the plan to rezone parts of Los Angeles has now been uncovered. SmartLA2028 promises to “transform the way we live” through AI and the Internet of Things sensors connected to 4,500 traffic lights and 180,000 connected street lamps. The plan is taking shape for those with the eyes to see it.---Macroaggressionswww.Macroaggressions.ioMerch StoreLink Tree Video ChannelsRumble | YouTube | BrighteonActivist PostNewsletter Sign UpAudiobooksHypocrazyThe Octopus of Global ControlSupport Our SponsorsReplace Your Mortgage: www.WipeOutYourMortgageNow.comGround Luxe Grounding MatsC60 Power | Promo Code: MACROChemical Free Body | Promo Code: MACROWise Wolf Gold & SilverLegalShield: www.DontGetPushedAround.comChristian Yordanov's Health ProgramThe Dollar VigilanteNesa's Hemp | Promo Code: MACROAugason Farms

For episode 764 of the BlockHash Podcast, host Brandon Zemp is joined by Joe Vollono the Chief Commercial Officer at STBL, where he leads global commercial strategy to scale the STBL Protocol and its RWA-backed financial ecosystem. Previously, Joe led Business Development for central banking and stablecoin (RLUSD) at Ripple, advising commercial banks, central banks, and finance ministries on digital asset policy, stablecoin design, and financial infrastructure. He has advised and presented to multiple international forums on stablecoins and tokenized assets, including the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, and the University of Oxford. Earlier in his career, Joe spent nearly a decade in capital markets at Morgan Stanley, where he was recognized as a Barron’s Top 50 Institutional Consultant (2020). He previously served as a nuclear-trained officer in the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. Joe holds an MBA from the University of Oxford, an MPP from Georgetown University, and a BS from the United States Naval Academy. He serves on the Board of the Marines Memorial Foundation.

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett is a Guyanese diplomat and candidate for Secretary-General of the United Nations. If selected, she would become both the first woman and the first person of Indigenous descent to lead the world body. She joins Mark for a substantive conversation about her vision for the UN at a moment of profound strain on the multilateral system. Drawing on her experience representing Guyana on the Security Council, Rodrigues-Birkett discusses what she learned about the UN's strengths and limitations in preventing and resolving conflict—and what she would do differently as Secretary-General. She also lays out her approach to global development and global health, and makes the case for diplomacy and international cooperation as essential tools for tackling the challenges ahead.

Sheila Holm is back with Michael Jaco—and this conversation goes straight into the hidden history she says America was never supposed to connect. This isn't a surface-level discussion of today's headlines. Sheila pulls the thread backward through centuries of secret societies, occult traditions, religious institutions, political power structures and global organizations, laying out the connections at the center of her research. From Baal worship, witchcraft and Masonic traditions to political dynasties, religious power and occult symbolism, Sheila takes Michael through the historical trail she says reveals how ancient systems of control survived, evolved and embedded themselves inside modern institutions. Then they bring it directly into the battle for America. Sheila and Michael dig into foreign influence, China, election integrity, voting systems, global election organizations, the United Nations, media manipulation and political networks—connecting them to a much larger agenda Sheila says has been operating behind the scenes for generations. And they don't stop there. 9/11. Political bloodlines. Secret societies. Global power. Spiritual warfare. The occult. The battle over America's future. Piece by piece, Sheila lays out her case that these aren't disconnected events. She argues they are part of an interconnected system—and that understanding its history is critical to understanding what is happening in America today. The deeper Michael and Sheila go, the bigger the picture becomes. This episode isn't just about politics. It's about a battle over faith, sovereignty, truth, consciousness and the direction of humanity itself.

Watch the show on television by downloading the SuperCrowd.tv Channel app to your Roku or Amazon Fire TV or e360tv channel app to your Roku, LG or Amazon Fire TV. You can also see it on YouTube.Devin: What is your superpower?Anne: I tend to question everything.Jiminy's is proving that cricket protein can help dogs live healthier lives while cutting the carbon pawprints of America's pets.Anne Carlson, founder and CEO of Jiminy's, has built a purpose-driven company around an idea that sounds surprising until you hear the science. Jiminy's makes dog food, treats and dental chews using insect protein. Anne explained the mission simply: “At Jiminy's, we help dogs live longer, healthier lives on a greener planet.”The environmental case is powerful. Anne shared that a UCLA study found that 25 to 30 percent of the environmental impact of meat consumption in the United States comes from dogs and cats. Replacing traditional animal protein in pet food with insect protein can reduce land use, water use and greenhouse gas emissions.For Anne, the mission began at home. “I had this conversation with my daughter, and she really hit me with a bombshell,” she told me. “She told me that she didn't want to have kids. And the reason was she was worried about what the world would be like by the time those kids grew up.”That moment changed her career path. She had worked in the pet industry and knew there was room for innovation. Then she saw a United Nations study suggesting insects could help address world hunger. She ordered dry-roasted crickets online and offered them to her dogs.“The dogs went crazy for it,” Anne said. “As soon as they started drooling, I knew we had something that we could work with.”Anne Carlson will be speaking at SuperCrowd26 featuring PurposeBuilt100™️! Register now to watch his session live.What impresses me most is that Jiminy's is not just a clever brand with a fun name. Anne and her team have invested in science. They worked through FDA and AAFCO processes to demonstrate digestibility, palatability and real health benefits. Anne said the protein has been shown to support the microbiome, skin and coat health and even oral health.That science has translated into products dogs love and pet parents can feel good about buying. Jiminy's has won industry recognition for its food, treats and dental chews while growing distribution online and in independent pet stores.Anne is showing that purpose and growth can run together. By asking better questions about what we feed our pets, she is helping build a healthier future for dogs and the planet they depend on.tl;dr:Jiminy's uses cricket protein to create sustainable pet food that reduces environmental impact.Anne's climate concern for her daughter inspired her purpose-driven entrepreneurial journey.Science-backed benefits for dogs include improved gut health, oral health, and overall wellness.Jiminy's has earned industry recognition for its eco-friendly pet food innovations and growth.Anne's superpower is questioning everything and tenaciously pursuing innovative solutions.How to Develop Question Everything As a SuperpowerAnne's superpower is Question Everything. She told me, “I tend to question everything,” adding that she is “curious” and likes “to understand how things work.” That habit is not passive. Anne continues to ask, “What else can we do? How else can we have impact?” For her, the question is only the beginning. She emphasized that it is “not just ask the question, but then follow up,” because when a path emerges, “you've got to be tenacious to get it done.”Anne illustrated her superpower with a discovery that began on her floor at home. Her older dog Tuco was breathing in her face, and she wondered, “How the heck does Tuco have good breath?” She opened his mouth and saw white teeth. Because she was not giving him dental chews, she asked her scientists whether insect protein could be affecting his mouth. They hypothesized that medium-chain fatty acids might be responsible. Anne kept pushing. The company conducted a study, proved the oral microbiome benefit and relaunched dental chews that later won a major innovation award.Be fully present when talking with people so you notice ideas worth exploring.Do not let questions pass through your mind without asking them out loud.Probe for the underlying reason when something surprises you or does not make sense.Use science, data and expert partners to test your hypotheses.Follow up on promising questions with tenacity until you discover whether they lead somewhere useful.Keep asking how your work can create more impact for customers, animals and the planet.By following Anne's example and advice, you can make questioning everything a skill. With practice and effort, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileAnne Carlson (she/her):Founder & CEO, Jiminy's, Inc.About Jiminy's, Inc.: Jiminy's is disrupting the pet industry; fighting climate change as we feed our pets. We make sustainable dog food and treats using a novel protein source - insect protein! Jiminy's products nourish our pets and promote long-term stewardship of the earth.Website: jiminys.comCompany Facebook Page: facebook.com/jiminysforpetsBiographical Information: Meet Anne Carlson – the dog-loving entrepreneur who's revolutionizing pet food by thinking outside the (kibble) box! As the founder of Jiminy's, she's on a mission to make dog food and treats that are both tail-waggingly delicious and planet-friendly, using – wait for it – cricket protein! Her innovative approach is turning heads in the pet industry, with Jiminy's racking up impressive recognition in 2024: snagging the Pet Innovation Award for Best Dry Dog Food with Good Grub, winning Pet Age Magazine's Editor's Select Award for their mouthwatering Sweet Potato & Peas Training Treats, and scoring Pet Product News Magazine's Editor's Choice Award for their game-changing Dental Chews! When she's not leading her award-winning company, you might find Anne geeking out over insect agriculture (yes, she literally wrote the scientific playbook for cricket protein in dog food!). Her groundbreaking work earned her the 2019 Entrepreneur of the Year award, but her real critics are her four-legged taste-testers: Tuco and Timber, her beloved pups. Before becoming the “Cricket Queen” of pet food, Anne was a corporate powerhouse at Big Heart Pet Brands and founded Secant (which she later sold to IRI). She's got the brains to back her vision – with degrees from Wash U and NYU – but these days, she's focused on changing the world one sustainable kibble at a time. When she's not disrupting the pet food industry, Anne's hanging with her family in Berkeley, CA, where her husband Eric and daughter Boothe have learned to embrace her passion for sustainable pet parenthood!Personal Facebook Profile: facebook.com/anne.t.carlsonLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annetcarlson/Instagram: @jiminysforpetsSupport Our SponsorsOur generous sponsors make our work possible, serving impact investors, social entrepreneurs, community builders and diverse founders. Today's advertisers include PurposeBuilt100™ Winners and supercrowd.tv. Learn more about advertising with us here.Max-Impact Members(We're grateful for every one of these community champions who make this work possible.)Brian Christie, Brainsy | Cameron Neil, Lend For Good | Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Eric Coury, Arthia AI | John Berlet, CORE Tax Deeds, LLC. | Justin Starbird, The Aebli Group | Ken Steele, Rotarian | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Mark Grimes, Networked Enterprise Development | Mike Babbit | Coledger Solutions | Mike Green, Envirosult | Nick Degnan, Unlimit Ventures | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Scott Thorpe, Philanthropist | Sharon Samjitsingh, Health Care Originals | Add Your Name HereUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.Join the SuperCrowd Impact League! You can be recognized for making impact investments via Reg CF. See how your activity compares to your peers. It's free. Win valuable prizes. Start now!SuperCrowd Impact Member Networking Session: Impact (and, of course, Max-Impact) Members of the SuperCrowd are invited to a private networking session on September 8th at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. Mark your calendar. We'll send private emails to Impact Members with registration details. Upgrade to Impact Membership today!SuperCrowd26 featuring PurposeBuilt100™: This August 25–27, founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders will gather for a three-day, broadcast-quality global experience focused on disciplined capital formation, regulated investment crowdfunding, and purpose-driven growth. We're bringing together leading voices in impact investing, compliance, digital marketing, and circular economy innovation to deliver practical frameworks, real-world case studies, and actionable strategies. The event culminates in the PurposeBuilt100™ Showcase, recognizing 100 of the fastest-growing purpose-driven companies in the U.S. Register now to secure your seat and get all the details. August 25–27, streaming worldwide.Visit Our Complete Community Event CalendarIf you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 10,000+ changemakers, investors and entrepreneurs who are members of the SuperCrowd, click here.Manage the volume of emails you receive from us by clicking here.We share educational information—not investment advice. Some links may generate compensation. See our full disclosure.We use AI to help us write compelling recaps of each episode. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

On this episode of Countdown to Eternity, Pastor James and Tom will talk about the dangerous alliance between cultural Marxism and radical Islam, why these opposing movements have united against America's Judeo Christian foundation, and how Christians and Israel have become their common targets. They will also expose the lies being used against Israel, the corruption of the United Nations, and why God's irrevocable promises prove that Israel's enemies will never prevail. Don't miss out on this eye-opening episode! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1479/29?v=20251111

In the United Nations' 80 years, it has been led by nine secretaries-general, none of them women. But as the U.N. begins the process of electing a successor to António Guterres, pressure is mounting to shatter its glass ceiling. Four top candidates are women. Also: today's stories, including how a spate of cyberattacks on water utilities across the United States has spurred calls for increased cybersecurity requirements; a look at the latest Gen Z trend, “Chinamaxxing”; and why the University of Michigan is dropping first-year letter grades. Join the Monitor's Mackenzie Farkus for today's news.

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Pacific War. In late 1941, the Second Battle of Changsha ended with Chinese forces claiming victory despite suffering nearly 100,000 casualties against roughly 1,670 Japanese losses. Chiang Kai-shek's government launched an aggressive propaganda campaign, flooding international press with fabricated triumph narratives to sustain national morale. Behind closed doors, Chiang was furious at his generals' tactical failures, executing commanders and dismantling units. Meanwhile, geopolitical forces threatened China's survival. Japan's 1939 defeat at Nomonhan crushed hopes for a Soviet alliance against Tokyo. Germany's pact with the Soviet Union left China isolated, while Western powers remained reluctant to commit meaningful support. Britain offered little; the US provided only modest loans. By 1941, facing potential collapse, Chiang desperately searched for allies while Wang Jingwei's Japanese-backed rival government beckoned as an alternative. China's exhausted people endured horror—including a 1941 bombing massacre in Chongqing that killed over 400 trapped civilians. Then Japan unleashed a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.   #215 An Implosion in the East Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   In the early morning of December 7, 1941, the US Pacific Fleet was anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Two waves of Japanese bomber aircraft, launched from six aircraft carriers, attacked the vessels and their sleeping crews, destroying the battleship Arizona outright and damaging seventeen others, as well as most of the military aircraft parked nearby. Some 2,400 Americans died, and another 1,100 were wounded. Within a day Japanese invasion forces had attacked Siam, Malaya, and the Philippines. Chiang Kai-shek heard the news at one o'clock in the morning and immediately dictated a letter of support to President Roosevelt, pledging commitment to a new "common battle." The news reached Zhou Fohai in Shanghai as well. On December 8 across the international date line from Hawaii he had heard the sounds of firing as the Japanese took over the rest of the city, and then received reports that Japan had declared war on the Western powers. "I heard they'd bombed Honolulu, Manila, Singapore, and Hong Kong. From now on, the Pacific becomes a killing ground."   When Japanese carrier planes descended on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, they were executing far more than a tactical strike. They were unleashing the culmination of a strategic vision that had shaped Japanese military planning since the 1920s: the Nanshin-ron, or "Southern Advance" doctrine.    The Nanshin-ron represented a critical strategic choice that emerged from internal Japanese debates during the 1920s and 1930s. Japan faced an inescapable vulnerability: it was an island nation with virtually no natural resources of its own. The nation's population had doubled since the Meiji Restoration, growing to over 70 million by 1941. An industrial economy of tremendous sophistication, capable of producing world-class warships, aircraft, and military equipment, depended entirely on imported raw materials. Oil, rubber, tin, iron ore, bauxite, copper, and manganese all had to be acquired through foreign trade or conquest. This resource dependency was not a luxury problem; it was an existential one. A nation that could not feed itself or fuel its economy was a nation vulnerable to strangulation by enemies who controlled the resources it needed. Japanese strategic thinkers divided into two camps on how to resolve this vulnerability. The Hokushin-ron advocates, primarily within the Army, pushed for expansion northward into Siberia and Mongolia, seeking to conquer Soviet territory and resources. The Soviet Union possessed vast tracts of land, mineral wealth, timber, and agricultural output. From a purely materialist perspective, the Northern Advance made geographic sense—it was contiguous with Manchuria, which Japan had already secured in 1931. Yet by the late 1930s, the Hokushin-ron strategy had suffered a catastrophic blow. In 1938 and 1939, Japanese and Soviet forces clashed at Khalkhin Gol in Mongolia in what the Japanese called the Nomonhan Incident. The battles revealed a terrifying truth: the Soviet Red Army, under General Georgy Zhukov, was far more formidable than Japanese military planners had anticipated. Soviet armor, air power, and coordinated tactics annihilated Japanese forces. Japan suffered over 60,000 casualties while inflicting perhaps 10,000 on the Soviets. The defeat was concealed from the Japanese public, but it was unmistakable to military planners. A direct clash with Soviet power could end catastrophically. The Northern Advance, it became clear, would almost certainly provoke war with a nation capable of destroying the Japanese Army. This strategic defeat tilted the balance decisively toward the Nanshin-ron. If Japan could not safely expand northward, it must expand southward, toward Southeast Asia, the Dutch East Indies, Indochina, and the western Pacific. The appeal of the Nanshin-ron was immediately apparent to the Navy, which had always been more oriented toward maritime commerce and expansion across the ocean. The territories to the south were not militarily formidable. The colonial powers, Britain, the Netherlands, France, were either already defeated in 1940 or distracted by their own desperate struggles leaving Britain fighting alone against Germany. The United States, though potentially a formidable adversary, was not yet at war, and there was a chance, however slender, that a decisive blow against American naval power might convince America to negotiate rather than fight. But beyond strategic opportunity, the Nanshin-ron offered something that the Hokushin-ron did not: it offered resources of staggering abundance. The Dutch East Indies possessed oil reserves that could dwarf Japan's consumption for years. Malaya produced the world's rubber. Thailand offered agricultural bounty and geographic position. Burma's timber and agricultural products could feed Japan's growing empire. The Philippines possessed harbors, airfields, and economic output. These were not marginal additions to Japan's economy—they were transformative. Together, they would convert Japan from a resource-hungry island nation into the master of an imperial domain encompassing hundreds of millions of people and containing most of the strategic materials necessary for sustained industrial warfare. In the last episode I explained the western sanctions and embargoes that drained Japan's military of the resources they required to continue the China War. By 1941, Japan faced a civilization crisis. Japan imported roughly 90 percent of its petroleum, and the bulk of that came from the Dutch East Indies and the United States. Suddenly, the American supply was cut off entirely. Reserves would last perhaps 18 months if Japan's military and industrial consumption continued at existing rates. After that, the military machine would sputter and die. The industrial economy would collapse. Even civilian life would become impossible to sustain. Japan was facing not merely economic inconvenience but literal strangulation by the Western powers.   Yet it would be a mistake to reduce Japanese motivation to just materialism. Japanese military leaders wrapped their conquests in an ideological framework, one that many of them genuinely believed, or wanted to believe, served a higher historical purpose. The concept of the Daitoa Kyoeiken, the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," posited a new regional order in which Japan would play the leading role in liberating Asian peoples from Western colonial domination and creating an Asian-centered political and economic system. This ideology drew on genuine anti-colonial sentiment. For a century, Western powers had dominated Asia, treating Asian peoples and nations as subordinate, colonized territories existing to serve Western economic interests. Japan, which had modernized and Westernized enough to avoid colonization, saw itself as the natural leader of an Asian renaissance—a civilizing force that would restore Asian dignity and independence even as it established Japanese hegemony. Of course, this was propagandistic. Japanese conquest represented a substitution of one imperial master for another, and often a harsher and more brutal one at that. But for understanding Japanese decision-making, the ideology mattered profoundly. It provided Japanese leaders with a moral narrative for conquest. It allowed them to understand themselves as liberators rather than mere conquerors. It provided a rationale for extracting resources from occupied territories and for mobilizing subject populations to support the Japanese war effort. And it resonated with anti-Western sentiment throughout Asia, making Japanese occupation seem, in some quarters, preferable to continued Western colonial rule. The slogan Hakko ichiu—"eight corners under one roof", captured this ideological vision: a unified Asia and eventually world under Japanese guidance. Whether Japanese leaders truly believed this vision or cynically deployed it as propaganda, it shaped how they understood their actions and justified them to their subjects. Now I know this is a podcast dedicated to the century of humiliation, ie: China's experience. But I thought it was necessary just to have one episode explain what Dan Carlin titled "a supernova in the east" and I have titled an implosion in the east. I won't go into depth into the campaigns as some of them have a lot of Chinese involvement and we will be covering them in depth, but rather I will explain the rationale for Japan's numerous invasions following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.   Japan's assault on Malaya began within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, indeed, Japanese troops were already landing on the Kota Bharu beachhead on the Malaysian peninsula before dawn on December 8, 1941 local time. Malaya was one of the world's largest rubber producers, and Singapore, at the tip of the peninsula, was the linchpin of British naval power in the Far East.The Japanese interest in Malaya was straightforward but crucial: rubber. The Japanese military consumed vast quantities of rubber for tires, gaskets, hoses, and countless other applications. American and Dutch rubber supplies were now cut off by embargo. Malaya's rubber plantations represented perhaps the world's richest reservoir of this strategic material. Beyond rubber, Malaya and the surrounding region were major tin producers—essential for alloys and manufacturing. For Japan to conduct prolonged warfare, Malaya was not a luxury target; it was a necessity. Singapore represented something different: a symbol of Western power in Asia and a strategic chokepoint. As the major British naval base in the region, Singapore served as the anchor of British imperial authority across the South China Sea. By seizing Singapore, Japan would not only capture crucial resources and port facilities but would also deliver a psychological blow to the entire edifice of Western dominance in Asia. The fortress city that the British considered nearly impregnable fell within seventy days, a stunning demonstration of Japanese military capability and the vulnerability of overextended Western empires. If Malaya was critical for rubber, the Dutch East Indies was essential for oil. The region, comprising present-day Indonesia, was the world's third-largest oil producer and had reserves that could sustain Japanese military operations for years. This was the jewel of the resource-conquest strategy. Japanese planners had long eyed the East Indies, but direct conquest had seemed risky while Britain and America remained neutral or opposed. With both now at war, the window of opportunity had opened. Japan needed the oil so desperately that when the Dutch East Indies Petroleum Company initially agreed to some Japanese oil purchases before the war, Tokyo was already planning its takeover. The conquest of the Dutch East Indies would provide not just oil but also tin, nickel, bauxite, and other materials essential to an industrial war machine. The islands would also provide air and naval bases from which Japan could defend its new empire and potentially threaten Australia. The Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, which began in late December 1941 and accelerated through January and February 1942, was methodical and comprehensive. Various island groups were targeted systematically: Java, Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas. Dutch military forces, though brave, were overwhelmed. By March 1942, Japan had secured the entire archipelago,a stunning logistical and military achievement that delivered vast resources into Japanese hands. Thailand presented a fundamentally different case from Japan's other targets. Rather than conquest, Japan pursued alliance with military strongman Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who had seized power in a 1938 coup as a nationalist ideologue determined to reassert Thai sovereignty and recover territory lost to French colonialism in the nineteenth century. Thailand was the last independent state in mainland Southeast Asia, hemmed in by British-controlled Burma and Malaya to the west, and French Indochina to the east. For a century, Thailand had survived by playing European imperial powers against each other. But by the late 1930s, this strategy was becoming obsolete. Europe was distracted by Hitler's Germany. Colonial powers were weakening. Japanese power was visibly ascending. Phibunsongkhram recognized both danger and opportunity. He could resist Japan and invite invasion, or he could ally with Japan and profit from rising Asian power. Japanese diplomats approached Thailand with sophistication: they offered military alliance and support for Thai territorial expansion at French expense. This addressed Thailand's deepest national wound, the humiliation of nineteenth-century territorial losses to France. The Franco-Thai War of 1940-1941 became transformative. With Japan providing military support, advisors, tanks, aircraft, Thai forces defeated the French for the first time in history. By May 1941, Thailand had recovered 54,000 square kilometers of Cambodian territory and portions of Laos. For Phibunsongkhram, this was extraordinary: he had achieved what Thai leaders could not in a century, reclaiming territory from a Western imperial power. Domestically, his position was dramatically strengthened. The parallel to China's century of humiliation—the foundation of your podcast is striking: Thailand too was reversing colonial diminishment through association with rising Asian power. The Thai-Japanese relationship was unique. Unlike the Philippines, Malaya, or the Dutch East Indies, Thailand would retain nominal independence. Phibunsongkhram remained in power. Japanese occupation was light. Thai forces maintained their own command structure. Most importantly, Thailand's territorial gains from the Franco-Thai War were recognized and secured. Japan valued Thai cooperation more than conquest. Burma, controlled by the British, was the next target in Japan's southwestward advance. Japanese planners had multiple motivations for invading Burma. First, it was strategically positioned on India's eastern frontier, and Japan harbored ambitions of eventually striking toward India and linking up with Germany in the Middle East or at least destabilizing the British position in South Asia. Second, Burma was a significant producer of timber and agricultural products. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the invasion of Burma was meant to cut the Burma Road, the crucial supply line that allowed American aid to reach Nationalist China. The invasion of Burma began in late 1941 and accelerated through early 1942.  The invasion of the Philippines, which began on December 10, 1941, just days after Pearl Harbor, served multiple strategic purposes. Like the assault on Pearl Harbor itself, it was meant to neutralize American military power in the region, in this case, the American garrison under General Douglas MacArthur and the American colonial administration. But the Philippines were also valuable in their own right. The islands sat directly in the path of what Japan envisioned as its defensive perimeter. By controlling the Philippines, Japan would make it extraordinarily difficult for American forces to project power westward into Southeast Asia. The territory would provide naval and air bases critical to defending Japan's new empire. Additionally, the Philippines possessed some agricultural and industrial resources valuable to the war effort, and their conquest delivered a psychological victory, defeating American forces and ending American colonial rule in Asia, which appealed to anti-Western sentiment that Japan tried to cultivate. Beyond Southeast Asia and the Philippines, Japan rapidly invaded Guam and Wake island to extend Japan's defensive perimeter further into the Pacific and eliminate American air and naval bases that could threaten Japanese operations. Guam, seized on December 10, 1941, fell within two days, the American garrison was small and the island's strategic value lay primarily in denying the United States a forward staging ground for any counteroffensive. Wake Island, attacked the same day and finally captured on December 23 after a brief but heroic American defense, served similar purposes: cutting off American reconnaissance and interdicting potential supply lines to the Philippines.  Now I believe that's enough of the implosion in the east, let's get back to the situation in China. After Chiang Kai-shek sent his letter of support to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pledging Chinese commitment to what he termed a new "common battle." he did something most revealing about his mood towards the global war. He played "Ave Maria" on his gramophone, celebrating with an almost spiritual gratitude the implications of what had just transpired in the American Pacific. This moment crystallized the profound difference Pearl Harbor would mean to different members of the emerging Allied coalition. For the United States, the attack was pure shock, a violation of the sanctity of American soil and the complacency of American isolationism. For Britain, it was like the pricking of a large, painful blister—painful but perhaps not entirely unexpected given Japan's regional ambitions. But for China, the relief that surged through the government and the consciousness of the Chinese people surpassed even Britain's response. For four long years, China had fought Japan almost alone, watching as Western nations remained neutral or limited their commitment to rhetorical support and modest material assistance. Now, suddenly, the trajectory of the entire conflict had shifted with breathtaking speed. Chiang's emotional state at this moment could scarcely be contained, and those close to him understood that beneath his carefully maintained Confucian composure burned an intoxicating sensation of vindication. These Western powers who had been so impatient with Chinese strategy, who had mocked the retreats of the Nationalist Army and spoken scornfully of Japanese capabilities, were now themselves in headlong retreat from those very islanders. In Hong Kong, Singapore, and Manila, British and American forces would be fighting desperately for their lives against the Japanese military that China had been contending with for years. Chiang could not have failed to perceive the irony: the Japanese had conquered vast stretches of China through relentless campaigns, yet Westerners had dismissed Chinese resistance as inadequate. Now the Japanese were proving that they posed a formidable challenge to Western military power as well. There was a bitter satisfaction in this vindication, even as Chiang understood that the strategic implications of American entry far outweighed any emotional satisfaction. What was pragmatic and strategically clear to Chiang, however, was far more important than any emotional satisfaction. The United States was now at war, and it was on China's side. This represented the transformation for which Chiang had labored for years, bringing the full weight of American industrial capacity and military might to bear against the Japanese enemy. The diplomatic foundations for this alliance had already been laid in the months preceding Pearl Harbor. Beginning in the spring of 1941, the United States had begun to commit significant resources to supporting China. In April 1941, following the conclusion of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality agreement, which had devastated Chinese morale by suggesting that Japan might attack the Soviet Union rather than move southward, the Roosevelt administration had determined to provide $45 million worth of militarily useful commodities to China as an immediate gesture of support. Then, on May 6, 1941, President Roosevelt had made a more formal commitment by announcing that the munitions provisions of the Lend-Lease Act applied to China, declaring a phrase that captured the strategic logic of American assistance: "defending China is the key to defending America." This declaration represented a significant shift in American policy, elevating China from a regional concern to a central element of American grand strategy in Asia. Subsequently, in July 1941, Roosevelt had sent Owen Lattimore to China to serve as political adviser to the Chinese government, a position that signaled deepening American engagement with Chinese affairs. In August, the administration appointed John Magruder as military attaché and head of the American Military Mission to China (AMMISCA), with the primary responsibility of overseeing the delivery of Lend-Lease material to the Chinese armed forces. On the diplomatic front, Chiang moved with remarkable alacrity. He had already severed relations with Germany on July 2, 1941, the very day after Hitler had formally recognized the Wang Jingwei puppet government in an attempt to appease Japan and encourage it to finally implement the Southern Advance. Now, on December 8, 1941, just one day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Chiang took the decisive step of formally declaring war against the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan. This declaration transformed China's position from a beleaguered nation fighting a war of survival into a formal member of the Allied coalition. Chiang had seized the opportunity that Pearl Harbor presented to ally China with a genuinely strong power against Japan, a gambit that fundamentally altered the diplomatic weight and international legitimacy of both the Chinese government and the Chinese cause. From a strategic perspective, the Japanese had committed what Chiang and others immediately recognized as a catastrophic blunder. On the operational level, Pearl Harbor was indeed a devastating tactical success, the American Pacific Fleet was crippled, and Japanese forces now enjoyed temporary naval superiority throughout much of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Yet strategically, Pearl Harbor represented a failure of epic proportions, a miscalculation rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the intangibles of warfare: what motivated the Chinese people and what motivated the Americans. The Chinese had understood, through four years of brutal conflict, that warfare was about more than territorial conquest and resource acquisition. It was about will, about endurance, about the capacity to absorb punishment and continue fighting. The Japanese had learned this lesson imperfectly in China, where despite overwhelming military advantages they had been unable to force a decisive conclusion or compel Chinese surrender. The Americans would teach the Japanese this lesson even more emphatically. The attack on American sailors in Hawaii instantly galvanized the American population to prosecute an unlimited war, with Tokyo itself as the ultimate destination of American counterattack. While Americans would remember the "date that will live in infamy" primarily because of the assault on Pearl Harbor itself, the strategic consequence was that Japanese actions in Hawaii had introduced numerous new adversaries into the Pacific conflict: not only the United States, but also Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. These additions transformed what had been, from the Japanese perspective, a regional conflict with manageable parameters into a global war that Japan could not possibly win through any conceivable means. What made this particularly disastrous for Japan was the context in which the new theater had been opened. Japan was already deeply mired in a quagmire in China—a "malignant quagmire," as one observer would later characterize it, that had consumed vast resources, inflicted enormous casualties, and failed to produce decisive victory. In military strategy, it is sometimes wise to open a new theater in order to attack an enemy from an additional and unexpected direction, thereby dispersing their forces and creating new challenges for them to manage. But opening a new theater that introduces an entirely new, powerful adversary, and doing so when one is already overextended in an existing theater is a prescription for strategic catastrophe. This was precisely what Japan had done at Pearl Harbor. Chiang Kai-shek understood the magnitude of Japan's miscalculation with crystalline clarity. He understood that whatever the military complexities that lay ahead, whatever the challenges of coordinating with Western allies, and whatever the limitations of Western military assistance to China might be, the fundamental equation had changed. The United States would ultimately defeat Japan. The Chinese did not need to defeat Japan by themselves; they merely needed to survive long enough for American industrial and military capacity to grind the Japanese military into defeat. In the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Chinese and American officials moved swiftly to formalize the alliance and establish the mechanisms of wartime cooperation. Roosevelt asked Chiang Kai-shek to serve as commander in chief of the Allied forces in the China theater, a designation that recognized China's central role in the Pacific War and elevated Chiang's international standing to something he had long sought: a position as an equal partner in the Allied coalition, a seat at the "top table of global decision-making" alongside Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. To support this expanded role and to ensure effective coordination of the military effort, Roosevelt dispatched Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell to China. Stilwell was not chosen randomly; he brought fifteen years of experience in China, a deep familiarity with the country, its military, and its complexities that few American officers possessed. Stilwell was appointed to serve simultaneously as the U.S. government's military representative in China, as chief of staff of the China Theater, and as commander in chief of the American forces in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater. This appointment established the framework for joint Chinese-American military cooperation and represented an American commitment to the Asian theater that, while never receiving the resources devoted to the European theater, nonetheless signified recognition of China's strategic importance. Trust me, going forward we will be having a lot of time dedicated to the hilarious bromance / bro hatred of Vinegar Joe and Peanut.  Yet the formation of an alliance and the establishment of command structures was easier than the practical implementation of military cooperation. The fundamental challenge that would plague Chinese-American relations throughout the war emerged almost immediately: the problem of delivering military assistance to China. Before Pearl Harbor, the United States and China had reached agreement on three major points regarding military assistance. First, the United States would provide training and technical support to assist China in establishing a modern air force. Second, the United States would provide training and equipment for a ground army consisting of thirty divisions. Third, the United States would assist China in constructing railways and highways from Yunnan to Burma, along with the provision of rolling stock and vehicles to support these new transportation routes. These were ambitious plans, reflecting the extent of Chinese need and American willingness to support the Chinese war effort. However, the outbreak of the Pacific War threw American plans into disarray. The fundamental strategic doctrine guiding American policy was the "Europe first" strategy, which meant that the European theater and the defeat of Nazi Germany received priority over the Pacific theater. Additionally, China's geography made it extraordinarily difficult to supply. China could only be reached through supply lines of extraordinary length and complexity, either through the port of Rangoon in Burma and then overland via the treacherous Yunnan-Burma Road, or through the port of Hong Kong, which immediately fell into Japanese hands after Pearl Harbor. The first Sino-American loan agreement had specified that the United States would deliver commodities worth $45 million to China in 1941. However, shipping shortages meant that only $26 million worth of commodities actually left the United States. These commodities were shipped to the transit port of Rangoon, where a massive traffic jam developed as supplies accumulated faster than they could be distributed onward to China. Along the Yunnan-Burma Road, that "much-contested life line" as it came to be known, conditions were chaotic. The road had always been a source of trouble: it was long, extraordinarily difficult to keep in repair, fantastically dangerous to travel, and too narrow to permit much volume of traffic at any one time. Due to mismanagement and pilfering, the commodities that were shipped out of Burma suffered heavy losses in transit, and only one-third of them eventually arrived in Chongqing. Yet the United States had already established one valuable asset in China that could be deployed relatively quickly: an air force nucleus. Just before Pearl Harbor, a group of American aviators had been formally organized in Chongqing who worked on volunteer status for China under the command of Colonel Claire Chennault, an American aviation officer who served as instructor at the Chinese Air Force Cadet School. Some of these men had been flying in China since the Kuomintang first began purchasing American aircraft, having come to demonstrate the aircraft and remaining to pilot and teach. Others had hurried to China after being released from their volunteer service in Spain, where they had gained combat experience during the Spanish Civil War. It was a familiar joke that pilots from both sides of the Spanish conflict were likely to meet and work side by side in China, but political convictions proved immaterial to these professional aviators, they got on well enough with each other, mercenaries of the twentieth century united by their expertise and their willingness to fight. When American traffic on the Burma Road swelled in volume and became chaotic, with cargo lost to pilfering and trucks breaking down from mishandling, the air freight service into Chongqing became increasingly vital to maintaining Chinese military capabilities. The backbone of this organization was American, and it had been in operation for months before the Japanese attack. Halfway down the Burma Road, over the border in Burma, was a plane factory backed by American and Chinese capital, providing some degree of repair and maintenance capacity for the aircraft operating out of China. Recognizing the strategic value of these experienced aviators and the need to formalize and expand their operations, American and Chinese officials moved quickly to incorporate this volunteer group, formally known as the American Volunteer Group or "Flying Tigers," into the U.S. Army Air Force. This transformation of volunteer aviators into official American military personnel represented a commitment to providing air support to Chinese operations, recognizing that air power could compensate to some degree for Chinese numerical disadvantages in ground combat. In Chongqing, it was clear that among the United Nations fighting Japan, America was the only one taking China seriously, the only one prepared to invest significant resources in Chinese military capabilities and the Chinese war effort. Yet Pearl Harbor brought consequences that extended far beyond the strategic and diplomatic spheres. For Western civilians living in China,missionaries, teachers, doctors, businessmen, and journalists, the attack represented a catastrophic change in their status and their fate. Until December 8, 1941, Westerners residing in China had maintained a curious protected status as foreign neutrals, even in areas nominally controlled by the Japanese. This status had provided them with a measure of distance from, and protection against, the grinding reality of the war that had devastated Chinese populations. For a century, Americans had been part of an imperial presence in China, sometimes benevolent, sometimes violent, but always ultimately under Western control. That world came to an abrupt end on December 8, 1941. All across eastern China, Americans and Britons were rounded up and interned. The International Settlement of Shanghai—that remarkable oasis of neutrality that had persisted in the midst of a war-torn city—was now reunified under Japanese control. Thousands of foreigners with Allied nationality were sent to holding camps scattered throughout occupied China. Some, like the eleven-year-old British boy Jim Ballard, would remain imprisoned for the remainder of the war, enduring hunger, cold, and disease in camps like Longhua, which housed approximately 2,000 detainees. Forty years later, as the novelist J. G. Ballard, he would memorialized this experience in his semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun. For missionaries like Velva Brown, the evacuation process was degrading and final. The missionary staff were permitted to pack no more than three suitcases with their belongings. As they prepared to leave, Japanese and Taiwanese "sightseeing" parties arrived to decide which houses they might want to occupy. The journey home aboard crowded Japanese ships offered no concessions to status or dignity; ambassadors, consuls, merchants, and missionaries alike were given "bed-sized strips of Chinese matting which we spread side by side on the iron floor of the hold," as Brown recorded. The humiliation was compounded by the finality of it all. For many, their decades-long presence in China was ending not in orderly retreat but in hasty evacuation, leaving behind "servants, many of whom had been with us for fifteen or twenty years." Despite these immediate human tragedies, the strategic transformation that Pearl Harbor wrought for China was undeniable. Chiang Kai-shek now embarked on an entirely new sort of life, heavily involved with the leaders and generals of the Western powers. He held diplomatic discussions with the leaders of the United Nations and military planning sessions with Western generals. In these unfamiliar circumstances, he did his best to live up to the Confucian ideal of the gentleman, seldom permitting the mask to slip—though the pressure of these new responsibilities and the intoxicating combination of vindication and anxiety would occasionally prove too much even for his considerable self-control. Within weeks of Pearl Harbor, Chiang demonstrated the value he could bring to the new alliance. He visited India and spoke with the leaders of the Indian independence struggle as an ally and friend, as a fellow non-European speaking to others seeking to escape from colonialism and imperial domination. He joined the Allies in their first joint campaign, not in China but in the jungles of neighboring Burma, committing Chinese forces to operations outside China's borders in support of the broader Allied military strategy. Yet the price that Chiang would pay for China's belated entry into the global alliance against the Axis powers would prove to be a heavy one. Chiang desperately needed his new American and British partners, but accepting this alliance would unleash forces within Chinese society that would threaten the very basis of his political control. The complexities of this bargain would become most visible in the four-year struggle between Chiang and General Joseph Warren Stilwell, the American officer who would become simultaneously his chief of staff and the administrator of American military assistance to China. This relationship, shaped by mutual suspicion, different strategic visions, and incompatible political agendas, would define Chinese-American military cooperation during the Pacific War and would have profound implications extending far beyond the battlefields of Asia. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Pearl Harbor's shock reverberated through Asia. Japan's assault on Hawaii, combined with invasions of Burma, the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island, inadvertently transformed regional conflict into global war. Chiang Kai-shek, vindicated after four years of isolation fighting Japan, embraced American alliance with profound relief. The U.S. committed military aid, appointed General Stilwell as chief of staff, and recognized China as a co-belligerent. For Chiang, this partnership brought diplomatic status but also internal tensions that would define the Pacific War's final chapter.

Hagar Chemali (former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations) joins host Ron Steslow to take the Democratic Socialists of America's foreign policy seriously on their own terms, reading what the movement has written down. They begin with the DSA's ascent: a run of 2026 primary wins and Democratic leadership inclined to accommodate the energy rather than resist it, echoing MAGA's takeover of the GOP.  From there, they turn to the left's foreign policy lineage—the distance from establishment liberalism's alliance and diplomacy to a progressivism warier of American power and rosier about its adversaries.  Then they break down the DSA's national security strategy: defund the military, close overseas bases, and dissolve what it calls the U.S. empire.  Finally, they weigh the stakes for a shifting party with Israel as the first flashpoint of a weakening alliance and a broader diagnosis of populism without ideology and the institutional decay it accelerates.  In Politicology+, they discuss the recent mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and what it exposes about Europe. POLITICOLOGY+ Not yet a Politicology+ member? Don't miss all the extra episodes on the private, ad-free version of this podcast. Upgrade now at politicology.com/plus. SPONSORS & PROMO CODES: https://bit.ly/44uAGZ8 Send your questions and ideas to podcast@politicology.com Ron Steslow on X: https://x.com/RonSteslow Hagar Chemali on X: https://x.com/HagarChemali Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has defended his reference to the UK as an 'Islamic Republic'. In a podcast with Israeli Army Radio, Mr Netanyahu recalled meeting the grandson of Winston Churchill, describing him as a 'lover of Israel' and then adding that you won't find that kind of attitude in the UK now, which he said was known as 'The Islamic Republic of Britain'. The UK and Israel are long-standing allies, but relations have become notably more tense since the war in Gaza. Also: At least eight people have died and several more have been injured in eastern Japan after record rainfall caused widespread flooding; the United Nations adds its voice to flag concerns about the pressure extreme weather events like droughts are putting on food security; builders in Belgium working on a renovation project have found a chest filled with gold bars and gold coins, bricked in the wall of a cellar; in Australia, tech executives give evidence about the ban on social media for under-16s to a parliamentary inquiry; we hear from Save the Children about the latest on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan; Spain announces it's extending the life of the country's biggest nuclear plant; and in Britain, the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage is re-elected as an MP in a by-election he triggered, defeating 33 other candidates - a parliamentary investigation into a nearly seven-million dollar gift he received from a crypto billionaire has now resumed.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.uk